Master of the Senate: The Years of Lyndon Johnson

by Robert A. Caro

  “This should”: Burns, Crosswinds, p. 26. Norris had fought: Byrd, Vol. I, pp. 435–36. The discussion of Norris and the TVA is also from Schlesinger, Coming of the New Deal, pp. 320–34.

  “Magna”: Josephy, p. 350. “Never lifted”: Byrd, Vol. I, p. 474. Are actually monuments: As Schlesinger writes (Coming of the New Deal, pp. 554–55), “The contemporary cliché about ‘rubberstamp’ Congresses should not conceal the fact that the national legislature at this time … on crucial occasions itself assumed the legislative initiative…. It played a vital and consistently underestimated role in shaping the New Deal. A number of important measures … were entirely of congressional origination.”

  “An all but”; “The smiling”: Alsop and Catledge, 168 Days, pp. 48, 22. Meeting at the White House; “Boys”: Alsop and Catledge, pp. 65–67; Baker, Back to Back, pp. 3–8, 17; Josephy, p. 351.

  Holding his nose; “the people”: Alsop and Catledge, pp. 69, 184. “Because”: Baker, Back to Back, p. 65. Sumners refused: Baker, Back to Back, pp. 19, 65. “The shabby”: Alsop and Catledge, p. 10. “Here is”: NYT, March 5, 1937. “You who”: NYT, March 10, 1937.

  “Was also”: Alsop and Catledge, p. 87. “On board”: Corcoran interview. “Kentucky’s”: Baker, Back to Back, p. 63. “Prelude”: Alsop and Catledge, p. 65. “I replied”; “Received”: Baker, Back to Back, p. 68. Judiciary hearings: Josephy, p. 352. “It is easy”; “The great”: Alsop and Catledge, pp. 107, 177.

  “You were”: Alsop and Catledge, p. 257. “May not”; “rather”; O’Mahoney unexpectedly: Alsop and Catledge, pp. 155, 195. Wheeler’s refusal; “I’m going”; “Save”; Norris’ question: Baker, Back to Back, pp. 237–39; Alsop and Catledge, pp. 100–01, 95.

  “The high, wide”; “Robinson and”: “All”: Alsop and Catledge, pp. 254–55, 258–59, 262. Freshmen: Baker, Back to Back, pp. 255–56.

  “Like a”: Alsop and Catledge, p. 277. “Do you”: Fisher, Cactus Jack, pp. 133–34. “The Supreme Court”; let: Alsop and Catledge, pp. 293–95; Baker, Back to Back, pp. 272–73.

  “In a way”: Byrd, Vol. I, p. 477. Headlines: Garraty, p. 851. “The sense”; “Marked”: Garraty, p. 849.

  “Congressional procedure”: Life, June 18, 1945. Three hundred: Henry F. Pringle, “Can Congress Save Itself?” SEP, Oct. 6, 1945. Six persons: Sen. 81A-F15, “Rules & Administration (402), Various Subjects & Correspondence,” NA. Smallness of staffs; lack of expertise: Galloway, Congress at the Crossroads; Byrd, Vol. I, pp. 537–47; Henry F. Pringle, “Can Congress Save Itself?” SEP, Oct. 6, 1945. Four of seventy-six: William Hard, “Congress’ Biggest Job,” Reader’s Digest, Oct. 1942. Still three: Byrd, Vol. I, p. 552. “There could be”: Wilcox OH, SHO, p. 35. “With occasional”: Floyd M. Riddick, “Third Session of the Seventy-Sixth Congress, Jan. 3, 1940 to Jan. 3, 1941,” APSR, April 1941.” Unable to create it: From the turn of the century through 1946, 19 of the most significant pieces of legislation that became law were substantially created by the executive branch, 29 were joint products of the executive and Congress, and 35 were essentially congressional in origin. (Seven had non-governmental origins.) But, as Raymond Moley wrote in 1946, “if we consider only those laws among the 90 which were passed after 1932, … 70 per cent have been executive products,” only 30 percent were created in Congress. “Congress,” he wrote, “has lost most of its effective power over the content of legislation” (Raymond Moley, “Can a Location Run Congress?” Newsweek, May 6, 1946). “Technical equipment”: Corcoran, quoted in Baker and Davidson, eds., First Among Equals, p. 137. 600, eight employees: Byrd, Vol. I, p. 543.

  Barkley’s lectern: Donald A. Ritchie, “Alben W. Barkley: The President’s Man,” in Baker and Davidson, eds., First Among Equals, pp. 127–62. “The damned”: MacNeil interview. MacLeish’s proposal: Byrd, Vol. I, p. 438.

  Pragmatic considerations: Interviews with Richard Baker, MacNeil, Ritchie, Steele. And see Byrd, Vol. I, p. 544. “A cadre”; A “suspicion”: Byrd, Vol. I, p. 544. “A deep, vested”: Strout, New Republic, March 18, 1946.

  “Senator Borah”: Coolidge, quoted in Byrd, Vol. I, p. 483. “It seemed”; Coolidge proposed: Byrd, Vol. I, p. 483. World Court: Garraty, p. 859. “I do not think the Senate would take favorable action on any such proposal, and unless the requirements of the Senate resolution are met, I can see no prospect of this country adhering to the Court,” Coolidge said. Japan invaded Manchuria: Leuchtenberg, FDR and the New Deal, p. 212. Shadowed: Josephy, pp. 348–49. In 1933: Schlesinger, Imperial Presidency, p. 96. In 1935: Garraty, p. 865; Josephy, pp. 359–60. The President urged: Leuchtenberg, pp. 215–16. “Señor Ab Jap”; “To hell”: Leuchtenberg, p. 216. “Thank God!”; that same year: Schlesinger, The Politics, pp. 5, 270. 1936: Byrd, Vol. I, p. 489; Garraty, p. 866. So Congress passed: Josephy, p. 360. “While German”: Garraty, p. 866.

  “With every”: Leuchtenberg, p. 224. “No”; “quarantine”: Byrd, Vol. I, p. 490. Nye and Borah: Borah said that “this running around all over the world trying to placate every situation and adjust every controversy” was “not the business of democracy.” A number of isolationist congressmen called for Roosevelt’s impeachment. “It’s a terrible thing to look over your shoulder when you’re trying to lead, and find no one there,” Roosevelt said privately (Byrd, Vol. I, pp. 490, 491). “The Atlantic”: Byrd, Vol. I, p. 491.

  “We are not going”: Schlesinger, Imperial Presidency, p. 100. “Gad”: Leuchtenberg, p. 287.

  “I’ve fired”; “Well, Captain”: Leuchtenberg, p. 292. Not until: Byrd, Vol. I, pp. 491, 492. 84 percent: Leuchtenberg, p. 293.

  Planes could: Leuchtenberg, p. 299. “A step”; Senate amended: Schlesinger, Imperial Presidency, pp. 105, 106. Roosevelt, fearing: Schlesinger, pp. 105–09; Garraty, p. 868.

  “The new Triple A”: Burns, Soldier of Freedom, p. 44. “I had”: Josephy, p. 362.

  Nye was speaking; “Twenty years”; for once: Byrd, Vol. I, p. 495. “The emasculation”: Lippman, U.S. Foreign Policy, p. 42. “A bunch”: Bohlen, Witness to History, p. 210. “To saving”: Wilkie, quoted in Schlesinger, Imperial Presidency, pp. 127. Mary: Schlesinger, p. 99.

  “Congress quickly”: Josephy, pp. 364–68. “All”: Byrd, Vol. I, p. 539. An irrelevancy: Baker, The Senate, pp. 86–87; Josephy, p. 364. “In the event”: Byrd, Vol. I, p. 540.

  Bitterness: Josephy, p. 364. “A real”: Drury, A Senate Journal, p. 87 [Feb. 22, 1944].

  Drury’s A Senate Journal: The quotations are on pp. 156–57, 144, 125, 228, 34, 33, 78–80. Pensions, Bundles: Byrd, Vol. I, p. 539. “I never”: NYT magazine, May 25, 1947.

  3. Seniority and the South

  Not even mentioned: Haynes, Senate of the United States, Vol. I, pp. 294–300; George Goodwin Jr., “The Seniority System in Congress,” APSR, June 1959, pp. 413–29. A child: Josephy, Congress, pp. 205–06.

  In December: Baker, Senate, p. 45; Byrd, Senate, Vol. IV, p. 514;Chandler, The Natural Superiority of Southern Politicians, p. 178; Josephy, p. 206. “Once appointed”: Galloway, Congress at the Crossroads, p. 188; Matthews, U.S. Senators, pp. 160–75. “Are not awarded”; “once”; “Perquisite”; “ineluctable”: White, Citadel, pp. 183–84. “Assignments”: Byrd, Senate, Vol. I, p. 365.

  Governed every: Baker, Barr, MacNeil, Muskie, Proxmire, Riddick, Ritchie, St. Claire, Shuman, Steele, Yarborough interviews. Where senators sat: Galloway, Legislative Process, p. 368. “Proceeds”: White, Citadel, pp. 196–97. When a subcommittee: Matthews, pp. 162–63. “What chance”: Haynes, Vol. I, p. 334. Almost invariably; “tremendous powers”: Haynes, Vol. I, p. 333. “Too often”: Humphrey interview.

  Assignment of office suites: “Memorandum—Confidential,” St. Claire to Jenner, Jan. 13, 1957; Hayden to Chapman, Hayden to Flanders, both Nov. 29, 1948; Martin to Seidel, Dec. 27, 1948—all from Sen. 81A-F15, “Rules & Administration (402), Various Subjects & Correspondence,” NA; Galloway, Legislative Process, pp. 367–68. At dinners: Galloway, p. 367.

  Formulas: Byrd, Vol. IV, p. 189; Goodwin, Lyndon Johnson,
p. 413. “One may”: White, Citadel, p. 183. “Passage”: White, p. 82.

  “Did not rise”: Matthews, p. 93. “Any fledgling”: Albright, WP, Feb. 25, 1951. “Freshmen”: Matthews, p. 94. “That son”: Matthews, p. 93. “Skeptical”; “back home”: Matthews, p. 103; Muskie interview. (Matthews does not identify the “former Governor,” but it appears to be John Pastore of Rhode Island.) “Reached national fame”: White, Citadel, p. 82.

  In 1949: Congressional Directory, 81/1, March 1949. Average age; Hiram Johnson shuffling in: Drury, Senate Journal, p. 357. “The ghost”: Drury, p. 381.

  The real powers: Galloway, Legislative Process, p. 289; White, Citadel, pp. 179–80, 189–97; Byrd, Vol. I, pp. 295, 649. Could not even: Senate Rule XXVI, Riddick, Senate Procedure, p. 315; White, Citadel, pp. 189–90. No chairman: Three chairmen, Robert M. La Follette (R-Wis.), Edwin F. Ladd (R-N.D.), and Albert B. Cummins (R-Iowa), had been removed from committee chairmanships in 1924 by the Republican caucus, the first two because of their support for the Progressive Party, Cummins because he had been responsible for controversial railroad legislation that the GOP wanted repealed. Prior to 1924, no committee chairman had been removed since 1871, when Charles Sumner was removed because of GOP anger over his opposition to President Grant’s proposed annexation of the Dominican Republic (Byrd, Vol. IV, pp. 612–13). “‘Old Bulls’”: Barr interview. “A living”: Drury, p. 36. “He could neither”: George Goodwin Jr., “The Seniority System in Congress,” APSR, June 1959, p. 420. “From the guarded”: Drury, p. 364. “In his day”: Drury, p. 3. Would pound: Steinberg, Sam Johnson’s Boy, p. 286. “In reply: Baker, American in Washington, pp. 143–44. Five other: The five, and their committees and ages were: Tom Connally, Foreign Relations, age 72; Walter George, Finance, 71; Pat McCarran, Judiciary, 73; Carl Hayden, Rules, 72; Elmer Thomas, Agriculture, 73.

  “It has”: Lindley, “Washington Tides,” Newsweek, Nov. 29, 1948. “The utilization”; “flaunts”: Young, This Is Congress, pp. 108–09. “Gerontocracy”; “adherence”: WP, Nov. 8, 1948. “The accident”: Galloway, Congress at the Crossroads, p. 190. “The seniority line”; “if either”: Oliver, quoted in Galloway, p. 191. “A protection”: Reedy OH VIII, p. 8. “A new”: George Goodwin Jr., “The Seniority System in Congress,” APSR, June 1959, p. 420.

  “Nobody”; “would no more”: White, Citadel, p. 184. “The longer”: George Goodwin Jr., “The Seniority System in Congress,” APSR, June 1959, p. 420 fn. A part: WP, n.d.

  “If you”: “A History of the Russell Senate Office Building,” SHO, pp. 7, 8. “Never”; “a thousand”: NYT, March 14, 1909. The man: Elliott Woods to Charles Moore, June 22, 1903, quoted in Curtis Blake, “The Architecture of Carrere and Hastings,” unpublished Ph.D. thesis, Columbia University, 1976, p. 287. Descriptions of building and architects’ philosophy: Curtis Blake, “The Architecture of Carrere and Hastings,” unpublished Ph.D. thesis, Columbia University, 1976, passim; Mechlen, “New Public Buildings,” The Architectural Review, July 1908, pp. 180–89. Senate Historical Office: “A History of the Russell Senate Office Building,” SHO; Jean-Pierre Isbouts, “Carrere and Hastings,” unpublished Ph.D. thesis, Kunsthistorisch Institut, Rijksuniversiteit Leiden, 1980; “Cornerstone Laid for Senate’s New Building,” WP, Aug. 1, 1906; “The Senate’s Office—Cost Five Millions,” NYT, March 14, 1909; Senate Historical Office, “The Russell Office Building,” S. Pub 105–57; Federal Writers’ Project, Washington: City and Capital, pp. 282–85.

  “Detract from the effect”: WP, Aug. 1, 1906. “More”: Curtis Blake, “The Architecture of Carrere and Hastings,” unpublished Ph.D. thesis, Columbia University, 1976, p. 288. “Elegance”: Jean-Pierre Isbouts, “Carrere and Hastings,” unpublished Ph.D. thesis, Kunsthistorisch Institut, Rijksuniversiteit Leiden, 1980, p. 184. “Color would”: Carrere to Woods, May 7, 1906, quoted in Blake, p. 293.

  “It was”: MacNeil interview.

  McClellan’s boast: Baker, Friend and Foe, p. 93. “You can tread”: Robert Albright, “Glimpses,” WP, April 8, 1951. “Dropping in”: Stranigan interview. “When he got”: Ballard interview. “If you saw”: Trice interview. “He just”: BeLieu interview. “Where else”: Blair Moody, “The United States Senate,” Holiday, Feb. 1954.

  Talked in private: This specific dialogue from Rules Committee meetings is found in U.S. Senate, Report of Proceedings: Hearings Held Before the Committee on Rules and Administration, S. Res. 17, Executive Session, Jan. 24, 1951, Ward & Paul, official reporters, pp. 4, 22.

  “You just didn’t barge in”: Dompierre interview.

  “Of every single”: Josephy, p. 206. “Human institutions”: Baker, American in Washington, p. 46. 7 of the 9; “on the other”: White, Citadel, p. 70.

  The three most powerful: Matthews rates these three first for the period his book covers, 1947 through 1956 (pp. 149–50). Horn, covering the period from 1957 to 1966, notes the “agreement in both periods on the most prestigious, although in his ranking, Appropriations and Foreign Relations are the most prestigious, Finance was tied by Armed Services” (Unused Power, p. 10). “Not especially relevant”: White, Citadel, p. 180. In 1949, southerners were chairmen not only of Appropriations (Kenneth McKellar of Tennessee), Foreign Relations (Tom Connally of Texas), and Finance (Walter George of Georgia), but of Banking (Burnet Maybank of South Carolina), Expenditures in the Executive Departments (John McClellan of Arkansas), and Post Office and Civil Service (Olin Johnston of South Carolina). The committees chaired in 1949 by firm southern allies were Agriculture (Elmer Thomas of Oklahoma), Armed Services (Millard Tydings of Maryland), Commerce (Ed Johnson of Colorado), Judiciary (Pat McCarran of Nevada), Labor (Elbert Thomas of Utah), and Public Works (Dennis Chavez of New Mexico). Joseph O’Mahoney of Wyoming, the chairman of Interior, was not a southern ally.

  “No matter”; “latitude”; “unchallenged”: Horn, Unused Power, pp. 16, 10, 37. “Interlocking”: An unidentified senator quoted in Horn, p. 100.

  “A modest”: Donald A. Ritchie, “Watkins, Charles Lee,” in Williams, ed., Arkansas Biography, p. 303.

  “Because of”: White, Citadel, p. 74. “I recommend”: Ritchie interview.

  In 1604: Galloway, The Legislative Process in Congress, p. 560. For many years: Burdette, Filibustering in the Senate, passim; Galloway, p. 560. In 1872: Galloway, p. 569. “A little group”: Byrd, The Senate, Vol. II, p. 122. “Whose stated purpose”; a loophole: Galloway, p. 561; White, p. 61; Riddick, Zweben interviews. “The reading”: Rule III, Standing Rules of the Senate, para. 1; Riddick, Senate Procedure, p. 713; Riddick, Zweben interviews. Harrison sauntered: Haynes, Senate of the United States, p. 411; Galloway, p. 561; Riddick, Zweben interviews. “The cloture rule was safe, because it was its own defense; you could not get to it to change it, without using it” (McPherson, A Political Education, p. 136).

  “To most peculiar”: All following quotes are from White, Citadel, pp. 68–72.

  All remarks: Riddick, Senate Procedure, p. 623. “A safeguard”; “There is”: CR, 61/1, pp. 2431–32, quoted in Haynes, Senate of the United States, Vol. I, p. 387. “If you think”: Barkley, That Reminds Me, p. 255. “No Senator”; “offensively”: Rule XIX, Standing Rules of the Senate, paras. 2, 3. “When such matter”: Riddick, pp. 503–04, 591. “When a senator”: Rule XIX, Standing Rules, paras. 4, 5; Riddick, pp. 588–89. “To be called”: Ritchie interview. “Gracefully”: White, Citadel, p. 76. “As elaborately”: Baker, American in Washington, p. 144.

  “Archaically”: White, Citadel, pp. 72, 73. “Was peculiar”; “chat”: White, pp. 68–70.

  “A oneness”; “for all”: White, Citadel, pp. 74, 78. “Walk as a body: A vivid picture of the southerners marching into the Chamber is in Drury, A Senate Journal, p. 162. “The South”: Steele interview. Had allies: Baker, American in Washington, pp. 154–56; Shuman OH, interview.

  “We seldom”: Drury, p. 196. “Hell”: Drury, p. 169. Leaving”; “warning”: Drury, p. 167. “Regardless”: Drury, pp. 138–41.

  “Happily�
��: McCullough, Truman, p. 468. Homebuilding: Phillips, The 1940s, p. 347. In Chicago alone, McCullough says, “there were reportedly 100,000 homeless veterans” (Truman, p. 470). Other Truman programs: Phillips, pp. 347–49.

  Went further on race: Phillips, The 1940s, pp. 346–47; McCullough, p. 586. Thirty-one: Phillips, p. 347. “Congressmen”: Time, Dec. 24, 1945.

  “Rewriting”: USN & WR, March 15, 1946.

  The Senate stood: Baker, American in Washington, pp. 151–52; Byrd, Vol. I, p. 586; Josephy, p. 366. “My very”; “when the mob”: McCullough, pp. 588, 589. Special message: Phillips, The 1940s, pp. 349–51. “The crime”: McCullough, p. 587. “A lynching”: Donovan, Conflict and Crisis, p. 354. Jefferson-Jackson Dinner: McCullough, p. 588.

  “The inefficiency”: Strout, New Republic, March 18, 1946. “The life”; “the people”: Henry F. Pringle, “Can Congress Save Itself?” SEP, Oct. 6, 1945. “The Senate’s”: Baker, American in Washington, p. 142. “For generations”; “breaking down”: Fortune, Feb. 1952. “For years the House diligently”: Baker, American in Washington, p. 153. “Never”: Matthews, p. 6. “I’ve never”: Barkley, quoted in Pathfinder, Feb. 11, 1948.

  “Run by”: McCullough, p. 661. “No, we’re”: Manchester, Glory, p. 459. “A mob”; “Majority to hades!”; “we are”; “Dear Dago”; “It was cloture”: I. F. Stone, “Swastika over the Senate,” The Nation, Feb. 9, 1946. “I don’t like you”: NYT, Sept. 5, 1977. “Ten thousand”; “Typically”; “There is”: I. F. Stone, “Swastika over the Senate,” The Nation, Feb. 9, 1946. “This is”: I. F. Stone, The Nation, 1948.

  “Communistic”; “un-American”: McCullough, Truman, p. 667. “There’s not”: Bass and Thompson, Ol’ Strom, p. 188.

  4. A Hard Path

  The material in this chapter is drawn from Volumes I and II of The Years of Lyndon Johnson.