Cordell Hull
Cordell Hull | |
---|---|
Mounce Gore Butler | |
Succeeded by | Wynne F. Clouse |
Chair of the Democratic National Committee | |
In office November 2, 1921 – July 22, 1924 | |
Preceded by | George White |
Succeeded by | Clem L. Shaver |
Personal details | |
Born | Olympus, Tennessee, U.S. | October 2, 1871
Died | July 23, 1955 Washington, D.C., U.S. | (aged 83)
Resting place | Washington National Cathedral |
Political party | Democratic |
Spouse |
Rose Frances (Witz) Whitney
(m. 1917; died 1954) |
Education | National Normal University Cumberland University (LLB) |
Awards | Nobel Peace Prize |
Signature | |
Military service | |
Allegiance | United States |
Branch/service | Tennessee Volunteer Infantry |
Rank | Captain |
Battles/wars | Spanish–American War |
Cordell Hull (October 2, 1871 – July 23, 1955) was an American politician from Tennessee and the longest-serving U.S. Secretary of State, holding the position for 11 years (1933–1944) in the administration of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt during most of World War II. Before that appointment, Hull represented Tennessee for two years in the United States Senate and 22 years in the House of Representatives.
Hull received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1945 for his role in establishing the United Nations, and was referred to by President Roosevelt as the "Father of the United Nations".[1]
Early life and education
Cordell Hull was born in a log cabin in Olympus, Tennessee, which is now part of Pickett County, Tennessee, but was then part of Overton County.[citation needed] He was the third of the five sons of William Paschal Hull (1840–1923) and Mary Elizabeth Hull (née Riley) (1841–1903). His brothers were named Orestes (1868), Sanadius (1870), Wyoming (1875), and Roy (1881).[citation needed]
According to John Gunther, Hull's father had tracked down and killed a man because of a
Hull attended college from 1889 until 1890. He gave his first speech at the age of 16. At the age of 19, Hull became the elected chairman of the Clay County Democratic Party. Hull studied at National Normal University (later merged with Wilmington College, Ohio) from 1889 until 1890. In 1891, he graduated from Cumberland School of Law at Cumberland University and was admitted to the bar.[citation needed]
Early career
Hull served in the
From 1913 to 1917, Hull served as a local judge; later he was elected to the
Secretary of State
Hull won election to the Senate in 1930, but resigned from it in 1933 to become Secretary of State. Hull became one of Roosevelt's strongest Southern allies during the 1932 presidential campaign.[4]
Roosevelt named him Secretary of State and appointed him to lead the American delegation to the London Economic Conference, which then collapsed when Roosevelt rejected its main plans. In 1943, Hull served as United States delegate to the Moscow Conference. At all times, his main objective was to enlarge foreign trade and lower tariffs. The more important issue of the American role in World War II was handled by Roosevelt who worked through Sumner Welles, the second-ranking official at the State Department. Hull did not attend the summit meetings that Roosevelt had with Winston Churchill and Joseph Stalin.[5][page needed] In 1943, Hull finally destroyed Welles's career by threatening to expose his homosexuality.[6]
In a speech in 1937, New York City Mayor
In 1938, Hull engaged in a dialog with Mexican Foreign Minister Eduardo Hay concerning the failure of Mexico to compensate Americans who lost farmlands during
Hull pursued the "
Hull also handled formal statements with foreign governments. Notably he sent the
Hull chaired the Advisory Committee on Postwar Foreign Policy, which was created in February 1942.[citation needed]
When the
Jews and SS St. Louis incident
In 1939, Hull advised Roosevelt to reject the
Okay ...there were two conversations on the subject between (Secretary of the Treasury) Morgenthau and Secretary of State Cordell Hull. In the first, 3:17 PM on 5 June 1939, Hull made it clear to Morgenthau that the passengers could not legally be issued U.S. tourist visas as they had no return addresses. Furthermore, Hull made it clear to Morgenthau that the issue at hand was between the Cuban government and the passengers. The U.S., in effect, had no role. In the second conversation at 3:54 PM on June 6, 1939, Morgenthau said they did not know where the ship was and he inquired whether it was "proper to have the Coast Guard look for it". Hull responded by saying that he didn't see any reason why it could not. Hull then informed him that he did not think that Morgenthau would want the search for the ship to get into the newspapers. Morgenthau said "Oh no. No, no. They would just—oh, they might send a plane to do patrol work. There would be nothing in the papers." Hull responded "Oh, that would be all right."[11]
In September 1940, First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt maneuvered with another State Department official to bypass Hull's refusal to allow Jewish refugees aboard a Portuguese ship, the SS Quanza, to receive visas to enter the U.S. Through her efforts, the Jewish refugees disembarked on September 11, 1940, in Virginia.[12] In a similar incident, American Jews sought to raise money to prevent the mass murder of Romanian Jews but were blocked by the State Department. "In wartime, in order to send money out of the United States, two government agencies had to sign a simple release—the Treasury Department under Henry Morgenthau and the State Department under Secretary Cordell Hull. Morgenthau signed immediately. The State Department delayed, delayed, and delayed, as more Jews were dying in the Transnistria camps."[13]
In 1940, Jewish representatives in the USA lodged an official complaint against the discriminatory policies the State Department was using against the Jews. The results were fatal: Hull gave strict orders to every USA consulate worldwide forbidding the issuing of visas to Jews ... At the same time a Jewish congressman petitioned Roosevelt, requesting his permission to allow twenty thousand Jewish children from Europe to enter the USA. The President did not respond to the petition.[14]
Establishing the United Nations
Hull was the underlying force and architect in the
Later years
Hull resigned on November 30, 1944, due to failing health. To this day he remains the longest-serving US Secretary of State, having served for eleven years and nine months in the post. Roosevelt described Hull upon his departure as "the one person in all the world who has done his most to make this great plan for peace (the United Nations) an effective fact".[citation needed] The Norwegian Nobel Committee honored Hull with the Nobel Peace Prize in 1945 in recognition of his efforts for peace and understanding in the Western Hemisphere, his trade agreements, and his work to establish the United Nations.
In January 1948, Hull published his two-volume memoirs, an excerpt from which appeared in The New York Times.[16]
Personal life and death
At the age of 45, in 1917, Hull married a widow, Rose Frances (Witz) Whitney (1875–1954), of an Austrian Jewish family of Staunton, Virginia. The couple had no children. Mrs. Hull died at age 79, in
Hull died on July 23, 1955, at age 83, at his home in Washington, D.C., after a lifelong struggle with familial remitting-relapsing sarcoidosis (often confused with tuberculosis). He is buried in the vault of the Chapel of St. Joseph of Arimathea in the Washington National Cathedral.[citation needed]
Legacy
Hull's memory is preserved by
His law school,
Cordell Hull Birthplace State Park, near Byrdstown, Tennessee, was established in 1997 to preserve Hull's birthplace and various personal effects Hull had donated to the citizens of Pickett County, including his Nobel Peace Prize.
A segment of Kentucky highway routes 70, 90, 63, and 163, from Mammoth Cave National Park near Cave City south to the Tennessee State Line near Hestand, is named "Cordell Hull Highway", and is part of that state's scenic byway system.
The
The Eisenhower Executive Office Building (formerly the Old Executive Office Building) in Washington, DC, next to the White House, contains the ornately decorated "Cordell Hull Room" on the second floor, which is used for meetings. The room was Cordell Hull's office when he served as U.S. Secretary of State.
The U.S. Postal Service issued a 5-cent commemorative stamp honoring Cordell Hull on October 5, 1963.
Hull is one of the presidential cabinet members who are characters in the musical Annie.[17]
See also
Citations
- ^ Hulen, Bertram D. (1946-10-25). "Charter Becomes 'Law of Nations', 29 Ratifying It". The New York Times. p. 1. Retrieved May 5, 2014.
- ^ Gunther, John (1950). Roosevelt in Retrospect. Harper & Brothers. pp. 132.
- ^ a b Cordell Hull, Memoirs
- ^ JSTOR 10.5406/j.ctv31xf5rf.
- ^ Charles E. Bohlen, Witness to History 1929–1969 (1973)
- ISBN 9780345806598.
- ^ "Hull gives Reich Official 'Apology'" (PDF). The New York Times. March 5, 1937. pp. 1, 8. Retrieved May 5, 2014.
The Angriff carries a headline, 'Jewish ruffian La Guardia's new Insolence'...
- ISBN 978-0879724627.
- ISBN 9781624667497.
- ISBN 9780241450253.
- ^ "USCG: Frequently Asked Questions". 2014-11-10. Archived from the original on 10 November 2014. Retrieved 2022-05-12.
- ^ Buckley, Cara (July 8, 2007). "Fleeing Hitler and Meeting a Reluctant Miss Liberty". The New York Times.
- ^ Gruber, Inside of Time p. 159 (2003).
- ^ The Australian Jewish News (6 May 1994), p. 9.
- ^ , Ruth B. Russell, and Jeannette E. Muther, A History of the United Nations Charter: the Role of the United States 1940-1945 (1958).
- ^ "Memoirs of Cordell Hull; His 12 Years in Office Marked by Amity With Roosevelt". The New York Times. 26 January 1948. p. 1. Retrieved 2 March 2021.
- ^ Annie Casting Information, Music Theatre International website Archived October 7, 2007, at the Wayback Machine
General and cited sources
Primary
- Memoirs (Jan. 1948)
- The Papers of Cordell Hull.
Secondary
- Dallek, Robert (1979). Franklin D. Roosevelt and American foreign policy, 1932-1945. Oxford University Press.
- Pratt, Julius W. (1964). Cordell Hull, 1933–44, 2 vol.
- Biography at U.S. Congress
- Butler, Michael A. (1998), Cautious Visionary: Cordell Hull and Trade Reform, 1933–1937, Kent, Ohio: ISBN 978-0873385961.
- O'Sullivan, Christopher D., and Sumner Welles (2008). Postwar Planning and the Quest for a New World Order. ISBN 0231142587.
- Gellman, Irwin F. (2002). Secret Affairs: FDR, Cordell Hull, and Sumner Welles. Enigma Books. ISBN 978-1929631117.
- Robertson, Charles Langner. "The American Secretary of State: A Study of the Office Under Henry L. Stimson And Cordell Hull." (PhD dissertation, Princeton University; ProQuest Dissertations Publishing, 1959. 6005044).
- Woolner, David B. (1996). "The Frustrated Idealists: Cordell Hull, Anthony Eden and the Search for Anglo-American Cooperation, 1933– 1938" (PhD dissertation). McGill University.
External links
- United States Congress. "Cordell Hull (id: H000940)". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.
- Works by or about Cordell Hull at Internet Archive
- The Cordell Hull Foundation, a non-profit NGO, based around furthering international peace and co-operation.
- The Cordell Hull Institute, a U.S. think-tank focusing on furthering debate in international economic development and trade.
- The Cordell Hull Museum, located in Byrdstown, Tennessee, focusing on Hull's life and work.
- Cordell Hull Birthplace State Park Archived 2021-06-05 at the Wayback Machine
- Cordell Hull on Nobelprize.org