L. Mendel Rivers

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L. Mendel Rivers
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from South Carolina's 1st district
In office January 3, 1941 – December 28, 1970
Preceded by	Clara G. McMillan
Succeeded by	Mendel Jackson Davis
Member of the South Carolina House of Representatives from Charleston County
In office January 9, 1934 – June 6, 1936
Personal details
Born	September 28, 1905 L. Mendel Rivers, Jr.

Lucius Mendel Rivers (September 28, 1905 – December 28, 1970) was a Democratic U.S. Representative from South Carolina, representing the Charleston-based 1st congressional district for nearly 30 years. As chair of the House Armed Services Committee, Rivers developed a reputation for his unwavering support of American involvement in the Vietnam War. His reputation suffered as the American public at large turned against further escalation in the Vietnam War. In 1968, Rivers condemned American servicemen who attempted to stop the My Lai massacre, labeling them as "traitors".^[1] Rivers served in the House until his death in 1970.

Early life and education

Mendel Rivers was born in Gumville, South Carolina, to Lucius Hampton Rivers and Henrietta Marion McCay. The family moved to a farm in St. Stephen in 1907 and lived comfortably until 1915. That year the father Lucius died from pneumonia. Mendel's older brother Earle was put in charge of running the farm, but was not interested in agriculture. At the same time, agriculture suffered financial pressures and the family's assets declined. Eventually, they moved to North Charleston, where they opened a boarding house on O'Hear Avenue.^{[citation needed]}

Rivers attended local public schools. He took six years to graduate from Charleston High School in 1926. He attended the

After passing the bar exam in 1932, he was unable to find work in Charleston law firms during the Great Depression, so he started his own practice.

Entry into politics

Rivers first became involved in politics in 1930 when he participated in Ed Pritchard's unsuccessful campaign for the

Rivers's first major success was the repeal of the federal tax on colored oleomargarine. The tax was first implemented because margarine was a much cheaper substitute of butter which threatened the interests of the dairy farmers. When Rivers first introduced the bill in 1944 to repeal the tax, it was vigorously opposed by Midwestern Representatives and the bill died in the agriculture committee. Undeterred, Rivers reintroduced the bill every year and made so many speeches in favor of the repeal of the tax that he was nicknamed "Oleo" Rivers.^[6] In 1949, he circulated a petition in the House to force the bill out of the agriculture committee and to the full House for a vote. The bill passed the House and then the Senate and was signed into law by President Truman in 1950. The manufacturers of margarine were forever grateful to Rivers and sent him complimentary boxes of oleo until the day he died.^[7]

Views regarding race

Like most South Carolinian Democrats from his era, Rivers was an ardent segregationist. Rivers and the entire South Carolina delegation signed the Southern Manifesto^[8] in 1956. Rivers voted against the Civil Rights Acts of 1957,^[9] 1960,^[10] 1964,^[11] and 1968^[12] as well as the 24th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution^[13] and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.^[14]

River attempted to have Charleston federal district court judge J. Waties Waring impeached for having ruled that blacks had to be allowed to vote in the Democratic primary and that segregated schools were unconstitutional.^[15] In South Carolina in the 1940s the Democratic Party had all-white primary elections, which was contested in the court case Elmore v. Rice where George Elmore was represented by Harold Boulware and Thurgood Marshall and the NAACP. Judge Waring ruled in favor of Elmore in 1947, but the ruling was rebuffed by South Carolina outside of Richland County. In a second case Brown v. Baskin (1948), Judge Waring once again ruled that the South Carolina Democratic Party must hold primaries that are "freely open to all parties... without discrimination of race, color or creed."^[16] Judge Waring was eventually forced to leave South Carolina after his dissenting opinion in Briggs v. Elliot (1951), which challenged segregation in public schools, eventually becoming one of five cases that was seen by the U.S. Supreme Court in Brown v. Board of Education. Despite Rivers' fundraising campaign against him, Judge Waring was not impeached, but he eventually moved to New York to continue his work as a federal judge where he died in 1968. Judge Waring was buried in Magnolia Cemetery on Meeting Street in Charleston and his funeral was attended by more than 200 blacks and less than a dozen whites.^[17] When President Truman integrated the U.S. Army in 1948, Rivers called him a "dead chicken" and a "bankrupt politician".^[18] Rivers was so incensed by Truman that he supported Strom Thurmond in the 1948 Presidential election. After Truman's victory, he lost his patronage privileges and was lucky to retain his seat on the Armed Services Committee.

Rivers attended the 1952 Democratic National Convention and believed that Adlai Stevenson would reverse the policies of Truman by returning to traditional Democratic principles. However, Rivers became disillusioned with Stevenson and he openly supported Republican Dwight D. Eisenhower in the 1952 Presidential election because he said that he would be sensitive to Southern concerns.^[19][20] Rivers's long-held distrust of Republicans was reinforced shortly after Eisenhower became president when he ordered the desegregation of all schools on military bases and did not grant Rivers patronage privileges, despite Rivers being the only Democrat to support Eisenhower in 1952.^[21] Eisenhower's continual push for integration infuriated Rivers. When asked if he would back Eisenhower again in 1956, Rivers later claimed to have responded "Hell no! Ain't no education in the second kick of a mule."^[20]

In the 1960s, Rivers softened his vocal opposition to civil rights legislation. He had risen in the ranks and his power in the House depended upon the continual support of national Democrats. Rivers shifted his approach from defending segregation to the maintenance of law and order. He found a kindred spirit in George Wallace and he attended one of Wallace's fundraising dinners in 1968. Wallace asked Rivers in July to be his running mate for the 1968 Presidential election, but Rivers dared not risk losing his chairmanship of the House Armed Services Committee and declined the offer.^[22]

House Armed Services Chairman

Rivers became the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee in 1965 following the retirement of

After becoming chairman, in 1965 he helped secure the first military pay raise since 1952, despite opposition from the Secretary of Defense McNamara and President Johnson. Rivers was instrumental in establishing the additional enlisted pay grade of E-9, and he helped secure mobile home allowances and cheap air fares for soldiers returning from Vietnam.^[24]

Rivers strongly supported the constant upgrading of US military preparedness, regardless of the cost. He supported making all US Navy ships nuclear powered,

In that same speech, he delivered the quote for which he is best remembered: "The final measure of our ability to survive as a nation in a hostile world will not be how well we have managed our domestic resources and domestic programs, but whether or not we have avoided and frustrated the forces of evil which would draw us into the crucible of war with the Soviet Union. If we fail in that endeavor, we will have failed in everything."^[27]

Vietnam War, and cover-up of Mỹ Lai Massacre

Rivers was initially skeptical of the administration's escalation of the Vietnam War and its decision to send combat troops to Vietnam, but later became one of the strongest Congressional supporters of the war. He enjoyed referring to himself as "The Granddaddy of the War Hawks."^[28] He urged the President to use nuclear weapons against the North Vietnamese and to invade and occupy Hanoi.^[29]

During a Congressional investigation of the 1968

In November 1970, Rivers was elected to his 16th term in Congress. He died of heart failure in Birmingham, Alabama, on December 28, 1970. It was 17 days after he had undergone surgery to replace a leaking mitral valve at the University of Alabama Hospital.^[32] He was buried at St. Stephen Episcopal Church Cemetery in St. Stephen, South Carolina.

Personal life

Rivers married Margaret Middleton (called Marguerite by Mendel, but Marwee by family and friends) on September 1, 1938. They had first met in 1930 at

Rivers belonged to the

According to journalists, Rivers struggled with alcoholism for much of his life.^[35] He was said to be the "binger" variety of alcoholic, one who is generally sober but relapses periodically. Washington syndicated columnist Drew Pearson called him a "security risk" because of this. He devoted eight pages to Rivers in his book The Case Against Congress (1968).^[36]

Honors

• In 1948, a stretch of highway, from the crossing of U.S. Route 78 over Meeting Street (known as the Five-Mile Viaduct) to where U.S. Route 52 meets the Berkeley County line, was named as Rivers Avenue. Rivers had been key in getting funds from Congress to pave it as the first four-lane road in North Charleston.^[37][38]
• In 1964 the town of St. Stephen held a day-long celebration for Rivers, naming as Mendel Rivers Road the secondary road that ran from St. Stephen's Episcopal Church to his childhood home.^[39]
• In 1964 a seven-story office building, located across Meeting Street from
  Marion Square, was informally named the L. Mendel Rivers Federal Building. It was later adapted as a hotel.^[37]
• The L. Mendel Rivers Elementary School in Altus, Oklahoma was named for Rivers because he prevented the Altus Air Force Base from being closed.^[40][41][42]
• Charleston Southern University honored Rivers's support of the institution by naming its college library as the L. Mendel Rivers Library in October 1970.^[43][44]
• US soldiers referred to a road in Cam Ranh Bay, Vietnam as called the Mendel Rivers Parkway.^[41] Soldiers gave Rivers a captured Viet Cong carbine that he prominently displayed in his office. For obtaining reduced air fares for soldiers on furlough, they gave him a cap with six stars and "The Big Boss" inscribed on it, indicating that Rivers outranked all military officials.^[45]
• After his death, in 1971 the Navy honored him by naming a submarine
  USS L. Mendel Rivers (SSN-686).^[46][47]
• Friends of Rivers raised funds to create a small park in downtown Charleston and commissioned a bust of him to be placed adjacent to the O.T. Wallace County Office Building.[48]
• Rivers was named as one of the "Magnificent Ten Charlestonians Who Shaped the 20th Century" by Charleston Magazine in December 1999 for his success in expanding the military in his congressional district.^[49]

See also

• NASCAR National Commissioner
• List of United States Congress members who died in office (1950–99)

Notes