Virginia in the Union: 20 U.S. Senators from Virginia in six parts
Part 5. 1910-1967: World War I, Prohibition, Depression, World War II, Cold War (VUS SOL the Emergence of Modern America, Conflict: The World at War, The United States since World War II)
Claude A. Swanson, Congresses 61-72. Presidents Taft, Wilson, Harding, Coolidge, Hoover.
Carter Glass, Congresses 66-78. Presidents Wilson, Harding, Coolidge, Hoover, F.D. Roosevelt, Truman.
Harry F. Byrd, Sr., Congresses 73-89. Presidents Roosevelt, Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson.
A. Willis Robertson, Congresses 79-89. Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson.
See List of United States Senators from Virginia for a comprehensive overview of them all with their portraits, and how their terms overlapped in Congress. See Lists of Presidents of the United States for a comprehensive list with portraits of each president.
With the twenty longest-serving U.S. Senators, every U.S. Congress and Presidential term is represented. This gives the history-as-biography approach to history a comprehensive survey of U.S. and Virginia.
Senate years of service and political party are listed along with their corresponding Presidents in the second paragraph of each article.
SWANSON, Claude Augustus, a Representative and a Senator from Virginia.
Senate Years of Service: 1910-1933. Party: Democrat. Presidents: William Howard Taft, Woodrow Wilson, Warren G. Harding, Calvin Coolidge, Herbert Hoover.
Born in Swansonville, Va., March 31, 1862. attended the public schools. taught school. attended the Virginia Agricultural and Mechanical College (now the Virginia Polytechnic Institute) at Blacksburg. graduated from Randolph-Macon College, Ashland, Va., in 1885 and from the law department of the University of Virginia at Charlottesville in 1886. admitted to the bar in 1886 and commenced practice in Chatham, Pittsylvania County, Va..
Elected as a Democrat to the Fifty-third and to the six succeeding Congresses and served from March 4, 1893, until his resignation, effective January 30, 1906.
Swanson was an unsuccessful candidate for nomination as governor in 1901, then Governor of Virginia 1906-1910. During his administration, electrocution was substituted for hanging for capital punishment. Appropriations for primary schools were doubled, and two teachers’ colleges were established in Harrisonburg (later James Madison University) and Fredericksburg (later Mary Washington University).
Swanson was appointed as a Democrat to the United States Senate in August 1910, to fill the vacancy in the term ending March 3, 1911, then reelected for the term commencing March 4, 1911. He was reelected in 1916, 1922 and 1928 and served from August 1, 1910, until March 3, 1933, when he resigned to accept a Cabinet portfolio. chairman, Committee on Public Buildings and Grounds (Sixty-third through Sixty-fifth Congresses), Committee on Naval Affairs (Sixty-fifth Congress), Committee on Expenditures in the Department of the Navy (Sixty-sixth Congress).
He was the American delegate to the Disarmament Conference at Geneva, Switzerland, in 1932. Swanson was then appointed Secretary of the Navy in the Cabinet of President Franklin D. Roosevelt from 1933 until his death at Rapidan Camp in the Blue Ridge Mountains, near Criglersville, Madison County, Va., July 7, 1939.
Funeral services were held in the Chamber of the United States Senate. interment in Hollywood Cemetery, Richmond, Va.
Bibliography
Congressional Biographical Directory online, Dictionary of American Biography. Ferrell, Henry C. Jr. Claude A. Swanson: A Political Biography. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1985.
National Governors Association, Past Governors Bios – Virginia Ferrell, Henry C. Claude A. Swanson of Virginia. Thesis submitted to the University of Virginia, c. 1964. Ferrell, Henry C. Claude A. Swanson of Virginia: A Political Biography. Lexington, KY: University Press of Kentucky, c1985. Sobel, Robert, and John Raimo, eds. Biographical Directory of the Governors of the United States, 1789-1978, Vol. 4. Westport, CT: Meckler Books, 1978. 4 vols. The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography, Vol. 32. New York: James T. White & Company. Washington Post, July 8, 1939, p. 1. Washington Post, July 9, 1939, pp. 2 and S2 (obituaries). Washington Post, July 11, 1939, p. 2 (obituary). Younger, Edward and Moore, James Tice, eds. The Governors of Virginia, 1860-1978. Charlottesville, VA: University Press of Virginia, 1982. bioguide.congress.gov
GLASS, Carter, a Representative and a Senator from Virginia.
Senate Years of Service: 1920-1946. Party: Democrat. Presidents: Woodrow Wilson, Warren G. Harding, Calvin Coolidge, Herbert Hoover, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry Truman.
Born in Lynchburg, Campbell County, Va., January 4, 1858. attended private and public schools.
Newspaper reporter, editor and owner.
Member, State senate 1899-1903, when he resigned.
Delegate to the State constitutional convention in 1901.
Elected as a Democrat to the Fifty-seventh Congress to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Peter J. Otey. reelected to the Fifty-eighth and to the eight succeeding Congresses and served from November 4, 1902, until December 16, 1918, when he resigned to accept a cabinet position. chairman, Committee on Banking and Currency (Sixty-third through Sixty-fifth Congresses). member of the Democratic National Committee 1916-1928.
Appointed Secretary of the Treasury by President Woodrow Wilson and served from 1918 to 1920 when he resigned, having been appointed a Senator.
Appointed as a Democrat to the United States Senate on November 18, 1919, and subsequently elected on November 3, 1920, to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Thomas S. Martin in the term ending March 3, 1925, but did not qualify until February 2, 1920, preferring to retain his Cabinet portfolio. reelected in 1924, 1930, 1936, and again in 1942, and served from February 2, 1920, until his death on May 28, 1946. served as President pro tempore during the Seventy-seventh and Seventy-eighth Congresses. chairman, Committee on Expenditures in the Interior Department (Sixty-sixth Congress), Committee on Appropriations (Seventy-third through Seventy-ninth Congresses).
Declined an appointment as Secretary of the Treasury in the Cabinet of President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
Died in Washington, D.C., May 28, 1946. interment in Spring Hill Cemetery, Lynchburg, Va.
Bibliography
Congressional Biographical Directory online, American National Biography. Dictionary of American Biography. Koeniger, Alfred C. ”‘Unreconstructed Rebel’: The Political Thought and Senate Career of Carter Glass, 1929-1936.” Ph.D. dissertation, Vanderbilt University, 1980. Lyle, John O. “The United States Senate Career of Carter Glass, 1920-1933.” Ph.D. dissertation, University of South Carolina, 1974.
BYRD, Harry Flood, (father of Harry Flood Byrd, Jr., and nephew of Henry De La Warr Flood and Joel West Flood), a Senator from Virginia.
Senate Years of Service: 1933-1965. Party: Democrat. Presidents: Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry S. Truman, Dwight D. Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson.
Born in Martinsburg, Berkeley County, W.Va., June 10, 1887. moved with his parents to Winchester, Va., in 1887. attended the public schools and Shenandoah Valley Academy at Winchester, Va..
Entered the newspaper publishing business in 1903 and became publisher of the Winchester (Va.) Star, founded the Martinsburg Evening Journal in 1907 and became publisher of the Harrisonburg News-Record in 1923.
Also engaged extensively in agricultural pursuits near Berryville, Va., in 1906, specializing in growing and storing apples and peaches. He became one of the largest apple growers east of the Mississippi River.
Byrd was the president of the Valley Turnpike Co. 1908-1918, then Virginia Fuel Commissioner in 1918.
Member, State senate1915-1925. He was elected chairman of the Democratic State committee in 1922.
Governor of Virginia 1926-1930. During his gubernatorial administration, lynching was made a state crime, charging all participants with murder. The “short ballot” was adopted for the executive branch, limited to governor, lieutenant governor, and attorney general. The executive branch was reorganized, abolishing more than thirty bureaus and the merging all activities of state government under twelve departments. Counties were given the sole right to tax land while the state was given the sole right to tax intangible property.
Democratic National committeeman 1928-1940. He was appointed March 4, 1933, and subsequently elected on November 7, 1933, as a Democrat to the United States Senate to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Claude A. Swanson. reelected in 1934, 1940, 1946, 1952, 1958, and 1964, and served from March 4, 1933, until his resignation November 10, 1965. chairman, Committee on Rules (Seventy-seventh through Seventy-ninth Congresses), Committee on Finance (Eighty-fourth through Eighty-ninth Congresses), Joint Committee on the Reduction of Nonessential Federal Expenditures (Seventy-seventh through Eighty-ninth Congresses), Joint Committee on Internal Revenue Taxation (Eighty-fourth through Eighty-ninth Congresses).
Died in Berryville, Va., October 20, 1966. interment in Mount Hebron Cemetery, Winchester, Va.
Bibliography
Congressional Biographical Directory online, Dictionary of American Biography. American National Biography. Heinemann, Ronald L. Harry Byrd of Virginia. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1996. Wilkinson, J. Harvie. Harry Byrd and the Changing Face of Virginia Politics, 1945-1966. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 1968.
National Governor’s Association, Past Governors Bios-Virginia. Sobel, Robert, and John Raimo, eds. Biographical Directory of the Governors of the United States, 1789-1978, Vol. 4. Westport, CT: Meckler Books, 1978. 4 vols, The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography, Vol. E. New York: James T. White & Company. Bearss, Sara B. et al., eds. Dictionary of Virginia Biography, Vol. 2. Richmond: The Library of Virginia, 2001. Heinemann, Ronald L. Harry Byrd of Virginia. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1996. Washington Post, October 21, 1966, pp. A1 and B9 (obituary). Washington Post, October 24, 1966, A1 (obituary). Younger, Edward and Moore, James Tice, eds. The Governors of Virginia, 1860-1978. Charlottesville, VA: University Press of Virginia, 1982.
ROBERTSON, Absalom Willis, a Representative and a Senator from Virginia.
Senate Years of Service: 1946-1966. Party: Democrat. Presidents: Harry S. Truman, Dwight D. Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson.
Born in Martinsburg, Berkeley County, W.Va., May 27, 1887. moved to Lynchburg, Va., with his parents in 1891. attended the public schools of Lynchburg and Rocky Mount, Va.. graduated from the University of Richmond, Richmond, Va., in 1907, and from its law department in 1908. admitted to the bar in 1908 and commenced practice in Buena Vista, Rockbridge County, Va.. moved to Lexington, Rockbridge County, Va., in 1919 and continued the practice of law.
Member, State senate 1916-1922.
During the First World War served in the United States Army as assistant camp adjutant at Camp Lee, Va., and in the Adjutant General’s Office, Washington, D.C., with the rank of major 1917-1919.
Served as Commonwealth’s attorney for Rockbridge County 1922-1928. chairman of the State commission of game and inland fisheries 1926-1932.
Elected as a Democrat to the Seventy-third Congress. reelected to the six succeeding Congresses and served from March 4, 1933, until November 5, 1946, when he resigned. was nominated to the Eightieth Congress in 1946 but withdrew, having received the nomination for United States Senator.
Elected on November 5, 1946, as a Democrat to the United States Senate to fill the vacancy in the term ending January 3, 1949, caused by the death of Carter Glass. reelected in 1948, 1954 and 1960 and served from November 6, 1946, until his resignation December 30, 1966. unsuccessful candidate for renomination in 1966. co-chairman, Joint Committee on Defense Production (Eighty-fifth, Eighty-seventh, and Eighty-ninth Congresses), chairman, Committee on Banking and Currency (Eighty-sixth through Eighty-ninth Congresses).
Served as consultant to the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development 1966-1968.
Retired and resided in Lexington, Va., until his death there November 1, 1971. interment in Stonewall Jackson Memorial Cemetery.
Bibliography
Congressional Biographical Directory online, U.S. Congress. Memorial Addresses. 92nd Cong., 2nd sess., 1972. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1972.