Alben W. Barkley

• Born: November 24, 1877
• Birthplace: Lowes, Kentucky
• Died: April 30, 1956
• Place of death: Lexington, Virginia

Alben W. Barkley was a veteran Democratic senator who served as Senate majority and minority leader during the Roosevelt and Truman administrations and vice president under Harry S. Truman; he was also a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1952.

Alben Barkley was born in Wheel, Kentucky, on November 24, 1877, the son of farmers John Wilson and Electa Eliza Barkley. As a child, Barkley heard from his grandmother stories of politicians Adlai Stevenson and James A. McKenzie, whom she had known when they were young. Barkley attended school whenever he was not needed to help with planting or harvest, and when his parents sold their farm and moved to Clinton, Kentucky, in 1891, Barkley enrolled at a local seminary school. He then transferred to Marvin College, where he was offered a full scholarship in exchange for working as a janitor. He earned his BA in 1897 and went on to Emory College in Georgia, where he was active in the debate society, but left after a year, unable to afford tuition.

He briefly taught at Marvin College, but the pay was low, and Barkley soon left the job and moved in with his parents in Paducah, Kentucky. There he first worked as a law clerk for lawyer and congressperson Charles K. Wheeler, then accepted a job clerking for Judge William Sutton Bishop and John Kerr Hendrick. While working as a clerk, he studied law, and was admitted to the bar in 1901.

Barkley entered politics in 1904, running for the Democratic nomination for county attorney against incumbent Eugene A. Graves and police court judge David Cross. He defeated these more experienced opponents for the nomination and ran unopposed in the general. After taking office, he saved the county over $35,000, earning the respect of Republicans as well as Democrats, and was chosen as president of the State Association of County Attorneys. He ran successfully for county judge in 1908, then declared his candidacy for the district's seat in the House of Representatives in 1911. He defeated several more conservative Democrats for the party's nomination and went on to win the general, beginning a lengthy career in Congress; he remained in the House until he was elected to the Senate in 1926, and remained in the Senate until he was elected vice president in 1948.

During the administration of Woodrow Wilson, Barkley was a member of the Interstate and Foreign Commerce Committee; in that capacity he supported the Clayton Antitrust Act, a major part of US antitrust law. He originally supported neutrality in World War I, but voted in favor of entering the war when Wilson requested that Congress do so, and considered resigning his seat to serve in the armed forces. He ran unsuccessfully for governor of Kentucky in 1923.

Entering the Senate in 1926, Barkley was made a member of the Finance, Banking and Currency, and Commerce committees. He was an outspoken critic of President Herbert Hoover's handling of the Great Depression, finding the funds allocated by Hoover to assist those affected to be inadequate. During the presidency of Franklin D. Roosevelt, Barkley was a supporter of the New Deal and Roosevelt’s foreign and defense policies. Roosevelt regarded Barkley as an ideal liaison between the White House and the Senate and between the northern and southern wings of the Democratic Party within the Senate. Consequently, Roosevelt helped Barkley become Senate majority leader in 1937. Barkley continued to serve as Senate majority leader until the Republicans gained control of Congress in 1946, at which point he became Senate minority leader.

President Harry S. Truman chose Barkley as his running mate during the 1948 election. After his election as vice president and Truman’s decision not to run for reelection in 1952, Barkley announced his presidential candidacy. He soon withdrew after he learned that labor leaders opposed his candidacy because of his age. Deciding to return to politics, Barkley was elected to the Senate from Kentucky in 1954.

Barkley married Dorothy Brower in 1903; they had two daughters and a son. He died of a heart attack in 1956 while speaking to college students in Virginia.

Impact

As a liberal senator and vice president from a border state, Barkley was a key figure in trying to resolve the growing party conflicts between northern and southern Democrats during the 1950s. Despite his brief tenure at Emory College (later renamed Emory University), the school's debating society was named the Barkley Forum in his honor in 1950, and the Alben W. Barkley Distinguished Chair was also created in the department of political science. A lake on the Kentucky-Tennessee border has been named Lake Barkley in his honor.

Bibliography

"Alben William Barkley." University of Virginia School of Law, 2 June 2016, libguides.law.virginia.edu/c.php?g=39996&p=254104. Accessed 2 Apr. 2018.

Barkley, Alben W. That Reminds Me. New York: Doubleday, 1954.

Davis, Polly A. Alben W. Barkley. New York: Garland, 1979.

Glass, Andrew. "Alben Barkley Dies During Speech, April 30, 1956." Politico, 30 Apr. 2015, www.politico.com/story/2015/04/sen-alben-barkley-visited-washington-and-lee-university-april-30-1956-117472. Accessed 2 Apr. 2018.

Libbey, James K. Dear Alben: Mr. Barkley of Kentucky. UP of Kentucky, 1979.