June 2016 – Page 2 – The Intelligent Collector Magazine

Thomas Hendricks’ Views on Race Cast a Shadow Over His Entire Career

Thomas A. Hendricks is featured on the 1886 $10 Silver Certificate. This example realized $43,125 at a January 2008 auction.

By Jim O’Neal

In the annals of American vice presidents, no occupant had a more tortuous path than Democrat Thomas A. Hendricks of Indiana. In the course of that journey, he acquired a controversial reputation with views on race that cast a shadow over his entire career.

A law practice in Indiana led him to a political career in 1848 where he first revealed his anti-black bias. He helped to enact the infamous “Black Laws” – ensuring racial segregation and strict limitations on immigrations of free blacks into the entire state. In 1850, he was elected to the U.S. Congress, where he was a strong supporter of popular sovereignty and expansion of slavery to the West.

He then pushed the Kansas-Nebraska Act, which repealed the Missouri Compromise and led directly to the Civil War. His speeches were some of the most vitriolic on record concerning the black race. He fought against reconstruction after the war and was rejected as a VP running mate for Samuel Tilden in 1876.

This was the only election in which a candidate (Tilden) received more than 50 percent of the popular vote but was not elected by the Electoral College. (In 1824, 1888 and 2000, the candidate who received the most votes did not win, but none of them had more than 50 percent).

Then eight years later, Grover Cleveland and Hendricks became the first Democrats to win a presidential election since 1856. This was the longest losing streak for any major party in American political history … six consecutive losing presidential elections!

Hendricks’ long wait was over, but he had little time to savor victory. Eight months later, he was dead. For the fifth time, the vice presidency was vacant as the result of the death of the occupant and in 10 of the first 18 presidencies, there was no sitting VP. But by now the office was so lightly regarded, few seemed to care.

That is until someone realized that the offices of both the president pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House were also vacant. With Republicans in control of the Senate, the next successor would be of the opposing party!

So in 1886, Congress passed a law removing Congressional leaders from the line of succession and replaced them with members of the president’s Cabinet … starting with State and then Treasury, War, etc. That lasted until 1947 and then changed again in 1967 with the passage of the 25th Amendment … today’s law.

So old racist Thomas Hendricks’ service was only memorable for the actions taken by others after he died.

Not much of a legacy.

Intelligent Collector blogger JIM O’NEAL is an avid collector and history buff. He is President and CEO of Frito-Lay International [retired] and earlier served as Chairman and CEO of PepsiCo Restaurants International [KFC Pizza Hut and Taco Bell].

Great Depression Overshadows Hoover’s Humanitarian Legacy

President Hoover’s 1932 Presidential Christmas Card was sent to close staff members. This card, and another for the First Lady, realized $1,673 at a December 2012 auction.

By Jim O’Neal

Images of the 1929 stock market crash, Hoovervilles (shanty towns built by the homeless), and the soup lines of the Great Depression are all associated with President Herbert Hoover. His administration (1929-33) coincided with all these events, although most of the underlying causes occurred prior to him assuming office.

A remarkably different perspective of his career emerges when one closely examines the years preceding his time in the White House.

In 1900, he and his wife Lou helped defend Tientsin, China, during the Boxer Rebellion, then Herbert started traveling the world displaying his engineering and business prowess. He found silver, lead and zinc in Burma, zinc in Australia, and both copper and oil in Russia. He also accumulated wealth and prestige as his company benefited from rescuing financially troubled mining companies. By 1913, his personal wealth soared to over $4 million.

When World War I broke out, Hoover was in London and shifted his primary focus to alleviating the inevitable suffering he knew would be next. First, he established the American Citizens Relief Committee and helped Americans escape the continent to London. Next, he headed a private charitable group, the Commission for Relief in Belgium. As always, he worked tirelessly, raising funds from the British, French and American governments to import wheat for Belgium millers to convert to flour for bread.

After the United States entered the war, President Wilson brought Hoover to Washington to head up the administration of U.S. food production. Then, he returned to Europe in 1918 to head post-war food relief to the allies. When he decided to include Germany as well, critics complained they should be punished instead. Hoover countered, “The United States is not at war with German infants!”

He did a lot more than stave off starvation. His rebuilding efforts included the wrecked European economies: heavily polluted rivers were cleansed, railroads repaired, and communication systems re-established. As Bolshevism festered in the rubble, the Hoover-led American efforts established capitalism to counter it.

In 1919, President Wilson appointed Hoover vice-chairman of the Second Industrial Conference in Washington. The group’s final report, primarily written by Hoover, called for progressive reforms: greater equity between profits and wages; a minimum wage law; equal pay for men and women; and a 48-hour workweek. Even today, these reforms sound familiar.

Hoover made a strong run for the 1920 Republican presidential nomination, but lost out to Warren G. Harding. He would not get his chance for another eight years … just when all the cracks were beginning to appear and the roof would come cascading down as he took office.

Bad luck, bad timing or both? Either way, Hoover was at the helm when the ship started to list and he carried the stigma of blame for the rest of his life. History can be a cruel master.

American Hero Led Nation’s Response to Pearl Harbor

Even before his World War II mission, Jimmy Doolittle and his aviation exploits made him an American hero. He was featured on this 1933 Goudey Sport Kings card, which sold for $1,553.50 in May 2015.

By Jim O’Neal

Spencer Tracy was the first actor to win back-to-back Oscars for Best Actor – in 1937 for Captains Courageous and 1938 for Boys Town. In 1944, he played the role of Lieutenant Colonel Jimmy Doolittle in the movie Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo, based on the true story of the Doolittle Raid.

The Doolittle Raid occurred on April 18, 1942, four months after the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. This precipitated the United States’ formal declaration of war against Japan and led to the nation’s entry into World War II. Sixteen U.S. Army Air Force B25B Mitchell bombers (named in honor of Major General William “Billy” Mitchell) took off from the decks of the USS Hornet. They were loaded with bombs to be dropped on Tokyo, Kobe, Yokohama, Osaka and Nagoya on Honshu Island in Japan.

They were launched from deep in the western Pacific Ocean, beyond fighter escort range, to demonstrate that the Japanese homeland was vulnerable to American air attacks and cast doubt on claims that Japan’s leaders could defend their home islands.

Doolittle would later write: “There was a second and equally important psychological reason for this attack … Americans badly needed a morale boost.”

Doolittle led the raid and his remarkable flying career included being the first person to be awarded the Medal of Honor and the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s two highest honors. Other commendations included two Distinguished Service Medals, the Silver Star, three Distinguished Flying Crosses, the Bronze Star, and four Air Medals. Other honors poured in from Great Britain, France, Belgium, Poland and Ecuador.

In 1989, he was in the inaugural group of inductees to the Motorsports Museum & Hall of Fame for his exploits in air racing.

Since the Doolittle Raid bombers were unable to return and land on the Hornet, the plan was for the pilots and crews to land in mainland China, however, they were forced to bail out. Luckily, Doolittle and his crew were guided to safety by John Birch, the 27-year-old missionary turned intelligence officer. His name was appropriated by Robert Welsh when he founded the ultra-right wing conservative John Birch Society. Birch had become a symbolic hero after being shot by the Chinese Red Army.

Welsh had made a fortune selling candy and his company originated the famous Sugar Daddy sucker that me and my boyhood friends enjoyed (they are now made by Tootsie Roll Industries). Using the “Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon” theory, I guess we weren’t too separated from our hero Jimmy Doolittle.

Small world.

America Will Never Forget Sacrifices of Heroic Men and Women

The flag that led the first American troops onto Utah Beach on D-Day, June 6, 1944, sold for $514,000 at a June 2016 Heritage auction.

“When it mattered most, an entire generation of Americans showed the finest qualities of our nation and of humanity. On this day, in their honor, we will raise the American flag over a monument that will stand as long as America itself.” – George W. Bush, May 29, 2004

By Jim O’Neal

Sixteen million Americans served during World War II. Twelve years ago, the National World War II Memorial, honoring their commitment and sacrifices, was dedicated in the nation’s capital. The event featured a four-day celebration with special museum exhibits and services in the National Cathedral.

Almost every feature and detail of the seven-acre memorial in the National Mall are symbolic. A ceremonial entrance is flanked by 24 bronze bas-relief sculpture that provide glimpses into the American experience and on the battlefield. Inside, the memorial is anchored by two pavilions – one proclaiming victory in the Atlantic Theatre, the other success in the Pacific. Fifty-six granite pillars represent the states, federal territories and District of Columbia.

The columns are linked with bronze ropes to reflect the nation’s unity during the war and adorned with two bronze wreaths, one of wheat, representing the United States’ agricultural strength, and one in oak, signifying the might of a nation.

The site also features the Freedom Wall, decorated with 4,048 gold stars, each representing 100 Americans who lost their lives during the war or who remain missing in action. Carved at the bottom are the words “Here we mark the price of freedom.”

Visitors can find hidden treasures in the site, including the famous “Kilroy was here” graffiti familiar to every WW2 veteran. Also carved into the memorial are these words from President Harry S. Truman: “Our debt to the heroic men and valiant women in the service of our country can never be repaid. They have earned our undying gratitude. America will never forget their sacrifices.”

Amen.

Queen Victoria Found Creative, Complicated Ways to Mourn

This Queen Victoria military commission document, signed “Victoria RI” and dated Jan. 20, 1860, references her beloved husband Prince Albert – a year before his death of typhoid fever.

By Jim O’Neal

A good friend of mine died recently and the family is naturally in a state of grief and making plans to include others in the mourning process. This is a custom that has undergone many changes over the centuries and is still evolving.

The “Masters of Mourning” surely must have been the Victorians. Rarely have groups of people become more fascinated by death or found so many creative and complicated ways to acknowledge it.

Society, in general, evolved strict mourning rules that were remarkably comprehensive. Every conceivable relationship had specific guidelines. One example was for an uncle by marriage. He was to be mourned for two months if his wife survived him, but only one month if he was a widower or unmarried.

This continued through the entire canon of relationships and, in a quirk, one needn’t have even met the people being mourned. If a woman’s husband had been married before and widowed, the second wife was expected to engage in “complementary mourning” – a type of proxy mourning on behalf of the deceased, earlier spouse.

Even mourning clothes were dependent upon the degree of one’s bereavement. Widows, already burdened by suffocating pounds of broadcloth, had to add black crepe, a type of crimped silk. Crepe was scratchy, noisy and maddeningly difficult to maintain. Even raindrops left whitish blotches and the crepe ran onto the skin underneath, where it was almost impossible to wash off. The amount of crepe was dictated by the passage of time. Just a glance could tell how long a woman had been widowed by the amount of crepe at each sleeve.

Then after two years, a widow moved into a phase of “half mourning” and the crepe could be gray or pale lavender.

Servants were required to mourn when their employers died and a period of national mourning was decreed when a monarch died.

Queen Victoria may have been the most prominent person to conjure up ingenious ways to mourn. Her beloved Prince Albert died in December 1861. Victoria decreed that the clocks in his bedroom be stopped at precisely the minute he died: 10:50 p.m. Then, in another odd ritual, the service to his room was continued as if he were merely on a trip.

A valet carefully laid out fresh clothing for him each day, in addition to hot water, soap and towels for his daily bath, and then removed at an appropriate time later in the day. Of course, his remains were actually interred in a mausoleum on the castle grounds.

Ironically, when Queen Victoria’s reign ended in 1901, after nearly 64 years, no one could agree on how much mourning was appropriate. It had been too long since the last one and there was no precedent for this length of time.

Since then, Queen Elizabeth II has eclipsed her as the longest-lived British monarch, and on Sept. 9, 2015, she became the longest-reigning monarch ever (as Prince Charles knows so well, as he yearns instead of mourns).

Cleveland Believed Public Service was a Public Trust

A rare set of Lake Erie “State Governors” cards, circa 1890s and including Grover Cleveland, sold for $11,352.50 at a May 2014 auction.

By Jim O’Neal

When Grover Cleveland was running for president in 1884, Joseph Pulitzer wrote an editorial endorsing him and listed four reasons for wanting him to be president. “One, he is an honest man. Two, he is an honest man. Three, he is an honest man. Four, he is honest.”

Cleveland had been mayor of Buffalo – a Democrat in a Republican city – and his name quickly became “The Veto Mayor.” Any bill that he thought was a raid on the public treasury was quickly vetoed. (He would later veto over 300 bills in his first year as president.)

In 1882, Democrats in New York were looking for someone to run for governor. Someone asked “Why not the mayor of Buffalo?” He was nominated and won in a landslide.

Teddy Roosevelt was then a member of the New York Assembly and formed an alliance with Governor Cleveland on legislation called the Five-Cent Fare Bill. It was intended to force transit companies in NYC to cut their 10-cent fares by 50 percent (this was before Uber). However, when Cleveland read the final bill, he decided it was a violation of the U.S. Constitution. He also firmly believed the state should not get involved in private contracts, so vetoville.

Everyone was stunned, including TR, but then he rethought his position and decided the governor was right. After helping get the veto upheld, TR “The Dude” and Cleveland “The Big One” found other areas of mutual cooperation. (It was an arcane political concept called bipartisan cooperation.)

President Cleveland’s favorite political phrase was “Public service is a public trust.” He believed an executive, whether governor or president, was exactly that – an executive officer whose job was to see that the organization was run efficiently and that shareholder (taxpayer) money was not wasted. He believed fervently that “The people support the government. The government does not support the people.”

A novel concept that JFK would recall more eloquently in 1961 as “Ask not …”

Seventy-one Years Later, U.N. Still Ironing Out the Kinks

A United Nations flag flown aboard Apollo 11, from the personal collection of Buzz Aldrin, sold for $10,157.50 at an April 2013 Heritage auction.

By Jim O’Neal

After years of conflict, devastation and privation, there was a shared determination to avoid another World War. Gradually, this determination evolved into action. The seeds had been sown in August 1941 when President Franklin D. Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill issued the Atlantic Charter, a statement that listed their postwar goals for international security.

These goals appeared again in January 1942 when the 26 Allied nations signed the United Nations Declaration, which bound them to a common purpose of victory over the Axis powers. It also resolved to protect liberty and human rights and to respect the self-determination of all people.

In April 1945, with the end of the war in sight, representatives of 50 nations met in San Francisco to write a charter for the new organization. The charter established the mission of the United Nations: to prevent war; to affirm fundamental human rights; to facilitate international peace and security; to promote improved living standards; and to support social progress and economic advancements.

Disagreements based on national interests plagued the discussions at the April conference, but they did not prevent the formation of the United Nations. On June 25, the delegates unanimously adopted the charter and the next day they all signed the document. The United Nations was officially established on Oct. 24, 1945.

The world had entered a new period of international collaboration … “to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war … to reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights.”

Seventy-one years later, they are still trying to get some of the kinks worked out.