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James F. Byrnes

James Francis Byrnes (US: /ˈbɜːrnz/ BURNZ; May 2, 1882 – April 9, 1972) was an American judge and politician from South Carolina. A member of the Democratic Party, he served in U.S. Congress and on the U.S. Supreme Court, as well as in the executive branch, most prominently as the 49th U.S. Secretary of State under President Harry S. Truman. Byrnes was also the 104th governor of South Carolina, making him one of the very few politicians to have served in the highest levels of all three branches of the American federal government while also being active in state government.

James F. Byrnes
104th Governor of South Carolina
In office
January 16, 1951 – January 18, 1955
LieutenantGeorge Bell Timmerman Jr.
Preceded byStrom Thurmond
Succeeded byGeorge Bell Timmerman Jr.
49th United States Secretary of State
In office
July 3, 1945 – January 21, 1947
PresidentHarry S. Truman
Preceded byEdward Stettinius Jr.
Succeeded byGeorge Marshall
Director of the Office of War Mobilization
In office
May 27, 1943 – July 3, 1945
PresidentFranklin D. Roosevelt
(1943–1945)
Harry S. Truman
(1945)
Preceded byPosition established
Succeeded byJohn Wesley Snyder
Director of the Office of Economic Stabilization
In office
October 3, 1942 – May 27, 1943
PresidentFranklin D. Roosevelt
Preceded byPosition established
Succeeded byFred M. Vinson
Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States
In office
July 8, 1941 – October 3, 1942[1]
Nominated byFranklin D. Roosevelt
Preceded byJames Clark McReynolds
Succeeded byWiley Rutledge
United States Senator
from South Carolina
In office
March 4, 1931 – July 8, 1941
Preceded byColeman Livingston Blease
Succeeded byAlva M. Lumpkin
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives
from South Carolina's 2nd district
In office
March 4, 1911 – March 3, 1925
Preceded byJames Patterson
Succeeded byButler Hare
Personal details
Born
James Francis Byrnes

(1882-05-02)May 2, 1882
Charleston, South Carolina, U.S.
DiedApril 9, 1972(1972-04-09) (aged 89)
Columbia, South Carolina, U.S.
Political partyDemocratic
Spouse
Maude Busch
(m. 1906)
Signature

Born and raised in Charleston, South Carolina, Byrnes pursued a legal career with the help of his cousin, Governor Miles Benjamin McSweeney. Byrnes won election to the U.S. House of Representatives and served from 1911 to 1925. He became a close ally of President Woodrow Wilson and a protégé of Senator Benjamin Tillman. He sought election to the U.S. Senate in 1924 but narrowly lost a runoff election to Coleman Livingston Blease, who had the backing of the Ku Klux Klan, a white-supremacist domestic-terrorist organization.[2] Byrnes then moved his law practice to Spartanburg, South Carolina and prepared for a political comeback. He narrowly defeated Blease in the 1930 Democratic primary and joined the Senate in 1931.

Historian George E. Mowry called Byrnes "the most influential Southern member of Congress between John Calhoun and Lyndon Johnson".[3] In the Senate, Byrnes supported the policies of his longtime friend, President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Byrnes championed the New Deal and sought federal investment in South Carolina water projects. He also supported Roosevelt's foreign policy, calling for a hard line against the Axis powers. He also opposed some of the labor laws proposed by Roosevelt, such as the Fair Labor Standards Act, which established a minimum wage that hurt his state's competitive advantage of very low factory wages. Roosevelt appointed Byrnes to the Supreme Court in 1941 but asked him to join the executive branch after America's entry into World War II. During the war, Byrnes led the Office of Economic Stabilization and the Office of War Mobilization. He was a candidate to replace Henry A. Wallace as Roosevelt's running mate in the 1944 election, but instead Harry S. Truman was nominated by the 1944 Democratic National Convention.

After Roosevelt's death, Byrnes served as a close adviser to Truman and became U.S. Secretary of State in July 1945. In that capacity, Byrnes attended the Potsdam Conference and the Paris Peace Treaties, 1947; however, relations between Byrnes and Truman soured, and Byrnes resigned from the Cabinet in January 1947. He returned to elective politics in 1950 by winning election as the governor of South Carolina. As governor, he opposed the Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Board of Education and sought to establish "separate but equal" as a realistic alternative to the desegregation of schools. Though he remained a Democrat himself, he endorsed most Republican presidential nominees after 1948 and supported Strom Thurmond's switch to the Republican Party in 1964.

Early life and career edit

Byrnes was born at 538 King Street in Charleston, South Carolina,[4] and was reared in Charleston. Byrnes's father, James Francis Byrnes,[5] died shortly after Byrnes was born. His Irish-American mother, Elizabeth McSweeney Byrnes, was a dressmaker. In the 1880s, a widowed aunt and her three children came to live with them; one of the children was Frank J. Hogan, later president of the American Bar Association.[6] At 14, Byrnes left St. Patrick's Catholic School to work in a law office, and became a court stenographer. Notably, he transcribed the 1903 trial of South Carolina Lieutenant Governor James H. Tillman (nephew of Senator and former governor "Pitchfork Ben" Tillman), for murdering a newspaper editor.[7] In 1906, he married the former Maude Perkins Busch of Aiken, South Carolina; they had no children. He was the godparent of James Christopher Connor. At this time, Byrnes converted from the Catholic Church to Episcopalianism.

In 1900, Byrnes's cousin, Governor Miles B. McSweeney, appointed him as a clerk for Judge Robert Aldrich of Aiken. As he needed to be 21 to take this position, Byrnes, his mother, and McSweeney changed his date of birth to that of his older sister, Leonora.[8] He later apprenticed to a lawyer, then a common practice, read for the law, and was admitted to the bar in 1903. In 1908, he was appointed solicitor for the second circuit of South Carolina and served until 1910.[9] Byrnes was a protégé of "Pitchfork Ben" Tillman and often had a moderating influence on the fiery segregationist Senator.

In 1910, he narrowly won the Democratic primary for US Representative from South Carolina's 2nd congressional district, which was then tantamount to election. He was formally elected in the general election, and was re-elected six times, serving from 1911 to 1925.

Byrnes proved a brilliant legislator, working behind the scenes to form coalitions, and avoiding the high-profile oratory that characterized much of Southern politics. He became a close ally of US President Woodrow Wilson, who often entrusted important political tasks to the capable young Representative, rather than to more experienced lawmakers. In the 1920s, he was a champion of the "Good Roads Movement", which attracted motorists and politicians to large-scale road building programs.

United States Senate and Supreme Court edit

In 1924, Byrnes declined renomination to the House and instead sought nomination for the Senate seat held by incumbent Nathaniel B. Dial though both were former allies of the now-deceased "Pitchfork Ben" Tillman. Anti-Tillmanite and extreme racist demagogue Coleman Blease, who had challenged Dial in 1918, also ran again. Blease led the primary with 42 percent. Byrnes was second with 34 percent. Dial finished third with 22 percent.[10]

Byrnes was opposed by the Ku Klux Klan, which preferred Blease. Byrnes had been raised as a Roman Catholic, and the Klan spread rumors that he was still a secret Catholic. Byrnes countered by citing his support by Episcopal clergy. Three days before the run-off vote, 20 Catholics who said that they had been altar boys with Byrnes published a professed endorsement of him. That group's leader was a Blease ally, and the "endorsement" was circulated in anti-Catholic areas.[11] Blease won the runoff 51% to 49%.[10]

After his House term ended in 1925, Byrnes was out of office. He moved his law practice to Spartanburg, in the industrializing Piedmont region. Between his law practice and investment advice from friends such as Bernard Baruch, Byrnes became a wealthy man, but he never excluded himself from a return to politics. He cultivated the Piedmont textile workers, who were key Blease supporters. In 1930, he challenged Blease again. Blease again led the primary, with 46 percent to 38 percent for Byrnes, but this time, Byrnes won the runoff 51 to 49 percent.[12]

During his time in the Senate, Byrnes was regarded as the most influential South Carolinian since John C. Calhoun.[13] He had long been friends with Franklin Roosevelt, whom he supported for the Democratic nomination in 1932, and made himself Roosevelt's spokesman on the Senate floor, where he guided much of the early New Deal legislation to passage. He won an easy re-election in 1936, promising:

I admit I am a New Dealer, and if [the New Deal] takes money from the few who have controlled the country and gives it back to the average man, I am going to Washington to help the President work for the people of South Carolina and the country.

Since the colonial era, South Carolina's politicians had dreamed of an inland waterway system that would not only aid commerce but also control flooding. By the 1930s, Byrnes took up the cause for a massive dam-building project, Santee Cooper, that would not only accomplish those tasks but also electrify the entire state with hydroelectric power. With South Carolina financially strapped by the Great Depression, Byrnes managed to get the federal government to authorize a loan for the entire project, which was completed and put into operation in February 1942. The loan was later paid back to the federal government with full interest and at no cost to South Carolina taxpayers. Santee Cooper has continued to be a model for public-owned electrical utilities worldwide.

In 1937, Byrnes supported Roosevelt on the highly-controversial court packing plan, but he voted against the 1938 Fair Labor Standards Act, as a minimum wage would potentially make the textile mills in his state uncompetitive. He opposed Roosevelt's efforts to purge conservative Democrats in the 1938 primary elections. On foreign policy, Byrnes was a champion of Roosevelt's positions of helping the United Kingdom against Nazi Germany in 1939 to 1941 and of maintaining a hard diplomatic line against Japan. In this context he denounced isolationist Charles Lindbergh on several occasions.[14]

Byrnes played a key role in blocking anti-lynching legislation, notably the Castigan-Wagner bill of 1935 and the Gavagan bill of 1937.[15] Byrnes said that "rape is responsible, directly and indirectly, for most of the lynching in America."[16]

Byrnes despised his fellow South Carolina Senator "Cotton Ed" Smith, who strongly opposed the New Deal.[17] He privately sought to help his friend Burnet R. Maybank, then the Mayor of Charleston, defeat Smith in the 1938 Senate primary. During the primary, however, Olin Johnston, who was limited to one term as governor, decided to run for the Senate. Because Johnston was also a pro-Roosevelt New Dealer,[17] he would have divided the New Deal vote with Maybank and ensured a victory for Smith. Johnston was also supportive of the New Deal's labor legislation,[18] but Byrnes's support was limited,[18] and a series of labor strikes in the fall of 1937 made Byrnes withdraw consideration for potentially endorsing Johnston.[19] Taking advice from Byrnes, Maybank decided to run for governor instead, and Byrnes made the reluctant decision to support Smith.[20] Byrnes envisioned that Smith would retire in 1944 and that Maybank would successfully run for Smith's Senate seat and build a strong political machine in the state with him.[20]

On June 12, 1941, Roosevelt nominated Byrnes as an associate justice of the United States Supreme Court, and he was confirmed that same day.[21] He served on the Court for only 15 months, from July 8, 1941 until October 3, 1942.[1] His Supreme Court tenure is the shortest of any justice.[22]

World War II edit

 
Potsdam Conference: Sitting (from left) Clement Attlee, Ernest Bevin, Vyacheslav Molotov, Joseph Stalin, William Daniel Leahy, James F. Byrnes and Harry S. Truman.
 
Sitting (from left): Clement Attlee, Harry S. Truman, Joseph Stalin; behind: William Daniel Leahy, Ernest Bevin, James F. Byrnes and Vyacheslav Molotov.
 
The Foreign Ministers: Vyacheslav Molotov, James F. Byrnes and Anthony Eden, July 1945.
1946 newsreel

Byrnes left the Supreme Court to head Roosevelt's Office of Economic Stabilization, which dealt with the vitally-important issues of prices and taxes.[9] How powerful the new office would become depended entirely on Byrnes's political skills, and Washington insiders soon reported that he was fully in charge. In May 1943, he became head of the Office of War Mobilization, a new agency that supervised the Office of Economic Stabilization.[23] Under the leadership of Byrnes, the program managed newly constructed factories across the country that used raw materials, civilian and military production, and transportation for United States Armed Forces personnel and was credited with providing the employment that was needed to bring an official end to the Great Depression.[24][25][26] Thanks to his political experience, his probing intellect, his close friendship with Roosevelt, and in no small part his own personal charm, Byrnes was soon exerting influence over many facets of the war effort that were not technically under his departmental jurisdiction. Many in Congress and the press began referring to Byrnes as the "Assistant President."[26][27]

Many expected that Byrnes would be the Democratic nominee in 1944 for vice president in Franklin D. Roosevelt's 1944 reelection campaign,[27] replacing Henry A. Wallace, who was strongly felt by party officials to be too eccentric to replace an ailing president who would likely die before his next term ended.[28] Roosevelt refused to endorse anybody other than Wallace. He had a personal preference for US Supreme Court justice William O. Douglas. Byrnes was on Roosevelt's list but was hardly his first choice. In a July meeting at the White House, the party bosses pressed hard for Senator Harry S. Truman of Missouri, and Roosevelt issued a statement saying he would support either Truman or Douglas. Byrnes was regarded as too conservative for organized labor; some big city bosses opposed him as an ex-Catholic who would offend Catholics; and blacks were wary of his opposition to racial integration.[28] In short, Byrnes never had a serious chance at being nominated for vice president, and the nomination went instead to Truman. Roosevelt brought Byrnes to the Yalta Conference in early 1945 in which he seemed to favor Soviet plans. Written in shorthand, his notes comprise one of the most complete records of the "Big Three" Yalta meetings. At the same time, Byrnes did not participate in the foreign ministers' meetings or the direct meetings between Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, and Joseph Stalin. After the Conference, he was influential in convincing the U.S. Congress and the general public to accept the terms of the agreement.[29]

In 1945, Byrnes was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal by President Truman for his work in the Office of War Mobilization.

Secretary of State edit

Upon his succession to the presidency after Roosevelt's death, on April 12, 1945, Truman relied heavily on Byrnes's counsel, Byrnes having been a mentor to Truman from the latter's earliest days in the Senate.[30][31] Indeed, Byrnes was one of the first people seen by Truman on the first day of his presidency.[32] It was Byrnes who shared information with the new president on the atomic bomb project (until then, Truman had known nothing about the Manhattan Project).[32] When Truman met Roosevelt's coffin in Washington, he asked Byrnes and former Vice President Wallace, the two other men who might well have succeeded Roosevelt, to join him at the train station.[32] Truman originally intended for both men to play leading roles in his administration to signal continuity with Roosevelt's policies. Truman quickly fell out with Wallace but retained a good working relationship with Byrnes and increasingly turned to him for support.[32]: 388 

Truman appointed Byrnes as US Secretary of State on July 3, 1945.[33] Despite personally objecting to any guarantees of retaining Hirohito, Byrnes remained ambiguous on that point in a draft reply to Japan's offer of surrender of August 10.[34] As Secretary of State, he was first in line to the presidency (until adoption of the 1947 succession act) since there was no Vice President during Truman's first term. He played a major role at the Potsdam Conference, the Paris Peace Conference, and other major postwar conferences. According to historian Robert Hugh Ferrell, Byrnes knew little more about foreign relations than Truman. He made decisions after consulting a few advisors, such as Donald S. Russell and Benjamin V. Cohen. Byrnes and his small group paid little attention to the State Department experts and similarly ignored Truman.[35]

 
Harry S. Truman and Joseph Stalin meeting at the Potsdam Conference on 18 July 1945. From left to right, first row: Stalin, Truman, Soviet Ambassador Gromyko, Byrnes, and Soviet Foreign Minister Molotov. Second row: Truman confidant Vaughan, Russian interpreter Bohlen, Truman naval aide Vardaman, and Ross (partially obscured).

Because Byrnes had been part of the US delegation at Yalta, Truman assumed that he had accurate knowledge of what had transpired. It would be many months before Truman discovered that not to be the case. Nevertheless, Byrnes advised that the Soviets were breaking the Yalta Agreement and that Truman needed to be resolute and uncompromising with them. [36]

Byrnes and British Foreign Secretary Ernest Bevin issued a joint statement announcing that they were combining the U.S. zone of Germany and the British zone of Germany into one new territory called "West Germany."[37] General Lucius D. Clay, who had been a top aide to Byrnes in 1944, heavily influenced Byrnes' famous September 1946 speech in Stuttgart, Germany. The speech, "Restatement of Policy on Germany," marked the formal transition in American occupation policy away from the Morgenthau Plan of economic dismantlement to one of economic reconstruction.[38]

Truman was rapidly moving toward a hardline position on Soviet intentions in Eastern Europe and Iran, but Byrnes was much more conciliatory. The distance between them grew and ties of personal friendship weakened. In late 1945, Byrnes argued with Soviet Foreign Minister Viacheslav Molotov over Soviet pressures on Bulgaria and Romania. Byrnes sent Mark Ethridge, a liberal journalist, to investigate; Ethridge found conditions were indeed bad. Ethridge wrote a damning report, but Byrnes ignored it and instead endorsed a Soviet offer. Truman read Ethridge's report and decided that Byrnes's softline approach was a failure and that the US needed to stand up to the Kremlin.[39]

Personal relations between the two men grew strained, particularly when Truman felt that Byrnes was attempting to set foreign policy by himself and to inform the President only afterward. An early instance of the friction was the Moscow Conference in December 1945. Truman considered the "successes" of the conference to be "unreal" and was highly critical of Byrnes's failure to protect Iran, which was not mentioned in the final communiqué. "I had been left in the dark about the Moscow conference," Truman told Byrnes bluntly.[40] In a subsequent letter to Byrnes, Truman took a harder line in reference to Iran: "Without these supplies furnished by the United States, Russia would have been ignominiously defeated. Yet now Russia stirs up rebellion and keeps troops on the soil of her friend and ally— Iran. .. Unless Russia is faced with an iron fist and strong language another war is in the making. Only one language do they understand.... I do not think we should play compromise any longer.... I am tired of babying the Soviets".[41] That led to the Iran crisis of 1946 in which Byrnes took an increasingly hardline position in opposition to Stalin, culminating in a speech in Germany on September 6, 1946. The "Restatement of Policy on Germany," also known as the "Speech of Hope", set the tone of future US policy by repudiating the Morgenthau Plan, an economic program that would permanently deindustrialize Germany. Byrnes was named TIME Man of the Year. Truman and others believed that Byrnes had grown resentful that he had not been Roosevelt's running mate and successor and so was showing disrespect to Truman. Whether or not that was true, Byrnes felt compelled to resign from the Cabinet in 1947 with some feelings of bitterness.

Governor of South Carolina edit

Byrnes was not yet ready to give up public service. At 68, he was elected Governor of South Carolina in the 1950 gubernatorial election and served from 1951 to 1955. Supporting segregation in education, the Democratic governor stated in his inaugural address:

Whatever is necessary to continue the separation of the races in the schools of South Carolina is going to be done by the white people of the state. That is my ticket as a private citizen. It will be my ticket as governor.

— James F. Byrnes[42]

Byrnes was initially seen as a relative moderate on race issues. Recognizing that the South could not continue with its entrenched segregationist policies much longer but fearing that Congress would impose sweeping change upon the South, he opted for a course of change from within. To that end, he sought to fulfill at last the "separate but equal" policy that the South had put forward in Supreme Court civil rights cases, particularly in regard to public education. Byrnes poured state money into improving black schools, buying new textbooks and new buses, and hiring additional teachers. He also sought to curb the power of the Ku Klux Klan by passing a law that prohibited adults from wearing a mask in public on any day other than Halloween; he knew that many Klansmen feared exposure and would not appear in public in their robes unless their faces were hidden as well. Byrnes hoped to make South Carolina an example for other Southern states to follow in modifying their "Jim Crow" policies. Nonetheless, the NAACP sued South Carolina to force the state to desegregate its schools. Byrnes requested Kansas, a Midwestern state that also segregated its schools, to provide an amicus curiae brief in supporting the right of a state to segregate its schools. That gave the NAACP's lawyer, Thurgood Marshall, the idea to shift the suit from South Carolina over to Kansas, which led directly to Brown v. Board of Education, a decision that Byrnes vigorously criticized.

The South Carolina Constitution then barred governors from immediate re-election and so Byrnes retired from active political life after the 1954 election.

Later political career edit

In his later years, Byrnes foresaw that the American South could play a more important role in national politics. To hasten that development, he sought to end the region's nearly-automatic support of the Democratic Party, which Byrnes believed had grown too liberal and took the "Solid South" for granted at election time but otherwise ignored the region and its needs.

Byrnes endorsed Dwight Eisenhower in 1952, segregationist candidate Harry Byrd in 1956, Richard Nixon in 1960 and 1968, and Barry Goldwater in 1964.[43] He gave his private blessing to US Senator Strom Thurmond of South Carolina to bolt the Democratic Party in 1964 and to declare himself a Republican, but Byrnes himself remained a Democrat.

In 1965, Byrnes spoke out against the "punishment" and the "humiliation" of South Carolina US Representative Albert Watson, who had been stripped of his congressional seniority by the House Democratic Caucus after endorsing Goldwater for president. Byrnes openly endorsed Watson's retention in Congress as a Republican in a special election held in 1965 against Democrat Preston Callison. Watson secured $20,000 and the services of a Republican field representative in what he termed "quite a contrast" to his treatment from Democratic House colleagues.[44][45]

Following Byrnes's death at the age of 89, he was interred in the churchyard at Trinity Episcopal Church in Columbia, South Carolina.

Legacy edit

Byrnes is memorialized at several South Carolina universities and schools:

In 1948, Byrnes and his wife established the James F. Byrnes Foundation Scholarships, and since then, more than 1,000 young South Carolinians have been assisted in obtaining a college education. His papers are in Clemson University's Special Collections Library.

In the 2023 film Oppenheimer, directed by Christopher Nolan, Byrnes was portrayed by actor Pat Skipper.

Electoral history edit

See also edit

Footnotes edit

  1. ^ a b "Justices 1789 to Present". Washington, D.C.: Supreme Court of the United States. Retrieved February 15, 2022.
  2. ^ "The Ku Klux Klan | National Geographic Society". education.nationalgeographic.org. Retrieved October 14, 2022.
  3. ^ David Robertson, Sly and Able: A Political Biography of James F. Byrnes (1994), p. 126
  4. ^ "Do You Know Your Charleston?". Charleston News & Courier. p. 8. Retrieved September 16, 2012.
  5. ^ "Governor of the State of South Carolina - James Francis Byrnes, Jr". from the original on April 19, 2015. Retrieved April 19, 2015.
  6. ^ Ransom, William L. (1944). "Frank J. Hogan, 1877-1944". ABA Journal. 30 (7): 393–395. JSTOR 25714990.
  7. ^ James L. Underwood (December 15, 2013). Deadly Censorship. The University of South Carolina Press. p. Note 4. ISBN 978-1-61117-300-0. from the original on November 8, 2021. Retrieved February 11, 2016.
  8. ^ "SC Governors - James Francis Byrnes, 1951 - 1955". SCIWAY. from the original on September 28, 2008. Retrieved July 10, 2012.
  9. ^ a b "Byrnes, James Francis". Biographical Directory of the U.S. Congress. Office of the Clerk. from the original on November 4, 2011. Retrieved January 9, 2012.
  10. ^ a b "Report of the Secretary of State to the General Assembly of South Carolina. Part II." Reports of State Officers Boards and Committees to the General Assembly of the State of South Carolina. Volume I. Columbia, SC: 1925, p. 59.
  11. ^ Pope, Thomas H. The History of Newberry County, South Carolina: 1860–1990. p. 110
  12. ^ "Supplemental Report of the Secretary of State to the General Assembly of South Carolina." Reports of State Officers Boards and Committees to the General Assembly of the State of South Carolina. Volume I. Columbia, SC: 1931, p. 3.
  13. ^ Lee, Joseph Edward (April 1995). "Book Reviews and Notes - Sly and Able: A Political Biography of James F. Byrnes". South Carolina Historical Magazine. South Carolina Historical Society. 96 (2): 174–176. JSTOR 27570082.
  14. ^ Those Angry Days by Lynn Olson pg. 103
  15. ^ Walter Francis White#Anti-Lynching Legislation
  16. ^ Sean Dennis Cashman (January 1, 1989). America in the Twenties and Thirties: The Olympian Age of Franklin Delano Roosevelt. NYU Press. pp. 271–. ISBN 978-0-8147-7208-9. from the original on February 24, 2017. Retrieved February 23, 2017.
  17. ^ a b . Time. August 7, 1944. Archived from the original on December 14, 2008.
  18. ^ a b Storrs, Landon R. Y. (2000). Civilizing Capitalism: The National Consumers' League, Women's Activism, and Labor Standards in the New Deal Era. Univ of North Carolina Press. ISBN 978-0-8078-4838-8. from the original on November 8, 2021. Retrieved July 10, 2012.
  19. ^ Simon, Bryant. A fabric of defeat: the politics of South Carolina millhands, 1910–1948, p. 208-210
  20. ^ a b Simon, Bryant. A fabric of defeat: the politics of South Carolina millhands, 1910–1948, p. 212
  21. ^ McMillion, Barry J. (January 28, 2022). Supreme Court Nominations, 1789 to 2020: Actions by the Senate, the Judiciary Committee, and the President (PDF) (Report). Washington, D.C.: Congressional Research Service. Retrieved February 15, 2022.
  22. ^ Bialick, Kristen; Gramlich, John (February 8, 2017). "Younger Supreme Court appointees stay on the bench longer, but there are plenty of exceptions". Washington, D.C.: Pew Research Center. Retrieved April 1, 2022.
  23. ^ Wallace, David Duncan. South Carolina: A Short History (University of North Carolina Press: Chapel Hill, 1951) p. 677.
  24. ^ "| Economic History Services". Eh.net. Archived from the original on July 18, 2012. Retrieved September 6, 2012.
  25. ^ Research & Articles on Economy, World War II by. BookRags.com. from the original on April 28, 2013. Retrieved September 6, 2012.
  26. ^ a b "Economy in World War II: Home Front". Shmoop.com. from the original on September 2, 2012. Retrieved September 6, 2012.
  27. ^ a b Herman, Arthur. Freedom's Forge: How American Business Produced Victory in World War II, pp. 189-90, 247, 330, Random House, New York, NY. ISBN 978-1-4000-6964-4.
  28. ^ a b LeRoy Ashby (September 2, 2012). "American Dreamer: The life and times of Henry A. Wallace". The Journal of American History. Jah.oxfordjournals.org. 88 (4): 1586. doi:10.2307/2700719. JSTOR 2700719.
  29. ^ Reynolds, David (2009). Summits: Six Meetings That Shaped the Twentieth Century. New York: Basic Books. pp. 146-147. ISBN 0-7867-4458-8. OCLC 646810103.
  30. ^ Messer, Robert L. (1982). The End of an Alliance: James F. Byrnes, Roosevelt, Truman, and the Origins of the Cold War. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press. p. 13. ISBN 0-8078-7921-5. Cited in reliance on citation in Lifton, Robert J.; Mitchell, Greg (1995). Hiroshima in America, Fifty Years of Denial. G. P. Putnam's Sons. p. 136 (footnote, Byrnes "as a kindly 'older brother' to Truman" in the Senate). ISBN 0-399-14072-7.
  31. ^ Gar Alperovitz, "The Decision to Use the Atomic Bomb" (New York: Vintage Books, 1996)
  32. ^ a b c d McCullough, David (1992). Truman. New York: Simon & Schuster. p. 352.
  33. ^ "A revealing moment during Byrnes' swearing-in ceremony as secretary of state offers insight into the relationship [between President Harry S. Truman and Byrnes]: The diary of Byrnes' friend and assistant Walter Brown records that 'when the oath was completed, the President said, "Jimmy, kiss the Bible." He did and then handed it over to the President and told him to kiss it, too. The President did so as the crowd laughed l ..." Gar Alperovitz, The Decision to Use the Atomic Bomb and the Architecture of an American Myth (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1995, p. 197).
  34. ^ Spector, Ronald H. (2007). In the ruins of empire : the Japanese surrender and the battle for postwar Asia (1st ed.). New York. pp. 4, 5. ISBN 978-0-375-50915-5.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  35. ^ Robert H. Ferrell (1994). Harry S. Truman: A Life. University of Missouri Press. pp. 236–237. ISBN 978-0-8262-6045-1.
  36. ^ Harry S. Truman (1980). Ferrell, Robert H. (ed.). Off the Record: The Private Papers of Harry S. Truman. Harper & Row. p. 17. ISBN 978-0-8262-1119-4.
  37. ^ "Joint Statement by James F. Byrnes and Ernest Bevin (3 December 1946)". March 7, 2015.
  38. ^ Curtis Franklin Morgan Jr, James F. Byrnes, Lucius Clay and American Policy in Germany, 1945-1947 (Edwin Mellen Press, 2002).
  39. ^ Stone, David R. (2006). "The 1945 Ethridge Mission to Bulgaria and Romania and the origins of the Cold War in the Balkans". Diplomacy and Statecraft. 17 (1): 93–112. doi:10.1080/09592290500533775. S2CID 155033071.
  40. ^ Harry S. Truman, Memoirs, Vol. 1: Years of Decision (1955), p.547, 550, cited in George Lenczowski, American Presidents and the Middle East, p.10
  41. ^ Truman, Memoirs, Vol. 1: Years of Decision (1955), p.551–552, cited in Lenczowski, American Presidents, p.11
  42. ^ Bruce Bartlett (January 8, 2008). Wrong on Race: The Democratic Party's Buried Past. St. Martin's Press. pp. 51–. ISBN 978-0-230-61138-2. from the original on February 24, 2017. Retrieved August 19, 2015.
  43. ^ Lamis, Alexander (1988). The Two-Party South. New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 15–16.
  44. ^ Billy Hathorn, "The Changing Politics of Race: Congressman Albert William Watson and the South Carolina Republican Party, 1965-1970", South Carolina Historical Magazine Vol. 89 (October 1988), p. 230
  45. ^ Congressional Quarterly Weekly Report, Vol. 23 (June 18, 1965), p. 1185; Bernard Cosman and Robert J. Huckshorn, eds., Republican Politics: The 1964 Campaign and Its Aftermath for the Party (New York: Praeger, 1968), pp. 147–148

References edit

  • Annotated bibliography for James Byrnes from the Alsos Digital Library for Nuclear Issues ( August 28, 2006, at the Wayback Machine)
  • James Francis Byrnes at the Biographical Directory of Federal Judges, a publication of the Federal Judicial Center.
  • Messer, Robert L. (1982). The End of an Alliance: James F. Byrnes, Roosevelt, Truman, and the Origins of the Cold War.
  • Robertson, David (1994). Sly and Able: A Political Biography of James F. Byrnes June 5, 2011, at the Wayback Machine

Primary sources edit

  • Byrnes, James (1947). Speaking Frankly.
  • Byrnes, James (1958). All in One Lifetime.

Further reading edit

  • Abraham, Henry J., Justices and Presidents: A Political History of Appointments to the Supreme Court. 3d. ed. (New York: Oxford University Press, 1992). ISBN 0-19-506557-3.
  • Anderson, David L. "Byrnes, James Francis (02 May 1882–09 April 1972), U.S. senator and secretary of state" American National Biography (1999)
  • Burns, Richard. "James Byrnes." in Norman A. Graebner, ed. An Uncertain Tradition: American Secretaries of State in the Twentieth Century (1961). pp 223–44.
  • Clements, Kendrick A., ed., James F. Byrnes and the Origins of the Cold War (1982)
  • Curry, George. James F. Byrnes (1965) online, a scholarly biography
  • Cushman, Clare, The Supreme Court Justices: Illustrated Biographies, 1789–1995 (2nd ed.) (Supreme Court Historical Society), (Congressional Quarterly Books, 2001) ISBN 1-56802-126-7; ISBN 978-1-56802-126-3.
  • Hopkins, Michael F. "President Harry Truman's Secretaries of State: Stettinius, Byrnes, Marshall and Acheson." Journal of Transatlantic Studies 6.3 (2008): 290–304.
  • Messer, Robert L. The End of an Alliance: James F. Byrnes, Roosevelt, Truman, and the Origins of the Cold War (1982)
  • Morgan, Jr., Curtis F. James F. Byrnes, Lucius Clay and American Policy in Germany, 1945-1947. (Edwin Mellen Press, 2002).
  • Robertson, David. Sly and Able: A Political Biography of James F. Byrnes (1994)
  • Ward, Patricia Dawson. The Threat of Peace: James F. Byrnes and the Council of Foreign Ministers, 1945–1946 (1979)

External links edit

  • Excerpts from Speaking Frankly on the subjects of: (Yalta Conference), (Potsdam Conference) ("Flash Player" is required)
  • Morgan, Curtis F. . James F. Byrnes Institute. Archived from the original on July 5, 2008. Retrieved June 9, 2008.
  • Text of the famous "Stuttgart speech", September 6, 1946 The speech marked the change in U.S. occupation policy in Germany towards reconstruction.
  • SCIway Biography of James Francis Byrnes
  • NGA Biography of James Francis Byrnes
  • A film clip Byrnes Sets U.S. Policy for Germany, 1946/09/10 (1946) is available for viewing at the Internet Archive
  • A film clip Byrnes Wants All To Share Peacemaking, 1946/10/17 (1946) is available for viewing at the Internet Archive
  • A film clip Byrnes Denies Atom Threat, 1946/10/10 (1946) is available for viewing at the Internet Archive
  • Annotated bibliography from the Alsos Digital Library for Nuclear Issues August 28, 2006, at the Wayback Machine
  • James F. Byrnes Papers at Clemson University Special Collections Library
  • A collection of various works by James F. Byrnes
U.S. House of Representatives
Preceded by Member of the U.S. House of Representatives
from South Carolina's 2nd congressional district

1911–1925
Succeeded by
Party political offices
Preceded by Democratic nominee for U.S. Senator from South Carolina
(Class 2)

1930, 1936
Succeeded by
Preceded by Democratic nominee for Governor of South Carolina
1950
Succeeded by
U.S. Senate
Preceded by U.S. senator (Class 2) from South Carolina
1931–1941
Served alongside: Ed Smith
Succeeded by
Preceded by Chair of the Senate Contingent Expenses Audit Committee
1933–1941
Succeeded by
Legal offices
Preceded by Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States
1941–1942
Succeeded by
Political offices
New office Director of the Office of Economic Stabilization
1942–1943
Succeeded by
Director of the Office of War Mobilization
1943–1945
Succeeded by
Preceded by United States Secretary of State
1945–1947
Succeeded by
Preceded by Governor of South Carolina
1951–1955
Succeeded by

james, byrnes, james, francis, byrnes, ɜːr, burnz, 1882, april, 1972, american, judge, politician, from, south, carolina, member, democratic, party, served, congress, supreme, court, well, executive, branch, most, prominently, 49th, secretary, state, under, pr. James Francis Byrnes US ˈ b ɜːr n z BURNZ May 2 1882 April 9 1972 was an American judge and politician from South Carolina A member of the Democratic Party he served in U S Congress and on the U S Supreme Court as well as in the executive branch most prominently as the 49th U S Secretary of State under President Harry S Truman Byrnes was also the 104th governor of South Carolina making him one of the very few politicians to have served in the highest levels of all three branches of the American federal government while also being active in state government James F Byrnes104th Governor of South CarolinaIn office January 16 1951 January 18 1955LieutenantGeorge Bell Timmerman Jr Preceded byStrom ThurmondSucceeded byGeorge Bell Timmerman Jr 49th United States Secretary of StateIn office July 3 1945 January 21 1947PresidentHarry S TrumanPreceded byEdward Stettinius Jr Succeeded byGeorge MarshallDirector of the Office of War MobilizationIn office May 27 1943 July 3 1945PresidentFranklin D Roosevelt 1943 1945 Harry S Truman 1945 Preceded byPosition establishedSucceeded byJohn Wesley SnyderDirector of the Office of Economic StabilizationIn office October 3 1942 May 27 1943PresidentFranklin D RooseveltPreceded byPosition establishedSucceeded byFred M VinsonAssociate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United StatesIn office July 8 1941 October 3 1942 1 Nominated byFranklin D RooseveltPreceded byJames Clark McReynoldsSucceeded byWiley RutledgeUnited States Senatorfrom South CarolinaIn office March 4 1931 July 8 1941Preceded byColeman Livingston BleaseSucceeded byAlva M LumpkinMember of the U S House of Representatives from South Carolina s 2nd districtIn office March 4 1911 March 3 1925Preceded byJames PattersonSucceeded byButler HarePersonal detailsBornJames Francis Byrnes 1882 05 02 May 2 1882Charleston South Carolina U S DiedApril 9 1972 1972 04 09 aged 89 Columbia South Carolina U S Political partyDemocraticSpouseMaude Busch m 1906 wbr SignatureBorn and raised in Charleston South Carolina Byrnes pursued a legal career with the help of his cousin Governor Miles Benjamin McSweeney Byrnes won election to the U S House of Representatives and served from 1911 to 1925 He became a close ally of President Woodrow Wilson and a protege of Senator Benjamin Tillman He sought election to the U S Senate in 1924 but narrowly lost a runoff election to Coleman Livingston Blease who had the backing of the Ku Klux Klan a white supremacist domestic terrorist organization 2 Byrnes then moved his law practice to Spartanburg South Carolina and prepared for a political comeback He narrowly defeated Blease in the 1930 Democratic primary and joined the Senate in 1931 Historian George E Mowry called Byrnes the most influential Southern member of Congress between John Calhoun and Lyndon Johnson 3 In the Senate Byrnes supported the policies of his longtime friend President Franklin D Roosevelt Byrnes championed the New Deal and sought federal investment in South Carolina water projects He also supported Roosevelt s foreign policy calling for a hard line against the Axis powers He also opposed some of the labor laws proposed by Roosevelt such as the Fair Labor Standards Act which established a minimum wage that hurt his state s competitive advantage of very low factory wages Roosevelt appointed Byrnes to the Supreme Court in 1941 but asked him to join the executive branch after America s entry into World War II During the war Byrnes led the Office of Economic Stabilization and the Office of War Mobilization He was a candidate to replace Henry A Wallace as Roosevelt s running mate in the 1944 election but instead Harry S Truman was nominated by the 1944 Democratic National Convention After Roosevelt s death Byrnes served as a close adviser to Truman and became U S Secretary of State in July 1945 In that capacity Byrnes attended the Potsdam Conference and the Paris Peace Treaties 1947 however relations between Byrnes and Truman soured and Byrnes resigned from the Cabinet in January 1947 He returned to elective politics in 1950 by winning election as the governor of South Carolina As governor he opposed the Supreme Court decision in Brown v Board of Education and sought to establish separate but equal as a realistic alternative to the desegregation of schools Though he remained a Democrat himself he endorsed most Republican presidential nominees after 1948 and supported Strom Thurmond s switch to the Republican Party in 1964 Contents 1 Early life and career 2 United States Senate and Supreme Court 3 World War II 4 Secretary of State 5 Governor of South Carolina 6 Later political career 7 Legacy 8 Electoral history 9 See also 10 Footnotes 11 References 11 1 Primary sources 12 Further reading 13 External linksEarly life and career editByrnes was born at 538 King Street in Charleston South Carolina 4 and was reared in Charleston Byrnes s father James Francis Byrnes 5 died shortly after Byrnes was born His Irish American mother Elizabeth McSweeney Byrnes was a dressmaker In the 1880s a widowed aunt and her three children came to live with them one of the children was Frank J Hogan later president of the American Bar Association 6 At 14 Byrnes left St Patrick s Catholic School to work in a law office and became a court stenographer Notably he transcribed the 1903 trial of South Carolina Lieutenant Governor James H Tillman nephew of Senator and former governor Pitchfork Ben Tillman for murdering a newspaper editor 7 In 1906 he married the former Maude Perkins Busch of Aiken South Carolina they had no children He was the godparent of James Christopher Connor At this time Byrnes converted from the Catholic Church to Episcopalianism In 1900 Byrnes s cousin Governor Miles B McSweeney appointed him as a clerk for Judge Robert Aldrich of Aiken As he needed to be 21 to take this position Byrnes his mother and McSweeney changed his date of birth to that of his older sister Leonora 8 He later apprenticed to a lawyer then a common practice read for the law and was admitted to the bar in 1903 In 1908 he was appointed solicitor for the second circuit of South Carolina and served until 1910 9 Byrnes was a protege of Pitchfork Ben Tillman and often had a moderating influence on the fiery segregationist Senator In 1910 he narrowly won the Democratic primary for US Representative from South Carolina s 2nd congressional district which was then tantamount to election He was formally elected in the general election and was re elected six times serving from 1911 to 1925 Byrnes proved a brilliant legislator working behind the scenes to form coalitions and avoiding the high profile oratory that characterized much of Southern politics He became a close ally of US President Woodrow Wilson who often entrusted important political tasks to the capable young Representative rather than to more experienced lawmakers In the 1920s he was a champion of the Good Roads Movement which attracted motorists and politicians to large scale road building programs United States Senate and Supreme Court editIn 1924 Byrnes declined renomination to the House and instead sought nomination for the Senate seat held by incumbent Nathaniel B Dial though both were former allies of the now deceased Pitchfork Ben Tillman Anti Tillmanite and extreme racist demagogue Coleman Blease who had challenged Dial in 1918 also ran again Blease led the primary with 42 percent Byrnes was second with 34 percent Dial finished third with 22 percent 10 Byrnes was opposed by the Ku Klux Klan which preferred Blease Byrnes had been raised as a Roman Catholic and the Klan spread rumors that he was still a secret Catholic Byrnes countered by citing his support by Episcopal clergy Three days before the run off vote 20 Catholics who said that they had been altar boys with Byrnes published a professed endorsement of him That group s leader was a Blease ally and the endorsement was circulated in anti Catholic areas 11 Blease won the runoff 51 to 49 10 After his House term ended in 1925 Byrnes was out of office He moved his law practice to Spartanburg in the industrializing Piedmont region Between his law practice and investment advice from friends such as Bernard Baruch Byrnes became a wealthy man but he never excluded himself from a return to politics He cultivated the Piedmont textile workers who were key Blease supporters In 1930 he challenged Blease again Blease again led the primary with 46 percent to 38 percent for Byrnes but this time Byrnes won the runoff 51 to 49 percent 12 During his time in the Senate Byrnes was regarded as the most influential South Carolinian since John C Calhoun 13 He had long been friends with Franklin Roosevelt whom he supported for the Democratic nomination in 1932 and made himself Roosevelt s spokesman on the Senate floor where he guided much of the early New Deal legislation to passage He won an easy re election in 1936 promising I admit I am a New Dealer and if the New Deal takes money from the few who have controlled the country and gives it back to the average man I am going to Washington to help the President work for the people of South Carolina and the country Since the colonial era South Carolina s politicians had dreamed of an inland waterway system that would not only aid commerce but also control flooding By the 1930s Byrnes took up the cause for a massive dam building project Santee Cooper that would not only accomplish those tasks but also electrify the entire state with hydroelectric power With South Carolina financially strapped by the Great Depression Byrnes managed to get the federal government to authorize a loan for the entire project which was completed and put into operation in February 1942 The loan was later paid back to the federal government with full interest and at no cost to South Carolina taxpayers Santee Cooper has continued to be a model for public owned electrical utilities worldwide In 1937 Byrnes supported Roosevelt on the highly controversial court packing plan but he voted against the 1938 Fair Labor Standards Act as a minimum wage would potentially make the textile mills in his state uncompetitive He opposed Roosevelt s efforts to purge conservative Democrats in the 1938 primary elections On foreign policy Byrnes was a champion of Roosevelt s positions of helping the United Kingdom against Nazi Germany in 1939 to 1941 and of maintaining a hard diplomatic line against Japan In this context he denounced isolationist Charles Lindbergh on several occasions 14 Byrnes played a key role in blocking anti lynching legislation notably the Castigan Wagner bill of 1935 and the Gavagan bill of 1937 15 Byrnes said that rape is responsible directly and indirectly for most of the lynching in America 16 Byrnes despised his fellow South Carolina Senator Cotton Ed Smith who strongly opposed the New Deal 17 He privately sought to help his friend Burnet R Maybank then the Mayor of Charleston defeat Smith in the 1938 Senate primary During the primary however Olin Johnston who was limited to one term as governor decided to run for the Senate Because Johnston was also a pro Roosevelt New Dealer 17 he would have divided the New Deal vote with Maybank and ensured a victory for Smith Johnston was also supportive of the New Deal s labor legislation 18 but Byrnes s support was limited 18 and a series of labor strikes in the fall of 1937 made Byrnes withdraw consideration for potentially endorsing Johnston 19 Taking advice from Byrnes Maybank decided to run for governor instead and Byrnes made the reluctant decision to support Smith 20 Byrnes envisioned that Smith would retire in 1944 and that Maybank would successfully run for Smith s Senate seat and build a strong political machine in the state with him 20 On June 12 1941 Roosevelt nominated Byrnes as an associate justice of the United States Supreme Court and he was confirmed that same day 21 He served on the Court for only 15 months from July 8 1941 until October 3 1942 1 His Supreme Court tenure is the shortest of any justice 22 World War II edit nbsp Potsdam Conference Sitting from left Clement Attlee Ernest Bevin Vyacheslav Molotov Joseph Stalin William Daniel Leahy James F Byrnes and Harry S Truman nbsp Sitting from left Clement Attlee Harry S Truman Joseph Stalin behind William Daniel Leahy Ernest Bevin James F Byrnes and Vyacheslav Molotov nbsp The Foreign Ministers Vyacheslav Molotov James F Byrnes and Anthony Eden July 1945 source source source source 1946 newsreelByrnes left the Supreme Court to head Roosevelt s Office of Economic Stabilization which dealt with the vitally important issues of prices and taxes 9 How powerful the new office would become depended entirely on Byrnes s political skills and Washington insiders soon reported that he was fully in charge In May 1943 he became head of the Office of War Mobilization a new agency that supervised the Office of Economic Stabilization 23 Under the leadership of Byrnes the program managed newly constructed factories across the country that used raw materials civilian and military production and transportation for United States Armed Forces personnel and was credited with providing the employment that was needed to bring an official end to the Great Depression 24 25 26 Thanks to his political experience his probing intellect his close friendship with Roosevelt and in no small part his own personal charm Byrnes was soon exerting influence over many facets of the war effort that were not technically under his departmental jurisdiction Many in Congress and the press began referring to Byrnes as the Assistant President 26 27 Many expected that Byrnes would be the Democratic nominee in 1944 for vice president in Franklin D Roosevelt s 1944 reelection campaign 27 replacing Henry A Wallace who was strongly felt by party officials to be too eccentric to replace an ailing president who would likely die before his next term ended 28 Roosevelt refused to endorse anybody other than Wallace He had a personal preference for US Supreme Court justice William O Douglas Byrnes was on Roosevelt s list but was hardly his first choice In a July meeting at the White House the party bosses pressed hard for Senator Harry S Truman of Missouri and Roosevelt issued a statement saying he would support either Truman or Douglas Byrnes was regarded as too conservative for organized labor some big city bosses opposed him as an ex Catholic who would offend Catholics and blacks were wary of his opposition to racial integration 28 In short Byrnes never had a serious chance at being nominated for vice president and the nomination went instead to Truman Roosevelt brought Byrnes to the Yalta Conference in early 1945 in which he seemed to favor Soviet plans Written in shorthand his notes comprise one of the most complete records of the Big Three Yalta meetings At the same time Byrnes did not participate in the foreign ministers meetings or the direct meetings between Roosevelt Winston Churchill and Joseph Stalin After the Conference he was influential in convincing the U S Congress and the general public to accept the terms of the agreement 29 In 1945 Byrnes was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal by President Truman for his work in the Office of War Mobilization Secretary of State editUpon his succession to the presidency after Roosevelt s death on April 12 1945 Truman relied heavily on Byrnes s counsel Byrnes having been a mentor to Truman from the latter s earliest days in the Senate 30 31 Indeed Byrnes was one of the first people seen by Truman on the first day of his presidency 32 It was Byrnes who shared information with the new president on the atomic bomb project until then Truman had known nothing about the Manhattan Project 32 When Truman met Roosevelt s coffin in Washington he asked Byrnes and former Vice President Wallace the two other men who might well have succeeded Roosevelt to join him at the train station 32 Truman originally intended for both men to play leading roles in his administration to signal continuity with Roosevelt s policies Truman quickly fell out with Wallace but retained a good working relationship with Byrnes and increasingly turned to him for support 32 388 Truman appointed Byrnes as US Secretary of State on July 3 1945 33 Despite personally objecting to any guarantees of retaining Hirohito Byrnes remained ambiguous on that point in a draft reply to Japan s offer of surrender of August 10 34 As Secretary of State he was first in line to the presidency until adoption of the 1947 succession act since there was no Vice President during Truman s first term He played a major role at the Potsdam Conference the Paris Peace Conference and other major postwar conferences According to historian Robert Hugh Ferrell Byrnes knew little more about foreign relations than Truman He made decisions after consulting a few advisors such as Donald S Russell and Benjamin V Cohen Byrnes and his small group paid little attention to the State Department experts and similarly ignored Truman 35 nbsp Harry S Truman and Joseph Stalin meeting at the Potsdam Conference on 18 July 1945 From left to right first row Stalin Truman Soviet Ambassador Gromyko Byrnes and Soviet Foreign Minister Molotov Second row Truman confidant Vaughan Russian interpreter Bohlen Truman naval aide Vardaman and Ross partially obscured Because Byrnes had been part of the US delegation at Yalta Truman assumed that he had accurate knowledge of what had transpired It would be many months before Truman discovered that not to be the case Nevertheless Byrnes advised that the Soviets were breaking the Yalta Agreement and that Truman needed to be resolute and uncompromising with them 36 Byrnes and British Foreign Secretary Ernest Bevin issued a joint statement announcing that they were combining the U S zone of Germany and the British zone of Germany into one new territory called West Germany 37 General Lucius D Clay who had been a top aide to Byrnes in 1944 heavily influenced Byrnes famous September 1946 speech in Stuttgart Germany The speech Restatement of Policy on Germany marked the formal transition in American occupation policy away from the Morgenthau Plan of economic dismantlement to one of economic reconstruction 38 Truman was rapidly moving toward a hardline position on Soviet intentions in Eastern Europe and Iran but Byrnes was much more conciliatory The distance between them grew and ties of personal friendship weakened In late 1945 Byrnes argued with Soviet Foreign Minister Viacheslav Molotov over Soviet pressures on Bulgaria and Romania Byrnes sent Mark Ethridge a liberal journalist to investigate Ethridge found conditions were indeed bad Ethridge wrote a damning report but Byrnes ignored it and instead endorsed a Soviet offer Truman read Ethridge s report and decided that Byrnes s softline approach was a failure and that the US needed to stand up to the Kremlin 39 Personal relations between the two men grew strained particularly when Truman felt that Byrnes was attempting to set foreign policy by himself and to inform the President only afterward An early instance of the friction was the Moscow Conference in December 1945 Truman considered the successes of the conference to be unreal and was highly critical of Byrnes s failure to protect Iran which was not mentioned in the final communique I had been left in the dark about the Moscow conference Truman told Byrnes bluntly 40 In a subsequent letter to Byrnes Truman took a harder line in reference to Iran Without these supplies furnished by the United States Russia would have been ignominiously defeated Yet now Russia stirs up rebellion and keeps troops on the soil of her friend and ally Iran Unless Russia is faced with an iron fist and strong language another war is in the making Only one language do they understand I do not think we should play compromise any longer I am tired of babying the Soviets 41 That led to the Iran crisis of 1946 in which Byrnes took an increasingly hardline position in opposition to Stalin culminating in a speech in Germany on September 6 1946 The Restatement of Policy on Germany also known as the Speech of Hope set the tone of future US policy by repudiating the Morgenthau Plan an economic program that would permanently deindustrialize Germany Byrnes was named TIME Man of the Year Truman and others believed that Byrnes had grown resentful that he had not been Roosevelt s running mate and successor and so was showing disrespect to Truman Whether or not that was true Byrnes felt compelled to resign from the Cabinet in 1947 with some feelings of bitterness Governor of South Carolina editByrnes was not yet ready to give up public service At 68 he was elected Governor of South Carolina in the 1950 gubernatorial election and served from 1951 to 1955 Supporting segregation in education the Democratic governor stated in his inaugural address Whatever is necessary to continue the separation of the races in the schools of South Carolina is going to be done by the white people of the state That is my ticket as a private citizen It will be my ticket as governor James F Byrnes 42 Byrnes was initially seen as a relative moderate on race issues Recognizing that the South could not continue with its entrenched segregationist policies much longer but fearing that Congress would impose sweeping change upon the South he opted for a course of change from within To that end he sought to fulfill at last the separate but equal policy that the South had put forward in Supreme Court civil rights cases particularly in regard to public education Byrnes poured state money into improving black schools buying new textbooks and new buses and hiring additional teachers He also sought to curb the power of the Ku Klux Klan by passing a law that prohibited adults from wearing a mask in public on any day other than Halloween he knew that many Klansmen feared exposure and would not appear in public in their robes unless their faces were hidden as well Byrnes hoped to make South Carolina an example for other Southern states to follow in modifying their Jim Crow policies Nonetheless the NAACP sued South Carolina to force the state to desegregate its schools Byrnes requested Kansas a Midwestern state that also segregated its schools to provide an amicus curiae brief in supporting the right of a state to segregate its schools That gave the NAACP s lawyer Thurgood Marshall the idea to shift the suit from South Carolina over to Kansas which led directly to Brown v Board of Education a decision that Byrnes vigorously criticized The South Carolina Constitution then barred governors from immediate re election and so Byrnes retired from active political life after the 1954 election Later political career editIn his later years Byrnes foresaw that the American South could play a more important role in national politics To hasten that development he sought to end the region s nearly automatic support of the Democratic Party which Byrnes believed had grown too liberal and took the Solid South for granted at election time but otherwise ignored the region and its needs Byrnes endorsed Dwight Eisenhower in 1952 segregationist candidate Harry Byrd in 1956 Richard Nixon in 1960 and 1968 and Barry Goldwater in 1964 43 He gave his private blessing to US Senator Strom Thurmond of South Carolina to bolt the Democratic Party in 1964 and to declare himself a Republican but Byrnes himself remained a Democrat In 1965 Byrnes spoke out against the punishment and the humiliation of South Carolina US Representative Albert Watson who had been stripped of his congressional seniority by the House Democratic Caucus after endorsing Goldwater for president Byrnes openly endorsed Watson s retention in Congress as a Republican in a special election held in 1965 against Democrat Preston Callison Watson secured 20 000 and the services of a Republican field representative in what he termed quite a contrast to his treatment from Democratic House colleagues 44 45 Following Byrnes s death at the age of 89 he was interred in the churchyard at Trinity Episcopal Church in Columbia South Carolina Legacy editByrnes is memorialized at several South Carolina universities and schools The James F Byrnes Building housing the Byrnes International Center at the University of South Carolina The James F Byrnes Professorship of International Studies at USC its first endowed professorship Byrnes Auditorium at Winthrop University Byrnes Hall a dormitory at Clemson University where Byrnes was a Life Trustee James F Byrnes High School in Duncan South Carolina In 1948 Byrnes and his wife established the James F Byrnes Foundation Scholarships and since then more than 1 000 young South Carolinians have been assisted in obtaining a college education His papers are in Clemson University s Special Collections Library In the 2023 film Oppenheimer directed by Christopher Nolan Byrnes was portrayed by actor Pat Skipper Electoral history editMain article Electoral history of James F ByrnesSee also editList of justices of the Supreme Court of the United States by court composition List of United States Supreme Court justices by time in office List of law clerks of the Supreme Court of the United States Seat 3 United States Supreme Court cases during the Stone Court Oliver Stone s Untold History of the United States Episodes 2 and 3Footnotes edit a b Justices 1789 to Present Washington D C Supreme Court of the United States Retrieved February 15 2022 The Ku Klux Klan National Geographic Society education nationalgeographic org Retrieved October 14 2022 David Robertson Sly and Able A Political Biography of James F Byrnes 1994 p 126 Do You Know Your Charleston Charleston News amp Courier p 8 Retrieved September 16 2012 Governor of the State of South Carolina James Francis Byrnes Jr Archived from the original on April 19 2015 Retrieved April 19 2015 Ransom William L 1944 Frank J Hogan 1877 1944 ABA Journal 30 7 393 395 JSTOR 25714990 James L Underwood December 15 2013 Deadly Censorship The University of South Carolina Press p Note 4 ISBN 978 1 61117 300 0 Archived from the original on November 8 2021 Retrieved February 11 2016 SC Governors James Francis Byrnes 1951 1955 SCIWAY Archived from the original on September 28 2008 Retrieved July 10 2012 a b Byrnes James Francis Biographical Directory of the U S Congress Office of the Clerk Archived from the original on November 4 2011 Retrieved January 9 2012 a b Report of the Secretary of State to the General Assembly of South Carolina Part II Reports of State Officers Boards and Committees to the General Assembly of the State of South Carolina Volume I Columbia SC 1925 p 59 Pope Thomas H The History of Newberry County South Carolina 1860 1990 p 110 Supplemental Report of the Secretary of State to the General Assembly of South Carolina Reports of State Officers Boards and Committees to the General Assembly of the State of South Carolina Volume I Columbia SC 1931 p 3 Lee Joseph Edward April 1995 Book Reviews and Notes Sly and Able A Political Biography of James F Byrnes South Carolina Historical Magazine South Carolina Historical Society 96 2 174 176 JSTOR 27570082 Those Angry Days by Lynn Olson pg 103 Walter Francis White Anti Lynching Legislation Sean Dennis Cashman January 1 1989 America in the Twenties and Thirties The Olympian Age of Franklin Delano Roosevelt NYU Press pp 271 ISBN 978 0 8147 7208 9 Archived from the original on February 24 2017 Retrieved February 23 2017 a b ELECTIONS Curtains for Cotton Ed Time August 7 1944 Archived from the original on December 14 2008 a b Storrs Landon R Y 2000 Civilizing Capitalism The National Consumers League Women s Activism and Labor Standards in the New Deal Era Univ of North Carolina Press ISBN 978 0 8078 4838 8 Archived from the original on November 8 2021 Retrieved July 10 2012 Simon Bryant A fabric of defeat the politics of South Carolina millhands 1910 1948 p 208 210 a b Simon Bryant A fabric of defeat the politics of South Carolina millhands 1910 1948 p 212 McMillion Barry J January 28 2022 Supreme Court Nominations 1789 to 2020 Actions by the Senate the Judiciary Committee and the President PDF Report Washington D C Congressional Research Service Retrieved February 15 2022 Bialick Kristen Gramlich John February 8 2017 Younger Supreme Court appointees stay on the bench longer but there are plenty of exceptions Washington D C Pew Research Center Retrieved April 1 2022 Wallace David Duncan South Carolina A Short History University of North Carolina Press Chapel Hill 1951 p 677 Economic History Services Eh net Archived from the original on July 18 2012 Retrieved September 6 2012 Research amp Articles on Economy World War II by BookRags com Archived from the original on April 28 2013 Retrieved September 6 2012 a b Economy in World War II Home Front Shmoop com Archived from the original on September 2 2012 Retrieved September 6 2012 a b Herman Arthur Freedom s Forge How American Business Produced Victory in World War II pp 189 90 247 330 Random House New York NY ISBN 978 1 4000 6964 4 a b LeRoy Ashby September 2 2012 American Dreamer The life and times of Henry A Wallace The Journal of American History Jah oxfordjournals org 88 4 1586 doi 10 2307 2700719 JSTOR 2700719 Reynolds David 2009 Summits Six Meetings That Shaped the Twentieth Century New York Basic Books pp 146 147 ISBN 0 7867 4458 8 OCLC 646810103 Messer Robert L 1982 The End of an Alliance James F Byrnes Roosevelt Truman and the Origins of the Cold War Chapel Hill University of North Carolina Press p 13 ISBN 0 8078 7921 5 Cited in reliance on citation in Lifton Robert J Mitchell Greg 1995 Hiroshima in America Fifty Years of Denial G P Putnam s Sons p 136 footnote Byrnes as a kindly older brother to Truman in the Senate ISBN 0 399 14072 7 Gar Alperovitz The Decision to Use the Atomic Bomb New York Vintage Books 1996 a b c d McCullough David 1992 Truman New York Simon amp Schuster p 352 A revealing moment during Byrnes swearing in ceremony as secretary of state offers insight into the relationship between President Harry S Truman and Byrnes The diary of Byrnes friend and assistant Walter Brown records that when the oath was completed the President said Jimmy kiss the Bible He did and then handed it over to the President and told him to kiss it too The President did so as the crowd laughed l Gar Alperovitz The Decision to Use the Atomic Bomb and the Architecture of an American Myth New York Alfred A Knopf 1995 p 197 Spector Ronald H 2007 In the ruins of empire the Japanese surrender and the battle for postwar Asia 1st ed New York pp 4 5 ISBN 978 0 375 50915 5 a href Template Cite book html title Template Cite book cite book a CS1 maint location missing publisher link Robert H Ferrell 1994 Harry S Truman A Life University of Missouri Press pp 236 237 ISBN 978 0 8262 6045 1 Harry S Truman 1980 Ferrell Robert H ed Off the Record The Private Papers of Harry S Truman Harper amp Row p 17 ISBN 978 0 8262 1119 4 Joint Statement by James F Byrnes and Ernest Bevin 3 December 1946 March 7 2015 Curtis Franklin Morgan Jr James F Byrnes Lucius Clay and American Policy in Germany 1945 1947 Edwin Mellen Press 2002 Stone David R 2006 The 1945 Ethridge Mission to Bulgaria and Romania and the origins of the Cold War in the Balkans Diplomacy and Statecraft 17 1 93 112 doi 10 1080 09592290500533775 S2CID 155033071 Harry S Truman Memoirs Vol 1 Years of Decision 1955 p 547 550 cited in George Lenczowski American Presidents and the Middle East p 10 Truman Memoirs Vol 1 Years of Decision 1955 p 551 552 cited in Lenczowski American Presidents p 11 Bruce Bartlett January 8 2008 Wrong on Race The Democratic Party s Buried Past St Martin s Press pp 51 ISBN 978 0 230 61138 2 Archived from the original on February 24 2017 Retrieved August 19 2015 Lamis Alexander 1988 The Two Party South New York Oxford University Press pp 15 16 Billy Hathorn The Changing Politics of Race Congressman Albert William Watson and the South Carolina Republican Party 1965 1970 South Carolina Historical Magazine Vol 89 October 1988 p 230 Congressional Quarterly Weekly Report Vol 23 June 18 1965 p 1185 Bernard Cosman and Robert J Huckshorn eds Republican Politics The 1964 Campaign and Its Aftermath for the Party New York Praeger 1968 pp 147 148References editAnnotated bibliography for James Byrnes from the Alsos Digital Library for Nuclear Issues Archived August 28 2006 at the Wayback Machine James Francis Byrnes at the Biographical Directory of Federal Judges a publication of the Federal Judicial Center Messer Robert L 1982 The End of an Alliance James F Byrnes Roosevelt Truman and the Origins of the Cold War Robertson David 1994 Sly and Able A Political Biography of James F Byrnes Archived June 5 2011 at the Wayback MachinePrimary sources edit Byrnes James 1947 Speaking Frankly Byrnes James 1958 All in One Lifetime Further reading editAbraham Henry J Justices and Presidents A Political History of Appointments to the Supreme Court 3d ed New York Oxford University Press 1992 ISBN 0 19 506557 3 Anderson David L Byrnes James Francis 02 May 1882 09 April 1972 U S senator and secretary of state American National Biography 1999 Burns Richard James Byrnes in Norman A Graebner ed An Uncertain Tradition American Secretaries of State in the Twentieth Century 1961 pp 223 44 Clements Kendrick A ed James F Byrnes and the Origins of the Cold War 1982 Curry George James F Byrnes 1965 online a scholarly biography Cushman Clare The Supreme Court Justices Illustrated Biographies 1789 1995 2nd ed Supreme Court Historical Society Congressional Quarterly Books 2001 ISBN 1 56802 126 7 ISBN 978 1 56802 126 3 Hopkins Michael F President Harry Truman s Secretaries of State Stettinius Byrnes Marshall and Acheson Journal of Transatlantic Studies 6 3 2008 290 304 Messer Robert L The End of an Alliance James F Byrnes Roosevelt Truman and the Origins of the Cold War 1982 Morgan Jr Curtis F James F Byrnes Lucius Clay and American Policy in Germany 1945 1947 Edwin Mellen Press 2002 Robertson David Sly and Able A Political Biography of James F Byrnes 1994 Ward Patricia Dawson The Threat of Peace James F Byrnes and the Council of Foreign Ministers 1945 1946 1979 External links edit nbsp Wikimedia Commons has media related to James Francis Byrnes Excerpts from Speaking Frankly on the subjects of Yalta Conference Potsdam Conference Flash Player is required Morgan Curtis F Southern Partnership James F Byrnes Lucius D Clay and Germany 1945 1947 James F Byrnes Institute Archived from the original on July 5 2008 Retrieved June 9 2008 Text of the famous Stuttgart speech September 6 1946 The speech marked the change in U S occupation policy in Germany towards reconstruction Time Magazine September 16 1946 Journey to Stuttgart SCIway Biography of James Francis Byrnes NGA Biography of James Francis Byrnes A film clip Byrnes Sets U S Policy for Germany 1946 09 10 1946 is available for viewing at the Internet Archive A film clip Byrnes Wants All To Share Peacemaking 1946 10 17 1946 is available for viewing at the Internet Archive A film clip Byrnes Denies Atom Threat 1946 10 10 1946 is available for viewing at the Internet Archive Annotated bibliography from the Alsos Digital Library for Nuclear Issues Archived August 28 2006 at the Wayback Machine James F Byrnes Papers at Clemson University Special Collections Library A collection of various works by James F ByrnesU S House of RepresentativesPreceded byJames Patterson Member of the U S House of Representatives from South Carolina s 2nd congressional district1911 1925 Succeeded byButler HareParty political officesPreceded byColeman Blease Democratic nominee for U S Senator from South Carolina Class 2 1930 1936 Succeeded byBurnet MaybankPreceded byStrom Thurmond Democratic nominee for Governor of South Carolina1950 Succeeded byGeorge TimmermanU S SenatePreceded byColeman Blease U S senator Class 2 from South Carolina1931 1941 Served alongside Ed Smith Succeeded byAlva LumpkinPreceded byJohn Townsend Chair of the Senate Contingent Expenses Audit Committee1933 1941 Succeeded byScott LucasLegal officesPreceded byJames McReynolds Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States1941 1942 Succeeded byWiley RutledgePolitical officesNew office Director of the Office of Economic Stabilization1942 1943 Succeeded byFred VinsonDirector of the Office of War Mobilization1943 1945 Succeeded byJohn SnyderPreceded byEdward Stettinius United States Secretary of State1945 1947 Succeeded byGeorge MarshallPreceded byStrom Thurmond Governor of South Carolina1951 1955 Succeeded byGeorge Timmerman Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title James F Byrnes amp oldid 1197206340, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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