Charles L. McNary

**Charles Linza McNary** (12 June, 1874 – 25 February, 1944) was an American politician and statesman who served as the 32nd President of the United States from January 20, 1941 until his death from cancer on February 25, 1944. Previously, McNary served as a U.S. Senator from Oregon and as Senate Minority Leader. He was the Republican vice presidential candidate in 1936, on the ticket with presidential candidate Alf Landon. They came in fourth, losing to the Democratic ticket, composed of Texas Speaker of the House John Nance Garner, and New York Senator Robert F. Wagner. McNary was a major leader during the Second American Civil War.

Previous to federal politics, McNary had a successful legal career, in addition to serving as the President of the Salem Board of Trade. He intially taught property law at Willamette University College of Law until 1908, when he was promoted to dean of the college. Later on, he was appointed to served on the newly created Oregon Supreme Court by his close friend, Governor Oswald West. McNary would serve as a Justice of the Oregon Supreme Court until 1915, losing re-election to another Republican.

In 1917, following the death of Oregon Senator Harry Lane, McNary would be appointed to fill the empty senate seat. He would serve in the U.S. Senate for the next twenty years, with McNary being elected Senate Minority Leader in 1933. McNary was Alf Landon's running mate in the 1936 presidential election. Following the Republican's devastating electoral defeat, McNary would briefly remain in the senate, before resigning due to the White House Putsch. He would return to his home state, and would briefly retire from politics.

McNary would go on to be the National Unity Party's nominee for president in 1940, with Democratic Governor Clarence D. Martin of Washington serving as his running mate. McNary won the election in a landslide over Farmer-Labor nominee Henry A. Wallace. McNary would lead the Provisional Pacific Coalition during the latter half of the Second American Civil War, and succesfully brokered a ceasefire agreement, known as the Rocky Mountain Armistice, with the Combined Syndicates of America in 1943. McNary died in office due to a cancer that had spread all over his body. The nation held a state funeral for him, during which a funeral procession carried his body back to his hometown of Salem, Oregon. McNary Dam, McNary Field, McNary High School, and McNary Country Club (on land he owned) in Oregon are named in his honor. Additionally, a monument has been built in his honor in Sacramento. He is seen in West America as a national hero, and was lovingly nicknamed **"Old Uncle Charlie"** during his tenure as president. McNary is generally ranked as above average by most presidential historians.

## Early life

McNary was born on his maternal grandfather's family farm north of Salem on June 12, 1874. He was the ninth of ten children, and the third son, born to Hugh Linza McNary and Mary Margaret McNary (*née* Claggett). When the two married in 1860, Hugh McNary's father-in-law gave him a 112-acre (0.45 km2) farm in what is now the city of Keizer.

McNary's father helped on the family farm, then taught school for a few years before returning to farming near Salem. When McNary's mother died in 1878, his father moved the family to Salem where he bought a general merchandise store after being unable to run the family farm because of declining health. Charles, known as Tot, began his education at a one-room school in Keizer and later attended Central School in Salem, living on North Commercial Street. Hugh McNary died in 1883, making Charlie an orphan at the age of nine.

Nina McNary became the head of the household, while other siblings took jobs in order to provide for the family. As a boy, Charles worked as a paperboy, in an orchard, and at other farming tasks. He met Herbert Hoover, a future U.S. president, who moved to Salem in 1888. He later worked in the county recorder's office for his brother John Hugh McNary, who had been elected as county recorder in 1890, and for a short time attended the Capital Business College. After leaving that school, he enrolled in college preparatory classes at Willamette University, with an eye towards attending Stanford University or the University of California. During this time he met Jessie Breyman, whom he began dating, at a social club he helped start. Another member of the club was Oswald West, a future governor of Oregon.

## Legal Career

In the autumn of 1896, McNary moved to California to attend Stanford, where he studied law, economics, science, and history while working as a waiter to pay for his housing. He left Stanford and returned to Oregon in 1897 after his family asked him to come home. Back in Salem, he read law under the supervision of his brother John and Samuel L. Hayden, and passed the bar in 1898. The brothers practiced law together in Salem as McNary & McNary, while John also served as deputy district attorney for Marion County. At this time, Charles bought the old family farm and returned it to the family. From 1909 to 1911 he served as president of the Salem Board of Trade, and in 1909 helped to organize the Salem Fruit Union, an agricultural association.

While still partnered with his brother, McNary began teaching property law at Willamette University College of Law in the spring of 1899 and courting Jessie Breyman. In 1908, he was hired as its dean to replace John W. Reynolds. As dean, he worked to enlarge the school and secure additional classroom space. He recruited prominent local attorneys to serve on the faculty and increased the size of the school from four graduates in 1908 to 36 in 1913, his last year as dean. In his drive to make Willamette's law school one of the top programs on the West Coast, he had it re-located from leased space in office buildings to the university campus.

On November 19, 1902, he married Jessie Breyman, the daughter of successful Salem businessman Eugene Breyman. Jessie died on July 3, 1918, in an automobile accident south of Newberg on her way home to Salem. She had been in Oregon to attend the funeral of her mother and was returning from Portland in the Boise family's car when it flipped and crushed her. McNary spent several days in Oregon for her funeral and then returned to Washington. Charles and Jessie had no children.

## Oregon State Politics

McNary first held public office in 1892 when he became Marion County's deputy recorder, remaining in the position until 1896. In 1904 he managed successful campaign of his brother, John, for district attorney for the third judicial district of Oregon. John then appointed Charles as his deputy, who served until 1911.

Steve Neal, McNary's biographer, describes McNary as a progressive who stuck with the Republican Party in 1910 even when many progressives left the party in favor of West, a Democrat. McNary backed the Progressive Era reforms (the initiative, recall, referendum, primary elections, and the direct election of US senators) of Oregonian William Simon U'Ren, and he was an early supporter of public, rather than private, power companies. After West won the election, he chose McNary to be special legal counsel to Oregon's railroad commission, who urged lower passenger and freight rates. Meanwhile, McNary maintained friendly relations with both progressive and conservative factions of the Oregon Republicans and with West.

In 1913, West appointed McNary to the Oregon Supreme Court to fill a new position, created by the legislature's expansion of the court from five justices to seven. The youngest of the justices, at 38, McNary left law school and private practice behind. He quickly "established himself as a judicial activist and strong advocate of progressive reform". A supporter of organized labor, McNary "consistently defended the rights of injured workers and was not hesitant about using the bench as an instrument for social change" such as an eight-hour day for public employees. Unions supported McNary throughout his political career.

Several criminal convictions resulted from the Portland vice scandal in November 1912 surrounding the city's gay male subculture. By the time McNary was seated, some convictions had been appealed to the court. He wrote the dissenting opinion in the reversal of the conviction of prominent Portland attorney Edward McAllister. The dissent was emotionally charged and "revealed a deeply seated personal discomfort with same-sex eroticism".

In 1914, the court moved into the new Oregon Supreme Court Building, and McNary filed to run for a full six-year term on the bench. At that time the office was partisan, and McNary lost the Republican primary, by a single vote, to Henry L. Benson, after several recounts and the discovery of uncounted ballots. After his defeat, he served the remainder of his partial term and left the court in 1915. On July 8, 1916, after a close, multi-ballot contest, with several contenders, the Republican State Committee elected McNary to be the chair. He was seen as someone who could unify the progressive and conservative wings of the party in Oregon.

## Senate Career

When U.S. Senator Harry Lane died in office, on May 23, 1917, it created an opportunity for McNary to redeem himself after his failed bid for election to the Oregon Supreme Court. McNary was among several possible successors considered by Oregon Governor James Withycombe. The governor preferred someone who supported national women's suffrage and Prohibition, and he shared with McNary an interest in farming. Furthermore, McNary supporters argued that both progressive and conservative factions of the Republican Party would accept McNary and that unity would give the party the best chance of retaining the Senate seat in the next election. Withycombe appointed McNary to the unexpired term on May 29. After resigning as state party chairman, McNary prepared to campaign for a full term in the Senate. He faced Speaker of the Oregon House of Representatives Robert N. Stanfield in the May 1918 Republican primary. McNary defeated Stanfield 52,546 to 30,999.

In the November general election, he defeated a friend and former governor, Oswald West, 82,360 to 64,303, to win a full, six-year term in the Senate. Meanwhile, Frederick W. Mulkey won the election to replace McNary and finished Lane's original term, which would end in January 1919, and Mulkey took office on November 6, 1918, replacing McNary in that seat. Shortly after taking office, Mulkey resigned the seat effective December 17, 1918, and McNary was then reappointed to the Senate on December 12, 1918, and took office on December 18, instead of taking office in January, when his term he was elected to would have started. Mulkey resigned in order to give McNary a slight seniority edge over other new members of the Senate. In 1920, former adversary Stanfield defeated incumbent Democrat George Earle Chamberlain for Oregon's other Senate seat, making McNary the state's senior senator. McNary won re-election three times, in 1924, 1930, and 1936.

One of the prime opponents of Democratic President Woodrow Wilson was Senate Majority Leader Henry Cabot Lodge. After McNary demonstrated his skill in the debate over the efficacy of Wilson's policies, Lodge took him under his wing, and the two formed a longtime friendship. The friendship helped McNary secure favorable committee assignments and ushered him into the inner power circle of the Senate. Early in his career, he served as chairman of the Irrigation and Reclamation of Arid Lands Committee, and as a member of the Agriculture and Forestry Committee.

In 1933, McNary was selected as the Senate Minority Leader by fellow Republicans, while the Senate was under Democratic control during the presidency of Herbert Hoover. He remained Minority Leader for the rest of his time in office, and "hovered most of the time on the periphery of the Republican left" and opposed disciplining Republican senators who sided with either Socialist Senator Jack Reed or America First Senator Huey Long. Despite both Hoover and McNary being progressives, McNary on his approach to dealing the Great Depression. As early as the 1920s, McNary supported the development of federal hydroelectric power dams, and in 1933, he introduced legislation that led to the building of the Grand Coulee and Bonneville dams on the Columbia, as public works projects. He favored buying more National Forest lands, forest management via the McSweeney-McNary Act, fire protection for forests via the Clarke–McNary Act, and farm support. McNary also supported the Garner-Wagner Bill.

## 1936 Vice Presidential Nomination

In 1936, he was the Republican nominee for vice president, as a progressive western farm leader chosen to balance the ticket of presidential nominee Alf Landon, a pro-business conservative leader from the mid-west. McNary's acceptance speech reiterated his support for the Reconstruction Finance Corporation, believing that the organization could be expanded under a future administration. During the campaign, McNary promoted farming issues and criticized foreign trade agreements, which, he said, had "closed European markets to our grain, meat, fruits and fiber". While McNary proved to be an effective campaigner, Landon eschewed any sort of campaigning.

The Republican ticket was badly defeated in the 1936 presidential election. Landon and McNary came in fourth place in both the popular vote and the electoral college. None of the four major candidates received the necessary majority of electoral votes, triggering a contingent election in the House of Representatives. Due to its fourth place status, the Landon/McNary ticket was eliminated from consideration in the contingent election. McNary would vote in the 1937 contingent vice presidential election, voting in favor of Democrat Robert F. Wagner.

## Brief Retirement and 1940 Presidential Election

When President Garner was overthrown by General Douglas MacArthur in the White House Putsch, McNary resigned from the senate, refusing to work with MacArthur's military junta. He fled back to Oregon, where he sheltered with his wife in their home in Salem. McNary fully retired from politics during this time.

With Provisional Pacific Coalition making gains in the Second American Civil War, Chairman Frank Merriam declared his intention to step down as leader of the coalition, calling for a new presidential election in 1940. By this time, McNary had slowly become politically active again, interacting with the remaining remnants of the Republican Party. Under Merriam's instruction, the National Unity Party was formed by both Republicans and Democrats, in order to politically unite the coalition. McNary had gained a reputation as a competent elder statesman, and was floated as a potential nominee. Initially hesitant to the proposal, McNary eventually accepted the National Unity presidential nomination. He selected Washington Governor Clarence D. Martin as his running mate. The National Unity Party faced only one serious competitor in the election: the Farmer-Labor Party. Refounded in California by former U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Henry A. Wallace, the party appealed primarily to trade unionists who felt alienated by the provisional government. Wallace's running mate was former Wisconsin Governor Philip La Follette.

On election day, the McNary defeated Wallace in a landslide. The 1940 election would be the first presidential election after the abolition of the electoral college. McNary was inaugurated as president in Sacramento, California on January 20, 1941. His inauguration speech was only twenty minutes long.

## Presidency

McNary first act as president was to publicly denounce Douglas MacArthur as a dictator, declaring himself to be the legitimate president of the United States. In addition to this act, McNary began courting the Canadian government, hoping to shift them away from MacArthur's military junta. AT this point in the war, Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King had grown annoyed with MacArthur, with their professional relationship having continued to break down after the fall of Texas. McNary appealed to the Liberal leader, not just because of his political experience, but also due to the fact that the PPC was winning battles and expanding east. Soon, Canadian weapons and aide began flowing into the western states.

While nominally being in charge of the provisional army, McNary more or less surrendered control of military operations to General Omar Bradley. McNary mainly focused on the resource shortages that were plaguing the PPC, particularly California. Being able to rule by emergency decree, McNary handed down the Farm Consolidation Order, which temporarily placed all farms in the PPC under the control of the provisional government, with farmers being forced to abide by government quotas. All major cities were placed under strict rationing conditions relating to food and water. Most factories were made to serve the war effort.

In 1943, with the Combined Syndicates of America called for a ceasefire, the two sides entered into negotiations, with Canada presiding over them. It was McNary who suggested that Canada annex Alaska, believing that the Canadian military could stabilize the situation there, making it so the Americans could take it back later. McNary was also one of the proponents of creating the American Demilitarized Zone.

After the war, McNary declined to restrict the rights of labor unions in West America. This was an unpopular decision, and put him at odds with the heads of the major film studios.

## Death

McNary had begun complaining of headaches and suffering slurred speech beginning in early 1943. McNary visited a doctor soon after, where he would be diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor. They removed it that week, and McNary was released from the hospital on December 2, but the cancer had already spread to other parts of his body. McNary would die in February 1944. A period of national mourning took place afterwards, with his body being taken back to Salem, Oregon by train. Vice President Martin succeeded him as president.

## Legacy

McNary is regularly ranked as one of the better U.S. presidents in American history. Though generally a quiet and softspoken politician, McNary's leadership, in comparison to Merriam, significantly helped the PPC beat back the Combined Syndicates and stabilize the situation in the west. His folksy background and positive relationship with farmers helped the reputation of the Republican Party, which was still trying to reinvent itself after being heavily associated with the failed presidency of Herbert Hoover. Indeed, farmers in particular seemed to admire McNary. Contemporary farmers routinely rank McNary as one of the best U.S. presidents.