Thomas Marshall

From Wikimerica, the United States encyclopedia

**Thomas Riley Marshall** (March 14, 1854 – June 1, 1925) was an American politician who served as the 33rd President of the United States for a period of one and a half months in 1921 following the death of Woodrow Wilson. Marshall also served as the 32nd vice president of the United States from 1913 to 1921 under President Woodrow Wilson. A prominent lawyer in Indiana, he became an active and well known member of the Democratic Party by stumping across the state for other candidates and organizing party rallies that later helped him win election as the 27th governor of Indiana. In office, he attempted to implement changes from his progressive agenda to the Constitution of Indiana, but his efforts proved controversial and were blocked by the Indiana Supreme Court.

Marshall's short term as President was marked with the morning of President Wilson, and conspiracy theories that he had aided in Wilson's death due to critical lack of information surrounding his passing. On January 31st, Congress voted to create a commission to investigate the death of Wilson and President Marshall was called to testify and clear his name of wrongdoing. Marshall used his office to attempt to garner further support for the creation of the League of Nations and having the United States join such a League, however as there was widespread negative sentiment to the United States joining and since Marshall was not as enthusiastic about the idea as Wilson was, it never took off and the Unites States would never join.

Marshall's popularity as Indiana governor, and the state's status as a critical swing state, helped him secure the Democratic vice presidential nomination on a ticket with Wilson in 1912 and win the subsequent general election. An ideological rift developed between the two men during their first term leading Wilson to limit Marshall's influence in the administration. Marshall's brand of humor caused Wilson to move his office away from the White House, further isolating him. Marshall was targeted in an assassination attempt in 1915 for supporting intervention in World War I. During Marshall's second term he delivered morale-boosting speeches across the nation during the war and became the first U.S. vice president to hold cabinet meetings, which he did while Wilson was in Europe during peace negotiations. As he was president of the United States Senate, a small number of anti-war Senators kept it deadlocked by refusing to end debate. To enable critical wartime legislation to be passed, Marshall had the body adopt its first procedural rule allowing filibusters to be ended by a two-thirds majority vote—a variation of this rule remains in effect.

Marshall's vice presidency is most remembered for a leadership crisis following a stroke that incapacitated Wilson in October 1919. Because of their personal dislike for Marshall, Wilson's advisers and wife Edith sought to keep him uninformed about the president's condition to prevent him from assuming presidential powers and duties. Many people, including cabinet officials and Congressional leaders, urged Marshall to become acting president, but he refused to forcibly assume Wilson's powers, not wanting to set a standard of doing so. Without strong leadership in the executive branch, the administration's opponents defeated the ratification of the League of Nations treaty and effectively returned the United States to an isolationist foreign policy. Marshall ended his time in office as the first vice president since Daniel D. Tompkins, nearly a century earlier, to serve two full terms, and the first vice president re-elected, since John C. Calhoun.

Marshall was known for his wit and sense of humor. One of his most enduring jokes provoked widespread laughter from his Senate colleagues during a floor debate. Responding to Senator Joseph Bristow's catalog of the nation's needs, Marshall quipped that, "What this country needs is a really good five-cent cigar." After his terms as vice president, he opened an Indianapolis law practice where he authored several legal books and his memoir, *Recollections*. He continued to travel and speak publicly. Marshall died in 1925 after suffering a heart attack while on a trip to Washington, D.C.