#149: How a Senator Forced His Party to Choose: Country or Radicals

Oscar Underwood, a Democrat U.S. Senator from Alabama 1915-1927, gained so much political capital during the Wilson administration and was considered a potential candidate for POTUS or VP. But his stance against the most powerful white supremacist group forced him to make his party go on record whether the party platform supports or opposes radicalism and extremism. While his effort was not successful in 1924, lessons from his courageous stance could teach us about the perils of giving in to the crazies of our time.

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Patriotism, faith, national unity, education, physical responsibility, civility, the values that define America. Fascinating stories and talks from America-loving patriots dedicated to preserving freedom, opportunity, and justice. Welcome to the Friends and Fellow Citizens Podcast. Hello everyone, and welcome to episode 149 of Friends and Fellow Citizens. I'm your host, Sherman Tailowski. Thank you all so much for listening to this podcast. If you are a first-time listener, welcome aboard. For those who have been listening, welcome back. And as always, a big thank you to our Patreon supporters who continue to keep our show going. And I really appreciate once again of their support. If you'd like to be a Patreon member, help support this podcast, be sure to check the link down in the show notes below. We also have a merch store on our George Washington Institute.org website. Also check the show notes below as well. At the time of the release for this episode, we are in an election year 2024. So I thought it would be appropriate to discuss a historic figure who played a huge role, not necessarily with the presidential election, but more at the one of the main party's conventions. As we all know, conventions are the formal gatherings of various delegates to formally nominate the party nominee. What's fascinating about these conventions is that they're either a big party and everyone's happy, or it's a place where people air their grievances and get into fist fights and just uh let chaos rule the whole convention. And there certainly were a lot more violent ones in the past, and I like to focus on an historic figure who not only was an important figure in politics at the time, but who was very influential in one of these conventions. And I know that this is going to be uh quite an interesting person and someone who you might recognize as a bit of a reference to pop culture. Oscar Underwood was born on May 6th, 1862, born in Louisville, Kentucky, but uh lived in Virginia to uh study and began uh practicing law in Minnesota. Underwood was a eventually a senator from the state of Alabama. He moved to Birmingham, Alabama, and he found a lot more success there and started getting involved in politics then. Now, as we all know, you know, at that time, of course, Jim Crow was still uh very much the laws within the South. Underwood becomes a very important figure, uh, but not initially because of what he would later become famous for. He was particularly known for being a staunch supporter of the Woodrow Wilson administration. In the 1910s, he was the House majority leader. He was, of course, before elected as a member of the House before he became a senator, but even when he was just elected, you know, he was still very much seen as a potential presidential candidate for the election of 1912. In 1912, a lot of people really didn't like uh President Taft, and Woodrow Wilson was on the rise. And uh Underwood was part of that conversation of him potentially becoming a vice presidential candidate, at least. He declined, and Thomas Marshall eventually took uh that position. Uh, so you would have the Wilson-Marshall ticket for 1912, which Wilson eventually won. This really spearheaded Underwood's career. As a prominent uh congressman and eventually senator, uh, he was very much involved in implementing what we now know as the uh federal income tax. This was very unprecedented, and this was through the uh legislation known as the Revenue Act of 1913. He was also involved uh with something called the Underwood Tariff, which essentially reduced tariffs in the US. Overall, as someone who was part of the powerful Waves and Means Committee in the House, uh Underwood really developed that reputation as one who really promote Wilsonian principles and part of that progressive era that Wilson and the administration helped uh pioneer. Now it all seems pretty well, right? You know, Underwood is doing incredibly um strongly in the administration. Um he is quite popular, and uh I I think if you were to ask any Democrat around that time what they thought of Oscar Underwood, I think a lot of people would be pretty pleased with him. But this is when things started to change, though, at the end of the Wilson administration. Underwood was considered to be an unusual senator from Alabama because he was actually very anti-Klux Klan. The Ku Klux Klan uh came about in waves, but around the 1920s, the KKK really started to gain a lot of traction in terms of political power. Unfortunately, it was uh such a strong power that affected even both parties to a certain degree. And Underwood really found himself in a very precarious situation where he had to balance, of course, his views, his own personal views, but at the same time be able to continue to carry that political capital he had gained for all those years. Things didn't really become drama until the election of 1924. For the 1924 Democratic National Committee Convention, I mentioned earlier, just to pause briefly, I mentioned that conventions can be a party or it could be just kind of a mess where again people are kind of scuffling and saying things just to express their grievances, or whether it's about their own candidate or another person's candidate. This convention, let me tell you, 1924 DNC convention is probably the craziest convention I have ever read, and probably the craziest convention in the history of the United States. The party was in total chaos because they simply just couldn't find, couldn't agree on a good candidate that could rally the troops of the Democratic Party. This convention was held at the Madison Square Garden in New York City, ran from June 24th to July 9th of that year. Uh, but I gotta say it probably felt like the longest, longest few weeks ever for anyone involved in politics. This convention took 103 ballots to nominate a presidential candidate. It was just absolutely so insane uh to think that it took 103 different votes, and Oscar Underwood was definitely in the middle of all this. You see, he wasn't really uh a front runner here, at least initially. There were two main candidates who were up for uh for uh for being coming the uh candidate. The first is a man named William Gibbs McAdoo. McAdoo was Secretary of the Treasury under the Wilson administration, so he, like Underwood, also was a huge uh huge pioneer of Wilsonian uh democracy and of those values, and of course, of the administration. Uh, but the problem with McAdoo is that he had a lot of political capital, uh, but there were two but the big issue is that he was tied to something called the teapot dome scandal. He was an he was related and associated with one of the uh conspirators or one of the uh folks who was very, very much cooking up something pretty bad uh in the teapot dome scandal, uh named Edward Doheny, and that really had plagued his campaign a lot, which might have been one of the reasons why McAdoo eventually would not be uh the nominee uh after the whole convention. McAdoo is also uh very much like uh Wilson and a lot of a lot of those who were part of the administration uh really did not care much for uh for uh racial equality and for uh just supporting uh those uh based on their merits and on their character uh because the KKK very much supported MacAdoo. So that's probably why he is not very well liked uh nowadays. But anyway, uh McAdoo is again one of those main front runners. The other contender is Al Smith. Al Smith was the governor of New York. Uh I th I would say he was pretty well liked on a lot of by a number of Democrats, however, one big thorny issue with him was that he was Roman Catholic. And as you might know, the KKK was very much anti-Catholic. And uh I can't even imagine what kind of horrible things the KKK was were saying uh about uh this candidate Al Smith uh obviously uh holding rallies uh not just around the convention but across the country uh against uh this candidate and it really just emphasizes once again how divisive, but also how uh dangerous that time was. You know, the 1920s I think oftentimes is seen as you know, roaring 20s and whatnot, but when you get into these political episodes, you realize how much more complicated it is, and the KAK really uh uh played a role in uh in dividing Americans against one another in ways that probably weren't never seen or had not been seen since the Reconstruction era. When the KK came around, I as you might be able to uh imagine, they started creating a lot of lot of issues. You had McAdoo supporters up against Smith supporters, uh you had scuffles, you had fist fights, uh, you had uh nearby, I believe it was in New Jersey, uh, you had KKK rallies. I mean, it was just was a terrible look. Um, and no doubt this was one of the big reasons why it contributed to this whole chaos that was happening at the convention. Oscar Underwood is one of those few against the uh the clan. And uh because of the forces of Macado uh as well as the KKK, there were many, many attempts to try and shut down uh Underwood and his allies. But Underwood was not uh attending to just admit defeat. He wanted to push for the uh DNC to express disapproval and to condemn the KKK, essentially have an anti-KKK uh part of the party platform. As you might expect, uh those who were uh pro-MACAD and others uh went after him very, very harshly, and uh the the honest Underwood was like, well, we're gonna put it to a vote, and we're gonna see what this party is gonna stand for and what it chooses between the KGK and the rest of the party platform. Underwood had already experienced uh this sort of backlash against his anti-clan beliefs. Uh there was uh a KGK rally that had occurred in Birmingham, Alabama, uh and uh quote that I found here was that was that he said that this KGK attempt was to quote to intimidate me, the Alabama delegation and the Democratic Party. It will not succeed. I maintain that the organization is a national menace. It is either the Ku Klux Klan or the United States of America. Both cannot survive. Between the two, I choose my country. Even when he was pushed to potentially be a contender, and he did make uh several rounds of the ballots. Um as you might know, you know, he is kind uh he's as you can imagine, right, when Alabama is effectively the first state uh to uh announce votes, the Alabama delegation was uh uh led by actually I believe it was a governor at the time, uh, would would effectively announce, like, okay, all of our votes are going to Oscar Underwood. Uh, and so just really from then on, it's kind of already screwed things up for the whole convention because if the whole thing was about McAdoo versus Smith and eventually jumped around to of literally dozens of different candidates because I don't really think anyone knows what they were doing anyway. Um, it really contributed again to this chaos, which I'm sure with the benefit of hindsight, um uh it was quite quite amusing to see that. Anyway, when Underwood was nominated, uh, one of the things he he pointed out was uh this uh whole idea of of religious liberty. And I mentioned earlier about how the KGK was very much against uh Catholics, and one of the things uh Underwood said was that quote, when an issue arises involving the religious liberty of our people and proscribes American citizens because of the accident of race or birth, then that issue becomes the outstanding issue before the country, and it will remain the issue until settled. The Klan got my scalp in several states which, but for the activities of this well-organized and highly financed society of masked men, I would have carried. But that's history now, and the big thing now is to meet the issue in a way worthy of the party. He acknowledges that uh he was in part defeated for the Georgia presidential primary by McAdoo and KKK supporters, but he really brings about this issue once again to the Democratic Party and says it is our time to choose whether or not we are siding with the KKK or with the United States, as I mentioned with that previous quote. Despite the efforts by Underwood, this effort was uh contested but ultimately failed. And so the anti-A-Klan uh part of the platform was not adopted. Eventually, th this would I think contribute to the continuing chaos of the Democratic National Convention. Uh while Underwood was probably considered a potentially you know backup candidate, you know, someone who I think maybe people could rally around, but I I find that the campaign for to include the anti-clan uh messaging within the platform ultimately uh ruled him out uh because uh everyone realized that uh well this is gonna further divide the party. And I I certainly don't think that that is a good reason, of course, to exclude him, but that's probably what the sentiment was, uh, where Underwood was maybe dividing the party, and also the fact that he inadvertently kind of made McAdoo and Smith uh looked look a little ridiculous or look a little objectionable because of the fact that uh both sides were again igniting the these party inter intra-party divisions. After probably the longest convention uh ever experienced, the nomination was eventually given to a man named John W. Davis, who was an ambassador from West Virginia. And honestly, there's really nothing much to say about him because uh I'm not even sure if he even gave a final speech at the convention. Um seeing one source that said he did or he said something, um, just to show people he was still alive, I guess. And then the there were others, a couple other sources that didn't acknowledge that he had given given an acceptance speech. But not not that anyone was really listening anyway, so I I don't think I don't I don't think he would have been given given extra brownie points for uh for for giving a speech, but nonetheless, um this the convention I think is so vital because Underwood, someone who had gained so much political capital, someone who could have been so promising for the Democratic Party, a candidate who I think the Democrats probably could have gone with uh and probably could have won at least one election with, but because of these terrible radicals that hijacked both the Republican convention but particularly the Democratic one in 1924, uh Underwood unfortunately becomes the victim here. And it is unfortunate that he uh loses a lot of that political capital and he decides to not run for re-election in 1926. Underwood would eventually support uh the candidate Al Smith in 1928, uh, which Al Smith does actually become the Democratic candidate at that in that year, but uh as uh he was not able to survive very much longer after the election of 1928, and uh he passes away on January 25th, 1929. Underwood actually has a couple of interesting references here, so I'll just almost like trivia, I should say. The first is that for future president JFK actually included Underwood as part of his uh Profiles in Courage, which was um effectively a work uh talking about different people who JFK thought were inspirational in showing courage, and JFK acknowledged that Underwood was uh one of those Americans who stood up against a very, very dangerous group uh at the expense of his own political career. In the uh show called The House of Cards, you might know that there is a main character named Frank Underwood. Uh Frank Underwood uh obviously is the uh politician who uh becomes who uses deception and whatnot to uh for personal gain. Uh but there is a bit of a uh fun fact here where uh the uh there there's a connection to uh where uh where the Frank Underwood is the house whip, and uh Oscar Underwood was actually the first one to hold that position. So a little bit of a historical connection there. Um he was uh Underwood also lived in a house uh that or excuse me in a plantation called Woodlawn. And what is interesting, connecting with, of course, the and part of the part of the namesake for the uh show is uh actually a plantation owned used that was owned by George Washington. So very, very interesting seeing kind of how historical figures co-across uh different eras. But I like to reflect a bit on you know why this story I think is important for uh presidential election, but also for future presidential elections, perhaps for future political parties and party leaders. And that is any successful organization should not let the small vocal minority subvert the majority of the organization. The DNC convention in 2024, I think, r sums up what happens when you let a bunch of crazy people completely overrun and absolutely create chaos that ultimately contributes to the demise of the party uh for quite a few years, but also so demise uh also results in the demise of the moral character of many large segments of the population at the time. One of the things that I am pleased about when I read about the the signers, for example, is that there I find that there are fewer radicals than people would really like to admit. A lot of times we hear about the founders and we we do talk about them. Rebellion album, and there was certainly that. We talk about the the the Boston Tea Party, or about the tarring and feathering, and you know, all those actions that came about, and those were practiced by radicals. But what I found so far with the Sacred Honor series is that those actions are particularly minor in volume compared to what the signers actually did or advocated for during the American Revolution. It was revolution because it were a combination of different factions that rallied around the same goal. But that doesn't mean that one small group, in this case, say the Sons of Liberty, who are very much involved in that tarring, feathering, and all that crazy stuff, if they had been let to run that whole movement, I don't know if the American experiment would have been as successful. You have to have adults in the room. And that is what I think differentiates successful societies and and successful changes with those which are not successful. The ones that are successful, I think, take advantage of the different qualities of different groups, but ensures that you still have, and I'm putting in quotes, adults in the room, like people who are pragmatic, people who understand how the rules work, people who are willing to reach out, even to those whom they disagree with. And those are the people who I think should be in charge. And there's certainly people who I think should be on the on the ground, you know, fiercely advocating for whatever it is that they're advocating for, in part because that's probably the only capabilities they really have. And I and this is part of this, I think, a general lesson on organizations or on leadership. And for for this, for this convention to have occurred when you have a bunch of crazies running around with no repercussions and no consequences, and effectively wasting everyone's time, but also creating unnecessary violence, it's really it's astounding how even just beyond just how awful the KKK is, the fact that the DNC could not even control their own people, their own convention on something like this, I think should be a grave lesson to learn from. And as we approach you know the uh the conventions and and and I'm sure it's going to be contentious with different factions, we have to be reminded again by history of what happens when people lose their senses. We need to bring back the adults in the room. The second part I I'd say relating to Underwood is that uh we oftentimes I think do make it have to make a choice between whether we choose crazy radicals or our own country. Too often uh whether it's on college campuses or whether it's criminals on the streets or whether it's uh our handling of foreign policy, we have commonly run to this theme of letting a small group of radicals and of people who have no moral compass to effectively run the asylum, inmates running the asylum. And I'm I'm pretty disturbed by that. I wish that there was more concern about people in general, about people's safety. I think you can definitely frame control of, say, the campus riots uh that are that have been occurring this past semester. You can frame that as certainly as a safety issue for those who are are just don't even want to be part of the uh the riots and protests. People just want to go about their business. I think you can certainly frame that as uh a safety issue. Certainly have to protect people's rights to free speech. But it has gone to a point where we we are just as a society, I think, are letting letting these radicals take over without without even them doing anything to earn political power. And it's it's really astounding how uh we have gone to these conversations about you know, well, whose feelings are hurt and all that when you know there are people who are have been seriously injured, who have been s who are being targeted in unpressing manners. And I I just hope that you know the story of Oscar Underwood shows how fierce these uh these enemies from within can be, how important it is for uh someone like Underwood to uh advocate for his platform. He just like anyone else is not a perfect man. I certainly would have disagreements on the things that he was supporting for the Wilson administration, but for him to literally put the party on record and say, okay, well, here's your opportunity to tell the entire world what you think of the Ku Klux Klan, the fact that he went through and carried out that procedure, I think is is also a lesson to be had. Perhaps we should uh have more accountability measures in our politics today, putting people on the record saying, well, if you're saying this or if you're doing this, why not tell the entire world why not make it official? Why not make it official to show what it is that you support, what it is that you stand for. And we need more of those formality measures, I think, in our politics and our society today, because that is those are the kinds of tests that uh that can reveal more about uh about the character of someone. It shouldn't just stop there. Obviously, I think I'd I'd say for anyone's life or anyone's political beliefs, it's a continuation, it's a pattern of behaviors, both good and bad. But how someone responds to his or her mistakes, how someone responds to those whom he or she disagrees with, those things should also be considered as well. But we need to really get back, I think, to putting people on the record to show some kind of accountability and to ensure that we have as much of a transparent process as we can, whether it's at a national convention, whether it's on elections, having that sort of formality and transparency, I think it would be a very, very important uh element to include in our or and strengthen in our democracy today. Thank you all so much for listening to this episode. If you enjoyed it, make sure to subscribe to Friends and Fellow Citizens for more content. Have a great rest of your day. And remember, a day in America is always better when we are with our friends and fellow citizens.