Thomas R. Marshall

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Thomas R. Marshall : biography

March 14, 1854 – June 1, 1925

On December 4, Lansing announced in a Senate committee hearing that no one in the cabinet had spoken with or seen Wilson in over sixty days. The senators seeking to elevate Marshall requested that a committee be sent to check on Wilson’s condition, hoping to gain evidence to support their cause. Dubbed the "smelling committee" by several newspapers, the group discovered Wilson was in very poor health, but seemed to have recovered enough of his faculties to make decisions. Their report ended the perceived need for the joint resolution.Bennett, pp. 281–282

At a Sunday church service in mid-December, in what Marshall believed was an attempt by other officials to force him to assume the presidency, a courier brought a message informing him that Wilson had died. Marshall was shocked, and rose to announce the news to the congregation. The ministers held a prayer, the congregation began singing hymns, and many people wept. Marshall and his wife exited the building, and made a call to the White House to determine his next course of action, only to find that he had been the victim of a hoax, and that Wilson was still living.Bennett, p. 297

Marshall performed a few ceremonial functions for the remainder of Wilson’s term, such as hosting foreign dignitaries. Among these was Albert I, King of the Belgians, the first European monarch to visit the United States. Edward, Prince of Wales, the future monarch of the United Kingdom, spent two days with Marshall and received a personal tour of Washington from him.Bennett, p. 292 First Lady Edith Wilson performed most routine duties of government by reviewing all of Wilson’s communications and deciding what he would be presented with and what she would delegate to others. The resulting lack of leadership allowed the administration’s opponents to prevent ratification of the League of Nations treaty.Gray (1977), p. 304 They attacked the treaty’s tenth article, which they believed would allow the United States to be bound in an alliance to European countries that could force the country return to war without an act of Congress.Bennett, pp. 256–258 Marshall personally supported the treaty’s adoption, but recommended several changes, including the requirement that all parties to it acknowledge the Monroe Doctrine and the United States’ sphere of influence, and that the tenth article be made non-binding.Bennett, p. 264Gray (1977), p. 305

Wilson began to recover by the end of 1919, but remained secluded for the remainder of his term, steadfast in his refusal or inability to accept changes to the treaty. Marshall was prevented from meeting with him to ascertain his true condition until his final day in office. It remains unclear who was making the executive branch’s decisions during Wilson’s incapacity, but it was likely the first lady with the help of the presidential advisers.Bennett, p. 247Gugin, p. 241

Legacy

Historians have varied interpretations of Marshall’s vice presidency. Claire Suddath rated Marshall as one of the worst vice presidents in American history in a 2008 Time Magazine article. Samuel Eliot Morison wrote that had Marshall carried out his constitutional duties, assumed the presidency, and made the concessions necessary for the passage of the League of Nations treaty in late 1920, the United States would have been much more involved in European affairs and could have helped prevent the rise of Adolf Hitler, which began in the following year. Morison and a number of other historians claim that Marshall’s decision was an indirect cause of the Second World War.Bennett, p. 289 Charles Thomas, one of Marshall’s biographers, wrote that although Marshall’s assumption of the presidency would have made World War II much less likely, modern hypothetical speculation on the subject was unfair to Marshall, who made the correct decision in not forcibly removing Wilson from office, even temporarily.

Humor

Marshall was known for his quick wit and a good sense of humor. On hearing of his nomination as vice president, he announced that he was not surprised, as "Indiana is the mother of Vice Presidents; home of more second-class men than any other state."Boller, p. 198 One of his favorite jokes was about a woman with two sons, one of whom went to sea and one of whom was elected vice president; neither was ever heard of again. On his election as vice president, he sent Woodrow Wilson a book, inscribed "From your only Vice."