Bennett Champ Clark was an American Senator from Missouri from 1933 until 1945, and was later a United States federal judge.
Background
Bennett Champ Clark was born on January 8, 1890 in Bowling Green, Missouri, United States. He was the son of James Beauchamp ("Champ") and Genevieve Bennett Clark. Clark spent much of his boyhood in Washington, D. C. , where his father was congressman and, from 1911 to 1919, Speaker of the House of Representatives. As a young boy Clark frequently attended House sessions and met each president beginning with Grover Cleveland. When he was fourteen he served as local precinct captain and in 1912 worked at the Democratic convention in his father's unsuccessful bid for the presidential nomination. His affection and respect for the elder Clark was unbounded. "Never, " declared Senator James F. Byrnes, "have I known a man so dedicated to his father's memory. "
Education
While attending the University of Missouri, from which he received the B. A. degree in 1913, Clark changed his name from Joel Bennett to Bennett Champ, taking the name of his elder brother, Champ, who had died in infancy. Returning to Washington, he received the LL. B. degree from George Washington University in 1914. While still a student, Clark was appointed parliamentarian of the House of Representatives, a position he held from 1913 to 1917.
Career
He became an authority on procedure and compiled a parliamentary manual that was used for many years. Clark was admitted to the Missouri bar in 1914 and practiced law in Bowling Green. After the United States entered the war, Clark joined an army officer training program, was promoted to lieutenant colonel, and served in France. Returning home he moved to St. Louis and joined the firm of Fordyce, Holliday and White, specializing in corporate law and trial practice. After his father's death in 1921 Clark declined invitations to run for office, including an opportunity in 1928 to succeed Senator James A. Reed. Four years later he published his only book, John Quincy Adams: Old Man Eloquent, a readable biography of the famous son of a famous father. After an impressive primary victory over a rural prohibitionist and the candidate of Kansas City boss Thomas J. Pendergast, he easily won the general election. Harry Hawes, the incumbent, then retired and Clark was appointed on February 3, 1933, to fill the expiring term. In 1934 Clark challenged Pendergast's statewide power by supporting his own candidate for the other Senate seat. Harry S. Truman, the Pendergast candidate, won, however, and for the next decade the two factions alternated between open conflict and wary cooperation. Until 1937 Clark held an advantage because he enjoyed greater access to federal patronage; he was able to name as United States attorney for the western district an anti-Pendergast ally who prosecuted dozens of the machine's workers. In 1936 both factions united in the gubernatorial contest, and the two senators aided, with limited enthusiasm, one another's reelection campaign. In the Senate Clark gradually changed from an occasional supporter to a determined opponent of the New Deal. He voted against the establishment of the National Recovery Administration and the Agricultural Adjustment Administration but supported monetary inflation, invalidation of the gold clause, and--after failing to weaken it--the Social Security Act. Clark sacrificed his chance to be chairman of the Democratic National Convention in order to serve as chairman of the rules committee, where he led the successful effort to abolish the rule that required a two-thirds majority to nominate, "the undemocratic rule which deprived my father of the Presidency. " He had, remembered Senator Tom Connally, "a burning desire to avenge his father. " He became an early advocate of legislation that would prohibit or restrict the sale of munitions and other contraband, as well as the extension of credits, to belligerent nations. Distrusting the executive branch and jealous of the role of the Senate in foreign policy, he continually emphasized the need for "a flat, mandatory, automatic policy of absolute neutrality. " Clark participated in the Nye Committee investigations into the origins of World War I and claimed he had "irrefutable proof of the influence of the big money lenders and money changers in drawing us into the conflict. " Clark's strong criticism of Woodrow Wilson's prewar diplomacy led to countercharges that Clark was using the neutrality debate to carry on the family feud with his father's dead rival. Clark responded that he felt no animosity towards Wilson, but only toward William Jennings Bryan, who had been the one to "betray" old Champ. His motives were honest, Clark maintained, since his position defended the policy that Bryan had earlier advocated. Clark bitterly opposed repeal of neutrality legislation and supported a war-referendum amendment. Until Pearl Harbor he continued to try to restrict military spending, limit the expanding powers of the executive, and discredit interventionism. Harboring presidential ambitions for 1940, he opposed the third term but wound up giving a last-minute, grudging endorsement to Roosevelt. His identification with discredited isolationism and his lack of attention to constituents, together with organized opposition from internationalists and the Congress of Industrial Organizations, combined to defeat him in the 1944 Democratic primary.
Achievements
He helped found the American Legion, serving as chairman of the original organizational meetings in Paris.
Clark was nominated by President Harry S. Truman to a seat on the United States Court of Appeals for the D. C. Circuit vacated by the resignation of Thurman Arnold.
Clark is perhaps most famous for declaring that Emperor Hirohito should be hanged as a war criminal on the senate floor on January 29, 1944. In the same year, he was the first senator to introduce the G. I. Bill proposal in U. S. Congress
Like his father, he opposed American participation in World War I.
In 1932 Clark conducted an energetic, folksy campaign for the Senate, calling for the repeal of prohibition and the enactment of social reform legislation, while emphasizing both his independence and his paternity.
He rejected the idea of a conservative coalition party and, enjoying both presidential charm and patronage, campaigned for Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1936.
In early 1937 Clark became one of the first Democratic senators to reject Roosevelt's plan to pack the Supreme Court, and later fought the administration's reorganization bill. By 1938 Roosevelt had cut off his patronage and, except for Clark's popularity, would have actively tried to purge him. Clark's growing hostility toward the administration stemmed from his sense of independence, his identification with the "old" Democratic party, his lifelong respect for congressional prerogatives, and, finally, his commitment to international neutrality.
Views
Quotations:
"The Army is giving Blue discharges, namely discharges without honor, to those who have had no fault other than they have not shown sufficient aptitude for military service. I say that when the government puts a man in the military service and, thereafter, because the man does not show sufficient aptitude gives him a blue discharge, or a discharge without honor, that fact should not be permitted to prevent the man from receiving the benefits to which soldiers are generally entitled. "
Personality
Slightly plump and balding, florid and genial, he earned a reputation for both good humor and slashing oratory.
Connections
At the Democratic convention of 1920 he renewed his acquaintance with Miriam Marsh, the daughter of the Democratic National Committee treasurer, whom he had first met at Woodrow Wilson's second inaugural. They married in 1922 and had three sons.
Clark's first wife died in 1943, and he married Violet Heming, an English actress, on October 6, 1945.
Father:
James Beauchamp ("Champ")
He was congressman and, from 1911 to 1919, Speaker of the House of Representatives
