Breckinridge Long

May 16, 1881 (age 77)

St. Louis, Missouri, United States

Long's law office records reveal that his was a small criminal and civil practice and that he had considerable difficulty in obtaining clients and collecting fees. As a hobby he compiled material for a study of American colonial governments, a subject in which he first became interested as a student in Woodrow Wilson's constitutional law course. In this study, published in 1925 as The Genesis of the Constitution of the United States, Long argued that the Constitution drew extensively from colonial precedents and was not a "result of a stroke of genius on the part of the framers. " With the necessity of building up his law practice no longer compelling, politics became his principal interest. In 1913 Senator William Stone and Representative Champ Clark, both Missourians, urged Long's appointment as third assistant secretary of state. But Secretary of State William Jennings Bryan objected, and the appointment was not forthcoming. Undaunted, Long worked zealously in Missouri politics. He contributed more than $30, 000 to the Democratic National Committee during the 1916 campaign and also lent the committee $100, 000. The reward came shortly thereafter. On January 29, 1917, Long was sworn in as third assistant secretary of state. The Far East responsibilities overwhelmed Long. Within three months of Long's appointment, the nation shifted from neutrality to armed neutrality and then to belligerency against Germany. New assignments were thrust upon the already burdened assistant secretary. One of the most time-consuming but interesting of these involved preparations for the many Allied missions--military, naval, parliamentary, financial, shipping--that now streamed into Washington. Long met each with proper protocol and arranged for housing, servants, food, flags, military guards, receptions, and a thousand other details. During his service in the State Department, Long, motivated by a strong desire for higher political office, did his best to have Missourians placed on the federal payroll. He spoke to, wrote to, and entertained numerous government officials, securing all sorts of varied favors for his local backers. In addition, Long zealously worked for the Democratic National Committee, and his generous contributions placed him in that inner circle of politicians who mapped party strategy. Missouri was to choose a senator in 1920, and almost a full year before Long's family, friends, and fortune were at work to secure him the Democratic nomination. Long resigned from the State Department in June 1920 and immersed himself in state politics. The Missouri political scene, however, was far from tranquil. The League of Nations controversy became the principal issue both in the primary and in the ensuing election. Long then returned to his law practice, but political office still remained his goal. He maintained close contact with state and national Democratic leaders; and in 1922, when James Reed ran for reelection, he decided to oppose the senior senator. The bitter primary campaign developed into a battle between Reed and Woodrow Wilson. The former president asserted that "Missouri cannot afford to be represented by such a marplot. " Reed, who had referred to Wilson in 1920 as "that long-eared animal that goes braying about the country, " welcomed the challenge. In spite of the former president's support, the Reed organization, in cooperation with Tom Pendergast, the acknowledged political boss of Kansas City, narrowly defeated Long with a majority of about 6, 400 out of approximately 390, 000 votes cast. The Missouri electorate had destroyed Long's hopes for a Senate seat, and except for occasional visits to the state he now lived at Montpelier Manor, near Laurel, Md. As he wrote, "I have felt it would be the best thing for me and the party so the smoke of battle could blow away. " Most of his time was occupied by breeding and racing horses, traveling, and politics. He continued to donate considerable sums to the Democratic National Committee. By the beginning of 1928 the consensus among Democrats was that Al Smith's candidacy was growing stronger every day. Long, who had opposed Smith in 1924, now considered his selection inevitable. At the convention in Houston, he fought for a strong World Court platform statement but grudgingly agreed to a compromise. He worked at New York headquarters, "running the radio part of the campaign. " But on election day of 1928 the Democratic party suffered a most humiliating defeat. The decisive verdict--Herbert Hoover received 444 electoral votes to Smith's 87--shocked Long: "There is no doubt now about how the American people feel. " And in his diary he wrote: "Badly beaten--disgusted. " The 1930 election returns reduced the Republican majority in the House of Representatives from 103 to 2, and in the Senate the Republican administration barely retained organizational control. The Great Depression convinced Long that a strong leader was needed to prevent another convention split and to ensure a 1932 Democratic victory. After the 1930 elections he felt sure that this strong leader had emerged in the person of Franklin D. Roosevelt. In the preconvention wrangle for delegates, Long made a sizable contribution to Roosevelt's campaign chest. During the convention Long served as a Roosevelt floor manager. Because of this position and his financial contributions during the previous two decades, after Roosevelt's victory Long at last was rewarded with the high political office that he had coveted for so many years: Roosevelt appointed him ambassador extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary to Italy. Long's first months in Italy were a glorious and exciting adventure. Finding the embassy quarters too "dingy, " he leased the magnificent Villa Taverna. The ambassador's first reports and letters lauded Mussolini and fascism. Throughout 1933 Long's diplomatic reports stressed the political novelty of the corporate state, drawing parallels to the New Deal and especially to the National Recovery Administration. He praised the emerging imperialist policy of Mussolini. By 1933 Albania had come almost completely under Italian protection. "I think that we are entirely justified in playing the game with Italy in Albania, " Long advised Roosevelt in July 1933. Nineteen months later, however, he counseled the president to equip "your diplomatic and consular officers in Europe with gas masks. . I am satisfied [Mussolini] is looking forward to the certainty of war and is preparing. " And a few months later he was describing the regime as "deliberate, determined, obdurate, ruthless, and vicious. " This change in attitude ended Long's apprenticeship. His dispatches became more perceptive, his observations more acute. He spent hours reading and evaluating advisory papers. The realization of the importance of his position at the center of a country bent toward war transformed the millionaire politician into a sober diplomat. He made amazingly accurate reports, even predicting seven months in advance the week that Mussolini would invade Ethiopia. His intelligence information in the early part of 1935 contained excellent analyses of the types and amounts of war materials produced throughout Italy. Roosevelt repeatedly chided Long for his pessimistic views. On October 3, 1935, Italy launched the long-expected attack on Ethiopia. The League of Nations Council declared Italy to be the aggressor, and the Assembly voted to impose economic sanctions. President Roosevelt had already invoked neutrality legislation, and in a proclamation he enumerated the items on which trade was restricted, mainly arms and munitions. It was soon apparent, however, that the League did not intend to impose oil sanctions against Italy. But Long, who had now developed an unshakable conviction that war in Europe was inevitable, advised that an Ethiopian solution remained completely in the hands of European diplomats and that the United States should keep out of the conflict. Cautioning against a unilateral oil blockade, he warned Roosevelt that such sanctions "may be neutral from the American point of view, but it is not consonant with the status of neutrality as fixed in the principles of international law. " Roosevelt followed Long's advice, especially after it became clear that the League would not support strong collective action against Italy. Beginning in 1934, severe stomach ulcers caused Long great pain. However, he continued to work at his post until the spring of 1936, when he had to resign and return to the United States for an operation. James Watts argues that Long's resignation was caused by a smoldering feud between the ambassador and the State Department and that illness was a secondary reason. Long, for example, presented his own sweeping scheme for ending the Ethiopian conflict to Mussolini without consulting Secretary of State Cordell Hull, for which Long was reprimanded. For the next three years, Long remained in semiretirement, but on the outbreak of World War II, Roosevelt asked Long to serve as special assistant secretary of state to handle emergency war matters; in January 1940 he succeeded George Messersmith in that position. When the United States entered the war, he served on several special committees to explore postwar settlements. Of the twenty-three State Department divisions under his supervision, the Visa Section placed Long in a position where his decisions were crucial on refugee rescue matters. Although not an anti-Semite, he somehow linked communism and international Jewry, and he had a strong dislike for both. Many supporters of a liberal refugee admissions policy were Jewish, and Long referred to them in his diary as the "radical boys" or "Frankfurter's boys, " because, as Long viewed it, they were "representatives of his racial group and philosophy. " Recent studies by Henry Feingold and Arthur Morse have accused Long of being insensitive to the plight of refugees. But Long was limited by the 1924 immigration law, which restricted immigration to some 150, 000 aliens a year. Half of this quota was assigned to applicants from England or Ireland. The immigration law had been buttressed with an incredible mosaic of regulations, including rigid screening procedures. Furthermore, Roosevelt was ambivalent on the refugee issue, and Long believed that he was carrying out administration policy by protecting the nation against an invasion by those whom he considered radicals and foreign agents. Long resigned from the State Department on November 28, 1944. On July 28, 1945, he sat in the Senate gallery and heard the roll call on the resolution to ratify the United Nations Charter. He died in Laurel, Maryland on September 26, 1958.

Breckinridge Long Edit Profile

Diplomat politician

Background

Breckinridge Long was born on May 16, 1881 in St. Louis, Missouri, United States, the son of William Strudwick Long and Margaret Miller Breckinridge.

Education

He studied with private tutors and attended a local public high school. In the fall of 1899, following a Breckinridge family tradition, he entered Princeton University, graduating in 1904. He studied law at Washington University in St. Louis (1905 - 1906). He completed his master's thesis, "The Impossibility of India's Revolt from England" and received his Master of Arts from Princeton University in 1909.

Career

Long's law office records reveal that his was a small criminal and civil practice and that he had considerable difficulty in obtaining clients and collecting fees. As a hobby he compiled material for a study of American colonial governments, a subject in which he first became interested as a student in Woodrow Wilson's constitutional law course. In this study, published in 1925 as The Genesis of the Constitution of the United States, Long argued that the Constitution drew extensively from colonial precedents and was not a "result of a stroke of genius on the part of the framers. "

With the necessity of building up his law practice no longer compelling, politics became his principal interest. In 1913 Senator William Stone and Representative Champ Clark, both Missourians, urged Long's appointment as third assistant secretary of state. But Secretary of State William Jennings Bryan objected, and the appointment was not forthcoming. Undaunted, Long worked zealously in Missouri politics. He contributed more than $30, 000 to the Democratic National Committee during the 1916 campaign and also lent the committee $100, 000. The reward came shortly thereafter.

On January 29, 1917, Long was sworn in as third assistant secretary of state. The Far East responsibilities overwhelmed Long. Within three months of Long's appointment, the nation shifted from neutrality to armed neutrality and then to belligerency against Germany. New assignments were thrust upon the already burdened assistant secretary. One of the most time-consuming but interesting of these involved preparations for the many Allied missions--military, naval, parliamentary, financial, shipping--that now streamed into Washington. Long met each with proper protocol and arranged for housing, servants, food, flags, military guards, receptions, and a thousand other details. During his service in the State Department, Long, motivated by a strong desire for higher political office, did his best to have Missourians placed on the federal payroll. He spoke to, wrote to, and entertained numerous government officials, securing all sorts of varied favors for his local backers. In addition, Long zealously worked for the Democratic National Committee, and his generous contributions placed him in that inner circle of politicians who mapped party strategy.

Missouri was to choose a senator in 1920, and almost a full year before Long's family, friends, and fortune were at work to secure him the Democratic nomination. Long resigned from the State Department in June 1920 and immersed himself in state politics. The Missouri political scene, however, was far from tranquil. The League of Nations controversy became the principal issue both in the primary and in the ensuing election.

Long then returned to his law practice, but political office still remained his goal. He maintained close contact with state and national Democratic leaders; and in 1922, when James Reed ran for reelection, he decided to oppose the senior senator. The bitter primary campaign developed into a battle between Reed and Woodrow Wilson. The former president asserted that "Missouri cannot afford to be represented by such a marplot. " Reed, who had referred to Wilson in 1920 as "that long-eared animal that goes braying about the country, " welcomed the challenge. In spite of the former president's support, the Reed organization, in cooperation with Tom Pendergast, the acknowledged political boss of Kansas City, narrowly defeated Long with a majority of about 6, 400 out of approximately 390, 000 votes cast. The Missouri electorate had destroyed Long's hopes for a Senate seat, and except for occasional visits to the state he now lived at Montpelier Manor, near Laurel, Md. As he wrote, "I have felt it would be the best thing for me and the party so the smoke of battle could blow away. "

Most of his time was occupied by breeding and racing horses, traveling, and politics. He continued to donate considerable sums to the Democratic National Committee. By the beginning of 1928 the consensus among Democrats was that Al Smith's candidacy was growing stronger every day. Long, who had opposed Smith in 1924, now considered his selection inevitable. At the convention in Houston, he fought for a strong World Court platform statement but grudgingly agreed to a compromise. He worked at New York headquarters, "running the radio part of the campaign. " But on election day of 1928 the Democratic party suffered a most humiliating defeat. The decisive verdict--Herbert Hoover received 444 electoral votes to Smith's 87--shocked Long: "There is no doubt now about how the American people feel. " And in his diary he wrote: "Badly beaten--disgusted. " The 1930 election returns reduced the Republican majority in the House of Representatives from 103 to 2, and in the Senate the Republican administration barely retained organizational control.

The Great Depression convinced Long that a strong leader was needed to prevent another convention split and to ensure a 1932 Democratic victory. After the 1930 elections he felt sure that this strong leader had emerged in the person of Franklin D. Roosevelt. In the preconvention wrangle for delegates, Long made a sizable contribution to Roosevelt's campaign chest. During the convention Long served as a Roosevelt floor manager. Because of this position and his financial contributions during the previous two decades, after Roosevelt's victory Long at last was rewarded with the high political office that he had coveted for so many years: Roosevelt appointed him ambassador extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary to Italy.

Long's first months in Italy were a glorious and exciting adventure. Finding the embassy quarters too "dingy, " he leased the magnificent Villa Taverna. The ambassador's first reports and letters lauded Mussolini and fascism. Throughout 1933 Long's diplomatic reports stressed the political novelty of the corporate state, drawing parallels to the New Deal and especially to the National Recovery Administration. He praised the emerging imperialist policy of Mussolini. By 1933 Albania had come almost completely under Italian protection. "I think that we are entirely justified in playing the game with Italy in Albania, " Long advised Roosevelt in July 1933. Nineteen months later, however, he counseled the president to equip "your diplomatic and consular officers in Europe with gas masks. . I am satisfied [Mussolini] is looking forward to the certainty of war and is preparing. " And a few months later he was describing the regime as "deliberate, determined, obdurate, ruthless, and vicious. "

This change in attitude ended Long's apprenticeship. His dispatches became more perceptive, his observations more acute. He spent hours reading and evaluating advisory papers. The realization of the importance of his position at the center of a country bent toward war transformed the millionaire politician into a sober diplomat. He made amazingly accurate reports, even predicting seven months in advance the week that Mussolini would invade Ethiopia. His intelligence information in the early part of 1935 contained excellent analyses of the types and amounts of war materials produced throughout Italy. Roosevelt repeatedly chided Long for his pessimistic views.

On October 3, 1935, Italy launched the long-expected attack on Ethiopia. The League of Nations Council declared Italy to be the aggressor, and the Assembly voted to impose economic sanctions. President Roosevelt had already invoked neutrality legislation, and in a proclamation he enumerated the items on which trade was restricted, mainly arms and munitions. It was soon apparent, however, that the League did not intend to impose oil sanctions against Italy. But Long, who had now developed an unshakable conviction that war in Europe was inevitable, advised that an Ethiopian solution remained completely in the hands of European diplomats and that the United States should keep out of the conflict. Cautioning against a unilateral oil blockade, he warned Roosevelt that such sanctions "may be neutral from the American point of view, but it is not consonant with the status of neutrality as fixed in the principles of international law. " Roosevelt followed Long's advice, especially after it became clear that the League would not support strong collective action against Italy.

Beginning in 1934, severe stomach ulcers caused Long great pain. However, he continued to work at his post until the spring of 1936, when he had to resign and return to the United States for an operation. James Watts argues that Long's resignation was caused by a smoldering feud between the ambassador and the State Department and that illness was a secondary reason. Long, for example, presented his own sweeping scheme for ending the Ethiopian conflict to Mussolini without consulting Secretary of State Cordell Hull, for which Long was reprimanded.

For the next three years, Long remained in semiretirement, but on the outbreak of World War II, Roosevelt asked Long to serve as special assistant secretary of state to handle emergency war matters; in January 1940 he succeeded George Messersmith in that position. When the United States entered the war, he served on several special committees to explore postwar settlements. Of the twenty-three State Department divisions under his supervision, the Visa Section placed Long in a position where his decisions were crucial on refugee rescue matters. Although not an anti-Semite, he somehow linked communism and international Jewry, and he had a strong dislike for both. Many supporters of a liberal refugee admissions policy were Jewish, and Long referred to them in his diary as the "radical boys" or "Frankfurter's boys, " because, as Long viewed it, they were "representatives of his racial group and philosophy. " Recent studies by Henry Feingold and Arthur Morse have accused Long of being insensitive to the plight of refugees. But Long was limited by the 1924 immigration law, which restricted immigration to some 150, 000 aliens a year. Half of this quota was assigned to applicants from England or Ireland. The immigration law had been buttressed with an incredible mosaic of regulations, including rigid screening procedures. Furthermore, Roosevelt was ambivalent on the refugee issue, and Long believed that he was carrying out administration policy by protecting the nation against an invasion by those whom he considered radicals and foreign agents.

Long resigned from the State Department on November 28, 1944. On July 28, 1945, he sat in the Senate gallery and heard the roll call on the resolution to ratify the United Nations Charter. He died in Laurel, Maryland on September 26, 1958.

Achievements

Breckinridge Long served with distinction in the administrations of Woodrow Wilson and Franklin Delano Roosevelt. He held the position of an Assistant Secretary in the US State Department during World War II from 1940–1944. He was remembered chiefly for the implementation of the new State Department policies which prioritized US national security over humanitarian concerns. His policy slowed immigration to the United States for the hundreds of thousands of refugees attempting to escape persecution and murder by Nazi Germany.

Works

Genesis of the Constitution of the United States of America Genesis of the Constitution of the United States of America

The War: An Address by Breckinridge Long Before the City Club, St. Louis, January 19, 1918 The War: An Address by Breckinridge Long Before the City Club, St. Louis, January 19, 1918

Report Of The Missouri Code Commission: Appointed To Consider The Revision And Simplification Of The Civil And Criminal Procedure Of The State Of Missouri Report Of The Missouri Code Commission: Appointed To Consider The Revision And Simplification Of The Civil And Criminal Procedure Of The State Of Missouri

book
- Report Of The Missouri Code Commission: Appointed To Consider The Revision And Simplification Of The Civil And Criminal Procedure Of The State Of Missouri
  ( This work has been selected by scholars as being cultur...)
- Genesis of the Constitution of the United States of America
- The War: An Address by Breckinridge Long Before the City Club, St. Louis, January 19, 1918

Politics

Long was a member of the Democratic Party and an enthusiastic supporter of Wilson's internationalist policies. He had participated in an intraparty fight that caused Senator James Reed, a bitter foe of the League of Nations, to be rejected as a delegate to the 1920 Democratic national convention. He campaigned throughout the state on a platform that endorsed the League without any reservations.

Views

Quotations: "During my first weeks in the Department I had a perfectly terrible time, " recorded Long. "I worked from nine in the morning until midnight, or later, almost every night. . The supervision of the Bureau of Accounts and the entire financial end of the Department was entrusted to me. Then, I had all the ceremonial work. . The Far East was put under my supervision, including our relations with China and Japan, Siam, the South Sea Islands, Siberia, Australia and India. . I was the disbursing officer of the Department and had to sign all the warrants. "

"Mr. [Edward T. ] Williams who probably knows more about China than most any other man alive, was the Chief of the Far Eastern Bureau [1914-1918]. He would come down almost every day and we would talk about the Far East. . There were more complications internal and external than I had ever imagined and more than anybody had any right to believe. . Japan was easier, and Siam--poor, little Siam--was not at all hard. With India, Siberia, and Australia I had to do only with political problems which arose there or which arose in Europe and affected those countries. "

"Mussolini is an astounding character and the effects of his organized activities are apparent throughout all Italy. . Italy today is the most interesting experiment in government to come above the horizon since the formulation of our Constitution 150 years ago. "The Fascisti in their black shirts are apparent in every community. They are dapper and well dressed and stand up straight and lend an atmosphere of individuality and importance to their surroundings. . The trains are punctual, well-equipped, and fast. "

Connections

On June 1, 1912, Long married Christine Graham, the wealthy and socially prominent granddaughter of Francis Preston Blair, Democratic nominee for vice-president in 1868.

Father:: William Strudwick Long
Mother:: Margaret Miller Breckinridge
Spouse:: Christine Graham

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