Campbell Bascom Slemp was an American Republican politician.
Background
He was born on September 4, 1870 in Turkey Cove, Lee County, Virginia, United States, the second son and fourth of seven children of Campbell and Nannie B. (Cawood) Slemp. His father's forebears, originally German, had lived in Virginia for several generations; his mother was a native of Oswald County.
Slemp grew up in a prosperous Methodist family. His father, who had served as a colonel in the Confederate Army, dealt in livestock and owned extensive coal and timber lands. He became a leading politician in southwestern Virginia, serving in the state legislature (1879 - 83) and, having turned Republican in 1884 over the tariff issue, as presidential elector (1888, 1892) and Congressman (1903 - 07).
Education
Young Slemp, after attending local public schools, graduated in 1891 from the Virginia Military Institute. He studied law in 1892 at the University of Virginia.
Career
After university for the next few years the family business interests were probably his principal concern, although he taught mathematics for one year (1900 - 01) at V. M. I.
Admitted to the bar in 1901, he established a law practice in Big Stone Gap, Va. C. Bascom Slemp, as he called himself, shared his father's interest in politics. In 1905 he became chairman of the Republican state committee, the youngest man in the nation at that time to hold such a position. When the father died in October 1907, the son was chosen to complete his unexpired Congressional term and went on to win reelection to seven consecutive terms.
By 1922, when he decided not to run again, he was one of the most influential Southerners in the Republican party.
His party position commended him to President Calvin Coolidge, who in 1923 appointed Slemp presidential secretary. The appointment was widely interpreted to mean that Coolidge intended to win the presidential nomination in 1924, using Slemp as his bridge to the Southern delegates. He acted as the administration's liaison man with Congress and with the Republican National Committee, of which he was a member.
The Teapot Dome scandals, which erupted in January 1924, posed a threat to Coolidge by revealing corruption in the Harding administration, of which he had been a part. Slemp personally came under attack when circumstantial evidence made it appear that he had acted as an intermediary between the White House and two of the accused men, Albert B. Fall and Edward B. McLean, prior to their appearances before a Senate investigating committee. Called upon to testify, he denied having acted in any such capacity, though he admitted having met with both men. In the end, Coolidge emerged from the Teapot Dome affair with his political position strengthened.
Slemp and other Coolidge lieutenants virtually ran the Republican convention in June and contributed to the President's easy victory in November. Slemp resigned as presidential secretary in March 1925, possibly out of disappointment over having been denied a cabinet post in the new administration. He nevertheless retained a lifelong admiration for Coolidge.
After his resignation he represented a Chicago law firm in Washington. Though Slemp remained on the Republican National Committee until 1932, he never again sought public office.
While returning from a vacation in Florida in 1943, he was stricken with a heart ailment and was taken to St. Mary's Hospital in Knoxville, where he died ten days later.
Representing a constituency traditionally hostile to Virginia's eastern Democratic leadership, Slemp consistently voted with the Republican "Old Guard. " He supported the Payne-Aldrich Tariff of 1909, backed Speaker of the House Joseph G. Cannon in his fight against progressive insurgents who sought to curb the Speaker's power, and opposed a series of antilynching bills.
Personality
He was tall, slender, and gray-haired, the courtly Southerner. Slemp devoted most of his time to business affairs.
Quotes from others about the person
According to the editor William Allen White, he was a "fluent and delightful conversationalist".
Connections
He briefly married Roberta Trousdale Barton (1891-1911) in New Orleans, Louisiana on December 26, 1911, but their daughter was stillborn the following year.