Background
Brazilla Carroll Reece was born on December 22, 1889 in Johnson County, Tennessee, one of thirteen children of John Isaac Reece and Sarah Maples.
Brazilla Carroll Reece was born on December 22, 1889 in Johnson County, Tennessee, one of thirteen children of John Isaac Reece and Sarah Maples.
He was raised on his parents' farm and educated at Carson-Newman College at Jefferson City, Tennessee, from which he graduated in 1914 with a B. A. After serving as a high school principal for a year, Reece attended New York University (NYU), from which he took a master's degree in economics and finance in 1916.
He taught at the university in 1916-1917, then enlisted in the army and was soon commissioned an infantry lieutenant. He saw much front-line service with the American Expeditionary Forces, and in one particularly arduous campaign he took command of his battalion.
He was wounded in action and was decorated for gallantry with the Distinguished Service Cross, the Distinguished Service Medal, and the Croix de Guerre. Reece studied at the University of London in 1918-1919 and then became director of NYU's School of Commerce, Accounts, and Finance. In 1920 he returned to Tennessee, where he became associated with a family business and ran successfully for election as a Republican to the U. S. House of Representatives. He had studied enough law at NYU to pass soon after ward the bar examination in his home state.
Upon his election to the House of Representatives in 1920, Reece was its youngest member.
He served as a congressman from eastern Tennessee until he was defeated in 1930. Two years later, he recovered his seat. In 1946 he declined to run again because of his election as chairman of the Republican National Committee. He ran unsuccessfully for the Senate against Estes Kefauver in 1948; in 1950 he regained his old seat in the House, which he held until his death.
In 1954 Reece was chairman of a special House committee that issued a controversial report chastising several large foundations for "directly supporting subversion, " promoting "socialism and collectivist ideas, " and dodging taxes on large fortunes. He was also a stalwart member of the House Rules Committee, and his last days in Congress were devoted to opposing attempts to enlarge and thereby dilute the power of that committee.
On foreign affairs, Reece was especially concerned with American relations with Germany and the use of law to settle disputes between East and West in Europe.
He was frequently a delegate to Republican national conventions, and in 1939 he was elected Republican national committeeman from Tennessee, a post that he held until his death.
By 1946 he was considered to be the leading Republican politician in the South. That year, as a leader of the Republican faction headed by Senator Robert A. Taft, Reece was a candidate for the chairmanship of the Republican National Committee. He was elected after three hotly contested ballots. Criticized for his factionalism, he declared, "As chairman, I am not anybody's man. " A vigorous chairman, he asserted that the 1946 elections were a "fight basically between communism and republicanism, " the most important fight that Republicans had faced since 1860.
His political leadership was significant in the election of the Republican Eightieth Congress, the first since 1929-1931, and in the development of his party's strength for the 1948 campaign. Reece served as the Republican National Committee chairman until after the nomination of Thomas E. Dewey for president in June 1948. Over the years, Reece became affiliated with a number of banks in Tennessee, serving as president of four by the 1950's; he became publisher in 1950 of the Bristol (Tenn. ) Herald Courier.
He died in Bethesda, Maryland.
Usually considered a man of integrity, intelligence, and broad interests, Reece was an archetypical conservative and nationalist throughout his long political career.
On October 30, 1923, he married Louise Despard Goff, the daughter of a government official, Guy D. Goff, who was elected to the Senate from West Virginia in 1924. They had one daughter.