Background
Frank B. Kellogg was born in Potsdam, New York, on December 22, 1856.
(Excerpt from The Influence of the English People Upon Con...)
Excerpt from The Influence of the English People Upon Constitutional Government, And, a Canadian Bar Association: Addresses Delivered at the Annual Meeting of the Manitoba Bar Association, Held at Winnipeg, January 24th, 1914 These constitutions, very naturally, were modeled after the declarations of Magna Charta, the Petition and Bill of Rights, and contained declarations of rights very similar to those adopted in the Constitution of the United States shortly after. But it is not my intention to discuss in detail the various constitutions - rather to treat of their principles in the aggregate. These constitutions, in the main, did not annunciate new principles, but such as had been asserted, tried and become fixed and established by the successive generations of our race. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1528548337/?tag=2022091-20
Frank B. Kellogg was born in Potsdam, New York, on December 22, 1856.
In 1867 the family moved to Minnesota, where Kellogg studied law and was admitted to the bar.
He became a highly successful lawyer and was called to conduct a trust prosecution for the Federal government against the Standard Oil Company in 1911. His success led to election as president of the American Bar Association in 1912. In 1916 he was elected to the U. S. Senate but was defeated for reelection in 1922. He served as ambassador to Great Britain from 1923 to 1925.
In 1925 Kellogg was appointed secretary of state by President Calvin Coolidge. As secretary, he faced the problem of strained relations with Mexico over legislation against American oil interests, but the appointment of Dwight Morrow as ambassador relieved those tensions. Kellogg also found himself embroiled in Nicaragua, where civil war broke out against the government recognized by the United States. However, the mission of Henry L. Stimson to Nicaragua restored a measure of peace, which led, eventually, to the withdrawal of American troops. Kellogg was less successful in his attempt to bring about a reduction in naval armaments among the Great Powers.
Kellogg regarded his negotiation of the Kellogg-Briand Pact for the maintenance of world peace as his most important State Department work. Taking advantage of a French proposal to conclude a pact binding France and the United States to refrain from war with each other, Kellogg proposed a much more ambitious policy—a general international agreement for the preservation of peace. Signed in August 1928 and ratified by most of the nations of the world, this pact bound the signatory nations not "to resort to war as an instrument of national policy" and to settle all disputes by peaceful means. For this Kellogg received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1929 and was appointed a member of the Permanent Court of International Justice at The Hague, a post he held from 1930 to 1935.
In practice, the pact proved ineffectual in preventing war. It contained no provision for action against an aggressor nation and could not prevent the outbreak of World War II in 1939.
During Kellogg's tenure, the U. S. State Department took steps to allay Latin American worry over the Monroe Doctrine. In 1928 the Clark Memorandum sought to make it clear that the doctrine was not to be considered a justification for United States military intervention in the affairs of Latin America. Kellogg died on December 21, 1937.
In 1929, Frank Billing Kellogg was awarded Nobel Peace Prize for his role in the Kellogg-Briand Pact of 1928.
His house in St. Paul, the Frank B. Kellogg House was listed as a National Historic Landmark in 1976.
The following were named in his honor: Kellogg Boulevard in downtown Saint Paul; Kellogg Middle School in Shoreline, Washington and Rochester, Minnesota, as was Frank B. Kellogg High School (closed 1986) in Little Canada, Minnesota which had been a part of Roseville School District 623; a Liberty ship, the SS Frank B. Kellogg.
Frank B. Kellogg's papers are available for research use at the Minnesota Historical Society. They include correspondence and miscellaneous papers, State Department duplicates, news clippings scrapbooks, awards, floor plans, honorary degrees, maps, memorials and memoranda.
(Excerpt from The Influence of the English People Upon Con...)
Quotations:
"I know that military alliances and armament have been the reliance for peace for centuries, but they do not produce peace; and when war comes, as it inevitably does under such conditions, these armaments and alliances but intensify and broaden the conflict. "
"These measures may not constitute an absolute guarantee of peace, but, in my opinion, they constitute the greatest preventive measures ever adopted by nations. "
"I further value this gift as it gave me an opportunity to accept this distinguished honor in a country so devoted to this cause and whose history marks a wonderful chapter in world development. "
"Competition in armament, both land and naval, is not only a terrible burden upon the people, but I believe it to be one of the greatest menaces to the peace of the world. "
"There are but few naval powers, but there are many land powers. "
In 1880, he became a member of the masonic lodge Rochester No. 21 where he received the degrees of freemasonry on April 1, April 19, and May 3.
In 1928 the government of France made him a member of the Legion of Honor.
In 1886, Kellogg was married to Clara May Cook, the daughter of George Clinton Cook (1828–1901) and Elizabeth (née Burns) Cook (1838–1908). The couple did not have any children.
