Thomas O’Neill Jr. was an American politician who served as the 47th Speaker of the United States House of Representatives from 1977 to 1987, representing northern Boston, Massachusetts, as a Democrat from 1953 to 1987.
Background
Thomas O’Neill Jr. was born on December 9, 1912, in North Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, into the family of Thomas P.I. and Rose Anne (Tolan) O’Neill. O'Neill was the third of three children. His mother died when he was nine months old, and he was raised largely by a French-Canadian housekeeper until his father remarried when he was eight. During his childhood, O'Neill received the nickname "Tip" after the Canadian baseball player James "Tip" O'Neill.
Education
Thomas was educated in Roman Catholic schools, graduating in 1931 from the now defunct St. John High School in Cambridge, where he was captain of the basketball team. From there he went to Boston College, where he pursued a liberal arts education, from which he graduated in 1936.
At 15 O'Neill worked locally in the presidential campaign of fellow Irish Catholic Al Smith. Then he continued his studying while continuing to drive a truck and supplementing his income by skillful poker-playing. Following graduation in 1936 he found law school not to his liking and embarked directly on a political career. After experiencing the only electoral defeat he would ever suffer (for Cambridge City Council, while a college senior). With his party vastly outnumbered, he could do little but concentrate on patronage, which he did, arranging for the hiring of hundreds of his constituents for public service work. In these early years O'Neill worked between legislative sessions in the Cambridge city treasurer's office.
Thomas improved his financial situation in the 1940s when, evicted from his city job by political rivals, he entered into the insurance business, an enterprise he continued for over two decades. He did not serve in the military during World War II, originally receiving exemption to serve in the legislature and then receiving a physical deferment due to mild diabetes. Popular among party colleagues in the state legislature, in 1946 O'Neill was elected House minority leader. That same year he unsuccessfully supported a friend against young John F. Kennedy for the Democratic House nomination in his home congressional district.
The Democrats' narrow victory made O'Neill the youngest Speaker in the history of the Massachusetts legislature. He was a highly effective Speaker, proving adept at "headcounting", producing strong party unity, and helping ensure passage of the new Democratic governor's so-called "Little New Deal." Respected for his fairness, the affable O'Neill was willing to apply pressure, when necessary, to keep his troops in line. In 1950 he again masterminded the Democrats' statewide victory. Both he and other Democrats expected he would ultimately become governor.
A long-time Congressman In 1952 O'Neill succeeded to John Kennedy's House seat (as Kennedy advanced to the Senate) after winning a hard-fought primary-the last close electoral contest he would face. As a protege of House Majority Leader John McCormack, also of Massachusetts, he rapidly gained access to the inner circle of power in the House. Through the sponsorship of McCormack and powerful Speaker Sam Rayburn, O'Neill was placed in 1955 on the important Rules Committee as a "loyalist" of the House Democratic leadership. Democratic control of the White House in the 1966 enabled O'Neill to play a constructive role as he helped to pass the New Frontier and Great Society legislative programs.
Thomas's only significant rebellion against the Democratic administrations was on the federal school-aid bill, which he opposed. In 1967 O'Neill revised his image as an unwavering party loyalist by becoming the first "establishment" Democrat to break with President Johnson over the Vietnam War, even backing the anti-war candidacy of Senator Eugene McCarthy for the 1968 presidential nomination. He was thus a popular choice when selected in 1971 by a new Democratic House leadership team to be majority whip. In less than two years O'Neill rose to the post of majority leader, after the incumbent (Representative Hale Boggs) disappeared and was presumed dead in an airplane crash.
As he had done as majority whip, O'Neill brought energy to this new post, eclipsing the indecisive Carl Albert, Speaker of the House during much of the 1976. Remaining a strong partisan, O'Neill took a cautious line during the Watergate crisis. Still, he was a powerful force in urging his colleagues to prepare for impeachment proceedings against President Nixon in early 1974. After Nixon's resignation O'Neill actively supported legislative initiatives to limit the budget and war-making powers of the presidency.
When O'Neill succeeded Albert as Speaker in 1977, a new president of his own party moved into the White House, Jimmy Carter. Opposites in personality and divided over the necessity of compromise between Congress and the White House, O'Neill and Carter nevertheless developed a friendly relationship. Yet when Edward Kennedy challenged Carter for the 1980 Democratic nomination, O'Neill remained neutral and eventually served as chairman of the 1980 convention controlled by the president's supporters.
With Ronald Reagan in the White House and the Senate under Republican Party control, the Speaker stood as the top-ranking elected leader of his party. Unsuccessful in his efforts to block Reagan's sharp reductions in domestic spending and "supply side" tax reductions in 1981, O'Neill kept fellow Democrats from agreeing to a bipartisan compromise on the troubled Social Security System, thereby keeping the subject alive as an issue (along with the 1981 tax measure) for the upcoming congressional elections.
The Democrats' strong showing in 1982 vindicated the strategy. O'Neill enjoyed greater power and prestige in dealing with the Reagan administration after 1982. The president then lacked the working majority of Republicans and conservative Democrats that he had relied on previously and thus had to be more accommodating towards the Speaker and his followers. In early 1984, however, O'Neill announced he would seek only one more House term. Winning re-election easily (as he had for 30 years), he resumed his role as leader of the opposition as Reagan began his second term.
Truly a transitional figure between the old politics and the new, he was rated among the strongest House Speakers in history upon his retirement in 1987. O'Neill's memoirs, "Man of the House", written with William Novak, became a best-seller. He also wrote "All Politics is Local", with Gary Hymel. Tip O'Neill died in Boston, at the age of 82.
After experiencing the only electoral defeat he would ever suffer, O'Neill won election to the Massachusetts State House of Representatives as a Democrat in 1936. He continued to be devoted to the Democratic Party until his death.
Membership
House of Representatives
Personality
Thomas was a shrewd negotiator who marshaled support in the back rooms of the Capitol rather than on the House floor.
Physical Characteristics:
Thomas was described in Time magazine as “a living caricature, like a Thomas Nast drawing come to life — the hulking 6-foot 3-inch frame, the sly smile, the W.C. Fields nose, the thicket of white hair.”
Quotes from others about the person
Thomas is a blunt, practical man whose personal integrity (he left office with only 2,900 dollars in the bank), and compassion for the disadvantaged make him something of an anomaly in an age of manipulated images, ideological passions, and private greed. Tip O’Neill is a consensus politician who makes American government work.
Interests
Sport & Clubs
golf
Connections
In June 1941, Thomas married former schoolmate Mildred Anne Miller, with whom he had five children: Rosemary, Thomas P. III (later lieutenant governor of Massachusetts), Susan, Christopher, and Michael.