By Ray Hill W. “Ned” Carmack’s campaign for the United States Senate ended on a dusty road in rural West Tennessee under circumstances never resolved. Carmack’s wife Charlotte arrived to whisk him home to Murfreesboro, where Carmack spent some time in a hospital. Found unconscious, beaten, bloodied and partially paralyzed, Ned Carmack was forced to […]
By Ray Hill Edward Ward Carmack, Jr. possessed a name made famous by his father. E. W. Carmack had been a congressman, United States senator and only just barely missed having been elected governor; the elder Carmack had also been a newspaper editor who deftly used his pen to praise his friends and torture his […]
By Ray Hill Henry Hollis Horton had once been one of the luckiest men in Tennessee politics. Horton had little political experience after beginning a law practice in Marshall County. Horton served a single term in the Tennessee House of Representatives and had been elected to the State Senate in 1926. Despite being a freshman […]
By Ray Hill For decades, Clyde Roark Hoey was one of North Carolina’s most personally popular politicians. Even well before his death, Clyde R. Hoey was something of a caricature. Always immaculately dressed, Hoey favored a frock coat and bat-wing collar long after the style had fallen out of fashion. Hoey wore his hair long […]
By Ray Hill Congressman Clifford Davis of Memphis had served in the House of Representatives since 1940 and in 1959 was the chairman of the House Public Works Committee. A relatively obscure committee to most folks, it became of prime importance to Tennessee. Davis was pushing a bill vital to the Tennessee Valley Authority, a […]
By Ray Hill Jake Lindsey epitomized much about how Americans saw themselves when he joined the army in February of 1940. Lindsay, a resident of the tiny hamlet of Lucedale, Mississippi, joined the armed forces well before the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. The nineteen year-old Mississippian would go on to become one of World War […]
By Ray Hill Charles Evans Hughes achieved just about every high office that could come to one man save one: the presidency, and he came mighty close to achieving that as well. Judge Learned Hand once paid tribute to both Hughes and his son, Charles Evan Hughes, Jr., saying, the elder Hughes was the greatest […]
By Ray Hill There are likely more pedigrees in politics than the American Kennel Club and if anyone ever possessed a pedigree, it would be Robert Alphonso Taft of Ohio. For decades, Robert A. Taft was one of the most prominent members of the United States Senate. The power of his intellect was acknowledged by […]
By Ray Hill Few politicians have a career as successful as that of John William Bricker of Ohio; state attorney general (an elected position in Ohio), three times governor and twice United States senator. Bricker came from very humble beginnings, born on September 6, 1893, along with a twin sister, in Madison County, Ohio. Handsome […]
By Ray Hill “If you trust the people, they will trust you.” Arthur Capper Before there was Bob Dole, there was Arthur Capper. Capper was the most successful politician in Kansas for decades. Of the many campaigns he waged, he lost only one. He served two terms as governor and served in the United States […]