By Ray Hill Congressman Sam R. Sells, a veteran of ten years in the U. S. House of Representatives, was being hard-pressed for the Republican nomination in 1920. Carroll Reece had been a farm boy who had fought with distinction during the First World War and taught...

By Ray Hill The late Howard H. Baker Jr., the first Republican ever to be popularly elected to the United States Senate from Tennessee, has a great claim to being labeled “Mr. Republican” for the modern era.  Yet Brazilla Carroll Reece of Johnson City may have a...

By Ray Hill As 1945 came to a close, the Second World War had been won by the Allied nations. Adolf Hitler had shot himself in his underground bunker as the Red Army overran his capital of Berlin. Benito Mussolini, the Italian dictator, had been executed by his own...

By Ray Hill The fascination with royal families is hardly new.  I well remember just how many people were caught up in the wedding of Prince Charles to Diana Spencer.  Like every capital of a civilized country, Washington, D.C. has a vibrant social life and the visit...

By Ray Hill As the United States Senate considered the nomination of Judge John J. Parker to serve on the U. S. Supreme Court, a variety of allegations were flung about publicly, not the least of which was a member of the Senate having been offered a judgeship if he...

By Ray Hill   In the twentieth century, only four nominees to serve on the Supreme Court of the United States have been rejected; all were the nominees of a Republican president and three of the four were rejected by Democrats, who controlled the United States...

By Ray Hill One of the responsibilities of the United States Senate as set out in the Constitution is that of advising and consenting to nominations made by the Executive Branch of the federal government. Between 1894 and 1968 - - - a span of seventy-four years - - -...