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MCADOO, WILLIAM GIBBS 1863-1941

CANDIDATE FOR THE DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL NOMINATION, 1920, 1924

Secretary of the Treasury

Born in Georgia during the Civil War, William G. McAdoo received his college education at the University of Tennessee, became a lawyer, and left his native South, at age twenty-nine, for opportunities in New York, where he developed considerable experience as an attorney of high finance. Although never elected to public office, McAdoo's political activism began when he worked in Woodrow Wilson's 1910 campaign for governor of New Jersey and continued through Wilson's successful presidential bid in 1912. After winning the presidency Wilson appointed McAdoo as secretary of the treasury because the New York lawyer had financial expertise but was not tainted by Wall Street connections. McAdoo's most important responsibility was financing the war, a duty that ultimately made the treasury secretary unpopular with progressives when he endorsed a tax plan that drew heavily upon middle- and lower-class incomes. Overburdened by the stresses associated with his wartime responsibilities, McAdoo resigned his cabinet office when the European conflict ended.

Presidential Aspirations, 1920

Since McAdoo was Woodrow Wilson's son-in-law and secretary of the treasury, many anticipated that he would become Wilson's political successor. But McAdoo, along with other Democratic hopefuls, fell victim to Wilson's indecisiveness regarding his own thirdterm candidacy. Without Wilson's endorsement, McAdoo hesitated to declare his intentions to seek the nomination. While privately McAdoo solicited support for himself, publicly he remained quiet about the idea. McAdoo's name, however, was placed in nomination at the Democratic convention in 1920, and he remained in the balloting until a fellow progressive, Ohio governor James Cox, won the presidential nomination on the forty-fourth ballot.

Advocate of Rural, Dry Forces

The 1920 loss did not end McAdoo's aspirations for the presidency. As part of his strategy for 1924, McAdoo, realizing he could never win the support of the New York delegation, made California his home. Instead of seeking the eastern urban vote, the former secretary of the treasury opted to pursue a West-South coalition. With his new ties in California and his native roots in the South, the strategy seemed plausible. As an outspoken advocate of Prohibition, McAdoo quickly endeared himself to rural Americans. But once he decided to pursue this course, he inevitably needed to solicit Ku Klux Klan support. McAdoo's acceptance of the Klan's endorsement diminished his appeal to immigrants and progressives, and it helped polarize the Democratic party into rival rural and urban camps. McAdoo's association with Edward L. Doheny, an oil millionaire who bribed Secretary of the Interior Albert B. Fall to lease government oil reserves, further diminished his appeal to progressives.

McAdoo's Defeat

Despite advice to the contrary, McAdoo waged a bitter fight throughout 1924 with New York governor Al Smith. Yet neither man could garner the two-thirds vote needed for the nomination. So following an intense convention struggle, McAdoo, along with Smith, had to capitulate to compromise candidate John Davis. Unwilling or unable to mount another fight against Al Smith, McAdoo ended his quest for the presidency long before the 1928 campaign season began, paving the way for Smith's triumph at the Democratic Convention. McAdoo returned to his private law practice in Los Angeles and served as chairman of the board of the government-owned American President Lines until his death in 1941.

Progressive Career

The 1924 campaign was, in many respects, an aberration from McAdoo's otherwise progressive career. Reactionary forces such as the Klan supported McAdoo generally because he was the only strong rural candidate. He had advocated lower tariffs, federal regulation of American shipping, federal financing of elections, and federal insurance of bank deposits. McAdoo served as a transitional figure between the Progressive reform movement of the early twentieth century and the more government-sponsored reform of the 1930s—the New Deal that Franklin Roosevelt fashioned to address the problems of the Great Depression.