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BEVERIDGE, ALBERT JEREMIAH

Albert Jeremiah Beveridge (1862–1927) was one of the leading political progressives in the United States, and a highly respected historian. He was a champion of U.S. economic growth, but he also sought to protect U.S. workers and consumers.

Albert Beveridge was born on October 6, 1862 in Highland County, Ohio, to Thomas and Frances Beveridge. He had a difficult childhood because of family financial problems. In 1865 his father lost his property and moved the family to a farm in Illinois. Beveridge went to work as a child to help support the family. He worked as a plowboy at age twelve, as a railroad hand at age fourteen, and as a logger at age fifteen. When he was sixteen Beveridge was able to attend high school. After graduating in 1881, he borrowed $50 from a friend to attend Asbury College (now De Pauw University) in Greencastle, Indiana. Beveridge managed to finance the rest of his college education with prize money from oratorical competitions.

Beveridge graduated from college in 1885 and was admitted to the bar in 1887. He then opened his own law practice in Indianapolis, where he built a successful business over the next twelve years. Beveridge continued to use his skills as an orator, this time for the Republican Party. During the late 1880s and early 1890s he became known as one of the party's most capable and enthusiastic campaigners. He quickly became a skilled lawyer and cultivated many friendships among the city's leading political figures.

In 1889 there was a deadlock among the leading Republican candidates for senator and the legislative caucus turned to Beveridge as a compromise candidate. At the age of thirty-six, Beveridge was elected as the youngest member of the United States Senate. In his first term Beveridge spoke out as a firm believer in U.S. imperialism and passionately championed the expansion of United States domination in Canada, Mexico, and the Philippines. He supported an aggressive foreign policy, advocating strong protectionist tariffs for the United States, the annexation of Cuba, and increased economic domination for what he considered to be "backward" societies. He declared that he was for: "American first! Not only America first, but American only!"

In 1905 Beveridge was reelected to the Senate. As the country's overseas interests diminished, Beveridge turned his attention to domestic matters and allied himself with Republican President Theodore Roosevelt (1901–1909). Beveridge became involved in the party insurgency of the time that led to the formation of the Progressive Party. In particular, Beveridge supported equal industrial opportunities, antitrust legislation, government regulation of public service, a strong navy, and the conservation of natural resources.

Beveridge is best known for two pieces of important legislation that he advocated during his second term in the Senate. In 1906 he was strongly influenced by Upton Sinclair's (1878–1968) book The Jungle, which exposed the public to the horrors of unsanitary food preparation in the U.S. meat packing industry. Beveridge fervently fought for the passage of the Pure Food and Meat Inspection Acts aimed at curbing the abuses of this industry. The second important piece of legislation with which Beveridge was actively involved was the Keating-Owen bill, a child labor protection act passed in 1916. Beveridge worked tirelessly for a national child labor law to stop the victimization of children in U.S. factories, and the law was eventually passed five years after Beveridge's term as senator ended.

Because of his outspoken position on some rather controversial issues Beveridge lost his bid for the Senate in 1911. He then joined Roosevelt and the Progressive Party in 1912 and was the keynote speaker at the party's first national convention. In 1914 he ran for Senate as a Progressive but again lost the bid. Beveridge and Roosevelt both rejoined the Republican Party in 1916.

Beveridge was never again elected to political office. While he remained active in politics, he also pursued a career as a historian. He wrote several books throughout his lifetime, but his most influential works came during his later years. Between 1916 and 1919 Beveridge authored a four-volume series on The Life of John Marshall, a biography of the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. The work was awarded a Pulitzer Prize. Beveridge then began another four-volume work, this time on the life of Abraham Lincoln. However, he finished only two volumes before his death on April 27, 1927.

See also: Upton Sinclair

FURTHER READING

American Academy of Arts and Letters. Commemorative Tributes to Beveridge. New York: The American Academy of Arts and Letters, 1929.

Bowers, Claude Gernade. Beveridge and the Progressive Era. New York: The Literary Guild, 1932.

Braeman, John. Albert J. Beveridge: American Nationalist. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1971.

Findling, John E. Dictionary of American Diplomatic History, Second Edition. New York: Greenwood Press, 1989.