American judge and politician (1890?1954)
Joel Bennett Clark
(January 8, 1890 ? July 13, 1954), better known as
Bennett Champ Clark
, was a
Democratic
United States senator
from Missouri from 1933 until 1945, and was later a
circuit judge
of the
District of Columbia Circuit
. He was a leading isolationist in foreign policy. In domestic policy he was an anti-New Deal
Conservative Democrat
who helped organize the bipartisan
Conservative coalition
.
[1]
Education and start of career
[
edit
]
Clark was born into a political family; his father was
Champ Clark
, who served as
Speaker of the United States House of Representatives
.
His mother was Genevieve Davis (Bennett) Clark.
[3]
[4]
Clark's sister,
Genevieve Clark Thomson
was also active in politics as a women's suffrage activist.
[3]
Clark was born in
Bowling Green
,
Missouri
,
[5]
and was raised and educated in Bowling Green and
Washington, D.C.
He was a graduate of Washington, D.C.'s
Eastern High School
.
Clark graduated from the
University of Missouri
in
Columbia
, Missouri with a
Bachelor of Arts
degree in 1912 and was a member of
Phi Beta Kappa
.
[6]
In 1914, he graduated from the
George Washington University Law School
with a
Bachelor of Laws
.
[6]
In addition to Phi Beta Kappa, Clark's other academic affiliations included
Order of the Coif
,
Delta Sigma Rho
,
Delta Tau Delta
, and
Phi Delta Phi
.
[7]
Clark became
parliamentarian
of the
United States House of Representatives
in 1913, while still in law school.
He served until 1917,
when he resigned in order to join the
United States Army
for
World War I
.
[5]
In 1916, he was chosen to serve as parliamentarian of that year's
Democratic National Convention
.
[7]
Military service
[
edit
]
Clark joined the United States Army in 1917, completed
Citizens' Military Training Camp
training at
Fort Myer
,
Virginia
, and was commissioned as a
captain
.
He was then elected
lieutenant colonel
and second in command of the 6th Missouri Infantry Regiment, a unit of the
Missouri National Guard
.
This unit was subsequently called to federal service as the
140th Infantry Regiment
, a unit of the
35th Division
.
After arriving in France, Clark served on the headquarters staffs of both the 35th and
88th Divisions
.
In 1919, Clark was promoted to
colonel
while serving in the post-war Army that occupied Germany.
He was an organizer of the first
American Legion
convention in
Paris
, and was elected as the organization's first national commander.
After leaving the Army in 1919, Clark maintained a lifelong active interest in the 35th Division Veterans Association, the American Legion, and the
Veterans of Foreign Wars
.
[7]
From 1919 to 1922, Clark served as president of the
National Guard Association of the United States
.
[7]
Continued career
[
edit
]
In 1919, Clark began practicing law in
St. Louis
, Missouri.
[5]
In the 1920s he researched and authored a biography of
John Quincy Adams
,
[7]
and was active in politics as a campaign speaker for Democratic candidates in Missouri.
[8]
[9]
In 1928 he considered running for the United States Senate seat of the retiring
James A. Reed
, but decided not to make the race.
[10]
Clark was a delegate to the
1928 Democratic National Convention
.
[7]
He served again as a delegate to the
Democratic National Convention
of 1936.
[7]
He was a delegate again
in 1940
, and served as a delegate to the party's national convention
in 1944
.
[7]
In 1944, Clark made the speech nominating
Harry S. Truman
for vice president.
[11]
United States senator
[
edit
]
In the
1932 election
, Clark ran for the
United States Senate
seat held by the retiring
Harry B. Hawes
,
[12]
and relied on his base among veterans to defeat two other candidates for the Democratic nomination.
[13]
Clark defeated
Henry Kiel
in the general election for the term beginning March 4, 1933.
[12]
Hawes resigned on February 3, 1933, a month before his term was to end, and Clark was appointed to fill the vacancy, gaining seniority on other senators elected in 1932.
[12]
Clark was re-elected in the
1938 election
, and served from February 3, 1933, to January 3, 1945.
[12]
In 1944
, Clark was an unsuccessful candidate for renomination, losing the Democratic primary to state Attorney General
Roy McKittrick
, who lost the general election to Republican Governor
Forrest C. Donnell
.
[12]
Clark was chairman of the Senate Committee on Interoceanic Canals from 1937 to 1935.
[12]
He was a member of the Smithsonian Institution's Board of Regents from 1940 to 1944.
[12]
In April 1943, a confidential analysis of the
Senate Foreign Relations Committee
(of which Clark was a member) by British scholar
Isaiah Berlin
for the British
Foreign Office
succinctly characterized Clark as:
a rabid isolationist and member of the
American First Committee
who has steadily voted against all the foreign policies and war measures of the Administration with the exception of the reciprocal trade agreements (in which the corn exporters of Missouri have some interest). A member of the
Wheeler
-
Nye
-[Robert A.]
Taft
coterie. An avowed Anglophobe.
[14]
On January 29, 1944, Clark declared on the floor of the Senate that
Emperor Hirohito
should be
hanged
as a
war criminal
at the war's end. In the same year, he was the first senator to introduce the
G.I. Bill
proposal in the
United States Congress
.
[15]
When Congress began work on the G.I. Bill in 1944 it had originally expressed concern about possible misuse of the "blue discharge" (now called an "
Other Than Honorable discharge
"). In testimony before the United States Senate, Rear Admiral Randall Jacobs strongly opposed the provision to include Veterans with blue discharges on the grounds that it would undermine morale and remove any incentive to maintain a good service record. Senator Clark, a sponsor (writer) of the GI Bill, dismissed his concerns, calling them "some of the most stupid, short-sighted objections which could be raised".
[16]
Clark went on to say:
The Army is giving Blue discharges, namely discharges without honor, to those who have had no fault other than they have not shown sufficient aptitude for military service. I say that when the government puts a man in the military service and, thereafter, because the man does not show sufficient aptitude gives him a blue discharge, or a discharge without honor, that fact should not be permitted to prevent the man from receiving the benefits to which soldiers are generally entitled.
[16]
Federal judicial service
[
edit
]
Clark was nominated by President
Harry S. Truman
on September 12, 1945, to an Associate Justice seat on the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia (United States Circuit Judge of the
United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit
from June 25, 1948) vacated by Associate Justice
Thurman Arnold
.
[5]
He was confirmed by the
United States Senate
on September 24, 1945, and received his commission on September 28, 1945.
[5]
His service terminated on July 13, 1954, due to his death.
[5]
Death and burial
[
edit
]
Clark was ill during the last year of his life and died in
Gloucester
,
Massachusetts
on July 13, 1954.
[12]
He was buried at
Arlington National Cemetery
.
[12]
Awards
[
edit
]
Clark was the recipient of
honorary degrees
from several colleges and universities.
[7]
He received honorary
LL.D.
degrees from the University of Missouri,
Marshall College
,
Bethany College
, and
Washington and Lee University
.
[7]
Family
[
edit
]
In 1922, Clark married Miriam Marsh, the daughter of
Wilbur W. Marsh
.
[11]
They were the parents of three children, Champ, Marsh, and Kimball.
[11]
Miriam Clark died in 1943, and in 1945 Clark married British actress
Violet Heming
.
[11]
The ceremony took place at the
Berryville, Virginia
home of Clark's sister,
[3]
and President Truman served as best man.
[11]
In popular culture
[
edit
]
Clark and other isolationist senators are referenced in the
Woody Guthrie
song
Mister Charlie Lindbergh
.
[17]
Guthrie's 1943 lyrics condemn pre-World War II isolationism and advocate for leaders committed to defeating fascism.
[17]
See also
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
Susan Dunn,
Roosevelt's Purge: How FDR Fought to Change the Democratic Party
(2010) p. 138.
- ^
a
b
c
"Bennett Champ Clark: Son of Champ Clark"
.
Champ Clark.org
. Bowling Green, MO: The Champ Clark House. 2019. Archived from
the original
on December 10, 2019
. Retrieved
December 10,
2019
.
- ^
"Champ Clark's Widow Succumbs in New Orleans"
.
Southeast Missourian
. Cape Girardeau, Missouri.
Associated Press
. June 15, 1937. p. 1
. Retrieved
June 26,
2020
.
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
f
Bennett Champ Clark
at the
Biographical Directory of Federal Judges
, a publication of the
Federal Judicial Center
.
- ^
a
b
Kirkendall, Richard Stewart (1989).
The Harry S. Truman Encyclopedia
. Boston, MA: G. K. Hall & Co. p. 60.
ISBN
978-0-8161-8915-1
– via
Google Books
.
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
f
g
h
i
j
Joint Committee on Printing, US Congress (1954).
Official Congressional Directory
. Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office. p. 513 – via
Google Books
.
- ^
"Bennett Clark to Speak"
.
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
. St. Louis, MO. July 18, 1924. p. 5 – via
Newspapers.com
.
- ^
"Col. Bennett Clark Speaks for Wilson"
.
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
. St. Louis, MO. July 26, 1928. p. 2 – via
Newspapers.com
.
- ^
"James A. Collet, Friend of Reed, Out Against Hay"
.
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
. St. Louis, MO. February 26, 1928. p. 2 – via
Newspapers.com
.
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
Hill, Ray (January 28, 2018).
"Senator Bennett Champ Clark: A Closer Look"
.
The Knoxville Focus
. Knoxville, TN.
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
f
g
h
i
"Clark, Joel Bennett ? Biographical Information"
.
bioguide.congress.gov
.
- ^
"Becker Reduces Winter's lead to 5,478"
.
Sedalia Weekly Democrat
. Sedalia, MO. August 5, 1932. p. 1 – via
Newspapers.com
.
- ^
Hachey, Thomas E. (Winter 1973?1974).
"American Profiles on Capitol Hill: A Confidential Study for the British Foreign Office in 1943"
(PDF)
.
Wisconsin Magazine of History
.
57
(2): 141?153.
JSTOR
4634869
. Archived from
the original
(PDF)
on October 21, 2013.
- ^
"G.I. Bill of Rights"
.
Time
. April 3, 1944.
- ^
a
b
Bennett, Michael J. (1996).
When Dreams Came True: The GI Bill and the Making of Modern America
. London, England: Brassey's Military Books. pp. 141?143.
ISBN
978-1-5748-8041-0
.
- ^
a
b
Guthrie, Woody (1943).
"Mister Charlie Lindbergh"
.
Woody Guthrie.org
. Mt. Kisco, NY: Woody Guthrie Publications, Inc
. Retrieved
December 10,
2019
.
Further reading
[
edit
]
- Spencer, Thomas T. (1981). "Bennett Champ Clark and the 1936 Presidential Campaign".
Missouri Historical Review
.
75
: 197?213.
External sources
[
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]
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