Josephus Daniels (May 18, 1862 – January 15, 1948) was an American
politician and newspaper publisher from North Carolina, who served as Secretary of the Navy during World War I.
Early life and career
A native of Washington, North Carolina, Daniels moved with his mother and
two siblings to Wilson, North Carolina after his father was accidentally killed
by Confederate troops during the Civil War. [1] He was educated at Wilson Collegiate Institute.
He edited and eventually purchased a local newspaper, the Wilson Advance. Within a few years, he became part owner of the
Kinston Free Press and the Rocky Mount Reporter. [2] He studied law at the University of
North Carolina at Chapel Hill and was admitted to the bar in 1885, but he did not practice law. After becoming increasingly involved in the North Carolina Democratic Party and taking over the weekly paper Daily State
Chronicle, he was North Carolina's state printer in 1887-93 and
chief clerk of the Federal Department of the Interior under
Grover Cleveland in 1893-95.
In 1888, Daniels married Addie Worth Bagley, the granddaughter of former Governor Jonathan
Worth.
News and Observer
In 1894, Daniels acquired a controlling interest in the Raleigh
News & Observer, which led him to leave his federal office. The paper
was unabashed in its advocacy for the Democratic Party, which at the time was struggling against a fusion of the Republicans and Populists.
[3]
Daniels and other Democrats launched a "White Supremacy" campaign to appeal to racist
sentiment. That led to Democratic victories in 1898 and 1900 and to the disfranchisement of African Americans. On December 15, 2005, the 1898 Wilmington Race Riot
Commission noted in its draft report that Daniels' involvement in the overthrow of the elected city government of Wilmington, NC, by actively
promoting white supremacy in The News and Observer was so significant that he has been referred to as the "precipitator of
the riot."
Secretary of the Navy
He supported Woodrow Wilson in the 1912 presidential
election, and after Wilson's victory was appointed as Secretary of the
Navy. He held the post from 1913 to 1921, throughout the
Wilson administration, overseeing the Navy during World War I. Future U.S. President
Franklin D. Roosevelt served as his Assistant Secretary of the Navy. In 1921 he resumed the
editorship of the Raleigh News and Observer.
Daniels shaking hands with his successor as Secretary of the Navy,
Edwin Denby.
Secretary Daniels believed in government ownership of armorplate factories, and of telephones and telegraphs. At the end of
the First World War he made a serious attempt to have the Navy control all radio transmitters in the United States. If he had
succeed amateur radio would have ended, and it is likely that radio broadcasting would have been substantially delayed.
Daniels is also remembered for having banned alcohol from United States Navy ships
in General Order 99 of
1 June 1914, as well as trying to replace them with
grape juice. This is one theory for the origin of the naval term "cup of joe" to refer to a cup of coffee. In 1917 Daniels ordered the closure
of the Storyville District in New Orleans [4]. Daniels wrote The Navy and the Nation (1919).
During World War One, Daniels created the Naval Consulting Board to encourage
inventions that would be helpful to the Navy. Daniels asked Thomas Edison to chair the
Board. Daniels was worried that the US was unprepared for the new conditions of warfare and needed new technology.[5]
The Navy named USS Josephus Daniels (DLG/CG-27) for the
Secretary. It was in commission from 1965 to 1994. One of the recruit
barracks at the Navy's Recruit Training Center in Great Lakes, Illinois is
also named for him.
Later life
Daniels strongly supported Franklin Roosevelt for president in 1932. Roosevelt then appointed his former boss and long time
friend United States Ambassador to Mexico as part of his Good
Neighbor Policy. Upon Daniels' arrival, a group of Mexicans stoned the American Embassy. Although the American naval bombardment
in April 1914 of the Mexican Naval Academy at Vera Cruz was blamed on then Secretary of the Navy Daniels, he had disagreed with
the act and only proceeded when ordered to by Wilson. After accepting the appointment as Ambassador in order to try and heal the
rift the invasion had created between the two nations, his speeches and policies while serving as Ambassador to Mexico did
greatly improve U. S. - Mexican relations. He praised a proposed Mexican plan for universal popular education and, in a speech to
U. S. consular officials, advised them to refrain from interfering too much in the affairs of other nations. Daniels also favored
the Loyalist cause in the Spanish Civil War, realizing that a collapse of the Spanish government would have dire affects on
Mexico. In 1941, when his son Jonathan was named a special assistant to FDR, Josephus resigned his post in Mexico to return to
North Carolina and resume the editor's post at the News & Observer and continued his outspoken editorial style.
Daniels had married Addie Worth Bagley on May 2, 1888, and the Daniels family grew to include four sons: Josephus, Worth
Bagley, Jonathan Worth, and Frank A. III. After Addie Daniels died in 1943, the S.S. Addie Daniels was commissioned in her honor
in 1944.
Daniels published several recollections of his years in public office. The Navy and the Nation, a collection of Daniels' war
addresses as Secretary of the Navy, was published in 1919; Our Navy at War followed in 1922; the Life of Woodrow Wilson was
published in 1924; and The Wilson Era in 1944.
Josephus Daniels died on January 15, 1948. During the course of his life, Daniels operated several newspapers, culminating
with the News & Observer, which is still in operation today. He served in public office with a strong belief in improving
conditions for labor and the working class. The story of Daniels' life closely mirrors that of North Carolina during the same
time period. From the catastrophe of Civil War to national prominence, Daniels was a prime example of the strengths and
weaknesses that marked the progress of his state. From the continuing presence of the News & Observer to the public middle
school in Raleigh which bears his name, the influence of Josephus Daniels continues to be felt.In 1941, he retired to Raleigh due
to his wife's poor health. After completing a five-volume autobiography in which he expressed regret over the vicious attacks
(but not the overall righteousness) of the White Supremacy campaign, he died in Raleigh in 1948 at the age of eighty-five.
Daniels divided his shares of the News and Observer among all his children, one of whom, Jonathan Worth Daniels, became editor.[6] Eight years after he died, the new Daniels Middle
School was named after him.
Notes
- ^ Kenneth Joel Zogry. "Josephus, Jonathan, and Frank Daniels." in The Tar
Heel Century. 2002. p. 302.
- ^ Kenneth Joel Zogry. "Josephus, Jonathan, and Frank Daniels." in The Tar
Heel Century. 2002. p. 302.
- ^ Kenneth Joel Zogry. "Josephus, Jonathan, and Frank Daniels." in The Tar
Heel Century. 2002. p. 303.
- ^ http://chn.loyno.edu/history/journal/1996-7/Stanonis.html
- ^ L. N. Scott, Naval Consulting Board of the United States
(Washington, 1920), 286.
- ^ Kenneth Joel Zogry. "Josephus, Jonathan, and Frank Daniels." in The Tar
Heel Century. 2002. p. 304.
Bibliography
Daniels, Josephus. Editor in Politics. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 1941.
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