John William McCormack

(b. Boston, 21 Dec. 1891; d. Boston, 22 Nov. 1980) US; Member of the US House of Representatives 1928 – 71 McCormack's father was an Irish hod carrier from South Boston; but his early death forced John McCormack to work as a newsboy to earn money to support the family. After working in a law office, he studied law privately and began practice as a lawyer in 1913. After army service in the First World War, he entered Democratic politics and served for six years in the Massachusetts Assembly and Senate (1920 – 6). In 1928 he was elected to fill the congressional vacancy created by the death of James Gallivan and was also elected in his own right to the subsequent Congress. Thereafter he served continuously in the House of Representatives until 1971.

On his first election to the House McCormack established a close friendship with John Nance Garner (who secured his assignment to the Ways and Means Committee) and Sam Rayburn and became part of the inner circle of Democrats, many of whom played poker together. In 1936 he helped Rayburn become majority leader and, when Rayburn became Speaker in 1940, McCormack was in a good position to succeed as majority leader. McCormack held that position (apart from brief spells when Republicans controlled the House) until 1961 when he became Speaker on Rayburn's death. Although he never acquired Rayburn's authority and was constrained by the powerful committee chairmen, he was an impartial and avuncular Speaker.

McCormack was a good constituency member, thoroughly at home with the intricacies of Boston politics; and he was a hard-working Congressman. He became an expert on taxation and finance and developed an interest in space, chairing the House Committee on Science and Astronautics and helping to establish NASA in 1958.

He was an ardent supporter of Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal and of Harry Truman's Fair Deal as well as a believer in civil rights. He was not a complete supporter of his fellow Bostonian John Kennedy, however, partly because Kennedy had failed to help secure a pardon for McCormack's Boston crony James Michael Curley in 1947. In 1961 Kennedy's federal aid to education bill was killed as a result of McCormack's efforts to allow church schools to participate.

A loyal Roman Catholic, McCormack (who was dubbed "the Archbishop") was an adamant anti-Communist and chaired a forerunner of the House Un-American Activities Committee in the 1930s. He was also a pragmatic politician within the Democratic Party, keen to keep its southern and northern wings together through compromise and personal warmth. He played a key role in securing the passage of much of Lyndon Johnson's Great Society programme especially the landmark legislation in the field of civil rights, health care for the elderly, education, and antipoverty measures.

By 1970 McCormack had experienced some criticism from younger Democrats anxious for more vigorous leadership. However, he stepped down of his own accord, choosing not to seek re-election in 1970. He retired to his native Boston.

(b Athlone, 14 June 1884; d Dublin, 16 Sept 1945). Irish tenor, later American. After study in Milan he sang Mascagni's Turiddù at Covent Garden in 1907, returning until 1917 in operas by Gounod, Bellini and Puccini. His fine technique and sweet tone made him a favourite at the Metwhere he sang up to 1918. In the 1920s he appeared as a concert singer, earning some disfavour for his singing of inferior music but giving pleasure with his sweet tone and polished individual style.

U.S. Congressman John William McCormack (1891-1980) served in the House of Representatives for 42 years, including eight as Speaker of the House. During those four decades McCormack helped enact much of the major legislation of the 20th century, including the Social Security Act, the G. I. Bill, the Marshall Plan, and the 1964 Civil Rights Act.

John W. McCormack, the very model of the cigar chewing big-city Irish politician, rose slowly but steadily to the highest circles of power in Washington. McCormack was born in South Boston, Massachusetts, on December 21, 1891, to Joseph H. McCormack, a bricklayer, and Ellen (O'Brien) McCormack. Both Joseph McCormack and Ellen O'Brien were children of Irish immigrants who arrived in the United States during the Irish potato famine in 1848. John McCormack was born into a family of 12 children, but only three survived to be adults. When young McCormack was in the eighth grade at John Andrew Grammar School his father died, and the 13-year-old left school to support the family. After a series of low paying jobs McCormack became an office boy in a Boston law firm. He studied the firm's law books, attended law school at night, and at the age of 21 passed the Massachusetts Bar exam even though he had not completed high school.

McCormack became a successful trial lawyer, but soon was attracted to politics. He joined the Democratic Party and won his first elective office at 25 as a delegate to the Massachusetts Constitutional Convention in 1917. Three years later he married Harriet Joyce, a former singer.

In 1920 McCormack was elected to the Massachusetts House of Representatives and two years later to the State Senate. In 1926 McCormack experienced the only election defeat of his career when he unsuccessfully challenged 12th District Congressman James A. Gallivan in the Democratic primary. Following that defeat he resumed his law practice, but when Gallivan died in office in 1928 McCormack won a special election for the vacant seat and was later reelected 21 times.

McCormack's repeated victories were attributed to his style of personal politics. He knew every ward of the district - its fish piers, tenements, and modest working class homes. Before the social welfare legislation of the 1930s was enacted the young congressman trudged through the 12th District each Thanksgiving and Christmas passing out canned goods and turkeys. Although the district changed from predominantly Irish to an ethnically and racially mixed area of Italians, Eastern Europeans, and African Americans, McCormack remained popular. The congressman's Washington office was once described as "chummy chaos," as constituents often dropped in for unscheduled meetings.

Although often considered one of the last practitioners of old-style machine politics, much of McCormack's popularity stemmed from his 40-year advocacy of social legislation designed to assist the working class voters of his district. As one of the earliest supporters of the New Deal he helped win passage of key measures such as the National Housing Act (1934), Social Security (1936), and the National Minimum Wage Act (1938). In 1944 he supported the G. I. Bill, and while Speaker of the House of Representatives between 1962 and 1970 he presided over the massive outpouring of domestic legislation in one of the most productive eras of Congress including the Civil Rights Act (1964), Medicare (1965), and Model Cities (1966). In 1970 McCormack helped enact the law lowering the voting age to 18, and in one of his last speeches before the House in August of that year he urged passage of the Equal Rights Amendment.

McCormack's fervent anti-Communism dominated his foreign policy views. However, he argued that economic aid was often more effective than military aid in combating communist aggression. Consequently, he supported the Marshall Plan to reconstruct Europe after World War II. He urged economic aid for Korea, Formosa, and the Middle East in the 1950s, and in 1961 he helped pass the Peace Corps Act. Recognizing the importance of the space race with the Soviet Union, McCormack in 1958 sponsored the bill creating the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). McCormack's staunch anti-Communism also led him to support American involvement in the Vietnam War, prompting criticism by other liberal Democrats.

John W. McCormack's long climb to Speaker of the House of Representatives began in 1936 when he backed Texas Congressman Sam Rayburn's successful bid to become House majority leader. Four years later when Rayburn became Speaker he chose McCormack as the new majority leader. McCormack served as Rayburn's political confidant and deputy for 21 years, and in January 1962 at the age of 70 he was elected Speaker after Rayburn's death.

McCormack's handling of the Speakership position evoked much criticism. Some in Congress felt he lacked the strong leadership qualities of his predecessor and that he too readily compromised on major legislative issues. Young, liberal House Democrats were concerned with his unwavering support of the Vietnam War and his close friendship with Southern conservatives. In January 1969 McCormack faced the first of two challenges to his authority as House Speaker. Arizona Representative Morris Udall, claiming there was "an overriding need for new directions and new leadership" in the House, became the first congressman to attempt to unseat as Speaker a member of his own party. McCormack defeated the challenge, but his prestige and authority were weakened. In 1970 California Democratic Congressman Jerome Waldie placed a resolution of no confidence in McCormack before the House Democratic Caucus. The Speaker's supporters defeated the resolution, but they nevertheless made concessions to disgruntled House Democrats.

While facing these political challenges McCormack's long career was for the first time tainted by scandal. In October 1969 columnist Jack Anderson and LIFE magazine independently revealed that Martin Sweig, McCormack's administrative assistant and protege of 24 years, and Martin Voloshen, a professional lobbyist and close friend of the Speaker, had taken payments in exchange for interceding in various criminal cases and arranging government contracts. Voloshen pleaded guilty to influence peddling in the subsequent trial, and Sweig was convicted. Although McCormack was not implicated in any wrong doing, the scandal, the challenges to his authority as Speaker, and his wife's prolonged illness prompted the 78-year-old congressman to announce his retirement in May 1970. Following his wife's death in Washington in 1971 McCormack returned to Boston, where he lived on the income from his congressional pension. He died in a nursing home on November 22, 1980.

Further Reading

No book length biographies currently exist on McCormack. However, brief discussions of his life and political accomplishments can be found in Robert Sobel, editor, U.S. Congress, House, Biographical Directory of the American Congress, 1774-1971 (1971); Eleanora W. Schoenebaum, editor, Political Profiles: The Nixon/Ford Years (1979); and the New York Times Biographical Service (1980).

Additional Sources

Memorial addresses and other tributes in the Congress of the United States on the life and contributions of John W. McCormack, Washington: U.S. G.P.O., 1981.

McCormack, W[illiam] J[ohn] (1947- ), poet (pseudonym ‘Hugh Maxton’) and critic. Born near Aughrim, Co. Wicklow, and educated at TCD, he taught English at NUU (now UUC), Leeds, and became Professor at Goldsmith's College in 1996. In poetry collections such as Stones (1970), The Noise of the Fields (1976), Jubilee for Renegades (1982), At the Protestant Museum (1985), and The Engraved Passion: New and Selected Poems 1970-1991 (1992) lyricism achieves resonance and gravity of tone. As a critic he has focused on the complexities of Anglo-Irish literary tradition in Sheridan Le Fanu and Victorian Ireland (1980); Ascendancy and Tradition in Anglo-Irish History, 1789-1939 (1985); and Dissolute Characters (1993). The Battle of the Books (1986) appraises Irish cultural issues. A biography of Synge was published in 2000.

John William McCormack
53rd Speaker of the United States House of Representatives
In office January 10, 1962 – January 3, 1971
President	John F. Kennedy Lyndon B. Johnson Richard Nixon
Preceded by	Sam Rayburn
Succeeded by	Carl Albert
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Massachusetts's 12th district
In office November 6, 1928 – January 3, 1963
Preceded by	James A. Gallivan
Succeeded by	Hastings Keith
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Massachusetts's 9th district
In office January 3, 1963 – January 3, 1971
Preceded by	Hastings Keith
Succeeded by	Louise D. Hicks
Born	December 21, 1891 (1891-12-21) Boston, Massachusetts
Died	November 22, 1980 (1980-11-23) (aged 88) Dedham, Massachusetts
Political party	Democratic
Spouse(s)	Harriet McCormack
Profession	Law
Religion	Roman Catholic

John William McCormack (December 21, 1891 – November 22, 1980) was an American politician from Boston, Massachusetts.

McCormack served as a member of United States House of Representatives from 1928 until he retired from political life in 1971. As a Democrat, McCormack served as House Majority Leader three times, the first time from 1940 to 1947, the second time from 1949 to 1953, and again from 1955 to 1961. He served as Speaker of the House of Representatives from 1962 until 1971.

Contents 1 Early life 2 Political career 3 Speaker of the House of Representatives 4 Personal life and attributes 5 References 6 Bibliography 7 External links

Early life

McCormack was born to Joseph H. McCormack, a hod carrier, and Ellen (née O'Brien) McCormack. His parents were both the children of Irish immigrants who had arrived during the Irish potato famine in 1848. There were 12 children, of whom three survived to adulthood. McCormack was 13 when his father died; he quit school after the eighth grade to help support his widowed mother and family as a $3-a-week errand boy for a brokerage firm. His career began when he shifted to a law firm for a 50-cent raise and studied law on the side. Attending law school at night, he passed the Massachusetts bar exam in 1913 at age 21 without having completed high school.

Political career

In 1916 the Massachusetts legislature and electorate approved a calling of a Constitutional Convention.^[1] In May 1917 McCormack was elected to serve as a member of the Massachusetts Constitutional Convention of 1917, representing the 11th Suffolk District of the Massachusetts House of Representatives.

He served in the United States Army in World War I in 1917 and 1918. Making a name as a Boston trial lawyer, he moved up the ranks in the state legislature (serving in the House from 1920 to 1922 and in the Senate from 1923 to 1926), and was elected to the United States Congress in 1928 to fill the vacancy caused by the death of James A. Gallivan.

He moved up fast in the House, thanks to Speaker John Nance Garner, who put him on the powerful Ways and Means Committee in his second term. A New Deal supporter, he maintained an unwaveringly liberal voting record to the end. In 1934 he served as chair of the Special Committee on Un-American Activities a precursor to the House Un-American Activities Committee. The main goal of the committee was investigating Nazi propaganda. He was a staunch anti-Communist crusader as well. He played a key role in extending the military draft just before the Attack on Pearl Harbor at a time when isolationism still ran high.

In 1936 McCormack backed Sam Rayburn's bid to become Speaker; when the latter did so in 1940, he chose McCormack as Floor Leader (Majority and Minority Leader, depending on who controlled a particular Congress), serving until Rayburn died in 1961. He was quite belligerent in this role, usually on the floor during a session, slumped in a front row seat holding a dead cigar, ready to leap into debate with a partisan bite. During the 1950s, his method of urging bi-partisan support was to yell across at Republicans that President Dwight D. Eisenhower would never have got anything done without Democratic help.

Speaker of the House of Representatives

His tenure was marked with an undercurrent of dissent among younger, liberal Democratic members who champed at the bit for committee assignments and complained that power was centered in a small, old group of Democratic leaders. McCormack, also known as "Old Jawn", did not exert much pressure on such party rebels. Later, he presided over the issue of refusing to seat Representative Adam Clayton Powell (D-NY). The incident resulted in the Speaker being named in a noted United States Supreme Court case, Powell v. McCormack, with Powell prevailing.

McCormack's nine years as Speaker saw landmark legislation in the fields of civil rights (for which he fought early on), education, health care for the elderly and welfare – it was he who presided over the Great Society Congress. However, the latter part of his tenure saw increasing focus on the Vietnam War, which he supported. His manner changed during these years: he was impeccably fair and impartial, never ignoring an obstreperous member seeking recognition to make a troublesome point of order. His rare floor speeches usually were restrained. His demeanor generally was that of a kindly elder relative with an unruly brood. According to one member, his strength was his personal consideration of members, which inspired in return affection and a desire to help; his weakness, that he couldn't control the powerful committee chairmen who wield great power in the House. A tall, thin, silver-haired, teetotaling Irishman who liked to wheel and deal with an arm around the shoulder, he maintained warm ties with some Southerners whom Rayburn could never budge, but never quite mastered Rayburn's talent for making the House behave.

McCormack could properly claim that he was a "national" congressman. He fought for farm bills, even though he said he hadn't "more than five flower pots in my whole district." On a close vote on a cotton bill, the Speaker could be found sweeping members from the lobbies onto the floor, the job of an assistant whip.

At times he was beset by problems. The House met all year in 1963 without finishing its work, and wound up sitting through one futile all-night session, finally passing the last bill at a 7 a.m. session. The House Appropriations Committee conducted an unseemly squabble with the Senate all through 1962 over where to meet, and Appropriations Committee Chairman Clarence Cannon closed the session with a speech blasting the House leadership as the worst he had seen in 40 years.

McCormack (standing) speaking at a Department of Defense luncheon, February 1966.

Between the assassination of John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963 and the swearing-in of Hubert Humphrey as Vice President on January 20, 1965, McCormack was the first person in the line of succession for the Presidency, and he received Secret Service protection. When Kennedy died in 1963, McCormack recalled his experiences serving as next-in-line in an article he wrote for The Boston Globe.

In January 1969, Arizonan Morris Udall attempted to unseat and replace McCormack. In 1970, the sniping by young liberals at McCormack increased and several congressmen urged him to step down because he was too old. One Congressman, Jerome R. Waldie of California, asked a party caucus to declare a lack of confidence in his leadership; it did not. McCormack kept his decision to leave the House a secret from his closest friends there until he announced it publicly in May 1970.

He died of pneumonia in a nursing home on November 22, 1980. He is buried in Saint Joseph Cemetery, West Roxbury, Massachusetts.

In 1983, the University of Massachusetts Boston established the John W. McCormack Institute of Public Affairs, named in McCormack's honor. In 2003 it was expanded into the John W. McCormack Graduate School of Policy Studies.

Personal life and attributes

In 1920, McCormack married Harriet Joyce, a former singer; the couple had no children. While Congress was in session, they lived at the Washington Hotel. Their devotion to each other was legendary; it was said that they never spent a night apart until she died. If the Speaker was kept late on business, his wife always went up to have dinner with him. She died in December 1971, aged 87. For more than a year, he had spent every night in an adjoining hospital room. He then went home to Boston the following month, after his retirement.

McCormack had few hobbies except politics. In earlier days, he was known as a good high stakes poker player. He never flew in an airplane until 1961, when he attended Rayburn's funeral. He drove the 450 miles from Washington to Boston or went up on the night sleeper train.

The Speaker and his wife were devout Roman Catholics. Both were honored by the Vatican. He was the first Catholic to be elected Speaker, and some critics complained that this religion sometimes showed in his leadership qualities. An example cited was the 1961 school aid debacle when McCormack insisted that church schools should share in a federal aid program. The bill died on this issue. But in 1963 McCormack helped push through the largest education program in history, much of which went to public institutions only.

At home in his district, he could usually be found visiting sick rooms or political clubs. His personal kindnesses were legion, and if he harbored vindictiveness it was hard to see. Pundits predicted foot-dragging by the Speaker after President Kennedy's 30-year-old brother Ted won a Senate seat from Edward J. McCormack, Jr., the elder McCormack's favorite nephew, the highest Democratic officeholder in the state, and a logical candidate. McCormack never showed by word or deed that he bore a grudge.

References

This article includes a list of references or external links, but its sources remain unclear because it has insufficient inline citations. Please help to improve this article by introducing more precise citations where appropriate. (October 2009)

1. ^ Journal of the Constitutional Convention of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Boston, MA: Wright & Potter printing co., state printers, 1919, pp. 7-8, 11. 

Bibliography

• "Ex-House Speaker John McCormack Dies", The Washington Post, November 23, 1980.
• Journal of the Constitutional Convention of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts (1919) pp. 7–8, 11, 865, 971.

External links

• John William McCormack at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
• John William McCormack at Find a Grave

United States House of Representatives
Preceded by James A. Gallivan	Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Massachusetts's 12th congressional district November 6, 1928–January 3, 1963	Succeeded by Hastings Keith
Preceded by Hastings Keith	Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Massachusetts's 9th congressional district January 3, 1963–January 3, 1971	Succeeded by Louise Day Hicks
Party political offices
Preceded by Sam Rayburn	House Majority Leader September 16, 1940 – January 3, 1947	Succeeded by Charles A. Halleck
Preceded by Charles A. Halleck	House Majority Leader January 3, 1949 – January 2, 1953	Succeeded by Charles A. Halleck
Preceded by Charles A. Halleck	House Majority Leader 1955–1961	Succeeded by Carl Albert
Preceded by Sam Rayburn	Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives January 10, 1962–January 3, 1963; January 9, 1963–January 3, 1965; January 4, 1965–January 3, 1967; January 10, 1967–January 3, 1971	Succeeded by Carl Albert

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v • d • e Majority Leaders of the United States House of Representatives Payne • Underwood • Kitchin • Mondell • Longworth • Tilson • Rainey • Byrns • Bankhead • Rayburn • McCormack • Halleck • McCormack • Halleck • McCormack • Albert • Boggs • O'Neill • Wright • Foley • Gephardt • Armey • DeLay • Blunt (acting) • Boehner • Hoyer

v • d • e Minority Whips of the United States House of Representatives Underwood • Lloyd • Dwight • Burke • Hamilton • Oldfield • McDuffie • Bachmann • Englebright • Arends • McCormack • Arends • McCormack • Arends • Michel • Lott • Cheney • Gingrich • Bonior • Pelosi • Hoyer • Blunt • Cantor

Persondata
NAME	McCormack, John William
ALTERNATIVE NAMES
SHORT DESCRIPTION	American politician
DATE OF BIRTH	December 21, 1891
PLACE OF BIRTH	Boston, Massachusetts
DATE OF DEATH	November 22, 1980 (aged 88)
PLACE OF DEATH	Dedham, Massachusetts

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