Passed Vice Presidents - # 30 – Charles Dawes

Grave of Charles Dawes (26 July 2023)

Served under Calvin Coolidge

4 March 1873 – 22 November 1875 (died in office)

Preceded by # 29 – Calvin Coolidge

Succeeded by # 31 – Charles Curtis

Born – 27 August 1865

Died – 23 April 1951 (Age 85)

Buried – Rosehill Cemetery, Chicago, IL

Date Visited – 26 July 2023

I’ve sought out quite a few graves in this time of retirement history-photo-tourism. The various quests have brought me to many cemeteries. I can remember being rained on only twice ever and both times were in Chicago.

Our drive from Wisconsin to Michigan this summer certainly got close enough to Rosehill Cemetery in Chicago to pause and pay respects to Calvin Coolidge’s vice president. Charles Dawes was as interesting a person as has ever held the office.

Vice President # 30 – Charles Dawes

His family included a passenger on the Mayflower and his daddy was a Civil War general. Raised and educated in Ohio, he first practiced law in Nebraska. After moving to Chicago in 1893, he became involved with the gas and energy business. Prominence there led to activity in banking and finance. Prominence there led to politics.

Dawes managed William McKinley’s Illinois presidential campaign. The successful election was rewarded with appointment as the national Comptroller of the Currency in the Treasury Department. From the file titled, ‘BEST LAID PLANS’ comes the next chapter. Dawes resigns in the middle of the term to run for senator in Illinois. He figured President McKinley’s support would push him over the finish line. An assassin’s bullet changed that plan. Then new president Teddy Roosevelt supported Dawes’ opponent. Poof. Dawes was done with politics and returned to private sector banking.

However, duty called. During World War I, he enlisted and rose to the rank of brigadier general as he chaired the general purchasing board for the American Expeditionary Forces (AEF). After the war, he was appointed by president Harding as the first Director of what is now the OMB – Office of Management and Budget. From there, he joined Herbert Hoover’s post-war Allied Reparations Commission. His contributions toward restoring Germany earned him the Nobel Peace Prize in 1925.

Grave of Charles Dawes,

Rose Hill Cemetery, Chicago (26 July 2023)

It's now 1924 election time and President Coolidge needs a VP. Coolidge was Harding’s VP, laboring in obscurity when the president’s sudden death vaulted him into the Oval Office. The office was vacant for the remainder of that term. Coolidge chose Dawes as his running mate and won handily. The Roaring 20’s economy and absence of foreign troubles ensured the incumbent’s reelection.

The ensuing term was a rocky one and Dawes’ relationship with Coolidge soured. When Coolidge declined to run again, new candidate Herbert Hoover chose someone else to be his running mate. After serving as our ambassador to the United Kingdom, Dawes again returned to private life.

Grave of Charles Dawes,

Rose Hill Cemetery, Chicago (26 July 2023)

But wait...there’s more.

The man also had musical chops. He taught himself to play the piano and flute and composed some popular music in his day. After he died, someone wrote lyrics to his Melody in A Major. ‘It’s All in the Game’ became a Billboard # 1 pop hit in 1958. Dawes and Sonny Bono are the only two members of the Executive branch or Congress with # 1 Billboard hits, and he and Bob Dylan are the only two Nobel Prize recipients who can make the same claim.

All told, quite an impressive resumé.

Civil War Dead

Rose Hill Cemetery, Chicago (26 July 2023)

Rosehill Cemetery maintains the distinction of being the largest

Private burial ground of Union veterans in the State of Illinois.

Looking for a Live One

Rose Hill Cemetery, Chicago (26 July 2023)

River Cruise Diary – Normandy

We leave single grave stories and return to this year’s river cruise in France and a story about many graves.

The cruise company calls this ‘Day 5’ in the Seine River cruise itinerary though we have not yet floated a meter. We eat and sleep on a fine boat but either walk around the quaint town of Honfleur or take buses to special places. I’ll save the complaints for later because today is a ‘bucket list’ day. We are going to see where D-Day happened and one of the magnificent cemeteries that contain the brave American dead.

Normandy American Cemetery, Colleville-sur-Mer, France (10 April 2023)

We introduced the American Battlefield Monuments Commission last year when the Rhone River cruise in 2006 took us to the American Cemetery in Draguignan. The Commission was created after World War I so we could properly repatriate and honor the more than 100,000 who died in battle. Eight permanent cemeteries were established in Europe then, and fourteen more were added after world War II.

On 172 acres, the Normandy American Cemetery holds the graves of 9,388 service people who died during the 1944 D-Day invasion. Unlike the diversity in the 19th-century cemeteries I frequent that feature monuments big and small, ornate and simple, one is struck by the harmonizing unniformity here. Even Arlington National Cemetery has areas with a variety of grave markers. Here, privates and generals are no different and graves come in but two representations...Christian crosses and Jewish stars.

Normandy American Cemetery, Colleville-sur-Mer, France (10 April 2023)

The color palette also is simple. Green, white and blue...if you’re lucky. Today, it’s grey. Sad that this was the worst weather day of the entire trip. While I have encouraged picture-taking in bad weather, wind and rain together make it difficult to shoot while steadying an umbrella. Nonetheless, the weather suited the mood on this day.

Among the interred, there are 45 pairs of brothers, a father and son, three generals and two of Teddy Roosevelt’s boys. Quentin, who was shot down in WW I and buried at the family home on Long Island, was reburied here with his brother, Theodore, jr. who died in France shortly after D-day.

Memorial Pavilion, Normandy American Cemetery,

Colleville-sur-Mer, France (10 April 2023)

Behind this pavilion is the Wall of the Missing where 1557 names are inscribed. Rosettes are added when identities are confirmed. Our cruise company strives to include some recognition of the nation’s military service somewhere on its European itineraries. At the Rhone Cemetery, veterans from World War II were recognized. That was seventeen years ago and soon we will no longer have living veterans of that conflict. This year’s commemoration invited any military veteran to come forward and receive our appreciation.

Normandy American Cemetery Visitor Center,

Colleville-sur-Mer, France (10 April 2023)

Of all the Commission’s cemeteries, the one here is by far the most-visited. Over a million people come, as I did, to marvel at the location, its beauty and history. A new visitor center and museum was opened in 2007. Toward the end of the visitor’s path through the exhibits is this stark representation of the sacrifice.

‘Les Braves’ by Anilore Banon, Omaha Beach (10 April 2023)

After the cemetery, we were taken down to a stretch of Omaha Beach where we could gain additional perspective...imagining trying to make it safely to shore under a barrage of bullets and cannon fire.

This sculpture’s creator describes it as “Wings of hope and fraternity and the rise of freedom.” I can’t help but also see explosions, flames and the violence of war. “Eye of the beholder” after all. Clearly, we were there during high tide. This link to the monument will show hundreds of feet of open beach exposed during low tide.

Pointe du Hoc (10 April 2023)

Eight miles west of the American Cemetery is Pointe du Hoc, a 100-foot cliff that juts out from the coast. Embedded with heavy German artillery, it needed to be taken since the guns could reach Omaha and Utah beaches and make a mess of the invading forces. Army Rangers scaled the cliffs in a dawn raid that secured the area...at a cost of more than half of their force. The French later placed a monument atop the foremost German fortification to commemorate the event.

Observation Bunker at Pointe du Hoc (10 April 2023)

With little room to operate artillery, this bunker at the edge of the

cliff was there to scout the sea and direct fire toward the invaders.

At least the rain stopped in the afternoon but it was a gloomy day overall. I had to remember that my personal history does not include military service let alone combat, I have great admiration and appreciation for citizens who served and never came home.

With that said, Gentle Reader, I must also note my time here triggered another thought. Sorry if this is a buzz kill but this is my space. Remember that a former Commander-in-Chief (and current presidential candidate who wants to make America great again) called these buried heroes “suckers and losers” and refused to participate in a commemoration in France because the rain would mess up his very special hair.

How many more reasons do we need to reject this menace?

Passed Chief Justices - # 2 – John Rutledge

Bust of Chief Justice Rutledge, U.S. Supreme Court,

Washington, D.C. (11 April 2019)

Among what I call the second tier of Founding Fathers, John Rutledge was a significant contributor to our nation’s independence. He was the first president of the Republic of South Carolina when we first declared independence and the first governor when it became a state. He attended the Constitutional Convention where he made no bones about the South’s absolute need to continue importing slaves.

I can’t help but imagine him addressing the convention...intoning in his finest ‘Foghorn Leghorn’ affectations, “Suh...ah say Suh, the South and all the fine and honorable things it stands for, cannot continue as we know and appreciate it, without the contributions of the chattel slaves we pay to uproot from their homelands across the ocean. Our entire economy is based on it. If you choose to make a big stink about it, you risk breaking up the new country before one is even established.” (something like that...)

I’m guessing this began to strain his popularity with his northern brethren. Read on.

Testimonial Sign at the Grave of John Rutledge,

Charleston, SC (10 March 2014)

This testimonial sign is placed next to the original tombstone.

I believe it gives off a strong image rehab vibe.

Like, ‘Sure, you’ve been told that Madison is the ‘Father of the

Constitution’ and he wrote all those Federalist Papers and

shepherded the process through to completion...

but de Tocqueville thought Rutledge

was the Real Father of the Constitution. So there.’

John Rutledge was one of the five original Associate Justices on the very first Supreme Court. In those early years, as the high court of the new nation was establishing itself, the idea of a lifetime appointment meant less than it does today. The first Chief Justice, John Jay, resigned to run for governor of New York. Before that, Rutledge became the first justice to resign, leaving after just thirteen months to become Chief Justice back home in South Carolina.

After John Jay resigned, President Washington appointed Rutledge to be the second Chief Justice. However, that appointment was made when the Senate was not in session. Recess appointments are permitted in the Constitution, given the Senate, the body required to approve many important federal positions, is not always in session.

Being the hardline absolutist on slavery was bad enough. Rutledge then criticized the Jay Treaty with Britain. The 1795 agreement was intended to address unresolved issues following our war of independence. The upshot was that when the Senate returned to business, they rejected Rutledge’s appointment, thus making his tenure as Chief Justice just 138 days, the shortest of them all.

Steeple of St. Michael’s Church,

Charleston, South Carolina (11 March 2014)

This picture was taken from the harbor where John Rutledge

attempted suicide in 1795. The church marks his final resting place.

Some have argued that since he was never formally approved by the Senate, he should not even be considered among the Chief Justices...but he is included on all the lists that matter...including having his bust in the Supreme Court’s atrium. Who am I to disagree?

Between his two tenures on the Court, he suffered the same sad fate as our 26th president, Teddy Roosevelt, in that both his wife, who bore his ten children, and his mother, passed away on the same day.

The Senate rejection was the last blow for Rutledge. He resigned from the Court and returned to Charleston. Days later, in December of 1795, he attempted suicide by jumping into Charleston Harbor but was rescued (ironically) by two slaves. He remained out of public life until he died in 1800 at age 60.

He currently resides in the graveyard of St. Michael’s Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina. The slab over his grave was replaced in 2010.

Grave of John Rutledge, St. Michael’s Episcopal Church,

Charleston, SC (10 March 2014)

Mr. Rutledge’s grave was restored in 2010 and it appears that the South Carolina climate has already worked to make the inscriptions difficult to read. It says -

John Rutledge

Jurist. Patriot. Statesman.

Member of the Provincial Assembly

Attorney General of South Carolina

Delegate of the Stamp Act Congress

President of South Carolina

Governor of South Carolina

Signatory of the United States Constitution

Chief Justice of South Carolina

Chief Justice of the United States of America

Born 1739, Christ Church Parish

Died July 18th 1800, Charleston

This memorial placed by:

His Descendants

The Society of Colonial Wars in the State of South Carolina

The National Society of the Colonial Dames of America

in the State of South Carolina Lowcountry Town Committee

The Hereditary Order of Descendants of Colonial Governors

M.G. William Moultrie Chapter, Sons of the American Revolution

The Rebecca Motte Chapter, Daughters of the American Revolution

President Rutledge Loyal Orange Lodge No. 1776

2010

Grave of John Rutledge, St. Michael’s Episcopal Church,

Charleston, SC (10 March 2014)

Name – John Rutledge

Born – 17 September 1739; Charleston, SC

Died – 23 July 1800; Charleston, SC (Age 60)

Nominated by – George Washington

Preceded by – John Jay

Succeeded by – Oliver Ellsworth

Served as Chief Justice – 22 August - 28 December 1795

(138 days)

Resting Place – St. Michael’s Episcopal Church, Charleston, SC

Date Visited – 10 March 2014