Passed Vice Presidents - # 35 – Alben Barkley

Grave of Alben Barkley (13 July 2023))

Served under Harry S. Truman

20 January 1949 – 20 January 1953

Preceded by # 34 – Harry S. Truman

Succeeded by # 36 – Richard Nixon

Born – 24 November 1877

Died – 30 April 1956 (Age 78)

Buried – Mount Kenton Cemetery, Paducah, KY

Date Visited – 13 July 2023

Last summer’s road trip nabbed six VP graves. While I see a chance to maybe grab one or two more, it’s hard to imagine this endeavor being completed. Some of these guys are too far off the beaten path. Shame I didn’t think about this during earlier quests since two VP’s are in heartland state capitol cities. Thankfully, my circuitous drive to Wisconsin was ripe with opportunities.

While a few states have small portions of their territory in another time zone, Kentucky is the one state that is almost split down the middle. This is how you make up time – I leave my motel at 0900 and drive west. Fifteen minutes later, it’s 0815.Ta-DAAH.

Two days in Kentucky and I fully traversed the state and its two time zones, ending the second day in the once-bustling Ohio River town of Paducah. In the days of railroads and river boats, the city was a major hub of activity. The last of the four-grave, Kentucky haul ended with a visit to Harry Truman’s VP, Alben Barkley. Unlike some of the lightweights I’ve seen in my lifetime like Dan Quayle and Mike Pence...people picked for a job where nothing is expected, Barkley was working the Washington halls of power for thirty-six years before he landed the Number Two spot in 1948.

Grave of Alben Barkley, Mt. Kenton Cemetery,

Paducah, KY (13 July 2023)

In Barkley’s time, the party affiliation in the early 20th-century South was solidly Democratic. However, along with the Confederate segregationists, Barkley was the occasional liberal in their number.

After serving in county positions, he was elected to the House in 1913. He served there until 1927 after which he was elected to the Senate. He so effectively supported Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal policies, the Democrats elected him Senate Majority Leader, a position he held for ten years. When the war took most of the president’s attention, Majority Leader Barkley supported the administration’s domestic agenda.

 

Vice President Alben Barkley

By Hessler Studio, Washington, D. C. - Truman Presidential Library,

It stands to reason that Mr. Barkley would get along with fellow Democrat, Missouri Senator Harry Truman. After all, their states share the same river. Then Harry hits the career lottery by going from FDR’s latest invisible vice president to the top job.

The senator hung in there and helped the new president manage the domestic post-WW II scene. By election year, 1948, Truman’s unpopularity was an issue, but Barkley gave such a rousing endorsement speech at the Democrat convention, he was nominated as Truman’s running mate and they sailed to that famous upset win over Republican Tom Dewey.

As vice presidents go, I would suggest Barkley was one of the more-engaged examples. With president Truman preoccupied with the Korean War, the vice president fronted for the rest of the administration’s agenda.

Grave of Alben Barkley, Mt. Kenton Cemetery,

Paducah, KY (13 July 2023)

After his term as vice president, he considered a run for the presidency. When labor leaders refused to support him because of his age, he bowed out. He was 74 at the time...younger than the two presumptive nominees this year. With that settled, the diligent public servant returned to the Senate in 1954. Two years later, a heart attack proved the unions correct in their concerns...but it still ended a pretty successful career of public service.

In a special location under the rotunda of the Kentucky capitol in Frankfort, there is a statue of the vice president.

Statue of Alben Barkley

Kentucky Capitol, Frankfort (9 June 2008)

The plaque on the base says,

MEMBER OF THE UNITED STATES

HOUSE AND SENATE. MAJORITY

LEADER OF THE UNITED STATES

SENATE, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE

UNITED STATES

Grave of Dorothy Barkley, Mt. Kenton Cemetery,

Paducah, KY (13 July 2023)

Mr. Barkley’s first wife is buried with him. She also died of heart disease.

We conclude this tribute with the tabloid portion of the post.

Winning the 1948 election made Barkley, at 71, the oldest person elected to the vice presidency. That same year, he also remarried. Jane Hadley was 33 years younger AND (clutch your pearls) a Republican! In 1940, she worked for FDR’s opponent and felt strongly enough that when her milkman expressed support for Roosevelt, she left him a note – “No Wilkie, no milkie.” But the VP was smitten and he pursued her. They married in 1949. She died of a heart attack in 1964 at age 52 and is buried in Missouri. One wonders how today’s media would treat all that.

Passed Vice Presidents - # 9 – Richard Mentor Johnson

Grave of Richard M. Johnson (12 July 2023)

Served under Martin Van Buren

4 March 1837 – 4 March 1841

Preceded by # 8 – Martin Van Buren

Succeeded by # 10 – John Tyler

Born – 17 October 1780

Died – 19 November 1850 (age 70)

Buried – Frankfort Cemetery, Frankfort, KY

Date Visited – 12 July 2023

In a quaint cemetery in Kentucky’s capital city of Frankfort, you can find the last resting place of Daniel Boone and an impressive war memorial dedicated to those who fought in all the nation’s conflicts. Placed squarely in front of the Memorial is the grave of our ninth vice president, Richard Mentor Johnson.

Richard Mentor Johnson was a Kentucky lawyer, soldier, politician and slave owner. He served in the Kentucky legislature before representing the state in the U.S. House and Senate. Along the way, he also went to war. In the War of 1812, he raised a militia of Kentucky volunteers who fought the British and their Indian allies in the western territories and Canada. In the Battle of the Thames in Canada, Colonel Johnson served under future president William Henry Harrison who defeated the Shawnee Confederacy and their famous chief Tecumseh. Many reported that Johnson, who was shot five times in the battle, personally killed the chief. Though never verified, this attribution served him well in his future political career.

Kentucky War Memorial and

Grave of Richard Johnson (12 July 2023)

In the first half of the 19th century, as the new nation seriously expanded westward, there were inevitable conflicts with the people who had lived there for thousands of years. It was one thing to occasionally ally with certain tribes during our colonial wars, but the restless new nation had lands to settle and the native residents were now in the way. As a result, our electoral politics of the time favored Indian fighters. President Andrew Jackson was hugely popular for clearing out the natives from the southeast. William Henry Harrison won decades after he defeated Tecumseh.

Portrait of Richard Mentor Johnson by John Neagle [1843]

National Gallery of Art / Wikimedia Commons

The president who served after Jackson and before Harrison was Martin Van Buren. He was a dumpy dandy lawyer from New York with no military experience. Who better to have as a running mate but the guy who killed Tecumseh? His exploits helped the Van Buren ticket prevail.

But wait.

Van Buren, Andrew Jackson’s vice president, handily won the popular and Electoral College votes. However, the fine and proper gentlemen from Virginia became ‘faithless electors’ and refused to cast their 23 votes for Johnson because his deceased common-law wife was one of his slaves. Apparently, it was OK to rape your slaves or keep them as concubines but to call one your bride and educate the resulting children was a bridge too far. This forced a vote in the Senate where, under the authority of the Twelfth Amendment, Johnson secured his victory. This was the only time in our history when the Senate decided a vice presidential race.
   

Relief Figure on Grave of Richard Mentor

Johnson, Frankfort Cemetery (12 July 2023)

When his father died in 1815, Johnson was bequeathed Julia Chinn, an octaroon slave. Octaroon means she was seven-eighths White. But that don’t matter none in the land of ‘One Drop of Negro Blood Makes You Negro.’ She was property like the cows in the field. However, she was literate and educated and Richard was smitten. She became more than a mistress. He referred to her as his bride. She ran the plantation when he was away in Washington and the staff understood Julia was in charge. Kentucky law prohibited marrying a slave but Johnson would not free her. They had two daughters who were educated and married White men.

There are no accurate descriptions of Ms. Chinn but I’m guessing she could pass for White and did not look anything like the images used to besmirch Johnson when things got dicey.

Racialized Depiction of Julia Chinn

By Robinson, Henry R., -1850.

https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=99631575

Johnson was a popular representative of the people, advocating on behalf of debtors, army reform issues, and bills for widows and veterans. He founded the Choctaw Academy, a school to educate Native boys. Julia Chinn ran it. She also nursed the sick there and died of the cholera that ravaged the Academy in 1833. I find it strange that we don’t know where she is buried. If she was so important to Johnson, one would think he would have provided a proper last resting place for her.

His personal life continued to dog him and by the time of the next election in 1840, seven years after Ms. Chinn was in the ground, the Democratic Party refused to renominate him with Van Buren...who ran without a running mate and lost to another Indian fighter, Harrison. The final insult happened after Johnson died in 1850. His surviving daughter had no standing to inherit any of the estate which was divided amongst other family members.

Whether he freed Julia or not, their relationship was a major issue in national politics at the time. If you have eight minutes, check out this video from Kentucky Educational Television. The contributing voices note how interracial acceptance was making progress until the southern politicians and racist publishers devoted so much effort to denigrating the vice president and his family.

Relief Sculpture Depicting the Killing of Tecumseh,

Grave of Richard Mentor Johnson,

Frankfort Cemetery, Frankfort, KY (12 July 2023)

I don’t know if the marble has weathered this way or the sculpture was vandalized but Johnson’s head appears to be missing.

The End.