By Ray Hill The South produced a number of successful demagogues, not the least of which was James K. Vardaman, a governor and senator from Mississippi.  At the height of his career, Vardaman was unquestionably the most popular politician in Mississippi. James Kimble...

By Ray Hill Hill McAlister was governor of Tennessee during one of the most difficult times in our state’s history; McAlister was chief executive of the Volunteer State during the Great Depression. Born July 15, 1875, McAlister was the son of a local judge and...

By Ray Hill For modern readers it should become quite clear the voting patterns and political preferences of many states have been significantly altered over the passage of time.  One such state is Iowa, which was heavily dominated by the Republican Party for...

By Ray Hill Jim Nance McCord is yet another figure from Tennessee’s political history who is little remembered today.  Yet he was both a Congressman and governor; he also served in the Cabinet of Governor Frank Clement. Jim McCord was born in 1879 in Bedford County,...

  By Ray Hill Few politicians enjoyed the lengthy career Hiram W. Johnson carved out in California.  Johnson’s time in public office was stormy, yet he remained enduringly popular.  By the time of his death in 1945, Hiram Johnson was a living icon in his home...

By Ray Hill Rixey Smith, Senator Carter Glass’s long-time Secretary, wrote a flattering biography of his boss entitled “Unreconstructed Rebel: Carter Glass” and that Glass certainly was.  Indeed, it was President Franklin D. Roosevelt himself who had labeled Glass an...

By Ray Hill   For decades the Bankhead family was one of the most politically prominent in the state.  Today, perhaps the best-known member of the family is the late actress Tallulah Bankhead, yet Miss Bankhead’s father William was Speaker of the U. S. House of...

  By Ray Hill Few men have lived as colorful and productive a life as did William Gibbs McAdoo, who was, incidentally, a one-time resident of Knoxville.  A lawyer, businessman, son-in-law of a President of the United States, member of a President’s Cabinet, U.S....

By Ray Hill William Edgar Borah was one of the most celebrated members of the United States Senate during his time.  Enormously popular in his state of Idaho, Borah was an impressive orator, regularly filling the Senate galleries when he spoke and his speeches were...

By Ray Hill Few members of the United States Senate had as colorful or stormy a career as Burton Kendall Wheeler of Montana.  The fact Wheeler came to represent Montana in the Senate in the first place was an accident of fate, as Wheeler had been born in Hudson,...