38 Facts About Charles McNary

1.

Charles Linza McNary was an American Republican politician from Oregon.

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2.

Charles McNary served in the U S Senate from 1917 to 1944 and was Senate Minority Leader from 1933 to 1944.

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3.

Charles McNary supported many of the New Deal programs at the beginning of the Great Depression.

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4.

Charles McNary was the Republican vice presidential candidate in 1940, on the ticket with presidential candidate Wendell Willkie; both died in 1944, during what would have been their first term had they won.

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5.

Charles McNary was a justice of the Oregon Supreme Court from 1913 to 1915 and was dean of Willamette University College of Law, in his hometown of Salem, from 1908 to 1913.

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6.

Charles McNary died in office after unsuccessful surgery on a brain tumor.

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7.

Charles McNary is currently the longest serving Senate Minority Leader.

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8.

Charles McNary was the ninth of ten children, and the third son, born to Hugh Linza McNary and Mary Margaret McNary .

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9.

Charles McNary's paternal grandfather, James McNary, moved from Missouri to Clackamas County under the Provisional Government of Oregon in 1845, while James McNary's grandfather, Hugh McNary, was an Ulster Scots immigrant who settled in Kentucky.

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10.

Charles McNary's father helped on the family farm, then taught school for a few years before returning to farming near Salem.

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11.

When Charles McNary's mother died in 1878, his father moved the family to Salem where he bought a general merchandise store after being unable to run the family farm because of declining health.

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12.

Charles McNary, known as Tot, began his education at a one-room school in Keizer and later attended Central School in Salem, living on North Commercial Street.

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13.

Hugh Charles McNary died in 1883, making Charlie an orphan at the age of nine.

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14.

Nina Charles McNary became the head of the household, while other siblings took jobs in order to provide for the family.

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15.

Charles McNary later worked in the county recorder's office for his brother John Hugh McNary, who had been elected as county recorder in 1890, and for a short time attended the Capital Business College.

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16.

Charles McNary left Stanford and returned to Oregon in 1897 after his family asked him to come home.

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17.

Charles McNary recruited prominent local attorneys to serve on the faculty and increased the size of the school from four graduates in 1908 to 36 in 1913, his last year as dean.

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18.

Charles McNary's had been in Oregon to attend the funeral of her mother and was returning from Portland in the Boise family's car when it flipped and crushed her.

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19.

Charles McNary spent several days in Oregon for her funeral and then returned to Washington.

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20.

Charles McNary first held public office in 1892 when he became Marion County's deputy recorder, remaining in the position until 1896.

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21.

Steve Neal, Charles McNary's biographer, describes Charles McNary as a progressive who stuck with the Republican Party in 1910 even when many progressives left the party in favor of West, a Democrat.

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22.

Charles McNary backed the Progressive Era reforms of Oregonian William Simon U'Ren, and he was an early supporter of public, rather than private, power companies.

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23.

Meanwhile, Charles McNary maintained friendly relations with both progressive and conservative factions of the Oregon Republicans and with West.

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24.

Charles McNary quickly "established himself as a judicial activist and strong advocate of progressive reform".

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25.

Charles McNary wrote the dissenting opinion in the reversal of the conviction of prominent Portland attorney Edward McAllister.

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26.

At that time the office was partisan, and McNary lost the Republican primary, by a single vote, to Henry L Benson, after several recounts and the discovery of uncounted ballots.

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27.

Charles McNary was seen as someone who could unify the progressive and conservative wings of the party in Oregon.

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28.

Charles McNary was among several possible successors considered by Oregon Governor James Withycombe.

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29.

Furthermore, Charles McNary supporters argued that both progressive and conservative factions of the Republican Party would accept Charles McNary and that unity would give the party the best chance of retaining the Senate seat in the next election.

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30.

Charles McNary faced Speaker of the Oregon House of Representatives Robert N Stanfield in the May 1918 Republican primary.

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31.

In 1922, President Warren G Harding asked McNary to be the Secretary of the Interior to replace Albert B Fall because of Fall's involvement in the ongoing Teapot Dome scandal.

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32.

In 1933, Charles McNary was selected as the Senate Minority Leader by fellow Republicans, while the Senate was under Democratic control during the New Deal era.

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33.

Charles McNary remained Minority Leader for the rest of his time in office and "hovered most of the time on the periphery of the Republican left" and opposed disciplining Republican senators who supported Roosevelt.

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34.

Charles McNary supported many of the New Deal programs, at the beginning of Roosevelt's presidency.

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35.

Charles McNary voted to keep an arms embargo in place but supported the Lend-Lease agreement with the British in 1941 and the reinstatement of Selective Service in 1940, in preparation for military conscription of civilian men.

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36.

Charles McNary favored buying more National Forest lands, forest management via the McSweeney-McNary Act, fire protection for forests via the Clarke–McNary Act, and farm support.

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37.

Charles McNary met Morton at a dinner party during World War I, in her hometown of Washington, D C Before the marriage, she had worked as his private secretary.

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38.

Charles McNary was given a state funeral, during which his body lay in state in the chamber of the Oregon House of Representatives at the Oregon State Capitol, Salem, and then was buried in Belcrest Memorial Cemetery in Salem.

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