20 Facts About Nicholas Longworth

1.

Nicholas Longworth III was an American lawyer and politician who became Speaker of the United States House of Representatives.

2.

Nicholas Longworth became Majority Leader of the House in 1923, and Speaker from 1925 to 1931.

3.

The Nicholas Longworth family was an old, prominent, and wealthy family which dominated Cincinnati, Ohio.

4.

Nicholas Longworth II was the son of Joseph Longworth and grandson of winemaker Nicholas Longworth I, both distinguished citizens of Cincinnati.

5.

Nicholas Longworth III attended the Franklin School, a school for boys in Cincinnati, and then went on to attend Harvard College, where he was a member of Delta Kappa Epsilon and the Porcellian Club.

6.

Nicholas Longworth began a law practice in Cincinnati after being admitted to the Ohio bar in 1894.

7.

Nicholas Longworth had affairs, but the couple remained married, though Alice's support for the progressive movement while Nicholas Longworth sided with the conservative wing of the Republican Party caused a political rift between them.

8.

Nicholas Longworth agreed more with Taft than Roosevelt on critical issues like an independent judiciary and support for business.

9.

Nicholas Longworth actively supported her father's third-party presidential candidacy, even though her husband was running for reelection on the Republican ticket.

10.

Nicholas Longworth returned to Congress in 1915, after defeating Bowdle in an election rematch, and served until his death in 1931.

11.

Nicholas Longworth became House Majority Leader in 1923, and rose to speaker in 1925, succeeding Frederick Gillett, who had been elected to the Senate.

12.

Nicholas Longworth punished 13 progressives who supported Robert M La Follette instead of Calvin Coolidge in the 1924 election.

13.

Nicholas Longworth expelled the rebels from the GOP caucus, and stripped even the committee chairmen among them of all seniority.

14.

Additionally, Nicholas Longworth took control of the Steering Committee and Committee on Committees and placed his own men on the Rules Committee, guaranteeing that he controlled the work of the House.

15.

However, Nicholas Longworth defied President Herbert Hoover in 1931 by supporting the long-stalled veterans bonus bill; it passed but Hoover vetoed it, setting up the Bonus March of 1932.

16.

Nicholas Longworth reached across the aisle to Democrats, forging a productive relationship with John Nance Garner, that party's House minority leader, who relied upon informal methods to strengthen his party's influence.

17.

Nicholas Longworth served as speaker until the end of the 71st Congress on March 4,1931, and was speaker-presumptive for the upcoming 72nd Congress at the time of his death.

18.

Nicholas Longworth's body was interred at Spring Grove Cemetery in Cincinnati.

19.

Nicholas Longworth was perpetually cheerful, quick with a joke or witty retort, and unfailingly friendly.

20.

Nicholas Longworth seemed never to have a care and made hard decisions with such ease and detachment that some people wondered if anything at all really mattered to him.