39 Facts About Oscar Underwood

Oscar Wilder Underwood was an American lawyer and politician from Alabama, and a candidate for President of the United States in 1912 and 1924.

Oscar Underwood was the first formally designated floor leader in the United States Senate, and the only individual to serve as the Democratic leader in both the Senate and the United States House of Representatives.

Oscar Underwood moved his legal practice to Birmingham, Alabama, in 1884 and won election to the House of Representatives in 1894.

Oscar Underwood served as House Majority Leader from 1911 to 1915, and was a strong supporter of President Woodrow Wilson's progressive agenda and a prominent advocate of a reduction in the tariff.

Oscar Underwood sponsored the Revenue Act of 1913, known as the Underwood Tariff, which lowered tariff rates and imposed a federal income tax.

Oscar Underwood won election to the Senate in 1914 and served as Senate Minority Leader from 1920 to 1923.

Oscar Underwood unsuccessfully opposed federal Prohibition, arguing that state and local governments should regulate alcohol.

Oscar Underwood sought the presidential nomination at the 1912 Democratic National Convention, but the convention selected Woodrow Wilson after forty-six ballots.

Oscar Underwood declined the vice presidential nomination, which instead went to Thomas R Marshall.

Oscar Underwood ran for president again in 1924, entering the 1924 Democratic National Convention as a prominent conservative opponent of the Ku Klux Klan.

Oscar Underwood experienced a boomlet of support on the 101st presidential ballot of the convention, but the Democrats nominated John W Davis as a compromise candidate.

Oscar Underwood declined to run for re-election in 1926 and retired to his Woodlawn plantation in Fairfax County, Virginia, where he died in 1929.

Oscar Underwood was born in Louisville, Kentucky, on May 6,1862, the eldest of three sons of lawyer and planter Eugene Oscar Underwood and his second wife, Frederica Virginia Wilder.

Eugene Oscar Underwood had three sons with his first wife before her death in 1857.

In 1865, the Underwood family moved to St Paul, Minnesota, hoping the climate would help Oscar's chronic bronchitis, as well as his mother's health.

Oscar Underwood then attended the University of Virginia at Charlottesville, where he was president of the Jefferson Society, as well as excelled in debate.

Oscar Underwood received a doctor of laws degree from Columbia College in New York by 1920.

Oscar Underwood served as president of the University of Virginia Alumni Association in 1913 and 1914.

Oscar Underwood married twice, the first time in Charlottesville on October 8,1885, to Eugenia Massie, daughter of Dr Thomas Eugene Massie.

Oscar Underwood remarried on September 10,1904, to Bertha Woodward, daughter of Union Army veteran Joseph Hershey Woodward of the Woodward Iron Company and his wife Martha Burt, who survived him.

Alabama earned an additional seat after the census of 1890, and Oscar Underwood became chairman of the new 9th District's Democratic Committee in 1892.

However, Truman H Aldrich successfully challenged that election result, forcing Underwood to resign in the middle of the term, on June 9,1896.

Oscar Underwood won the seat again in the election at year's end, then re-election numerous times, serving nine terms.

Oscar Underwood became as the first Democratic House Minority Whip, serving from about 1900 to 1901.

Oscar Underwood then became House Majority Leader from 1911 to 1915.

Oscar Underwood was a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1912 and had some strength at the national convention among southern delegates but could not compete with Champ Clark and Woodrow Wilson.

Oscar Underwood twice won election to the United States Senate, in 1914 and 1920, and served there from March 4,1915, to March 3,1927.

Oscar Underwood was Senate minority leader from 1920 to 1923.

Oscar Underwood led the anti-Ku Klux Klan forces at the 1924 Democratic National Convention.

Oscar Underwood blamed the Klan's opposition to his candidacy for his loss in the Georgia presidential primary to former Secretary of the Treasury William Gibbs McAdoo.

Oscar Underwood then determined to embarrass McAdoo by putting the party on record against the Klan.

Oscar Underwood declined to run for reelection to the Senate in 1926.

Oscar Underwood's anti-Klan stance had upset some in his own party and as well as from the Klan, and Hugo Black was a formidable candidate.

In 1927, Oscar Underwood was appointed to an international peace commission.

In 1928, Oscar Underwood supported New York Governor Al Smith for President.

Oscar Underwood decried federal legislation aimed at regulating morality, government by commissions, and excessive American engagement in foreign affairs.

Oscar Underwood died on January 25,1929, at Woodlawn plantation.

In 1990, Oscar Underwood was inducted into the Alabama Men's Hall of Fame.

The name was chosen as Frank Underwood is the current Democratic House Whip, the same position which Oscar Underwood was the first to hold.