[Senate Document 105-8]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
105th Congress, 2d Session - - - - - - - - - - Senate Document 105-008
Dedication and Unveiling of the Statue of
RICHARD BREVARD RUSSELL, JR.
Proceedings in the Rotunda of the
Russell Senate Office Building
Washington, DC
January 24, 1996
A Senator for the Ages
Senator Richard Brevard Russell, Jr.
1897-1971
105th Congress, 2d Session - - - - - - - - - - Senate Document 105-008
Dedication and Unveiling of the Statue of
RICHARD BREVARD RUSSELL, JR.
Proceedings in the Rotunda of the
Russell Senate Office Building
Washington, DC
January 24, 1996
Printed by the United States Government Printing Office
Washington, DC: 1997
Presented to the United States Senate
on behalf of the
Richard B. Russell Foundation
The Richard B. Russell Foundation, Inc. is a non-profit
organization dedicated to preserving the memory of Richard B. Russell,
Jr. through the Richard B. Russell Chair in American History,
scholarship awards, other public service endeavors, and the Richard B.
Russell Library for Political Research and Studies, The University of
Georgia Libraries, Athens, Georgia.
Foundation Board of Trustees
Frank J. Barron, Jr.
William M. Bates
The Honorable Michael J. Bowers
Dr. D.W. Brooks
Otis A. Brumby, Jr.
Charles E. Campbell, Chairman
Thomas G. Cousins
Bradley L. Currey, Jr.
The Honorable George W. Darden
Charles L. Gowen, Treasurer
Don Elliott Heald
Jesse Hill, Jr.
The Honorable Pierre Howard
David E. Hudson
W. Thomas Johnson
William H. Jordan, Jr.
Dr. Charles B. Knapp
Earl T. Leonard, Jr.
Powell A. Moore
William H. NeSmith, Jr.
William L. Norton, Jr., Vice-Chairman
Hugh Peterson, Jr.
Dr. Stephen R. Portch
Dr. William Gray Potter, Secretary
The Honorable Robert G. Stephens, Jr.
The Honorable Herman Talmadge, Chairman Emeritus
Jack W. Tarver
Norman L. Underwood, Vice-Chairman
Betty Russell Vandiver
T. Rogers Wade
Accepted by the
United States Senate Commission on Art
Bob Dole, Kansas, Chairman
Thomas A. Daschle, South Dakota, Vice Chairman
Strom Thurmond, South Carolina Wendell H. Ford, Kentucky
John W. Warner, Virginia
Kelly D. Johnston, Executive Secretary
Diane K. Skvarla, Curator
Color guard at the opening of the dedication ceremony in the rotunda
of the Richard Brevard Russell Office Building.
CONTENTS
Dedication and Unveiling Ceremony................................... 1
"Richard Brevard Russell, Jr. (1897-1971)," by Senator Robert C.
Byrd (D-WV) Congressional Record, February 1, 1988............. 25
Resolution Designating the "Richard Brevard Russell Office Building"
(S. Res. 296, 92d Congress, 2d Sess.) .......................... 54
The Russell Senate Office Building.................................. 55
Sculptor Frederick E. Hart.......................................... 58
Biography
Sculptor's Notes
Vincent Palumbo
Appendix I: Remarks by Charles E. Campbell, Russell Statue Luncheon,
Governor's Mansion, Atlanta, Georgia, October 23, 1995.......... 61
Appendix II: Chronology............................................. 65
Appendix III: Bibliography.......................................... 66
Appendix IV: Acknowledgments........................................ 67
Unveiling of the Richard B. Russell, Jr. statue.
Dedication and Unveiling of the
Statue of
Richard Brevard Russell, Jr.
Russell Senate Office Building Rotunda
January 24, 1996
4:00 p.m.
Armed Forces Color Guard
and
"The President's Own" Marine Quintet
Benediction
Dr. Lloyd John Ogilvie, Senate Chaplain
Proceedings
Vice President Al Gore
Richard Russell, A President's Senator
Senator Robert C. Byrd
Richard Russell, A Senator's Senator
Senator Ted Stevens
Richard Russell, A Senator's Senator
Governor Zell Miller
Richard Russell, Georgia's Senator
Senator Sam Nunn
Master of Ceremonies
Recognition of Special Guests
Charles E. Campbell, Chairman
Richard B. Russell Foundation
Unveiling of Statue
Frederick E. Hart, Sculptor
Russell Family
Reception
The Richard B. Russell, Jr. statue unveiled.
PROCEEDINGS
Senator Nunn. Our beloved Senate Chaplain, Dr. Lloyd John Ogilvie,
will give the invocation.
Chaplain Ogilvie. Let us pray. Almighty God, sovereign of our
beloved nation and Lord of our lives, we praise you that you call
leaders to shape the course of history.
We have gathered here today to thank you for the impact on history
of Senator Richard Russell. Here in this building that bears his name,
we place this statue of his likeness. May this statue call all of us to
the excellence that distinguished his career, the nobility of his
character that made an indelible mark on history, and his faith in
you that gave him supernatural gifts of wisdom and discernment and
vision.
Thank you for the lasting impact of the rare blend of humility and
stature, patriotism and statesmanship that made him a legend in his
own time--Georgia's pride, a lodestar leader, a senator's senator for
thirty-eigth years, and a truly great American. May we measure our
commitment by his indefatigable faithfulness and set as a
benchmark for our lives his belief that work in the government is
one of the highest callings.
In this spirit of dedication to your best for America and in
affirmation of this giant of history, we renew our commitment to
serve you. In the name of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Senator Nunn. Ladies and gentlemen, please be seated.
Charlie Campbell, the president of the Russell Foundation, will
give more elaborate introductions, but let me begin by welcoming the
members of the Russell family here today. I understand there are
about one hundred of you. We are very, very proud to have each and
every one of you here.
The Russell trustees and supporters, we welcome you, and we thank
you for all of your efforts in making this historic day possible; past
and present members of the United States Senate who will be
introduced later; and friends and admirers of Richard B. Russell.
This is indeed an important event in the life of the United States
Senate. Every day since I have been serving in this unique legislative
body, I have considered it a great honor to be the temporary holder
of what I think of as the Russell seat in the Senate.
I am also proud that I had the opportunity to follow Senator
Russell's footsteps as chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee,
which he chaired so ably for fifteen years during the Cold War, the
Korean War, the Cuban Missile Crisis, and the construction of the
Berlin Wall.
I will never forget when I was a twenty-three-year-old lawyer
sitting in the back of the Senate Armed Services Chamber right down
the hall as Congressman Carl Vinson of Georgia, the chairman of the
House Armed Services Committee, presented the House position on a
legislative matter to Senator Richard Russell at the other end of the
table, also of Georgia and chairman of the Senate Armed Services
Committee. Those were the days for Georgia and for our nation.
Twenty-seven years later, as chairman of the Senate Armed Services
Committee, I watched with the rest of the world as the Berlin Wall
was torn down, Eastern Europe regained its freedom, and the Soviet
empire disintegrated. I have often thought that this occurred without
a nuclear war and without worldwide destruction in considerable
part because of the wise leadership of Richard Russell and Carl
Vinson in building a strong United States and a strong NATO alliance.
[Applause.]
When this historic building was named in honor of Richard Brevard
Russell in 1972, the powerful imprint of his record of service was
still very fresh in the memory of the Senate and of our nation. Today,
with the dedication of this magnificent statue, we have occasion to
remember why Richard Russell made such an indelible imprint on
the history of Georgia, the U.S. Senate, and our nation.
Although our nation is very different today than it was at the
time of Senator Russell's election in 1932, or even at the time of his
death twenty-five years ago, his service and his example are more
instructive now than ever before.
In this context, no one is better suited to begin this ceremony of
remembrance, recognition, and dedication than our next speaker.
Like Richard Russell, Vice President Al Gore was molded by his
southern heritage and by a loving family that encouraged and
supported his early and energetic and total commitment to public
service.
Like Richard Russell, Al Gore is the son of a prominent political
father. Indeed, Al Gore, Sr. served in the Senate with Richard Russell
and with many in attendance here today. Richard Russell's own
father was chief justice of the Georgia Supreme Court, and in that
capacity, administered the oath of office when his son became
Governor Russell of Georgia.
Just as our vice president was known as "Young Al" when he began
his political career, Richard Russell was known as "Young Dick." Like
Richard Russell, Al Gore spent a lot of time on the family farm, and as
young boys these youthful experiences gave both men a special
understanding of people who work with their hands, work in manual
labor, as well as an abiding appreciation of conservation and the
environment.
Like Richard Russell, Al Gore served on the Senate Armed Services
Committee and devoted a considerable portion of his time to building
a stronger America and a safer world. Like Richard Russell, Al Gore
was elected as a very young man to Congress, and he has dedicated
his life to the people of his state and to the people of our nation.
Ladies and gentlemen, please help me welcome the Vice President
of the United States.
[Applause.]
Richard Russell,
A President's Senator
by Vice President Al Gore
Vice President Gore. Thank you.
[Continuing applause.]
Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you very much, ladies and
gentlemen.
And, Senator Nunn, thank you for your very kind words of
introduction. One of my greatest honors in the time I served in the
United States Senate was serving under your chairmanship on the
Armed Services Committee, and thank you so much for your kind
words.
Senator Byrd and Senator Stevens, two close friends and great
leaders of this institution, other members of the Senate who are
present--forgive me for not even attempting to single out individual
senators because there is such a great turnout and such a large
presence here at this event--former members of the Senate who are
here, as well.
Governor Zell Miller, thank you for honoring us and this occasion
with your presence here, and thank you for your leadership in
Georgia and in our country.
To Charles Campbell, Chairman of the Richard B. Russell
Foundation; to Frederick Hart, the sculptor; and to Chaplain Ogilvie--
thank you for your invocation; to members of the family of Senator
Russell--Carolyn Nelson and Pat Peterson especially, sisters of Senator Russell; to all of the other family members who are here.
It is an honor to him that so many of you are
present. This really is a very, very special day, and to hear Sam Nunn
introduce me with even slight comparisons is beyond what I can'
that sets off my hubris alarm, Sam, because Senator Russell is rightly
regarded as a legend, and all who had the privilege of serving with
him understand that.
Incidentally, not too many days ago some tourists remarked to an
acquaintance of mine from Tennessee that they had seen the Al
Gore statue on the White House lawn, and I said, "What day was
that?"
[Laughter.]
It's been so cold here recently people who don't know me thought I
was frozen stiff. But in any event, ladies and gentlemen, from this
day forward, in the rotunda of this majestic building named in his
honor, a statue of Richard Brevard Russell will stand sentry. Georgia's
senator, America's senator, a legendary figure in American politics
will gaze over us--a fitting tribute to a towering presence.
I knew Senator Russell when I was a young man. I did not have the
opportunity to serve in the Congress during his time of service, but
my father's service in the Congress overlapped with his for thirty-
two years. These two men had a great deal in common. Eighteen of
those years my father served in the Senate with Senator Russell.
Both were sons of the South and both provided shoulders on which a
new generation of Democrats now stands.
Both believed that public service was an honorable calling that
demanded common courtesy and rewarded basic decency. Both
marched in the direction pointed by the compass of their conscience,
no matter the prevailing winds or the calls to shift their course.
I remember often hearing my father say that whatever their
occasional disagreements--and they did have some; on occasion they
stood toe to toe, but when it came to certain core ideals; love of
country, devotion to duty, respect for principles, they always saw
eye to eye. But whatever the occasional disagreements, on one
matter my father was resolute whenever he spoke about Senator
Russell. Dick Russell had a heart of gold and was one of the most
honorable individuals ever to serve in the United States Senate
throughout its more than two-hundred-year history.
To six United States presidents, Richard Russell was a mentor and
an occasional menace. He stood up for Franklin Roosevelt at the 1932
Democratic Convention, nominating him for president when some
people thought Roosevelt couldn't win. And then he stood up to
Roosevelt a few years later, casting a deciding vote against his Court-
packing plan when some people thought Roosevelt couldn't lose.
He challenged Harry Truman for the presidential nomination in
1948, but he challenged the nation to honor Truman's authority as
commander in chief when he presided over the Senate's Army-
MacArthur hearings three years later.
President Johnson knew him best among all the presidents served
by Richard Russell, and the relationship between Richard Russell and
Lyndon Johnson began as so many of his relationships had. Johnson
was the student, and Russell was the teacher.
They became very, very close friends, even though they too had
occasional disagreements and feuded from time to time. And Johnson
owed much of his rise to the benevolence and wisdom of the Georgia
Giant.
Senator Russell, we all remember, was an austere man, and,
ironically, Johnson lavished him with gifts from time to time--fancy
neckties, glass bowls, one time a watch just like the one that
President Johnson wore. And, as the story goes, one Christmas
Johnson gave Senator Russell a beautiful Christian Dior handkerchief.
The senator thanked him, and he said, "Now, Lyndon, I'm going to
have to buy a new suit to go with this."
When Johnson was vice president, he hosted a dinner in Senator
Russell's honor, which was a grand affair swarming with cabinet
officers, elected officials, and Washington's elite. And at that
dinner, Johnson told the assembled gathering that if he were able to
personally choose the president of the United States, he would select
Richard Russell.
Richard Russell was indeed a president's senator and a senator's
senator. And if things had gone a little bit differently, if the South
had been a little bit different, if other things had been just a
little bit different, he might have been a senator's president.
On some things Senator Russell was way ahead of his time, a
little bit like that great Barbara Mandrell song "I Was Country When
Country Wasn't Cool." For example, Richard Russell was reinventing
government before reinventing government was cool.
We're still in that period before reinventing government is cool.
[Laughter.]
As governor, he reduced the number of state bureaus, commissions,
and agencies from 102 to 17. He cut the cost of government 20
percent, saved the state the then-astronomical sum of a million
dollars. He knew that a government that didn't spend money as
wisely and carefully as a family could never earn any family's
respect.
On national security, of course, Senator Russell had no peer. He
championed a robust national defense, and he helped build a
Pentagon that was the envy of the world. He also influenced all of
those who came after him. Many members of the United States
Senate today owe something of their bearing and approach to the job
to their learning experience in watching Senator Russell.
In fact, I have sometimes thought--and I dare say I'm not the
only one--in watching the level of excellence brought to the job of
chairman of the Armed Services Committee and now ranking
member by Sam Nunn--that his experience, along with others, in
watching Senator Russell was an important factor in giving our
nation the degree of commitment to public service that we find from
so many who watched Senator Russell carefully.
But perhaps his most lasting influence was on matters that were
less explosive and less immediately tied to life and death, less
immediately newsworthy--bringing electricity to rural America,
getting loans for Georgia's farmers, making sure that poor children
could eat a decent lunch at school. And there was always that
reverence to his life, his spartan apartment, his utter devotion to
the Senate as an institution, his enduring selflessness that inspired
even those with whom he disagreed.
I do understand that more than one-hundred members of the Russell
family are here this afternoon, and we all thank you for sharing your
outstanding brother, uncle, cousin with the United States of America.
I guess we all should have expected, however, that even at the
dedication of his statue, Senator Russell would make certain he had
the votes to come out on top in case any question was put.
[Laughter.]
There's no need to worry about that this afternoon. Today and
forever, this leader, this patriot, this legend, remains where he
belongs--in the Senate standing tall.
[Applause.]
Senator NUNN. Thank you very much, Mr. Vice President. Richard
Russell was an astute judge of the character and the quality of his
fellow senators. He made his judgment, not only on the basis of their
words, but also on the basis of what he observed--their deeds. When
Richard Russell determined that you were a man or woman of honor,
he was your champion for life.
One young senator who met this Russell test was Robert Byrd. The
last vote Senator Russell cast before he died was cast from his
hospital bed in favor of Robert Byrd's bid to become the majority
whip of the Senate in 1971.
Senator Russell was an advisor and confidant to six presidents.
He served under seven, but only a brief time under one. He had the
deepest respect for the office of president, so much so that he never
called any sitting president, even his old friend and prot�g� Lyndon
Johnson, anything but Mr. President.
With a similar respect, Senator Byrd never called Senator Russell
anything but Senator Russell. Senator Russell believed strongly in the
independence and coequal role of the Congress of the United States,
and he insisted on more than one occasion that he had not served
under six presidents, Al, but rather, he served with six presidents--a
real difference.
Like Richard Russell, Robert Byrd reveres the Senate of the United
States, not just because he serves in it, but because of his respect
for its role in the history of our nation and the world. Like Richard
Russell in his day, Robert Byrd by the power of his intellect, by the
depth of his understanding of history and the Senate rules, by the
strength of his character, and by his faith in God, is today the
custodian of the Senate ideals that go back, not only to the founding
fathers but, indeed, to ancient Rome.
Like Richard Russell, Robert Byrd embodies the traditions, the
dignity, and, indeed, the honor of the United States Senate. It is my
great privilege to introduce the honored friend of Richard B. Russell,
Robert C. Byrd.
[Applause.]
Richard Russell,
A Senator's Senator
by Senator Robert C. Byrd (D-WV)
Senator Byrd. Thank you.
Mr. Vice President, my colleagues, fellow Ameri-cans, ladies and
gentlemen.
If I appear today to wear a pained expression, that's because I
have some pain. If any of you have ever had the shingles, you know what
I'm talking about. Although a great number of people think I wear
that expression all the time.
[Laughter.]
And they're not far wrong.
I want to thank, first of all, the Senate Chaplain, Dr. Ogilvie,
who performed the most important part in the program. I thank Mr.
Campbell for inviting me to participate in this program. And I thank
Sam Nunn. He stepped into some big shoes when he came to the
Senate, and those shoes fit today.
[Applause.]
The Duke of Wellington once said that the presence of Napoleon on
the field was worth forty thousand men in the balance. And so it is
when Sam Nunn speaks on the subject of our national defense. He
has no peer in the Senate, and everybody listens.
Let me say that I'm very grateful for the presence of so many of
our colleagues here today. My eyes are growing dim, but I had the
pleasure of personally greeting some of my colleagues before I came
up here. So I want to thank John Warner and Danny Inouye, and
former senator and former judge Mr. Griffin; Thad Cochran and Jesse
Helms, Mark Hatfield and Paul Sarbanes; and the only man in the
Senate who has served longer in the Senate than I have, Strom
Thurmond.
[Applause.]
That is in the Senate.
My tenure on the Hill is a little bit more than Strom's. Claiborne
Pell. And our old friend Russell Long.
[Applause.]
Our great friend Mac Mathias, Paul Coverdell. I think I see Ted
Moss and Wyche Fowler. There may be others. You'll forgive me if I
can't see you from here, but thank you for coming.
When I first came to the Senate in January 1959, my office was in
room 342 of this building, then known as the Old Senate Office
Building. That was still thirteen years before the Senate would adopt
the resolution that I offered renaming the building in honor of
Senator Richard Brevard Russell.
Yet even though his name was not yet affixed to the wall of the
building, it might well have been because he was the senator, the
uncrowned king of the southern block, and he was as truly a Senate
man as was Henry Clay or Daniel Webster or John C. Calhoun or
Thomas Benton or any of the other giants who had preceded him.
Back in January 1959, I was yet a relatively young senator of
forty-one. Twenty years my senior, Senator Russell had already served
over a quarter of a century in the United States Senate. He was a
patrician in all aspects of the word, and of all the senators with
whom I have served over these past thirty-seven years, he was the
only senator whom I never addressed by his first name when
speaking to him personally. That was the measure of my respect and
admiration for Senator Richard Russell.
On many occasions I sought his opinion and advice, and I always
found him courteous and easy to talk with. He was urbane and
scholarly, courtly and polite, a statesman by every definition.
His arrival in Washington in 1933 coincided with the start of
Franklin Delano Roosevelt's New Deal administration. Recognizing the
severity of the Great Depression, Senator Russell gave loyal support
to President Roosevelt whom he viewed as a great leader who
sympathized with the problems of ordinary citizens. Russell's
colleagues quickly recognized the talents and the abilities of this
young senator. As a freshman, he won an almost unheard of
appointment to the Senate Appropriations Committee.
Richard Russell never married. We used to say he was married to
the Senate. Governor Miller, he studied its traditions and its customs,
its rules, its history, and its practices assiduously. Ted Stevens,
Senator Russell avoided speaking often on the floor but preferred to
do his work quietly in the committee rooms.
Senator Russell's philosophy of government was rooted in
constitutionalism. His belief in the limits of federal power and the
separation of powers among the three equal branches of government
was the main force behind his opposition to what were popularly
known then as civil rights acts. His attitude toward the role of
government he summed up once by saying, "I am a reactionary when
times are good; in a depression, I'm a liberal."
He was always regarded as one of the most fair and conscientious
members of this body. The truth of this was clearly demonstrated
during the Senate inquiry of President Truman's dismissal of General
Douglas MacArthur from his command in Korea. Senator Russell
presided over those hearings from May 3 to June 27, 1951. During
that time, he was unfailingly courteous and was particularly
solicitous of the general's views. In hindsight, it has been claimed
that his judicious handling of this volatile event did much to diffuse
an explosive situation.
Through it all he served his nation well. Richard Russell followed
his own star. He did not pander. His confidant was his conscience. He
was always the good and faithful servant of the people. He was good for
the Senate, and he loved it dearly. I can say without any hesitation
that he was a remarkable senator, a remarkable American, a
remarkable man who enjoyed the respect and the affection of all
who served with him.
In the death of Senator Russell, I felt a great personal loss.
From my first days in the Senate, I looked upon him as my mentor, and
he was the man I most admired in Washington, a man of great intellect,
the finest of public servants, and his patriotism and love of country
will never be excelled.
"I saw the sun sink in the golden west
No angry cloud obscured its latest ray;
Around the couch on which it sank to rest
Shone all the splendors of a summer day,
And long--though lost of view--its radiant light
Reflected from the skies, delayed the night.
"Thus, when a good man's life comes to a close,
No doubts arise to cloud his soul with gloom;
But faith triumphant on each feature glows
And benedictions fill the sacred room;
And long do men his virtues wide proclaim,
And generations rise to bless his name."
And so to his kinspeople, to his kinspeople and his host of
friends, I say, I am honored indeed to have been invited to participate
in this ceremony in which we dedicate this handiwork of the sculptor to
the memory of Richard Brevard Russell, late a senator from the state of
Georgia. How poor this world would be without the memories of its
mighty dead. Only the voiceless speak forever, the memory of this
noble man will ever be like a star which is not extinguished when it
sets upon the distant horizon. It but goes to shine in other skies and
then reappears in ours as fresh as when it first arose.
[Applause.]
Senator Nunn. The distinguished senator we will hear from next
also served with Senator Russell, but from across the aisle. Like
Richard Russell, Ted Stevens's record of supporting his state's
concerns and his record on national and international issues have made
him a formidable force in his own home state and throughout the nation.
In his own state of Alaska, his record discourages most potential
opposition and crushes those who are daring enough to run against
him.
Like Richard Russell, Ted Stevens has chaired the Defense
Appropriations Subcommittee and has been an effective proponent
of a strong national defense. Like Senator Russell, Ted Stevens is a
champion of both our veterans and our men and women in uniform,
and he fights to see that our troops have the weapons and the
equipment they need to prevail in combat.
Like Richard Russell, Ted Stevens believes that when our flag is
committed, it is time to transcend partisan politics and to support our
troops. Richard Russell once described the legislative process well
when he said, quoting him, "Only through a meeting of the minds and
by concessions can we legislate."
Like Richard Russell, Ted Stevens understands that the legislation
requires cooperation and coalition building in both political parties,
not only to pass but to last.
Ted, to you and to my good friend and colleague Paul Coverdell, I
have one message for Majority Leader Bob Dole who wanted to be
here today but had other pressing commitments. In Georgia, we have
a small town that might remind Bob Dole of home in case he ever has
any reason in the next few weeks or months to wander into our
territory, and it's called Russell, Georgia. We'll be proud to have him
there at any time.
I am proud to present to you the distinguished senator from the
state of Alaska, a friend of Richard Russell, the Honorable Ted
Stevens.
[Applause.]
Richard Russell,
A Senator's Senator
by Senator Ted Stevens (R-AK)
Senator Stevens. Thank you very much, Senator Nunn. You
embarrassed me with that introduction. I am delighted to be able to
pinch-hit for Senator Dole and to be here with this distinguished
group.
After listening to my good friend--and he is my great friend--
Senator Byrd, I am reminded of a friend of mine that told me when he
was ready to make a speech he felt like Lady Astor's seventh husband.
He knew what he had to do, but he didn't know how to make it
interesting.
[Laughter.]
After a speech such as Senator Byrd's and the vice president's,
I'm humbled to be here. But I am delighted to be here, Sam, because as
you said, Senator Russell was the chairman of the subcommittee that
I've been chairman of twice now, and that's the Defense
Subcommittee, and I really feel greatly the responsibility of that
position.
Because he spent half of his lifetime in the Senate and enjoyed
relationships with every president from Franklin Roosevelt to
Richard Nixon, as you've heard, Senator Russell had a deep
understanding of the nation and a deeper understanding of how our
government works, more so than most Americans.
He was very generous in sharing his wisdom and insight with new
senators regardless of their political affiliation. That legacy lives
on today, and I am one of the beneficiaries as Senator Nunn mentioned.
Senator Henry "Scoop" Jackson and Senator Mansfield, Senator
Stennis are people who served with him. They served as mentors for
me and others, regardless of politics.
When we came to the Senate, and I came to the Senate twenty-eight
years ago, we were the recipients of the attention of Senator Russell,
and we were guided by the senators that he had so well instilled
with the love of this institution. As they took us under their wing, as
Senator Russell had done to them, they counseled us in our first
years in the Senate. Those were years when senators were seen and
not heard for a few years, but I was an appointed senator so they
sort of made an exception because they weren't sure I'd be back.
I think that there was no question that at that time we all
recognized that we were serving with the foremost congressional
authority on our nation's defense, and really the architect of our
nation's security. He was chairman of the Armed Services Committee and chairman of
the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee at the same time as I
recall. I always remember that, because I'm sorry that I can't enjoy
that same circumstance. Senator Hatfield will understand that.
But it is something for all of us to remember that he worked
primarily to assure that this nation remained strong. And he was
very bipartisan in dealing with that, and I'm very serious about
saying he took time with young senators to explain his
understanding of defense and why it was so necessary to keep such a
firm foundation.
I think he played a greater role than any other senator in shaping
the defense establishment of our post-World War II period here in
America. President Nixon said this of Senator Russell, "When the
security of the United States was at issue, six American presidents
leaned upon this great patriot," Richard Russell. "He never failed
them."
By remaining bipartisan, Senator Russell kept our nation from
retreating into isolationism during a period that was very essential to
our history, the period right after World War II.
Long before Dwight Eisenhower became president, Senator Russell
and Ike were great friends. Their friendship continued and grew
after Eisenhower was in the White House.
In testimony to America's spirit of democracy throughout the
world, Senator Russell showed our nation the importance of rebuilding,
rebuilding not only our nation but our enemies'--Germany and
Japan--after World War II.
Ensuring that the Marshall Plan became a reality was one of Dick
Russell's real goals, and he was most successful. And while he was a
tower of strength for our national defense, I am sure you know, Sam
and the senators here from Georgia, he was a faithful representative
of the people of Georgia. He saw better than others the future of the
burgeoning discoveries in science and ensured that funds would be
available for research in new technologies in medicine, agriculture,
and in conservation.
I feel truly honored to have been able to serve with Richard
Russell, and I am deeply honored to my friend Robert Dole for being
elsewhere so I could say it here today. Twenty-five years ago, just a
few years after his death, I was a young senator, but I joined other
senators in paying tribute to our departed friend.
Let me just repeat now what I said then. He never sought publicity
nor attempted to impress his colleagues with flashy rhetoric, but that
is not to say he was not a forceful advocate and a fierce adversary. I
am confident that history will mark him as a consummate statesman
who transcended regional boundaries to become a senator for all
here in the United States. He was a paragon worth emulating by
those who would pursue a life in public service.
Nothing has changed in the twenty-five years since I said those
words. Russell is still a great influence, his legacy is alive today
as it was then, his achievements and unique abilities will never be
forgotten as Senator Byrd has so ably said, and I'm pleased to be
here to be part of the dedication of this statue and pleased even
more, as I said, to have been fortunate enough to have been able to
serve with this great man, Richard Russell.
Thank you very much.
[Applause.]
Senator Nunn. Like Richard Russell, our next speaker has dedicated
his life to public service, and has recognized that political leader-
ship is an honorable calling. Like Richard Russell, Zell Miller comes
from north of what we in Georgia call "The Gnat Line," the geological
fall-line that separates north Georgia from south Georgia, with 90
percent of the gnats on the southern side of the line where I live.
Many north Georgia politicians never get elected because they
never master a vital skill; that is, to be able to blow away the gnats
and talk at the same time.
[Laughter and applause.]
Like Richard Russell, Zell Miller clearly mastered this skill
despite his geographic disadvantage.
Like Governor Richard Russell and Senator Richard Russell,
Governor Zell Miller has been a champion of job creation and fiscal
responsibility.
Like Richard Russell, Zell Miller has a powerful commitment to the
education of all of our children. As governor of Georgia, Richard
Russell recognized and reorganized higher education. He established
the board of regents and paved the way for Georgia's top institutions
to become leaders in our nation.
In Washington, Senator Russell was the father of the school lunch
program, one of his proudest accomplishments.
As governor, Zell Miller established the HOPE Scholarship Program
which enables every student in Georgia who achieves a B average in
high school to receive free tuition in college for as long as they
maintain a B average. Currently, over 105,000 Georgia students are
being helped by this program.
[Applause.]
As governor, Zell Miller is the father also of Georgia's pre-
kindergarten program, the most comprehensive program for four-
year-olds in the entire nation, one of his proudest accomplishments.
Ladies and gentlemen, I am proud to introduce the Governor of
Georgia, my good friend, the Honorable Zell Miller.
[Applause.]
Richard Russell,
Georgia's Senator
by Governor Zell Miller of Georgia
Governor Miller. Thank you.
Thank you very much, Senator Nunn, for that introduction, but,
most
importantly, thank you for all that you have done for our state of
Georgia and for this nation.
[Applause.]
Mr. Vice President, Senator Byrd, Senator Stevens, Senator
Coverdell, other members of the U.S. Senate present and past, members
of the Georgia congressional delegation past and present, Russell
Foundation Chairman Charles Campbell, former Georgia Governor Ernest
Vandiver, and Mrs. Betty Russell Vandiver, and all the members of
the Russell family.
[Applause.]
Distinguished guests and ladies and gentlemen.
It is certainly a great honor to be on this platform and to have this
opportunity to speak on behalf of the state of Georgia at this
ceremony. Although it has now been twenty-five years, a quarter of
a century, since his passing, many of us knew and still vividly
remember Richard Russell.
Some knew him as a senator's senator whose knowledge and
reverence of the United States Senate as an institution was so deep
that even his colleagues who opposed him on the issues, or had
conflicting philosophies of government, had a level of respect for him
that bordered on reverence.
Others knew Richard Russell as a president's senator, personal
advisor, as we have known, to six presidents beginning with Franklin
Roosevelt. It was often said that the only power that the president
had that Dick Russell didn't have was the ability to push the button.
And no president would have thought of pushing that button without
first consulting with Senator Russell.
But back home in Georgia we knew him as our senator, and when we
sent him to Washington in 1933, it was because we already knew
what a remarkable leader this man was.
Dick Russell became the youngest member of the Georgia legislature
when he was elected state representative at the age of twenty-three,
and he became speaker of the house of representatives in Georgia
while he was still in his twenties. He was elected the youngest
governor in Georgia's history at the age of thirty-three. During those
early years in state government, he honed the leadership skills that
served him so well in Washington.
He was open, he was honest in his dealings, he was always fair and
civil to both sides in an argument, and once he had given his word he
stood by it without equivocation.
He was a genuine representative of the people who shunned
political labels and special interests, and he was scrupulous about
doing his homework on the issues, so that when he spoke, it was from
personal understanding.
The Dick Russell we Georgians knew regarded public service as his
life and his work and devoted himself unstintingly to it. He worked
twelve-hour days, cooked his own meals, washed his own socks in an
austere bachelor apartment. He cared deeply about his large family,
and his only indulgence was frequent visits with his kinfolk at the
Russell family home in the little town of Winder, Georgia.
Many of you, of course, remember him as Mr. Defense, the powerful
chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee. And in Georgia,
we still feel the positive economic impact of the many federal
facilities he brought to our state.
In Georgia, we also remember, however, that by his own measure, as
Senator Nunn mentioned awhile ago, in his own mind the highest
accomplishment of his career, and the only piece of legislation for
which he jealously guarded his authorship, was the school lunch
program.
Here in Washington, his name lives on in this impressive Senate
office building. In Georgia, the infrastructure is a little less
imposing. The post office in Winder is named for him, as is an
elementary school in Cobb County, an agriculture research center in
Athens, the federal district courthouse in Atlanta, an Army Corps of
Engineers reservoir, and a scenic stretch of north Georgia highway.
But we really remember him better through ideas and intellect, the
Russell Chair in American History at the University of Georgia; the
Russell All-State High School Debate Championship; the Russell
Teaching Awards; the Russell Leadership Program for Outstanding
College Students; the Russell Public Policy Symposium; and the
Russell Library for Political Research and Studies.
These activities are supported by the Richard B. Russell
Foundation, which also commissioned this statue to bring a remembrance
of the man himself into this building that honors him.
But at the same time that we always remember Richard Russell as
Georgia's senator, the unfailing champion in Washington of our
interests and our state, at the same time we remember that, as
another great Georgia senator by the name of Sam Nunn pointed out,
Richard Russell was a statesman.
And these are Sam Nunn's words: He understood the simple and
powerful truth that the best way to serve your state is to do the best
job you can in serving your nation.
And that is what made him a senator's senator and a president's
senator and Georgia's senator, and a senator for the ages.
[Applause.]
Senator Nunn. Ladies and gentlemen, to conclude our program and
acknowledge our special guests and, in particular, the Russell family,
I would like to call on Mr. Charles Campbell.
Charlie served on the staff of Senator Russell during the last
six years of his life and was his administrative assistant at the time
of Senator Russell's death. Senator Byrd will recall that Charles was
with Senator Russell when he cast his last vote that I mentioned
earlier and that Senator Byrd mentioned--his vote by proxy from his
hospital bed in 1971 for Senator Byrd to be majority whip.
It is my pleasure to introduce the chairman of the Richard B.
Russell Foundation and someone who must have been the youngest
administrative assistant in the history of the United States Senate,
Mr. Charlie Campbell.
[Applause.]
Recognition of Special Guests
by Charles E. Campbell, Chairman
Richard B. Russell Foundation
Mr. Campbell. Thank you, Senator Nunn.
Vice President Gore, Senator Byrd, Senator Stevens, Senator Nunn,
Governor Miller, other distinguished guests, friends and family of
Senator Russell, ladies and gentlemen.
On behalf of the Russell Foundation, it is my pleasure to welcome
you to the dedication and unveiling of the Russell statue and to thank
you for your attendance.
There are so many distinguished guests present that we cannot hope
to recognize all of them, but I know Senator Russell would be
particularly pleased with the large number of currently serving and
former members of Congress in the audience. And I would like to ask
all of the currently serving and former members of Congress, both
House and Senate in attendance, to please stand and let us recognize
them.
[Applause.]
I want to recognize individually the senators who are here and who
served with Senator Russell. You have already met Senator Byrd and
Senator Stevens. The other senators who served with Senator Russell
and who are present today and still serving in the Senate are:
Senator Mark Hatfield of Oregon,
Senator William Roth of Delaware,
Senator Strom Thurmond of South Carolina,
Senator Claiborne Pell of Rhode Island, and
Senator Daniel Inouye of Hawaii.
I'd like to ask them to please stand and be recognized.
[Applause.]
We are also delighted to have present certain former members of
the Senate who served with Senator Russell, some for extended periods
of time. I would now like to recognize these senators:
Senator Vance Hartke of Indiana,
Senator Birch Bayh of Indiana,
Senator Charles Mathias of Maryland,
Senator Robert Griffin of Michigan,
Senator Russell Long of Louisiana,
Senator Mike Mansfield of Montana,
Senator George McGovern of South Dakota,
Senator Frank Moss of Utah,
Senator William Proxmire of Wisconsin, and
Senator Harrison Williams of New Jersey.
I'd like to ask these senators to stand, please, and be recognized.
[Applause.]
As many of you know, Senator Russell was one of thirteen brothers
and sisters, and the Russell family is an exceedingly large family. It
is well-represented here today. I would like to ask each member of
the Russell family in attendance to please stand.
[Applause.]
We also have with us a number of the members of Senator Russell's
staff or the staff of the committees which he chaired or on which he
served, and I would like to ask the members of the Russell staff who
are in attendance to please stand.
[Applause.]
The Russell Foundation, of which I am honored to serve as
chairman, is fortunate to have a dedicated board of trustees, the
names of whom are published in your program. A number of the Russell
trustees are in attendance today, and I would like for them to stand
and be recognized.
[Applause.]
Each of the donors who contributed $5,000 or more to the Russell
statue are listed in your program, and I would like to ask the
individual contributors or representatives of corporate contributors
who are in attendance today to please stand and be recognized.
[Applause.]
A project such as the Russell statue could not be accomplished
without the assistance of a lot of people. I particularly want to
thank Senator Sam Nunn and his staff for the many things they have
done to bring this project to fruition, and I also can't let the
occasion pass without saying, Senator, particularly in light of your
retirement now, how much we appreciate your twenty-four years of
Richard Russell-type service in the United States Senate.
[Applause.]
Senator Paul Coverdell and his staff have been of immeasurable
assistance to us in putting on this program, and I want to ask Senator
Coverdell to please stand and be recognized.
[Applause.]
Senator Russell's close friend, Senator Robert Byrd, has served
as the official sponsor of the dedication of the Russell statue and the
reception that will follow in the Caucus Room on the third floor of the
Russell Building, to which you are each invited. I would like to thank
Senator Byrd and his staff for all of the help they have given us with
the Russell statue dedication.
[Applause.]
With respect to the Russell statue itself, we are indebted to the
stone carver and the sculptor. As you will see when the statue is
unveiled in a few minutes, the master stone carver at the National
Cathedral, Mr. Vincent Palumbo, who carved the Russell statue from a
large block of white Italian marble using the model developed by the
sculptor, did an outstanding job. I would like to ask Mr. Palumbo and
his family to stand and be recognized.
[Applause.]
We were particularly blessed to have a talented sculptor who had a
special interest in this project. The Russell Foundation selected
Frederick Hart from a number of sculptors who were interviewed.
We were particularly impressed by some of his public works,
including the soldier figures at the Vietnam Memorial, and the
Creation sculptures at the entrance to the National Cathedral here in
Washington.
Frederick Hart is a native of Atlanta, Georgia, and he was already
well acquainted with Richard Russell's career before commencing his
work on the Russell statue. In fact, his father was in the television
business and was active in the 1952 campaign for the Democratic
presidential nomination on behalf of the late Senator Estes Kefauver
of Tennessee who was a candidate for president that year.
Senator Russell was himself a candidate for president in the 1952
Democratic presidential primaries.
Frederick Hart is not only an excellent sculptor, but was a
pleasure to work with on the Russell statue. I would like to ask Rick
and his wife and two sons who are in the audience to please stand and
be recognized at this time.
[Applause.]
And before we unveil the Russell statue, I would like to make a
request of three groups, if they would, to, after the dedication is
over, come down front so we can have some photographs made of
these groups with the statue.
The first ones are senators here who served with Senator Russell,
both currently serving senators and former senators.
Secondly, the Russell trustees.
Third, the Russell staff.
If you would come down after the dedication is over to the front
so we can have some photographs made with the statue.
Now, for the unveiling of the statue. I would like to ask the
sculptor, Frederick Hart, and Senator Russell's two surviving sisters,
Mrs. Pat Peterson and Mrs. Carolyn Nelson, who are seated over here,
to come forward to unveil the statue.
[The statue is unveiled.]
[Sustained applause.]
Rick, I think that Senator Russell, who was known to be quite a
critic of portraits and likenesses, would say that it's a great job,
and thank you so much.
That concludes our program. Everyone is invited to the reception
up on the third floor in the Caucus Room, and thank you very much for
attending.
[Applause.]
[Whereupon, the ceremony was concluded.]
RICHARD BREVARD RUSSELL, Jr.
(1897-1971)
by
Senator Robert C. Byrd (D-WV)
[Address delivered in the Senate, Febrary 1, 1988]
Mr. BYRD. Mr. President, in my continuing series of addresses on
the history of the United States, I have focused from time to time on
individual senators who have left their mark on this institution. One
such senator is Richard Brevard Russell, Jr., of Georgia. In 1972, I
initiated legislation that provided for naming the original Senate
office building in his honor. Today, the thousands of people who
work on Capitol Hill know his name, but only a few know his legacy.
In preparing these remarks, I have had the good fortune to be ably
assisted by Dr. Gilbert Fite. Dr. Fite served from 1976 to 1986 as the
first Richard B. Russell professor of American history at the
University of Georgia. From 1945 to 1971, he was a member of the
history faculty at the University of Oklahoma, and, from 1971 to
1976, he served as president of Eastern Illinois University. Dr. Fite's
research interests are reflected in the professional associations of
which he has been president. They include the Western History
Association, the Southern Historical Association, and the Agricultural
History Society. This distinguished scholar is currently completing a
full scale biography of Senator Russell.
Richard B. Russell was one of the nation's leading statesmen in
twentieth century America. A true son of the South, he served in the
United States Senate from January 12, 1933, until his death on
January 21, 1971, some thirty-eight years later. During that period,
he worked with six presidents, and, from the 1940s when he
emerged as a leader in the Senate, he played a major role in national
policy-making. His career spanned epochal events, including the
Great Depression, World War II, the introduction of nuclear power,
the Korean and Vietnam wars, the battle for civil rights, expansion of
federal powers and responsibilities, and a host of other major
developments. His mark can be found on most of the great questions
that faced the country during his terms in Washington.
In 1963, a reporter for Newsweek magazine wrote that Senator
Russell is "a courtly soft-spoken, cultural patrician, whose aides and
associates treat him with deferential awe. Modest, even shy, in
manner, devastatingly skilled in debate, he has a brilliant mind,
encyclopedic learning, unrivaled access to pressure points of
senatorial power and a gift for using them. He is a senator's senator,
the head of the Senate establishment, the most influential member of
the United States Senate." Who was this man who had won such
respect and power? What manner of man was he?
Russell was born in the small town of Winder, Georgia, some forty
miles northeast of Atlanta, on November 2, 1897. He was the fourth
child and first son of thirteen living children of Judge Richard B.
Russell and Ina Dillard Russell. He was born into a distinguished and
well-educated family whose roots went back to colonial times. His
Russell ancestors had lived in South Carolina and Georgia for several
generations and were successful planters and businessmen. Russell's
grandmother, Rebecca Harriette Brumby, had descended from the
Brumbys and the Brevards, two prominent South Carolina and North
Carolina families. On both sides, it was a family of modest wealth and
prestige.
Richard Brevard Russell, the senator's father, was born in
Marietta, Georgia in 1861. He attended the University of Georgia,
receiving a law degree in 1880. He practiced law in Athens, was
elected to the Georgia House of Representatives in 1882 where he
served for six years, and, in 1888, he was elected solicitor general
of the western circuits of Georgia. He held that position until
January 1, 1899, when he became judge of the superior court of the
western judicial circuit. Judge Russell was an intensely ambitious
man. In 1904, he made an unsuccessful race for chief justice of the
Georgia Supreme Court, and, two years later, he entered the campaign
for governor against the prominent Hoke Smith, a contest in which he
was decisively defeated. In 1911, Russell failed again in a race for
the governorship, and had no better success when he ran for Congress
in 1916. In 1922, however, he won a campaign for chief justice of the
Georgia Supreme Court, a position that he held until his death in 1938.
Young Richard B. Russell, Jr., then, grew up in a large family
that was prominent and widely known throughout the state. Also, it was
a family that expected the children to achieve. Judge Russell believed
deeply in at least three things--education, hard work, and personal
ambition. Moreover, he had special ambitions for his first son and
namesake. Both Judge and Mrs. Russell planned for, and expected,
their eldest son to become a leader in some field, preferably public
service.
To help achieve that goal, the Russells sent young Dick to Gordon
Military Institute at Barnesville, Georgia. This was considered the
best secondary school in the state, and one of the top such
institutions in the South. It attracted the sons from many of Georgia's
leading families, and Judge Russell believed that the contacts Dick
made there among his fellow students would be helpful later in a
political career. So, in September 1911, young Dick, at age thirteen,
was off to Gordon.
Although he possessed high native intelligence, Dick did not take
his school work very seriously. He was much more attracted to the social
life, both on and off campus. Despite intense urgings from his father
and mother to study hard, he so neglected his studies that he nearly
flunked out of school. Judge Russell, hoping to stimulate his son by
appealing to family pride, once wrote: "you carry my name, and I
want you to carry it higher than I have done or can do in my few
remaining years."1 Such fatherly urgings, however, were largely in
vain.
At the end of his sophomore year, Dick had passed all of his
courses except Latin. Believing that a different environment might
help his son, Judge Russell decided to send Dick to the Seventh
District A&M School near Marietta. There, the curriculum was less
rigorous and students had to work for part of their expenses. Dick's
father believed that a work schedule might provide the discipline
needed to do better academic work. During that year, Dick did improve
in his studies, and, after making up his failed Latin course at a
University of Georgia summer session, he returned to Gordon and
graduated with his class in May 1915. It was a close call, however,
whether he would meet the requirements for graduation. He declared
years later that "more through grace and pity than through knowledge,"
his teacher had given him a passing mark in calculus.2 Up to that time,
Dick had clearly failed to meet his parents' expectations in his school
work. However, just as his father had planned, he had made many
friends who later were important in his rise to political power in
Georgia.
In September 1915, Dick entered the University of Georgia Law
School in Athens some twenty miles east of his home in Winder.
While he continued to be active socially, courting several young
ladies, joining the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity, and going to many
parties and dances, Dick finally began to take his studies seriously.
He did well in his law courses. Even though he was seriously ill and
out of school in part of 1916, he received his law degree in 1918.
Shortly after graduation, and only months before the Armistice, he
signed up for duty in the navy. He did not leave Georgia during his
seventy-nine days of service. However, he was proud of his service
and joined, and became an active member in, the American Legion.
One of Dick Russell's life-long interests was the reading and
study of history. He was an avid reader in many fields, but history
was his favorite subject. As early as age nine, he recorded in his
boyhood diary that he liked to read American history as well as the
history of other countries. Early in 1907, he wrote that he had just
completed reading a book on the recent war between Japan and Russia.
He also liked adventure stories. But his paramount interest was the
history of the Civil War, and, over the years, he became an authority
on all aspects of that bloody conflict. Moreover, Russell believed that
history had lessons for those who would learn from it, and
considered it useful in policy-making decisions. "Look to the past as a
means of weighing the present and the future," he said in 1954.
After being discharged from military service in December 1918,
Russell returned home to Winder, moved in with his parents, and
joined his father in the practice of law. A small town law business,
however, failed to satisfy the growing ambitions of this popular
young man. In 1920, he decided to run for the Georgia House of
Representatives. Entering the campaign against a veteran legislator,
Russell went from house to house seeking political support. He
defeated his opponent nearly two to one.3 When he took his seat in
the general assembly in 1921, he was twenty-three years old and
one of the youngest men ever to serve in the Georgia legislature.
In Atlanta, Russell quickly became aligned with a group of
so-called "young turks" who were trying to reduce the control of
special interests in state government, and advance a more progressive
program. This group strongly favored improving the state's public
education and building hard-surfaced highways. Education and good
roads, Russell said, were the twin pathways to progress and
modernization. On most issues, Russell was moderately progressive.
Early in his political career, Russell developed the tactics and
techniques that served him well throughout his half-century of
leadership. He carefully cultivated key people who would support
him, many of whom were his former classmates at Gordon Military
Institute and the University of Georgia. Secondly, he made it a point
to know all the rules, regulations, and traditions of the legislature,
and, later, of the United States Senate. Knowledge, Russell rightly
believed, was power, and he usually had more information than most
other legislators. He also had a knack for political strategy, and he
paid close attention to the interests of other legislators. Russell was
also skillful in identifying the popular issues of the day and making
them his own. Furthermore, he early developed the practice of
working behind the scenes where he could arrange compromises that
satisfied conflicting interests. Finally, he believed that a political
leader must be absolutely honest, straightforward, and fair to all
people and points of view.
Working on these principles, Russell, despite his youth, advanced
rapidly in the Georgia House of Representatives. In 1924, with the
support of the younger and more progressive crowd, he was elected
speaker pro tem. In 1927, he was unanimously elected speaker of
the house, and he was reelected in 1929. During his ten years in the
general assembly, four of them as speaker of the house, he worked
hard to improve education and to build more and better highways.
He insisted on a fiscally responsible, pay-as-you-go policy to fund
these programs. Russell also became a strong backer of reorganizing
the state government in order to achieve greater efficiency.
By 1930, at age thirty-two, Russell was emerging as one of
Georgia's major political leaders. He was especially popular among
legislators and ordinary people who believed that state government had
been operated too much on behalf of the special interest. In April
1930, he announced that he would run for governor on a platform of
putting state government on a "business basis" and promising that he
would head "an honest and economical administration." Initially,
veteran politicians did not think that this young upstart had any
chance in a field of seasoned candidates. However, Russell canvassed
the state from one end to the other, visiting thousands of voters in
their homes and at village crossroads. In this grassroots campaign,
Russell presented himself as the peoples' candidate and sharply
attacked the special interests. Russell was an excellent speaker and
debater. He devastated his opponents with superior knowledge, logic,
common sense, and, when necessary, with ridicule and wit. Georgians
responded to Russell's call for honesty, efficiency, and fairness in
government, and elected him by the overwhelming vote of 99,505 to
47,157 for his opponent.
Russell took his oath as governor in June 1931, during the depth
of the Great Depression. In his inaugural address, he promised to
balance the state budget and to liquidate Georgia's debts. He
emphasized that even the poorest students, especially rural youth,
must be given the opportunity for an education, and that a state-
funded highway system must be developed. He also stressed the
need for governmental reorganization. During the eighteen months
that Russell served as governor, his greatest achievement was
reorganization of Georgia's government. Over one hundred boards,
commissions, and departments were consolidated into eighteen new
state agencies. One of the most successful examples of that
reorganization was the establishment of the University System of
Georgia for higher education which placed a single governing board
over all of the state's colleges and universities.
While it was assumed that Russell would run for a second term and
be easily reelected, the death of Senator William J. Harris in April
1932 opened up an opportunity for Russell to seek a senatorial post.
On April 25, 1932, he announced that he would seek election to
Senator Harris's unexpired term, which ran until 1937. At the same
time he appointed John S. Cohen, publisher of the Atlanta Journal, to
serve until the election of Harris's successor.
A short time later, the veteran Georgia congressman, Charles R.
Crisp, announced that he would seek the Senate seat. The Russell-Crisp
campaign turned out to be a long and bitter fight. Russell attacked
Crisp's record in Washington and successfully identified him with the
ruinous policies that had led to the Great Depression. He also accused
Crisp of being aligned with the "power trust" and other
representatives of "special privilege." In contrast, Russell presented
himself as being "the champion of the masses."4 He did have the
support of most farmers and of organized labor. Russell spoke in
every part of the state and aired his views in radio talks. His
personal friends, once again, did yeoman service on his behalf.
Despite most early predictions that he could not defeat Crisp, and
opposition from many major newspapers, including the Atlanta
Constitution, Russell decisively whipped Crisp by winning some 58
percent of the popular vote, and getting a higher percentage of the
county unit votes.
During the summer, Russell had taken time off from campaigning to
serve as a delegate to the National Democratic Convention. He was a
strong supporter of Franklin D. Roosevelt. Russell had become
acquainted with Roosevelt in the 1920s when the New Yorker spent
time at Warm Springs, Georgia. They also had several meetings when
they served as governors of their respective states. At the
convention, Russell made one of the seconding speeches for
Roosevelt, and urged the delegates to nominate him because he was
free from the "predatory interests who have long fattened at the
trough of special privilege."5 Roosevelt, Russell declared, would be a
great leader because he understood and sympathized with the
problems of ordinary people. He saw himself and Roosevelt as
favoring many of the same things. He viewed Roosevelt, too, as the
man who could best lead the country out of the Depression.
Roosevelt's election thrilled Russell, and he was excited about the
prospect of working with the new president.
Dick Russell, just past thirty-five, was sworn in on January 12,
1933, as the youngest member of the United States Senate. With the
arranged resignation of Senator Cohen, which permitted Russell to
take office in January, he gained seniority over those newly elected
senators who, in those days prior to the ratification of the Twentieth
Amendment, would take their seats on March 4. A bachelor--some
said one of Washington's most eligible young men--Russell moved
into the Hamilton Hotel and began his long career in Washington.
Knowing that the Senate did its important work in committee,
Russell actively sought an assignment to the Appropriations Committee.
Senate Majority Leader Joseph T. Robinson of Arkansas tried to
explain to Russell that appointment to Appropriations was
customarily reserved for senators with more experience and
seniority. Of course, Russell knew this, but he persisted. Finally,
because of some unfounded rumors that Russell might join a coalition
with Senator Huey P. Long of Louisiana, whom the leadership viewed
as a troublemaker, his request for appointment to Appropriations
was honored. He also secured a place on the Naval Affairs,
Immigration, and Manufacturers committees. A short time later,
Russell became chairman of the Subcommittee on Agricultural
Appropriations. This placed him in a key position to help farmers, a
group for whose plight he had deep sympathy.
Russell enthusiastically supported most of the early New Deal
legislation. He voted for the Agricultural Adjustment Act, the
Tennessee Valley Authority, the National Recovery Act, and for other
relief legislation. Moreover, as opposition developed to Roosevelt in
1935 and 1936, Russell became one of the president's strongest
defenders. He sharply criticized those who accused Roosevelt of being
a dictator, and insisted that the president was leading the country in
a peaceful and constructive revolution. While Russell believed firmly
in private initiative and a capitalistic economy, he argued that the
system had been taken off course by special, predatory, economic
interests. The federal government must now intervene, he argued, to
right the wrongs and help the common people.
During his early years in Washington, Richard Russell made an
intensive study of the Senate rules, traditions, and practices. By the
end of the 1930s, there was no better informed senator on the
procedures and operations of this body. His knowledge came from
hours of reading and study. It was said that he read the entire
Congressional Record every day. Since Russell never married he had
no family responsibilities, and this left him extra time for Senate
work and for special study. Also, Russell continued his policy
developed in the Georgia legislature of working behind the scenes
and building up personal relationships between himself and his
colleagues. He actually made very few speeches on the Senate floor.
He considered that most speeches were mainly for show; he believed
in quiet, effective work in committee rooms, over lunch, or in his
office. His only public fight on an economic issue was in support of
his bill to restrict the imports of jute which, he claimed, competed
unfairly with cotton bagging.
Just as Russell was getting well established in the Senate, he
had to make a bid for reelection in 1936. His opponent was Governor
Eugene Talmadge, one of Georgia's best known and most flamboyant
politicians, and father of our former colleague, Herman Talmadge.
Although Talmadge was a highly controversial figure who had even
called out troops to enforce some of his decrees, Russell and his
friends recognized the governor as a formidable candidate. "Old
Gene" with his red suspenders and folksy manner was reputed to
have the special admiration of the state's farmers. By 1934 and
1935, Talmadge had also become one of the New Deal's sharpest
critics.
Russell, however, was not daunted nor intimidated by such
opposition. He vigorously defended the New Deal and his support for
it, and stressed what he had done in Washington to assist farmers
and working people. Besides defending Roosevelt and the New Deal,
and his own work in the Senate, Russell attacked Talmadge and his
record as governor head on. He accused the governor of forsaking the
common people and lining up with rich Republicans. It was a rough
and tumble campaign characterized by large and unruly crowds, fist
fights among candidates' supporters, and charges and counter
charges. Talmadge finally tried to capitalize on the race issue by
accusing Russell of not being strong in support of white supremacy
and segregation. Russell denied that he had ever compromised on the
principle of white supremacy and called Talmadge's charge
"despicable." Russell regretted having to discuss racial matters, but
handled the matter skillfully and successfully. Unlike many other
southern politicians of that period, Russell opposed bringing the race
question into election campaigns.
This was not the kind of campaign that Russell liked, but, when
challenged and aroused, he was a master fighter on the campaign
trail. When the results were in, Russell piled up a huge victory of
256,154 votes to 134,695 for Talmadge. The county unit vote was
even more in his favor. Russell's victory in 1936 was so
overwhelming and decisive that no other candidate ever again
challenged him for his Senate seat. He won five additional elections
without opposition. There was no better testimony to his popularity
among the people of Georgia.
Former Senator Herman Talmadge, in his recently published memoir,
asserts that his father was the state's most popular politician and "in
a simple one-on-one contest" he could have beaten Russell.
...the race was not Talmadge versus Russell so much as Talmadge
versus Roosevelt. In Georgia in 1936, it probably would have been
easier to run against Jesus Christ than against Franklin D. Roosevelt.
The same people who thought that Papa was a pretty good governor
didn't want him to go to Washington to vote against the New Deal.6
Although by the late 1930s Russell was having some doubts about
aspects of Roosevelt's policies and programs, in the area of
agriculture and farm policy he was making his mark as an avid New
Dealer and true friend of the farmer. Russell was a dedicated and
confirmed agrarian. Like Thomas Jefferson, he believed deeply in the
political and economic importance of an independent farming class.
The family farm was, in his view, one of the nation's most important
and stabilizing influences. Thus, Russell was always concerned about
the welfare of farmers, and he became a strong advocate of help for
the small, family-type farmers. He supported all of the basic
agricultural legislation enacted after 1933, including the AAA, farm
credit, and soil conservation programs. But these programs did very
little, if anything, for the tens of thousands of poor tenants and
sharecroppers. What could be done to help the poorest farmers,
many of whom were located in the South?
Beginning in 1935, Russell pushed measures that would help poor
tenants and sharecroppers to become landowners by lending them
money to buy land and equipment. The most important law to help
the poorer class of farmers was the Bankhead-Jones Farm Tenant Act
of 1937, which Russell enthusiastically supported. The problem was
to get funds to provide the necessary loans. It was here that Russell
played a major role in his position of chairman of the subcommittee
on agricultural appropriations. Not only in the subcommittee but also
in conference committee he often beat back attempts to reduce the
meager appropriations for the Farm Security Administration. It was
not a popular program with many senators, and Russell had to use all
of his influence to get even modest appropriations. In the spring of
1942, when it appeared the Congress would drastically cut money for
the FSA, President Roosevelt called personally on Russell to save the
program. With the cooperation of several influential colleagues,
Russell was able to retain most of the funds requested by the
president. When the fight was over, Roosevelt wrote Russell thanking
him for his "legislative leadership."7 Throughout the late 1930s and
early 1940s, farmers owed their direct parity payments, soil
conservation payments, and loans from the FSA more to Russell than
to any other single leader in Washington.
In the mid-1930s, Russell began supporting the idea of a federally
funded school lunch program to help needy children and to reduce
agricultural surpluses. After operating for several years without
legislative authority, in 1946 Russell pushed through a bill that made
school lunches a permanent program. He also backed the food stamp
plan which began on an experimental basis in 1939. Russell was a
compassionate man and believed strongly that government should
assist those who were needy and could not help themselves.
While Russell considered himself among the loyal New Deal
Democrats, he was a man of independent thought and judgment. He
would not necessarily support an issue just because it enjoyed the
support of the president or the Democratic party. By the late 1930s,
he frequently found that he had to oppose the president. In 1937,
when Roosevelt attempted to restructure the Supreme Court, Russell
did not automatically fight the proposal as many of his colleagues
did. It was Russell's nature and inclination to seek some kind of
compromise between the president, who wanted some basic changes
in the court, and those who found any change whatever abhorrent.
When the president rejected a compromise plan advanced by Russell
and a few other senators, the Georgian joined those who defeated the
"Court packing" bill. He also opposed the president's attempt, in the
1938 elections, to purge some senators, one of whom was his
colleague, Walter George.
The emerging issue in the 1930s that caused Russell the gravest
concern was embodied in proposed Federal legislation to guarantee
civil rights for blacks. His views on race had been determined by the
culture, traditions, and racial practices with which he had been
raised. As a believer in the superiority of Anglo-Saxon culture and
institutions, he maintained that blacks were basically inferior to
whites. Russell did not dislike blacks and wished them well so long as
their progress occurred within their own racial group. For example,
he was a strong supporter of black colleges. However, he was
vehement against what he called "race mixing," and insisted that
both whites and blacks would be better off under strictly segregated
conditions. He repeatedly argued that race mixing would lead to
intermarriage and what he called "mongrelization" of the races.
Above all, Russell believed that Congress had no right to intervene in
race relations within a state. That, he argued, would violate states'
rights--rights given to the states and protected by the Constitution.
In other words, while Russell opposed racial integration his basic
arguments against civil rights legislation were usually based on
constitutional grounds.
The problem, however, was that, throughout much of the country,
there was a growing demand for Congress to enact legislation to
protect black citizens' rights, which has been denied to them by both
legal, and extralegal methods. An early civil rights campaign focused
on the passage of anti-lynching legislation. When an anti-lynching
bill was introduced in 1935, Russell and other southern senators
easily defeated the measure with a short filibuster. But, in 1938,
another anti-lynching measure came before the Senate. By that time,
a group of eighteen to twenty southern senators had organized into
what became known as the "Southern Bloc" for the purpose of
defeating anti-lynching and other legislation designed to protect and
enhance the rights of blacks. Senator Tom Connally of Texas was the
nominal leader of the group, but, by 1940, these senators looked to
Russell for genuine leadership. Because of his knowledge of Senate
rules, his parliamentary skill, and organizational ability, Russell
emerged as the main spokesman and defender of the South's position
on race.
No man in the United States Congress could speak more eloquently
about the history, traditions, and virtues of the Old South than Dick
Russell. He loved the South, as it had developed over generations,
with an almost militant passion. Southern society may not be perfect,
he once admitted, but it was nearly so. He believed that racial
integration would destroy this ideal condition. Russell also believed
that attacks on racial segregation were directed by what he called
"South haters" who really did not know or understand the region or
its people.
Russell spoke movingly and passionately against the 1938 anti-
lynching bill in the Senate. He was no demagogue or race baiter as
were some other southern political leaders. He presented serious
arguments against the measure, but they were always based on his
fundamental understanding of desirable race relations. Russell was
as strongly against the heinous crime of lynching as was anyone else.
What alarmed him in this instance was the belief that passage of an
anti-lynching bill would set a pattern for additional federal
legislation. Next, he said, there would be federal control of elections
in the southern states; then legislation to ban segregation on public
transportation and in public places; guarantees of equal employment
opportunities; and, finally, laws to require social equality in
schools, health facilities, and colleges. Such a legislative agenda,
he argued, would violate states' rights and change the nature of his
beloved South. Up to World War II, Russell and his colleagues were
able to turn civil rights bills, but they were unable to kill the
president's Fair Employment Practices Committee, which, in 1941,
began to protect employment rights of blacks. During World War II,
and into the postwar years. Russell did everything he could to
handicap and reduce the effectiveness of the FEPC, but without much
success.
As the war clouds rose in Asia and Europe in the 1930s, Russell,
as a member of the Naval Affairs Committee, began devoting increasing
attention to national defense and foreign affairs. Like most other
Americans in the years after World War I, Russell held firm
isolationist views. Speaking in opposition to joining the World Court
in 1935, he warned his colleagues against getting drawn into
European quarrels and conflicts. He believed that George
Washington's admonition to be friends with all nations and allies to
none was the correct course to follow. Surely, the United States
should stay out of European entanglements. "My views are those of a
nationalist," he said, and he was "for the United States of America
first."8 While Russell wanted to avoid using American military power
to settle other nations' problems, he was a vigorous advocate of
keeping the United States militarily strong. He was especially
interested in strengthening the navy. Russell strongly supported the
two-ocean navy which his fellow Georgian, Representative Carl
Vinson, was pushing. Russell had a special interest in developing
aircraft carriers.
Although Russell did not become prominently involved in the debate
over neutrality legislation of the 1930s, after World War II broke out
in 1939, he supported the American military build-up and the
president's plans to aid Britain. He told a 4-H group in 1940 that "our
policy of aiding Great Britain and the democracies is now the first
national policy of our government. It is too late now to debate; it is
our duty to support the president...."9 Besides supporting aid to
Britain, this statement reflects Russell's acceptance of presidential
leadership in foreign policy matters. Russell championed the
Selective Service Act, but he took the progressive position that no
person or corporation should profit unduly from defense or war. Men
should not be drafted, he argued, unless industries were also forced
to contribute to the war effort as the government needed and
directed. He was able to enact some legislation requiring the
cooperation of industry in the defense effort, but it was a much
weaker law than he had hoped to enact.
During World War II, Russell headed a committee of five senators
who visited the world's far-flung battlefields where American troops
were engaged. The purpose of the trip was to help Congress
determine if American supplies and equipment were adequate and if
they were being used effectively. The group left Washington on July
25, 1943, and did not return until September 28. The senators went
first to England, then to North Africa, the Persian Gulf region, India,
China, and Australia before returning home. Russell was greatly
impressed with the quality and perform-ance of American troops,
and, for the most part, he approved of the operations that he had an
opportunity to observe. However, he was critical of how some
military supplies were being used by American allies.
Upon returning home, Russell gave a detailed report to the full
Senate on the committee's trip. He dealt with several major issues
that became highly important in the post-war years. Russell insisted
that the United States should retain some of the bases and land
parcels that had been won with the blood of American fighting men.
Such bases and facilities, he argued, would be needed to guarantee
American security and to preserve the peace. While some
commentators accused him of being imperialistic, Russell claimed
that bases would be absolutely necessary for the United States to
help maintain world stability after the war. He also warned against
the United States' dispersing huge amounts of relief and aid to
countries around the world following the war. He believed that
leaders he had met in his extensive travels had unrealistic
expectations of what the United States should or could do.
By the close of the war, Russell was beginning to view our wartime
ally, the Soviet Union, as untrustworthy and expansionistic. Part of
this view stemmed from an effort by Russell in the summer of 1945
to visit Russia after he and a Senate committee had investigated
conditions in Western Europe. The Russians delayed issuing Russell
an entry permit for so long that he became disgusted and returned
home from France. He saw the Russians as unnecessarily suspicious
and uncooperative. Russell also was frustrated with what he
considered the kid-glove treatment given to defeated Japan. Even
after the United States had dropped two atomic bombs on Japanese
cities, Russell did not think that the average citizen of Japan
realized the extent of that nation's defeat. Russell urged President
Truman to oust the emperor and to march a large army down the streets
of Tokyo as a means of impressing the Japanese with the American
victory. He did not consider this vindictive; only proper punishment
for attacking the United States at Pearl Harbor in 1941.
By the end of World War II, Dick Russell had become one of the
United States Senate's leading members. Passage of the Legislative
Reorganization Act of 1946 left him with especially strong committee
assignments. While he lost his chairmanship of the Immigration
Committee, which had been absorbed by the Judiciary Committee,
Russell retained his position on Appropriations and got a seat on the
newly formed and powerful Armed Services Committee. When the
Democrats regained a majority in Congress in 1949, following their
defeat in 1946, Russell ranked second and fourth respectively on
those two most influential panels. In 1951, he became chairman of
Armed Services, a position that he held until 1969 when he gave it
up for the chairmanship of Appropriations, except for the two years,
1953-1954, when the Republicans were in control. Russell was also
appointed to the first Joint Committee on Atomic Energy in 1946,
and, after the Central Intelligence Agency was established in 1947,
he became a member of the CIA's congressional oversight committee.
Russell also served on the Senate Democratic Policy Committee, which
was formed in 1947, and, a decade later, he became a member of the
Democratic Steering Committee. He held strategic positions at many
points of political and legislative power.
In the post-World War II years, Russell spent much of his time
trying to help and protect farmers. He was one of the major
participants in the Farm Bloc, an informal group of farm-state
senators who were committed to getting fuller prosperity for
farmers. Among the senators with whom Russell worked closely on
agricultural matters was Republican Milton Young of North Dakota.
Russell and Young developed a kind of cotton-wheat coalition that
fought hard for legislation to guarantee prices of 90 percent of parity
for most basic crops. Russell, Young, and their supporters were able
to maintain the 90 percent principle well into the mid-1950s.
His interest in supporting federal programs and agencies which
assist farmers never lagged. The Farm Security Administration had been
effectively killed in 1943, but a new agency, the Farmers Home
Adminis-tration, was created by Congress in 1945. The FHA was
supposed to make loans to poor farmers to help them buy land and
equipment, but Congress failed to appropriate enough funds to assist
many of them. Russell fought hard, as chairman of the Subcommit-
tee on Agricultural Appropriations, to increase appropriations for the
agency, but he achieved only limited success. He had better luck
fighting against cuts for soil conservation. As one of the leading
conservationists in the country, Russell resisted efforts by the
Republican Eightieth Congress to reduce the amount of money for soil
conservation to what he called a "paltry" $150 million. After a hard
fight in 1947, he was able to add nearly $100 million to that amount.
He was also responsible for increasing the amount spent on the
school lunch program in the postwar years, something that gave him
great satisfaction. Senator Russell, however, was equally proud of the
Research and Marketing Act which he pushed through the Senate in
1946.
Although Dick Russell supported much of President Truman's
domestic program, he parted company with the chief executive over
labor legislation. He voted for the Taft-Hartley bill in 1947, and he
voted to override the president's veto of that measure so hateful to
organized labor. Russell was not anti-labor or anti-union. Organized
labor had supported him enthusiastically in his races for governor
and senator. But Russell had concluded by the mid-1940s that some
labor leaders were becoming too powerful and were gaining
excessive political influence. He viewed some segments of organized
labor's leadership as greedy, selfish, and irresponsible. He was
especially concerned with the political activities of the Congress of
Industrial Organization's Political Action Committee. Special interests
of this kind, Russell believed, were becoming too powerful, so
powerful in fact that they were threatening the democratic process.
Pressure groups were "becoming dangerous" to the independent
thinking of House members and senators, he said. "We must retain
the legislator's independence of thought," he argued. "It is not a good
thing when pressure groups elect a man who is forever beholden to
them."10 Russell, however, had concerns that went beyond the
question of general pressure groups. He was annoyed by the
lobbying being done by some labor unions for civil rights laws.
By the 1940s, Russell foresaw a problem that was to become of
national concern a generation later. That was the spending of huge
amounts of money by political action groups on the campaigns of
candidates who would support their special interests. Not only were
the amounts of money corrupting, in Russell's view; but some
representatives and senators also came to use campaign money in
ways that made it hardly distinguishable from their private funds.
Such use of money was abhorrent to Russell who was a stickler for
honesty and old fashioned morality. In his own campaigns, he had
returned to contributors money that was not needed for actual
campaign expenses. He once sent a check for $100 back to a
contributor with a note advising his friend that the amount was too
generous and that he really did not need the funds. Thus, Russell saw
the growing use of money in political campaigns, raised by whatever
pressure groups, as endangering the democratic political process and
threatening the nation's welfare. Russell himself, of course, had
little need for campaign money after 1936. Funds for his filing fee
and a few advertisements every six years was the limit of his campaign
expenses.
Another issue on which Russell felt deeply was immigration. He
strongly supported the National Origins Act of 1924 which restricted
total immigration to about 150,000 a year and favored northern
European immigrants through a quota system. He opposed extending
quotas to Asian and African countries, because he felt that
immigrants from those nations would change the national racial
complexion and reduce the Anglo-Saxon influences of which he was
so proud. He once boasted that Georgia had only seven-tenths of one
percent foreign born population. Russell was one of the leaders in
fighting President Truman's plan in 1946 to admit some 400,000
refugees. Russell believed that the admission of thousands of
European refugees would open the flood gates for refugees from all
over the world. He wanted to tighten immigration laws, not loosen
them. While Russell fought hard against the Truman policy, he could
only delay and modify it.
Although Russell opposed some of Truman's domestic policies, he
lent strong support to the president's policies to block Russian
aggression. When the president called for economic and military aid
for Greece and Turkey in 1947, Russell backed the plan. He also voted
for the Marshall Plan which provided for spending billions over four
years to help restore the economies of Western European countries.
While initially supporting foreign aid as a means of helping countries
regain economic and military strength to resist Communism, Russell
soon became disillusioned over the foreign aid program. He favored
humanitarian assistance and programs for self-help, but, by 1952, he
had become one of the bitterest opponents of the unending flow of
American funds to countries all around the world. He had several
objections to the foreign aid program: its failure to win friends for
the United States; waste; burdens to American taxpayers; and its
open-endedness. To Russell, foreign aid became a bottomless pit into
which hard-earned American taxpayer dollars were thrown year
after year with little or no benefit to the United States.
Consequently, he worked hard to defeat foreign aid bills in the 1950s
and 1960s, but was only able to reduce the amounts appropriated. Even
that limited achievement, he believed, was worthy of his efforts.
Russell considered the Soviet Union to be imperialistic and the
source of most post-war problems throughout the world. There was no
more ardent cold warrior in Congress than Dick Russell. He used his
influence on the Armed Services Committee and the Appropriations
Committee to strengthen conventional military forces and to develop
new weapons. He bitterly opposed sharing any atomic secrets with
the Russians. He viewed the conflict between that nation and the
United States as a worldwide battle between good and evil. When the
North Koreans invaded South Korea in 1950, he saw that action as an
extension of Soviet power through one of its satellites, an action
that must be resisted.
Overall, however, Russell was reasonably well satisfied with the
early Truman presidency. Civil rights, however, served as the issue
that drew him into opposition to his old Senate colleague. Truman's
legislative program included establishment of a permanent Fair
Employment Practices Commission, abolition of segregation in the
armed forces, passage of anti-poll tax legislation, and other measures
to guarantee the rights and opportunities for blacks. Following the
president's special message on civil rights in February 1948, Russell
wrote a constituent that the president's proposals were the "most
outrageous affront to the people of our section that we have had to
face since Reconstruction days."11 Russell not only opposed actions
that might break down segregation and destroy white supremacy; he
also believed that Truman's constant pressing for civil rights would
split the Democratic party and lead to Republican victory in 1948.
The Republicans had already won control of Congress as a result of
the mid-term elections of 1946, and Russell and other prominent
Democrats had lost their committee chairmanships.
Regardless of adverse consequences to the Democratic party,
Russell believed that he must fight the Truman civil rights program
with all his power. On March 6, 1948, twenty-one southern senators met
in Senator Harry Byrd's office to plan their strategy to resist and
defeat the president's program. These senators named Russell as their
leader, a position he had held informally for several years, and
worked out plans to keep close watch in the Senate to make sure no
civil rights bills were enacted through some unexpected
parliamentary maneuvering. This Southern Bloc saw Truman's effort
to eliminate Jim Crow practices as the "opening wedge in the fight to
stop all segregation" which, in practice, meant that blacks and whites
would "attend the same schools, swim in the same pools, eat together,
and eventually, inter-marry."12
So strong was the opposition to Truman's stand on civil rights,
that many southerners opposed the president's renomination in 1948.
But who could the anti-Truman Democrats put in the race for the
nomination? Finally, the anti-civil rights southerners prevailed on
Richard Russell to let his name be placed before the convention
delegates. Russell knew that he had no chance for the nomination,
and he wrote: "I was very reluctant to permit the use of my name,
but decided that those who were opposed to Mr. Truman were
entitled to have someone for whom they could vote."13 Russell
received 263 delegate votes, but Truman won easily. Loyal Democrat
that he was, Russell refused to join the Dixiecrats. He quietly voted
for Truman, but did nothing to help in the Democratic campaign.
It was not long before Russell had an opportunity to help the
increasingly beleaguered president. Because of differences in basic
policy and strategy in the Korean War between General Douglas
MacArthur and the president, Truman removed MacArthur from
command in the spring of 1951. The dismissal of a highly popular
general by an unpopular president raised a storm of protest against
Truman, whose administration was already under attack for being
soft on Communism and filled with corruption.
It was into this highly charged atmosphere that Russell entered
the scene and calmed the political storm swirling around the president.
Russell chaired a joint committee of inquiry that looked into the
removal of MacArthur and the general foreign policies of the United
States in the Far East. The hearings lasted from early May until late
June. The committee heard MacArthur and scores of other witnesses.
Russell skillfully guided the hearings in a fair, calm, and rational
way, and, by summer's end, the issue had largely faded from public
consciousness. Truman was deeply grateful to Russell for the manner
in which he had handled the entire matter and quieted the
controversy.
During the hearings, Russell had made one thing abundantly clear;
he believed that some senators were too loose-lipped, and were more
interested in making points with the press through leaks than in
protecting the nation's security. As witnesses talked about military
tactics and strategy in the executive sessions, Russell emphasized
that such information must be kept absolutely confidential. He
warned his colleagues about "a careless word, a slip of the tongue"
that might help America's enemies. When some of General George C.
Marshall's testimony was leaked to the press, Russell was furious and
lectured his fellow senators on the importance of guarding against
indiscreet statements. He added that, if such leaks endangered the
lives of American soldiers in Korea, neither "our God nor our fellow
citizens will ever forgive us nor would we deserve forgiveness."
Russell believed that there was a common sense balance between
providing the people with enough information on which to make
proper policy decisions, and maintaining sufficient secrecy to protect
the country's security.
Another crucial issue that came up in the MacArthur hearings was
that of "executive privilege." When Republican Senator Alexander
Wiley attempted to make General Omar Bradley reveal his personal
conversations with the president on April 6, 1950, Bradley refused to
tell the committee what Truman had said. When Wiley persisted,
Russell ruled that a "private conversation between the president and
the chief of staff as to detail can be protected by the witness if he
so desires." This was a strong statement upholding executive privilege,
and, moreover, reflected Russell's deep respect for the office of the
presidency. Russell also had a strong commitment to the principle of
separation of powers.14
The MacArthur hearings gave Dick Russell a great deal of national
exposure. He did not normally seek publicity. Indeed, he did not
have a press secretary in his office until 1959. But, whether or not he
wanted publicity, he now was the subject of scores of articles in
newspapers and magazines. These accounts reviewed his career and
activities in a depth not previously known. Richard Strout wrote in
the Christian Science Monitor that Russell was the "most powerful
man in the Senate" and that body's de facto leader.
In late 1950 and early 1951, many of Russell's colleagues urged
him to accept the position of Senate majority leader. However, Russell
refused to seek or accept the formal leadership post because he
disagreed with too much of the administration's legislative agenda,
especially that dealing with civil rights. As Russell put it, he wanted
to maintain "absolute independence of thought and action."15 While
Russell did not want to be majority leader himself, no Democrat could
gain the position without his support. In 1951, he endorsed Ernest
McFarland of Arizona, who was elected. At the same time, as I have
described in previous addresses, he threw his support for majority
whip to his young Texas friend, Lyndon B. Johnson. Johnson had no
claim to the position, except that he had the backing of Dick Russell.
That was what counted! This was the beginning of the rapid rise of
Lyndon Johnson in the Senate Democratic hierarchy. It was based on
his close personal and political friendship with the Senate kingpin,
Dick Russell. It was Russell, more than anyone else, who was
responsible for making Lyndon Johnson majority leader in 1955.
The growing influence of northern liberals in the Democratic party
during the Truman years caused Russell grave concern. From his
perspective, the most troublesome issue was the continued demand
for civil rights legislation. It was clear that the South's influence
in national party affairs was declining. The uppermost question in
Russell's mind was how to restore and increase the southern role in
party councils. One possible avenue was to support a strong southern
candidate for the presidential nomination in 1952. While a
southerner probably would not be able to win the Democratic
nomination, the strength flowing to a candidate from the South might
influence the platform and the party's general philosophical
direction. At least this was the hope of many southerners.
The most logical man in the South to make such a race was Dick
Russell. As the 1952 nominating campaigns approached, many
southerners urged Russell to actively seek the nomination. But
Russell was reluctant. Always the realist, he told supporters that no
southerner who opposed civil rights law had any chance to win the
Democratic nomination for president. Despite numerous denials that
he would seek the nomination, he came under increasing pressure to
enter the race. Governors James Byrnes of South Carolina and
Herman Talmadge of Georgia, and Senators Burnet Maybank and
Harry F. Byrd were the leading advocates of a Russell candidacy.
Finally, he gave into the desires of his friends and announced, on
February 28, 1952, that he would be a candidate for president and
would campaign for the nomination. Surrounded by Senators Russell
Long, Maybank, and John Stennis, Russell told reporters that he
would seek the position on a platform favoring states' rights, a strong
defense, and economical and honest government. Most observers
from all sections of the country admitted that Russell was well
qualified for the presidency, but most writers discounted his chances
because, as columnist Doris Fleeson declared, he was "saddled with
the traditional southern attitude on civil rights."16
Despite this obvious handicap, Russell made a strong bid for the
nomination. He defeated Estes Kefauver in the Florida primary, and
then went on a nationwide tour in search of delegates. However hard
he tried to present himself as a moderate Democrat who had
supported most of the New Deal and much of the Fair Deal, he could
not remove the image that he was only a regional candidate. When
the Democrats met, he could only attract 268 delegate votes, mostly
from the South, and the convention went on to nominate Adlai
Stevenson. Russell had been right about his chances. As Harry
Truman said, Russell might have been elected president if he had
lived in Indiana, Missouri, or Kentucky, but the country was not
ready to nominate a Georgian. Calvin W. Rawlings, Democratic
national committeeman from Utah, wrote to Russell that, "if it were
not for geography and by the Grace of God," he could have been
nominated instead of Stevenson.17 Russell was offered the vice
presidency, but that was an office in which he had no interest
whatever.
Russell voted for Stevenson, but he refused to assist in the
campaign. The Democratic platform, which had a pro-civil rights plank,
was too distasteful to Russell. Despite his disagreement with the
so-called liberal Democrats, Russell took no pleasure in Dwight D.
Eisenhower's victory and the resulting control of both houses of
Congress by the Republicans. Russell made it clear that he would fight
to retain the New Deal and Fair Deal gains against any Republican
onslaught.
During the Eisenhower presidency, Russell devoted most of his
energies to three major issues--agriculture, defense, and civil rights.
The farm problem was never very far from Dick Russell's mind. After
1953, large surpluses built up, prices declined, and operating
expenses rose, placing farmers in a tough cost-price squeeze. As a
result of hard times on the farm, tens of thousands of farmers went
out of business each year. To Russell, this was a national tragedy and
dangerous to American strength and stability.
Secretary of Agriculture Ezra Taft Benson, with President
Eisenhower's blessing, set out to reduce the level of federal price
supports on major farm commodities. Russell believed that this was a
serious mistake, and he fought to preserve and extend price supports
at 90 percent of parity. Some bitter battles ensued before Russell and
his farm-state supporters lost the fight in a Congress that was
becoming more and more consumer oriented. Beginning in 1955,
flexible price supports were inaugurated which led to lower support
prices for most major agricultural commodities. Russell complained
and protested that Congress did not treat farmers fairly. He wrote
one constituent that he could not understand the "policies of this
[Eisenhower] Administration which are threatening to destroy rural
America."18 He was more successful in getting funds for
conservation, agricultural research, school lunches, and other
purposes.
In all of the controversies over farm policy in which Russell
engaged, one fact emerged that greatly disturbed him. That was the
declining political power of agriculture. His correspondence in the
1950s is filled with references to this situation. Part of the reason
rural America was losing its political clout, he believed, was the
divisions among farm spokesmen themselves. Much more important,
however, Russell considered that farmers were being sacrificed on the
altar of a cheap food policy that catered to consumers in the growing
urban centers. But, however hard he tried, Russell could not change
policies that resulted from basic demographic shifts. Despite his
concern for farmers and his criticism of the Eisenhower administration,
federal expenditures on agricultural programs rose sharply after 1953.
Although it could hardly be said that the federal government was
neglecting farmers, Russell believed that he could have developed
better farm programs.
Other than national defense, the issue of greatest concern to Dick
Russell in the fifteen years after 1948 was civil rights. The
increasing demands for legislation that would end legal segregation
required his constant attention. As leader of the Southern Bloc, he
spent untold hours developing strategy and organizing the eighteen
southern senators who made up the core of resistance to civil rights
bills.
Up until 1953, Russell and his supporters had effectively used the
filibuster to block civil rights legislation. Attempts of civil rights
proponents to change Senate Rule XXII, so that a majority instead of
two-thirds of the senators could shut off debate, had been defeated
by southerners with some conservative Republican help. Russell,
however, not only opposed restrictions on debate to keep civil rights
bills from coming to a vote; he also sincerely believed in the
principle of full and free discussion on every issue. To Russell,
unlimited debate was one of the Senate's most cherished and sacred
practices and traditions.
Russell was greatly concerned over the breakdown of segregation in
federal agencies, including government departments, hospitals, and
military posts. This was of high concern to him because it had been
accomplished by administrative action, and there was nothing that
segregationists in Congress could do to stop the trend. He had even
gone so far in 1948 as to introduce legislation that would give men
entering the military services the right to choose a segregated or
integrated unit. The next year, he introduced a bill which would have
encouraged blacks in the South to relocate in other parts of the
country by subsidizing a move by black families. Russell believed
that civil rights advocates did not know the true problems of having
large numbers of blacks living under integrated conditions. His bill,
he said, would expose the hypocrisy of northern integrationists.
According to Russell, these so-called liberals were more interested in
the black vote than in any principle of human rights. In any event,
neither of these bills gained any significant support in Congress, but
they did express the depth of Russell's feeling on the race issue.
Russell also had a growing fear that segregation would be destroyed
by the federal courts, thereby bypassing Congress. Nevertheless, he
was hardly prepared for the Supreme Court decision in Brown v.
Topeka Board of Education handed down in May 1954, and which
held that segregation in public schools was unconstitutional. He called
the decision a "flagrant abuse of the judicial power and a violation of
states' rights."19
As a result of the Brown case and other civil rights developments,
Russell and a number of other southern senators drew up the
Declaration of Constitutional Principles, better known as the
"Southern Manifesto." Russell prepared the final draft which
criticized the Supreme Court, and promised that southerners would
use all lawful means to reverse the Brown decision.
Meanwhile, civil rights bills were being considered in Congress.
By 1957, it was clear even to Russell that some kind of civil rights
legislation would be enacted regardless of southern opposition. Thus,
he turned his energies and influence to weakening a bill that had
already passed the House in June 1957, hoping to make the measure
as ineffective as possible in--as he viewed it--disturbing race
relations in the South. While one of the bill's main features was to
guarantee blacks the right to vote, Russell believed that it gave the
attorney general far too much power to "force intermingling of the
races in the public schools and in all places of public entertainment."
He was especially upset over the denial of a jury trial for any
violators of civil rights legislation.
Although some southern senators wanted to stage another
filibuster, Russell as leader of the Southern Bloc advised otherwise.
Working with his friend, Majority Leader Lyndon Johnson, he skillfully
removed the most distasteful features of the bill. From the southern
viewpoint, when the law passed, its worst provisions had been
eliminated. Critic Thomas L. Stokes wrote that the bill had been
watered down by Johnson, "the errand boy for Senator Richard
Russell, who put Lyndon Johnson in the post of leadership."20 Time
magazine carried Russell's picture on its cover on August 12, 1957,
and, in an accompanying article, called his resistance to civil rights
legislation, "one of the most notable performances in Senate history."
Russell, himself, was proud of his efforts. He considered keeping the
federal government "out of our schools and social order" the
"sweetest victory of my twenty-five years as a senator." He was
equally successful in defeating the tougher provisions of the 1960
Civil Rights Act. In this case, he organized his eighteen-member
Southern Bloc into teams of three and so wore down the Senate that
only minor gains were included in the bill, and then only with
Russell's permission. After that fight, Senator Harry F. Byrd of
Virginia declared that under the superb leadership of Russell,
southerners had "demonstrated the effectiveness of courageous
massive resistance."21
By the early 1960s, however, Russell recognized that effective and
meaningful civil rights legislation would be passed. The national
mood had changed, southern resistance had weakened, and an
effective political leader, Lyndon Johnson, had become president.
After Johnson moved into the White House, Russell frankly admitted
that nothing he and other anti-civil rights forces could do would be
sufficient to stop civil rights legislation. After all, Russell was a
political realist. As the 1964 Civil Rights Act was about to be passed,
Russell spoke movingly, and at length, against it. This, however, was
to make a statement of principle with no thought of defeating the
measure. He knew the outcome had already been determined. After
passage of the law, he urged all people to "comply with the law of the
land," a statement that brought praise from President Johnson. When
Congress passed further civil rights legislation in 1965, Russell was
too ill to resist it actively.
Dick Russell never changed his mind on the issue of racial
integration. He viewed civil rights laws as "force bills" designed to
change race relations in the South. He believed, too, that much of the
support for civil rights legislation came from what he called "South
haters." On most issues, Russell was flexible and able to compromise,
but, on the question of racial integration and white supremacy, he
died holding the same views as those held by his southern ancestors.
History, tradition, and social relations as they had developed in the
South after slavery held an unbreakable hold on him. Indeed, he
viewed federal legislation to guarantee equal rights for blacks as a
repetition of intervention by national authorities in the South after
1865.
Senator Russell may never have adjusted to some of the country's
social changes, but he was one of the strongest advocates of a
powerful national defense in the post-World War II years. As
chairman of the Armed Services Committee and a member of the
Appropriations Committee, he was in a position to exert great
influence on strengthening American military forces. He had little
faith in the United Nations as a peacekeeping agency, and believed
that the United States could not rely on the NATO countries to
preserve peace and stability. He once said that if Russia should attack
Italy, all of the American arms provided to that NATO ally would
soon be in Russian hands!
Even after the death of Joseph Stalin in 1953, and what appeared
to be less aggressive attitudes by the Soviet Union, Russell's views
toward Russia remained the same. He did not trust the Russians, and
declared that the only hope for peace in the world was for the United
States to strengthen its military forces. He believed that any
negotiations with the Soviet Union must be done "from strength
rather than from weakness."22 Surely, Russell's highest national
priority was to build and maintain a degree of military power that
could not be successfully challenged by any nation in the world.
Consequently, he favored universal military training; strengthening
the conventional armed forces; maintaining a supply of nuclear
weapons with the planes and missiles to deliver them; and adequate
appropriations for the development of ever more highly
sophisticated and technical weapons.
Russell had little faith in the massive retaliation theories of
John Foster Dulles, President Eisenhower's secretary of state. To
Russell, such a policy relied too heavily on nuclear retaliation,
which could lead to the destruction of both Russia and the United
States. Under the Dulles policy, there would be greater reliance on
nuclear power so that cuts could be made in conventional forces and
money saved. Russell objected strenuously to President Eisenhower's
recommendation to reduce appropriations for some of the regular
military services, especially the Air Force. He believed that the
Strategic Air Command had been the major deterrent to greater
Soviet expansion. Russell wanted more bombers, fighter planes, and
support services for the Air Force. When his critics talked about the
need to cut defense costs, he replied that economy was important,
but only after American defenses had been built up. "I want to see
planes first and then consider the cost in dollars," he said.23 He
recommended spending more on national defense even if other
government programs, such as foreign aid, had to be reduced. He
declared that "the policy of increasing the appropriations for foreign
aid and for many domestic activities while reducing our armed
strength is completely incomprehensible to me."24
Russell became so unhappy over military cuts and large foreign aid
expenditures in the 1950s that he once suggested, not entirely with
tongue in cheek, that the entire foreign aid appropriation be
transferred to the Air Force. He told Senator Kenneth McKellar of
Tennessee that the State Department had no answer to a foreign
problem except "to pump in a few more millions from the pockets of
our taxpayers into the troubled area."25 Russell and his backers
were able to reduce foreign aid outlays some during the 1950s, but
he was unable to get as much money for additional military
equipment as he wished. He was distressed that more funds could
not be appropriated for the most sophisticated weapons. By 1959, he
believed that a serious missile gap existed between the United States
and the Soviet Union. Criticizing the Eisenhower military budget for
fiscal 1961, Russell declared that it was no time to "quibble over a
couple of billion dollars."26
Russell found in President John F. Kennedy an ally for greater
military spending. When Kennedy asked for an increase of $2 billion,
mostly for bombers and missiles early in 1961, Russell gave the
request his strongest support. He was able to obtain even more funds
for the military budget than the President had requested.
One of Russell's reasons for wanting overwhelming military
strength was to deal with problems such as the Cuban missile crisis of
1962. When Kennedy called the Senate and House leaders to a conference
on that crisis, Russell strongly urged that air power be used to wipe
out the Soviet missiles in Cuba. But when Kennedy decided on a
quarantine of Cuba instead, Russell announced that he would fully
back the president. In such a situation, he said, "the only voice that
can speak for the United States was the president."27 However,
Russell always regretted that military action was not taken against
Castro when a good excuse presented itself as he believed had been
the case in 1962. To have solved that problem with forceful action,
he argued, would have had "a salutary effect all over the entire
world" by discouraging other brush fire revolutions and wars
encouraged by the Soviet Union.28
Russell's continued distrust of the Soviets was reflected in his
vote against the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty in September 1963. That was
an agonizing decision for him, but he told his colleagues that the
treaty was flawed because it did not contain proper or verifiable
inspection clauses to guarantee Russian compliance. He argued that the
Soviets simply could not be trusted, and he sought to prove his point
by listing the numerous treaties that the Russians had violated.
From the beginning, Dick Russell was an outspoken opponent of
American military involvement in Vietnam. He had supported the
Korean War because it was a response to direct invasion by the North
Koreans, but he believed the situation was different in Vietnam. He
almost had a phobia against getting American forces involved in a
land campaign on the continent of Asia. Consequently, when
President Eisenhower and Secretary Dulles asked congressional
leaders about supplying American air power to help the collapsing
French forces in Vietnam in April 1954, Russell spoke vigorously
against such a move. He argued that sending air support to the
French would be the first step toward greater involvement and the
possible use of ground troops. "Once you've committed the flag," he
declared, "you've committed the country. There's no turning back; if
you involve the American Air Force, why, you've involved the
nation."29 That, Russell said, would be a fatal mistake.
As Presidents Eisenhower, Kennedy, and Johnson gradually extended
American military power into Vietnam, Russell grew increasingly
uneasy. It was bad policy, he believed, because the Vietnamese were
not doing much to help themselves, and American allies refused to
provide any meaningful help. It was wrong to try to go it alone, he
said. However, believing deeply that only the president could be the
spokesman for America's foreign policy, he supported the ends of
American objectives in Vietnam, if not the means to achieve them.
Russell insisted that, once the United States was in Vietnam, much
more military power should be brought to bear on the North
Vietnamese. By 1966, he was advocating the use of a battleship to
bombard the coast of Vietnam, the bombing of military and
industrial targets around Hanoi, blockading the port of Haiphong, and
other measures that would either defeat the North Vietnamese or
force the Communists into meaningful negotiations. But President
Johnson ignored his old mentor's advice. Russell went to his grave
still frustrated and critical of what he considered America's halfway
military measures in Vietnam.
Senator Russell disagreed with most of America's major foreign
policies after World War II. He placed most of his confidence in a
strong national defense, both nuclear and non-nuclear. He believed in
using military force only when American national interests were
directly at stake. In the case of Cuba, he would have used force
because he believed Soviet intrusion ninety miles from the Florida
coast was a direct threat to the nation's vital interest. On the other
hand, there was no overriding reason, in his view, to intervene in
Vietnam. He raised the key question of how could Communism in far
away Vietnam be worthy of American military resistance when the
United States refused to dislodge a Communist state close to home. To
Russell, this was not only mistaken policy, but it cast aside common
sense as well. On foreign aid, he was one of the nation's sharpest and
most persistent critics of a policy that he believed was wasteful,
expensive, and largely ineffectual from the viewpoint of American
national interest. Despite his disagreement with much of American
foreign policy after 1945, he was a loyal, patriotic leader who fought
hard for what he believed was in the country's best interest. He was
a strong nationalist in every sense of that term. In 1969, he gave up
the chairmanship of the Armed Services Committee and became
chairman of the Appropriations Committee.
By early 1971, at the end of thirty-eight years in the U.S.
Senate, Dick Russell had left his indelible mark on national affairs.
No major legislation bore his name, mainly because he had worked
quietly behind the scenes and had not sought credit or courted
publicity. But he had made numerous permanent contributions. These
included agricultural legislation, the Food Stamp and School Lunch
Programs, the conservation of natural resources, a strong national
defense, research and scientific achievement, and many more.
Most of all, Russell understood, appreciated, and protected the
institution of the U.S. Senate. As Jack Valenti wrote in the
Washington Post on January 12, 1963, Senator Russell was the
"embodiment of the Senate's constitutional tradition. The senator
understands the Senate;...he knows its moods and its dignity. He
guards its honor. He nourishes its heritage." Russell, Valenti
continued, "never swerves from the history of the Senate as a
structure undiminished by time, undisturbed by the moment,
unbudgeable in crisis and controversy."
Senator Russell's Senate colleagues were among his most ardent
admirers. They respected him for his intellect, his integrity, his
fairness, his courage, and his ability to cut to the heart of any
problem. Special accolades from fellow senators were common, but
they were almost embarrassing to Senator Russell at the time of his
thirtieth anniversary in the Senate in January 1963. Senator Mike
Mansfield referred to his "calmness and kindness," his "reason and
deliberation," and his "scrupulous fairness." Everett Dirksen
emphasized Russell's "rare fidelity to the traditions and institutions
of this country," while Frank Carlson believed that Russell was "the
most influential and substantial leader in the U.S. Senate."30
Writer William S. White was one of the many observers outside the
Senate who were impressed with Russell's character and ability.
White called him one of the "greatest senators of his era." While
Russell suffered from being a southerner, White explained, "no
politician in his time has more clearly and more repeatedly earned
consideration for the highest office of them all."31 Senator Sam Ervin
agreed that, after viewing all national leaders, Russell was the best
qualified man to be president of the United States.32 When the
publication, Pageant, asked senators to rank the five top members of
that body in 1964, Russell was listed by those of us who were his
colleagues as number one.33
One trait or habit that Russell possessed, and which his
colleagues greatly admired, was the consideration which he extended to
new senators. Freshmen senators often achieved more than they expected
because of Russell's help. On September 14, 1959, Senator Howard A.
Cannon of Nevada wrote Russell expressing his appreciation "for your
outstanding leadership...and for the help and consideration you have
given to me as a junior senator." I wrote to Senator Russell at about
the same time saying that it had been a "glorious experience" to have
served with him during my first year in the Senate. A few months
later, I wrote again that Russell typified "the character, the poise,
the brilliance that are associated with true greatness." I continued,
"You shall never know the profundity of the impression you have made
upon me as a new senator."34 I concluded that it was my greatest
hope to "become a senator with the stature of Richard B. Russell."
Dick Russell was a southern patrician of the old school. He was
courteous, charming, polite, and considerate. He was generally
tolerant and understanding, but he could be devastating in debate
and comment, as many discovered who were the targets of his sharp
tongue and quick wit. He once called Drew Pearson a skunk, and
referred to Joseph Alsop's column as "allslop."
As Dick Russell never married, he lived in Washington hotels from
1933 until 1962 when he purchased an apartment at the Potomac
Plaza. During his early years in Washington, he enjoyed an active
social life, attending movies, sporting events, meeting friends in the
late afternoon, or taking a lady friend to dinner. He disliked cocktail
parties and receptions, so popular in Washington, and, after a few
years, he turned down most of the many invitations he received. He
preferred to spend the evenings in his room working on Senate
business or reading history. He did greatly enjoy socializing with
fellow senators. He frequently had dinner with Lyndon and Lady
Bird Johnson, and Senator Harry Byrd's Apple Blossom Festival was
one of Russell's annual highlights. He sometimes went fishing with
Senator Willis Robertson. His strong interest in sports never
diminished, and he attended baseball and football games as long as
his health permitted. Football Coach Vince Dooley at the University of
Georgia said that he had never known anyone outside the coaching
staff who knew so much about Georgia football players, their talents,
and strengths as Russell did.
Russell started to have health problems in the mid-1950s. He had
begun to smoke heavily as a teenager, and, by the 1950s, he suffered
from the early stages of emphysema. He finally stopped smoking, but
his respiratory problems continued to get worse in the 1960s. He was
so ill in early 1965 that he had to be absent from the Senate for
several months. He also had lung cancer which was treated
successfully, but his lungs were so permanently damaged that he
could never recover. Returning to Walter Reed Army Medical Center
in January 1971, he struggled with his respiratory difficulties until
his death on the afternoon of January 21. He was buried in the
family cemetery behind the Russell home at the edge of Winder.
Richard B. Russell, Jr., served his state and nation for fifty
years, and spent more than half of his life in the U.S. Senate. At the
time of his death, he held two positions of great prestige in this
body--president pro tempore and chairman of the Appropriations
Committee. He left a mark that will always be prominent in the history
of the U.S. Senate, and one that will always be prominent in the
memories of those, like myself, who served with him for so long in the
Senate of the United States.
Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to include footnotes to
"Richard Brevard Russell."
There being no objection, the footnotes were ordered to be
printed in the Record, as follows:
Notes to Richard Brevard Russell, Jr.
1 For sources on Russell's early life see, Gilbert C. Fite. "The
Education of a Senator: Richard B. Russell, Jr. in School," The Atlanta
Historical Journal, 30 (Summer 1986), pp. 19-31; and Karen Kelly,
"Richard B. Russell: Democrat from Georgia," Ph.D. dissertation,
University of North Carolina, 1979, ch. I. See also John H. Willey, "A
Study of the Political Mind of Richard B. Russell, Jr., 1930-36," M.A.
thesis, Vanderbilt University, 1974.
2 Speech given at Barnesville, GA, Nov. 11, 1928. Russell
Collection, speech file. All subsequent references to Russell speeches
and correspondence are found in the Russell Collection, University of
Georgia Library, Athens, GA.
3 Winder (GA) News, Sept. 9, 1920.
4 Southern Cultivator 90 (Sept. 1, 1932), p. 7.
5 Atlanta Journal, June 29 and July 1, 1932.
6 Herman E. Talmadge, Talmadge: A Political Legacy, A
Politician's Life (Atlanta: Peachtree Publishers, 1987), p. 36.
7 Franklin D. Roosevelt to Richard B. Russell, Roosevelt papers,
Hyde Park, PPF 3869.
8 Congressional Record, 74th Congress, 1st sess., Jan. 29, 1935,
pp. 1054 and 1147.
9 Russell speech at Berry College, GA, 1940.
10 Atlanta Journal, Apr. 14, 1946.
11 Richard B. Russell, Jr. to Mr. O'Hardy, Feb. 10, 1948.
12 Undated clipping in Ina Russell's scrapbook, 1947-49.
13 Richard B. Russell to Mrs. Elizabeth Caldwalder-Noyes, Aug.
31, 1948.
14 Military Situation in the Far East. Hearings before the
Committee on Armed Services and the Committee on Foreign Relations,
U.S. Senate, 82d Congress, 1st sess. (Washington, 1951), 5 parts.
Pt. II, pp. 681-83, 758, and 784-829.
15 Richard B. Russell to Senator Pat McCarran, Nov. 13, 1950, and
to Senator Dennis Chavez, Nov. 14, 1950.
16 St. Louis Post-Dispatch, February 29, 1952.
17 Calvin W. Rawlings to Richard B. Russell, July 31, 1952.
18 Richard B. Russell to Erwin Sibley, May 6, 1957.
19 Congressional Record, 83d Congress, 2d sess., May 18, 1954,
pp. 6748-50.
20 Washington Evening Star, Aug. 5, 1957. The best study of
Russell and the civil rights issue is David D. Potenziani, "Look to
the Past, Richard B. Russell and the Defense of Southern White
Supremacy," Ph.D. dissertation, University of Georgia, 1981.
21 Congressional Record, 85th Congress, 1st sess., August 30,
1957, pp. 16659-61, 85th Congress, 2d sess., April 8, 1960, p. 7814.
22 Atlanta Constitution, December 2, 1955.
23 Congressional Record, 84th Congress, 1st sess., June 26, 1956, p.
10973.
24 Richard B. Russell to Senator Josiah Sibley, March 2, 1956.
25 Richard B. Russell to Senator Kenneth McKellar, February 18,
1957.
26 New York Times, January 27 and May 19, 1960.
27 Richard B. Russell's handwritten notes of the White House
conference on Cuban crisis, October 23, 1962.
28 U.S. News and World Report 59 (September 6, 1957), p. 57.
29 Quoted by Senator William F. Knowland, June 22, 1967. Columbia
University Oral History.
30 Congressional Record, 88th Congress, 1st sess., January 10,
1963, pp. 137-39.
31 Washington Post, March 24, 1969.
32 Dick Dabney, The Life of Sam Ervin (Boston: Houghton Mifflin,
1976), p. 168.
33 Pageant 20 (November, 1964), p. 6.
34 Senator Howard W. Cannon to Richard B. Russell, September 14,
1959; and Senator Robert C. Byrd to Russell, September 9, 1
From U.S. Congress. Senate. Congressional Record. 100th Congress,
2d sess., Feb. 1, 1988. (See pp. 499-509).
S. RES. 296
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
April 25, 1972
Mr. Robert C. Byrd submitted the following resolution; which was
referred to the Committee on Rules and Administration (by
unanimous consent)
September 18, 1972
Reported by Mr. Jordan of North Carolina, with amendments
October 11, 1972
Considered, amended, and agreed to
Resolution
To designate the Old Senate Office Building as the "Richard
Brevard Russell Office Building".
Resolved, That insofar as concerns the Senate, the Senate Office
Building constructed under authority of the Act of April 28, 1904 (33
Stat. 452, 481), is hereby designated and shall be known as the
"Richard Brevard Russell Office Building".
Sec. 2. Any rule, regulation, document, or record of the Senate,
in which reference is made to the building referred to in the first
section of this resolution, shall be held and considered to be a
reference to such building by the name designated for such building
by the first section of this resolution.
Sec. 3. The Committee on Rules and Administration is hereby
authorized and directed to place an appropriate marker or
inscription at a suitable location or locations within the Old Senate
Office Building to commemorate and designate such building as
provided herein. Expenses incurred in connection therewith shall be
paid from the contingent fund of the Senate upon vouchers approved
by the chairman of said committee.
THE RUSSELL SENATE OFFICE BUILDING
On October 11, 1972, the Senate officially dedicated the oldest
of the three Senate office buildings in honor of one of the
institution's most distinguished leaders, Richard Brevard Russell, Jr.
of Georgia. Located at Constitution and Delaware Avenues, NE, the
building has served as office space for the members of the Senate
since 1909.
Throughout the nineteenth century, senators had no official
office building, but instead met in committee rooms of the Capitol
or in their private residences. Fifty members had office space in the
old Maltby building, located on New Jersey and Constitution Avenues,
NW, but the condition of the building had greatly deteriorated by the
turn of the century. In 1904, the Senate authorized construction of a
fireproof office building to meet the pressing need for working space.
Along with the House, whose members faced the same office space
predicament, the Senate awarded the architectural contract to the
esteemed firm of Carrere and Hastings. One of the most successful
architectural companies in the country during the early twentieth
century, their work included resort hotels in St. Augustine, Florida;
the Frick Art Museum in Boston; and, in New York City, the
Manhattan Bridge, the Standard Oil Building, and the New York
Public Library.
John Merven Carrere and Thomas Hastings received their
professional education at the architecture school of the Ecole des
Beaux-Arts in Paris, where they were trained in the traditional
academic and classical manner. In designing the Senate office
building, Carrere and Hastings turned primarily to French classical
sources; the grand exterior of the building recalls the eighteenth
century facade of the Colonade du Louvre. Yet the firm remained
modernists in their plans for the building. They efficiently equipped
the structure with ample entrances, exits, elevators, stairwells,
toilet facilities with hot and cold running water, a forced-air
ventilation system, steam heat, and storage and office space, so that
the interior conformed to the standards of early twentieth century
buildings.
When first occupied in March of 1909, only three sides of the
planned four-sided structure had been completed. Ninety-four office
suites of two rooms, four suites of three rooms, ten single rooms,
eight committee rooms, and the Conference Room (Caucus Room)
provided much needed office and meeting areas. Additional space
was designated for a dining room, barber shop, post office, bathing
room, telephone and telegraph offices, and also a gymnasium on the
first floor. Eventually, even this space became crowded, leading to
the completion of the structure's fourth side in 1933.
Included in the new office building was a grand and elegant
meeting room, today known as the Caucus Room (room 325). The space
reflects Carrere and Hastings' European-derived style. For the marble
floor design, they turned to French classical sources such as
Fountainbleau and Hotel des Invalides, while other interior features
follow the tradition of Versailles. Twelve heroic Corinthian columns
flank the longitudinal walls, and support a classical architrave and
frieze. Perhaps the most elegant feature is the ceiling, with its
gilded rosettes, rows of acanthus leaves, and Greek key borders. The
distinctive furniture seen in the room today, commissioned in 1910
from the Francis Bacon Furniture Company of Boston, includes the
original six mahogany benches and two settles capped with carved
eagles. Although originally intended for party caucuses, the size and
grandeur of the room made it a likely site for major public hearings.
For the past eighty years, the Caucus Room has served as a stage for
some of the most dramatic Senate investigations, including the
sinking of the Titanic, the Teapot Dome scandal, Pearl Harbor, the
Kefauver Crime Committee, Army vs. McCarthy, the Vietnam War,
Watergate, Iran-Contra, and the Supreme Court nomination of
Clarence Thomas.
Throughout his career, Senator Richard Russell maintained a suite
of rooms in this oldest Senate office building. Originally located on
the fourth floor, he moved to the second floor in 1953 to room 205
(now 203, 205, 207, and 209). Russell maintained this suite until his
death in 1971. His rooms were furnished with the standard "set" of
office furniture originally ordered for the building'a flat-top or
"battleship" desk, a desk chair, easy chair, small chair, two arm
chairs, a davenport, and a bookcase. Russell usually arrived at his
office about 9:00 a.m., working until 6:30 or 7:00 p.m. He typically
worked on Saturday until noon or later. Senator Russell also spent
much time in the building as chairman of the Committee on Armed
Services, a position he held from 1951 to 1953, and from 1955 to
1969. The committee's rooms are appropriately located adjacent to
the Russell rotunda, the site of the new Richard B. Russell, Jr.
statue.
The Russell rotunda reflects the classical tradition of
architects Carrere and Hastings. Eighteen Corinthian columns in a
marble arcade support a richly detailed entablature and coffered dome.
The oculus of the dome is glazed to flood the space with natural light.
Behind the statue, twin marble staircases lead to the imposing Caucus
Room. While used for receptions, exhibitions, and other ceremonial
events, the rotunda is the main thoroughfare into the building, and the
statue of Richard Russell faces southwest towards the grand
entryway.
FREDERICK E. HART
Sculptor Frederick Hart is best known for his monumental public
commissions and his graceful, figurative sculptures. Born in Atlanta,
Georgia, the artist grew up in Washington, DC, and studied at the
University of South Carolina, the Corcoran School of Art, and
American University.
Hart began to learn the skill of stonecutting in 1967 at the
National Cathedral in Washington. By 1974 he had won the international
competition and was awarded the commission to create a series of
sculptures for the main entrance of the cathedral. The works
comprise three life-size statues, Adam, Saint Peter, and Saint Paul,
and three relief panels, The Creation of Night, The Creation of Day,
and Ex Nihilo (Out of Nothing). In 1984, Hart's bronze figurative
sculpture entitled Three Soldiers was dedicated as part of the
Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington. Other notable works by
the artist include: The Cross of the Millennium, a clear acrylic resin
sculpture, simultaneously representing the birth, death, and
resurrection of Christ; the Fauquier County Veterans Memorial,
Virginia; the James Earl Carter Presidential Statue, a larger-than-
life-size bronze on the grounds of the state capitol in Atlanta,
Georgia; and a bronze portrait bust of James Webb at the Smithsonian
Institution's National Air and Space Museum in Washington, DC.
The artist has worked extensively in clear acrylic resin since
the early 1980s, and has patented a process by which he embeds one
clear acrylic sculpture within another, a technique he calls
"sculpting with light." These pioneering figurative works best express
Hart's artistic philosophy--his spiritual and humanist ideals.
Frederick Hart's honors include: the National Sculpture Society's
Henry Hering Award, shared with architect Philip Frohman, for the
Creation sculptures; the Presidential Award for Design Excellence for
Three Soldiers; the George Alexander Memorial Award from the
Blinded American Veterans Foundation; an honorary degree of Doctor
of Fine Arts from the University of South Carolina; appointment to
the Sacred Arts Commission for the Catholic Archdiocese of
Washington; appointment to the Commission of Fine Arts by
President Ronald Reagan; and consultant for the proposed World War
II memorial in Washington, DC.
In 1994 Hudson Hill press published Frederick Hart, Sculptor, a
comprehensive book on the artist, his work, and his philosophy. In
the publication, J. Carter Brown, Director Emeritus of the National
Gallery of Art, comments: "It is breathtaking to see an artist with the
technical abilities and devotion to craft of Frederick Hart combine
these gifts with an ability to go to the brink with them, but somehow
to keep dominant the inner, emotional, intellectual, and spiritual
force of the work."
Frederick Hart lives on a farm in the Blue Ridge Mountains of
Virginia with his wife and two sons. He continues to work on
sculpture in stone, bronze, and clear acrylic resin.
Sculptor's Notes
Richard Brevard Russell, Jr. exemplified a tradition in American
politics, particularly in the South, of the classical model of
gentleman and public servant. This tradition flowered in the
eighteenth century; the farmer-statesman-soldier, as personified by
southerners such as Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, George Mason,
and James Monroe whose ideals of civic responsibility and leadership
were framed by classical heroes such as Cincinnatus of ancient Rome.
It is fitting that the setting for a statue of Richard B.
Russell, Jr. should be the beautiful neo-classical rotunda of the
Russell Senate Office Building designed by Carrere and Hastings, and
that the stylistic inspiration for the statue be in the great
tradition of Roman portrait statuary. The Russell statue is in white
marble, from the same quarries as the Roman statues of two-thousand
years ago.
The portrait statues of Roman statesmen and patricians are
typically very life-like. The likenesses are not idealized but are
true characterizations of the individual; yet, the overall styling and
modeling of the statues achieve an august monumentality that
speaks eloquently of the authority, the dignity, and stateliness of
the individual portrayed.
In the same spirit, the statue of Richard B. Russell, Jr. is
meant to convey both his personable and gracious courtliness as well
as evoke the dignified aura of a distinguished public servant.
Frederick E. Hart
Vincent Palumbo
Vincent Palumbo, master stone carver at the National Cathedral in
Washington, DC, translated artist Frederick Hart's model of Richard
Russell, Jr. into Carrera marble. Born in Italy, Palumbo learned
stonecutting from his father and grandfather, following a tradition of
five generations. He immigrated to America in 1961, where he joined
his father and a team of a dozen other stone carvers working on the
National Cathedral. He continued to sculpt the religious and secular
figures that adorn the cathedral, and the intricate gargoyles, for the
next thirty-five years. Palumbo's association with artist Frederick
Hart was established in the late 1970s when he began the task of
translating Hart's monumental Creation series for the main entrance
of the cathedral. Palumbo and his work were featured prominently
in the award winning documentary "The Stone Carvers."
Vincent Palumbo also sculpted the busts of Gerald Ford and Nelson
Rockefeller in the Senate's vice presidential bust collection; a
monument plaque at Arlington National Cemetery, dedicated to
American correspondents killed in World War II; and a bust of
Ronald Reagan at the Reagan Library. He recently worked on the
restoration of the facade of the White House.
Appendix I
Remarks by Charles E. Campbell,
Chairman, Richard B. Russell Foundation
Russell Statue Luncheon
Governor's Mansion, Atlanta, Georgia
October 23, 1995
Thank you, Governor Miller. First, I would like to express the
appreciation of the Russell Foundation to Governor Miller and
Senator Nunn for hosting this luncheon today. Zell Miller and Sam
Nunn have long been friends of Richard Russell and of the Russell
Foundation.
I had the privilege of working for the last six years of Senator
Russell's life as a member of his staff in Washington. Today, I have
the honor to serve as chairman of the Richard Russell Foundation.
The Russell Foundation is a non-profit corporation established by
admirers of Senator Russell in Georgia. It supports numerous
activities related to the preservation of the senator's memory, his
records and discussion of public policy questions in which Senator
Russell had a particular interest.
Next January will mark the twenty-fifth anniversary of Richard
Russell's death. At that time, we will have an opportunity to
participate in an event that will not only bring great credit to
Senator Russell but to our state as well. I refer to the dedication of
the Richard B. Russell statue. The Russell statue is a seven-foot
marble statue that will be placed in the rotunda area of the Russell
Senate Office Building. The Russell Senate Office Building is the
oldest and most prestigious of the three Senate office buildings in
Washington. In 1972--the year after Senator Russell died--the Congress,
through joint resolution, renamed what had been known as the "Old
Senate Office Building" as the "Richard Brevard Russell Office
Building." The Russell Senate Office Building is one of the most
important buildings in our nation's capital. It was there that such
momentous events in the history of our country took place as the
hearings to inquire into President Truman's dismissal of General
Douglas MacArthur during the Korean War (hearings which Senator
Russell chaired, incidentally), the announcement of John F. Kennedy's
presidential campaign, the Senate Watergate hearings (of which Senator
Talmadge was such an important part), and, more recently, the
Clarence Thomas confirmation hearings.
The dedication of the Russell statue at 4 p.m. on January 24,
1996 will focus on three distinct aspects of Senator Russell's Senate
career: (1) Richard B. Russell--A President's Senator, (2) Richard B.
Russell--A Senator's Senator and (3) Richard B. Russell--Georgia's
Senator.
The president of the United States has been invited to speak on
the first topic and, while he has made no final commitment, the
initial indications are positive for his participation. Senator Robert
Byrd, the former majority leader of the Senate, and Senator Robert
Dole, the present majority leader of the Senate, have both agreed to
speak on "Richard B. Russell--a Senator's Senator." Our governor will
speak on the topic of "Richard B. Russell--Georgia's Senator." Senator
Sam Nunn will serve as master of ceremonies.
Many of you in this room knew Richard Russell personally and many
others of you know him by reputation. His career was one of the
most outstanding in our nation's history. He served fifty continuous
years in public office. He served ten years in the Georgia House of
Representatives, including the last four as speaker. He became
speaker of the Georgia house in 1926 before he was even thirty
years of age. He became Georgia's youngest governor in 1930 at age
thirty-two during the depths of the Great Depression. The
administration of Governor Russell was one of decisive change in our
state--he cut the number of state agencies from 102 to 17 and cut the
cost of government by 20 percent. At the same time, there were
numerous progressive achievements of the Russell administration
including the creation of a unified system of higher education under
a Board of Regents insulated from politics. That system survives
today.
When a Senate seat became vacant in 1932, Governor Russell ran
successfully and took office at the age of thirty-four on January 12,
1933. He was the nation's youngest senator.
Richard Russell served thirty-eight years in the U.S. Senate,
becoming the first person in the history of the United States to serve
over half their life in the Senate. During this time--from 1933
through 1970--he never missed a single opening session of Congress.
You might call him the Cal Ripken of the Senate.
Senator Russell's Senate career was perhaps unique in the history
of our country. No senator, at least in modern times, has amassed the
power and influence that Richard Russell enjoyed both in the Senate
itself and at the White House.
When we refer to Richard Russell as a "president's senator" we
are referring to the fact that he enjoyed an extremely close
relationship with every American president from Franklin Roosevelt
through Richard Nixon, and was a confidential advisor of every one of
them.
Four of the presidents with whom Senator Russell served--Harry
Truman, John Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson, and Richard Nixon--had
previously served in the Senate where Richard Russell was the
preeminent senator. He knew them all well and they all knew before
they arrived at the White House that Richard Russell was the
foremost congressional authority on national security and a senator
who was good to his word in all matters. The other two presidents'
Franklin Roosevelt and Dwight Eisenhower--also had extensive prior
relationships with Senator Russell. Franklin Roosevelt and Richard
Russell became friends as young men when they were both serving
as governor of their states--Franklin Roosevelt in New York and
Richard Russell here in Georgia.
In fact, at the 1932 Democratic National Convention, Richard
Russell made a nominating speech for Franklin Roosevelt in the first
of Roosevelt's four successful campaigns for the White House. Even
though he was a new senator at the time, Richard Russell had a
significant leadership role in the Senate in passing New Deal farm
legislation that created the Farmer's Home Administration and
established farm price supports and soil conservation protection
measures. During this time, he authored the National School Lunch
Program.
Senator Russell, as a result of his position of influence on the
Senate Armed Services Committee, dealt extensively with Dwight
Eisenhower when General Eisenhower was the Supreme Allied
Commander in World War II. They had become close friends before
1952 when General Eisenhower was elected presi-dent. Their
friendship continued and grew during the Eisenhower presidency.
One characteristic that was dominant in Senator Russell's
relationship not only with presidents but with everyone else was his
staunch independence. No matter how close a friend he was of a
president, nor how much political pressure was brought to bear on
him, he steadfastly refused to support any measure in which he did not
personally believe. Probably the two presidents who were the closest
personally to Richard Russell were Franklin Roosevelt and Lyndon
Johnson. However, in both instances, Richard Russell could not
support important legislative matters pursued by them. He was one
of four senators to provide the decisive votes against President
Roosevelt's efforts to pack the Supreme Court after it declared
several of the New Deal programs unconstitutional. His independence
also caused strains in his relationship with Lyndon Johnson thirty
years later when he opposed certain provisions in the president's
civil rights legislation, the social programs of the "Great Society,"
and the way in which the war in Vietnam was conducted.
In all things, Richard Russell remained true to his view of what
was best for the country.
If Senator Russell's friendship with presidents was unusual, his
standing in the Senate itself was perhaps unique. His power was such
that he could have become majority leader or minority leader on any
number of occasions. However, he declined because of his desire to
maintain independence of thought and voting, making it impossible
for him to agree in advance to support the program of any
administration. Instead of becoming majority or minority leader of
the Senate, he largely selected several such leaders and became the
Senate's mentor. Senators of both parties, of all political
persuasions, and from all parts of the country turned to Richard
Russell more than anyone else for guidance and for help in the
discharge of their Senate duties. They knew he was a man of integrity,
independence, and good faith.
Richard Russell was, indeed, a senator's senator.
He was also Georgia's senator. Many times, it seems that one who
achieves the position of national prominence and power as did
Richard Russell, forgets his or her home state constituents because of
the press of what are viewed as more important duties. Such was not
the case with Richard Russell. Up until the very end, he considered
among his most important duties that of faithfully representing the
people of Georgia in Washington. He was fond of saying, "I have been
elected to represent and work for Georgia's interest in Washington
and not Washington's interest in Georgia."
Georgians have benefited immensely and continue to benefit from
Richard Russell's public service career. Benefits directly traceable
to his representation of Georgia in the Senate include Lockheed--
Georgia as a prime military contractor and a principal employer in
this state, the National Communicable Disease Center here in Atlanta,
the Richard Russell Federal Building that houses our federal court
system, the numerous Corps of Engineers lake developments on
Georgia's rivers, and too many outstanding military bases to even
mention.
I relate two brief stories to illustrate the importance serving
Georgia had to Richard Russell up until the very end. Several years
before he died, Senator Russell became the president pro tempore of
the Senate--which is in some ways roughly equivalent to the Speaker of
the House of Representatives. As president pro tempore, he was the
titular head of the Senate and third in line of succession to the
presidency. A part of the job as president pro tempore was to make
appointments to various national commissions or boards where the
president had an appointment, the Speaker of the House had an
appointment, and the president pro tempore of the Senate had an
appointment.
After routinely approving recommended appointments for a couple
of weeks, Senator Russell called me into his office one day and had
on his desk a proposed appointment to a national commission. He
asked me: "Isn't there anyone in Georgia qualified for any of these
positions?" We got to looking around and found out that the
particular appointment in question was in a discipline in which a
professor at Georgia State University here in Atlanta was a nationally
recognized expert. Senator Russell deleted the name of the
recommended appointee and inserted the Georgia State professor
instead. Amazingly, thereafter the names of qualified Georgians
started appearing with greater frequency on the lists.
A second true story I would relate involves Senator Russell's
decision regarding activities relating to his death. Before he died,
he specified that his body was to be returned to Georgia immediately
upon his death. This is because he wanted his body to lie in state at
Georgia's capitol here in Atlanta as opposed to in Washington. It is
ironic that when the president's senator and the senator's senator
died, there were only three official activities marking his death in
Washington: (1) the president of the United States ordered American
flags to half staff; (2) the president paused in his State of the
Union Address for a moment of silent prayer; and (3) the hearse
carrying Senator Russell's body was viewed by the entire Senate
standing on the Capitol steps on its way to Andrews Air Force Base to
be returned via Air Force One to Georgia.
Richard Russell, was, indeed, Georgia's senator. The inscription
selected by the Russell Foundation to be placed on the Russell statue
will read simply as follows:
"Richard B. Russell, Jr.--Senator from Georgia--1933-1971."
From U.S. Congress. Senate. Congressional Record. 104th Congress,
2d sess., Feb. 23, 1996 (See pp. S1302-03).
Appendix II
Richard B. Russell Chronology
Born November 2, 1897, Winder, Georgia
Graduated Seventh District Agricultural and Mechanical School,
Powder Springs, Georgia, 1914
Graduated Gordon Military Institute, Barnesville, Georgia, 1915
Graduated University of Georgia Law School, Athens, Georgia, 1918
Served in United States Naval Reserve, 1918
Member, Georgia House of Representatives, 1921-1931
Speaker, Georgia House of Representatives, 1927-1931
Governor of Georgia, 1931-1933
Sworn in as United States Senator from Georgia, January 12, 1933
Reelected to United States Senate 1936, 1942, 1948, 1954, 1960,
1966
Chairman, Hearings on the Military Situation in the Far East [General
Douglas MacArthur hearings], 1951
Member, President's Commission on the Assassination of President
John F.
Kennedy [Warren Commission], 1963-1964
Chairman,
Committee on Immigration, 1937-1947
Committee on Manufactures, 1945-1947
Committee on Armed Services, 1951-1953, 1955-1969
Committee on Appropriations, 1969-1971
President pro tempore, 1969-1971
Died January 21, 1971 in Washington, DC
Appendix III
Bibliography of Richard B. Russell
Barrett, David M. Uncertain Warriors: Lyndon Johnson and his
Vietnam Advisers. Lawrence, Kansas: University of Kansas Press,
1994.
Boney, F. N. "`The Senator's Senator': Richard Brevard Russell, Jr.,
of Georgia." Georgia Historical Quarterly 71 (Fall 1987): 477-90.
Bradford, Gary Paul. "A Rhetorical Analysis of Richard B. Russell's
1963 Nuclear Test Ban Treaty Speech." Master's thesis, University of
Georgia, 1966.
Fite, Gilbert C. "The Education of a Senator: Richard B. Russell, Jr.,
in School." Atlanta Historical Journal 30 (Summer 1986): 19-31.
-----. Richard B. Russell, Jr., Senator from Georgia. Chapel Hill:
University of North Carolina Press, 1991.
-----. "The Richard B. Russell Library: From Idea to Working
Collection." Georgia Historical Quarterly 64 (Spring 1980): 22-34.
-----. "Richard B. Russell and Lyndon B. Johnson: The Story of a
Strange Friendship." Missouri Historical Review 83 (January 1989):
125-38.
Gay, James Thomas. "Richard B. Russell and the National School Lunch
Program." Georgia Historical Quarterly 80 (Winter 1996): 859-872.
Goldsmith, John A. Colleagues: Richard B. Russell and His Apprentice,
Lyndon B. Johnson. Washington: Seven Locks Press, 1993.
Grant, Philip A. "Editorial Reaction to the 1952 Candidacy of Richard
B. Russell." Georgia Historical Quarterly 57 (Summer 1973): 167-78.
Hale, F. Sheffield. "Richard B. Russell's Election to the Senate: The
Watershed of Two Political Careers." Atlanta Historical Journal 28
(Spring 1984): 5-21.
Kelly, Karen Kalmar. "Richard B. Russell: Democrat from Georgia."
Ph.D. dissertation, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 1979.
Mann, Robert. The Walls of Jericho: Lyndon Johnson, Hubert
Humphrey, Richard Russell, and the Struggle for Civil Rights. New
York: Harcourt Brace, 1996.
Mead, Howard N. "Russell vs. Talmadge: Southern Politics and the
New Deal." Georgia Historical Quarterly 65 (Spring 1981): 28-45.
Mellichamp, Josephine. "Richard B. Russell, Jr." in Senators from
Georgia, pp. 245-60. Huntsville, AL: Strode Publishers, 1976.
Morita, Hideyuki. "Atlanta Constitution and the Occupation of Japan'
A Background of the Russell Speech." Seinan Journal of Cultures 11
(September 1996): 127-160.
Potenziani, David Daniel. "Look to the Past: Richard B. Russell and
the Defense of Southern White Supremacy." Ph.D. dissertation,
University of Georgia, 1981.
-----. "Striking Back: Richard B. Russell and Racial Relocation."
Georgia Historical Quarterly 65 (Fall 1981): 263-77.
Stern, Mark. "Lyndon Johnson and Richard Russell: Institutions,
Ambitions, and Civil Rights." Presidential Studies Quarterly 21 (Fall
1991): 687-704.
U.S. Congress. Memorial Services in the Congress of the United States
and Tributes in Eulogy of Richard Brevard Russell, Late a Senator
from the State of Georgia. 92d Cong., 1st sess., 1971. Washington:
Government Printing Office, 1971.
Ziemke, Caroline F. "Senator Richard B. Russell and the `Lost Cause'
in Vietnam, 1954-1968." Georgia Historical Quarterly 72 (Spring 1988):
30-71.
APPENDIX IV
Acknowledgments
The United States Senate Commission on Art and the Richard B. Russell
Foundation wish to thank the following individuals and
organizations for their support and assistance with this project:
Principal contributors to the Richard B. Russell, Jr. statue:
The Honorable Ivan Allen, Jr.
The Coca-Cola Company
Alston & Bird
The Honorable Griffin B. Bell
The Honorable and Mrs. Howard H. (Bo) Callaway
Mr. and Mrs. Charles E. Campbell
Mr. Bradley Currey, Jr.
Delta Air Lines, Inc.
The Honorable David H. Gambrell
Georgia Power Foundation, Inc.
Mr. and Mrs. Earl T. Leonard, Jr.
Adalaide G. Norton
The Honorable William L. Norton, Jr.
Mr. and Mrs. James L. Pannell
Mr. J. Mack Robinson
Bobby, Erlene & Janet Smith
Standard Telephone Company
Thomaston Mills, Inc.
Mr. R.E. (Ted) Turner
The Honorable and Mrs. S. Ernest Vandiver
With special appreciation:
Senator Robert C. Byrd (D-WV)
Senator Paul Coverdell (R-GA)
Vice President Al Gore
Mr. Frederick Hart
Governor Zell Miller
Mrs. Carolyn Nelson
Senator Sam Nunn (D-GA)
Dr. Lloyd John Ogilvie
Mr. Vincent Palumbo
Mrs. Pat Peterson
The Russell Family
Senator Ted Stevens (R-AK)
Ms. Sheryl Vogt
and
Richard B. Russell Library for Political Research and Studies,
The University of Georgia Libraries
Title page photograph courtesy Richard B. Russell Library for Political
Research and Studies.
Frontispiece @1996 Cindy Mahan.