McNary, Charles Linza, 1874-1944

<p>Charles Linza McNary (June 12, 1874 – February 25, 1944) was a United States Republican politician from Oregon. He served in the U.S. Senate from 1917 to 1944 and was Senate Minority Leader from 1933 to 1944. In the Senate, McNary helped to pass legislation that led to the construction of Bonneville Dam on the Columbia River, and worked on agricultural and forestry issues. He also supported many of the New Deal programs at the beginning of the Great Depression. Until Mark Hatfield surpassed his mark in 1993, he was Oregon's longest-serving senator.</p>

<p>McNary was the Republican vice presidential candidate in 1940, on the ticket with presidential candidate Wendell Willkie; both died in 1944, during what would have been their first term had they won. They lost to the Democratic ticket, composed of Franklin D. Roosevelt, who was running for his third term as president, and Henry A. Wallace by just under a ten-point margin. McNary was a justice of the Oregon Supreme Court from 1913 to 1915 and was dean of Willamette University College of Law, in his hometown of Salem, from 1908 to 1913. Before that, he was a deputy district attorney under his brother, John Hugh McNary, who later became a federal judge for the District of Oregon.</p>

<p>McNary died in office after unsuccessful surgery on a brain tumor. Oregon held a state funeral for him, during which his body lay in state at the Oregon State Capitol in Salem. McNary Dam, McNary Field, McNary High School, and McNary Country Club (on land he owned) in Oregon are named in his honor. He is currently the longest serving Senate Minority Leader.</p>

<p>Charles Linza McNary was not considered much of a campaigner. He gave one or two speeches when he ran for office, preferring to spend the campaign season on his Salem area farm. Despite this understated approach to campaigning, McNary won re-election to the United States Senate five times and became one of the country's leading political figures.</p>

<p>McNary was born on a farm just north of Salem in 1874. By age nine, both of his parents had died, leaving his twenty-six year old college educated sister, Nina, to raise him. After working on the farm for his first 19 years, McNary entered Stanford University. Stanford was expensive, however, so he returned north to attend Willamette University in 1897 and graduated in 1898 with a law degree. McNary was admitted to the Oregon bar the same year. He entered politics six years later when his brother was elected district attorney of Marion County and gave him a position as deputy district attorney. He served as dean of Willamette University's law school from 1908 to 1913, while still serving as district attorney. Soon after Oswald West took office as Governor in 1911, he appointed McNary special counsel to the State Railroad Commission. In 1913 West appointed him to a vacant seat on the Oregon Supreme Court. In his 1914 re-election campaign, McNary lost his seat to Henry Benson by one vote, 34, 608 to 34,609. McNary went on to become chairman of the Republican State Central Committee in 1916.</p>

<p>McNary married Jessie Breyman in 1902. After Jessie's 1917 death, he married Cornelia Morton in 1923. The two adopted a child in 1935.</p>

<p>When Senator Harry Lane (who had previously served as mayor of Portland) died in office in 1917, Governor James Withycombe appointed McNary to the United States Senate. Over the next 26 years, McNary supported farm relief, forest conservation, and public hydropower projects along the Columbia River. Franklin Roosevelt befriended McNary in 1936 and, as Senate minority leader from 1933 to 1944, McNary supported most New Deal programs. When Roosevelt attempted to pack the Supreme Court in 1937, McNary prevented the debate over the proposal from becoming partisan and ultimately contributed to its defeat. In 1940 McNary ran for vice president on Wendell Willkie's unsuccessful ticket. Extremely popular among his colleagues, McNary was reelected minority leader in 1944, even as he convalesced in Florida after a brain tumor operation.</p>

<p>McNary died in Florida in 1944. The McNary Dam near Umatilla is named for him. He is, perhaps, best remembered for his support of agriculture and co-sponsorship of the McNary-Haugen bill, attempting to stabilize farm prices, a version of which President Herbert Hoover signed in 1929.</p>

<p>MCNARY, CHARLES LINZA, a Senator from Oregon; born on a farm near Salem, Marion County, Oreg., June 12, 1874; attended the public schools and Leland Stanford Junior University, California; studied law; admitted to the bar in 1898 and commenced practice in Salem, Oreg.; deputy district attorney of the third judicial district 1904-1911; dean of the law department of Willamette University, Salem, Oreg., 1908-1913; associate justice of the State supreme court 1913-1915; appointed on May 29, 1917, as a Republican to the United States Senate to fill the vacancy in the term ending March 3, 1919, caused by the death of Harry Lane, and served from May 29, 1917, until November 5, 1918, when Frederick W. Mulkey was elected to fill this vacancy; again appointed to the United States Senate on December 12, 1918, to become effective December 18, 1918, to fill the vacancy in the same term caused by the resignation of Frederick W. Mulkey, having been previously elected for the term beginning March 4, 1919; reelected in 1924, 1930, 1936 and 1942 and served from December 18, 1918, until his death; minority leader 1933-1944; chairman, Committee on Irrigation and Reclamation of Arid Lands (Sixty-sixth through Sixty-ninth Congresses), Committee on Agriculture and Forestry (Sixty-ninth through Seventy-second Congresses), Republican Conference (1933-45); unsuccessful candidate for Vice President of the United States on the Republican ticket in 1940; died in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., February 25, 1944; interment in Belcrest Memorial Cemetery, Salem, Oreg.</p>