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Cordell Hull (October 2, 1871July 23, 1955) was an American politician from Tennessee and the longest-serving U.S. Secretary of State, holding the position for 11 years (1933–1944) in the administration of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt during most of World War II. Before that appointment, Hull represented Tennessee for two years in the United States Senate and 22 years in the House of Representatives.
Hull received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1945 for his role in establishing the United Nations, and was referred to by President Roosevelt as the "Father of the United Nations".
According to John Gunther, Hull's father had tracked down and killed a man because of a blood feud. His mother was a descendant of Isaac Riley, who was granted in near Byrdstown in Pickett County, for Revolutionary War service, as well as Samuel Wood who emigrated from Leicestershire, England on the ship Hopewell and fought in the Virginia Militia. Hull's mother's family (Riley-Wood) had numerous ancestors who fought in the Revolutionary War. Hull devoted a section in his memoirs "Cabin on the Hill" to dispelling an old rumor that his father was part Cherokee Indian, and subsequent documented family history has confirmed his ancestry.
Hull attended college from 1889 until 1890. He gave his first speech at the age of 16. At the age of 19, Hull became the elected chairman of the Clay County Democratic Party. Hull studied at National Normal University (later merged with Wilmington College, Ohio) from 1889 until 1890. In 1891, he graduated from Cumberland School of Law at Cumberland University and was admitted to the bar.
Hull was elected to the United States House of Representatives where he served 11 terms (1907–1921 and 1923–1931) totaling 22 years. As a member of the powerful Ways and Means committee, he fought for low tariffs and "almost singlehandedly" wrote the federal income tax law of 1913. He also served as a local judge from 1913 to 1917. After his defeat in the congressional election of 1920, he served as chairman of the Democratic National Committee. He was one of several candidates for president at the 1928 Democratic National Convention, which ultimately chose Al Smith as nominee. Hull was influential in advising Albert Gore, Sr. to run for the U.S. Congress in 1938. Hull recorded twenty-five years of combined service in the House and the Senate.
Roosevelt named him Secretary of State and appointed him to lead the American delegation to the London Economic Conference, which then collapsed when Roosevelt rejected its main plans. In 1943, Hull served as United States delegate to the Moscow Conference. At all times, his main objective was to enlarge foreign trade and lower tariffs. The more important issue of the American role in World War II was handled by Roosevelt who worked through Sumner Welles, the second-ranking official at the State Department. Hull did not attend the summit meetings that Roosevelt had with Winston Churchill and Joseph Stalin.Charles E. Bohlen, Witness to History 1929–1969 (1973) In 1943, Hull finally destroyed Welles's career by threatening to expose his homosexuality.
In a speech in 1937, New York City Mayor Fiorello H. La Guardia said that brown-shirted Nazis ought to be featured as the "climax" of a chamber of horrors in the upcoming World's Fair. The Nazi government organ, Der Angriff, called the mayor a "Jewish Ruffian" who had been bribed by Jewish and Communistic agents and was a criminal disguised as an officeholder. In the ensuing exchanges, Hull sent a letter of regret to Berlin for intemperate comments on both sides, but he also explained the principle of freedom of speech. As the response of Nazi propaganda organs rose in pitch to include characterizing American women as "prostitutes," Hull sent a letter of protest to Berlin, which elicited an "explanation" but no apology.
In 1938, Hull engaged in a dialog with Mexican Foreign Minister Eduardo Hay concerning the failure of Mexico to compensate Americans who lost farmlands during in the late 1920s. He insisted that compensation must be "prompt, adequate and effective". Though the Mexican Constitution guaranteed compensation for expropriation or nationalization, nothing had yet been paid. While Hay admitted Mexico's responsibility, he replied that there is "no rule universally accepted in theory nor carried out in practice which makes obligatory the payment of immediate compensation...." The so-called "Hull formula" has been adopted in many treaties concerning international investment but is still controversial, especially in Latin American countries, which have historically subscribed to the Calvo doctrine, which suggests that compensation is to be decided by the host country and that as long as there is equality between nationals and foreigners and no discrimination, there can be no claim in international law. The tension between the Hull formula and the Calvo doctrine is still important in the law of international investment.
Hull pursued the "Good Neighbor Policy" with Latin American nations, which has been credited with preventing Nazi subterfuge in that region. Hull and Roosevelt also maintained relations with Vichy France, which Hull credited with allowing General Henri Giraud's forces to join allied forces in the North African campaign against Germany and Italy.Cordell Hull, Memoirs
Hull also handled formal statements with foreign governments. Notably he sent the Hull note just prior to the Pearl Harbor attack, which was formally titled "Outline of proposed Basis for Agreement Between The United States and Japan." Hull received news of the attack while he was outside his office. The Japanese ambassador Kichisaburō Nomura and Japan's special envoy Saburō Kurusu were waiting to see Hull with a 14-part message from the Japanese government that officially notified of a breakdown in negotiations. The United States had broken Japanese encryption, and Hull knew the message's contents. He blasted the diplomats: "In all my fifty years of public service, I have never seen such a document that was more crowded with infamous falsehood and distortion."
Throughout World War II, Hull found himself increasingly sidelined from the Roosevelt administration’s inner circle on wartime strategy. While he remained central to formal diplomatic efforts, particularly in Latin America and in laying the groundwork for postwar institutions, he was often excluded from key decisions involving military planning and combined Allied strategy. In his memoirs, Hull expressed frustration that his proposal to participate in high-level war councils—especially those involving both diplomatic and military elements—was ignored by the president. Roosevelt instead relied on informal advisors and military leadership, limiting the Secretary of State’s role in wartime governance.
Hull chaired the Advisory Committee on Postwar Foreign Policy, which was created in February 1942.
When the Free French Forces of Charles de Gaulle occupied the islands of Saint-Pierre and Miquelon, south of Newfoundland, in December 1941, Hull lodged a very strong protest and went as far as referring to the Gaullist naval forces as "the so-called Free French." His request to have the Vichy France governor reinstated was met with strong criticism in the American press: newspapers mocked the "so-called Secretary of StateJulian Jackson9780241450253, Penguin UK. ISBN 9780241450253". The islands remained under the Free French until the end of the war. Hull, who always held de Gaulle in disregard, if not detestation, even before the incident, would never cease trying to maneuver against him during the rest of the war.
Okay ...there were two conversations on the subject between (Secretary of the Treasury) Morgenthau and Secretary of State Cordell Hull. In the first, 3:17 PM on 5 June 1939, Hull made it clear to Morgenthau that the passengers could not legally be issued U.S. tourist visas because they had no return addresses. Furthermore, Hull made it clear to Morgenthau that the issue at hand was between the Cuban government and the passengers. The U.S., in effect, had no role. In the second conversation at 3:54 PM on June 6, 1939, Morgenthau said they did not know where the ship was and he inquired whether it was "proper to have the Coast Guard look for it". Hull responded by saying that he didn't see any reason why it could not. Hull then informed him that he did not think that Morgenthau would want the search for the ship to get into the newspapers. Morgenthau said "Oh no. No, no. They would just—oh, they might send a plane to do patrol work. There would be nothing in the papers." Hull responded "Oh, that would be all right."
In September 1940, First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt maneuvered with another State Department official to bypass Hull's refusal to allow Jewish refugees aboard a Portuguese ship, the SS Quanza, to receive visas to enter the U.S. Through her efforts, the Jewish refugees disembarked on September 11, 1940, in Virginia. In a similar incident, American Jews sought to raise money to prevent the mass murder of Romanian Jews but were blocked by the State Department. "In wartime, in order to send money out of the United States, two government agencies had to sign a simple release—the Treasury Department under Henry Morgenthau and the State Department under Secretary Cordell Hull. Morgenthau signed immediately. The State Department delayed, delayed, and delayed, as more Jews were dying in the Transnistria camps."Gruber, Inside of Time p. 159 (2003).
In 1940, Jewish representatives in the United States lodged an official complaint against the discriminatory policies the State Department was using against the Jews. The results were fatal: Hull gave strict orders to every United States consulate worldwide forbidding the issuing of visas to Jews; at the same time a Jewish congressman petitioned Roosevelt, requesting his permission to allow twenty thousand Jewish children from Europe to enter the United States. The President did not respond to the petition. The Australian Jewish News (6 May 1994), p. 9.
In January 1948, Hull published his two-volume memoirs, an excerpt from which appeared in The New York Times.
Hull died on July 23, 1955, at age 83, at his home in Washington, D.C., after a lifelong struggle with familial remitting-relapsing sarcoidosis (often confused with tuberculosis). He is buried in the vault of the Chapel of St. Joseph of Arimathea in the Washington National Cathedral.
His law school, Cumberland School of Law, continues to honor him with a Cordell Hull Speaker's Forum and the Moot Court Room.
A statue of Hull graces the campus of Cumberland University in Lebanon, Tennessee.
Cordell Hull Birthplace State Park, near Byrdstown, Tennessee, was established in 1997 to preserve Hull's birthplace and various personal effects Hull had donated to the citizens of Pickett County, including his Nobel Peace Prize.
A segment of Kentucky highway routes 70, 90, 63, and 163, from Mammoth Cave National Park near Cave City south to the Tennessee State Line near Hestand, is named "Cordell Hull Highway", and is part of that state's scenic byway system.
The Cordell Hull Building, on Capitol Hill in Nashville, Tennessee, is a secure 10-story building that contains the offices of the Tennessee Legislature.
The Eisenhower Executive Office Building (formerly the Old Executive Office Building) in Washington, DC, next to the White House, contains the ornately decorated "Cordell Hull Room" on the second floor, which is used for meetings. The room was Cordell Hull's office when he served as U.S. Secretary of State.
Cordell Hull Park, located at 13415 Warren Avenue in the East Garrison neighborhood, an unincorporated area of Monterey County, California, is approximately 0.75-acre in size and contains a basketball court, playground, and a grassy playfield.
The U.S. Postal Service issued a 5-cent commemorative stamp honoring Cordell Hull on October 5, 1963.
Hull is one of the presidential cabinet members who are characters in the musical Annie. Annie Casting Information, Music Theatre International website
target="_blank" rel="nofollow"> The Cordell Hull Institute, a U.S. think-tank focusing on furthering debate in international economic development and trade co-founded by Lawrence Eagleburger and Harald Malmgren in 1998.
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