Charles G. Dawes

Charles Gates Dawes (August 27, 1865 – April 23, 1951) was an American banker and politician who was the 30th Vice President of the United States (1925–1929). For his work on the Dawes Plan for World War I reparations he was a cowinner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1925. Dawes served in the First World War, was the Comptroller of the Currency, the first director of the Bureau of the Budget, and, in later life, the Ambassador to the United Kingdom.

Dawes was married to Caro Blymyer on January 24, 1889, and they had four children: Rufus Fearing Dawes, Carolyn Dawes, Dana McCutcheon, and Virginia Dawes.

Early life, family, and career
Dawes was born in Marietta, Ohio in Washington County, the son of an Civil War officer Rufus Dawes and Mary Beman Gates Dawes. He graduated from Marietta College in 1884, and from the Cincinnati Law School in 1886.

Dawes was admitted to the bar in Nebraska, and he practiced in Lincoln, Nebraska from 1887 to 1894. When Lieutenant John Pershing, the future Army general, was appointed as a military instructor at the University of Nebraska while attending its law school, he and Dawes became acquainted and formed a lifelong friendship.

Dawes was the great-great-grandson of the Revolutionary War figure William Dawes and the son of Brigadier General Rufus Dawes, who commanded the 6th Wisconsin regiment of the Iron Brigade from 1863 to 1864 during the American Civil War. His brothers were Rufus C. Dawes, Beman Gates Dawes, and Henry May Dawes, all prominent businessmen or politicians. He also had two sisters, Mary B. and Betsy D. Dawes.

In 1894, Dawes acquired interests in a number of Midwestern gas plants, and he became the president of both the La Crosse Gas Light Company in La Crosse, Wisconsin and the Northwestern Gas Light and Coke Company in Evanston, Illinois.

Dawes was a self-taught pianist and a composer. His composition, "Melody in A Major" in 1912 became a well-known piano and violin song, and it was played at many official functions as his signature tune. It was transformed into the pop song "It's All in the Game" in 1951 when Carl Sigman added lyrics. Tommy Edwards' recording of "It's All in the Game" was a number one hit on the American Billboard record chart for six weeks in the fall of 1958. Edwards' version of the song also hit number one on the United Kingdom chart that year. Since then, it has since become a pop standard, recorded hundreds of times by artists including Cliff Richard, The Four Tops, Isaac Hayes, Jackie DeShannon, Van Morrison, Nat "King" Cole, Brook Benton, Elton John, Mel Carter,Donny and Marie Osmond, Barry Manilow, and Keith Jarrett. Dawes is the only Vice-President or winner of the Nobel Peace Prize to be credited with a No. 1 pop hit.

Marriage and family
Dawes married in 1889. They had a son Rufus, born 1891, and two daughters, Carolyn and Virginia. Carolyn later married Melvin Burton Ericson, and Virginia married Richard Thompson Cragg in 1936.

Early political career
Dawes' prominent positions in business caught the attention of Republican party leaders. They asked Dawes to manage the Illinois portion of William McKinley's bid for the Presidency of the United States in 1896. Following McKinley's election, Dawes was rewarded for his efforts by being named Comptroller of the Currency, United States Department of the Treasury. Serving in that position from 1898–1901, he collected more than $25 million from banks that had failed during the Panic of 1893, and also changed banking practices to try to prevent a similar event in the future.

In October 1901, Dawes left the Department of the Treasury in order to pursue a U.S. Senate seat from Illinois. He thought that, with the help of the McKinley Administration, he could win it. McKinley was assassinated and his successor, President Theodore Roosevelt, preferred Dawes's opponent. In 1902, following this unsuccessful attempt at legislative office, Dawes declared that he was done with politics. He organized the Central Trust Company of Illinois, where he served as its president until 1921.

On September 5, 1912, the Dawes' son, Rufus (21), drowned in Geneva Lake while on summer break from Princeton University. Reverend W.T. McElveen read Dawes' tribute to his son. Inspired by his son's charity, Dawes wrote, "'I have taken him with me among the greatest in the nation and looked in vain for any evidence in him of awe or even curiosity. He has taken me, asking me to help them among the poor and lowly of earth.'"In his memory, Dawes created residence homes for down-and-out individuals in both Chicago and Boston.

World War I participation and the Nobel Peace Prize


Dawes helped support the first Anglo-French Loan to the Entente of $500,000,000. Dawes support was important because the House of Morgan needed public support from a non-Morgan banker. The Morgan banker Lamont said that Dawes' support would "make a position for him in the banking world such as he otherwise could never hope to make." (Loans were seen as possibly violating neutrality, and Wilson was still resisting permitting loans.)

During the First World War, Dawes was commissioned Major, Lieutenant Colonel, and Brigadier General of the Seventeenth Engineers. He served with the American Expeditionary Force as chief of supply procurement and was a member of the Liquidation Commission, United States War Department.

After the war, the U.S. Senate held hearings on overcharges by military suppliers. During heated testimony, Dawes burst out, "Hell and Maria, we weren't trying to keep a set of books over there, we were trying to win a war!" He was later known as "Hell and Maria Dawes" (although he always insisted the expression was "Helen Maria").

Dawes resigned from the Army in 1919. When the Bureau of the Budget was created, he was appointed in 1921 by President Warren G. Harding as its first Director. Hoover appointed him to the Allied Reparations Commission in 1923. For his work on the Dawes Plan, a program to enable Germany to restore and stabilize its economy, Dawes shared the Nobel Peace Prize in 1925. The plan was deemed unworkable and replaced with the Young Plan, which had harsher provisions against Germany.

Vice Presidency


At the 1924 Republican National Convention, Calvin Coolidge was quickly selected almost without opposition to be the Republican presidential nominee. The vice presidential nominee was more contested. Illinois Governor Frank Lowden was nominated, but declined. Coolidge's next choice was Idaho Senator William Borah, but he also declined the nomination. The Republican National Chairman, William Butler, pledged to nominate then Commerce Secretary Herbert Hoover, but he was not sufficiently popular. Eventually, the delegates chose Dawes to be the vice presidential nominee. Coolidge quickly accepted the delegates' choice and felt that Dawes would be loyal to him and make a strong addition to his campaign.

Dawes was elected Vice President of the United States on November 4, 1924 with more popular votes than the candidates from the Democratic and Progressive parties combined. Dawes and Coolidge were inaugurated on March 4, 1925.

Soon after his election, Dawes sent a letter to the president saying that he would not be attending cabinet meetings. This is believed to be the beginning of a feud between the two which brought the reputation of the Vice Presidency to its nadir for the 20th century.

Having angered the President, Dawes publicly criticized the U.S. Senate. At that time, the Vice President was inaugurated in the Senate Chamber, where he would give an inaugural address. After that, the parties would go to the outside platform, where the President would take the oath. Dawes made a fiery, half-hour address denouncing the rules of the Senate, the seniority system and many other things that Senators held dear. His speech overshadowed that of Coolidge, which angered the President.

Only days after Dawes started presiding over the Senate, he made a major error. On March 10, the president's nomination of Charles B. Warren to be United States Attorney General was being debated. In the wake of the Teapot Dome scandal and other business-related scandals, Democrats and Progressive Republicans objected to the nomination because of Warren's close association with the Sugar Trust. At midday six speakers were scheduled to address Warren's nomination. Desiring to take a break for a nap, Dawes consulted the majority and minority leaders, who assured him that no vote would be taken that afternoon. After Dawes left the Senate, however, all but one of the scheduled speakers decided against making formal remarks, and a vote was taken. When it became apparent that the vote would be tied, Republican leaders hastily called Dawes at the Willard Hotel. He jumped in a taxi and sped toward the Capitol. But in the intervening time, the only Democratic senator who had voted for Warren switched his vote against him. By the time Dawes arrived, there was no longer a tie to break. The nomination had failed by a single vote—the first such rejection of a president's nominee in nearly 60 years.

This incident was chronicled in a derisive poem, based on the Longfellow poem "Paul Revere's Ride;" it began with the line, "Come gather round children and hold your applause for the afternoon ride of Charlie Dawes." The choice of poem was based on Charles Dawes being descended from William Dawes, who rode with Paul Revere.

Dawes convinced the Senate to pass the McNary–Haugen Farm Relief Bill; Coolidge vetoed the bill.

In 1928, the Republican presidential nomination went to Commerce Secretary Herbert Hoover. His supporters considered putting Dawes on the ticket for another term as vice president. But President Coolidge made it known that he would consider Dawes' re-nomination to be a personal affront. The Senate Majority Leader, Charles Curtis of Kansas, known for his skills in collaboration, was chosen.

The Court of St. James's and the RFC
After Dawes had finished his term as Vice President, he served as the U.S. Ambassador to the United Kingdom (i.e., to the Court of St. James's) from 1929 to 1932. Overall, Dawes was considered to be a very effective U.S. ambassador, as King George's son, the future King Edward VIII, would later confirm in his memoirs. Dawes was rather rough-hewn for some of his duties, disliking having to present American débutantes to King George V. On his first visit to the royal court, in deference to American public opinion, he refused to wear the customary Court dress, which then included knee breeches. This episode was said to upset King George, who had been prevented by illness from attending the event.

As the Great Depression continued to ravage the United States, Dawes accepted President Herbert Hoover's appeal to leave diplomatic office and head the newly created Reconstruction Finance Corporation. But after a few months, Dawes resigned from the RFC. As a board member of the failing City National Bank and Trust Company of Chicago, he felt obligated to work for its rescue. (Political opponents alleged that, under Dawes' leadership, the RFC had given his bank preferential treatment.) This marked the end of Dawes' career in public service.

Later life
Dawes resumed a role in the banking business. He served for nearly two decades as chairman of the board of the City National Bank and Trust Co., from 1932 until his death in Evanston in 1951. He is interred in Rosehill Cemetery, Chicago.

Legacy and honors

 * In 1925 he was a co-winner of the Nobel Peace Prize for his work on World War I reparations.
 * In 1944, Dawes bequeathed his lakeshore home in Evanston to Northwestern University for the Evanston Historical Society (later renamed the Evanston History Center). Dawes lived in the house until his death. The Dawes family continued to occupy it until the death of Mrs. Dawes in 1957. Since then, the Evanston History Center operates out of the house and manages it as a museum. Designated a National Historic Landmark, the Charles G. Dawes House is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Selected bibliography
The list below was retrieved from Haberman's 1972 Nobel Lectures, Peace 1901–1925. This list can also be obtained here.


 * Dawes, C. G. (1894). The Banking System of the United States and Its Relation to the Money and the Business of the Country. Chicago: Rand McNally.
 * Dawes, C. G. (1915). Essays and Speeches. New York: Houghton.
 * Dawes, C. G. (1921). Journal of the Great War. 2 vols. New York: Houghton.
 * Dawes, C. G. (1923). The First Year of the Budget of the United States. New York: Harper.
 * Dawes, C. G. (1935). Notes as Vice President, 1928–1929. Boston: Little, Brown.
 * Dawes, C. G. (1937). How Long Prosperity? New York: Marquis.
 * Dawes, C. G. (1939). Journal as Ambassador to Great Britain. New York: Macmillan.
 * Dawes, C. G. (1939). A Journal of Reparations. New York: Macmillan.
 * Dawes, C. G. (1950). A Journal of the McKinley Years. Bascom N. Timmons (Ed.). La Grange, IL: Tower.


 * Bascom N. Timmons, Portrait of an American: Charles G. Dawes, a study of Vice President Charles G. Dawes of Illinois (New York : Holt, 1953)