Though the name Charles G. Dawes is seldom remembered in early 20th century American politics, only being remembered for the post-WWI Dawes Plan that dealt with postwar reparations, Charles G. Dawes was the most important vice president you’ve never heard of!
Serving as Calvin Coolidge’s vice president after his re-election in 1924, Dawes helped the Coolidge Administration pass several bills, chief among them being the McNary-Haugen Farm Relief Bill (although Coolidge did end up vetoing this).
But it wasn’t necessarily what he did in office that made him arguably the greatest vice president, it was what he did before and after being vice president, such as being a war hero, a Nobel Peace Prize recipient and Ambassador to the UK to name but a few.
Early Life
Charles Gates Dawes was born in Marietta, Ohio on August 27 1865, as the eldest of six children born to Civil War General Rufus R. Dawes, a veteran of the Battle of Gettysburg, and his wife Mary Beman Gates.
Though their name hadn’t been remembered as others had been, the Dawes family’s ancestors had played a huge role in American history, going as far back to some of the first settlements in what’s now the East Coast.
One of their earliest ancestors was Edward Doty, a passenger onboard the Mayflower’s 1620 voyage to the New World and one of 41 signatories to the Mayflower Compact that established the now-famous Plymouth Colony.
Another ancestor, Charles’s great-great-grandfather, was William Dawes, a man who served in the Revolutionary War and rode with Paul Revere on his midnight ride to warn the colonial militia about the British advance before the battles of Lexington and Concord.
Another great-great-grandfather was Manasseh Cutler, a clergyman who was similarly involved in the Revolutionary War, helped outlaw slavery in the Northwest Territory and helped establish Ohio University, being remembered as the “Father of Ohio University”.
The son of a Civil War general and having not one, but three famous ancestors, it was expected that a young Charles G. Dawes and his siblings would go on to be just as important to American history as their forebearers had been, if not more so. And this influenced the upbringing of all four of the Dawes sons.
All four sons, including Charles, attended public schools in Marietta, Ohio, in a time when most families could barely afford to send one child to school, let alone four. All four sons later attended Marietta College, with Charles (as the eldest) being the first to attend.
Graduating in 1884, Charles set his sights on becoming a lawyer, hoping to use it as a stepping stone to entering public office. To that end, he enrolled at Cincinnati Law School and joined the respected Delta Upsilon fraternity before graduating in 1886.
Whilst studying at Cincinnati Law School, Charles met and befriended Caro Blymyer and the couple eventually started courting (dating). The couple later married on January 24 1889 and stayed with each other until Charles’s death years later, having two biological children together, and adopting a further two.
Business Career
In 1887, not long after his graduation, Charles moved to Lincoln, Nebraska to practice law and was admitted to the Nebraska bar that year.
For the next seven years, Charles G. Dawes practiced law at several large Nebraskan law firms and gained a reputation for being an intelligent and eloquent lawyer capable of persuading a judge or a jury to get the outcome he wanted.
A Start in Politics
WWI
Financing Europe
Vice President
1928 Presidential Election
In 1927, Calvin Coolidge announced he would not be seeking re-election in the upcoming 1928 Presidential Election. As the incumbent Vice-President, there was some early speculation that Dawes would make a bid for the Republican nomination, though he quickly put these rumors to bed, claiming he didn’t want to sit in the White House.
Despite this, he still attended the 1928 Republican National Convention and pledged his support for former Illinois Governor Frank Lowden, though the Convention ultimately chose mining engineer Herbert Hoover for the presidential ticket.
To many, Hoover’s lack of political experience (he’d never held public office before) was strange and many began to assume that Hoover would keep the respected Vice President Dawes on his ticket.
However, Coolidge made it clear to Hoover that doing so would be seen as a huge personal and political insult to him, causing Hoover to choose Senate Majority Leader Charles Curtiss of Kansas as his running mate.
And whilst Hoover wasn’t Dawes’ preferred candidate for the election, Dawes supported Hoover’s campaign nonetheless, believing he would be better for the country than the Democratic candidate, Al Smith.
When the ballots were counted, Herbert Hoover had won in a landslide against his Democratic rival.
Court of St James’s & RFC
After Dawes finished his term as Vice President and was replaced by Charles Curtiss, President Hoover appointed Dawes as the US Ambassador to the Court of St. James’s (the US Ambassador to the UK) on April 16 1929, replacing Alanson B. Houghton.
Presented to King George V on June 15 1929, Dawes used his experience as Vice-President to become an effective ambassador, ingratiating himself with the King, Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin and members of the Royal household (including the future King Edward VIII).
Despite his political savvy, Dawes often caused controversy within the Court of St. James’s due to Dawes’ belief that many of the Court’s practices were outdated.
He first caused controversy not long after being appointed Ambassador, making no secret of the fact he disliked displaying American debutantes (young American women of high social standing who were just entering high life society), to the King.
This wasn’t because he didn’t enjoy the ball that came after it, but rather, because he thought it was humiliating for young American girls to be inspected by an older, titled British man who was already married.
Realizing this, and understanding Dawes’ experience as a banker, Hoover offered to make Dawes the president of the newly established Reconstruction Finance Corporation (RFC) which was designed to restore confidence in the country’s financial sector.
Designed specifically to help banks extend lines of credit to everyday people by helping to recapitalize the banks themselves and prevent their collapse, the idea of having a banker at the helm of the RFC made sense, and helped the organization prevent bank collapses.
Though by all accounts he was doing a great job, Dawes resigned in July 1932, when his bank, the Central Republic Bank and Trust Company of Chicago, began having financial troubles and he felt obligated to try to save it.
Later Life And Death
Following his resignation, Charles G. Dawes joined his bank and tried his hardest to save it. However, the bank was beyond saving and soon went out of business, leaving depositors nothing.
To add insult to injury, Dawes’ opponents claimed to have uncovered evidence that he’d used his position to prop up his struggling bank in a way that could only have been accomplished by abusing his power.
Whilst these claims may or may not be true (there was never an official investigation into the allegations), it effectively ended Dawes’ political career.
Now a full-time banker once again, Dawes and other Central Republic shareholders set up a new bank, City National Bank and Trust Co., in late 1932 to take over the deposits of the now-defunct Central Republic Bank and Trust Company.
For his efforts, Dawes was named chairman of the board – a position he held from 1932 until his death on April 23 1951 from a coronary thrombosis-induced heart attack in his Evanston, Illinois mansion at the age 85.
After a short mourning period, a funeral was held for Vice President Charles G. Dawes and he was laid to rest in the Rosehill Cemetery in Chicago. When his wife, Caro, died six years later, the couple were buried next to one another.
Legacy
Music
On an interesting note, Dawes was a keen musician and taught himself how to play both the flute and piano. In 1911, he composed Melody in A Major and played it for his friend and violinist Francis MacMillen, who asked for a copy of the sheet music.
Using his contacts, MacMillen later had it published where it became a popular beginner piece for both piano and violin students. Though its success might have convinced the bank president and future vice president to pursue a music career, Dawes came to hate the piece.
He even went as to quip that the piece’s popularity would destroy his political career (which it ultimately didn’t) and caused people to joke that the notes in his bank were as bad as those in his piece.
Despite his hatred for the piece he’d written himself – even going as far to leave places that played it in his honor when he went there – the piece remained quite popular and even became known as the “Dawes Piece” during and after his time as vice president.
In the summer of 1951, only a few months after Dawes passed away that April, American songwriter Carl Sigman added lyrics to the piece, which he called “It’s All in the Game”.
That year, the lyrics were recorded by a group of people including famed singer Tommy Edwards, and it reached #18 on the charts. In 1958, Tommy Edwards returned to sing it, this time alone.
This recording proved wildly successful and remained at the top of the charts for six straight weeks in 1958. It has subsequently been re-recorded by dozens of artists, including Cliff Richard, Nat King Cole and Elton John among others.
Weirdly, this makes Charles G. Dawes the only Vice President to have ever had a number pop hit (as he was still credited as it was his music) and one of only two – alongside Sonny Bono – members of Congress to achieve such a feat!
What do you think about Vice President Charles G. Dawes? Tell me in the comments!