My memory is that Cordell Hull’s first visit to Nashville came when he was a teenager working on a raft owned by his father that floated down the Cumberland to deposit logs at one of the sawmills on the east bank of the river in Nashville. While most men who worked these rafts spent their money in Nashville saloons, Cordell used his money to buy books in a Nashville bookstore.
Born to a poor family in isolated Pickett County, Tenn., on Oct. 2, 1871, Cordell’s elementary school education was in a one-room schoolhouse that his father built in nearby Willow Grove. In high school, Cordell attended the Montvale Academy in Celina, Tenn., and the Normal School in Bowling Green, Ky. In college, he attended the National Normal University in Lebanon, Ohio. He then received a law degree from Cumberland University in 1891.
Not yet twenty, Cordell began the practice of law in Celina. Having an interest in politics, he decided to run for the state legislature as soon as he was of age. Successful, he served in the Tennessee House of Representatives from 1893 to 1897. His political career was temporarily sidelined when he served as captain of the Fourth Tennessee Regiment in the Spanish American War. When discharged, Cordell moved to Gainesboro, Tenn., where he practiced law.
In 1903, Hull was appointed judge of the Fifth Judicial District. He held this position until 1907, earning the nickname “Judge.” That year. He was elected to Congress to represent Tennessee’s Fourth District. Hull served in the House of Representatives until 1931 interrupted by two years as chairman of the Democratic National Committee. Hull married Rose Frances Whitney, who always called him “Judge.”
Hull’s career in the House of Representatives was distinguished. For 18 years, he served on the powerful House Ways and Means Committee. He became a leader in the movement for low tariffs and was the author of the first Federal Income Tax Bill in 1913 and drafted a resolution providing for the convening of a world Trade agreement at the end of World War I. In short, Cordell Hull was a recognized expert in commercial and fiscal policies.
In 1931, Hull was elected a United States Senator from Tennessee for a six -year term. However, on March 3, 1933, Hull accepted an invitation from President Franklin D. Roosevelt became his Secretary of State, and resigned from the Senate.
In September 1933, Hull headed the American delegation to the 7th Pan-American Conference held in Montevideo, Uruguay and there won the trust of the South American diplomats laying the foundation for the “good neighbors” policy among the twenty-one American nations. This was followed by the Inter-American Conference for the Maintenance of Peace in Buenos Aires (1936), the 8th Pan-American Conference in Lima (1938) and the second consecutive meeting of the Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the Americas in Havana (1940).
During the second half of the 1930s, Hull negotiated reciprocal trade agreements with numerous countries, lowering tariffs and stimulating trade. He also realized the danger to peace in the rise of dictators, Adelph Hitler and Benito Mussolini, and advocated rearmament. He condemned the Japanese encroachment into Indo-China and warned the Secretaries of the Army and Navy and the Secretary of State about the danger of Japan’s naked aggression.
In the late 1930s, America was an isolationist country unwilling to enter Europe’s war. When Japan invaded China in 1937, Hull lamented the violation of treaties and principles, but believed no vital American interests were at stake. He was wrong. Japan did not crumble in China and instead kept expanding its control over southeast Asia.
In Europe, Germany was on the march. Roosevelt, with support from his Secretary of State, asked Congress in 1938 to repeal the Arms Embargo which prevented us from selling arms and munitions to England and France. Congress relented and did so.
In September 1940, Roosevelt, again with the approval of Hull, signed an agreement with Churchill to give England older American destroyers in exchange for the right to establish American naval bases in British territory in the Atlantic. These were crucial lifelines to England.
On the morning of Dec. 7, 1941, Japan’s ambassador to the United States, Sabura Kurusa, and Japanese Admiral Kichisaburo met with Hull in his office. They told him that their relationship with the United States was a “powder keg” but that they hoped to resolve the situation peacefully. They then went to the White House and told President Roosevelt the same thing. While they were doing this, the Japanese Navy and Air Force were closing in on their surprise attack on Pearl Harbor. Although Hull accused the Japanese of lying, both men claimed to the end of their lives that they were ignorant of Japan’s surprise attack.
During the early years of our involvement in World War II, Roosevelt personally handled foreign policy management and pretty much ignored his secretary of State. In addition, Hull’s health was deteriorating. Ill with tuberculosis, which he kept secret, and exhausted by the summer of 1944, Hull stayed in office long enough to see Roosevelt elected for his fourth term. He then retired and lived out his remaining years in his comfortable apartment in Washington, never returning to his native Tennessee hills.
Cordell Hull died on July 23, 1955 and was buried in a crypt in the National Cathedral in Washington. Although he played no role as an elder spokesman, Cordell Hull would probably have been the Democratic candidate for President had Roosevelt decided not to seek a third term in 1940. Cordell Hull was a great Tennessean.