Thomas Gore

Thomas Gore
Gore pictured in 1908
United States Senator from Oklahoma
In office December 11, 1907 – March 4, 1921
Preceded by	None One of the first two senators from Oklahoma after it achieved statehood
Succeeded by	John W. Harreld
In office March 4, 1931 – January 3, 1937
Preceded by	William B. Pine
Succeeded by	Joshua B. Lee
Personal details
Born	Thomas Pryor Gore December 10, 1870 Webster County, Mississippi
Died	March 16, 1949 (aged 78) Washington, D.C.
Nationality	American
Political party	Democratic
Spouse(s)	Nina Belle Kay
Relations	Gore Vidal (grandson) Nina Gore Auchincloss (granddaughter) Hugh Auchincloss Steers (great-grandson) Newton Steers (great-grandson)
Children	Nina S. Gore Thomas N. Gore
Alma mater	Cumberland University

Thomas Pryor Gore^[1] (December 10, 1870 – March 16, 1949) was an American politician. A Democrat, he served as a United States Senator from Oklahoma from 1907 to 1921 and again from 1931 to 1937. Gore, who was blind, was the maternal grandfather of author Gore Vidal.

Life and career

Gore was born on December 10, 1870 in Webster County, Mississippi, the son of Caroline Elizabeth (Wingo) and Thomas Madison Gore.^[2] The Gore family was one of the nineteen original families that owned farmlands in what later became the capital of the United States, the District of Columbia. The Gores were Anglo-Irish from Donegal and arrived in North America at the end of the seventeenth century and tended to intermarry with other Anglo-Irish families, particularly in Virginia.^[3] When the District was established in 1790, the families that had been dispossessed to make way for the capital city, including the Gores, reaped significant financial rewards. The Gores who remained either sold their land in lots, built homes or hotels, and all became rich. The Gores that moved away, including the branch of Thomas Pryor Gore, moved to the far West, which in those days was Mississippi.^[3]

He went blind as a child through two separate accidents but did not give up his dream of becoming a senator. He moved to Lawton, Oklahoma in 1901 and received a law degree from Cumberland University in the following year.^[4]

Political career

In 1907, he was elected to the Senate as one of the first two senators from the new state of Oklahoma. He was re-elected in 1908 and 1914 but defeated in 1920. He was known as a member of the progressive wing of the Democratic Party, who worked with Republicans such as Robert La Follette. He was to a large extent no different from any other politician because of his blindness, but there were problems, as La Follette recounts an example in his memoirs when, during a filibuster, Gore did not realize that the senator who was to take over speaking for him had left the room, and the filibuster failed because he did not continue to speak. Also, some of Gore's colleagues in the Senate would attempt to take advantage of Gore's blindness by tricking him into signing documents that it was not in his party's interest for him to sign. He was famous for turning the tables on these sharp dealers and tricking them into signing documents that they did not intend to sign. These exploits made him popular with the press, who dubbed him "The Blind Cowboy."

Gore in 1929

During the early stages of World War I, he authored a bill to encourage American citizens not to travel aboard merchant vessels of countries participating in the war. The merchant vessels were under threat of attack by German U-boats, and the Senator felt the loss of American lives in attacks upon these boats put American neutrality at risk. He was a strong, early supporter of Woodrow Wilson's, indeed, one acknowledged as the very first major elected official to endorse Wilson's candidacy for President in 1911. ^[5] Yet Gore later opposed America's entry into the war even after American involvement began. He unsuccessfully opposed providing manpower for the military by conscription, saying it would create "an army of conscripted slackers." He asked: "Why should we brand the American boy as a conscript without affording him the opportunity to earn the glory of an American volunteer?"^[6] This was the principal cause of Gore's defeat in the Democratic primary in 1920 by Congressman Scott Ferris, who was in turn defeated in the general election by Republican John W. Harreld. In addition to his opposition to the draft, Gore "was one of the earliest and most vigorous sponsors of a constitutional amendment to require a popular referendum on any congressional declaration of war."^[7] On domestic policy he was a supporter of the interests of farmers and Native Americans.

Gore was re-elected to the Senate in 1930. When Franklin D. Roosevelt took office as President, Gore at first supported his New Deal policies but later feuded with him. In 1935, Gore helped lead the charge against funding the Works Progress Administration (WPA). In written response to constituents who favored the WPA, he told them that their attitude "shows how the dole spoils the soul. Your telegram intimates that your votes are for sale. Much as I value votes I am not in the market. I cannot consent to buy votes with the people's money. I owe a debt to the taxpayer as well as to the unemployed." After dictating these words, the blind senator was led to the Senate floor to cast the lone vote against the WPA.^[8][9]

After losing the 1936 Democratic primary to Congressman Joshua B. Lee, Gore retired from the Senate in January 1937 and practiced law in Washington, D.C., until his death in 1949.^[7]

Personal life

He married Nina Belle Kay (1877–1963), a Texas plantation owner's daughter, on December 27, 1900. They had two children:

• Nina S. Gore (1903–1978), who married Eugene Luther Vidal (1895–1969) in 1922. They divorced in 1935, and later that year, she married Hugh D. Auchincloss. They divorced in 1941.
  • Gore Vidal (1925–2012)
  • Nina Gore Auchincloss (born 1935) who was married to Newton Steers from 1957-1974 and then Michael Straight from 1974-1998.^[10]
  • Thomas Gore Auchincloss (born 1937) who married Diana "Didi" Lippert
• Thomas Notley Gore (1910–1964)

Gore died on March 16, 1949 was buried at Rosehill Cemetery, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, but was later re-interred on July 19, 1949, in Fairlawn Cemetery, also in Oklahoma City. According to his grandson, Gore Vidal, Gore was “the first and, I believe, last senator from an oil state to die without a fortune.”^[7]

Gore Vidal stated that his grandfather was an atheist^[11] and had a strong misanthropic streak: "He was a genuine populist; but he did not like people very much. He always said no to anyone who wanted government aid."^[7] During a speech to the National Press Club on November 4, 1994, Vidal claimed that Thomas Gore had said "If there was any race other than the human race, I'd go join it."^[12]

Honors

Thomas Gore was inducted into the Oklahoma Hall of Fame in 1932.

A major road artery in Lawton, Oklahoma, Gore Boulevard, is named after him, as is the eastern Oklahoma town of Gore.

Media

In the television play The Indestructible Mr. Gore, Gore Vidal dramatized some incidents in his grandfather's youth.

References

1. Infidels.org: "Vidal, Gore (1925- )", accessed March 16, 2010
2. http://www.wargs.com/political/gore.html
3. Vidal, Gore (April 29, 1982). "The Ruins of Washington". The New York Review of Books. Retrieved 13 March 2016.
4. Oklahoma Hall of Fame
5. Berg, A. Scott (2013). Wilson. New York, NY: G.P. Putnam'sSons. p. 218. ISBN 978-0-399-15921-3.
6. Christopher Cappozolla, Uncle Sam Wants You: World War I and the Making of the Modern American Citizen (NY: Oxford University Press, 2008), 26
7. Kauffman, Bill (2006-11-20) The Populist Patriotism of Gore Vidal, The American Conservative
8. Billington, Monroe L, Thomas P. Gore: The Blind Senator from Oklahoma (Lawrence: University of Kansas Press, 1967) 169-170
9. Folsom, Burton W., New Deal or Raw Deal?: How FDR's Economic Legacy Has Damaged America (Simon and Schuster, 2008), 91
10. "Mrs. Steers Wed to Michael Straight". The New York Times. May 2, 1974. Retrieved 3 February 2016.
11. "Real Time with Bill Maher Episode #149 April 10, 2009". www.veoh.com.
12. Vidal, Gore, Point to Point Navigation: A Memoir, 1964 to 2006 (New York: Doubleday, 2006), 19

External links

• Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture - Gore, Thomas P.
• Thomas Gore at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
• Thomas P. Gore Collection at the Carl Albert Center
• Thomas Gore at Find a Grave