Robert M. La Follette, Sr.

Robert Marion La Follette, Sr. (June 14, 1855 – June 18, 1925) (also known as "Fighting Bob" La Follette) was an American politician who served as a U.S. Congressman, the 20th Governor of Wisconsin from 1901 - 1906, and Senator from Wisconsin from 1905 - 1925 as a member of the Republican Party. He ran for President of the United States as the nominee of the Progressive Party in the 1924 elections, carrying Wisconsin and 17% of the national popular vote. He is best remembered as an exponent of Progressivism and for fighting bossism. In 1957, a committee led by Senator John F. Kennedy selected La Follette as one of five of their greatest Senate predecessors whose oval portraits would adorn the President's Room off the Senate floor. His cousin Chester La Follette painted the oval portrait.

Early life and career

La Follette was born in Primrose, Wisconsin, just outside of Madison, and grew up in rural Dane County, Wisconsin. In 1879, he graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison; after studying law, La Follette was admitted to the bar in 1880. On December 31, 1881, he married Belle Case La Follette at her family home in Baraboo, Wisconsin.

La Follette was elected Dane County District Attorney in 1880. Four years later, he won election to the United States House of Representatives, where he served until 1890. His opposition to pork barrel projects and his support for a protective tariff helped secure his appointment to the Ways and Means Committee headed by William McKinley, where he helped draft the Tariff Act of 1890 (McKinley Tariff). The Act, however, was so unpopular that he lost his seat in the 1890 election.

La Follette returned to Wisconsin where he claims he refused a bribe offered by a powerful Wisconsin Republican, Philetus Sawyer, to influence a judge. Outraged by the bribery attempt, he became a vocal critic of machine politics and a leader of the "Progressive" faction of the Republican Party then vying for power with the "Stalwart" party establishment. He returned to office as Governor in 1900, after two unsuccessful attempts, by campaigning for direct election of nominees in party primaries.

From 1901 until 1906, La Follette served as Governor of Wisconsin. While governor, he championed numerous progressive reforms, including the first workers' compensation system, railroad rate reform, direct legislation, municipal home rule, open government, the minimum wage, non-partisan elections, the open primary system, direct election of U.S. Senators, women's suffrage, and progressive taxation. He created an atmosphere of close cooperation between the state government and the University of Wisconsin in the development of progressive policy. This concept became known as the Wisconsin Idea. In World War I, however, he broke with most of his academic friends on the war issue.

A brilliant orator given to periodic bouts of "nerves," he made many enemies over the years, particularly for his opposition to the United States' entry into World War I and his defense of freedom of speech during wartime. Theodore Roosevelt called him a "skunk who should be hanged" when he opposed the arming of American merchant ships; one of his colleagues in the Senate said he was "a better German than the head of the German parliament" when he opposed the Wilson Administration's request for a declaration of war in 1917.

La Follette spent the remainder of his life, from January 2, 1906 until his death in 1925, serving in the United States Senate. While in the Senate he strongly opposed American involvement in World War I, and campaigned for child labor laws, social security, women's suffrage, and other progressive reforms. He opposed the prosecution of Eugene V. Debs and other opponents of the war and played a key role in initiating the investigation of the Teapot Dome Scandal during the Harding Administration.

Presidential campaign

In 1912 he ran for the Republican Party nomination for President of the United States, but lost to William Howard Taft, due largely to many Progressives supporting Theodore Roosevelt's third-party candidacy. He bitterly opposed Roosevelt, blaming him for sabotaging his campaign. He backed Wilson over Taft and Roosevelt in that year's election. He broke with his protege governor Francis E. McGovern, who supported Roosevelt, and helped defeat McGovern's bid for reelection in 1914. In 1924 LaFollette, although nominally a Republican, again ran for president, this time on his own Progressive party ticket, coming in third after incumbent President Calvin Coolidge and Democratic candidate John W. Davis. La Follette won 17% of the popular vote and carried Wisconsin. He died several months later. His wife, Belle Case LaFollette, remained a pivotal figure, playing steward to twenty years of Progressive Party dominance in state politics. His son, Robert M. La Follette, Jr., succeeded him as Senator. Another son, Philip La Follette, was later Governor of Wisconsin. His grandson Bronson Cutting La Follette was attorney general of Wisconsin.

In 1909, he and Belle Case LaFollette founded the publication La Follette's Weekly. It was renamed The Progressive in 1929 and is still published, now as a monthly magazine. In 1913, La Follette first published his autobiography, La Follette's autobiography, a personal narrative of political experiences. He died in Washington, D.C. of cardiovascular disease, and was buried in the Forest Hill Cemetery on the near west side of Madison.

Quotes

"In times of peace, the war party insists on making preparation for war. As soon as prepared for, it insists on making war."

"The purpose of this campaign is to throw the country into a state of terror, to coerce public opinion, to stifle criticism, and suppress discussion. People are being unlawfully arrested, thrown into jail, held incommunicado for days, only to be eventually discharged without ever having been taken into court, because they have committed no crime. But more than this, if every preparation for war can be made the excuse for destroying free speech and a free press and the right of the people to assemble together for peaceful discussion, then we may well despair of ever again finding ourselves for a long period in a state of peace. The destruction of rights now occurring will be pointed to then as precedents for a still further invasion of the rights of the citizen."

References

John D. Buenker, The History of Wisconsin. Volume IV The Progressive Era, 1893-1914 (1998)
Carl R. Burgchardt; Robert M. La Follette, Sr.: The Voice of Conscience Greenwood Press. 1992; on his oratory, with selected speeches
K. C. MacKay, The Progressive Movement of 1924 (1947)
Herbert F. Margulies; The Decline of the Progressive Movement in Wisconsin, 1890-1920 (1968)
Karen A. J. Miller; Populist Nationalism: Republican Insurgency and American Foreign Policy Making, 1918-1925 Greenwood Press, 1999
David Thelen, Robert M. LaFollette and the Insurgent Spirit 1976.
Nancy C. Unger. Fighting Bob LaFollette: The Righteous Reformer (2000)

Primary sources

Carl R. Burgchardt; Robert M. La Follette, Sr.: The Voice of Conscience Greenwood Press. 1992; contains selected speeches
Belle C. and Fola La Follette, Robert M. LaFollette 2 vols., (1953), by wife and daughter
La Follette's autobiography, a personal narrative of political experiences, 1913

External links

Statements:

Biographies:

Progressive Magazine:

http://www.progressive.org/

Pending and Recent Legislation

Robert M. LaFollette