Fred M. Vinson

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Fred Vinson
13th Chief Justice of the United States
In office June 24, 1946 – September 8, 1953
Nominated by	Harry S. Truman
Preceded by	Harlan F. Stone
Succeeded by	Earl Warren
53rd United States Secretary of the Treasury
In office July 23, 1945 – June 23, 1946
President	Harry S. Truman
Preceded by	Henry Morgenthau Jr.
Succeeded by	John Wesley Snyder
Director of the Office of Economic Stabilization
In office May 28, 1943 – July 23, 1945
President	Franklin D. Roosevelt
Preceded by	James F. Byrnes
Succeeded by	William Hammatt Davis
Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit
In office December 15, 1937 – May 28, 1943
Nominated by	Franklin D. Roosevelt
Preceded by	Charles Henry Robb
Succeeded by	Wilbur Kingsbury Miller
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Kentucky's 8th district
In office March 4, 1933 – May 27, 1938
Preceded by	Ralph Waldo Emerson Gilbert
Succeeded by	Joe B. Bates
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Kentucky's 9th district
In office March 4, 1931 – March 3, 1933
Preceded by	Elva R. Kendall
Succeeded by	John Y. Brown Sr.
In office January 24, 1924 – March 3, 1929
Preceded by	William J. Fields
Succeeded by	Elva R. Kendall
Personal details
Born	Frederick Moore Vinson (1890-01-22)January 22, 1890 Louisa, Kentucky, U.S.
Died	September 8, 1953(1953-09-08) (aged 63) Washington, D.C., U.S.
Political party	Democratic
Spouse(s)	Julia Dixon ​ (m. 1924)​
Children	2
Education	Centre College (BA) Eastern Kentucky University (LLB)

Frederick Moore Vinson (January 22, 1890 – September 8, 1953) was an American lawyer and Democratic politician. One of the few Americans to have served in all three branches of the U.S. government, Vinson served as a U.S. Representative from Kentucky from 1924 to 1928 and 1930 to 1938, as a federal appellate judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit from 1938 to 1943, as U.S. Secretary of the Treasury from 1945 to 1946, and as the 13th Chief Justice of the United States from 1946 until his death in 1953.

Born in Louisa, Kentucky, Vinson pursued a legal career and served in the U.S. Army during World War I. After the war, he served as the Commonwealth's Attorney for the Thirty-Second Judicial District of Kentucky before winning election to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1924. He lost re-election in 1928 but regained his seat in 1930 and served in Congress until 1937. During his time in Congress, he became an adviser and confidante of Missouri Senator Harry S. Truman. In 1937, President Franklin D. Roosevelt appointed Vinson to be a judge on the D.C. Circuit. Vinson resigned from the appellate court in 1943, when he became the Director of the Office of Economic Stabilization. After Truman acceded to the presidency following Roosevelt's death in 1945, Truman appointed Vinson to the position of Secretary of the Treasury. Vinson negotiated the payment of the Anglo-American loan and presided over the establishment of numerous post-war organizations, including the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the International Monetary Fund.

After the death of Chief Justice Harlan F. Stone in 1946, Truman appointed Vinson to the Supreme Court. As of 2020, Vinson is the last Chief Justice nominee nominated by a president from the Democratic Party to have been confirmed.^[1][2] Vinson dissented in the case of Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. v. Sawyer, which ruled against the Truman administration's control of the nation's steel mills during a strike. He ordered a rehearing of the Briggs v. Elliott case, which was eventually combined into the case known as Brown v. Board of Education.

Early years[]

Birthplace in Louisa, Kentucky

Frederick Moore Vinson, known universally as "Fred", was born in the newly built, eight-room, red brick house in front of the Lawrence County jail in Louisa, Kentucky, where his father served as the Lawrence County Jailer.^{[citation needed]} As a child he would help his father in the jail and even made friends with prisoners who would remember his kindness when he later ran for public office.^{[citation needed]} Vinson worked odd jobs while in school.^{[citation needed]} He graduated from Kentucky Normal School in 1909 ^[3] and enrolled at Centre College, where he graduated at the top of his class with a Bachelor of Arts degree.^{[citation needed]} While at Centre, he was a member of the Kentucky Alpha Delta chapter of Phi Delta Theta fraternity.^{[citation needed]} He received a Bachelor of Laws from the now defunct College of Law at the former Central University (now combined with another institution to form Eastern Kentucky University).^[4] He entered private practice in Louisa.^[4] He first ran for and was elected to office as the City Attorney of Louisa.^[4]

Vinson joined the Army during World War I.^[4] Following the war, he was elected as the Commonwealth's Attorney for the Thirty-Second Judicial District of Kentucky.^[4] Vinson married Julia Roberta Dixon on January 24, 1924 in Ashland, Kentucky.^{[citation needed]} They had two sons.^{[citation needed]}

United States Representative from Kentucky[]

In 1924, Vinson ran in a special election for his district's seat in Congress after William J. Fields resigned to become the Governor of Kentucky.^{[citation needed]} Vinson was elected as a Democrat and then was reelected twice before losing in 1928.^{[citation needed]} His loss was attributed to his refusal to dissociate his campaign from Alfred E. Smith's presidential campaign.^{[citation needed]} However, Vinson came back to win re-election in 1930, and he served in Congress through 1937.^{[citation needed]}

While he was in Congress he befriended Missouri Senator Harry S. Truman, a friendship that would last throughout his life.^{[citation needed]} He soon became a close advisor, confidant, card player, and dear friend to Truman.^{[citation needed]} After Truman decided against running for another term as president in the early 1950s, he tried to convince a skeptical Vinson to seek the Democratic Party nomination, but Vinson turned down the President's offer.^{[citation needed]} After being equally unsuccessful in enlisting General Dwight D. Eisenhower, President Truman eventually landed on Governor of Illinois Adlai Stevenson as his preferred successor in the 1952 presidential election.^{[citation needed]}

In 1930, former congressman Vinson moved his law practice from Louisa, Kentucky thirty miles north to Ashland. With aspirations to return to Washington, D.C. as congressman, Vinson formed a circle of Ashland friends who could aid him politically and professionally. This group included his next door neighbor Paul G. Blazer.^[5] Vinson returned to Washington, D.C. as congressman in 1931. Vinson would become a frontline supporter of President Roosevelt and his cabinet's New Deal revolution.^[6]

United States Court of Appeals[]

Vinson was nominated by President Franklin D. Roosevelt on November 26, 1937, to an Associate Justice seat on the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia (now the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit) vacated by Associate Justice Charles Henry Robb.^[4] He was confirmed by the United States Senate on December 9 of that year, and received his commission six days later.^[4] He was designated by Chief Justice Harlan F. Stone to serve as Chief Judge of the Emergency Court of Appeals.^[4] His service terminated on May 28, 1943, due to his resignation.^[4]

Secretary of the Treasury[]

Official portrait as Secretary of the Treasury

Vinson's signature, as used on American currency

Vinson resigned from the bench to become Director of the Office of Economic Stabilization, an executive agency charged with fighting inflation.^{[citation needed]} He also spent time as Federal Loan Administrator (March 6 to April 3, 1945) and director of War Mobilization and Reconversion (April 4 to July 22, 1945).^{[citation needed]} He was appointed United States Secretary of the Treasury by President Truman and served from July 23, 1945, to June 23, 1946.^{[citation needed]}

His mission as Secretary of the Treasury was to stabilize the American economy during the last months of the war and to adapt the United States financial position to the drastically changed circumstances of the postwar world.^{[citation needed]} Before the war ended, Vinson directed the last of the great war-bond drives.^{[citation needed]}

At the end of the war, he negotiated payment of the British Loan of 1946, the largest loan made by the United States to another country ($3.75 billion), and the lend-lease settlements of economic and military aid given to the allies during the war.^{[citation needed]} In order to encourage private investment in postwar America, he promoted a tax cut in the Revenue Act of 1945.^{[citation needed]} He also supervised the inauguration of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the International Monetary Fund, both created at the Bretton Woods Conference of 1944, acting as the first chairman of their respective boards.^{[citation needed]} In 1946, Vinson resigned from the Treasury to be appointed Chief Justice of the United States by Truman.^{[citation needed]}

Chief Justice[]

Play media

Swearing in of Chief Justice Vinson on White house portico

Vinson was nominated by President Harry S. Truman on June 6, 1946, to the Chief Justice seat on the Supreme Court of the United States vacated by the death of Harlan F. Stone.^[4] Vinson was recommended to Truman by former Chief Justice Charles Evans Hughes and former Associate Justice Owen Roberts, noting his experience in all three branches of the federal government, with Hughes telling Truman, "You have a Secretary of the Treasury who has been a Congressman, a Judge of the Court of Appeal, and an executive officer in President Roosevelt's and your cabinets".^[7] He was confirmed by the United States Senate by a voice vote on June 20, 1946, received his commission on June 21,^[4] and took the oath of office as Chief Justice on June 24.^[8] His appointment came at a time when the Supreme Court was deeply fractured, both intellectually and personally.^[9] One faction was led by Justice Hugo Black, the other by Justice Felix Frankfurter.^[9] Vinson was credited with patching this fracture,^{[according to whom?]} at least on a personal level.^{[citation needed]} He was the presiding officer of the Conference of Senior Circuit Judges (now the Judicial Conference of the United States) from 1946 to 1948, and presiding officer of the Judicial Conference of the United States from 1948 to 1953.^[4] He served as Circuit Justice for the Fourth Circuit and the District of Columbia Circuit from June 26, 1946, to September 8, 1953.^[4] His service ended with his death on September 8, 1953.^[4]

Fred M. Vinson bust, U.S. Supreme Court, Washington, D.C. Sculptor Jimilu Mason.

In his time on the Supreme Court, he wrote 77 opinions for the court and 13 dissents. His most dramatic dissent was when the court voided President Truman's seizure of the steel industry during a strike in a June 3, 1952, decision, Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. v. Sawyer.^{[citation needed]} His final public appearance at the court was when he read the decision not to review the conviction and death sentence of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg.^{[citation needed]} After Justice William O. Douglas granted a stay of execution to the Rosenbergs at the last moment, Chief Justice Vinson sent special flights out to bring vacationing justices back to Washington in order to ensure the execution of the Rosenbergs.^{[citation needed]} During his tenure as Chief Justice, one of his law clerks was future Associate Justice Byron White.^{[citation needed]}

The major issues his court dealt with included racial segregation, labor unions, communism and loyalty oaths.^{[citation needed]} On racial segregation, he wrote that states practicing the separate but equal doctrine must provide facilities that were truly equal, in Sweatt v. Painter and McLaurin v. Oklahoma State Regents.^{[citation needed]} The case of Briggs v. Elliott was before the Court at the time of his death.^{[citation needed]} Vinson, not wanting a 5-4 decision, had ordered a second hearing of the case.^{[citation needed]} He died before the case could be reheard, and his vote may have been pivotal, q.v., discussion of Brown in Felix Frankfurter.^{[citation needed]} Upon his death, Earl Warren was appointed to the Court and the case was heard again.^{[citation needed]}

As Chief Justice, he swore in Harry S. Truman and Dwight D. Eisenhower as President.

As of 2020, Vinson is the last Chief Justice to have been appointed by a Democratic president, namely Truman. His successors, Earl Warren, Warren Burger, William Rehnquist and John Roberts were all appointed by Republican presidents (Dwight D. Eisenhower, Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, and George W. Bush, respectively). Of his predecessors, only three – Roger Taney, Melville Fuller and Harlan F. Stone^[a] – had been appointed by Democratic presidents. Jay, Rutledge and Ellsworth were appointed by non-partisan George Washington, John Marshall by Federalist John Adams, whilst Salmon P. Chase, Morrison Waite, Edward Douglass White, William Howard Taft and Charles Evans Hughes were appointed by Republicans Abraham Lincoln, Ulysses S. Grant, William Howard Taft as president, Warren G. Harding and Herbert Hoover respectively.

As the leader of a court entirely appointed by Roosevelt and Truman, Vinson is one of only two Chief Justices to have presided over a court solely nominated by presidents of one political party, alongside Waite, who between April 1882 and May 1887 presided over a court entirely appointed by Republican presidents.^[b] Harold Hitz Burton, the sole remaining Republican on the Court upon Vinson's death, had been nominated to the Court by Truman.

Potential cabinet position[]

When Secretary of State Dean Acheson came under fire from congressional Republicans for being "soft on communism" at the end of 1950 Vinson was briefly mentioned as the new Secretary of State and Dean Acheson as the new Chief Justice.^{[citation needed]} This speculation died down when President Truman retained Acheson at the State Department.^{[citation needed]}

Death and legacy[]

Vinson died September 8, 1953, of a heart attack at his Washington home. His body was interred in Pinehill Cemetery in Louisa, Kentucky.^[10][11]

An extensive collection of Vinson's personal and judicial papers is archived at the University of Kentucky in Lexington, where they are available for research.^{[citation needed]}

A portrait of Vinson hangs in the hallway of the chapter house of the Kentucky Alpha-Delta chapter of Phi Delta Theta (ΦΔΘ) international fraternity, at Centre College.^{[citation needed]} Vinson was a member of the chapter in his years at Centre.^{[citation needed]} Affectionately known as "Dead Fred", the portrait is taken by fraternity members to Centre football and basketball games and other events.^{[citation needed]}

The Fred M. Vinson Birthplace, in Louisa, Kentucky, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.^{[citation needed]}

See also[]

Notes[]

References[]

• St. Clair, James E.; Gugin, Linda C. (2002). Chief Justice Fred M. Vinson of Kentucky – A Political Biography. Lexington: The University Press of Kentucky. ISBN 0-8131-2247-3.

Further reading[]

External links[]

Wikiquote has quotations related to: Fred M. Vinson

Wikisource has original text related to this article: Author:Frederick Moore Vinson

• Frederick Moore Vinson at the Biographical Directory of Federal Judges, a public domain publication of the Federal Judicial Center.
• "Frederick Moore Vinson". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.
• Frederick Moore Vinson Sr. at Find a Grave
• Biography, at the U.S. Treasury Office of the Curator.
• Truman Presents Supreme Court Chief Justice Vinson With Historic Gavel, 1948 Shapell Manuscript Foundation
• Chief Justice Vinson dies of Heart Attack, The New York Times, September 8, 1953.
• Obituary, NY Times, September 9, 1953, Vinson Excelled In Federal Posts.
• Oyez Project, Fred M. Vinson, United States Supreme Court.
• Supreme Court Historical Society, The Vinson Court.