Alben W. Barkley

Barkley in 1913

Initially conservative, working with Wilson (who was elected president) inspired Barkley to become more liberal.[13] On April 24, 1913, he first spoke on the House floor, favoring the administration-backed Underwood–Simmons Tariff Act which lowered tariffs on foreign goods.[48] He endorsed Wilson's New Freedom agenda, including the 1913 Federal Reserve Act and the 1914 Federal Trade Commission Act.[49] Because of his support for the administration, he was assigned to the powerful Interstate and Foreign Commerce Committee and became the first freshman to preside over a session of the House.[50] As a member of the Interstate Commerce Commission, he supported the Clayton Antitrust Act and sought to end child labor in interstate commerce through the Keating–Owen Act in 1916.[44][51] He also supported measures to extend credit to and fund road improvements in rural areas.[24]

A speaker for the Anti-Saloon League, Barkley co-sponsored the 1916 Sheppard–Barkley Act which banned alcohol sales in Washington, D.C.[52][53] It was passed in 1917.[53] He sponsored an amendment to the Lever Food and Fuel Act forbidding the use of grain – rendered scarce by World War I and a poor harvest in 1916 – to make alcoholic beverages.[54] The amendment passed the House, but a conference committee amended it to allow production of beer and wine.[54] Both measures increased Barkley's national visibility and set the stage for future prohibition legislation, including the Eighteenth Amendment.[24] By 1917, the state Democratic Party was divided over prohibition, and the prohibitionist faction tried to enlist Barkley for the 1919 gubernatorial race.[55] The Memphis Commercial Appeal noted in late 1917 that Barkley had not declined the invitations, but his continued silence reduced the prohibitionists' enthusiasm.[55] He also showed little interest in the faction's attempts to recruit him to challenge anti-prohibitionist Ollie James in the 1917 Democratic Senate primary.[28]

By 1919, James had died in office, and Governor Augustus Owsley Stanley was elected to his vacant seat.[56] The divisive prohibition issue and recent Republican gains in the state made the Democratic gubernatorial primary of particular interest.[57] Stanley was the leader of the party's anti-prohibitionists.[57] Prohibitionists, led by former governor J. C. W. Beckham, did not support James D. Black, who became governor when Stanley went to the Senate and was seeking re-election.[57] At the time of Black's election as lieutenant governor in 1915, he had sided with the prohibitionists; he was chosen to run with Stanley to balance the party's ticket, so the anti-prohibitionists did not entirely trust him either.[57] Attempting to unite the party and prevent a Republican victory, Black invited Barkley, who had not been linked to either leader despite his support for prohibition, to be temporary chairman of the 1919 state Democratic convention.[58] Barkley's convention address attacked Republicans and praised the Democrats' record without making reference to prohibition, but many in the Beckham faction refused to accept Black, and he was defeated in the general election by Republican Edwin P. Morrow.[59] Chairing the convention introduced Barkley to state political leaders outside the First District.[60]

Barkley supported U.S. neutrality in World War I and endorsed Wilson's plan to purchase merchant ships for the U.S. instead of paying foreign carriers to travel waters containing German U-boats.[61] His position was popular in his district, as 80% of the dark tobacco grown in western Kentucky was sold overseas, and higher shipping costs adversely affected profits.[61] The House authorized the purchase, but Republicans and conservative Democrats in the Senate regarded the idea as socialistic and blocked its passage with a filibuster.[61]

Wilson supporters, including Barkley, campaigned for his re-election in 1916, using the slogan "he kept us out of war".[62] By early 1917, Germany had lifted all restrictions on attacks on neutral shipping supplying Britain and France, outraging many Americans.[62] The publication in February of the Zimmermann Telegram, in which a German official proposed to Mexico that, if the U.S. entered the war, Mexico should declare war on them and the Germans would work to return Texas, Arizona, and New Mexico to Mexican control, also brought the United States closer to war.[63] Wilson asked Congress for a declaration of war on April 2, 1917, and Barkley voted for the resolution when it came before the House two weeks later.[63] At 40 years old, he considered resigning his seat to enlist in the U.S. Army, but Wilson persuaded him not to do so.[63]

After the declaration of war, Barkley supported bills implementing conscription and raising revenue for the fight.[54] Between August and October 1918, he joined an unofficial congressional delegation that toured Europe, surveying the tactical situation and meeting with leaders there.[63] Like Wilson, he supported U.S. ratification of the Treaty of Versailles and participation in the League of Nations, but both measures failed after the election of a more conservative Congress in 1918.[64]

Barkley supported William Gibbs McAdoo for president at the 1920 Democratic National Convention, but the nomination went to James M. Cox.[65] He campaigned for Cox and his running mate, Franklin D. Roosevelt, but his speeches focused more on Wilson's progressive record than Cox's fitness for office.[65] Republican Warren G. Harding defeated Cox in the general election, and Barkley found common ground with him on issues such as the creation of the Veterans' Bureau and the passage of the progressive Sheppard–Towner Act.[66] Barkley thought the administration was too favorable to big business interests, however, and in 1922 he proclaimed that if Harding had returned the country to normalcy, "then in God's name let us have Abnormalcy".[67]

By the time of his 1922 re-election bid, Barkley was the ranking Democrat on the Interstate and Foreign Commerce Committee.[67] In the election, he carried every First District county, including the Republican strongholds of Caldwell and Crittenden counties.[67] Despite the victory he lacked the political organization needed for higher office.[68] According to Barkley biographer James K. Libbey, the establishment of such an organization, and not necessarily a desire to become governor, may have motivated him to announce his candidacy for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination on November 11, 1922.[68] Critics charged that this was his intent, and he did little to deny it.[69]

J. Campbell Cantrill defeated Barkley in the 1923 Democratic gubernatorial primary.

Opposing Barkley in the primary was Congressman J. Campbell Cantrill who, along with Stanley, led the conservative wing of the party, opposing prohibition and women's suffrage.[68][70] Beckham, leader of the liberal wing, intended to run, and his surrogates, particularly Louisville Courier-Journal editor Robert Worth Bingham, began a "Business Man for Governor" campaign in late 1922.[71] Beckham had served as governor from 1900 to 1907 and later in the U.S. Senate, but he was out of office (a "Business Man"), in contrast to Cantrill and Barkley.[71] While Bingham's campaign forced Barkley to declare his candidacy earlier than planned, the tactic was not successful outside Louisville; Beckham supporters backed Barkley, more to prevent Cantrill's nomination than because they desired Barkley's.[71] Barkley's leadership team included his own supporters, influential members of the Beckham faction, and erstwhile Cantrill supporters.[72][73]

Recognizing the need to broaden his appeal beyond western Kentucky, Barkley opened his campaign in the central Kentucky town of Danville on February 19, 1923.[73] He employed the slogan "Christianity, Morality, and Good Government", and he and Cantrill – colleagues in the House – agreed to refrain from personal attacks.[52][74] Due to Percy Haly's influence on Barkley, and Barkley's own admiration for Woodrow Wilson, he denounced the influence of the coal, racing, and railroad trusts in state politics.[52] "Woodrow Wilson drove the crooks and corruptionists out of New Jersey, Governor Pinchot is driving them out of Pennsylvania, and if I am elected Governor of Kentucky I promise to drive them out of Frankfort," he declared.[52] In contrast to his usual preference for low taxes, he advocated a tax on coal deposits.[72] In addition to reducing the coal trust's political influence, he believed the increased revenue, which would largely be generated by out-of-state coal buyers, would result in lower property taxes on farmers.[75] Friends in the Anti-Saloon League convinced him that banning parimutuel betting would cripple the racing trust.[52][75] Many Catholics and Protestants – notably those affiliated with the Louisville Churchmen's Federation – favored prohibition and opposed parimutuel betting on religious grounds, and endorsed Barkley's candidacy, but Bingham, typically a Beckham ally, was slow to endorse him.[72][76] Like Bingham, Lexington Herald editor Desha Breckinridge had helped create the parimutuel betting system, and Barkley's positions were enough to convince him to back Cantrill, despite the fact that Breckinridge generally disliked Cantrill.[72]

Barkley campaigned across the state, earning the nickname "Iron Man" for making up to 16 speeches in a day.[13] His proposals for a statewide highway system and improvements in education were popular, but coal mining and horse racing interests, based mostly in eastern Kentucky, opposed him.[44][70] Counties east of a line from Louisville to Middlesboro generally supported Cantrill, while those west of the line mostly went for Barkley, who lost the primary by 9,000 votes (out of 241,000 cast), marking his only election loss.[77][78] He supported Cantrill in the general election, gaining goodwill within the Democratic Party.[79] Cantrill died on September 2, and the Democratic State Committee had to name his replacement.[78] Barkley was not acceptable to many of the members of the committee, and he refused to accept nomination by party leaders instead of the voters.[80] On September 11, the committee nominated Congressman William J. Fields, and Barkley supported him in the general election, which he won over Republican Charles I. Dawson.[78][80]

Barkley's party loyalty in the governor's race made him a formidable candidate to challenge Stanley, who by 1924 had angered members of both party factions, but Barkley had spent most of his funds in his campaign against Cantrill, and he did not want to risk his reputation as a party unifier by challenging a Democrat.[81] Instead, he decided to rebuild his war chest to unseat Kentucky's incumbent Republican senator, Richard P. Ernst, in 1926.[81] In the meantime, he refrained from using his influence in state races to avoid losing any goodwill with Kentucky voters.[82]

At the 1924 Democratic National Convention, Barkley again supported William G. McAdoo for president.[82] Urban interests at the convention promoted New York Governor Al Smith, and a bitter convention fight ensued.[82] During the course of 103 ballots, chairman Thomas J. Walsh needed a rest and temporarily yielded his position to Barkley.[82] The convention was the first to be broadcast nationally, and Barkley's service as chair augmented his national recognition and appeal.[24] The two Democratic factions agreed to compromise, nominating John W. Davis, who Libbey called a "competent nonentity"; Davis lost in the general election to incumbent Calvin Coolidge.[82] Barkley won another term in the House by a 2-to-1 margin over his Republican opponent in 1924, but Democratic divisions cost Stanley his Senate seat, and Barkley became even more convinced of the value of party loyalty.[82]

External video
"Life and Career of Senator Alben Barkley", presentation by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), June 30, 2014, C-SPAN[97]

Barkley supported Franklin D. Roosevelt for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1932, but facing a re-election bid himself, he did not announce his support, fearing that his message might not resonate with Kentucky voters.[98] Roosevelt supporters offered Barkley the keynote address and temporary chairmanship of the 1932 Democratic National Convention if he would endorse their candidate.[99] Both opportunities would help Barkley's re-election chances, so he announced his support for Roosevelt on March 22.[99] In his keynote, Barkley warmly recalled the Wilson administration and denounced more than a decade of Republican dominance.[100] Applause frequently punctuated the speech, with the longest interruption – a 45-minute near-riot – erupting after Barkley called for a platform plank directing Congress to repeal prohibition.[100] According to Libbey, the remark was not a repudiation of his prohibitionist position but a desire for the people to express their will on repeal.[101] Prohibitionist constituents still supported Barkley because, for most of them, the depression trumped all other concerns.[101]

George B. Martin, who had served six months in the Senate in 1918 after being appointed to fill a vacancy, opposed Barkley in the 1932 primary, but Barkley defeated him by a two-to-one margin.[102] In the general election, he defeated Republican Congressman Maurice H. Thatcher by a vote of 575,077 to 393,865, marking the first time in the 20th century that a Kentucky senator won a second consecutive term.[103][104] Democrats gained control of the Senate during the 1932 elections; Joseph Robinson was chosen majority leader, and he appointed Barkley as his assistant.[13] Together, they secured passage of New Deal legislation, including the Agricultural Adjustment Act, the National Industrial Recovery Act, and the Federal Emergency Relief Act.[105] In July 1934, the Democratic National Committee chose Barkley to respond to Republican National Committee chairman Henry P. Fletcher's radio attacks on the New Deal.[106] Later that year, he embarked on a tour of twenty states, defending the New Deal and stumping for Democratic candidates in the 1934 midterm elections.[106]

Barkley was again the keynote speaker at the 1936 Democratic National Convention.[44] During his address, he alluded to the Supreme Court's decision in Schechter Poultry Corp. v. United States – which struck down the National Industrial Recovery Act as unconstitutional – asking "Is the court beyond criticism? May it be regarded as too sacred to be disagreed with?"[107] These remarks help set an anti-Supreme Court tone for Roosevelt's second term.[108] On February 5, 1937, Roosevelt proposed legislation authorizing the president to appoint an additional justice for each one over the age of 70.[108] Many saw this proposal as an attempt to avoid further nullification of New Deal provisions as unconstitutional by appointing more sympathetic justices, and they dubbed the measure Roosevelt's "court-packing plan".[108]

Barkley with U.S. Vice President John Nance Garner in July 1936

Barkley and Mississippi Senator Pat Harrison were the leading candidates to succeed Robinson as Democratic floor leader when he died on July 14, 1937.[13][102] Harrison's tenure in the Senate was eight years longer than Barkley's, and he was supported by conservative Southern Democratic senators opposed to Roosevelt's court-packing plan.[13] Harrison had helped secure Roosevelt's nomination at the 1932 Democratic National Convention by convincing Mississippi governor Martin Sennet Conner to keep his state's delegation loyal to Roosevelt, but Roosevelt preferred Barkley because of his support of the New Deal.[109] A letter from Roosevelt praising Barkley's legislative accomplishments and addressed to "My Dear Alben" was seen as an endorsement.[110] Although Roosevelt remained publicly neutral, he pressured Illinois' William H. Dieterich and Missouri's Harry S. Truman to support Barkley instead of Harrison; Dieterich acquiesced, but Truman remained loyal to Harrison.[110] Many senators resented Roosevelt's interference in a traditionally legislative prerogative.[110] Ultimately, Barkley was elected by a single vote.[111]

Happy Chandler unsuccessfully challenged Barkley for his U.S. Senate seat.

Barkley faced a primary challenge in his 1938 re-election bid from A. B. "Happy" Chandler, Kentucky's popular governor who had a strong political organization throughout the state.[112] According to historian James C. Klotter, Chandler was confident of his ascension to the presidency and saw the Senate as a stepping stone.[113] Chandler twice asked Roosevelt to appoint Kentucky's junior Senator, M. M. Logan, to a federal judgeship so he could arrange his own appointment to Logan's Senate seat.[114] On one of these occasions – the retirement of Supreme Court Justice George Sutherland – Barkley advised Roosevelt to appoint Solicitor General Stanley Reed instead.[113] Chandler's mentor, Virginia senator Harry F. Byrd, and the bloc of Democrats who opposed Roosevelt's New Deal, then encouraged Chandler to announce his candidacy for Barkley's seat.[114][115]

The New York Times saw the primary as "the Gettysburg of the party's internecine strife" over control of the Democratic National Convention in 1940.[116] Early on, Chandler portrayed himself as a supporter of Roosevelt – since Roosevelt was popular in Kentucky – but opposed to the New Deal.[117] He pointed to his fiscal conservatism as governor, including reorganizing and downsizing the executive branch and reducing the state's debt.[113] Polls showing Barkley with a comfortable lead and an overwhelming victory by New Deal supporter Claude Pepper in Florida's May Senate primary convinced Chandler to shift his focus from the New Deal.[116] He criticized Barkley as "a stranger to the state" and obliquely referred to "fat, sleek senators who go to Europe and have forgotten the people of Kentucky except when they run for election".[117] Forty years old – 20 years Barkley's junior – he referred to Barkley as "Old Alben".[118]

Early in the contest, congressional business restricted Barkley's campaign to weekends, so he enlisted allies like Fred Vinson to speak on his behalf.[119][120] Chandler's political enemies such as former governor Ruby Laffoon, whom Chandler had crossed as lieutenant governor, and John Y. Brown, who felt that Chandler had broken a promise to support him for a seat in the Senate, also supported Barkley.[119] Although labor leaders had backed Chandler's gubernatorial bid, they endorsed Barkley because of Roosevelt's support for labor unions.[121] After the congressional session, Barkley resumed his "Iron Man" campaign style, making between 8 and 15 speeches each day and traveling, on average, 4,500 miles (7,200 km) per week.[122][119] This countered Chandler's implication that Barkley's age was a disadvantage, a charge that was further blunted when the younger Chandler fell ill in July, temporarily halting his campaigning.[119] Chandler indirectly charged that a Barkley supporter had poisoned his ice water, causing the illness.[123] Barkley ridiculed the suggestion, promising to appoint "an ice water guard" for his campaign.[123] During speeches, he would lift a glass of water to his lips, then mockingly inspect it and refuse to drink it.[123] Louisville police dismissed Chandler's claim as "a political bedtime story".[124]

Recognizing that the defeat of his hand-picked floor leader would be a repudiation of his agenda, Roosevelt began a tour of the state in Covington on July 8.[125] Chandler, the state's chief executive, was invited to welcome the president.[126] Although clearly campaigning for Barkley, Roosevelt made courteous remarks about Chandler in the spirit of party unity, but in Bowling Green, he chastised Chandler for "dragging federal judgeships into a political campaign".[112][127]

As nearly every 20th-century Kentucky governor had done, Chandler printed campaign materials with state funds, solicited campaign funds from state employees, and promised new government jobs in exchange for votes.[119] A later investigation determined that Chandler had raised at least $10,000 from state employees.[128] Federal New Deal employees countered by working on Barkley's behalf.[119] Barkley and George H. Goodman, director of the Works Progress Administration (WPA) in Kentucky, denied that WPA employees played a role in the campaign, but journalist Thomas Lunsford Stokes concluded that "the WPA ... was deep in politics" in Kentucky, winning the 1939 Pulitzer Prize for Reporting for his investigation.[129] A Senate committee investigated Stokes' findings, and WPA administrator Harry Hopkins claimed the committee's report refuted all but two of Stokes' twenty-two charges.[130] Nevertheless, Congress passed the Hatch Act of 1939 which restricted federal employees' participation in political activities.[128]

Barkley won the August 6 election by a vote of 294,391 to 223,149, carrying 74 of Kentucky's 120 counties, with large majorities in western Kentucky, the city of Louisville, and rural areas.[123][128] It was the first loss of Chandler's political career, and the worst suffered by a primary candidate in Kentucky's history to that time.[131] Barkley defeated his Republican opponent, Louisville Judge John P. Haswell, securing 62% of the general election vote.[132] Encouraged by Barkley's success, Roosevelt campaigned against conservative Democratic incumbents in southern states, but all of these candidates won, which damaged Roosevelt's image.[133]

With his caucus divided between conservatives and liberals, Barkley failed to secure passage for Roosevelt's court-packing plan.[44] After the successive failures of several administration-backed domestic bills, the press dubbed the Senate Majority Leader "bumbling Barkley".[111] He was able to salvage an appropriations bill to cover overspending by the WPA, although it allocated much less funding than Roosevelt had wanted.[132] He helped secure the Hatch Act, and The Washington Daily News called a 1940 amendment that prohibited campaigning by federally funded state employees a "monument to Alben Barkley's persistence and parliamentary skill".[126][132] Despite this mixed record, Roosevelt believed some Democratic partisans hoped to nominate Barkley for president at the 1940 Democratic National Convention, but the German invasion of Poland on September 1, 1939, deepened his resolve to seek a third term.[134]

Barkley during his tenure as floor leader

Barkley disagreed with Roosevelt's selection of Agriculture Secretary Henry A. Wallace as his running mate; Libbey felt that "there is enough evidence from Barkley's tortuous private and public statements about the qualifications of Wallace to infer that Barkley wanted the vice presidency for himself", although he did not promote this idea to Roosevelt.[134] Barkley was chosen permanent chairman of the convention; chants of "We want Roosevelt" interrupted his July 16 speech for 20 minutes, indicating that he had created a popular mandate for Roosevelt's renomination, which occurred the next day.[135] Roosevelt went on to win an unprecedented third term in a landslide.[135]

Supporting Roosevelt's provision of aid to Allied Powers during World War II, Barkley sponsored the Lend-Lease Act in the Senate.[136] In November 1943, he helped draft the Connally–Fulbright Resolution for the creation of an international peace-keeping body at the end of the war, an idea he had favored since Woodrow Wilson's support of the League of Nations.[136] Supreme Court Justice and fellow Kentuckian Louis Brandeis influenced Barkley to adopt Zionism; during and after the war, Barkley advocated creation of a Jewish homeland in Palestine and introduced a 1943 resolution demanding that the Nazis be punished for persecuting Jews.[24][136] U.S. entry into the war diverted Roosevelt's attention away from domestic affairs.[111] Vice President Wallace, House Speaker Sam Rayburn, Democratic House Floor Leader John William McCormack, and Barkley – the president's "Big Four" – helped develop and pass the administration's legislative agenda.[111] Barkley regularly met with the chairmen of the Senate's standing committees, forming a sort of legislative cabinet.[136] With their support, he secured passage of the War Powers Act and the Emergency Price Control Act.[137] He also advocated passage of a measure to outlaw poll taxes, but the bill was defeated.[138]

In April 1943 a confidential analysis by Isaiah Berlin of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee for the British Foreign Office described Barkley as "a Democratic party 'wheelhorse' who will pull the Administration wagon through thick and thin. Although he is the Majority Leader in the Senate, he is not an adroit negotiator, but a loyal supporter of the President come hell or high water."[139]

Tension developed between Roosevelt and Barkley during the war, however.[111] In 1943, Roosevelt refused to appoint Barkley to a vacancy on the Supreme Court, and Barkley criticized the War Production Board for awarding contracts for the production of war-related materials to large companies rather than small businesses.[24][138] Their most notable clash occurred in February 1944 when Roosevelt requested that Congress approve tax increases to generate over $10 billion in revenue for the war. Barkley and the Senate Finance Committee negotiated a bill containing only $2.3 billion in tax increases. Feeling the measure was insufficient, Roosevelt convened the "Big Four" on February 21 and told them he would veto it.[138] They urged him not to do so, assuring him that the bill they had drafted was the best one that they could pass.[138] Roosevelt vetoed the bill the next day, marking the first time a U.S. president vetoed a revenue bill.[111]

When Barkley entered the Senate chamber on February 23, word had spread that Roosevelt's veto had angered him.[140] He announced that he would resign as floor leader and encouraged his legislative colleagues to override the veto. He stated that Roosevelt's characterization of the bill as "providing relief not for the needy, but for the greedy" was "a calculated and deliberate assault upon the legislative integrity of every member of the Congress of the United States".[141] Roosevelt sent a letter to Barkley insisting he had not intended to impugn Congress' integrity and urging him not to resign. The next morning, Barkley resigned and left the Democratic Conference Room; minutes later, the caucus unanimously re-elected him. Many members who had seen Barkley as Roosevelt's advocate in Congress now looked upon him as Congress' advocate with Roosevelt.[111] Subsequently, Congress overwhelmingly overrode the veto.[141]

Barkley was among 12 nominated at the 1944 Democratic National Convention to be Roosevelt's running mate in the presidential election that year, receiving six votes.[142] Delegates favored replacing Vice President Henry Wallace on their ticket in favor of Barkley, but Roosevelt refused to consider him, telling a July 11 meeting of Democratic leaders that he was too old.[111][143] Instead, he took the recommendation of Democratic National Committee chairman Robert E. Hannegan and chose Harry S. Truman.[143] Despite his differences with Roosevelt, Barkley faced no serious challengers in the 1944 Democratic primary and defeated his Republican challenger, Fayette County Commonwealth's Attorney James Park, by a vote of 464,053 to 380,425.[144]

On April 11, 1945, U.S. forces liberated the Buchenwald concentration camp, established in 1937, where at least 56,545 people died. General Dwight D. Eisenhower left rotting corpses unburied so a visiting group of U.S. legislators could truly understand the horror of the atrocities. This group visited Buchenwald on April 24 to inspect the camp and learn firsthand about the enormity of the Nazi Final Solution and treatment of other prisoners.

The legislators included Barkley, Ed Izac, John M. Vorys, Dewey Short, C. Wayland Brooks, and Kenneth S. Wherry, along with General Omar Bradley and journalists Joseph Pulitzer, Norman Chandler, William I. Nichols, and Julius Ochs Adler.[145][146]

Truman ascended to the presidency when Roosevelt died in April 1945, just before the end of World War II.[111][147] In the war's aftermath, Americans wanted to know why the U.S. seemed ill-prepared for the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.[147] Barkley sponsored a resolution to create the Joint Committee on the Investigation of the Pearl Harbor Attack and was chosen as chairman of the ten-person committee.[148] The committee's report, delivered on July 20, 1946, exonerated Roosevelt of any blame for the attack and highlighted weaknesses in communications between branches of the U.S. armed forces, leading to the creation of the United States Department of Defense.[148] Barkley also helped ensure U.S. participation in the United Nations and advocated approval of billions of dollars in loans to rebuild Europe.[148] Look magazine named him the second most fascinating person in the country behind Eisenhower.[149]

In the 1946 elections, Republicans wrested control of both houses of Congress from the Democrats for the first time since the Great Depression and gained control of the majority of state governments.[111][149] The power of labor unions had expanded under Roosevelt and the Democrats, and when a 1946 railroad worker strike exacerbated a post-war recession, the Republican majorities – over Barkley's objection – curbed union power via the Taft–Hartley Act.[150] They also passed the Twenty-second Amendment, limiting the president to two terms, a posthumous slap at Roosevelt.[151]

Barkley's wife, Dorothy, died March 10, 1947, after a long illness.

Barkley's wife became an invalid due to heart disease.[24] Barkley had closed his law practice when he was elected to the Senate, so to pay for his wife's care, he supplemented his $10,000 annual salary with speaking engagements.[143] He was the Democratic Speakers Bureau's most requested orator, surpassing Truman.[149] A Pageant magazine poll of legislators chose Barkley and Republican Robert A. Taft as the hardest-working members of their respective parties.[149] The Barkleys sold their Washington, D.C. home and moved into an apartment to reduce expenses.[147] Marny Clifford, wife of Truman's Naval Advisor Clark Clifford, nicknamed Barkley "Sparkle Barkle" for his care of his wife, who died March 10, 1947.[147] When Barkley won the Collier Award in May 1948, he donated the $10,000 prize to the University of Louisville School of Medicine in his wife's honor.[149]

Civil rights bills, unpopular with Southern Democrats, were central to Truman's Fair Deal.[151] Because Barkley could still appeal to Southern Democrats, Truman asked him to be the keynote speaker at the 1948 Democratic National Convention for an unprecedented third time.[152] Because of the Republican resurgence and Truman's difficulty appealing to some Democrats, Republican nominee Thomas E. Dewey was expected to win the upcoming presidential election.[152] Democrats were energized by Barkley's keynote address, which promoted New Deal accomplishments and called the Republican-controlled 80th Congress a "do nothing" Congress.[153] He mentioned Truman only once, leading Truman to suspect that Barkley sought to supplant him as the party's presidential nominee, but no such attempt occurred.[111] Despite these suspicions and his contention that a ticket consisting of a Missourian and a Kentuckian lacked regional geographic balance, convention delegates persuaded Truman to take Barkley as his running mate.[111] Truman had wanted Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas, but Douglas declined.[143]

Barkley was disappointed that he was not Truman's first choice as running mate, but over the next six weeks, he crisscrossed the country by plane, making over 250 campaign speeches in 36 states.[153][154] Playing off Barkley's keynote speech, Truman called a special congressional session on July 26, challenging Republicans to enact their agenda.[155] They were unable to pass any significant legislation, seeming to confirm Barkley's characterization of them as a "do-nothing Congress".[155]

At the March 29, 1952 Jefferson–Jackson Day fundraiser, Truman announced that he would not seek re-election, although he was exempt from the Twenty-second Amendment's term limits.[175] After the announcement, the District of Columbia Democratic Club formed a Barkley for President Club with Iowa senator Guy Gillette as chairman.[174] Prominent Kentuckians – including senator Earle C. Clements, governor Lawrence Wetherby, and lieutenant governor Emerson "Doc" Beauchamp – supported the candidacy.[174] Exactly two months after Truman's announcement, Barkley declared his availability to run for president while maintaining he was not actively seeking the office.[176]

Adlai Stevenson II received the Democratic presidential nomination in 1952 instead of Barkley.

Barkley's distant cousin, Illinois Governor Adlai Stevenson II (grandson of Adlai Stevenson I), was considered his primary competition for the presidential nomination, but had not committed before the convention.[176] Richard Russell Jr. and Tennessee senator Estes Kefauver were also interested in the nomination.[177] Kentucky's delegation to the 1952 Democratic National Convention announced that they would support Barkley, and Truman encouraged Missouri's delegates to do so.[176] Democratic National Committee chairman Frank E. McKinney, former chairman James Farley, and Senate Secretary Leslie Biffle also supported him.[178] Two weeks before the convention, Stevenson advisor Jacob Arvey told Barkley that Stevenson was not going to be nominated and favored nominating Barkley.[178] Barkley's advisors believed that Kefauver and Russell would knock each other out of the early balloting, allowing Barkley to capture the nomination.[177]

To dispel concerns about his age (74), failing eyesight, and heart problems, Barkley arrived in Chicago for the convention and briskly walked seven blocks from the bus station to his campaign headquarters.[177][178] The attempt was rendered moot on July 20 when a group of labor leaders, including United Automobile Workers president Walter Reuther, issued a statement calling Barkley too old and requesting that Democrats nominate someone younger like Stevenson.[179] At a meeting with labor leaders the next morning, Barkley failed to persuade them to retract the statement, which caused delegations from large industrial states like Illinois, Indiana, and Pennsylvania to waver on their commitments to Barkley.[179][180] On July 21, he announced his withdrawal from the race.[179] Invited to make a farewell address on July 22, he received a 35-minute ovation when he took the podium and a 45-minute one at the speech's end.[161][181] In a show of respect, a Missouri delegate nominated Barkley for president and House Majority Leader McCormack seconded it, but Stevenson was easily nominated.[182] A month after the convention, Barkley hosted a Stevenson picnic and campaign rally at his home in Paducah and later introduced him at a rally in Louisville.[183] Despite Barkley's predictions of a Democratic victory, Stevenson lost in overwhelming fashion to Republican Dwight Eisenhower.[184]

In a keynote address at the Washington and Lee Mock Convention on April 30, 1956, Barkley spoke of his willingness to sit with the other freshman senators in Congress; he ended with an allusion to Psalm 84:10, saying "I'm glad to sit on the back row, for I would rather be a servant in the House of the Lord than to sit in the seats of the mighty."[161] He then collapsed onstage and died suddenly of a heart attack, aged 78.[44] He was buried in Mount Kenton Cemetery near Paducah.[18]