Josephus Daniels
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Josephus Daniels (18 May 1862–15 January 1948) was an American politician and newspaper publisher from North Carolina, who served as Secretary of the Navy during World War I.
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[edit] Early Life and Career
A native of Washington, North Carolina, Daniels moved with with his mother and two siblings to Wilson, North Carolina after his father was accidentally killed by Confederate troops during the Civil War. [1] He was educated at Wilson Collegiate Institute. He edited and eventually purchased a local newspaper, the Wilson Advance. Within a few years, he became part owner of the Kinston Free Press and the Rocky Mount Reporter. [2] He studied law at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and was admitted to the bar in 1885, but he did not practice law. After becoming increasingly involved in the North Carolina Democratic Party and taking over the weekly paper Daily State Chronicle, he was North Carolina's state printer in 1887-93 and chief clerk of the Federal Department of the Interior under Grover Cleveland in 1893-95.
In 1888, Daniels married Addie Worth Bagley, the granddaughter of former Governor Jonathan Worth.
[edit] News and Observer
In 1894, Daniels acquired a controlling interest in the Raleigh News & Observer, which led him to leave his federal office. The paper was unabashed in its advocacy for the Democratic Party, which at the time was struggling against a fusion of the Republicans and Populists. [3]
Daniels and other Democrats launched a "White Supremacy" campaign to appeal to racist sentiment. That led to Democratic victories in 1898 and 1900 and to the disfranchisement of African Americans. On December 15, 2005, the 1898 Wilmington Race Riot Commission noted in its draft report that Daniels' involvement in the overthrow of the elected city government of Wilmington, NC, by actively promoting white supremacy in The News and Observer was so significant that he has been referred to as the "precipitator of the riot."
[edit] Secretary of the Navy
He supported Woodrow Wilson in the 1912 presidential election, and after Wilson's victory was appointed as Secretary of the Navy. He held the post from 1913 to 1921, throughout the Wilson administration, overseeing the Navy during World War I. Future U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt served as his Assistant Secretary of the Navy. In 1921 he resumed the editorship of the Raleigh News and Observer.
Secretary Daniels believed in government ownership of armorplate factories, and of telephones and telegraphs. Daniels is also remembered for having banned alcohol from United States Navy ships in General Order 99 of 1 June 1914. This is one theory for the origin of the naval term "cup of joe" to refer to a cup of coffee. Daniels wrote The Navy and the Nation (1919).
During World War One, Daniels created the Naval Consulting Board to encourage inventions that would be helpful to the Navy. Daniels asked Thomas Edison to chair the Board. Daniels was worried that the US was unprepared for the new conditions of warfare and needed new technology.[4]
The Navy named USS Josephus Daniels (DLG/CG-27) for the Secretary. It was in commission from 1965 to 1994. One of the recruit barracks at the Navy's Recruit Training Center in Great Lakes, Illinois is also named for him.
[edit] Later Life
Daniels supported Franklin Roosevelt for president in 1932. Roosevelt then appointed his former boss United States Ambassador to Mexico. In 1941, he retired to Raleigh due to his wife's poor health. After completing a five-volume autobiography in which he expressed regret over the vicious attacks (but not the overall righteousness) of the White Supremacy campaign, he died in Raleigh at the age of eighty-five. Daniels divided his shares of the News and Observer among all his children, one of whom, Jonathan Worth Daniels, became editor.[5]
[edit] Notes
- ^ Kenneth Joel Zogry. "Josephus, Jonathan, and Frank Daniels." in The Tar Heel Century. 2002. p. 302.
- ^ Kenneth Joel Zogry. "Josephus, Jonathan, and Frank Daniels." in The Tar Heel Century. 2002. p. 302.
- ^ Kenneth Joel Zogry. "Josephus, Jonathan, and Frank Daniels." in The Tar Heel Century. 2002. p. 303.
- ^ L. N. Scott, Naval Consulting Board of the United States (Washington, 1920), 286.
- ^ Kenneth Joel Zogry. "Josephus, Jonathan, and Frank Daniels." in The Tar Heel Century. 2002. p. 304.
[edit] Bibliography
Daniels, Josephus. Editor in Politics. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 1941.
[edit] External links
- "Josephus Daniels" from the North Carolina Encyclopedia, The State Library of North Carolina
- Works by Josephus Daniels at Project Gutenberg
- North Carolina Election of 1898
| Preceded by: George von Lengerke Meyer |
United States Secretary of the Navy 1913–1921 |
Succeeded by: Edwin C. Denby |
| Preceded by: J. Reuben Clark, Jr. |
U.S. Ambassador to Mexico 1933–1941 |
Succeeded by: George S. Messersmith |
