Statesmen, Scoundrels, and Eccentrics: A Gallery of Amazing Arkansans

Sen. Thaddeus Caraway

Sen. Thaddeus Caraway Thaddeus Caraway represented Arkansas in the U.S. Senate throughout the turbulent s, yet his place in the pantheon of Arkansas history has been overshadowed by his more famous wife and successor, Sen. Hattie Caraway. Mrs. Caraway was the first woman to be elected to the U.S. Senate. When Professor Calvin R. Ledbetter published an article on Thaddeus a few years ago, he titled it “The Other Caraway.” Hattie Caraway deserves all the attention she gets as the first woman elected to the U.S.Senate.She also defeated a raft of prominent politicians during her day, including John L. McClellan—who later had a long career in Congress.Her husband,however,was a significant political leader in his own right. Thaddeus Horatius Caraway was born on a farm near Spring Hill, Missouri, on October , , to a country doctor, Tolbert F. Caraway, and Mary Scates Caraway. The family moved to Tennessee when Thad was a young child, and his father died soon thereafter. He attended the public schools and in  graduated from Dickson Normal College in Dickson, Tennessee. While in college,Thad worked as a cotton picker,a sawmill laborer, and a railroad worker. He also made time to meet, court, and become engaged to Hattie Ophelia Wyatt, who also graduated from Dickson in . He delayed getting married until  in order to study law and establish a practice in Craighead County, first at Lake City and later at Jonesboro. A Democrat, Caraway made his first foray into politics in  when he won election as prosecuting attorney for the second judicial district, in northeast Arkansas. In  Caraway took a dramatic political gamble by challenging ten-year incumbent First District Congress man R. B. Macon of Helena. From the start of his political career, Caraway described himself as sympathizing with the working class, and this strategy worked well. He attacked his opponent as out of touch and aloof, and he took advantage of regional rivalries within the First Congressional District,  which comprised eleven counties. Caraway’s base was in Craighead County in the north of the district, while Macon was from Phillips County in the southern part. On election day, Caraway received huge majorities in the northern part and carried the election with over  percent of the vote. Caraway entered Congress in , when Democrat Woodrow Wilson began his first term as president. He was an ardent supporter of Wilson’s progressive reform measures, especially workmen’s compensation legislation, child labor laws, and various bills to assist farmers .The creation of the Federal Land Bank in  was in part a product of his efforts. He also supported constitutional amendments to prohibit the sale of alcohol and to extend the vote to women. Perhaps Caraway’s most far-sighted work was on behalf of President Wilson’s ill-fated proposal for an international peace-keeping body,the League of Nations.He attacked the Republican opponents of the League, predicting that the defeat of the League might “plunge the world again into war.” In  Representative Caraway embarked upon another risky political venture when he filed against incumbent U.S. Sen.William F. Kirby. Kirby, who was completing the term of Sen. James P. Clarke, who died in , had been an Arkansas attorney general as well as a member of the state supreme court. Kirby had incurred considerable public wrath when he opposed President Wilson’s efforts to enter World War I against the Germans. Caraway used Kirby’s reluctance to go to war as a defining issue in the Democratic primary and won with an amazing  percent of the vote. He even managed to tie the vote in Miller County, where Kirby lived. After almost a decade in the House, Caraway settled quickly into the Senate, where his colleague from Arkansas, Joseph T. Robinson, would soon be minority leader. He served on several important committees , including Agriculture and Commerce. Caraway was as fiercely critical of Republican presidents as he was loyal toWilson.Employing what the Arkansas Gazette called “a sarcastic tongue and a quick wit,” he soon became known as “Caustic Caraway.” Even Joe T. Robinson conceded that Caraway’s “command of sarcasm and irony sometimes inflicted wounds that were not quickly healed.” Perhaps Caraway’s greatest passion was his lengthy and unsuccessful attempt to abolish trading in agricultural futures. However, it was  TWENTIETH-CENTURY POLITICIANS the Teapot Dome scandal during the administration of Republican President Warren G. Harding...