Sly and Able: A Political Biography of James F. Byrnes

by David Robertson

Few political figures have had as long, as varied and as consequential a career in American history as Jimmy Byrnes. This master politician and self-made man served for half a century, as congressman and later as key New Deal senator from his native South Carolina; as Supreme Court justice; as "assistant president" during the Second World War; as Truman's secretary of state in the early years of the Cold War; and, finally, as governor of South Carolina. He came tantalisingly close to the American presidency and was a key participant in the decision to drop the atomic bomb on Japan. In later years he was a seminal figure in the so-called Southern Strategy that brought Richard Nixon to the White House. For his shrewdness and mastery of the art of politics Byrnes earned the sobriquet "sly and able." He was surely both--and one of the key shapers of American politics in this century.

Genres: Biography, American History

676 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1980

About the author

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Reviews

[Bruce · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of the very few folks who served in all three branches of the federal government, James F.Byrnes
was at one time and not jokingly referred to as the assistant president. He had ambitions of being
the real deal, but he never got that far as we know.

Byrnes was born in 1882 in South Carolina and had working class upbringing helping out a widowed
mother. He became a court stenographer in his teens and clerked and became a lawyer at 20. He
faked his age so he was illegal actually for a year. He was appointed a solicitor (prosecutor) for one
of the circuit courts in South Carolina.

Byrnes was a follower of Ben Tillman one of the more rabid segregationists and with Tillman's
help Byrnes was elected to the House of Representatives in 1910 where he served until 1925.

Byrnes had a generally liberal voting record supporting the administration of Woodrow Wilson even
more often than his patron Tillman. Byrnes had two problems, religion and race. He had been
born a Catholic, but switched to the Episcopal church frankly because it was expedient to do so in
the south. Later on that alienated him from urban Catholics. He was also a firm supporter of
segregation up to the day he died.

In 1924 Byrnes ran for the Senate and lost the Democratic primary to one Coleman Blease who never made much impression other than to be one of the more rabid segregationists. He was body
and soul owned by the Ku Klux Klan and Byrnes's lapsed Catholicism came into play.

After several years of practicing law Byrnes made another attempt at the Senate against Blease who
was pretty much regarded as a caricature of a southern senator by then. Byrnes beat Blease in
1930 and took his seat in 1931. Byrnes also latched early on to Franklin D. Roosevelt as a presidential candidate and when FDR won, Byrnes became one of the inner voices in Congress helping a lot of New Deal legislation through even the Supreme Court packing plan. FDR gave him
the difficult job of getting Lend Lease through Congres, Byrnes was a Senate sponsor.

It was after that in 1941 that Byrnes was appointed to the Supreme Court. But he hung around
barely a year. He preferred the political arena and here he had to be most discreet. It was considered a rescue by him when FDR appointed Byrnes after Pearl Harbor to first the Office of
Economic Stabilization and then to the Office of War Mobilization which superseded the first
appointment.

So FDR could concentrate on military and foreign policy during the war, Byrnes had incredible
leeway to form policy in mobilizing the home front for war. It is here that the press dub him an
Assistant President. I can't think of anyone with as much authority delegated to him in our history.

He made it known he was available for the Vice Presidency in 1944 when Henry Wallace was dumped. But organized labor vetoed Byrnes and Harry Truman was FDR's running mate in 1944.

It was doomed from the outset. I'm not sure why Truman appointed Byrnes as Secretary of State
before the Potsdam summit, but making a guy who thought he ought to be in your place Secretary
of State things were bound to go wrong. Byrnes took leads Truman thought he should have deferred to the White House.

Before Byrnes resigned in early 1946 he and Truman won some kudos in our first dealing with Iran
in the last century. The Soviet Union moved troops into Northern Iran and with deference to the
new United Nations, Truman and Byrnes backed them off.

Again a period of inactivity and in 1950 Byrnes is elected governor of South Carolina where sadly
Byrnes led the southern governors in a losing legal strategy to oppose the desegregation cases
that the NAACP was bringing with Thurgood Marshall. After that he supported Republicans right
up to 1972 when he passed away at 90.

One of the more influential figures in the American 20th century Byrnes should be better known and David Robertson's will help make him so.

[Clayton Brannon · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you are not aware of James F. Byrnes and his life, then you are missing out on learning about a man who was behind the scenes and in many ways controlling the events that he should have been credited with rather than those who received the credit, from Woodrow Wilson to Richard Nixon.