Everything about Sam Rayburn totally explained
Samuel Taliaferro Rayburn (
January 6 1882 –
November 16 1961) was a
Democratic politician from
Bonham, Texas. "Mr. Sam", as he was widely known, served as the
Speaker of the United States House of Representatives for 17 years, and is regarded by some historians as the most effective Speaker in history.
Background
He was born in
Roane County, Tennessee, and graduated from Mayo College (now
Texas A&M University-Commerce) in
Commerce, Texas. After a year of teaching school, he won election to the
Texas State Legislature. During his third two-year term in the Legislature, he was elected
Speaker of the House at the age of 29. The next year, he won election to the
United States House of Representatives in
District 4. He entered Congress in
1913 at the beginning of
Woodrow Wilson's presidency and served in office for more than 48 years.
Speaker of the House
On September 16,
1940, at the age of 58, Rayburn became
Speaker of the United States House of Representatives. His career as Speaker was interrupted only twice: 1947–1948 and 1953–1954, when Republicans controlled the House. During that time, Rayburn served as
Minority Leader.
Rayburn grew up in abject
poverty, and would champion the interests of the poor once in office. He was a close friend of
Lyndon B. Johnson and knew Johnson's father
Sam Ealy Johnson, from their days in the Texas State Legislature. Rayburn was instrumental to LBJ's ascent to power, particularly his unusual and rapid rise to the position of
Minority Leader even though at the time, Johnson had been in the Senate for a mere four years. Johnson also owed his subsequent elevation to
Majority Leader to Rayburn.
Rayburn, though a menacing and powerful presence on the House floor, was incredibly shy outside of work. He had married once, to Metze Jones, sister of Texas Congressman
Marvin Jones and Rayburn's colleague, but the marriage ended quickly and no one really ever knew why. Biographer D.B. Hardeman guessed that Rayburn's work schedule and long bachelorhood, combined with the couple's differing views on alcohol contributed to the rift. The court's divorce file in
Bonham, Texas, could never be located, and Rayburn avoided speaking of his brief marriage. One of his greatest, most painful regrets was that he didn't have a son, or as he put it in
Robert Caro's biography of
Lyndon B. Johnson, "a towheaded boy to take fishing."
Legendary reputation
In shaping legislation, Rayburn preferred working quietly in the background to being in the public spotlight. As Speaker, he won a reputation for fairness and integrity. He refused to accept bribery in the form of gifts or money from lobbyists. He only said, "I am not for sale," and walked away. In his years in Congress, Rayburn always insisted on paying his own expenses, even going so far as to pay for his own travel expenses when inspecting the
Panama Canal when his committee was considering legislation concerning it, rather than exercising his right to have the government pay for it. When he died, his personal savings only totaled $15,000 and most of his holdings were in his family ranch.
Rayburn was well known among his colleagues for his after business hours "Board of Education" meetings in hideaway offices in the House. During these off-the-record sessions, the Speaker and powerful committee chairmen would gather for poker, bourbon, and a frank discussion of politics. Rayburn alone determined who received an invitation to these gatherings; to be invited to a "Board of Education" gathering was a high honor.
He coined the term "
Sun Belt" while strongly supporting the construction of
Route 66. It originally ran south from
Chicago, through
Oklahoma, and then turned westward from Texas to
New Mexico and
Arizona before ending at the beach in
Santa Monica, California. Arguing in favor of the project, he stated famously that America absolutely must connect "the Frost Belt with the Sun Belt."
The phrase "A jackass can kick a barn down, but it takes a carpenter to build one," is attributed to Rayburn.
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Rayburn died of
pancreatic cancer in
1961 at the age of 79, and was posthumously awarded the
Congressional Gold Medal. By the time of his death, he'd served as Speaker for twice as long as any of his predecessors.
Tributes
Portrayals
Portrayed by
Pat Hingle in .
Played by
James Gammon in
Truman (1995, TV).
Bibliography
Robert A. Caro, The Years of Lyndon Johnson: The Path to Power (1982).
Anthony Champagne and Floyd F. Ewing, "RAYBURN, SAMUEL TALIAFERRO (1882-1961)." Handbook of Texas Online (2005) online version
Anthony Champagne, Congressman Sam Rayburn (Rutgers University Press, 1984).
Anthony Champagne, Sam Rayburn: A Bio-Bibliography (Greenwood, 1988).
C. Dwight Dorough, Mr. Sam (1962).
Lewis L. Gould and Nancy Beck Young, "The Speaker and the Presidents: Sam Rayburn, the White House, and the Legislative Process, 1941–1961" in Raymond W. Smock and Susan W. Hammond, eds. Masters of the House: Congressional Leadership Over Two Centuries (1998). online version
D. B. Hardeman and Donald C. Bacon, Rayburn: A Biography (Austin: Texas Monthly Press, 1987).
Alfred Steinberg, Sam Rayburn (Hawthorn, 1975Further Information
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