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Charles Evans Hughes, Vols I and II
- GenresBiographyNonfiction
Hardcover
First published January 1, 1951
159 people want to read
About the author
Merlo J. Pusey
13 books4 followersMerlo John Pusey was an American biographer and editorial writer. He won the 1952 Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography and the 1952 Bancroft Prize for his 1951 biography of U.S. Chief Justice Charles Evans Hughes.
Born and raised on a farm near Woodruff, Utah, Pusey was a Latter-day Saint. He attended the Latter-day Saints University and graduated as a member of Phi Beta Kappa from the University of Utah after working on the college newspaper. He later became a reporter and assistant city editor at The Deseret News in Salt Lake City.
Pusey worked for The Washington Post from 1928 to 1971, becoming associate editor in 1946, continuing to contribute occasional pieces until about two years before his death.
Born and raised on a farm near Woodruff, Utah, Pusey was a Latter-day Saint. He attended the Latter-day Saints University and graduated as a member of Phi Beta Kappa from the University of Utah after working on the college newspaper. He later became a reporter and assistant city editor at The Deseret News in Salt Lake City.
Pusey worked for The Washington Post from 1928 to 1971, becoming associate editor in 1946, continuing to contribute occasional pieces until about two years before his death.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
December 25, 2021
When Charles Evans Hughes died in 1948, the nation mourned the passing of one of the greatest public servants of his generation. Over the course of his lengthy career, Hughes went from working as a legislative counsel for New York Senate investigations of corrupt business practices to two terms as the state’s governor, followed by selection as an associate justice to the Supreme Court, nomination as the Republican Party’s candidate in the 1916 presidential election, and four years as Secretary of State in the Harding administration before returning to the Supreme Court as the country’s eleventh chief justice. Few Americans both then and since have served their country in so many capacities, and with such widely-acknowledged distinction.
Detailing such a wide range of achievements within the pages of a single book is no easy feat. Yet it is one that Merlo Pusey pulls off successfully, thanks in part to his familiarity with his subject. A longtime editorial writer for the Washington Post, Pusey was able to interview Hughes several times during the last years of the chief justice’s life, along with several of his illustrious contemporaries. Using these in conjunction with Hughes’s papers and other accounts from the period, he provides a fulsome account of Hughes’s life that chronicles his subject’s life while describing how his manifold gifts made his remarkable accomplishments possible.
Foremost among these gifts was a remarkable intellect, which Hughes evidenced from an early age. As the son of an immigrant preacher from Wales, the young Hughes experienced an itinerant childhood that did little to hinder his academic advancement. Graduating from college at the age of 19, Hughes worked briefly as a teacher before enrolling at Columbia Law School, where he graduated from the top of his class. Hughes entered the New York legal profession that Pusey describes as at the onset of a golden age of advocacy, with legendary attorneys tackling the new legal problems arising from an industrializing economy. Hughes’s strenuous work ethic, command of detail, and logical approach soon earned him a reputation amongst this august group as a “lawyer’s lawyer,” one capable of tackling even the most difficult legal issues.
It was this reputation, along with a parallel one for scrupulous honesty, which led in 1905 to Hughes’s appointment as counsel to a state legislative investigation into the criminal practices of New York’s public utilities. His well-publicized success in that endeavor was quickly followed by a second investigation into insider dealings in the insurance industry, one that exposed illegal campaign contributions to numerous Republican politicians in the state. Fearing defeat in the upcoming gubernatorial election, the party’s leaders decided that the only way they could fend off the candidacy of newspaper owner William Randolph Hearst was to nominate Hughes, which Hughes agreed to with reluctance. As governor, Hughes quickly gave the bosses cause to regret their decision, as he championed bills and other reform measures intended to diminish their control over public life.
By 1908, Hughes was widely regarded as a likely successor to Theodore Roosevelt as president. It was Roosevelt’s successor, William Howard Taft, who gave Hughes his next job, though, by appointing the governor to the Supreme Court in 1910. As an associate justice Hughes thrived on the nation’s highest bench, winning the respect of his colleagues for his well-crafted judicial decisions. Yet while Hughes disclaimed any further interest in a political career, the fractious state of the Republican Party, which had split in 1912 over Roosevelt’s bid for a third term, led to Hughes’s nomination as president. While he regretted having to resign from the bench, Hughes campaigned vigorously, and in a campaign in which the ongoing war in Europe was the main issue Hughes came within just a few thousand votes of denying Woodrow Wilson his momentous second term in office.
After his defeat Hughes returned to the law, and was enjoying a thriving practice when Warren Harding asked him in 1921 to join his incoming administration as secretary of state. Accepting the avuncular Ohioan’s offer, Hughes spent the next four years defining America’s foreign relations with the rest of the world in the aftermath of the First World War. Pusey spends a considerable amount of space covering in detail Hughes’s management of foreign affairs, focusing in particular on his negotiations of the Washington Naval Treaty in 1922 and its subsequent ratification by the Senate. The treaty was the most visible embodiment of Hughes’s efforts to reestablish peace for the United States, and an important part of the success Pusey credits him with in the role before his departure from the office in 1925.
Now approaching his seventieth birthday, Hughes was content to spend his final years engaged in lucrative legal work. With Taft’s death in 1930, however, Hughes was asked by Herbert Hoover to succeed him as chief justice. Pusey argues for regarding Hughes as one of the greatest chief justices in the court’s history, showing how his management style brought about a considerable degree of comity on a court divided ideologically and dominated by formidable personalities. This aided his goal to adapt the law to the demands of a modern industrial society while simultaneously preserving the fundamentals of the constitutional system, which was no small challenge in the midst of the Depression-driven demands for greater governmental intervention in the economy. In this respect Hughes’s fight against Franklin Roosevelt’s Supreme Court “packing” bill proved one of his greatest achievements, and Pusey credits him with a vital role in its defeat.
Pusey himself was extremely critical of the packing bill, and Hughes’s success in defeating it contributes to the considerable regard in which the author holds his subject. This regard results in a book that often veers from objective analysis into a defense and even outright celebration of his subject. In Pusey’s view, Hughes’s virtues are many, while his perceived flaws the result of misunderstandings of the man. Nowhere is this more evident than in Chapter 49, in which the author spends several pages in an unnecessary attempt to exonerate Hughes from any responsibility for the decline in U.S.-Japanese relations ended in war between the two countries. While Pusey may have felt in the immediate aftermath of the conflict that such a justification was necessary, today it stands out as the most blatant example of a defensive posture that calls into question his ability to assess properly his subject.
Such an effort seems particularly unnecessary given the degree to which Hughes’s record stands for itself. But in an ironic sense Pusey did Hughes a disservice by writing a book that provides such an absorbing account of his life. For while other works have been written about various aspects of Hughes’s career, seventy years after its publication Pusey’s book remains the only full-length biography of the man. It’s a formidable work that remains an indispensable source for anyone seeking to learn about Hughes and his many accomplishments, yet its strengths have likely deterred others from following in Pusey’s footsteps. Especially given the works published in the years since about his time as governor, (Charles Evans Hughes: Politics and Reform in New York, 1905-1910), his foreign policy (such as Betty Glad's Charles Evans Hughes and the Illusions of Innocence) and his years as chief justice (most notably William Ross's Chief Justiceship of Charles Evans Hughes, 1930-1941 and Mark Tushnet's The Hughes Court: From Progressivism to Pluralism, 1930 to 1941), an updated and more balanced assessment of Hughes’s life is very much overdue. Until such a book is published, however, readers will have to settle for Pusey’s magnificent, if flawed, biography
Detailing such a wide range of achievements within the pages of a single book is no easy feat. Yet it is one that Merlo Pusey pulls off successfully, thanks in part to his familiarity with his subject. A longtime editorial writer for the Washington Post, Pusey was able to interview Hughes several times during the last years of the chief justice’s life, along with several of his illustrious contemporaries. Using these in conjunction with Hughes’s papers and other accounts from the period, he provides a fulsome account of Hughes’s life that chronicles his subject’s life while describing how his manifold gifts made his remarkable accomplishments possible.
Foremost among these gifts was a remarkable intellect, which Hughes evidenced from an early age. As the son of an immigrant preacher from Wales, the young Hughes experienced an itinerant childhood that did little to hinder his academic advancement. Graduating from college at the age of 19, Hughes worked briefly as a teacher before enrolling at Columbia Law School, where he graduated from the top of his class. Hughes entered the New York legal profession that Pusey describes as at the onset of a golden age of advocacy, with legendary attorneys tackling the new legal problems arising from an industrializing economy. Hughes’s strenuous work ethic, command of detail, and logical approach soon earned him a reputation amongst this august group as a “lawyer’s lawyer,” one capable of tackling even the most difficult legal issues.
It was this reputation, along with a parallel one for scrupulous honesty, which led in 1905 to Hughes’s appointment as counsel to a state legislative investigation into the criminal practices of New York’s public utilities. His well-publicized success in that endeavor was quickly followed by a second investigation into insider dealings in the insurance industry, one that exposed illegal campaign contributions to numerous Republican politicians in the state. Fearing defeat in the upcoming gubernatorial election, the party’s leaders decided that the only way they could fend off the candidacy of newspaper owner William Randolph Hearst was to nominate Hughes, which Hughes agreed to with reluctance. As governor, Hughes quickly gave the bosses cause to regret their decision, as he championed bills and other reform measures intended to diminish their control over public life.
By 1908, Hughes was widely regarded as a likely successor to Theodore Roosevelt as president. It was Roosevelt’s successor, William Howard Taft, who gave Hughes his next job, though, by appointing the governor to the Supreme Court in 1910. As an associate justice Hughes thrived on the nation’s highest bench, winning the respect of his colleagues for his well-crafted judicial decisions. Yet while Hughes disclaimed any further interest in a political career, the fractious state of the Republican Party, which had split in 1912 over Roosevelt’s bid for a third term, led to Hughes’s nomination as president. While he regretted having to resign from the bench, Hughes campaigned vigorously, and in a campaign in which the ongoing war in Europe was the main issue Hughes came within just a few thousand votes of denying Woodrow Wilson his momentous second term in office.
After his defeat Hughes returned to the law, and was enjoying a thriving practice when Warren Harding asked him in 1921 to join his incoming administration as secretary of state. Accepting the avuncular Ohioan’s offer, Hughes spent the next four years defining America’s foreign relations with the rest of the world in the aftermath of the First World War. Pusey spends a considerable amount of space covering in detail Hughes’s management of foreign affairs, focusing in particular on his negotiations of the Washington Naval Treaty in 1922 and its subsequent ratification by the Senate. The treaty was the most visible embodiment of Hughes’s efforts to reestablish peace for the United States, and an important part of the success Pusey credits him with in the role before his departure from the office in 1925.
Now approaching his seventieth birthday, Hughes was content to spend his final years engaged in lucrative legal work. With Taft’s death in 1930, however, Hughes was asked by Herbert Hoover to succeed him as chief justice. Pusey argues for regarding Hughes as one of the greatest chief justices in the court’s history, showing how his management style brought about a considerable degree of comity on a court divided ideologically and dominated by formidable personalities. This aided his goal to adapt the law to the demands of a modern industrial society while simultaneously preserving the fundamentals of the constitutional system, which was no small challenge in the midst of the Depression-driven demands for greater governmental intervention in the economy. In this respect Hughes’s fight against Franklin Roosevelt’s Supreme Court “packing” bill proved one of his greatest achievements, and Pusey credits him with a vital role in its defeat.
Pusey himself was extremely critical of the packing bill, and Hughes’s success in defeating it contributes to the considerable regard in which the author holds his subject. This regard results in a book that often veers from objective analysis into a defense and even outright celebration of his subject. In Pusey’s view, Hughes’s virtues are many, while his perceived flaws the result of misunderstandings of the man. Nowhere is this more evident than in Chapter 49, in which the author spends several pages in an unnecessary attempt to exonerate Hughes from any responsibility for the decline in U.S.-Japanese relations ended in war between the two countries. While Pusey may have felt in the immediate aftermath of the conflict that such a justification was necessary, today it stands out as the most blatant example of a defensive posture that calls into question his ability to assess properly his subject.
Such an effort seems particularly unnecessary given the degree to which Hughes’s record stands for itself. But in an ironic sense Pusey did Hughes a disservice by writing a book that provides such an absorbing account of his life. For while other works have been written about various aspects of Hughes’s career, seventy years after its publication Pusey’s book remains the only full-length biography of the man. It’s a formidable work that remains an indispensable source for anyone seeking to learn about Hughes and his many accomplishments, yet its strengths have likely deterred others from following in Pusey’s footsteps. Especially given the works published in the years since about his time as governor, (Charles Evans Hughes: Politics and Reform in New York, 1905-1910), his foreign policy (such as Betty Glad's Charles Evans Hughes and the Illusions of Innocence) and his years as chief justice (most notably William Ross's Chief Justiceship of Charles Evans Hughes, 1930-1941 and Mark Tushnet's The Hughes Court: From Progressivism to Pluralism, 1930 to 1941), an updated and more balanced assessment of Hughes’s life is very much overdue. Until such a book is published, however, readers will have to settle for Pusey’s magnificent, if flawed, biography
June 5, 2023
In the introduction, the author points out that this is an authorized biography, not an official one. He had the cooperation of Hughes himself (through an extensive series of interviews and access to Hughes' own notes) and the family. I think the distinction between biography, authorized biography, and official biography is important. I would expect an official biography to have a point of view that is quite favorable to the subject, and a biography that is neither official nor authorized to perhaps be quite critical of the subject. I expect an authorized biography to be between the two, but still perhaps holding "pulling punches".
This work falls a bit short of hagiography. I haven't read any other biographies of Hughes, and he appears as only a minor figure in the biographies I've read of his contemporaries. I wanted to read more about Hughes because of what I learned in those other books.
There is almost nothing bad about Hughes in this work. That very well could be because he was a great man. Pusey certainly makes that case.
He began public service in investigations of the gas utilities and insurance companies in New York. He was later Governor of New York and Associate Justice on the US Supreme Court. He resigned from the court when he was nominated a presidential candidate by the Republicans in the 1916 election, losing to Wilson. He was Secretary of State for Harding and Coolidge, then Judge of the Permanent Court of International Justice, before becoming Chief Justice of the Supreme Court (nominated by Hoover). His was a stellar career.
I would consider Hughes one of the more important figures in America in the first half of the 20th century and anyone interested in the history of that time should read about him.
The book is well-written and researched. There are some footnotes with source information, but it's a bit light for me. There are several photos and reproductions of editorial cartoons. The family is mentioned throughout the work, but Hughes' career is center stage with family as background. As is common with older biographies, there is no bibliography. This is a two-volume work with page numbers that are continuous (that is, book two starts at page 410).
Recommended.
This work falls a bit short of hagiography. I haven't read any other biographies of Hughes, and he appears as only a minor figure in the biographies I've read of his contemporaries. I wanted to read more about Hughes because of what I learned in those other books.
There is almost nothing bad about Hughes in this work. That very well could be because he was a great man. Pusey certainly makes that case.
He began public service in investigations of the gas utilities and insurance companies in New York. He was later Governor of New York and Associate Justice on the US Supreme Court. He resigned from the court when he was nominated a presidential candidate by the Republicans in the 1916 election, losing to Wilson. He was Secretary of State for Harding and Coolidge, then Judge of the Permanent Court of International Justice, before becoming Chief Justice of the Supreme Court (nominated by Hoover). His was a stellar career.
I would consider Hughes one of the more important figures in America in the first half of the 20th century and anyone interested in the history of that time should read about him.
The book is well-written and researched. There are some footnotes with source information, but it's a bit light for me. There are several photos and reproductions of editorial cartoons. The family is mentioned throughout the work, but Hughes' career is center stage with family as background. As is common with older biographies, there is no bibliography. This is a two-volume work with page numbers that are continuous (that is, book two starts at page 410).
Recommended.
Want to read
July 8, 2011Merlo J. Pusey. With a name like that, it helps to have a Pulitzer on your shelf when you bring girls to your house.
January 24, 2016
This two volume set on Charles Evans Hughes won the Pulitzer and for good reason. Very well written and researched biography.
April 3, 2018
For his biography of Charles Evans Hughes, Merlo J. Pusey had unlimited and unfettered access to his
papers and private correspondence from 1941 to 1948 when Hughes passed away. In addition Hughes
gave Pusey many hours of priceless interviews to a man who was already a devoted admirer. Not that
there wasn't a lot to admire about Hughes.
Hughes was a successful corporate attorney and the only presidential candidate I know that spent any
length of time in Brooklyn. He was born in Glens Falls, New York and as the only child of a minister
and his wife who was transferred to a Brooklyn parish. Hughes grew up in Greenpoint and later as an
attorney lived in Park Slope. Along with Louis D. Brandeis in Massachusetts, Hughes first came to
public notice investigating the illegal practices in the life insurance industry. Needing a respectable
figure to keep the governorship of New York, the Republican bosses in New York nominated him in
1906 to face William Randolph Hearst who the Democrats nominated that year. He won a razor thin
victory and was re-elected in 1908.
Possibly to remove him from contention in 1912, President Taft nominated him for the Supreme Court where he served until 1916. That may or may not have stood him in good stead because in
1916 as the GOP was trying to heal its wounds from the 1912 disastrous split nominated Hughes because that service on the court insulated from the politics of the 1912 election. He lost to Woodrow Wilson seeking re-election by a whisker, no pun intended as Hughes's beard was a source
of much fodder for political cartoonists.
Between 1916 and 1921 when he became Secretary Of State in the Warren Harding cabinet, he became most famous for his defense of six Socialist members elected to the New York State who were not seated. An outgrowth of the post World War I Red Scare, his own party which controlled
the legislature then simply refused to allow them to take the oath of office. Hughes defense of them
got him honorable mention in John F. Kennedy's Profiles In Courage. He sure wouldn't get honorable mention in the GOP of 100 years in the future. In addition to that he was a supporter of
civil rights and the National Association Of The Advancement Of Colored People.
Secretary of State with Harding and the early years of the Calvin Coolidge presidency, Hughes retires in 1925. But public life wasn't done with him. Herbert Hoover nominated him to return to
the Supreme Court as Chief Justice in 1930 and he returned though there was a quite a fight from
progressive forces who didn't like Hughes's corporate clients.
Speaking for myself I think that Hughes along with John Marshall and Earl Warren are the three
greatest men whoever occupied the position. Hughes led a sharply divided court which during the
New Deal years struck down much of FDR's legislation, kept some others. Hughes was a swing vote
who judiciously opposed some and favored some. He did lead the court through the crisis of FDR's
court packing scheme which was defeated in large measure to his opposition and record of service.
No doubt about it the book is hagiography. But it's the best kind of hagiography chock full of many
facts and anecdotes and readable to more than legal scholars. Hughes was a devoted family man,
married to Antoinette Carter, the daughter of the New York attorney who took him into his law firm. They were singularly devoted to each other until her death a few years before his.
There have been other books about Hughes written since devoted to one or another part of his
career. Nothing with the overall scope of what Pusey wrote. It's probably time for an overall
reassessment given the distance in time between his era and our's
Till then Merlo J. Pusey's work will due very well indeed.
papers and private correspondence from 1941 to 1948 when Hughes passed away. In addition Hughes
gave Pusey many hours of priceless interviews to a man who was already a devoted admirer. Not that
there wasn't a lot to admire about Hughes.
Hughes was a successful corporate attorney and the only presidential candidate I know that spent any
length of time in Brooklyn. He was born in Glens Falls, New York and as the only child of a minister
and his wife who was transferred to a Brooklyn parish. Hughes grew up in Greenpoint and later as an
attorney lived in Park Slope. Along with Louis D. Brandeis in Massachusetts, Hughes first came to
public notice investigating the illegal practices in the life insurance industry. Needing a respectable
figure to keep the governorship of New York, the Republican bosses in New York nominated him in
1906 to face William Randolph Hearst who the Democrats nominated that year. He won a razor thin
victory and was re-elected in 1908.
Possibly to remove him from contention in 1912, President Taft nominated him for the Supreme Court where he served until 1916. That may or may not have stood him in good stead because in
1916 as the GOP was trying to heal its wounds from the 1912 disastrous split nominated Hughes because that service on the court insulated from the politics of the 1912 election. He lost to Woodrow Wilson seeking re-election by a whisker, no pun intended as Hughes's beard was a source
of much fodder for political cartoonists.
Between 1916 and 1921 when he became Secretary Of State in the Warren Harding cabinet, he became most famous for his defense of six Socialist members elected to the New York State who were not seated. An outgrowth of the post World War I Red Scare, his own party which controlled
the legislature then simply refused to allow them to take the oath of office. Hughes defense of them
got him honorable mention in John F. Kennedy's Profiles In Courage. He sure wouldn't get honorable mention in the GOP of 100 years in the future. In addition to that he was a supporter of
civil rights and the National Association Of The Advancement Of Colored People.
Secretary of State with Harding and the early years of the Calvin Coolidge presidency, Hughes retires in 1925. But public life wasn't done with him. Herbert Hoover nominated him to return to
the Supreme Court as Chief Justice in 1930 and he returned though there was a quite a fight from
progressive forces who didn't like Hughes's corporate clients.
Speaking for myself I think that Hughes along with John Marshall and Earl Warren are the three
greatest men whoever occupied the position. Hughes led a sharply divided court which during the
New Deal years struck down much of FDR's legislation, kept some others. Hughes was a swing vote
who judiciously opposed some and favored some. He did lead the court through the crisis of FDR's
court packing scheme which was defeated in large measure to his opposition and record of service.
No doubt about it the book is hagiography. But it's the best kind of hagiography chock full of many
facts and anecdotes and readable to more than legal scholars. Hughes was a devoted family man,
married to Antoinette Carter, the daughter of the New York attorney who took him into his law firm. They were singularly devoted to each other until her death a few years before his.
There have been other books about Hughes written since devoted to one or another part of his
career. Nothing with the overall scope of what Pusey wrote. It's probably time for an overall
reassessment given the distance in time between his era and our's
Till then Merlo J. Pusey's work will due very well indeed.
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