| Josephus Daniels |
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 |
| 41st United States Secretary of the Navy |
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In office
March 5, 1913 – March 4, 1921 |
| President | Woodrow Wilson |
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| Deputy | Franklin D. Roosevelt (1913-1920)
Gordon Woodbury (1920-1921) |
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| Preceded by | George von L. Meyer |
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| Succeeded by | Edwin Denby |
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| 10th United States Ambassador to Mexico |
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In office
March 17, 1933 – November 9, 1941 |
| President | Franklin D. Roosevelt |
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| Preceded by | J. Reuben Clark, Jr. |
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| Succeeded by | George S. Messersmith |
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| Personal details |
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| Born | May 18, 1862
Washington, North Carolina,U.S. |
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| Died | January 15, 1948 (aged 85)
Raleigh, North Carolina, U.S. |
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| Political party | Democratic |
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| Spouse(s) | Addie Worth Bagley Daniels |
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| Alma mater | Duke University
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill |
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| Profession | Politician, Publisher |
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[edit]Early life and career
The father of Josephus Daniels, a shipbuilder, was killed before the boy was 3. A native of
Washington, North Carolina, Daniels moved with his mother and two siblings to
Wilson, North Carolina after the father, whose Union sympathies were notorious, was shot and killed by a local sharpshooter when he attempted to leave with Federal forces evacuating Washington during the
Civil War. He was educated at
Wilson Collegiate Institute and at Trinity College (now
Duke University). 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.
[1] He studied law at the
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and was admitted to the
bar in 1885, but 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.
[2]
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."
Daniels later said he regretted his tactics and supported a number of progressive causes, like public education, anti child-labor laws, and banning the consumption of alcohol aboard naval vessels.
The News and Observer remained under Daniels' family control until its sale to
The McClatchy Company in 1995.
[edit]Secretary of the Navy
Letter from Daniels confirming that the Navy Cross was conferred on
Ernesto Burzagli in the name of the President of the United States in 1919. Captain Burzagli was an officer in the Royal Italian Navy.
Daniels (right) shaking hands with his successor as Secretary of the Navy,
Edwin Denby.
Secretary Daniels believed in government ownership of armorplate factories, and of telephones and telegraphs. At the end of the First World War he made a serious attempt to have the Navy permanently control all radio transmitters in the United States. If he had succeeded
amateur radio would have ended, and it is likely that
radio broadcasting would have been substantially delayed.
[4][5]
In 1917, Secretary Daniels determined that no prostitution would be permitted within a five-mile radius of naval installations. In
New Orleans, this World War I directive caused the shutting down of
Storyville and long-lasting consequences for servicemen and others during subsequent decades.
[7]
During World War I, 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.
[8]
Daniels wrote The Navy and the Nation(1919), a collection of war addresses he made as Secretary of the Navy.
[edit]USS Josephus Daniels
[edit]Later life
After leaving government service in 1921, Daniels resumed the editorship of the Raleigh News and Observer.
Daniels strongly supported Franklin Roosevelt for president in 1932.
[edit]Ambassador to Mexico
President Roosevelt appointed his former boss at the Department of the Navy as
United States Ambassador to Mexico. The appointment of a friend as Ambassador was an important element of Roosevelt's "Good Neighbor Policy;" however, Daniels' arrival in Mexico City was marred by a violent demonstration when a group of Mexicans stoned the American Embassy.
[9] Although the
American naval bombardment in April 1914 of the
Mexican Naval Academy at
Veracruz was blamed on then Secretary of the Navy Daniels, he had disagreed with the act and only proceeded when ordered to by Wilson. After accepting the appointment as Ambassador to try to heal the rift the invasion had created between the two nations, his speeches and policies while serving as Ambassador to Mexico did greatly improve US-Mexican relations. He praised a proposed Mexican plan for universal popular education and, in a speech to US consular officials, advised them to refrain from interfering too much in the affairs of other nations. Daniels also favored the
Loyalist cause in the
Spanish Civil War, realizing that a collapse of the Spanish government would have dire affects on Mexico.
In 1941, when his son Jonathan was named a special assistant to FDR, Josephus resigned his post in Mexico to return to North Carolina and resume the editor's post at theNews & Observer and continued his outspoken editorial style.
Daniels had married Addie Worth Bagley on May 2, 1888, and the Daniels family grew to include four sons: Josephus, Worth Bagley, Jonathan Worth, and Frank A. II. After Addie Daniels died in 1943, the S.S. Addie Daniels was commissioned in her honor in 1944.
Daniels published several recollections of his years in public office. In addition to The Navy and the Nation, he wrote Our Navy at War (1922), The Life of Woodrow Wilson(1924), and The Wilson Era (1944).
During the course of his life, Daniels operated several newspapers, culminating with the
News & Observer, which is still in operation. He served in public office with a strong belief in improving conditions for labor and the working class. The story of Daniels' life closely mirrors that of North Carolina during the same time period. From the catastrophe of Civil War to national prominence, Daniels was a prime example of the strengths and weaknesses that marked the progress of his state. From the continuing presence of the
News & Observer to the public middle school in Raleigh which bears his name (
Josephus Daniels Middle School), the influence of Josephus Daniels continues to be felt. 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 on January 15, 1948 at the age of eighty-five. He is buried in
Historic Oakwood Cemetery.
[11] Daniels divided his shares of the
News and Observer among all his children, one of whom,
Jonathan Worth Daniels, became editor.
[12]
[edit]In Fiction
