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William G. McAdoo

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U.S. Senator

The Resume

    (October 31, 1863-February 1, 1941)
    Born in Marietta, Georgia
    Birth name was William Gibbs McAdoo Jr.
    United States Senator from California (March 4, 1933–November 8, 1938)
    Secretary of the United States Treasury (March 6, 1913–December 15, 1918)
    Son-in-law to President Woodrow Wilson

Why he might be annoying:

    He supported Prohibition.
    His grandfather fought for the Confederacy.
    He called Warren G. Harding’s speeches ‘an army of pompous phrases moving over the landscape in search of an idea.’
    He started courting President Wilson’s daughter less than two years after his first wife’s death.
    He was an extreme segregationist even by early 20th-century standards (he ordered implementation of Jim Crow laws even in Northern Treasury buildings where the laws previously hadn't existed).
    He was blocked from the 1920 Presidential nomination by his own father-in-law (who hoped to be nominated for a third term).
    He sought the Democratic presidential nomination again in 1924, but this time was passed over - this time in favor of John W. Davis.
    Crucially, this Presidential campaign was endorsed by the Ku Klux Klan (and he refused, when pressed by reporters, to denounce the organization or say if he was a member himself).

Why he might not be annoying:

    He offered to resign from President Wilson’s cabinet after marrying into the family, but was refused.
    He presided over the establishment of the Federal Reserve System and helped prevent an economic crisis after the outbreak of the World War I.
    He made a name for himself as the president of the Hudson and Manhattan Railroad Company, and later served as the Director General of Railroads during World War I.
    His lukewarm support of the New Deal led to his losing his reelection bid in 1938.
    He suffered a fatal heart attack while traveling to Franklin Roosevelt’s third inauguration.
    In the 1944 biopic 'Wilson,' he was played Vincent Price!
    The town of McAdoo in Dickens County, Texas, is named for him.
    The quote ‘It is impossible to defeat an ignorant man in an argument’ is credited to him.

Credit: BoyWithTheGreenHair


Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

Year In Review:

    For 2024, as of last weekly ranking, Out of 2 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2023, Out of 74 Votes: 43.24% Annoying