View source for Thomas Gore

{{Short description|American politician (1870–1949)}}
{{other people}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=December 2020}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| name        = Thomas Gore
| birth_name  = Thomas Pryor Gore
| image       = GORE, T.P., SENATOR LCCN2016862136 Crop.jpg
| caption     = Portrait by [[Harris & Ewing]] {{circa}} 1931–1937
| jr/sr       = United States Senator
| state       = [[Oklahoma]]
| term_start  = March 4, 1931
| term_end    = January 3, 1937
| preceded    = [[William B. Pine]]
| succeeded   = [[Joshua B. Lee]]
| term_start2 = December 11, 1907
| term_end2   = March 4, 1921
| preceded2   = ''Statehood granted''
| succeeded2  = [[John W. Harreld]]
| office3     = Member of the [[Oklahoma Territorial Council]] from the 11th district 
| term_start3 = 1902
| term_end3   = 1905
| predecessor3 = George H. Coulson
| successor3  = [[James Menefee]]
| birth_date  = {{birth date|1870|12|10}}
| birth_place = [[Webster County, Mississippi]], U.S.
| death_date  = {{death date and age|1949|3|16|1870|12|10}}
| death_place = [[Washington, D.C.]], U.S.
| party       = [[People's Party (United States)|People's Party]] {{small|(1892–1899)}}<br>[[United States Democratic Party|Democratic]] {{small|(after 1899)}}
| alma_mater  = [[Cumberland University]]
| spouse      = {{marriage|Nina Belle Kay|1900}}
| children    = [[Nina S. Gore]]<br>Thomas N. Gore
| relatives   = [[Gore Vidal]] (grandson)<br>[[Nina Straight|Nina Gore Auchincloss]] (granddaughter)<br>[[Hugh Auchincloss Steers]] (great-grandson)<br>[[Burr Steers]] (great-grandson)
| signature   = Signature of Thomas Pryor Gore.png
}}
'''Thomas Pryor Gore'''<ref>Infidels.org: [http://www.theinfidels.org/zunb-gorevidal.htm "Vidal, Gore (1925- )"], accessed March 16, 2010</ref> (December 10, 1870{{spaced ndash}}March 16, 1949) was an American politician who served as one of the first two [[United States senator]]s from [[Oklahoma]], from 1907 to 1921 and again from 1931 to 1937. He first entered politics as an activist for the [[People's Party (United States)|Populist Party]], and continued this affiliation after he moved to Texas. In 1899, just before moving to [[Oklahoma Territory]] to practice law in Lawton, he formally joined the Democratic Party and campaigned for [[William Jennings Bryan]]. In the Senate, his anti-war beliefs caused him conflict with Democratic presidents [[Woodrow Wilson]] and [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]].

Gore lost his eyesight during his youth. He was the maternal grandfather of noted author [[Gore Vidal]].

==Early life==
Gore was born on December 10, 1870, near [[Embry, Mississippi]] in [[Webster County, Mississippi|Webster County]],{{efn|Webster County was then known as Sumner County.<ref name=TSHA/>}} the son of Caroline Elizabeth ([[née]] Wingo) and Thomas Madison Gore.<ref name=TSHA>[https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/fgo46 "Gore, Thomas Pryor." ''The Handbook of Texas''. Texas State Historical Association.] Accessed August 29, 2016.</ref> The Gore family was one of the nineteen original families who owned farmlands in what later became the [[capital of the United States]], the [[District of Columbia]]. The Gores were [[Anglo-Irish]] from [[Donegal (town)|Donegal]] and arrived in North America at the end of the seventeenth century and tended to intermarry with other Anglo-Irish families, particularly in [[Virginia]].<ref name="Ruins"/> When the District was established in 1790, the families that had been dispossessed to make way for the capital city, including the Gores, reaped significant financial rewards. The Gores who remained either sold their land in lots, built homes or hotels, and all became rich. The Gores who moved away, including the branch of Thomas Pryor Gore, moved to the far West, which in those days was [[Mississippi]].<ref name="Ruins">{{cite journal|last1=Vidal|first1=Gore|title=The Ruins of Washington|journal=The New York Review of Books|date=April 29, 1982|volume=29 |issue=7 |url=http://www.nybooks.com/articles/1982/04/29/the-ruins-of-washington/|access-date=13 March 2016}}</ref> Young Thomas and his family moved to [[Walthall, Mississippi|Walthall]], the county seat, when his father was elected [[Chancery Clerk]] of Sumner County.<ref name="TSHA"/>

He went [[Blindness|blind]] as a child through two separate accidents{{efn|Thomas was eight years old when he injured his left eye and lost his right eye three years later. He was totally blind before he was twenty years old.<ref name=TSHA/>}} but did not give up his dream of becoming a senator. Despite his blindness, he excelled in school and showed special talents in debate and oratory.<ref name=TSHA/>

==Career==
[[File:Thomas Gore Portrait Bonner Oval.png|thumb|left|upright=0.8|Gore in his youth]]
He taught school briefly after graduation. In 1882, he served as a page in the Mississippi Senate.  He moved to [[Lebanon, Tennessee]] in 1891, and received a law degree from [[Cumberland University|Cumberland University Law School]] in the following year. He was admitted to the Mississippi Bar and joined his father's law firm in Mississippi.<ref name="TSHA"/>

===Populist Party politics===
The Gore family had  been prominent  members of the Southern Farmers' Alliance. Young Thomas was addressing Alliance meetings as early as 1888. The Alliance nominated him for the state legislature, but he had to withdraw because he was still a minor. Instead he served as a presidential elector for the Populist party in 1892. This experience expanded his reputation as an orator. In 1894, the Populist party of [[Navarro County, Texas]] invited him to come to Corsicana to help them win elections. He and his brother, Ellis, moved there in December, 1894, where they opened a law office. Meanwhile, he returned to Mississippi to run for the legislature in 1895, a race which he lost. He campaigned vigorously from Utah to New York for William Jennings Bryan, the Democratic candidate for president in 1900.<ref name="TSHA"/>

Returning to Texas, he ran as a Populist candidate for the 6th Congressional District in 1898, but lost because the party was already in decline. He served as a delegate to the Populist convention that year, but in 1899, formally joined the Democratic Party.<ref name="TSHA"/>

===Democratic Party politics===
[[File:ThomasGore3c32246u.jpg|thumb|left|Gore in 1908]]
After marrying Nina Kay in December 1900, the Gores moved to Lawton, in Oklahoma Territory. In 1902, he entered and won an election for the Oklahoma Territorial Senate. He declined an opportunity to run as a territorial representative for the U. S, Congress, but became an adviser to the 1907 Constitutional Convention, then was elected to the U. S. Senate in 1907.<ref name="TSHA"/>

[[File:Thomas P. Gore Caricature Fleming 1914 Trim.jpg|thumb|right|"The Blind Senator," caricature by Tom Fleming, 1914]]

In 1907, he was [[1907 Oklahoma elections|elected to the Senate]] as one of the first two senators from the new state of Oklahoma.  He was re-elected in 1908 and 1914 but lost his seat<ref name="EOHC-SenGore">[http://www.okhistory.org/publications/enc/entry.php?entry=GO013 "Burke, Bob. "Gore, Thomas Pryor (1870 - 1949)".] Accessed October 14, 2016.</ref> in 1920.  Gore and [[William H. Murray|William H. "Alfalfa Bill" Murray]] were co-leaders of Woodrow Wilson's Oklahoma campaign for the Presidency in 1912.<ref name="TSHA"/>   He was known as a member of the [[progressivism|progressive]] wing of the Democratic Party, who supported many of Wilson's domestic programs,<ref name="EOHC-SenGore"/> and worked well with [[United States Republican Party|Republicans]] such as [[Robert La Follette, Sr.|Robert La Follette]]. He was to a large extent no different from any other politician because of his blindness, but there were problems, as La Follette recounts an example in his memoirs when, during a [[filibuster]], Gore did not realize that the senator who was to take over speaking for him had left the room, and the filibuster failed because he did not continue to speak. Also, some of Gore's colleagues in the Senate would attempt to take advantage of Gore's blindness by tricking him into signing documents that it was not in his party's interest for him to sign. He was famous for turning the tables on these sharp dealers and tricking them into signing documents that they did not intend to sign. These exploits made him popular with the press, who dubbed him "The Blind Cowboy."

In 1910, he accused lobbyist [[Jake L. Hamon Sr.]], of trying to bribe him.

In 1914, a woman stated that Gore had "taken advantage" of her in a hotel room. When prosecutors declined to file charges against the senator, the woman filed a civil suit against him. The jury sided with Gore, and the woman lost her suit.<ref name="EOHC-SenGore"/>

Gore was a pacifist and an [[Non-interventionism of the United States|anti-interventionist]] who campaigned against [[militarism]], and loudly and vociferously condemned the malefactors of wealth as being the impetus for pushing America towards war;<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://knoxfocus.com/archives/this-weeks-focus/thomas-p-gore-o/|title=Thomas P Gore: Oklahoma's Blind Senator - the Knoxville Focus}}</ref><ref>{{Cite magazine|url=https://www.thenation.com/article/an-epic-on-air-debate-40-years-ago-marked-the-downfall-of-television-news/|title=An Epic On-Air Debate 40 Years Ago Marked the Downfall of Television News|date=August 19, 2015|last1=Carden|first1=James|magazine=[[The Nation]]}}</ref> though he was often referred to as an [[Isolationism|isolationist]]. He voted against the Wilson Administration on most legislation pertaining to World War I.  However, a majority of Oklahoma voters favored helping the Allies fight Germany. After the war, he also opposed Wilson's plan to support a [[League of Nations]]. Not only did Gore alienate many previous supporters, but he also lost his close relationship with Wilson. Thus, he lost his bid for reelection in 1920. After leaving the Senate, he returned to his private law practice full-time in Washington D.C.<ref name="EOHC-SenGore"/>

[[File:ThomasGore3c08006u.jpg|thumb|right|Gore in 1929]]

During the early stages of [[World War I]], he co-authored the  [[Gore-McLemore Resolutions]] to encourage American citizens not to travel aboard merchant vessels of countries participating in the war.<ref name="TSHA"/>  The merchant vessels were under threat of attack by [[German U-boats]], and the Senator felt the loss of American lives in attacks upon these boats put American neutrality at risk. He was a strong, early supporter of [[Woodrow Wilson]]'s, indeed, one acknowledged as the very first major elected official to endorse Wilson's candidacy for president in 1911.<ref name=Berg>{{cite book|last=Berg|first=A. Scott|title=Wilson|year=2013|publisher=G.P. Putnam'sSons|location=New York, NY|isbn=978-0-399-15921-3|pages=218}}</ref> Yet Gore later opposed America's entry into the war even after American involvement began. He unsuccessfully opposed providing manpower for the military by conscription, saying it would create "an army of conscripted slackers." He asked: "Why should we brand the American boy as a conscript without affording him the opportunity to earn the glory of an American volunteer?"<ref>Christopher Cappozolla, ''Uncle Sam Wants You: World War I and the Making of the Modern American Citizen'' (NY: Oxford University Press, 2008), 26</ref> This was the principal cause of Gore's defeat in the Democratic primary in 1920 by Congressman [[Scott Ferris]], who was in turn defeated in the general election by Republican [[John W. Harreld]]. In addition to his opposition to the draft, Gore "was one of the earliest and most vigorous sponsors of a [[Ludlow Amendment|constitutional amendment]] to require a popular [[referendum]] on any congressional declaration of war."<ref name=Kauffman>[[Bill Kauffman|Kauffman, Bill]] (2006-11-20) [http://www.amconmag.com/article/2006/nov/20/00030/ The Populist Patriotism of Gore Vidal], ''[[The American Conservative]]''</ref> On domestic policy he was a supporter of the interests of farmers and Native Americans.

Gore was re-elected to the Senate in 1930. When [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]] took office as [[President of the United States|President]], Gore at first supported his [[New Deal]] policies but later feuded with him. In 1935, Gore helped lead the charge against funding the [[Works Progress Administration]] (WPA). In written response to constituents who favored the WPA, he told them that their attitude "shows how the dole spoils the soul. Your telegram intimates that your votes are for sale. Much as I value votes I am not in the market. I cannot consent to buy votes with the people's money. I owe a debt to the taxpayer as well as to the unemployed." After dictating these words, the blind senator was led to the Senate floor to cast the lone vote against the WPA.<ref>Billington, Monroe L, ''Thomas P. Gore: The Blind Senator from Oklahoma'' (Lawrence: University of Kansas Press, 1967) 169-170</ref><ref>Folsom, Burton W., ''New Deal or Raw Deal?: How FDR's Economic Legacy Has Damaged America'' (Simon and Schuster, 2008), 91</ref>

Gore ran for re-election in [[1936 United States Senate election in Oklahoma|1936]], but was overwhelmingly defeated in the Democratic primary. He took 18% of the vote and ended up in fourth place, behind Congressman [[Joshua B. Lee]], Governor [[E. W. Marland]], and attorney [[Gomer Smith]]. Lee ultimately won the primary against Marland in a [[Runoff election|runoff]].

Gore retired from the Senate in January 1937 and practiced law in [[Washington, D.C.]], until his death in 1949.<ref name=Kauffman/>

==Personal life==
[[File:GORE, T.P. SENATOR. GROUP LCCN2016856778 Trim.jpg|thumb|right|Gore with his family {{circa}} 1910s]]
Thomas married Nina Belle Kay (1877–1963), a Texas plantation owner's daughter, on December 27, 1900. She was described as his "constant companion" and as his "eyes." They moved to [[Lawton, Oklahoma]] in June 1901. They had two children:
* [[Nina S. Gore]] (1903–1978), who married [[Eugene Luther Vidal]] (1895–1969) in 1922. They divorced in 1935, and later that year, she married [[Hugh D. Auchincloss]]. They divorced in 1941.
* Thomas Notley Gore (1910–1964)

Gore died on March 16, 1949; he was buried at Rosehill Cemetery, [[Oklahoma City, Oklahoma]], but was later re-interred on July 19, 1949, in Fairlawn Cemetery, also in Oklahoma City. According to his grandson, [[Gore Vidal]], Gore was "the first and, I believe, last senator from an oil state to die without a fortune."<ref name=Kauffman/>

Gore Vidal stated that his grandfather was an [[atheist]]<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.veoh.com/browse/videos/category/entertainment/watch/v18209228gXA9GggG | title=Real Time with Bill Maher Episode #149 April 10, 2009 |publisher=www.veoh.com }}</ref> and had a strong [[Misanthropy|misanthropic]] streak: "He was a genuine populist; but he did not like people very much. He always said no to anyone who wanted government aid."<ref name=Kauffman/> During a speech to the [[National Press Club (United States)|National Press Club]] on November 4, 1994, Vidal claimed that Thomas Gore had said "If there was any race other than the human race, I'd go join it."<ref>Vidal, Gore, ''Point to Point Navigation: A Memoir, 1964 to 2006'' (New York: Doubleday, 2006), 19</ref>

===Descendants===
Through his daughter he was the grandfather of writer Gore Vidal (1925–2012),<ref name="GVObit2012">{{cite news|last1=McGrath|first1=Charles|title=Gore Vidal, Elegant Writer, Dies at 86|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/01/books/gore-vidal-elegant-writer-dies-at-86.html|access-date=13 October 2017|work=[[The New York Times]]|date=1 August 2012}}</ref> [[Nina Straight|Nina Gore Auchincloss]] (born 1937), who was married to [[Newton Steers]] from 1957 to 1974, and then [[Michael Whitney Straight|Michael Straight]] from 1974 to 1998,<ref name="NYT2">{{cite news|title=Mrs. Steers Wed to Michael Straight|url=http://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1974/05/02/91440001.html?pageNumber=63|access-date=3 February 2016|work=The New York Times|date=May 2, 1974}}</ref> and Thomas Gore Auchincloss (born 1937) who married Diana "Didi" Lippert.

===Honors===
Thomas Gore was inducted into the [[Oklahoma Hall of Fame]] in 1932.{{citation needed|date=February 2019}}

A major road artery in [[Lawton, Oklahoma]], Gore Boulevard, is named after him, as is the eastern Oklahoma town of [[Gore, Oklahoma|Gore]].{{citation needed|date=February 2019}}

==Notes==
{{notelist}}

==References==
{{Reflist|30em}}

==External links==
{{Commons category}}
* [http://www.okhistory.org/publications/enc/entry.php?entry=GO013 Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture - Gore, Thomas P.]
* {{CongBio|G000323}}
*[https://arc.ou.edu/repositories/3/resources/56 Thomas P. Gore Collection] at the [[Carl Albert Center]]
* {{find a Grave|6256971}}

{{s-start}}
{{s-ppo}}
{{s-new|first}}
{{s-ttl|title=[[Democratic Party (United States)|Democratic]] nominee for [[United States Senator|U.S. Senator]] from [[Oklahoma]]<br>([[Classes of United States senators|Class 3]])|years=[[1914 United States Senate election in Oklahoma|1914]]}}
{{s-aft|after=[[Scott Ferris]]}}
{{s-bef|before=[[Jack C. Walton]]}}
{{s-ttl|title=[[Democratic Party (United States)|Democratic]] nominee for [[United States Senator|U.S. Senator]] from [[Oklahoma]]<br>([[Classes of United States senators|Class 2]])|years=[[1930 United States Senate election in Oklahoma|1930]]}}
{{s-aft|after=[[Joshua B. Lee]]}}
{{s-par|us-sen}}
{{U.S. Senator box | class=3 | state=Oklahoma | before='''None''' | after=[[John W. Harreld]] | years= 1907–1921 | alongside=[[Robert Latham Owen|Robert L. Owen]]}}
{{U.S. Senator box | class=2 | state=Oklahoma | before=[[William B. Pine]] | after=[[Joshua B. Lee]] | years=1931–1937 | alongside=[[Elmer Thomas]]}}
{{s-end}}

{{USSenOK}}
{{SenAgricultureCommitteeChairmen}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gore, Thomas}}
[[Category:1870 births]]
[[Category:1949 deaths]]
[[Category:People from Webster County, Mississippi]]
[[Category:American people of Anglo-Irish descent]]
[[Category:Mississippi Populists]]
[[Category:Democratic Party United States senators from Oklahoma]]
[[Category:American anti-war activists]]
[[Category:American atheists]]
[[Category:American pacifists]]
[[Category:American politicians with disabilities]]
[[Category:American blind politicians]]
[[Category:Cumberland University alumni]]
[[Category:Texas Populists]]
[[Category:Members of the Oklahoma Territorial Legislature]]
[[Category:Blind activists]]
[[Category:American activists with disabilities]]
[[Category:20th-century United States senators]]