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Cokie Roberts: Speaker Sam Rayburn of Texas and Future President Lyndon Baines Johnson (Mai 2024)
Sam Rayburn, en entier Samuel Taliaferro Rayburn, (né le 6 janvier 1882, comté de Roane, Tenn., États-Unis - décédé le 16 novembre 1961, Bonham, Texas), leader politique américain, qui a été président de la US House of Représentants depuis près de 17 ans. Il a été élu pour la première fois à la Chambre en 1912 et y a servi sans interruption pendant 48 ans et 8 mois, ce qui au moment de sa mort était un mandat record. Il a été élu au Congrès 25 fois de suite. Le Rayburn House Office Building, un immeuble de bureaux du Congrès sur Capitol Hill, a été nommé en sa mémoire.
Quiz
Une étude de l'histoire: réalité ou fiction?
Le diamant Hope d'aujourd'hui est plus petit que celui des siècles passés.
La vie
La famille de Rayburn, d'origine principalement écossaise, a déménagé du Tennessee au Texas en 1887, et là, Rayburn a grandi sur une ferme de 40 acres. Il a fait son chemin à travers l'East Texas Normal College (maintenant Texas A&M University — Commerce), a enseigné à l'école et est devenu avocat. Il a servi à la Chambre des représentants du Texas pendant six ans (1907–13) et en 1911 a été élu président. L'année suivante, il a été élu au Congrès américain, où il est resté pendant près d'un demi-siècle.
Énergique, studieux, ambitieux et affable, Rayburn est rapidement devenu influent dans les coulisses du gouvernement et de la politique des partis. En tant que président (1931-1937) du puissant comité de la Chambre sur le commerce interétatique et étranger, il fut l'un des principaux architectes du New Deal. En tant que membre de la Chambre des représentants, il était coauteur de six lois importantes: la loi sur le transport ferroviaire d'urgence, la loi sur la «vérité sur les valeurs mobilières», la loi sur les bourses, la loi fédérale sur les communications, la loi sur l'électrification rurale et une l'une des lois du New Deal les plus âprement contestées, la Public Utility Holding Company Act.
Rayburn was elected Democratic leader of the House of Representatives in 1937 and became speaker of the House on Sept. 16, 1940. He held the latter office for almost 17 years, exceeding by a wide margin the previous record set by Kentucky statesman Henry Clay in the first quarter of the 19th century. Noted for his tart common sense, his honesty, and his unflagging patriotism, Rayburn was a trusted adviser to Presidents Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry Truman, Dwight D. Eisenhower, and John F. Kennedy. A dedicated party man who described himself as a Democrat “without prefix, without suffix, and without apology,” Rayburn was often called “Mr. Democrat.” He was permanent chairman of the Democratic National Convention in 1948, 1952, and 1956. After he won the battle in 1961 to enlarge the House Committee on Rules—the hardest internal House struggle in 50 years—Rayburn’s health failed quickly. Before Congress adjourned that year, he went home to Bonham, Texas, where he died.
Legacy
At the time of his death, Rayburn was regarded as an extraordinarily able legislator who had gone on to become the most effective speaker of the House since Joe Cannon was divested of his power in 1910. That assessment of Rayburn did not change in the decades following his death. His pivotal role in the House as a broker between the Northern and Southern wings of the Democratic Party, however, was later better understood and appreciated. During Rayburn’s tenure, power in the House was lodged in the hands of committee chairs who gained their positions through seniority. Because the American South still was overwhelmingly Democratic and the Republican Party was not competitive there, Southern Democrats in the House—with their seniority and their control over chairs of committees—tended to have great power. Northern Democrats tended to be more liberal than their Southern counterparts, but their lack of seniority and committee chairs diminished their influence in the House. Rayburn brokered the interests of both wings of the Democratic Party.
Although the office of speaker at that time lacked great formal powers, Rayburn used the limited influence of the office to maximum advantage. He also relied heavily on his personal prestige, his skill at persuasion, and personal friendships built up over decades in the House to bridge the regional differences within the Democratic Party and to forge a working majority in the House. His leadership style usually resulted in congenial relations not only between the Northern and Southern wings of the Democratic Party but also between Rayburn and the Republican leadership of the House—a considerable accomplishment, especially when viewed in the light of the divisive House of Representatives in the early 21st century.
