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Bainbridge Colby (December 22, 1869 – April 11, 1950) was an American politician and attorney who was a co-founder of the United States Progressive Party and
Woodrow Wilson Thomas Woodrow Wilson (December 28, 1856February 3, 1924) was an American politician and academic who served as the 28th president of the United States from 1913 to 1921. A member of the Democratic Party, Wilson served as the president of ...
's last Secretary of State. Colby was a Republican until he helped co-found the National Progressive Party in 1912; he ran for multiple offices as a member of that party, but never won. Colby served as Secretary of State from February 1920 until 1921, at a time when President Woodrow Wilson was medically handicapped and largely out of touch. He is best known for promoting a
Good Neighbor policy The Good Neighbor policy ( ) was the foreign policy of the administration of United States President Franklin Roosevelt towards Latin America. Although the policy was implemented by the Roosevelt administration, President Woodrow Wilson had prev ...
for Latin America, and for denouncing the communist regime in Russia.


Early life and education

Bainbridge Colby was born in St. Louis, Missouri on December 22, 1869. He graduated from
Williams College Williams College is a private liberal arts college in Williamstown, Massachusetts. It was established as a men's college in 1793 with funds from the estate of Ephraim Williams, a colonist from the Province of Massachusetts Bay who was kille ...
, where he was admitted to
Phi Beta Kappa The Phi Beta Kappa Society () is the oldest academic honor society in the United States, and the most prestigious, due in part to its long history and academic selectivity. Phi Beta Kappa aims to promote and advocate excellence in the liberal ...
, then attended
Columbia Law School Columbia Law School (Columbia Law or CLS) is the law school of Columbia University, a private Ivy League university in New York City. Columbia Law is widely regarded as one of the most prestigious law schools in the world and has always ranked i ...
and
New York Law School New York Law School (NYLS) is a private law school in Tribeca, New York City. NYLS has a full-time day program and a part-time evening program. NYLS's faculty includes 54 full-time and 59 adjunct professors. Notable faculty members include ...
(1892).


Career

He was admitted to the New York bar, and served as a member of the
New York State Assembly The New York State Assembly is the lower house of the New York State Legislature, with the New York State Senate being the upper house. There are 150 seats in the Assembly. Assembly members serve two-year terms without term limits. The Ass ...
(New York Co., 29th D.) 1901–1902. He spoke at the
Colby College Colby College is a private liberal arts college in Waterville, Maine. It was founded in 1813 as the Maine Literary and Theological Institution, then renamed Waterville College after the city where it resides. The donations of Christian philanth ...
commencement on June 19, 1933, at which time he was awarded an honorary Doctor of Laws degree.


Politics

At the
New York state election, 1914 The 1914 New York state election was held on November 3, 1914, to elect the governor, the lieutenant governor, the Secretary of State, the state comptroller, the attorney general, the state treasurer, the state engineer, a U.S. Senator and a j ...
, Colby ran on the Progressive ticket for
U.S. Senator from New York Below is a list of U.S. senators who have represented the State of New York in the United States Senate since 1789. The date of the start of the tenure is either the first day of the legislative term (Senators who were elected regularly before th ...
, but was defeated by Republican James W. Wadsworth, Jr. At the
New York state election, 1916 The 1916 New York state election was held on November 7, 1916, to elect the governor, the lieutenant governor, the Secretary of State, the state comptroller, the attorney general, the state treasurer, the state engineer, a U.S. Senator, the ...
, he ran again, this time on the Progressive and
Independence League The Independence Party, established as the Independence League, was a short-lived minor American political party sponsored by newspaper publisher and politician William Randolph Hearst in 1906. The organization was the successor to the Munici ...
tickets, but was defeated by Republican
William M. Calder William Musgrave Calder I (March 3, 1869March 3, 1945) was an American politician and architect who served as a member of both chambers of the United States Congress from New York. Early life and education He was born in Brooklyn on March 3, 1869 ...
. During
World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...
, Colby was a member of the
United States Shipping Board The United States Shipping Board (USSB) was established as an emergency agency by the 1916 Shipping Act (39 Stat. 729), on September 7, 1916. The United States Shipping Board's task was to increase the number of US ships supporting the World War ...
. Colby was a special assistant to the
United States Attorney General The United States attorney general (AG) is the head of the United States Department of Justice, and is the chief law enforcement officer of the federal government of the United States. The attorney general serves as the principal advisor to the p ...
in an
anti-trust Competition law is the field of law that promotes or seeks to maintain market competition by regulating anti-competitive conduct by companies. Competition law is implemented through public and private enforcement. It is also known as antitrust ...
action in 1917, and represented the U.S. at the Inter-Allied Conference at Paris the same year.


Secretary of State

Wilson appointed him Secretary of State on March 23, 1920, after firing his predecessor,
Robert Lansing Robert Lansing (; October 17, 1864 – October 30, 1928) was an American lawyer and diplomat who served as Counselor to the State Department at the outbreak of World War I, and then as United States Secretary of State under President Woodrow Wi ...
, for insubordination. Wilson's appointment of Colby was "bizarre" says historian John Milton Cooper, for Colby had no diplomatic experience or skills. Editorial responses from leading newspapers ranged "from puzzlement to outrage." Colby was chosen because he was totally loyal to Wilson. On August 26, eight days after ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment, Colby issued the official proclamation that it had become a part of the
Constitution of the United States The Constitution of the United States is the supreme law of the United States of America. It superseded the Articles of Confederation, the nation's first constitution, in 1789. Originally comprising seven articles, it delineates the nati ...
, guaranteeing women the right to vote. In December 1920, Colby embarked on the battleship for an official goodwill cruise to South America. His goodwill trip set the stage for the transition to a "Good Neighbor" policy. Colby advocated his policies firmly even as Wilson suffered the debilitating side effects of a series of strokes. Colby supported the
League of Nations The League of Nations (french: link=no, Société des Nations ) was the first worldwide intergovernmental organisation whose principal mission was to maintain world peace. It was founded on 10 January 1920 by the Paris Peace Conference th ...
and established a precedent for not recognizing newly Communist Russia; that would be reversed in 1933. In a major statement in 1920, Colby declared: :It is not possible for the Government of the United States to recognize the present rulers of Russia as a government with which the relations common to friendly governments can be maintained. This conviction has nothing to do with any particular political or social structure which the Russian people themselves may see fit to embrace. It rests upon a wholly different set of facts....that the existing regime in Russia is based upon the negation of every principle of honor and good faith, and every usage and convention, underlying the whole structure of international law; the negation, in short, of every principle upon which it is possible to base harmonious and trustful relations, whether of nations or of individuals. The responsible leaders of the regime have frequently and openly boasted that they are willing to sign agreements and undertakings with foreign Powers while not having the slightest intention of observing such undertakings or carrying out such agreements....it is their understanding that the very existence of Bolshevism in Russia, the maintenance of their own rule, depends, and must continue to depend, upon the occurrence of revolutions in all other great civilized nations, including the United States, which will overthrow and destroy their governments and set up Bolshevist rule in their stead. They have made it quite plain that they intend to use every means, including, of course, diplomatic agencies, to promote such revolutionary movements in other countries. He served until Wilson left office on March 4, 1921. The Library of Congress maintains a collection of Colby’s documents.


Later career

After leaving office as secretary of state, Colby continued to practice law for the remainder of his career. As an attorney, Colby accepted Woodrow Wilson as a partner after the latter's presidency; Colby left that firm in 1923. Earlier in his career, Colby's most notable client was Mark Twain.


Personal life

Colby was married twice. His first wife was Nathalie Sedgwick, who became a novelist; they were married in 1895 and had three children (Katherine Sedgwick Colby, Nathalie Sedgwick Colby and Frances Bainbridge Colby). Colby decided to divorce his wife while he was in
Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. Si ...
in 1928. The divorce was finalized in
Reno, Nevada Reno ( ) is a city in the northwest section of the U.S. state of Nevada, along the Nevada-California border, about north from Lake Tahoe, known as "The Biggest Little City in the World". Known for its casino and tourism industry, Reno is th ...
later that year. The marriage apparently was very contentious and Colby felt the need to include in his divorce decree a monthly payment of $1,500.00 to stop Nathalie from "ridiculing him in her writings". Less than a year later, he married Anne Ahlstrand Ely, who was politically engaged in many of the same issues as Colby, such as women's suffrage. (As Secretary of State, Colby would issue the proclamation announcing that the 19th Amendment, guaranteeing women the right to vote, had been ratified as part of the U.S. Constitution.) When Colby died in 1950, his widow donated much memorabilia to the local library; it eventually found a home at the Library of Congress. She never remarried and died in 1963. At the time of his death, Colby was the last surviving member of the Wilson Cabinet.


References


Further reading

* McFadden, David W. "After the Colby Note: The Wilson Administration and the Bolsheviks, 1920-21." ''Presidential Studies Quarterly'' 25.4 (1995): 741-750
online
* Smith, Daniel M. "Bainbridge Colby and the Good Neighbor Policy, 1920-1921." ''Mississippi Valley Historical Review'' 50.1 (1963): 56-78. * Smith, Daniel Malloy. "Aftermath of war: Bainbridge Colby and Wilsonian diplomacy, 1920-1921" ''Memoirs of the American Philosophical Society'' vol 80 (1970) * Winid, Boguslaw W. "After the Colby Note: The Wilson Administration and the Polish-Bolshevik War." ''Presidential Studies Quarterly'' 26.4 (1996): 1165-1169
online


External links

* * * Library of Congress, Colby Papers Collection http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.mss/eadmss.ms011091 {{DEFAULTSORT:Colby, Bainbridge 1869 births 1950 deaths New York (state) lawyers Lawyers from St. Louis New York (state) Republicans United States Secretaries of State New York Law School alumni Columbia Law School alumni Williams College alumni Woodrow Wilson administration cabinet members New York (state) Progressives (1912) 20th-century American politicians Politicians from St. Louis