HUGHES GETS NOD AS HARDING'S SECRETARY OF STATE
St. Augustine, Florida (JFK+50) On February 19, 1921, President-elect Warren G. Harding formally announced appointment of Charles Evans Hughes* as Secretary of State in the new administration to take office on March 4.
With Governor Hughes looking on, the President-elect said...
"It will be one of the policies of the new administration to let the Secretary of State from the beginning speak for the State Department."
Governor Hughes said in response to accepting the appointment...
"I think it is a call no one could well refuse in justice to what he conceived to be his duty..."
According to Frederic William Wile, the Hughes appointment was made in the backdrop of "violent opposition by some of the most powerful leaders in the Republican Party."
*Charles Evans Hughes (1862-1948) was born in Glen Falls, NY & educated at Colgate & Brown Universities & earned his LLB at Columbia University.
CEH was Governor of NY & U.S. Supreme Court Justice before serving as Secretary of State 1921-1925. In 1930, Taft appointed him Chief Justice & he served until 1941.
SOURCE
"Harding Appoints Hughes Secretary of State; Plans Prompt Peace With World," by Frederic William Wile, The Washington Herald, February 20, 1921, Chronicling America, Library of Congress, www.loc.gov/
