C. Douglass Buck - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Clayton Douglass Buck was an American engineer and politician from New Castle Hundred, New Castle County, Delaware. He was a veteran of World War I and a member of the Republican Party, who served two terms as Governor and one term as U. S. Senator from Delaware. He was known by his middle name.

Early life and family

Buck was born at "Buena Vista" near New Castle, Delaware, son of Frances N. and Margaret Douglass Buck. His father was from Philadelphia and his mother was descended from U.S. Senator John M. Clayton

John M. Clayton

John Middleton Clayton was an American lawyer and politician from Delaware. He was a member of the Whig Party who served in the Delaware General Assembly, and as U.S. Senator from Delaware and U.S. Secretary of State....

. He married Alice du Pont, daughter of U.S. Senator T. Coleman du Pont

T. Coleman du Pont

Thomas Coleman du Pont was an American engineer and politician, from Greenville, Delaware. He was President of the of E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company, and a member of the Republican Party who served parts of two terms as United States Senator from Delaware...

, and they had two children, Clayton Douglass, Jr. and Mrs. Dorcas Van Dyke Farquhar. They were members of Immanuel Episcopal Church in New Castle. He was educated at the Wilmington Friends School

Wilmington Friends School

Wilmington Friends School, the oldest existing school in Delaware, is a preschool through 12th grade Quaker school in Wilmington, Delaware. The school was founded in 1748 by members of the Wilmington Monthly Meeting of Friends ....

and the University of Pennsylvania Engineering School, serving some in the U.S. Army during World War I.

Professional and political career

By the early twentieth century the Du Pont Company had become one of world’s major corporations, bringing enormous wealth to its owners and providing employment and other opportunities to their native state. One of the three key owners of the company was T. Coleman du Pont, a capable, energetic and ambitious man, who was also Buck’s father-in-law. Du Pont had a vision of a super highway running the length of Delaware, and the ambition, talent, and money to make it a reality. Construction began in 1917 and in that same year a new State Highway Department was established to oversee the work. Nevertheless, du Pont continued to pay the bills, amounting to $4 million by 1924. With his engineering education and family connections, Buck was assigned to work on the project, becoming Chief Engineer in 1921 and remaining in the role until 1929.

Governor of Delaware

Buck was elected Governor of Delaware in 1928, defeating Democrat Charles M. Wharton. During this term the New York Stock Market crashed, signaling the beginning of the Great Depression. Fortunately, about the same time, Alfred I. du Pont

Alfred I. du Pont

Alfred Irénée du Pont was an American industrialist, financier and philanthropist. A member of the influential Du Pont family, Alfred du Pont first rose to prominence through his work in his family's Delaware-based gunpowder manufacturing plant, E. I...

had begun an effort to provide financial relief to those in the most need. Having failed to get such relief enacted by the Delaware General Assembly, on November 1, 1929 du Pont began mailing out personal checks of $16 to some 800 people. After spending some $350,000 of his own money, du Pont, appointed by Buck as Chairman of the Old Age Welfare Commission, persuaded the General Assembly to take over the program in late 1930. As the economic situation continued to worsen, Buck called the General Assembly into session in November 1932 and also persuaded them to pass a $2 million emergency relief measure.

Buck was elected to a second term as Governor in 1932, defeating Landreth L. Layton, the Democratic candidate, thereby becoming the first Governor to be reelected under the Delaware Constitution of 1897. In doing so he was one of only two Republican Governors elected that year, while Delaware was one of only five states voting to reelect U.S. President Herbert Hoover

Herbert Hoover

Herbert Clark Hoover was the 31st President of the United States . Hoover was originally a professional mining engineer and author. As the United States Secretary of Commerce in the 1920s under Presidents Warren Harding and Calvin Coolidge, he promoted partnerships between government and business...

. In June 1932, Delaware became the seventh state to ratify the 21st Amendment

Twenty-first Amendment to the United States Constitution

The Twenty-first Amendment to the United States Constitution repealed the Eighteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which had mandated nationwide Prohibition...

to the United States Constitution, allowing the sale of alcoholic beverages. Governor Buck appointed State Tax Commissioner Pierre S. du Pont

Pierre S. du Pont

Pierre Samuel du Pont was president of the E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company from 1915 to 1919, and served on its Board of Directors until 1940...

to head up a new State Liquor Commission to manage and tax the new products.

Buck continued to seek relief for the distressed state and in October 1933 called the General Assembly back into session to consider borrowing money from the Federal government. Once it was clear the General Assembly would never reach agreement on this measure, Buck took the unprecedented step of adjourning their session. Shortly thereafter teachers and state employees began taking reductions in their pay. In 1935 Buck had the State Highway Department assigned responsibility for the roads in the state that had formerly been maintained by the counties.

{|class=wikitable style="width: 94%" style="text-align: center;" align="center"
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!colspan=12 style="background: #ccccff;" |Delaware General Assembly

Delaware General Assembly

The Delaware General Assembly is the legislature of the U.S. state of Delaware. It is a bicameral legislature composed of the Delaware Senate with 21 Senators and the Delaware House of Representatives with 41 Representatives...

(sessions while Governor)
|-
!Year
!Assembly
!
!Senate Majority
!President
pro tempore
!
!House Majority
!Speaker
|-
|1929–1930
|105th

Delaware General Assembly

|
| |Republican

Republican Party (United States)

The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...

Republican Party (United States)

| |Charles W. Messick
|-
|1931–1932
|106th

Delaware General Assembly

|
| |Republican

Republican Party (United States)

Republican Party (United States)

| |Bud Coy
|-
|1933–1934
|107th

Delaware General Assembly

|
| |Republican

Republican Party (United States)

Democratic Party (United States)

The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...

| |Julian T. Robinson
|-
|1935–1936
|108th

Delaware General Assembly

|
| |Republican

Republican Party (United States)

Republican Party (United States)

| |Harry V. Lyons
|-

United States Senator

Several years later, in 1942, Buck was elected to the U.S. Senate, defeating Democrat E. Ennalls Berl, a Wilmington lawyer. During the 80th Congress he was Chairman of the District of Columbia Committee. Buck lost his bid for a second term in 1948 to Democrat J. Allen Frear, Jr., a businessman from Dover, Delaware. From 1953 until 1957 he was the Tax Commissioner of Delaware, another position held frequently by a member of the Du Pont family.

Death and legacy

Buck died at Buena Vista near New Castle and is buried in the Immanuel Episcopal Church Cemetery at New Castle.

Remaining a conservative Republican to the end of his life, he backed Ohio U.S. Senator Robert Taft

Robert Taft

Robert Alphonso Taft , of the Taft political family of Cincinnati, was a Republican United States Senator and a prominent conservative statesman...

and Arizona U.S. Senator Barry Goldwater

Barry Goldwater

Barry Morris Goldwater was a five-term United States Senator from Arizona and the Republican Party's nominee for President in the 1964 election. An articulate and charismatic figure during the first half of the 1960s, he was known as "Mr...

. His home, Buena Vista, was donated to the State of Delaware and is now used as a conference center. There is a Buck Road, in Greenville, Delaware.

Almanac

Elections are held the first Tuesday after November 1. The Governor takes office the third Tuesday of January and has a four year term. U.S. Senators are popularly elected and take office January 3 for a six year term.

{|class=wikitable style="width: 94%" style="text-align: center;" align="center"
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!colspan=7 style="background: #ccccff;" |Public Offices
|-
! Office
! Type
! Location
! Began office
! Ended office
! notes
|-
|Governor
|Executive

Executive (government)

Executive branch of Government is the part of government that has sole authority and responsibility for the daily administration of the state bureaucracy. The division of power into separate branches of government is central to the idea of the separation of powers.In many countries, the term...

|Dover

Dover, Delaware

The city of Dover is the capital and second largest city in the U.S. state of Delaware. It is also the county seat of Kent County, and the principal city of the Dover, Delaware Metropolitan Statistical Area, which encompasses all of Kent County. It is located on the St. Jones River in the Delaware...

Executive (government)

|Dover

Dover, Delaware

Legislature

A legislature is a kind of deliberative assembly with the power to pass, amend, and repeal laws. The law created by a legislature is called legislation or statutory law. In addition to enacting laws, legislatures usually have exclusive authority to raise or lower taxes and adopt the budget and...

|Washington

Washington, D.C.

Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....

|January 3, 1943
|January 3, 1949
|

{|class=wikitable style="width: 94%" style="text-align: center;" align="center"
|-bgcolor=#cccccc
!colspan=7 style="background: #ccccff;" |United States Congressional service
|-
! Dates
! Congress
! Chamber
! Majority
! President
! Committees
! Class/District
|-
|1943–1944
|78th

78th United States Congress

The Seventy-eighth United States Congress was a meeting of the legislative branch of the United States federal government, composed of the United States Senate and the United States House of Representatives. It met in Washington, DC from January 3, 1943 to January 3, 1945, during the last two years...

|U.S. Senate

United States Senate

The United States Senate is the upper house of the bicameral legislature of the United States, and together with the United States House of Representatives comprises the United States Congress. The composition and powers of the Senate are established in Article One of the U.S. Constitution. Each...

|Democratic

Democratic Party (United States)

|Franklin D. Roosevelt

Franklin D. Roosevelt

Franklin Delano Roosevelt , also known by his initials, FDR, was the 32nd President of the United States and a central figure in world events during the mid-20th century, leading the United States during a time of worldwide economic crisis and world war...

|District of Columbia

United States Senate Committee on the District of Columbia

The United States Senate Committee on the District of Columbia was one of the first standing committees created in the United States Senate, in 1816. It had jurisdiction over the District of Columbia...

|class 2

Classes of United States Senators

The three classes of United States Senators are currently made up of 33 or 34 Senate seats. The purpose of the classes is to determine which Senate seats will be up for election in a given year. The three groups are staggered so that one of them is up for election every two years.A senator's...

|-
|1945–1946
|79th

79th United States Congress

The Seventy-ninth United States Congress was a meeting of the legislative branch of the United States federal government, composed of the United States Senate and the United States House of Representatives. It met in Washington, DC from January 3, 1945 to January 3, 1947, during the last months of...

|U.S. Senate

United States Senate

|Democratic

Democratic Party (United States)

|Franklin D. Roosevelt

Franklin D. Roosevelt

Harry S. Truman

Harry S. Truman was the 33rd President of the United States . As President Franklin D. Roosevelt's third vice president and the 34th Vice President of the United States , he succeeded to the presidency on April 12, 1945, when President Roosevelt died less than three months after beginning his...

|District of Columbia

United States Senate Committee on the District of Columbia

|class 2

Classes of United States Senators

|-
|1947–1948
|80th

80th United States Congress

The Eightieth United States Congress was a meeting of the legislative branch of the United States federal government, composed of the United States Senate and the United States House of Representatives. It met in Washington, DC from January 3, 1947 to January 3, 1949, during the third and fourth...

|U.S. Senate

United States Senate

|Republican

Republican Party (United States)

|Harry S. Truman

Harry S. Truman

|District of Columbia

United States Senate Committee on the District of Columbia

|class 2

Classes of United States Senators

{|class=wikitable style="width: 94%" style="text-align: center;" align="center"
|-bgcolor=#cccccc
!colspan=12 style="background: #ccccff;" |Election results
|-
!Year
!Office
!
!Subject
!Party
!Votes
!%
!
!Opponent
!Party
!Votes
!%
|-
|1928
|Governor
|
| |C. Douglass Buck
| |Republican

Republican Party (United States)

| |63,716
| |61%
|
| |Charles M. Wharton
| |Democratic

Democratic Party (United States)

| |40,346
| |39%
|-
|1932
|Governor
|
| |C. Douglass Buck
| |Republican

Republican Party (United States)

| |60,903
| |54%
|
| |Landreth L. Layton
| |Democratic

Democratic Party (United States)

| |50,401
| |45%
|-
|1942
|U.S. Senator

United States Senate

Republican Party (United States)

| |46,210
| |54%
|
| |E. Ennalls Berl
| |Democratic

Democratic Party (United States)

| |38,322
| |45%
|-
|1948
|U.S. Senator

United States Senate

Republican Party (United States)

| |68,246
| |48%
|
| |J. Allen Frear, Jr.
| |Democratic

Democratic Party (United States)

| |71,888
| |51%

Images

Biographical Dictionary of the United States Congress

External links

Places with more information

Delaware Historical Society
Delaware Historical Society
The Delaware Historical Society began in 1864 as an effort to preserve documents from the Civil War. Since then, it has expanded into a state-wide historical institution with several venues and a major museum in Wilmington and the historic Read House & Gardens in New Castle.The society...

; website; 505 North Market Street, Wilmington, Delaware 19801; (302) 655-7161
University of Delaware
University of Delaware
The university is organized into seven colleges:* College of Agriculture and Natural Resources* College of Arts and Sciences* Alfred Lerner College of Business and Economics* College of Earth, Ocean and Environment* College of Education and Human Development...

; Library website; 181 South College Avenue, Newark, Delaware 19717; (302) 831-2965

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