Breckinridge Long

Breckenridge Long (May 16, 1881 – September 26, 1958) was United States ambassador to Italy and a state department official appointed by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

History

Born Margaret Miller (Breckinridge Long) and William Strudwick in St. Louis, Missouri. Long graduated from Princeton University in 1904 and studied at Washington University Law School in 1906, and received his M.A. in 1909. He was admitted to the bar in Missouri and opened an office in St. Louis in 1907. He married Christine Alexander in 1912, and later had a daughter; Christine Blair. Long continued to practice law independently until 1917. During 1914-15 he was a member of the Missouri Code Commission on Revision of Judicial Procedure. Long then worked to establish the League of Nations and supported Wilsonian Democracy. He was credited with drafting "He kept us out of war" slogan which re-elected Woodrow Wilson. In 1917 Long was appointed third assistant U.S. Secretary of state and remained at the post until he resigned in 1920. Long then attempted to run for U.S. Senate as a Democrat but was defeated in a landslide Republican victory. He was a personal friend of future President Franklin Deleano Roosevelt and generously contributed to his 1932 Presidential campaign; earning him the position of U.S. Ambassador to Italy. During his ambassadorship he was criticized for advising the president against imposing an embargo on oil shipments to Italy in retaliation for Mussolini's invasion of Ethiopia. He was a member of a special mission to Brazil, Argentina, and Uruguay in 1938 and adviser to the U.S. Department of State in 1939. He was assigned to handling war emergency matters and assistant secretary in charge of the Visa division.

He was charged with deliberately placing blocks in immigration for Jewish refugees. Long came to believe that he was under constant attack from "the communists, extreme radicals, Jewish professional agitators, [and] refugee enthusiasts,". Many of his views were shared by his subordinates.

In an intra-department memo he circulated in June 1940 Long wrote: "We can delay and effectively stop for a temporary period of indefinite length the number of immigrants into the United States. We could do this by simply advising our consuls to put every obstacle in the way and to require additional evidence and to resort to various administrative devices which would postpone and postpone and postpone the granting of the visas." 90 percent of the quota places available to immigrants from countries under German and Italian control were never filled.

In November 1943, when the House was considering a resolution that would establish a separate government agency charged with rescuing refugees Long gave testimony saying that everything was being done to save Jewish refugees, which caused a loss of support for the measure.

Retirement

Long left the state department in 1944 and went into retirement. His special interests included the collection of antiques, paintings and American ship models. He maintained a stable of race horses and was a director of the Laurel Park (Md.) Race Track, and he enjoyed fox hunting, fishing, and sailing. He died in Laurel, Maryland.

References

• http://www.gwu.edu/~erpapers/abouteleanor/q-and-a/glossary/long-breckinridge.htm
• http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/holocaust/peopleevents/pandeAMEX90.html
• http://www.breckinridge.com/breckbio.htm