Bainbridge Colby

Bainbridge Colby (around 1920)

Bainbridge Colby (born December 22, 1869 in St. Louis , Missouri , †  April 11, 1950 in Bemus Point , New York ) was an American lawyer and politician . He co-founded the Progressive Party and Woodrow Wilson's last foreign minister ( Secretary of State ).

Colby studied at Williams College and Columbia Law School and was admitted to the bar in New York . In 1901 he began his political career as a Republican member of the New York State Assembly ; in 1912 he helped found the Progressive Party, the most prominent member of which was former President Theodore Roosevelt . For this party Colby ran unsuccessfully in 1914 and 1916 for a seat in the United States Senate .

After the dissolution of the Progressive Party, Colby joined the Democrats and was a delegate to the Democratic National Convention in 1920 . He served as the Justice Department's special envoy until he was appointed Foreign Secretary to President Wilson's cabinet on March 23, 1920 . Unlike his predecessor Robert Lansing , Colby fully supported the president's policies. He advocated the establishment of the League of Nations and set a precedent by refusing to recognize the Soviet Union . Until 1933, the US did not recognize the communist state.

After the end of Woodrow Wilson's reign in March 1921, Colby worked with the ex-president in his law firm until 1923. He took part again in 1924 at the Democratic Party Congress, but after that he no longer held any political office.

literature

• Alexander W. Knott: Bainbridge Colby. In: Edward S. Mihalkanin (Ed.): American Statesmen: Secretaries of State from John Jay to Colin Powell . Greenwood Publishing 2004, ISBN 978-0-313-30828-4 , pp. 141-148.

Web links

Commons : Bainbridge Colby  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

• The Political Graveyard
• Bainbridge Colby in the Miller Center of Public Affairs of the University of Virginia (English)

• Bainbridge Colby in the database of Find a Grave (English)