Introduction: FEARLESS, JOHN L MCCLELLAN, UNITED STATES SENATOR

John McClellan’s thundering voice, imposing stage presence, and commanding personality projected a confident and powerful figure that could not be ignored in Washington D.C.; yet, his humble beginnings in Grant County, Arkansas presented obstacles that he had to conquer if he achieved his life’s ambition of becoming a United States senator. Lacking the familial support, finances, and stability that launch one on a path to fame and fortune, young John McClellan developed a rare personal strength that enabled him to overcome tragedy and hardship in his personal life and attain the lofty goals he desired professionally. By the force of his will, he pulled himself up by his bootstraps and acquired the personality and determination one must possess to succeed in a world filled with able competitors who usually had the advantage of a formal education.

A motherless child raised by a tough taskmaster father, John McClellan’s upbringing paralleled the lifestyles of most residents in Arkansas and the American South during the early twentieth century. He was raised on a sharecropper’s farm, attended country schools, became instilled with Christian values, and wedded young. His early caretakers taught him to love, honor, and serve God and country and to base his relationships with others on the Golden Rule. At a young age, he embarked on his lifelong quest for justice by consistently striving to do what he deemed right after ascertaining the facts in each situation he encountered. He demonstrated his manifest integrity and fairness as a young man playing on a baseball field, an attorney arguing a case in a courtroom, a prosecutor enforcing the law, and chairman of a Senate committee conducting an investigation.

As a youngster, John McClellan worked as a cotton-picker, plowboy, and waterjack on the family farm, and performing those labor-intensive and unrewarding tasks motivated the ten-year old lad to pursue a career in the legal profession. He immediately began studying law books and observing accomplished attorneys as they argued cases in the courtroom. When he reached seventeen years of age, the Arkansas legislature passed a special act allowing him to take the bar examination, and he became the youngest licensed attorney in the United States-a record that still stands. He advanced toward his ultimate goal by serving as city attorney of Malvern, prosecuting attorney of Arkansas’s Seventh Judicial District, congressman from Arkansas’s Sixth Congressional District, and finally Arkansas’s senior senator.

McClellan became known as a southern conservative, but he based his policies upon the facts and the truth that he found after carefully examining all aspects of the problems he encountered. He projected a quiet competence and an aura of trustworthiness regarding his actions, which alleviated any need for him to explain them through the media. His constituents included all people-rich and poor, of all races and color-who depended upon him to lead them out of extreme poverty and hardship. He made decisions and performed deeds “with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right . . .” which President Lincoln referred to in his Second Inaugural Address. McClellan’s confidence and assurance came from conscious study and deliberate application of a formidable mind.

Although McClellan became one of the most powerful people in Washington D. C., he never lost his love for his home state or his ability to identify with its people. When he began serving in the United States House in 1934, the foundation of Arkansas’s economy was agriculture, and flooding across the state constantly inundated farmland, destroying livelihoods of many Arkansans within a few hours. As a member of the House Flood Control Committee, McClellan helped draft flood control measures that authorized and appropriated federal dollars for flood relief programs for Arkansas farmers. Levees breaks, bank cave-ins, channel shifts, and bridge deterioration along the Arkansas River had plagued Arkansans living in the southeastern section of McClellan’s congressional district for decades. Previously, the federal government had responded sporadically to their cries for assistance by providing temporary relief. McClellan’s involvement in their concerns eventually led to his fixation on the Arkansas River project. When McClellan entered the Senate in 1943, he strongly advocated the idea that the federal government should create a comprehensive flood control and water development program for all the nation’s waterways, including the Arkansas River, and he assumed a leadership role in converting the uncontrollable river into a power source and a navigable waterway. At its completion in 1971, it was the largest public works project in the history of the United States. McClellan’s ability to bring over $1.2 billion federal dollars to Arkansas for flood control and water resources development kept the Army Corps of Engineers office located in Little Rock.

When McClellan entered Congress in 1934, the state’s highway system consisted of a network of dirt roads, two-lane ruts, and gravel roads with patches of pavement, most of which the Flood of 1927 had damaged or destroyed. McClellan attached the McClellan Amendment to a 1936 flood control bill that resulted in Arkansas receiving $5,000,000 for 450 miles of new hard-surfaced roads and 5000 additional jobs. As a senator occupying seats on the Post Roads Committee and the Public Works Subcommittee of the Senate Appropriations Committee, McClellan kept federal dollars funneled to the state to finance continued road improvements throughout his tenure in Washington. McClellan became known as the “brick and mortar” senator because he continuously piped federal funds to Arkansas to create construction jobs for local water treatment facilities, hospitals, clinics, parks, recreational areas, convention centers, rehabilitation centers, technical institutes, rural electrification projects, manufacturing plants, schools, libraries, and college structures. McClellan often stated that when the pie of federal funds was cut, he wanted to ensure that Arkansas-one of the nation’s poorest states-got its fair share.

Labeling himself “a working senator-on the job, getting results for Arkansas,” his constituency recognized McClellan as the go-to guy in Washington if anything got accomplished in their favor. McClellan unabashedly acclaimed specific projects he had obtained for his home state, including $350 million for defense plants at Pine Bluff and Camden, the Air Force Base at Jacksonville, and the Veterans’ Hospital in Little Rock. He periodically reminded his constituents of his involvement in agricultural research and extension, the Farmers’ Home Administration, forestry programs, emergency drought relief, rural electrification, vocational education programs, school lunch programs, and federal aid to schools. The Senator related that he wrote legislation that provided for disposal of surplus federal property to states for educational and public health purposes; attracted private industries, such as Reynolds Metals Company, FedEx, and Falcon Jet, to the state; and sponsored numerous income tax bills to increase personal exemption amounts, which saved all taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars. In 1954 McClellan asserted that during his twelve-year tenure in the Senate, he had brought more federal money to Arkansas than any other Arkansas senator did in twice that time.

During his senatorial career, John McClellan became involved in many diverse subjects, but his legacy is largely characterized by his success in the law and order field. He considered law to be a noble profession, and he did or said nothing to undermine the American judicial system. When he critiqued individual decisions, as he often did, his comments went to the merits of the decision on the law and his deeply held view that judges should adjudicate the law and leave legislating to Congress. As a procedurally oriented individual, he always followed protocol in formal matters. McClellan believed that the Constitution assigned the legislative, executive, and judicial branches specific roles, and he thought each branch should operate within its own sphere. When he believed that one branch overstepped its jurisdiction, he vigorously challenged the action.

As the Senate’s leading investigator, McClellan exposed how the rampant and unchecked criminality of organized labor and the mafia preyed upon society. Defying threats to his own person, he sought justice for the vulnerable American public by introducing and passing legislation that protected the rights of rank-and-file union members and enacting more criminal procedures legislation, including RICO, than any other person in this country’s history. This legislation facilitated convictions of Watergate criminals; occasioned the downfall of two presidents; and instigated the disintegration of the American mafia. McClellan’s ability to secure passage of such sweeping conservative legislation demonstrated the persuasive power he wielded and the clout he carried in Washington at a period when prominent opposing liberals occupied the White House and Department of Justice, held majorities in both houses of Congress, and sat on the Warren Supreme Court.

McClellan’s desire for justice to prevail extended to those on both sides of the law. Even though he assiduously pursued legislation that safeguarded the American public, he also respected the rights of the accused. As a youth observing his father and other competent lawyers arguing cases in the courtrooms, he developed a profound understanding of the Constitution and the rights it provided for victims as well as defendants. Thus, when ruffians appearing before his Senate committee persistently concealed their culpability behind the Fifth Amendment, he abided by and defended their right to do so even though he found their behavior appalling. He opposed his colleagues who wanted to accelerate the judicial process lest those accused of wrongdoing would be denied their rights to face all their accusers. McClellan, applying the Golden Rule, explained that he treated malefactors in such manner that he desired if their situations were reversed.

McClellan constantly strived to do what he determined to be the right thing based upon the facts at hand, but he initially took positions that placed him on the wrong side of the civil rights and school desegregation issues. As a product of the time and place he occupied and the society that he represented, McClellan fervently opposed most social legislation. Nonetheless, he mellowed over time and adapted political stances that embraced social changes without alienating his constituents. He rose above the Southern Manifesto mindset and became the first member of the Arkansas delegation to integrate his campaign headquarters and to nominate African Americans to federal service positions, including the first black judge to the Canal Zone District Court. Furthermore, when the federal government focused intently on desegregating southern schools while blinking at similar situations not in the South, McClellan singlehandedly forced the Department of Justice to equitably apply civil rights laws across the country. Because of McClellan, African American children in cities such as Boston, Detroit, and Berkeley were allowed access to the same educational facilities and programs that white children received.

Across the spectrum of McClellan’s professional career, he consistently based his decisions on truth, facts, and a deep understanding of the Constitution, Bill of Rights, and the rule of law. A cunning and clever politician, he transcended time and place and made an enormous impact upon his state and nation. When Senator McClellan encountered situations that required rectification, he boldly challenged presidents; matched wits with congressmen educated at prestigious universities; and questioned rulings of the Supreme Court. Presidents sometimes called upon him to sponsor legislation they espoused because they knew if John McClellan supported their programs, those initiatives had a much better chance of survival in Congress. Even when the odds for success appeared slim, McClellan patiently and persistently pursued his objective or obstinately refused to budge from his position until a favorable outcome materialized. At one time he sat on twenty-four Senate committees. Frequently opponents who successfully challenged McClellan on an issue in one committee had to face him again on that same issue in another committee, and the odds of them leaving the room with the entire package with which they entered were slim. Whether it was fighting communism and McCarthyism, investigating labor racketeering and organized crime, or drafting legislation to protect rank and file union members, McClellan prudently explored all avenues in his diligent search for the truth, and then he acted according to what he deemed right based upon the evidence. He became the champion for the American people when he found situations where they were being exploited.

McClellan served many years with some of his colleagues in the Senate. Even though he maintained cordial relations with them, few knew him intimately. The public’s perception of him came primarily from journalists who, along with the mobsters and crooks appearing as witnesses, observed him in Senate hearings. Before those hardened tough guys, McClellan transmitted a disarming stage presence, but those closest to him stated that his resolute facade was simply an act that he turned on and off as the circumstances dictated. McClellan described himself as having a “gruff exterior, but a tender heart.” Pat Holsten, his granddaughter, recalled memories of “Ole Mac” rollicking in the snow, watching her ride her horse, and riding with her on the back of her motorcycle. He attended football games of his young grandson, Harry McDermott III, and took granddaughters, Holly and Lisa McDermott, to Arkansas Razorback games and some of his public events. He patiently accommodated children’s requests for autographs and mesmerized them by wriggling his ears. McClellan attended office parties and picnics, breakfasted with his staff, and invited them into his office to watch World Series games. Although fate persistently dispensed traumatic and agonizing circumstances into McClellan’s family that made him cynical, he never became bitter. He endured each situation by relying upon his deep-rooted faith to sustain him and seeking words of wisdom in the Bible. He never used his circumstances to seek sympathy or make excuses for himself, but accepted them as God’s edict for his life. He found his work to be a welcome alleviation from the trials that tormented him. His story is of a life tormented by soul-wrenching tragedy; and of personal triumph over all obstacles through his faith that comforted him, hard work that sustained him, and wisdom that guided him.

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