View source for Charles G. Dawes

{{Short description|Vice President of the United States from 1925 to 1929}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=August 2025}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| name          = Charles G. Dawes
| image         = Chas G Dawes-H&E (3x4).jpg
| office        = 30th [[Vice President of the United States]]
| president     = [[Calvin Coolidge]]
| term_start    = March 4, 1925
| term_end      = March 4, 1929
| predecessor   = Calvin Coolidge
| successor     = [[Charles Curtis]]
| office1       = 41st [[United States Ambassador to the United Kingdom]]
| president1    = [[Herbert Hoover]]
| term_start1   = June 15, 1929
| term_end1     = December 30, 1931
| predecessor1  = [[Alanson B. Houghton]]
| successor1    = [[Andrew Mellon]]
| office2       = 1st Director of the [[Office of Management and Budget|Bureau of the Budget]]
| president2    = [[Warren G. Harding]]
| term_start2   = June 23, 1921
| term_end2     = June 30, 1922
| predecessor2  = Position established
| successor2    = [[Herbert Lord]]
| office3       = 10th [[Office of the Comptroller of the Currency|Comptroller of the Currency]]
| president3    = [[William McKinley]]<br />[[Theodore Roosevelt]]
| term_start3   = January 1, 1898
| term_end3     = September 30, 1901
| predecessor3  = [[James H. Eckels]]
| successor3    = [[William Barret Ridgely|William Ridgely]]
| birth_name    = Charles Gates Dawes
| birth_date    = {{birth date|1865|08|27}}
| birth_place   = [[Marietta, Ohio]], U.S.
| death_date    = {{death date and age|1951|04|23|1865|12|15}}
| death_place   = [[Evanston, Illinois]], U.S.
| resting_place = [[Rosehill Cemetery, Chicago|Rosehill Cemetery]]
| party         = [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican]]
| spouse        = {{marriage|[[Caro Dawes|Caro Blymyer]] | January 24, 1889}}
| children      = 4
| education     = [[Marietta College]] ([[Bachelor of Arts|AB]])<br />[[University of Cincinnati]] ([[Bachelor of Laws|LLB]])
| awards        = [[Nobel Peace Prize]]
| signature     = Charles G Dawes Signature.svg
| signature_alt = Cursive signature in ink
| allegiance    = United States
| branch        = [[United States Army]]
| rank          = [[Brigadier general (United States)|Brigadier general]]
| serviceyears  = 1917–1919
| battles       = [[World War I]]
| unit          = [[American Expeditionary Forces]]<br />Liquidation Commission of the [[United States Department of War|War Department]]
| mawards       = [[Distinguished Service Medal (U.S. Army)|Army Distinguished Service Medal]]
| caption       = Dawes, {{circa}} 1920s
}}

'''Charles Gates Dawes''' (August 27, 1865 – April 23, 1951) was the 30th [[vice president of the United States]] from 1925 to 1929 under President [[Calvin Coolidge]]. He was a co-recipient of the [[Nobel Peace Prize]] in 1925 for his work on the [[Dawes Plan]] for [[World War I reparations]], and a member of the [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican Party]].

Born in [[Marietta, Ohio]], Dawes attended [[Cincinnati Law School]] before beginning a legal career in [[Lincoln, Nebraska]]. After serving as a gas plant executive, he managed [[William McKinley]]'s 1896 presidential campaign in Illinois. After the election, McKinley appointed Dawes as the [[Office of the Comptroller of the Currency|Comptroller of the Currency]]. He remained in that position until 1901 before forming the Central Trust Company of Illinois. Dawes served as a general during [[World War I]] and was the chairman of the general purchasing board for the [[American Expeditionary Forces]]. In 1921, President [[Warren G. Harding]] appointed Dawes as the first director of the [[Office of Management and Budget|Bureau of the Budget]]. Dawes served on the Allied Reparations Commission, where he helped formulate the Dawes Plan to aid the struggling [[Weimar Republic|German]] economy.

The [[1924 Republican National Convention]] nominated President [[Calvin Coolidge]] without opposition. After former governor of Illinois [[Frank O. Lowden]] declined the vice-presidential nomination, the convention chose Dawes as Coolidge's running mate. The Republican ticket won the [[1924 United States presidential election|1924 presidential election]], and Dawes was sworn in as vice president in 1925. Dawes helped pass the [[McNary–Haugen Farm Relief Bill]] in Congress, but President Coolidge vetoed it. Dawes was a candidate for renomination at the [[1928 Republican National Convention]], but Coolidge's opposition to Dawes helped ensure that [[Charles Curtis]] was nominated instead. In 1929, President [[Herbert Hoover]] appointed Dawes to be the [[United States ambassador to the United Kingdom|ambassador to the United Kingdom]]. Dawes also briefly led the [[Reconstruction Finance Corporation]], which organized a government response to the [[Great Depression in the United States|Great Depression]]. He resigned from that position in 1932 to return to banking, and died in 1951 of [[coronary thrombosis]].

== Early life and family ==
[[File:Rufus Dawes House, 4th Street, Marietta, OH.jpg|left|thumb|Dawes' boyhood home in Marietta, Ohio.]]Dawes was born in [[Marietta, Ohio]], in [[Washington County, OH|Washington County]], on August 27, 1865, the son of [[American Civil War|Civil War]] General [[Rufus Dawes]] and his wife Mary Beman Gates.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Dunlap |first=Annette B. |title=Charles Gates Dawes: a Life |publisher=Northwestern University Press and the Evanston History Center |date=2016 |isbn=978-0-8101-3419-5 |page=12}}</ref> Rufus had commanded the 6th Wisconsin Regiment of the [[Iron Brigade]] from 1863 to 1864 during the [[American Civil War]]. His uncle [[Ephraim C. Dawes]] was a major who served under [[Ulysses S. Grant]] at the [[Battle of Shiloh|Shiloh]] and [[Siege of Vicksburg]], and was severely wounded at the [[Battle of Dallas]], [[Georgia (U.S. state)|Georgia]], in May 1864.<ref>Magnusen, Steve – cite book title: To My Best Girl, 2020, GoToPublish.</ref>

Dawes's brothers were [[Rufus C. Dawes]], [[Beman Gates Dawes]], and [[Henry May Dawes]], all prominent businessmen or politicians. He had two sisters, Mary Frances Dawes Beach, and Betsey Gates Dawes Hoyt.<ref>Gates Dawes Ancestral Lines</ref>

Dawes was a descendant of [[Edward Doty]], a passenger on the ''[[Mayflower]]'', and [[William Dawes]] who rode with [[Paul Revere]] to warn American colonists of the advancing British army at the outbreak of the [[American Revolution]].

Dawes married [[Caro Blymyer]] on January 24, 1889.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.adherents.com/people/pd/Charles_Dawes.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060215120733/http://www.adherents.com/people/pd/Charles_Dawes.html |url-status=usurped |archive-date=February 15, 2006 |title=The religion of Charles G. Dawes, U.S. Vice-President |website=adherents.com |access-date=June 7, 2018}}</ref> They had a son, Rufus Fearing (1890–1912), and a daughter, Carolyn. They later adopted two children, Dana and Virginia.<ref name="Davis" />

== Education ==
He graduated from [[Marietta College]] in 1884<ref name="auto">{{Cite book |last=Dunlap |first=Annette B. |title=Charles Gates Dawes: a Life |page=17}}</ref> and [[Cincinnati Law School]] in 1886.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Dunlap |first=Annette B. |title=Charles Gates Dawes: a Life |page=18}}</ref> His fraternity was [[Delta Upsilon]].<ref>{{cite magazine |editor-last=Johnson |editor-first=Rossiter |date=February 1884 |title=Alumni of Delta U |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gwwUAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA48 |magazine=The Delta Upsilon Quarterly |location=Indianapolis, IN |publisher=Delta Upsilon Fraternity |page=48 |via=[[Google Books]]}}</ref>

== Early business career ==
[[File:Dawes 1.JPG|thumb|From 1909 to 1951, Charles G. Dawes lived in this [[Charles G. Dawes House|house]] at 225 Greenwood St. in [[Evanston, Illinois]], which was built in 1894 by Robert Sheppard. The house is a [[National Historic Landmark]].]]
Dawes was admitted to the bar in [[Nebraska]], and he practiced in [[Lincoln, Nebraska]], from 1887 to 1894.<ref name="auto" /><ref>{{Cite book |last=Dunlap |first=Annette B. |title=Charles Gates Dawes: a Life |pages=20–38}}</ref> When Lieutenant [[John Pershing]], the future army general, was military instructor at the [[University of Nebraska–Lincoln|University of Nebraska]] he and Dawes met and formed a lifelong friendship.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Dunlap |first=Annette B. |title=Charles Gates Dawes: a Life |pages=24–25}}</ref> Pershing also received a law degree at Nebraska and proposed leaving the army to go into private practice with Dawes, who cautioned him against giving up the regular army pay for the uncertainty of legal remuneration.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Smythe |first=Donald |title=Guerrilla Warrior: The Early Life of John J. Pershing |publisher=Charles Scribner's Sons |year=1973 |page=34}}</ref> Dawes also met [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democratic]] Congressman [[William Jennings Bryan]]. The two became friends despite their disagreement over [[free silver]] policies.<ref name="dawesvp1" />

Dawes relocated from Lincoln to [[Chicago]] during the [[Panic of 1893]].<ref name="dawesvp1">{{cite web |title=Charles G. Dawes, 30th Vice President (1925–1929) |url=https://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/common/generic/VP_Charles_Dawes.htm |website=US Senate |access-date=February 2, 2017 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141106112435/https://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/common/generic/VP_Charles_Dawes.htm |archive-date=November 6, 2014}}</ref> In 1894, Dawes acquired interests in several Midwestern gas plants. He became the president of both the La Crosse Gas Light Company in [[La Crosse, Wisconsin]], and the Northwestern Gas Light and Coke Company in [[Evanston, Illinois]].<ref name="Davis">{{cite book |last1=Davis |first1=Henry Blaine Jr. |title=Generals in Khaki |date=1998 |publisher=Pentland Press, Inc. |location=Raleigh, NC |isbn=1-57197-088-6 |page=103}}</ref>

== Interest in music ==

Dawes was a self-taught [[pianist]], [[Western concert flute|flutist]] and composer. His composition ''Melody in A Major'' became a well-known [[piano]] and [[violin]] piece in 1912.<ref>Dawes, Charles Gates. ''Melody [in A major] for violin with piano acc''. Chicago: Gamble Hinged Music, 1912. {{OCLC|21885776}}</ref> Marie Edwards made a popular arrangement of the work in 1921.<ref>Dawes, Charles Gates, and [[Marie Edwards]]. ''Melody''. Chicago, Ill: Gamble Hinged Music Co, 1921. {{OCLC|10115887}}</ref> Also, in 1921, it was arranged for a small orchestra by [[Adolf G. Hoffmann]].<ref>Dawes, Charles Gates, and Adolf G. Hoffmann. ''Melody, small orchestra''. Chicago: Gamble Hinged Music Co, 1921. {{OCLC|46679677}}</ref> ''Melody in A Major'' was played at many official functions that Dawes attended.<ref name="popularsong.org">{{Cite web |url=http://www.popularsong.org/forgotten-gem13.html |title=Archived copy |access-date=January 26, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150726153712/http://www.popularsong.org/forgotten-gem13.html |archive-date=July 26, 2015 |url-status=dead}}</ref>

In 1951, [[Carl Sigman]] added lyrics to ''Melody in A Major'', transforming it into the song "[[It's All in the Game (song)|It's All in the Game]]".<ref name="popularsong.org" /> [[Tommy Edwards]]'s recording of "It's All in the Game" was a number-one hit on the American ''[[Billboard Hot 100|Billboard]]'' record chart for six weeks in 1958.<ref>Joel Whitburn, ''The Billboard Book of Top 40 Hits'', revised and enlarged 6th edition (New York: Billboard Publications, 1996), 201.</ref> Edwards's version of the song became number one on the United Kingdom chart that year.<ref>(Hatfield 1997: 360)</ref>

Since then, it has become a pop standard. Numerous artists have recorded versions, including [[Cliff Richard]], [[the Four Tops]], [[Isaac Hayes]], [[Jackie DeShannon]], [[Van Morrison]], [[Nat "King" Cole]], [[Brook Benton]], and [[Keith Jarrett]].{{citation needed|date=August 2025}}

Dawes is the only U.S. vice president to be credited with a number-one pop hit.<ref name="popularsong.org" /> Dawes and [[Bob Dylan]] (as a writer) are the only persons credited with a number-one pop hit to have also won a Nobel Prize.{{efn|Dylan, who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2016, wrote "[[Mr. Tambourine Man]]", a No. 1 hit for [[the Byrds]].}}

Dawes was a brother of [[Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://mentalfloss.com/article/28528/vice-president-who-wrote-hit-song |title=The Vice President Who Wrote a Hit Song |date=August 16, 2011}}</ref>

== Early political career ==
Dawes's prominent positions in business caught the attention of Republican party leaders. They asked Dawes to manage the Illinois portion of [[William McKinley]]'s bid for the [[President of the United States|Presidency of the United States]] in [[1896 United States presidential election|1896]].<ref>Davis, Jr., Henry Blaine (1998). ''Generals in Khaki''. Pentland Press, Inc. p. 81. {{ISBN|1571970886}}. {{OCLC|40298151}}</ref> Following McKinley's election, Dawes was named [[Comptroller of the Currency]], [[United States Department of the Treasury]]. Serving in that position from 1898 to 1901, he collected more than $25&nbsp;million from banks that had failed during the [[Panic of 1893]] and changed banking practices to try to prevent another panic.{{citation needed|date=January 2017}}

In October 1901, Dawes left the Department of the Treasury to pursue a U.S. Senate seat from Illinois. He thought that, with the help of the McKinley Administration, he could win it. McKinley was assassinated and his successor, President [[Theodore Roosevelt]], preferred Dawes's opponent, [[Albert J. Hopkins]].<ref>(Waller 1998: 274)</ref> In 1902, following this unsuccessful attempt at legislative office, Dawes declared that he was done with politics. He organized the Central Trust Company of Illinois, where he served as its president until 1921.<ref name="Davis" />

On September 5, 1912, Dawes's 21-year-old son Rufus drowned in [[Geneva Lake]],<ref>{{cite web |url=http://evanstonhistorycenter.org/charles-gates-dawes-timeline/ |title=Charles Gates Dawes Timeline – Evanston History Center |access-date=January 26, 2017 |archive-date=January 9, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210109143813/https://www.evanstonhistorycenter.org/charles-gates-dawes-timeline/ |url-status=dead}}</ref> while on summer break from [[Princeton University]]. In his memory, Dawes created [[homeless shelter]]s in both [[Chicago]] and [[Boston]]<ref name="The National Magazine">{{cite journal |title=Let's Talk It Over |journal=[[The National Magazine]] |volume=46 |issue=September |page=905 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TstOAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA905 |access-date=January 26, 2017 |year=1917}}</ref> and financed the construction of a dormitory at his son's alma mater, the [[Lawrenceville School]] in [[Lawrenceville, New Jersey]].<ref>[https://www.nytimes.com/1929/11/29/archives/dawes-house-dedicated-lawrenceville-school-building-partly-financed.html "Dawes House Dedicated.; Lawrenceville School Building Partly Financed by Ambassador"]. ''[[The New York Times]]''. November 29, 1929.</ref>

== World War I ==
[[File:Brig. Gen. C. G. Dawes NARA - 55209476 (cropped 2).jpg|thumb|left|upright|Dawes in uniform, 1918]]
Dawes helped support the first [[Anglo-French Financial Commission|Anglo-French Loan]] to the [[Entente Cordiale|Entente powers]] of $500&nbsp;million. Dawes's support was important because the [[House of Morgan]] needed public support from a non-Morgan banker. The Morgan banker [[Thomas W. Lamont]] said that Dawes's support would "make a position for him in the banking world such as he otherwise could never hope to make".<ref>[https://mises.org/journals/jls/19_1/19_1_4.pdf ''Merchants of Death Revisited''] [[Mises Institute]] p. 61</ref> (Loans were seen as possibly violating neutrality, and Wilson was still resisting permitting loans.)

During WWI, Dawes was commissioned as a major on June 11, 1917, in the 17th Engineers. He was subsequently promoted to lieutenant colonel (July 17, 1917), and colonel (January 16, 1918). In October 1918, he was promoted to brigadier general.<ref>''The New York Times''.  October 4, 1918.</ref> From August 1917 to August 1919, Dawes served in France during WWI as chairman of the general purchasing board for the American Expeditionary Forces (AEF). His proposal to Gen. Pershing was adopted informed the [[Military Board of Allied Supply]], on which he served as the American delegate in 1918. When the war ended in November, he became a member of the Liquidation Commission of the [[United States War Department]]. He was decorated with the [[Distinguished Service Medal (U.S. Army)|Distinguished Service Medal]]<ref>{{cite web |url=http://valor.militarytimes.com/recipient.php?recipientid=17453 |title=Valor awards for Charles G. Dawes}}</ref> and the French {{lang|fr|[[Croix de Guerre]] | italic=no}} in recognition of his service. He returned to the US aboard the [[SS Leviathan|SS ''Leviathan'']] in August 1919.<ref>''The New York Times''.  August 7, 1919.</ref> Dawes published a memoir of his World War I service, ''A Journal of the Great War'', 1921.

In February 1921, the U.S. Senate held hearings on war expenditures. During heated testimony, Dawes burst out, "Hell and Maria, we weren't trying to keep a set of books over there, we were trying to win a war!"<ref>{{cite book |last=Dunlap |first=Annette B. |title=Charles Dawes Gates: a Life |page=144}}</ref> He was later known as "Hell and Maria Dawes" (although he always insisted the expression was "Helen Maria", an exclamation he claimed was common in Nebraska).<ref>{{cite web |title=Vice President Dawes |url=https://forbeslibrary.org/blog/2014/06/16/vice-president-dawes/ |website=Forbes Library |access-date=July 12, 2018}}</ref> Dawes resigned from the Army in 1919<ref name="Davis" /> and became a member of the [[American Legion]].

== 1920s: Financing Europe and the Nobel Peace Prize ==
He supported [[Frank O. Lowden]] at the [[1920 Republican National Convention]], but the presidential nomination went to [[Warren G. Harding]].<ref name="dawesvp1" /> When the [[United States Office of Management and Budget|Bureau of the Budget]] was created, he was appointed in 1921 by President Harding as its first director. Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover appointed him to the Allied Reparations Commission in 1923. Dawes chaired the group that devised the solution to the European crisis: through the [[Dawes Plan]], American banks loaned large sums of money to Germany. The loans helped Germany's industrial production to recover and the government to make reparation payments to France and Belgium as required by the [[Versailles Treaty]]. France and Belgium in turn agreed to withdraw the troops that had been [[Occupation of the Ruhr|occupying the Ruhr]] since January 1923. In 1929 the Reparations Commission under [[Owen Young]] replaced the plan with the more permanent [[Young Plan]], which reduced the total amount of reparations and called for the removal of [[Occupation of the Rhineland|occupying forces from the Rhineland]].<ref>Dunlap, pp. 214–15.</ref><ref>Stephen A. Schuker, ''The End of French Predominance in Europe: The Financial Crisis of 1924 and the Adoption of the Dawes Plan'' (U of North Carolina Press, 1976).</ref> For his work on the Dawes Plan and the resulting reduction of tensions between France and Germany, Dawes shared the [[Nobel Peace Prize]] in 1925.<ref name="Davis" /><ref>{{Cite web |title=Charles G. Dawes |url=https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/peace/1925/dawes/facts/ |access-date=October 20, 2023 |website=The Nobel Prize}}</ref>

== Vice presidency (1925–1929) ==
[[File:Coolidge-Dawes.jpg|thumb|right|upright|Dawes (right) and [[Calvin Coolidge]]]]

{{blockquote |I should hate to think that the Senate was as tired of me at the beginning of my service as I am of the Senate at the end.|Charles G. Dawes<ref name="Hatfield">Hatfield, M. O. (1997). Vice Presidents of the United States, 1789–1993. Senate Historical Office. Washington: United States Government Printing Office</ref>}}

At the [[1924 Republican National Convention]], President [[Calvin Coolidge]] was selected almost without opposition to be the Republican presidential nominee.<ref name="Hatfield1997">Hatfield 1997: 363</ref> The vice-presidential nominee was more contested. Governor Lowden was nominated, but declined. Coolidge's next choice was Idaho Senator [[William Borah]], who also declined the nomination. The Republican National Chairman, William Butler, wanted to nominate then-Commerce Secretary [[Herbert Hoover]], but he was insufficiently popular. Eventually, the delegates chose Dawes. Coolidge quickly accepted the delegates' choice and felt that Dawes would be loyal to him and make a strong addition to his campaign.<ref name="Hatfield1997" />

Dawes traveled throughout the country during the campaign, giving speeches to bolster the Republican ticket. On August 22, Dawes would appear at a rally located in [[Augusta, Maine]] on the behalf of Republican candidate for Governor [[Ralph Owen Brewster]], who was accused by his opponent [[William Robinson Pattangall]] of being backed by the [[Ku Klux Klan]] and having sympathies for them. Dawes, who was challenged by Pattangall to talk on the issue, gave a speech attacking the Klan and its religious and racial prejudice rhetoric (Dawes was however careful on how he talked about race).<ref>{{Cite book |last=Dunlap |first=Annette |title=Charles Gates Dawes: A Life |date=September 15, 2016 |publisher=Northwestern University Press |isbn=978-0-8101-3419-5 |pages=192–195}}</ref> He frequently attacked [[Progressive Party (United States, 1924–1934)|Progressive]] nominee [[Robert M. La Follette]] as a dangerous radical who sympathized with the [[Bolsheviks]].<ref name="dawesvp1" /> The Coolidge-Dawes ticket was elected on November 4, 1924, with more popular votes than the candidates of the Democratic and Progressive parties combined.<ref>Hatfield 1997: 364</ref> The inauguration was held on March 4, 1925.<ref name="AFR">{{cite book |title=American Foreign Relations, A History |page=193 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rgnm9C5u1DMC&pg=PT193 |access-date=January 26, 2017 |isbn=978-1-61906-664-9 |last1=Reviews |first1=C.T.I |date=October 16, 2016}}{{dead link|date=September 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref>

=== Speech to Senate ===
When Dawes took the oath on March 4, he would take action and infamously go on a tangent against the Senate's [[filibuster]]. In the speech, Dawes criticized rule XXII, calling it "undemocratic" and noted how it was easily taken advantage of due to its two-thirds voting procedure. Through most of the speech, Dawes pointed at specific senators and repeatedly slammed his fist on a table. [[William Howard Taft|Chief Justice William Howard Taft]] wrote to his son that the vice president had "made a monkey out of himself." Alongside annoying the entire Senate with a speech that left many shocked, Dawes ended up irritating them again that same day, by having the senators be sworn in one by one (usually they would take the oath in groups). Dawes would end up stealing the thunder from Coolidge that day. With many in the press afterwards making a joke out of Dawes, Coolidge was very upset with how the vice president was starting off his term.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Dunlap |first=Annette |title=Charles Gates Dawes: A Life |date=September 15, 2016 |publisher=Northwestern University Press |isbn=978-0-8101-3419-5 |pages=202–204}}</ref>

=== Nomination of Charles B. Warren ===
On March 10, the Senate debated the president's nomination of [[Charles B. Warren]] to be [[United States Attorney General]]. In the wake of the [[Teapot Dome scandal]] and other scandals, Democrats and Progressive Republicans objected to the nomination because of Warren's close association with the [[American Sugar Refining Company|Sugar Trust]]. At midday, six speakers were scheduled to address Warren's nomination. Desiring to take a break for a nap, Dawes consulted the majority and minority leaders, who assured him that no vote would be taken that afternoon. After Dawes left the Senate, all but one of the scheduled speakers decided against making formal remarks, and a vote was taken. When it became apparent that the vote would be tied, Republican leaders hastily called Dawes at the Willard Hotel, and he immediately left for the Capitol. The first vote was 40-40, a tie which Dawes could have broken in Warren's favor. While waiting for Dawes to arrive, the only Democratic senator who had voted for Warren switched his vote. The nomination then failed 41-39—the first such rejection of a president's nominee in nearly 60 years.<ref name="Hatfield" /> This incident was chronicled in a derisive poem, based on the Longfellow poem "[[Paul Revere's Ride]]"; it began with the line, "Come gather round children and hold your applause for the afternoon ride of Charlie Dawes." The choice of poem was based on Charles Dawes being descended from [[William Dawes]], who rode with Paul Revere.{{citation needed|date=January 2017}}

Dawes and Coolidge became alienated from one another. Dawes declined to attend Cabinet meetings and annoyed Coolidge with his attack on the Senate [[filibuster in the United States Senate|filibuster]]. Dawes championed the [[McNary–Haugen Farm Relief Bill]], which sought to alleviate the [[1920s farm crisis]] by having the government buy surplus farm produce and sell that surplus in foreign markets. Dawes helped ensure the passage of the bill through Congress, but President Coolidge vetoed it.<ref name="dawesvp1" />

In 1927, Coolidge announced that he would not seek re-election. Dawes again favored Frank Lowden at the [[1928 Republican National Convention]], but the convention chose [[Herbert Hoover]].<ref name="dawesvp1" /> Rumors circulated about Dawes being chosen as Hoover's running mate. Coolidge made it known that he would consider the renomination of Dawes as vice president to be an insult. [[Charles Curtis]] of Kansas, known for his skills in collaboration, was chosen as Hoover's running mate.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Mencken |first=Henry Louis |author-link1=H. L. Mencken |author2=George Jean Nathan |author-link2=George Jean Nathan |title=The American Mercury |year=1929 |page=404}}</ref>

== Post-vice presidency (1929–1951) ==

=== Court of St. James's and the RFC ===
After Dawes completed his term as vice president, he served as the [[U.S. Ambassador to the United Kingdom]] (known formally as the [[Court of St. James's]]) from 1929 to 1931.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Dunlap |first=Annette B. |title=Charles Gates Dawes: a Life |pages=221–44}}</ref> Overall, Dawes was an effective ambassador, as [[George V]]'s son, the future [[Edward VIII]], later confirmed in his memoirs.{{Citation needed|date=October 2009}} Dawes was rather rough-hewn for some of his duties, disliking presenting American débutantes to the King. On his first visit to the royal court, in deference to American public opinion, he refused to wear the customary Court dress, which then included knee breeches. This episode was said to upset the King, who had been prevented by illness from attending the event.

As the [[Great Depression]] continued to ravage the US, Dawes accepted President [[Herbert Hoover]]'s appeal to leave diplomatic office and head the newly created [[Reconstruction Finance Corporation]] (RFC). After a few months, Dawes resigned from the RFC. As chairman of the failing Central Republic Bank and Trust Company of Chicago, he felt obligated to work for its rescue. Political opponents alleged that, under Dawes's leadership, the RFC had given preferential treatment to his bank. This marked the end of Dawes's career in public service. For the [[1932 United States presidential election|1932 election]], Hoover considered the possibility of adding Dawes to the ticket in place of Curtis, but Dawes declined the potential offer.<ref name="witcover">{{cite book |last1=Witcover |first1=Jules |title=The American Vice Presidency |date=2014 |publisher=Smithsonian Books |page=296}}</ref>

Later in 1932, Dawes and associates formed the City National Bank and Trust Co. to take over the deposits of the failed Central Republic Bank and Trust Company.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1932/10/07/archives/dawess-new-bank-opens-in-chicago-city-national-and-trust-has.html |title=Dawes's New Bank Opens in Chicago; City National and Trust Has $4,000,000 Capital and $1,000,000 Surplus. In Old Bank's Offices Institution Formed by Taking Over Some Departments of Central Republic |date=October 7, 1932 |work=The New York Times}}</ref> In 1936, Republican congressional leaders informally approached Dawes about the possibility of heading up their presidential ticket at [[1936 United States presidential election|that year's presidential election]], hoping for a candidate associated with the prosperous Coolidge years, but Dawes had no interest in returning to front-line politics; the (ultimately unsuccessful) ticket would instead be headed by [[Alf Landon]].<ref name="witcover" />

== Later life ==
[[File:Grave of Charles Gates Dawes (1865–1951) and Caro Dana Dawes (1866–1957) at Rosehill Cemetery, Chicago.jpg|thumb|right|150px|Dawes mausoleum at Rosehill Cemetery]]

Dawes served for nearly two decades as chairman of the board of City National from 1932 until his death.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=d000147 |title=Dawes, Charles Gates – Biographical Information |website=Biographical Directory of the United States Congress |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/19990915010440/http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=D000147 |archive-date=September 15, 1999 |url-status=dead |access-date=January 17, 2018}}</ref> He died on April 23, 1951, at his Evanston home from [[coronary thrombosis]] at the age of 85.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://archives.chicagotribune.com/1951/04/24/page/1/article/charles-g-dawes-ex-vice-president-dies |title=Charles G. Dawes, Ex-Vice President, Dies (April 24, 1951) |date=September 15, 2023}}</ref> He is interred in [[Rosehill Cemetery, Chicago|Rosehill Cemetery]], Chicago.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-famous-people-buried-in-chicago-htmlstory.html |title=Buried in Chicago: Where the famous rest in peace |first=Kori |last=Rumore |website=[[Chicago Tribune]] |date=October 4, 2022}}</ref>

== Personal life ==
Dawes belonged to several lineage societies and veterans' organizations. He became a First Class Companion of the Illinois Commandery of the [[Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States]] in succession to his father, who died in 1899.  He also belonged to the [[Sons of the American Revolution]], [[General Society of Colonial Wars]], [[American Legion]], and [[Forty and Eight]].<ref>{{cite magazine |author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> |date=September 18, 1925 |title=The What and the Why of the Forty and Eight |url=https://archive.org/details/americanlegionwe738amer/page/n5/mode/2up |magazine=The American Legion Weekly |volume=7 |number=38 |location=Indianapolis, Indiana |publisher=[[American Legion|The American Legion]] |page=7 |issn=0886-1234 |via=[[Internet Archive]]}}</ref>
Dawes was also a member of the [[Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company of Massachusetts]] from 1925 until his death in 1951<ref>History of the AHAC, Boston, MA (membership roles and accession card)</ref>

== Honors ==
* In 1925, Dawes was a co-winner of the [[Nobel Peace Prize]] for his work on WWI reparations.<ref>{{cite book |last=Dunlap |first=Annette B. |title=Charles Gates Dawes: a Life |pages=178–79}}</ref>
A Chicago public school located at 3810 W 81st Place is named in his honor, as are an Evanston public school at 440 Dodge Avenue and Evanston's Dawes Park at 1700 Sheridan Road.

=== United States military awards ===
* [[Distinguished Service Medal (U.S. Army)|Distinguished Service Medal]]
* [[World War I Victory Medal (United States)|World War I Victory Medal]]

Distinguished Service Medal citation:
{{blockquote |The President of the United States of America, authorized by Act of Congress, July 9, 1918, takes pleasure in presenting the Army Distinguished Service Medal to Brigadier General Charles G. Dawes, United States Army, for exceptionally meritorious and distinguished services to the Government of the United States, in a duty of great responsibility during World War I. General Dawes rendered most conspicuous services in the organization of the General Purchasing Board as General Purchasing Agent of the American Expeditionary Forces and as the Representative of the U.S. Army on the Military Board of Allied Supply. His rare abilities, sound business judgment, and aggressive energy were invaluable in securing needed supplies for the Allied armies in Europe.  (War Department, General Orders No. 12 (1919))}}

=== Foreign honors ===
* Companion of the [[Order of the Bath]] (United Kingdom)
* Commander of the [[Legion of Honor]] (France)
* Commander of the [[Order of Leopold (Belgium)|Order of Leopold]] (Belgium)
* [[Croix de Guerre]] with palm (France)

== Legacy ==
According to Annette Dunlap, Dawes was:
{{blockquote |a self-made man who valued hard work and thriftiness tempered with Christian generosity. He spent his life promoting solid Republican values of small government with restrained budgets. Franklin Roosevelt's philosophy of big government spending was anathema to him.<ref>Cited in ''[[Indiana Magazine of History]]'', (2018) 114(1) p. 76.</ref>}}

In 1944, he bequeathed his lakeshore home in Evanston to [[Northwestern University]] for the Evanston Historical Society (later renamed the Evanston History Center). Dawes lived in the house until his death. The Dawes family continued to occupy it until the death of Mrs. Dawes in 1957. Since then, the Evanston History Center operates out of the house and manages it as a museum. Designated a [[National Historic Landmark]], the [[Charles G. Dawes House]] is listed on the [[National Register of Historic Places]].

== Selected writings ==
* Dawes, C. G. (1894). [https://archive.org/details/bankingsystemofu00daweuoft ''The Banking System of the United States and Its Relation to the Money and the Business of the Country'']. Chicago: Rand McNally.
* ———— [https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/25105607.pdf "The Sherman Anti-Trust Law: Why It has Failed and Why It Should Be Amended"]. ''The North American Review'' 183.597 (1906): 189–194.
* ———— (1915). ''Essays and Speeches''. New York: Houghton.
* ———— (1921). ''Journal of the Great War''. 2 vols. New York: Houghton. [https://archive.org/details/ajournalgreatwa02goog online copy vol 1]; also [https://archive.org/details/ajournalgreatwa03dawegoog online copy v2]
* ———— (1923). ''The First Year of the Budget of the United States''. New York: Harper. [https://books.google.com/books?id=gP5AAAAAIAAJ&dq=charles+dawes+&pg=PA5 online copy]
* ———— (1935). ''Notes as Vice President, 1928–1929''. Boston: Little, Brown. [https://archive.org/details/notesasvicepresi007541mbp online copy]
* ———— (1937). ''How Long Prosperity?'' New York: Marquis.
* ———— (1939). ''Journal as Ambassador to Great Britain''. New York: Macmillan. [https://archive.org/details/journalasambassa0000unse online copy]
* ———— (1939). ''A Journal of Reparations''. New York: Macmillan. [https://archive.org/details/journalofreparat00char online copy]
* ———— (1950). ''A Journal of the McKinley Years''. [[Bascom N. Timmons]] (Ed.). La Grange, IL: Tower.

== See also ==
* [[List of covers of Time magazine (1920s)|List of covers of ''Time'' magazine (1920s)]] – December 14, 1925
* [[List of members of the American Legion]]

== Notes ==
{{notelist}}

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

== Bibliography ==
{{Refbegin}}
* {{Cite book |last=Dunlap |first=Annette B. |title=Charles Gates Dawes: a Life |publisher=Northwestern University Press and the Evanston History Center |date=2016 |isbn=978-0-8101-3419-5}} [https://scholarworks.iu.edu/journals/index.php/imh/article/view/29557/34172 online review of scholarly biography]
* Goedeken, Edward A. "Charles Dawes and the Military Board of Allied Supply". ''Journal of Military History'' 50.1 (1986): 1–6.
* {{cite journal |last1=Goedecken |first1=Edward A. |title=A Banker at War: The World War I Experiences of Charles Gates Dawes |journal=Illinois Historical Journal |year=1985 |volume=78 |issue=3 |pages=195–206 |jstor=40191858}}
* {{cite journal |last1=Goedecken |first1=Edward |title=Charles G. Dawes Establishes the Bureau of the Budget, 1921–1922 |journal=The Historian |date=November 1987 |volume=50 |issue=1 |pages=40–53 |doi=10.1111/j.1540-6563.1987.tb00734.x |jstor=24446946}}
* Haberman, F. W. (Ed.). (1972). ''Nobel Lectures, Peace 1901–1925.'' Amsterdam: [[Elsevier]] Publishing.
* {{cite web |url=https://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/resources/pdf/charles_dawes.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/https://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/resources/pdf/charles_dawes.pdf |archive-date=October 9, 2022 |url-status=live |title=Vice Presidents of the United States Charles G. Dawes (1925–1929) |first=Mark O. |last=Hatfield |publisher=U.S. Government Printing Office |year=1997}}
* Pixton, John E. "Charles G. Dawes and the McKinley Campaign". ''Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society'' 48.3 (1955): 283–306.
* Pixton, J. E. (1952). ''The Early Career of Charles G. Dawes.'' Chicago: [[University of Chicago Press]].
* {{cite journal |last1=Sherman |first1=Richard G. |title=Charles G Dawes, a Nebraska Businessman, 1887–1894: The Making of an Entrepreneur |journal=Nebraska History |year=1965 |volume=46 |pages=193–207 |url=https://history.nebraska.gov/sites/history.nebraska.gov/files/doc/publications/NH1965CGDawes.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/https://history.nebraska.gov/sites/history.nebraska.gov/files/doc/publications/NH1965CGDawes.pdf |archive-date=October 9, 2022 |url-status=live}}* Timmons, B. N. (1953). ''Portrait of an American: Charles G. Dawes.'' New York: Holt; popular biography [https://archive.org/details/portraitofanamer008132mbp online copy]
* Waller, R. A.  (1998). ''The Vice Presidents: A Biographical Dictionary.'' Purcell, L. E. (Ed.). New York: Facts On File.
* {{cite book |last=Davis |first=Henry Blaine Jr. |title=Generals in Khaki |publisher=Pentland Press |location=Raleigh, NC |year=1998 |isbn=1-57197-088-6 |oclc=40298151}}
* {{cite book |title=Pershing's Lieutenants: American Military Leadership in World War I |date=2020 |editor1-last=Zabecki |editor1-first=David T. |editor-link1=David T. Zabecki |editor2-last=Mastriano |editor2-first=Douglas V. |editor2-link=Doug Mastriano |location=New York, NY |publisher=Osprey Publishing |isbn=978-1-4728-3863-6}}
{{Refend}}

== External links ==
{{Commons category}}
* {{Nobelprize}}
* [http://files.library.northwestern.edu/spec/Dawes%20register.pdf "Charles G. Dawes Archive"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200730122407/https://files.library.northwestern.edu/spec/Dawes%20register.pdf |date=July 30, 2020 }} Finding aid for the Charles G. Dawes archival collection
* [http://www.evanstonhistorycenter.org/ Evanston History Center], headquartered in the lakefront Dawes house
* {{CongBio|D000147}}. Retrieved 2009-05-14
* [https://archive.org/details/notesasvicepresi007541mbp ''Notes As Vice President 1928–1929'' by Charles G. Dawes]
* [[iarchive:portraitofanamer008132mbp|''Portrait of an American'' by Charles G. Dawes]]
* {{PM20}}
* [http://digital2.library.ucla.edu/viewItem.do?ark=21198/zz002dcvsz Image of Vice President Charles Dawes during a visit to Los Angeles, 1925.] ''[[Los Angeles Times]]'' Photographic Archive (Collection 1429). UCLA Library Special Collections, [[Charles E. Young Research Library]], [[University of California, Los Angeles]].

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