Josephus Daniels
| Josephus Daniels | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| 41st United States Secretary of the Navy | |
|
In office March 5, 1913 – March 4, 1921 |
|
| President | Woodrow Wilson |
| Deputy |
Franklin D. Roosevelt (1913-1920) Gordon Woodbury (1920-1921) |
| Preceded by | George von L. Meyer |
| Succeeded by | Edwin Denby |
| 10th United States Ambassador to Mexico | |
|
In office March 17, 1933 – November 9, 1941 |
|
| President | Franklin D. Roosevelt |
| Preceded by | J. Reuben Clark, Jr. |
| Succeeded by | George S. Messersmith |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
May 18, 1862 Washington, North Carolina |
| Died | January 15, 1948 (aged 85) Raleigh, North Carolina, U.S. |
| Political party | Democratic |
| Spouse(s) | Addie Worth Bagley Daniels |
| Alma mater |
Duke University University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill |
| Profession | Politician, Publisher |
Josephus Daniels (May 18, 1862 – January 15, 1948) was a progressive Democrat, and newspaper editor and publisher from North Carolina who was appointed by United States President Woodrow Wilson to serve as Secretary of the Navy during World War I. He was also a close friend and supporter of President Franklin D. Roosevelt and served as his Ambassador to Mexico, 1933-41.
He was a newspaper editor and publisher from the 1880s to his death; most famously at the Raleigh News and Observer. As Secretary of the Navy, he handled formalities in World War I while his top aide Franklin Delano Roosevelt, handled the major wartime decisions. As ambassador to Mexico, he dealt with the anti-American government and its expropriation of American oil investments. At the state level he was a leading progressive, supporting public schools and public works, and calling for more regulation of trusts and railroads. He supported prohibition and women's suffrage, and used his newspapers to support the regular Democratic Party ticket. He opposed the Ku Klux Klan, but was a longtime champion of white supremacy, arguing that as long as African Americans had political power they would block progressive reforms.
Josephus Daniels was born to a shipbuilder in Washington, North Carolina, a state which had seceded from the Union in 1861. Before he was 3, his father was killed by a Confederate sharpshooter, because of his well-known Union sympathies. The father was attempting to leave with Federal forces evacuating Washington, N.C. during the Civil War. Young Daniels then moved with his widowed mother and two siblings to Wilson, North Carolina. He was educated at Wilson Collegiate Institute and at Trinity College (now Duke University). He edited and eventually purchased a local newspaper, the Wilson Advance. Within a few years, he became part owner of the Kinston Free Press and the Rocky Mount Reporter. He studied law at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and was admitted to the bar in 1885, but did not practice law. After becoming increasingly involved in the North Carolina Democratic Party and taking over the weekly paper Daily State Chronicle, he was North Carolina's state printer in 1887-93 and chief clerk of the Federal Department of the Interior under Grover Cleveland in 1893-95.
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