Sherman Adams: Difference between revisions

|office1 = 67th [[Governor of New Hampshire]]

'''Llewelyn Sherman Adams''' (January 8, 1899 – October 27, 1986) was an American businessman and politician, best known as [[White House Chief of Staff]] for President [[Dwight D. Eisenhower]], the culmination of an 18-year political career that also included a stint as the 67th [[Governorgovernor of New Hampshire]]. He lost his White House position in a scandal when he accepted an expensive [[vicuña wool|vicuña]] coat.<ref>Eleanora W. Schoenebaum, ed., ''Political Profiles: The Eisenhower Years'' (1977), pp. 4–7.</ref>

Born in [[East Dover, Vermont]] to [[grocer]] Clyde H. Adams and Winnie Marion Sherman,<ref>{{cite web|url=https://doi.org/10.1093/anb/9780198606697.article.0700418 |title=Adams, Sherman Llewelyn |last=Birkner |first=Michael J. |website=American National Biography |year=2000 |publisher=Oxford University Press |doi=10.1093/anb/9780198606697.article.0700418 |access-date=August 26, 2022}}</ref> Adams was educated in public schools in [[Providence, Rhode Island]], graduating from [[Hope High School (Rhode Island)|Hope High School]]. He received an undergraduate degree from [[Dartmouth College]] (1920), having taken time off briefly for a six-month [[World War I]] stint in the [[United States Marine Corps]]. While at Dartmouth, Adams helped found Cabin and Trail,<ref>{{cite web | url=https://outdoors.dartmouth.edu/doc/history.html | title=History of the DOC }}</ref> Dartmouth's influential hiking club, and was a member of the New Hampshire Alpha chapter of the [[Sigma Alpha Epsilon]] fraternity.<ref>{{cite book|title=Dartmouth College Aegis|year=1920|publisher=Dartmouth College|location=Hanover, NH|page=237}}</ref> He then went into the lumber business, first in [[Mount Holly, Vermont|Healdville, Vermont]] (1921), then to a combined lumber and paper business in [[Lincoln, New Hampshire]]. He also was involved in banking.

When Adams took office as governor, New Hampshire was suffering post-war recession. He called for frugality and thrift in both personal and state expenditures. Retirees were (and are) a significant part of New Hampshire's population; Adams called for increased state aid for the aged, and for legislation which would enable the state's [[senior citizen|senior]]s to qualify for [[Federal Old Age & Survivors Insurance]]. In 1950 he formed a Reorganization Committee to recommend changes in state operations, and he called for the legislature to act on the recommendations. It was during his time as Governor that the New Hampshire Right to Work law (which prevented people being forced to join unions) was repealed.

Adams was one of the most powerful men in Washington during the six years he served as Chiefchief of Staffstaff. Because of Eisenhower's highly formalized staff structure, it appeared to many that he had virtual control over White House staff operations and domestic policy (a 1956 article in ''Time'' entitled "OK, S.A." advanced this perception). The extent of internal strife between strong-willed personalities was chronicled in his 1961 memoir ''First Hand Report.'' Among the heated conflicts within the Eisenhower administration were the best method to handle flamboyant personalities such as U.S. Senator [[Joseph McCarthy]], whom Adams and Eisenhower decided to torpedo when McCarthy started attacking the U.S. Army. Adams was a frequent broker of such controversies. Adams was willing to make the partisan comments that Eisenhower stood aloof from, thus making Adams the main target of the Democrats. Adams generally stood with the liberal wing of the Republican Party, in opposition to the conservative wing of Taft and Barry Goldwater. Eisenhower often depended upon him for the evaluation of candidates for top-level appointments. Adams handled much of the patronage and appointments that Eisenhower found boring and also was in charge of firing people when he deemed it necessary.<ref>Schoenebaum, ed., ''Political Profiles: The Eisenhower Years'' (1977), pp. 5–6.</ref>

Adams was forced to resign in 1958, when a House subcommittee revealed Adams had accepted an expensive [[vicuña]] overcoat and [[oriental rug]]<ref name=autogenerated1>[http://www.nndb.com/people/357/000094075/ Sherman Adams<!-- Bot- generated title -->]</ref> from Bernard Goldfine, a Boston textile manufacturer who was being investigated for [[Federal Trade Commission]] violations. Goldfine, who had business with the federal government, was cited for contempt of Congress when he refused to answer questions regarding his relationship with Adams.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.crisispapers.org/blogs-ep/409.htm|title=Ernest Partridge's Blogs Archive|date=September 30, 2004|deadurlurl-status=yesdead|archiveurlarchive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051201101912/http://www.crisispapers.org/blogs-ep/409.htm|archivedatearchive-date=December 1, 2005|df=mdy-all}}<br/>{{cite web|url=http://www.historyforsale.com/html/prodetails.asp?documentid=26624&start=1&page=150|title=SHERMAN "THE ICEBERG" ADAMS – TYPED LETTER SIGNED 10/08/1956 – DOCUMENT 26624}}</ref> The story was first reported to the public by [[muckraking]] journalist [[Jack Anderson (columnist)|Jack Anderson]].

Then Vice President Richard Nixon stated that he was assigned the onerous responsibility of telling Adams that he had to resign. He regretted the necessity, as Adams' career in politics ended and he went off "to operate a ski lodge" without any judicial findings. In [[the Nixon Interviews]], Nixon argued that he was unable to fire the White House staffers involved in the Watergate scandal, much as President Eisenhower was unable to directly fire Adams.<ref>Interview with David Frost included with the 2008 DVD re-release of the original 1977 Nixon interviews.</ref> However, according to ''[[Time (magazine)|Time]]'''s September 29, 1958, article on Adams, the job of firing Adams actually fell to [[Meade Alcorn]], not Nixon.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,821155,00.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110131145406/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,821155,00.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=January 31, 2011 |title=THE ADMINISTRATION: Exit Adams|publisher=Time Magazine|date=September 29, 1958|accessdateaccess-date=September 11, 2012}}</ref>

Adams returned to [[Lincoln, New Hampshire]], where he started construction on [[Loon Mountain Ski Resort|Loon Mountain]] Corporation, today aone majorof the largest [[ski]] resortresorts in New England. He was also a member of the [[Society of Colonial Wars]] and the [[Sons of the American Revolution]].

HeAdams died in 1986. His remains are buried at Riverside Cemetery, also in Lincoln.<ref name=autogenerated1/>

{{Portal|Biography|United States Marine Corps}}

*[http://eadarchives-manuscripts.dartmouth.edu/htmlrepositories/ml8.html2/resources/944 The Papers of Sherman Adams] in theat Dartmouth College Library]

{{s-ttl|title=Member of the [[List of United States Representatives from New Hampshire|U.S. House of Representatives]]<br />from [[New Hampshire's 2nd congressional district]]|years=1945–1947}}

{{s-ttl|title=[[Republican Party (United States)|Republican]] nominee for [[Governor of New Hampshire]]|years=[[1948 New Hampshire gubernatorial election|1948]], [[1950 New Hampshire gubernatorial election|1950]]}}

[[Category:Eisenhower administration personnelcabinet members]]

[[Category:GovernorsRepublican Party governors of New Hampshire]]

[[Category:MembersRepublican Party members of the New Hampshire House of Representatives]]

[[Category:Republican Party members of the United States House of Representatives from New Hampshire]]

[[Category:RepublicanMembers Partyof statethe governorsSons of the UnitedAmerican StatesRevolution]]

[[Category:White House Chiefschiefs of Staffstaff]]