Charles Gates Dawes was the 30th Vice President of the United States. He was in office from 1925 to 1929. He was a very accomplished man who did more than just run for office. He was also a very successful businessman and financier. He was the son of a Union Officer who got a lot of awards during the American Civil War. His ancestor, William Dawes, was a famous figure in the American Revolutionary War. Charles Dawes was bound to do great things because he came from a family of such famous people. After he got his law degree, he started his own law practice and became interested in starting businesses. During World War I, he was in the army and helped start the Central Trust Company. He went into politics, and the United States Department of the Treasury made him the Comptroller of the Currency. He decided to run for the Senate because he had been successful in everything he did. After World War I, he was put in charge of the Bureau of the Budget by Warren Harding, who was the president at the time. He worked on what became known as the Dawes Plan to pay for damage from World War I. For this, he shared the Nobel Peace Prize in 1925.
Early years and childhood
He was the son of Rufus Dawes and Mary Beman Gates Dawes. He was born in Washington County. His father was an officer in the Civil War, and he came from a family of famous people.
He went to Marietta College and got his degree there in 1884. He wanted to learn about the law, so he went to the Cincinnati Law School. In 1886, he was done with school.
Charles Dawes’s Career
In 1887, he was let into the bar and moved to Lincoln, Nebraska. There, he worked as a lawyer until 1894. He was good at business from the start and became known as a smart and persuasive lawyer and businessman.
He was a very ambitious person who, in addition to being a lawyer, ran a meatpacking company, was on the board of a bank and bought stocks.
He got very rich, and in 1894 he bought control of a number of artificial gas plants in La Crosse, Wisconsin, and Chicago. He then became president of the La Crosse Gas Light Company and the Northwestern Gas Light and Coke Company.
He was also involved in politics, as well as running his business. In 1896, Republican party leaders were so impressed with his business skills that they asked him to help with part of William McKinley’s campaign for president.
After McKinley won the election in 1898, he was given the job of “Comptroller of the Currency” in the U.S. Department of the Treasury. In this job, he got more than $25 million from failed banks during the Panic of 1893. He also changed the way some banks did business.
His business grew a lot over the years, and he and his brothers ran 28 gas and electric plants in ten states. In 1902, he put his brothers in charge of the utilities and went into banking.
He started the Central Trust Company of Illinois in 1902 and was also its first president. He now spent all of his time running this business, which was also called the Dawes Bank.
He joined the Sons of the American Revolution in 1915 because he was a descendant of the famous Revolutionary War figure William Dawes.
He joined the army as a major in 1917, and he worked his way up through the ranks to become a major and a lieutenant colonel before leaving as a brigadier general. During his time in the army, he put together a system for getting and distributing supplies for the whole American Expeditionary Force. He was also a member of the Liquidation Commission. In 1919, he stopped being in the army.
In 1921, President Warren G. Harding made him the first Director of the Bureau of the Budget, which had just been set up.
In 1923, the League of Nations asked him to work on the question of what Germany should pay for its wartime damage. He worked hard on the Dawes Report and gave it to the government in April 1924. The report gave facts about Germany’s budget and resources and suggested ways to deal with the problems.
In 1924, the delegates at the Republican National Convention chose him to be the vice-presidential candidate. President Calvin Coolidge liked him, so in November 1924, he was chosen as Vice President of the United States. He served for one term, from 1929 to 1931.
From 1929 to 1932, he was the U.S. Ambassador to the United Kingdom. At the time, the United States was in the middle of the Great Depression, and President Herbert Hoover asked Dawes to lead the newly formed Reconstruction Finance Corporation.
After his time in public service was over, he went back to running his own businesses. In 1932, he was named chairman of the board of the City National Bank and Trust Co., a position he held until the day he died.
He also wrote a number of books, such as “A Journal of the Great War” in 1921, “Notes as Vice President” in 1935, and “A Journal of Reparations” in 1937. (1939).
Works of note
He is most well-known for the Dawes Plan, which was a way to get Germany to pay for war damages after World War I. This plan helped end the occupation by the Allies and end a major international crisis.
Awards & Achievements
In 1925, Sir Austen Chamberlain and Charles Gates Dawes were both given the Nobel Peace Prize. He got this prize for the Dawes Plan and his work on making up for the damage from World War I.
Personal History and Legacies
In 1889, he married Caro Blymer and had four children with her.
He died in 1951 when he was 85 years old.
Estimated Net worth
Charles is on the list of the most popular and wealthiest politicians. Based on what we found on Wikipedia, Forbes, and Business Insider, Charles G. Dawes has a net worth of about $5 million.
Trivia
This American Vice President won the Nobel Peace Prize and was also a pianist and composer who taught himself.