THOMAS PRYOR GORE: "THE BLIND ORATOR" by Sharon Gold From the Associate Editor: In 1976 the Braille Monitor published a series of profiles of distinguished blind Americans in celebration of the nation's bicentennial. The sketch which appeared in the May issue was of Thomas Pryor Gore, the first blind United States Senator. Sharon Gold, President of the National Federation of the Blind of California, did the research and wrote the profile. Since Senator Gore was the great- grandfather of our newly-elected Vice President, it seemed fitting to reprint the article. Here it is: Thomas Pryor Gore, the first totally blind man to sit in the United States Senate, was born on December 10, 1870, in Old Choctaw (later known as Webster) County, Mississippi. His father, Thomas Madison Gore, who served as a soldier in the Confederate Army during the Civil War, was a farmer and a lawyer. An accident at the age of eight resulted in the total loss of sight in one of Gore's eyes and severe injury to the other eye, causing him to be totally blind at the age of eleven. Gore continued his studies in the public schools of Walthall, Mississippi, his classmates and members of his family reading his lessons aloud to him. After graduating from high school in 1888, he studied two additional years, taking a scientific course. In 1890 Gore graduated from a normal school [a two-year teacher- training institution], obtained a teaching license, and taught in a public school during the year 1890-1891. He then entered the Cumberland University in Lebanon, Tennessee, as a student in the School of Law. Shortly after Gore's graduation with an LL.B. degree in 1892, he was admitted to the bar and began practicing law in Walthall. As a boy Gore had spent a year serving as a page in the Mississippi Legislature, and throughout his school years he had read and studied political economy, the writings of Thomas Jefferson, and any works he could procure on the art and science of government. In 1891 he was nominated for the State Legislature but was forced to withdraw his nomination because he was under age. Gore, like his father and other relatives, became an active member of the Populist Party and was soon considered the best- known and most able stump speaker for that party. When the Mississippi Populists were defeated in 1895, the "Blind Orator," as he had come to be known, moved to Corsicana, Texas, where he continued to be an active member of the Populist Party and practiced law. In 1896 he served as a delegate to the Populist National Convention in Saint Louis, Missouri, and two years later was defeated as a candidate for the U.S. Congress on the People's Party Ticket. After this Gore devoted much of his time to national politics and became affiliated with the Democratic Party in 1899. In 1901, following his new allegiance to the Democratic Party, Gore and his wife, Nina Kay, the daughter of a Texas cotton planter, whom he married on December 27, 1900, joined those pioneers who were moving northward to the new Territory of Oklahoma. They settled in Lawton, where Gore opened a law practice and made his permanent home. Gore's driving ambition, his superb oratorical ability, and the support of the powerful Daily Oklahoman in Oklahoma City, soon made the "Blind Orator" a leading politician in the Oklahoma Territory. In 1902, just one year after settling in the Territory, Gore was elected to the Territory Council and served as a member from 1903 to 1905. In 1907, when the Oklahoma and Indian Territories joined to form the new State of Oklahoma, Gore assisted with the writing of the State Constitution and was elected one of its first Senators. He was reelected for two more terms, serving until 1921. During these terms of service in the United States Senate, Gore was especially interested in legislation affecting the farmer and the Indian and was credited with having saved $30 million in royalties for the Indians by filibustering against a resolution giving private individuals oil lease rights. During the pre-World War I period Gore was one of the progressive members of the Senate, opposing the trusts, high United States tariff rates, and monopolies, especially the railroads. An important and longtime supporter of Woodrow Wilson as a Presidential candidate, Gore helped get Wilson elected in 1912 and endorsed his domestic legislative program. However, with the coming of World War I, Gore decided to oppose Wilson's foreign policy and America's eventual entry into the war in 1917. During the war Gore argued against military conscription and pensions, the food administration, emergency governmental control of transportation and communication facilities, and deficit financing. His opposition to Wilson's wartime policies and this country's entry into the League of Nations brought about Gore's defeat by a Wilson supporter in the Democratic primary of 1920. Gore knew that many of his convictions were unpopular with a large number of his constituents, but being a statesman in preference to a politician, he refused to alter his positions. Thus he returned to private law practice in 1921. In 1930 Gore was again nominated for Senator from Oklahoma and returned to the Senate for a final term from 1931 to 1937. During this period Gore rose in opposition to policies of both a Republican and a Democratic President. He was a strong opponent of Franklin D. Roosevelt's social measures, which Gore considered would lead to an over-centralization of government, thus interfering with individual initiative and enterprise. He was opposed to deficit spending. For a second time in his career as a Senator, his opposition to the policies of a popular President was responsible for his defeat during his 1936 bid for re-election. He spent the final thirteen years of his life practicing law in Washington, D.C., where he specialized in taxes and Indian affairs. Throughout his political and professional life, Thomas P. Gore was a noted debater and public speaker. His Senate speeches were well-prepared and carefully documented. In preparation for a speech his wife or friends would read to him from books and articles pertaining to the subject on which he was to speak, from his own library of fifty thousand books or at the Library of Congress. He would then prepare his speech in private. In addition to his other credits, Gore attended the Democratic National Conventions of 1908, 1912, 1928, and 1936 as a delegate- at-large. He traveled widely throughout the United States, sometimes alone, and always carried one or two books with him which he would ask to have read to him after he became acquainted with people. He died on March 16, 1949, in his Washington apartment, three weeks after suffering a cerebral hemorrhage. He is buried in Oklahoma City's Rose Hill Cemetery. Thomas Pryor Gore had two children: a daughter, Nina, the mother of the prominent American author, Gore Vidal; and a son, Thomas Notley Gore, father of Albert Gore, U.S. Senator from Tennessee, 1952-1970 [and grandfather of Vice President-elect Gore].