1863-1941
Candidate for the Democratic Presidential Nomination, 1920,1924

Secretary of the Treasury.

Born in Georgia during the Civil War, William G. McAdoo received his college education at the University of Tennessee, became a lawyer, and left his native South, at age twenty-nine, for opportunities in New York, where he developed considerable experience as an attorney of high finance. Although never elected to public office, McAdoo's political activism began when he worked in Woodrow Wilson's 1910 campaign for governor of New Jersey and continued through Wilson's successful presidential bid in 1912. After winning the presidency Wilson appointed McAdoo as secretary of the treasury because the New York lawyer had financial expertise but was not tainted by Wall Street connections. McAdoo's most important responsibility was financing the war, a duty that ultimately made the treasury secretary unpopular with progressives when he endorsed a tax plan that drew heavily upon middle-...