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].
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