Frank B. Kellogg

Kellogg was born in Potsdam, New York on December 22, 1856, the son of Abigail (Billings) and Asa Farnsworth Kellogg.[3] His family moved to Minnesota in 1865.[4]

Kellogg read law and began practicing law in Rochester, Minnesota, in 1877. He served as city attorney of Rochester 1878–1881 and county attorney for Olmsted County, Minnesota, from 1882 to 1887. He moved to St. Paul, Minnesota, in 1886.[4]

In 1905, Kellogg joined the federal government when Theodore Roosevelt asked Kellogg to prosecute a federal antitrust case.[5] In 1906, Kellogg was appointed special counsel to the Interstate Commerce Commission for its investigation of E. H. Harriman. In 1908, he was appointed to lead the federal prosecution against Union Pacific Railroad, under the Sherman Antitrust Act.[6][7][8] His most important case was Standard Oil Co. of New Jersey v. United States, 221 U.S. 1 (1911). Following this successful prosecution, he was elected president of the American Bar Association (1912–1913).

In 1907 he was elected as a Compatriot of the Minnesota Society of the Sons of the American Revolution.[9]

Ambassador to Great Britain

Time cover, 28 Sep 1925

In 1924, he was appointed by President Calvin Coolidge as Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to Great Britain,[10] serving from January 14, 1924 to February 10, 1925. He succeeded George Brinton McClellan Harvey who served under Warren G. Harding and was succeeded by Alanson B. Houghton so that Kellogg could assume the role of Secretary of State.[4]

1927 hand signed passport by Frank B. Kellogg as Secretary of State

From 1925 until 1929, he served as the United States Secretary of State in the Cabinet of President Coolidge.[11] In 1928, he was awarded the Freedom of the City in Dublin, Ireland and in 1929 the government of France made him a member of the Legion of Honour.[4]

As Secretary of State, he was responsible for improving U.S.–Mexican relations and helping to resolve the long-standing Tacna–Arica controversy between Peru and Chile. His most significant accomplishment, however, was the Kellogg–Briand Pact, signed in 1928. Proposed by its other namesake, French foreign minister Aristide Briand, the treaty intended to provide for "the renunciation of war as an instrument of national policy." He was awarded the 1929 Nobel Peace Prize in recognition.[4][12][13]

He was associate judge of the Permanent Court of International Justice from 1930 to 1935.[14][15][16][17]

Kellogg was self-conscious about his lack of academic credentials; he attended a one-room country school and dropped out at age 14. He never attended high school, college or law school. His only advanced training came from clerking in a private lawyer's office. Kellogg grew up in a poor farm in Minnesota, and lacked a commanding presence or the sophistication to deal with the aristocrats who dominated European diplomacy. As Secretary of State, his main focus was Latin America, where he dealt with brutal but unsophisticated strongmen. His staff provided the ideas, and they appreciated that he was always open, candid, and easy to communicate with. He helped end the battle between the Mexican government and the Catholic Church, but failed to resolve the dispute over ownership of the oil reserves. In the Far East, he favored China and it from threats from Japan. He successfully negotiated tariff reform with China. As for Europe he was primarily interested with expanding the limitations on naval armaments that been established by the Washington Treaty; he made little progress. Kellogg gained international fame, and the Nobel Peace Prize, with the Kellogg-Briand Pact. It was endorsed by nearly every nation and made starting a war a punishable criminal action. It formed the legal basis for the trial and execution of German and Japanese war leaders after 1945.[18]

Kellogg's former residence in Washington, D.C.

In 1886, Kellogg was married to Clara May Cook (1861–1942), the daughter of George Clinton Cook (1828–1901) and Elizabeth (née Burns) Cook (1838–1908).[19]

In 1880, he became a member of the masonic lodge Rochester No. 21 where he received the degrees of freemasonry on April 1, April 19, and May 3.[20]

He died from pneumonia, following a stroke, on the eve of his 81st birthday in St. Paul.[1] He was buried at the Chapel of St. Joseph of Arimathea in Washington National Cathedral, Washington, D.C.[4]

• List of people on the cover of Time Magazine: 1920s

• Bryn-Jones, David. Frank B. Kellogg: A Biography. New York, G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1937. (Reprinted in 2007: ISBN 978-1-4325-8982-0)
• Ellis, Lewis Ethan. Frank B. Kellogg and American foreign relations, 1925-1929. New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 1961.
• Ellis, Lewis Ethan. Republican foreign policy, 1921–1933 (1968)
• Ellis, L. Ethan. “Frank B. Kellogg” in An Uncertain Tradition: American Secretaries of State in the 20th Century. ed. Norman A. Graebner. (1961) pp 149–67.
• Ferrell, Robert H. Frank B. Kellogg & Henry L. Stimson: The American Secretaries of State and their diplomacy. Cooper Square Publishers, 1963. online
• Rhodes, Benjamin D. United States Foreign Policy in the Interwar Period, 1918-1941: The Golden Age of American Diplomatic and Military Complacency (2001) pp 57–72.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Frank B. Kellogg.

• United States Congress. "Frank B. Kellogg (id: K000065)". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.
• Eric Weber. "Kellogg, Frank Billings (1856-1937)." MNopedia. Minnesota Historical Society.
• Newspaper clippings about Frank B. Kellogg in the 20th Century Press Archives of the ZBW
• Frank B. Kellogg on Nobelprize.org
• Frank B. Kellogg at Find a Grave