He served as Secretary of the Treasury under Wilson from 1913–1918, and was instrumental in forging the legislation that founded the Federal Reserve. After leaving the Wilson Cabinet, he ran twice for the Democratic nomination for President, losing to James M. Cox in 1920, and to John W. Davis in 1924, even though in both years he led on the first ballot. He served as Senator for California from 1933–1938. He and Eleanor were divorced in 1934.
McAdoo once famously said that the speeches of President Warren Harding "leave the impression of an army of pompous phrases moving over the landscape in search of an idea; sometimes these meandering words would actually capture a straggling thought and bear it triumphantly, a prisoner in their midst, until it died of servitude and overwork."
McAdoo was called urgently from his desk by Chief Engineer Jacobs when the two shields met, and he, followed by a procession led by Jacobs, walked from New Jersey via the tube, through the doors of the two shields, to New York.
McAdoo gathered his employees together in one of the stations and outlined his reactionary policy for running a transit system-a policy which, while making him a hero in the eyes of the public and the press, was never followed as closely by any other railroad in the United States.
McAdoo's policy of "the public be pleased" was a tremendous factor in his personal success in running the HandM, and was the primary factor in the popularity of the line.
near Marietta, Ga. The son of a prominent Georgia jurist, McAdoo became a lawyer in Chattanooga, Tenn. After 1892 he practiced in New York City and was president of the Hudson and Manhattan RR Company, which built and operated the railroad tunnels known as the Hudson Tubes.
The Federal Reserve System was begun during McAdoo’s administration of the Dept. of the Treasury, and he was its first chairman.
He was prominent as a contender for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1920, and in 1924 the supporters of McAdoo and the adherents of Alfred E. Smith balanced each other and forced the choice of a compromise candidate.
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