The Origins and Significance of Impeachment in the Career of Governor Huey P Long

Abstract

“I never held a public office in my life during which I was not under some kind of threat of removal or impeachment from the day I went into politics until the present day. I have never held one, and I do not expect to hold one.” Huey P Long, American Progress, 8 February 1934 When, in March 1929, just ten months after he was inaugurated as governor of Louisiana, Huey P Long had been impeached by the state’s Legislature, he was one of only a handful of state governors to have been censured in this way in United States history. Despite the rarity of impeachment, the action against Long has been under-examined by academics and historians, with previous work focussing solely on a recitation of events and speculation that the action may have wrought a possible alteration in his personality. However, the impeachment had a more profound and transformational impact on Long and his subsequent career, leading as it did to actions which, without this tipping point, may not have occurred in quite the same way. Therefore to dismiss the impeachment as a simple vignette in the sometimes controversial career of Long, is to under-estimate the importance of the action and its subsequent impact. To redress this omission, it is necessary to examine the genesis of the impeachment in 1929 and to determine whether the action was a predictable event based on a broad view of Long, his character and his techniques, his personal and political belief systems, his position within the state of Louisiana and the South, and the environment in which he emerged to prominence. Through this wider approach, it has been possible to trace the origins of the 1929 impeachment to its roots in Long’s early political career.