Franklin D. Roosevelt

A

State Senator

Roosevelt formally entered politics in 1910, when he became a candidate for the New York State Senate in a district composed of three upstate farming counties. Democratic leaders had approached young Roosevelt because of his name and local prominence—and because he might be expected to pay his own election expenses. The 28-year-old Roosevelt campaigned hard, stressing his deep personal interest in conservation and other issues of concern in an agricultural area and also his strong support of honest and efficient government. In the first good year for Democrats since the early 1890s he was narrowly elected. He was only the second Democrat to represent his district after the emergence of the Republican Party in 1856.

In the state capitol at Albany, Roosevelt gained statewide publicity as the leader of a small group of upstate Democrats who refused to follow the leadership of Tammany Hall, also known as the Tammany Society, the Democratic Party organization of New York City. In particular, they refused to vote for the rich politician William F. “Blue-Eyed Bill” Sheehan for U.S. senator. Roosevelt’s group succeeded in blocking the election of Sheehan, which infuriated Tammany Hall. The dramatic struggle drew the attention of New York voters to the tall vigorous new state senator with the magic name of Roosevelt. He soon became a dedicated social and economic reformer, and a political independent. He was reelected in 1912, in spite of a case of typhoid fever that kept him from campaigning.

Roosevelt entrusted his campaign management to the journalist Louis McHenry Howe. Howe, a genius at politics, performed brilliantly. Henceforth, Roosevelt and Howe were to be almost inseparable, and Howe, a wizened and colorful little man, guided the political fortunes of the Hyde Park aristocrat.

B

Assistant Secretary of the Navy

Even before his reelection to the New York legislature, Roosevelt had entered the national political arena by taking part in the campaign of Governor Woodrow Wilson of New Jersey for the Democratic nomination for president. Once again the young state senator was a member of a minority group among New York Democrats. When Wilson won at both the convention and the polls in 1912, his early supporters were rewarded, and Roosevelt became assistant secretary of the United States Navy. Roosevelt resigned his state senate seat and moved to Washington, D.C., to take over the position once occupied by his cousin Theodore Roosevelt.

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Franklin Roosevelt’s years as assistant secretary, from 1913 to 1920, taught him both how to get things accomplished and, just as important for an executive, how to avoid unnecessary trouble. He had the devoted assistance of Louis Howe, who came along to the nation’s capital as Roosevelt’s assistant. Roosevelt’s superior was Secretary of the Navy Josephus Daniels, a North Carolina editor. Daniels was a close friend and devoted follower of Nebraska editor and former Representative William Jennings Bryan, three times the Democratic candidate for president and Wilson’s secretary of state. Like Bryan, Daniels was concerned about agrarian issues and was a progressive reformer. He was also an isolationist (someone who believed that the United States should avoid alliances with other nations), who hated the idea of war. Young Roosevelt, an energetic supporter of a bigger navy and soon a warm friend of most of the leading admirals, inevitably had many disagreements with his chief, especially during Wilson’s first term. Daniels had the confidence both of the president and of the most influential Democrats in the Congress of the United States; Roosevelt had neither of these. However, in time the two men came to have genuine respect for one another’s different talents, and they remained good friends.

The Daniels-Roosevelt administration of the Navy Department was highly effective. American entry into World War I in 1917 found the navy in relatively good shape. Roosevelt, as the second in command, was particularly concerned with the civilian employees of the department. With the help of the energetic Howe, he made excellent contacts with labor leaders in the course of smoothing relations between the navy and its workers. Roosevelt was also involved in the enormous build-up of the naval forces and with the general administration of the department. Frequent public speeches brought him to the attention of the public, and he soon had a reputation as a young man of great promise. He turned down an opportunity to win the Democratic nomination for governor of New York in 1918 in order to go on a three-month tour of duty in Europe, during which he visited the western front in France. Although he wanted to go on active duty as a naval officer, both Wilson and Daniels insisted that he stay on as assistant secretary of the navy. He remained at that post until August 1920, when he resigned to campaign as the Democratic candidate for vice president.

C

Vice-Presidential Candidate

The Democratic National Convention of 1920 nominated as its candidate for president the governor of Ohio, James M. Cox. It was natural for the convention to turn to Roosevelt for the second position on the ticket. He was a member of the Wilson administration, closely identified with the League of Nations, an international association of countries that would, according to Wilson, prevent future wars. Roosevelt was young, handsome, energetic, and had a reputation as a fine administrator. He also came from an important state. Nevertheless the Cox-Roosevelt campaign was hopeless, for the American people had had enough of Democratic leadership and quickly responded to the pledge of the Republican candidate, Warren G. Harding, for a return to “normalcy.” Roosevelt campaigned vigorously for a losing cause, making friends among Democratic leaders from coast to coast. After November 1920 he was a widely known public figure, even if he no longer held public office. Roosevelt, still under 40, could afford to wait.

D

Illness

Roosevelt resumed his law career on a part-time basis, and became vice president of the Fidelity and Deposit Company of Maryland. In this position he was in charge of the New York office of one of the most important companies handling bonds for public officials. Roosevelt’s wide contacts and administrative talents provided an excellent background for this situation. Roosevelt also dabbled in a series of speculative ventures, none of which turned out very well.

Personal tragedy struck Roosevelt in August 1921, when he contracted what was diagnosed, after an unfortunate delay, as poliomyelitis. He had been plagued by illness of various sorts during the previous decade, and he had overexerted himself swimming and hiking at Campobello. In great agony and completely unable to walk, Roosevelt seemed to have reached the end of his active public career. Indeed, his mother wanted him to return to Hyde Park for the peace and quiet of the life of a country gentleman. However, backed by the determination of his wife and Louis Howe, Roosevelt decided to return to his work as soon as possible. In spite of the efforts of numerous specialists and of his strenuous exercises, particularly swimming at his “second home” in Warm Springs, Georgia, he was never again able to walk unaided. He spent most of his working hours in a wheelchair, and he walked with leg braces and canes, usually with help. Through the worst years of his paralysis, Roosevelt was amazingly cheerful. Eleanor Roosevelt often acted as her husband’s eyes and ears, bringing him information and conferring with people he was no longer readily able to meet. Howe remained close by Roosevelt, assisting him in many ways and planning for his return to public life.

E

Governor of New York

Roosevelt continued to busy himself with Democratic politics after his illness. In 1922 he aided Alfred E. Smith, who in that year made a successful political comeback and became governor of New York for the second time. In 1924 Roosevelt made a rousing nominating speech for Smith at the Democratic National Convention at Madison Square Garden, in New York City, calling the governor the “Happy Warrior.” Although Smith was unable to win the Democratic presidential nomination in 1924, he was reelected governor that year and again in 1926. In 1928 Roosevelt again nominated Smith for president at the national convention. This time, Smith was chosen, becoming the first Roman Catholic nominated by a major U.S. party as its candidate for president.

At Smith’s urging, and against the advice of Louis Howe, Roosevelt agreed to run for governor. Smith, well aware that his own religion, his identification with urban issues, and his opposition to the prohibition of liquor would hurt him in rural Protestant areas, needed the help of Roosevelt in New York state. Ironically, Roosevelt was elected governor by the narrow margin of 25,000 out of 4.5 million votes cast, while Smith lost New York, and the presidency, to Herbert Hoover. Smith felt that his defeat was solely the result of religious prejudice, but it is unlikely that any Democrat could have defeated the Republicans in 1928.

Roosevelt thus succeeded Smith as governor in January 1929. He soon made it clear that he was going to have his own administration by replacing key Smith associates, and before long there was coolness between the two former political allies. Like Smith, Roosevelt had to cope with a Republican legislature. Since Smith had been responsible for a series of important social and administrative reforms, Roosevelt faced a difficult task in working out a distinctive program of his own. His first successes were in the fields of conservation and tax relief for farmers, areas in which he shared a common interest with his Republican legislators. In time he developed a skill as a political manager and a superb style of speaking on the radio. He was also careful to develop support among different groups for his plans.

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