America's Greatest 20th Century Presidents (9 page)

When Franklin and Eleanor met, they were two very different characters.  Franklin was garrulous and outgoing, while Eleanor was shy and reserved.  Regardless, the two quickly hit it off.  Though the two had travelled extensively to Europe – a rarity in the early 1900's – their wealth had also left them sheltered.  Eleanor, however, was certainly the less narrow of the two, and during the courtship she took Franklin on a tour of New York's poor tenements, an eye-opening experience for the future President.  Social justice was first on her mind, and economics was first on Roosevelt's.  It was a match made in heaven.

The Roosevelts in 1904

The two were married in March of 1905, with sitting President Roosevelt in attendance.  Because both of Eleanor's parents had already died, President Roosevelt had the honor of passing Eleanor off to Franklin at the wedding.  For their honey moon, the Roosevelts took a three-month tour of Europe.  Upon returning to America, they settled in New York City.  Within five years, the couple had four children, with two more to come by 1916.  Of the six, five would survive into adulthood – all but Franklin Delano Roosevelt Jr, who died shortly after birth in 1909.

Chapter 2: State Politics, The Navy, and Polio, 1910 – 1921

New York State Senate

In 1910, FDR was elected to the New York State Senate, representing his home town of Hyde Park.  The district had not elected a Democrat since 1884, but Roosevelt's family prestige and the Democratic favorability that year helped bring him to Albany.

Roosevelt's time in the State Senate often surprises those who know him only for his Presidency.  Though his later Presidential run attracted the Catholic “white ethnic” vote, his time in the State Senate was actually focused on countering the influence of “white ethnic” leaders.  For example, much of his efforts were devoted to breaking the influence of Irish Tammany Hall bosses and union leaders, who had held the Democratic Party in a stranglehold for over half a century.  One of FDR's most successful moments came when he rallied the Democrats to defeat the Tammany candidate for one of New York’s U.S. Senate seats.

FDR's reelection in 1912 further aligned him with this anti-Tammany, subtly anti-Irish faction of the Democratic Party.  In that year, FDR was an early supporter of Woodrow Wilson for President, a man strongly opposed by Irish Catholics across the country.  Wilson won the nomination, the Presidency, and later became the first Democratic President to be reelected since the Civil War.

President Woodrow Wilson

Assistant Secretary of the Navy

FDR’s political rise didn’t go unnoticed. Wilson appreciated Roosevelt's early support, and in 1913 Roosevelt left the State Senate to serve as Wilson's Assistant Secretary of the Navy.  At the time, the position seemed a relatively minor one, but the breakout of World War I increased its importance, and one of Roosevelt's most important accomplishments as Assistant Secretary was the creation of the Navy Reserve.

Assistant Secretary of the Navy Roosevelt

Nevertheless, after just a year serving as Assistant Secretary, Roosevelt hoped to take on Tammany Hall again, running against the Tammany-backed candidate for a U.S. Senate seat in New York.  Wilson opposed this decision, having realized that Irish Catholics and union members would be crucial to his reelection in 1916.  Wilson understood that his election in 1912 was largely due to Theodore Roosevelt's Bull Moose third party run, which had divided the Republican vote.  The President did not want one of his cabinet secretaries giving New Yorkers the impression that he, too, wanted to topple Tammany influence.

Roosevelt lost the Senate nomination in 1914.  Wilson was pleased, and Roosevelt learned a lesson.  From then on, he toned down his opposition to Tammany Hall. Thankfully for FDR, his relationship with Wilson was not significantly strained by his failed Senate run.  Roosevelt remained the Assistant Secretary of the Navy until almost the end of Wilson's second term.  By 1917, FDR could see the writing on the wall with Germany’s unrestricted submarine warfare in the Atlantic, and he wanted to prepare the U.S. Navy for battle. However, Wilson was still not ready for a potential American commitment to war, shooting down FDR’s suggestion. Once America entered the war, it had to scramble to mobilize. It was a lesson that served FDR well 20 years later.

Vice Presidential Candidate

After World War I, Wilson faced stiff resistance to his post-war policies back at home, and he suffered a stroke in the middle of his second term while trying to rally support for initiatives like the League of Nations. With Wilson debilitated, Roosevelt resigned from the Navy in 1920 to run for Vice President on the Democratic ticket under Governor James Cox of Ohio.  At 38 years old, Roosevelt was one of the youngest people to ever run for Vice President, but he brought plenty of political experience, as well as foreign policy accolades (like his support for the League of Nations) to the Democratic ticket, something Cox only mildly supported.  Like his previous political career, these positions again put Roosevelt in confrontation with Irish Catholics, who opposed the League of Nations because it did not admit the then-rebelling Republic of Ireland.  The country was recognized as part of Great Britain.

Cox and Roosevelt lost the election of 1920 to Warren G. Harding.  It was probably a blessing in disguise for Roosevelt for several reasons. As it would turn out, he’d have to battle illness during the decade, and the Republican policies under Harding, Coolidge and Hoover contributed to the events that led to Roosevelt's eventual election as President.

Polio

After losing the Vice Presidency, Roosevelt's political career was hardly shattered.  The loss was not blamed on FDR, and he gained popularity within the Democratic Party. Another event, however, put Roosevelt's future in doubt.  In 1921, while at his family's summer home in Campobello Island in Canada, Roosevelt contracted an illness that was diagnosed as polio.  While there is still some question as to exactly what the illness was, Roosevelt was paralyzed from the waist down.

Roosevelt was understandably devastated, especially because polio was an illness usually contracted during childhood.  He initially refused to accept the diagnosis and spent the next few years searching for a cure.  Most famously, he tried recuperating at a spa in Warm Springs, Georgia, but to no avail.  Roosevelt would be bound to a wheelchair for the rest of his life. He used leg braces and crutches to move, but he could never walk independently again.

Chapter 3: Governor of New York, 1922-1932

Smoothing Relations with Tammany Hall

One of the reasons FDR was so hell bent on finding a cure for his illness was that he understood the permanent damage it might have on his political career. In addition to searching out ways to heal, he maintained a cheerful and sunny demeanor intended to suggest to people that his physical strength was improving. FDR assumed it would bolster his political fortunes.

Despite his 1921 diagnosis, FDR still had his eye cast firmly on his political future. During the early 1920s, he devoted much of his political activities to improving relations with Tammany Hall.  Although he had been on the national scene in the Wilson Administration and the vice presidential run, to date the only elected office he had successfully held was a local one representing Hyde Park in the New York State Senate.  His home town was a bastion of wealth with no major Irish Catholic or union constituents, but Roosevelt learned in his 1914 failed U.S. Senate run that any Democrat needed the support of Irish Catholics to win statewide office in New York.

Roosevelt thus set out recruiting support from Tammany.  His most famous public move in this regard was his two-time support for Al Smith, the first Catholic to be nominated for President.  Roosevelt helped Smith win the New York Governorship in 1922 and supported Smith against his cousin, Theodore Roosevelt Jr., in 1924.  This move especially was viewed favorably by Tammany Hall.  Roosevelt also gave nominating speeches supporting Smith for President in 1924 and 1928, and his 1928 advocacy resulted in Smith's nomination for the Presidency.

Governor of New York

The same year Smith ran for President, the candidate returned Roosevelt's long-standing support by advocating that Roosevelt run to succeed him as Governor of New York. Roosevelt was reluctant to run for Governor and only did so at Smith's urging.  Roosevelt still held hopes that he could recover from his paralysis, which he thought limited his ability to succeed politically. 

After significant prodding, Roosevelt opted into the race for Governor.  He campaigned enthusiastically, but his candidacy was nearly engulfed by rumors that he was too weak to govern.  Luckily, his prominence and popularity prevailed, and Roosevelt won the election by a paper-thin margin, with a less than one percent margin of victory over his opponent.  This was even more of a success given the national results the Democrats suffered in 1928: Al Smith even lost his home state of New York, and was crushed in his race for the Presidency.

The Beginning of the Depression

Roosevelt's term as Governor coincided with the dawning of the economic catastrophe with which he would be permanently linked. Sworn in in 1929, Governor Roosevelt was confronted by economic depression within months of his inauguration.

While Herbert Hoover attempted without success to fix the economy on a national level, Roosevelt used the Depression to build nationwide stature.  He began to advocate a relatively novel idea – that the economy would not fix itself but needed help from government.  President Hoover and the Republicans continued to rely on market economics, expecting the economy to end its bust and turn itself around.