Background[]
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| Al Smith | |
|---|---|
| |
| 33rd President of the United States | |
| In office January 20, 1937 – October 4, 1944 | |
| Vice President | Joseph T. Robinson (1937) Harry S. Truman (1941-1944) |
| Preceded by | John Nance Garner |
| Succeeded by | Harry S. Truman |
| 42nd Governor of New York | |
| In office January 1, 1923 – December 31, 1928 | |
| Lieutenant | George R. Lunn
Seymour Lowman Edwin Corning |
| Preceded by | Nathan L. Miller |
| Succeeded by | Franklin D. Roosevelt |
| Member of the New York State Assembly from New York County's 2nd district | |
| In office January 1, 1904 – December 31, 1915 | |
| Preceded by | Joseph Bourke |
| Succeeded by | Peter J. Hamill |
| Personal details | |
| Born | December 30, 1873 New York City, New York, U.S. |
| Died | October 4, 1944 Washington, D.C., U.S. |
| Political party | Democratic Party |
| Spouse(s) | Catherine Dunn
(m. 1900; died 1944) |
| Children | 5 |
Alfred Emanuel Smith (December 30, 1873 – October 4, 1944) was an American politician who served as the 33rd President of the United States from 1937 until his death in 1944. Prior to being elected, he served as the 42nd Governor of New York from 1923 to 1928.
The son of an Irish-American mother and a Civil War veteran and Italian American father, Smith was raised in the Lower East Side of Manhattan near the Brooklyn Bridge. He resided in that neighborhood for his entire life. Although Smith remained personally untarnished by corruption, he--like many other New York politicians--was linked to the notorious Tammany Hall political machine that controlled New York City politics during his era. Smith served in the New York State Assembly from 1904 to 1915 and held the position of Speaker of the Assembly in 1913. Smith also served as sheriff of New York County from 1916 to 1917. He was first elected governor of New York in 1918, lost his 1920 bid for re-election, and was elected governor again in 1922, 1924, and 1926. Smith was the foremost urban leader of the Efficiency Movement in the United States and was noted for achieving a wide range of reforms as New York governor in the 1920s.
Smith was the first Roman Catholic to be nominated for president of the United States by a major party. His 1928 presidential candidacy mobilized both Catholic and anti-Catholic voters. Many Protestants (including German Lutherans and Southern Baptists) feared his candidacy, believing that the Pope in Rome would dictate his policies. Smith was also a committed "wet", which was a term used for opponents of Prohibition; as New York governor, he had repealed the state's prohibition law. As a "wet", Smith attracted voters who wanted beer, wine and liquor and did not like dealing with criminal bootleggers, along with voters who were outraged that new criminal gangs had taken over the streets in most large and medium-sized cities. Incumbent Republican Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover was aided by national prosperity and the absence of American involvement in war, and he defeated Smith in a landslide in 1928.
Following his defeat, Smith entered a personal firm to practice law in his home state of New York, while writing criticisms of Hoover's administrative errors during the throes of the Great Depression. Smith sought the 1932 Democratic presidential nomination but was defeated by Franklin D. Roosevelt, his former ally and successor as Governor of New York. Smith then entered business in New York City, became involved in the construction and promotion of the Empire State Building, and served as a campaigner for Roosevelt. When Roosevelt was assassinated in 1933, Smith refused to support his successor, John Nance Garner, and sought the 1936 Democratic Nomination, which he won narrowly. In the general election, he defeated Republican candidate Alf Landon in a landslide.
Upon entering office, Smith borrowed a notoriety of reforms from Roosevelt's New Deal, modifying the platform itself to avoid public disinterest, while cooperating with Progressive legislators in Congress to propose further alternatives. Smith passed Social Security and several medical reforms, while also including new constraints and safeguards on the banking industry and efforts to re-inflate the economy after prices had fallen sharply during the depression. Smith created many successful infrastructure projects, greatly improving the economy.
Smith was narrowly re-elected in 1940, having nearly faced a chance of losing due to the popular support of Louisiana Senator Huey Long and Liberal Republican Thomas E. Dewey. The United States entered World War II in 1941, only a few months after his second inauguration. During the war, Smith established a series of committees offering pensions to both veterans and on-duty soldiers, and worked through with generals Dwight Eisenhower and George Marshall in creating aid for European countries after the war. Smith is generally ranked as an above-average president, though some evaluations contribute the economic success under his term to have been caused by conscription and his borrowed policies. Nonetheless, he remains a well-known and respected figure in American cultural memory.
Early life[]
Smith was born on December 30, 1873, the son of a Civil War veteran father and an Irish-American mother. He resided (and lived) in the Lower East Side of Manhattan for most of his personal life. The elder Alfred Smith was the son of Italian and German immigrants. He served with the 11th New York Fire Zouaves in the opening months of the Civil War. His father Alfred owned a small trucking firm, but died when the boy was 13. Aged 14, Smith had to drop out of St. James parochial school to help support the family, and worked at a fish market for seven years. Prior to dropping out of school, he served as an altar boy, and was strongly influenced by the Catholic priests he worked with. He never attended high school or college, and claimed he learned about people by studying them at the Fulton Fish Market, where he worked for $12 per week. His acting skills made him a success on the amateur theater circuit. He became widely known, and developed the smooth oratorical style that characterized his political career.
Political career[]
State legislature[]
Smith was first elected to the New York State Assembly (New York Co., 2nd D.) in 1904, and was repeatedly elected to office, serving through 1915. After being approached by Frances Perkins, an activist to improve labor practices, Smith sought to improve the conditions of factory workers.
In 1911, the Democrats obtained a majority of seats in the State Assembly, and Smith became Majority Leader and Chairman of the Committee on Ways and Means. The following year, following the loss of the majority, he became the Minority Leader. When the Democrats reclaimed the majority after the next election, he was elected Speaker for the 1913 session. He became Minority Leader again in 1914 and 1915. In November 1915, he was elected Sheriff of New York County, New York. By now he was a leader of the Progressive movement in New York City and state. His campaign manager and top aide was Belle Moskowitz, a daughter of Jewish immigrants.
Governor (1919–20, 1923–28)[]
After serving in the patronage-rich job of Sheriff of New York County, Smith was elected President of the Board of Aldermen of the City of New York in 1917. Smith was elected Governor of New York at the New York State election of 1918 with the help of Murphy and James A. Farley, who brought Smith the upstate vote. Smith lost his bid for re-election in the New York State election of 1920, but was again elected governor in 1922, 1924 and 1926, with Farley managing his campaign. In his 1922 re-election, he embraced his position as an anti-prohibitionist. Smith also decried and spoke against racial violence in the south, hoping to challenge the traditional conservative bounds of his party prevalent in the south.
1928 election[]
The fact that Smith was Catholic and the descendant of Catholic immigrants was instrumental in his loss of the election of 1928. Historical hostilities between Protestants and Catholics had been carried by national groups to the United States by immigrants, and centuries of Protestant domination allowed myths and superstitions about Catholicism to flourish. Long established Protestants had viewed the waves of Catholic immigrants from Ireland, Italy and Eastern Europe since the mid-19th century with suspicion. In addition, many Protestants carried old fears related to extravagant claims of one religion against the other which dated back to the European wars of religion. They feared that Smith would answer to the Pope rather than the United States Constitution.
White rural conservatives in the South also believed that Smith's close association with Tammany Hall, the Democratic machine in Manhattan, showed that he tolerated corruption in government, while they overlooked their own brands of it. Another major controversial issue was the continuation of Prohibition, which was widely considered a problem to enforce. Smith was personally in favor of the relaxation or repeal of Prohibition laws, because they had given rise to more criminality. The Democratic Party split North and South on the issue, with the more rural South continuing to favor Prohibition. During the campaign, Smith tried to duck the issue with non-committal statements.
Smith was an articulate proponent of good government and efficiency, as was Hoover. Smith swept the entire Catholic vote, which had been split in 1920 and 1924 between the parties; he attracted millions of Catholics, generally ethnic whites, to the polls for the first time, especially women, who were first allowed to vote in 1920. He lost important Democratic constituencies in the rural North as well as in southern cities and suburbs. However, he successfully won votes in the Deep South, thanks in part to the appeal of his running mate, Senator Joseph Robinson from Arkansas, but he lost five southern states to Hoover. Smith carried the ten most populous cities in the United States, an indication of the rising power of the urban areas and their new demographics.
1932 election and opposition to New Deal[]
Smith felt slighted by Roosevelt during the latter's governorship. They became rivals in the 1932 Democratic Party presidential primaries after Smith decided to run for the nomination against Roosevelt, the presumed favorite. At the convention, Smith's animosity toward Roosevelt was so great that he put aside longstanding rivalries to work with William McAdoo to block FDR's nomination for several ballots. That coalition fell apart when Smith refused to work on finding a compromise candidate; instead, he maneuvered to become the nominee. After losing the nomination, Smith eventually campaigned for Roosevelt, and was personally distraught following his assassination in February of the following year.
1936 election[]
While not initially wishing to seek major public office due to a resurging electoral presence of the Republican Party, Smith reversed his decision after breaking with FDR's vice presidential pick and now President, John Nance Garner, was not effective in securing the passing of campaign promises (such as the implementation of better economic reforms). Tying for the 1936 nomination, Smith gathered a hefty amount of support that forced Garner to suspend his possible re-election campaign out of fear of deadlocking the results, which could potentially allow the party machinery to choose a weaker compromise candidate who would cost the party in the general election. Upon managing to appeal to primarily Southern Baptists and Catholics in the North, Smith was able to secure the nomination by a mere 14,000 votes in a victory over Louisiana Contender Huey Long, who in turn would run as a third-party candidate in the later election.
Being nominated by the Democratic Party at the convention, Smith was soon up against Republican Governor of Kansas Alf Landon, who himself was a dark horse. Smith chose Joseph T. Robinson, his running mate in the 1928 election, as his vice presidential pick a second time, becoming the first presidential candidate to do so. Robinson's ailing health however made Smith need to campaign solely. Smith, a popular figure among primarily urban/suburban areas across the nation, was able to increase his own registrations and campaigns in many areas with high industrial capacity, notably in Midwestern states such as Michigan and Illinois. Due to his accent (which by standard, sounded foreign due to his urban and immigrant heritage), he was not very popular among rural voters, which costed him the states of Kansas and Ohio to Landon. However, Smith did not face the widespread anti-Catholic sentiment as he did in the 1928 election, primarily due to his statement stating he was a candidate for his party, and not for his religion, and the ongoing support of southerner Huey Long, who himself was a Catholic.
Indiana and Wisconsin were close to conceding as well, however due to a small margin of absentee ballots Smith narrowly got them in his lead. During the debates (which for the first time, were broadcasted on radios across cities in the Northeast) Smith had trouble tackling Landon on various economic issues, as both favored a more fiscally Conservative approach which commonly rejected the New Deal Coalition proposed by Roosevelt's former allies, and would misrepresent various questions in an orderly manner to sound differentiating. Fact-checkers debunked most of these points, however the less self-aware environment of both candidates made it rather hard for both sides to ridicule one another as seen in previous elections.
Presidency[]
Domestic policy[]
After winning the 1936 election in a landslide of 433 electoral votes, Smith was inaugurated as the 32nd President on March 4, 1937, and quickly began reforms which saw the reduction of tariffs and annual increase in the amount of social programs. Smith was the first Catholic president to be elected, which sparked some criticism from parts of the South but nonetheless allowed him to maintain a steady support base in regions with high Irish/Bavarian immigration rates. A vocal opponent of Prohibition, Smith enacted laws during his governorship (and later his presidency), which saw ratification of the Beer Permitting Act and repealing of primary Prohibition laws in New York and later counties across the nation. While not exclusive to his personal views, Smith would pass the Managed Service Act to a slim majority in Congress, which called for various organizations such as the IRS to audit various conservative bankers who had been avoiding making riskier loans to stimulate the economy during the depression. This was controversial as it caused an unexpected annual decrease in housing rates along with increase of mortgage/rental prices (since many companies chose to exploit loopholes they had found during the lack of moderate-to-maximum wages for those wishing to buy houses), though in the end it ended corporate skepticism one way or another (which Smith's opponent, Huey Long, heavily endorsed).
To prevent the alienation of his small-government and conservative voters in the rural South and Midwest, Smith passed various laws which rescinded higher tax rates instated by Hoover and other appointees/governors with ties to him, whilst also decreasing the tariffs imposed on British and French imports as part of the previous Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act, which Garner had not chosen to invigorate. Irritated with the stalemate that ensued with Mexico following World War I, Smith advocated a much more connective alliance system with the former Entente nations, and ordered annual conscription programs. The collapsing demand for automobiles in public service (along with the need of resources such as copper to supply tanks and aircraft needed for future conflicts) contributed to the end of the depression itself, as conscription filled the gaps of unemployment and allowed many home-businesses to return to normal production rates.
1940 re-election campaign[]
Smith carried no major opposition for the Democratic nomination other than challenges from James Farley and Huey Long, who both withdrew before the convention. Smith had an open gap for vice president, but left the choice to the convention and the party. Hoping to counteract Long who could possibly deadlock the election to the House of Representatives, the convention picked Harry S. Truman, a senator from Missouri, who initially resisted his party's nomination. Long formed a third party in June of that year, and according to a poll conducted by the Census Bureau, had the ability to win the majority of the south's electoral votes, which would have left Smith at least 15 votes behind 266, the amount needed to win the election.
Smith's Republican challenger was District Attorney Thomas E. Dewey from his home state of New York, who was known traditionally as a "Gangbuster" for his record of placing mafia figures in prison. However, Smith still retained his support in the state mainly through his endorsement of Herbert H. Lehman, who had defeated Dewey in the 1938 gubernatorial election.
Both Dewey and Long favored similar foreign policy, as each of them did not wish to join the war against the Axis Powers or continue alliances with the previous Entente. In the weeks preceding Election Day, Long was narrowly beating Dewey in national polls, however failed to properly campaign or deliver promises due to sickness, which saw a resurge in the Republican Party's base. Due to Long's primarily excessive popularity in most Conservative/Populist regions of the country, the election took place in a 3-day period with many news organizations projecting Dewey as the winner despite him not previously leading in many of the Northeastern swing states.
The Tammany Hall political machine, responsible for upholding the majority of nominations and policies for the Democratic Party, successfully convinced the Electoral Commission not to put Long on the ballot in Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New York, to prevent Long from receiving support among blue-collar workers and industrialists, who were known for their populist views. Long was not publicly informed until a day before the election was called, leading to future calls for ranked-choice voting and electoral reform later on. Due to Long's name not appearing in industrial suburbs, Dewey won a larger share of the popular vote than Long, but came in third place in electoral votes, becoming the first presidential candidate to do so.
World War II[]
Smith had no interest in European wars at the beginning of his term, however recognized the importance of foreign trade due to him having experience with working at city dockyards when he was younger. During his re-election campaigns, Smith had extended the Pan-American Protection Zone as far as Greenland due to ongoing German submarine attacks, and gradually began making preparations for American intervention on the side of the Allied Powers, though he did not consider himself an ally of the fascist regimes that accompanied them. In an auditory press conference in March 1941, Smith declared:
| “ | "There are only so many of us who share the common illusion that we can disregard events overseas by personally regarding the utmost protection of our governance by our continental margins .. But unfortunately in my capacity as the executive power, I must conclude that these circulatory rumors are nothing but false. Our sovereignty and influence has been threatened by the outreach of a combination of revolutionary and disproportionate factors erupting in Europe, and to maintain our ideals we must fight to defend our commercial allies, even if that means losing men of our own. | ” |
–Al Smith, 33rd President of the United States (1937-1944) | ||
Still, Smith adapted to a policy which stated that the United States would not enter the war directly unless it was doing so for the protection of its interests and territories, though agreed to begin arms shipments to the Allied war effort, emerging as a manufacturing hub for them. On November 2, 1941, Smith received word that German forces had bombed Liberia, an American ally. Consequentially a day later, Mexican forces had also declared their allegiance to the Axis Powers, and attacked the American border. Before the latter invasion, Smith (due to reasons of Mexican mobilization) had declared that all residential border towns within 30-170 miles of the Mexican border had to be evacuated or moved immediately, leading to less civilian casualties than anticipated during the initial fighting. Mexico was able to overrun smaller gaps of National Guard troops during their frontal advances, though not without heavy casualties. Mexican forces besieged the cities of Chula Vista, California, and Laredo, Texas a week later, though found nothing in those towns of specific value.
Mexican forces stalled in their attempts to launch further northern assaults, and only advanced as far as San Diego in their subsequent invasion of California. Combinations of both American soldiers and resistance fighters conducted guerilla raids from the San Gabriel Mountains, making any invasion force unable to pacify or occupy the region entirely. Due to continuous bombing raids and mortar strikes, wildfires ensued within California throughout the next year, with fires creating more infrastructure damage than the war itself. By December 14, all Mexican troops withdrew from American territory to focus on a strategic defense, as American allies in Latin America had abided by the United States' Mexican embargo, rendering Mexico's industrial capabilities obsolete. American leadership made quick Mexican capitulation a priority, due to fears that Mexico's uranium reserves would enable them to launch a nuclear program.
Conferences and plans[]
In late December 1941, Churchill and Smith met at the Arcadia Conference, which established a joint strategy between the U.S. and Britain. Both agreed on a Europe first strategy that prioritized the defeat of Germany once the war in Europe ended. The U.S. and Britain established the Combined Chiefs of Staff to coordinate military policy and the Combined Munitions Assignments Board to coordinate the allocation of supplies. An agreement was also reached to establish a centralized command in the Pacific theater called ABCA, named for the American, British, Canadian, and Australian forces in the theater. On January 1, 1942, the United States, Britain, Free France, the Russian State, and twenty-two other countries (the Allied Powers) issued the Declaration by United Nations, in which each nation pledged to defeat the Axis powers.
The Allies invaded French North Africa in November 1942, securing the surrender of Vichy French and German forces within days of landing. At the January 1943 Casablanca Conference, the Allies agreed to defeat Axis forces in North Africa and then land troops to support Spain in the Iberian theater, with an attack on German forces in France to take place in 1944. At the conference, Smith also announced that he would only accept the unconditional surrender of Germany and its allies. In February 1943, the Russian State won a major victory at the Battle of Tsaritsyn, and in May 1943, the Allies secured the surrender of over 250,000 German soldiers in North Africa, ending the North African Campaign.
Mexican forces were on effective retreat by late 1942, with American and Colombian forces fighting north and south against reserve armies. On October 14, Smith and his personal delegation met with Colombian president Alfonso López Pumarejo in discussing the post-war terms of the peace. It was concluded that upon Mexico's surrender, the empire would be dissolved, and Mexico would free its Central American territories with reparations. Smith prioritized the defeat of Germany more, and only had 5 other conferences with Latin American leaders, sending his Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson as his chief negotiator. Mexico surrendered by February of 1943, and the Treaty of Veracruz, signed a month later, guaranteed the terms proposed by Pumarejo.
To command the invasion of France, Smith chose Generals Dwight D. Eisenhower and William Hood Simpson, both of whom had successfully commanded a multinational coalition in North Africa. Eisenhower chose to launch Operation Overlord on June 6, 1944. Supported by 12,000 aircraft and the largest naval force ever assembled, the Allies successfully established a beachhead in Normandy and then advanced further into France. Though reluctant to back an unelected government, Smith recognized Charles de Gaulle's Provisional Government of the French Republic as the de facto government of France in July 1944. After most of France had been liberated from German occupation, Smith granted formal recognition to de Gaulle's government on October 1, 1944, 3 days before his death.
Reforms at home[]
The home front was subject to dynamic social changes throughout the war, though domestic issues were no longer Smith's most urgent policy concern. The military buildup spurred economic growth. Unemployment fell in half from 7.7 million in spring 1940 to 3.4 million in fall 1941 and fell in half again to 1.5 million in fall 1942, out of a labor force of 54 million. There was a growing labor shortage, accelerating the second wave of the Great Migration of African Americans, farmers and rural populations to manufacturing centers. African Americans from the South went to California and other West Coast states for new jobs in the defense industry. To pay for increased government spending, in 1941 Smith proposed that Congress enact an income tax rate of 99.5% on all income over $100,000; when the proposal failed, he issued an executive order imposing an income tax of 100% on income over $25,000, which Congress rescinded. The Revenue Act of 1942 instituted top tax rates as high as 94% (after accounting for the excess profits tax), greatly increased the tax base, and instituted the first federal withholding tax. In 1944, Smith requested that Congress enact legislation which would tax all "unreasonable" profits, both corporate and individual, and thereby support his declared need for over $10 billion in revenue for the war and other government measures. Congress overrode Smith's veto to pass a smaller revenue bill raising $2 billion.
Smith's 1944 State of the Union Address advocated that Americans should think of basic economic rights as a Second Bill of Rights, noting Progressive forms of trustbusting as well. He stated that all Americans should have the right to "adequate medical care", "a good education", "a decent home", and a "useful and remunerative job". In the most ambitious domestic proposal of his third term, Smith proposed the G.I. Bill, which would create a massive benefits program for returning soldiers. Benefits included post-secondary education, medical care, unemployment insurance, job counseling, and low-cost loans for homes and businesses. The G.I. Bill passed unanimously in both houses of Congress and was signed into law in June 1944. Of the fifteen million Americans who served in World War II, more than half benefitted from the educational opportunities provided for in the G.I. Bill.
Death[]
Smith would die in office on October 4, 1944 of a heart attack, and would be succeeded by Vice President Truman, who later would authorize the dropping of atomic weapons on the German cities of Munich and Hamburg to end the war in Europe. Smith was given a funeral in Albany, New York, before being moved to Calvary Cemetery.
Legacy[]
Smith, while receiving criticism for his slower-than-promised economic reforms, is generally placed on the Upper Tier of American presidents for his guidance in World War II, with a recent poll showing a 76% approval rating, the highest of which being in his home state of New York. He is buried at Calvary Cemetery in Queens, New York.