FDR - Jean Edward Smith [153]
Wheeler’s endorsement created a sensation. He was the first Democrat of national stature to announce for Roosevelt, and his speech had been totally unexpected. FDR, in fact, had departed the dinner before Wheeler spoke. Later, Franklin wrote his cousin Nicholas that he was not concerned about 1932. “Why can’t reporters, editorial writers and the politicians let a poor devil alone to do the best he can with a very current job?”50 Franklin was doubtless sincere about wishing to get on with the job of governor—he was up for reelection in November—but when Governor L. G. Hardman of Georgia announced his support of Roosevelt for president several weeks later, FDR made no move to rein him in. “It was very good of Governor Hardman to say what he did,” Franklin wrote his old friend Hollins Randolph.51
The gubernatorial campaign occupied FDR completely in the summer and fall of 1930. The Republicans nominated Charles H. Tuttle, the racket-busting U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, and focused the campaign on Tammany corruption. Roosevelt chose to run against Washington, stressing the need for farm relief, full employment, and public power. “Never let your opponent pick the battleground on which to fight,” FDR told Sam Rosenman. “If he picks one, stay out of it and let him fight all by himself.”52*
After Charles Murphy’s death, Tammany had returned to its old ways of doing business, and corruption was rampant in New York City. But Roosevelt relied on the votes of Tammany Democrats in the legislature to enact his program, and he was reluctant to call the organization to task. And so he avoided the issue during the campaign. The more Tuttle talked about Tammany corruption, the more FDR talked about unemployment insurance and old-age pensions.
In the closing weeks of the campaign Washington dispatched three high-ranking cabinet officers to New York on Tuttle’s behalf. The Hoover administration evidently decided that the best way to stop Roosevelt in 1932 would be to defeat him for governor in 1930. Secretary of State Henry L. Stimson, Secretary of War Patrick J. Hurley, and Ogden Mills, the undersecretary (later secretary) of the Treasury spoke repeatedly to audiences throughout the Empire State, lambasting FDR for his failure to repudiate Tammany.
Roosevelt ignored the charges until his final rally at Carnegie Hall on November 1. His response was brief but complete. If there were corrupt officeholders, he said, they would be removed. “They shall be removed by constitutional means, not by inquisition; not by trial in the press, but by trial as provided by law.
“If there is corruption in our courts I will use every rightful power of the office of Governor to drive it out, and I will do this regardless of whether it affects any Democratic or Republican organization in any one of the five counties of New York City, or in any one of the fifty-seven other counties of the State. That is clear. That is unequivocal. That is honesty. That is justice. That is American. That is right.” And that was enough. Roosevelt waited until the last day of the race to rebut the charges of corruption, and he did so effectively. Tuttle had waged a one-issue campaign, and it had backfired.
Roosevelt also used his final appearance to ridicule the intervention of Stimson, Hurley, and Mills.* What qualified “these three estimable gentlemen” to instruct the people of New York? FDR asked. Hurley, he pointed out, was a carpetbagger from Oklahoma and knew nothing about the state. The other two, Stimson and Mills, had both run for governor of New York and been defeated. “The people did not believe in them or their issues then, and they will not believe in them or their issues now.” Roosevelt said the three cabinet officers should return to Washington as soon as possible and address the problems confronting the nation. “Rest assured that we of the Empire State can take care of ourselves.”53
Roosevelt left Carnegie Hall with the rafters ringing. Three days later the Tammany organization demonstrated