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By Root 1847 0

Ed Flynn. “We put the entire responsibility on Long to see to it that there was no break in these two tottering states.”101 Long stormed into the midst of the Mississippi delegation. He threatened. He cajoled. He bullied. He shook his fist in Governor Conner’s face: “If you break the unit rule, you sonofabitch, I’ll go into Mississippi and break you.”102 There was no doubt in anyone’s mind that the Kingfish not only could but would do so.* Mississippi and Arkansas held fast on the third ballot, Roosevelt picked up five more votes, Garner gained eleven, and Smith dropped four. At 9:15 on Friday morning the convention adjourned until evening. “There is no question in my mind,” Flynn wrote afterward, “but that without Long’s work Roosevelt might not have been nominated.”103

The convention was on the verge of deadlock. Roosevelt’s ranks were holding, Smith was in until the bitter end, and the favorite sons believed they were sitting pretty. The key to breaking the stalemate lay in the ninety votes pledged to Garner. The principal players were now Sam Rayburn and the powerful chairman of the California delegation, William Gibbs McAdoo.

At Farley’s request, Pat Harrison tracked Rayburn down and arranged a meeting in Harrison’s suite. Harrison and Rayburn were friends of long standing in Washington.

“What shall we offer them?” asked Farley.

“Anything they want,” Harrison replied.104

Rayburn brought Silliman Evans, the manager of Garner’s headquarters, with him to the meeting. “Without wasting much time shadow boxing, we got down to business,” Farley recalled. “Once again I stated my opinion we could swing the vice-presidential nomination for Speaker Garner if Texas threw in their lot in with us.” Pat Harrison urged Rayburn to accept. “Neither Sam nor Silliman needed much convincing,” said Farley. The conference lasted only a few moments.

“We’ll see what can be done,” said Rayburn as he stood to leave. No explicit commitment was made, but Farley and Harrison both recognized that a deal had been struck. “I was elated,” Farley wrote. “There wasn’t a doubt in the world that they intended to release their delegates and swing the convention for Governor Roosevelt.”105

At the same time Farley was meeting with Rayburn, Cordell Hull and Daniel Roper of South Carolina were calling on McAdoo, another old friend. “We felt that if we could win California’s support for Roosevelt the victory would be gained,” said Hull.106 Roper, who had been commissioner of internal revenue when McAdoo was secretary of the Treasury, asked the Californian whether he would be interested in returning to Washington as secretary of state? Roper was freelancing and had no authority from Farley or anyone else to make such an offer. Fortunately, McAdoo was not interested. No, he told his guests, he did not wish anything for himself. But he was not averse to switching horses. The last thing McAdoo wanted was another deadlocked convention. If Roosevelt would name Garner as his running mate and give McAdoo veto power over who was to be secretary of state and secretary of the Treasury, he would shift California’s vote behind FDR on the fourth ballot. He did not wish to suggest anyone for those places, said McAdoo, but he did want to ensure that they were filled with progressives.107

McAdoo insisted that Roper put the terms directly to FDR in Albany. “I’ll do this only upon certain assurances that he [Roosevelt] must give through you and no one else.” Roper reported back to Howe, who placed the call to FDR. “I took the telephone and explained the conditions,” said Roper. “Governor Roosevelt gave me the required assurances over the telephone.”108

At 3 P.M. Chicago time Garner called Rayburn from Washington and made it official. “Sam,” he said, “I think it is time to break this thing up. Roosevelt is the choice of the Convention. He has had a majority on three ballots. We don’t want to be responsible for wrecking the party’s chances. The nomination ought to be made on the next roll call.”109

Both Rayburn and McAdoo ran into considerable roughhouse when they caucused