John Nance Garner
John Nance Garner | |
|---|---|
Henry Thomas Rainey | |
| Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Texas's 15th district | |
| In office March 4, 1903 – March 3, 1933 | |
| Preceded by | Constituency established |
| Succeeded by | Milton H. West |
| Member of the Texas House of Representatives from the 91st district | |
| In office January 10, 1899 – January 13, 1903 | |
| Preceded by | Samuel Thomas Jones |
| Succeeded by | Ferdinand C. Weinert |
| County Judge of Uvalde County | |
| In office 1893–1896 | |
| Preceded by | A. V. D. Old[1] |
| Succeeded by | J. E. Cummings[2] |
| Personal details | |
| Born | John Nance Garner III November 22, 1868 Red River County, Texas, Fifth Military District, U.S. |
| Died | November 7, 1967 (aged 98) Uvalde, Texas, U.S. |
| Resting place | Uvalde Cemetery Uvalde, Texas, U.S. |
| Political party | Democratic |
| Spouse | |
| Children | 1 |
| Education | Vanderbilt University |
| Signature |  |
John Nance Garner III (November 22, 1868 – November 7, 1967), known among his contemporaries as "Cactus Jack", was an American
Garner began his political career as the county judge of
Garner sought the Democratic presidential nomination in the 1932 presidential election, but agreed to serve as Franklin D. Roosevelt's running mate at the 1932 Democratic National Convention. He and Roosevelt won the 1932 election and were re-elected in 1936. A conservative Southerner, Garner opposed the sit-down strikes of the labor unions and the New Deal's deficit spending. However, Garner was also considered highly effective in the passage of New Deal legislation, with Roosevelt relying greatly on Garner's wealth of political friendships and legislative skills to pilot New Deal legislation through Congress.[3] Unlike vice presidents before him, Garner also had a more active, non-ceremonial role in the U.S. Cabinet.[4][5] He broke with Roosevelt in 1937 over a range of issues, especially the centralization of too much power in the federal government. Garner again sought the presidency in the 1940 presidential election, but Roosevelt won the party's presidential nomination at the 1940 Democratic National Convention, then chose Henry A. Wallace as his running mate.
Early life and family
Garner was born on November 22, 1868, in a log cabin in Red River County, Texas, to John Nance Garner Jr. and Sarah Guest Garner.[6][7] That mud-chinked log cabin no longer exists, but the large, white, two-story house where he was raised survives and is located at 260 South Main Street in Detroit, Texas.
Garner attended
In 1893, Garner entered politics, running for county judge of
Texas politics
Garner was elected to the
He also drafted a resolution that would have divided Texas into five states, which passed the Texas House, but the bill was vetoed by the Governor.[10]
In 1901, Garner voted for the
Garner traveled parts of southern Texas controlled by the
House of Representatives
Garner was first elected to the United States House of Representatives in 1902. He was elected from the district 14 subsequent times, serving until 1933. His wife was paid and worked as his private secretary during this period. Throughout his career he maintained allegiance to the white landowners who controlled the voting booths in South Texas. He regarded his Mexican voting base as "inferior and undesirable as U.S. citizens."[13]
Garner was chosen to serve as
Vice presidency (1933–1941)
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In 1932, Garner ran for the Democratic presidential nomination. It had become evident that Franklin D. Roosevelt, the Governor of New York, was the strongest of several candidates, but although he had a solid majority of convention delegates, he was 87.25 votes short of the two-thirds required for nomination. After Garner cut a deal with Roosevelt, thus allowing Roosevelt to win the nomination, Garner became his vice-presidential candidate.
Garner was re-elected to the 73rd Congress on November 8, 1932, and on the same day was elected Vice President of the United States. On February 8, 1933, then-Vice President Charles Curtis announced the election of his successor, House Speaker Garner, while Garner was seated next to him on the House dais. He was the second man, Schuyler Colfax being the first, to serve as both Speaker of the House and President of the Senate. Garner was re-elected Vice President with Roosevelt in 1936, serving in that office in total from March 4, 1933, to January 20, 1941.
Like most vice presidents in this era, Garner had little to do and little influence on the president's policies. He famously described the vice presidency as being "not worth a bucket of warm
During Roosevelt's second term, Garner's previously warm relationship with the president quickly soured, as Garner disagreed sharply with him on a wide range of important issues. Garner supported federal intervention to break up the
During 1938 and 1939, numerous Democratic party leaders urged Garner to run for president in the
Cactus Jack is 71, sound in wind & limb, a hickory conservative who does not represent the Old South of magnolias, hoopskirts, pillared verandas, but the New South: moneymaking, industrial, hardboiled, still expanding too rapidly to brood over social problems. He stands for oil derricks, sheriffs who use airplanes, prairie skyscrapers, mechanized farms, $100 Stetson hats. Conservative John Garner appeals to many a conservative voter.[19]
Some other Democrats did not find him appealing. In congressional testimony, union leader John L. Lewis described him using tetrameter as "a labor-baiting, poker-playing, whiskey-drinking, evil old man".[20]
Garner declared his candidacy. Roosevelt refused to say whether he would run again. If he did, it was highly unlikely that Garner could win the nomination, but Garner stayed in the race anyway. He opposed some of Roosevelt's New Deal policies, most notably those related to wooing labor,[21] and on principle, opposed presidents serving third terms. However, Garner was also credited with steering a number of important bills through Congress in the crisis atmosphere of Roosevelt's first one hundred days in office and his relationship with the President would not become strained until Roosevelt's second term, when the Vice President's hopes of balancing the budget and paring New Deal programs faded.[5] He was also active in Roosevelt's Cabinet meetings on national policy and legislative strategy, which also resulted in the effective transformation of the previously ceremonial office of the U.S. vice president.[5] However, the president's "court-packing" plan of 1937 widened the rift with Garner,[5] and the final blow in their relationship came when the president attempted to purge opposition Democratic members of Congress in the 1938 elections.[5] Also, by 1940, Garner had come to support federal legislation against lynching (although probably more out of political opportunism rather than for principled reasons) which Roosevelt opposed.[22]
At the Democratic National Convention, Roosevelt engineered a "spontaneous" call for his renomination, and won on the first ballot. Garner received only 61 votes out of 1,093. Roosevelt chose Henry A. Wallace to be his vice-presidential running mate.[23]
Post vice-presidency (1941–1967)
Garner left office on January 20, 1941, ending a 46-year career in public life. He retired to his home in Uvalde for the last 26 years of his life, where he managed his extensive real estate holdings, spent time with his great-grandchildren, and fished. Throughout his retirement, he was consulted by active Democratic politicians and was especially close to Roosevelt's successor, Harry S. Truman.
On the morning of Garner's 95th birthday, November 22, 1963, President
Personal life and death
Garner and Mariette Rheiner met and began dating after the primary election in 1893. They married in Sabinal, Texas, on November 25, 1895. Mariette served as her husband's secretary throughout his congressional career, and as Second Lady of the United States during her husband's tenure as vice president. Their son, Tully Charles Garner (1896–1968), became a banker and businessman. Garner died of a coronary occlusion on November 7, 1967, 15 days before his 99th birthday. Garner remains the longest-lived Vice President of the United States in history.[25]
Legacy
Garner State Park, located 30 miles (48 km) north of Uvalde, bears his name, as does Garner Field just east of Uvalde. The women's dormitory at Southwest Texas Junior College in Uvalde bears his wife's name. John Garner Middle School, located in San Antonio's North East Independent School District, is also named after him.
Garner and Schuyler Colfax, vice president under Ulysses S. Grant, are the only two vice presidents to have been Speaker of the House of Representatives prior to becoming vice president. As the vice president is also the President of the Senate, Garner and Colfax are the only people to have served as the presiding officer of both houses of Congress.
See also
Footnotes
- ^ Biennial report of the Secretary of State of Texas, December 1892
- ^ Biennial report of the Secretary of State of Texas (1897)
- ^ "John N. Garner (1933–1941)". Miller Center. Retrieved May 29, 2022.
- ^ "Vice Presidency". CQ Researcher. Retrieved May 29, 2022.
- ^ a b c d e "Garner the Vice President (1933–1941)". Briscoe Center for American History. Archived from the original on May 12, 2021. Retrieved May 12, 2021.
- ^ a b "John Nance Garner, 32nd Vice President (1933-1941)". Retrieved October 23, 2017.
- ^ Lionel V., Patenaude (June 15, 2010). "Garner, John Nance". Texas State Historical Association. Retrieved March 27, 2018.
- ISBN 978-0-292-70763-4.
- ^ "GARNER, John Nance | US House of Representatives: History, Art & Archives". history.house.gov. Retrieved January 22, 2023.
- ^ ISBN 0-06-001376-1. Retrieved January 13, 2023.
- JSTOR 791091accessed 21 March 2008
- ^ Texas Politics: Historical Barriers to Voting, accessed 11 Apr 2008 Archived April 2, 2008, at the Wayback Machine
- ^ ISBN 9781477310366.
- ^ "The Opening of the 72nd Congress | US House of Representatives: History, Art & Archives". history.house.gov.
- ^ Patrick Cox, University of Texas at Austin, "John Nance Garner," West Texas Historical Association joint meeting with the East Texas Historical Association at Fort Worth, February 26, 2010
- ^ Johns, Daniel (July 1, 2012). "The Vice Presidents That History Forgot". Smithsonian. Retrieved January 3, 2017.
- ^ Cox, Patrick L. "John Nance Garner on the Vice Presidency—In Search of the Proverbial Bucket". Briscie Center for American History. Retrieved November 20, 2022.
- ISBN 978-0-8131-1755-3.
- ^ see online
- ^ Time August 7, 1939
- ^ "John Nance Garner". Texas Monthly. November 1996. Retrieved May 12, 2021.
- ^ Magness, Phillip W. (July 31, 2020). "How FDR Killed Federal Anti-Lynching Legislation". American Institute for Economic Research.
- ISBN 9780826211330.
- ^ Dan Rather, The Camera Never Blinks (1976), page 113.
- ^ Lewis, Janna (December 22, 2015). "Texans who were presidents, vice-presidents". Fort Hood Sentinel. Fort Hood, Texas. Retrieved December 21, 2022.
Further reading
- Anders, Evan. "The Election of John Nance Garner to Congress" in Anders, Boss Rule in South Texas. Austin, TX: University of Texas Press, 1982. online
- Brown, Norman D. (2000). "Garnering Votes for "Cactus Jack ": John Nance Garner, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and the 1932 Democratic Nomination for President". The Southwestern Historical Quarterly. 104 (2): 149–188. JSTOR 30239246.
- Champagne, Anthony. "John Nance Garner", in Raymond W Smock and Susan W Hammond, eds. Masters of the House: Congressional Leadership Over Two Centuries (1998) pp 144–80.
- Cooper, George. "Texas, Banks, and John Nance Garner." East Texas Historical Journal 56.1 (2018): 7+ online.
- Cox, Patrick. "John Nance Garner" in Kenneth E. Hendrickson Jr., ed. Profiles in Power: Twentieth-Century Texans in Washington (2nd ed. 2004)
- Fisher, Ovie Clark (1982). Cactus Jack. Texian Press. ISBN 978-0-87244-066-1.
- Patenaude, Lionel V. "The Garner Vote Switch to Roosevelt: 1932 Democratic Convention." Southwestern Historical Quarterly 79.2 (1975): 189–204. JSTOR 30238382
- Patenaude, Lionel V. "Garner, Sumners, and Connally: The Defeat of the Roosevelt Court Bill in 1937." Southwestern Historical Quarterly 74.1 (1970): 36–51. JSTOR 30236624
- Schwarz, Jordan A. (May 1964). "John Nance Garner and the Sales Tax Rebellion of 1932". The Journal of Southern History. 30 (2): 162–180. JSTOR 2205071.
- Spencer, Thomas T. (January 2018). "For the Good of the Party: John Nance Garner, FDR, and New Deal Politics, 1933–1940". Southwestern Historical Quarterly. 121 (3): 254–282. S2CID 149356041.
- Timmons, Bascom N. Garner of Texas: A Personal History. 1948. online
- Will, George. "In Cactus Jack's Footsteps". Jewish World Review Jan 6, 2000.
External links
- United States Congress. "John Nance Garner (id: G000074)". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.
- Let's get goin'!, Bill Sykes Editorial Cartoon Archived October 22, 2017, at the Wayback Machine depicting Garner's 1940 presidential candidacy, December 19, 1939
- Conspicuous among the casualties, Bill Sykes Editorial Cartoon Archived October 22, 2017, at the Wayback Machine depicting Vandenberg and Garner in 1940 presidential primaries, April 4, 1940
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