Governorship of Franklin D. Roosevelt

See also: 1928 New York state election

Governor Alfred E. Smith had unsuccessfully contended for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1924. ^[1] With Smith appearing likely win to reelection in 1926, and to obtain the presidential nomination in 1928, New York state's Democratic leaders began consideration in early 1926 of potential candidates to succeed Smith. ^[2] The first choice was William Stormont Hackett, the Mayor of Albany, who informed supporters that he planned to make the 1928 race. ^[2] After Hackett died in a March 1926 accident, party leaders next considered Edwin Corning, the state Democratic Party chairman, who ran successfully for lieutenant governor in 1926. ^[2] Corning declined the 1928 race because he was in increasingly poor health, and retired from business and political life after leaving the lieutenant governor's office in December 1928. ^[2] In mid-1928, Peter G. Ten Eyck, Townsend Scudder, and George R. Lunn were also considered, but did not attract wide support. ^[3]

With one month before the November 1928 election, Democrats had not yet chosen anyone to replace Smith, who needed a strong gubernatorial candidate to help him win the state's 47 electoral votes, and Smith decided to support Roosevelt. Although Roosevelt was the ideal complement to Smith as a prominent rural, upstate Protestant without strong views on Prohibition who had supported Woodrow Wilson, he was very reluctant to run. Roosevelt was not sure he would win, and wished to continue his physical therapy at Warm Springs. Close aide Louis Howe urged him to wait; as Herbert Hoover would surely defeat Smith and likely serve two terms as president, being elected governor in 1932 would be better timing for the 1936 presidential election. After failing to persuade Roosevelt through many phone calls and telegrams from late September, on October 2, Smith finally got him to agree to run if nominated; the state convention did so the next day. ^[4] Roosevelt had to make his peace with Tammany Hall to obtain its support, which he did with some reluctance. In the November election, Smith was heavily defeated nationwide by Republican candidate Herbert Hoover, and narrowly lost New York, but Roosevelt was elected governor by a margin of 25,608 votes out of more than 4 million votes cast, ^[5] defeating Republican candidate Albert Ottinger.

First term (1929–1931)

Roosevelt came to office in 1929 as a reform Democrat, but with no overall plan. He tackled official corruption by dismissing Smith's cronies and renamed the New York Public Service Commission. He addressed New York's growing need for power through the development of hydroelectricity on the St. Lawrence River. He reformed the state's prison administration and built a new state prison at Attica. He had a long feud with Robert Moses, the state's most powerful public servant, whom he removed as Secretary of State but kept on as Parks Commissioner and head of urban planning. Moses was replaced with the Bronx's Democratic Boss Edward J. Flynn. When the Wall Street crash in October 1929 ushered in the Great Depression, Roosevelt started a relief system that later became the model for the New Deal's Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA). Roosevelt followed President Herbert Hoover's advice and asked the state legislature for $20 million in relief funds, which he spent mainly on public works in the hope of stimulating demand and providing employment. Aid to the unemployed, he said, "must be extended by Government, not as a matter of charity, but as a matter of social duty." In his first term, Roosevelt famously said, "The United States Constitution has proved itself the most marvelously elastic compilation of rules of government ever written." He was referring to the belief he had that the Federal government would need to use more power in order to bring the country out of the Depression.

Tammany Hall and second term (1931–1932)

See also: 1930 New York state election

The main weakness of the Roosevelt administration was the blatant corruption of the Tammany Hall machine in New York City, where the mayor, Jimmy Walker, was the puppet of Tammany boss John F. Curry, and where corruption of all kinds was rife. ^[6] Roosevelt had made his name as an opponent of Tammany, but he needed the machine's goodwill to be re-elected in 1930 and for a possible future presidential bid. In response to various allegations of public corruption among the judiciary, police force, the city government, and organized crime, Roosevelt began the Seabury Commission investigations in 1930. Many public officials were removed from office. ^[7]

On September 28, 1930, the Republican state convention nominated former U.S. Attorney Charles H. Tuttle for the governorship and State Senator Caleb H. Baumes for lieutenant governor. With Tuttle losing Republican support because he was regarded as insufficiently "dry" on the Prohibition question (he favored prohibiting the sale and transportation of alcohol but thought it was a state issue, not federal), and the electoral tide turning towards Democrats as voters largely blamed Republicans for the Great Depression, Roosevelt and Lieutenant Governor Herbert H. Lehman won landslide reelections in November, leaving Roosevelt well-positioned to run for president in 1932.

Roosevelt's second term in Albany was focused on measures to counter the effects of the Depression, including the Temporary Emergency Relief Administration to provide public works employment, as well as legislation on unemployment compensation, banking reform, and reforestation of marginal farmland. In August 1932, Roosevelt forced Tammany's hand on the corruption issue by convening a public hearing on the question of removing Walker as mayor. Walker resigned on September 1, following a State Supreme Court ruling upholding the governor's authority to remove him for cause.

References

1. Grondahl, Paul (2007). Mayor Erastus Corning: Albany Icon, Albany Enigma. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press. pp. 64–65. ISBN   978-0-7914-7294-1.
2. Mayor Erastus Corning: Albany Icon, Albany Enigma, pp. 64–65.
3. Suydam, Henry (October 1, 1928). "Governor Holds to a Faint Hope for Roosevelt" . Brooklyn Daily Eagle . Brooklyn, NY. p. 2 – via Newspapers.com.
4. Gunther, John (1950). Roosevelt in Retrospect. Harper & Brothers. pp. 251–253.
5. Jean Edward Smith, FDR (2007), p.228
6. Pietrusza, David (2016). 1932: The Rise of Hitler and FDR. Guilford, CT: Rowman & Littlefield. p. 212. ISBN   978-1-4930-1805-5 – via Google Books.
7. Allen, Oliver E. (1993). The Tiger: The Rise and Fall of Tammany Hall . Addison-Wesley Publishing Company. pp.  233-250. ISBN   0-201-62463-X.

Governorship of Franklin D. Roosevelt January 1, 1929 –December 31, 1932
Governor	Franklin D. Roosevelt

v t e Franklin D. Roosevelt
32nd President of the United States (1933–1945) 44th Governor of New York (1929–1932) Assistant Secretary of the Navy (1913–1920) New York State Senator (1911–1913)
Presidency (timeline)	Transition Inaugurations (1st 2nd 3rd 4th) First and second terms Third and fourth terms Foreign policy New Deal overview New Deal coalition First 100 days Second New Deal Federal Emergency Relief Administration Civilian Conservation Corps Agricultural Adjustment Act Emergency Banking Act Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1944 Fish and Wildlife Coordination Act Tennessee Valley Authority National Labor Relations Act of 1935 National Industrial Recovery Act of 1933 Public Works Administration National Recovery Administration Works Progress Administration National Youth Administration Social Security Act Aid to Families with Dependent Children Communications Act of 1934 Federal Communications Commission Securities and Exchange Commission Monetary gold ownership Gold Reserve Act Silver seizure Record on civil rights Defense industry non-discrimination Fair Employment Practice Committee Indian Reorganization Act Executive Orders 9066, 9102 War Relocation Authority Japanese American internment German-American internment Italian-American internment Brownlow Committee Executive Office of the President G.I. Bill of Rights Cullen–Harrison Act Roerich Pact Four Freedoms Four Freedoms Monument Black Cabinet Jefferson's Birthday holiday Jefferson Memorial Judicial Court-Packing Bill Cannabis policy Federal Judicial appointments Supreme Court Harlan F. Stone Supreme Court nomination Wiley Rutledge Supreme Court nomination Cabinet "Brain Trust" March of Dimes Modern Oval Office Official car Criticism Executive Orders Presidential Proclamations
Presidential foreign policy	Banana Wars U.S. occupation of Nicaragua, 1912–1933 U.S. occupation of Haiti, 1915–1934 Good Neighbor Policy (1933–1945) Montevideo Convention (1933) Second London Naval Treaty (1936) ABCD line (1940) Export Control Act Four Policemen Destroyers-for-bases deal Lend-Lease 1940 Selective Service Act Hull note Atlantic Charter (1941) Military history of the United States during World War II Home front during World War II Combined Munitions Assignments Board War Production Board Declaration by United Nations (1942) Dumbarton Oaks Conference World War II conferences Quebec Agreement Europe first Morgenthau Plan support
Presidential speeches	1932 Acceptance speech Commonwealth Club Address Madison Square Garden speech "Four Freedoms" Day of Infamy speech Arsenal of Democracy "...is fear itself" Fireside chats "Look to Norway" Quarantine Speech "The More Abundant Life" State of the Union Address (1934 1938 1939 1940 1941 (Four Freedoms) 1944 (Second Bill of Rights) 1945)
Other events	Early life, education, career Warm Springs Institute Governorship of New York Business Plot Assassination attempt
Elections	1928 New York state election 1930 Democratic National Convention, 1920 1924 1932 1936 1940 1944 1920 United States presidential election 1932 theme song 1936 1940 1944
Life and homes	Early life and education Groton School Springwood birthplace, home, and gravesite Adams House FDR Suite Campobello home Paralytic illness Top Cottage Little White House, Warm Springs, Georgia
Legacy	Bibliography Statues Presidential Library and Museum Roosevelt Institute Roosevelt Institute Campus Network Franklin Delano Roosevelt Foundation Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial Roosevelt Island Four Freedoms Park White House Roosevelt Room Roosevelt Institute for American Studies USS Franklin D. Roosevelt USS Roosevelt Four Freedoms Award Four Freedoms paintings Unfinished portrait U.S. Postage stamps Roosevelt dime I'd Rather Be Right 1937 musical Films The Roosevelt Story 1947 Sunrise at Campobello 1960 Eleanor and Franklin 1976, The White House Years 1977 Backstairs at the White House 1979 miniseries World War II: When Lions Roared 1997 miniseries Warm Springs 2005 Hyde Park on Hudson 2012 The Roosevelts 2014 documentary The First Lady 2022 miniseries FDR 2023 miniseries Other namesakes
Family (Roosevelt  • Delano)	Eleanor Roosevelt (wife) Anna Roosevelt Halsted (daughter) James Roosevelt II (son) Elliott Roosevelt (son) Franklin Delano Roosevelt Jr. (son) John Aspinwall Roosevelt II (son) James Roosevelt I (father) Sara Ann Delano (mother) James Roosevelt Roosevelt (half-brother) Isaac Roosevelt (grandfather) Warren Delano Jr. (grandfather) Fala (family dog) Major (family dog)
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