John Nance Garner

John Nance Garner III(November 22, 1868 – November 7, 1967), known among his contemporaries as "Cactus Jack",was an American politician and lawyer who served as the 32ndvice president of the United Statesfrom 1933 to 1941 under PresidentFranklin D. Roosevelt.A member of theDemocratic Party,Garner served as the 39thspeaker of the United States House of Representativesfrom 1931 to 1933, having been aUnited States representativefrom Texas from 1903 to 1933. Garner andSchuyler Colfax(from 1863 to 1873) are the only politicians to have served as presiding officers of both chambers of theUnited States Congressas speaker of the House and vice president of the United States.

John Nance Garner
Garner,c.1930s
32ndVice President of the United States
In office March 4, 1933 – January 20, 1941
President	Franklin D. Roosevelt
Preceded by	Charles Curtis
Succeeded by	Henry A. Wallace
39thSpeaker of the United States House of Representatives
In office December 7, 1931 – March 3, 1933
Preceded by	Nicholas Longworth
Succeeded by	Henry T. Rainey
House Minority Leader
In office March 4, 1929 – March 3, 1931
Preceded by	Finis J. Garrett
Succeeded by	Bertrand Snell
Leader of the House Democratic Caucus
In office March 4, 1929 – March 3, 1933
Preceded by	Finis J. Garrett
Succeeded by	Henry T. Rainey
Member of theU.S. House of Representatives fromTexas's15thdistrict
In office March 4, 1903 – March 3, 1933
Preceded by	Constituency established
Succeeded by	Milton H. West
Member of theTexas 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 ofUvalde County
In office 1893–1896
Preceded by	A. V. D. Old
Succeeded by	J. E. Cummings
Personal details
Born	John Nance Garner III (1868-11-22)November 22, 1868 Red River County, Texas,Fifth Military District,U.S.
Died	November 7, 1967(1967-11-07)(aged 98) Uvalde, Texas,U.S.
Resting place	Uvalde Cemetery Uvalde, Texas, U.S.
Political party	Democratic
Spouse	Mariette Rheiner ​ ​ (m.1895;died1948)​
Children	1
Education	Vanderbilt University
Signature

Garner began his political career as the county judge ofUvalde County, Texas.He served in theTexas House of Representativesfrom 1898 to 1902 and won election to represent Texas in theUnited States House of Representativesin 1902. He representedTexas's 15th congressional districtfrom 1903 to 1933. Garner served as House Minority Leader from 1929 to 1931, and was elevated to Speaker of the House when Democrats won control of the House following special elections in 1931 (Republicans actually retained control immediately after the 1930 election, but lost as several seats shifted parties).1930 elections.

Garner sought the Democratic presidential nomination in the1932 presidential election,but agreed to serve as Roosevelt's running mate at the1932 Democratic National Convention.He and Roosevelt won the 1932 election and were reelected in1936.A conservative Southerner, Garner opposed the sit-down strikes of the labor unions and theNew Deal'sdeficit spending.But he 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.Unlike vice presidents before him, Garner also had an active, non-ceremonial role in the U.S. Cabinet.He broke with Roosevelt in 1937 over a range of issues, especially the centralization of power in the federal government. Garner again sought the presidency in the1940 presidential election,but Roosevelt won the party's nomination at the1940 Democratic National Conventionand choseHenry A. Wallaceas his running mate.

Early life and family

Garner was born on November 22, 1868, in a mud-chinked log cabin inRed River County, Texas,to John Nance Garner Jr. and Sarah Guest Garner.That cabin no longer exists, but the large, white, two-story house where he was raised survives, at 260 South Main Street inDetroit, Texas.

Garner attendedVanderbilt UniversityinNashville,Tennessee,for one semester before dropping out and returning home. He studied law at the firm of Sims and Wright inClarksville, Texas,wasadmitted to the barin 1890,and began practice in 1896 inUvalde, Texas.

In 1893, Garner entered politics, running for county judge ofUvalde County,the county's chief administrative officer. Garner was opposed in the primary by a woman—Mariette Rheiner Garner,a rancher's daughter, whom, after the election, he courted and married in 1895. Garner won, and with the Democratic nomination seen as tantamount to election in the post-Civil WarSolid South,was elected county judge and served until 1896.

Texas politics

Garner was elected to theTexas House of Representativesin 1898 and reelected in 1900. During his service, the legislature selected astate flowerfor Texas. Garner fervently supported theprickly pear cactus,and thus earned the nickname "Cactus Jack". Thebluebonnetwas ultimately chosen.

Garner also drafted a resolution that would have dividedTexas into five states.It passed the Texas House but was vetoed by the governor.

Main article:Disfranchisement after Reconstruction era

In 1901, Garner voted for thepoll tax,a measure passed by the Democratic-dominated legislature to make voter registration more difficult and reduce the number of minority and poor voters on the voting rolls.This disfranchised most minority voters until the 1960s, and ended challenges to Democratic power; Texas became in effect a one-party state.

Garner traveled parts of southern Texas controlled by thepatrónsystem,currying political favor with theland Boss eswho exercised near-complete control of the local people and local elections. Hispatrónallies created a gerrymandered district for him, the15th congressional district,shaped in a narrow strip reaching south to include tens of thousands of square miles of rural areas.

House of Representatives

Garner was first elected to theUnited States House of Representativesin 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 thewhitelandowners who controlled the voting booths in South Texas. He regarded his Mexican voting base as "inferior and undesirable as U.S. citizens."

Garner was chosen to serve asminority floor leaderfor the Democrats in 1929, and in 1931 asSpeaker of the United States House of Representatives,when the Democrats became the majority.

Vice presidency (1933–1941)

Alternate portrait of Garner,c. 1930s

In 1932, Garner ran for the Democratic presidential nomination. It had become evident thatFranklin 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 the73rd Congresson November 8, 1932, and on the same day was also elected Vice President of the United States. On February 8, 1933, then-vice presidentCharles Curtisannounced 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 Colfaxbeing 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 warmpiss"(for many years, this quote wasbowdlerizedas "warm spit" ).Historian Patrick Cox traces the possible origin of this quote to a 1960 conversation withLyndon B. Johnson,who consulted Garner onJohn F. Kennedy's offer to run for vice president.

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 theFlint sit-down strike,supported a balanced federal budget, opposed theJudiciary Reorganization Bill of 1937to "pack" the Supreme Court with additional judges, and opposed executive interference with the internal business of the Congress.

During 1938 and 1939, numerous Democratic party leaders urged Garner to run for president in the1940 presidential election.Garner identified as the champion of the traditional Democratic Party establishment, which often clashed with supporters of Roosevelt'sNew Deal.TheGallup pollshowed that Garner was the favorite among Democratic voters, based on the assumption that Roosevelt would defer to the longstanding two-term tradition and not run for a third term.Timecharacterized him on April 15, 1940:

Cactus Jack is 71, sound in wind & limb, a hickory conservative who does not represent theOld Southof 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.

Some other Democrats did not find him appealing. In congressional testimony, union leaderJohn L. Lewisdescribed him usingtetrameteras "a labor-baiting, poker-playing, whiskey-drinking, evil old man".

Painting of Vice President Garner,c. 1939

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'sNew Dealpolicies, most notably those related to wooing labor,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.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.However, the president's "court-packing" plan of 1937 widened the rift with Garner,and the final blow in their relationship came when the president attempted to purge opposition Democratic members of Congress in the 1938 elections.Also, by 1940, Garner had come to supportfederal legislation against lynching(although probably more out of political opportunism rather than for principled reasons) which Roosevelt opposed.

At theDemocratic 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 choseHenry A. Wallaceto be his vice-presidential running mate.

Post vice-presidency (1941–1967)

Garner left office on January 20, 1941, ending a 46-year career in public life. He retired tohis home in Uvaldefor 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, PresidentJohn F. Kennedycalled to wish him a happy birthday. This was several hours beforeKennedy's assassination.Dan Ratherstated that he visited the Garner ranch that morning to film an interview with Garner.

Personal life and death

Garner's grave in Uvalde Cemetery

Garner and Mariette Rheiner met and began dating after the primary election in 1893. They married inSabinal, Texas,on November 25, 1895. Mariette served as her husband's secretary throughout his congressional career, and asSecond Lady of the United Statesduring her husband's tenure as vice president. Their son, Tully Charles Garner (1896–1968), became a banker and businessman. Garner died of acoronary occlusionon November 7, 1967, 15 days before his 99th birthday. Garner remains thelongest-lived Vice President of the United Statesin history.

Legacy

Garner Museum inUvalde,Texas

Garner State Park,located 30 miles (48 km) north of Uvalde, bears his name, as doesGarner Fieldjust east of Uvalde. The women's dormitory atSouthwest Texas Junior Collegein Uvalde bears his wife's name. John Garner Middle School, located inSan Antonio'sNorth East Independent School District,is also named after him.

Garner andSchuyler Colfax,vice president underUlysses 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

• Conservative Democrat

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.JSTOR30239246.
• 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 Journal56.1 (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.ISBN978-0-87244-066-1.
• Patenaude, Lionel V. "The Garner Vote Switch to Roosevelt: 1932 Democratic Convention."Southwestern Historical Quarterly79.2 (1975): 189–204.JSTOR30238382
• Patenaude, Lionel V. "Garner, Sumners, and Connally: The Defeat of the Roosevelt Court Bill in 1937."Southwestern Historical Quarterly74.1 (1970): 36–51.JSTOR30236624
• Schwarz, Jordan A. (May 1964). "John Nance Garner and the Sales Tax Rebellion of 1932".The Journal of Southern History.30(2): 162–180.doi:10.2307/2205071.JSTOR2205071.
• 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.doi:10.1353/swh.2018.0000.S2CID149356041.
• Timmons, Bascom N.Garner of Texas: A Personal History.1948.online
• Will, George."In Cactus Jack's Footsteps".Jewish World ReviewJan 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 Cartoondepicting Garner's 1940 presidential candidacy, December 19, 1939
• Conspicuous among the casualties, Bill Sykes Editorial CartoonArchivedOctober 22, 2017, at theWayback Machinedepicting Vandenberg and Garner in 1940 presidential primaries, April 4, 1940