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I frequently read up on some relatively esoteric US political history,
looking through NY Times articles on a computerized archive of NY
Times. I post these things to my blog, and here and there. Looking
into the 1928 election between Hoover and Smith, well... History would
repeat itself in 1948, 1964, 1968, and the Southern Dixiecrat's hatred
of Truman and Johnson for their Civil Rights programs, which would lead them into the Republican tent, and the legacy lives on today.
And, oh yes, Bob Jones makes an appearance in this little tale of the origins of how the Republicans won the South.
7-17-1928: Opponents to the candidacy of Governor Smith crystallized
here today at a conference of anti-Smith Democrats of Texas who pledged
a state-wide campaign for the election of Secretary Hoover. About 500
persons attended the rally and among the speakers were half a dozen
party leaders, ministers, and prohibition workers. Resolutions were
adopted denouncing Governor Smith for his advocacy of a modification of
the prohibition law; declaring resentment "of the efforts of Tammany
Hall to nullify the 18th Amendment and to scrap the Volstead Act";
condemning the appointment of J.T. Roskab as chairman of the National
Democratic Executive Committee, and denoucning "Tammany Democrats for
the treatment with contempt the notice given by evangelical bodies of
the South that they would not accept a wet nominee." <...>
Governor Smith's message to the Houston convention in which he
reaffirmed his stand for modification of the prohibition statues was
characterized as "treason" by several speakers. His nomination was
termed "The vilest insult ever hurled at Southern Democrats."
V.A. Collins: "Any man who strike down the 18th Amendment also would
strike down section 3 article 6 of the constitution pertaining to
religious freedom. I don't know if there is still a Ku Klux Klan
organization in Texas. But if they are opposed to Al Smith I wish there
were 10,000,000 of them in the state."
..............................
7-11: A few days ago a well known Washington correspondent wrote
"political observers are surprised to see all the anti-Smith bitterness
disappearing and the entire South getting ready to give a solid vote
for the nominee." Political observers not only in Washington but in the
South are entitled to be "surprised" as the foregoing statement
appeared in the Birmingham News and Age Herald in the column next to
the "lynching" of Governor Smith in effigy at Wahouma, Alabama by the
Nathan Bedford Forrest Klan of that Klux-ridden community. It was not
an ordinary mob "lynching an effigy". All the joys of Ku Kluxery were
indulged. A straw effigy was introduced as "Al Smith, Democratic
nominee for President". Asked what should be done the crowd yelled,
"Lynch him!" A vengeful Democratic Klansman plunged a knife into the
effigy's throat, while another poured on mercurochrome to heighten the
effect of the "assassination." A shot or two was fired into the effigy
and it was then, amid the frenzy of the klan and its sympathizers,
dragged around to hall to allow those present to vent their anger with
kicks. The Robert E Lee Klavern in Alabama also assailed Governor Smith
and did everything except "lynch" the Democratic candidate.
It should be said that the persons responsible in most cases for
keeping alive and formenting hatred against Governor Smith in Georgia
and Alabama are the preachers, those women who are members of the
Women's Christian Temperance Union, and a handful of anti-Catholic
newspapers.
.........................................
10-7, Alabama dispatch: The primary objection to Smith is his
Catholicism. His wet views com second, his Tammany affiliation third.
But it is hard to tell where one leaves off and the other begins. The
simple truth is that there would be only a negligible amount of bolting
among Democrats if Smith were not Catholic, regardless of his Tammany
affiliations and his opposition to prohibition and regardless of his
supposed views on immigration and his fondness for "those dirty
Italians" as some speakers characterize them.
Klan politicians and preachers in Methodist and Baptist pulpits are the
chief purveyors of evil reports about Smith. Some of these are
Democrats, some are Republicans. All of them, however, enjoy the
blessing of the Republican Campaign Committee of Alabama; indeed the
Republican National Committee ChairMan, Oliver D Street, last year a
bitter foe of the Klan, now is attacking Smith because of his religion
and printing his attack in a Klan organ, The American Standard of
Birmingham. <...>
Dr. Bob Jones, best known Methodist evangelist in the South and
proprietor of Bob Jones College, is making 100 speeches for Hoover in
Alabama. Jones tells his audiences that Catholics regard the children
of non-Catholic parents as illegitimate. Though a vehement
prohibitionist, Jones has repeatedly said, "I'd rather see a saloon on
every corner than a Catholic in the White House." He also is fond of
saying that he'd "rather see a nigger" president than Smith. We are
told that in Italy the watchword of the priests is, "If you can't
convert 'em, kill 'em." Jones assures us this is true.
Other speakers, including Senator Heflin, say that every American
President who has been assassinated was killed by a Catholic and that a
Catholic shot Roosevelt. The "Anti-Smith Democratic Campaign
Committee", Judge Hugh A Locke Chairman, in his campaign book denoucnes
Smith as a "negro lover", and a "negro boot-licker". He asserts that
Smith favors and practices social equality (oh, the horror of it all!)
and favors miscegenation. "Al Smith owes his entire political career to
support by the lowest element of society. His plan of campaign is and
has always been to divide the decent element of society between himself
and his opponent, and then get the office by solidifying the negro, the
alien, and the criminal element behind him."
..........................................................
11-12, FDR surveys the wreckage: While Mr. Roosevelt has remained
silent on this phrase of the situation, it is said that he believes the
survey will show that many Democrats in the South who left the party to
vote for Herbert Hoover can be brought back within the regular ranks if
they are handled tactfully. He is said to feel that if intensive work
is carried on, not for three months but for at least three years, not
only can the losses of November 6 be met but important gains can be
effected.
.....................
11-15: In his letter, Mr. Hoover says he is not at all unmindful of the
conditions which for years brought about the political solidarity of
the South, an apparent reference to the race question and resentment to
the Republican Party's reconstruction policy following the Civil War;
but he expresses the belief "that the time has come when in all
sections men and women should vote from their convictions as to
conditions at the present time and not based on things of former
generations."
..........................
11-25: The press of Tennessee and Arkansas has been much concerned
since the election with the future political status of the negro, due
to the break in the solid south. The word has passed that negro leaders
in the North are prepared to fight in Congress for relief from the "Jim
Crow" laws of the South and that they are going to call upon the
Republicans, whose cause they aided in the recent election, to help
them win their point. Previous efforts to break the "Jim Crow" law have
been defeated by the votes of the Congressmen from the Solid South and
Tammany Hall, but in the light of the events of the past few weeks the
old cohesion is gone and the situation has reached panicky stage in
some quarters. For instance, editorial expression from Chattanooga is
that Senator Glass and Senator Swanson of Virginia and Senator Sheppard
of Texas, whose states refused to listen to them in the fight for the
election of Governor Smith, will be keen to combat the rumored plans of
the Republicans when the onslaught of the south begins in Congress.
These men were in a sense repudiated by the voters of their states and
it is quite possible that they will be more or less quiescent.
It is understood that John R Hawkins, the negro who seconded the
nomination of Hoover, is to lead the fight and that the first assault
will be on the "Jim Crow" law of Virignia, because it joins DC where no
such law exists. Virginia will be only the first step, it is
understood, and other states of the South may expect o be asked to
defend their right to enforce an act that deals with racial
discrimination.
Newspapers of the region that supported the Democratic cause valiantly
wax sarcastic in their comment on the situation, and although they
express chagrin that things are as they are, they insist that
Democratic bolters are merely being "given a taste of the menu which
has been prepared for them by the negro leaders of the North." The
intimation is that they deserve all they recieve.
...........................
12-4: At a meeting of the Presbyterian Ministers Association of New
York, Reverend Harry Bowlby: "The revolt of the Solid South was a
rebuke to Governor Smith, who had the effrontery to kick aside the
Democratic platform and to pose before the country as being himself the
Democratic Party. Now that Governor Smith has discovered his avowed
attitudes as the cahmpion of the open saloon has nearly wrecked the
Democratic Party, I believe that he has the good sense to step aside."
11-16, CH Patterson: What do the American people care about really
statesmanlike questions, such as cooperation with foreign nations,
peace and international trade? They are willing to vote on strict party
lines, unless their prejudices are involved. Apparently, they neither
know nor care about what such questions mean. The small futilities,
however, engage them desparately.
One prominent paper in New England speaks of the "immense benefit" to
the South of the election of Herbert Hoover! Any northerner who has
lived in teh South knows that it is a disaster. I acknowledge, as a
Republican, that Hoover's election is a good thing for the country as a
whole, but for the South especially it is a misfortune. Not that the
South loved Hoover more but that it loves Catholics and liquor less!
The choice of Hoover confirms all their prejudices. This victory will
set back the progress of religious liberty and education in the South.
...................
11-27: Hiram Wesley Evans, Imperial Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan, has
little use for the World Court, Governor Alfred Smith, Senator Reed of
Missouri, or violations of the 18th Amendment. He made this plian in an
address here tonight when he outlined Klan policies for
the coming two years. The organization would continue along the line of
its present endevor, he said.
"The Klan restored control in Reconstruction Days, and we will do the
same now," he said referring to violation of Prohibition. Governor
Smith came in for a hearty share of the Wizard's vocal artillery. The
Governor has proved himself a "bad citizen" by advocating the repeal of
the Mullen=Gage law in New York, he charged. He referred to Governor
Smith as "the great nullifer of today" and declared that "what was good
for Calhourn, the first Great Nullifier, will be ample for Al Smith in
1928." I don't have time to google it -- either refreshing my memory or
teaching it to me for the first time, so will some historian please
tell me what happened to Calhourn? "The Catholic Church is all right
for Al Smtih but it does not fit an Imperial Wizard." I think I'll
frame that quote. "Georgia will have her revenge in 1928 for the insult
furnished at the national convention by the playing of 'Marching
Through Georgia'. He asserted that a coffin would lead a procession
with a funeral dirge, and that the inscription of the conffin would
tell the uninformed "Here lies the political remains of Al Smith."
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