Your Future is still ahead of you…: The 1948 US Presidential and Massachusetts Gubernatorial election.
Associated Press, 1948
Gandhi Assassinated
On January 30th Indian Pacifist and political leader Mahatma Gandhi was gunned down by a Hindu nationalist with ties to extremist faction. President Truman has sent a letter of deep condolences to Gandhi’s family and to the Prime Minister Nehru, who in his address to the nation of India said, “the light has gone out of our lives”
Marshall Plan becomes Law
President Truman, signs a triumphant victory against a republican-dominated congress with the passage of the Marshall Plan into Law. In order to help rebuild war-torn Europe and set up a bulwark against communism, the plan calls for 5 billion buck-a-roos for sixteen countries.
Israel returns to the Promise Land
As of May 14th, 1948 a day which shall be membered for generations to come, as well as the day before the British Mandate was due to expire, was the official announcement that the new Jewish state named the State of Israel had been formally established in parts of what was known as the British Mandate of Palestine and on land where, in antiquity, the Kingdoms of Israel and Judah had once been.
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While he had by the spring of 1948, begun to lay the groundwork for his gubernatorial run, when event’s affecting Joe’s sister Kathleen deepened his closeness to his family. Joe and Kathleen as their letters each other testify had a warm, affectionate relationship. They shared an attraction to rebelliousness or at least to departing from the confining rules of their Church and mother. Joe had supported Kick in a decision to marry Billy Hartington outside of her faith, being the only representative of the family to even bother show up at the wedding. Billy’s death in the war had brought her closer than ever to her older brothers. And so in the summer of 1947, during his visit to Lismore Castle in Ireland, Joe Jr. was pleased to learn that Kathleen had fallen deeply in love with a wealthy English aristocrat and much-decorated war hero. A breeder of race horses and a man of exceptional charm, with a reputation for womanizing despite being married to a beautiful English heiress, Fitzwilliam reminded some people of their father…”older, sophisticated, quite the rogue male.” Joe saw Kathleen’s determination to marry Fitzwilliam…who would have to divorce his current wife first…despite Rose’s warnings that she and Pappa Joe would disown her, as a demonstration of independence and risk taking that he admired. Before any final decision was reached, however, a tragic accident burdened the Kennedys with a far greater trauma. In May of 1948, while on an ill-advised flight in stormy weather to the south of France, Kathleen and Fitzwilliam were killed when their private plane crashed into the side of a mountain in the Rhone Valley.
Joe found it impossible to make sense of Kathleen’s death. When it was confirmed by a phone call from Ted Reardon, Joe was at home listening to a recording of Ella Logan singing the lead song from Finian’s Rainbow; “How are things in Glocca Morra?” That is when, he seemed to begin crying deeply, as if he had just at that one moment, let all the memories of his time with Kick was over him. He later told his best friend, Aubrey Whitelaw, “The thing about Kathleen and Billy was their tremendous vitality. Everything was moving in their direction…that’s what made it so unfortunate. If something’s happens to you or somebody in your family who is miserable anyways, whose health is bad, or has a chronic disease of something, But for someone who is living at their peak, then to get cut off…that’s the shock.”
Kathleen "Kick" Agnes Kennedy Cavendish: February 20, 1920 – May 13, 1948
From:
AN [REDACTED] LIFE: Joseph P. Kennedy Jr. 1915-[REDACTED] by Robert Dallek
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In his service as Governor, former President Henry Wallace brought a level of national standing to the Midwest which had never been seen before or truly since. His reforms in Agriculture policy, fair pay for women, and push for equal treatment of Iowa’s small Black population continued to endear him to liberals on both major parties. He somehow managed to seem more presidential than both incumbent President Harry Truman and New York Governor Tom Dewey. Despite some questionable ties that some of his fellow Progressive party’s may have had, as evidence in the State Committee hearings, Wallace and his Gideon’s army were triumphant going into their national convention. The potential once and future President polled a close second to Dewey on a 33% to 30% with Truman placing last with 22%.
The Republican convention was a monument to smugness. The nomination of Governor Thomas E. Dewey of New York and Governor Earl Warren of California…popular and successful politicians from states with a combined seventy two electoral votes…seemed a political triumph. Both men had moderate records on domestic issues and were seen as competent, honest executives. Both supported the bipartisan foreign policy and containment of communism.
If the Republican convention unnerved democrats, then their own convention totally spooked them. The weeks prior to it’s opening were marked by a frantic liberal effort to dump Harry Truman and replace him Dwight D. Eisenhower. When Eisenhower on July 5th said he “would not at this time identify myself with any political party,” Senator Claude Pepper began an ill-formed movement to draft the general on a non-partisan basis. Eisenhower responded with a telegram saying, “I will not accept even if nominated.” Pepper promptly put himself forward as an alternative to Truman but withdrew his name once the convention opened.
Struggling to quiet liberal discontent, Truman pleaded with former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt to be his running mate instead of the incumbent Vice President Averell Harriman. Roosevelt not wanting board a sinking ship, quickly rebuffed him, saying “That America, not even if it was the statue of Liberty herself, is simply not ready to have a woman, one heartbeat away from the Presidency. Lacking a good alternative, Truman kept Harriman on the ticket as the vice presidential nominee. In response their re-nomination and the adoption of a pro-civil rights platform, a massive amount of Southern delegates led by Governor Strom Thurmond of South Carolina walked out of the convention to form their own alternative party, colloquially known as the Dixiecrats.
The Once and Future President? Governor Henry Wallace out on the campaign trail
From:
American Dreamer: The Life and Times of Henry A. Wallace by John C. Culver and John Hyde
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After Joe announced his candidacy on Independence Day, The Kennedy’s understood that unlike in 1946, the Congressman was running against much more experienced, well known and arguably more qualified opponents in the democratic primary. Maurice J. Tobin, former Boston Mayor and Governor, had been polling a close second behind Dever in most polls before Kennedy’s announcement, but as the heat of the Massachusetts summer continued, he consistently ran third to the more dynamic former Attorney General Paul Dever and Congressman Kennedy. Financing, was virtually a non-issue, with his father delivering most of the proper fundraising, and cajoling. His father’s long time influence over the Boston Pols also proved crucial, as he was able to secure Tobin’s ringing endorsement behind Joe’s candidacy; once the former Governor announced that he accepted an appointment to become secretary of Labor by President Truman. Even with Tobin support, Joe still had to deal with the unfamiliarity factor, against the populist/anti-business crusader in Paul Dever. But getting himself better acquainted with potential voters outside of his district would be an enormous venture. For he only had two full months to do so.
Campaign Manager and personal friend Ted Reardon devised a strategy, where Joe would embark on a “Legacy” Tour of sorts of the bay state. He would visit the birthplace lines of both the Fitzgerald and Kennedy lines first, touring the rotten slums of east Boston. Afterward, Joe retraced his steps on his statewide campaign for the Jim Farley Delegate seat. In a campaign drive that ranged from the upper-middle-class wards of Brookline, Newton, Waltham, and Wellesley to the apartment-house districts of Brighton and down to the poorer “brick bottom” wards of Cambridge. He moved through barbershops and cocktail lounges, beauty parlors and saloons, saying with that half smile of his, “I’m Joe Kennedy Junior. I’m the congressman for the eleventh district, and I’d like to become your next Governor (pronounced Governah by Joe).”
It’s a good thing that he did. In the two man race for the gubernatorial nomination for the Democratic Party and out of a remarkable 290,000 votes cast. As the polls closed that night of September 14th and the results trickled in, it was apparent that the Congressman had beaten Dever on a 10% margin, with a popular vote of 55% to 45%. He had emerged from the primary, an even stronger campaigner, and he we need those acquired skills against the ultimate Brahmin…incumbent Republican Governor Robert F. Bradford
Congressman Joseph P. Kennedy Jr. canvassing for votes
From:
Joe, The Young Prince by Hank Searls
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NARRATOR: On September 17, Truman set out on what would become one of the most famous campaigns in American history.
ROBERT DONOVAN: He was saying good-bye to everybody and so forth and Alben Barkley, a very good-hearted man, came up and said, "Give 'em hell, Harry!" And Truman said something. "I'll give 'em hell. I'll give 'em hell, Alben." We had nothing to write about. The train's starting out on a Sunday afternoon, so everyone's writing about "give 'em hell".
NARRATOR: From then on, "Give 'em Hell Harry" would become Harry Truman's battle cry. During the next six weeks, Truman would travel 22,000 miles -- criss-crossing the country three times. The issues, he said, were simple. The Republicans wanted to turn back the clock, destroy Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal. Truman was going to stop them.
TRUMAN, ARCHIVAL SOUND ON FILM: "If you give the Republicans complete control of this government, you might just as well turn it over to the special interests and we'll start on a boom and bust cycle and try to go through just what we did in the twenties. And end up with a crash which in the long run will do nobody any good but the Communists."
NARRATOR: Truman kept up a grueling pace, giving no quarter to his opponents. When the Progressive party candidate former President and then Iowa Governor Henry Wallace argued for co-operation with the Soviet Union, Truman attacked Wallace as a Communist pawn.
When the segregationist "Dixiecrat" party nominated Strom Thurmond, Truman desegregated the armed forces, winning the votes of black Americans, and changing the American military forever.
VERNON JARRETT: The armed forces, the seat of segregation, the seat of racism, and to have him issue that order, for whatever reason, was a great leap forward in history.
NARRATOR: Campaigning as if he had already won, Tom Dewey took no risks, offered no surprises.
DAVID MCCULLOUGH: His whole campaign was being run according to what the polls were telling him to do. Don't rock the boat. Don't say anything to antagonize anyone. Don't say anything controversial, just be calm smooth, speak in platitudes ...
DEWEY, ARCHIVAL SOUND ON FILM: "We believe in honesty, loyalty, fair play, concern for our neighbors, the innate ability of men to achieve. These convictions arched over by our faith in God, are the inner meaning of the American way of life."
ROBERT DONOVAN: He didn't seem to have much empathy, if that's the word. You wouldn't cuddle up to Tom Dewey.
DAVID MCCULLOUGH: The Dewey campaign was very efficient; it was very carefully orchestrated. The official drink on board the Dewey train was the martini. The card game was bridge. On the Truman train, things were quite different. The drink of the hour was nearly always bourbon, and the card game was poker.
Truman kept that train really moving ... And he traveled and traveled and traveled. But he seemed to draw energy from it. He loved it. And as he progressed, he got better. And the more he traveled, the more the crowds turned out, and the larger the crowds were.
Transcript from American Experience’s series on The Presidents…Harry S. Truman, Dewey defeats Truman segment
President Harry S. Truman out on his Whistle-Stop campaign tour
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As Truman campaigned furiously across the nation on his whistle-stop tour, and tearing in to his three opponents at every chance; Congressman Joseph P. Kennedy Jr. was working just as hard to win his sought after statewide office. With the day to day operation in the hands of his friends, Joe was free to concentrate on the issues…anticommunism, Taft-Hartley, and labor unions, the Massachusetts and New England economies, civil rights, government spending, and which one of the two candidates had performed more effectively in these matters. And in a series of Town Hall debates across the state, Joe ripped into the cool aristocratic demeanor of Bradford with his sharp/aggressive prosecutorial style. He attacked Bradford on his intervention against lawful labor strikes and not doing enough to keep up with the massive housing demand in Massachusetts.
Yet in spite of the great energy of the campaign…and Joe in particular…put into focusing on the issues, they were relatively little importance in determining the vote. On all major policy matters, the two candidates largely resembled each other. They were both valiant supporters of containment as well as conservatives with occasional vows to liberalism; they both favored sustain labor unions, less government intervention in domestic affairs, and balanced federal budgets. Bradford, who spearheaded the “Silent Guest” program in which Americans were encouraged to fork over the cash equivalent of a Thanksgiving dinner to starving peoples in Post-war Europe in 1947, angered many of the frugal, and staunch isolationist Bay State Republicans…some of whom turned to Kennedy as a more reliable candidate. At the same time, however, Joe could hardly trumpet his year and a half in the House as a model of legislative achievement. To be sure, his constituents had few complaints about his service to the district; but if he were asking voters to make him their Governor because he had been an innovative legislator or a House leader, he would have been hard pressed to make an effective case. If his political career had come to an end in 1948, he would have joined the ranks of the thousands of other nameless representatives who left no memorable mark on the country’s history.
Governor Robert F. Bradford, Joe Kennedy's opponent in the 1948 Massachusetts Gubernatorial election
From:
AN [REDACTED] LIFE: Joseph P. Kennedy Jr. 1915-[REDACTED] by Robert Dallek
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The Route of Gideon’s Army was complete and overwhelming. Despite his recent climb in the poll, mostly to Wallace’s detriment, the Polls which had called the election even before the year began were proven right…but it wasn’t the all-out GOP landslide they had predicted either. The three-way split of the Democratic Party enabled Governor Dewey to cobble together 270 Electoral votes, four over the threshold, over Truman’s 174 electoral votes. However, Wallace’s decision to double down in his home region securing the endorsement of the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party in Minnesota and the remnants of the Wisconsin Progressive Party enabled him to rack up 49 electoral votes and place third. The Dixiecrat ran fourth with over a million votes and 38 electoral votes.
In the United States, outside of his sweep of the frozen Midwestern tundra, Wallace victory proved rather shallow; with his carrying of precincts that were mostly minority-majority districts. In seven districts in Tampa area of Florida, Wallace brought home his support amongst Spanish-speaking cigar crafters. Outside of Florida and the Midwest, Wallace’s successes were entirely in Black and Jewish districts in New York and California. He took solace in the fact that his home state delivered him a 540,000 victory, against Dewey and Truman. In only six states…New York, Michigan, Maryland, Illinois, California and Ohio…did Wallace earn enough votes to make a significant difference in the outcome…Dewey carried all six states
Final Results of the 1948 US Presidential Election
Thomas E. Dewy (R-NY)/Earl Warren (R-CA): 270 Electoral Votes
Harry S. Truman (D-MO)/Averell Harriman (D-NY): 174 Electoral Votes
Henry A. Wallace (P-IA)/Glen Taylor (P-ID): 49 Electoral Votes
Strom Thurmond (SR-SC)/Fielding L. Wright (SR-MS): 38 Electoral votes
President-Elect Dewey and Vice President-Elect Warren going to greet their supporters in their triumphant election night
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Joe’s resounding margin of victory over Bradford…1,240,000 votes out of 2,119,995 cast, a 60 percent to 40 percent…delivered a shockwave fervently Pro-Dewey New England (Massachusetts and Rhode Island were the only two Northern states that President Truman carried). Electorally he certainly commanded the support of the Irish, Italians, French Canadians, Poles Slovaks, Greeks, Albanians, Portuguese, Latvians, Finnish, Estonians and Scandinavians. The evening teas for thirty to forty women at private homes ultimately attracted as many as 70,000 voters most of whom cast their ballots for Joe. Despite being “crowned” the prince of the White Ethnics, Joe lost the Jewish vote handedly to Bradford. He made no strong efforts to debunk the campaign material floating around, that he shared his father’s sentiments of the Jewish people, nor did he outright bring any of the nationally prominent Jews of the time to help stump for his candidacy. Although Joe did vote in favor for the creation of Israel, he didn’t make a public speech on the house floor about the issue, which could have been used to clear up the reasons behind his vote. Nevertheless, he understood that he would have to make efforts while in office to shore up their support.
Joe Jr. success rested on something more than being the “First Irish Brahmin”; he was the first American Brahmin elevated from the ranks of the millions and millions of European immigrants who had flooded into the United States in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The beneficiary of his father’s fabulous wealth, a Harvard education, and a heroic career in the military fighting to preserve American values, Joe Kennedy Jr. was a model of what every immigrant family aspired for themselves and their children. And even if they could never literally match what the Kennedys’ had achieved in wealth and prominence, they took vicarious satisfaction from Joe’s identification as an accepted member of the American elite. Many of those voting for him could remember the 1920’s and 1930’s, when being a first-or-second-generation minority made your standing as an American suspect. In voting for Joe, the minorities were not simply putting one of their own in the high reaches of government…they had been doing that for a number of years…but were saying that he and they had arrived at the center of American life and no longer had to feel self-conscious about their status as citizens of the Great Republic. Joe’s election as the chief executive, of the former puritan stronghold of Massachusetts, opened the way to a romance between Joe Kennedy Jr. and millions of Americans. It would become one of the greatest American love affairs, and in his Election Day half-smile, it was just possible to imagine that Joe himself knew the match had been made
Governor-Elect Kennedy enjoying his sweet victory with his family on Election night
From:
AN [REDACTED] LIFE: Joseph P. Kennedy Jr. 1915-[REDACTED] by Robert Dallek
