On January 4, 1933, the Electoral College met to formally cast their ballots for POTUS and VPOTUS. Here is a ballot for Franklin D. Roosevelt from the State of New York: https://fdr.artifacts.archives.gov/search/%22electoral%20college%22
On this Day - March 25, 1938
Vice President John Nance “Cactus Jack” Garner looks relatively unimpressed as Senator Pat Harrison, Democrat of Mississippi, presents him with what was no doubt one of many gavels he received during his tenure first as Speaker of the House and later Vice President. Garner holds his signature stogie, looking a tad rumpled as usual. He should have at least put on a clean suit as both his vest and suit coat evidence stains. Chewing tobacco maybe? The gavel was made of wood from Beauvoir, the Biloxi home of former Confederate President Jefferson Davis.
On This Day - February 17, 1938
In one of the more unusual and perhaps concerning pair of photos ever taken of two Vice Presidents, in the image above Vice President John Nance “Cactus Jack” Garner pulls a “stick-up” on Harry S. Truman, future FDR Vice President and at the time of this photo, US senator from Missouri. The 45-caliber pistols wielded by the Vice President, in his Senate office no less, had belonged to bandit Jesse James. As the story goes, Truman had acquired the pair from a doctor’s widow whose husband had previously received them as payment for medical services rendered to Jesse’s brother, Frank. Frank had inherited them after Jesse’s death in 1882. Apparently the pistols had been used by Jesse during the many hold-ups of his infamous criminal career. The Vice President is brandishing the weapons with considerable glee, a freshly lit stogie hanging from his mouth.
In the image below, Truman now holds the weapons while sporting a wide brim hat to complete the Western look. Senator Truman would become FDR’s third and final Vice President on January 20, 1945, and assume the Presidency upon FDR’s death on April 12, 1945. He looks quite pleased to have wrested control of the guns from Garner (who is dressed in a cutaway and striped trousers, having earlier in the day joined FDR at the funeral of Admiral Cary T. Grayson).
Eighty-years ago today, Vice President John Nance Garner returned to work after a lengthy vacation in Texas. Garner returned looking healthy, clearly refreshed, and quite learned in his round-lens reading glasses. This photo is striking in that no stogie is in evidence, not even ashes in the ash tray. Perhaps the Vice President returned to DC committed to clean living and with an eye on the 1940 Democratic presidential nomination.
A recent Gallup poll had shown the Texan leading the pack among a disparate group of potential standard bearers. With his sometimes comical appearance and crusty reputation, it’s easy today to dismiss Garner as a stereotypical politico of the old guard. But he was a wily politician not to be underestimated, and by 1938, he had largely broken with the President on a number of issues, and reflected the more conservative wing of the Democratic Party.
Photo:
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division
Update: Clearly we forgot our glasses when we were looking at this photo! Yes - we missed the stogie in his right hand and the smoke coming out of his mouth. We guess he didn’t commit to clean living that year!
Vice President John Nance Garner swears in two new Florida senators, standing left to right Claude Pepper (1900-1989) and Charles O. Andrews (1877-1946), on this day in 1936. Garner administered the oath in his capitol office. Having participated in many meetings of the smoke-filled room variety, the Vice President here holds the senatorial oath along with the requisite cigar for filling meeting rooms with smoke.
An Alabama native who practiced law in Florida, Claude Pepper was a lifelong Democrat and served in the senate until 1951, losing in the primary to George Smathers. He was elected to the United States House of Representatives in 1962 and served until his death in 1989. For his lengthy service to the nation, he received a state funeral. During his later tenure in the House, Pepper was notable for championing issues and sponsoring legislation impacting senior citizens.
Also a Democrat, Andrews served until his death in 1946. A graduate of the University of Florida and a Spanish-American War veteran, Andrews had served in numerous public positions in Florida before his election to the United States Senate. Andrews was elected to fill the seat vacated by the late Senator Park Trammell. The Andrews Causeway in Orlando was dedicated in his honor by President Harris S. Truman in 1949.
Vice President John “Cactus Jack” Garner surprised reporters and political observers alike by returning early to Washington, DC, eighty-two years ago today. The Vice President had only recently been re-elected, and much speculation accompanied his return from his beloved home in Uvalde, Texas, where he would have usually remained until after the Christmas holidays.
Described as a “tan and taciturn” by one newspaper, the Vice President refused to say whether President Roosevelt had summoned him to DC to provide an official presence during his South American trip or whether he was going to confer with senators and congressman about proposed tax law revisions. He did note, however, that he actively supported fellow Texan, Representative Sam Rayburn, for House floor leader. Perhaps more than anything that was his reason for returning. In this photo from the Harris and Ewing collection at the Library of Congress, the Vice President, puffing as usual on a cigar, and his wife make their way through a scrim of reporters and onlookers.
John Nance Garner served for eight years as FDR’s first vice president. He famously said that the vice presidency wasn’t “worth a bucket of warm spit.” That’s the polite version of the quotation. He was one of only two individuals to serve as both speaker of the United States House of Representatives and vice president.
Proving that he was wrong about the vice presidency’s Constitutional importance, here on November 2, 1939, he holds aloft a helmet made of rice presented to him by the National Rice Festival to be held in Crowley, Louisiana. This photo is part of the Harris and Ewing collection held by the Library of Congress.
