Franklin D. Roosevelt

::FDR redirects here. For other uses, see FDR (disambiguation).

Political career

In 1909 Theodore Roosevelt left the White House and was succeeded by the conservative Republican William Howard Taft. Franklin's dislike of Taft's administration drove him into politics. In 1910 he ran as a Democrat for the New York State Senate from the district around Hyde Park, which had not elected a Democrat since 1884. The Roosevelt name, a lot of Roosevelt money and the big Democratic sweep of that year were enough to get him elected. In the state capital Albany, he became leader of a group of reformist Democrats who opposed the Irish-American Tammany Hall machine which dominated the state Democratic Party. Roosevelt was young (30 in 1912), tall, handsome, and well spoken, and soon became a popular figure among New York Democrats. When Woodrow Wilson was elected President in 1912, Roosevelt was offered the post of Assistant Secretary of the Navy. Roosevelt was more interested in elective office: in 1914 he ran for the Democratic nomination for the United States Senate, but was blocked by Tammany Hall. Nevertheless the Navy post was to be the making of his career.

Related Topics:
1909 - William Howard Taft - 1910 - New York State Senate - 1884 - Albany - Irish-American - Tammany Hall - 1912 - Woodrow Wilson - 1914 - United States Senate

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Between 1913 and 1917 Roosevelt campaigned to expand the Navy (in the face of considerable opposition from pacifists in the administration such as the Secretary of State, William Jennings Bryan), and founded the United States Navy Reserve to provide a pool of trained men who could be mobilized in wartime. He was also involved in the frequent American interventions in the affairs of Central American and Caribbean countries: he personally wrote the constitution which the U.S. imposed on Haiti in 1915. When the U.S. entered World War I in April 1917, Roosevelt became the effective administrative head of the United States Navy, since the Secretary of the Navy, Josephus Daniels, had been appointed mainly for political reasons and was widely considered to be not up to the job.

Related Topics:
1913 - 1917 - Secretary of State - William Jennings Bryan - United States Navy Reserve - Central America - Caribbean - Haiti - 1915 - World War I - United States Navy - Secretary of the Navy - Josephus Daniels

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Roosevelt soon developed a life-long affection for the Navy. He also showed great administrative talent, and quickly learned to negotiate with Congress and other government departments to get budgets approved and a rapid expansion of the Navy pushed through. He became an enthusiastic advocate of the submarine, and also of means to combat the German submarine menace to Allied shipping: he proposed building a mine barrage across the North Sea from Norway to Scotland. In 1918 he visited Britain and France to inspect American naval facilities — during this visit he met Winston Churchill for the first time. With the end of the war in November 1918, he was in charge of demobilization, although he opposed plans to completely dismantle the Navy.

Related Topics:
Congress - Submarine - North Sea - Norway - Scotland - 1918 - Britain - France - Winston Churchill - Demobilization

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In 1919 Roosevelt became an ardent supporter of Wilson's plan for a League of Nations to make future wars impossible. He campaigned tirelessly across the country in support of the League of Nations treaty, which was eventually rejected by the Senate. This made him a favorite of Wilson, and it was mainly due to Wilson's influence that the 1920 Democratic National Convention chose Roosevelt as the candidate for Vice-President of the United States on the ticket headed by Governor James M. Cox of Ohio. After eight years of Democratic government and twenty years of progressivism, however, the country was ready for a change, and the Cox-Roosevelt ticket was heavily defeated by Republican Warren Harding's Return to Normalcy. Roosevelt then retired to a New York legal practice, but few doubted that he would soon run for public office again.

Related Topics:
1919 - League of Nations - 1920 - Democratic National Convention - Vice-President of the United States - James M. Cox - Ohio - Warren Harding - Return to Normalcy

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