John Nance Garner
John Nance Garner III (November 22, 1868 – November 7, 1967), known among his contemporaries as "Cactus Jack", was an American Democratic politician and lawyer from Texas. He served as the 39th speaker of the United States House of Representatives from 1931 to 1933 and as the 32nd vice president of the United States under Franklin D. Roosevelt from 1933 to 1941. Garner and Schuyler Colfax are the only politicians to have served as presiding officers of both chambers of the United States Congress as speaker of the House and vice president of the United States.
John Nance Garner
Constituency established
A. V. D. Old[1]
J. E. Cummings[2]
November 7, 1967 (aged 98)
Uvalde, Texas, U.S.
Uvalde Cemetery
Uvalde, Texas, U.S.
1
Garner began his political career as the county judge of Uvalde County, Texas. He served in the Texas House of Representatives from 1898 to 1902 and won election to represent Texas in the United States House of Representatives in 1902. He represented Texas's 15th congressional district from 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 the 1930 elections.
Garner sought the Democratic presidential nomination in the 1932 presidential election, but agreed to serve as Franklin D. Roosevelt's running mate at the 1932 Democratic National Convention. He and Roosevelt won the 1932 election and were re-elected in 1936. A conservative Southerner, Garner opposed the sit-down strikes of the labor unions and the New Deal's deficit spending. However, Garner 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.[3] Unlike vice presidents before him, Garner also had a more active, non-ceremonial role in the U.S. Cabinet.[4][5] He broke with Roosevelt in 1937 over a range of issues, especially the centralization of too much power in the federal government. Garner again sought the presidency in the 1940 presidential election, but Roosevelt won the party's presidential nomination at the 1940 Democratic National Convention, then chose Henry A. Wallace as his running mate.
Early life and family[edit]
Garner was born on November 22, 1868, in a log cabin in Red River County, Texas, to John Nance Garner Jr. and Sarah Guest Garner.[6][7] That mud-chinked log cabin no longer exists, but the large, white, two-story house where he was raised survives and is located at 260 South Main Street in Detroit, Texas.
Garner attended Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, for one semester before dropping out and returning home. He studied law at the firm of Sims and Wright in Clarksville, Texas, was admitted to the bar in 1890,[6] and began practice in 1896 in Uvalde, Texas.[8]
In 1893, Garner entered politics, running for county judge of Uvalde County, the county's chief administrative officer. Garner was opposed in the primary by a woman—Mariette "Ettie" Rheiner, 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 War Solid South, Garner was elected county judge and served until 1896.[9][10]
House of Representatives[edit]
Garner was first elected to the United States House of Representatives in 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 the white landowners who controlled the voting booths in South Texas. He regarded his Mexican voting base as "inferior and undesirable as U.S. citizens."[13]
Garner was chosen to serve as minority floor leader for the Democrats in 1929, and in 1931 as Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, when the Democrats became the majority.[14][15]
Post vice-presidency (1941–1967)[edit]
Garner left office on January 20, 1941, ending a 46-year career in public life. He retired to his home in Uvalde for 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, President John F. Kennedy called to wish him a happy birthday. This was several hours before Kennedy's assassination. Dan Rather stated that he visited the Garner ranch that morning to film an interview with Garner, where Miss Texas Wool was in attendance, and that he then flew back to Dallas from Uvalde to deposit the film at then-CBS affiliate KRLD-TV (now Fox owned-and-operated KDFW-TV).[24]