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North Carolina and Harry Truman, 1944–1948
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 16 January 2009
Extract
The South was an important partner in the electoral coalition which kept the Democratic Party in power throughout the 1930s and 1940s, but it was rarely a satisfied one. Rumblings of discontent at the allegedly radical New Deal emanated from the region from the earliest days of Roosevelt's Presidency and by 1937 political commentators were talking of a ‘ conservative coalition ’ of Southern Democrats and Republicans challenging New Deal measures in Congress. North Carolina provided a good measure of support for this coalition, especially in the person of Senator Josiah W. Bailey, and it continued to do so when the coalition became more effective than ever during Truman's Presidency. Yet a study of the state in Truman's early years reveals the solid strength which the National Democratic Party still possessed there in 1948. To some extent this strength was unique but some conclusions are valid for much of the South.
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References
1 ‘The South’ refers to the 11 states which constituted the Confederacy: Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia.
2 Bailey, for example, drafted a ‘conservative manifesto’ which intoned that the New Deal was leading America dangerously close to collectivism. See Moore, John R., ‘Senator Josiah W. Bailey and the “Conservative Manifesto” of 1937’, Journal of Southern History, 31 (02 1965), 21CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
3 Key, V. O. JrSouthern Politics in State and Nation (Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 1950), p. 355Google Scholar, suggests that the coalition was weak. Using different techniques of assessment Margolis, J. P., ‘The Conservative Coalition in the United States Senate, 1933–1968’ (unpublished Ph.D. thesis, University of Wisconsin, 1973)Google Scholar, argues that it was very effective, especially in the Truman years.
4 Bailey to Hoey, Bailey Papers, Duke University Perkins Library, Box 49, 17 April, 1940. Hoey to Bailey, Clyde R. Hoey Papers, Duke University, Perkins Library, Box 50, 11 May, 1940. Hoey is referred to extensively throughout this paper as he was the only North Carolinian Senator to serve throughout the 1945–53 period and since his views represented those of a large cross-section of Tar Heel opinion: ‘Clyde Hoey was not so much a leader of North Carolinians as he was a mirror’ (Greensboro Daily News, 13 05 1954)Google Scholar. Hoey was unopposed in the Democratic senatorial primary of 1950. Jonathan Daniels said of him that ‘He was always satisfactory to conservative interests without being abrasive to New Dealers’, in a letter to the author dated 25 October 1974.
5 Heard, Alexander, A Two Parly South? (University of North Carolina Press, 1952), p. 279Google Scholar, Appendix 2.
6 Congressional Record, 78th Congress, 1st Session, pp. 3993 and 5392.
7 On the Negro's predicament during the war see Dalfiume, Richard M., ‘The “Forgotten Years” of the Negro Revolution’, Journal of American History, 55 (06 1968), 90–106CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
8 Congressional Record, 78th Congress, 1st Session, pp. 10, 346.
9 Bailey Papers, Box 93, 11 December 1943; in a similar vein see Box 51, Bailey to Dr. M. Hoke, Beaufort, South Carolina, 19 February 1944.
10 Official Proceedings of the Democratic National Convention, 1944, pp. 79–80.
11 New Orleans Times—Picayune, 10 June 1944.
12 Bailey to B. R. Holt, Box 51, Bailey Papers.
13 For a good summary of Truman's acceptability to all sections of the Party see Lubell, S., The Future of American Politics (Hamish Hamilton, London, 1952), pp. 8–21Google Scholar. For Truman's attitudes on race prior to 1944 see Berman, W. C., The Politics of Civil Rights in The Truman Administration (Ohio State University Press, 1970), pp. 12 and 21Google Scholar. In the Birmingham News of 23 July 1944, Governor Chauncey Sparks of Alabama was quoted as saying ‘In the matter of race relations Senator Truman told me he is the son of an unreconstructed rebel mother. I think rhe South has won a victory’. Yet Truman had always tried to garner the votes of Negroes in St. Louis and Kansas City.
14 Lubell, p. 21. For accounts of Truman's eventual nomination see, for instance, Truman, Harry S., Year of Decisions (Hodder and Stoughton, 1955) pp. 214–8Google Scholar, or Byrnes, James F., All in One Lifetime (Harper and Brothers, New York, 1958), pp. 219–30Google Scholar.
15 Hoey Papers, Box 5, Hoey to George G. Battle, 26 July 1944. See also Box 6, Hoey to Guy G. Moore, 24 July 1944, and to Congressman R. Doughton, 12 August 1944.
16 Charlotte Observer, 24 July 1944, p. 8. See for instance Raleigh News and Observer, 1 November 1944, and Asheville Citizen, 1 November 1944, and 5 November. The News and Observer was edited by Josephus Daniels, holder of posts in the Wilson and Roosevelt administrations, and later (from January 1948) by Jonathan Daniels, holder of various posts under Roosevelt and Truman. There is some evidence that the Daniels were not over enthusiastic for Roosevelt in practice — see Bailey Papers, Box 52, Bailey to F. W. Eshelman, North Wilkesboro, 16 May 1945.
17 University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, Box 30, Gardner to J. E. Kavanaugh, Jacksonville, Florida, 29 May 1944, O. Max Gardner Papers.
18 See for example Hoey Papers, Box 8, Hoey to S. E. Tucker, Columbia, North Carolina, 30 October, 2 November and 6 November 1944. Hoey stresses that Roosevelt is needed because of the war situation and because the Republicans could offer nothing better.
19 Much of this and the following analysis relies on the work of V. O. Key, Jr., especially pp. 215–23. Traditional Republican areas were the 8th, 9th, 10th, 11th and 12th Districts.
20 Puryear, Elmer L., Democratic Party Dissension in North Carolina, 1928–1936 (University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill, 1962), pp. 154 ffGoogle Scholar. Governor Hoey was Gardner's brother-in-law. Bailey (Senator from 1931–1946) was sympathetic to the machine. Senator Robert Reynolds (1933 to 1945) was made ineffectual and in any case was unpopular in the state after 1938 when he voted against many of Roosevelt's preparedness measures.
21 Key, pp. 215–17.
22 Puryear, pp. 100, 138, 188–98, Dr Ralph McDonald, for instance, fought Hoey for the Governorship in 1936 on a ‘radical’ platform of more tax on corporations, the abolition of the sales tax, less centralization in Raleigh and less control by machines.
23 Statement by Hoey, 12 April 1945, Hoey Papers.
24 Bailey and Walter George of Georgia had led the fight to halt Wallace's nomination as head of the Commerce Department. Supporting this fight, Hoey wrote contemptuously that ‘… I shall not vote to foist him [Wallace] upon business’, Hoey Papers, Box 181. North Carolina also participated in the struggle over Aubrey Williams's nomination as head of the RFC.
25 Bailey Papers, Box 51, Bailey to C. L. Shuping, Greensboro, 27 April 1945. Bailey added contentedly that Truman would no doubt be the Democratic nominee in 1948 — Gardner to Bailey, Bailey Papers, Box 52, 21 May 1945: Hoey: Congressional Record, 79th Congress, 1st Session, pp. A 2913 – 4, 19 June 1945.
26 The Charlotte Observer was particularly upset at Truman's pronouncements between September 1945 and January 1946. See the Editorial on page 8 of the issue of 23 January 1946 ‘… Mr Truman proposes to carry over into peacetime the galling regimentations of the American people which the latter necessarily accepted during the emergencies of the depression of the 1930's, of the war of the 1940's.’ The Observer was a supporter of the Republicans.
27 See especially Berman, pp. 25–34, and Ruchames, L., Race, Jobs and Politics: the Story of F.E.P.C. (Columbia University Press, 1953), p. 126Google Scholar.
28 Berman, p. 29.
29 Berman, p. 31 — ‘It is safe to assume that Truman had to sacrifice F.E.P.C. in order to secure the co-operation of the South for at least part of his domestic program’. FEPC became increasingly a fact-finding agency only.
30 Charlotte Observer, 21 January 1946, p. 2; 22 January, p. 7; 23 January, p. 8; 24 January, p. 2; 25 January, p. 12; Raleigh News and Observer, 10 February, p. 1, 11 February, p. 4. See Hoey Papers, Boxes 41 and 42, and Bailey Papers, Box 52.
31 Berman, pp. 53–4.
32 Bailey Papers, Box 52, Bailey to R. M. Gantt, Durham, 6 February 1946.
33 In North Carolina, see for example Charlotte Observer, 25 November 1945, p. 12, 26 November, p. 12, or Hoey Papers, Box 14, Hoey to H. B. Benoit, Charlotte, 29 November 1946; to C. L. Cranford, Farmer (N.C.), 25 November; to F. L. Burleson, Spear (N.C.) 28 December; or Gardner Papers, Box 41, Lee B. Weathers to Gardner, 10 May, 1946, ‘John L. Lewis has certainly tied up the country and the people here are growing more restless because the President and Congress do not stop these anarchists’.
34 Phillips, C., The Truman Presidency (Macmillan Co., New York, 1966), p. 165Google Scholar. Hoey Papers, Box 141, Hoey to President Truman, 11 December 1946. Hamby, Alonzo L., Beyond The New Deal, Harry S. Truman and American Liberalism (Columbia University Press, New York, 1973), p. 144Google Scholar, stresses that many New Dealers, including Jonathan Daniels, were equally distressed over many of Truman's actions.
35 Hoey Papers, Box 47, Hoey to D. G. Crawford, Riverside, California, 21 January 1947.
36 Raleigh News and Observer, 30 August 1946. Hoey Papers, Box 34, J. A. Shaw, Roanoke Rapids (N.C.) to Hoey, said Hoey's voting record was against ‘the average North Carolinians’. Box 14 contains many examples of support for Hoey, e.g. from J. E. Baker, Burlington (N.C), 30 August 1946, or N. L. Ballance, Raleigh, 13 September 1946. It is notable that quite a few of Hoey's most rabid supporters were also leading manufacturers in the state. Margolis, p. 143, lists Hoey fourth in a tabulation of Southern Democrats in the Senate between 1933 and 1968 who had the highest conservative coalition support averages, i.e. support for measures also having tha majority of Republican support.
37 Berman, pp. 55–73. The quotation is on p. 59.
38 To Secure These Rights (Washington, D.C., 1947)Google Scholar.
39 Berman, p. 73n.
40 Hoey Papers, Box 9, Hoey to Josephus Daniels, 3 November 1947, Raleigh News and Observer, Editorial, 30 October 1947, ‘Remedy Worse Than Disease’.
41 Raleigh News and Observer, 23 June, 24 June 1947. Greensboro Daily News, 22 June 1947, Charlotte Observer, 24 June 1947. Asheville Citizen, 24 June 1947. Hoey said he received mail from all sections favouring overriding the veto whereas letters urging him to sustain came largely from union strongholds only (News and Observer of 23 June, 1947).
42 Charlotte Observer, 24 June, p. 2. Greensboro Daily News, 24 June, p. 4. Lee, R. Alton, ‘Harry S. Truman and The Taft-Hartley Act’ (unpublished Ph.D. thesis, University of Oklahoma, Norman, 1962), pp. 288–9Google Scholar (Lee interview with Truman, 3 August 1961).
43 Irish, M. D., ‘Foreign Policy and The South’, Journal of Politics, 10 (05 1948), 306–12CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Reynolds was the only Senator to vote against the repeal of the arms embargo and Lend Lease.
44 Hoey was pleased at Wallace's dismissal from the Cabinet in September 1946. Hoey to J. T. Potter, Charlotte, 23 September 1946, Hoey Papers, Box 15. For other comments on Wallace see Box 36, Hoey to C. J. Blake, Wilmington (N.C.) 17 April 1947. Wallace's dismissal is covered adequately in Phillips, pp. 148–53.
45 Sitkoff, Harvard, ‘Harry Truman and the Election of 1948 — The Coming of Age of Civil Rights in American Politics’, Journal of Southern History, 37 (11 1971), 597CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Clifford Memorandum to Truman, 19 November 1947. This and following quotations, Phillips, pp. 162–98.
46 Charlotte Observer, 5 February 1948, p. 16; Asheville Citizen, 4 February 1948, p. 4.
47 From Ness, G. C., ‘The States' Rights Democratic Movement of 1948’ (unpublished Ph.D. thesis, Duke University, 1972), p. 44Google Scholar.
48 See the Charlotte Observer, 1 March 1948, ‘Tar Heels Are Without Alarm on Civil Rights’. Only three of North Carolina's 12 representatives in Washington signed the manifesto in which 51 Southern Representatives threatened to split with the Party if civil rights measures were not shunted aside.
49 Hoey Papers, Box 54, Hoey to J. A. McLaughlin, Fort Wayne, Indiana, 30 March 1948, and to W. Pearsall Jr, Rocky Point, N.C., 13 March 1948. Several North Carolina newspapers embroidered upon this theme, e.g. Charlotte Observer, 13 and 16 July 1948, and Greensboro Daily News, 12 July, and Asheville Citizen, 13 July.
50 Charlotte Observer, 13 July 1948, p. 1; Greensboro Daily News, 13 July, p. 4.
51 Charlotte Observer, 15 July, p. 5.
52 Berman, pp. 110–13.
53 Democratic National Committee Files, Box 194, Harry S. Truman Library, Independence (Mo), clipping from New York Times. North Carolina was the only Southern state without any representation whatsoever at the ‘Dixiecrat’ Convention. For a particularly scathing attack on the ‘Dixiecrats’, see the Asheville Citizen, 13 July, p. 4, 18 July, p. 4.
54 Hoey Papers, Box 18, Hoey to Mrs E. B. Mayes, Washington, D.C.
55 1948 results are taken from A. Heard, p. 26. The Greensboro Daily News, 16 July, p. 6, suggested that Barkley-Truman would be a much stronger ticket.
56 A. L. Hamby, p. 260.
57 G. C. Ness, p. 191.
58 G. C. Ness, p. 115, V. O. Key Jr, p. 337.
59 A. Heard, pp. 269–72.
60 A. Heard, p. 29, Tindall, G. B., The Disruption of The Solid South (University of Georgia Press, Athens, 1972), p. 53Google Scholar.
61 Strong, Donald S., ‘The Presidential Election in The South, 1952’, Journal of Politics, 17 (08 1955), 364CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
62 Cosman, B., ‘Presidential Republicanism in The South, 1960’, Journal of Politics, 24 (1962), 304 and 320CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
63 A. L. Hamby, p. 314, Miller, Merle, Plain Speaking (Victor Gollancz, London, 1974), p. 252Google Scholar.
64 Asheville Citizen, 25 July, 1952, p. 2, argued that a Democratic Presidential candidate has to have liberal credentials to gain victories. Hoey Papers, Box 30, Hoey to A. Hamilton Wood, Hendersonville (N.C.), 24 November 1952: ‘I realize as you say that we cannot elect a man President unless he at least has strong liberal tendencies”.
65 V. O. Key Jr, pp. 205 ff. The ‘character’ of a State is a very ephemeral idea. Key, however, details how the state's history has moulded a very sane and reasonably progressive part of the South. North Carolina was next to last to secede from the Union in 1861 and its standards of industrialization, education, health care, etc., have been good for the South. Senator Sam J. Ervin, Jr, stressed all these points too in an interview with the author, Washington, D.C., 19 July 1974.
66 Democratic National Committee Files, Box 194 is a whole file on anti-Truman sentiment in the South. G. B. Tindall, pp. 38–9. To some extent Truman's decision not to run assuaged Southerners.
67 For all the 1952 results, see U.S. Bureau of the Census, Historical Statistics of the United States, Colonial Times to 1957 (U.S. Govt. Printing Office, Washington, D.C. 1960), p. 686Google Scholar.
68 B. Cosman, p. 303.
69 B. Cosman, pp. 305–6, p. 320. D. S. Strong, p. 367.
70 Historical Statistics, p. 686. The Republican percentage vote increase during this four-year period was greater in every Southern state than in any corresponding four-year period. 1950 saw the defeat of the two Southern Senators who regularly supported Truman, Frank Graham, appointed Senator on the death of J. Melville Broughton in 1949, lost to conservative Willis Smith in North Carolina, and Claude Pepper lost in Florida.
71 Senator Hoey, as Chairman of the Permanent Investigating Committee of the Committee on Government Operations, played a major role in uncovering corruption. His investigations touched Democratic Chairman William Boyle, Truman's Military Aide Harry Vaughan and the Mississippi Democratic Party among others. Senator Estes Kefauver of Tennessee uncovered unsavoury links between some Democratic machines and crime syndicates.
72 J. P. Margolis, p. 33, argues that between 1945 and 1958 the ‘conservative coalition’ was wonderfully successful.
73 V. O. Key Jr, p. 284.
74 The Charlotte Observer supported him, though it had also supported Dewey. The Asheville Citizen of 2 November 1952 came out for Ike. The Greensboro Daily News of 1 November 1952 hints that Eisenhower might be preferable to Stevenson. This newspaper was never too partisan in its attitudes.
75 Hoey Papers, Box 27, Hoey to F. A. Farrington, Davidson (N.C.) 13 November, 1952.
76 I would like to thank Dr. A. F. Bailey (University of Leicester) and Dr. R. A. Garson (University of Keele) for constructive criticism of earlier drafts of this article.