John Nance Garner

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John N. Garner
32nd Vice President of the United States
In office March 4, 1933 – January 20, 1941
President	Franklin D. Roosevelt
Preceded by	Charles Curtis
Succeeded by	Henry A. Wallace
Born	November 22, 1868 Red River County, Texas
Died	November 7, 1967 (aged 98) Uvalde, Texas
Nationality	American
Political party	Democratic
Spouse	Mariette Rheiner Garner

John Nance Garner IV (November 22, 1868 – November 7, 1967) was a Representative from Texas and the thirty-second Vice President of the United States (1933-41). He was known as Cactus Jack.

[edit] Biography

Garner was born near Detroit, Red River County, Texas to John Nance Garner III and his wife, the former Sarah Jane Guest. [1] Garner attended Vanderbilt University for one semester before dropping out and returning home. He eventually studied law, was admitted to the bar in 1890, and began practice in Uvalde, Uvalde County, Texas. He was a judge of Uvalde County from 1893 to 1896. In the 1893 campaign for Uvalde County judge, his primary opponent was Mariette Rheiner, a rancher's daughter; he married her two years later, and they had one child, a son, Tully Charles Garner (1896—1968).

Garner was a member of the Texas State House of Representatives from 1898 to 1902. While in the Texas Legislature, a bill came up to select a state flower for Texas. Garner fervently supported the prickly pear cactus for the honor and earned the nickname "Cactus Jack" for his effort. The bluebonnet eventually won out and was chosen as the state flower.

Garner was elected as a Democrat to the United States House of Representatives in 1902 from a newly created congressional district covering tens of thousands of square miles of rural South Texas. He was elected from the district fourteen subsequent times, serving until 1933. His wife served as his private secretary during this period.

Garner's hard work and integrity made him a respected leader in the House, and he was chosen to serve as minority floor leader for the Democrats in 1929, and then as Speaker of the United States House of Representatives in 1931.

In 1932, Garner ran for the Democratic Presidential nomination, becoming one of New York Governor Franklin Roosevelt's most serious opponents for the nomination. When it became evident that Roosevelt would win the nomination, Garner cut a deal with the front-runner, becoming Roosevelt's Vice Presidential candidate. He was re-elected to the Seventy-third Congress on November 8, 1932, and on the same day was elected Vice President of the United States. He was reelected Vice President in 1936 and served in that office from March 4, 1933 to January 20, 1941.

Garner once described the office of the vice presidency as being "not worth a bucket of warm piss" (at the time reported with the bowdlerization "spit").

During Roosevelt's second term, the previously warm relationship between Garner and Roosevelt quickly soured, as Garner disagreed sharply with Roosevelt on a wide range of important issues. Garner supported federal intervention to break up the Flint Sit-Down Strike, supported a balanced federal budget, opposed packing the Supreme Court with additional judges, and opposed executive interference with the internal business of the Congress.

During 1938 and 1939, numerous Democratic party leaders urged Garner to run for President in 1940. Garner saw himself as the champion of the traditional Democratic Party establishment, which often clashed with supporters of Roosevelt's New Deal. Gallup polls showed that Garner was the favorite among Democratic voters, presuming that Roosevelt would defer to the longstanding two-term tradition and not run for a third term.

Though he never declared his candidacy, Roosevelt quietly made it known that he would seek a third term. Even though this decision made it highly unlikely that Garner would win the nomination, he stayed in the race anyway, because he opposed much of what the President stood for, and opposed the idea of anyone having a third term as President.

Roosevelt beat Garner soundly in the Democratic primaries, and won re-nomination at the Democratic National Convention on the first ballot.

Garner stepped down as Vice President in January 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 Harry S. Truman. At the time of his death he was the longest lived person to have reached either of the two highest offices in the United States government's executive branch, a record that still stands as of 2007.

[edit] Trivia

• Garner and Schuyler Colfax are the only two Vice Presidents to have been Speaker of the House of Representatives prior to becoming Vice President. As the Vice President is also the President of the Senate, this means that Garner and Colfax are the only people in history to have served as the presiding officer of both houses of Congress.
• Garner was once described by Alistair Cooke (in his book Memories of the Great & the Good) to be, historically speaking, the last public man linking "America of the Civil War and America of the Nuclear Age." Cooke was referring to the fact that Garner was born in 1868, the son of a former Confederate cavalry trooper.
• On Garner's 95th birthday (November 22, 1963), he spoke to President John F. Kennedy over the telephone in regard to the upcoming 1964 Presidential campaign. He vowed to support Kennedy's bid as long as he himself was alive; ironically, Kennedy was assassinated later that day.
• Garner State Park, located 30 miles north of Uvalde, was named in his honor.
• Garner died at 98 years and 350 days old, 15 days short of what was to have been his 99th birthday. Giving him the record for longest lived President or Vice-President in United States history, a record which still stands.
• In the DC Comics Elseworlds title Superman: War of the Worlds, Garner is elected President of the United States after Roosevelt is killed by the Martians.
• Garner appears in the game Hearts of Iron II: Doomsday during the scenarios "The Road to War," "The Gathering Storm," and "Blitzkri Garner nearly became president before he became vice president. Had Roosevelt been shot by Zangara in Feb. 1933 Garner would have become president.

[edit] References

• Biography at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
• Champagne, Anthony. "John Nance Garner," in Raymond W Smock and Susan W Hammond, eds. Masters of the House: Congressional Leadership Over Two Centuries (1998) pp 144-80
• Timmons, Bascom N. Garner of Texas: A Personal History. 1948.
• Will, George. "In Cactus Jack's Footsteps". Jewish World Review 6 Jan. 2000.

Preceded by None, district created.	Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Texas's 15th congressional district March 4, 1903 – March 4, 1933	Succeeded by Milton H. West
Preceded by Nicholas Longworth	Speaker of the United States House of Representatives December 7, 1931 – March 4, 1933	Succeeded by Henry T. Rainey
Preceded by Joseph Taylor Robinson	Democratic Party Vice Presidential candidate 1932 (won), 1936 (won)	Succeeded by Henry A. Wallace
Preceded by Charles Curtis	Vice President of the United States March 4, 1933 – January 20, 1941