Thomas E. Dewey
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"Thomas Dewey" redirects here. For other uses, see Thomas Dewey (disambiguation).
| Thomas E. Dewey | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| 47th Governor of New York | |
| In office January 1, 1943 – December 31, 1954 |
|
| Lieutenant | Thomas W. Wallace (January–July 1943) Joe R. Hanley (1943–1950) Frank C. Moore (1950–1953) Arthur H. Wicks (1953) Walter J. Mahoney (1954) |
| Preceded by | Charles Poletti |
| Succeeded by | W. Averell Harriman |
| New York County District Attorney | |
| In office January 1, 1938 – December 31, 1941 |
|
| Preceded by | William C. Dodge |
| Succeeded by | Frank Hogan |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Thomas Edmund Dewey March 24, 1902 Owosso, Michigan |
| Died | March 16, 1971 (aged 68) Miami, Florida |
| Political party | Republican |
| Spouse(s) | Frances Eileen Hutt (1928–1970) |
| Alma mater | University of Michigan, Columbia Law School |
| Profession | Lawyer, Politician |
| Religion | Episcopalian |
| Signature |  |
Contents
Early life and family
Dewey was born and raised in Owosso, Michigan, where his father, George Dewey, owned, edited, and published the local newspaper, the Owosso Times.[1] His mother, Annie Thomas (whom he called "Mater"), bequeathed her son "a healthy respect for common sense and the average man or woman who possessed it. She also left a headstrong assertiveness that many took for conceit, a set of small-town values never entirely erased by exposure to the sophisticated East, and a sense of proportion that moderated triumph and eased defeat."[2] He graduated from the University of Michigan in 1923, and from Columbia Law School in 1925. While at the University of Michigan, he joined Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia, a national fraternity for men of music, and was a member of the Men's Glee Club. He was an excellent singer with a deep, baritone voice, and in 1923 he finished in third place in the National Singing Contest.[3] He briefly considered a career as a professional singer, but decided against it after a temporary throat ailment convinced him that such a career would be risky. He then decided to pursue a career as a lawyer.[4] He also wrote for The Michigan Daily, the university's student newspaper.[5]On June 16, 1928 Dewey married Frances Eileen Hutt. A native of Sherman, Texas, she was a stage actress; after their marriage she dropped her acting career.[6] They had two sons, Thomas E. Dewey, Jr. and John Martin Dewey. Although Dewey served as a prosecutor and District Attorney in New York City for many years, his home from 1939 until his death was a large farm, called "Dapplemere," located near the town of Pawling some 65 miles (105 km) north of New York City.[7] According to biographer Richard Norton Smith, Dewey "loved Dapplemere as [he did] no other place", and Dewey was once quoted as saying that "I work like a horse five days and five nights a week for the privilege of getting to the country on the weekend."[8] Dapplemere was part of a tight-knit rural community called "Quaker Hill," which was known as a haven for the prominent and well-to-do. Among Dewey's neighbors on Quaker Hill were the famous reporter and radio broadcaster Lowell Thomas, the Reverend Norman Vincent Peale, and the legendary CBS News journalist Edward R. Murrow.[9] Dewey was a lifelong member of the Episcopal Church.[10]
Prosecutor
Federal prosecutor
Dewey first served as a federal prosecutor, then started a lucrative private practice on Wall Street; however, he left his practice for an appointment as special prosecutor to look into corruption in New York City—with the official title of Chief Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York.[11] It was in this role that he first achieved headlines in the early 1930s, when he prosecuted bootlegger Waxey Gordon.Dewey had used his excellent recall of details of crimes to trip up witnesses as a federal prosecutor; as a state prosecutor, he used telephone taps (which were perfectly legal at the time) to gather evidence, with the ultimate goal of bringing down entire criminal organizations.[11] On that account, Dewey successfully lobbied for an overhaul in New York's criminal procedure law, which at that time required separate trials for each count of an indictment.[11]
Special prosecutor
Dewey rocketed to fame in 1935, when he was appointed special prosecutor in New York County (Manhattan) by Governor Herbert H. Lehman. A "runaway grand jury" had publicly complained that William C. Dodge, the District Attorney, was not aggressively pursuing the mob and political corruption. Lehman, to avoid charges of partisanship, asked four prominent Republicans to serve as special prosecutor. All four refused and recommended Dewey.[12]Dewey moved ahead vigorously. He recruited a staff of over 60 assistants, investigators, process servers, stenographers, and clerks. New York Mayor Fiorello H. La Guardia assigned a picked squad of 63 police officers to Dewey's office.
Dewey's targets were organized racketeering: the large-scale criminal enterprises, especially extortion, the "numbers game", and prostitution. He pursued Tammany Hall leaders known for their ties to gangsters, such as James Joseph Hines.
One of his biggest prizes was gangster Dutch Schultz, whom he had battled as both a federal and state prosecutor. Schultz's first trial ended in a deadlock; prior to his second trial, Schultz had the venue moved to Malone, New York, then moved there and garnered the sympathy of the townspeople through charitable acts so that when it came time for his trial, the jury found him innocent, liking him too much to convict him.[11]
Dewey and La Guardia threatened Schultz with instant arrest and further charges. Schultz now proposed to murder Dewey. Dewey would be killed while he made his daily morning call to his office from a pay phone near his home.[11] However, New York crime boss Lucky Luciano and the "Mafia Commission" decided that Dewey's murder would provoke an all-out crackdown. Instead they had Schultz killed.[11]
Dewey next turned his attention to Luciano. Dewey raided 80 houses of prostitution in the New York City area and arrested hundreds of prostitutes and "madams". Many of the prostitutes — some of whom told of being beaten and abused by Mafia thugs — were willing to testify to avoid prison time. Three implicated Luciano as controller of organized prostitution in the New York/New Jersey area — one of the largest prostitution rings in American history.[11] In the greatest victory of his legal career, Dewey won the conviction of Luciano for the prostitution racket, with a sentence of 30 to 50 years.[13]
However, Dewey did more than simply prosecute gangsters. In 1936 Dewey helped indict and convict Richard Whitney, the former president of the New York Stock Exchange, for embezzlement. Dewey also led efforts to protect dockworkers and poultry farmers and workers from racketeering in New York.[14] In 1936 Dewey received The Hundred Year Association of New York's Gold Medal Award "in recognition of outstanding contributions to the City of New York". In 1939 Dewey prosecuted American Nazi leader Fritz Julius Kuhn for embezzlement, crippling Kuhn's organization and limiting its ability to support Nazi Germany in World War II.
Manhattan District Attorney
In 1937, Dewey was elected District Attorney of New York County (Manhattan), defeating the Democratic nominee after Dodge decided not to run for re-election. By the late 1930s Dewey's successful efforts against organized crime—and especially his conviction of Lucky Luciano—had turned him into a national celebrity. His nickname, the "Gangbuster", became the name of a popular radio serial based on his fight against the mob. Hollywood film studios even made several movies inspired by his exploits; Marked Woman starred Humphrey Bogart as a Dewey-like DA and Bette Davis as a "party girl" whose testimony helps convict the gang boss.[15]Governor of New York
In 1938, Edwin Jaeckle, the New York Republican Party Chairman, selected Dewey to run, unsuccessfully, for Governor of New York against the popular Democratic incumbent, Herbert H. Lehman. Dewey was only 36 years old at the time. He based his campaign on his record as a famous prosecutor of organized-crime figures in New York City. Although he was defeated, Dewey's surprisingly strong showing against Lehman (he lost by only 1.4%) brought him national political attention and made him a frontrunner for the 1940 Republican presidential nomination.[16] Jaeckle was one of Dewey's top advisors and mentors for the remainder of his political career.In 1942, Dewey ran for governor again, and won with a large plurality over Democrat John J. Bennett, Jr. Bennett was not endorsed by the American Labor Party, whose candidate drew almost 10%. The ALP did endorse incumbent Lieutenant Governor Charles Poletti who lost narrowly to Dewey's running mate Thomas W. Wallace. In 1946, Dewey was re-elected by the greatest margin in state history to that point, almost 700,000 votes.[17] Four years later, he was elected to a third term by 572,000 votes.[18]
Usually regarded as an honest and highly effective governor, Dewey doubled state aid to education; increased salaries for state employees; and still reduced the state's debt by over $100 million. Additionally, he put through the first state law in the country that prohibited racial discrimination in employment. As governor, Dewey also signed legislation that created the State University of New York. He played a major role in the creation of the New York State Thruway, which was eventually named in his honor. Dewey also streamlined and consolidated many state agencies to make them more efficient.[19] The journalists Neal Peirce and Jerry Hagstrom summarized Dewey's governorship by writing that "for sheer administrative talent, it is difficult to think of a twentieth-century governor who has excelled Thomas E. Dewey...hundreds of thousands of New York youngsters owe Dewey thanks for his leadership in creating a state university...a vigorous health-department program virtually eradicated tuberculosis in New York, highway building was pushed forward, and the state's mental hygiene program was thoroughly reorganized."[20] With Jaeckle's help, Dewey also created a powerful political organization that allowed him to dominate New York state politics and influence national politics.
He also strongly supported the death penalty. During his 12 years as Governor, over 90 people were electrocuted under New York authority. Among these were several of the mob-affiliated hitmen belonging to the murder-for-hire group Murder, Inc., which was headed up by major mob leaders Louis "Lepke" Buchalter and Albert Anastasia. Lepke himself went to the chair in 1944.
Presidential elections
1940
Dewey sought the 1940 Republican presidential nomination. He was considered the early favorite for the nomination, but his support ebbed in the late spring of 1940, as World War II suddenly became much more dangerous for America.Some Republican leaders considered Dewey to be too young (he was only 38) and too inexperienced to lead the nation in wartime. Furthermore, Dewey's non-interventionist stance became problematic when Germany quickly conquered France, and seemed poised to conquer Britain. As a result, many Republicans switched to Wendell Willkie, who was a decade older and supported aid to the Allies fighting Germany. Willkie lost to Franklin D. Roosevelt in the general election.[21]
Dewey's foreign-policy position evolved during the 1940s; by 1944 he was considered an internationalist and a supporter of projects such as the United Nations. It was in 1940 that Dewey first clashed with Taft. Taft—who maintained his non-interventionist views and economic conservatism to his death—became Dewey's great rival for control of the Republican Party in the 1940s and early 1950s. Dewey became the leader of moderate-to-liberal Republicans, who were based in the northeastern and Pacific Coast states, while Taft became the leader of conservative Republicans who dominated most of the Midwest and parts of the South.[22] Dewey's biographer Richard Norton Smith wrote that "For fifteen years...these two combatants waged political warfare. Their dispute pitted East against Midwest, city against countryside, internationalist against isolationist, pragmatic liberals against principled conservatives. Each man thought himself the genuine spokesman of the future; each denounced the other as a political heretic."[23] In a 1949 speech, Dewey criticized Taft and his followers by saying that "we have in our party some fine, high-minded patriotic people who honestly oppose farm price supports, unemployment insurance, old age benefits, slum clearance, and other social programs...these people believe in a laissez-faire society and look back wistfully to the miscalled 'good old days' of the nineteenth century...if such efforts to turn back the clock are actually pursued, you can bury the Republican Party as the deadest pigeon in the country." He added that people who opposed such social programs should "go out and try to get elected in a typical American community and see what happens to them. But they ought not to do it as Republicans."[24] However, in the speech Dewey added that the Republican Party believed in social progress "under a flourishing, competitive system of private enterprise where every human right is expanded...we are opposed to delivering the nation into the hands of any group who will have the power to tell the American people whether they may have food or fuel, shelter or jobs."[25]
1944
Dewey was the frontrunner for the 1944 Republican nomination.[26] In April 1944 he won the key Wisconsin primary, where he defeated Wendell Willkie, former Minnesota Governor Harold Stassen, and General Douglas MacArthur. Willkie's poor showing in Wisconsin forced him to quit the race.[27] At the 1944 Republican Convention, Dewey's chief rivals - Stassen and Ohio Governor John W. Bricker - both withdrew and Dewey was nominated almost unanimously. Dewey then made Bricker (who was supported by Taft) his running mate.In the general election campaign, Dewey crusaded against the alleged inefficiencies, corruption and Communist influences in incumbent President Roosevelt's New Deal programs, but avoided military and foreign policy debates.
Dewey lost the election to Roosevelt. However, Dewey polled 46% of the popular vote, a stronger showing against Roosevelt than any previous Republican opponent. Dewey was the first presidential candidate to be born in the 20th century. As of 2014, he was also the youngest Republican presidential nominee.[28]
Dewey nearly included, in his campaign, claims that Roosevelt knew ahead of time about the attack on Pearl Harbor; Dewey added, "and instead of being re-elected he should be impeached." The U.S. military was extremely worried because that would let the Japanese know that the U.S. had broken the Purple code. Army General George C. Marshall made a persistent effort to persuade Dewey not to touch this topic; Dewey eventually yielded.[29]
1948
Indeed, given Truman's sinking popularity and the Democratic Party's three-way split (between Truman, Henry A. Wallace, and Strom Thurmond), Dewey had seemed unstoppable. Republicans figured that all they had to do to win was to avoid making any major mistakes, and as such Dewey did not take any risks. He spoke in platitudes, trying to transcend politics. Speech after speech was filled with empty statements of the obvious, such as the famous quote: "You know that your future is still ahead of you." An editorial in the Louisville Courier-Journal summed it up:
No presidential candidate in the future will be so inept that four of his major speeches can be boiled down to these historic four sentences: Agriculture is important. Our rivers are full of fish. You cannot have freedom without liberty. Our future lies ahead.[30]Part of the reason Dewey ran such a cautious, vague campaign came from his experience as a presidential candidate in 1944. In that election Dewey felt that he had allowed Roosevelt to draw him into a partisan, verbal "mudslinging" match, and he believed that this had cost him votes. As such, Dewey was convinced in 1948 to appear as non-partisan as possible, and to emphasize the positive aspects of his campaign while ignoring his opponent. This strategy proved to be a major mistake, as it allowed Truman to repeatedly criticize and ridicule Dewey, while Dewey never answered any of Truman's criticisms.[31] Near the end of the campaign, Dewey considered adopting a more aggressive style and responding directly to Truman's criticisms, going so far as to tell his aides one evening that he wanted to "tear to shreds" a speech draft and make it more critical of the Democratic ticket.[32] However, nearly all of his major advisors - including Edwin Jaeckle, Press Secretary James Hagerty, and aide Paul Lockwood - insisted that it would be a mistake to change tactics. Dewey's wife Frances strongly opposed her husband changing tactics, telling him, "If I have to stay up all night to see that you don't tear up that speech [draft], I will."[32] Dewey relented and continued to ignore Truman's attacks and to focus on positive generalities instead of issue specifics.[33]
Dewey was not as conservative as the Republican-controlled 80th Congress, which also proved problematic for him. Truman tied Dewey to the "do-nothing" Congress. Indeed, Dewey had successfully battled Taft and his conservatives for the nomination at the Republican Convention. Taft had remained a non-interventionist even through the Second World War. Dewey, however, supported the Marshall Plan, the Truman Doctrine, recognition of Israel, and the Berlin airlift.[34]
Dewey was repeatedly urged by the right wing of his party to engage in red-baiting, but he refused. In a debate before the Oregon primary with Harold Stassen, Dewey argued against outlawing the Communist Party of the United States of America, saying "you can't shoot an idea with a gun." He later told Styles Bridges, the Republican national campaign manager, that he was not "going around looking under beds".[35] Dewey was the only Republican to be nominated for President twice and lose both times.
1952
Dewey did not run for President in 1952, but he played a major role in securing the Republican nomination for General of the Army Dwight Eisenhower. The 1952 campaign culminated in a climactic moment in the fierce rivalry between Dewey and Taft for control of the Republican Party.Dewey played a key role in convincing Eisenhower to run against Taft. When Eisenhower became a candidate Dewey used his powerful political machine to win Eisenhower the support of delegates in New York and elsewhere.
Taft was an announced candidate and, given his age, he freely admitted 1952 would be his last chance to win the presidency. At the Republican Convention, pro-Taft delegates and speakers verbally attacked Dewey as the real power behind Eisenhower, but Dewey had the satisfaction of seeing Eisenhower win the nomination and end Taft's presidential hopes for the last time.[36]
Dewey played a major role in helping California Senator Richard Nixon become Eisenhower's running mate. When Eisenhower won the Presidency later that year, many of Dewey's closest aides and advisors became leading figures in the Eisenhower Administration. Among them were Herbert Brownell, who would become Eisenhower's Attorney General, James Hagerty, who would become White House Press Secretary, and John Foster Dulles, who would become Eisenhower's Secretary of State.
Later career
By the 1960s, as the conservative wing assumed more and more power within the Republican Party, Dewey removed himself further and further from party matters. When the Republicans in 1964 gave Senator Barry Goldwater of Arizona, Taft's successor as the conservative leader, their presidential nomination, Dewey declined to even attend the GOP Convention in San Francisco; it was the first Republican Convention he had missed since 1936.[38] President Lyndon Johnson offered Dewey a number of positions on several blue ribbon commissions, as well as a seat on the U.S. Supreme Court, but Dewey declined them all, for he preferred to remain in political retirement and concentrate on his highly profitable law firm. By the early 1960s Dewey's law practice had made him into a multimillionaire.
Although closely identified with the Republican Party for virtually his entire adult life, Dewey was a close friend of Democratic Senator Hubert H. Humphrey, and Dewey aided Humphrey in being named as the Democratic nominee for vice-president in 1964, advising Lyndon Johnson on ways to block efforts at the party convention by Kennedy loyalists to stampede Robert Kennedy onto the ticket as Johnson's running mate.
Frances Dewey died in the summer of 1970 after battling breast cancer for six years.[39] Later in 1970 Dewey began to date actress Kitty Carlisle, and there was talk of marriage between them. However, he died suddenly of a massive heart attack on March 16, 1971, eight days before his 69th birthday, while vacationing with friend Dwayne Andreas in Miami, Florida, following a round of golf with Boston Red Sox player Carl Yastrzemski. He was 68 years old.[40] Both he and his wife are buried in the town cemetery of Pawling, New York; after his death his farm of Dapplemere was sold and renamed "Dewey Lane Farm" in his honor.[41]
Public perception
Dewey first came to nationwide attention as the "gangbuster", becoming a household name in the U.S. even before he entered presidential politics. At the age of 37, he was perceived as a rising star in the Republican Party and frontrunner for the presidential nomination in 1940. During that campaign with the war in Europe intensifying, he was widely considered too young and inexperienced for the presidency and lost the nomination to Wendell Willkie. His visibility propelled him to the governorship in 1942 and the 1944 Republican presidential nomination. Dewey was a forceful and inspiring speaker, traveling the whole country during his presidential campaigns and attracting uncommonly huge crowds.[42]During the 1944 election campaign, Dewey suffered an unexpected blow when a remark attributed to socialite Alice Roosevelt Longworth (daughter of Theodore Roosevelt) mocked Dewey as "the little man on the wedding cake" (alluding to his neat mustache and dapper dress).[note 1] It was ridicule he could never shake.
Dewey received varied reactions from the public. Most praising his good intentions and vague yet inspiring speaking, but most also criticized his perceived stiffness in public.
Dewey alienated former Republican president Herbert Hoover, who confided to a friend "Dewey has no inner reservoir of knowledge on which to draw for his thinking," elaborating that "A man couldn't wear a mustache like that without having it affect his mind."[43] However, the famed newspaper editor William Allen White praised Dewey as "an honest cop with the mind of an honest cop"[44] and the pollster George Gallup once stated that Dewey was "the ablest public figure of his lifetime...the most misunderstood man in recent American history."[45]
His presidential campaigns were hampered by Dewey's habit of making overly vague statements, defining his strategy as not being "prematurely specific"[42] on controversial issues. In 1948, President Truman poked fun at Dewey's vague campaign by joking that the GOP (Republican Party) actually stood for "grand old platitudes."[46]
In 1940, Walter Lippman regarded him as an opportunist, who "changes his views from hour to hour… always more concerned with taking the popular position than he is in dealing with the real issues."[47] Adding to that, he had a tendency towards pomposity[48] and was considered stiff and unapproachable in public, with even his own aide Ruth McCormick Simms once describing him as "cold, cold as a February iceberg." She however added that "he was brilliant and thoroughly honest."[49] Leo O'Brien, a reporter for the United Press International (UPI), recalled Dewey in an interview by saying that "I hated his guts when he first came to Albany, and I loved him by the time he left. It was almost tragic - how he put on a pose that alienated people. Behind a pretty thin veneer he was a wonderful guy."[50]
Journalist Irwin Ross summed up the contradictions in Dewey's personality by noting that "more than most politicians, he displayed an enormous gap between his private and his public manner. To friends and colleagues he was warm and gracious, considerate of others' views… He could tell a joke and was not dismayed by an off-color story. In public, however, he tended to freeze up, either out of diffidence or too stern a sense of the dignity of office. The smiles would seem forced… the glad-handing gesture awkward."[51]
Legacy
In 1964, the New York State legislature officially renamed the New York State Thruway in honor of Dewey. Signs on Interstate 95 between the end of the Bruckner Expressway (in the Bronx) and the Connecticut state line, as well as on the Thruway mainline (Interstate 87 between the Bronx-Westchester line and Albany, and Interstate 90 between Albany and the New York-Pennsylvania line) designate the name as Governor Thomas E. Dewey Thruway, though this official designation is rarely used in reference to these roads.Dewey's official papers from his years in politics and public life were given to the University of Rochester; they are housed in the university library and are available to historians and other writers.
In 2005, the New York City Bar Association named an award after Dewey. The Thomas E. Dewey Medal, sponsored by the law firm of Dewey & LeBoeuf LLP, is awarded annually to one outstanding Assistant District Attorney in each of New York City's five counties (New York, Kings, Queens, Bronx, and Richmond). The Medal was first awarded on November 29, 2005.
In May 2012, Dewey & LeBoeuf (the successor firm to Dewey Ballantine) filed for bankruptcy.
Publications
- The Case Against the New Deal (1940) Harper & Bros., New York
- Journey to the Far Pacific (1952) Doubleday & Company, Garden City, NY.
- Twenty Against the Underworld (1974) Doubleday & Company, Garden City, NY
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