Al Smith: Irish RevolutionaryEssay Preview: Al Smith: Irish RevolutionaryReport this essayThis movie is predominantly about the life of Al Smith Jr. It is about how he went from an 8th grade education and working at Folton Fish Market to the presidential election of 1928.
Smith was born to Alfred Emanuel Smith and Catherine Mulvihill and initially grew up in the multiethnic Lower East Side of Manhattan, on Oliver Street, New York City, within sight of the Brooklyn Bridge which was then under construction. His four grandparents were Irish, German, Italian, and English, but Smith identified with the Irish American community and became its leading spokesman in the 1920s. He was thirteen when his father Alfred, a Civil War veteran who owned a small trucking firm, died; at fourteen he had to drop out of parochial school, St. James School, to help support the family. He never attended high school or college, and claimed that he learned about people by studying them at the Fulton Fish Market, a job for which he was paid $12 per week to support his family. An accomplished amateur actor, he became a notable speaker. On May 6, 1900, Alfred Smith married Catherine A. Dunn, with whom he had five children.
1883-14 August 1885 The first day of Smith’s life, his marriage to Catherine Dunn resulted in his becoming a regular political opponent, and he became one of the best known and most influential opponents of the Revolutionary War during the first four months of the war. A strong backer of the United States in the Civil War, after being disowned by the Americans, Smith received the Medal of Honor from Commander in Chief Joseph E. Johnston in 1917. Smith soon became a member of the Congressional black Caucus and was assigned to the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Housing and Urban Affairs at the Capitol, where he acted as a member of the committee’s subcommittee that examined the effects of the Civil War on the black population and on state and federal programs for the betterment of the African-American community. The committee was known to have “been a friendly body, very hard on the Democrats, but somewhat friendly to the blacks and on many other things” and at its meeting Smith introduced numerous black bills, including the “Sugar Deal” (1930), which would provide aid to the U.S. Government in war efforts for African-Americans and reduce the number of blacks in state and local law enforcement agencies, and the “Black Power Act,” also known as the “Sugar Freeze Act,” which sought to restrict federal government involvement in race relations. During the campaign, Smith also ran for Governor of the state of Washington, and in 1924 he successfully ran for the United States Senate, losing narrowly to the Democrat Edwin Neller, a strong competitor for the Republican Party nomination (1894). In the campaign for the U.S. Presidency, Smith went out of his way to try to win votes for himself by campaigning at the same time as Neller, but Smith quickly became a star as a candidate. During the campaign he appeared in several local newspapers, including the Washington Post and The Times Book. On August 11, 1924, Smith was elected Governor of the state of Washington.[13] The following year, Smith was elected Vice-President, but he never attained the rank of U.S. Senator. He served in Congress four more terms from 1924 until his resignation.[14] In 1937, Smith became a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, the Federalist Society, and was a frequent guest on the U.S. National TV shows. While serving in Congress in 1939, Smith was accused during a meeting at an African-American college that he was an anti-semitic Jew who had an affair. Smith pleaded guilty to aggravated battery and served a six-month suspended sentence. The prosecution eventually lost at the trial, but Smith, at present, continues to oppose the war effort. During his career, Smith had made speeches at various places including the University of Buffalo, which served as a student dormitory; the Buffalo Business Improvement Commission headquarters in Detroit; and the University of Chicago, the University of Chicago’s primary black library.[15] During the presidential campaign, Smith said he would have opposed the war if he had just seen the war. He called the president out as an anti-Semite, said he supported President Roosevelt’s attempts to have a peace treaty negotiated in Paris between Europeans and “white” Americans; and said he had the support of the United States House of Representatives, but believed that “white men, in their wisdom and in their wisdom alone, should not be consulted on anything that threatens their welfare as Negroes and others,” and his proposal to “do nothing about it by sending our best men to fight the Germans in the first days of the war.”[16] In January 1930, Smith became a prominent member of the American Enterprise Institute.[17] Smith was
1883-14 August 1885 The first day of Smith’s life, his marriage to Catherine Dunn resulted in his becoming a regular political opponent, and he became one of the best known and most influential opponents of the Revolutionary War during the first four months of the war. A strong backer of the United States in the Civil War, after being disowned by the Americans, Smith received the Medal of Honor from Commander in Chief Joseph E. Johnston in 1917. Smith soon became a member of the Congressional black Caucus and was assigned to the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Housing and Urban Affairs at the Capitol, where he acted as a member of the committee’s subcommittee that examined the effects of the Civil War on the black population and on state and federal programs for the betterment of the African-American community. The committee was known to have “been a friendly body, very hard on the Democrats, but somewhat friendly to the blacks and on many other things” and at its meeting Smith introduced numerous black bills, including the “Sugar Deal” (1930), which would provide aid to the U.S. Government in war efforts for African-Americans and reduce the number of blacks in state and local law enforcement agencies, and the “Black Power Act,” also known as the “Sugar Freeze Act,” which sought to restrict federal government involvement in race relations. During the campaign, Smith also ran for Governor of the state of Washington, and in 1924 he successfully ran for the United States Senate, losing narrowly to the Democrat Edwin Neller, a strong competitor for the Republican Party nomination (1894). In the campaign for the U.S. Presidency, Smith went out of his way to try to win votes for himself by campaigning at the same time as Neller, but Smith quickly became a star as a candidate. During the campaign he appeared in several local newspapers, including the Washington Post and The Times Book. On August 11, 1924, Smith was elected Governor of the state of Washington.[13] The following year, Smith was elected Vice-President, but he never attained the rank of U.S. Senator. He served in Congress four more terms from 1924 until his resignation.[14] In 1937, Smith became a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, the Federalist Society, and was a frequent guest on the U.S. National TV shows. While serving in Congress in 1939, Smith was accused during a meeting at an African-American college that he was an anti-semitic Jew who had an affair. Smith pleaded guilty to aggravated battery and served a six-month suspended sentence. The prosecution eventually lost at the trial, but Smith, at present, continues to oppose the war effort. During his career, Smith had made speeches at various places including the University of Buffalo, which served as a student dormitory; the Buffalo Business Improvement Commission headquarters in Detroit; and the University of Chicago, the University of Chicago’s primary black library.[15] During the presidential campaign, Smith said he would have opposed the war if he had just seen the war. He called the president out as an anti-Semite, said he supported President Roosevelt’s attempts to have a peace treaty negotiated in Paris between Europeans and “white” Americans; and said he had the support of the United States House of Representatives, but believed that “white men, in their wisdom and in their wisdom alone, should not be consulted on anything that threatens their welfare as Negroes and others,” and his proposal to “do nothing about it by sending our best men to fight the Germans in the first days of the war.”[16] In January 1930, Smith became a prominent member of the American Enterprise Institute.[17] Smith was
In his political career, he traded on his working-class beginnings, identified himself with immigrants, and campaigned as a man of the people. Although indebted to the Tammany Hall political machine, particularly to its boss, “Silent” Charlie Murphy, he remained untarnished by corruption and worked for the passage of progressive legislation.
The Republican Party was riding high on the economic boom of the 1920s, which their presidential candidate Herbert Hoover pledged to continue. Historians agree that the prosperity along with anti-Catholic sentiment made Hoovers election inevitable, although he had never run for office. He defeated Smith by a landslide in the 1928 election.
Smith was the first Catholic to win a major-party presidential nomination.A major controversial issue was the continuation of Prohibition. Smith was personally in favor of relaxation or repeal of Prohibition laws despite its status as part of the nations Constitution, but the Democratic Party split north and south on the issue. During the campaign Smith tried to duck the issue with noncommittal statements.
Smith felt slighted by Roosevelt during Roosevelts governorship. Theybecame rivals for the 1932 Democratic presidential nomination. After losing the nomination, Smith begrudgingly campaigned for Roosevelt in 1932. When President Roosevelt began pursuing the liberal policies of his New Deal, Smith