PRESIDENT FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT - ANNOTATED DOCUMENT UNSIGNED CIRCA 1922 - HFSID 156907

FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT
As a local Democratic Party official in the 1920s, the future President winnowed this list of Party members to be given jobs when Al Smith assumes office as Governor of New York. The notations are in FDR's hand.
Annotated document, unsigned, 1 page, 8½x11. Poughkeepsie, New York, circa 1922. On letterhead of the Duchess County Democratic Committee, FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT (1882-1945) - a member of the Executive Committee - annotates a typed list of 12 Democratic loyalists to be put forward for positions in State Government once Al Smith, elected Governor in November 1922, took office on January 1, 1923. One name has been crossed off the list, and another added to replace it. FDR has checked most of the names, noting the four applications already filed, and circles one name and recommended position. This sheet attests that patronage appointments, the life blood of America's political parties in the 19th century but supplanted by civil service "merit" examination at the federal level, still flourished in state governments. In 1922, Roosevelt held no public office. Assistant Secretary of the Navy under President Wilson, he had been the Democratic Party's Vice Presidential in the unsuccessful 1920 campaign. Newly afflicted with what was diagnosed as polio (August 1921) and paralyzed from the waist down, FDR had not abandoned his political ambitions, and became the strong supporter of Alfred E. Smith in his home state. Active in Smith's successful gubernatorial campaigns of 1922, 1924 and 1926, Roosevelt delivered Presidential nominating speeches for the man he called "the Happy Warrior" at the 1924 and 1928 Democratic Conventions, and campaigned for Smith in his losing race against Herbert Hoover (1928). Roosevelt succeeded Smith as Governor in 1928, but both men coveted the Presidential nomination in 1932. After FDR secured nomination and election, the two men swiftly drifted apart, with Smith becoming an active opponent of Roosevelt's New Deal. Staple holes in top margin. Normal mailing folds. Toned. Light surface creases. Small tear on top margin. Corners slightly worn. Otherwise, fine condition.