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The colorful Alfred Emanuel Smith, born on December 30, 1873, on the Lower East Side of Manhattan in New York City, was an iconic figure in American politics and ranks among the most famous candidates who lost in their runs for the presidency. He was a gifted amateur actor and public speaker, talents he turned to use when he began his political career in his twenties. He obtained his first political appointment in 1895 as a clerk in the Office of the City Commissioner of Jurors. His job was to serve subpoenas, for which he was paid the princely sum, for a young man of modest means, of $1,000 a year. Then, in 1903, he won election to the New York State Assembly. There he acquired a reputation as a champion of the working class and a backer of Progressive legislation as he rose through the ranks to become chair of the Ways and Means Committee, minority leader, and speaker. He also won election as sheriff of New York County and president of the city board of aldermen. In 1918 he was elected to the first of four terms as New York's governor (1918-1920 and 1922-1928). Smith's published writings consist primarily of addresses he delivered during his career as a politician. Smith, a Roman Catholic, was the target of vicious assaults because of his religion and for his opposition to Prohibition. However, he generally did not respond in kind but gave issues-oriented speeches about tariffs, waterway development, immigration, and similar policy topics that were often rather dry and failed to rouse the people he addressed.

By the 1920s Smith was achieving a national reputation for the Progressive views he would articulate in his nomination acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention in 1928. In many respects, the legislation he had sponsored as governor anticipated much of the New Deal legislation proposed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in response to the Great Depression of the 1930s. Not surprisingly, then, Roosevelt placed Smith's name in nomination at the 1920 Democratic convention. In 1924 Roosevelt once again nominated Smith for president, in the process referring to him by a nickname that would stick, "the Happy Warrior." Smith withdrew his name in favor of a compromise candidate, John W. Davis, but at the 1928 convention he could no longer be denied the nomination. He won handily on the first ballot and chose Joseph Taylor Robinson as his running mate. In his address accepting his party's nomination he outlined most of his Progressive views, particularly as they pertained to such issues as Prohibition, foreign relations, and the rights of the laboring classes. In the general election, however, he lost to the ticket of Herbert Hoover and Charles Curtis.

In 1932 Smith pursued the Democratic nomination but lost to Roosevelt. Throughout Roosevelt's nearly four terms as president, Smith opposed him, believing that the president's New Deal was too liberal and antibusiness and that it cost too much. Smith supported Roosevelt's opponents: Alfred Landon in 1936 and Wendell Wilkie in 1940. Meanwhile, shortly after the 1928 election, Smith became president of the company that constructed the Empire State Building, at the time the world's tallest building. Perhaps reflecting Smith's talent for efficient administration, the building was finished in less than thirteen months. On October 4, 1944, Smith died at the age of seventy.

References:

1. Eldot, Paula. Governor Alfred E. Smith: The Politician as Reformer. New York: Garland, 1983.

2. Finan, Christopher M. Alfred E. Smith: The Happy Warrior. New York: Hill and Wang, 2002.

3. Johnson, David E., and Johnny R. Johnson. A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the White House: Foolhardiness, Folly, and Fraud in Presidential Elections from Andrew Jackson to George W. Bush. Lanham, Md.: Taylor, 2004.

4. Josephson, Matthew, and Hannah Josephson. Al Smith: Hero of the Cities. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1969.

5. Lichtman, Allan J. Prejudice and the Old Politics: The Presidential Election of 1928. Lanham, Md.: Lexington Books, 2000.

6. Neal, Donn C. The World beyond the Hudson: Alfred E. Smith and National Politics, 1918-1928. New York: Garland, 1983.

7. Slayton, Robert A. Empire Statesman: The Rise and Redemption of Al Smith. New York: Free Press, 2007.

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