Spellbinders and Wiseacres: The Massachusetts Republican Convention of 1936
In the course of my current writing project, a biography of Massachusetts State Representative Roland D. Sawyer, I have come across several episodes that would make suitable bite-sized writing projects on their own. In the absence of any publication venues for a shorter, informal piece, I’ve decided to write one up as a blog post.
Today’s system of pre-primary conventions, whereby each party holds a convention to endorse candidates for statewide office and confirm candidates’ places on the primary ballot, was established in the 1950s under Governor Christian Herter. This was the pre-primary convention’s second turn at bat, however; the system was initially established in 1932 and repealed in 1937 (Dalton, Wirkkala, and Thomas, 246-47, 312). The Democrats held raucous conventions in 1934, when famous Boston mayor James M. Curley was not nominated for Governor (covered by Hennessy, 505-13), and 1936, when he was nominated for Senator (covered by Beatty, 384-85). The Republicans, however, were mainly of interest in 1936. This blog post covers that convention with material from the memoir of one Senator and the biography of another.
Leverett Saltonstall was the outgoing Speaker of the Massachusetts House of Representatives, a position he had held since 1929. The scion of a old-time Brahmin family, Saltonstall recalled his ascent to that office in his “as told to” memoir by saying that he “was reminded that my great-grandfather had been president of the Senate in 1830, and I decided it would make me mighty proud if I could be Speaker of the House a hundred years later.” (Saltonstall and Weeks, 39). After James M. Curley (having won the primary despite his defeat at the convention) defeated fellow Brahmin Republican Gasper Griswold Bacon for Governor in 1934, Saltonstall began “kiting” around the state to try to drum up support for his own bid for Governor. For several decades, the Republicans had a long-established “escalator” of officeholders, whereby a Speaker of the House (or, occasionally, a President of the Senate) would slide easily into the Lieutenant Governorship, and then succeed the Governor after two or so terms in office. This system began to break down when the Democrats started consistently winning statewide office during the Great Depression, but the Republican nominees for Governor in 1932 and 1934 had, indeed, been the Lieutenant Governors (then elected separately from the Governor). Saltonstall attempted to approximate the escalator, but ran into a tough opponent in the form of John W. Haigis, former state Treasurer and legislator (in both houses) from Greenfield. Saltonstall wrote that he knew that Haigis would have the home-court advantage in Western Massachusetts, and so thought that his days were numbered (and his support was limited) when the Republican State Committee voted to have the 1936 convention in Springfield (Saltonstall and Weeks, 52-53).
The other main draw at the convention was the contest for the Senate nomination. Democratic Senator Marcus Coolidge was not running for another term, and the Republicans sought a nominee to face off with Governor Curley as he tried to move to Washington (contrary to Lodge biographers Miller and Nichter, Coolidge did not, in fact, die in office). The Republican candidates were Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr., grandson of long-serving Senator Henry Cabot Lodge and a liberal, pro-labor two-term state legislator (Miller, 121-24), and Sinclair “Sinny” Weeks, the Mayor of Newton and son of former Secretary of War John W. Weeks. Lodge, driving the snowy roads to hunt for delegates on weekends during the legislative session, assembled a campaign team of friends, amateurs, and former Coolidge advisor Tom White (Miller, 126).
The Springfield convention was hard-fought. First came the gubernatorial balloting. Republican insiders thought that a combination of Saltonstall for Governor and either Weeks or Lodge for Senator was too “highbrow” of a ticket. Saltonstall stayed away from the convention floor during the gubernatorial balloting, which he later considered a mistake. The ballot was so close that, rather than a recount, the party decided to re-ballot after lunch. Haigis was one vote ahead on the first ballot, and the second ballot confirmed his victory by three votes – 648 to 645 in Saltonstall’s recollection, but 351 to 342 in the Boston Globe’s reporting, for whatever reason. Saltonstall immediately drew plaudits by endorsing the ticket and congratulating his opponent, perhaps overshadowing Haigis in the process (Saltonstall and Weeks, 53; Collins).
The Globe claimed that Haigis had traded a promise of the Lieutenant Governor nomination to Attorney General Joseph Warner in exchange for his withdrawal from the Gubernatorial balloting and support. However, as Warner’s team gathered in the convention hall’s basement to assess the situation, two of Saltonstall’s friends, Dan Lynch and Abe Casson, blocked the staircase and prevented them from returning to the convention floor (Saltonstall and Weeks, 53). Meanwhile, Saltonstall supporter (and eventual replacement as Speaker) Horace T. Cahill addressed the delegates: “I don’t care what commitments have been made, the choice for second place on our ticket remains with you delegates. There is no west without an east. If you want a balanced ticket you can have it. Do you want Saltonstall or not?” This, combined with Saltonstall's gallant rally behind Haigis, led to his nomination for Lieutenant Governor by acclimation (Cahill).
The Senatorial candidates, meanwhile, were keeping busy. Sinny Weeks, who had mobilized a robust operation with a hundred-piece brass band, threw his support to Haigis, appearing to the delegates as a kingmaker after Haigis scraped by. Lodge, meanwhile, posted himself in the lobby during the gubernatorial balloting, on the instruction of advisor Tom White: “Stand out in the lobby and shake hands. Be sure to smile – then they’ll think you’ve got it in the bag. Just before the vote, walk across the platform slowly – let the boys see you’re there. That’ll make it harder for them to doublecross [sic] you.”
The convention tackled the Senatorial situation on the second day. In a seconding speech for Lodge, supporter Abe Glovsky, a lawyer from Beverly, said, “Lodge has made a deal with Haigis! The deal is that Haigis won’t interfere with Lodge’s campaign, and Lodge won’t interfere with him!” Haigis nodded his tacit approval, and Glovsky assessed that he had peeled about thirty of the delegates who had jumped on the Weeks bandwagon (Miller, 127).
When other Lodge lobbyists tried to whip votes in the solidly-Weeks Brookline delegation, they succeeded in the form of one Maxwell Rabb, who found Weeks too conservative to beat Curley. As Erland Fish, former Senate President, and Congressman Joe Martin gave Rabb the third degree, word got out of the situation, and Rabb’s reasoning resonated with other delegates. Leverett’s brother Richard Saltonstall commended his vote, and Horace Cahill decided to do the same. When Rabb, Richard Saltonstall, and Cahill defected early in the roll call, it started a logroll toward Lodge. He beat Weeks by 37 votes. The brass band had to go home without playing (Miller, 128).
This, minus the nominations for other statewide offices, was the last Republican pre-primary convention until the 1950s. Haigis and Saltonstall both lost to Charles F. Hurley and Frankie Kelley, respectively, while Lodge managed, in a hard-fought race, to prevent James M. Curley from going to the Senate. Sinclair Weeks, meanwhile, served briefly in the Senate, to fill Lodge’s seat when he went to fight in the Second World War. Those, however, are different stories.
Bibliography:
Dalton, Cornelius, John Wirkkala, and Anne Thomas, Leading the Way: A History of the Massachusetts General Court, 1629-1980 (Boston: General Court, Commonwealth of Massachusetts, 1984).
Hennessy, Michael E., Massachusetts Politics 1890-1935 (Norwood: Norwood Press, 1935).
Beatty, Jack, The Rascal King: The Life and Times of James Michael Curley (1874-1958) (Da Capo Press, 2000).
Saltonstall, Leverett (as told to Edward Weeks), Salty: Recollections of a Yankee in Politics (Boston: Boston Globe, 1976).
Miller, William J., Henry Cabot Lodge (New York, James H. Heineman, Inc., 1967).
Collins, Edwin F., “Haigis-Saltonstall is G.O.P. Ticket,” Daily Boston Globe, June 20, 1936.