John Nance Garner III (November 22, 1868 – November 7, 1967), known among his contemporaries as "Cactus Jack", was an American Democratic politician and lawyer from

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2020, it is the second-largest U.S. state by ...

who served as the 32nd

vice president of the United States The vice president of the United States (VPOTUS) is the second-highest officer in the executive branch of the U.S. federal government, after the president of the United States, and ranks first in the presidential line of succession. The vice ...

under

Franklin D. Roosevelt Franklin Delano Roosevelt (; ; January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), often referred to by his initials FDR, was an American politician and attorney who served as the 32nd president of the United States from 1933 until his death in 1945. As the ...

from 1933 to 1941. Garner was also the 39th speaker of the United States House of Representatives from 1931 to 1933. He and

Schuyler Colfax Schuyler Colfax Jr. (; March 23, 1823 – January 13, 1885) was an American journalist, businessman, and politician who served as the 17th vice president of the United States from 1869 to 1873, and prior to that as the 25th speaker of the Hous ...

are the only individuals to have served as both Speaker of the House and Vice President of the United States. Garner began his political career as the county judge of

Uvalde County, Texas Uvalde County ( ) is a county located in the U.S. state of Texas. As of the 2020 census, its population was 24,564. Its county seat is Uvalde. The county was created in 1850 and organized in 1856. It is named for Juan de Ugalde, the Spanish gov ...

. He served in the

Texas House of Representatives The Texas House of Representatives is the lower house of the bicameral Texas Legislature. It consists of 150 members who are elected from single-member districts for two-year terms. As of the 2010 United States census, each member represents abo ...

from 1898 to 1902 and won election to represent Texas in the United States House of Representatives in 1902. He represented

Texas's 15th congressional district Texas's 15th congressional district of the United States House of Representatives includes a thin section of the far south of the state of Texas. The district's current Representative is Democrat Vicente Gonzalez, who was first elected in 2 ...

from 1903 to 1933. Garner served as House Minority Leader from 1929 to 1931, and was elevated to Speaker of the House when Democrats won control of the House following the

1930 elections The following elections occurred in the year 1930. Asia * 1930 Persian legislative election * 1930 Madras Presidency legislative council election * 1930 Japanese general election Europe * 1930 Finnish parliamentary election * 1930 Norwegian parl ...

. Garner sought the Democratic presidential nomination in the 1932 presidential election, but agreed to serve as Franklin D. Roosevelt's running mate at the

1932 Democratic National Convention The 1932 Democratic National Convention was held in Chicago, Illinois June 27 – July 2, 1932. The convention resulted in the nomination of Governor Franklin D. Roosevelt of New York for president and Speaker of the House John N. Garner from Te ...

. He and Roosevelt won the 1932 election and were re-elected in

1936 Events January–February * January 20 – George V of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions and Emperor of India, dies at his Sandringham Estate. The Prince of Wales succeeds to the throne of the United Kingdom as King E ...

. A conservative Southerner, Garner opposed the sit-down strikes of the labor unions and the New Deal's

deficit spending Within the budgetary process, deficit spending is the amount by which spending exceeds revenue over a particular period of time, also called simply deficit, or budget deficit; the opposite of budget surplus. The term may be applied to the budget ...

. However, Garner was also considered highly effective in the passage of New Deal legislation, with Roosevelt relying greatly on Garner's wealth of political friendships and legislative skills to pilot New Deal legislation through Congress. Unlike Vice Presidents before him, Garner also had a more active, non-ceremonial role in the U.S. Cabinet. He broke with Roosevelt in 1937 over a range of issues, especially the centralization of too much power in the federal government. Garner again sought the presidency in the 1940 presidential election, but Roosevelt won the party's presidential nomination at the

1940 Democratic National Convention The 1940 Democratic National Convention was held at the Chicago Stadium in Chicago, Illinois from July 15 to July 18, 1940. The convention resulted in the nomination of President Franklin D. Roosevelt for an unprecedented third term. Secretary o ...

, then chose Henry A. Wallace as his running mate.

Early life and family

Garner was born on November 22, 1868, in a log cabin in

Red River County, Texas Red River County is a county in the U.S. state of Texas. As of the 2010 census, its population was 11,587. Its county seat is Clarksville. The county was created in 1835 and organized in 1837. It is named for the Red River, which forms its n ...

to John Nance Garner II and his wife, Sarah Guest Garner. That mud-chinked log cabin no longer exists, but the large, white, two-story house where he was raised survives and is located at 260 South Main Street in

Detroit, Texas Detroit (dɪˈtɹɔɪt) is a town in Red River County, Texas, United States. The population was 704 at the 2020 census. John Nance Garner, 32nd Vice President of the United States, was born outside of Detroit but lived most of his life in Uvalde ...

. Garner attended

Vanderbilt University Vanderbilt University (informally Vandy or VU) is a private research university in Nashville, Tennessee. Founded in 1873, it was named in honor of shipping and rail magnate Cornelius Vanderbilt, who provided the school its initial $1-million ...

in Nashville,

Tennessee Tennessee ( , ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked state in the Southeastern region of the United States. Tennessee is the 36th-largest by area and the 15th-most populous of the 50 states. It is bordered by Kentucky to th ...

, for only one semester before dropping out and returning home. He studied law at the firm of Sims and Wright in

Clarksville, Texas Clarksville is a city and county seat of Red River County, Texas, in the United States in the northernmost part of the Piney Woods region of East Texas. As of the 2020 census, the city population was 2,857. Geography Clarksville is located at ...

, was

admitted to the bar An admission to practice law is acquired when a lawyer receives a license to practice law. In jurisdictions with two types of lawyer, as with barristers and solicitors, barristers must gain admission to the bar whereas for solicitors there are dist ...

in 1890, and began practice in Uvalde,

. In 1893, Garner entered politics, running for county judge of Uvalde County, the county's chief administrative officer. Garner was opposed in the primary by a woman— Mariette "Ettie" Rheiner, a rancher's daughter whom he married in 1895. Garner won, and with the Democratic nomination seen as

tantamount to election A safe seat is an electoral district (constituency) in a legislative body (e.g. Congress, Parliament, City Council) which is regarded as fully secure, for either a certain political party, or the incumbent representative personally or a combinati ...

in the post-Civil War

Solid South The Solid South or Southern bloc was the electoral voting bloc of the states of the Southern United States for issues that were regarded as particularly important to the interests of Democrats in those states. The Southern bloc existed especial ...

, Garner was elected county judge and served until 1896.

Texas politics

Garner was elected to the

in 1898, and re-elected in 1900. During his service, the legislature selected a state flower for Texas. Garner fervently supported the

prickly pear cactus ''Opuntia'', commonly called prickly pear or pear cactus, is a genus of flowering plants in the cactus family Cactaceae. Prickly pears are also known as ''tuna'' (fruit), ''sabra'', ''nopal'' (paddle, plural ''nopales'') from the Nahuatl word f ...

for the honor, and thus earned the nickname "Cactus Jack". (The Bluebonnet was chosen.) In 1901 Garner voted for the poll tax, a measure passed by the Democratic-dominated legislature to make voter registration more difficult and reduce the number of black, minority, and poor white voters on the voting rolls."Nixon v. Condon. Disfranchisement of the Negro in Texas"
''The Yale Law Journal'', Vol. 41, No. 8, June 1932, p. 1212, accessed 21 March 2008 This disfranchised most minority voters until the 1960s, and ended challenges to Democratic power; Texas became in effect a one-party state. Garner traveled parts of southern Texas controlled by the ''patrón'' system, currying political favor with the land bosses who exercised near-complete control of the local people and local elections. His ''patrón'' allies created a gerrymandered district for him, the 15th congressional district, a narrow strip reaching south to include tens of thousands of square miles of rural areas. Garner was first elected to the

United States House of Representatives The United States House of Representatives, often referred to as the House of Representatives, the U.S. House, or simply the House, is the lower chamber of the United States Congress, with the Senate being the upper chamber. Together they ...

in 1902. He was elected from the district 14 subsequent times, serving until 1933. His wife was paid and worked as his private secretary during this period. Throughout his career he maintained allegiance to the

white White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no hue). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully reflect and scatter all the visible wavelengths of light. White o ...

landowners who controlled the voting booths in South Texas. He regarded his Mexican voting base as "inferior and undesirable as U.S. citizens." Garner was chosen to serve as minority floor leader for the Democrats in 1929, and in 1931 as Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, when the Democrats became the majority. Garner supported passage of the federal

income tax An income tax is a tax imposed on individuals or entities (taxpayers) in respect of the income or profits earned by them (commonly called taxable income). Income tax generally is computed as the product of a tax rate times the taxable income. Tax ...

but opposed most

tariff A tariff is a tax imposed by the government of a country or by a supranational union on imports or exports of goods. Besides being a source of revenue for the government, import duties can also be a form of regulation of foreign trade and pol ...

s except for those on wool and mohair, which were important to his Texas base. He also believed in rural investment, bringing taxpayer dollars to farmers of the Brush Country region of South Texas.Patrick Cox,

University of Texas at Austin The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,07 ...

, "John Nance Garner,"

West Texas Historical Association The West Texas Historical Association is an organization of both academics and laypersons dedicated to the preservation and dissemination of the total history of West Texas, loosely defined geographically as all Texas counties and portions of coun ...

joint meeting with the East Texas Historical Association at Fort Worth, February 26, 2010 Garner was popular with his fellow House members in both parties. He held what he called his "board of education" during the era of

Prohibition Prohibition is the act or practice of forbidding something by law; more particularly the term refers to the banning of the manufacture, storage (whether in barrels or in bottles), transportation, sale, possession, and consumption of alcohol ...

, a gathering spot for lawmakers to drink alcohol, or as Garner called it, "strike a blow for liberty." (The "board of education" was continued by future Speaker Sam Rayburn after Prohibition had ended and Garner had left the House.)

Vice presidency (1933–1941)

In 1932, Garner ran for the Democratic presidential nomination. It had become evident that

, the Governor of New York, was the strongest of several candidates, but although he had a solid majority of convention delegates, he was 87.25 votes short of the two-thirds required for nomination. After Garner cut a deal with Roosevelt, thus allowing Roosevelt to win the nomination, Garner became his vice-presidential candidate. Garner was re-elected to the 73rd Congress on November 8, 1932, and on the same day was elected Vice President of the United States. On February 8, 1933, then-Vice President

Charles Curtis Charles Curtis (January 25, 1860 – February 8, 1936) was an American attorney and Republican politician from Kansas who served as the 31st vice president of the United States from 1929 to 1933 under Herbert Hoover. He had served as the Sena ...

announced the election of his successor, House Speaker Garner, while Garner was seated next to him on the House dais. He was the second man,

being the first, to serve as both Speaker of the House and President of the Senate. Garner was re-elected Vice President with Roosevelt in 1936, serving in that office in total from March 4, 1933, to January 20, 1941. Like most vice presidents in this era, Garner had little to do and little influence on the president's policies. He famously described the vice presidency as being "not worth a bucket of warm piss" (for many years, this quote was

bowdlerize Expurgation, also known as bowdlerization, is a form of censorship that involves purging anything deemed noxious or offensive from an artistic work or other type of writing or media. The term ''bowdlerization'' is a pejorative term for the practi ...

d as "warm spit".) Historian Patrick Cox traces the possible origin of this quote to a 1960 conversation with Lyndon Johnson, who consulted Garner on John Kennedy's offer to run for vice president. During Roosevelt's second term, Garner's previously warm relationship with the president quickly soured, as Garner disagreed sharply with him on a wide range of important issues. Garner supported federal intervention to break up the Flint sit-down strike, supported a balanced federal budget, opposed the

Judiciary Reorganization Bill of 1937 The Judicial Procedures Reform Bill of 1937, frequently called the "court-packing plan",Epstein, at 451. was a legislative initiative proposed by U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt to add more justices to the U.S. Supreme Court in order ...

to "pack" the Supreme Court with additional judges, and opposed executive interference with the internal business of the Congress. During 1938 and 1939, numerous Democratic party leaders urged Garner to run for president in

1940 A calendar from 1940 according to the Gregorian calendar, factoring in the dates of Easter and related holidays, cannot be used again until the year 5280. Events Below, the events of World War II have the "WWII" prefix. January * Januar ...

. Garner identified as the champion of the traditional Democratic Party establishment, which often clashed with supporters of Roosevelt's New Deal. The

Gallup poll Gallup, Inc. is an American analytics and advisory company based in Washington, D.C. Founded by George Gallup in 1935, the company became known for its public opinion polls conducted worldwide. Starting in the 1980s, Gallup transitioned its ...

showed that Garner was the favorite among Democratic voters, based on the assumption that Roosevelt would defer to the longstanding two-term tradition and not run for a third term. ''

Time Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, ...

'' characterized him on April 15, 1940: Some other Democrats did not find him appealing. In congressional testimony, union leader

John L. Lewis John Llewellyn Lewis (February 12, 1880 – June 11, 1969) was an American leader of organized labor who served as president of the United Mine Workers of America (UMW) from 1920 to 1960. A major player in the history of coal mining, he was the d ...

described him using

tetrameter In poetry, a tetrameter is a line of four metrical feet. The particular foot can vary, as follows: * '' Anapestic tetrameter:'' ** "And the ''sheen'' of their ''spears'' was like ''stars'' on the ''sea''" (Lord Byron, "The Destruction of Sennach ...

as "a labor-baiting, poker-playing, whiskey-drinking, evil old man". JohnNanceGarner

Garner declared his candidacy. Roosevelt refused to say whether he would run again. If he did, it was highly unlikely that Garner could win the nomination, but Garner stayed in the race anyway. He opposed some of Roosevelt's New Deal policies, most notably those related to wooing labor, and on principle, opposed presidents serving third terms. However, Garner was also credited with steering a number of important bills through Congress in the crisis atmosphere of Roosevelt's first one hundred days in office and his relationship with the President would not become strained until Roosevelt's second term, when the Vice President's hopes of balancing the budget and paring New Deal programs faded. He was also active in Roosevelt's Cabinet meetings on national policy and legislative strategy, which also resulted in the effective transformation of the previously ceremonial office of the U.S. Vice President. However, the president's "court-packing" plan of 1937 widened the rift with Garner, and the final blow in their relationship came when the president attempted to purge opposition Democratic members of Congress in the 1938 elections. At the Democratic National Convention, Roosevelt engineered a "spontaneous" call for his renomination, and won on the first ballot. Garner received only 61 votes out of 1,093. Roosevelt chose Henry A. Wallace to be his vice-presidential running mate.

Post vice-presidency (1941–1967)

Garner left office on January 20, 1941, ending a 46-year career in public life. He retired to his home in Uvalde for the last 26 years of his life, where he managed his extensive real estate holdings, spent time with his great-grandchildren, and fished. Throughout his retirement, he was consulted by active Democratic politicians and was especially close to Roosevelt's successor,

Harry S. Truman Harry S. Truman (May 8, 1884December 26, 1972) was the 33rd president of the United States, serving from 1945 to 1953. A leader of the Democratic Party, he previously served as the 34th vice president from January to April 1945 under Franklin ...

. On the morning of Garner's 95th birthday, November 22, 1963, President

John F. Kennedy John Fitzgerald Kennedy (May 29, 1917 – November 22, 1963), often referred to by his initials JFK and the nickname Jack, was an American politician who served as the 35th president of the United States from 1961 until his assassination ...

called to wish him a happy birthday. This was several hours before Kennedy's assassination.

Dan Rather Daniel Irvin Rather Jr. (; born October 31, 1931) is an American journalist, commentator, and former national evening news anchor. Rather began his career in Texas, becoming a national name after his reporting saved thousands of lives during Hur ...

states that he visited the Garner ranch that morning to film an interview with Garner, where Miss Texas Wool was in attendance, and that he then flew back to Dallas from Uvalde to deposit the film at then-

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...

affiliate KRLD-TV (now

Fox Foxes are small to medium-sized, omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull, upright, triangular ears, a pointed, slightly upturned snout, and a long bushy tail (or ''brush''). Twelve sp ...

owned-and-operated KDFW-TV).

Personal life and death

Garner and Mariette Rheiner met and began dating after the primary election in 1893. They married in

Sabinal, Texas Sabinal is a city in Uvalde County, Texas, United States. The population was 1,695 at the 2010 census. Geography Sabinal is located at (29.320678, –99.468887). According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 1.2 ...

on November 25, 1895. Mariette Garner served as her husband's secretary throughout his congressional career, and

Second Lady of the United States The second gentleman or second lady of the United States (SGOTUS or SLOTUS respectively) is the informal title held by the spouse of the vice president of the United States, concurrent with the vice president's term of office. Coined in contrast ...

during her husband's tenure as vice president. Their son, Tully Charles Garner (1896–1968), became a banker and businessman. Garner died on November 7, 1967, at the age of 98, 15 days before his 99th birthday. Garner is the longest-lived Vice President of the United States.

Legacy

Garner State Park, located north of Uvalde, bears his name, as does Garner Field just east of Uvalde. The women's dormitory at

Southwest Texas Junior College Southwest Texas Junior College (SWTJC) is a Public college, public community college with four campuses serving 11 counties in southwest Texas: unincorporated area, unincorporated Uvalde County, Texas, Uvalde County (next to Uvalde, Texas, Uvalde ...

in Uvalde bears his wife's name. John Garner Middle School, located in

San Antonio ("Cradle of Freedom") , image_map = , mapsize = 220px , map_caption = Interactive map of San Antonio , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = United States , subdivision_type1= State , subdivision_name1 = Texas , subdivision_t ...

North East Independent School District The North East Independent School District (commonly NEISD or North East ISD) is a school district located in San Antonio, Texas, United States. North East ISD serves the north central and northeast areas of Bexar County, covering approximately . ...

, is also named after him. Garner and

, vice president under

Ulysses S. Grant Ulysses S. Grant (born Hiram Ulysses Grant ; April 27, 1822July 23, 1885) was an American military officer and politician who served as the 18th president of the United States from 1869 to 1877. As Commanding General, he led the Union Ar ...

, are the only two vice presidents to have been Speaker of the House of Representatives prior to becoming vice president. As the vice president is also the President of the Senate, Garner and Colfax are the only people to have served as the presiding officer of both houses of Congress.

Footnotes

External links

*
Let's get goin'!, Bill Sykes Editorial Cartoon
depicting Garner's 1940 presidential candidacy, December 19, 1939
Conspicuous among the casualties, Bill Sykes Editorial Cartoon
depicting Vandenberg and Garner in 1940 presidential primaries, April 4, 1940 , - , - , - , - , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Garner, John Nance 1868 births 1967 deaths 20th-century vice presidents of the United States 1932 United States vice-presidential candidates 1936 United States vice-presidential candidates Methodists from Texas Burials in Texas Candidates in the 1932 United States presidential election Candidates in the 1940 United States presidential election County judges in Texas Democratic Party (United States) vice presidential nominees Democratic Party vice presidents of the United States Democratic Party members of the United States House of Representatives from Texas Democratic Party members of the Texas House of Representatives Minority leaders of the United States House of Representatives Old Right (United States) People from Red River County, Texas People from Uvalde, Texas Speakers of the United States House of Representatives Texas lawyers Vice presidents of the United States