Zach Harkenrider
The American Mind (History 268)
April, 2000
Thomas E. Dewey: Consensus Liberal
An Introduction to his Address Accepting the Nomination for President, Delivered at the Republican National Convention in Convention Hall Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on June 24, 1948.
Governor Thomas E. Dewey (1902-1971) is best remembered for his greatest failures - his defeats in the presidential races of 1944 and 1948. Dewey's failure to attain the highest office was, however, counterbalanced by numerous successes within the context of New York state government and politics. Moreover, Dewey's political life was representative of the sort of consensus liberalism and governmental professionalism which prevailed in American national politics from the 1930s to the 1960s. Therefore, Thomas Dewey's career as a public servant - along with his 1948 acceptance speech given to the Republican National Convention and reprinted here - is something more than an historical footnote - it is a representative case in mid-century political history.
Thomas Dewey was born on March 24th 1902 in Owosso, Michigan; the son of a politically inclined newspaper editor.1 Dewey graduated from the University of Michigan in 1923, and Columbia University Law school in 1925. He commenced practice with the New York firm of Larkin, Rathbone and Perry in that year.2 Dewey's career of public service commenced shortly thereafter with his appointment to the first of a series of prosecutorial positions which would serve as the basis for his subsequent political career.
Dewey served as Chief Assistant United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York (1931-1933) and as United States Attorney for the Southern District by special appointment in 1933. In 1935, Dewey was named Special Prosecutor and charged with the task of investigating and prosecuting organized crime, and corruption in labor unions and politics. After a hugely successful tenure in this position - which resulted in the successful prosecutions of such criminals as Charles "Lucky" Luciano, "Dutch Schultz," and numerous other corrupt labor and political officials - Dewey was tapped by a coalition of progressive, reform-oriented parties to run for New York County District Attorney.3 This coalition - formed of the Republican, American Labor, Fusion, City Fusion, and Progressive parties - was a classic example of the sort of middle class, progressive, good government coalitions which had elevated other politicians (such as Fiorello LaGuardia) to positions of prominence in urban politics. Therefore, from the very start, Dewey received the support of liberal groups dedicated to progressive reform and professional government.
In 1938, Dewey mounted his first campaign for governor of New York. While Dewey lost to incumbent Democrat Herbert Lehman by a margin of 64,394 votes,4 the Republicans gained control of both houses of the state legislature, and Dewey gained a modicum of national prominence. In his next attempt, in 1942, Dewey was elected governor by a margin of 647,507.5 Although he had pledged to serve out his entire term, Dewey accepted the Republican nomination for president in 1944.6
Dewey waged a campaign which was a model of consensus liberalism. Endorsing most of the New Deal's social legislation, and supporting Roosevelt's foreign policy - including participation in post-war international organizations - Dewey centered his criticisms almost entirely on the management of the New Deal and of the wartime economy.7 Rather than mounting a fundamental critique of New Deal liberalism, Dewey played firmly within the confines of the game - as delineated by Roosevelt and other New Deal liberals. Indeed, Dewey's acceptance of consensus liberalism in the '44 campaign was mirrored by his contributions to it during the course of his governorship.
Dewey's governorship, which spanned three four-year terms (1943-1955), was an exercise in consensus liberalism. Dewey's administration doubled state aid to education, built the Thruway, raised salaries for state employees, enacted rent-control laws, and passed the first state law in the nation to ban racial discrimination in employment.8 The governor's consensus liberalism was endorsed by New York voters, who returned him to office in 1946 by the largest margin in the state's history.9 Moreover, Dewey coupled a domestic policy of consensus liberalism with a foreign policy scarcely different from that of his Democratic opponents. While Dewey criticized Democratic foreign policy in the 1948 campaign, the criticisms were almost always rhetorical slaps at supposed Communist influence, rather than deep ideological criticisms of the policy. Indeed, Dewey and Truman agreed on the importance of a strong national defense, and the correctness of the Truman Doctrine, the Marshall Plan, the Berlin Airlift, and the recognition of Israel.10
This convergence on issues, both domestic and foreign, was one of the most striking features of the 1948 campaign. When contrasted with the radical alternatives presented by Henry Wallace's Progressive Party on the left, and Strom Thurmond's "Dixicrat" coalition on the right, the commonality between Dewey and Truman is brought into even starker relief Dewey's defeat,* therefore, hardly represented a rejection of one predominant "paradigm" in favor of another-as may have been the case is such presidential elections as 1920, 1932, 1968, and 1980 - rather, it signaled the voters' preference for one administrator of liberal government over another.
The degree to which the Dewey-Truman campaign of 1948 revolved around issues of management rather than issues of ideology can be seen in the content of the campaign, and in the content of the re-printed speech below. Dewey's image was always one of the capable, efficient, professional manager, who would ensure the proper functioning of the liberal state, just as he insured the proper functioning of every facet of his campaign train, the "Victory Special."11 It should come as no surprise, therefore, that democratic realist Walter Lippman supported Dewey.
The re-printed speech below tells us a good deal about Dewey and his 1948 campaign. Long on platitudes, short on specifics, it is the optimistic if vacuous speech of the front runner. Dewey's reluctance to criticize (or even name) Truman during the course of his campaign, his reluctance to address issues such as farm aid, foreign policy, and labor policy hurt him greatly in the November election. Many observers have argued that Dewey's reluctance to attack Truman or to engage the issues directly was attributable to a front-runner's sense of caution - a "why rock the boat" attitude. Indeed, this sort of thinking was prevalent among Dewey's inner circle, and was favored by the candidate himself.12 However, there is another possibility - one which is lent credulity by Dewey's own adherence to the tenets of consensus liberalism - that Dewey disagreed with Truman over so little substantive policy, that the election, for Dewey, resolved itself into nothing more than a search for the more competent and professional manager. Ergo, Dewey's emphasis on his high-minded, public spirited, conscientious, and efficient nature.13 Dewey's '48 campaign, like his political life, was an exercise in consensus liberalism and pragmatic, managerial government.
Chances are, Dewey's speaking style did not help him either. I have endeavored to preserve as much of that style as possible, including the cues [Smile, Down, Intimate], and the multiple underlinings and scribblings which are apparent on the original text. I have added the underlines in ink, to more accurately convey Dewey's particular emphasis or intent. Some of the less obvious figures to whom Dewey refers in the course of his speech are identified in the footnotes, where some additional election statistics are also given.
1David McCullough. Truman. New York: Simon and Schuster, (1992): 670.
2The New York Red Book Albany: Williams Press, (1943): 12.
3 The New York Red Book Albany: Williams Press, (1943): 13.
4 The New York Red Book. Albany: Williams Press, (1939): 434. * Lehman: 2,391,286; Dewey: 2,326,892
5The New York Red Book. Albany: Williams Press, (1943): 519. * Dewey: 2,148,546; Bennet: 1,501,03 9.
6 Paul F. Boller, Presidential Campaigns. New York: Oxford University Press, (1985): 259.
7 Paul F. Boller 261.
8David McCullough. 671.
9The New York Red Book. Albany: Williams Press, (1947):14,597. *Dewey: 2,825,633; Mead: 1,523,16 1. Dewey's majority was 687,151.
10 David McCullough. 672.
11 David McCullough, 669-70.
* Electoral Votes, 1948: Truman-303, Dewey-1 89, Thurmond-39; Popular vote: Truman: 24,105,695; Dewey: 21,969,170; Thurmond: 1, 169,02 1; Wallace: 1, 156,103. Source: The New York Red Book. Albany: Williams Press. (1949): 699-700.
12 David McCullough. 712-713. Paul F. Boller. 271-2.
13 Paul F. Boller 271.
Transcription of the Address Accepting the Nomination for President, Delivered at the Republican National Convention in Convention Hall, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on June 24, 1948.
[The original is held in the Manuscript Collection of the University of Rochester Rare Books and Special Collections Department. Due to the length of the speech, only the first two pages have been scanned.]
  Listen to Dewey delivering his acceptance speech
Thomas E. Dewey delivering acceptance speech at 1948 Republican Convention. Speaker Joe Martin, Chairman of the Convention, is at left. Beside him is Mrs. Dewey. Mrs Dudley Hay, Secretary of the Convention, is on the other side of Mrs. Dewey.
The Text
You, the elected representatives of our Republican Party have again given to me the highest honor you can bestow - your nomination for President of the United States.
[Smile] I thank you with all my heart for your friendship and confidence. I am profoundly sensible of the responsibility that goes with it. [In all humility I accept the nomination].* I pray God that I may deserve this opportunity to serve our country. I come to you unfettered by a single obligation or promise to any living person, free to join with you in selecting to serve our nation the finest men and women in the nation, freeto unite our party and our country in meeting the grave challenge of our time.
United we can match this challenge with depth of understanding and largness [sic] of spirit; with a unity which is above recrimination, above partisanship, above self-interest. These are articles of faith from which the greatness of America has been fashioned. Our people are eager to know again the upsurging [sic] power of that faith. They are turning to us to put such a faith at the heart of our national life. That is what we are called to do. That is what we will do.
[Down] In this historic convention you have had placed [in nomination] before you six other candidates, all high-minded men of character and ability and deeply devoted to their country - Senator Raymond E. Baldwin, General Douglas MacArthur, Governor Harold E. Stassen, Senator Robert A. Taft, Senator Arthur Vandenberg, and Governor Earl [W.] Warren.* [I am deeply moved and grateful for the generous and gracious statements they have made here tonight]. It has been a difficult choice in an honorable contest. It has been a stirring demonstration of the life and vitality and ideals of our Republican Party.
There has been honest contention, spirited disagreement, [and] hot argument. But let no onebe misled. You [are given a] moving and dramatic proof of how Americans, who honestly differ, close ranks and move forward, for the nation's well being, shoulder to shoulder. [Beginning next Jan. 20 there will be team work in the government of the United States].
[Down] The responsibility and the opportunity that have come to our Party are the greatest in the history of free government. For tonight our future - our peace, our prosperity, the very fate of freedom - hangs in a precarious balance.
[Down Intimate] Mere victory in an election is not our task or our purpose. Our task is to fill our victory with such meaning that mankind everywhere, yearning for freedom, will take heart and move forward out of this desperate darkness into the light of freedom's promise.
Our platform proclaims the guideposts that will mark our steadfast and certain endeavor in a fearful world. This magnificent statement of principles is concise and to the point.
You unanimously adopted it. I proudly support it. It will be the heart of the message I will take to the country. After January 20th, it will be the cornerstone of our Republican administration.
We are a united Party. Our nation stands tragically in need of that same unity.
Our people are turning away from the meaner things that divide us. They yearn to move to higher ground, to find a common purpose in the finer things which unite us. We must be the instrument of that aspiration. [Down] We must be the means by which America's full powers are released and this uncertainfuturefilled again, with opportunity. That is our pledge. That will be the fruit of our victory.
If this unity is to be won and kept, it must have great dimensions. Its boundaries must be far above and beyond politics. Freedom can be saved - it can only be saved - if free men everywhere make this unity their common cause.
Unity in such a cause must be the chief cornerstone of peace. A peace won at the expense of liberty is a peace too dearly bought. Such a peace would not endure. Above all other purposes, we must labor by every peaceful means to build a world order founded upon justice and rightousness [sic]. That kind of world will have peace. That kind of peace will be worthhaving. [Down] That is the crowning responsibility that our people have laid upon us. That is the crowning task to which we [here] dedicate ourselves.
The unity we seek is more than material. It is more than a matter of things and measures. It is most of all spiritual.
Our problem is not outside ourselves. Our problem is within ourselves. We have found the means to blow our world, physically, apart. [W]e have yet to find the [spiritual] means to put together the world's broken pieces, to bind up its wounds, to make a good society, a community of men of good will that fits our dreams.* We have devised noble plans for a new world. Without a new spirit, our noblest plans will come to [nothing].* We pray that, in the days ahead, a full measure of that spirit may be ours.
[Down] The next Presidential term will see the completion of the first half of the twentieth century. So far it has been a century of amazing progress and of terrible tragedy. We have seen the world transformed. We have seen mankind's age long struggle against nature crowned by extraordinary success.
Yet our triumphs have been darkened by bitter defeats in the equally ancient struggle of men to live together in peace, security and understanding.
This age of progress, this twentieth century, has been dominated by two terrible world wars and, between the wars, the worst economic depression in the history of mankind.
We must learn to do better. The period that is drawing to a close has been one of scientific achievement. The era that is opening before us must be a period of human and spiritual achievement.
[Down] We propose to continue to carry forward the great technological gains of our age. We shall harness the unimaginable possibilities of atomic energy, to bring men and women a larger, fuller life. [Down] But there is something more important than all this. With all the energy, intelligence and determination which mortal heart and mind can [bring]* to the task, we must solve the problem of establishing a just and lasting peace in the world, and of securing to our own and other like-minded people the blessing of freedom and opportunity.
[Down, Serious] To me, to be a Republican in this hour is to dedicate one's life to the freedom of men. As long as the world is half free and half slave, we must peacefully labor to help men everywhere to achieve liberty.
We have declared our goal to be a strong and free America in a free world of free men - free to speak their own minds, to develop new ideas, to publish what they believe, free to move from place to place, to choose [their] occupations, to [enjoy] the fruits of their labor, free to worship God, each according to his own concept of His Grace and His Mercy.*
When these rights are secure in the world, the permanent ideals of the Republican Party shall have been realized.
The ideals of the American people are the ideals of the Republican Party. We have lighted a beacon here in Philadelphia in this cradle of our own independence. We have lighted a beacon to give eternal hope that men may live in liberty with human dignity and before God and loving Him, [#?] stand erect and free.
* Modified from original: "I accept your nomination. In all humility I pray..."
*Raymond Baldwin (1893-1986) served as governor of Connecticut from 1939-1941, and from 1943
1946. Baldwin also served as a U.S. Senator from Connecticut from 1946-1949. Harold E. Stassen (1907
served as governor of Minnesota (1939-1943), President of the University of Pennsylvania (1948-1953)
and as a disarmament advisor to the Eisenhower administration. Stassen was an unsuccessful candidate for
the Republican Presidential nomination in 1948, 1952, 1964, 1968, 1972, 1976, and 1980. After 1980,
reality seems to have kicked in. Robert Taft (1889-1953) served as a U.S. Senator from Ohio from 1939
1953. An unsuccessful candidate for the Republican Presidential nomination in 1944, 1948, and 1952, Taft
served as Senate Majority Lƒeader in 1953. Arthur Vandenberg (1884-1951) served as a U.S. Senator from
Michigan (1928-1951) and as Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee (1947-1949).
Vandenberg was instrumental in securing the passage of several of Truman's foreign policy programs. Earl
Warren (1891-1974) served as Governor of California (1943-1953) and as Chief Justice of the United
States (1953-1969). Warren enjoyed a well deserved reputation as a liberal Republican and Judicial
activist. He would run for the Vice Presidency on Dewey's ticket in 1948. Partial Source: "Biographical
Directory of the United States Congress." http://bioguide.congress.gov/biosearch/biosearch.asp (21 Apr.
2000).
*Modified from original: "Spiritually, we have yet to find the means to put..." Modified from original: "nought." [sic]
*Modified from original: "summon."
*Modified from original: "...to choose their occupations, to [choose and use] the fruits of their labor..."ƒƒ
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