Democratic Vice Presidential Nomination of 1944 - Anti-Wallace Movement

Anti-Wallace Movement

A powerful group of party leaders tried to persuade Roosevelt to not keep Wallace as Vice President. Ferrell calls this process "a veritable conspiracy." The group consisted of Edwin W. Pauley, treasurer of the Democratic National Committee (DNC), Robert E. Hannegan, Democratic national chairman, Frank C. Walker, Postmaster General, George E. Allen, the Democratic party secretary, and Edward J. Flynn, political boss of New York. They considered several people to replace Wallace. Among the possible candidates were James F. Byrnes, Roosevelt's "assisting president," who initially was the prominent alternative, Associate Justice William O. Douglas, U.S. Senators Alben W. Barkley and Harry S. Truman as well as the Industrialist Henry J. Kaiser and Speaker of the House Sam Rayburn. Finally the group decided on Truman, but this decision was secondary to the goal of not nominating Wallace. By late spring 1944, the group had succeeded in turning Roosevelt against Wallace, but the president did not tell Wallace directly and still refused to endorse anybody other than him. In May the president sent Wallace on a trip to China and Russia, probably with the intention to get him out of the country at an inconvenient time and to obstruct his campaign.

Roosevelt preferred Byrnes as the best alternative and decided to push him as the party's nominee for US Vice-President if the party delegates refused to renominate Wallace at the 1944 Democratic National Convention. On July 11, the leaders met with Roosevelt in the White House. They recommended Truman. The names of Sam Rayburn, Alben Barkley, James F. Byrnes, and John G. Winant were also raised, but they were dismissed − Byrnes because of his unpopularity among blacks and in the labor movement. Roosevelt hardly knew Truman, but he knew of the senator's leadership of the Truman Committee, and that he was a loyal supporter of the New Deal. Roosevelt suggested William O. Douglas but party officials countered by suggesting Truman.

After much debate, the president said, "Bob, I think you and everyone else here want Truman." There are, however, other accounts of Roosevelt's exact statement. Pauley, for example, claimed that he said, "If that's the case, it's Truman." Just before the meeting ended, Roosevelt instructed Hannegan and Walker to notify Wallace and Byrnes, respectively, that they were out. After the group left the meeting, Hannegan asked Roosevelt to put his decision down in writing. Roosevelt wrote a note on a piece of scratch paper and gave it to Hannegan.

The next day Hannegan and Walker thus tried to convince Wallace and Byrnes to withdraw, but they refused unless the president himself asked them. Roosevelt did not want to disappoint any candidate. He told Wallace, "I hope it will be the same old team." But Wallace nevertheless understood the president's real intentions, and he wrote in his diary, "He wanted to ditch me as noiselessly as possible." Roosevelt also promised to write a letter, saying that if he, Roosevelt, were a delegate to the convention he would vote for Wallace. To Byrnes Roosevelt said, "You are the best qualified man in the whole outfit and you must not get out of the race. If you stay in the race you are certain to win." He also explained to Byrnes that he was having trouble with Wallace, who refused to withdraw unless the president told him so, and that he would write Wallace a lukewarm letter.