Political Activities
From early in his life Peabody was interested in Democratic Party politics. In the early 1880s, he helped his close friend Edward Morse Shepard organize the Young Men's Democratic Club of Brooklyn, took a part in the 1892 presidential campaign on behalf of Grover Cleveland, supported the Gold Democrats against William Jennings Bryan in 1896, then switched to more moderate monetary reform as a member of the executive committee of the Indianapolis Monetary Convention in 1897. In 1904 and 1905 he served as treasurer of the Democratic National Committee. Although he declined to run for political office, and declined President Wilson's offer of a place on the Federal Trade Commission, Peabody was an unofficial counselor to many government officials. From 1914to 1921 he served on the board of directors of the Federal Reserve Bank in New York. In June 1932 Franklin Delano Roosevelt,then Governor of New York,visited Peabody for advice and support in deciding to run for President of the United States.
Read more about this topic: George Foster Peabody
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“They had their fortunes to make, everything to gain and nothing to lose. They were schooled in and anxious for debates; forcible in argument; reckless and brilliant. For them it was but a short and natural step from swaying juries in courtroom battles over the ownership of land to swaying constituents in contests for office. For the lawyer, oratory was the escalator that could lift a political candidate to higher ground.”
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