America's Greatest 20th Century Presidents by Charles River Charles River Editors Read Free Book Online Page B

early supporter of Woodrow Wilson for President, a man strongly opposed by Irish Catholics across the country.  Wilson won the nomination, the Presidency, and later became the first Democratic President to be reelected since the Civil War.
     

     
    President Woodrow Wilson
     
    Assistant Secretary of the Navy
     
    FDR’s political rise didn’t go unnoticed. Wilson appreciated Roosevelt's early support, and in 1913 Roosevelt left the State Senate to serve as Wilson's Assistant Secretary of the Navy.  At the time, the position seemed a relatively minor one, but the breakout of World War I increased its importance, and one of Roosevelt's most important accomplishments as Assistant Secretary was the creation of the Navy Reserve.
     

     
    Assistant Secretary of the Navy Roosevelt
     
    Nevertheless, after just a year serving as Assistant Secretary, Roosevelt hoped to take on Tammany Hall again, running against the Tammany-backed candidate for a U.S. Senate seat in New York.  Wilson opposed this decision, having realized that Irish Catholics and union members would be crucial to his reelection in 1916.  Wilson understood that his election in 1912 was largely due to Theodore Roosevelt's Bull Moose third party run, which had divided the Republican vote.  The President did not want one of his cabinet secretaries giving New Yorkers the impression that he, too, wanted to topple Tammany influence.
     
    Roosevelt lost the Senate nomination in 1914.  Wilson was pleased, and Roosevelt learned a lesson.  From then on, he toned down his opposition to Tammany Hall. Thankfully for FDR, his relationship with Wilson was not significantly strained by his failed Senate run.  Roosevelt remained the Assistant Secretary of the Navy until almost the end of Wilson's second term.  By 1917, FDR could see the writing on the wall with Germany’s unrestricted submarine warfare in the Atlantic, and he wanted to prepare the U.S. Navy for battle. However, Wilson was still not ready for a potential American commitment to war, shooting down FDR’s suggestion. Once America entered the war, it had to scramble to mobilize. It was a lesson that served FDR well 20 years later.
     
    Vice Presidential Candidate
     
    After World War I, Wilson faced stiff resistance to his post-war policies back at home, and he suffered a stroke in the middle of his second term while trying to rally support for initiatives like the League of Nations. With Wilson debilitated, Roosevelt resigned from the Navy in 1920 to run for Vice President on the Democratic ticket under Governor James Cox of Ohio.  At 38 years old, Roosevelt was one of the youngest people to ever run for Vice President, but he brought plenty of political experience, as well as foreign policy accolades (like his support for the League of Nations) to the Democratic ticket, something Cox only mildly supported.  Like his previous political career, these positions again put Roosevelt in confrontation with Irish Catholics, who opposed the League of Nations because it did not admit the then-rebelling Republic of Ireland.  The country was recognized as part of Great Britain.
     
    Cox and Roosevelt lost the election of 1920 to Warren G. Harding.  It was probably a blessing in disguise for Roosevelt for several reasons. As it would turn out, he’d have to battle illness during the decade, and the Republican policies under Harding, Coolidge and Hoover contributed to the events that led to Roosevelt's eventual election as President.
     
    Polio
     
    After losing the Vice Presidency, Roosevelt's political career was hardly shattered.  The loss was not blamed on FDR, and he gained popularity within the Democratic Party. Another event, however, put Roosevelt's future in doubt.  In 1921, while at his family's summer home in Campobello Island in Canada, Roosevelt contracted an illness that was diagnosed as polio.  While there is still some question as to exactly what the illness was, Roosevelt was paralyzed from the