Byrd's ardent loyalty to the Democratic Party
Byrd and Herbert Hoover shared similar political ideologies; however, Byrd's loyalty to the Democratic Party disallowed him to endorse Hoover for president in 1928. Instead, Byrd campaigned vigorously for Al Smith, demonstrating his intense party loyalty.
Citing this Excerpt
Oral History Interview with Virginius Dabney, June 10-13, 1975. Interview A-0311-1. Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007) in the Southern Oral History Program Collection, Southern Historical Collection, Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Full Text of the Excerpt
- DANIEL JORDAN:
-
Before we leave the governorship, I would like to make one reference to
the Presidential election of 1928. We know, of course, that Cannon
supported Hoover, the Republican candidate, and Byrd supported the
Democratic nominee, Al Smith. My question is, did Byrd as governor, and
at the very height of his prestige in a sense, go all out for Al
Smith?
- VIRGINIUS DABNEY:
-
He did indeed. He went all out for Al Smith, he did his level best. He
went over to the Valley where there were a lot of Dunkards and
Mennonites, both of whom have deep anti-Catholic feelings because of
events centuries ago in Europe. He went over there and made a very
personal appeal and asked them to please vote for Smith as a personal
favor to him. He made speeches all around and did everything that he
could. He knew that if he lost, it would be a bad blow to him and he
would maybe lose control of the state. When it went by 24,000 for
Hoover, he was down in the dumps for quite awhile. He didn't know what
was going to happen. He finally solved the problem by getting a good dry
Baptist to run that Cannon couldn't assail effectively, John Garland
Pollard.
- DANIEL JORDAN:
-
Before we move into that election, it seems to me that it's very ironic
in a way that Byrd went all out to defeat Hoover, because Hoover in many
respects, it seems to me, is like Byrd. They probably shared
ideologically a lot of positions. And yet, he probably worked as hard
against Hoover as he did against any
Presidential candidate. At a later time, he went in the opposite
direction and, in effect, bolted to the Republican presidential
nominee.
- VIRGINIUS DABNEY:
-
That's right. He seemed to feel very strongly obligated to support the
party nominee, but later on, as you say, he certainly did not.
- DANIEL JORDAN:
-
Do you think that that experience in '28 colored his views on his
participation in Presidential elections? Did he get burned and learn
something from it and sort of rethink that notion of commitment to
national parties?
- VIRGINIUS DABNEY:
-
He certainly could have. He never told me that and I've never read that
he said that, but I think that it is undoubtedly possible.
