Candidate Hoover’s calendar shows that Bill Donovan was present at most of the important campaign meetings. He was not only the principal strategist for the Hoover campaign, but he also undertook to keep the candidate healthy. He persuaded Hoover to get out of bed every morning at 7:00 A.M. to perform exercises under the direction of John P. Macklen of the Buffalo Tennis and Squash Club. Macklen, who was Donovan’s own trainer, saw to it that Hoover got in his exercise at home in Palo Alto, in hotels, and aboard campaign trains. “Mr. Hoover was never a minute late,” reported Macklen. “At first we had light exercises, but later they became more rigorous calisthenics, a full hour a day followed by a bath or a swim if possible.”
Donovan worked for Hoover’s victory with night-and-day enthusiasm. Hoover won in a landslide, and he telegraphed Donovan to come and see him in Palo Alto. Newspapers predicted that the Presidentelect would name his old friend and campaign strategist attorney general. Perhaps instead, some newspapers suggested, Hoover would make Donovan secretary of war because of his heroic military record. Hoover’s wire reached Donovan at the Blackstone Hotel in Chicago, and he left that afternoon by airplane for California. Not many people were flying in November 1928, and the flight captured the public imagination.
Donovan spent November 13 at Hoover’s home. Mabel Willebrandt had come from her Los Angeles home also to be with Hoover that day. The President-elect asked her to write a report on several people who were under consideration for attorney general. Donovan was one of them.
At Hoover’s request, Donovan drew up a memorandum about various possible appointments to the cabinet, together with how the press and the Congress might react to them. Hoover took the memo with him on a good-will trip to South America that had been scheduled for him. When Donovan returned east, he had every reason to believe Hoover would appoint him attorney general.
The President-elect would not take office until March 4, 1929. This left several months for speculation as to who would serve in his cabinet. Political pundits agreed that Bill Donovan would be among those picked. “You have to appreciate who this man is,” wrote one journalist. “He is a war hero who has won all the medals, good looking, colorful, dashing, magnetic. He has everything.”
This is not how Donovan looked to the Ku Klux Klan and extremist Protestant clergymen, who opposed him because he was a Catholic, or to the Anti-Saloon League, which opposed him because he lacked enthusiasm for the Volstead Act. Donovan, who had enforced the act with uncompromising diligence in western New York, believed that the “noble experiment” had failed and should be brought to an end.
Herbert Hoover, back from South America, set up his headquarters in Washington’s Mayflower Hotel in early January. A steady stream of office-seekers came to visit him. Donovan had his advocates, but they were far outnumbered by his foes. Bishop James Cannon, Jr., who had led militant antiwet and anti-Catholic forces in Virginia to help break the old Democratic Solid South for Hoover, vehemently attacked Donovan. The pastor of the church where George Washington was baptized spoke out against the Romanist Donovan, and Otto V. Myers of the United Guards of America, “A Pure Protestant Organization for Men and Women,” objected to him as well.
“Most people of intelligence were much disgusted with the religious bitterness of the last campaign,” wrote Frank R. Kent of the Baltimore Sun. “It was pretty generally hoped when the election was over that never again would a man’s faith figure in the politics of the country. That is why the present drive of the Klan to prevent Colonel William J. Donovan from being named Attorney General is particularly sickening.”
James L. Wright, a newspaperman who was close to both Donovan and Hoover, talked with Donovan on January 9. “I will never be in the cabinet,” Donovan said. “I could not go in there without giving up my independence, and I will not give that up for any man or place. I am afraid Hoover is going to be another Taft. I have no doubt that the drive of the Ku Klux and others against me and their insistence upon a Protestant dry are having their influence. It looks as though he would be afraid to appoint a Catholic and a wet.”
Two days later Wright wrote another letter in “great confidence” to his editor, Alfred Kirchhofer of the Buffalo News, concerning Hoover’s position on Donovan. “After saying that when he [Hoover] was away some of Bill’s foolish friends started a boom for him that resulted in all his potential as well as active enemies shooting at him, he said that Bill had become a sort of ‘religious symbol,’ that the Catholics took it for granted that they were to have the office of Attorney General, and that the ‘dry’ Catholics then insisted that a member of their church who is really dry be appointed to the place. This, so the Chief said, raised the religious issue in a way that will hurt Donovan as well as himself.”
On January 12, Kirchhofer wrote to Hoover urging that Donovan be made attorney general. “He has given proof of his fidelity to the dry law by his personal conduct and official discharge of his duties in Buffalo and Washington. For his work here he still is being penalized by some who believe that money and influence outweigh the law, but he enforced it and if we had more men like him there would be greater respect for law. He would bring to the work vigor, intelligence, ability to get results and determination—qualities, among others, which are needed. Of his loyalty to the Constitution and law I know there can be no doubt.”
Kirchhofer argued that to appoint Donovan would vindicate the principles of religious tolerance. He summed up, “If he [Donovan] doesn’t become Attorney General, he certainly has nothing to lose, but I do feel that your administration would suffer the loss of a man who had a grip on the imagination of the country; whose courage and fidelity to public duty are accepted as a criterion; who has the ability and determination to carry out any duty imposed upon him, and who would be a constant friend and ally of his chief.”
Other politicians opposed Donovan to seek revenge. Senator Burton K. Wheeler was still smarting from the charges brought against him in 1925, and his friends senators Tom Walsh and William Borah told Hoover that they would lead an attack on Donovan’s nomination in the Senate. Borah informed Hoover that he had made a close personal study of the Senate and felt confident that Donovan’s nomination would be disapproved. On the other hand, said Borah, there would be little opposition to Donovan as secretary of war.
As Hoover agonized over his decision concerning Bill Donovan, a crowd of reporters clustered about the entrance to his house at 2300 S Street. One afternoon Hoover sent for James Williams, a trusted confidant. Williams shoved a newspaper into his overcoat pocket and turned up his collar in an effort to resemble a reporter, so that he could get by the press without undergoing questions. F. Trubee Davison, the assistant secretary of war for air, had also been called in. As they waited, Davison asked, “What do you suppose he’s sent for you about?”
“Well,” said Williams, “he’s probably sent for me to discuss Colonel Donovan. He’s not going to give Donovan the attorney general’s portfolio. He’s probably going to offer him some other job and try to talk me into saying that’s really more important than the attorney generalship.”
Williams went in to see Hoover, and Hoover asked, “You’ve been to the Philippines?”
“Yes.”
“You know that that job of governor general is in some respects more important than any cabinet job. I want to know what you think of Colonel Donovan for that job.”
“Of course, I thought you were going to make him attorney general,” said Williams.
Hoover said he had not decided. He had considered Donovan for that cabinet post, but this might be “more important.”
The next day Williams got a telephone call from Donovan. “Mr. Hoover tells me that you are in favor of my going to the Philippines,” said Donovan, “and wants me to talk with you. I think we’d better take an automobile ride, don’t you?”
“Yes, that’s the best way,” agreed Williams.
Donovan and Williams did not want to be watched. “So he picked me up with his chauffeur a
t the Anchorage,” said Williams.
We went out to the end of Massachusetts Avenue. He told the chauffeur that he’d call him when he needed him. The chauffeur walked out of hearing and lit a cigarette, while I spelled out to Colonel Donovan exactly what happened, repeating the conversation.
I knew that Donovan wasn’t going to accept the Governor Generalship of the Philippines after I had talked to him. Shortly after he declined it, he left for New Mexico. Of course, it had got out in the papers then that he was not going to be Attorney General. Trubee Davison and I went to the station to see him off.
Six months later, Donovan told me—he had a law office in Washington—that Trubee and I and the others who went to the station to see him off were duly reported to the President by a secret service man, or some other spotter.
Nor had the auto ride out Massachusetts Avenue gone unobserved. A second car had followed them, and the driver later told Donovan about it. Donovan checked with his chauffeur, who said, “Yes, there was an empty car. I remember it now. It was down below. I thought they had punctured a tire or something.”
“That was the kind of clandestine atmosphere in which the administration started,” said Williams. “Donovan was very bitter about it.”
About this time Frank Knox, another Donovan friend, went to see Hoover. “Knox told me a revealing story about Hoover,” noted Harold L. Ickes in his Secret Diary.
William J. Donovan of Buffalo was devoted to Hoover and had actively supported him in 1928. He was the most prominent Catholic who did support Hoover and perhaps the only outstanding Catholic who opposed Al Smith. Hoover had promised to make him Attorney General. Then, after the election, Donovan told Knox that Hoover was apparently not going through with his promise. Knox, as general manager of the Hearst papers, had kept Hearst, with a great deal of effort, in line for Hoover, despite the fact that Hearst hated Hoover personally. So Knox went to Hoover, who received him graciously and expressed deep gratitude for the support that Knox had given him. Knox told Hoover that he had nothing to ask for himself, but he did want to know whether reports he heard in New York that Donovan was not to be appointed Attorney General were true. He couldn’t believe that such a dastardly thing could be in the mind of the President-elect. He took Hoover right down the line, to Hoover’s great embarrassment. Hoover said that considerable pressure had been brought to bear against the proposed appointment, and with a final expression of contempt Knox left.
When Hoover told Donovan that he was not to be attorney general, he said he could instead be secretary of war, and the nation’s press on February 26 reported that Donovan was to be secretary of war. Then Hoover changed his mind again and decided to offer Donovan the post of governor general of the Philippines. Donovan was angry when he went to see Hoover to tell him that he was unwilling to go out to the Pacific.
“Well, you will stay in public life, won’t you?” asked Hoover.
“Yesterday you offered me the secretary of war if I did not want to go to the islands,” replied Donovan.
“We will have to talk about that at length,” said Hoover.
“No, it does not take me long to make up my mind,” said Donovan. “If you meant that offer when you made it, I accept. If you didn’t mean it, it is your privilege to withdraw it.”
“Well, I don’t want you to leave public life,” Hoover replied.
“Mr. Hoover, the man who has kept me in public life for the past two years is yourself. You know the place that I am willing to accept if you want me to remain. I shall be at my home if you want to reach me today.”
That afternoon at six o’clock, Donovan phoned Calvin Coolidge’s private secretary. Coolidge was supporting Donovan for a cabinet post. Since there was little love lost between Coolidge and Hoover, this was not of much benefit. Donovan read the secretary a note he had just sent to Hoover. “Associate Justice Stone and Mr. Mark Sullivan have told me of the troubles you find yourself in with reference to the Secretaryship of War. Please let my name give you no further concern. I am planning to leave tonight for Santa Fe.” (Donovan was chairman of the Rio Grande River Commission, which met in Sante Fe to allocate Rio Grande River rights.) Hoover phoned that evening as soon as he received the note and asked Donovan not to leave Washington but to come see him in the morning.
There was nothing much to be said when the two men met at Hoover’s S Street house early the next day. Hoover stood in the doorway to tell Donovan good-bye, his hands in his pockets. Reporters waiting for Donovan to come out fired questions at him. “Did he ask you to become attorney general?”
“No.”
“Did he ask you to be secretary of war?”
“No, we sat there rather embarrassed, and finally he asked me what I thought of the Philippines. I told him I wasn’t interested. By that time it was most embarrassing, and I left.”
Donovan stopped again to see Hoover that afternoon on his way to the train.
“It was a sad and strained parting,” said Kirchhofer, “this breakup of the partnership. One who was close to the scene said Hoover had tears in his eyes.”
Hoover appointed William D. Mitchell attorney general. He was a dry and a Protestant, so he was acceptable to Donovan’s foes. Ironically, Donovan’s old job, assistant to the attorney general, went to John Lord O’Brian. James W. Good, Hoover’s western political manager, became secretary of war, and Dwight F. Davis, the secretary of war under Coolidge, became governor general of the Philippines.
Senator Royal Copeland of New York spoke his mind on the floor of the Senate. “There is in my state,” he said, “an outstanding citizen, a distinguished lawyer, a brave soldier, a man who has served his country, Mr. Donovan; and now we learn that he cannot be appointed to the office of Attorney General because he is a Catholic or a ‘wet,’ I am not sure which. It is an outrageous thing that this man should be deprived of the privilege of serving his country, and serving it well, because he does not happen to conform to the standard fixed by those who dominate the next President.”
Many years later, Herbert Hoover was asked by Alfred Kirchhofer to explain his actions for the record. Hoover wrote:
Bill Donovan deserved a place on my administrative team. His contribution to the campaign of 1928 was worthy of recognition, but not as great as many others.
He demanded the Attorney Generalship. I discussed with him both the Secretary of War and the Governorship of the Philippines. While he continued to insist upon his heart’s desire, I had need to fill the War Department post.
The religious issue intruded into the problem but not because he was a Catholic. The facts were Bill was opposed to prohibition and to appoint him to that post would bring protests from every religious group in the country, including many Catholics. The religious leaders had a remedy which was more vigorous prosecution of the violations of the law, and they had a propaganda machine working on it. Moreover, the Deep South voted for me. It was in a frenzy (including the Catholics) of determination to keep the negroes from having a drop of alcohol. Bill would not have had the confidence of any of these groups.
Some of Bill Donovan’s supporters for a cabinet post in the Hoover administration had been confident that this would have been a stepping-stone in his ascent to the presidency. Bill Donovan, they were certain, would be the first Catholic president of the United States. As J. W. H. deBelleville put it, “In the opinion of many patriotic Americans at the present time nothing better could happen to the country than the election, at the close of Mr. Hoover’s tenure of office, of a Catholic President of the high type of Col. Wm. J. Donovan. There are two O’s also in the Colonel’s name.”
Donovan always considered his treatment at Hoover’s hands the greatest disappointment of his life. Shortly after Hoover’s inauguration, Donovan went with Leland W. Cutler to the Gridiron dinner in Washington. “Donovan was lampooned in a sketch at the dinner,” said Cutler, “as a soldier who had gotten all the decorations the War Department could give. He was given a new one by his Commander in Chief, T
he Order of the Boot.’ Donovan was very popular; he was loudly applauded and seemed sincerely affected, while the President, who sat directly in front of us, was plainly uncomfortable.”
Hoover was even more uncomfortable a few moments later, when a man impersonating both the President and a bystander carried on a dialogue.
“What is Bill Donovan doing now, Mr. President?”
“Oh, he is sitting in the window, watching the parade go by.”
“You had better look out, Mr. President, or he might start a parade of his own.”
Donovan leaned close to Cutler and asked, “Le, would you join my parade?” Cutler said he would. Many of Donovan’s fellow Americans were ready to join his parade during the spring of 1929 when Hoover threw him over.
15
Politics and Foreign Affairs
DONOVAN HAD BEEN so successful with the Rio Grande River Commission that President Coolidge also appointed him U.S. commissioner to the Colorado River Commission. Seven states had been squabbling about the water rights to the master river of the Southwest, and now on February 14, 1929, their representatives, together with Bill Donovan, met to reconcile their differences. They elected Donovan chairman.
James Murphy, still a law student at George Washington University, accompanied Donovan to Reno, Nevada, to attend a meeting of the commission. “The first session went on for weeks,” he recalled years later. “Reno was then a small town. The first thing that Bill Donovan did was to get acquainted with a manicurist in the barber shop at our hotel.”
Donovan Page 23
