Everything about Eugene Talmadge totally explained
Eugene Talmadge (
September 23 1884 –
December 21 1946) was a
United States Democratic Party politician who served as
governor of the
U.S. state of
Georgia from
1933 to
1937 and again from
1941 to
1943. Elected to another term in
1946, he died before taking office. To date only
Joe Brown and Eugene Talmadge have been elected four times as
Governor of Georgia.
Talmadge was born in
Forsyth, Georgia. He went to the
University of Georgia and graduated from the
University's law school. While at UGA, he was a member of the
Phi Kappa Literary Society. Eugene had some offices in
Telfair County, Georgia. He was unsuccessful twice when running for the
Georgia state legislature, but was elected State
Agriculture commissioner in
1926 and was re-elected twice. Talmadge used the newspaper of his department to give advice to
farmers and talk about his political views. He was criticized by the
State Senate for improperly spending funds and using department funds to make trips to the
Kentucky Derby. Accused of "stealing" $20,000 by shipping Georgia hogs to Chicago, Talmadge told one group of farmers, "Sure I stole it! But I stole it for you."
In
1932, Governor
Richard B. Russell, Jr. sought a seat in the
United States Senate. Talmadge ran for Governor and won a majority of the
county unit votes in the Primary (then tantamount to election, since the Republican Party was practically non-existent). The County Unit System, similar to the
rotten borough system that had once prevailed in Britain, was such that three rural counties with less than 1,000 residents could cast as many votes in the primary as the entire city of Atlanta. Talmadge was fond of saying, "I can carry any county that ain't got street cars.".
He was re-elected in
1934. When officials refused to do what he wanted, he was known to take actions, including issuing executive orders, that were called 'dictatorial' by his critics.
Talmadge was a critic of President
Roosevelt. Unable to run for re-election in
1936, Talmadge chose to challenge Senator Russell in the
primary, but Russell defeated Talmadge by a wide margin. Talmadge was unsuccessful in his challenge to Senator
Walter George in
1938.
Talmadge returned to the Governor's office in
1940. During his third two-year term, he urged that the state
university board of regents not rehire
Walter Cocking, a dean at the
University of Georgia whom he accused of communist and pro-integration sympathies. After the board voted to rehire him, Talmadge had three of its members removed and replaced with his supporters. They then dismissed Cocking. This incident caused the
Southern Association of Colleges and Schools to remove accreditation from the Georgia state universities, and it contributed to Talmadge's defeat by
Ellis Arnall in
1942.
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During Arnall's term, the state legislature lengthened his term to four years and prohibited him from seeking re-election in
1946. Talmadge ran for Governor and used the
United States Supreme Court's
Smith v. Allwright decision as his main issue. Talmadge promised that if he were to be elected, he'd restore the 'Equal Primary'.
Talmadge lost the popular vote in the Democratic primary to
James V. Carmichael but won a majority of the 'county unit votes'. However, he died in December
1946, before he could be sworn in for his fourth term; his death precipitated the
1947 "three governors" controversy among Arnall,
Melvin E. Thompson and Talmadge's son
Herman.
The
Talmadge Memorial Bridge in Savannah, Georgia is named after Eugene Talmadge, which connects downtown
Savannah, Georgia with the Carolina Low Country via the
Savannah River.
Notes and references
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