(2 of 2)
Tammany. "After all, Tammany Hall for a century has been the dominating political party in the city of New York. . . . Had I accepted advice, I would not have spoken in Tammany Hall just one week after my nomination for the Presidency. But I had my strongest inclination to speak in Tammany Hall at just that very time. I had been identified with Tammany Hall for a quarter of a century. I always had its full and loyal support. I felt that in my hour of great success my place was among my friends."
Speeches. "I was never able to deliver a set speech; never able to write it, and never able to read it. In all of my debates and speeches, I used only a single envelope or two with just the headings jotted down. . . ."
Campaigning. "I have probably heard The Sidewalks of New York one million times, all over the Atlantic seaboard, through the South, the Middle West and in Butte, Montana. ... I spoke at Oklahoma City on religious tolerance. Listeners in on the radio were particularly disturbed because of the noises in the hall which they believed were disorder. The fact is that a large part of the noise was created by an individual about halfway down the hall who continuously shouted: 'Pour it on 'em, Al, pour it on 'em. . . .' When I spoke in Louisville the heat in the meeting hall was noticeable to everyone. We afterwards learned that somebody had deliberately turned on the steam heat. A member of the local police notified the newspapermen that I was intoxicated. . . . Half a dozen different stories were carried back to me and each time my supposed degree of intoxication was so great that it required two men to hold me up. ... To my way of thinking, neither the tariff nor the farm problem were important factors in the determination of the election. In its broad aspects the campaign appeared to me to be one of Smith or anti-Smith. . . ."
Senator-at-large. "A man who receives 15 million votes but not enough to be elected automatically retires to private life and leaves the 15 million unrepresented except in so far as their senators and their congressmen are concerned. As a remedy, I suggest that we can amend our constitution to provide that the candidate for the presidency who receives the second highest number of votes should be entitled to a seat in the United States Senate as a senator-at-large during the term of his successful opponent. ... He would naturally become the leader of the minority party and a good, forceful, vigorous minority is the people's own check on the possible tyranny of a majority."
Philosophy. "When all is said and done, it seems impossible to divorce the personal equation from politics."