John Nance Garner III, known among his colleagues as "Cactus Jack", is an American politician serving as Speaker of the United States House of Representatives since 1931. A member of the Democratic Party, he has served as the US Representative from Texas’s 15th congressional district since 1903.
History[]
Early life[]
John Nance Garner was born on 22 November 1868 in a log cabin near the town of Detroit, Texas to farmers John Nance II and Sarah Guest Garner. His father had served as a cavalryman under Confederate General Joseph Wheeler during the American Civil War. At the age of eighteen he attended Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee for a single semester before dropping out and returning home, possibly due to ill health. He then studied law at the firms of Sims and Wright in Clarksville, Texas and was admitted to the state bar in 1890, joining the firm of Clark and Fuller in Uvalde County.
In 1892 Garner was appointed to serve as judge of Uvalde County to fill a vacancy, and he successfully ran for reelection the following year. His main opponent in the Democratic primary was Mariette “Ettie” Rheiner, a local rancher’s daughter, whom he defeated, courted, and finally married on 25 November 1895. Garner continued to serve as county judge until 1896.
Political Career[]
Texas State Legislature[]
In 1898 Garner was elected to the Texas House of Representatives, the state’s lower legislative house, and was reelected in 1900. During his time in the state legislature he served on the appropriations committee and supported ranchers’ and livestock growers’ issues. In 1901 Garner voted for the poll tax, a measure passed by the Democratic-dominated legislature to make voter registration more difficult and reduce the number of black, minority, and poor white voters on the voting rolls. When the legislature debated the selection of the official state flower, his ardent campaigning in favor of the prickly pear cactus earned him the sobriquet “Cactus Jack”.
House of Representatives[]
Garner began currying political favor with the Southern Texas land bosses who exercised near-complete control of the local people and elections through the patronage system, and they created the gerrymandered 15th congressional district for him, a narrow strip of land across the southern border that included tens of thousands of square miles of rural areas. Garner was first elected to the United States House of Representatives in 1902, and has been subsequently reelected sixteen times.
Garner’s first decade in the House was rather unremarkable, as it wasn't until January 1905 that he spoke his first word in Congress and not until 1911 that he gave his first speech. Despite introducing very few bills during his tenure, he earned a reputation as a master of the legislative process with a knack for steering other’s bills through tricky legislative waters. His behind-the-scenes politicking managed to win the construction of a new federal building and post office in his district, projects which contributed to his primary goal of reelection. Eventually Garner acquired enough seniority in his party to be elected the Democratic House whip in 1909, and when the Democrats recaptured the White House under Woodrow Wilson he became one of the most influential men on Capitol Hill.
After reelection in 1922, Garner served on the powerful House Ways and Means Committee, and his many friends on both sides of the aisle became a testament to his quiet, backroom political style. As one of Congress's legendary whiskey-drinking poker players, Garner would often invite recalcitrant colleagues to his office to share a drink or two of bourbon and branch water in order to convince them to vote for bills he favored. He was chosen to serve as minority floor leader for the Democrats in 1929, and after Democrats recaptured the House majority in 1930 he was elected Speaker of the House of Representatives the following year.
As Speaker, Garner supported passage of the federal income tax but opposed most tariffs except for those on wool and mohair, which were important to his Texas base. He also believed in rural investment, bringing taxpayer dollars to farmers of the Brush Country region of South Texas. Together with Democratic Senator Robert Wagner of New York, he drafted a $2.1 billion emergency relief bill to fight staggering unemployment caused by the Great Depression which was vetoed by Republican President Herbert Hoover in July 1932.
Personal Life[]
Garner married his wife Mariette "Ettie" Rheiner on 25 November 1895 in Sabinal, Texas. Together they have one son, Tully Charles (b. 1896).