Parts 1-8:
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https://caucus99percent.com/content/democratic-party-my-third-and-curren...
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https://caucus99percent.com/content/democratic-party-my-third-and-curren...
https://caucus99percent.com/content/democratic-party-my-third-and-curren...

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Left, Anna Eleanor Roosevelt, 19, in precursor of Princess Di's wedding gown; right, Lucy Page Mercer, at about age 23 (circa 1914)
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I should have mentioned Louis McHenry Howe earlier. Howe served as FDR's political advisor from 1909, likely when FDR was preparing for his first run for public office, until Howe's death in 1933, the first year of Roosevelt's Presidency. Like so many of that era, Howe's family had had "serious financial losses." First a reporter, Howe had become a Democratic political operative by way of Tammany Hall. (Given that, how real was FDR's supposed enmity to Tammany Hall?)

Always sickly, Howe never got taller than five feet. Nonetheless, his devotion to Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt and his role in their respective accomplishments were gigantic. Eleanor said he was one of the most important people in her life and Howe has been immortalized by many as the man behind FDR. Howe's contribution to FDR's political career is impossible to overestimate. Howe even worked in FDR's department while FDR was Assistant Secretary of the Navy--which, conveniently, is where this series last left FDR.

World War I ended on November 11, 1918. Also in 1918, while performing the then-common wifely task of unpacking her husband's suitcase, Eleanor Roosevelt found love letters to her husband from her social secretary, Lucy Page Mercer. (Did FDR want Eleanor to find them?) Mercer's father had ridden with Teddy Roosevelt's Rough Riders during the Spanish-American War. He lost his money in the Bank Panic of 1893, became an alcoholic and separated from Mercer's mother. Eleanor's aunt, another Roosevelt by birth, had recommended Mercer to Eleanor while Mercer was a "shop girl." In Eleanor's eyes, Mercer was, by 1918, almost like a member of the family and so the betrayal was multi-faceted.

Reports date the start of the affair to 1916. (I never know how people think they know things so personal.) After finding the letters, Eleanor confronted FDR. He told her that he wanted to marry Mercer. Eleanor offered Franklin a divorce, telling him to consider carefully, especially the children. However, Howe convinced FDR that a divorce would be terrible for FDR's career. (By then, Franklin was likely eyeing the Oval Office.) Possibly even worse, FDR's mother, who subsidized FDR's and Eleanor's substantial combined monthly income, threatened to cut them off and disinherit him. (Different sources give different income figures.) Franklin decided that he wanted to remain married after all.

Eleanor, who once described sex to her daughter as something to be "endured," and said mothering did not come naturally to her, had already born six children (five surviving infancy). Her conditions for remaining married were (1) no more intimacy ever and (2) FDR had to promise never to see Mercer again. FDR promised, but lied: Indeed, it was Mercer who was with FDR when he died, not his wife. FDR also lied to Mercer, telling her that Eleanor would not give him a divorce. IMO, in his personal life, he was a bounder all around(not unlike his boss, President Wilson).

Out of a job, Mercer joined the Navy--and was assigned to FDR's office. (It's good to be even the Assistant to an assistant of the King.) This caused some scandal in Washington, D.C. Whether or not the gossip reached Eleanor, it's difficult to imagine that Eleanor was unaware of Mercer's new position.

At some point, Lucy left the Navy and became governess for the children of wealthy New York socialite, Winthrop Rutherford. FDR ceased to be Assistant Secretary of the Navy in 1920. That same year, Lucy Mercer, married Rutherfurd, whose courtships had included the likes Consuela Vanderbilt, possibly the inspiration for Downton Abbey's Cora Grantham. (Consuela's mother had forced her to marry a Churchill.) Then again, Rutherfurd, twenty-nine years Lucy's senior, didn't need money. Mercer and Rutherford had a daughter, in addition to the children of his first marriage.

Meanwhile, back in the political world (Did we ever leave?), please recall (or pretend to) that I wrote in Part 8 that the papers that FDR kept during his years as Assistant Secretary included an entire carton relating to then Secretary of Agriculture Herbert Clark Hoover. While researching this Part 9, I learned that FDR wanted to run for Vice President in 1920 with said Hoover at the top of the Democratic ticket. See? As I reminded you in Part 8, "It's a big club and you ain't in it."

Having failed to convince Hoover, FDR ran for Vice President anyway, but with Democratic politician and wealthy media mogul, James Middleton Cox of Ohio, at the top of the ticket. (A century later, Cox Enterprises is enjoying billions in annual revenue.) Cox had been nominated on the forty-fourth ballot. In the worst-ever popular vote defeat of a U.S. Presidential candidate so far, Cox lost to fellow Ohioan, Republican Warren Gamaliel Harding. (Imagine Ohio during that campaign!) Cox, who had won the office of Governor, among others, never again ran for public office. However, he remained a supporter (and donor, I assume) of FDR until FDR died.

One of hopefuls from whom Harding had wrested the Republican nomination was, yes, Hoover, then forty-six. (Sometimes, putting Presidential ideas into the head of someone whom you think might make a good candidate is a mistake: Just ask Harry S. Truman about Dwight David Eisenhower.)

The 1920 election marked the first public political participation of Eleanor Roosevelt, whom Howe had convinced to take a more of a role. He had also coached her in public speaking. (Was this solely for Eleanor's sake, or did Howe want her more visible to counteract the relatively recent Mercer scandal?) Despite the loss, FDR believed that his 1920 run and the contacts that he made then helped him greatly when he ran for President.

In 1916, this song charted to #2. (I didn't know songs charted then!)