John Francis "Honey Fitz" Fitzgerald was an American politician, father of Rose Kennedy and maternal grandfather of President John F. Kennedy.
Background
He was born in a tenement near the Old North Church in Boston, Massachussets, the third son and third of eleven children of Thomas Fitzgerald and Rose Mary (Murray) Fitzgerald.
His parents had left County Wexford, Ireland, during the potato famine of the 1840's and settled in Boston, where his father operated a grocery and liquor store.
Education
He attended the Boston Latin School, where he captained the baseball and football teams, edited the school newspaper, and achieved high grades.
Fitzgerald attended Harvard Medical School for one year, but dropped out to support his family when his father died, vowing "we'll never break up. "
Career
He worked in the Boston customhouse, started an insurance and investment business, and plunged into politics.
He was so loquacious that a newspaper correspondent once penned a poem which began, "Honey Fitz can talk you blind on any subject you can find. " He also possessed a fine singing voice and his rendition of "Sweet Adeline" became his political theme song and the unofficial anthem of his campaign to repeal prohibition, although he was a non-drinker.
It was only a difference of a few ships. " Beginning as a city councilman in 1892, Fitzgerald became a state senator in 1893, leading the Boston Irish forces, defending the rights of immigrants and laborers, and chairing the committees on liquor and election laws.
From 1895 to 1901 he served as congressman from the eleventh district; in his first session he was both the only Democrat and the only Catholic from New England in the House of Representatives.
He helped persuade President Grover Cleveland to veto the literacy test for immigrants in 1897, defended civil rights legislation for Southern Blacks, and attacked the meat industry for shipping "embalmed beef" to feed troops during the Spanish-American War. Retiring from Congress, he bought a weekly newspaper, The Republic, which provided him with a substantial income and a public forum. From his base in the "dear Old North End, " the "Napoleon of Ward Six" emerged as one of the powerful ward bosses who so dominated Boston Democratic politics that they were often referred to as the "mayor-makers. "
When the Good Government Association called his administration the most corrupt in Boston history and demanded an investigation, Fitzgerald appointed his own Finance Commission which included several association members.
The commission produced a four-volume report which proposed more efficient and economical administration, reduction in urban services and the public payroll, nonpartisan elections, and the strengthening of the mayor against the city council, bailiwick of the ward bosses.
Ironically, Fitzgerald became the first mayor elected to a four-year term under the new reform charter in 1910, defeating the Good Government Association's candidate by a mere 1, 402 votes, despite a vitriolic campaign against "Fitzgeraldism. " "Never, " according to the historian John Henry Cutler, "was character assassination more brutally practiced in a Boston campaign. "
In 1916 he lost his bid against Henry Cabot Lodge, for a seat in the United States Senate, but two years later apparently defeated Independent Democrat Peter Tague for his old congressional seat by a scant 238 votes. A congressional committee, however, found that Fitzgerald's backers had voted unqualified electors and supplied Tague voters with "ungummed stickers" which later fell off and invalidated their ballots. Tague was declared the official winner on October 23, 1919.
Three years later he ran for governor of Massachusetts and lost to Republican Channing Cox by 60, 000 votes; in his campaign Fitzgerald supported organized labor and denounced prohibition and federal aid to education as "paternalistic. "
After campaigning vigorously for fellow Irish Catholic Al Smith for president in 1928, he helped found the Jefferson Club to work for "the principles of Alfred E. Smith, " particularly economic reform and cultural pluralism.
In 1930 he again sought the gubernatorial nomination in the Democratic primary, but became ill and lost to Joseph B. Ely. Thereafter, he devoted his attention to his various business interests, served on the Port Authority, and performed quadrennial tasks as a presidental elector, serving as chairman of the Massachusetts delegation in 1933 and 1945.
In 1946, at eighty-three, he campaigned for his grandson and namesake, John Fitzgerald Kennedy, in his first Congressional campaign and sang the mandatory "Sweet Adeline" at the victory celebration.
Four years later he died of circulatory problems and was buried in St. Joseph Cemetery in West Roxbury, Massachussets.
Achievements
Religion
John was one of the first Irish Catholics to attend the Boston Latin School, where he captained the baseball and football teams, edited the school newspaper, and achieved high grades.
Like many Irish Catholics of his day, he was determined to overcome prejudice and discrimination and to succeed in a Yankee Protestant city by "working harder than anyone else. "
Politics
Three years later he ran for governor of Massachusetts and lost to Republican Channing Cox by 60, 000 votes; in his campaign Fitzgerald supported organized labor and denounced prohibition and federal aid to education as "paternalistic. "
Shifting alliances in bewildering combinations, they even backed reformers and Republicans when it was politically advantageous.
Views
Quotations:
He early adopted the slogan, "What I undertake, I do. What I want, I get. " When asked by a Yankee opponent what right Jews and Italians had to this country, Fitzgerald snapped, "As much right as your father or mine.
Membership
Fitzgerald was a member of the Royal Rooters, an early supporters' club for Boston's baseball teams, particularly its American League team, the modern Boston Red Sox.
In 1892, he became a member of the Massachusetts Senate, and in 1894, he was elected to Congress for the 9th district, serving from 1895 to 1901.
Member of the U. S. House of Representatives from Massachusetts's 9th congressional district March 4, 1895 – March 4, 1901.
Member of the U. S. House of Representatives from Massachusetts's 10th congressional district March 14, 1919 – October 23, 1919.
Personality
Fitzgerald was a short man but was handsome, dapper, immaculately dressed, and vigorously athletic. He was an avid reader, with a great capacity to retain details, and an eloquent speaker, able to produce about 200 words per minute of "Fitzblarney. "
Quotes from others about the person
His voice and his "instinctive ability to dazzle a crowd with consummate Irish charm" earned him the nickname "Honey Fitz, " and made him one of the most colorful and popular politicians in Boston history.
Connections
On September 18, 1889, he married Mary Josephine "Josie" Hannon, a union which lasted sixty-one years and produced six children--Rose, Thomas, Agnes, John F. , Jr. , Eunice, and Frederick.
Rose later married Joseph P. Kennedy, financier and ambassador to Great Britain; their children included President John Fitzgerald Kennedy and senators Robert F. and Edward M. Kennedy.