Corpus Christi History by Murphy Givens
Corpus Christi History is published Wednesdays. Murphy Givens also sits on the Caller-Times editorial board and can be contacted at givensm@caller.com
Wednesday, November 24, 1999
Garner's promise to Corpus Christi
John Nance Garner, elected to the Texas Legislature in 1898, helped gerrymander a new congressional district so he could run for Congress. The new 15th district stretched from San Antonio to Del Rio, down the Rio Grande to Brownsville, and up the coast to Corpus Christi.
In the Democratic primary, Jim Wells, a political boss in Brownsville, sent a telegram to Corpus Christi saying, "Garner's our man.'' Garner won and faced a Corpus Christi Republican in the general election. Garner won again handily.
On Jan. 26, 1903, Garner arrived in Corpus Christi for a victory celebration at the St. James Hotel. Next day, a meeting was held in the Doddridge Building. Garner promised he would do his best to get whatever Corpus Christi wanted because it had supported him over one of its own. "What is the one thing dearest to your heart?'' he asked.
H. R. Sutherland Sr. stood up and said, "We want a straight channel dredged through Turtle Cove into the bay to give Corpus Christi a deepwater connection to the Gulf.'' Garner was taken on the schooner Flour Bluff for a run across the bay to show him what was needed.
The new congressman went to Washington and moved into a boarding house, where he kept an office and where his wife worked as his secretary. He rode a streetcar to Congress and was paid $5,000 a year; his wife made $1,200 as his secretary.
From his boarding house office, Garner went to work on the one thing dearest to Corpus Christi's heart. He faced a huge task. For decades the policy in Washington was that Texas needed only one major port, at Galveston, and federal money spent elsewhere would fritter away scarce resources.
But Garner was able to overcome this entrenched opposition that had stopped every effort in the past. He got money appropriated for a survey of Turtle Cove. He convinced the number two man in the Corps of Engineers to break with policy and support Corpus Christi's effort. He got money appropriated to dredge a channel across the bay and to increase the depth over the Aransas bar.
It was a hard fight, but 23 years later, on Sept. 14, 1926, Corpus Christi was draped in bunting for the biggest celebration in the city's history - port opening day. It was made possible in large measure by John Nance Garner, who had kept his promise. He attended the opening as an honored guest. He no longer represented Corpus Christi after the district was redrawn in 1921.
When "Cactus Jack'' Garner became speaker of the House, friends told him, "You've got to dress up and look respectable.'' So he bought a new pair of striped trousers for formal wear. Garner served two terms as vice president during the New Deal of Franklin D. Roosevelt. He would have been the frontrunner for the Democratic nomination for president if Roosevelt had not opted for a third term in 1940.
Garner broke with Roosevelt over FDR's "court-packing'' plan. He explained later that, "The most popular president we ever had was advocating control of the Supreme Court. He was the boss of the executive department, as he should be. He had more influence in Congress than any other president I ever served under. And he wanted to influence the Supreme Court in determining constitutional questions. I think that was an unreasonable ambition.'' He opposed Roosevelt's decision to run for a third term for the same reason, that FDR had become too powerful for the good of the country.
When Garner retired from politics in 1940, he said, "I'm crossing the Potomac for the last time.'' He lived the rest of his long life in his hometown of Uvalde. After his retirement, the citizens of Corpus Christi presented him with a gold watch for his efforts in behalf of this city. Besides the deepwater breakthrough, he was a major backer of the Intracoastal Canal and he got Corpus Christi its first federal court and courthouse. The list could go on. He died at age 98 on Nov. 7, 1967.
Many people over the years have been recognized for their efforts to get the port - most prominently Roy Miller, Robert Driscoll, Robert J. Kleberg. But far as I know, no cargo dock at the port, no street in the city, no public building has been named in honor of John Nance Garner who did so much to help make Corpus Christi the city it is today. I wonder: Has the new federal courthouse going up at Shoreline and I-37 got a name?
(Sources: Caller-Times archives and an interview in the Nov. 21, 1958 edition of U.S. News & World Report.)
