The+Election+of+1932

 The stock market crashed in 1929 and by 1932 President Herbert Hoover was being blamed for the devastation. Even though everyone was blaming Hoover, the Republican Party still nominated him as their candidate for president in the election. They figured that there was not much of the depression left, since it had been going on for so long, and that he would be able to get along without being held responsible for too more of it. They liked Herbert Hoover because he was a very smart and strong politician. Hoover received 98% of the convention delegates’ votes. A Democrat had not been in office since 1921 though, so it was the year for the democrats to make it happen. The Democratic Party nominated Franklin Roosevelt to be their candidate. Before being nominated Roosevelt was the governor of New York. The election was heating up, but it looked like Roosevelt was going to win. If Hoover had any chance to win it was destroyed during the Bonus Army March. (Swogger, Bonus Army Digital History)

  The Bonus Army March was when the WW1 veterans tried to demand that President Hoover give them their bonuses that they were supposed to receive in 1945, at that time. They wanted their bonuses because of all the financial hardships that they were going through. They say that the way that Hoover responded to this determined his fate in the election. Congress tried for a Veteran’s compensation act in the early stages of 1932, but it was overturned by Congress because they thought that it would make the debt of the country even worse than before. The troops grew from about 1,000 to about 17,000. The Patman Bonus Bill was passed on June 15th, and about 2.4 billion dollars in flat money were to be used for the Veteran’s bonuses, but this bill was stopped in the senate. Hoover then offered to pay for the transportation of the soldiers to get home, most people agreed but about 2,000 people stayed. The people, who stayed, stayed at camps by the Anacostia River and others stayed in government buildings. He called the police to try and disperse the crowd, but what resulted was the death of two officers and two veterans. That’s when Hoover decided that he would bring in the Federal Army because he was trying to prevent our country from turning into one big mob. The federal troops brought tanks and other big types of equipment to try and force them out. The public did not like the fact that he brought in the big armed troops to fight against the bonus army. They were especially upset about it because these were people that have fought for our country in the past. As they say, this was the end to Herbert Hoover’s last hopes for winning the election of 1932. Roosevelt continued to promise the country the New Deal. It sounded so good to the public because they wanted to be out of debt and would do anything they could. Especially since Hoover was being blamed for the depression, they did not want it to continue. It was one of the biggest landslides in American History. A person even wrote to President Hoover telling him to vote for Roosevelt so that it could be unanimous. Roosevelt won the election with 472 electoral votes compared to 59 electoral votes that were received by former president, Herbert Hoover. (Bonus Army Digital History, Bonus Army EyeWitness to History)

Citations: Swogger, Michael. "Election of 1932 ." //Mr. Michael Swogger- American History//. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 Sep 2011. .

"The Bonus Army ." //Digital History//. N.p., 22/9/11. Web. 22 Sep 2011. [].

"The Bonus Army" EyeWitness to History, www.eyewitnesstohistory.com (2000).