The Kennedys

by Thomas Maier

  Various accounts of early Kennedy family life in East Boston were found in Richard J.Whalen, The Founding Father:The Story of Joseph P. Kennedy, Leamer’s The Kennedy Women, Cutler’s Honey Fitz, as well as an obituary of Bridget Kennedy in East Boston Argus Advocate on December 29, 1888, found in the microfiche collection of the Boston Public Library. DuBois comments are from his book Dusk of Dawn (Harcourt Brace, 1940).

  The Catholic Church’s history in Massachusetts and its experience with bigotry is mentioned in several of the texts above, including JFK’s A Nation of Immigrants, and thoroughly examined in Thomas H. O’Connor, Boston Catholics: A History of the Church and Its People; John Henry Cutler, Cardinal Cushing of Boston; and John Higham, Strangers in the Land: Patterns of American Nativism 1860–1925. Also see, Lance Morrow,“The Rise and Fall of Anti-Catholicism,” Time, October 15, 1979. Details about the Know-Nothings and Lincoln’s response is mentioned in Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr., The Disuniting of America, Lincoln’s Speeches and Writings, 1832–58; and Chilton Williamson Jr., The Immigration Mystique.

  Details about P.J. Kennedy’s early life and political career come from Whalen’s The Founding Father; David E. Koskoff, Joseph P. Kennedy: A Life and Times; Michael R. Beschloss, Kennedy and Roosevelt, as well as newspaper reports about Kennedy appearing in the January 12, 1896, edition of Boston Post and his obituary in The Boston Transcript of May 21, 1929. Details about P.J. Kennedy’s continuing interest in the lives and welfare of his Irish cousins comes from interviews with Mary Ann Ryan, John Pierce and is mentioned briefly in Peter Collier and David Horowitz, The Kennedys:An American Drama and in Pierce’s The Kennedys Who Left and the Kennedys Who Stayed.

  Chapter Six: The Long Climb to Acceptance

  The rise of John F. Fitzgerald and Boston’s Irish Catholics is detailed in John Henry Cutler, Honey Fitz; and Doris Kearns Goodwin, The Fitzgeralds and the Kennedys.More generalized information about Fitzgerald and the Irish in Boston was obtained from Thomas H. O’Connor, The Boston Irish:A Political History; Jack Beatty, The Rascal King; Oscar Handlin, The Uprooted;Thomas J. Curran, Xenophobia and Immigration, 1820–1930; John Higham, Strangers in the Land: Patterns of American Nativism 1860–1925; and Barbara Miller Solomon, Ancestors and Immigrants. Additional biographical information about Fitzgerald was derived from “Origins,” New Yorker, June 15, 1963; George Kibbe Turner,“Honey Fitz,” Collier’s, November 9, 1907, and from Fitzgerald’s obituary in “Former Hub Mayor Dead,” Boston Post, October 3, 1950.

  Historical information about Cardinal William O’Connell and his impact on Boston’s Catholics appeared in James M. O’Toole, Militant and Triumphant; John Henry Cutler, Cardinal Cushing of Boston; Dennis P. Ryan, Beyond the Ballot Box;William O’Connell, Recollections of Seventy Years;Thomas H. O’Connor, Boston Catholics: A History of the Church and Its People; as well as Shaun O’Connell,“Goodbye to All That:The Rise and Demise of Irish America,” New England Journal of Public Policy, Spring/Summer 1993; “Massachusetts on Trial,” Saturday Evening Post, June 5, 1965; and Francis Russell,“Why Massachustetts Loves the Kennedys,” National Review, August 11, 1970.

  Chapter Seven: The Family Enterprise

  The scene of young Rose Fitzgerald and her beau, Joe Kennedy, at Old Orchard Beach, Maine, is captured in a photograph contained in the Kennedy Family Private Collection, which has appeared in several publications. Rose’s recollections come from her memoir, Times to Remember, as well as from interviews she granted prior to her death with Doris Kearns Goodwin for The Fitzgeralds and The Kennedys and several magazine and newspaper profiles. Cardinal O’Connell’s sizeable influence with Irish Catholics in Boston, including the Fitzgeralds and Kennedys, is also discussed in William Shannon, The American Irish; “Brahmins and Bullyboys:William Henry Cardinal O’Connell and Massachusetts Politics,” Historical Journal of Massachusetts, January 1982; Louise Callan, The Society of the Sacred Heart in North America; Charles Morris, American Catholic; Thomas H. O’Connor, The Boston Irish:A Political History; John Henry Cutler, Honey Fitz;David E. Koskoff, Joseph P. Kennedy: A Life and Times; James M. O’Toole, Militiant and Triumphant. Joe Kennedy’s views about ethnicity come from several aforementioned texts, including Michael Beschloss, Kennedy and Roosevelt; as well as Laurence Leamer, The Kennedy Women; and Peter Collier and David Horowitz, The Kennedys:An American Drama.The Kennedys’ distinctly Irish concept of family and the clan is discussed in Gore Vidal,“The Holy Family,” Esquire,April 1967; as well as Lawrence H. Fuchs, John F. Kennedy and American Catholicism, reviewed by Msgr. John Tracy Ellis, America, April 1, 1967. Joe Kennedy’s check to the Guild of St. Apollonia in thanksgiving after Jack’s illness is detailed in the Joseph P.Kennedy papers, granted special access to the author at the John F. Kennedy Library. Rose’s comments about the family “enterprise” is from her memoir.

  Chapter Eight: Hard Lessons

  Rose Kennedy’s view about Catholic schools and the indelible imprint of religion she wanted in her children’s lives was discussed extensively in her memoir, from which these quotations are taken. Joe Kennedy Jr.’s first taste of romance and anti-Catholic bigotry is recalled in Hank Searls, The Lost Prince.

  Jack’s early days in the Catholic school, Canterbury, is mentioned in Herbert Parmet, Jack; John Henry Cutler, Honey Fitz; as well as from the JFK Personal Papers at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library. JFK’s letters home about going to Communion at the Canterbury School and “practicing the singing of the Kyrie Santus [sic],Agnus Dei and so on” are contained in his letters in the Joseph P. Kennedy papers (JPK papers) at the John F. Kennedy Library. Details of the Kennedy siblings growing up in the 1920s and 1930s comes from Richard Whalen, The Founding Father; Garry Wills, Kennedy Imprisonment; and Amanda Smith, Hostage to Fortune. Rose’s observation about Joe Jr. as Cadet Club president as “probably the only Catholic in the country to hold that honor” and Rose’s sense of religion and her family life is mentioned in “Rose-Colored Glasses,” Time,April 22, 1974, and “Rose Kennedy at 76,” America,November 18, 1967. Additional insights were gained in interview with Joseph Gargan.

  The relationship between Joe Kennedy and his two oldest sons is captured in many of their letters, found in both the JFK papers and the JPK collection at the JFK Presidential Library. Joe Sr. gives young JFK a major pep talk in December 1934, evoking the divine strains of St. Luke’s gospel that becomes a major part of the Kennedy’s religious dynamic.“Now aren’t you foolish not to get all there is out of what God has given you and what you can do with it yourself?” Joe asks in a letter found in his private papers. Further context was provided by Goodwin’s The Fitzgeralds and the Kennedys, and Smith’s Hostage to Fortune. Examples of the Kennedy’s awareness of Irish bigotry is also detailed in Arthur Mitchell, JFK and His Irish Heritage (“Those aren’t cobblestones . . . ”); and John Henry Cutler, Honey Fitz; (Boston “was no place to bring up Catholic children”). Shannon’s quote about the “glass ceiling of religious bigotry” is in William Shannon, The American Irish. Joe Kennedy as “a bundle of ancient hatreds and prejudices” is from Murray Kempton, “Ashes of the Kennedy Legend,” Newsday, June 5, 1991.

  Part II: The Family Faith

  Joe Kennedy’s comments about not being “completely assimilated, but all my ducks are swans” is taken from his letter dated February 12, 1959, part of the JPK papers at the JFK Library.

  Chapter Nine: Happy Warriors

  Details about Sen. George Norris’s support of Gov. Alfred E. Smith were contained in John F. Kennedy, Profiles in Courage. JPK’s actions in the 1924 presidential campaign appeared in David E. Koskoff, Joseph P. Kennedy: A Life and Times.Amanda Smith underlines her adoptive grandfather’s interaction with Al Smith’s 1928 campaign and his possible vote for Hoover, Amanda Smith, Hostage to Fortune. Oscar Handlin recalls the impact of Al Smith on JFK in the introduction to Handlin’s updated 1987 book, Al Smith and His America. Other aspects of Smith’s 1928 campaign and its impact on Irish Catholics in America are extensively detailed in R
obert A. Slayton, Empire Statesman. Also see Al Smith’s essay prior to the 1928 race about the issue of religion, Alfred E. Smith,“American Catholic,” Atlantic Monthly, May 1927. Smith’s aside,“Will someone tell me what the hell a papal encyclical is?” is recalled in “Catholics and the State,” New Republic, October 17, 1960. In 1928, John W. Davis blames anti-Catholicism, Newsweek, June 1, 1959. JPK’s comments about the anti-Irish tone of a Fortune magazine profile of him are mentioned in Amanda Smith, Hostage to Fortune. In 1932, Honey Fitz sticks by Al Smith at the Democratic Convention, John Henry Cutler, Honey Fitz.A description of Eddie Moore as “Irish as a clay pipe” also comes from Honey Fitz though Moore’s prediction about JFK is repeated in Michael Beschloss, Kennedy and Roosevelt.An account of Joe Sr.’s speech to Irish in Boston appeared in the Boston Post, Sunday, March 14, 1937.

  The relationship of Boston Irish Catholics to faith and family were analyzed in Philip F. Lawler,“The End of the Irish Century,” Catholic World Report, January 1996, and later reprinted in National Catholic Reporter.Cardinal O’Connell clout in Boston during Joe Kennedy’s early years of money and power is discussed in David E. Koskoff, Joseph P. Kennedy:A Life and Times.The public uproar and the church’s part in the Father Charles Coughlin controversy is mentioned in Alan Brinkley,Voices of Protest; Michael Beschloss, Kennedy and Roosevelt; and Thomas H. O’Connor,The Boston Irish: A Political History. Coughlin calling Joe Kennedy “the shining star among the dim ‘knights’ of the Administration,’” is based on a Boston Post article of August 16, 1936 cited in David E. Koskoff, Joseph P. Kennedy: A Life and Times. Felix Frankfurter’s prescient description of the impact of Father Coughlin on FDR and whether the Vatican would “silence” him is in JPK papers at the JFK Presidential Library. Other Coughlin-related articles provided specific detail:“Coughlin Quits Air, Suspends His Union, Saying Farewell,”Associated Press, New York Times, November 8, 1936.

  The long-time association and friendship between Joe Kennedy, Count Enrico Galeazzi and Boston Auxiliary Bishop Francis Spellman (later New York cardinal) is pieced together mainly from Kennedy’s own letters contained in the JPK papers granted access to the author and numerous other published accounts. Cardinal Pacelli’s visit to America is mentioned Robert I. Gannon, SJ, The Cardinal Spellman Story; John Cooney, The American Pope:The Life and Times of Francis Cardinal Spellman; Charles R. Morris, American Catholic; Paul I. Murphy, La Popessa; and his visit to the Kennedy home in Bronxville is cited in Doris Kearns Goodwin, The Fitzgeralds and The Kennedys.A long-term view was provided by Jim Nicholson,“A Brief History of U.S-Holy See Relations,” 30 Giorni Magazine,November 2002. Specific details of Pacelli’s trip are cited in Otto D. Tolischus, “Roosevelt Victory Foreseen in Reich,” New York Times, Nov. 4, 1936; “Pacelli Lunches With Roosevelt,” New York Times, November 6, 1936;“Cardinal Visits FDR,” New York Daily News, November 6, 1936. In an interview, Joe Gargan confirms that the seat that Cardinal Pacelli sat in had a special place in the Hyannis Port house for years afterward and that no one was allowed to sit in it, an assertion confirmed by Sen. Edward Kennedy’s office. Similarly, Kennedy’s long and complex relationship with Cardinal Spellman was detailed in Gannon’s The Cardinal Spellman Story; John Cooney, The American Pope:The Life and Times of Francis Cardinal Spellman; David E. Koskoff, Joseph P. Kennedy:A Life and Times; and in various correspondences between the two contained in the JPK papers at the Kennedy presidential library. Details about John J. Reynolds, Spellman’s real estate adviser, was found in his obituary in the New York Times, May 27, 1981.

  The early press descriptions of Count Enrico Galeazzi are sketchy, because he kept himself in the background of mostVatican-related events, including the 1936 Cardinal Pacelli-FDR meeting that he helped arrange in collaboration with Joe Kennedy and Spellman. But details about the relationship of Galeazzi and his half brother, Dr. Ricardo Galeazzi-Lisi, to Cardinal Pacelli/Pope Pius XII are later mentioned in “Vatican City Official Clipper Bound to U.S.,” New York Times, September 4, 1943; Sam Pope Brewer,“Spellman Hailed at Rome Airport On His Arrival for Consistory,” New York Times, January 15, 1946;“Pius Doctor Is Barred From Practice in Italy,” Associated Press, New York Times, December 13, 1958;“Doctor Describes Illness of Pope,” New York Times, October 12, 1958;“Pope’s Strength Is Ebbing,Vatican Bulletin Indicates,” New York Times, February 6, 1954;“Dr. Ricardo Galeazzi-Lisi Dies; Sold Deathbed Story of Pius XII,”Associated Press,November 17, 1968; as well as in John Cornwell, Hitler’s Pope.

  Chapter Ten: An Irishman in the Court of St. James

  Joe Kennedy’s appearance at the St. Patrick’s Day dinner of the Clover Club in Boston was recorded in a lengthy article and an editorial cartoon in the Boston Sunday Post,March 14, 1937. The prominent roles of several Irish Catholics, such as Joe Kennedy, in the New Deal under FDR is discussed in William Shannon, The American Irish, who sagely commented that “none of these figures became a real presidential possibility, but as a group they made possible the transition from Al Smith to John F.Kennedy.” FDR’s initial suggestion to Kennedy that he become ambassador to Ireland is mentioned in Rose Kennedy’s memoir, James Roosevelt, My Parents: A Differing View; Amanda Smith, Hostage to Fortune, and reflected in the JPK papers reviewed by the author, including a May 4, 1934 letter to his son, Joe Jr. (The Kennedys’ friendship with James Roosevelt would later prove crucial in the 1960 West Virginia primary.) FDR’s appointment of Joe Kennedy to the Court of St. James was recalled in several books, including Michael Beschloss, Kennedy and Roosevelt; Richard J.Whalen, The Founding Father:The Story of Joseph P. Kennedy; Harold L. Ickes, The Secret Diary of Harold L. Ickes; and Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr., The Age of Roosevelt. Details of Amb. Kennedy’s trip to Dublin are contained in various press accounts from July 1938, and mentioned in Hank Searls, The Lost Prince. De Valera’s contacts with the Kennedys are detailed in Arthur Mitchell, JFK and His Irish Heritage; Rev. J.F. Brennan, The Evolution of Everyman; Maurice N. Hennessy, I’ll Come Back in the Springtime: John F. Kennedy and the Irish, as well as JPK papers reviewed by author.

  Chapter Eleven: The Vatican Go-Between

  Joe Kennedy’s detailed recollections of the Kennedy family’s trip to Rome for the coronation of Pope Pius XII in 1939 are contained in diary notes and correspondences in the JPK papers provided by special access at the Kennedy Presidential Library. On Sunday, March 12, 1939, Joe Kennedy wrote a long, detailed diary entry about those he meets at the coronation, including Eamon DeValera who pushed the idea of ending partition by unifying Northern Ireland with the South. During private meeting, Pope says he “rejoices” that Kennedy is the US representative for the coronation, and he recalls meeting with FDR in Hyde Park and Kennedy puts in a good word for Spellman, based on author’s review of JPK papers, as well as those cited in Amanda Smith, Hostage to Fortune. In the New York Herald Tribune edition of March 14, 1939, Kennedy tells the world that the new Pope “had a great admiration for President Roosevelt” because he always admired his stand for religion.

  Joe Kennedy’s difficult relations with President Roosevelt is explored in several biographies, but none of those examined mention Kennedy’s belief that FDR harbored anti-Catholic bias. Diary and private letters from Kennedy in the private JPK collection make this clear, however. In his diary, Joe Kennedy expresses the belief that “deep down in his heart Roosevelt had a decidedly anti-Catholic feeling,” he writes. He points out that FDR had not appointed a prominent Catholic lately and that FDR made pointed comments about Joe Patterson’s conversion to Roman Catholicism in conversation with Lord Beaverbrook, a diary entry also cited in Amanda Smith, Hostage to Fortune. In other diary notes marked January 7, 1942, he indicated that Roosevelt looked upon him as a stubborn “Irishman.” In a 1943 letter to his son, Jack, Kennedy objects to Roosevelt’s public comments about the Allied attempts “that we were going to drive on Rome to save the Pope” which he angrily said “really struck a new low in political propaganda.” Rose Kennedy’s reminder to her husband that “The
President sent you, a Roman Catholic, as Ambassador to London, which probably no other President would have done” is cited in Michael Beschloss, Kennedy and Roosevelt. FDR’s trip to Boston where he refers to former Mayor John F. Fitzgerald as “Dulce Adeline” was found in John Henry Cutler, Honey Fitz. Further anecdotes about the political difficulties for Irish Catholics in the New Deal administration were found in Kenneth S. Davis, FDR: Into the Storm 1937–1940;Doris Kearns Goodwin, The Fitzgeralds and The Kennedys; and Ted Morgan, FDR:A Biography. In advance of the 1940 presidential campaign,FDR dismissed “the idea that Joe Kennedy could be elected President” as “absurd,” Michael Beschloss, Kennedy and Roosevelt, also see,“Will Kennedy Run for President?” Liberty, May 21, 1938, and other press accounts. Instances of Joseph Kennedy’s anti-Semitism is discussed in numerous books, including both Whalen and Koskoff biographies; Amanda Smith, Hostage to Fortune; Ronald Kessler, The Sins of the Father; and reflected in several letters and diary entries reviewed by the author in the JPK papers at the Kennedy library. In February 1939, Social Justice devoted its full cover page to a picture of the Kennedy family and designated the ambassador as its “Man of the Week,” according to Herbert S. Parmet, Jack:The Struggles of John F. Kennedy.