YAKIMA — When you study history, it’s not just about what happened in the past. There’s also the element of what could have been.
For instance, suppose John Wilkes Booth didn’t assassinate Abraham Lincoln. What would Reconstruction have looked like with Lincoln at the helm?
Or what would Washington be like today if voters had chosen Yakima instead of Olympia for the capital?
And then there’s the question of what would have happened if Yakima’s favorite son had become president of the United States.
No, we’re not talking Kyle MacLachlan. We’re discussing William O. Douglas.
People may not realize it, but Douglas came close to taking Harry S. Truman’s place as Franklin D. Roosevelt’s running mate in 1944, which would have put him in the White House.
Douglas, valedictorian of Yakima High School’s Class of 1916, was already well known to Roosevelt. FDR appointed Douglas to the Securities and Exchange Commission in 1936 and as its chairman in 1937 before nominating him for the U.S. Supreme Court in 1939. He was also a guest of Roosevelt’s at his presidential retreat and was one of FDR’s sounding boards for speeches.
And Douglas was a supporter of FDR’s New Deal policies to dig the nation out of the Great Depression, a stance that made him a regular target of W.W. Robertson’s editorials in the Yakima Daily Republic.
In 1944, FDR ran for an unprecedented fourth term. While there was little doubt among Democratic Party bosses that he would easily win the nomination, the question was whether his current vice president would be more of a liability than an asset.
While Henry Wallace supported Roosevelt’s policies for the most part, he tended to play more to the liberal wing of the party, denouncing segregation. It was a stance that party bosses worried would alienate Southern Democrats.
Plus, there was another concern among party leaders. FDR was in terrible health at that point, and the fear was that he wouldn’t make it through a fourth term if reelected. Whoever was FDR’s running mate would likely be the next president.
Ray Paolella, a Yakima attorney who has studied the life of William O. Douglas, said FDR asked for names of potential running mates, but asked that they consider only men younger than 60.
Documents that Paolella reviewed in Douglas’ papers at the Library of Congress showed that FDR’s first choice was Douglas, who was 45, followed by Truman, a Missouri senator who was 60.
Truman was not interested in the vice presidency, believing he was able to do more good as a senator. But Robert Hannegan, the Democratic National Committee chairman, was from Missouri and viewed Truman as someone who could bridge gaps in the party.
Truman was persuaded to seek the nomination, and his name was placed before Douglas’ in another document, despite Roosevelt’s son later saying his father preferred Douglas.
While Truman actively campaigned for the position, Douglas did not. Some believed he thought Roosevelt’s wishes were enough, while other scholars have said Douglas was, as a sitting member of the court, staying above the fray of partisan politics.
In the end, Truman became vice president and, after FDR died in 1945, the 33rd president and the one who would preside over the end of World War II.
Truman did offer Douglas the vice presidency in 1948, but Douglas had decided to stay on the bench.
What would a Douglas presidency have looked like?
“There’s a fair amount of speculation,” Paolella said. “You can look at his judicial philosophy and record and extrapolate from that.”
As president, Douglas would likely have pushed issues dear to him, such as First Amendment rights, conservation and environmental protection — philosophies that were born during Douglas’ youth in Yakima.
