It didn't take too long before John Fitzgerald was prepared to announce his candidacy for the Massachusetts State Senate. Speech making tripped so lightly on his Irish tongue that his opponents began referring to him as "Fitz-blarney."
Blarney or not, after the election Johnny was on his way to the State Senate. It may well have been the Irish of the good ole North End that put him there, but while there he didn't overlook all the other immigrant nationalities. When the bill came up to make Columbus Day a national holiday, he backed the bill right up to the hilt to please the Italian voters. All the while he was rising to the top he didn't forget his relatives back home in Boston. Many of them found themselves in cushy state jobs.
Off to Congress
He must have pleased more than a few because in 1894, his followers sent him to the U.S. Congress. There, he served in Washington for an "undistinguished" three terms.
Blue Blood against Irish Catholic
Throughout the three years that John Fitzgerald spent in Congress the Yankee establishment quaked at the likely prospect that Johnny would come marching home to Boston and seek the highest office the city had to offer. And that is exactly what Fitzgerald did. He ran for Mayor of Boston in 1905.
The Yanks of Boston were not going to stand quietly by and let this Irish Catholic upstart from the streets have his way. To counter Fitzgerald's political efforts as mayor of Boston they ran a "Republican blue blood" to put a halt to the Fitzgerald proceedings. Johnny's opponent, Harvard man Louis Frothingham, had nearly all of the votes of Boston's "respectable" population behind him. But once Frothingham was out on the streets the Fitzgerald fraction hit him like a locomotive with a full head of steam.
Johnny, Star of the Show
Week after week, Johnny Fitzgerald made 10 speeches a day. He denounced Frothingham and his backers as "anti-Catholic, anti-Irish, and un-American," of which there was probably considerably more than a jig of truth to at least the first two accusations.
John Fitzgerald continues with: John Fitzgerald Comes Home.
Previous: John Fitzgerald on the Rise.
