The American Liberty League was founded in August 1934 by conservative political and business leaders who opposed the policies of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. After supporting anti-New Deal candidates of both parties in the 1934 congressional elections, the League moved on in 1935 to attack the whole New Deal program. Its pamphlets, widely distributed, described the previous two years' legislation as extravagant, socialistic, and unconstitutional. Roo- sevelt's style of governance was compared to that of Stalin, Hitler, and Mussolini. Industrialists, particularly members of the du Pont family, provided the League with ample financial backing, and conservative Democrats like John W. Davis added their support. But the movement lacked a compelling political spokesperson. Former governor Alfred E. Smith of New York was persuaded to come out of retirement to support the League, but his keynote speech at a fund-raising dinner on January 25, 1936, was so extreme and embittered that it harmed both his image and that of the League.
League leaders like John J. Raskob and the du Ponts briefly supported Governor Eugene Talmadge of Georgia, who was trying to rally grass-roots Democrats against the New Deal and at the same time further his own presidential ambitions, but this effort won little public support. Equally unsuccessful were the League's efforts to create new political organizations like the Farmers' Independence Council and the Southern Committee to Uphold the Constitution. By the time of the election in 1936 the League had little political standing, and Roosevelt's overwhelming victory completed its defeat.
See also Conservatism; New Deal.
