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It's hard to say when Smith's desire for the Presidency first appeared. The original nomination didn't seem to have interested him much. It was a gesture to a favorite son of New York. The New York delegation was big and important. The New York delegation was all stirred up about Smith, because he'd been a good Governor, a successful Governor, everybody had liked him. He was the first boy from the lower East Side, the first Irishman and the first Roman Catholic who had come so high in the State of New York. He was the first Tammany Hall man that had come so high in recent years. The organization was delighted with him. I think the idea was more the pride with which a delegation goes into a convention aware of its numerical strength in the convention and wanting to nominate its favorite sun. This was in 1924.

I don't think that at that time Al Smith had any particular interest in it. I think he regarded it as a gesture of good will from his fellow Democrats, and as such he was grateful for their desire to put his name in nomination.