Joseph B. Ely Papers 1869-1944; bulk: 1930-1931 Guide to the Collection

Table of Contents Collection Summary Biographical Sketch Collection Description Acquisition Information Organization Detailed Description of the Collection Preferred Citation Access Terms Materials Removed from the Collection

Collection Summary

Biographical Sketch

Joseph Buell Ely, son of Sarah Naomi Buell Ely and Henry Wilson Ely, Esq., was born 22 February 1881 in Westfield, Massachusetts. He attended Westfield Normal School and received his A.B. degree in 1902 from Williams College. He earned his law degree from Harvard University in 1905, after which he began practicing with his father in Westfield. Joseph married Harriet Zelda Dyson, a Westfield native and graduate of Westfield Normal School and Mt. Holyoke College, on 1 May 1906. They had one son, Richard.

In 1915 Governor David I. Walsh appointed J. B. Ely district attorney of the Western District of Massachusetts, a post to which he was elected the following year.

Ely was the 48th governor of Massachusetts, serving from 1931-1935. First elected in 1930, he ran as a "wet" candidate in favor of the repeal of the Eighteenth Amendment and the Massachusetts Baby Volstead Act; stronger state control of power and light; a state Department of Commerce to benefit Massachusetts industries; a revision of the Massachusetts tax system; and home rule for Boston and other cities of the state. He defeated Republican incumbent Frank G. Allen to become the first Democrat to serve in the state's highest office since World War I.

Ely won a second term by defeating William Sterling Youngman, Republican candidate for governor, in the Massachusetts general election of 1932. However, in 1934 he declined to be a candidate for re-election to a third term in order to be free to express his opposition to Franklin D. Roosevelt.

J. B. Ely was active in the Democratic Party at the national level. He was an elected delegate to the Democratic National Convention in 1924 and 1928. He nominated former governor of New York, Alfred E. Smith, for president at the convention of 1932, but supported Franklin D. Roosevelt in the general election after Roosevelt was chosen over Smith by the party.

The Democrats chose Roosevelt to run for a second term in 1936, but Ely publicly supported Republican Alfred Landon for president because he thought Roosevelt had abandoned the Democratic platform of 1932, the National Industrial Recovery Act and the Agricultural Adjustment Act were unconstitutional, and the New Deal was to accomplish the principles of communism, socialism, and fascism.

In 1940, Ely resigned from the Democratic National Convention, surrendering his credentials, after he had backed James A. Farley for the party's presidential nomination. He was against any president serving more than two terms. He remained an outspoken opponent to Roosevelt throughout his third term.

Ely sought the Democratic nomination for president in 1944 in an attempt to divide the party and defeat Roosevelt in his bid for a fourth term. After failing to win the nomination and block Roosevelt, Ely supported the Republican candidate, Thomas Dewey, for president.

In 1944, Ely wrote The American Dream. He based the book on his speeches and addresses which illustrated the development of his convictions and his view, as a Jeffersonian Democrat, of the fundamentals of American democracy.

Williams College, in 1931, and Holy Cross and Wesleyan Colleges, in 1934, acknowledged Ely's achievements with honorary degrees.

Ely died 13 June 1956.

Collection Description

The Joseph Buell Ely Papers, 1869-1956, are primarily political, but extremely incomplete. The collection is divided into five series: Personal, Political, Miscellaneous, Clippings, and Printed Materials. The Political series is broken into six sub-series: Correspondence, Statements, Conference, Subject Files, Functions (Invitations and Programs), and Miscellaneous. Within each series and sub-series, the arrangement is chronological, with the exception of Subject Files, which is alphabetical, and Miscellaneous, which is not arranged.

The main portion of the collection covers Ely's first gubernatorial primary in 1930 and his inauguration of 1931. There are press releases and addresses delivered during the primary and newspaper clippings depicting the results of the primary and general elections and the inauguration. Subject files, correspondence, and printed materials from the same period contain studies, reports, position papers, and/or recommendations on topics which Ely considered for his campaign and inaugural address. These may provide some insight into the evolution of his positions on the important issues of his day.

Ely's years as governor are scantily documented with some correspondence, subject files, clippings, and printed materials. There are several folders of programs and invitations for various functions in which he participated as governor, as well as some of the remarks Ely delivered on these occasions. These may provide an awareness of the obligations of political figures of his prominence.

Ely illustrated his view of constitutional history, his development as a Jeffersonian Democrat, and his opposition to Franklin D. Roosevelt and his policies in his book The American Dream. The statement folders contain a number of drafts of his remarks which augment those which have been published. From a meeting of thirty life-long members of the Democratic Party, in 1936, which Ely called "the conference of Jeffersonian Democrats," there are drafts of remarks made by several of the participants, as well as drafts of the resolutions. Their resolution, i.e., their inability to support the national administration, was reflected in Ely's public support of Republican presidential candidates. The reference clippings, covering Roosevelt, the New Deal, and related political commentary, which were culled from newspapers, appear to contain no other items of interest, and substantiate some of Ely's conclusions about Roosevelt and his policies.

Acquisition Information

The papers of Joseph Buell Ely were a gift from the estate of Richard Ely in January 1992.

Organization of the Collection

The collection is organized into the following series:

Detailed Description of the Collection

Preferred Citation

Joseph B. Ely papers, Massachusetts Historical Society.

Access Terms

This collection is indexed under the following headings in ABIGAIL, the online catalog of the Massachusetts Historical Society. Researchers desiring materials about related persons, organizations, or subjects should search the catalog using these headings.

Materials Removed from the Collection

Photographs from this collection have been removed to the MHS Photo Archives.

For a list of printed materials and museum objects removed from this collection, see Curator of Manuscripts.