IN the spring of 1938, Thomas E. Dewey was being men-
tioned as the Republican candidate for Governor of New
York in the election to be held that fall. He discouraged the
boom. When the Young Republican Clubs, meeting at Ni-
agara Falls, proposed to draft him, he asked them to desist,
saying, "Any attempt to inject my name into politics preju-
dices my work in the performance of my official duties."

The Dewey talk, however, continued. Many of Dewey's
closest advisers insisted that in no circumstances should he
permit himself to be diverted from the District Attorney-
ship to which he had been elected only the previous fall.
Some felt he would be accused of trying to get ahead too
fast. Others agreed with Dr. Nicholas Murray Butler, who
said, "Dewey should not allow himself to run for Governor,
or President, or Emperor, or anything else. He should re-
main at his post to clean up the city and make it a different
place for our children to grow up in."

Governor Herbert H. Lehman, a tremendous vote getter,
was tired of Albany. He wanted to go to the United States
Senate. Dewey had been informed reliably that Lehman
positively would not run for reelection as Governor. At the
Republican State Convention at Saratoga at the end of Sep-
tember, Judge William F. Bleakley of Westchester County,
who had been defeated by Lehman in the campaign of 1936
(the Governor's term was for only two years at that time),
made the nominating speech for Dewey. There were no

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