Cummings Homer Stille

Homer Stillé Cummings (1870-1956), mayor, Democratic Party leader, and Connecticut state attorney, was FDR's choice for governor-general of the Philippines until attorney general-designate Thomas Walsh died en route to FDR's 1933 inauguration. FDR then turned to Cummings to fill that post and Cummings served as FDR's attorney general from 1933 until his resignation in 1939. A William Jennings Bryan Democrat, Cummings supported free silver, lower tariffs, an income tax, and the regulation of trusts and monopolies.

Cummings, however, had more success as a party leader than as an elected official. Although he served as mayor of Stamford, Connecticut, for three terms, he lost (by narrow margins) elections to enter the House and the Senate. In 1916, he became the state's attorney for Fairfield, a position he held for a decade. At the same time, his party stature increased. From 1914-1920, he served as national chair of the Democratic National Committee and delivered the keynote address at the 1920 convention and in 1924, he strove (although unsuccessfully) to mediate the interparty dispute that ripped the convention. In 1932, FDR asked him to manage the delegate selection process and to second his nomination.

Although Walsh's death catapulted Cummings into the Justice Department, Cummings embraced his responsibilities. He immediately ruled that the Trading with the Enemy Act could be used to embargo the flow of gold and close the nation's banks. He promptly began reorganizing the Justice Department both to make it more efficient and to expand its criminal jurisdiction into fighting crime. He led a successful effort to convince Congress to increase the penalties for kidnapping, bank robbery, crossing state lines to avoid arrest and prosecution, and the illegal possession of certain firearms. He also approved the expansion of powers granted to J. Edgar Hoover's Federal Bureau of Investigation.

He was not as successful defending New Deal legislation before the Supreme Court as he was saddled with a solicitor general's office staffed with mediocre attorneys selected more for their political affiliations than their prosecutorial abilities. In 1937, FDR asked Cummings to draft the controversial Judicial Appointment Act, which the Senate killed with strong bipartisan support. Cummings left the Justice Department in 1939 and lived in Washington, D.C. until his death in 1956.



Homer Cummings était un homme politique et avocat américain né le 30 avril 1870 à Chicago et décédé le 10 septembre 1956. Il fut procureur général sous Roosevelt (1933-1939).