The American Liberty League was a U.S. organization formed in 1934 by conservative Democrats such as Al Smith (the 1928 Democratic presidential nominee), Jouett Shouse (former high party official and U.S. Representative), John W. Davis (the 1924 Democratic presidential nominee), and John Jacob Raskob (former Democratic National Chairman and the foremost opponent of Prohibition), Dean Acheson (future Secretary of State under Harry Truman), along with many industrialists, notably Prescott Bush and members of the Du Pont family.
The League stated that it would work to "defend and uphold the Constitution" and to "foster the right to work, earn, save and acquire property." In its opinion, the Roosevelt Administration was leading the U.S. toward fascism, bankruptcy and dictatorship. The League spent between $500,000 and $1.5 million in promotional campaigns; its funding came mostly from the Du Pont family, as well as leaders of U.S. Steel, General Motors, General Foods, Standard Oil, Birdseye, Colgate, Heinz Foods, Chase National Bank, and Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company. It reached over 125,000 members and supported the Republicans in 1936.
In the year of its founding, 1934, the League was allegedly involved in the Business Plot to overthrow President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. The plot is detailed in congressional testimony by Marine Corp Major General Smedley Butler. According to Butler's testimony, the League was founded intentionally as a para-military coup vehicle, an 'American version' of the 1930s French Croix de Feu. Butler said that he was approached to lead a group of 500,000 veterans to take over the functions of government. The final McCormack-Dickstein Committee report agreed with Butler's allegations on the existence of the plot, but no prosecutions or further investigations followed.(Spivak, Seldes, Archer)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Liberty_LeagueSeems a lot of the Dems weren't exactly on board with the New Deal.
Much of the eventual opposition to Roosevelt's leadership came from members of his own party. Indeed, it was in the Washington office of Jouette Shouse, the powerful Democratic leader who helped to rebuild the Democratic party during Hoover's Presidency, that the creation of the Liberty League was first announced to the press in August 1934. Shouse with John J. Raskob, chairman of the Democratic National Committee in 1928, and other conservative Democrats feared that the Roosevelt administration was veering too far to the left. Alfred E. Smith and John W. Davis, two former Democratic Presidential candidates, served as directors of the league along with three Republicans. The league was organized ostensibly as a nonpartisan venture to gather facts. Under that guise it even received the blessing of Roosevelt. Many Republicans, however, viewed the Liberty League as a front organization for their party. Neasweek saw the the issue clearly: "The Tories," it reported, "have come out of ambush." Soon Democratic leaders within the administration regarded the league as nothing but an organized endeavor to destroy the appeal of their party. Harold Ickes, secretary of the interior, professed to be delighted. The United States would have at last, he commented, two political parties divided on real issues. Harry Hopkins wrote cynically: "The League may be composed of right-thinking people but they are so far Right that no one will ever find them." By the close of 1934 the battle lines in national politics were clearly drawn.
http://www.jstor.org/view/00224642/di982286/98p0174t/0.