Smather’s contradictory positions on racial matters as a private individual and a Florida senator responsive to his conservative state were never more evident than after Johnson became president. Smathers urged Johnson to act quickly to pass national civil rights legislation, stating “…Now that you’re the President, I should think they would agree that the sooner we get a civil rights bill over with … the better the South would be, the better the North would be, the better everybody would be.” Smathers privately strategized with Johnson on the passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act telling Johnson, “I hope that he (Mansfield) has done his counting and that he has the votes.”