Elections With Incumbents: The Election of 1912
In 1912, an incumbent President was experiencing some unpopularity, something that is not unusual even in the last century. But unlike most unpopular president, President William Howard Taft was finding the worst of his opposition from within his own party. His mentor, Theodore Roosevelt, had selected (or should I say anointed) Taft to succeed him four years earlier in 1908. It was a surprising choice in many ways. Roosevelt was a Progressive, while Taft was a Conservative. If Roosevelt had expected Taft to follow his policies, he would end up disappointed. TR wasn't pleased with how Taft had performed as President. Although Roosevelt gained a reputation as a "trust-buster", it was Taft who launched 90 antitrust suits, including one against the largest corporation, U.S. Steel, for an acquisition that Roosevelt had personally approved. Taft lost the support of big business and also of Roosevelt, who felt humiliated by his protégé. When Taft fired Roosevelt's good friend Gifford Pinchot as Chief of the Forest Service, he had gone too far. In late 1911, Roosevelt announced his candidacy for the Republican nomination.
When Roosevelt was elected President in 1904, he announced that he only planned to serve one term. It was a decision he soon came to regret. Roosevelt had loved being President, and for the rest of his life, it was assumed that he would some day return to the White House. His feeling of betrayal made him decide that 1912 was the right time. Unfortunately for Roosevelt, he had waited too long to make his decision. Taft had suspected that Roosevelt would challenge him for the presidency, and he quietly gathered support from most of the Republican party leaders in the country.
In an era still dominated by party bosses, some states did have primaries. Roosevelt overwhelmingly won 9 out of 12 of these, (8 by landslide margins) including Taft's home state of Ohio. Taft won only the state of Massachusetts (and that was by a small margin). Progressive Senator Robert M. LaFollette won two states. Through the primaries, LaFollette won a total of 36 delegates; President Taft won 48 delegates; and Roosevelt won 278 delegates. But 36 states did not hold primaries. Their delegates were chosen by state conventions, which were controlled by party political machines, not by the voter. Many of the state delegates were contested. Taft controlled the Republican National Committee, which had the power to make decisions on contested delegates. The RNC awarded 235 of the contested delegates to Taft and 19 to Roosevelt. As a result, Roosevelt's delegates abstained from voting at his request. The final tally at the GOP convention (held in Chicago in late June) was as follows:
William Howard Taft - 561 votes
Theodore Roosevelt - 107 votes
Robert La Follette - 36 votes
Abstained (Roosevelt delegates) - 322 votes
Roosevelt left the convention and decided to run as a third party candidate for what he called the Bull Moose Party.
Meanwhile, six serious contenders vied for the Democratic nomination for President: Woodrow Wilson, Governor of New Jersey Champ Clark, Speaker of the House from Missouri Judson Harmon, Governor of Ohio Oscar Underwood, House Majority Leader from Alabama Thomas R. Marshall, Governor of Indiana Eugene Foss, Governor of Massachusetts. The 1912 Democratic National Convention was held at the Fifth Regiment Armory in Baltimore from June 25 to July 2, 1912. Both Speaker Clark and Woodrow Wilson had won a number of primaries. Clark entered the convention with more pledged delegates than did Wilson, but he lacked the two thirds vote that was then necessary to secure the nomination. Clark, received 440¼ votes on the first ballot to 324 for Wilson. Governor Harmon received 148 votes while Congressman Underwood received 117¼ with the rest of the votes scattered among others. No candidate managed to gain a majority until the ninth ballot, when the New York delegation shifted its allegiance to Clark. Due to the then-official two-thirds rule used by the Democratic Party, Clark was never able to secure the nomination as he failed to get the necessary two-thirds vote for victory.
Clark hoped that once he received a majority of the votes, it would start a bandwagon rolling to his nomination, as had occurred in previous contests. But Clark's chances were hurt when Tammany Hall, the powerful and corrupt Democratic political machine in New York City, threw its support behind him. This gave Clark a majority on the ninth ballot, but instead of propelling Clark's bandwagon towards victory, the endorsement led William Jennings Bryan to turn against the Speaker of the House. A three-time Democratic presidential candidate and still the leader of the party's liberals, Bryan delivered a speech denouncing Clark as the candidate of "Wall Street". Up until the Tammany endorsement, Bryan had remained neutral, but once this political machine put itself behind Clark, Bryan threw his support to New Jersey Governor Woodrow Wilson, who was regarded as a moderate reformer.
Wilson had consistently finished second to Clark on each ballot. Wilson had nearly given up hope that he could be nominated, and he was on the verge of having a concession speech read for him at the convention freeing his delegates to vote for someone else. Bryan's endorsement of Wilson influenced many other delegates, and Wilson gradually gained in strength while Clark's support dwindled. Wilson received the nomination on the 46th ballot. The 46 ballots were the most cast at a convention up to that time since 1860.
Thomas R. Marshall, the Governor of Indiana, who had swung his state's delegate votes to Wilson in later ballots, was named as Wilson's running mate. Wilson and Marshall went on to win a landslide victory in the 1912 Presidential election against a split Republican Party.
Interestingly, the 1912 Democratic Convention was part of the story for Taylor Caldwell's 1972 novel Captains and the Kings. In the novel, the fictional Irish-Catholic Rory Daniel Armagh, a U.S. Senator from Pennsylvania, emerges as the front-runner for the 1912 Democratic Presidential nomination after beating Woodrow Wilson in multiple primaries. But Armagh is assassinated as part of a conspiracy of international power brokers before the convention. The novel was made into a television miniseries in 1976.
The 1912 presidential campaign was a bitter contest. Vice-President James S. Sherman died in office on October 30, 1912, less than a week before the election, leaving Taft without a running mate. (Nicholas M. Butler was designated to receive electoral votes that would have been cast for Sherman.)
While Roosevelt was campaigning in Milwaukee on October 14, 1912, a saloonkeeper from New York named John Flammang Schrank, shot Roosevelt. The bullet lodged in his chest after passing through his steel eyeglass case and a 50-page single-folded copy of the speech, which was entitled "Progressive Cause Greater Than Any Individual". Schrank was immediately subdued and might have been beaten to death had Roosevelt not shouted to the crowd not to harm Schrank. Roosevelt assured the crowd he was all right, then ordered police to take charge of Schrank and to make sure no violence was done to him. Roosevelt, was an experienced hunter and anatomist, and he correctly concluded that since he was not coughing blood, the bullet had not reached his lung. He refused to go to the hospital immediately. Instead, he delivered his scheduled speech as blood seeped into his shirt. Roosevelt spoke for 90 minutes before completing his speech and accepting medical attention. He addressed the crowd, saying "Ladies and gentlemen, I don't know whether you fully understand that I have just been shot, but it takes more than that to kill a Bull Moose."
A subsequent x-ray showed that the bullet had lodged in Roosevelt's pectoral muscle, but did not penetrate the pleura. Doctors agreed that it would be less dangerous to leave it in place than to attempt to remove it. Roosevelt carried the bullet with him for the rest of his life. Both Taft and Democratic nominee Woodrow Wilson suspended their own campaigning until Roosevelt recovered and resumed his. He spent two weeks recuperating before returning to the campaign trail.
The Socialist Party ran former Indiana Congressman Eugene Debs. His biggest event was a speech to 15,000 supporters in New York City. The crowd sang "La Marseillaise" and "The Internationale". Debs attacked Democrats, Progressives, and Republicans alike, stating that all were financed by the trusts.
Roosevelt denounced the way the Republican nomination had been "stolen". He called for a strong federal role in regulating the economy and reigning in large corporations. Wilson supported a policy called "The New Freedom" based on individualism as opposed to a strong government. Taft campaigned quietly, and spoke of the need for judges to be more powerful than elected officials.
The split in the Republican party, as well as the Democrats' selection of a progressive candidate assured Wilson's election. Taft carried two states (Utah and Vermont), Roosevelt six, and Wilson won the remaining forty states. The split meant that candidates carried few states with more than 50% of the vote in that state. Taft didn't win any, Roosevelt one (South Dakota) and Wilson eleven, all of them states of the former Confederacy. Wilson received 6,296,919 votes overall, less than William Jennings Bryan received in any of his campaigns. An analysis of the votes showed that the division of the normal Republican vote operated to Wilson's benefit.
Overall Wilson received 41.84% of the popular vote, and 435 electoral votes. Roosevelt finished second with 4,122,721 votes (27.40%) and 88 electoral votes. Taft finished third with 3,486,242 votes (23.17%) and only 8 electoral votes. Eugene V. Debs received 901,551 votes (5.99%) but no electoral votes.
When Roosevelt was elected President in 1904, he announced that he only planned to serve one term. It was a decision he soon came to regret. Roosevelt had loved being President, and for the rest of his life, it was assumed that he would some day return to the White House. His feeling of betrayal made him decide that 1912 was the right time. Unfortunately for Roosevelt, he had waited too long to make his decision. Taft had suspected that Roosevelt would challenge him for the presidency, and he quietly gathered support from most of the Republican party leaders in the country.
In an era still dominated by party bosses, some states did have primaries. Roosevelt overwhelmingly won 9 out of 12 of these, (8 by landslide margins) including Taft's home state of Ohio. Taft won only the state of Massachusetts (and that was by a small margin). Progressive Senator Robert M. LaFollette won two states. Through the primaries, LaFollette won a total of 36 delegates; President Taft won 48 delegates; and Roosevelt won 278 delegates. But 36 states did not hold primaries. Their delegates were chosen by state conventions, which were controlled by party political machines, not by the voter. Many of the state delegates were contested. Taft controlled the Republican National Committee, which had the power to make decisions on contested delegates. The RNC awarded 235 of the contested delegates to Taft and 19 to Roosevelt. As a result, Roosevelt's delegates abstained from voting at his request. The final tally at the GOP convention (held in Chicago in late June) was as follows:
William Howard Taft - 561 votes
Theodore Roosevelt - 107 votes
Robert La Follette - 36 votes
Abstained (Roosevelt delegates) - 322 votes
Roosevelt left the convention and decided to run as a third party candidate for what he called the Bull Moose Party.
Meanwhile, six serious contenders vied for the Democratic nomination for President: Woodrow Wilson, Governor of New Jersey Champ Clark, Speaker of the House from Missouri Judson Harmon, Governor of Ohio Oscar Underwood, House Majority Leader from Alabama Thomas R. Marshall, Governor of Indiana Eugene Foss, Governor of Massachusetts. The 1912 Democratic National Convention was held at the Fifth Regiment Armory in Baltimore from June 25 to July 2, 1912. Both Speaker Clark and Woodrow Wilson had won a number of primaries. Clark entered the convention with more pledged delegates than did Wilson, but he lacked the two thirds vote that was then necessary to secure the nomination. Clark, received 440¼ votes on the first ballot to 324 for Wilson. Governor Harmon received 148 votes while Congressman Underwood received 117¼ with the rest of the votes scattered among others. No candidate managed to gain a majority until the ninth ballot, when the New York delegation shifted its allegiance to Clark. Due to the then-official two-thirds rule used by the Democratic Party, Clark was never able to secure the nomination as he failed to get the necessary two-thirds vote for victory.
Clark hoped that once he received a majority of the votes, it would start a bandwagon rolling to his nomination, as had occurred in previous contests. But Clark's chances were hurt when Tammany Hall, the powerful and corrupt Democratic political machine in New York City, threw its support behind him. This gave Clark a majority on the ninth ballot, but instead of propelling Clark's bandwagon towards victory, the endorsement led William Jennings Bryan to turn against the Speaker of the House. A three-time Democratic presidential candidate and still the leader of the party's liberals, Bryan delivered a speech denouncing Clark as the candidate of "Wall Street". Up until the Tammany endorsement, Bryan had remained neutral, but once this political machine put itself behind Clark, Bryan threw his support to New Jersey Governor Woodrow Wilson, who was regarded as a moderate reformer.
Wilson had consistently finished second to Clark on each ballot. Wilson had nearly given up hope that he could be nominated, and he was on the verge of having a concession speech read for him at the convention freeing his delegates to vote for someone else. Bryan's endorsement of Wilson influenced many other delegates, and Wilson gradually gained in strength while Clark's support dwindled. Wilson received the nomination on the 46th ballot. The 46 ballots were the most cast at a convention up to that time since 1860.
Thomas R. Marshall, the Governor of Indiana, who had swung his state's delegate votes to Wilson in later ballots, was named as Wilson's running mate. Wilson and Marshall went on to win a landslide victory in the 1912 Presidential election against a split Republican Party.
Interestingly, the 1912 Democratic Convention was part of the story for Taylor Caldwell's 1972 novel Captains and the Kings. In the novel, the fictional Irish-Catholic Rory Daniel Armagh, a U.S. Senator from Pennsylvania, emerges as the front-runner for the 1912 Democratic Presidential nomination after beating Woodrow Wilson in multiple primaries. But Armagh is assassinated as part of a conspiracy of international power brokers before the convention. The novel was made into a television miniseries in 1976.
The 1912 presidential campaign was a bitter contest. Vice-President James S. Sherman died in office on October 30, 1912, less than a week before the election, leaving Taft without a running mate. (Nicholas M. Butler was designated to receive electoral votes that would have been cast for Sherman.)
While Roosevelt was campaigning in Milwaukee on October 14, 1912, a saloonkeeper from New York named John Flammang Schrank, shot Roosevelt. The bullet lodged in his chest after passing through his steel eyeglass case and a 50-page single-folded copy of the speech, which was entitled "Progressive Cause Greater Than Any Individual". Schrank was immediately subdued and might have been beaten to death had Roosevelt not shouted to the crowd not to harm Schrank. Roosevelt assured the crowd he was all right, then ordered police to take charge of Schrank and to make sure no violence was done to him. Roosevelt, was an experienced hunter and anatomist, and he correctly concluded that since he was not coughing blood, the bullet had not reached his lung. He refused to go to the hospital immediately. Instead, he delivered his scheduled speech as blood seeped into his shirt. Roosevelt spoke for 90 minutes before completing his speech and accepting medical attention. He addressed the crowd, saying "Ladies and gentlemen, I don't know whether you fully understand that I have just been shot, but it takes more than that to kill a Bull Moose."
A subsequent x-ray showed that the bullet had lodged in Roosevelt's pectoral muscle, but did not penetrate the pleura. Doctors agreed that it would be less dangerous to leave it in place than to attempt to remove it. Roosevelt carried the bullet with him for the rest of his life. Both Taft and Democratic nominee Woodrow Wilson suspended their own campaigning until Roosevelt recovered and resumed his. He spent two weeks recuperating before returning to the campaign trail.
The Socialist Party ran former Indiana Congressman Eugene Debs. His biggest event was a speech to 15,000 supporters in New York City. The crowd sang "La Marseillaise" and "The Internationale". Debs attacked Democrats, Progressives, and Republicans alike, stating that all were financed by the trusts.
Roosevelt denounced the way the Republican nomination had been "stolen". He called for a strong federal role in regulating the economy and reigning in large corporations. Wilson supported a policy called "The New Freedom" based on individualism as opposed to a strong government. Taft campaigned quietly, and spoke of the need for judges to be more powerful than elected officials.
The split in the Republican party, as well as the Democrats' selection of a progressive candidate assured Wilson's election. Taft carried two states (Utah and Vermont), Roosevelt six, and Wilson won the remaining forty states. The split meant that candidates carried few states with more than 50% of the vote in that state. Taft didn't win any, Roosevelt one (South Dakota) and Wilson eleven, all of them states of the former Confederacy. Wilson received 6,296,919 votes overall, less than William Jennings Bryan received in any of his campaigns. An analysis of the votes showed that the division of the normal Republican vote operated to Wilson's benefit.
Overall Wilson received 41.84% of the popular vote, and 435 electoral votes. Roosevelt finished second with 4,122,721 votes (27.40%) and 88 electoral votes. Taft finished third with 3,486,242 votes (23.17%) and only 8 electoral votes. Eugene V. Debs received 901,551 votes (5.99%) but no electoral votes.