Election+of+1912

= THE ELECTION OF 1912 = This election was an uncommon 4 way race, including 4 different parties with a candidate each. The race featured Woodrow Wilson of the Democratic Party, William Taft of the Republican Party, Theodore Roosevelt of the Progressive Party, and Eugene V. Debs of the Socialist Party. The election showed the disunity in the Republican Party, they had both a Progressive Faction backing Roosevelt and a Conservative one, backing Taft. The election began with a bang when the Republican Party split in two on the night of June 22nd, 1912. Former President Theodore Roosevelt did not receive the Republican nomination, so he and his large following split from the embrace of the Republican Party and created their own party, the Progressive, or “Bull Moose”, Party. The election turned out to be a landslide; Woodrow Wilson won the popular vote and crushed his opponents in the Electoral College this was only the 2nd election in 72 years where a Democrat won.

__Democratic Party __
 __Democratic Party/Platform:__

The Democrats had been out of power for decades and this election was their first real shot in a long time at the presidency. The Democrats already held about 45% of the vote before the primaries, but when the Republican Party split it became an almost sure win for the democrats, because all of the republican votes would be. The Democrats were fervently against monopolies, they said that it was intolerable to have private monopolies and all private monopolies and their officials should be pursued by the criminal and civil law. They saw it as an injustice for any Trusts or Monopolies to operate in the United States. Also, the democrats stated that the high cost of living was directly caused by the high tariffs that were enacted and enforced by the Republicans. The Democrats were strongly opposed to these tariffs. The Democrats also supported the proposals for the 16th and 17th amendments, which created federal income tax and the popular election of senators. The democrats did agree with the republicans on some issues though, such as on corporate campaign funding to which they were both opposed. They also agreed with Republicans on banking, which they thought should be for the public welfare, not big businesses. Another thing that the Democrats were for was the rights of labor workers. They also wanted to reform civil and criminal law in the United States. The democrats believed that the taxes were too high under Republican presidents and that there were too many unnecessary offices in the governments. The Democrats also believed that we should preserve natural resources, believing that the republicans expended too many of these valuable resources. Democrats were in favor of Woman’s Suffrage as well. The party stayed much more unified than the Republicans which ultimately led to their victory.

__Democratic National Convention:__  The 1912 D.N.C. took place at the Fifth Regiment Armory in Baltimore from June 25 to July 2, 1912. The main candidates were House Speaker Champ Clark of Missouri and Governor Woodrow Wilson of New Jersey. Both Clark and Wilson had won a number of primaries, and Clark entered the convention with more pledged delegates than did Wilson. However, he lacked the two thirds vote necessary to secure the presidential nomination. Governor Judson Harmon of Ohio received 148 votes while U.S. Representative Oscar W. Underwood of Alabama, the Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, received 117¼ with the rest of the votes scattered among the other delegates. No candidate managed to gain a majority until the ninth ballot, when the New York delegation shifted its to Clark. Due to the then-official two-thirds rule used by the Democratic Party, Clark was never able to secure the presidential nomination as he failed to get the necessary two-thirds vote for victory.

__Woodrow Wilson:__

Woodrow Wilso n, governor of of New Jersey and former president of Princeton University, became the first democrat to be elected in decades and the first southerner to be elected in over 50 years. Initially, Woodrow Wilson came second in almost every single ballot to Champ Clark for the nomination of the Democratic party. However, support for Clark declined when William Jennings Bryan stated his dislike of Clark’s support for Tammany Hall, a corrupt political organization and started to support Wilson. This swung the nomination to Wilson’s favor, and he won the nomination with his running mate being Thomas Marshall, the Governor of Indiana. Wilson believed that the system of checks and balances was the cause of the problems in the American government. He believed that because of checks and balances, there was no way for voters to see who was accountable for any problems. Wilson won the election of 1912 by a landslide mainly because of the Republican split. The republican party and the progressive party both garnered about the same number of votes, which added up to more than the number of votes Wilson received. The election would have been much closer if the Republican split had not happened.

__Republican Split__


In 1912, the Republican Party was on the brink of civil war, the conservatives led by the current president, William Taft, and the progressives, who were led by Taft’s predecessor Roosevelt. At the time of Taft’s election 4 years prior, the progressives saw him as a moderate conservative and a friend to their progressive, but during Taft’s term he became increasingly more and more conservative and by 1912, him and Roosevelt were openly enemies. When Roosevelt did not receive the Republican nomination, he had reached a boiling point so he and his progressive followers created their own party, the Progressive Party and ran Roosevelt as their candidate.

__Republican Party __
__Republican Party/Platform:__  <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The Republican Party had cut its progressive wing and was almost exclusively conservative in its views. It was opposed to Monopolies. It created the Anti-trust of 1890 which cut these monopolies down a level, but it hoped to do this further with supplemental legislation to these acts instead of complete abolition of these corporations. They supported protective tariffs, such as import duties that “should be high enough, while yielding a sufficient revenue, to protect adequately American industries and wages”. They wanted to lower the cost of living, but argued against accusations that their tariff system had created this problem. Republicans also supported a strong banking system and a safe currency. They thought that it was “of great importance to the social and economic welfare of this country that its farmers have facilities for borrowing easily and cheaply the money they need to increase the productivity of their land.” The party supported legislation that didn’t allow Corporations to pay for political campaigning either directly or indirectly. The party also favored a strong navy that was adequate for the defense of the country. They aspired for regulations on “undesirable” immigration. They gave unwavering support to Taft and said that under his presidency the country was stable and peaceful with a growing economy.

__<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Republican National Convention: __<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The 1912 R.N.C was held at the Chicago Coliseum, Chicago, Illinois, from June 18 to June 22, 1912. The party nominated William Howard Taft from Ohio for re-election as President of the United States and James S. Sherman of New York for re-election as Vice President. After Theodore Roosevelt lost the Republican nomination to William Taft, the current president, he decided to create his own party, the Progressive party or the “Bull Moose” party. the party was nicknamed the “Bull Moose” party after Roosevelt was shot in the chest in a failed assassination and stated that he was “fit as a bull moose” in a later interview.The progressive party was created because Theodore Roosevelt was unhappy with William Taft’s increasingly conservative views. Additionally, Taft started to repeal policies that had been put in during Roosevelt’s previous presidency. In the primaries, Roosevelt out polled Taft, but because Taft controlled the party, he was nominated over Roosevelt. Many of Roosevelt’s independent progressive supporters were lost to Woodrow Wilson.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline;">__William Taft:__ <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">In 1908, Taft won by riding on Roosevelt’s wave of popularity but this time it would be much harder. As president, the conservative went straight to “trust-busting”, which angered a lot of Progressive Republicans that were for regulation instead. He wanted to lower tariffs and pushed for a corporate income tax. Taft essentially cut his ties with Roosevelt by going against his wishes and breaking up U.S. steel with the Anti-Trust Act. He was a supporter of free immigration and endorsed a program to uplift the African-American race. It was during the Taft presidency that Congress passed the 16th Amendment to levy an income tax on the American people, and the 17th amendment, which allowed election of United States senators by popular vote. William Taft also established the Federal Children's Bureau, had the Mann-Elkins Act passed, and signed the Publicity Act. The Mann-Elkins Act placed the telephone, telegraph, radio, cable services, and other communications companies under the control of the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC). The Publicity Act required political parties to account for the money spent on federal campaigns. Taft wanted to expand the influence of the United States overseas, so he started a plan called Dollar Diplomacy, which encouraged United States banks and businesses to make investments abroad. Despite the result of the election, Taft felt that he had done what he had wanted to do, keep permanent control of the Republican Party.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">__Progressive Party__
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline;">__Progressive Party/Platform:__

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Roosevelt first created the Progressive party after he lost the republican nomination because he was unhappy with the ever more conservative republican party. The progressive party believed in the direct election of senators, women’s suffrage, a reduction of the tariff, and many social reforms. The progressives were trying to say that businesses and their interests controlled both parties of the government. The progressives called for the registration of lobbyists, limitations on the navy, and improvements to waterways. Another big aspect of the Progressive movement was conservation of resources; Theodore Roosevelt was a big naturalist. They also supported a national health care system and federal income tax. One issue that lost the Progressive Party some of its support was that they wanted monopolies to stay, but be regulated; most people at the time wanted them gone for good. The Progressive Party became the last third party to get 2nd in either the electoral or popular vote, but 2nd just wasn’t good enough, and the party dissipated by 1916.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline;">__Progressive Convention:__ <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The Convention began in August and was met with a lot of enthusiasm. There were more than 2000 delegates and many of them were women. The obvious candidate, Roosevelt endorsed the Woman Suffrage Movement, which neither Taft or Wilson had done, which boosted his female support. Roosevelt excluded Blacks from the South at the convention because he thought they were all corrupt and ineffective. The Convention wasn’t really about picking their candidate, it was about setting their platform. Theodore Roosevelt became the self proclaimed candidate to little or no opposition. The convention was clouded in controversy by stances that Roosevelt took himself such as Roosevelt’s decision to back up on the issue of monopolies, where he chose only to advocate regulation, not extermination.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline;">__Theodore Roosevelt:__

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Theodore “Teddy” Roosevelt created all <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">of his own problems in 1912. On election night 1904, after his landslide victory amid all the excitement he pledged to not run for a second term. By 1910 he had reconsidered and was ready for another bid, but his former secretary of war William Taft was in office (by Roosevelt’s recommendation). Roosevelt started to despise his former friend after Taft broke up U.S. Steel with the anti-trust act even though Roosevelt had deemed it as a “good trust”. After this, Roosevelt felt the need to enter the primaries to represent his Progressive members of the Republican Party. During the primaries he astonished the conservative faction in his party by calling for various reforms such as federal income tax, aid to farmers, and better working conditions. Roosevelt sprinted past Taft in the primary polls, but when the convention came, Taft “rigged” the convention with conservative delegates leading and organizing it. So Taft was announced as the Republican Party’s candidate and Roosevelt called for a new convention of his Progressive followers where he was nominated, and the race began.

__​Socialist Party__
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline;">__Socialist Party/Platform:__ <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The Socialist Party of America was a league of local parties based in manufacturing cities and was normally entrenched in ethnic communities, especially German and Finnish. The party also gained support from rural and mining areas. By the time of the election, the socialists had over a thousand government officials, mostly local, in many different regions, but its biggest support came from the Midwest. Eugene V. Debs had run in the last 3 elections and did so again in 1912, but it was mostly just to boost local support. Not unlike the Republican Party, the socialist party was factionalized. They had the Conservatives, who promoted progressive thinking and the radicals, and the Radicals, or “Wobblies”, wanted to completely overthrow capitalism and sought to infiltrate labor unions. On immigration the two groups differed a lot in their opinions. The Radicals saw the poor immigrants that were coming in as fuel for the war on capitalism, but the conservatives thought that they were a weight on society and absorbed too many resources. Eventually though, the party took up a conservative platform that was similar to that of the Democrats. Their candidate, Debs, did not go to the Socialist convention because he saw his job as to keep both sides together to strive for a common goal.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline;">__Eugene V. Debs:__

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline;">

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Eugene V. Debs was the candidate for presidency for the Socialist Party of the United States. Debs was a democrat early in his career, and had little success in politics. However, Debs played a major role in the founding of the first industrial union in the United states, the American Railway Union. Debs was a leader of this union and was sent to prison for six months after starting a strike and defying the court’s orders. In prison, Debs learned about socialism and read about Karl Marx. In the election of 1912, Debs received 6% of the popular vote, a huge amount for a third-party candidate and especially for the socialist party.

__<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Issues __
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Wilson wanted to completely eliminate monopolies while Roosevelt wanted to regulate them. Wilson believed that each state should choose whether women could vote or not, while Roosevelt believed that all women should be able to vote. Taft was strongly opposed to suffrage for women. Wilson opposed tariffs, stating that they were a special interest program for large businesses. Roosevelt believed that tariffs protected wages and supported them. Taft also supported tariffs.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline;">__Standard oil case of 1911__ <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">:

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Standard Oil allegedly used its size and clout to undercut competitors in a number of ways that were considered "anti-competitive," including underpricing and threats to suppliers and distributors who did business with Standard's competitors. The government sought to prosecute Standard Oil under the Sherman Antitrust Act. The main issue before the Court was whether it was within the power of the Congress to prevent one company from acquiring numerous others through means that might have been considered legal in common law, but still posed a significant constraint on competition by mere virtue of their size and market power, as implied by the Antitrust Act.

__Campaign__
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The campaign was bursting with strange occurrences, vice President James Sherman died in office on October 30,1912 less than a week before the election which left Taft without a running mate. Also, Theodore Roosevelt was shot in a saloon by John Flammang Shrank while campaigning in Milwaukee on October 14,1912. Roosevelt actually got off lucky because the bullet passed through a 50-page speech in his pocket and a steel eyeglass case, before lodging in his chest. The Socialist campaign had very little money, but tried to preach that they were the only party that supported labor, but in fact most labor unions supported Wilson. During Roosevelt’s campaign he called for “The New Nationalism” which was for a strong federal role in regulating the economy and punishing monopolies. Wilson countered Roosevelt’s plan with his own, “The New Freedom” which was for individualism instead of a strong federal government. Taft ran a quiet campaign as his hopes for second term were snuffed when the party split.

__Results__
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Wilson won all the southern states due to the fact that Roosevelt alienated a lot of southern voters in his campaign but he won several states in the Midwest that included Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Minnesota as well as two western states California and Washington. Due to the split in the Republican Party, in states that Wilson did not control more than 50% of the vote the Republicans would have had a chance of carrying that state if they hadn't split, but it should be mentioned many conservatives would have still voted for Wilson, if Roosevelt was the Republican Candidate.The result were as followed, Wilson had a staggering 6,296,284,041 votes or 41.8% of the population with Roosevelt not to far behind with 4,122,721,027 votes or 27.4% Taft had 3,486,242,023 votes Eugene Debs with only 901,551, votes. In the Electoral College a huge amount of votes was needed to win (266) Wilson had well above the required amount with 435 votes, Roosevelt with 88, Taft with only 8 and Debs with no votes at all.

__ Candidate Popular Vote Percentage __

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Wilson: 6,296,284 41.84% Roosevelt: 4,122,721 27.40% Taft: 3,486,242 23.17% Debs: 901,551 5.99% Other: 1,135,697 7.50%

Candidate Electoral Vote States CarriedWilson: 435 40 Roosevelt: 88 6 Taft: 8 2 Debs: 0 0

__<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Electoral College Map by State: __

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; line-height: 0px; overflow: hidden; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline;">__Electoral College map by County:__

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline;">

__The Significance of the Election__
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The election of 1912 saw many important issues put to debate between the candidates which included trusts, women's suffrage, and tariffs. On top of these issues the election of 1912 was very significant because of split in the Republican Party; this split was caused by the re-nomination of William Taft, instead of Theodore Roosevelt as the Republican candidate. Roosevelt challenged Taft because he believed Taft was too conservative and not progressive enough. This led to the split which saw the ultra-conservatives sticking with Taft and Roosevelt taking his supporters and creating his own party called the Progressive Party which nominated Roosevelt as their candidate he told reporters after his nomination that he felt "as fit as a bull moose," leading to this third party candidacy nickname, Bull Moose Party." When the election was held, the Progressives carried 6 states and 88 electoral votes, the Republicans carried 2 states and only 8 votes. So the end result of this splitting was to make it easier for the Democrats to carry more states, which they did; they carried 40 states. It was very rare for a Democrat to be elected president in those days, and it probably wouldn't have happened if the Republican Party hadn't split like that. The election was also the first time four candidates ran for president, a third party overcame a major political party (TR came in second while Taft came in third) and two former presidents ran in an election. This election was probably one of the most important elections in our nation’s history because of the hotly debated issues of women’s suffrage, monopolies, and the debate over federal income tax. In the end what came out of the election of 1912 was the split in the Republican Party that forever changed the political landscape of America.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-align: center; vertical-align: baseline;">__Works Cited__

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">"American Presidents Blog." : The Election of 1912. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 Nov. 2012. <http://www.american-presidents.org/2006/08/election-of-1912.html>.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">"Booknotes." :: Watch. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 Nov. 2012. <http://www.booknotes.org/Watch/183270-1/James Chace.aspx>.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">"How Close Were U.S. Presidential Elections?" How Close Were U.S. Presidential Elections? N.p., n.d. Web. 11 Nov. 2012. <http://www.mit.edu/~mi22295/elections.html>.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Hughes, Charles. "Progressive Party." Infoplease. Infoplease, 2005. Web. 11 Nov. 2012. <http://www.infoplease.com/encyclopedia/history/progressive-party-election-1912.html>.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Leip, David. "1912 Presidential General Election Results." 1912 Presidential General Election Results. US Election Atlas, 2012. Web. 3 Nov. 2012. <http://uselectionatlas.org/RESULTS/national.php?year=1912>.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">"Our Campaigns - US President - R Primaries Race - Mar 19, 1912." Our Campaigns - US President - R Primaries Race - Mar 19, 1912. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 Nov. 2012. <http://www.ourcampaigns.com/RaceDetail.html?RaceID=55164>.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Peters, Gerhard. "Democratic Party Platform of 1912." Presidency.ucsb.edu. American Presidency Project, n.d. Web. 3 Nov. 2012. <http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=29590>.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">"Presidential Election of 1912 - Map by Counties." Presidential Election of 1912 - Map by Counties. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 Nov. 2012. <http://geoelections.free.fr/USA/elec_comtes/1912.htm>.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">"Presidential Election of 1912: A Resource Guide." (Virtual Programs & Services, Library of Congress). N.p., n.d. Web. 11 Nov. 2012. <http://www.loc.gov/rr/program/bib/elections/election1912.html>.