Episode Eighteen: Theodore Roosevelt
Episode Eighteen, Part IX
Number 25: Theodore Roosevelt
Party: Republican
44 years old, from New York
The Secret Promise
The Spring of 1912 was quick to arrive, and the quick war that many in Europe had expected had come and gone. As the war was moving towards a full year of armed conflict, the situation was bleak and beginning to drag into a stalemate. Russian forces had been halted at Varna by the combined forces of an Ottoman-Austrian Army, and had thereby saved the Ottoman Empire. While the Russian army had made gains in the Caucasus Mountains, stout Ottoman defenders halted the Russian advance. As the British and French mulled invasions in Palestine and Mesopotamia, such ideas seemed to be halted by the German Spring Offensive of 1912. As the Republicans, Democrats, and other parties were assembling for party conventions, German soldiers had crossed the Marne and had Paris in their sights. One German soldier remarked, “[We] could see the Eiffel Tower off in the distance.” The Allies in Europe were frantic, and begged for Roosevelt to honor his agreement to join the war, but Roosevelt balked. Rather, Roosevelt promised that he would personally guarantee American involvement, but only after the election of 1912 was held. Thus, the successor of Theodore Roosevelt would eventually be informed of the ongoing promises of the American State Department (and some American Bankers financing the Allied War cause) to join the war in Europe – which was among the last things on America’s mind! Of all the great accomplishments of the Roosevelt Administration, his posturing and dreams of imperial ambitions seem to be his shortcoming – at least to some people that is.
The Wild Conventions
The Democrats met in Denver Colorado to choose a candidate, among the favorites being William Randolph Hearst, a newspaper baron and former member of Congress, long an ardent opponent to both McKinley and Roosevelt. Governor Burke of North Dakota was a favorite among the Progressives, but his being Roman Catholic was a possible problem in a fervent Protestant country. Religiously, while some of the ecumenical efforts of the Social Gospel movement had taken root, most Protestants still saw Catholicism as being anti-Christian, or at the very least, saw it is suspicious. Also, Woodrow Wilson, the Governor of New Jersey and former President of the University of Princeton, was a possible darkhorse for the candidacy, although he had publically supported Burke.
The Democratic Convention moved through eight rounds of voting with no clear cut winner. After the Seventh Round of Voting, Wilson withdrew his candidacy and would swing the convention’s delegates either to Hearst or Burke. Wilson, keeping to his earlier statements of support for Burke, asked his delegates to support Burke, which they did! Governor John Burke was nominated in the eighth round of voting with a slim 53% of the delegates over 45% for Hearst and 2% for others or abstaining. In a surprise turn, Hearst was not nominated to be Vice President, rather, Woodrow Wilson, the power broker who helped Burke solidify the nomination was chosen! The Democrats were gearing for a strong Progressive ticket.
The Democrats Convention in 1912 (note, this picture is actually the OTL GOP convention in 1912 - I just like the picture better).
The Republicans saw an even more incredible convention, one that stoked the flames of emotion, religion, and corporate power. After two days of politicking and convention voting, the party had still not chosen a candidate. In the halls of Chicago, President Roosevelt took to the stage and gave another famous political speech, “The Salvation of Democracy,” where he declared the United States the salvation of democracy in the midst of the chaos of Europe, and gave his support to John Rockefeller Jr., a largely inexperienced politician and son of the famous American tycoon John D. Rockefeller (at the same time as Roosevelt gave his speech, German soldiers entered Paris). Newspaper decried the result of the 22nd Round of voting, in which “Junior” was nominated as the party’s candidate. One newspaper said heralded the choice, “The death of American Democracy!” Another said, “All Hail Emperor Rockefeller!” John S. Sherman, a Representative from New York, was chosen as Vice President. Much to the chagrin of LaFollette, who many expected to be nominated, he would retire to Wisconsin where he would once again be re-elected governor and champion the Progressive cause.
The outcry of the nomination of John D. Rockefeller Jr. caused another minor walkout among progressive Republicans who flocked to the Progressive Christian Party, which had – to no one’s surprise, nominated Eugene Debs as their nominee. The newspapers however, as mentioned, went off the cliff with the information that swept through the telegraph lines to their respective publishing headquarters stating Rockefeller Junior had been chosen! The next morning, the headline of the New York Times satirically read: “Money is the Salvation of Democracy!” The chaos of the Republican party’s nomination caused the fact that Governor was Burke to be largely overlooked by the media, except for a resurgent Ku Klux Klan that decried the Democrats nomination as “a sell out to Pagan Papists.” At the same time, the concern for the war in Europe was totally lost. News of the German capture of Paris was reported more than two weeks after it had happened, much to the chagrin of President Roosevelt and American creditors and financiers who grew nervous that the war might soon end before America properly involved herself in a European land war.
As the Party conventions distracted American media from the war in Europe, German troops, shown above, march through a suburb of Paris in the Summer of 1912.
The Election of 1912
Both Burke and Debs slammed the nominee of Rockefeller as a sellout to the cause of Progressivism. Rockefeller continuously defended his moderately progressive agenda while he was briefly governor of Ohio (he was still governor during the election cycle, which essentially meant he was no longer governor as he had his eyes set on the White House). Supporters of both Burke and Debs decried Rockefeller as having his father manipulate everything behind the scenes. Burke famously declared, “Who shall we have as our President, Junior or Father Rockefeller?”
The crying of outrage from both Burke and Debs, as well as the progressive walkout from the Republican party severely damaged the sails of Rockefeller and the Republican Party. While Roosevelt had managed to win decisive electoral victories with over 50% of the popular vote in both instances, and although his popularity suffered slightly for his backing of Rockefeller – Teddy Roosevelt still rated highly in the minds of most Americans, but the suspect legacy and wealth of “Daddy” Rockefeller tainted “Junior” throughout the campaign. Yet, the ideological in-fighting between Debs and Burke was also taking a toll. While both were adamantly opposed to Rockefeller, both called one another a phony. Debs called Burke, “A man who has sold his soul to the Devil” while Burke called Debs, and perhaps more accurately, “A damn Socialist.”
Senate : 102 seats
Senate Majority: Republicans, 52 seats
Senate Minority: Democrats, 44 seats
Third Party: Progressives, 5 seats
Fourth Party: Socialist, 1 seat
House of Representatives: 445 seats
House Majority: Republicans, 223 seats
House Minority: Democrats, 201 seats
Third Party: Progressives, 19 seats
Fourth Party: Socialist, 1 seat
Fifth Party: Anti-Catholic, 1 seat
As stated, the election was brutal to all three candidates. In the end, the victory won by Rockefeller was less due to Rockefeller and more due to the splitting of the progressive vote that split itself between Burke and Debs. Rockefeller fell far short of a popular majority, but the progressive vote having been split by Burke and Debs allowed for Rockefeller to edge out Burke with a slight popular vote plurality, but a rather handy electoral vote majority, despite the fact that Burke had won 26 of the 51 states of the Union. This was the primary result of Burke dominating the small Western Progressive states, including winning the newly admitted states of Arizona and New Mexico and New Leon with 77%, 82%, and 91% of the vote respectively which all together totaled only 154,000 votes between the three states. However, as stated before, the Burke-Debs split ensured that Rockefeller edged out Burke in the major states of importance like New York, Pennsylvania, and Ohio, whose 107 electoral votes between them shot Rockefeller over the top despite winning those states by a summed total of less than 115,000 votes. John Rockefeller Jr., was President-Elect of the United States of America.
Rockefeller/Sherman (R) - 6,920,343 popular votes (42.2%), 25 states carried, 304 Electoral votes (273 Needed for victory)
Burke/Wilson (D) - 6,543,167 popular votes (39.9%), 26 states carried, 241 Electoral votes
Debs/Seidel (PCP/S) – 2,317,400 popular votes (14.2%), 0 states carried, 0 Electoral votes
Others – 618,006 popular votes (3.7%), 0 states carried, 0 Electoral votes
Total: 16,398,916 Popular Votes, 51 states, 545 Electoral votes (100%)