The Election of 1912: The Rise of the Progressive Party
The Man at the Center of the Maelstrom
The walkout in Chicago was not unexpected, yet there was a palpable sense of new beginnings and multitudinous possibilities amongst the Progressive activists that had joined Roosevelt in his walkout. The Republicans were unable to reestablish order for the rest of the day, with the convention descending into anarchy. Indeed, it was unclear whether the Roosevelt walkout had deprived the convention of a quorum of delegates, preventing Taft's renomination. Elihu Root and a few loyal delegation heads including Warren Harding of Ohio and Grafton D. Cushing of Massachusetts
1, spent the night attempting to get an accurate count of delegates that had defected to Roosevelt. Harding recalled the night of dashing between hotels and at one point beating off an attack by an incensed and slightly tipsy pro-Roosevelt alternate delegate in a hotel lobby as one of the most enervating nights of his life. In any event, it was determined that a quorum of voting members was available to renominate Taft. The next morning, at about 11 a patchwork of delegates and alternates, with many state delegations noticeably smaller or even absent all together; came together to renominate William Howard Taft for President. While this was not surprising, many were shocked by the fact that 32 delegates cast their ballots for Robert M. La Follette.
Indeed, La Follette was shocked too, shocked that 14 of his delegates, including all of the North Dakotans, had abandoned him for Roosevelt. This combined with Roosevelt's complete and total refusal to even meet with La Follette's campaign aides and with La Follette's personal resentment for what he saw as narcissistic grandstanding on Roosevelt's part, caused La Follette to pursue a bitter and very personal feud with Roosevelt. La Follette's immediate reaction was, as one aid recalled, "the longest and most creative streak of invective, bile and blue language I have ever heard uttered".
But the maelstrom did not swirl around Taft, Root or La Follette, but rather the man many thought of as the nation's once and future president, Theodore Roosevelt. His advisers had already secured the Chicago Coliseum for the new Progressive Party's use from June 27th through July 2nd, but what he really needed was legitimacy. While the progressive leaning delegates and the general public had been electrified by Roosevelt's speech, but the establishment was seriously wary. Progressive Congressmen and Governors, while supportive of Roosevelt's platform, were reluctant to shackle themselves to Roosevelt's star; fearing that if he lost, their endorsements would constitute political suicide. Moreover, Roosevelt needed the support of Progressive-controlled state legislatures and at least a few less progressive-leaning governors to ensure he could actually win the White House. He almost immediately began sending out feelers to various delegations. On the evening of the walkout, William S. Lauter, leader of the North Dakotan delegation
1 personally met Roosevelt at the Chicago Plaza Hotel in order to promise his, and the Republican Party of North Dakota’s loyalty.
More Midwestern delegations and parties got on board as a young man named Alfred M. Landon arrived at the hotel bearing a message from Kansas Governor Walter R. Stubbs saying that he was backing Roosevelt. Recalling the frenetic atmosphere of the hotel, Landon wrote, “It seemed that the progressive intended to win the entire election in a single night.” By the end of the Republican Convention, which dragged to a desultory close on the 22nd, most of the West’s Progressive governors and delegations had pledged their support, but Roosevelt’s team had failed to secure many endorsements from critical states in the Northeast and Midwest, where Roosevelt hoped to win by energizing the large and overwhelmingly progressive working classes. Even worse, Roosevelt had failed to win any significant Congressional support, with only six out of the fifteen ‘progressive’ Senators endorsing him
2 and his own son-in-law Nicholas Longworth, an important House Republican, refused to support him
3.
However, even with a noticeable lack of support from many quarters, the energy and power of Roosevelt’s machine ensured that by the 27th and independent party structure already existed. The Progressive Party was officially formed on the 21st of June, with California Governor Hiram Johnson as Chairman and George W. Perkins of US Steel as Executive Secretary. Indeed, the party that would gather in a few days was in some ways better organized than the fractured and shell-shocked Republican Party under Taft.
1: Thank you Polticalgraveyard.org!
2: Due in part to the passionate opposition of La Follette.
3: Which caused a permanent cooling in his marriage, leading his wife, Alice Roosevelt to have an affair with Senator William Borah of Idaho (who did support Roosevelt), this affair also produced her only child.
What's this? An update? Why yes! I will be on a one or two update a week schedule for the next month, which will hopefully make things a little more regular around here. That may enable me to get to the election by the end of the month.
@NathanMadien: Thanks for the tip-off on Landon!
Hmmm, Bob Taft. I'm not sure where he'll go in the future.
As to the side project, everything in my life is blowing up for the next month, so this is the only thing I'm gonna be doing.
@Nikephorossonar: Hope I didn't scare you away!
@Blitz and Soviet America: Too much of a sexy beast for him.
@Kurt Steiner: Really? I hope that was not supposed to be for public consumption.
@Evilman: This made my week, thanks so much.