On Nov. 5, 1912, Woodrow Wilson was elected the 28th president of the United States after a hard-fought four-way race. His challengers included Socialist Eugene V. Debs, incumbent President William Howard Taft, and former president of the United States, Teddy Roosevelt.
Republican Vice President Roosevelt had risen to the nation's highest office after the assassination of President William McKinley in 1901. Roosevelt ran for president in his own right in 1904, and enjoyed an electoral victory over his Democratic opponent, Alton B. Parker, of 336 electoral votes to 140. Roosevelt's presidency was known for its progressive agenda, the creation of non-partisan regulatory agencies such as the Food and Drug Administration, and conservation of public lands.
Despite the absence of constitutional restrictions on presidential terms at the time, Roosevelt decided not to run for the presidency in 1908. Rather, he selected William Howard Taft, a former judge and Roosevelt's secretary of war, to be his successor. With Roosevelt's backing, Taft easily secured the Republican nomination and won the general election against Democrat William Jennings Bryan, 321 to 162 electoral votes.
Painfully aware of his very public debt to Roosevelt, Taft worked hard to present himself as his own man. If Roosevelt expected to be the power behind the throne of a Taft administration, the former president was to be disappointed. Taft did not consult Roosevelt on many important decisions, nor did he take business leaders to task the way Roosevelt frequently had. Before long, those that represented the progressive wing of the Republican party began to have serious doubts about Taft.
In the book, “Colonel Roosevelt,” biographer Edmund Morris wrote, “Actually, Roosevelt was struggling, as throughout his life, between the desire for power and the ethics of responsibility. It was a struggle he had never been able wholly to resolve: indeed, its contrary tensions held him together. He wanted to destroy Taft because Taft had failed. He wanted Taft to succeed because Taft was an extension of himself.”
In the end, Roosevelt became convinced, or allowed himself to become convinced, that the Republican party under Taft's leadership was in jeopardy, and he opposed Taft in the 1912 Republican primary. When the bulk of the Republican party decided to support Taft, the progressive wing bolted and formed its own party, nominating Roosevelt.
Meanwhile, when the Democratic party met in Baltimore, it took 47 ballots to agree upon a presidential candidate. The honor fell to Woodrow Wilson, the governor of New Jersey and former president of Princeton University. An academic and author (Wilson is the only U.S. president to date to hold a doctorate), Wilson had only been governor for two years and had held no public office before that. His position was simple: the Democrats saw themselves as the originators of progressive policy and claimed that Roosevelt and the Republicans and had merely co-oped their ideas.
Before receiving the Democratic nomination and during the race, Wilson made many statements during that time 100 years ago that often sound like Barack Obama's rhetoric in the 2008 and 2012 presidential elections: “The most serious thing facing us today is the concentration of money power in the hands of the few”; “I do not find the problems of 1911 solved in the Declaration of Independence”; “To let (the average American) alone is to leave him helpless as against the obstacles with which he has to contend”; “Government must regulate business, because that is the foundation of every other relationship.”
In addition to the Republicans, Progressives and Democrats, the Socialist party made perhaps its most credible bid for power in the United States during the 1912 election, though all parties agreed that its candidate, Eugene V. Debs, faced very long odds. Debs attacked the three other candidates, stating that they were all the same — capitalists who supported private property and who worked against the only real form of democracy in Debs' opinion, socialism. At the same time, Debs was not so delusional to believe that he stood a real chance of gaining the White House.
While Taft certainly had support throughout the country, Roosevelt's charisma was a force to be reckoned with, and the split between the Republicans signaled the very real possibility of a Democratic victory. Though Taft remained a contender, the race seemed increasingly to be between Roosevelt and Wilson.
Tuesday, Nov. 5, saw Roosevelt at home at Sagamore Hill, New York. Mid-day he went to nearby Oyster Bay to cast his vote, then spent the day with family and friends.
Morris wrote, “At seven the Colonel dressed for dinner as usual and dined with his wife and a cousin, Laura Roosevelt. Most of the younger family members were at the Progressive headquarters in the city, watching returns come in over the wires. … The phone call Roosevelt was bracing for came at about eleven o'clock.”
Roosevelt learned that his chances of victory had disappeared. The final result of the election was 6,293,454 (41.9 percent) votes for Wilson, 4,119,538 votes (27.4 percent) for Roosevelt. Taft earned 3,484,980 (23.2 percent), and Debs took 900,672 (6 percent). In all, Wilson took 435 electors and carried 40 states. Roosevelt captured 88 electoral votes, while Taft only took 8 (Utah and Vermont were the only two states to vote for Taft). Debs failed to capture a single state.
Roosevelt cabled Wilson, “The American people, by a great plurality, have conferred upon you the highest honor in their gift. I congratulate you thereon.” He then addressed some reporters, telling them, “Like all other good citizens, I accept the result with good humor and contentment.”
Wilson, at home in New Jersey, also received a note from Taft, “I cordially congratulate you on your election and extend to you my best wishes for a successful administration.” A crowd began to form outside his house, many of them singing the Princeton anthem, “Old Nassau.” Wilson addressed the crowd, but rather than celebratory, his mood was solemn. He spoke of the great responsibility that had been bestowed upon him and called for unity and optimism.
In the book, “Wilson,” biographer A. Scott Berg wrote, “No American statesman ever had a shorter second act. At age fifty-five and never having run for public office, Woodrow Wilson headed a small, all-male college in a quite town in New Jersey; in November 1912, he was elected President of the United States. He swiftly went from near obscurity to global prominence, becoming the most powerful man on earth.”
Cody K. Carlson holds a master's in history from the University of Utah and teaches at Salt Lake Community College. An avid player of board games, he blogs at thediscriminatinggamer.com. Email: ckcarlson76@gmail.com