The Wilson Era

The Seventh in a 20 part series on the Democratic National Convention

1912: It Only Took 46 Ballots

Dates: June 25 – July 2, 1912

Venue: Fifth Regiment Armory, 29th Division Street and Mason, Baltimore MD. A National Historic Landmark, the building now houses the Maryland Museum of Military History.

Events: Democrats were back in Baltimore for the first time since 1860, and this convention was almost as contentious as the 1860 Charleston convention. The contest was between New Jersey Governor Woodrow Wilson and House Speaker Champ Clark of Missouri. Clark had a clear lead during through the first 20 votes, but momentum began to swing towards Wilson on votes 21 to 29, when Wilson finally gained the lead. On the 43rd vote, Wilson finally got over 600 votes, and he was finally nominated on the 46th ballot. While the main fight was always between Wilson and Clark, House Majority Leader Oscar Underwood (AL) and Ohio Governor Judson Harmon both received a decent number of votes.

One key moment was when the New York machine, Tammany Hall, got behind Clark. William Jennings Bryan, still a major force in the party, was a long-time opponent of the Tammany crowd, and he swung liberals over into Wilson’s camp.

Indiana Governor Thomas Marshall and North Dakota governor John Burke fought it over for the vice presidential nod and Marshall won.

November: Theodore Roosevelt’s entry into the race as a Progressive in August split the Republican vote in two, leaving a very clear path for Wilson to clean up big time in the election. Wilson won with a remarkable 435 electoral votes. Roosevelt won 88, mostly Pennsylvania and the upper Midwest. Taft won only 8, in Vermont and Utah. In the popular vote, Wilson had 42 percent, Roosevelt 27, and Taft 23. Eugene Debs was back once again, and doubled his vote to just over 900,000. Fun note for Milwaukeeans: Deb’s running mate in 1912 was Emil Seidel, the mayor of Milwaukee.

1916: He Kept Us Out of War

Dates: June 14 - 16, 1916

Venue: St Louis Coliseum, SW corner of Washington Blvd and Jefferson Avenue, St Louis MO. The building was around from 1908 until 1939. Today there is a VA medical clinic on the site.

Events: Wilson and Marshall were renominated by acclamation. Noting that the world was blowing itself to bits over in Europe, Senator Ollie James (KY), while chairing the convention, asked “Who would say that we could afford to swap horses while crossing a bloody stream?” In a low drama convention, probably the most interesting thing was the support of Democrats for women’s suffrage -- by a large margin (888 to 181). It would come to pass with the 19th amendment in 1920. Perhaps one reason for delegates' support is that 3000 suffragettes lined the streets leading to the convention.

The 1916 platform was remarkably progressive on labor issues. It called for a living wage for all workers, safety laws, workers compensation, and pensions for civil servants. On the other hand, it justified the invasion of Mexico by US troops (happened under Wilson in 1914) and utterly ignores the issue of race relations (Wilson was a notorious racist). The years immediately after World War I saw some of the worst race riots in American history.

November: Wilson ran on the theme “He kept us out of war” (true enough in 1916). Wilson narrowly beat Supreme Court Justice Charles Evers Hughes, 277 to 254. Hughes won the South and the entire West, but Wilson held the populous northern and Midwestern states. Wilson carried the popular vote with 9.1 million to Hughes 8.5 million. The US did not stay out of war long, entering World War I in April 1917. In October 1919, Wilson suffered a stroke that rendered him incapacitated for much of the last year of his presidency.