1912: Wilson, Roosevelt, Taft and Debs -- The Election that Changed the Country

Publisher's Description: Four Extraordinary Men Sought The Presidency In 1912. Theodore Roosevelt Was The Charismatic And Still Wildly Popular Former President Who Sought To Redirect The Republican Party Toward A More Nationalistic, Less Materialistic Brand Of Conservatism And The Cause Of Social Justice. His Handpicked Successor And Close Friend, William Howard Taft, Was A Reluctant Politician Whose Sole Ambition Was To Sit On The U.s. Supreme Court. Amiable And Easygoing, Taft Was The Very Opposite Of The Restless Roosevelt. After Taft Failed To Carry Forward His Predecessor's Reformist Policies, An Embittered Roosevelt Decided To Challenge Taft For The Party's Nomination. Thwarted By A Convention Controlled By Taft, Roosevelt Abandoned The Gop And Ran In The General Election As The Candidate Of A Third Party Of His Own Creation, The Bull Moose Progressives.^ Woodrow Wilson, The Former President Of Princeton University, Astonished Everyone By Seizing The Democratic Nomination From The Party Bosses Who Had Made Him New Jersey's Governor. A Noted Political Theorist, He Was A Relative Newcomer To The Practice Of Governing, Torn Between His Fear Of Radical Reform And His Belief In Limited Government. The Fourth Candidate, Labor Leader Eugene V. Debs, Had Run For President On The Socialist Ticket Twice Before. A Fervent Warrior In The Cause Of Economic Justice For The Laboring Class, He Was A Force To Be Reckoned With In The Great Debate Over How To Mitigate The Excesses Of Industrial Capitalism That Was At The Heart Of The 1912 Election.^ Chace Recounts All The Excitement And Pathos Of A Singular Moment In American History: The Crucial Primaries, The Republicans' Bitter Nominating Convention That Forever Split The Party, Wilson's Stunning Victory On The Forty-sixth Ballot At The Democratic Convention, Roosevelt's Spectacular Coast-to-coast Whistle-stop Electioneering, Taft's Stubborn Refusal To Fight Back Against His Former Mentor, Debs's Electrifying Campaign Appearances, And Wilson's Accidental Election By Less Than A Majority Of The Popular Vote. Had Roosevelt Received The Republican Nomination, He Almost Surely Would Have Been Elected President Once Again And The Republicans Would Likely Have Become A Party Of Reform. Instead, The Gop Passed Into The Hands Of A Conservative Ascendancy That Reached Its Fullness With Ronald Reagan And George W. Bush, And The Party Remains To This Day Riven By The Struggle Between Reform And Reaction, Isolationism And Internationalism.^ The 1912 Presidential Contest Was The First Since The Days Of Jefferson And Hamilton In Which The Great Question Of America's Exceptional Destiny Was Debated. 1912 Changed America. Prologue: The Defining Moment 1 -- Part 1 America's Destiny 9 -- Part 2 Chicago And Baltimore 91 -- Part 3 The Contenders 189 -- Part 4 The Consequences Of Victory 241 -- Epilogue: The Inheritors 277. James Chace. Includes Bibliographical References (p. 305-306) And Index. Presidential politics in one crucial year of the Progressive Era—before TV, polls, and consultants: not a horse race so much as a contact sport. Veteran journalist and editor Chace (Govt. and International Affairs/Bard Coll.; Acheson: The Secretary of State Who Created the American World, 1998, etc.) does not present a fresh interpretation of the 1912 election, but he offers a lively recounting of this pivotal, bitter contest that hinged on how to overcome economic inequality and featured significant third-party involvement. The rivals included conservative Republican President William Howard Taft; his predecessor, Theodore Roosevelt, who broke with his old friend over conservation and trust-busting issues, then bolted the GOP to form the Progressive Party; New Jersey governor Woodrow Wilson, whose brilliant oratory called for more stringent antitrust legislation; and fiery socialist Eugene Debs, who preached trade unionism to audiences as large as 100,000. Chace captures the way that rivals’ egos could shade into substantive quarrels over the use of presidential power. He conveys a pre–photo-op era of candidates’ barnstorming coast to coast by train with messianic zeal, with Roosevelt even delivering one speech after being wounded by a would-be assassin. The nation depicted here seems more divided than the ballyhooed “red” and “blue” America of 2000. Debs took six percent of the vote—the highest proportion ever given to a Socialist candidate. TR split the GOP vote with Taft, helping to usher in the eight-year Wilson administration. With perfectly chosen anecdotes, Chace moves nimbly among the candidates, their advisers, and diehard supporters (at a Michigan GOP meeting, a Taft supporter threw a body block at a Roosevelt speaker). At the same time, he underscores the race’s larger, often enduring, issues (far ahead of their time, the Progressive platform called for limits on campaign spending). Twenty years later, the New Deal incorporated elements of Roosevelt’s “New Nationalism” with Wilson’s “New Freedom” programs. Yet another consequence of the race was more fateful, Chace notes: TR’s loss meant that for the next century, the GOP would be riven between “reform and reaction.” Entertaining, insightful history about a defining moment in 20th-century politics. Beginning with former president Theodore Roosevelt’s return in 1910 from his African safari, Chace brilliantly unfolds a dazzling political circus that featured four extraordinary candidates. When Roosevelt failed to defeat his chosen successor, William Howard Taft, for the Republican nomination, he ran as a radical reformer on the Bull Moose ticket. Meanwhile, Woodrow Wilson, the ex-president of Princeton, astonished everyone by seizing the Democratic nomination from the bosses who had made him New Jersey’s governor. Most revealing of the reformist spirit sweeping the land was the charismatic socialist Eugene Debs, who polled an unprecedented one million votes. Wilson’s “accidental” election had lasting impact on America and the world. The broken friendship between Taft and TR inflicted wounds on the Republican Party that have never healed, and the party passed into the hands of a conservative ascendancy that reached its fullness under Reagan and George W. Bush. Wilson’s victory imbued the Democratic Party with a progressive idealism later incarnated in FDR, Truman, and LBJ. 1912 changed America. Traces The Events Of The Dramatic Presidential Election Of 1912, Citing The Campaigns Of Four Determined Rivals And Evaluating How The Outcome Has Had A Lasting Impact On The Republican Party And Current-day Politics. By The Author Of Acheson. Reprint. 35,000 First Printing. AN ASTOUNDING AND dreadfully poignant letter from his successor, William Howard Taft, awaited Theodore Roosevelt a few days before he was to board an ocean liner for his return to America.