The Election of 1912

The election of 1912 actually began in 1910 when Theodore Roosevelt returned to the United States after his post-presidential trips to Africa and Europe. Roosevelt’s hand-picked successor, William Howard Taft, was not living up to Rooseveltian expectations. TR fumed when he discovered that Taft allowed himself to be swayed by the conservative Republican leadership, a group of gentlemen who celebrated the end of the Roosevelt administration. Upon his return to the United States, Roosevelt began to make noise about running again for the presidency, and when it became apparent that he had the support of the Republican progressives and remained much-loved among the American people, he threw his hat back into the ring. He would challenge Taft in the Republican primary.

Roosevelt barnstormed the country. Primaries at the time were more of a kind gesture toward the American voters rather than a decision-making process. The conventions and the party leaders decided on the candidates and their running mates. The Republican voters overwhelming chose Roosevelt, but the party leaders equally overwhelmingly chose Taft at the convention. As soon as the tally was counted and Taft’s name was announced as the nominee, the progressive backers of Roosevelt, with TR leading them, stood and marched out of the convention. That moment was the birth of the Progressive Party, better known as the Bull Moose Party.

With great fervor, Roosevelt began his campaign across the country, a campaign that included the now-famous “We stand at Armageddon and we battle for the Lord” speech. He railed against Wilson, and his hatred of Taft became obvious. Taft, admitting defeat early, campaigned very little, and really was a non-entity in the election. Wilson focused his efforts on Roosevelt.

It was an odd three-man race. Roosevelt was a life-long Republican to this point; Taft had served on his cabinet. However, ideologically, Roosevelt was more aligned with Wilson. Both men were progressive rather than party extremists. They saw the Big Picture as to the direction the country could go in the new century (and it was the policy of both presidents that shaped FDR’s New Deal), both saw the United States as a world leader, both had a good grasp on progress and its effect on the common citizen. The Taft Republicans truly controlled the destiny of the presidency in the 1912 election. A vote for Taft was almost as good as a vote for Wilson, yet the GOP leadership couldn’t bear another four years of a Roosevelt presidency.

The campaign took a near-tragic turn that August, when, arriving to give a speech in a Chicago hotel, a gunman shot Theodore Roosevelt in the chest. Roosevelt clutched near his heart as his Secret Service agents grabbed the man. “Don’t hurt him!” Roosevelt called out. “I want to look at him.” He then went inside to give his speech, explaining in a near whisper that he would need silence in the crowd because he had been shot. He then spoke for an hour before being taken to the hospital. As he took out his speech from the breast pocket in his coach, the crowd gasped. The papers had a bullet hole through them. Doctors say the thick speech helped to save Roosevelt’s life, but as it was, the bullet remained in the muscles near his heart for the rest of this life.

Wilson and Taft suspended their campaigns until after Roosevelt was released from the hospital, but during his recovery, Roosevelt began to see that there was little chance in him winning. Sure enough, when election day came, Wilson received over 6 million votes, to Roosevelt’s over 4 million, and Taft’s over 3 million. One Republican probably would have been Wilson, but the three-man race divided the nation.