1912 Democratic National Convention

1912 Democratic National Convention
1912 presidential election;
	Nominees ; Wilson and Marshall
Convention
Date(s)	June 25 – July 2, 1912
City	Baltimore, Maryland
Venue	Fifth Regiment Armory
Candidates
Presidential nominee	Woodrow Wilson of New Jersey
Vice presidential nominee	Thomas R. Marshall of Indiana
	‹ 1908 · 1916 ›

The 1912 Democratic National Convention was held at the Fifth Regiment Armory off North Howard Street in Baltimore from June 25 to July 2, 1912.

The Convention

The convention was held at the Fifth Regiment Armory in Baltimore from June 25 to July 2, 1912. It proved to be one of the more memorable United States presidential conventions of the 20th century.^{[citation needed]}

1904 presidential nominee Judge Alton B. Parker of New York served as the Temporary chairman and Keynote Speaker while Representative Ollie M. James of Kentucky served as Permanent Convention chairman.

As of 2023^[update], this is the last major party convention to be held in Baltimore.^[1]

The main candidates were House Speaker Champ Clark of Missouri and Governor Woodrow Wilson of New Jersey. Both Clark and Wilson had won a number of primaries, and Clark entered the convention with more pledged delegates than did Wilson. However, he lacked the two-thirds vote necessary to secure the presidential nomination.

Initially, the front runner appeared to be Clark, who received 440¼ votes on the first ballot to 324 for Wilson. Governor Judson Harmon of Ohio received 148 votes while U.S. Representative Oscar W. Underwood of Alabama, the Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, received 117¼ with the rest of the votes scattered among the other delegates. No candidate managed to gain a majority until the ninth ballot, when the New York delegation shifted its allegiance to Clark. Due to the then-official two-thirds rule used by the Democratic Party, Clark was never able to secure the presidential nomination as he failed to get the necessary two-thirds vote for victory.

C. Vann Woodward stated that the 1912 Democratic nomination was "the first in half a century in which the South played a conspicuous and perhaps even decisive part". Earl Black and Merle Black stated that Underwood was the first southerner following the Civil War to seriously seek the Democratic nomination. Clark was able to gain a majority of the delegate vote, but lacked support in the south which prevented him from passing the two-thirds requirement.^[2]

In past conventions, once a candidate received a majority of the votes, it would start a bandwagon rolling to the nomination. Clark's chances were hurt when Tammany Hall, the powerful and corrupt Democratic political machine in New York City, threw its support behind him. This was the move that gave Clark a majority on the ninth ballot, but instead of propelling Clark's bandwagon towards victory, the endorsement led William Jennings Bryan to turn against the Speaker of the House. A three-time Democratic presidential candidate and still the leader of the party's liberals, Bryan delivered a speech denouncing Clark as the candidate of "Wall Street".

Up until the Tammany endorsement, Bryan had remained neutral, but once the corrupt machine put itself behind Clark, he threw his support to New Jersey Governor Woodrow Wilson, who was regarded as a moderate reformer.

Additionally Illinois Democratic Boss, Roger Charles Sullivan and Indiana Democratic Boss Thomas Taggart made a deal with a member of Wilson's campaign. In exchange for having Thomas R. Marshall be Wilsons running mate, Illinois and Indiana would put their support behind Wilson.^[3]

Before these events, Wilson had consistently finished second to Clark on each ballot, Ironically, Wilson had nearly given up hope that he could be nominated, and he was on the verge of having a concession speech read for him at the convention freeing his delegates to vote for someone else. After receiving the support of Bryan, Sullivan, and Taggart, Wilson gradually gained in strength while Clark's support dwindled. Wilson received the presidential nomination on the 46th ballot.

Presidential balloting

The 46 ballots were the most cast at a convention since 1860.

(1-22)	Presidential Ballot
	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	5th	6th	7th	8th	9th	10th	11th	12th	13th	14th	15th	16th	17th	18th	19th	20th	21st	22nd	23rd	24th
Wilson	324	339.75	345	349.5	351	354	352.5	351.5	352.5	350.5	354.5	354	356	361	362.5	362.5	362.5	361	358	388.5	395.5	396.5	399	402.5
Clark	440.5	446.5	441	443	443	445	449.5	448.5	452	556	554	547.5	554.5	553	552	551	545	535	532	512	508	500.5	497.5	496
Harmon	148	141	140.5	136.5	141.5	135	129.5	130	127	31	29	29	29	29	29	29	29	29	29	29	29	0	0	0
Underwood	117.5	111.25	114.5	112	119.5	121	123.5	123	122.5	117.5	118.5	123	115.5	111	110.5	112.5	112.5	125	130	121.5	118.5	115	114.5	115.5
Foss	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	2	0	0	0	0	0	1	2	5	43	45	43
T. Marshall	31	31	31	31	31	31	31	31	31	31	30	30	30	30	30	30	30	30	30	30	30	30	30	30
Baldwin	22	14	14	14	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
W.J. Bryan	1	2	1	0	0	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	2	2	1	1	1	7	1	1	1	1	1
Kern	0	0	1	2	2	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	0	2	2	2	4.5	3.5	1	1	1	1	0	0
James	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	3	0	0	0	0
Sulzer	2	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Gaynor	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	1	0
Lewis	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Blank	2	0.5	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	2.5	0	0	0	0	3.5	3.5	0	0	0	0	0	0

(25–46)	Presidential Ballot
	25th	26th	27th	28th	29th	30th	31st	32nd	33rd	34th	35th	36th	37th	38th	39th	40th	41st	42nd	43rd	44th	45th	46th	Unanimous
Wilson	405	407.5	406.5	437.5	436	460	475.5	477.5	477.5	479.5	494.5	496.5	496.5	498.5	501.5	501.5	499.5	494	602	629	633	990	1,088
Clark	469	463.5	469	468.5	468.5	455	446.5	446.5	447.5	447.5	433.5	434.5	432.5	425	422	423	424	430	329	306	306	84
Harmon	29	29	29	29	29	19	17	14	29	29	29	29	29	29	29	28	27	27	28	27	25	12
Underwood	108	112.5	112	112.5	112	121.5	116.5	119.5	103.5	101.5	101.5	98.5	100.5	106	106	106	106	104	98.5	99	97	0
Foss	43	43	38	38	38	30	30	28	28	28	28	28	28	28	28	28	28	28	27	27	27	0
T. Marshall	30	30	30	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Baldwin	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
W.J. Bryan	1	1	1	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0.5	1	0	0	0
Kern	0	0	0	1	4	2	2	2	2	2	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	0	0	0
James	3	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	0
Sulzer	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Gaynor	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	1	0	0	0	0
Lewis	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	0
Blank	0	1.5	2.5	0.5	0.5	0.5	0.5	0.5	0.5	0.5	0.5	0.5	0.5	0.5	0.5	0.5	0.5	0.5	1.5	0	0	2

Vice presidential candidates

Governor Thomas R. Marshall of Indiana
Senator George E. Chamberlain of Oregon
Former State Representative Elmore W. Hurst of Illinois

Withdrew During Balloting

Governor John Burke of North Dakota
Mayor James H. Preston of Maryland

Declined

Speaker of the House Champ Clark of Missouri
Former Representative Martin J. Wade of Iowa
Former Representative William Jennings Bryan of Nebraska

Clark and Bryan were both proposed as vice presidential nominees, but both declined, with Clark preferring to remain as Speaker and Bryan fearful of overshadowing Wilson.^[4] Bryan instead proposed Oregon Senator George E. Chamberlain and North Dakota Governor John Burke, the latter of whom became the main progressive candidate.^[4] Governor Thomas R. Marshall of Indiana, who had swung his state's delegate votes to Wilson in later ballots, became the major candidate of conservatives.^[4] After the second ballot, Representative William Hughes, a leading campaign manager of Wilson's, successfully proposed making the nomination of Marshall unanimous.^[4] Wilson and Marshall went on to win the 1912 presidential election against a split Republican Party.

Vice Presidential Balloting
Candidate	1st	2nd	Unanimous
Marshall	389	644.50	1,088
Burke	304.67	386.33
Chamberlain	157	12.50
Hurst	78	0
Preston	58	0
Wade	26	0
McCombs	18	0
Osborne	8	0
Sulzer	3	0
Not Voting	46.33	44.67
Not Represented	6	6	6

Vice Presidential Balloting / 7th Day of Convention (July 2, 1912)

1st Vice Presidential Ballot
2nd Vice Presidential Ballot

References in popular culture

The primary battles leading up to the 1912 Democratic Convention are a pivotal event in Taylor Caldwell's 1972 novel Captains and the Kings. In the novel, the fictional Irish-Catholic Rory Daniel Armagh, a U.S. Senator from Pennsylvania, emerges as the front-runner for the 1912 Democratic presidential nomination after beating Woodrow Wilson in multiple primaries. (Unlike in real life, Champ Clark is not a factor in the novel.) Armagh is assassinated as part of a conspiracy of international power brokers before the convention.

Scenes of the convention are depicted in the 1944 biographical film Wilson.

References

^ Haynes, By Stan M. (August 5, 2020). "When Baltimore was convention central". baltimoresun.com. Baltimore Sun. Retrieved August 6, 2020.
^ Black & Black 1992, p. 85-86.
^ Roger C. Sullivan and the Triumph of the Chicago Democratic Machine, 1908-1920 p.82-101
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d "Woodrow Wilson is Nominated for President; Gov. Marshall of Indiana for Vice President". New York Times. July 3, 1912. Retrieved October 8, 2015.

Works cited

Black, Earl; Black, Merle (1992). The Vital South: How Presidents Are Elected. Harvard University Press. ISBN 0674941306.

Bibliography

Official report of the proceedings of the Democratic national convention, held in Baltimore, Maryland, June 25, 26, 27, 28, 29 and July 1 and 2, 1912
William Jennings Bryan, Virgil V. McNitt. A Tale of Two Conventions. Funk & Wagnalls Company, 1912.