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 ofNew Jersey
Vice-presidential nominee	Thomas R. Marshall ofIndiana
‹ 1908 · 1916 ›

The1912 Democratic National Convention was held at theFifth Regiment Armory off North Howard Street inBaltimore from June 25 to July 2, 1912.

The convention was held at theFifth Regiment Armory inBaltimore 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 JudgeAlton B. Parker ofNew York served as the Temporary chairman and Keynote Speaker whileRepresentativeOllie M. James ofKentucky served as Permanent Convention chairman.

As of 2024^[update], this is the last major party convention to be held in Baltimore.^[1]

• 
  GovernorWoodrow Wilson ofNew Jersey
• 
  Speaker of the HouseChamp Clark ofMissouri
• 
  GovernorJudson Harmon ofOhio
• 
  GovernorThomas R. Marshall ofIndiana
• 
  GovernorSimeon E. Baldwin ofConnecticut

• 
  House Majority LeaderOscar Underwood ofAlabama
• 
  GovernorEugene Foss ofMassachusetts

• 
  GovernorJohn Burke ofNorth Dakota

The main candidates wereHouse SpeakerChamp Clark ofMissouri andGovernorWoodrow Wilson ofNew 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. GovernorJudson Harmon ofOhio received 148 votes while U.S. RepresentativeOscar W. Underwood ofAlabama, 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 theNew York delegation shifted its allegiance to Clark. Due to the then-officialtwo-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 andMerle 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 whenTammany 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 ledWilliam 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 BossThomas Taggart made a deal with a member of Wilson's campaign. In exchange for havingThomas R. Marshall be Wilson's 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.

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

• 
  GovernorThomas R. Marshall ofIndiana
• 
  SenatorGeorge E. Chamberlain ofOregon
• 
  FormerState RepresentativeElmore W. Hurst ofIllinois

• 
  GovernorJohn Burke ofNorth Dakota
• 
  MayorJames H. Preston ofMaryland

• 
  Speaker of the HouseChamp Clark ofMissouri
• 
  FormerRepresentativeMartin J. Wade ofIowa
• 
  FormerRepresentativeWilliam Jennings Bryan ofNebraska

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 SenatorGeorge E. Chamberlain and North Dakota GovernorJohn Burke, the latter of whom became the main progressive candidate.^[4]GovernorThomas R. Marshall ofIndiana, who had swung his state's delegate votes to Wilson in later ballots, became the major candidate of conservatives.^[4] After the second ballot, RepresentativeWilliam Hughes, a leading campaign manager of Wilson's, successfully proposed making the nomination of Marshall unanimous.^[4] Wilson and Marshall went on to win the1912 presidential election against a splitRepublican Party.

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

• 
  1st Vice Presidential Ballot
• 
  2nd Vice Presidential Ballot

John D. Harkless, commonly known asJ. D. Harkless, was the first African American delegate to a Democratic National Convention.^[5][6] He was from Denver and an alternate delegate to theDemocratic Party National Convention of 1912 inBaltimore, Maryland, that advancedWoodrow Wilson, then governor of New Jersey, to be the party's nominee.^[7][8] He was vice president of theNational Negro Educational Congress.^[9]J. Milton Waldron and Harkless wroteThe Political Situation in a Nut-shell; Some Un-colored Truths for Colored Voters published in 1912. It was anti-Republican.^[10]

Anna Pitzer was the only female delegate and also represented Colorado. She was the sister-in-law ofChamp Clark,Speaker of the United States House of Representatives who was a candidate for the nomination.^[11]

The primary battles leading up to the 1912 Democratic Convention are a pivotal event inTaylor Caldwell's 1972 novelCaptains and the Kings. In the novel, the fictional Irish-Catholic Rory Daniel Armagh, a U.S. Senator fromPennsylvania, 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 inthe 1944 biographical filmWilson.

• 1912 Democratic Party presidential primaries
• History of the Democratic Party (United States)
• 1912 Republican National Convention
• 1912 United States presidential election
• Democratic National Convention

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

• Democratic Party Platform of 1912 atThe American Presidency Project

• 1912 United States presidential election
• 1912 in Maryland
• 1910s in Baltimore
• Political conventions in Baltimore
• Maryland Democratic Party
• Political events in Maryland
• Democratic National Conventions
• 1912 conferences
• June 1912 in the United States
• July 1912 in the United States
• 1910s political conferences
• Tammany Hall

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