Gold vs. Silver, The Last Showdown: The 1904 Democratic Nomination

[PBrunsel]

THis was edited from an old post of mine. I have amde the needed changes and added some facts to it. I hope you find it interesting as the Democrats ended the old fight between Gold and Silver:

In 1904 Conservative "gold" Democrats would not nominate William J. Bryan in 1904. The Democratic Conservatives wanted to move the Democratic Party away from the dead issue of free silver and return it to the pro-business philosophy and urban-North/rural-South base of former president Grover Cleveland. In 1904 former President Cleveland was the candidate the Conservatives wanted. He rejected to run once again for the Democratic Party. Cleveland once said of the White House, "MY god, what is there in this house that anyone would want to get in it?"

Another pro-business, anti-impearialist candidate was Senator Arthur P. Gorman of Maryland.White southerners appreciatively remembered Gorman’s opposition to the Republican Federal Election Bill ( aka "Force Bill") of 1890. The Maryland Senator miscalculated his ability to influence his party on the issue and the intensity of support for a Panamanian Canal in the American South. When the Senate ratified the Panama Canal treaty on February 23, 1904, nearly half the Democrats joined the Republicans to vote in the affirmative. Gorman ended his presidential bid shortly afterward.

A small number of Conservative Democrats supported Cleveland's Attorney General from 1893-1897 Richard Olney. As Olney had done in 1896 and 1900, Olney refused.

With Gorman, Cleveland, and Olman out of the race and facing certain defeat from the popular President Theodore Roosevelt, no more nationaly known Democrats entered the race for prtesident. Alton B. Parker had managed David B. Hill's successfull run for New York Governor in 1885. Governor Hill then appointed Parker to the New York State Suprme Court. Parker soon gained a reputation among lawyers and fellow judges for fairness, competence, and courtesy, and quickly climbed New York's judicial ladder. In 1897, he won a landslide victory as chief justice of the New York Court of Appeals, the state's highest court. Parker turned down runs for New York Governro and Senator becuase he wanted to be a Supreme Court Justice. In 1903 Governor Hill told Parker to test the presidential waters by starting a speaking tour in the South. He appealed to the Democratic white base by not attacking anti-black voting laws or lynching. After the tour, Governor Hill began to organize his campaign for president. Parker fit the conservative Democratic profile of a presidential candidate: he supported the gold standard and tariff reform, opposed an expansionist foreign policy and federal protection of voting rights, and his judicial record evidenced both deference to legislative acts and recognition of labor rights. Unlike other pro-gold standard Democrats, he had loyally supported Bryan in 1896 and had not been involved in intraparty skirmishes.

William J. Bryan did not want Judge Parker to be the nominee. His pro-business backings led Bryan to call him, "The Muzzled Candidate of Wall Street." Bryan supported the rform Mayor of Cleveland Tom Johnson. After Johnson lost the Democratic Gubernatorial Primary in Ohio he dropped out of the race for President. Bryan promoted several Populist Candidates, witch led the Conservative Democrats to call them, "Bryan's Little Unknowns from Nowhere." Finnaly Bryan supported Senator Francis Cockrell of Missouri, a 69-year old former Confederate General.

Taking up the Bryan Banner, without Bryan's support, was William Randolf Hearst, the millionaire owner of the San Francico Examiner and New York Journal. Hearst was considered a Socialist. Hearst advocated government-ownership of railroads and public utilities, a graduated income tax, an eight-hour workday, antitrust legislation, and the rights of labor unions. His momentum for the Democratic Nomination was durring the Winter of 1903-1904. Hearst was endorsed by over 400 newspapers by March 1904, but his views were too extreme for the Democratic Party and the nation., Despite spending $1.2 million ($25.4 million in 2005 Dollars) Hearst would not be the nominee.

On July 8th, 1904, Alton B. Parker was nominated for president on the first ballot with a vote of:

Parker: 679
Hearst: 181
Cockrell: 42

Former West Virginia Senator Henry Davis, at age 80 the oldest Vice Presidential nominee in U.S. History, was nominated for vice president.
Alton Parker ran a front porch campaign in 1904 instead of touring the nation like Byan in 1896 and 1900. Parker supported the gold standard and he had sent "The Gold Telegram" stating this. "Bury Bryan" forces rejoiced at his stand for the gold standard. Due to Roosevelt's popularity the Democrats felt they could only win the Solid South. Because of Parker's support of the Gold Standard he had lost support in the Western U.S. His opponent, the charismatic Teddy Roosevelt, was well liked in the West and viewed as a cowboy and Rough Rider.

One reason for the nomination of Senator Davis for Vice President was his money. He would give $185,000 to the Parker for President Campaign. Thomas Fortune Ryan contributed $250,000 of the less than $500,000 ($10 million in 2005 dollars) raised for the Democratic campaign.
Toward the last weeks of the campaign Parker traveled the nation. He said that big business, witch were the wheels of the Roosevelt Campaign, would demand political favors after the election. He said that big business was blackmailing the Republican Party. Such rumors had been circulating among Democrats since mid-summer and had surfaced in the Democratic press and even the Republican New York Times in September. The charges had little effect because no evidence was produced and Parker himself was closer to wealthy businessmen, such as Ryan and August Belmont Jr., than Roosevelt was.

[PBrunsel]

The Candidate of the Conservatives:



Judge Alton Bruce Parker

The Candidate of the Bryanites:



Senator Francis Cockrell

The Candidate of the Radicals:



Newspaper Editor William Randolf Hearst

[Cubby]

Thats a shock to me about Hearst. I assumed from his pro-war stance in 1898 and his role in "Citizen Kane" that he was a conservative.

That sucks that a New Yorker would be silent on civil rights. But I remember there was anti-union sentiment in NYC during the Civil War.

Could you explain what the "Force Bill" of 1890 said?

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

The Force Bill of 1890 can be viewed as a precursor to the later Voting Right Acts in that it would have Federalized Southern elections to ensure that all could vote instead of just whites.  It passed the House, but was filibustered to death in the Senate, so it never became law.  There were a number of other Force Acts and Bills proposed and enacted at various times in the 19th century and they all dealt in one way or another the use of Federal Force to support Federal powers or rights that, according to the authors of these bills, were being interfered with by the States in some way or another.  These were mainly concerning voting rights, but not always.