1904: Bourbonism and Bolshevism

[KaiserDave]

The Election of 1900: Results

William McKinley/John D. Long (Republican): 47.3% and 340 Electoral Votes
George Dewey/Adlai E. Stevenson (Democratic): 34.2% and 88 Electoral Votes
Thomas E. Watson/Ignatius L. Donnelly (People's/Independent Democratic): 8.3% and 10 Electoral Votes
Eugene V. Debs/Job Harriman (Social Democratic): 8.1% and 9 Electoral Votes
Other: 2.1% and 0 Electoral Votes

The election of 1900 represented utter ruination for the Democratic Party, which received a paltry 88 electoral votes, no better than it's 1896 performance. Admiral Dewey did better than the doomed Governor Russell in the popular vote, but he nonetheless was slaughtered as President McKinley soared to a massive landslide, despite not even receiving a majority of the vote. The era of Republican dominance continued as the anti-Republican coalition splintered into three factions. First, the Democrats, seemingly a southern regional party with northern enclaves desperately clinging to Bourbon liberalism, secondly the populists who despite all the sound and fury regressed from their mighty 1896 performance, and captured a solitary 10 electoral votes, and the ascendant socialists, who despite all expectations, performed strongly with western voters and captured 9 electoral votes. The performance of the Social Democrats shattered expectation, as an openly socialist party won electoral votes in an American election. Socialists and Marxists rejoiced as business interests and middle class voters in the west panicked. As for the Democrats, they were left devastated again, desperately hoping that 1904 would bring better days. The Populists performed rather poorly, to the frustration of Thomas Watson, who blamed the regular Democratic Party and the Socialists, and to that end, blacks and Jews. The Republicans celebrated another election win.

President McKinley began his second term with a rail tour of the nation with First Lady Ida McKinley that would conclude with a visit to the Pan-American exposition in Buffalo New York. However, at the exposition, the President was shot by Polish-American anarchist Leon Czolgosz on September 6th. Initially, the wound did not appear to be fatal, but overtime infection set in, and the President died on September 14th 1901. Vice President John D. Long was summoned from Massachusetts, and was sworn in soon after.

President Long was just as conservative as his predecessor, if not more, but he lacked the late McKinley's charisma and gravitas. Additionally, he submitted to the advice of Senator Hanna almost entirely, whereas his predecessor was the power player in that relationship.

The first crises of the Long Administration were in regards to labor. In May 1902 the Anthracite Coal Miners of eastern Pennsylvania went on strike demanding higher wages and reduced hours. President Long gave each party a small period of time to negotiate, but negotiations went nowhere, so President Long sent in the U.S. Army to break up the strikers, arrest the ringleaders, and restore order. The business community, included financier J. P. Morgan reacted happily, but workers across the nation were furious, and labor activism intensified. President Long sided with capital over labor again in the same year, when he declined to sue the Northern Securities Company under the Sherman Anti-Trust act, despite the urging of many in his own party.

President Long spent the duration of the term stabilizing and securing the gains of President McKinley at home and abroad.

The Election of 1904


Wikimedia Commons

President Long saw himself as more of a caretaker of the late President McKinley's legacy, and made it clear to delegates he would not seek the nomination of his party in 1904. Delegates entertained New York Governor Theodore Roosevelt as a progressive option, or perhaps the new Secretary of War and former Solicitor General William H. Taft, and even Wisconsin Governor Robert La Follette courted delegates. Senator Hanna himself was considered a candidate, even the frontrunner, but he died before the convention. His forces ultimately congregated around Senator Henry Cabot Lodge of Massachusetts, who had a reputation for bridging the gap between progressives and conservatives in the party. He had a strong reputation as an imperialist, and on civil rights for black Americans. He also was known for his strong opposition to further southern and Eastern European immigration. Charles W. Fairbanks, conservative of Indiana was nominated as Vice President. The Republican platform was strongly imperialist, strongly for the gold standard, generally pro-business but acknowledging the progressive point of view, and supportive of a new push for voting rights in the south and limits on immigration.

The Democrats pushed hard to restore order to a party teetering on the edge. At statewide conventions, party men did everything possible to elect delegates loyal to the party line, and at the same time, party leaders gave concessions to the agrarian wing by reinforcing the party line on low tariffs, and opening the door to bimetallism. All the while party leaders pointed the finger of labor instability at Republican mismanagement. This carrot and stick approach put the party in a considerably better position than it had been in 1900. At the convention, some in the party wanted to shake things up by nominating an outsider, publisher William Randolph Hearst came to mind, and some wanted to bring back President Cleveland. Ultimately former Secretary of State and Attorney General Richard Olney was nominated with New York Judge Alton B. Parker as his running mate. Olney had a terrible reputation among labor activists due to his direct hand in suppressing the Pullman Strike, but this was not a dealbreaker for the rural Democrats (often disconnected from urban labor crises) the party was striving to return to the fold.

The Populists again nominated Thomas E. Watson for President on their agrarian platform. They once again stood for the issuing of silver on a 16:1 ratio to gold and the repeal of the Gold Standard Act, the breakup of prominent trusts and monopolies, a graduated income tax, direct election of Senators, regulation of railroads, and an end to the growth of Empire. Notably, all references to civil rights from previous years were absent to this years platform. Indian rights activist and former abolitionist Thomas Tibbles were nominated for Vice President. The Populists had significantly less support from statewide Democratic organizations this year, after the populists did so much worse in 1900 than they had done in 1896.

The Social Democratic Party no longer existed by 1904, and had merged with other laborite factions to form the Socialist Party of America. Empowered by it's shockingly good showing in 1900, and by intensified labor activism since then, the party entered 1904 with great vigor. The Socialists called for mass worker unionization, an 8 hour work day, the nationalization of the railroads and other utilities, and the breaking up of every trust and monopoly under the sun. They nominated veteran candidate Eugene V. Debs and as his running mate, New York printer Ben Hanford.


Note: I'll continue to modulate results to keep things sane, but rest assured your vote matters a lot, and will dictate the future.

[Unconditional Surrender Truman]

The tragic death of our martyred McKinley will be remembered down through the ages as a calamity of unknown proportions. Nigh fifty or an hundred years from now, schoolboys will recite the events of the year 1901: the murder of McKinley, more terrible than the loss of Garfield or even Lincoln to the nation.

All good Republicans will cast their votes for Henry Cabot Lodge, a patriot and a statesman worthy of the nation's highest honor. None can deny the necessity of reform —but whom can the nation trust to deliver these measures? Whether the callous disregard of the Democrats, who with the selection of Richard Olney, a mildewed spoilsman of the last disgraced Democratic administration, demonstrate they have nothing to offer the country; or the utopian visions of either the Populists or the Socialists, who would expose the nation to the worst depravities of mob rule, there can be but one retort in the conservative and sensible reformism of Henry Cabot Lodge.

[S019]

Olney

[KaiserDave]

Keeping this up for a few more days

[𝕭𝖆𝖕𝖙𝖎𝖘𝖙𝖆 𝕸𝖎𝖓𝖔𝖑𝖆]

I still mistrust Republican rule, but the Democratic ticket is underwhelming and since I have been spending my summers in my few acres of land in Nebraska I understand agrarian concerns more, so I delivered a ballot for Thomas Watson.

[Unconditional Surrender Truman]

Bump.

[GM Team Member and Senator WB]

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