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“The trumpet call is the most inspiring of all sounds, because it summons men to spurn ease and self-indulgence and timidity, and bids them forth to the field where they must dare and do and die at need.”- Theodore Roosevelt

After serving two terms as President of the United States from 1901-1909, Theodore Roosevelt decided against running for reelection in 1908.  But as historian Patricia O’Toole suggests, in reaction to “the wrenching events of 1912…he persuaded himself that the trumpets of patriotic duty were calling for him to run for president,” once again.  Historian H.W. Brands argues that Roosevelt was upset with the current direction the Republican Party was headed and “felt forgiving, if condescending, towards Taft.” Roosevelt returned from retirement to run against Taft but ultimately failed to win the Republican nomination (The American National Biography).

Instead of accepting defeat, Roosevelt formed the Progressive Party to run as a third-party candidate.  He used his influence to gain support from disenchanted Republicans and on September 5, 1912, the National Progressive Party documented their platform focusing on “the rule of the people” and “realized the birth of a new party…unhampered by any corrupt political past, or by that ‘invisible government,’ which has so long coerced legislation to serve special and private interests.”  Roosevelt established new views for reform and succeeded in becoming a formidable opponent against Taft, his former party member, as well as Wilson, the Democrat candidate.

Unfortunately for Roosevelt, one man was not so happy with his choice to run for a third term and on October 14, 1912, John Schrenk attempted to assassinate the former president.  The incident made headlines across the nation and the New York Tribune reported:

“A desperate attempt to kill Colonel Theodore Roosevelt failed to-night, when a bullet aimed directly at the heart of the ex-President and fired at short range by a would-be assassin spent its force in a bundle of manuscript containing the address which Colonel Roosevelt was to deliver to-night and only slightly wounded the third party candidate.”

The New York Times further explained how Roosevelt insisted on continuing with his speech, “succeeded in making himself heard and talked for nearly an hour.” Only then was he taken to hospital.

October ended and November brought the much-anticipated Election Day.  The Washington Times detailed Roosevelt’s day at the polls:

“After a busy morning at his correspondence, Colonel Roosevelt was driven in his automobile to the place at the little engine house at Oyster Bay, arriving there at five minutes after 12 o’clock…Followed by a crowd of villagers, half a dozen photographers and the members of his party, the colonel entered the polling place and signed the book.  His ballot was No. 265.”

When the results came in, Roosevelt’s Progressive Party had not mustered enough support and Wilson won the election with 400 electoral votes.  Even so, Roosevelt won six states and beat Taft out in nearly all of them.  The Bull Moose Party may not have won the election but it came a strong second and proved to upset bipartisan politics.

On election day, 1872, The Atlanta Constitution urged its readers “Democrats, turn out and vote this evening. There is danger of the Radicals repeating. Give the afternoon to your country.” The joint Democratic and Liberal-Republican candidate, Horace Greeley, won the state of Georgia by thousands of votes, but his showing nationwide was not strong – his additional victories were limited to Kentucky, Missouri, Maryland, Texas, and Tennessee.

Greeley was seen as a coalition candidate, a Republican who was first nominated by the Liberal-Republican faction, then endorsed by the Democrats in an attempt to defeat General Grant. He had personally become “disaffected with the Grant administration because of its corruption and indifference to civil service reform, and also because of its continued enforcement of Reconstruction measures in the South” and fit well as an anti-Grant candidate. Despite the efforts of both parties behind Greeley, Grant won re-election that year by an overwhelming majority. On November 6th, the day after the election, The New York Times reported him carrying thirty of the thirty four states that had reported, receiving three hundred estimated electoral votes to Greeley’s forty nine (The final results were thirty one states to six, 55% to 44% of the popular vote, respectively).

Horace Greeley was the well known editor of the daily paper The New York Tribune, which he first began publishing in April, 1841. Greeley was well known for advocating western settlement, particularly the quote “Go west, young man, go west.” He had “not only promoted the western movement but urged as well that Americans be continually willing to uproot themselves to seek a better life.” He had a rather caricature appearance, which was made fun of in cartoons by Thomas Nast, but viewed rather affectionately by the public. This earned him the nicknames  “Old White Hat,” and “Uncle Horace,” among others.

The electoral defeat was yet another blow to Greeley after a line of tragedies in for him and his family. Out of his seven children with his wife Mary, only two lived through childhood. On October 30, 1872, Greeley’s wife died. He went pack to the Tribune but “following his defeat in the election of 1872, Greeley found that control of the paper had passed out of his hands. Shocked by his electoral repudiation, the recent death of his wife, and the effective loss of his editorship, Greeley suffered a breakdown of both mind and body, and died on November 29, 1872.”

His death came after the popular vote, but before the Electors made their choices. Because Greeley was no longer a viable candidate, for obvious reasons, most of his electoral votes were split among other candidates for president, eighteen specifically going to his running mate, Benjamin Gratz Brown. Greeley still managed to get three electoral votes, though they were not counted, from electors in of all places, Georgia, the state that had supported him so enthusiastically in the general election.

“From the moment that the very first returns were received there was never a minute of doubt that Gov. Wilson had made a clean sweep of the country […] From that time on the only interest manifested was as to whether Col. Roosevelt or President Taft would run second.” – New York Times

For Taft supporters, the election results had only demonstrated one thing: Theodore Roosevelt’s selfish crusade had handed Wilson the presidency with only 42% of the popular vote. As Chairman of the Republican National Committee, Charles D. Hilles argued, “the responsibility for [Wilson’s victory] must rest squarely and solely upon Mr. Roosevelt. But for Mr. Roosevelt’s action in deserting the Republican Party Mr. Taft would have been elected.” Hilles also promised that “the Republican Party will pursue and maintain its policies with undiminished confidence,” while the publisher of the Baltimore American and Baltimore Star, Gen. Felix Agnus assured Republicans that Taft had only finished in third because:

“the fear of Roosevelt was so great that we could not control our Republican vote.  While many remained loyal, the great majority, fearing that Roosevelt and radicalism would prevail, voted for Wilson en masse: and while it is a blow and defeat to the Republicans, they preferred the less of two evils, thereby saving the Republican Party, which they feared Roosevelt would overturn.”

At the same time, the Progressives claimed to see victory in defeat. It was the first time in the history of the United States that a third party candidate would finish second in a national election. Thus Chairman Francis W. Bird of the New York County Committee declared, “within three months we have founded a party and have decisively defeated the Republicans in this country.” The Chairman of the National Bull Moose Party, Senator Joseph M. Dixon further suggested, “the result of today’s balloting makes the Progressive Party the dominant opponent of the Democratic Party. Today the old Republican Party becomes ‘the third party’ in American politics.”

John Callan O’Laughlin of the Chicago Daily Tribune concluded, “it was a day of victory for the Democrats, a day of satisfaction for the Progressives, a day of gloom for the Republicans.” According to historian James Chace, “had the charismatic Roosevelt received the Republican nomination, he almost surely would have won [the general election]” (Chace, 6). However, once Roosevelt lost the nomination and decided to run as a third party candidate against his own former party, a divide in the Republican base was created that was simply too large for either Taft or Roosevelt to overcome. As Paul Rorvig writes, the 1912 election proved that “an Elephant divided by a Bull Moose equals a Donkey.” (“Clash of the Giants”, 46)

Prior to the presidential election of 1928, Senator William Borah of Idaho said he expected “the largest women’s vote, by far, yet recorded.” This prediction was reinforced by New York Times’ reports that in New York City there were 250,000 more women registered than in 1924, while the Chicago Daily Tribune reported female registration in Chicago had increased by more than 188,000 since the last election.

Sarah Schuyler Butler, Vice Chairman of the State Committee suggested, “the tremendous increase in the number of women who have registered proves beyond a doubt the keen interest of women in the the campaign […] We feel confident that this will mean a substantial increase in the strength of the Republican Party.” For many women the election represented not just a choice between Herbert Hoover and Governor Al Smith as candidates, but also a referendum on the issue of prohibition. Thus Dr. F. Scott McBride of the Anti-Saloon League predicted, “thousands of women who have never voted before, aroused by Smith’s wet threats, will go to the polls next Tuesday to vote against liquor by voting for Hoover.” Furthermore, a number of female voters believed that a Smith presidency would restrict the advancement of women’s rights, as National Woman’s Party Chairman, Mrs. Clarence M. Smith argued, “it is scarcely conceivable that any woman who believes in equal opportunities for women could give her support to Governor Smith, who, as he declared in his Newark speech, is unalterably opposed to industrial equality.”

Not all women supported Hoover. As Ms. Ben Hooper of Oshkosh, Wisconsin declared, “women are disgusted with the record of the last eight years […] I do not see how any progressively minded person can vote for Mr. Hoover.” Additionally, some Democratic leaders believed that endorsements by high-profile women, such as Mrs. Woodrow Wilson and Mrs. Francis B. Sayre, would be enough to hold in line the Democratic women.

As Republicans had predicted, however, early reports suggested that on November 6th an unprecedented number of women had turned out to vote and feminist scholar Jo Freeman confirmed that, according to straw polls, the female vote had overwhelmingly favored Herbert Hoover. In Huntington, Long Island most of the 23 districts reported nearly two-thirds of those who had voted were women and that many of these women had voted for Hoover. Across the country stories of first-time, elderly women voting for Herbert Hoover also emerged, including in Brooklyn, where the New York Times detailed the story of a 98-year woman, Rachael Fayette, who had cast her first ballot ever for Hoover as an example “which all of her associates followed.”

Hoover won in a landslide, carrying 40 states and receiving nearly 60% of the national vote. Upon hearing of Hoover’s victory, Vice Chairman of the Republican National Committee, Mrs. Alvin T. Hert proclaimed, “the result of yesterday’s election may in large measure – larger than ever before – be attributed to the untiring activity of women voters […] They have every reason to be proud of their part in the unprecedented victory.”