In 1920, Eugene V. Debs, ran for president on the Socialist Party ticket and received a million votes--even though he was serving a prison term for . They are still the subject class in every nation on earth and the chief function of every government is to keep them at the mercy of their masters. In addition to South Dakota and California, where there was no Taft ticket, Taft carried no counties in Maine, New Jersey, Minnesota, Nevada, Arizona, and seven "Solid South" states.[44]. [19] Meanwhile, Taft decided not to campaign before the election beyond his acceptance speech on August 1. in, Selmi, Patrick. Many of its leaders were deported and jailed, and internal conflicts took a lot of its remaining energy. United States presidential election of 1912 - Britannica But the warden did let Debs write out a statement. The Twelfth Amendment to the United States Constitution requires that after a presidential election the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate meet to count the electoral votes. 2006. A colossal engineering failure, the dam was built by William Mulholland, who had ensured the growth of Los. After months of continually increasing support, Roosevelt changed his position, writing to journalist Henry Beach Needham in January 1912 that if the nomination "comes to me as a genuine public movement of course I will accept."[13]. Beloved by many contemporaries as a man "too good for this world" who would give the clothes off his back to anyone in need, "Gene" Debs was a prominent leader of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen (BLF) in his youth. He said he became a socialist after reading Karl Marx Das Kapital while in prison. [41], On October 30, 1912, Vice President James S. Sherman died of nephritis, leaving Taft without a running mate less than a week before the election. And he knew his campaigns were symbolic. November 2, 2016 1:57 PM Expand Socialist rabble-rouser Eugene Debs received almost a million votes for President more than oncethe last time was while he was in prison. They attacked a draft board office to protest the Vietnam War. Henry Justin Allen read a speech from Roosevelt in which he criticized the process and stated that delegates had been stolen from his in order to secure Taft's nomination.[15]. Debs ran again for president in 1904, polling 400,000 votes. ", The Presidential Vote, 18961932, Edgar E. Robinson, pg. In 18 of those, Wilson finished 1st and Roosevelt finished 2nd. Delahaye, Claire. [24] The number of Socialists in the state legislatures increased from twenty to twenty-one. 1920 United States presidential election - Wikipedia Only in Utah was Reimer on the ballot but Chafin was not. The New Yorker, Feb. 11, 2019. But the Democratic administration of Woodrow Wilson quickly stole the Socialists' thunder, enacting a broad program of "New Freedom" reforms on behalf of workers, women and consumers. This policy was based mostly on individualism instead of a strong government. [38][39], Taft was not campaigning and focused on his presidential duties. In the 1910 and 1912 elections, however, scores of Socialists were victorious in state and local contests, and in 1912 Debs polled nearly 1 million votes for president. "The Election of 1912 and the Origins of Constitutional Conservatism." 14, The Presidential Vote, 18961932, Edgar E. Robinson, pg. Second, as a labor organizer, he was at the forefront of workers appeals for statutory protection in an area that appeared to be neglected by the Amendment. Debs was behind bars in the federal penitentiary in Atlanta, Georgia, serving a 10-year sentence for sedition. On November 5, Wilson captured the presidency handily by carrying a record 40 states. This was not his first prison sentence. Morris Hillquit, Meyer London, and John Spargo, who were serving as delegates, supported Russell during the presidential balloting. Today is the 104th anniversary of just one of the five times Debs campaigned as a socialist for president. Results of various cities within the top 100 municipalities by the 1910 United States census. Eugene Debs: When a prisoner ran for president | BrandeisNOW "[30], Wilson supported a policy called "The New Freedom". Fifty years later, the fallout continues. Films Videos Features Woodrow Wilson | Article Eugene Debs Eugene V. Debs, 5 times Socialist candidate for President, set free from prison on Christmas Day. 2017. The voting right for women in 1920 was partly credited to Debs and The Socialist Party, due to their advocacy of women's rights since 1900. They alone declare war, and they alone make peace. Eugene V. Debs | AFL-CIO Socialist Eugene V. Debs gathered 3,159 votes, the poorest showing for the Socialist party since it was first placed on the Utah ballot in 1904. Roosevelt initially considered not running as a third-party candidate until George Walbridge Perkins and Frank Munsey offered their financial support. Listen to article. In the other 3, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, and Washington, Roosevelt finished 1st and Wilson finished 2nd. But it forged a new Marine Corps. Taft also fired popular conservationist Gifford Pinchot as head of the Bureau of Forestry in 1910. [15], Roosevelt broke with tradition and attended the convention, where he was welcomed with great support from voters. The Socialists predicted that they would receive over two million votes and have twelve members elected to Congress, but Debs only received 897,011 votes and Berger lost reelection. He was suffering from delusion and said the ghost of President McKinley ordered him to kill Roosevelt to prevent a third term. They alone declare war and they alone make peace. Debs trial for sedition was a mess. By the strikes end, 30 were dead and nearly $80 million worth of property had been destroyed. Debs was beaten by Chafin in two states, Vermont and Delaware, with Debs finishing 5th in both states. He finished 3rd in 21 states. In the six months he spent behind bars, Debs read a lot, including Karl Marx. Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). [9] In the 1910 midterm elections, the Republicans lost 57 seats in the House of Representatives as the Democrats gained a majority for the first time since 1894. Here are a few gems: "Those who produce should have, but we know that those who produce the most that is, those who work hardest, and at the most difficult and most menial tasks, have the least." In 1912, Debs won almost 6 percent of the popular vote. [25][26][27], After the presidential ballot Seidel and Russell proposed a motion to make Debs' nomination unanimous and it was accepted. (Video: Allie Caren, Brian Monroe/The Washington Post), Local news, weather, sports, events, restaurants and more, The socialist who ran for president from prison and won nearly a million votes. Debs received his largest number of votes from Ohio while his best percentage was in Nevada. [4] Early in his term, President Taft had promised to stand for a lower tariff bill, but protectionism had been a major policy of the Republican Party since its founding. 9653.. This photograph was used as Government Exhibit Number 17 for the prosecution. Much of the Republican effort was designed to discredit Roosevelt as a dangerous radical, but this had little effect. As of 2023, this is the only presidential election since 1860 in which 4 candidates received more than 5% of the popular vote and a third-party candidate outperformed a major party candidate in the general election. Throughout the nation, draftees skipped physicals, gave a wrong address at their induction or filed claims for exempted status. The Republican split enabled Wilson to win 40 states and a landslide victory in Electoral College with just 41.8% of the popular vote, the lowest support for a presidential election winner after 1860. Though still seen by many as the Democrats' ideological leader, power shifts within the party in the wake of their success at the 1910 mid-term elections meant that Bryan could no longer be guaranteed the two-thirds majority needed to earn the nomination. Electoral Votes by State [Updated July 2023] - World Population Review Laid off during the depression of 1873, Debs eventually found another job as a clerk in the grocery business and never worked for the railroad again the rest of his life. [45], Wilson won 1,969 counties but held a majority in only 1,237, less than Bryan had had in any of his campaigns.[44]. After leaving jail, Debs turned his attention to organizing the Socialist Party. Wilson won a majority in the 11 former, * Third party is endorsed by a major party, Attempted assassination of Theodore Roosevelt, Though he had become President upon the William McKinley assassination in 1901, only six months of McKinley's term had elapsed. Debs' biggest event was a speech to 15,000 supporters in New York City. [43] In only two regions, New England and the Pacific, was Wilson's vote greater than the greatest Bryan vote.[44]. Taft's conservatism angered Roosevelt, so he challenged Taft for the party nomination at the 1912 Republican National Convention. He ran as simply Convict No. what happened at the Republican National Convention in Chicago June 1912? Theodore Roosevelt's 88 electoral votes are the highest won by a third party in a presidential election. Additionally, Bryan privately conceded that his three presidential runs having all ended in decisive losses, firstly to William McKinley, and then to Taft, would seriously handicap his credibility as a candidate (even if the 1904 election, the only one of the previous four in which Bryan was not the Democratic candidate, had resulted in an even more lop-sided defeat for the party). Wilson's raw vote total was less than William Jennings Bryan totaled in any of his three campaigns. The strike led Debs to question whether large corporations could be truly committed to either industrial cooperation or popular democracy. http://mtsu.edu/first-amendment/article/1266/eugene-debs, The Free Speech Center operates with your generosity! Has Anyone Ever Run for President While in Prison? And More Questions Eugene Debs [electronic resource]. Free Speech on Trial | National Archives Debs offered this perspective on war in 1915: "I am not a capitalist soldier; I am a proletarian revolutionist. He is a little giant now but he is growing fast. 5. what political party did the American Railway Union turne into. Now, as so many dissidents anarchists, socialists, suffragists, pacifists, even conscientious objectors had been ensnared by the Sedition Act, he felt compelled to campaign again from behind bars. Debs fought for First Amendment freedom of association First, as a member of an unpopular minority, he appealed for protection under the Amendment. Suffering from a heart condition and believing the party needed new faces, Debs had sat out the 1916 presidential election. Taft was not on the ballot at all in South Dakota, not even as a write-in option. [1] [15][16], Roosevelt supporters criticized the large amount of delegates coming from areas the Republicans would not win, with over 200 delegates coming from areas that had not been won by a Republican since carpetbaggers left, or the four delegates that came from the territories which didn't vote in the general election. As World War I raged, Eugene Debs delivered his final public speech in June of 1918, at the Socialist Party convention. I know he is now trying to deceive that class to further his own selfish ambition to get back into the White House and if possible remain there for life. They have conquered all things but their own freedom. It is the only compliment they could pay me., Debs railed against capitalism a century before Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) would campaign for the White House as a democratic socialist. Debs's health deteriorated in the horrid prison conditions of the time, and President Warren G. Harding commuted his sentence in December 1921, when the war had ended and cooler heads prevailed in our country.
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