Bull Moose Party


The Progressive Party, popularly nicknamed the Bull Moose Party, was a third party in the United States formed in 1912 by former president Theodore Roosevelt after he lost the presidential nomination of the Republican Party to his former protégé turned rival, incumbent president William Howard Taft. The new party was known for taking advanced positions on progressive reforms and attracting leading national reformers. The party was also ideologically deeply connected with America's radical-liberal tradition. After the party's defeat in the 1912 United States presidential election, it went into rapid decline in elections until 1918, disappearing by 1920. The "Bull Moose" nickname originated when Roosevelt boasted that he felt "strong as a bull moose" after losing the Republican nomination in June 1912 at the Chicago convention.
As a member of the Republican Party, Roosevelt had served as president from 1901 to 1909, becoming increasingly progressive in the later years of his presidency. In the 1908 presidential election, Roosevelt helped ensure that he would be succeeded by Secretary of War Taft. Although Taft entered office determined to advance Roosevelt's Square Deal domestic agenda, he stumbled badly during the Payne–Aldrich Tariff Act debate and the Pinchot–Ballinger controversy. The political fallout of these events divided the Republican Party and alienated Roosevelt from his former friend. Progressive Republican leader Robert M. La Follette had already announced a challenge to Taft for the 1912 Republican nomination, but many of his supporters shifted to Roosevelt after the former president decided to seek a third presidential term, which was permissible under the Constitution prior to the ratification of the Twenty-second Amendment. At the 1912 Republican National Convention, Taft narrowly defeated Roosevelt for the party's presidential nomination. After the convention, Roosevelt, Frank Munsey, George Walbridge Perkins and other progressive Republicans established the Progressive Party and nominated a ticket of Roosevelt and Hiram Johnson of California at the 1912 Progressive National Convention. The new party attracted several Republican officeholders, although nearly all of them remained loyal to the Republican Party—in California, Johnson and the Progressives took control of the Republican Party.
The party's platform built on Roosevelt's Square Deal domestic program and called for several progressive reforms. The platform asserted that "to dissolve the unholy alliance between corrupt business and corrupt politics is the first task of the statesmanship of the day". Proposals on the platform included restrictions on campaign finance contributions, a reduction of the tariff and the establishment of a social insurance system, an eight-hour workday and women's suffrage. The party was split on the regulation of large corporations, with some party members disappointed that the platform did not contain a stronger call for "trust-busting". Party members also had different outlooks on foreign policy, with pacifists like Jane Addams opposing Roosevelt's call for a naval build-up.
In the 1912 election, Roosevelt won 27.4% of the popular vote compared to Taft's 23.2%, making Roosevelt the only third-party presidential nominee to finish with a higher share of the popular vote than a major party's presidential nominee. Both Taft and Roosevelt finished behind Democratic nominee Woodrow Wilson, who won 41.8% of the popular vote and the vast majority of the electoral vote. The Progressives elected several Congressional and state legislative candidates, but the election was marked primarily by Democratic gains. The 1916 Progressive National Convention was held in conjunction with the 1916 Republican National Convention in hopes of reunifying the parties with Roosevelt as the presidential nominee of both parties. The Progressive Party collapsed after Roosevelt refused the Progressive nomination and insisted his supporters vote for Charles Evans Hughes, the moderately progressive Republican nominee. Most Progressives joined the Republican Party, but some converted to the Democratic Party and Progressives such as Harold L. Ickes would play a role in President Franklin D. Roosevelt's administration. In 1924, La Follette set up another Progressive Party for his presidential run. A third Progressive Party was set up in 1948 for the presidential campaign of former vice president Henry A. Wallace.

Losing to President Taft

Roosevelt selected Taft, his secretary of war, to succeed him as the presidential candidate because he thought Taft closely mirrored his own positions. Taft easily won the 1908 presidential election over William Jennings Bryan. Roosevelt became disappointed by Taft's increasingly conservative policies. Roosevelt was outraged when Taft used the Sherman Anti-Trust Act to sue U.S. Steel for an action that President Roosevelt had explicitly approved. They became openly hostile and Roosevelt decided to seek the presidency in early 1912. Taft was already being challenged by progressive leader Senator Robert La Follette of Wisconsin. Most of La Follette's supporters switched to Roosevelt, leaving the Wisconsin senator embittered.
Nine of the states where progressive elements were strongest had set up preference primaries, which Roosevelt won, but Taft worked harder than Roosevelt to control the Republican Party's organizational operations and the mechanism for choosing its presidential nominee, the 1912 Republican National Convention. For example, he bought up the votes of delegates from the Southern states, copying the technique Roosevelt himself used in 1904. The Republican National Convention rejected Roosevelt's protests. Roosevelt and his supporters walked out and the convention re-nominated Taft.

New party

The next day, Roosevelt supporters met to form a new political party of their own. California governor Hiram Johnson became its chairman and a new convention was scheduled for August. Most of the funding came from wealthy sponsors. Magazine publisher Frank A. Munsey provided $135,000; and financier George W. Perkins, gave $130,000. Roosevelt's family gave $77,500 and others gave $164,000. The total was nearly $600,000, far less than the major parties.
The leadership of the new party at the level just below Roosevelt included Jane Addams of Hull House, a leader in social work, feminism, and pacifism; former Senator Albert J. Beveridge of Indiana, a leading advocate of regulating industry; Gifford Pinchot, a leading environmentalist. and his brother Amos Pinchot, enemy of the trusts. Publishers represented the Muckraker element exposing corruption in city machines. These included Frank Munsey and Frank Knox, who was the Republican vice-presidential candidate in 1936. The two main organizers were Senator Joseph M. Dixon of Montana and especially George W. Perkins, a senior partner of the Morgan bank who came from the efficiency movement. He and Munsey provided financing while Perkins took efficient charge of the new party's organization. However, Perkins' close ties to Wall Street made him deeply distrusted by many party activists.
The new party had serious structural defects. Since it insisted on running complete tickets against the regular Republican ticket in most states, Republican politicians would have to abandon the Republican Party to support Roosevelt. The exception was California, where the progressive element took control of the Republican Party and Taft was not even on the November ballot. Nationally only five of the 15 most progressive Republican Senators joined the new party. Republican legislators, governors, national committeemen, publishers, and editors showed comparable reluctance as bolting the old party risked career suicide. Very few Democrats ever joined the new party. However, many independent reformers still signed up. As a result, most of Roosevelt's previous political allies supported Taft, including his son-in-law, Representative Nicholas Longworth of Cincinnati. His wife Alice Roosevelt Longworth was Roosevelt's most energetic cheerleader. Their public dispute permanently spoiled their marriage.

Progressive convention and platform

Despite these obstacles, the August convention opened with great enthusiasm. Over 2,000 delegates attended, including many women. In 1912, neither Taft nor Wilson endorsed women's suffrage on the national level. The notable suffragist and social worker Jane Addams gave a seconding speech for Roosevelt's nomination, but Roosevelt insisted on excluding Black-and-tan faction Republicans from the South. Yet he alienated white Southern supporters, the Lily-white movement, on the eve of the election by publicly dining with black people at a Rhode Island hotel.
Roosevelt was nominated by acclamation, with Johnson as his running mate. The main work of the convention was the platform, which set forth the new party's appeal to the voters. It included a broad range of social and political reforms long advocated by progressives. It spoke with near-religious fervor and the candidate himself promised: "Our cause is based on the eternal principle of righteousness; and even though we, who now lead may for the time fail, in the end the cause itself shall triumph".
The platform's main theme was reversing the domination of politics by business interests, which allegedly controlled the Republican and Democratic parties alike. The platform asserted:
To that end, the platform called for:
In the social sphere, the platform called for:
The political reforms proposed included:
The platform also urged states to adopt measures for "direct democracy", including:
Besides these measures, the platform called for reductions in the tariff and limitations on naval armaments by international agreement. The platform also vaguely called for the creation of a national health service, making Roosevelt likely the first major politician to call for health care reform.
The biggest controversy at the convention was over the platform section dealing with trusts and monopolies. The convention approved a strong "trust-busting" plank, but Perkins had it replaced with language that spoke only of "strong National regulation" and "permanent active supervision" of major corporations. This retreat shocked reformers like Pinchot, who blamed it on Perkins. The result was a deep split in the new party that was never resolved.
The platform in general expressed Roosevelt's "New Nationalism", an extension of his earlier philosophy of the Square Deal. He called for new restraints on the power of federal and state judges along with a strong executive to regulate industry, protect the working classes and carry on great national projects. This New Nationalism was seen as paternalistic, in direct contrast to Wilson's individualistic philosophy of "New Freedom".
Roosevelt also favored a vigorous foreign policy, including strong military power. Though the platform called for limiting naval armaments, it also recommended the construction of two new battleships per year, much to the distress of outright pacifists such as Jane Addams.