016 - Teddy Roosevelt's Third Term, Part VII
09/19/21 • 16 min
The 1912 convention was not the Republican Party’s finest hour. Tensions were high as one of the party’s most beloved and successful leaders was pitted against a certain loser come the fall. Roosevelt’s fired-up supporters tried to drown out the proceedings with cheers of “Roosevelt! Roosevelt!” The speaker at the lectern said wearily, “You need not hesitate to cheer Roosevelt in my presence. I cheered him for seven years, and I am just trying to take a day off, that is all.”
Screaming matches and fistfights became distressingly normal, each disturbance another harbinger of defeat in November. By the end of the roll call, Taft had 567 delegates to Teddy’s 507. Ultimately, he was nominated with 561 votes.
Roosevelt’s supporters bolted to Orchestra Hall, where Teddy gave a speech that were the birth pains of a new party—the Progressive or Bull Moose Party. President Taft’s supporters were mute in their victory. The Republican split essentially guaranteed the Democrats would take the White House in the fall.
All that was left to do now was count the votes in November.
If you've enjoyed this episode, please leave a review on Apple Podcasts and wherever you listen. And click here to support us on Patreon.
Sources
Morris, Edmund. “Colonel Roosevelt.” Random House, 2010.
Roosevelt, Theodore. “Autobiography of Theodore Roosevelt.”
Wikipedia, “1912 Republican Party Presidential Primaries.” Retrieved September 11, 2021 from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1912_Republican_Party_presidential_primaries
Wikipedia, “William Howard Taft.” Retrieved August 9, 2021 from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Howard_Taft
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The 1912 convention was not the Republican Party’s finest hour. Tensions were high as one of the party’s most beloved and successful leaders was pitted against a certain loser come the fall. Roosevelt’s fired-up supporters tried to drown out the proceedings with cheers of “Roosevelt! Roosevelt!” The speaker at the lectern said wearily, “You need not hesitate to cheer Roosevelt in my presence. I cheered him for seven years, and I am just trying to take a day off, that is all.”
Screaming matches and fistfights became distressingly normal, each disturbance another harbinger of defeat in November. By the end of the roll call, Taft had 567 delegates to Teddy’s 507. Ultimately, he was nominated with 561 votes.
Roosevelt’s supporters bolted to Orchestra Hall, where Teddy gave a speech that were the birth pains of a new party—the Progressive or Bull Moose Party. President Taft’s supporters were mute in their victory. The Republican split essentially guaranteed the Democrats would take the White House in the fall.
All that was left to do now was count the votes in November.
If you've enjoyed this episode, please leave a review on Apple Podcasts and wherever you listen. And click here to support us on Patreon.
Sources
Morris, Edmund. “Colonel Roosevelt.” Random House, 2010.
Roosevelt, Theodore. “Autobiography of Theodore Roosevelt.”
Wikipedia, “1912 Republican Party Presidential Primaries.” Retrieved September 11, 2021 from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1912_Republican_Party_presidential_primaries
Wikipedia, “William Howard Taft.” Retrieved August 9, 2021 from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Howard_Taft
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Previous Episode
015 -Stubborn Nags of Ancient Rome, Part II
The Roman Republic was a mess.
Wealth and power did what wealth and power usually does: it corrupted the political system. Rome’s money troubles, prevalent in the time of Cato the Elder (234-149 BCE) were over. The final defeat of Carthage in 146 BCE paved the way for further conquest in the Mediterranean, and the cash came rolling in.
Upper class Romans got land and slaves and money and seats in the Senate, which they used to consolidate their power and make sure that they stayed high while the lower classes stayed low. The excesses of the rich—sex scandals, wild parties, and the occasional recreational slave execution—earned them plenty of enemies among the lower classes.
There was a very clear sense that Rome was on the wrong track.
Appointing a dictator seemed like one possible answer, but it ended up as these things usually do - with severed heads on pikes in the Forum. Rome needed an emergency brake.
Enter Cato the Younger. Plutarch says that, “even from his infancy, in his speech, his countenance, and all his childish pastimes, he discovered an inflexible temper, unmoved by any passion, and firm in everything.”
Just the kind of guy to become a thorn in the side of an autocrat.
Reign of Terror Safety Tip Number Two Hundred Fifty-Seven: Despots do not like persistent nagging.
Duncan, Mike. “The Storm Before the Storm: The Beginning of the End of the Roman Republic.” Public Affairs, 2017.
Goodman, Rob and Soni, Jimmy. “Rome’s Last Citizen: The Life and Legacy of Cato, Mortal Enemy of Caesar.” St. Martin’s Press, 2012.
Wikipedia, “Cato the Elder.” Retrieved September 14, 2021 from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cato_the_Elder.
Wikipedia, “Sulla.” Retrieved September 14, 2021 from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sulla
Wikipedia, “Gaius Marius.” Retrieved September 14, 2021 from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaius_Marius
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Next Episode
017 - What's In A Dam Name?
Herbert Hoover’s name was mud.
By 1930, the Great Depression was in full swing. Fortunes had been lost, savings had been wiped out, and four million Americans were unemployed (a rate of nearly nine percent). President Hoover was widely perceived as being tone-deaf to both the gravity of the economic catastrophe and the suffering of average Americans.
A lot of things got named for Herbert Hoover. “Hoovervilles” were the shanty towns built on the outskirts of cities where homeless unemployed men and their families lived. There was a big one right in New York’s Central Park. The nation’s largest Hooverville, in St. Louis, had an unofficial mayor and built its own churches and other institutions.
There were also “Hoover blankets” (sheets of old newspaper used as blankets), “Hoover flags (empty pockets turned out), “Hoover leather” (cardboard placed in the soles of shoes to cover the holes) and “Hoover wagons” (automobiles hooked to teams of horses, their engines removed).
There was also, awkwardly enough, Hoover Dam.
Click here to check out "Ragtown" by Kelly Stone Gamble for a great tale about the people who built the dam.
If you liked the show, please click here to support us on Patreon!
Sources
American Experience, “The Controversial Naming of the Dam.” Retrieved August 22, 2021 from https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/hoover-controversy/
Gamble, Kelly Stone. “Ragtown.” Retrieved September 19, 2021 from https://www.amazon.com/kindle-vella/story/B094DXDLTC
Wikipedia, “Herbert Hoover.” Retrieved August 22, 2021 from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herbert_Hoover
Wikipedia, “Hoover Dam.” Retrieved August 22, 2021 from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hoover_Dam
Wikipedia, “Hooverville.” Retrieved August 22, 2021 from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hooverville
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