1912 United States presidential election

The 1912 United States presidential election was the 32nd quadrennial presidential election, held on Tuesday, November 5, 1912. Incumbent President John R. Lynch defeated Former Secretary of State William Jennings Bryan, former Speaker of the House J. Hamilton Lewis and former Senator Richard F. Pettigrew to win a second term as President, becoming the first African-American to be elected to that office.

Lynch had become President three years before, after President Theodore Roosevelt's death in 1909. After a stable three years in office, President Lynch was unanimously renominated at the 1912 Federal Republican National Convention, with Vice President John D. White (appointed by Lynch as per the Constitution) as his running mate. At the Farmer-Labor primaries, former Secretary of State William Jennings Bryan faced former Senator Richard F. Pettigrew for the nomination, which Bryan won narrowly, prompting Pettigrew's departure from the party and forming the Workers' Party of America in a Montana convention. While Bryan chose New York Councilman and Baptist Pastor Walter Rauschenbusch to be his running mate, the Workers' Party nominated Senator from Colorado William D. Haywood for the Vice Presidency. In the Liberal convention, former Speaker of the House Hamilton Lewis was nominated, after facing opposition from New York Governor Al Smith and Senator Oscar Underwood from Alabama.

The general election was bitterly contested by Lynch, Bryan, Lewis and Pettigrew. Lynch ran on a platform of stable leadership, tariff increase, hailing the minimum wage, and mourning the fallen Bull Moose. Bryan's platform called for, amongst many other things, government ownership of railroads, an anti-imperialist foreign policy, and taxation upon land values. Lewis's campaign focused on support for liberalism, a decrease in tariff rates, and an overall rejection of both Farmer-Labor and Federal Republicans as radicals and reactionaries, respectively. Pettigrew's platform championed the ratification of a new constitution, nationalizing all private property, establishing a unicameral legislature and the abolition of judicial review.

The election was the fourth in American history to fail to yield an electoral majority for any candidate, with Lynch winning a contingent election. This was the second time in American history a candidate has won the popular vote and lost the presidency, the first being Ely Moore in 1852, and the second time William Jennings Bryan has lost the presidency in a House contingent election.

Background
Theodore Roosevelt was elected to the Presidency in 1908 in a landslide, following the extremely unpopular administration of William Randolph Hearst. John R. Lynch was elected Vice President in that same ticket.

Roosevelt's death
Former Governor of New York and Speaker of the House Theodore Roosevelt was elected President in the 1908 presidential election, in a landslide following the tumultuous and unpopular administration of William Randolph Hearst, who performed the worst of any incumbent president in american history, winning only 6% of the popular vote, while Roosevelt received the first majority of the popular vote in more than 20 years.

Roosevelt's short term would revolve primarily around the invasion of Mexico, with the president stringently supporting its continuation - even promising the eradication of the forces of Emiliano Zapata and Pancho Villa. On November 9, 1909, Roosevelt arrived at the front lines of the Chihuahua campaign to meet with american troops and oversee the war effort alongside General Frederick Grant and other leading american commanders. During his visit, the President travelled to an encampment near the small town of San Juanito in rural Chihuahua. That day, around 7:13 PM, 484 men, directly under the command of Pancho himself, would raid the American camp with President Roosevelt present. While the President was shot in his chest, he made a full recovery at the hospital in Texas, famously saying "It takes more than that to kill a Bull Moose" while in the hospital bed.

After making a recovery, President Roosevelt continued a visit to the Alaskan city of Arctic Atlantis on the first days of December for a speech officially unveiling his reforms to the Alaska Territory, ensuring that all Governors of the Territory would be residents and protecting Territory forests, arriving in Arctic Atlantis by train on December 1, 1909. After making a speech, the President departed from the stage to cheers. His injuries weakened him and he requested a rest in the presidential carriage, waiting for six minutes in it as he chatted with Town Sheriff Wyatt Earp, Mayor James Belford, and Alaska's Territorial Governor Rutherford P. Hayes. The President's carriage departed soon after, and, in a sharp turn, collided with a trolley, drived by an emigree from Massachusetts named Euclid Madden, crushing the President, who died from his injuries.

The news of the President's death would make its way into the rest of the country later that day by telegraph. John R. Lynch would be sworn in into office by Justice John D. White inaugurated formally by Supreme Court Chief Justice John Mosby several days later, becoming the first black and the first former slave President of the United States.

The invasion of Mexico
The invasion of Mexico started in May 1906, following the seizure, by the Mexican Imperial government, of President Hearst's property in the country, as a response to the seizure of the port of Veracruz by the United States Navy two months earlier that year.

President Hearst ordered an army of 5,000 american troops to enter Mexican territory, joining a small force commanded by 76 year old former Mexican President Porfirio Diaz, a personal friend to Hearst in exile in the United States. The Imperial Mexican Government denounced what it declared to be an invasion, dispatching troops to battle Diaz in the North, adding an additional front to its war against the Tepepistas of Morelos. Following the revelation of a letter from Hapsburg Emperor Franz-Ferdinand to Emperor Agustín offering aid to the Imperial cause of Mexico, President Hearst claimed a "breach of the Adams doctrine, and launched a full invasion of Mexico, with 50,000 american troops invading from the North and 10,000 Centroamerican troops invading from the South. This prompted Secretary of State William Jennings Bryan's resignation, criticizing the invasion. Beginning on November 2nd of 1906, four days prior to the midterm elections, the invasion quickly made headway, invading from the West through the American state of Tijuana and gathering support from Diaz loyalists. Hearst, meanwhile, controversially declared that “I really don’t see what is to prevent us from owning all Mexico and running it to suit ourselves." Mexico City fell on February 29th, 1908. The Imperial Government would flee, with various erstwhile supporters such as Venustiano Carranza breaking away to lead their own factions, with Emperor Agustin remaining confined until forced out and arrested by American troops. Agustin has been imprisoned and forced to sign a proclamation abdicating the Mexican throne. Porfirio Diaz has set up a provisional government, with his forces and American troops beginning a march south for an assault upon the peasant revolt centered around Morelos.

The invasion quickly drew the condemnation of various countries, like Great Britain, France and Austria-Hungary, and prompted the split of the radical Farmer-Laborites from the Hearst faction of the party, denouncing the President as an imperialist.

The Farmer-Labor split
Although Governor of New York and media tycoon William Randolph Hearst won the 1904 Farmer-Labor primary, he faced stiff opposition from Senator Thomas Watson from Georgia, who was endorsed by William Jennings Bryan and represented the more agrarian faction of the Farmer-Labor Party. Hearst would win a close race, angering the party's radical faction with the selection of Liberal leader John Nance Garner as running mate. Watson, however, would support Hearst in the 1904 presidential election, in which Hearst would win by a razor thin margin against John Hay.

Hearst would see himself constantly clashing with the more radical faction of the Farmer-Labor Party during the entirety of his term. Things would only worsen after the invasion of Mexico, with the radicals openly calling the President an "imperialist" and publicly supporting the struggle of Emiliano Zapata. In the 1908 Farmer-Labor convention, Watson emerged as the official opposition candidate for the nomination against incumbent President Hearst. Watson would lose by a narrow margin, and Hearst would emerge as the party's nominee in a chaotic National Convention, where radicals were allegedly barred from being spectators, and Senator Richard F. Pettigrew's speech being met with insults and jeer from Hearst's supporters.

Following that Convention, a split incurred in the Farmer-Labor Party, and ever since the election of 1908, every election saw a radical third-party candidate challenger, be it Richard F. Pettigrew or Thomas Watson.