1916 United States presidential election

The 1916 United States presidential election was the 33rd quadrennial presidential election, held on Tuesday, November 7, 1916. It saw former President Aaron Burr Houston win re-election to an unprecedented third term, defeating four-time Farmer-Labor nominee William Jennings Bryan, WPA nominee Richard F. Pettigrew, Liberal nominee Cordell Hull, and others. The election is known for its shocking result, where many were expecting a comfortable Bryan win, not expecting Houston's victory and the rise of the WPA.

After a swift convention and a passionate speech, William Jennings Bryan, an already three-time nominee, would be re-nominated after his close loss in 1912. Aaron Burr Houston on the other hand had a slightly harder time being nominated, as he had to face six other challengers. However, he was able to secure a victory, with the Independence League endorsing his candidacy with Herbert Hoover as his running-mate. The Liberals would have a shocking and chaotic convention, where after a deadlock, former nominee Horace Boies would be nominated, though he would decline and endorse Houston. This shocked the delegates, with many following and endorsing Houston, with some endorsing Bryan, and some staying back and endorsing fellow Liberal Cordell Hull for the Presidency.

Houston would surprise most with a shocking victory, triumphing over Bryan, with many saying the election was like that of 1860, saying Houston's victory was similar to Franklin Pierce's shocking victory. He would win 43% of the vote, with Bryan win second with 33%, and Pettigrew with 18%.

Federal Republican Party nomination
Also see: 1916 Federal Republican National Convention

The Primaries
Houston would begin the primary season with victories out of the gate as even Kentucky, expected to be a Parker victory, would join Wisconsin in yielding a victory to ABH. Houston would follow-up the initial primaries with a sweeping victory in the Texas primary; Hiram Johnson, however, would find victory in the Nebraska primary despite the efforts of William Allen White on behalf of Houston, while Charles Evans Hughes won a victory in Massachusetts, one among many to find itself challenged at the convention. With 35.6% of the vote, Houston would win Iowa on March 15th, even as the supporters of Henry Ford carried Michigan for the reluctant automobile magnate. Helen Taft would find herself second to Houston in Washington and with a narrow victory in her home state of Ohio. Capturing the headlines would be Pennsylvania primary, a winner-take-all race, yielding controversy as progressive boss William Flinn vacillated between support of the Houston and Ford campaigns, with Helen Taft winning a narrow victory over a mixed slate of Flinn delegates by 0.05% of the vote; Flinn would accuse the conservative wing of the Pennsylvania party, led by Boies Penrose, of rigging the election, a challenge he would win at the convention with the aid of Ford campaign manager Charles McNary. Rounding out the primary season would narrow victories for Hughes delegates in New York and Tennessee, despite strong second place showings by Aaron Burr Houston.

The Convention
Henry Ford would enter the convention with a wave of momentum and a severe lack of organization. The pioneer of the automotive industry had insisted on surrogates to run his campaign, personally involving himself no further than a statement of willingness to accept the nomination. Oregon's Charles McNary would serve to manage his campaign, shocking observers by bringing Ford's support to 117 delegates at the outset; yet the lack of cooperation from Ford himself would impede McNary, while the possibility of treachery from William Flinn kept Pennsylvania in the balance. Houston's presence would be felt at the convention despite a lack of personal attendance, as the former President and assistants manned a wall's worth of telephones.

1914 had devastated the Arkansas Federal Republican Party as Powell Clayton, who had become Chairman of the Arkansas Federalist Party at age 34 soon after immigrating to Arkansas, would die after 47 years of political power over the state's political right. Its haphazard remnants would defect from Taft to Hughes amidst a general shift to the New Yorker as a safer choice to prevent a progressive victory. Afterwards Former Speaker of the House John C. Houk would drive the Tennessee delegation into internal war with Hughes supporter Henry Clay Evans, emerging from a contentious meeting with a delegation flipped to Houston. Former Vice President William M.O. Dawson, who died in March, had advocated for his former running mate, Houston, but his death effectively paralyzed the forces of ABH. Meanwhile, William A. MacCorkle had nearly carried Alton B. Parker to victory at the state convention; the Dawsonless remnants of the Houston campaign would ally with MacCorkle in an attempt to rout Ford leader C. Bascom Slemp, a conservative largely in the Ford camp out of convenience. Pooling their influence, MacCorkle and Dawson would successfully push Slemp's machine into the minority in the Virginia delegation, further buttressing ABH's efforts.

The convention would adjourn for the night following the third ballot, leaving hours for William Flinn to brood, with the morning bearing the news of his defection to Houston. The movement of Pennsylvania's 38 delegates would take other progressives as of yet reluctant to support a third term into the Houston camp, as South Dakota and Nebraska led a wave of western states in switching sides. The result would be a stampede to the former President, yet he remained below a majority. As the ballot ostensibly wrapped up, a man would rise from the Montana delegation, Joseph M. Dixon, the leader of Houston's campaign in the state, who had found himself outvoted 2-1 by Hughes delegates through the convention. Dixon would announce the switch of the votes of his state to Houston, and with that, the dam with burst, as the inevitable was confirmed overwhelmingly and, for the fourth time in American history, the cheers of a convention hall would mark the nomination of Aaron Burr Houston to the presidency.

The Independence League
Despite its failure to break through in the elections of 1914, the Independence League remained afloat as a vehicle of the ambitions of William Randolph Hearst. Hearst had floated the idea of endorsing Houston as early as 1915 and thus organized the Independence League's convention to take place entirely overlapping with that of the Federal Republicans; while the Federal Republicans would convene in Chicago, the League would hold its own convention in Memphis, with the telegraph wires between the two cities lively through the night as representatives of the Houston campaign attempted negotiations with Hearst, who would formally announce his support for Houston an hour after his nomination. Anxious to placate the former Laborites of the Independence League and seeking to rebuild his wartime coalition government, Houston would throw himself behind 67 year old former General Trades Union President Terence V. Powderly, whose service in the cabinets of Presidents Trumbull, George, Houston, Dewey, Roosevelt, and Lynch had christened him as the longest serving member of a cabinet in American history, and whose leadership of the anti-strike Knights of Labor attemped to drive the Labor movement rightward.

Conservatives and supporters of Hughes had already organized an effort for 56 year old reformist conservative Governor Horacio Vasquez of Santo Domingo, whose economic "Dominican miracle" had transformed the island state's perception among citizens of the contiguous states. With Vasquez and Powderly likely to deadlock, Illinois Houston Chairman Medill McCormick would approach his chief with the suggestion of the nomination of former Illinois Governor Richard Yates Jr., a moderate within party struggles who nonetheless had identified mildly with the Houston and progressive wings of the party. Yates had seen a series of accusations that his administration had compelled state employees to donate to Federal Republican campaigns. The accusations of corruption would damper efforts on Yates behalf, yet Houston would soon find himself considering another member of the entourage, Herbert Hoover, whose campaign against Japan since his incarceration in a Japanese prison had become a pillar of the Houston campaign. The nomination of the 43 year old humanitarian and mining engineer would see opposition from supporters of Henry Ford and Hiram Johnson, but acceptance of Hoover among both wings of the party would lead to his nomination by acclamation, with Johnson and Ford forces unable to unite around a challenger. Independence League would formally second the nominations of Houston and Hoover, effectively dissolving itself as a national party.

The Primaries
Bryan would surprise none by sweeping all 49 states, yet the primary figure of opposition would not be Mary Elizabeth Lease; nor, even, would it be Richard F. Pettigrew, despite a handful of write-in votes in the Western states. Rather, the second place finisher in the Farmer-Labor primaries would be the man who had once dragged the time honored nemesis of Farmer-Labor to the left and taken Lease, among others, to the Federal Republican camp to join him: Aaron Burr Houston. Moreover, all signs point to Houston as the likely Federal Republican candidate for the Presidency. The measly handfuls of delegates won by Houston and Lease failed to have any impact on the Bryan movement, however, which rejoiced in its victory, with the final victory at the presidential level seemingly the ever approaching light at the end of the tunnel.

The Convention
Balding and seeing growing weight gain, William Jennings Bryan nonetheless exceled in oratory beyond the typical prowess of one his age, even if the "Boy Orator of the Platte" had outlived the golden age of his oratory. Bryan's speech would be the first to be recorded, with a series of excerpts broadcast live across the nation over the burgeoning technology of the radio, those excerpts may be read below:

''"The money power denounces, as public enemies, all who question its methods or throw light upon its crimes. Plutocracy is abhorrent to a republic; it is more despotic than monarchy, more heartless than aristocracy, more selfish than bureaucracy. It preys upon the nation in time of peace and conspires against it in the hour of its calamity. Conscienceless, compassionless and devoid of wisdom, it enervates its votaries while it impoverishes its victims. It is already sapping the strength of the nation, vulgarizing social life and making a mockery of morals. The time is ripe for the overthrow of this giant wrong. In the name of the counting-rooms which it has denied; in the name of business honor which it has polluted; in the name of the home which it has despoiled; in the name of religion which it has disgraced; in the name of the people whom it has opprest, let us make our appeal to the awakened conscience of the nation. [...] The poor man who takes property by force is called a thief, but the creditor who can by legislation make a debtor pay a dollar twice as large as he borrowed is lauded as the friend of a sound currency. The man who wants the people to destroy the Government is an anarchist, but the man who wants the Government to destroy the people is a patriot."''

“Nation after nation, when at the zenith of its power, has proclaimed itself invincible because its army could shake the earth with its tread and its ships could fill the seas, but these nations are dead, and we must build upon a different foundation if we would avoid their fate.”

"Science is a magnificent force, but it is not a teacher of morals. It can perfect machinery, but it adds no moral restraints to protect society from the misuse of the machine. It can also build gigantic intellectual ships, but it constructs no moral rudders for the control of storm tossed human vessel. It not only fails to supply the spiritual element needed but some of its unproven hypotheses rob the ship of its compass and thus endangers its cargo."

"“My place in history will depend on what I can do for the people and not on what the people can do for me.”

With the convention overwhelmingly under Bryan, the issue of the Vice Presidency would find itself ignored until the last moment. Lena Morrow Lewis of Illinois and Charles Edward Russell of New York, both leaders of the "social democratic" faction, would find themselves in consideration early; however, Lewis would deny intentions for the office and back Russell, whose own hawkishness would clash with Bryan's intent to center his campaign on neutrality. Carl D. Thompson of Wisconsin would be considered, but he would find disfavor among the delegates despite being popular with Bryan personally. In an attempt to hammer upon the issue of neutrality, Allan L. Benson, famed for his proposal for a national referendum wherein all endorsing entry into a war would be drafted, would briefly be considered, but his lack of political office would lead to him being dropped. Meanwhile, the stolen victory of 1912 hung over the party, seen in their newly adopted platform plank formally endorsing the abolition of the electoral college; thus would Bryan's 1912 running mate, New York City Mayor Walter Rauschenbusch, be approached anew to reinvigorate the campaign of 1912. Ailing in health, the Christian Socialist would nonetheless consent to serve anew as Bryan's running mate, a nomination that would win the approval of all but 9 delegates at the convention, who would cast their votes for Charles Edward Russell. Lewis herself had criticized Bryan for not selecting Russell but nonetheless taken to the campaign trail for him.

The Workers' Nomination
It was a move unprecedented in American history; the Civil War and its aftermath had seen the open operation of the States' Rights Party; the Cuban Crisis had seen the open candidacies of secessionists across the nation; yet, the involvement of members of the Industrial Workers of the World in spat of terrorist attacks and the growing allusions to revolution among the party's supporters would lead to the passage of the Sedition Act of 1913, federally prohibiting both the Workers' Party of America and the Industrial Workers of the World, while serving as the basis for the arrests of leading figures within both organizations. While the Supreme Court would overturn the prohibition of both organizations and free some of those imprisoned under the act, two years of raids upon suspected communist meetings had devastated both organizations, with the harassment of federal and state law enforcement continuing. Yet, Russia's April Revolution and the subsequent Soviet government sparked hope in the stalwarts of the American far left. Despite remaining in prison for his predictions of "many bloody revolutions as a result of the protest of the masses against the tyranny and oppression of the wealth of the world in the hands of a few," Richard F. Pettigrew was been nominated to carry the party's torch to the upcoming elections, becoming the first candidate in American history to contest the presidency while incarcerated, yet the question of the Vice Presidency remained.

The convention would begin by amending its platform plank in opposition to judicial review to state that "The United States Courts can and should be abolished by act of Congress; they do not belong to democratic institutions," a direct quote from Senator Pettigrew which he had suggested be added to the party platform in his most recent letter from prison. The convention would proceed to affirm its 1912 platform, calling for the ratification of a new constitution; the nationalization of private property; a unicameral legislature elected by universal suffrage; support for "international workers' revolt against the oppression of capital;" and opposition to the Sedition Act, labelling it a "repeal of the First Amendment." The platform would further its support for the Russian Bolshevik and Mexican Zapatista governments with a statement of opposition to entry into the "capitalist imperialism" of the Great War, as well as a call for end of the "starvation and plunder of Ireland and the subjection of all other countries by the capitalist empires."*

The vice presidency would fall to a close contest between supporters of Big Bill Haywood and those opposing a formal endorsement, with smaller pockets attempting to draft Eugene V. Debs for the office or supporting Albert Parsons. Debs would telegraph a firm refusal to the convention after the second ballot, despite Thomas E. Watson attempting to cause a stampede to Debs through switching the Georgia delegation to him. The support of the Debs’ loyalists, as well the decision by Benjamin Gitlow of New York and Earl Browder of Nebraska to support Haywood at the urging of C.E. Ruthenberg, would lead to a victory for the incarcerated IWW leader on the third ballot. The vice presidential contest decided, 25 year old Benjamin Gitlow, a New York State Assemblyman recently freed from prison, would address the convention in its keynote speech, calling for mass organization by workers and international cooperation, while praising the Soviet government and speaking of his acquaintance with now-leading Russian revolutionary Nikolai Bukharin. The conclusion of Gitlow's speech would see the finale of the convention, a letter of acceptance from Richard F. Pettigrew, authored at a Federal Penitentiary: "The test of a man or a social system is the way he acts in a crisis. The Great War has been the crisis that tested American capitalism and showed it up for what it is-a brutal game of profit making at the expense of the people who work and pay. When the war broke out in Europe, I knew that American business men would take advantage of the emergency. Capitalism produced the war. Capitalism has profited by the war. The utter incompetence; the crass brutality of the system caused it to break in Russia. There is no excuse for this war and we should never go to war to help the tyrannous capitalists make $40,000,000 more per year. The entry of the United States into the war would validate European speculations at the same time that it gave them tens of billions of dollars of war contracts..." "...The closing years of the Nineteenth Century saw the imperialists of the world at the zenith of their power. The World War marks the beginning of their downfall. Today I see the workers of the world coming into their own. The war was an affirmation of capitalism. The Russian Revolution was the answer of the workers. It is the greatest event of our time. It marks the beginning of the epoch when the working people will assume the task of directing and controlling industry. It blazes a path into the unknown country, where the workers of the world are destined to take from their exploiters the right to control and direct the economic affairs of the community..." "...The workers will gain control only through the course of a struggle during which western civilization will either pass to a new level of industrial and social organization or else it will destroy itself in the conflict. Whatever the success of the workers, one thing is certain-if those who do the world's work do not make the fight for control of their jobs, the madcaps who are now directing the affairs of the great capitalist states will continue with their wars-each more terrible than the last one-until there remain only fragments of the present civilization, and then the dark ages that will follow, across the war-devastated Earth, will be dark indeed."

The Convention
1912 saw the Liberal Party's brief tryst with power conclude as Farmer-Labor rose from a brief third party status. The tide's turn has only been hastened as Liberals continued their string of defeats in 1914, yet the party continues to attempt to blaze its own trail between the two major parties, seeing its setbacks as temporary and arguing that the conditions of the Great War have prepared the nation for the fall of its party system and the rise of the Liberals to the presidency, arguing that they are poised to rise in 1916 as Labor was with the 1868 campaign of John Bidwell. Yet, the party had seen leadership from across its spectrum attempt to seize the nomination despite the overwhelming popularity of Vice President Garner as the nation's apostles of liberalism convene in Kansas City.

John Nance Garner would enter the ring with a significant lead, yet even he fell far short of the requisite 278 delegates. In second, with 135 delegates, stood Woodrow Wilson, the dark horse emerging from the shadows as a surprising threat to Garner. At 95 sat Aaron Burr Houston in third, his promoters' pontifications impeded by his reluctance to associate himself with the Liberalism he had shunned ax President. Neither Clark, Smith, nor even Underwood would succeed in garnering a significant segment of the convention to their cause, yet all three remained viable in the face of the division apparent from the convention's outset. The opening ballots would fail to spur progress, as a minor movement to Al Smith proved itself the sole significant occurrence, deadlock otherwise being the order of the day. However, the fifth ballot would see both the defection of the Dakota Delegation, one moribund amidst the popularity of all other parties in the state, from a solid bloc of Houston delegates to one pledged to Champ Clark. Less noticeably at that point, several more delegates would begin to cast their votes for Wilson. The sixth would see the Wilsonian surge begin in earnest, led by Virginia's Carter Glass and his progressive insurgents, pitted against the party machinery left over from the John W. Daniel and Harrison H. Riddleberger organization of the 1890s; clashing behind closed doors, Glass would emerge the winner, shifting the momentum of the convention behind Wilson. Indiana would soon come along, bringing Wilson to 163 votes to 161 for Garner. Wilson would expand his lead on the 7th ballot as Ohio's Judson Harmon, himself concerned first and foremost with the Vice Presidency and his own ambitions as a compromise candidate, gave in to fellow Ohioan Myron T. Herrick in switching his delegation from Garner to Wilson, a call unheeded by 40% of Ohio's delegates. Yet, the 8th ballot would see the slowing of Wilson's momentum, as the Georgian stagnated above his competitors, yet out of sight of the summit of the convention's boons. The ninth ballot would see the return of John Nance Garner, as the Wisconsin delegation, listless after the death of party leader George W. Peck, left Underwood for Garner; the switch would see the first time 52 year old Representative Albert G. Schmedeman would take a leading role in the delegation, one he was to reprise throughout the convention. The stagnation of Wilson near the top would proceed to the 14th ballot, where John Nance Garner would again recapture a lead with 163 votes to 120 for Wilson. Yet, Garner himself would see losses, as a man dismissed as a mere spectre of Liberal past stunned the convention with a surge. Oscar Underwood would see the delegations of South Carolina, Wisconsin, Arkansas, Virginia, and Mississippi defected to Underwood, largely due to the efforts of Mississippi's John Sharp Williams and Arkansas's Thomas McRae, leading opponents to inevitably label the Alabaman as the "Southern candidate." However, while reaching a hundred delegates at its height, the Underwood movement would fail to carry.

The sudden rise and fall of the Underwood movement, however, would open the door for the allies of John Nance Garner to quickly move to attempt to win over the delegations of the South despite their Anglophilia. With both McRae and Williams briefly accepting the switch to Garner, the latter likely assuming himself a candidate for the Vice Presidency, the Garner strategy would emerge as a path to victory for the Vice President, as the seventeenth and eighteenth ballots gradually buoyed him at the expense of Governor Wilson. However, the movement would slow by the 19th, as Garner began to experience the same fears of having peaked that had proved foretelling for Wilson and Underwood. On the 21st ballot, after teetering so near to victory for several, Garner would begin to see losses as the Michigan delegation pledged itself anew to Woodrow Wilson. The 23rd to 26th ballots would define themselves by the extent of their stagnation, with journalist Jane Anderson, herself recovering from shellshock from her time reporting on the front lines of the Western Front, famously dubbing the deadlock of the convention "clear as a bell" in a report to a Hearst newspaper. However, the 26th ballot would see the shift of the South Carolina delegation to Champ Clark, a signal of what was to come.

With John Sharp Williams again at the fore of the movement, Champ Clark would begin to gather support, jumping to 93 delegates by the 29th ballot as Minnesota and Shoshone joined the stampede to the Missouri Congressman. However, it would be brief, as Clark fell victim to the same peril that had once ravaged the campaigns of Wilson and Garner, as a brief stagnation near the top ended with the fall of the brief Clark movement. The next shift in the convention's momentum would arrive with the 32nd ballot, as California's shift towards Al Smith would soon spread throughout the western states. Meanwhile, the Tennessee delegation would retreat in support of a favorite son, 45 year old Representative Cordell Hull. The return of John Sharp Williams to the Underwood fold would fail to augur the demise of Al Smith, as an alliance with Ohio's Judson Harmon and Myron T. Herrick on the 36th ballot would propel Smith to first place, parting the convention's seas momentarily as hopes of the sudden momentum around the New York Governor were embodied by a speech made by a 34 year old New York State Representative and distant relative of Theodore Roosevelt, who would dub Smith the "Happy Warrior." The young politician, one Franklin Delano Roosevelt, would see his speech carry the Happy Warrior to his zenith, yet the Indiana and Kentucky delegations would begin a movement anew to John Nance Garner. The 37th ballot would see Garner retake the lead by a mere 4 delegates, before the 38th would see a tie between the two. In a show of deadlock unseen before, the following 6 ballots would see Garner and Smith trade the lead in fierce contest, both remaining nearly a hundred and fifty votes short of true victory. The 45th ballot would see a brief resurgence by Oscar Underwood, serving hardly to further the cause of the conservative Southerner while entrenching the lead of John Nance Garner. Yet, the following three ballots would fail to yield a result. William Randolph Hearst himself would telegraph the convention via his reporters in a plea to unite behind former President Houston, one that would yield a chorus of jeers from the delegates. None, by then, believed that any of the candidates before the convention could win the nomination. Discussions of alternatives quickly arose, yet it would be the sarcastic suggestion of journalist H.L. Mencken, that the only man to unite the convention was 89 year old two-time presidential nominee Horace Boies, that would emerge as a serious consideration. Boies, elected Honorary Chairman of the Convention, had been in attendance, but was, at the time of the 48th ballot, sleeping in his hotel room. It wouldn't matter. 37 year old Iowan Guy Gillette, who had come to Kansas City on the same train car as Boies, would rise to declare himself "disturbed at the wave of antagonism" seen at the convention, harkening to his first political involvement as a 17 year old volunteer for the Boies campaign. Gillette would declare that no other man could unite the party and place Boies' name into the contest for the nomination. Chants of "Glorious Horace" would fill the convention, and, with a majority for the octogenarian clear, the remaining strands of opposition would stand down, leaving the nomination unanimous.

The Chaos
Horace Boies had first set foot on Chinese soil in 1869, arriving in Canton at age 42, after receiving commission from President John Bidwell, then facing opposition from nativists over Bidwell's support for the rights of Chinese immigrants, to serve as United States Ambassador to the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, then in its death throes amidst national unrest and the rise of the warlords who would come to dominate the nation until Li Hongzhang's consolidation of power and the formation of the Suyi Dynasty. Boies would soon develop a love for the nation, and would gain the admiration of many in China for his role in protecting Chinese civilians from the Taiping government, intervening powers, and warlords throughout his term, continuing to periodically visit the nation following his return to Iowa in 1877, including receiving the Order of the Double Dragon from Suyi Jianfu Emperor himself in 1882. Yet, Boies, while making comments in opposition to Japanese expansion, had remained quiet in his old age. The elderly Midwesterner, first elected to political office in 1852, would be awoken in his hotel room by his son, Judge Herbert Boies, and informed of his nomination for the presidency. Nearly 90 years of age, Boies would not take the information seriously, assuming his son was attempting to trick him, until several delegates from the convention would arrive to formally forward the news, leaving Boies flabbergasted.

An hour and a half later, Herbert Boies would arrive at the convention hall with a letter in hand. The convention would erupt in cheers and applause, assuming a letter of acceptance had been forwarded. Instead, John Nance Garner and a handful of others would meet with Herbert in a back room. Emerging from their temporary seclusion and taking to the podium, Garner and Boies would stand side by side in front of the convention, the son of their ostensible savior speaking first. In cautious tones, Herbert Boies would announce the declination of his father, to the convention's dismay, yet his final words would set the room ablaze; he would announce his father's support for the Houston campaign and call for the convention to endorse the Federal Republican ticket. Screams of opprobrium would greet him in response, yet a growing segment of the convention would come to stand with Boies; next would take to the podium perhaps the only man accepted enough to salvage the situation, John Nance Garner. Garner would toss fuel upon the fire as he seconded the nomination of Houston, declaring that, as Boies was the party's nominee and he had withdrawn in favor of Houston, Houston was the closest thing to a Liberal nominee, speaking against a reopening of balloting. Garner's endorsement of Houston would lead to mass chants of "Garner for Vice President!" and "ABH and Garner!", while others denounced Boies and Garner as traitors to the party.

As Garner left, 57 year old Nebraskan Gilbert M. Hitchcock would hurry to the podium with a response. Hitchcock would call for a reopening of balloting, declaring that "great questions of this sort should be debated in public and decided in public!" However, with the convention's leadership under the aegis of Garner having defected to Houston, Hitchcock would argue that an endorsement of William Jennings Bryan and the Farmer-Labor ticket would better embody the party's values. With the convention's majority clearly in opposition to the nomination of Bryan, Hitchcock would call for a walkout of delegates in support of Bryan. Rising alongside him to exit the convention would be 42 of its delegates, Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Albert G. Schmedeman among them. However, the remaining delegates were far from united around ABH. With Garner and his allies in party leadership preventing a reopening of balloting, no formal vote would be taken, however a significant minority, or even a majority, of the convention's remaining 514 delegates clearly opposed the endorsement of Houston. However, balloting on the Vice Presidency would continue. Supporters of endorsing the Houston ticket outright would put forth Herbert Hoover, while more moderate supporters of Houston would coalesce around Walter Edge in an attempt to maintain a level of Liberal independence, yet they would be forced into Hoover's arms with the withdrawal of Edge. Meanwhile, opponents of the coalition would find themselves divided between Myron T. Herrick of Ohio, Cordell Hull of Tennessee, and a handful of others, resulting in Hoover leading with 207 votes, John Sharp Williams in second with a mere 63, Herrick with 60, Hull with 52, and so on; nonetheless, Hoover remained 50 votes short of a majority of the remaining delegates. Thus, Al Smith, memories of Bryan labelling him ”disgraceful to the state of New York” on his mind, would enter the scene in earnest. Smith would contact Edge via Texas delegate Albert Fall, offering to support Houston in exchange for the nomination of Smith as the Vice Presidential nominee under Houston. The Houston wing of the party would reluctantly accept, with 265 delegates carrying the nomination of Smith. With the anti-endorsement "middle-of-the-road" faction Cordell Hull, would rise along with 232 of the convention's delegates to walk out. As the independent Liberals departed, the remnants would receive a telegram noting former President Houston's acknowledgement and de facto passive acceptance of the endorsement, though the Federal Republican ticket would not formally accept the Liberal nomination. Meanwhile, the 43 original bolters would assemble at the bar of the Savoy Hotel & Grill, with Franklin Roosevelt personally paying for a round of drinks for every delegate. With Gilbert Hitchcock beginning the speaking, Roosevelt would take to the podium next, beer in hand, and begin lightheartedly by noting that Bryan himself would not approve of being nominated at a bar. Continuing, however, Roosevelt would declare in regards to the competition between the two parties that "Competition has been shown to be useful up to a certain point and no further, but cooperation, which is the thing we must strive for today, begins where competition leaves off." With a cheer and another round of drinks, the rump Liberal convention would nominate William Jennings Bryan for the presidency and reluctantly second the nomination of Walter Rauschenbusch as his running mate. The "convention" of the "middle-of-the-road" Liberals, on the other hand, would occur at a park across town, out of a lack of ability to find another venue. The division that had plagued the Liberal convention would strike anew, nonetheless, the bolters would quickly unite around Cordell Hull of Tennessee as their candidate despite attempts by Woodrow Wilson. Hull's nomination would be carried by acclamation upon a platform calling for low tariffs, trade with the Entente, and an international peace conference, with conservative Francophile Myron T. Herrick of Ohio selected for the Vice Presidency in an attempt to balance the breakaway ticket. Nonetheless, it has seen hurdles in gaining ballot access, with various states recognizing only some of the Liberal tickets as legitimate.

Results
The closest state would be Maine, where opposition to the war would yield William Jennings Bryan a victory with 47.89% of the vote to 47.87% for Aaron Burr Houston, with Richard F. Pettigrew winning 4.1% and Cordell Hull lacking ballot access. Pettigrew's strongest state was Dakota, which he won with 49.4% of the vote to 35.3% for Aaron Burr Houston, 14.7% for William Jennings Bryan, and 0.6% for Cordell Hull. Bryan would perform best in Arkansas, which he won with 57.9% of the vote to 14.1% for Richard F. Pettigrew, 19.2% for Aaron Burr Houston, and 8.2% for Cordell Hull. Houston's strongest state would be Haiti, which he would win with 76.7%, to 23.2% for William Jennings Bryan; Pettigrew and Hull having been denied ballot access.

While ostensibly elected as a Liberal in coalition with Federal Republicans, John Nance Garner would push for himself to be the Federal Republican candidate for speaker, arguing that his role in securing the official Liberal endorsement for Houston led to the President's victory; an argument that would win Houston to his side. However, erstwhile Federal Republican leader Charles Curtis would not concede the race, driving it to a vote in the party House Caucus, with a tense alliance of "Bourbon" Federal Republicans and their former arch-enemies, Houstonian Progressives, carrying the day for Garner and paving the way for his to resume the speakership. Federal Republican Senate Caucus Chairman Lyman J. Gage, nearing 80 years of age, would retire decades in office as United States Senator from California. Emerging as a dark horse to succeed Gage would rise Cuban Senator Carlos Manuel de Cespedes y Quesada, a man whose father, Carlos Manuel de Cespedes, was illegally executed during the Cuban Crisis for his leadership in the Cuban secession movement, and who himself spent time as a child in the concentration camps of the Bragg Administration.

With the party seemingly collapsing, three Liberal Senators have switched parties to become Federal Republicans, leaving Oscar Underwood of Alabama and David R. Francis of Missouri as the party's sole senators. Minnesota’s C.E. Ruthenberg, freed from prison in the summer of 1916, would win a seat in the House. With the support of the Russian Soviet government, in an attempt to smooth over internal disputes within the Workers' Party of America, Ruthenberg would rise to become the party's candidate for Speaker of the House. Hans Enoch Wight of Vancouver has been elected to Congress on the Union Party ticket, running on a distributist platform in alliance with the local Farmer-Labor Party.