G.O.P. Path Recalls Democrats’ Convention Disaster, in 1924
By
A
presidential candidate who banked on support from the Ku Klux Klan.
Blunt demands to ban certain religions and races from playing a full
role in society. Violence and disorder at campaign rallies.
And
a political party that tore itself apart not only over whom it would
nominate for president, but also over whether religious and racial
bigotry would be visible in its fabric.
Welcome to the 1924 Democratic National Convention, held at Madison Square Garden in New York, when the most powerful bloc in the Democratic Party
was the Klan, fiercely opposed by the Tammany Hall Democrats. It was
the longest political convention in American history, going 16 days and
requiring 103 ballots before a compromise candidate was selected.
The
convulsions of the Democrats in 1924 are, in broad movements, mirrored
in the rived and bedraggled pilgrimage of the Republicans in 2016 as
they stagger toward their convention behind Donald J. Trump and his rivals.
In
1924, there were fistfights in the aisles and roosters released in the
galleys; the police were called to break up the rumbles. Tammany backed
the candidacy of Gov. Alfred E. Smith of New York, a Roman Catholic,
reviled by the Klan for his religion and his stature as a champion of
the newest Americans, and by “dry” Democrats for his opposition to
Prohibition. The candidate of the Klan, and many other Democrats, was a
California lawyer, William G. McAdoo, the son-in-law of former President
Woodrow Wilson.
During
the convention, 20,000 Klansmen attended a rally in New Jersey to
denounce Governor Smith. “They beat an effigy of him into a pulp,”
Robert A. Slayton wrote in his biography, “Empire Statesman: The Rise and Redemption of Al Smith.”
An
existential battle was at hand, Mr. Slayton wrote: “As the Democratic
convention unwittingly set out to fight over the meaning of America,
McAdoo served as the perfect opponent for Al Smith.”
Without
air-conditioning, the Garden in July 1924 was a steaming, stifling
caldron. The Tammany operatives hoped to wear down the opposition by
dragging the proceedings on and driving up hotel bills. To keep the
Southern delegates from abandoning the city — and to make sure Smith did
not win the nomination — the publisher William Randolph Hearst picked
up some tabs for lodgings. The galleries were packed with raucous
crowds. A pigeon, styled as a “Dove of Peace,” was released into the
arena and its presence in the rafters “caused nervous glances to be cast
heavenward by the assembled delegates,” Robert K. Murray wrote in “The 103rd Ballot: Democrats and the Disaster in Madison Square Garden.”
“This
gathering heard more speeches, listened to more spoken words,
experienced more fistfights, spent more time in committee, and witnessed
more demonstrations than any other such assemblage in history,” Mr.
Murray wrote.
Passions
crested when some delegates proposed that the platform include the
words, “We pledge the Democratic Party to oppose any effort on the part
of the Ku Klux Klan or any organization to interfere with the religious
liberty or political freedom of any citizen, or to limit the civic
rights of any citizen or body of citizens because of religion,
birthplace or racial origin.” The proceedings of the convention, which
ran to 1,315 pages, report: “Resounding cheers, applause, rising
demonstrations, delegates standing on chairs waving hats, the chairman
vainly rapping his gavel for order; disorder in the galleries; cries of
‘Get out,’ ‘Say it again.’”
Senator
Oscar Underwood of Alabama, who supported the anti-Klan plank, was
denounced by the Klan as “‘the Jew, jug and Jesuit candidate’ — the
‘jug’ reference meant to disparage Underwood’s opposition to
Prohibition,” Terry Golway wrote in “Machine Made: Tammany Hall and the Creation of Modern American Politics.”
The
fight went on for hours, and ultimately, the Klan and its allies
prevailed in the platform fight as a resolution to condemn them by name
lost by less than one vote — 543 and three-twentieths votes to 542 and
seven-twentieths votes. (Some delegates could cast fractional votes.)
Neither
Governor Smith nor Mr. McAdoo came close to getting two-thirds of the
delegates needed for the nomination. The compromise candidate, John W.
Davis, got only 29 percent of the vote when he ran in the general
election against President Calvin Coolidge.
Four
years later, Governor Smith won the Democratic nomination, but the Klan
awaited him as he crossed the country, burning crosses and spreading
lies. “The Grand Dragon of the Realm of Arkansas, writing to a citizen
of that state, urges my defeat because I am a Catholic,” he said in a
speech. “During all of our national life, we have prided ourselves
throughout the world on the declaration of the fundamental American
truth that all men are created equal.”
He lost to Herbert Hoover.
Susan C. Beachy contributed research.
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