The Also-Rans: Alton B. Parker
On May 14, 1852 (161 years ago today) Alton Brooks Parker was born in Cortland, New York. He is probably one of the least known of all of the persons who ran for President of the United States for one of the two major parties, and he probably wouldn't have made the cut of those included in this series, were it not for the fact that his birthday fell in the midst of it. However like many of the others profiled in this series, he had a very interesting life.
Alton B. Parker was the son of John Brooks Parker, a farmer, and Harriet F. Stratton. Both of his parents were well educated and encouraged their son's education. At the age of 12 or 13, Parker watched his father serve as a juror and was so fascinated by the proceedings that he decided to become a lawyer. At first he became a teacher and taught school in Binghamton, New York, where he became engaged to Mary Louise Schoonmaker. The couple married in 1872 and he became a clerk at Schoonmaker & Hardenburgh, a law firm in which one of her relatives was the senior partner. He then enrolled at Albany Law School, graduating in 1873. He practiced law in Kingston until 1878 as the senior partner of the firm Parker & Kenyon.
Parker became active with the Democratic Party and was an early supporter of future New York governor and US President Grover Cleveland. He managed the 1884 New York gubernatorial campaign of David B. Hill, which Hill won in a landslide. After his election, Hill appointed Parker to fill an 1885 vacancy on the New York Supreme Court and in 1886, Parker was elected to his own term in the seat. Three years later, Hill appointed Parker him to the newly formed Second Division of the Court of Appeals. In November 1897, Parker successfully ran for the post of Chief Judge of the Court of Appeals. As a judge, Parker was considered to be pro-labor and was an active supporter of social reform legislation.
In the 1904 presidential election campaign, the Democrats looked for a nominee to oppose popular incumbent Republican president Theodore Roosevelt. At the 1904 Democratic National Convention, held in July in St. Louis, Missouri, Parker's mentor David B. Hill led the campaign for his protege's nomination. William Jennings Bryan, who had been nominated but defeated by William McKinley in both 1896 and 1900, was no longer considered to be a viable alternative. Radicals in the party supported publisher William Randolph Hearst but Hearst was opposed by Bryan and the powerful Tammany Hall political machine. Party leaders believed that no candidate but Parker could unify the party, and he was selected on the first ballot. Henry G. Davis, an elderly West Virginia millionaire and former senator, was selected as the vice presidential candidate in the hope that he would partially finance Parker's campaign.
After receiving the nomination, Parker resigned from the bench. During the campaign Parker criticized Roosevelt on a number of foreign policy issues including Roosevelt's failure to give a date when the Philippines would become independent of American control. But for much of the campaign Parker employed a curious strategy of silence, avoiding comment on all major issues. His campaign was poorly run. Parker and his advisors opted for a front porch campaign, in which delegations would be brought to Parker's home in Rosemount to see Parker speak issues in the way William McKinley did in the latter's successful 1896 presidential campaign. However, due to the home's remote location and the campaign's inefficient use of funds, Parker received few visitors. Because the two campaigns were similar in their positions on a number of issues, the Democrats chose to attack Roosevelt's character, portraying him as dangerously unstable. Parker's campaign also failed to reach out to traditional Democratic voting blocs such as Irish Catholic immigrants. In contrast, Roosevelt's campaign, headed by George Cortelyou (McKinley's master strategist), organized committees to appeal specifically to demographics including Jewish, black, and German-American voters. John Hay, Roosevelt's Secretary of State, called Parker's campaign "the most absurd political campaign of our time".
A month before the election, Parker became aware of the large amount of corporate donations Cortelyou had solicited for the Roosevelt campaign, and made "Cortelyouism" a theme of his speeches, accusing the president of being insincere in previous trust busting efforts. In late October, he also went on a speaking tour in the key states of New York and New Jersey, in which he went on the attack against Roosevelt for his hypocrisy in being a purported "trust buster" on one hand, while taking corporate campaign donations on the other. But Parker's attacks came too late to turn the election.
On November 8, Roosevelt won in a landslide. He received 7,630,457 popular votes to Parker's 5,083,880 and carried every northern and western state, including Missouri, for a total of 336 electoral votes. Parker carried only the traditionally Democratic solid south, winning 140 electoral votes. Parker telegraphed his congratulations to Roosevelt that night and returned to private life. Author Irving Stone, who wrote a book in 1943 book about defeated presidential candidates called They Also Ran, said that Parker was the only defeated presidential candidate in history never to have a biography written about him.
After the election, Parker returned to practicing law. He represented organized labor in several notable cases and he served as the president of the American Bar Association from 1906 to 1907. He later re-entered politics, managing John A. Dix's successful 1910 gubernatorial campaign in New York and he delivered the keynote address of the 1912 Democratic National Convention, which nominated Woodrow Wilson for President. In 1913, he was part of the legal team arguing for the impeachment of Dix's successor as governor, William Sulzer.
Parker's wife Mary died in 1917. He remarried in 1923 to Amelia Day Campbell. On May 10, 1926, only a few days after recovering from bronchial pneumonia, Parker died from a heart attack while riding in his car through New York City's Central Park. He was buried in Wiltwyck Cemetery in Kingston, New York.
Alton B. Parker was the son of John Brooks Parker, a farmer, and Harriet F. Stratton. Both of his parents were well educated and encouraged their son's education. At the age of 12 or 13, Parker watched his father serve as a juror and was so fascinated by the proceedings that he decided to become a lawyer. At first he became a teacher and taught school in Binghamton, New York, where he became engaged to Mary Louise Schoonmaker. The couple married in 1872 and he became a clerk at Schoonmaker & Hardenburgh, a law firm in which one of her relatives was the senior partner. He then enrolled at Albany Law School, graduating in 1873. He practiced law in Kingston until 1878 as the senior partner of the firm Parker & Kenyon.
Parker became active with the Democratic Party and was an early supporter of future New York governor and US President Grover Cleveland. He managed the 1884 New York gubernatorial campaign of David B. Hill, which Hill won in a landslide. After his election, Hill appointed Parker to fill an 1885 vacancy on the New York Supreme Court and in 1886, Parker was elected to his own term in the seat. Three years later, Hill appointed Parker him to the newly formed Second Division of the Court of Appeals. In November 1897, Parker successfully ran for the post of Chief Judge of the Court of Appeals. As a judge, Parker was considered to be pro-labor and was an active supporter of social reform legislation.
In the 1904 presidential election campaign, the Democrats looked for a nominee to oppose popular incumbent Republican president Theodore Roosevelt. At the 1904 Democratic National Convention, held in July in St. Louis, Missouri, Parker's mentor David B. Hill led the campaign for his protege's nomination. William Jennings Bryan, who had been nominated but defeated by William McKinley in both 1896 and 1900, was no longer considered to be a viable alternative. Radicals in the party supported publisher William Randolph Hearst but Hearst was opposed by Bryan and the powerful Tammany Hall political machine. Party leaders believed that no candidate but Parker could unify the party, and he was selected on the first ballot. Henry G. Davis, an elderly West Virginia millionaire and former senator, was selected as the vice presidential candidate in the hope that he would partially finance Parker's campaign.
After receiving the nomination, Parker resigned from the bench. During the campaign Parker criticized Roosevelt on a number of foreign policy issues including Roosevelt's failure to give a date when the Philippines would become independent of American control. But for much of the campaign Parker employed a curious strategy of silence, avoiding comment on all major issues. His campaign was poorly run. Parker and his advisors opted for a front porch campaign, in which delegations would be brought to Parker's home in Rosemount to see Parker speak issues in the way William McKinley did in the latter's successful 1896 presidential campaign. However, due to the home's remote location and the campaign's inefficient use of funds, Parker received few visitors. Because the two campaigns were similar in their positions on a number of issues, the Democrats chose to attack Roosevelt's character, portraying him as dangerously unstable. Parker's campaign also failed to reach out to traditional Democratic voting blocs such as Irish Catholic immigrants. In contrast, Roosevelt's campaign, headed by George Cortelyou (McKinley's master strategist), organized committees to appeal specifically to demographics including Jewish, black, and German-American voters. John Hay, Roosevelt's Secretary of State, called Parker's campaign "the most absurd political campaign of our time".
A month before the election, Parker became aware of the large amount of corporate donations Cortelyou had solicited for the Roosevelt campaign, and made "Cortelyouism" a theme of his speeches, accusing the president of being insincere in previous trust busting efforts. In late October, he also went on a speaking tour in the key states of New York and New Jersey, in which he went on the attack against Roosevelt for his hypocrisy in being a purported "trust buster" on one hand, while taking corporate campaign donations on the other. But Parker's attacks came too late to turn the election.
On November 8, Roosevelt won in a landslide. He received 7,630,457 popular votes to Parker's 5,083,880 and carried every northern and western state, including Missouri, for a total of 336 electoral votes. Parker carried only the traditionally Democratic solid south, winning 140 electoral votes. Parker telegraphed his congratulations to Roosevelt that night and returned to private life. Author Irving Stone, who wrote a book in 1943 book about defeated presidential candidates called They Also Ran, said that Parker was the only defeated presidential candidate in history never to have a biography written about him.
After the election, Parker returned to practicing law. He represented organized labor in several notable cases and he served as the president of the American Bar Association from 1906 to 1907. He later re-entered politics, managing John A. Dix's successful 1910 gubernatorial campaign in New York and he delivered the keynote address of the 1912 Democratic National Convention, which nominated Woodrow Wilson for President. In 1913, he was part of the legal team arguing for the impeachment of Dix's successor as governor, William Sulzer.
Parker's wife Mary died in 1917. He remarried in 1923 to Amelia Day Campbell. On May 10, 1926, only a few days after recovering from bronchial pneumonia, Parker died from a heart attack while riding in his car through New York City's Central Park. He was buried in Wiltwyck Cemetery in Kingston, New York.