Alton B. Parker

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This article is about the American judge. For the British pharmacist, see Alton J. Parker.

Democratic Party nominee for President of the United States
Alton Brooks Parker

Election date November 8, 1904
Running mate	Henry G. Davis
Opponent(s)	Theodore Roosevelt (R).
Incumbent	Theodore Roosevelt (R)
Preceded by	William Jennings Bryan
Succeeded by	William Jennings Bryan

Born	May 14, 1852 Cortland, New York
Died	May 10, 1926
Political party	Democratic Party
Profession	Lawyer

Alton Brooks Parker (May 14, 1852 – May 10, 1926) was an American lawyer and judge and a U.S. presidential candidate in the 1904 elections.

Parker was born in Cortland, New York, and practiced law in Kingston, New York. He served as a justice of the Supreme Court of New York from 1885 to 1889, and as chief judge of New York Court of Appeals from 1898 to 1904. Parker was a protege of conservative Democratic politician David Bennett Hill.

Parker/Davis campaign poster

Parker resigned as chief judge after receiving the 1904 Democratic Party nomination for the U.S. presidency. Parker was supported by conservative Bourbon Democrats, like former President Grover Cleveland, who had been alienated from the party in 1896 and 1900 due to the radicalism of the party's nominee, William Jennings Bryan, on economic issues. It was hoped that Parker could be acceptable to both factions since he was "sound" on economic issues, but had supported Bryan in 1896 as a good party man. These hopes were frustrated, however, as Parker had little appeal to Bryanites and carried only the Solid South. Division within his party over currency issues and the popularity of incumbent Theodore Roosevelt led to Parker's landslide defeat. Parker was unable to return to his former judicial position and practiced law for the rest of his life.

In author Irving Stone's 1943 book, They Also Ran, about defeated presidential candidates, a chapter about Judge Parker mentioned that he is the only defeated presidential candidate in history never to have a biography written about him. Stone theorized that Parker would have been an effective president and the 1904 election was one of a few in American history in which voters had two first-rate candidates to choose from. Stone professed that Americans liked Roosevelt more because of his colorful style.

Parker later served as a temporary chairman and keynote speaker at the 1912 Democratic National Convention, which nominated Woodrow Wilson for President^[1].

Parker's birthplace, Cortland, New York, has a public elementary school named for him.

The New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation has a portrait of Judge Parker by Adolfo Muller-Ury (1862-1947) painted in 1904 and donated by Parker's wife in 1926 hanging at the Senate House State Historic Site at Kingston, New York.

[edit] Electoral history

New York Court of Appeals Chief Judge, 1897^[2]:

Alton B. Parker (D) - 554,680 (50.94%)
William J. Wallace (R) - 493,791 (45.34%)
Theodore F. Cuno (Socialist Labor) - 20,854 (1.92%)
Francis E. Baldwin (Prohibition) - 19,653 (1.81%)

1904 Democratic National Convention^[3]:

Alton B. Parker - 679 (66.50%)
William Randolph Hearst - 200 (19.59%)
Francis M. Cookrell - 42 (4.11%)
Richard Onley - 38 (3.72%)
Edward C. Wall - 27 (2.64%)
George Gray - 12 (1.18%)
John Sharp Williams - 8 (0.78%)
Robert E. Pattison - 4 (0.39%)
George B. McClellan, Jr. - 3 (0.29%)
Nelson Appleton Miles - 3 (0.29%)
Arthur Pue Gorman - 2 (0.20%)
Charles Arnette Towne - 2 (0.20%)
Bird Sim Coller - 1 (0.10%)

United States presidential election, 1904:

Theodore Roosevelt/Charles W. Fairbanks (R) - 7,630,457 (56.4%) and 336 electoral votes (29 states carried)
Alton B. Parker/Henry G. Davis (D) - 5,083,880 (37.6%) and 140 electoral votes (17 states carried)
Eugene V. Debs/Benjamin Hanford (Socialists) - 402,810 (3.0%)
Silas C. Swallow/George W. Carroll (Prohibition) - 259,102 (1.9%)
Thomas E. Watson/Thomas Tibbles (Populists) - 114,070 (0.8%)