of
the Treasury and Director General of Railroads after making a
successful record during the war, and before the criticism of the
Wilson Administration as a whole had become acute. McAdoo had the
powerful support of organized labor and most of the Federal
office-holders, but whether or not he had the support of the White
House no man knew. The Republicans assumed it for their own purposes,
and Senator Lodge's keynote speech at the Chicago Convention was full
of denunciations of the "Wilson dynasty"; but if McAdoo were Wilson's
candidate the President showed no sign of knowing it.

That McAdoo was not nominated, however, can be ascribed very largely to
his relationship to the President and the suspicion that he was the
President's candidate. The Democratic Convention at San Francisco
adopted a platform praising and indorsing the President's record in all
details. The convention had to do that; the President's record was the
party's record. Homer Cummings as Temporary Chairman kept the
convention cheered up by a keynote speech of eulogy of that record,
which moved the assembled Democrats to such enthusiasm that Secretary
of State Colby, who had not been a Democrat long enough to know much
about the behavior of the species, declared that at any movement that
day the rules could have been suspended and the President renominated
by acclamation. But when the convention came down to the work of
nomination the President was not considered, and the delegates devoted
themselves to finding the most available man who had not had any
connection with the Administration. James M. Cox was finally nominated
on Woodrow Wilson's record and sent out to the great and solemn
referendum.

Aside from a formal proclamation of unity of ideals and intentions with
the candidate, the White House took practically no part in the
campaign. Not until October, when a delegation of pro-League
Republicans called at the White House, was it known that the
President's health had temporarily taken a turn for the worse and that
active participation would have been impossible. It could hardly have
affected the result very much in either direction.

Whether or not the President had intended to turn over the Government
to Hughes in November, 1916, he did nothing so unkind to Harding in
November, 1920. The President-elect was allowed plenty of time to try
to choose his Cabinet and his policies, but the Administration had
gradually withdrawn from all connectio