Oscar Wilder Underwood (May 6, 1862 – January 25, 1929) was an American lawyer and politician from Alabama, and also a candidate for President of the United States in 1912 and 1924.
Underwood served as House Majority Leader from 1911 to 1915, and was a strong supporter of President Woodrow Wilson's progressive agenda and a prominent advocate of a reduction in the tariff.
Underwood ran for president again in 1924, entering the 1924 Democratic National Convention as a prominent conservative opponent of the Ku Klux Klan.
[2] One of the few prominent anti-Klan politicians in the South at the time, Underwood and his supporters narrowly failed to win adoption of a Democratic resolution condemning the Klan.
[3] In 1865, the Underwood family moved to St. Paul, Minnesota, hoping the climate would help Oscar's chronic bronchitis, as well as his mother's health.
However, Truman H. Aldrich successfully challenged that election result, forcing Underwood to resign in the middle of the term, on June 9, 1896.
He was a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1912 and had some strength at the national convention among southern delegates but could not compete with Champ Clark and Woodrow Wilson.
[11] Following the election, Underwood supported the progressive reforms of Wilson's first term,[12] using his position as Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee to manage legislation and maintain party discipline.
In return, Wilson granted him considerable control over patronage and appointed Albert S. Burleson Postmaster-General upon Underwood's recommendation.
[18] He blamed the Klan's opposition to his candidacy for his loss in the Georgia presidential primary to former Secretary of the Treasury William Gibbs McAdoo.
[18] Even before the Convention considered its platform, the speech nominating Underwood called for the condemnation of the Klan and produced a lengthy floor demonstration.
[18] The attempt to modify the platform to condemn the Klan by name produced rousing demonstrations and speeches, many, including that of William Jennings Bryan, interrupted by the anti-Klan crowds that filled the galleries.
The fight proved a polarizing battle that made each of the Convention's two major candidates unacceptable to large segments of the party, without enhancing Underwood's chances in the least.
[18] His vote totals were meager, fewer than 50, until the deadlock broke and on the 101st ballot he won 229.5, but his anti-prohibition, anti-Klan stances made him a most unlikely compromise candidate and the Convention turned to John W. Davis of West Virginia, whose work as a Wall Street lawyer proved less of a political hurdle for the delegates.
There, Underwood wrote his only published book, an analysis of the transformation of American government in the 20th century, Drifting Sands of Party Politics, which appeared in 1928.
He decried federal legislation aimed at regulating morality, government by commissions, and excessive American engagement in foreign affairs.
His son Oscar Wilder Underwood Jr. (1890–1962), who served with distinction as a U.S. Army Captain in World War I, later became a law professor at the University of Virginia.