Alton Brooks Parker (May 14, 1852 – May 10, 1926) was an American judge. He was the Democratic nominee in the 1904 United States presidential election, losing in a landslide to incumbent Republican Theodore Roosevelt.

A native of upstate New York, Parker practiced law in Kingston, New York, before being appointed to the New York Supreme Court and elected to the New York Court of Appeals. He served as Chief Judge of the latter from 1898 to 1904, when he resigned to run for president. In 1904, he defeated liberal publisher William Randolph Hearst for the Democratic Party nomination for President of the United States. In the general election, Parker opposed popular incumbent Republican President Theodore Roosevelt. After a disorganized and ineffective campaign, Parker was defeated by 336 electoral votes to 140, carrying only the traditionally Democratic Solid South. He then returned to practicing law.

In later life, he managed John Alden Dix's successful 1910 campaign for Governor of New York and served as prosecution counsel for the 1913 impeachment of Dix's successor, Governor William Sulzer.

Early life

Parker was born in Cortland, New York, to John Brooks Parker, a farmer, and Harriet F. Stratton. Both of his parents were well educated and encouraged his reading from an early age. At the age of 12 or 13, Parker watched his father serve as a juror and was so fascinated by the proceedings that he resolved to become a lawyer. He then enrolled at Albany Law School. After graduating with an LL.B. degree in 1873, he practiced law in Kingston until 1878 as the senior partner of the firm Parker & Kenyon.

Parker also became active with the Democratic Party. In 1877, he won election as surrogate court judge of Ulster County, and he was elected to a new six-year term in 1883. He served as a delegate to the 1880 and 1884 Democratic national conventions. In between the two conventions, he helped Grover Cleveland get elected Governor of New York in 1882. At the 1884 convention, he supported Cleveland, who was named the party's presidential nominee; Cleveland went on to narrowly defeat Republican James G. Blaine in the fall election. Three years later, Parker became an appellate judge when Hill appointed him to the newly formed Second Department of the Appellate Division. In November 1897, Parker successfully ran for the post of Chief Judge of the Court of Appeals, defeating Republican William James Wallace.

During his time as Chief Judge, Parker and his wife sold their Kingston home and bought an estate in Esopus on the Hudson River, calling the house "Rosemount".

Later life

After the election, Parker resumed practicing law and served as the president of the American Bar Association from 1906 to 1907. He was a founding member of the New York County Lawyers' Association and served as the group's president from 1909 to 1912. Parker was elected president of the New York State Bar Association on January 28, 1913. He served as the president of the NYSBA from 1913 to 1914.

Parker represented organized labor in several cases, most notably in Loewe v. Lawlor, popularly known as the "Danbury Hatters' case". In the case, the fur hat manufacturer D. E. Loewe & Company had attempted to enforce an open shop policy; when unions had subsequently boycotted the company, it sued the United Hatters of North America for violation of the Sherman Antitrust Act. The U.S. Supreme Court found for Loewe by ruling that the union had been acting in restraint of interstate commerce.

thumb|Alton B. Parker's headstone in Wiltwyck Cemetery

In 1913, Parker was appointed lead trial counsel in the impeachment of New York governor William "Plain Bill" Sulzer. Sulzer faced eight articles of impeachment, alleging that he made and filed a false statement regarding his campaign accounts, perjured himself in verifying the statement concerning his campaign accounts, bribed witnesses and fraudulently induced them to withhold evidence from the legislative committee investigating his misconduct, suppressed evidence by threatening witnesses, dissuaded a witness from appearing before the committee pursuant to a duly authorized subpoena, used campaign contributions to speculate in the stock market, promised and threatened to use his influence as governor to affect the votes or political actions of certain members of the general assembly and used his authority and influence as governor "to affect the current prices of securities listed and selling on the New York Stock Exchange." Sulzer was found guilty of three charges (making and filing a false statement regarding his campaign accounts, perjuring himself in verifying the statement concerning his campaign accounts and suppressing evidence by threatening witnesses) and was ultimately removed from office.

Political activity and the election of 1912

Parker later re-entered politics, managing John Alden Dix's successful 1910 gubernatorial campaign. He announced his support for women's suffrage in 1911, telling a group of women lawyers that he supported the suffrage movement "most heartily." In 1913, he was counsel for the managers of the trial leading to the impeachment of Dix's successor as governor, William Sulzer.

During that election year, Parker actively resisted what he viewed as dangerous positions regarding the nation's judiciary held by men like Theodore Roosevelt, who initially sought the Republican nomination, and William Jennings Bryan, who still held considerable sway in the Democratic Party. Roosevelt had come out as early as 1910 in opposition to whom he called "fossilized judges" that struck down reform legislation as unconstitutional. By 1912, both Roosevelt and Bryan had called for amendments to enable the recall of judges and judicial decisions that the people at large deemed incorrect as a popular check on judicial review. Parker believed this proposal to be a danger to the nation's constitutional order, siding with conservatives in the GOP like William Howard Taft and Elihu Root to oppose Roosevelt's candidacy. Parker was elected to deliver the keynote address at the 1912 Democratic National Convention. He was elected against the opposition of Bryan, and the convention ultimately nominated Woodrow Wilson for president. While Wilson was more progressive than Parker's preferred candidate, Champ Clark, and held the endorsement of Bryan, he also came out against judicial recall. The result was the triumph of a supreme view of judicial review in both the Democratic and Republican parties.

Death

Parker's wife, Mary, died in 1917. He remarried in 1923 to Amelia Day "Amy" 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, four days before his 74th birthday. He was survived by Mrs. Charles Mercer Hall, his daughter from his first wife, two grandchildren, and his second wife. He was buried in Wiltwyck Cemetery in Kingston.