Presidential Transitions: 1908
The Presidential transition of 1908 should have been one of the smoothest in history, and for a while it was. The transition was from one Republican to another and from one president to his good friend who was also his hand-picked successor. But while things began smoothly, they would end in one of the greatest political schisms in US history.
Four years earlier, on election night in 1904, Theodore Roosevelt made a promise that he later came to regret. He pledged that he would not run for re-election in 1908. Roosevelt had mixed feelings about a third term/ He enjoyed being president and was still relatively young and very energetic. But he also felt that a limited number of terms was necessary to prevent an imperial presidency or even a dictatorship. Roosevelt stuck to his 1904 pledge not to run for a third term. He decided to throw his support behind a successor, in part to avoid a potential pro-Roosevelt delegate stampede at the 1908 Republican National Convention and in part because by hand-picking a successor, he could retain some control over the future direction of his party and his country.
Roosevelt considered Secretary of State Elihu Root, Root's poor health made him an unsuitable candidate. New York Governor Charles Evans Hughes was another possibility, but Roosevelt disliked him and they two differed on some key issues. Roosevelt decided the best choice to be his Secretary of War, William Howard Taft, who had ably served under Presidents Harrison, McKinley, and Roosevelt in various positions. Roosevelt and Taft had been friends since 1890, and Taft had consistently supported Roosevelt's policies. Roosevelt to Taft: "Dear Will: Do you want any action about those federal officials? I will break their necks with the utmost cheerfulness if you say the word!" Publicly he denied charges that he was using his office to favor Taft.
At the 1908 Republican convention, many chanted for "four years more" and wanted Roosevelt to seek another term in office. But when Roosevelt made it clear that he was not interested in a third term, the delegates chose Taft as their candidate. In the 1908 election, Taft easily defeated the Democratic nominee, three-time candidate William Jennings Bryan.
One of the first cracks in the friendship between the two men occurred during the election campaign. Roosevelt was said to be frustrated by how Taft was campaigning and by his own lack of prominence in the campaign. He constantly gave Taft with advice, and his supporters spread rumors that Roosevelt was in effect running Taft's campaign. This especially annoyed Taft's wife Helen (called Nellie). Humorists chimed in that "TAFT" stood for "Take advice from Theodore". Roosevelt advised Taft to keep a low profile on a number of controversial issues such as prohibition. When prohibition activist Carrie Nation called on Taft and demanded to know his views, she left indignant after Taft refused to take a firm position on the issue.
Taft won the election by a comfortable margin, defeating Bryan by 321 electoral votes to 162. He won 51.6 percent of the popular vote. He was sworn in as president on March 4, 1909. Due to a winter storm that coated Washington with ice, Taft was inaugurated within the Senate Chamber rather than outside the Capitol as is customary. The new president stated in his inaugural address that he had been honored to have been "one of the advisers of my distinguished predecessor" and to have had a part "in the reforms he has initiated. I should be untrue to myself, to my promises, and to the declarations of the party platform on which I was elected if I did not make the maintenance and enforcement of those reforms a most important feature of my administration". He pledged to continue many of his predecessor's initiatives. Roosevelt left office with regret that his time as President was over. It was a position he enjoyed so much. He decided too keep out of Taft's way by leaving for a year-long hunting trip to Africa.
Taft did not enjoy the same easy relationship with the news media that Roosevelt had. He did not make himself available for interviews or photo opportunities as often as his predecessor had. Soon Taft began to assert his independence from his predecessor. On election night when Taft announced that his success had been possible but for the efforts of his brother Charley, Roosevelt was said to take offence to this. Then when Taft did not consult Roosevelt about cabinet appointments, this further offended Roosevelt. Henry Cabot Lodge declined an offer to become Secretary of State because it had not been previously discussed with Roosevelt.
Roosevelt and other progressives were also dissatisfied over Taft's conservation policies, and his handling of the tariff, which had indirectly concentrated more power in the hands of conservative party leaders in Congress. A major bone of contention was Taft's firing of Roosevelt's good friend Gifford Pinchot as chief of the United States Forest service in 1910.
During the time when Roosevelt was away from March 1909 to June 1910, neither man wrote much to the other. When he returned from abroad, Roosevelt urged progressives to take control of the Republican Party at the state and local level. Upon Roosevelt's return to a large crowd in New York, Taft invited him to stay at the White House, but Roosevelt declined the offer. In private letters to friends expressed dissatisfaction at Taft's performance.He met with Taft at the White House in June 1910 and things seemed to be on the mend. But in August 1910, Roosevelt gave a speech at Osawatomie, Kansas, which was highly critical of the Taft administration and the conservative Republicans. Roosevelt emphasized the priority of labor over capital interests. Roosevelt began a battle to take control of the Republican party.
Roosevelt gave a series of speeches in the late summer and early fall of 1910. Roosevelt accused the federal courts of undermining democracy, and called for them to be deprived of the power to rule legislation unconstitutional. This horrified Taft, who was a strong supporter of the concept of judicial independence. As Roosevelt began to move to the left and was becoming more of a progressive, Taft aligned himself with the conservative wing of the party. As Taft's term continued, Roosevelt attacked his successor for its abandonment of progressive principles for those of the wealthier class. The feud continued and as the 1912 election approached, Roosevelt contemplated seeking the presidency again. In February of 1912, Roosevelt announced that he would accept the Republican nomination if it was offered to him. Each man felt betrayed by the other, leading to a hotly contested nomination process that Taft was able to secure thanks to his control of the party machinery.
But this did not end matters. Roosevelt ran in the 1912 election as the candidate for the Progressive Party (which became known colloquially as the "Bull Moose Party"). It divided the Republican vote, allowing Democrat Woodrow Wilson to win the presidency in 1912. Roosevelt finished second in both popular and electoral vote, the best showing for a "third party" since the Republicans and Democrats became the two major parties. Taft finished in third place. He would leave the White House only to later find happiness in 1921 by getting the job he most wanted all along, Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court.