SELECTS TAFT TO SUCCEED HIM
Roosevelt was now confronted by the problem as to whether he should run for a third term. Previously, in a public address, he had made the statement that he would not be a candidate for a third term. If he had listened to the pleadings of his friends and allowed himself to be nominated there is no doubt that he would have been elected.
His answer to the pleas of his admirers and to the voice of perhaps his own ambition was to select William Howard Taft as his successor and to urge his nomination, taking care to let the Republican national convention know that he himself would refuse a nomination. Taft was nominated on the first ballot.
On March 4, 1909, William H. Taft was inaugurated as President of the United States. That day Roosevelt left Washington.
“Let us therefore boldly face the life of strife, resolute to do our duty well and manfully; resolute to uphold righteousness by deed and by word; resolute to be both honest and brave; to serve high ideals, yet to use practical methods. Above all, let us shrink from no strife, moral or physical, within or without the nation, provided we are certain that the strife is justified, for it is only through strife, through hard and dangerous endeavor, that we shall ultimately win the goal of true national greatness.
Theodore Roosevelt.”
XIV
The “Bull Moose”
After more than a year’s absence in Africa and Europe, Roosevelt returned to the United States in June, 1910, and again, both by inclination and the compelling force of circumstances, took an active interest in politics.
While Roosevelt was hunting in Africa, there came a sharp division in the Republican party. The conservatives who supported Taft and the rebels who could see no good in his policies developed into bitter factions, each of which tried to win the support of Roosevelt when he returned home crowned with world honors. For a time Roosevelt kept silent, hearing both sides of the matter, weighing the evidence in the dispute, trying to determine whether it was wise to continue the support he had given Taft formerly, or to listen to these new but strong voices that had arisen in his party since he himself left the Presidency.
The first indication of the stand Roosevelt was to take appeared when he let it become known that he approved Gifford Pinchot’s stand in his controversy with Ballinger, whom Taft had supported. He also announced that he opposed certain treaties with Japan and South America which Taft was advocating. As the months passed Taft became the champion of conservative Republicanism, and the forceful personality and progressive spirit of Roosevelt made him the natural leader of the revolting group.
In 1910 Roosevelt made a tour of the country, in which he announced the doctrine of the New Nationalism. He advocated a closer relation between the states and the national government; making economic opportunity equal; conserving the resources of the nation; military preparedness; and the shifting of the viewpoints of the courts from too much emphasis on the security of property and contracts to a greater concern for the welfare of human beings.
To these principles Roosevelt added, in 1912, the issues of direct nominations, preferential primaries, the initiative, the referendum, and the recall for judicial decisions as well as for officials. These reforms he announced as a new Charter for Democracy and when, in 1912, in answer to the appeal of seven Governors, he announced that he would become a candidate for the Presidency, these doctrines were embodied in the platform of his party.
Roosevelt made a typically strenuous fight for the control of delegates to the national Republican Convention, and when he was defeated he and his supporters created the Progressive party, by which at Chicago, he was nominated for the Presidency. In response to those who criticised him for seeking a third term when he had previously announced that he would not accept another nomination, he explained that he had meant three consecutive terms.
It was while he was conducting a whirlwind campaign for election that he was shot by a crank. The shooting occurred in Milwaukee. Roosevelt was entering the automobile that was to drive him to the meeting place when the fanatic fired at him. The bullet lodged in his shoulder. With characteristic dauntlessness, Roosevelt insisted on going on the platform, where he told the waiting multitude that he had been shot, and then went on to deliver a rousing speech that lasted over an hour.
When Woodrow Wilson heard of the assault upon Roosevelt, he chivalrously offered to discontinue his own campaign, but the Colonel refused this concession. After a few days spent in recuperation he resumed his speaking tour with undiminished vigor. In the Presidential election which followed he received eighty-eight electoral votes. He had divided the Republican party in all states. In twenty-eight of the states he received a majority over Taft. Through this division in the Republican ranks, Woodrow Wilson became President.