After his 8 years of presidency, Theodore Roosevelt had made a great deal of progress in his progressive reforms. In 1908, he decided not to run again, but wanted to ensure that his legacy would continue and all of his reforms would not go to waste. For this reason, he recommended his close friend, William Taft, for the election of 1908. Teddy was a very popular president, and a very likable person. He had a strong influence over the American people, and so a high percentage of his supporters voted for Taft. On March 4, 1909, Taft was inaugurated. It was believed that Taft would be similar to Roosevelt, who was a very charismatic and energetic man. Many were surprised to find that Taft was actually very different - being a former judge, he was not a quick decision-maker and acted off of facts rather than emotion.
Shortly after his inauguration, Taft had a falling out with Roosevelt. Roosevelt believed that Taft had not been doing his part to uphold his promise to continue the progressive reforms that he had started. Roosevelt and Taft year long friendship had been tarnished.
In 1912, as Taft's presidency began to come to an end, Roosevelt decided to run for President again. In the election of 1912, there were 4 main candidates - Woodrow Wilson, Teddy Roosevelt, William Taft, and Eugene Debs. Wilson was the Democratic candidate, Taft was the Republican candidate, and Debs was the Socialist candidate. Roosevelt, after losing the Republican nomination to Taft, ran as a candidate for the Populist Party, even though he had run as a Republican in 1900 and 1904. He knew that if he joined the presidential race, that the Republicans' votes would be split between him and Taft and neither would be able to gain enough votes.
In speeches leading up to the election, Roosevelt often criticized Taft and his policies. Taft, however, was deeply sorrowed. He said, "I do not want to fight Theodore Roosevelt. But I am going to fight him". After a speech, a reporter found Taft with tears in his eyes, as he said, "Roosevelt was my closest friend".
As expected, neither Roosevelt or Taft won the election of 1912. Woodrow Wilson won in a landslide.
I think you address the main events of the 1912 election very well. When Roosevelt ran in 1912, it was as a proggressive republican. Taft, on the other head was running as a conservative republican. As you stated, this caused the republican votes to be split, opening up the opportunity for Wilson to easily with the presidency. Not every democrat agreed with Wilson's visions but they still voted for him so that the democrats could have control of the white house for the first time in a very long time. Wilson was more of a progressive than he was of a conservative, so he won all of the democratic progressive votes. In the case for all the votes of the conservative democrats, he won the vast majority of those as well because they wanted to vote for their political party.
ReplyDeleteThis was a good summary of the Election of 1812. Though it specifically touches on Theodore Roosevelt and William Taft and how their relationship had been through out the Taft's presidency and during the election. Because of Roosevelt's pride he was chose his ideal reforms over his friendship with Taft. He did this because he was mad when Taft had not upheld his ideals for the government. Roosevelt however did not have a right to get mad at his friend, because Taft was pressured into the presidency. So I think that Roosvelt's pride had cause him to ruin his friendship with Taft and had led to the Election of 1812.
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