FRANK OLIVER: Taft was troubled. He told a friend: "It is very hard to take all these blows from Roosevelt. I do not know what he is trying to do, except to make my way more difficult. It is very hard to see a close friendship going to pieces like a rope of sand."
By now it was clear to Taft that Roosevelt wanted to be the presidential candidate of the Republican Party in the election of nineteen twelve.
William Howard Taft at his desk
Earlier, this would have pleased Taft. He would have been happy to leave the White House. But the situation was different now. Roosevelt had changed. Taft felt that the policies he proposed seemed too extreme. Taft decided it was his duty to oppose Roosevelt and the progressives. He would seek re-election.
Taft believed he could win the Republican nomination for president. He still had the support of many party leaders.
TONY RIGGS: Four months before the Republican nominating convention opened, several progressive Republican governors appealed to Roosevelt. They urged him to declare himself a candidate for president. Roosevelt, they said, was the man to lead the nation into a new era of social progress.
Then Taft made a strong statement against the progressives. "They are seeking," he said, "to pull down the temple of freedom and representative government." A reporter asked Roosevelt to answer Taft's statement. Roosevelt said: "My hat is in the ring." That meant he was a candidate. Now, the conflict was in the open. And Roosevelt was ready to fight.
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