Teddy Roosevelt raising his hat. National Photo Company, ca.1911 RC2007.115.1

With the assassination of William McKinley on September 14, 1901, Theodore Roosevelt became the 26th president of the United States. Elected to a full term in 1904, he declared that he considered it his second term and would not run again. He regretted making this statement almost immediately. Roosevelt would only be 51 years old when he left office, more than able to seek another term. Nevertheless, determined not to go back on his promise, Roosevelt hand-picked his Secretary of War and close friend William Howard Taft to succeed him as the Republican candidate in 1908.

William Howard Taft was a reluctant candidate who had no presidential aspirations - what he really wanted was to be a Supreme Court justice. Once elected, Taft was not the progressive candidate that Roosevelt hoped he would be. Roosevelt was especially upset about the undoing of many of his conservation reforms, particularly when Taft dismissed Chief Forrester Gifford Pinchot. Taft knew he was a disappointment to Roosevelt, and wrote to him in one letter, “It is now a year and three months since I assumed office and I have had a hard time.” Taft's first term performance would eventually convince Roosevelt to go back on his word and run for a third term as president in 1912.

Meanwhile, Woodrow Wilson had been president of Princeton University since 1902 and was garnering attention by delivering speeches that advocated increased government power to regulate big business. In April of 1910 Wilson was interviewed and rejected as a possible Progressive Party candidate. However, he was courted by Democratic Party boss “Sugar” Jim Smith to run for governor of New Jersey later that same year. Party leadership chose him in part because they thought him politically naïve and easily controlled. Instead, after winning the 1910 gubernatorial election, Wilson defied the wishes of party bosses by pushing for reform-minded legislation that included an anti-corruption bill, an election reform bill, an anti-trust bill and workman’s compensation.