page_title: Presidency of William Howard Taft
section_title: Election of 1908
hierarchical_section_title: Presidency of William Howard Taft / Election of 1908
caption_attribution_description: English: Photograph of William Howard Taft, copyrighted in 1909, taken by George W. Harris of the Washington, DC firm Harris &amp; Ewing. The Harris &amp; Ewing collection was donated to the Library of Congress, with copyright and donation restrictions now expired. Black, white and tattered borders trimmed for upload. Missing part of glass negative (upper left hand corner) left untouched. This is almost certainly part of a famous series of photos, described on the National Register of Historic Places nomination form for the Harris &amp; Ewing Building (studio) [1] "Among Harris's most famous photographs was a candid series of William Howard Taft called "The Evolution of a Smile." Taft had just finished sitting for a formal portrait when he answered the telephone and learned from President Roosevelt that Taft had been nominated as the Republican candidate for President. Harris captured his reaction on film at a time when candid pictures were almost unknown."
context_page_description: The Presidency of William Howard Taft began on March 4, 1909, when William Howard Taft was inaugurated as President of the United States, and ended on March 4, 1913. Taft, a Republican from Ohio, was the 27th United States president. The protégé and chosen successor of President Theodore Roosevelt, he took office after easily defeating Democrat William Jennings Bryan in the 1908 presidential election. His presidency ended with his defeat in the 1912 election by Democrat Woodrow Wilson.
  The Taft administration sought reductions to trade tariffs, then a major source of governmental income, but the Payne–Aldrich Tariff Act of 1909 raised rates when most people expected reductions. Taft continued and expanded his predecessor's efforts to break up trusts, launching cases against U.S. Steel and other companies. Taft made six appointments to the United States Supreme Court, more than all but two other presidents. In foreign affairs, Taft focused on China and Japan, and repeatedly intervened to prop up or remove Latin American governments.
context_section_description: After his victory in the 1904 presidential election, Theodore Roosevelt announced that he would not seek re-election in 1908. Roosevelt considered Secretary of War Taft to be his logical successor, although Taft was initially reluctant to run, and would have preferred being appointed to the position of chief justice of the Supreme Court. Roosevelt used his control of the party machinery to aid his heir apparent, and Roosevelt's political appointees were required to support Taft or remain silent. A number of Republican politicians, such as Treasury Secretary George Cortelyou, tested the waters for a run but chose to stay out. New York Governor Charles Evans Hughes ran, but when he made a major policy speech, Roosevelt took steps to minimize coverage of Hughes's candidacy. Taft faced no serious opposition at the 1908 Republican National Convention and he won the presidential nomination on the first ballot. Taft hoped his running mate would be a Midwestern progressive like Iowa Senator Jonathan Dolliver, but instead the convention named Congressman James S. Sherman of New York, a conservative. Taft resigned as Secretary of War on June 30 to devote himself full-time to the campaign.
  Taft began the campaign on the wrong foot, fueling the arguments of those who said he was not his own man by traveling to Roosevelt's home at Sagamore Hill for advice on his acceptance speech, saying that he needed "the president's judgment and criticism". Taft supported most of Roosevelt's policies. He argued that labor had a right to organize, but not boycott, and that corporations and the wealthy must also obey the law. Taft attributed blame for the recent recession, the Panic of 1907, to stock speculation and other abuses, and felt some reform of the currency (the U.S. was on the gold standard) was needed to allow flexibility in the government's response to poor economic times. He also spoke out in favor of revisions to tariff rates and favored strengthening the Sherman Antitrust Act. Taft's opponent in the general election was William Jennings Bryan, the Democratic nominee for the third time in four presidential elections. He campaigned on a progressive platform attacking "government by privilege", and portraying Republicans as beholden to powerful corporate interests and to the wealthy. As many of Roosevelt's reforms stemmed from his proposals, the Democrat argued that he was the true heir to Roosevelt's mantle.
  During the fall campaign Roosevelt showered Taft with advice and infused energy into his campaign. Consequently, accusations abounded that the president was in effect running Taft's campaign. His larger-than-life presence in the campaign also caught the attention of journalists and humorists who bombarded the public with jokes about Taft being nothing but a Roosevelt stand-in; one suggested that "T.A.F.T." stood for "Take Advice From Theodore. In the end, Taft defeated Bryan by 321 electoral votes to 162, carrying all but three states outside the Democratic Solid South. He also won the popular vote by a comfortable margin, receiving 7,675,320 votes (51.6 percent) to Bryan's 6,412,294 (43.1 percent); Socialist Party candidate Eugene V. Debs won 420,793 votes (2.8 percent). Nellie Taft said regarding the campaign, "There was nothing to criticize, except his not knowing or caring about the way the game of politics is played." Roosevelt, meanwhile, left office with regret that his tenure in the position he enjoyed so much was over. To keep out of Taft's way, he arranged for a year-long hunting trip to Africa.
caption: One of a series of candid photographs known as the Evolution of a Smile, as Taft learns by telephone from Roosevelt of his nomination for president.
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