On the other hand I did not
wish simply and specifically to say that I would not be a
candidate for the nomination in 1908, because if I had specified
the year when I would not be a candidate, it would have been
widely accepted as meaning that I intended to be a candidate some
other year; and I had no such intention, and had no idea that I
would ever be a candidate again. Certain newspaper men did ask me
if I intended to apply my prohibition to 1912, and I answered that
I was not thinking of 1912, nor of 1920, nor of 1940, and that I
must decline to say anything whatever except what appeared in my
statement. [Footnote: "Autobiography," pp. 422-3.]
From March 4, 1905, until March 4, 1909, he was an elected
President, not a President who had succeeded to the office through
the death of another. When the end of his term approached he threw
his influence in favor of the nomination of Mr. William H. Taft,
Secretary of War in his Cabinet. He could have had the nomination
himself if he had wished it; indeed he had to take precautions
against being nominated. But Mr. Taft was nominated, and in
November, 1908, was elected over Mr. Bryan, who was then running
for the Presidency for the third time.
President Roosevelt and President-elect Taft drove up Pennsylvania
Avenue to the Capitol together, March 4, 1909, in a cold gale of
wind, which had followed a sudden blizzard.
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