Roosevelt was now confronted by the problem as to whether he should
run for a third term. Previously, in a public address, he had made the
statement that he would not be a candidate for a third term. If he had
listened to the pleadings of his friends and allowed himself to be
nominated there is no doubt that he would have been elected.
His answer to the pleas of his admirers and to the voice of perhaps
his own ambition was to select William Howard Taft as his successor
and to urge his nomination, taking care to let the Republican national
convention know that he himself would refuse a nomination. Taft was
nominated on the first ballot.
On March 4, 1909, William H. Taft was inaugurated as President of the
United States. That day Roosevelt left Washington.
“Let us therefore boldly face the life of strife, resolute to do our
duty well and manfully; resolute to uphold righteousness by deed and
by word; resolute to be both honest and brave; to serve high ideals,
yet to use practical methods. Above all, let us shrink from no strife,
moral or physical, within or without the nation, provided we are
certain that the strife is justified, for it is only through strife,
through hard and dangerous endeavor, that we shall ultimately win the
goal of true national greatness.