Viewing Frank Kellogg and the Origins of the Roosevelt-Taft Break (1912).

Frank Kellogg and the Origins of the Roosevelt-Taft Break (1912).

The break between former President Theodore Roosevelt and President William Howard Taft is the most famous in American political history. Roosevelt's disillusionment with his successor festered for years, finally erupting in 1912 when he unsuccessfully challenged Taft for the nomination of the Republican Party at its convention in Chicago in June. Undeterred he founded the Bull Moose Party, and ran for president with its endorsement. This split the Republicans and enabled Democrat Woodrow Wilson to coast to victory.

The causes of the rift between the two men fascinated their contemporaries and have perplexed their biographers and historians of the period. One explanation was published in a short article in the April 13, 1912 issue of "The Saturday Evening Post." The author contended that the split originated when Taft refused to nominate Frank Kellogg, the famed "trust buster," Attorney General, contrary to assurances he supposedly had given Roosevelt. This article appears here in its entirety.

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