Herbert S. Hadley examiners' board, a fish and game commission, a game protection board, and a Missouri waterways commission. Many of Hadley's recommendations for change in other government sectors, such as revenue and public service, were not supported by the Missouri General Assembly. In 1912, Hadley served as floor leader for Theodore Roosevelt's wing of the Republican Party at the 1912 Republican National Convention. After the death of Vice President James S. Sherman in October 1912, President William Howard Taft strongly considered naming Hadley as Sherman's replacement on the 1912 Republican ticket, but Taft ultimately did not select a replacement before the election
Presidency of William Howard Taft 1912 election under its banner. This split among Republicans all but doomed Taft's chances for re-election, giving Democrats, in the person of Woodrow Wilson, control of the White House for the first time in sixteen years. Historians generally consider Taft to have been an average president. As the 1908 presidential election approached, President Roosevelt, who had announced after his 1904 victory that he would not run for re-election considered Secretary of War Taft was his logical successor, although Taft was initially reluctant to run. He would have preferred being appointed U.S. Supreme Court chief justice. Roosevelt used his control of