Summary

Once Taft was in the president's office and faced the challenge of naming a cabinet, he did what he usually does when under pressure: he went on a six-week golfing vacation in Virginia and Georgia. He was welcomed graciously by Atlantans and the entire family assembled at the Bon Air Hotel in Augusta. In considering cabinet posts, Taft tried to pick the best of former officials in the Roosevelt administration as well as his own choices to assert himself as his own man. His first two choices for secretary of state—Elihu Root and Henry Cabot Lodge—declined and he appointed Pennsylvania Sen. Philander Knox. When it came to other cabinet appointments, Taft found it difficult to honor his assurances that he would retain existing secretaries.

Taft replaced Interior Secretary James Garfield, a close associate of Roosevelt, with Richard Ballinger...