As his strength recovered he mused frequently about whether to stay in politics or retire. In a late October letter to Swede Hazlett, he revealed that his decision to run hinged on the issue of a successor: “I am vitally concerned in seeing someone nominated who not only believes in the program I have been so earnestly laboring to have enacted into law, but who also has the best chance of election. This is the tough one.” But no one came close to matching his political strength. He had no viable protégé, and he knew it.
