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On March 11, 1930, William Taft, 27th President and Chief Justice of the United States was buried in Arlington Cemetery. From the article:
"William Howard Taft
The Republican William Howard Taft worked as a judge in Ohio Superior Court and in the U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals before accepting a post as the first civilian governor of the Philippines in 1900. In 1904, Taft took on the role of secretary of war in the administration of Theodore Roosevelt, who threw his support to the Ohioan as his successor in 1908. Generally more conservative than Roosevelt, Taft also lacked his expansive view of presidential power, and was generally a more successful administrator than politician. By 1912, Roosevelt, dissatisfied with Taft’s presidency, had formed his own Progressive Party, splitting Republican voters and handing the White House to the Democrat Woodrow Wilson. Nine years after leaving office, Taft achieved his lifelong goal when President Warren Harding appointed him chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court; he held that post until just before his death in 1930.
Taft’s Early Life and Career
William Howard Taft was born on September 15, 1857, in Cincinnati, Ohio. His father was Alphonso Taft, a prominent Republican attorney who served as secretary of war and attorney general under President Ulysses S. Grant, then ambassador to Austria-Hungary and Russia under President Chester A. Arthur. The younger Taft attended Yale University (graduating second in his class) before studying law at the University of Cincinnati. He was admitted to the Ohio bar in 1880 and entered private practice. In 1886, Taft married Helen “Nettie” Herron, the daughter of another prominent local lawyer and Republican Party activist; the couple would have three children.
From early in his career, Taft aspired to a seat on the U.S. Supreme Court. His ambitious wife, meanwhile, set her sights on becoming first lady. With her encouragement, Taft accepted several political appointments, beginning in 1887 when he was named to fill the term of a judge in Ohio Superior Court. He was elected to a five-year term himself the following year. (Other than the presidency, it would be the only office Taft ever obtained through a popular vote.) In 1890, he was appointed as U.S. solicitor general, the third-highest position in the justice department. Two years later, he began serving as a judge on the U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals, which had jurisdiction over Ohio, Michigan, Tennessee and Kentucky.
Taft’s Path to the White House
In early 1900, President William McKinley called Taft to Washington and tasked him with setting up a civilian government in the Philippines, which had become a U.S. protectorate after the Spanish-American War (1898). Though hesitant, Taft accepted the post of chairman of the Second Philippine Commission with the knowledge that it would position him well to advance further in national government. Taft’s sympathetic administration in the Philippines marked a dramatic departure from the brutal tactics used there by the U.S. military government since 1898. Beginning with the drafting of a new constitution (including a Bill of Rights similar to that of the United States) and the creation of the post of civilian governor (he became the first), Taft improved the island economy and infrastructure and allowed the people at least some voice in government. Though sympathetic to the Filipino people and popular among them, he believed they needed considerable guidance and instruction before they could be capable of self-rule, and predicted a long period of U.S. involvement; in fact, the Philippines would not gain independence until 1946.
After McKinley was assassinated in 1901, President Theodore Roosevelt twice offered Taft a Supreme Court appointment, but he declined in order to stay in the Philippines. In 1904, he agreed to return and become Roosevelt’s secretary of war, as long as he retained supervision of Filipino affairs. Taft traveled extensively during his four years in this post, including overseeing the construction of the Panama Canal and serving as provisional governor of Cuba. Roosevelt, who had pledged not to run for a third term in office, began promoting Taft as his successor. Though he disliked campaigning, Taft agreed to mount a presidential run in 1908 at the urging of his wife, and soundly defeated Democrat William Jennings Bryan by pledging to continue the Rooseveltian program of progressive reforms.
The Taft Presidency
Despite his pledge, Taft lacked Roosevelt’s expansive view of presidential power, as well as his charisma as a leader and his physical vigor. (Always heavy, Taft weighed as much as 300 pounds at times during his presidency.) Though he was initially active in “trust-busting,” initiating some 80 antitrust suits against large industrial combinations–twice as many as Roosevelt–he later backed away from these efforts, and in general aligned himself with the more conservative members of the Republican Party. In 1909, Taft’s convention of a special session of Congress to debate tariff reform legislation spurred the Republican protectionist majority to action and led to passage of the Payne-Aldrich Act, which did little to lower tariffs. Though more progressive Republicans (such as Roosevelt) expected Taft to veto the bill, he signed it into law and publicly defended it as “the best tariff bill that the Republican Party ever passed.”
In another key misstep where progressives were concerned, Taft upheld the policies of Secretary of the Interior Richard Ballinger, and dismissed Ballinger’s leading critic, Gifford Pinchot, a conservationist and close friend of Roosevelt who served as head of the Bureau of Forestry. Pinchot’s firing split the Republican Party further and estranged Taft from Roosevelt for good. Often overlooked in the record of Taft’s presidency were his achievements, including his trust-busting efforts, his empowering of the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) to set railroad rates, and his support of constitutional amendments mandating a federal income tax and the direct election of senators by the people (as opposed to appointment by state legislatures).
Taft’s Post-Presidency and Supreme Court Career
By 1912, Roosevelt was so incensed with Taft and the conservative Republicans that he chose to break from the party and form his own Progressive Party (also known as the Bull Moose Party). In the general election that year, the divide among Republicans handed the White House to the progressive Democrat Woodrow Wilson, who received 435 electoral votes to Roosevelt’s 88. Taft received only eight electoral votes, reflecting the repudiation of his administration’s policies in the wave of progressive spirit that was then sweeping the nation.
Undoubtedly relieved to be leaving the White House, Taft took a position teaching constitutional law at Yale University Law School. In 1921, President Warren Harding fulfilled Taft’s lifelong dream by appointing him chief justice of the United States Supreme Court. In that post, Taft improved the organization and efficiency of the nation’s highest court and helped secure passage of the Judge’s Act of 1925, which gave the court greater discretion in choosing its cases. He wrote some 250 decisions, most reflecting his conservative ideology. Taft’s most prominent opinion came in Myers v. United States (1926), which invalidated tenure of office acts limiting the president’s authority to remove federal officials; President Andrew Johnson’s violation of a similar act had led to his impeachment by the House of Representatives in 1868. Taft remained chief justice until shortly before his death, on March 8, 1930, from complications of heart disease."
"William Howard Taft
The Republican William Howard Taft worked as a judge in Ohio Superior Court and in the U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals before accepting a post as the first civilian governor of the Philippines in 1900. In 1904, Taft took on the role of secretary of war in the administration of Theodore Roosevelt, who threw his support to the Ohioan as his successor in 1908. Generally more conservative than Roosevelt, Taft also lacked his expansive view of presidential power, and was generally a more successful administrator than politician. By 1912, Roosevelt, dissatisfied with Taft’s presidency, had formed his own Progressive Party, splitting Republican voters and handing the White House to the Democrat Woodrow Wilson. Nine years after leaving office, Taft achieved his lifelong goal when President Warren Harding appointed him chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court; he held that post until just before his death in 1930.
Taft’s Early Life and Career
William Howard Taft was born on September 15, 1857, in Cincinnati, Ohio. His father was Alphonso Taft, a prominent Republican attorney who served as secretary of war and attorney general under President Ulysses S. Grant, then ambassador to Austria-Hungary and Russia under President Chester A. Arthur. The younger Taft attended Yale University (graduating second in his class) before studying law at the University of Cincinnati. He was admitted to the Ohio bar in 1880 and entered private practice. In 1886, Taft married Helen “Nettie” Herron, the daughter of another prominent local lawyer and Republican Party activist; the couple would have three children.
From early in his career, Taft aspired to a seat on the U.S. Supreme Court. His ambitious wife, meanwhile, set her sights on becoming first lady. With her encouragement, Taft accepted several political appointments, beginning in 1887 when he was named to fill the term of a judge in Ohio Superior Court. He was elected to a five-year term himself the following year. (Other than the presidency, it would be the only office Taft ever obtained through a popular vote.) In 1890, he was appointed as U.S. solicitor general, the third-highest position in the justice department. Two years later, he began serving as a judge on the U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals, which had jurisdiction over Ohio, Michigan, Tennessee and Kentucky.
Taft’s Path to the White House
In early 1900, President William McKinley called Taft to Washington and tasked him with setting up a civilian government in the Philippines, which had become a U.S. protectorate after the Spanish-American War (1898). Though hesitant, Taft accepted the post of chairman of the Second Philippine Commission with the knowledge that it would position him well to advance further in national government. Taft’s sympathetic administration in the Philippines marked a dramatic departure from the brutal tactics used there by the U.S. military government since 1898. Beginning with the drafting of a new constitution (including a Bill of Rights similar to that of the United States) and the creation of the post of civilian governor (he became the first), Taft improved the island economy and infrastructure and allowed the people at least some voice in government. Though sympathetic to the Filipino people and popular among them, he believed they needed considerable guidance and instruction before they could be capable of self-rule, and predicted a long period of U.S. involvement; in fact, the Philippines would not gain independence until 1946.
After McKinley was assassinated in 1901, President Theodore Roosevelt twice offered Taft a Supreme Court appointment, but he declined in order to stay in the Philippines. In 1904, he agreed to return and become Roosevelt’s secretary of war, as long as he retained supervision of Filipino affairs. Taft traveled extensively during his four years in this post, including overseeing the construction of the Panama Canal and serving as provisional governor of Cuba. Roosevelt, who had pledged not to run for a third term in office, began promoting Taft as his successor. Though he disliked campaigning, Taft agreed to mount a presidential run in 1908 at the urging of his wife, and soundly defeated Democrat William Jennings Bryan by pledging to continue the Rooseveltian program of progressive reforms.
The Taft Presidency
Despite his pledge, Taft lacked Roosevelt’s expansive view of presidential power, as well as his charisma as a leader and his physical vigor. (Always heavy, Taft weighed as much as 300 pounds at times during his presidency.) Though he was initially active in “trust-busting,” initiating some 80 antitrust suits against large industrial combinations–twice as many as Roosevelt–he later backed away from these efforts, and in general aligned himself with the more conservative members of the Republican Party. In 1909, Taft’s convention of a special session of Congress to debate tariff reform legislation spurred the Republican protectionist majority to action and led to passage of the Payne-Aldrich Act, which did little to lower tariffs. Though more progressive Republicans (such as Roosevelt) expected Taft to veto the bill, he signed it into law and publicly defended it as “the best tariff bill that the Republican Party ever passed.”
In another key misstep where progressives were concerned, Taft upheld the policies of Secretary of the Interior Richard Ballinger, and dismissed Ballinger’s leading critic, Gifford Pinchot, a conservationist and close friend of Roosevelt who served as head of the Bureau of Forestry. Pinchot’s firing split the Republican Party further and estranged Taft from Roosevelt for good. Often overlooked in the record of Taft’s presidency were his achievements, including his trust-busting efforts, his empowering of the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) to set railroad rates, and his support of constitutional amendments mandating a federal income tax and the direct election of senators by the people (as opposed to appointment by state legislatures).
Taft’s Post-Presidency and Supreme Court Career
By 1912, Roosevelt was so incensed with Taft and the conservative Republicans that he chose to break from the party and form his own Progressive Party (also known as the Bull Moose Party). In the general election that year, the divide among Republicans handed the White House to the progressive Democrat Woodrow Wilson, who received 435 electoral votes to Roosevelt’s 88. Taft received only eight electoral votes, reflecting the repudiation of his administration’s policies in the wave of progressive spirit that was then sweeping the nation.
Undoubtedly relieved to be leaving the White House, Taft took a position teaching constitutional law at Yale University Law School. In 1921, President Warren Harding fulfilled Taft’s lifelong dream by appointing him chief justice of the United States Supreme Court. In that post, Taft improved the organization and efficiency of the nation’s highest court and helped secure passage of the Judge’s Act of 1925, which gave the court greater discretion in choosing its cases. He wrote some 250 decisions, most reflecting his conservative ideology. Taft’s most prominent opinion came in Myers v. United States (1926), which invalidated tenure of office acts limiting the president’s authority to remove federal officials; President Andrew Johnson’s violation of a similar act had led to his impeachment by the House of Representatives in 1868. Taft remained chief justice until shortly before his death, on March 8, 1930, from complications of heart disease."
William Howard Taft
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President William Howard Taft Mini Documentary & Funeral
Learn the history of our 27th president in this short, fast-paced mini-doc with pictures and video of his life and presidency. Real funeral footage! Audio c...
Thank you my friend SGT (Join to see) for making us aware that on March 11, 1930 27th President and former Chief Justice of the United States William Howard Taft was buried in Arlington Cemetery.
President William Howard Taft Mini Documentary & Funeral
Learn the history of our 27th president in this short, fast-paced mini-doc with pictures and video of his life and presidency. Real funeral footage! Audio courtesy of Matthew Huffaker
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0KY4c0VXlyo
Images:
1. President William Howard Taft - presidential portrait
2. 1912 President William Howard Taft is seen throwing out the first ball on opening day for baseball, to start the season for the Washington Senators in Washington.
3. Taft Funeral, March 11, 1930 Photograph by Granger
4. President William Howard Taft memorial and gravesite at Arlington National Cemetery
Background from whitehousehistory.org/the-life-and-presidency-of-William-Howard-Taft
"The Life and Presidency of William Howard Taft
the white house Christmas ornament 2012 historical essay
William Howard Taft was born on September 15, 1857, in Cincinnati, Ohio, to judge Alphonso Taft and his wife Louisa. He graduated from Yale, and then returned to Ohio, studied at the Cincinnati Law School, and began his law practice. He made a swift climb in politics through Republican judiciary appointments, while a seat on the Supreme Court was his ultimate ambition. His route to the White House was mapped gradually through ever more prestigious posts beginning in 1900 when President William McKinley appointed him civil governor of the Philippines. During his tenure, he improved the economy, built roads and schools, and gave the Filipino people limited participation in government. In 1907 President Theodore Roosevelt returned him to Washington to serve as secretary of war, and in 1908 he received the Republican presidential nomination. He won the election and was inaugurated in March 1909.
Taft pledged to continue Roosevelt's presidential agenda, pleasing Progressives who said that "Roosevelt has cut enough hay" and "Taft is the man to put it into the barn." Yet Taft's unexpected support of the 1909 Payne-Aldrich Tariff Act reneged on a campaign promise to lower tariffs and angered liberal Republicans. He further antagonized Progressives by upholding a decision by his secretary of the interior to sell public lands in Alaska and the Rocky Mountains. He fired Gifford Pinchot, the first chief of the U.S. Forest Service, a Roosevelt advisor and a conservationist, for insubordination in opposing the sales.
Angry politics diminished appreciation for Taft's many achievements. He signed the first tariff revision since 1897; established a postal savings system; formed the Interstate Commerce Commission; and prosecuted over 75 antitrust violations, far more than pursued by the "trust- buster" Theodore Roosevelt. The Taft era Congress submitted two Constitutional amendments to the states that were ratified in 1913: the sixteenth amendment created a federal income tax; the seventeenth amendment authorized the direct election of senators. Taft also expanded U.S. foreign trade through investment in what became known as "dollar diplomacy" increasing U.S. influence in Latin America and East Asia.
In 1912, when the Republicans re-nominated Taft, Roosevelt revolted by leading the opposing Republican Progressives (or Bull Moose Party), and thus guaranteed the election of Woodrow Wilson. At age fifty-five, free of the presidency, Taft took a position teaching law at Yale where he remained until 1921 when President Warren Harding made him chief justice of the United States. Having achieved his lifelong ambition, he held a seat on the Supreme Court until just before his death in 1930. As chief justice, his interest in civic architecture found its greatest expression when he engaged the architect Cass Gilbert to design the Supreme Court building, a white marble landmark that remains in use on Capitol Hill today.
The First Motoring Presidency
While serving as secretary of war, Taft became smitten with the White steamer, the department's car of choice. A pre-gasoline steam-powered touring car, it was manufactured by the White Sewing Company of Cleveland, Ohio, Taft's home state. Over the 1908 Christmas holidays, president-elect Taft proudly had a family photograph taken in a loaned White made into a postcard and distributed to the press. The Great Seal of the United States, painted on the door, created confusion that it was a White House automobile.
Taft believed in the future of the automobile and wanted a White when he entered the White House. After some wrangling with opponents in Congress over the costs and dangers of motorcars, he obtained a $12,000 budget for their purchase through an emergency deficiency bill. His staff negotiated a favorable price with the White Company for the steamer at $3,000, and two Pierce-Arrow limousines, a "suburban," and a landaulet, at $4,900. Taft did add the Great Seal to all of his cars allowing the fledgling automobile manufacturer the publicity of a prestigious inclusion in the first White House limousine fleet. The small remaining budget was used to convert the White House stables to a garage and pay the chauffeurs until an annual $25,000 travel expense budget went into effect in July. Taft's famous milk cow Pauline Wayne continued to be stabled at the White House until the garage and stables were demolished in 1911.
In August 1909, the Washington Post ran a feature on Taft's "daredevil" chauffeur George H. Robinson, an army civilian detailed to the White House and known for his "fast work at the wheel." It reported that the president "has the real speed fever, and Robinson knows it."
President Taft was never happier than in the back seat of his White touring car speeding through the countryside with the wind in his hair. Not required to observe speed limits or stop signs when driving the president, Robinson would blow the horn in advance of an intersection and fly through it.
The seven-passenger White was Taft's favorite of the fleet. The automobile was often tested on the paved "Speedway" in Potomac Park and along the river. Inspired by fond memories of pleasant evening carriage rides through the tree-lined streets of Manila, Mrs. Taft's support for turning this Speedway into a promenade led to the first public project ever undertaken by a first lady. She shared the idea with the president's military aide Archibald Butt and the commissioner of public buildings and grounds, Colonel Spencer Cosby. A plan was formed and Mrs. Taft selected a site for a bandstand to hold Marine Band concerts in the park on Wednesday and Saturday afternoons. Potomac Drive became an immediate success and the most fashionable place to go and be seen in Washington from April until late October. The plan to plant Japanese cherry trees along the drive also came to fruition with the help of Mrs. Taft. In 1910 Mayor Yukio Ozaki of Tokyo presented the first trees as a "memorial of national friendship between the U.S. and Japan." In March 1912, Mrs. Taft and the Iwa Chinda, wife of the Vicount Sutemi Chinda the Japanese Ambassador, planted two of more than 3,000 Yoshino cherry trees on the northern bank of the Tidal Basin, about 125 feet south of what is now Independence Avenue, where they continue to be enjoyed today.
The Taft White House
Upon taking residence at the White House, the Tafts quickly made changes in its operation, foregoing the leisurely transitions of the past. First Lady Edith Roosevelt's carriage had hardly exited the driveway when Elizabeth Jaffray arrived to assume the role of housekeeper, beginning what became seventeen years of service to four presidents. Although her abrasive, superior attitude turned the 25-member domestic staff (both black and white) against her, she had the full confidence of Mrs. Taft who was determined to end the traditional management of domestic operations by all "gentleman ushers." Since John Adams first occupied the mansion, all stewards and ushers had been men. With Mrs. Taft's blessing, Mrs. Jaffrey also ordered black servants to dine apart from white servants, thus ending an established practice of seating by rank or seniority, and beginning 50 years of racial segregation.
White House hospitality during the Taft administration featured ambitious and varied menus supervised by Mrs. Jaffrey. Formal musicales and state dinners were held on the state floor following tradition, but Mrs. Taft's elaborate parties and dances were held in the garden or on the east and west terraces, in the fashion of those she enjoyed in the Philippines.
One major change occurred to the White House complex during Taft's administration. On Taft's inaugural day, Congress approved $40,000 to double the size of the "temporary" Executive Office Building (later called the West Wing) erected during the Roosevelt administration. Nathan C. Wyeth, a Washington architect, created the first Oval office space for the president and relocated the president's office on a central axis in the building. It was fully oval, like the Blue Room. The Oval Office—as it later came to be known—took shape in the summer of 1909 and was the first new State Room since the house was built in the 1790s. The office was replaced in 1934 by the Oval Office built for Franklin D. Roosevelt in yet another major expansion of the West Wing.
Christmas at the Taft White House
The Tafts celebrated Christmas simply; they opened gifts in the morning and shared a turkey dinner later. According to press reports, a 35–40 pound prize turkey, delivered by Horace Vose, the poultry king of Rhode Island, graced the table along with "Aunt Delia's goodies." The president's Aunt Delia Torrey of Millbury, Massachusetts, always sent "Nephew Will" an eagerly anticipated package of apple pies, jellies, and jams made from fruit grown on the Torrey property.
President and Mrs. Taft enjoyed the bustle of downtown Christmas shopping with holiday crowds. On occasion the president slipped away from his Secret Service detail to stroll through the city, often with Archibald Butt. On Christmas Eve in 1911, the president and first lady secretly left the White House on foot to call on friends as a surprise. When the Secret Service discovered their absence, there was widespread panic. Chief John Wilkie and his men scurried all over town searching for them. Eventually, President Taft returned to the White House smiling broadly with Mrs. Taft holding his arm.
The Tafts were a wholesome and busy family. In 1909, their son Robert, nineteen, was a junior at Yale, and Helen, seventeen, was a student at Bryn Mawr. Only their youngest child, Charles, eleven, lived with his parents year round at the White House. The Taft children were considered too old for a Christmas tree, but in 1912 while President and Mrs. Taft were away on an inspection of the Panama Canal, Robert and Helen hosted the family celebrations and held a Christmas tree party in the Blue Room for their young cousins. The huge tree decorated with baubles, toys, and thousands of electric lights, set a precedent for decorating a tree on the State Floor for guests. Although absent, President and Mrs. Taft provided gifts for friends and each employee of the White House received a fat turkey, a practice began by presidents in the nineteenth century.
FURTHER READING:
Bromley, Michael L. William Howard Taft and the First Motoring Presidency. Jefferson: McFarland, 2003.
Bromley, Michael L. and Tome Mazza. Stretching It: The Story of the Limousine. Warrendale: SAE International, 2002.
Mannion, Hillary. "Motor Cars Come to the White House," White House History 28 (2010): 38–45.
Seale, William. The President's House: A History. Washington, D.C.: White House Historical Association, 2008.
Seale, William. The White House: The History of An American Idea. Washington, D.C.: White House Historical Association, 2002.
Taft, Helen Herron. Recollections of Full Years. New York: Dodd, Mead & Company, 1914."
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President William Howard Taft Mini Documentary & Funeral
Learn the history of our 27th president in this short, fast-paced mini-doc with pictures and video of his life and presidency. Real funeral footage! Audio courtesy of Matthew Huffaker
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0KY4c0VXlyo
Images:
1. President William Howard Taft - presidential portrait
2. 1912 President William Howard Taft is seen throwing out the first ball on opening day for baseball, to start the season for the Washington Senators in Washington.
3. Taft Funeral, March 11, 1930 Photograph by Granger
4. President William Howard Taft memorial and gravesite at Arlington National Cemetery
Background from whitehousehistory.org/the-life-and-presidency-of-William-Howard-Taft
"The Life and Presidency of William Howard Taft
the white house Christmas ornament 2012 historical essay
William Howard Taft was born on September 15, 1857, in Cincinnati, Ohio, to judge Alphonso Taft and his wife Louisa. He graduated from Yale, and then returned to Ohio, studied at the Cincinnati Law School, and began his law practice. He made a swift climb in politics through Republican judiciary appointments, while a seat on the Supreme Court was his ultimate ambition. His route to the White House was mapped gradually through ever more prestigious posts beginning in 1900 when President William McKinley appointed him civil governor of the Philippines. During his tenure, he improved the economy, built roads and schools, and gave the Filipino people limited participation in government. In 1907 President Theodore Roosevelt returned him to Washington to serve as secretary of war, and in 1908 he received the Republican presidential nomination. He won the election and was inaugurated in March 1909.
Taft pledged to continue Roosevelt's presidential agenda, pleasing Progressives who said that "Roosevelt has cut enough hay" and "Taft is the man to put it into the barn." Yet Taft's unexpected support of the 1909 Payne-Aldrich Tariff Act reneged on a campaign promise to lower tariffs and angered liberal Republicans. He further antagonized Progressives by upholding a decision by his secretary of the interior to sell public lands in Alaska and the Rocky Mountains. He fired Gifford Pinchot, the first chief of the U.S. Forest Service, a Roosevelt advisor and a conservationist, for insubordination in opposing the sales.
Angry politics diminished appreciation for Taft's many achievements. He signed the first tariff revision since 1897; established a postal savings system; formed the Interstate Commerce Commission; and prosecuted over 75 antitrust violations, far more than pursued by the "trust- buster" Theodore Roosevelt. The Taft era Congress submitted two Constitutional amendments to the states that were ratified in 1913: the sixteenth amendment created a federal income tax; the seventeenth amendment authorized the direct election of senators. Taft also expanded U.S. foreign trade through investment in what became known as "dollar diplomacy" increasing U.S. influence in Latin America and East Asia.
In 1912, when the Republicans re-nominated Taft, Roosevelt revolted by leading the opposing Republican Progressives (or Bull Moose Party), and thus guaranteed the election of Woodrow Wilson. At age fifty-five, free of the presidency, Taft took a position teaching law at Yale where he remained until 1921 when President Warren Harding made him chief justice of the United States. Having achieved his lifelong ambition, he held a seat on the Supreme Court until just before his death in 1930. As chief justice, his interest in civic architecture found its greatest expression when he engaged the architect Cass Gilbert to design the Supreme Court building, a white marble landmark that remains in use on Capitol Hill today.
The First Motoring Presidency
While serving as secretary of war, Taft became smitten with the White steamer, the department's car of choice. A pre-gasoline steam-powered touring car, it was manufactured by the White Sewing Company of Cleveland, Ohio, Taft's home state. Over the 1908 Christmas holidays, president-elect Taft proudly had a family photograph taken in a loaned White made into a postcard and distributed to the press. The Great Seal of the United States, painted on the door, created confusion that it was a White House automobile.
Taft believed in the future of the automobile and wanted a White when he entered the White House. After some wrangling with opponents in Congress over the costs and dangers of motorcars, he obtained a $12,000 budget for their purchase through an emergency deficiency bill. His staff negotiated a favorable price with the White Company for the steamer at $3,000, and two Pierce-Arrow limousines, a "suburban," and a landaulet, at $4,900. Taft did add the Great Seal to all of his cars allowing the fledgling automobile manufacturer the publicity of a prestigious inclusion in the first White House limousine fleet. The small remaining budget was used to convert the White House stables to a garage and pay the chauffeurs until an annual $25,000 travel expense budget went into effect in July. Taft's famous milk cow Pauline Wayne continued to be stabled at the White House until the garage and stables were demolished in 1911.
In August 1909, the Washington Post ran a feature on Taft's "daredevil" chauffeur George H. Robinson, an army civilian detailed to the White House and known for his "fast work at the wheel." It reported that the president "has the real speed fever, and Robinson knows it."
President Taft was never happier than in the back seat of his White touring car speeding through the countryside with the wind in his hair. Not required to observe speed limits or stop signs when driving the president, Robinson would blow the horn in advance of an intersection and fly through it.
The seven-passenger White was Taft's favorite of the fleet. The automobile was often tested on the paved "Speedway" in Potomac Park and along the river. Inspired by fond memories of pleasant evening carriage rides through the tree-lined streets of Manila, Mrs. Taft's support for turning this Speedway into a promenade led to the first public project ever undertaken by a first lady. She shared the idea with the president's military aide Archibald Butt and the commissioner of public buildings and grounds, Colonel Spencer Cosby. A plan was formed and Mrs. Taft selected a site for a bandstand to hold Marine Band concerts in the park on Wednesday and Saturday afternoons. Potomac Drive became an immediate success and the most fashionable place to go and be seen in Washington from April until late October. The plan to plant Japanese cherry trees along the drive also came to fruition with the help of Mrs. Taft. In 1910 Mayor Yukio Ozaki of Tokyo presented the first trees as a "memorial of national friendship between the U.S. and Japan." In March 1912, Mrs. Taft and the Iwa Chinda, wife of the Vicount Sutemi Chinda the Japanese Ambassador, planted two of more than 3,000 Yoshino cherry trees on the northern bank of the Tidal Basin, about 125 feet south of what is now Independence Avenue, where they continue to be enjoyed today.
The Taft White House
Upon taking residence at the White House, the Tafts quickly made changes in its operation, foregoing the leisurely transitions of the past. First Lady Edith Roosevelt's carriage had hardly exited the driveway when Elizabeth Jaffray arrived to assume the role of housekeeper, beginning what became seventeen years of service to four presidents. Although her abrasive, superior attitude turned the 25-member domestic staff (both black and white) against her, she had the full confidence of Mrs. Taft who was determined to end the traditional management of domestic operations by all "gentleman ushers." Since John Adams first occupied the mansion, all stewards and ushers had been men. With Mrs. Taft's blessing, Mrs. Jaffrey also ordered black servants to dine apart from white servants, thus ending an established practice of seating by rank or seniority, and beginning 50 years of racial segregation.
White House hospitality during the Taft administration featured ambitious and varied menus supervised by Mrs. Jaffrey. Formal musicales and state dinners were held on the state floor following tradition, but Mrs. Taft's elaborate parties and dances were held in the garden or on the east and west terraces, in the fashion of those she enjoyed in the Philippines.
One major change occurred to the White House complex during Taft's administration. On Taft's inaugural day, Congress approved $40,000 to double the size of the "temporary" Executive Office Building (later called the West Wing) erected during the Roosevelt administration. Nathan C. Wyeth, a Washington architect, created the first Oval office space for the president and relocated the president's office on a central axis in the building. It was fully oval, like the Blue Room. The Oval Office—as it later came to be known—took shape in the summer of 1909 and was the first new State Room since the house was built in the 1790s. The office was replaced in 1934 by the Oval Office built for Franklin D. Roosevelt in yet another major expansion of the West Wing.
Christmas at the Taft White House
The Tafts celebrated Christmas simply; they opened gifts in the morning and shared a turkey dinner later. According to press reports, a 35–40 pound prize turkey, delivered by Horace Vose, the poultry king of Rhode Island, graced the table along with "Aunt Delia's goodies." The president's Aunt Delia Torrey of Millbury, Massachusetts, always sent "Nephew Will" an eagerly anticipated package of apple pies, jellies, and jams made from fruit grown on the Torrey property.
President and Mrs. Taft enjoyed the bustle of downtown Christmas shopping with holiday crowds. On occasion the president slipped away from his Secret Service detail to stroll through the city, often with Archibald Butt. On Christmas Eve in 1911, the president and first lady secretly left the White House on foot to call on friends as a surprise. When the Secret Service discovered their absence, there was widespread panic. Chief John Wilkie and his men scurried all over town searching for them. Eventually, President Taft returned to the White House smiling broadly with Mrs. Taft holding his arm.
The Tafts were a wholesome and busy family. In 1909, their son Robert, nineteen, was a junior at Yale, and Helen, seventeen, was a student at Bryn Mawr. Only their youngest child, Charles, eleven, lived with his parents year round at the White House. The Taft children were considered too old for a Christmas tree, but in 1912 while President and Mrs. Taft were away on an inspection of the Panama Canal, Robert and Helen hosted the family celebrations and held a Christmas tree party in the Blue Room for their young cousins. The huge tree decorated with baubles, toys, and thousands of electric lights, set a precedent for decorating a tree on the State Floor for guests. Although absent, President and Mrs. Taft provided gifts for friends and each employee of the White House received a fat turkey, a practice began by presidents in the nineteenth century.
FURTHER READING:
Bromley, Michael L. William Howard Taft and the First Motoring Presidency. Jefferson: McFarland, 2003.
Bromley, Michael L. and Tome Mazza. Stretching It: The Story of the Limousine. Warrendale: SAE International, 2002.
Mannion, Hillary. "Motor Cars Come to the White House," White House History 28 (2010): 38–45.
Seale, William. The President's House: A History. Washington, D.C.: White House Historical Association, 2008.
Seale, William. The White House: The History of An American Idea. Washington, D.C.: White House Historical Association, 2002.
Taft, Helen Herron. Recollections of Full Years. New York: Dodd, Mead & Company, 1914."
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William Howard Taft Documentary
Justin Dysinger details the entire life and career of William Howard Taft, the 27th U.S. President and 10th U.S. Chief Justice.#williamhowardtaft #justindysi...
William Howard Taft Documentary
Justin Dysinger details the entire life and career of William Howard Taft, the 27th U.S. President and 10th U.S. Chief Justice.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P3tXNbPy2Q8
Images
1. 1910s William Howard Taft, wife Helen Taft and children Robert, Helen and Charles posing outdoors.
2. William Howard Taft, the 27th President of the United States of America, with his wife Helen at a baseball match in New York.
3. William Howard Taft shown in 1930 photo after he resigned as Chief Justice of Supreme Court due to illness.
4. 1909 President-elect Taft and his family in a touring car loaned by the White Company for a pre-Inaugural-get-away at Augusta, Georgia during the winter of 1909.
Background from {[https://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/president-william-howard-taft-dies-72-1930-article-1.2556730]}
William Howard Taft, former president and chief justice, dies at 72 in 1930
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS |
Surrendering at last to a combination of ailments, the former President and chief justice passed away after lingering for weeks at the point of death. He was 72.
He died peacefully at his home on Wyoming Ave., with Mrs. Taft at his bedside. His two sons had returned to Cincinnati recently.
Funeral arrangements, still incomplete, contemplate a ceremony attended by the highest officials of the government. It is undecided whether entombment will be at Washington or Cincinnati.
The end came a few hours after Associate Justice Edward Terry Sandford of the United States Supreme Court died suddenly at his home following a collapse in his dentist's office.
Congress to Recess.
The federal government he served over four decades will observe a period of official mourning by proclamation of President Hoover.
Congress and the Supreme court will recess. Flags on government buildings and army and navy stations throughout the world will be put at half-staff.
A congressional committee of twenty senators and twenty representatives will attend the funeral.
Taft had been confined to his home since Feb. 4, when he returned to Washington from Ashville., N.C., where he had gone for rest and recuperation. The day previous he had resigned as chief justice.
Suffered From Old Ailment.
Suffering from an old nervous disorder, a bladder complaint and heart trouble, his condition was aggravated of late by hardening of the arteries.
Dr. Francis R. Hagner announced tonight that a sudden stroke of cerebro arterio sclerosis (hardening of the brain arteries) caused Taft's death.
The doctors abandoned hope for his ultimate recovery weeks ago, and last Thursday said it was only a matter of time.
Hoovers Aid Widow.
He spent these last days generally in a comatose state. Drs. Hagner and Thomas A. Claytor visited him several times daily, issuing regular bulletins through the White House.
President and Mrs. Hoover are placing the facilities of the White House at Mrs. Taft's disposal for such help as she may need.
President Hoover as soon as he was advised of the death of Taft called at the home to pay his respects. He was accompanied by Charles Evans Hughes, who replaced Taft as chief justice.
Mrs. Hoover accompanied her husband and Mr. Hughes. The three entered the big mansion together.
Washington Sorrows.
In official and unofficial Washington, which loved him, the news of the former president's death stirred a great outpouring of sorrowful tributes. This mentioned the wide regard with which he was held both as chief executive and Chief Justice of the nation.
Charles Evans Hughes, who succeeded to the chief justiceship after Taft's resignation last month, said the people had "recompensed his endeavors in their behalf with a warmth of affection which perhaps has never been so universally felt toward a public officer during his own time."
Patrick J. Hurley, who holds the war secretaryship which Taft had in the Roosevelt administration, said the army mourned "the loss of a friend."
Officials Pay Tribute.
"A great, a fine life," said acting Secretary Cotton of the state department; while acting Secretary Jahncke of the navy said Mr. Taft was "a great American citizen, always considerate of the human feelings of his fellow man."
Senator William E. Borah of Idaho mourned the ending of "a marvelous career" and the passing of "a most lovable character."
Senator Walsh of Montana, acting democratic leader of the senate, said, "no one ever doubted his integrity or his devotion to his country."
Neither Dr. Hagner nor Dr. Claytor were at his bedside when the end came.
A Dr. Fuller, who was summoned by the nurses when they were unable immediately to reach the attending physicians, pronounced the former chief justice dead.
Dr. Claytor arrived fifteen minutes later.
When the end came unexpectedly, the activity which has surrounded the Taft residence since his return from Asheville had almost ceased, only a few cars were in front of the home. Shortly thereafter taxicabs arriving with newspaper men gave notice of the death.
First word of the death was sent to the White House, which announced it to the press in the following bulletin:
"Former Chief Justice Taft died at 5:15 p.m. today."
Dr. Claytor at 6:30 p.m. tonight issued a formal bulletin saying the former chief justice had undergone a sudden change at 4:45 p.m., from which he failed to rally.
The funeral will be conducted probably Tuesday from the Unitarian church here which Taft attended during all his life in the capital.
William Howard Taft, twenty-seventh President of the Unites States, was hand-picked for the office by Theodore Roosevelt in 1908.
In 1912 Roosevelt carried out his threat to hamstring his renomination. Taft was renominated and Woodrow Wilson was swept into power through the split in the Republican party caused by Roosevelt's bull moose defection.
Taft took his defeat just as cheerfully as he had said he would. Smiling he welcomed Wilson into the White House March 4, 1913, and smilingly he retired to Yale college to become Kent professor of law in the university.
For eight years he remained in the comparative insecurity of his professorship, emerging only when impelled to proclaim his advocacy of a larger army and navy before this country entered the World War and his earnest support of the League of Nations covenant, with or without reservations.
Then, on Oct. 11, 1921, he achieved his real life ambition, accepting from president Harding the nomination to be Chief Justice of the Supreme court of the United States.
William Howard Taft was born in Cincinnati, O., Sept. 15, 1857.
Early in his youth young Taft showed his scholarly aptitude, graduating from Woodward. High School, Cincinnati, at seventeen into Yale, where he became class orator and salutatorian of the 1878 class, taking his B.A. degree.
Two years later, 1880, young Taft got his LL.B. in the Cincinnati Law School, taking first prize in his class. In later years he was showed with degrees from Yale Harvard, Princeton, Hamilton, Pennsylvania, Cincinnati, Oxford (England), McGill, and other colleges. But be prized most his L.L.B. at Cincinnati, which enabled him to hang out his shingle as a lawyer.
Named to Judgeship.
Finding clients few, he took to law reporting, working first for his brother's paper and then for the Cincinnati Commercial. But this was unsatisfactory. A political move gave him the position of internal revenue collector at $4,500 a year, but he gave this up to become, at much less salary, assistant prosecutor of Hamilton County, O., which he held till 1883, when he went back to the practice of law.
A couple of years as assistant county solicitor from 1885 to 1887 found him appointed to be judge of the Superior court in Cincinnati, which he held till 1890.
Benjamin Harrison was President then and he sent for Judge Taft and offered him the post of solicitor general of the United States, a job which entails more work than glory. Taft was but thirty-three, but he displayed such skill of the Bering Sea seal fisheries dispute with Great Britain and the elucidation of the first McKinley tariff bill that in 1892 he was appointed United States circuit judge for the sixth circuit, embracing Ohio, Michigan, Tennessee and Kentucky.
Honored by McKinley.
He held his position till 1900, rendering decisions on labor controversies and the enforcement of the Sherman anti-trust act which startled the country and were upheld completely by the Supreme court. Her had become meanwhile professor and Jean of law school at Cincinnati university, but his decisions made him a national figure.
President McKinley sent for him in 1900 and ordered him the post of chairman of the United States Philippine commission, which he accepted.
President Roosevelt, who had succeeded to the White House through the assassination of McKinley, sent Taft, at the latter's suggestion, to Rome to consult with Pope Leo XIII on the subject of the property owned in the islands by religious orders under the old Spanish regime.
When Taft left the Philippines in January 1904 to become secretary of war under Roosevelt, his departure brought grief to the Filipinos, whose friend he had become. During this period he three times refused an offer to become an associate justice of the United States Supreme court, an honor to which he dearly aspired. But he felt that he could not desert the Filipinos and in accepting the cabinet post as secretary of war he did so only because as such he would have supervision over the government of the Philippines.
Roosevelt, who admired Taft's administrative ability, kept him busy. Twice between 1904, and 1908, when he was elected President. Taft was sent on trips which took him around the world. He put down, by civil methods, the insurrection in Cuba, he supervised the construction of the Panama Canal, he inspected Puerto Rico, visited Japan, where he cheered the subjects and the statesmen of the Mikado by assuring them America was their friend, not their enemy.
He dropped in on the Philippines again and made a trip over the Siberian continental railroad, coming back by way of Europe.
Roosevelt, putting aside the idea of what was being called a third term for himself, preached Taft to politicians high and low, night and day, until in June, 1908, the Republican Convention nominated William Howard Taft on the first ballot amid tremendous enthusiasm. Bryan ran against him on the Democratic ticket an Taft won by about 1,370,000 plurality. Women did not vote then, and that was considered a magnificent victory.
His first step on becoming President was to summon Congress to extra session to pass what was afterward called the Payne-Aldrich tariff bill. Its terms were in line with the promises of the Republicans, but when Taft, in an indiscreet moment, pronounced it "the best Tariff bill over passed" a storm of opposition arose which the Democrats took such good advantage of in 1910 that they elected a Democratic House of Representatives. The Senate, with a dissatisfied Republican element, was not easy to manage, and this President Taft found himself in the middle of his term riding a bucking horse.
President Taft was no politician. He had no astuteness, no ear to the ground and no ability or desire to strikes the popular chord by some opportune speech or act. But by sheer doggedness he saw safely through Congress a lot of legislation which he was bent upon.
The laws for the publication of campaign funds and contributions, for regulating the Panama Canal tolls, for halting the white slave traffic and for the adoption of the income tax amendment were all Taft measures. He settled the Mexican boundary dispute in Texas, put a final end to the Bering sea controversy and put through the arbitration treaty for the Atlantic fisheries.
The earnest advocate of arbitration treaties with all countries, he much deplored the action of the Senate in refusing, during his term, to ratify the treaties he had concluded with great Britian and with Canada. But he took his defeats as goodhumoredly as his victories,.
Theodore Roosevelt, returning from his African hunting trip in 1910, secretly anxious for his own renomination, according to some observers socially and politically opposed to Taft for private reasons, according to others, began almost immediately a crush against the Taft administration. Walter came to his wheel in the shape of the Ballinger-Pinchot Alaska coal controversy.
President Taft's indiscriminate application of the Sherman antitrust laws against the International Harvester, Standard Oil, Steel and other corporations antagonized a large section of big business, and through George W. Perkins, formerly of the Morgan banking house, but now a backer of Roosevelt, big business began to apply the big stick to President Taft,
The result was that though Taft was renominated by the Republicans, the Progressives under Roosevelt made hash of the campaign and the Democrats elected Woodrow Wilson. Taft carried only two states in the whole election.
His good nature, pleasant personality, ruddy, smiling face and great bulk of cheerful human nature stood him in good stead when he took up law teaching again at Yale.
President at fifty-one, he became tenth Chief Justice of the Supreme court at sixty-three.
His wife, Helen Taft, to whom he was married in 1886, bore him three children, Robert, Charles and Helen.
"He Belonged to All of Us," Says Coolidge.
Former President Calvin Coolidge, who reached New York not long after Mr. Taft's death became known here, was one of the first of numerous men in public life to express his grief.
"William Howard Taft's public service extended over a generation," said the ex-President. "To me he was a friend, kindly, genial and helpful. He came often to my office when I was in Washington, and always brought mature thought and good cheer.
"I join with millions of fellow citizens in my expressions of sympathy for his family. He belonged to all of us."
Other statements included.
Alfred E Smith: "He served his country in the highest tradition of American ideals. He will be mourned by a nation that knows how to value its great men."
Maj. Gen. James G. Harbod: "His death comes at the end of one of the most useful lives ever given America by a public man."
Joseph H. Choate Jr.: "Every one knows that this nation has lost one of its greatest men and greatest public servants."
James J. Walker: "One of our country's best loved men is gone."
Elihu Root: "I am very much grieved. He was a great-hearted and noble man."
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Justin Dysinger details the entire life and career of William Howard Taft, the 27th U.S. President and 10th U.S. Chief Justice.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P3tXNbPy2Q8
Images
1. 1910s William Howard Taft, wife Helen Taft and children Robert, Helen and Charles posing outdoors.
2. William Howard Taft, the 27th President of the United States of America, with his wife Helen at a baseball match in New York.
3. William Howard Taft shown in 1930 photo after he resigned as Chief Justice of Supreme Court due to illness.
4. 1909 President-elect Taft and his family in a touring car loaned by the White Company for a pre-Inaugural-get-away at Augusta, Georgia during the winter of 1909.
Background from {[https://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/president-william-howard-taft-dies-72-1930-article-1.2556730]}
William Howard Taft, former president and chief justice, dies at 72 in 1930
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS |
Surrendering at last to a combination of ailments, the former President and chief justice passed away after lingering for weeks at the point of death. He was 72.
He died peacefully at his home on Wyoming Ave., with Mrs. Taft at his bedside. His two sons had returned to Cincinnati recently.
Funeral arrangements, still incomplete, contemplate a ceremony attended by the highest officials of the government. It is undecided whether entombment will be at Washington or Cincinnati.
The end came a few hours after Associate Justice Edward Terry Sandford of the United States Supreme Court died suddenly at his home following a collapse in his dentist's office.
Congress to Recess.
The federal government he served over four decades will observe a period of official mourning by proclamation of President Hoover.
Congress and the Supreme court will recess. Flags on government buildings and army and navy stations throughout the world will be put at half-staff.
A congressional committee of twenty senators and twenty representatives will attend the funeral.
Taft had been confined to his home since Feb. 4, when he returned to Washington from Ashville., N.C., where he had gone for rest and recuperation. The day previous he had resigned as chief justice.
Suffered From Old Ailment.
Suffering from an old nervous disorder, a bladder complaint and heart trouble, his condition was aggravated of late by hardening of the arteries.
Dr. Francis R. Hagner announced tonight that a sudden stroke of cerebro arterio sclerosis (hardening of the brain arteries) caused Taft's death.
The doctors abandoned hope for his ultimate recovery weeks ago, and last Thursday said it was only a matter of time.
Hoovers Aid Widow.
He spent these last days generally in a comatose state. Drs. Hagner and Thomas A. Claytor visited him several times daily, issuing regular bulletins through the White House.
President and Mrs. Hoover are placing the facilities of the White House at Mrs. Taft's disposal for such help as she may need.
President Hoover as soon as he was advised of the death of Taft called at the home to pay his respects. He was accompanied by Charles Evans Hughes, who replaced Taft as chief justice.
Mrs. Hoover accompanied her husband and Mr. Hughes. The three entered the big mansion together.
Washington Sorrows.
In official and unofficial Washington, which loved him, the news of the former president's death stirred a great outpouring of sorrowful tributes. This mentioned the wide regard with which he was held both as chief executive and Chief Justice of the nation.
Charles Evans Hughes, who succeeded to the chief justiceship after Taft's resignation last month, said the people had "recompensed his endeavors in their behalf with a warmth of affection which perhaps has never been so universally felt toward a public officer during his own time."
Patrick J. Hurley, who holds the war secretaryship which Taft had in the Roosevelt administration, said the army mourned "the loss of a friend."
Officials Pay Tribute.
"A great, a fine life," said acting Secretary Cotton of the state department; while acting Secretary Jahncke of the navy said Mr. Taft was "a great American citizen, always considerate of the human feelings of his fellow man."
Senator William E. Borah of Idaho mourned the ending of "a marvelous career" and the passing of "a most lovable character."
Senator Walsh of Montana, acting democratic leader of the senate, said, "no one ever doubted his integrity or his devotion to his country."
Neither Dr. Hagner nor Dr. Claytor were at his bedside when the end came.
A Dr. Fuller, who was summoned by the nurses when they were unable immediately to reach the attending physicians, pronounced the former chief justice dead.
Dr. Claytor arrived fifteen minutes later.
When the end came unexpectedly, the activity which has surrounded the Taft residence since his return from Asheville had almost ceased, only a few cars were in front of the home. Shortly thereafter taxicabs arriving with newspaper men gave notice of the death.
First word of the death was sent to the White House, which announced it to the press in the following bulletin:
"Former Chief Justice Taft died at 5:15 p.m. today."
Dr. Claytor at 6:30 p.m. tonight issued a formal bulletin saying the former chief justice had undergone a sudden change at 4:45 p.m., from which he failed to rally.
The funeral will be conducted probably Tuesday from the Unitarian church here which Taft attended during all his life in the capital.
William Howard Taft, twenty-seventh President of the Unites States, was hand-picked for the office by Theodore Roosevelt in 1908.
In 1912 Roosevelt carried out his threat to hamstring his renomination. Taft was renominated and Woodrow Wilson was swept into power through the split in the Republican party caused by Roosevelt's bull moose defection.
Taft took his defeat just as cheerfully as he had said he would. Smiling he welcomed Wilson into the White House March 4, 1913, and smilingly he retired to Yale college to become Kent professor of law in the university.
For eight years he remained in the comparative insecurity of his professorship, emerging only when impelled to proclaim his advocacy of a larger army and navy before this country entered the World War and his earnest support of the League of Nations covenant, with or without reservations.
Then, on Oct. 11, 1921, he achieved his real life ambition, accepting from president Harding the nomination to be Chief Justice of the Supreme court of the United States.
William Howard Taft was born in Cincinnati, O., Sept. 15, 1857.
Early in his youth young Taft showed his scholarly aptitude, graduating from Woodward. High School, Cincinnati, at seventeen into Yale, where he became class orator and salutatorian of the 1878 class, taking his B.A. degree.
Two years later, 1880, young Taft got his LL.B. in the Cincinnati Law School, taking first prize in his class. In later years he was showed with degrees from Yale Harvard, Princeton, Hamilton, Pennsylvania, Cincinnati, Oxford (England), McGill, and other colleges. But be prized most his L.L.B. at Cincinnati, which enabled him to hang out his shingle as a lawyer.
Named to Judgeship.
Finding clients few, he took to law reporting, working first for his brother's paper and then for the Cincinnati Commercial. But this was unsatisfactory. A political move gave him the position of internal revenue collector at $4,500 a year, but he gave this up to become, at much less salary, assistant prosecutor of Hamilton County, O., which he held till 1883, when he went back to the practice of law.
A couple of years as assistant county solicitor from 1885 to 1887 found him appointed to be judge of the Superior court in Cincinnati, which he held till 1890.
Benjamin Harrison was President then and he sent for Judge Taft and offered him the post of solicitor general of the United States, a job which entails more work than glory. Taft was but thirty-three, but he displayed such skill of the Bering Sea seal fisheries dispute with Great Britain and the elucidation of the first McKinley tariff bill that in 1892 he was appointed United States circuit judge for the sixth circuit, embracing Ohio, Michigan, Tennessee and Kentucky.
Honored by McKinley.
He held his position till 1900, rendering decisions on labor controversies and the enforcement of the Sherman anti-trust act which startled the country and were upheld completely by the Supreme court. Her had become meanwhile professor and Jean of law school at Cincinnati university, but his decisions made him a national figure.
President McKinley sent for him in 1900 and ordered him the post of chairman of the United States Philippine commission, which he accepted.
President Roosevelt, who had succeeded to the White House through the assassination of McKinley, sent Taft, at the latter's suggestion, to Rome to consult with Pope Leo XIII on the subject of the property owned in the islands by religious orders under the old Spanish regime.
When Taft left the Philippines in January 1904 to become secretary of war under Roosevelt, his departure brought grief to the Filipinos, whose friend he had become. During this period he three times refused an offer to become an associate justice of the United States Supreme court, an honor to which he dearly aspired. But he felt that he could not desert the Filipinos and in accepting the cabinet post as secretary of war he did so only because as such he would have supervision over the government of the Philippines.
Roosevelt, who admired Taft's administrative ability, kept him busy. Twice between 1904, and 1908, when he was elected President. Taft was sent on trips which took him around the world. He put down, by civil methods, the insurrection in Cuba, he supervised the construction of the Panama Canal, he inspected Puerto Rico, visited Japan, where he cheered the subjects and the statesmen of the Mikado by assuring them America was their friend, not their enemy.
He dropped in on the Philippines again and made a trip over the Siberian continental railroad, coming back by way of Europe.
Roosevelt, putting aside the idea of what was being called a third term for himself, preached Taft to politicians high and low, night and day, until in June, 1908, the Republican Convention nominated William Howard Taft on the first ballot amid tremendous enthusiasm. Bryan ran against him on the Democratic ticket an Taft won by about 1,370,000 plurality. Women did not vote then, and that was considered a magnificent victory.
His first step on becoming President was to summon Congress to extra session to pass what was afterward called the Payne-Aldrich tariff bill. Its terms were in line with the promises of the Republicans, but when Taft, in an indiscreet moment, pronounced it "the best Tariff bill over passed" a storm of opposition arose which the Democrats took such good advantage of in 1910 that they elected a Democratic House of Representatives. The Senate, with a dissatisfied Republican element, was not easy to manage, and this President Taft found himself in the middle of his term riding a bucking horse.
President Taft was no politician. He had no astuteness, no ear to the ground and no ability or desire to strikes the popular chord by some opportune speech or act. But by sheer doggedness he saw safely through Congress a lot of legislation which he was bent upon.
The laws for the publication of campaign funds and contributions, for regulating the Panama Canal tolls, for halting the white slave traffic and for the adoption of the income tax amendment were all Taft measures. He settled the Mexican boundary dispute in Texas, put a final end to the Bering sea controversy and put through the arbitration treaty for the Atlantic fisheries.
The earnest advocate of arbitration treaties with all countries, he much deplored the action of the Senate in refusing, during his term, to ratify the treaties he had concluded with great Britian and with Canada. But he took his defeats as goodhumoredly as his victories,.
Theodore Roosevelt, returning from his African hunting trip in 1910, secretly anxious for his own renomination, according to some observers socially and politically opposed to Taft for private reasons, according to others, began almost immediately a crush against the Taft administration. Walter came to his wheel in the shape of the Ballinger-Pinchot Alaska coal controversy.
President Taft's indiscriminate application of the Sherman antitrust laws against the International Harvester, Standard Oil, Steel and other corporations antagonized a large section of big business, and through George W. Perkins, formerly of the Morgan banking house, but now a backer of Roosevelt, big business began to apply the big stick to President Taft,
The result was that though Taft was renominated by the Republicans, the Progressives under Roosevelt made hash of the campaign and the Democrats elected Woodrow Wilson. Taft carried only two states in the whole election.
His good nature, pleasant personality, ruddy, smiling face and great bulk of cheerful human nature stood him in good stead when he took up law teaching again at Yale.
President at fifty-one, he became tenth Chief Justice of the Supreme court at sixty-three.
His wife, Helen Taft, to whom he was married in 1886, bore him three children, Robert, Charles and Helen.
"He Belonged to All of Us," Says Coolidge.
Former President Calvin Coolidge, who reached New York not long after Mr. Taft's death became known here, was one of the first of numerous men in public life to express his grief.
"William Howard Taft's public service extended over a generation," said the ex-President. "To me he was a friend, kindly, genial and helpful. He came often to my office when I was in Washington, and always brought mature thought and good cheer.
"I join with millions of fellow citizens in my expressions of sympathy for his family. He belonged to all of us."
Other statements included.
Alfred E Smith: "He served his country in the highest tradition of American ideals. He will be mourned by a nation that knows how to value its great men."
Maj. Gen. James G. Harbod: "His death comes at the end of one of the most useful lives ever given America by a public man."
Joseph H. Choate Jr.: "Every one knows that this nation has lost one of its greatest men and greatest public servants."
James J. Walker: "One of our country's best loved men is gone."
Elihu Root: "I am very much grieved. He was a great-hearted and noble man."
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LTC Stephen F.
Life Portrait William Howard Taft
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uL-uXGdpZ0M
Images:
1. 1925 U.S. Supreme Court Justices with Chief Justice William Howard Taft (bottom row, center).
2. 1913 William Howard Taft speaking during the period he created the Department of Labor to promote the welfare of America's workers on March 4, 1913
3. 1920s Chief Justice William Howard Taft
4. 1878 Yale College photograph of William Howard Taft.
Background from {[https://millercenter.org/president/taft/life-before-the-presidency]}
WILLIAM TAFT: LIFE BEFORE THE PRESIDENCY
By Peri E. Arnold
Born in the Mount Auburn section of Cincinnati, Ohio, on September 15, 1857, William Howard Taft was a physically active child, playing sports and taking dancing lessons despite his tendency to obesity. He loved baseball, and he was a good second baseman and a power hitter. Taft studied at Woodward High School, a well-regarded private school in Cincinnati, graduating in 1874 second in the class with a four-year grade point average of 91.5 out of 100.
At Yale University, Taft followed his father's advice to refrain from athletics lest his participation impede his academic progress. He graduated second in his class of 132 students and then went on to the University of Cincinnati Law School while working part time as a courthouse reporter for the Cincinnati Commercial. Taft passed his bar exams in May 1880.
Living Up to High Expectations
Taft was raised in a large, close, and stimulating family. He had five siblings, two half brothers by his father's first marriage and two brothers and a sister born to his mother. The family identified with the Unitarian Church, subscribing to a belief in God but not the divinity of Christ. Taft's father, Alphonso Taft, was a lawyer and served as secretary of war and then attorney general in President Ulysses S. Grant's cabinet. President Chester A. Arthur appointed Taft's father to serve as minister (the title of ambassador in those days) to Austria-Hungary and Russia. A significant role model for William, Alphonso Taft was sensible, kind, gentle, and highly "Victorian"—a man who kept his emotions under rigid control. Politically active in the Republican Party, the senior Taft served on Cincinnati's city council and sought unsuccessfully the 1875 Republican nomination in the Ohio gubernatorial race. Alphonso had liberal views on women's rights, however, and encouraged Taft's mother, Louisa Maria Torrey Taft, in her independent ways and numerous outside activities and her intellectual curiosity. The energetic Louisa Taft organized a local and statewide kindergarten movement, an art association, book clubs, German and French clubs, and traveled widely with her husband on his diplomatic missions. Of the two parents, Louisa was the more curious and adventurous, often taking the family down paths none would have ventured on their own. Taft's father died in 1891.
William lived in constant fear of not meeting his parents' expectations. No matter how well he performed, he was anxious about their approval. When he graduated from high school in 1874, he chose for his graduation ceremony address the subject of women's suffrage, telling the audience about his progressive parents. Taft's large variations in his body weight, according to some scholars, stemmed from his social and family anxieties.
Political Ambitions
Taft married Helen "Nellie" Herron at her parents' home in Cincinnati on June 19, 1886. He was twenty-eight and she was twenty-five. Nellie equaled Taft's mother in intellect and energy. She accepted Taft's proposal for marriage in part because she saw him as a partner to fulfill her hope of a life in national politics, and beyond that of parochial Cincinnati. Her father, a one-time law partner of Rutherford B. Hayes, had taken Nellie to the White House for President and Mrs. Hayes's twenty-fifth wedding anniversary. Young Nellie was so captivated that she vowed to one day be First Lady. In 1911, she would celebrate her own silver wedding anniversary at the White House, filling the mansion with nearly 4,000 guests.
Principally due to his father's political connections, Taft became assistant prosecutor of Hamilton County, Ohio, in 1881. Thereafter, he worked as a lawyer for a few years before being appointed judge of the Cincinnati Superior Court in 1887. From an early point in his career, he aspired to a seat on the U.S. Supreme Court. He was appointed U.S. solicitor general in 1890 (the third highest position in the Department of Justice). While living in Washington, D.C., as solicitor general, Taft became close to Theodore Roosevelt, then a civil service commissioner. Taft later petitioned his fellow Ohioan, President William McKinley, to obtain Roosevelt's appointment as assistant secretary of the Navy. Against his wife's preferences, in 1892 Taft accepted appointment as a judge of the Sixth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals with jurisdiction over Ohio, Michigan, Kentucky, and Tennessee. While on that court, Taft also served, from 1896 to 1900, as a professor of law and dean of the University of Cincinnati Law School.
Governor General of the Philippines
Although content with his place on the Sixth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals as a possible stepping stone to the Supreme Court, Taft knew that it was not enough for Nellie Taft. She wanted the White House, and she seldom hid her irritation over Taft's judicial ambitions. When a telegram from President McKinley in January 1900 summoned Taft to Washington, Nellie suspected that something was in the works. She would welcome her husband's appointment to the Supreme Court as a way of moving back to Washington, but she hoped the meeting with McKinley would open other doors. Her hope was fulfilled.
Out of the victory in the Spanish-American War, the Philippine Islands had become a U.S. protectorate. McKinley wanted Taft to go to the islands to set up a civilian government. This entailed drafting and implementing laws, a constitution, an administration, and a civil service bureaucracy. A civil commission was established toward that end, and McKinley offered to Taft the commission's presidency. Taft was hesitant to take this challenging job, in a distant corner of the world, but Republican leaders maintained that this task would distinguish him for future high office.
In going to the Philippines, Taft knew that he was stepping into a political storm. Seventy thousand U.S. soldiers were fighting in the islands to put down a rebellion of Filipino nationalists led by Emilio Aguinaldo. The ferocity of America's attempt to squash the rebellion was especially bloody and often horribly brutal. It left a black mark on the nation's honor, and the "yellow press" had a field day attacking U.S. conduct against the Filipinos. Additionally, political opposition was growing to what critics charged were McKinley's imperialist policies. But Nellie, surprised and overjoyed, urged Taft to take the job. The two traveled with their three children to the islands, where they lived like royalty for the next several years.
Upon arriving in the islands, Taft immediately clashed with the military governor, General Arthur MacArthur (the father of General Douglas MacArthur of World War II and Korean War fame). Taft viewed the military control of the islands as too brutal and unsympathetic to the islanders. Obtaining McArthur's removal after the capture of Aguinaldo, Taft quickly set to work drafting the Island's constitution. It included a Bill of Rights that was nearly identical to the first ten amendments to the U.S. Constitution, with the notable absence of the right to trial by jury. Central to the new governance structure was the role of civil governor, a post to which Taft was appointed. He established a civil service system, a judicial system, English-language public schools, a transportation network, and health care facilities. He also negotiated with the Vatican (the Roman Catholic papal headquarters in Rome) to purchase 390,000 acres of church property in the Philippines for $7.5 million. Taft distributed this land by way of low-cost mortgages to tens of thousands of Filipino peasants.
While in the Philippines, Taft had twice turned down President Roosevelt's offer of a Supreme Court appointment in order to finish his work in the Islands. Taft was loved and supported by many Filipino residents for his evenhanded governance. In Taft's own view, the Filipinos were not yet capable of governing themselves, and he believed that it would take years before self-rule would work. He foresaw a long period of U.S. instruction and protection of the islands through which the "immature" culture could be raised by American tutelage to capacities for independent governance. The Philippines did not achieve self-rule and independence until 1946.
Secretary of War
Had it not been for the opportunity to become Roosevelt's secretary of war, Nellie Taft would have urged her husband to stay in the Philippines. Taft accepted Roosevelt's offer because he believed that as secretary of war he would continue to oversee affairs in the Islands. During his four years as secretary of war (1904-1908), Taft became Roosevelt's chief agent, confidant, and troubleshooter in foreign affairs. He supervised the construction of the Panama Canal, made several voyages around the world for the President, supervised affairs in the Philippines, and functioned as the provisional governor of Cuba. He traveled more than any other cabinet minister, with over 255 days of his four years spent abroad on special missions. He was gone so often that the press began questioning his huge travel expenses—partly because he almost always took Nellie and at least one or two of his children along. Concerned about the public's opinion, Roosevelt asked Taft to have the voyages funded by Taft's wealthy brother, Charles, who already was underwriting much of Taft's living expenses in Washington, D.C. (In 1904, Charles—who had married a wealthy Ohio heiress—gave William 1,000 shares of Cleveland Gas Company stock, which added $8,000 a year to his income, a large sum in those days.) Always eager to help his brother, Charles Taft assumed the lion's share of William's travel expenses."
FYI LTC John Shaw 1SG Steven ImermanGySgt Gary CordeiroPO1 H Gene LawrenceSgt Jim BelanusSGM Bill FrazerMSG Tom EarleySSgt Marian MitchellSGT Michael HearnSGT Randell RoseSSG Jimmy CernichSGT Denny EspinosaA1C Riley SandersSSgt Clare MaySSG Robert WebsterCSM Chuck StaffordPFC Craig KarshnerSFC Don VanceSFC Bernard Walko
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uL-uXGdpZ0M
Images:
1. 1925 U.S. Supreme Court Justices with Chief Justice William Howard Taft (bottom row, center).
2. 1913 William Howard Taft speaking during the period he created the Department of Labor to promote the welfare of America's workers on March 4, 1913
3. 1920s Chief Justice William Howard Taft
4. 1878 Yale College photograph of William Howard Taft.
Background from {[https://millercenter.org/president/taft/life-before-the-presidency]}
WILLIAM TAFT: LIFE BEFORE THE PRESIDENCY
By Peri E. Arnold
Born in the Mount Auburn section of Cincinnati, Ohio, on September 15, 1857, William Howard Taft was a physically active child, playing sports and taking dancing lessons despite his tendency to obesity. He loved baseball, and he was a good second baseman and a power hitter. Taft studied at Woodward High School, a well-regarded private school in Cincinnati, graduating in 1874 second in the class with a four-year grade point average of 91.5 out of 100.
At Yale University, Taft followed his father's advice to refrain from athletics lest his participation impede his academic progress. He graduated second in his class of 132 students and then went on to the University of Cincinnati Law School while working part time as a courthouse reporter for the Cincinnati Commercial. Taft passed his bar exams in May 1880.
Living Up to High Expectations
Taft was raised in a large, close, and stimulating family. He had five siblings, two half brothers by his father's first marriage and two brothers and a sister born to his mother. The family identified with the Unitarian Church, subscribing to a belief in God but not the divinity of Christ. Taft's father, Alphonso Taft, was a lawyer and served as secretary of war and then attorney general in President Ulysses S. Grant's cabinet. President Chester A. Arthur appointed Taft's father to serve as minister (the title of ambassador in those days) to Austria-Hungary and Russia. A significant role model for William, Alphonso Taft was sensible, kind, gentle, and highly "Victorian"—a man who kept his emotions under rigid control. Politically active in the Republican Party, the senior Taft served on Cincinnati's city council and sought unsuccessfully the 1875 Republican nomination in the Ohio gubernatorial race. Alphonso had liberal views on women's rights, however, and encouraged Taft's mother, Louisa Maria Torrey Taft, in her independent ways and numerous outside activities and her intellectual curiosity. The energetic Louisa Taft organized a local and statewide kindergarten movement, an art association, book clubs, German and French clubs, and traveled widely with her husband on his diplomatic missions. Of the two parents, Louisa was the more curious and adventurous, often taking the family down paths none would have ventured on their own. Taft's father died in 1891.
William lived in constant fear of not meeting his parents' expectations. No matter how well he performed, he was anxious about their approval. When he graduated from high school in 1874, he chose for his graduation ceremony address the subject of women's suffrage, telling the audience about his progressive parents. Taft's large variations in his body weight, according to some scholars, stemmed from his social and family anxieties.
Political Ambitions
Taft married Helen "Nellie" Herron at her parents' home in Cincinnati on June 19, 1886. He was twenty-eight and she was twenty-five. Nellie equaled Taft's mother in intellect and energy. She accepted Taft's proposal for marriage in part because she saw him as a partner to fulfill her hope of a life in national politics, and beyond that of parochial Cincinnati. Her father, a one-time law partner of Rutherford B. Hayes, had taken Nellie to the White House for President and Mrs. Hayes's twenty-fifth wedding anniversary. Young Nellie was so captivated that she vowed to one day be First Lady. In 1911, she would celebrate her own silver wedding anniversary at the White House, filling the mansion with nearly 4,000 guests.
Principally due to his father's political connections, Taft became assistant prosecutor of Hamilton County, Ohio, in 1881. Thereafter, he worked as a lawyer for a few years before being appointed judge of the Cincinnati Superior Court in 1887. From an early point in his career, he aspired to a seat on the U.S. Supreme Court. He was appointed U.S. solicitor general in 1890 (the third highest position in the Department of Justice). While living in Washington, D.C., as solicitor general, Taft became close to Theodore Roosevelt, then a civil service commissioner. Taft later petitioned his fellow Ohioan, President William McKinley, to obtain Roosevelt's appointment as assistant secretary of the Navy. Against his wife's preferences, in 1892 Taft accepted appointment as a judge of the Sixth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals with jurisdiction over Ohio, Michigan, Kentucky, and Tennessee. While on that court, Taft also served, from 1896 to 1900, as a professor of law and dean of the University of Cincinnati Law School.
Governor General of the Philippines
Although content with his place on the Sixth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals as a possible stepping stone to the Supreme Court, Taft knew that it was not enough for Nellie Taft. She wanted the White House, and she seldom hid her irritation over Taft's judicial ambitions. When a telegram from President McKinley in January 1900 summoned Taft to Washington, Nellie suspected that something was in the works. She would welcome her husband's appointment to the Supreme Court as a way of moving back to Washington, but she hoped the meeting with McKinley would open other doors. Her hope was fulfilled.
Out of the victory in the Spanish-American War, the Philippine Islands had become a U.S. protectorate. McKinley wanted Taft to go to the islands to set up a civilian government. This entailed drafting and implementing laws, a constitution, an administration, and a civil service bureaucracy. A civil commission was established toward that end, and McKinley offered to Taft the commission's presidency. Taft was hesitant to take this challenging job, in a distant corner of the world, but Republican leaders maintained that this task would distinguish him for future high office.
In going to the Philippines, Taft knew that he was stepping into a political storm. Seventy thousand U.S. soldiers were fighting in the islands to put down a rebellion of Filipino nationalists led by Emilio Aguinaldo. The ferocity of America's attempt to squash the rebellion was especially bloody and often horribly brutal. It left a black mark on the nation's honor, and the "yellow press" had a field day attacking U.S. conduct against the Filipinos. Additionally, political opposition was growing to what critics charged were McKinley's imperialist policies. But Nellie, surprised and overjoyed, urged Taft to take the job. The two traveled with their three children to the islands, where they lived like royalty for the next several years.
Upon arriving in the islands, Taft immediately clashed with the military governor, General Arthur MacArthur (the father of General Douglas MacArthur of World War II and Korean War fame). Taft viewed the military control of the islands as too brutal and unsympathetic to the islanders. Obtaining McArthur's removal after the capture of Aguinaldo, Taft quickly set to work drafting the Island's constitution. It included a Bill of Rights that was nearly identical to the first ten amendments to the U.S. Constitution, with the notable absence of the right to trial by jury. Central to the new governance structure was the role of civil governor, a post to which Taft was appointed. He established a civil service system, a judicial system, English-language public schools, a transportation network, and health care facilities. He also negotiated with the Vatican (the Roman Catholic papal headquarters in Rome) to purchase 390,000 acres of church property in the Philippines for $7.5 million. Taft distributed this land by way of low-cost mortgages to tens of thousands of Filipino peasants.
While in the Philippines, Taft had twice turned down President Roosevelt's offer of a Supreme Court appointment in order to finish his work in the Islands. Taft was loved and supported by many Filipino residents for his evenhanded governance. In Taft's own view, the Filipinos were not yet capable of governing themselves, and he believed that it would take years before self-rule would work. He foresaw a long period of U.S. instruction and protection of the islands through which the "immature" culture could be raised by American tutelage to capacities for independent governance. The Philippines did not achieve self-rule and independence until 1946.
Secretary of War
Had it not been for the opportunity to become Roosevelt's secretary of war, Nellie Taft would have urged her husband to stay in the Philippines. Taft accepted Roosevelt's offer because he believed that as secretary of war he would continue to oversee affairs in the Islands. During his four years as secretary of war (1904-1908), Taft became Roosevelt's chief agent, confidant, and troubleshooter in foreign affairs. He supervised the construction of the Panama Canal, made several voyages around the world for the President, supervised affairs in the Philippines, and functioned as the provisional governor of Cuba. He traveled more than any other cabinet minister, with over 255 days of his four years spent abroad on special missions. He was gone so often that the press began questioning his huge travel expenses—partly because he almost always took Nellie and at least one or two of his children along. Concerned about the public's opinion, Roosevelt asked Taft to have the voyages funded by Taft's wealthy brother, Charles, who already was underwriting much of Taft's living expenses in Washington, D.C. (In 1904, Charles—who had married a wealthy Ohio heiress—gave William 1,000 shares of Cleveland Gas Company stock, which added $8,000 a year to his income, a large sum in those days.) Always eager to help his brother, Charles Taft assumed the lion's share of William's travel expenses."
FYI LTC John Shaw 1SG Steven ImermanGySgt Gary CordeiroPO1 H Gene LawrenceSgt Jim BelanusSGM Bill FrazerMSG Tom EarleySSgt Marian MitchellSGT Michael HearnSGT Randell RoseSSG Jimmy CernichSGT Denny EspinosaA1C Riley SandersSSgt Clare MaySSG Robert WebsterCSM Chuck StaffordPFC Craig KarshnerSFC Don VanceSFC Bernard Walko
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