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U.S Presidents — William Howard Taft

OVERVIEW Name: William Howard Taft President: # 27 Term Number(s): 31 Term Length: 4 Took Office: March 4, 1909 Left Office: March 4, 1913 Age when Elected: 51 Party: Republican Also Known As: "Big Chief" BIOGRAPHIC INFORMATION Education: Yale University, University of Cincinnati Occupation: Lawyer, Jurist Other Governmental Position: 10th Chief Justice of the United States, 1st Provisional Governor of Cuba, 42nd United States Secretary of War, 1st Civil Governor of the Philippines, 5th United States Solicitor General, Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. Military Service: None Religion: Unitarian Spouse(s): Helen Herron Taft (June 19, 1886) Children: Robert Taft, Helen Taft Manning, Charles Phelps Taft II Birthdate: September 15, 1857 Birthplace: Cincinnati, Ohio Deathdate: March 8, 1930 Deathplace: Washington, D.C. Age at Death: 72 Cause of Death: heart attack Place of Internment: Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia Signature FIRST ELECTION Election Year: 1908 Main Opponent: William Jennings Bryan Voter Participation: 65.40%   Electoral Popular States Click for larger image Winner 321 (66.00%) 7,678,395 (51.60%) 29 Main Opponent 162 (33.54%) 6,408,984 (43.00%) 17 total 483 14,889,261 46 CABINET AND COURT APPOINTMENTS Vice President: James S. Sherman, vacant Secretary of State: Philander C. Knox (1909–1913) Secretary of the Treasury: Franklin MacVeagh (1909–1913) Secretary of War: Jacob M. Dickinson (1909–1911), Henry L. Stimson (1911–1913) Secretary of the Navy: George von L. Meyer (1909–1913) Secretary of the Interior: Richard A. Ballinger (1909–1911), Walter L. Fisher (1911–1913) Secretary of Agriculture: James Wilson (1909–1913) Secretary of Commerce: Charles Nagel (1909–1913) Attorney General: George W. Wickersham (1909–1913) Postmaster General: Frank H. Hitchcock (1909–1913) Supreme Court Assignments: Edward Douglass White (1910), Horace Harmon Lurton (1910), Charles Evans Hughes (1910), Willis Van Devanter (1911), Joseph Rucker Lamar (1911), Mahlon Pitney (1912) PRESIDENT'S BIOGRAPHY Distinguished jurist, effective administrator, but poor politician, William Howard Taft spent four uncomfortable years in the White House. Large, jovial, and conscientious, he was caught in the intense battles between Progressives and conservatives, and got scant credit for the achievements of his administration. Born in 1857, the son of a distinguished judge, Taft graduated from Yale University and returned to Cincinnati to study and practice law. He rose in politics through Republican judiciary appointments, through his own competence and availability, and because, as he once wrote facetiously, he always had his "plate the right side up when offices were falling." But Taft much preferred law to politics. He was appointed a federal circuit judge at 34. He aspired to be a member of the Supreme Court, but his wife, Helen Herron Taft, held other ambitions for him. His route to the White House was via administrative posts. President McKinley sent him to the Philippines in 1900 as chief civil administrator. Sympathetic toward the Filipinos, Taft improved the economy, built roads and schools, and gave the people at least some participation in government. President Roosevelt made him Secretary of War, and by 1907 had decided that Taft should be his successor. The Republican Convention nominated him the next year. Taft disliked the campaign, calling it "one of the most uncomfortable four months of my life." But he pledged his loyalty to the Roosevelt program, popular in the West, while his brother Charles reassured eastern Republicans. William Jennings Bryan, running on the Democratic ticket for a third time, complained that he was having to oppose two candidates, a western progressive Taft and an eastern conservative Taft. Progressives were pleased with Taft's election. "Roosevelt has cut enough hay," they said; "Taft is the man to put it into the barn." Conservatives were delighted to be rid of Roosevelt, the "mad messiah." Taft recognized that his techniques would differ from those of his predecessor. Unlike Roosevelt, Taft did not believe in the stretching of presidential powers. He once commented that Roosevelt "ought more often to have admitted the legal way of reaching the same ends." Taft alienated many liberal Republicans who later formed the Progressive Party, by defending the Payne-Aldrich Act, which unexpectedly continued high tariff rates. A trade agreement with Canada, which Taft pushed through Congress, would have pleased eastern advocates of a low tariff, but the Canadians rejected it. He further antagonized Progressives by upholding his Secretary of the Interior, accused of failing to carry out Roosevelt's conservation policies. In the angry Progressive onslaught against him, little attention was paid to the fact that his administration initiated 80 antitrust suits and that Congress submitted to the states amendments for a federal income tax and the direct election of senators. A postal savings system was established, and the Interstate Commerce Commission was directed to set railroad rates. In 1912, when the Republicans renominated Taft, Roosevelt bolted the party to lead the Progressives, thus guaranteeing the election of Woodrow Wilson. Taft, free of the presidency, served as law professor at Yale until President Harding made him Chief Justice of the United States, a position he held until just before his death in 1930. To Taft, this appointment was his greatest honor; he wrote, "I don't remember that I ever was president." FIRST LADY'S BIOGRAPHY Helen Herron Taft As "the only unusual incident" of her girlhood, "Nellie" Herron Taft recalled her visit to the White House at 17 as the guest of President and Mrs. Hayes, intimate friends of her parents. Fourth child of Harriet Collins and John W. Herron, born in 1861, she had grown up in Cincinnati, Ohio, attending a private school in the city and studying music with enthusiasm. The year after this notable visit she met "that adorable Will Taft," a tall young lawyer, at a sledding party. They found intellectual interests in common. Friendship matured into love, and Helen Herron and William Howard Taft were married in 1886. A "treasure," he called her, "self-contained, independent, and of unusual application." He wondered if they would ever reach Washington "in any official capacity" and suggested that they might. Mrs. Taft had an interest in politics and high political ambitions for her husband. No woman could hope for a political career in that day, but Mrs. Taft welcomed each step in her husband's career: state judge, Solicitor General of the United States, federal circuit judge. In 1900 he agreed to take charge of American civil government in the Philippines. By now the Taft children numbered three: Robert, Helen, and Charles. The delight with which she undertook the journey, and her willingness to take her children to a country still unsettled by war, were characteristic of this woman who loved a challenge. In Manila she handled a difficult role with enthusiasm and tact; she relished travel to Japan and China, and a special diplomatic mission to the Vatican. Further travel with her husband, who became Secretary of War in 1904, brought a widened interest in world politics and a cosmopolitan circle of friends. His election to the presidency in 1908 gave her a position she had long desired. As first lady, Mrs. Taft still took an interest in politics but concentrated on giving the administration a particular social brilliance. Only two months after the inauguration she suffered a severe stroke. An indomitable will had her back in command again within a year. At the New Year's reception for 1910, she appeared in white crepe embroidered with gold—a graceful figure. Her daughter left college for a year to take part in social life at the White House, and the gaiety of Helen's debut enhanced the 1910 Christmas season. During four years famous for social events, the most outstanding was an evening garden party for several thousand guests on the Tafts' silver wedding anniversary, June 19, 1911. Mrs. Taft remembered this as "the greatest event" in her White House experience. Her own book, Recollections of Full Years, gives her account of a varied life. And the capital's famous Japanese cherry trees, planted around the Tidal Basin at her request, form a notable memorial. Her public role in Washington did not end when she left the White House. In 1921 her husband was appointed Chief Justice of the United States—the position he had desired most of all—and Mrs. Taft continued to live in the capital after his death in 1930. Retaining to the end her love of travel and of classical music, she died at her home on May 22, 1943. MAJOR EVENTS 1909: Payne-Aldrich Tariff Act. 1909–1913: Dollar Diplomacy. 1909–1913: Antitrust Policy. 1912: New Mexico joins the Union. 1912: Arizona joins the Union. 1913: Sixteenth Amendment ratified. TRIVIA 1. William Howard Taft was the largest president. After getting stuck in the White House bathtub, he had it replaced with one big enough for four men. 2. Taft started the presidential "first pitch" of baseball season tradition. Since then, every president but Jimmy Carter has opened at least one baseball season during their tenure. 3. After his his presidency, Taft served as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court (1921-1930), the first and as yet the only president to do so.