and Fred L Israel, eds., History of American Presidential Elections: 1789-1968 (1971) 3: 2049–2131.
Taft spent several hours each day looking after her and teaching her to speak again, which took a year. ===Foreign policy=== ====Organization and principles==== Taft made it a priority to restructure the State Department, noting, "it is organized on the basis of the needs of the government in 1800 instead of 1900." The Department was for the first time organized into geographical divisions, including desks for the Far East, Latin America and Western Europe.
would dump it when convenient as it had the 1854 Elgin-Marcy Treaty in 1866, and farm and fisheries interests in the United States were also opposed.
William Howard Taft (September 15, 1857March 8, 1930) was the 27th president of the United States (1909–1913) and the tenth Chief Justice of the United States (1921–1930), the only person to have held both offices.
Harding appointed Taft to be chief justice, a position he held until a month before his death. Taft was born in Cincinnati, Ohio in 1857.
presidents]. ==Early life and education== William Howard Taft was born September 15, 1857, in Cincinnati, Ohio, to Alphonso Taft and Louise Torrey.
would dump it when convenient as it had the 1854 Elgin-Marcy Treaty in 1866, and farm and fisheries interests in the United States were also opposed.
At Yale College, which he entered in 1874, the heavyset, jovial Taft was popular and an intramural heavyweight wrestling champion.
In 1878, Taft graduated second in his class of 121.
He attended Cincinnati Law School, and graduated with a Bachelor of Laws in 1880.
In October 1880, Taft was appointed assistant prosecutor for Hamilton County (where Cincinnati is located), and took office the following January.
Taft ruled that the union's action amounted to a secondary boycott, which was illegal. It is not clear when Taft met Helen Herron (often called Nellie), but it was no later than 1880, when she mentioned in her diary receiving an invitation to a party from him.
He resigned in January 1882 after President Chester A.
Taft refused to dismiss competent employees who were politically out of favor, and resigned effective in March 1883, writing to Arthur that he wished to begin private practice in Cincinnati.
In 1884, Taft campaigned for the Republican candidate for president, Maine Senator James G.
By 1884, they were meeting regularly, and in 1885, after an initial rejection, she agreed to marry him.
By 1884, they were meeting regularly, and in 1885, after an initial rejection, she agreed to marry him.
The wedding took place at the Herron home on June 19, 1886.
Blaine, who lost to New York Governor Grover Cleveland. In 1887, Taft, then aged 29, was appointed to a vacancy on the Superior Court of Cincinnati by Governor Joseph B.
The appointment was good for just over a year, after which he would have to face the voters, and in April 1888, he sought election for the first of three times in his lifetime, the other two being for the presidency.
Supreme Court in 1889, and Governor Foraker suggested President Harrison appoint Taft to fill it.
Instead, in 1890, Harrison appointed him Solicitor General of the United States.
When Taft arrived in Washington in February 1890, the office had been vacant two months, with the work piling up.
Gould, "while Taft shared the fears about social unrest that dominated the middle classes during the 1890s, he was not as conservative as his critics believed.
McKinley was elected; when a place on the Supreme Court opened in 1898, the only one under McKinley, the president named Joseph McKenna. From the 1890s until his death, Taft played a major role in the international legal community.
Taft and Roosevelt had first become friends around 1890 while Taft was Solicitor General and Roosevelt a member of the Civil Service Commission.
In March 1892, Taft resigned as Solicitor General to resume his judicial career. ===Federal judge=== Taft's federal judgeship was a lifetime appointment, and one from which promotion to the Supreme Court might come.
Taft spent these years, from 1892 to 1900, in personal and professional contentment. According to historian Louis L.
He watched with some disbelief as the campaign of Ohio Governor William McKinley developed in 1894 and 1895, writing "I cannot find anybody in Washington who wants him".
He watched with some disbelief as the campaign of Ohio Governor William McKinley developed in 1894 and 1895, writing "I cannot find anybody in Washington who wants him".
Taft's opinion, in which he held that a pipe manufacturers' association had violated the Sherman Antitrust Act, was described by Henry Pringle, his biographer, as having "definitely and specifically revived" that legislation. In 1896, Taft became dean and Professor of Property at his alma mater, the Cincinnati Law School, a post that required him to prepare and give two hour-long lectures each week.
By March 1896, Taft realized that McKinley would likely be nominated, and was lukewarm in his support.
He landed solidly in McKinley's camp after former Nebraska representative William Jennings Bryan in July stampeded the 1896 Democratic National Convention with his Cross of Gold speech.
He spoke of the need for reduction of the 1897 Dingley Tariff, for antitrust reform, and for continued advancement of the Philippines toward full self-government.
McKinley was elected; when a place on the Supreme Court opened in 1898, the only one under McKinley, the president named Joseph McKenna. From the 1890s until his death, Taft played a major role in the international legal community.
Under Goethals, the project moved ahead smoothly. Another colony lost by Spain in 1898 was Cuba, but as freedom for Cuba had been a major purpose of the war, it was not annexed by the U.S., but was, after a period of occupation, given independence in 1902.
Taft and Knox tried unsuccessfully to extend John Hay's Open Door Policy to Manchuria. In 1898, an American company had gained a concession for a railroad between Hankow and Szechuan, but the Chinese revoked the agreement in 1904 after the company (which was indemnified for the revocation) breached the agreement by selling a majority stake outside the United States.
Taft spent these years, from 1892 to 1900, in personal and professional contentment. According to historian Louis L.
One of the reasons for his bitter break with Roosevelt in 1910–12 was Roosevelt's insistence that arbitration was naïve and that only war could decide major international disputes. ===Philippine years=== In January 1900, Taft was called to Washington to meet with McKinley.
Taft accepted on condition he was made head of the commission, with responsibility for success or failure; McKinley agreed, and Taft sailed for the islands in April 1900. The American takeover meant the Philippine Revolution bled into the Philippine–American War, as Filipinos fought for their independence, but U.S.
had the upper hand by 1900.
The commission took executive power in the Philippines on September 1, 1900; on July 4, 1901, Taft became civilian governor.
Taft spent several hours each day looking after her and teaching her to speak again, which took a year. ===Foreign policy=== ====Organization and principles==== Taft made it a priority to restructure the State Department, noting, "it is organized on the basis of the needs of the government in 1800 instead of 1900." The Department was for the first time organized into geographical divisions, including desks for the Far East, Latin America and Western Europe.
"Imperial vision: William Howard Taft and the Philippines, 1900-1921.".
In 1901, President William McKinley appointed Taft civilian governor of the Philippines.
The commission took executive power in the Philippines on September 1, 1900; on July 4, 1901, Taft became civilian governor.
Nellie Taft recalled that "neither politics nor race should influence our hospitality in any way". McKinley was assassinated in September 1901, and was succeeded by Theodore Roosevelt.
They met again when Taft went to Washington in January 1902 to recuperate after two operations caused by an infection.
Taft did not succeed in resolving these issues on his visit to Rome, but an agreement on both points was made in 1903. In late 1902, Taft had heard from Roosevelt that a seat on the Supreme Court would soon fall vacant on the resignation of Justice George Shiras, and Roosevelt desired that Taft fill it.
Under Goethals, the project moved ahead smoothly. Another colony lost by Spain in 1898 was Cuba, but as freedom for Cuba had been a major purpose of the war, it was not annexed by the U.S., but was, after a period of occupation, given independence in 1902.
In 1902, Clarence Cunningham, an Idaho entrepreneur, had found coal deposits in Alaska, and made mining claims, and the government investigated their legality.
Taft did not succeed in resolving these issues on his visit to Rome, but an agreement on both points was made in 1903. In late 1902, Taft had heard from Roosevelt that a seat on the Supreme Court would soon fall vacant on the resignation of Justice George Shiras, and Roosevelt desired that Taft fill it.
After consulting with his family, Taft agreed, and sailed for the United States in December 1903. ===Secretary of War=== When Taft took office as Secretary of War in January 1904, he was not called upon to spend much time administering the army, which the president was content to do himself—Roosevelt wanted Taft as a troubleshooter in difficult situations, as a legal adviser, and to be able to give campaign speeches as he sought election in his own right.
In any event, Fuller remained chief justice throughout Roosevelt's presidency. Through the 1903 separation of Panama from Colombia and the Hay-Bunau-Varilla Treaty, the United States had secured rights to build a canal in the Isthmus of Panama.
Taft traveled to Cuba with a small American force, and on September 29, 1906, under the terms of the Cuban–American Treaty of Relations of 1903, declared himself Provisional Governor of Cuba, a post he held for two weeks before being succeeded by Charles Edward Magoon.
The country remained unstable, and after another coup in 1911 and more disturbances in 1912, Taft sent troops to begin the United States occupation of Nicaragua, which lasted until 1933. Treaties among Panama, Colombia, and the United States to resolve disputes arising from the Panamanian Revolution of 1903 had been signed by the lame-duck Roosevelt administration in early 1909, and were approved by the Senate and also ratified by Panama.
In 1904, Roosevelt made him Secretary of War, and he became Roosevelt's hand-picked successor.
As the War Department administered the Philippines, Taft would remain responsible for the islands, and Elihu Root, the incumbent, was willing to postpone his departure until 1904, allowing Taft time to wrap up his work in Manila.
After consulting with his family, Taft agreed, and sailed for the United States in December 1903. ===Secretary of War=== When Taft took office as Secretary of War in January 1904, he was not called upon to spend much time administering the army, which the president was content to do himself—Roosevelt wanted Taft as a troubleshooter in difficult situations, as a legal adviser, and to be able to give campaign speeches as he sought election in his own right.
Taft journeyed to Panama in 1904, viewing the canal site and meeting with Panamanian officials.
During Roosevelt's election campaign in 1904, he urged that Philippine agricultural products be admitted to the U.S.
On the night of his own election in 1904, Roosevelt publicly declared he would not run for reelection in 1908, a pledge he quickly regretted.
Taft and Knox tried unsuccessfully to extend John Hay's Open Door Policy to Manchuria. In 1898, an American company had gained a concession for a railroad between Hankow and Szechuan, but the Chinese revoked the agreement in 1904 after the company (which was indemnified for the revocation) breached the agreement by selling a majority stake outside the United States.
In 1904 Taft gave a speech at the University of Notre Dame.
It is awful to be afraid of one's shadow." Between 1905 and 1907, Taft came to terms with the likelihood he would be the next Republican nominee for president, though he did not plan to actively campaign for it.
Brown resigned in 1905, Taft would not accept the seat although Roosevelt offered it, a position Taft held to when another seat opened in 1906.
Taft returned to the islands in 1905, leading a delegation of congressmen, and again in 1907, to open the first Philippine Assembly. On both of his Philippine trips as Secretary of War, Taft went to Japan, and met with officials there.
The meeting in July 1905 came a month before the Portsmouth Peace Conference, which would end the Russo-Japanese War with the Treaty of Portsmouth.
Roosevelt not only attacked the Supreme Court's 1905 decision in Lochner v.
Brown resigned in 1905, Taft would not accept the seat although Roosevelt offered it, a position Taft held to when another seat opened in 1906.
In September 1906, President Tomás Estrada Palma asked for U.S.
Taft traveled to Cuba with a small American force, and on September 29, 1906, under the terms of the Cuban–American Treaty of Relations of 1903, declared himself Provisional Governor of Cuba, a post he held for two weeks before being succeeded by Charles Edward Magoon.
It is awful to be afraid of one's shadow." Between 1905 and 1907, Taft came to terms with the likelihood he would be the next Republican nominee for president, though he did not plan to actively campaign for it.
The Isthmian Canal Commission had trouble keeping a chief engineer, and when in February 1907 John F.
Taft returned to the islands in 1905, leading a delegation of congressmen, and again in 1907, to open the first Philippine Assembly. On both of his Philippine trips as Secretary of War, Taft went to Japan, and met with officials there.
concerns about the number of Japanese laborers coming to the American West Coast, and during Taft's second visit, in September 1907, Tadasu Hayashi, the foreign minister, informally agreed to issue fewer passports to them. ==Presidential election of 1908== ===Gaining the nomination=== Roosevelt had served almost three and a half years of McKinley's term.
Corporate contributions to federal political campaigns had been outlawed by the 1907 Tillman Act, and Bryan proposed that contributions by officers and directors of corporations be similarly banned, or at least disclosed when made.
Taft attributed blame for the recent recession, the Panic of 1907, to stock speculation and other abuses, and felt some reform of the currency (the U.S.
That company had been expanded under Roosevelt, who had supported its acquisition of the Tennessee Coal, Iron, and Railroad Company as a means of preventing the deepening of the Panic of 1907, a decision the former president defended when testifying at the hearings.
Taft was elected president in 1908, the chosen successor of Theodore Roosevelt, but was defeated for reelection by Woodrow Wilson in 1912 after Roosevelt split the Republican vote by running as a third-party candidate.
Despite his personal ambition to become chief justice, Taft declined repeated offers of appointment to the Supreme Court of the United States, believing his political work to be more important. With Roosevelt's help, Taft had little opposition for the Republican nomination for president in 1908 and easily defeated William Jennings Bryan for the presidency in that November's election.
1 (1889) if only because it was used against him when he ran for president in 1908.
Edith Roosevelt, the First Lady, disliked the growing closeness between the two men, feeling that they were too much alike and that the president did not gain much from the advice of someone who rarely contradicted him. Alternatively, Taft wanted to be chief justice, and kept a close eye on the health of the aging incumbent, Melville Fuller, who turned 75 in 1908.
concerns about the number of Japanese laborers coming to the American West Coast, and during Taft's second visit, in September 1907, Tadasu Hayashi, the foreign minister, informally agreed to issue fewer passports to them. ==Presidential election of 1908== ===Gaining the nomination=== Roosevelt had served almost three and a half years of McKinley's term.
On the night of his own election in 1904, Roosevelt publicly declared he would not run for reelection in 1908, a pledge he quickly regretted.
Hitchcock resigned from his office in February 1908 to lead the Taft effort.
At the 1908 Republican National Convention in Chicago in June, there was no serious opposition to him, and he gained a first-ballot victory.
The 1908 party platform had supported unspecified revisions to the Dingley Act, and Taft interpreted this to mean reductions.
Payne, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, had held hearings in late 1908, and sponsored the resulting draft legislation.
"The Election of 1908" in Arthur M.
"Symbiosis versus Hegemony: New Directions in the Foreign Relations Historiography of Theodore Roosevelt and William Howard Taft." Diplomatic History 19#3 (1995): 473-497 online. Korzi, Michael J., "William Howard Taft, the 1908 Election, and the Future of the American Presidency," Congress and the Presidency, 43 (May–August 2016), 227–54. Delahaye, Claire.
Present Day Problems: A Collection of Addresses Delivered on Various Occasions (Best Books, 1908) online. ===Supreme Court=== Crowe, Justin.
Harding Candidates in the 1908 United States presidential election Candidates in the 1912 United States presidential election United States Secretaries of War United States Solicitors General University of Cincinnati College of Law alumni University of Cincinnati College of Law faculty Yale Law School faculty Yale College alumni Skull and Bones Society People from Kalorama (Washington, D.C.) Woodward High School (Cincinnati, Ohio) alumni Old Right (United States)
Nellie Taft said regarding the campaign, "There was nothing to criticize, except his not knowing or caring about the way the game of politics is played." Longtime White House usher Ike Hoover recalled that Taft came often to see Roosevelt during the campaign, but seldom between the election and Inauguration Day, March 4, 1909. ==Presidency (1909–1913)== ===Inauguration and appointments=== Taft was sworn in as president on March 4, 1909.
His administration marked a change in style from the charismatic leadership of Roosevelt to Taft's quieter passion for the rule of law. ===First Lady's illness=== Early in Taft's term, in May 1909, his wife Nellie had a severe stroke that left her paralysed in one arm and one leg and deprived her of the power of speech.
Taft called a special session of Congress to convene on March 15, 1909 to deal with the tariff question. Sereno E.
On balance, the bill reduced tariffs slightly, but when it passed the House in April 1909 and reached the Senate, the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, Rhode Island Senator Nelson W.
The conference report passed both houses, and Taft signed it on August 6, 1909.
The country remained unstable, and after another coup in 1911 and more disturbances in 1912, Taft sent troops to begin the United States occupation of Nicaragua, which lasted until 1933. Treaties among Panama, Colombia, and the United States to resolve disputes arising from the Panamanian Revolution of 1903 had been signed by the lame-duck Roosevelt administration in early 1909, and were approved by the Senate and also ratified by Panama.
The Chinese imperial government got the money for the indemnity from the British Hong Kong government, on condition British subjects would be favored if foreign capital was needed to build the railroad line, and in 1909, a British-led consortium began negotiations.
A special agent for the Land Office, Louis Glavis, investigated the Cunningham claims, and when Secretary Ballinger in 1909 approved them, Glavis broke governmental protocol by going outside the Interior Department to seek help from Pinchot. In September 1909, Glavis made his allegations public in a magazine article, disclosing that Ballinger had acted as an attorney for Cunningham between his two periods of government service.
On September 13, 1909 Taft dismissed Glavis from government service, relying on a report from Attorney General George W.
In 1909 he praised Junípero Serra as an "apostle, legislator, [and] builder" who advanced "the beginning of civilization in California." A supporter of free immigration, Taft vetoed a bill passed by Congress and supported by labor unions that would have restricted unskilled laborers by imposing a literacy test. ===Judicial appointments=== Taft made six appointments to the Supreme Court; only George Washington and Franklin D.
The death of Justice Rufus Peckham in October 1909 gave Taft his first opportunity.
Taft named Lurton anyway on December 13, 1909, and the Senate confirmed him by voice vote a week later.
Taft vetoed a bill to abolish the court, but the respite was short-lived as Woodrow Wilson signed similar legislation in October 1913. ===1912 presidential campaign and election=== ====Moving apart from Roosevelt==== During Roosevelt's fifteen months beyond the Atlantic, from March 1909 to June 1910, neither man wrote much to the other.
"'Nonpublicity' and the Unmaking of a President: William Howard Taft and the Ballinger-Pinchot Controversy of 1909–1910." Journalism History 19.4 (1994): 111–120. , detailed coverage, to 1910 vol 2 covers the presidency after 1910 & Supreme Court Schambra, William.
One of the reasons for his bitter break with Roosevelt in 1910–12 was Roosevelt's insistence that arbitration was naïve and that only war could decide major international disputes. ===Philippine years=== In January 1900, Taft was called to Washington to meet with McKinley.
According to Coletta, "Taft had lost the initiative, and the wounds inflicted in the acrid tariff debate never healed". In Taft's annual message sent to Congress in December 1910, he urged a free trade accord with Canada.
forces interfered, and in August 1910, the Estrada forces took Managua, the capital.
In January 1910, Pinchot forced the issue by sending a letter to Iowa Senator Dolliver alleging that but for the actions of the Forestry Service, Taft would have approved a fraudulent claim on public lands.
Lurie suggested that Taft, already beset by the tariff and conservation controversies, desired to perform an official act which gave him pleasure, especially since he thought Lurton deserved it. Justice David Josiah Brewer's death on March 28, 1910 gave Taft a second opportunity to fill a seat on the high court; he chose New York Governor Charles Evans Hughes.
The Senate quickly confirmed Hughes, but then Chief Justice Fuller died on July 4, 1910.
By the time Taft nominated White and Van Devanter in December 1910, he had another seat to fill due to William Henry Moody's retirement because of illness; he named a Louisiana Democrat, Joseph R.
The Commerce Court, created in 1910, stemmed from a Taft proposal for a specialized court to hear appeals from the Interstate Commerce Commission.
Taft vetoed a bill to abolish the court, but the respite was short-lived as Woodrow Wilson signed similar legislation in October 1913. ===1912 presidential campaign and election=== ====Moving apart from Roosevelt==== During Roosevelt's fifteen months beyond the Atlantic, from March 1909 to June 1910, neither man wrote much to the other.
Nevertheless, he wrote that he expected Taft to be renominated by the Republicans in 1912, and did not speak of himself as a candidate. Taft and Roosevelt met twice in 1910; the meetings, though outwardly cordial, did not display their former closeness.
Roosevelt gave a series of speeches in the West in the late summer and early fall of 1910.
According to John Murphy in his journal article on the breach between the two presidents, "As Roosevelt began to move to the left, Taft veered to the right." During the 1910 midterm election campaign, Roosevelt involved himself in New York politics, while Taft with donations and influence tried to secure the election of the Republican gubernatorial candidate in Ohio, former lieutenant governor Warren G.
The Republicans suffered losses in the 1910 elections as the Democrats took control of the House and slashed the Republican majority in the Senate.
Insurgency: Personalities and Politics of the Taft Era (1940), on Taft's Republican enemies in 1910. Hindman, E.
TR and Will: A Friendship That Split the Republican Party (1969) covers 1910 to 1912. Mason, Alpheus T.
Bureaucracy Convicts Itself: The Ballinger-Pinchot Controversy of 1910 (1941) Noyes, John E.
"'Nonpublicity' and the Unmaking of a President: William Howard Taft and the Ballinger-Pinchot Controversy of 1909–1910." Journalism History 19.4 (1994): 111–120. , detailed coverage, to 1910 vol 2 covers the presidency after 1910 & Supreme Court Schambra, William.
After January 1911 talks with Canadian officials, Taft had the agreement, which was not a treaty, introduced into Congress and it passed in late July.
Canadians turned Laurier out of office in the September 1911 election and Robert Borden became the new prime minister.
The country remained unstable, and after another coup in 1911 and more disturbances in 1912, Taft sent troops to begin the United States occupation of Nicaragua, which lasted until 1933. Treaties among Panama, Colombia, and the United States to resolve disputes arising from the Panamanian Revolution of 1903 had been signed by the lame-duck Roosevelt administration in early 1909, and were approved by the Senate and also ratified by Panama.
participation, though agreements were not signed until May 1911.
Inadequate compensation was paid to the shareholders, and these grievances were among those which touched off the Chinese Revolution of 1911. After the revolution broke out, the revolt's leaders chose Sun Yat-sen as provisional president of what became the Republic of China, overthrowing the Manchu dynasty, Taft was reluctant to recognize the new government, although American public opinion was in favor of it.
and Japan in 1911 granted broad reciprocal rights to Japanese people in America and Americans in Japan, but were premised on the continuation of the Gentlemen's Agreement.
These were signed in August 1911.
Suits brought against the Standard Oil Company and the American Tobacco Company, initiated under Roosevelt, were decided in favor of the government by the Supreme Court in 1911.
In June 1911, the Democrat-controlled House of Representatives began hearings into United States Steel (U.S.
For Roosevelt, questioning the matter went to his personal honesty. In October 1911, Taft's Justice Department brought suit against U.S.
Roosevelt was offended by the references to him and his administration in the pleadings, and felt that Taft could not evade command responsibility by saying he did not know of them. Taft sent a special message to Congress on the need for a revamped antitrust statute when it convened its regular session in December 1911, but it took no action.
Lamar, whom he had met while playing golf, and had subsequently learned had a good reputation as a judge. With the death of Justice Harlan in October 1911, Taft got to fill a sixth seat on the Supreme Court.
The feud continued on and off through 1911, a year in which there were few elections of significance.
Roosevelt began to move into a position for a run in late 1911, writing that the tradition that presidents not run for a third term only applied to consecutive terms. Roosevelt was receiving many letters from supporters urging him to run, and Republican office-holders were organizing on his behalf.
Reciprocity, 1911: A Study in Canadian-American Relations (Yale UP, 1939) Goodwin, Doris Kearns.
Taft was elected president in 1908, the chosen successor of Theodore Roosevelt, but was defeated for reelection by Woodrow Wilson in 1912 after Roosevelt split the Republican vote by running as a third-party candidate.
Roosevelt challenged Taft for renomination in 1912.
The country remained unstable, and after another coup in 1911 and more disturbances in 1912, Taft sent troops to begin the United States occupation of Nicaragua, which lasted until 1933. Treaties among Panama, Colombia, and the United States to resolve disputes arising from the Panamanian Revolution of 1903 had been signed by the lame-duck Roosevelt administration in early 1909, and were approved by the Senate and also ratified by Panama.
Colombia, however, declined to ratify the treaties, and after the 1912 elections, Knox offered $10 million to the Colombians (later raised to $25 million).
House of Representatives in February 1912 passed a resolution supporting a Chinese republic, but Taft and Knox felt recognition should come as a concerted action by Western powers.
Taft in his final annual message to Congress in December 1912 indicated that he was moving towards recognition once the republic was fully established, but by then he had been defeated for reelection and he did not follow through. Taft continued the policy against immigration from China and Japan as under Roosevelt.
Reid remained in place until his 1912 death. Taft was a supporter of settling international disputes by arbitration, and he negotiated treaties with Great Britain and with France providing that differences be arbitrated.
Another antitrust case that had political repercussions for Taft was that brought against the International Harvester Company, the large manufacturer of farm equipment, in early 1912.
Archbald, was in 1912 impeached for corruption and removed by the Senate the following January.
Nevertheless, he wrote that he expected Taft to be renominated by the Republicans in 1912, and did not speak of himself as a candidate. Taft and Roosevelt met twice in 1910; the meetings, though outwardly cordial, did not display their former closeness.
"The New Nationalism and Progressive Issues: The Break with Taft and the 1912 Campaign," in Serge Ricard, ed., A Companion to Theodore Roosevelt (2011) pp 452–67.
"Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, and the Disputed Delegates in 1912: Texas as a Test Case." Southwestern Historical Quarterly 80.1 (1976): 33-56 online. Hahn, Harlan.
"The Republican Party Convention of 1912 and the Role of Herbert S.
TR and Will: A Friendship That Split the Republican Party (1969) covers 1910 to 1912. Mason, Alpheus T.
"The Election of 1912 and the Origins of Constitutional Conservatism." in Toward an American Conservatism (Palgrave Macmillan, 2013).
Harding Candidates in the 1908 United States presidential election Candidates in the 1912 United States presidential election United States Secretaries of War United States Solicitors General University of Cincinnati College of Law alumni University of Cincinnati College of Law faculty Yale Law School faculty Yale College alumni Skull and Bones Society People from Kalorama (Washington, D.C.) Woodward High School (Cincinnati, Ohio) alumni Old Right (United States)
Instead, they proposed a constitutional amendment, which passed both houses in early July, was sent to the states, and by 1913 was ratified as the Sixteenth Amendment.
Taft vetoed a bill to abolish the court, but the respite was short-lived as Woodrow Wilson signed similar legislation in October 1913. ===1912 presidential campaign and election=== ====Moving apart from Roosevelt==== During Roosevelt's fifteen months beyond the Atlantic, from March 1909 to June 1910, neither man wrote much to the other.
He accepted, and after a month's vacation in Georgia, arrived in New Haven on April 1, 1913 to a rapturous reception.
In 1913, Taft was elected to a one-year term as president of the American Bar Association (ABA), a trade group of lawyers.
Anderson pointed out that Roosevelt's Autobiography (which placed this view in enduring form) was published after both men had left the presidency (in 1913), was intended in part to justify Roosevelt's splitting of the Republican Party, and contains not a single positive reference to the man Roosevelt had admired and hand-picked as his successor.
The defense of the Panama Canal, which was under construction throughout Taft's term (it opened in 1914), guided United States foreign policy in the Caribbean and Central America.
With World War I raging in Europe, Taft sent Wilson a note of support for his foreign policy in 1915.
Taft was appalled when, after Justice Lamar's death in January 1916, Wilson nominated Brandeis, whom the former president had never forgiven for his role in the Ballinger–Pinchot affair.
President Wilson accepted Taft's invitation to address the league, and spoke in May 1916 of a postwar international organization that could prevent a repetition.
This was one of many difficulties for the Republicans in the campaign, and Wilson narrowly won reelection. In March 1917, Taft demonstrated public support for the war effort by joining the Connecticut State Guard, a state defense force organized to carry out the state duties of the Connecticut National Guard while the National Guard served on active duty.
When Wilson asked Congress to declare war on Germany in April 1917, Taft was an enthusiastic supporter; he was chairman of the American Red Cross' executive committee, which occupied much of the former president's time.
In August 1917, Wilson conferred military titles on executives of the Red Cross as a way to provide them with additional authority to use in carrying out their wartime responsibilities, and Taft was appointed a major general. During the war, Taft took leave from Yale in order to serve as co-chairman of the National War Labor Board, tasked with assuring good relations between industry owners and their workers.
In February 1918, the new RNC chairman, Will H.
The few liberals on the court—Brandeis, Holmes, and (from 1925) Harlan Fiske Stone—sometimes protested, believing orderly progress essential, but often joined in the majority opinion. The White Court had, in 1918, struck down an attempt by Congress to regulate child labor in Hammer v.
At a dinner in the two men embraced, but the relationship did not progress; Roosevelt died in January 1919.
The Senate refused to ratify the Versailles pact. ==Chief Justice (1921–1930)== ===Appointment=== During the 1920 election campaign, Taft supported the Republican ticket, Harding (by then a senator) and Massachusetts Governor Calvin Coolidge; they were elected.
Taft was among those asked to come to the president-elect's home in Marion, Ohio to advise him on appointments, and the two men conferred there on December 24, 1920.
In 1921, President Warren G.
In 1921, Harding appointed Taft chief justice, an office he had long sought.
In January 1921, Taft heard through intermediaries that Harding planned to appoint him, if given the chance. White by then was in failing health, but made no move to resign when Harding was sworn in on March 4, 1921.
White did not retire, dying in office on May 19, 1921.
After Harding rejected Day's plan, Attorney General Harry Daugherty, who supported Taft's candidacy, urged him to fill the vacancy, and he named Taft on June 30, 1921.
When Congress convened in December 1921, a bill was introduced for 24 new judges, to empower the chief justice to move judges temporarily to eliminate the delays, and to have him chair a body consisting of the senior appellate judge of each circuit.
The project went forward; Taft would dedicate the Lincoln Memorial as chief justice in 1922.
That law was overturned by the Supreme Court in 1922 in Bailey v.
Taft's dissent in Adkins was rare both because he authored few dissents, and because it was one of the few times he took an expansive view of the police power of the government. ==== Powers of government ==== In 1922, Taft ruled for a unanimous court in Balzac v.
He was initially a firm supporter of President Coolidge after Harding's death in 1923, but became disillusioned with Coolidge's appointments to office and to the bench; he had similar misgivings about Coolidge's successor, Herbert Hoover.
Nevertheless, by 1923, Taft was writing of his liking for Brandeis, whom he deemed a hard worker, and Holmes walked to work with him until age and infirmity required an automobile. Believing that the chief justice should be responsible for the federal courts, Taft felt that he should have an administrative staff to assist him, and the chief justice should be empowered to temporarily reassign judges.
The few liberals on the court—Brandeis, Holmes, and (from 1925) Harlan Fiske Stone—sometimes protested, believing orderly progress essential, but often joined in the majority opinion. The White Court had, in 1918, struck down an attempt by Congress to regulate child labor in Hammer v.
Van Devanter ruled for a unanimous court against him, finding that Congress had the authority to conduct investigations as an auxiliary to its legislative function. ==== Individual and civil rights ==== In 1925, the Taft Court laid the groundwork for the incorporation of many of the guarantees of the Bill of Rights to be applied against the states through the Fourteenth Amendment.
Society of Sisters was a 1925 decision by the Taft Court striking down an Oregon law banning private schools.
Taft and other members of the court lobbied for the bill in Congress, and the Judges' Bill became law in February 1925.
In 1925, Taft began a fight to get the court a building, and two years later Congress appropriated money to purchase the land, on the south side of the Capitol.
Mason cited enactment of the Judges' Bill of 1925 as Taft's major achievement on the court.
Taft held that as Puerto Rico was not a territory designated for statehood, only such constitutional protections as Congress decreed would apply to its residents. In 1926, Taft wrote for a 6–3 majority in Myers v.
Taft, for a unanimous court, allowed the second prosecution, holding that the state and federal governments were dual sovereigns, each empowered to prosecute the conduct in question. In the 1927 case Lum v.
Taft had hoped to live to see the court move into the new building, but it did not do so until 1935, after Taft's death. ==Declining health and death (1930)== Taft is remembered as the heaviest president; he was tall and his weight peaked at toward the end of his presidency, although this later decreased, and by 1929 he weighed just .
The two men corresponded regularly for over twenty years, and Taft kept a daily record of his weight, food intake, and physical activity. At Hoover's inauguration on March 4, 1929, Taft recited part of the oath incorrectly, later writing, "my memory is not always accurate and one sometimes becomes a little uncertain", misquoting again in that letter, differently.
Worried that if he retired his replacement would be chosen by President Herbert Hoover, whom he considered too progressive, he wrote his brother Horace in 1929, "I am older and slower and less acute and more confused.
However, as long as things continue as they are, and I am able to answer to my place, I must stay on the court in order to prevent the Bolsheviki from getting control". Taft insisted on going to Cincinnati to attend the funeral of his brother Charles, who died on December 31, 1929; the strain did not improve his own health.
William Howard Taft (September 15, 1857March 8, 1930) was the 27th president of the United States (1909–1913) and the tenth Chief Justice of the United States (1921–1930), the only person to have held both offices.
In poor health, he resigned in February 1930, and died the following month.
When the court reconvened on January 6, 1930, Taft had not returned to Washington, and two opinions were delivered by Van Devanter that Taft had drafted but had been unable to complete because of his illness.
He died at his home in Washington on March 8, 1930. Taft lay in state at the United States Capitol rotunda.
The country remained unstable, and after another coup in 1911 and more disturbances in 1912, Taft sent troops to begin the United States occupation of Nicaragua, which lasted until 1933. Treaties among Panama, Colombia, and the United States to resolve disputes arising from the Panamanian Revolution of 1903 had been signed by the lame-duck Roosevelt administration in early 1909, and were approved by the Senate and also ratified by Panama.
Taft had hoped to live to see the court move into the new building, but it did not do so until 1935, after Taft's death. ==Declining health and death (1930)== Taft is remembered as the heaviest president; he was tall and his weight peaked at toward the end of his presidency, although this later decreased, and by 1929 he weighed just .
Reciprocity, 1911: A Study in Canadian-American Relations (Yale UP, 1939) Goodwin, Doris Kearns.
The sealing convention remained in force until abrogated by Japan in 1940. ===Domestic policies and politics=== ====Antitrust==== Taft continued and expanded Roosevelt's efforts to break up business combinations through lawsuits brought under the Sherman Antitrust Act, bringing 70 cases in four years (Roosevelt had brought 40 in seven years).
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The William Howard Taft Presidency (University Press of Kansas, 2009). Gould, Lewis L.
(PhD dissertation, University of Edinburgh, 2010) online Burton, David H.
"The Election of 1912 and the Origins of Constitutional Conservatism." in Toward an American Conservatism (Palgrave Macmillan, 2013).
"Symbiosis versus Hegemony: New Directions in the Foreign Relations Historiography of Theodore Roosevelt and William Howard Taft." Diplomatic History 19#3 (1995): 473-497 online. Korzi, Michael J., "William Howard Taft, the 1908 Election, and the Future of the American Presidency," Congress and the Presidency, 43 (May–August 2016), 227–54. Delahaye, Claire.
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