William Howard Taft (1857-1930)/biography

William Howard Taft ( –  ) was an, the twenty-seventh , the tenth , a leader of the progressive conservative wing of the  in the early 20th century, a pioneer in  and staunch advocate of  verging on , and scion of  in.

Taft served as the, a , , and before being nominated for President in the  with the backing of his predecessor and close friend.

His presidency was characterized by, strengthening the , expanding the , establishing a better , and promoting world peace. Roosevelt broke with Taft in 1911, charging Taft was too reactionary. Taft and the conservatives were alarmed at Roosevelt's attacks on the judiciary, and took control of the party machinery. Taft defeated Roosevelt for the in a bruising battle in  that forced Roosevelt out of the GOP and left Taft's people in charge for decades. William Howard Taft remains the only U.S. President to finish third in a bid for reelection. During he helped set national labor policy that reduced strikes and generated union support for the national cause. In 1921, he became. As President and Chief Justice he helped make the federal courts, especially the Supreme Court, much more powerful in shaping national policy.

Early life
Taft was born on, , in , the third of five children. His mother,, was a graduate of. His father,, came to Cincinnati in 1839 to open a law practice. Alphonso Taft was a prominent Republican and served as under President.

Taft was brought up in the church and remained a faithful Unitarian his entire life (later in life he once remarked, "I do not believe in the divinity of Christ, and there are many other of the postulates of the orthodox creed to which I cannot subscribe." ). At age 18, he met his future wife,, in Cincinnati; she and Taft courted while he was away at college. William Taft enjoyed spending time with his aunt, Meredith Johnson, who unfortunately needed a wheelchair and crutches.

The is the Taft boyhood home. The house in which he was born has been restored to its original appearance. It includes four period rooms that reflect the family life during Taft's boyhood. The home also includes second floor exhibits highlighting Taft's life center.

Education
In 1874, Taft attended. Like most of his family, he attended in New Haven, Connecticut. At Yale, he was a member of the, a literary and debate society; , the secret society co-founded by his father in 1832; and the Beta chapter of the fraternity. Later in life he was also inducted into the Omicron-Omicron chapter of the secret society of, after delivering the commencement address to the class of 1910 at. He was given the nickname "Big Lub" because of his size, but his college friends knew him by the nickname "Old Bill". Taft received jibes about his weight throughout his life: as governor of the Philippines, Taft once sent a telegram to that read, "Went on a horse ride today; feeling good;" Secretary of War  replied, "How's the horse?" In 1878, Taft graduated from Yale, ranking second in his class out of 121. After college, he attended, graduating with a in 1880. While in law school, he worked on the area newspaper .

Career
After admission to the Ohio, Taft was appointed Assistant of , based in Cincinnati. In 1882, he was appointed local Collector of. Taft married his longtime sweetheart,, in Cincinnati in 1886. In 1887, he was appointed as a judge of the Ohio Superior Court. In 1890, President appointed him. In 1892 Harrison appointed him to the newly created, a post that he held until 1900. It was then that he met Theodore Roosevelt for the first time.

In addition to his judgeship, between 1896 and 1900 Taft also served as the first dean and a professor of constitutional law at the. Eventually, he became the chief judge of the Sixth Circuit. One of Taft's most famous opinions was in  (1898).

In 1900, President appointed Taft as the chairman of a commission to organize a civilian government in the, which had been ceded to the United States by  following the  and the. Although Taft initially had been opposed to the annexation of the islands and told McKinley that his real ambition was to become a justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, he reluctantly accepted the appointment when McKinley suggested that he would be "the better judge for this experience."

From 1901 to 1903, Taft served as the first civilian Governor-General of the Philippines, a position in which he was very popular among both Americans and. In 1902, Taft visited Rome to negotiate with for the purchase of lands in the Philippines owned by the Roman Catholic Church. Taft then persuaded Congress to appropriate $7,239,000 to purchase the lands, which he sold to Filipinos on easy terms. In 1903, President Roosevelt offered Taft the seat on the Supreme Court to which he had for so long aspired, but he reluctantly declined when native Filipino groups begged him to remain in as Governor-General.

Secretary of War, 1904–1908
In 1904, Roosevelt appointed Taft as. Roosevelt made the basic policy decisions regarding military affairs, using Taft as a well-traveled spokesman who campaigned for Roosevelt's re-election in 1904. Taft met with the Emperor of, who alerted him of the probability of war with. In 1906, Roosevelt sent troops to restore order in during the revolt led by General, and Taft temporarily became the Civil , personally negotiating with General Castillo for a peaceful end to the revolt. In 1907, Secretary Taft helped supervise the beginning of construction on the. Taft repeatedly had told Roosevelt he wanted to be Chief Justice, not President (and not an associate justice), but there was no vacancy and Roosevelt had other plans. He gave Taft more responsibilities in addition to the Philippines and the Panama Canal. For a while, Taft was Acting Secretary of State. When Roosevelt was away, Taft in effect was the Acting President.

Policies
After serving for nearly two full terms, the popular refused to run in. Roosevelt certified Taft as a genuine "progressive", in 1908, pushing through the nomination of his Secretary of War for the presidency. At the age 51, Taft easily defeated three-time candidate. Taft considered himself a "progressive" because of his deep belief in "The Law" as the scientific device that should be used by judges to solve society's problems. Taft proved a less adroit politician than Roosevelt and seemed to lack the energy and personal magnetism of his mentor, not to mention the publicity devices, the dedicated supporters, and the broad base of public support that made Roosevelt so formidable. When Roosevelt realized that lowering the tariff would risk severe tensions inside the Republican Party, pitting producers (manufacturers and farmers) against department stores and consumers, he stopped talking about the issue. Taft ignored the risks and tackled the tariff boldly, on the one hand encouraging reformers to fight for lower rates, then cutting deals with conservative leaders that kept overall rates high. The resulting of 1909 was too high for most reformers, but instead of blaming this on Senator  and big business, Taft took credit, calling it the best bill to come from the Republican Party. Again, he had managed to alienate all sides.

Unlike Roosevelt, Taft never attacked business or businessmen in his rhetoric. However, he was attentive to the law, so he launched 80 antitrust suits, including one against the country's largest corporation,, for an acquisition that Roosevelt personally had approved. As a result, Taft lost the support of antitrust reformers (who disliked his conservative rhetoric), of big business (which disliked his actions), and of Roosevelt, who felt humiliated by his protégé. Progressives within the Republican party began agitating against Taft. Senator of  created the  to replace Taft at the national level; his campaign crashed after a disastrous speech. Most of LaFollette's supporters went over to Roosevelt, leaving LaFollette embittered and alone. More trouble came when Taft fired, a leading conservationist and close ally of Roosevelt. Pinchot alleged that Taft's Secretary of Interior was in league with big timber interests. Conservationists sided with Pinchot, and Taft alienated yet another vocal constituency.

Taft fought for the (eventually issuing 80 lawsuits), further strengthened the, established a postal savings bank and a parcel post system, and expanded the civil service. He supported the, which allowed for a federal income tax, and the , mandating the direct election of by the people, replacing the previous system whereby they were selected by s.

Foreign policy
Taft actively pursued what he termed "" to further the economic development of less-developed nations of Latin America and Asia through American investment in their infrastructures. Throughout the early part of his presidency, Taft had difficulties with. When the United States shifted its interests to for the purpose of building a canal, Nicaraguan President  negotiated with  and Japan in an unsuccessful effort to have a canal constructed in his country. The Zelaya administration had growing friction with the United States government, which started giving aid to his Conservative opponents in Nicaragua. In 1907, U.S. warships seized several of Nicaragua's seaports. In early December, landed on Nicaragua's  coast. On, , Zelaya resigned and left for exile in. The U.S.-sponsored conservative regime of was installed in his place. Military invasions increased with marine landings in 1910 and 1912. The Marines stayed in Nicaragua through 1925.

One of Taft's main goals while President was to further the idea of. Given his judicial sensibilities, he believed that international was the best means to effectuate the end of  on Earth. As such, he championed several reciprocity and arbitration treaties. In 1910, he convinced congressional Democrats to support a reciprocity treaty with, but the Canadian government of  that negotiated the treaty was turned out of office in 1911 and the treaty collapsed. In 1910 and 1911, however, he secured the ratification of arbitration treaties that he had successfully negotiated with and  and thereafter was known as one of the foremost advocates of world peace and arbitration.



16th Amendment
To solve an impasse during the 1909 tariff debate, Taft proposed income taxes for corporations and a constitutional amendment to allow income taxes on individuals on June 16, 1909. His proposed tax on corporate net income was 1% on net profits over $5,000. It was designated an excise on the privilege of doing business as a corporation whose stockholders enjoyed the privilege of limited liability, and not a tax on incomes as such. In 1911, the Supreme Court, in, approved it. Receipts grew from $21 million in the fiscal year 1910 to $34.8 million in 1912.

An income tax on individuals (unlike the tax on corporations) required a constitutional amendment. One was passed in July, 1909, unanimously in the Senate and by a vote of 318 to 14 in the House. It quickly was ratified by the states, and in February 3, 1913, it became a part of the Constitution as the, as Taft was leaving office.

Party schism
Despite his obvious achievements, progressives decried Taft's acceptance of the , which lowered the tariff on the farm products of the western states, whose citizens desired lower rates on Eastern factory products. Taft opposed to the entry of the state of into the Union because of its judicial features. Progressives grumbled that he worked too closely with conservative Senator and. By 1910, Taft's party was deeply divided between progressives and conservatives.

On his return from Europe, Roosevelt broke with Taft in one of the most dramatic political feuds of the 20th century. To the surprise of observers who thought Roosevelt had unstoppable momentum, Taft outmaneuvered Roosevelt and LaFollette, seized control of the GOP, and forced both out of the party. The main issue in 1911–12 was independence of the judiciary, which Roosevelt denounced. Most lawyers in the GOP supported Taft, including many of Roosevelt's key supporters like, , and Roosevelt's own son-in-law,. In lining up delegates for the 1912 nomination, Taft outmaneuvered Roosevelt, who had started much too late, and kept control of the Republican party. 1912 was the first year that some delegates were determined through primary elections. Primary elections were seen as a way to take power away from party bosses and put it in the hands of the people. Out of the 14 Republican primaries held, Roosevelt won 9, and Taft only won 3. Robert Lafollette won the other 2. Nevertheless, Taft had the delegates and won the nomination at the Republican nominating convention in Chicago.

Instead, Roosevelt was forced to create the (or "Bull Moose") ticket, splitting the Republican vote in the. , the Democrat, was elected, although many historians argue that Wilson would have won anyway, because the Republican factions would not support each other. Taft won the mere eight electoral votes of and, making it the single worst defeat in American history for an incumbent President seeking re-election. He achieved what he felt were his main goals as President, however: keeping permanent control of the party and making the courts sacrosanct. It also should be noted that while the strife during the election of 1912 devastated the once very close friendship between Taft and Theodore Roosevelt, the two eventually did reconcile not long before Roosevelt's death in 1919.

Supreme Court appointments
During his presidency, Taft appointed the following Justices to the :


 * — 1910
 * Lurton had served on the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit with Taft, and Taft's attorney general said that at 66 he was too old to become a Supreme Court justice, but Taft had always admired Lurton. According to the Complete Book of U.S. Presidents (2001 edition), Taft later said that "the chief pleasure of my administration" was the appointment of Lurton.


 * — 1910
 * Even though Hughes resigned in 1916 to run in the, he became Taft's successor as Chief Justice.


 * — Chief Justice — 1910
 * Already on the Court as an associate justice since 1894, White was the first Chief Justice to be elevated from an associate justiceship. Taft succeeded White as Chief Justice in 1921.


 * — 1911
 * — 1911
 * — 1912

Taft's six appointments to the Court rank (in number) third only to those of (who appointed the entire Court as the first President) and  (who was president for twelve years); as well, his appointment of five new justices ties the number appointed by  and. Four of Taft's appointees were relatively young at ages 48, 51, 53 and 54.

The appointments of Edward Douglass White and Charles Evans Hughes also are notable because Taft essentially appointed both his predecessor and successor Chief Justices, respectively. Hughes initially was appointed an, but later resigned to run for the presidential candidate in the , which he would lose. President renominated Hughes to the Supreme Court as Chief Justice following Taft's retirement.

States admitted to the Union

 * :, . Taft had opposed the admission of Arizona owing to what he viewed as defects in its judicial system.
 * :, . Taft had opposed the admission of Arizona owing to what he viewed as defects in its judicial system.

Post-presidency
Upon leaving the White House in 1913, Taft was appointed the Chancellor Kent Professor of Law and Legal History at. Upon his appointment, the Yale Chapter of the made him an honorary member. At the same time Taft was elected president of the. He spent much of his time writing newspaper articles and books, most notably his series on American. He was a vigorous opponent of, predicting the undesirable situation that the and prohibition in general would create. He also continued to advocate world peace through international arbitration, urging nations to enter into arbitration treaties with each other and promoting the idea of a even before the  began.

When World War I did break out in in 1914, however, Taft founded the League to Enforce Peace. He was co-chair of the powerful between 1917 and 1918. Although he continually advocated peace, he strongly favored once the United States entered the conflict, pleading publicly that the United States not fight a "finicky" war. He feared the war would be long, but was for fighting it out to a finish, given what he viewed as "Germany's brutality."

Chief Justice
In 1921, when Chief Justice Edward Douglass White died, President nominated Taft to take his place, thereby fulfilling Taft's lifelong ambition to become Chief Justice of the United States. Virtually no opposition existed to the nomination, and the unanimously confirmed Taft by. He readily took up the position, serving until 1930. As such, he became the only President to serve as Chief Justice, and thus is also the only former President to swear in subsequent Presidents, giving the oath of office to both (in 1925) and  (in 1929). He remains the only person to have led both the and  branches of the. He considered his time as Chief Justice to be the highest point of his career: he allegedly once remarked, "I don't remember that I ever was President."

In 1922, Taft traveled to to study the procedural structure of the English courts and learn how they disposed of such a large number of cases in such an expeditious manner. During the trip, and  received Taft and his wife as state visitors. With what he had learned in England, Taft advocated passage of the  (often called the "Judges Bill"), which shifted the Supreme Court's appellate jurisdiction to be exercisable principally on review by, thereby empowering the Supreme Court to give preference to cases of national importance and allowing the Court to work more efficiently. In addition to giving the Court more control over its docket, the new legislation (and the Judicial Conference that Taft organized) gave the Supreme Court and the Chief Justice general supervisory power over the scattered and disorganized federal courts, bringing the District of Columbia and the territories within the federal system, uniting the courts for the first time as an independent third branch of government (contrary to the British model) under the administrative supervision of the Chief Justice of the United States. Taft was also the first Justice to employ two full-time s.

In 1929, Taft successfully argued for the construction of the, reasoning that the court needed to distance itself from Congress as a separate branch of government. Until then, the Court had heard cases in the old Senate Chamber of the ; the justices had no chambers and their conferences were held in a room in the basement. Taft, however, did not live to see the building's completion in 1935.

While Chief Justice, Taft wrote the opinion for the Court in 256 cases out of the Court's ever-growing caseload. His philosophy of was essentially historical. Some of his more notable opinions include:


 * , (opinion for the Court)
 * Holding the 1919 Child Labor Tax Law unconstitutional.
 * , (opinion for the Court)
 * Ruling that the did not apply the criminal provisions of the  to overseas territories. This was one of the more famous of the "."
 * , (dissenting opinion)
 * Disapproving of the Court upholding .
 * , (opinion for the Court)
 * Ruling that the President of the United States had the power unilaterally to dismiss executive appointees who had been confirmed by the Senate.
 * , (opinion for the Court)
 * Reluctantly ruling that the did not prohibit 's prevention of  children attending  schools in the midst of.
 * , (opinion for the Court)
 * Ruling that the judicial practice of excluding evidence obtained without a warrant was based on the proscription on unreasonable  but did not apply to.
 * , (opinion for the Court)
 * Holding that the equitable power of the United States can be used to impose positive action on the states in a situation in which nonaction would result in damage to the interests of other states.
 * , (opinion for the Court)
 * Holding that where a third party pays the due to an individual, the amount of tax paid constitutes additional income to the taxpayer.

Medical condition
Evidence from eyewitnesses and from Taft himself strongly suggests that he had severe during his presidency, resulting from his obesity. Within a year of leaving the presidency, Taft lost approximately 80 pounds (32 kg). His somnolence resolved and, less obviously, his systolic dropped 40–50 mmHg (from 210 mmHg). Undoubtedly, this weight loss extended his life. Beginning in 1920, Taft used a cane; his was a gift from Professor of Geology W.S. Foster, made of 250,000-year-old wood.

Death and legacy
Taft retired as Chief Justice on, , because of ill health. He was succeeded by, whom he had appointed to the Court while President. Taft died of on,. Three days later, on, he became the first president to be buried at. His grave marker was sculpted by out of  granite.

A third generation of the Taft family entered the national political stage in 1938, with the election of the former President's oldest son to the, representing Ohio; he continued in office as a senator until his death in 1953. His other son,, served as mayor of , from 1955 to 1957. Two more generations of the Taft family later entered politics. The President's grandson,, served a term as a from Ohio from 1971 to 1977; the President's great-grandson, , served as the  from 1999 to 2007. was U.S. to  from 1953 to 1957. , currently in private law practice, was general counsel in the former in the 1970s, Deputy Secretary of Defense under  and  in the 1980s, and acted as Secretary of Defense during the vacancy of January–March 1989. In addition, he was a high-level official in the from 2000 to 2006.

Taft's enduring legacy has included many things being named after him. These include the courthouse of the Ohio Court of Appeals for the First District in, , streets in Cincinnati, Ohio, and , , a law school in , and high schools in , , , , , , and the ,. After a fire burned much of the town of, California during the 1920s, it was renamed Taft, in his honor.