The Presidency of William Howard Taft began on March 4, 1909, when William Howard Taft was inaugurated as President of the United States, and ended on March 4, 1913. Taft, a Republican from Ohio, was the 27th United States president. The intra-party divisions that opened during the tariff debate would plague the Republican Party for the remainder of Taft's presidency. After Congress proposed the amendment, conservative Republican leaders, as well as businessmen like John D. Rockefeller, organized efforts to prevent its ratification. These conservative forces were initially confident that over a quarter of the state legislature would reject the income tax amendment, but the country shifted in a progressive direction after 1909.