William Howard Taft

27th President of the United States

### Siblings

Charles Phelps Taft (half-brother) Peter Rawson Taft II (half-brother) Mary Taft (half-sister) Alphonso Taft II (half-brother) Alphonso Taft III (half-brother) Samuel Davenport Taft (brother) Henry Waters Taft (brother) Horace Dutton Taft (brother) Frances Louise "Fanny" Taft (sister)

### Education

Yale University (BA)University of Cincinatti (LLB)

### Hair Color

Brown

**William Howard Taft** was elected the 27th President of the United States (1909-1913) and later became the tenth Chief Justice of the United States (1921-1930), the only person to have served in both of these offices.

*The Presidency of William Taft spanned the period in United States history that encompasses the events of the Maturation Era or the Gilded Age. President William Taft represented the Republican political party which influenced the domestic and foreign policies of his presidency including Taft's Dollar Diplomacy.*

## Biography

Distinguished jurist, effective administrator, but poor politician, William Howard Taft spent four uncomfortable years in the White House. Large, jovial, 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, he graduated from Yale, 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, he 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–“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 Professor of Law 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, the appointment was his greatest honor; he wrote: “I don’t remember that I ever was President.”

## Personality

The character traits of President William Taft can be described as outgoing, genial, gregarious, amiable and diligent, with a strong sense of responsibility. It has been speculated that the Myers-Briggs personality type for William Taft is an ESFJ (Extraversion, Sensing, Feeling, Judgment). An outgoing, sociable, expressive character and a nurturer of established social institutions. William Taft Personality type: Friendly, gregarous, cooperative, observant and informative.

## Nicknames

* "Big Will"
* "Big Chief"
* "Big Lub"

Meaning: The nickname of President William Taft provides an insight into how the man was viewed by the American public during his presidency. The meaning of the nickname "Big Lub" together with "Big Will" and "Big Chief" are a reference to his large size. His wife, Helen Taft, gave him the nickname of the "Sleeping Beauty" due to his habit of falling asleep on car rides.

## Inauguration

The **inauguration of William Howard Taft** as the 27th president of the United States was held on Thursday, March 4, 1909, at the Senate chamber inside the United States Capitol, Washington, D.C., instead of the regular East Portico due to blizzard. This was the 31st inauguration and marked the commencement of William Howard Taft's only term as president and James S. Sherman's only term as vice president.

As Sherman died 3 years, 240 days into this term, the office remained vacant for the balance: he was the last vice president to leave office intra-term prior to the ratification of the Twenty-fifth Amendment in 1967 (excluding Calvin Coolidge, Harry S. Truman and Lyndon B. Johnson, who ascended to the presidency after the deaths of their predecessors), which constitutionally allows for filling a vacancy in the office of vice president, and as of 2023, is also the most recent vice president to die in office.

## Accomplishments and major events

*The major accomplishments and the famous, main events that occurred during the time that William Taft was president included the Antitrust Policy, the Ballinger-Pinchot affair and the 1909 Payne-Aldrich Tariff Act. The Angel Island Immigration Station opened on January 21, 1910 in San Francisco Bay, California and the world was shocked by the Sinking of the Titanic in 1912.*

**The Progressive Movement**

Summary: The Progressive Movement and Progressive Reforms continued during the presidency of William Taft addressing political and social reforms relating to working conditions, child labor, education and female suffrage. Bribery and corruption, the political machines and unfair business practices were also attacked.

**Taft's Dollar Diplomacy**

Summary: The foreign policy of the administration was known as Taft's Dollar Diplomacy (1909 to 1913) and was designed to increase the economic power of the US, promoting trade in Latin America, the Caribbean, West Africa and East Asia. It also aimed at preventing foreign powers from increasing their financial foothold in key markets. William Taft's dollar diplomacy failed to counteract economic and political instability and resulted in animosity against the United States.

**The Payne-Aldrich Tariff Act of 1909**

Summary: The Payne-Aldrich Tariff Act of 1909 was designed to lower tariff rates but but also enacted a corporation tax. The law alienated President William Taft from the Progressives and Conservative Republicans who criticized the president for being weak and indecisive.

**The Ballinger-Pinchot Scandal**

Summary: The Ballinger-Pinchot Scandal exploded in November 1909 when conservationist Gifford Pinchot revealed that Richard Ballinger, the Secretary of the Interior, had made nearly 1 million acres of Alaskan public forests and coal fields open to private development.

**The U.S. and the Mexican Revolution**

Summary: The U.S. and the Mexican Revolution (1910 - 1920) saw two episodes of intervention and involvement by the US in the Mexican Revolution led by revolutionaries including Francisco "Pancho" Villa and Emiliano Zapata Salazar.

**The Mann-Elkins Act of 1910**

Summary: The Mann-Elkins Act of 1910 set railroad rates and regulate the telecommunications industry. The new law extended the authority of the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) to cover telephones, telegraphs and radio companies.

**The Postal Savings System**

Summary: The Postal Savings System was established by the Postal Savings Depository Act of 1910 introducing a system whereby certificates or savings stamps were issued to depositors as proof of their deposit and could be exchanged in amounts of $20 or more for postal savings bonds.

**1910: Angel Island Immigration Station**

Summary: The Angel Island Immigration Station was opened on January 21, 1910 in San Francisco Bay, California as a detention center for  immigrants from China, Japan and Asia.

**1912: Alcatraz Prison**

Summary: The new Alcatraz Prison construction was completed in 1912 as a high security penitentiary to house murderers, gangsters and bank robbers.

**1912: Sinking of the Titanic**

Summary: The Sinking of the Titanic  occurred on 15 April 1912 when the British passenger ship struck an iceberg and sank into the North Atlantic Ocean. A total of 1523 people died, there were only 705 survivors on the "unsinkable" ship.

## Post Presidency

### Return to Yale (1913–1921)

With no pension or other compensation to expect from the government after leaving the White House, Taft contemplated a return to the practice of law, from which he had long been absent. Given that Taft had appointed many federal judges, including a majority of the Supreme Court, this would raise questions of conflict of interest at every federal court appearance and he was saved from this by an offer for him to become Kent Professor of Law and Legal History at Yale Law School. He accepted, and after a month's vacation in Georgia, arrived in New Haven on April 1, 1913, to a rapturous reception. As it was too late in the semester for him to give an academic course, he instead prepared eight lectures on "Questions of Modern Government", which he delivered in May. He earned money with paid speeches and with articles for magazines, and would end his eight years out of office having increased his savings. While at Yale, he wrote the treatise, *Our Chief Magistrate and His Powers* (1916).
link=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Taft\_Harding\_Robert\_Lincoln\_1922.jpg|thumb|Taft (left) with President Warren G. Harding and Robert Lincoln at the dedication of the Lincoln Memorial, May 30, 1922
Taft had been made president of the Lincoln Memorial Commission while still in office; when Democrats proposed removing him for one of their party, he quipped that unlike losing the presidency, such a removal would hurt. The architect, Henry Bacon, wanted to use Colorado-Yule marble, while southern Democrats urged using Georgia marble. Taft lobbied for the western stone, and the matter was submitted to the Commission of Fine Arts, which supported Taft and Bacon. The project went forward; Taft would dedicate the Lincoln Memorial as chief justice in 1922. In 1913, Taft was elected to a one-year term as president of the American Bar Association (ABA), a trade group of lawyers. He removed opponents, such as Louis Brandeis and University of Pennsylvania Law School dean William Draper Lewis (a supporter of the Progressive Party) from committees.

Taft maintained a cordial relationship with Wilson. The former president privately criticized his successor on a number of issues, but made his views known publicly only on Philippine policy. 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. When hearings led to nothing discreditable about Brandeis, Taft intervened with a letter signed by himself and other former ABA presidents, stating that Brandeis was not fit to serve on the Supreme Court. Nevertheless, the Democratic-controlled Senate confirmed Brandeis. Taft and Roosevelt remained embittered; they met only once in the first three years of the Wilson presidency, at a funeral at Yale. They spoke only for a moment, politely but formally.

As president of the League to Enforce Peace, Taft hoped to prevent war through an international association of nations. With World War I raging in Europe, Taft sent Wilson a note of support for his foreign policy in 1915. 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. Taft supported the effort to get Justice Hughes to resign from the bench and accept the Republican presidential nomination. Once this was done, Hughes tried to get Roosevelt and Taft to reconcile, as a united effort was needed to defeat Wilson. This occurred on October 3 in New York, but Roosevelt allowed only a handshake, and no words were exchanged. 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. Hays, approached Taft seeking his reconciliation with Roosevelt. While at the Palmer House in Chicago, Taft heard that Roosevelt was there having dinner, and after he walked in, the two men embraced to the applause of the room, but the relationship did not progress; Roosevelt died in January 1919. Taft later wrote, "Had he died in a hostile state of mind toward me, I would have mourned the fact all my life. I loved him always and cherish his memory."

When Wilson proposed establishment of a League of Nations, Taft expressed public support. He was the leader of his party's activist wing, and was opposed by a small group of senators who vigorously opposed the League. Taft's flip-flop on whether reservations to the Versailles Treaty were necessary angered both sides, causing some Republicans to call him a Wilson supporter and a traitor to his party. The Senate refused to ratify the Versailles pact.

### 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. By Taft's later account, after some conversation, Harding casually asked if Taft would accept appointment to the Supreme Court; if Taft would, Harding would appoint him. Taft had a condition for Harding—having served as president, and having appointed two of the present associate justices and opposed Brandeis, he could accept only the chief justice position. Harding made no response, and Taft in a thank-you note reiterated the condition and stated that Chief Justice White had often told him he was keeping the position for Taft until a Republican held the White House. 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. Taft called on the chief justice on March 26, and found White ill, but still carrying on his work and not talking of retiring. White did not retire, dying in office on May 19, 1921. Taft issued a tribute to the man he had appointed to the center seat, and waited and worried if he would be White's successor. Despite widespread speculation Taft would be the pick, Harding made no quick announcement. Taft was lobbying for himself behind the scenes, especially with the Ohio politicians who formed Harding's inner circle.

It later emerged that Harding had also promised former Utah senator George Sutherland a seat on the Supreme Court, and was waiting in the expectation that another place would become vacant. Harding was also considering a proposal by Justice William R. Day to crown his career by being chief justice for six months before retiring. Taft felt, when he learned of this plan, that a short-term appointment would not serve the office well, and that once confirmed by the Senate, the memory of Day would grow dim. 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. The Senate confirmed Taft the same day, 61–4, without any committee hearings and after a brief debate in executive session. Taft drew the objections of three progressive Republicans and one southern Democrat. When he was sworn in on July 11, he became the first and to date only person to serve both as president and chief justice.

### Jurisprudence

#### Commerce Clause

The Supreme Court under Taft compiled a conservative record in Commerce Clause jurisprudence. This had the practical effect of making it difficult for the federal government to regulate industry, and the Taft Court also scuttled many state laws. 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. Dagenhart*. Congress thereafter attempted to end child labor by imposing a tax on certain corporations making use of it. That law was overturned by the Supreme Court in 1922 in *Bailey v. Drexel Furniture Co.*, with Taft writing the court's opinion for an 8–1 majority. He held that the tax was not intended to raise revenue, but rather was an attempt to regulate matters reserved to the states under the Tenth Amendment, and that allowing such taxation would eliminate the power of the states. One case in which Taft and his court upheld federal regulation was *Stafford v. Wallace*. Taft ruled for a 7–1 majority that the processing of animals in stockyards was so closely tied to interstate commerce as to bring it within the ambit of Congress's power to regulate.

A case in which the Taft Court struck down regulation that generated a dissent from the chief justice was *Adkins v. Children's Hospital*. Congress had decreed a minimum wage for women in the District of Columbia. A 5–3 majority of the Supreme Court struck it down. Justice Sutherland wrote for the majority that the recently ratified Nineteenth Amendment, guaranteeing women the vote, meant that the sexes were equal when it came to bargaining power over working conditions; Taft, in dissent, deemed this unrealistic. 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. Porto Rico*. One of the Insular Cases, *Balzac* involved a Puerto Rico newspaper publisher who was prosecuted for libel but denied a jury trial, a Sixth Amendment protection under the constitution. 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. United States* that Congress could not require the president to get Senate approval before removing an appointee. Taft noted that there is no restriction of the president's power to remove officials in the Constitution. Although *Myers* involved the removal of a postmaster, Taft in his opinion found invalid the repealed Tenure of Office Act, for violation of which his presidential predecessor, Andrew Johnson, had been impeached, though acquitted by the Senate. Taft valued *Myers* as his most important opinion.

The following year, the court decided *McGrain v. Daugherty*. A congressional committee investigating possible complicity of former Attorney General Daugherty in the Teapot Dome scandal subpoenaed records from his brother, Mally, who refused to provide them, alleging Congress had no power to obtain documents from him. 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. In *Gitlow v. New York*, the Court, by a 6–2 vote with Taft in the majority, upheld Gitlow's conviction on criminal anarchy charges for advocating the overthrow of the government; his defense was freedom of speech. Justice Edward T. Sanford wrote the Court's opinion, and both majority and minority (Holmes, joined by Brandeis) assumed that the First Amendment's Free Speech and Free Press clauses were protected against infringement by the states.

*Pierce v. Society of Sisters* was a 1925 decision by the Taft Court striking down an Oregon law banning private schools. In a decision written by Justice James C. McReynolds, a unanimous court held that Oregon could regulate private schools, but could not eliminate them. The outcome supported the right of parents to control the education of their children, but also, since the lead plaintiff (the society) ran Catholic schools, struck a blow for religious freedom.

*United States v. Lanza* was one of a series of cases involving Prohibition. Lanza committed acts allegedly in violation of both state and federal law, and was first convicted in Washington state court, then prosecuted in federal district court. He alleged the second prosecution violated the Double Jeopardy Clause of the Fifth Amendment. 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. Rice*, Taft wrote for a unanimous Court that included liberals Holmes, Brandeis and Stone. The ruling held the exclusion on account of race of a child of Chinese ancestry from a whites-only public school did not violate the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. This allowed states to extend segregation in public schools to Chinese students.

### Administration and political influence

Taft exercised the power of his position to influence the decisions of his colleagues, urging unanimity and discouraging dissents. Alpheus Mason, in his article on Chief Justice Taft for the *American Bar Association Journal*, contrasted Taft's expansive view of the role of the chief justice with the narrow view of presidential power he took while in that office. Taft saw nothing wrong with making his views on possible appointments to the Court known to the White House, and was annoyed to be criticized in the press. 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. Taft advised the Republican presidents in office while he was chief justice to avoid "offside" appointments like Brandeis and Holmes. 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. He also believed the federal courts had been ill-run. Many of the lower courts had lengthy backlogs, as did the Supreme Court. Immediately on taking office, Taft made it a priority to confer with Attorney General Daugherty as to new legislation, and made his case before congressional hearings, in legal periodicals and in speeches across the country. 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. Congress objected to some aspects, requiring Taft to get the agreement of the senior judge of each involved circuit before assigning a judge, but it passed the bill in September 1922, and the Judicial Conference of Senior Circuit Judges held its first meeting that December.

The Supreme Court's docket was congested, swelled by war litigation and laws that allowed a party defeated in the circuit court of appeals to have the case decided by the Supreme Court if a constitutional question was involved. Taft believed an appeal should usually be settled by the circuit court, with only cases of major import decided by the justices. He and other Supreme Court members proposed legislation to make most of the Court's docket discretionary, with a case getting full consideration by the justices only if they granted a writ of *certiorari*. To Taft's frustration, Congress took three years to consider the matter. Taft and other members of the Court lobbied for the bill in Congress, and the Judges' Bill became law in February 1925. By late the following year, Taft was able to show that the backlog was shrinking.

When Taft became Chief Justice, the Court did not have its own building and met in the Capitol. Its offices were cluttered and overcrowded, but Fuller and White had been opposed to proposals to move the Court to its own building. 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. Cass Gilbert had prepared plans for the building, and was hired by the government as architect. Taft had hoped to see the Court move into the new building, but it did not do so until 1935, after Taft's death.

## Death

Taft followed a weight loss program and hired the British doctor N. E. Yorke-Davies as a dietary advisor. 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. His health gradually declined over the near-decade of his chief justiceship. 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. 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. Taft went to Asheville, North Carolina, for a rest, but by the end of January, he could barely speak and was hallucinating. Taft was afraid that Stone would be made chief justice; he did not resign until he had secured assurances from Hoover that Hughes would be chosen. Taft resigned as chief justice on February 3, 1930. Returning to Washington after his resignation, Taft had barely enough physical or emotional strength to sign a reply to a letter of tribute from the eight associate justices. He died at his home in Washington, D.C., on March 8, 1930, at age 72, likely of heart disease, inflammation of the liver, and high blood pressure. Taft layed in state at the United States Capitol rotunda. On March 11, he became the first president and first member of the Supreme Court to be buried at Arlington National Cemetery. James Earle Fraser sculpted his grave marker out of Stony Creek granite.

## Facts and trivia

* William Howard Taft is the only person in American history to serve as both President of the United States and Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.
* Taft was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, the son of Alphonso Taft and Louise Torrey. The Taft family was not wealthy, living in a modest home in the suburb of Mount Auburn. Alphonso served as a judge and an ambassador, and was U.S. Secretary of War and Attorney General under President Ulysses S. Grant.
* Taft was not seen as brilliant as a child, but was a hard worker; his demanding parents pushed him and his four brothers toward success, tolerating nothing less. He attended Woodward High School in Cincinnati.
* At Yale College, which he entered in 1874, the heavyset, jovial Taft was popular and an intramural heavyweight wrestling champion. One classmate said he succeeded through hard work rather than by being the smartest, and had integrity.
* Taft was elected a member of Skull and Bones, the Yale secret society co-founded by his father, one of three future presidents (with George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush) to be a member. In 1878, he graduated second in his class of 121.
* Taft attended Cincinnati Law School, and graduated with a Bachelor of Laws in 1880. While in law school, he worked on *The Cincinnati Commercial* newspaper, edited by Murat Halstead. Taft was assigned to cover the local courts, and also spent time reading law in his father's office; both activities gave him practical knowledge of the law that was not taught in class.
* Shortly before graduating from law school, Taft went to Columbus to take the bar examination and easily passed.
* In October 1880, Taft was appointed assistant prosecutor for Hamilton County (where Cincinnati is located), and took office the following January. Taft served for a year as assistant prosecutor, trying his share of routine cases. He resigned in January 1882 after President Chester A. Arthur appointed him Collector of Internal Revenue for Ohio's First District, an area centered on Cincinnati.
* In 1884, Taft campaigned for the Republican candidate for president, Maine Senator James G. Blaine, who lost to New York Governor Grover Cleveland.
* At the age of 29, Taft was appointed to fill a vacancy on the Superior Court of Cincinnati.
* 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. 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. William Taft remained devoted to his wife throughout their almost 44 years of marriage. Nellie Taft pushed her husband much as his parents had, and she could be very frank with her criticisms.
* The Taft's had three children, of whom the eldest, Robert, became a U.S. senator.
* There was a seat vacant on the U.S. Supreme Court in 1889, and Governor Foraker suggested President Benjamin Harrison appoint Taft to fill it. Taft was 32 and his professional goal was always a seat on the Supreme Court.
* Taft continued a rapid rise in federal government, being named solicitor general and a judge of the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals.
* In 1901, President William McKinley appointed Taft civilian governor of the Philippines.
* In 1904, President Theodore Roosevelt made Taft Secretary of War, and he became Roosevelt's hand-picked successor.
* 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.
* Taft was sworn in as president on March 4, 1909. Due to a winter storm that coated Washington with ice, Taft was inaugurated within the Senate Chamber rather than outside the Capitol as is customary. The new president stated in his inaugural address that he had been honored to have been "one of the advisers of my distinguished predecessor" and to have had a part "in the reforms he has initiated.
* Early in Taft's term, in May 1909, Taft's wife Nellie had a severe stroke that left her paralyzed in one arm and one leg and deprived her of the power of speech. Taft spent several hours each day looking after her and teaching her to speak again, which took a year.
* Taft's appreciation for fresh milk led him to keep a dairy cow on the White House Lawn. He was also the first president to have an automobile at the residence.
* 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."
* As president, Taft focused on East Asia more than European affairs and repeatedly intervened to prop up or remove Latin American governments.
* Taft sought reductions to trade tariffs, then a major source of governmental income, but the resulting bill was heavily influenced by special interests.
* During his tenure, Taft oversaw the addition of the 16th and 17th Amendments, as well as the admittance of New Mexico and Arizona to the Union.
* Taft's administration was filled with conflict between the Republican Party's conservative wing, with which Taft often sympathized, and its progressive wing, toward which Roosevelt moved more and more. Controversies over conservation and antitrust cases filed by the Taft administration served to further separate the two men.
* Roosevelt challenged Taft for renomination in 1912. Taft used his control of the party machinery to gain a bare majority of delegates and Roosevelt bolted the party. The split left Taft with little chance of reelection, and he took only Utah and Vermont in Woodrow Wilson's victory.
* With no pension or other compensation to expect from the government after leaving the White House, Taft contemplated a return to the practice of law, from which he had long been absent.
* After leaving office, Taft returned to Yale as a professor, continuing his political activity and working against war through the League to Enforce Peace.
* Taft maintained a cordial relationship with Wilson. The former president privately criticized his successor on a number of issues, but made his views known publicly only on Philippine policy. 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.
* In 1921, President Warren G. Harding appointed Taft chief justice, an office he had long sought. Chief Justice Taft was a conservative on business issues, and under him there were advances in individual rights.
* Taft had been made president of the Lincoln Memorial Commission while still in office; when Democrats proposed removing him for one of their party, he quipped that unlike losing the presidency, such a removal would hurt. The architect, Henry Bacon, wanted to use Colorado-Yule marble, while southern Democrats urged using Georgia marble. Taft lobbied for the western stone, and the matter was submitted to the Commission of Fine Arts, which supported Taft and Bacon. The project went forward; Taft would dedicate the Lincoln Memorial as chief justice in 1922.
* Taft is the only President to administer the Oath of Office to another President, who was Herbert Hoover. 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.
* Taft is remembered as the heaviest president; he was 5 feet 11 inches (1.80 m) tall and his weight peaked at 335–340 pounds (152–154 kg) toward the end of his presidency, although this later decreased, and by 1929 he weighed 244 pounds (111 kg). By the time Taft became chief justice in 1921, his health was starting to decline, and he carefully planned a fitness regimen, walking 3 miles (4.8 km) from his home to the Capitol each day. When he walked home after work, he would usually go by way of Connecticut Avenue and use a particular crossing over Rock Creek. After his death, the crossing was named the Taft Bridge.
* Taft followed a weight loss program and hired the British doctor N. E. Yorke-Davies as a dietary advisor. The two men corresponded regularly for over twenty years, and Taft kept a daily record of his weight, food intake, and physical activity.
* 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. 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. Taft went to Asheville, North Carolina, for a rest, but by the end of January, he could barely speak and was suffering from hallucinations.
* Taft resigned as chief justice on February 3, 1930. Returning to Washington after his resignation, Taft had barely enough physical or emotional strength to sign a reply to a letter of tribute from the eight associate justices. He died at his home in Washington D.C. on March 8, 1930 at age 72, likely of heart disease, inflammation of the liver, and high blood pressure.
* Taft lay in state at the United States Capitol rotunda. Three days following his death, on March 11, he became the first president and first member of the Supreme Court to be buried at Arlington National Cemetery. James Earle Fraser sculpted his grave marker out of Stony Creek granite.
* Taft was convinced history would vindicate him. After he left office, he was estimated to be about in the middle of U.S. presidents by greatness, and subsequent rankings by historians have by and large sustained that verdict.
* The house in Cincinnati in which Taft was born and lived as a boy is now the William Howard Taft National Historic Site.
* Taft was named one of the first Gold Medal Honorees of the National Institute of Social Sciences.
* Taft's son Robert was a significant political figure, becoming Senate Majority Leader and three times a major contender for the Republican nomination for president. A conservative, each time he was defeated by a candidate backed by the more liberal Eastern Establishment wing of the party.

## References

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William\_Howard\_Taft#
* https://www.whitehouse.gov/about-the-white-house/presidents/william-howard-taft/
* http://www.spangledwithstars.com/us-presidents/william-taft.htm
* https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Taft-21