View source for Directory:William Howard Taft

{{Infobox Chief Justice
| name=William Howard Taft
| image=William Howard Taft.jpg
| office=10th [[Chief Justice of the United States]]
| nominator=[[Warren G. Harding]]
| term_start=[[July 11]] [[1921]]
| term_end=[[February 3]] [[1930]]
| predecessor=[[Edward Douglass White]]
| successor=[[Charles Evans Hughes]]
| order2=27th 
| office2=President of the United States
| term_start2=[[March 4]] [[1909]]
| term_end2=[[March 4]] [[1913]]
| vicepresident2=[[James S. Sherman]], (1909–1912) <br/> ''None'' (1912–1913)
| predecessor2=[[Theodore Roosevelt]]
| successor2=[[Woodrow Wilson]]
| order3=1st [[List of Presidents of Cuba|Provisional Governor of Cuba]]
| term_start3=[[September 29]], [[1906]]
| term_end3=[[October 13]], [[1906]]
| president3=
| predecessor3=[[Tomás Estrada Palma]] (President of Cuba)
| successor3=[[Charles Magoon]] (U.S. Governor)
| order4=42nd [[United States Secretary of War]]
| term_start4=[[February 1]], [[1904]]
| term_end4=[[June 30]], [[1908]]
| president4=[[Theodore Roosevelt]]
| predecessor4=[[Elihu Root]]
| successor4=[[Luke Edward Wright]]
| order5=1st [[Governor-General of the Philippines|Civil Governor of the Philippines]]
| term_start5=[[July 4]], [[1901]]
| term_end5=[[December 23]], [[1903]]
| predecessor5=[[Arthur MacArthur, Jr.]] <br/> (U.S. Military Governor)
| successor5=[[Luke Edward Wright]]
| order6=5th [[United States Solicitor General]]
| term_start6=February 1890
| term_end6=March, 1892
| president6=[[Benjamin Harrison]]
| predecessor6=[[Orlow W. Chapman]]
| successor6=[[Charles H. Aldrich]]
| birth_date=[[September 15]], [[1857]]
| birth_place=[[Cincinnati, Ohio|Cincinnati]], [[Ohio]]
| death_date={{death date and age|1930|3|8|1857|9|15}}
| death_place=[[Washington, D.C.]]
| spouse=[[Helen Herron Taft]]
| alma_mater=[[Yale University]] <br/> [[University of Cincinnati]]
| occupation=[[Lawyer]], [[Jurist]]
| party=[[Republican Party (United States)|Republican]]
| religion=[[Unitarian]]
| signature=W.H.Taft Signature.png
|}}
'''William Howard Taft''' ([[September 15]] [[1857]] – [[March 8]] [[1930]]) was an [[Politics of the United States|American politician]], the twenty-seventh [[President of the United States]], the tenth [[Chief Justice of the United States]], a leader of the progressive conservative wing of the [[History of the United States Republican Party|Republican Party]] in the early 20th century, a pioneer in [[international arbitration]] and staunch advocate of world peace verging on pacifism, and scion of a leading political family, the [[Taft family|Tafts]], of [[Ohio]].

Taft served as the [[Solicitor General of the United States]], a federal judge, [[Governor-General of the Philippines]], and [[United States Secretary of War|Secretary of War]] before being nominated for President in the [[1908 Republican National Convention]] with the backing of his predecessor and close friend [[Theodore Roosevelt]].

His presidency was characterized by [[trust-busting]], strengthening the [[Interstate Commerce Commission]], expanding the [[civil service]], establishing a better [[United States Postal Service|postal system]], 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 [[History of United States Republican Party|Republican nomination]] in a bruising battle in [[U.S. presidential election, 1912|1912]] 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 to a second consecutive term. During [[World War I]] he helped set national labor policy that reduced strikes and generated union support for the national cause. In 1921, he became [[Chief Justice of the United States|Chief Justice]]. 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 [[September 15]], [[1857]], in [[Cincinnati, Ohio]], the third of five children. His mother, [[Louisa Torrey]], was a graduate of [[Mount Holyoke College]]. His father, [[Alphonso Taft]], came to Cincinnati in 1839 to open a law practice.<ref>[http://www.answers.com/topic/alphonso-taft ''http://www.answers.com/topic/alphonso-taft'']</ref> Alphonso Taft was a prominent Republican and served as [[United States Secretary of War|Secretary of War]] under President [[Ulysses S. Grant]].

Taft was brought up in the [[Unitarian]] 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."<ref>[http://www.firstamendmentcenter.org/PDF/religioninamericanhistory.PDF ''Papers of William Howard Taft'', Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.]</ref>). At age 18, he met his future wife, [[Helen Herron Taft|Helen Herron]], in Cincinnati; she and Taft courted while he was away at college. He enjoyed spending time with his aunt, Meredith Johnson, who required wheelchair and crutches to get around.

The [[William Howard Taft National Historic Site]] 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.<ref>[http://www.nps.gov/wiho ''http://www.nps.gov/wiho'']</ref>

===Education===
In 1874, Taft attended [[Woodward High School (Cincinnati, Ohio)|Woodward High School]]. Like most of his family, he attended [[Yale College]] in New Haven, Connecticut. At Yale, he was a member of the [[Linonian Society]], a literary and debate society; [[Skull and Bones]], the secret society co-founded by his father in 1832; and the Beta chapter of the [[Psi Upsilon]] fraternity. Later in life he was also inducted into the Omicron-Omicron chapter of the secret society of [[Theta Nu Epsilon]], after delivering the commencement address to the class of 1910 at [[Ohio Northern University]]. He was given the nickname "Big Lub" because of his size, but his college friends knew him by the nickname "Old Bill".<ref>[http://www.arlingtoncemetery.net/whtaft.htm ArlingtonCemetery.Net citing ''New York Times.'' "Obituary: Taft Gained Peaks in Unusual Career." March 9, 1930.]</ref> Taft received jibes about his weight throughout his life: as governor of the Philippines, Taft once sent a telegram to [[Washington, D.C.]] that read, "Went on a horse ride today; feeling good;" Secretary of War [[Elihu Root]] replied, "How's the horse?" In 1878, Taft graduated from Yale, ranking second in his class out of 121.<ref>[http://www.arlingtoncemetery.net/whtaft.htm ArlingtonCemetery.Net citing ''New York Times.'' "Obituary: Taft Gained Peaks in Unusual Career." [[March 9]], [[1930]].]</ref> After college, he attended [[Cincinnati Law School]], graduating with a [[Bachelor of Laws]] in 1880. While in law school, he worked on the area newspaper ''[[The Cincinnati Commercial]]''.<ref>[http://www.arlingtoncemetery.net/whtaft.htm ArlingtonCemetery.Net citing ''New York Times.'' "Obituary: Taft Gained Peaks in Unusual Career." [[March 9]], [[1930]].]</ref>

===Career===
[[Image:Taft-Root.jpg|thumb|left|Taft with [[United States Secretary of War|Secretary of War]] [[Elihu Root]] in 1904.]]
After admission to the Ohio [[bar (law)|bar]], Taft was appointed Assistant [[Prosecutor]] of [[Hamilton County, Ohio]], based in Cincinnati. In 1882, he was appointed local Collector of [[Internal Revenue Service|Internal Revenue]]. Taft married his longtime sweetheart, [[Helen Herron Taft|Helen Herron]], in Cincinnati in 1886. In 1887, he was appointed as a judge of the Ohio Superior Court. In 1890, President [[Benjamin Harrison]] appointed him [[Solicitor General of the United States]]. In 1892 Harrison appointed him to the newly created [[United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit]], a post that he held until 1900. It was then that he met Theodore Roosevelt for the first time. In about 1893, Taft decided in favor of one or more patents for processing [[aluminium]] belonging to the Pittsburg Reduction Company, today known as [[Alcoa]], who settled with the other party in 1903 and became for a short while the only aluminium producer in the U.S.<ref>{{cite news|title=Against the Cowles Company, Decision in the Aluminium Patent Infringment Case (article preview)|url=http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9904E3DE1731E033A25756C1A9679C94629ED7CF|work=The New York Times|publisher=The New York Times Company|date=[[15 January]] [[1893]]|accessdate=2007-10-28}} and {{cite book|author=Rosenbaum, David Ira|title=Market Dominance: How Firms Gain, Hold, or Lose It and the Impact on Economic Performance|url=http://www.greenwood.com/catalog/C5604.aspx|pages=56 briefly visible in [http://books.google.com/books?id=htQDB-Pf4VIC Google Books] limited view|publisher=Praeger Publishers via Greenwood Publishing Group|isbn=0-2759-5604-0|date=1998|accessdate=2007-11-03}}</ref>

In addition to his judgeship, between 1896 and 1900 Taft also served as the first dean and a professor of constitutional law at the [[University of Cincinnati]].<ref>[http://www.law.uc.edu/current/taft06/ ''Cincinnati Law School: 2006 William Howard Taft Lecture on Constitutional Law'']</ref> Eventually, he became the chief judge of the Sixth Circuit. One of Taft's most famous opinions was in ''[[Addyston Pipe and Steel Company v. United States]]'' (1898).

In 1900, President [[William McKinley]] appointed Taft as the chairman of a commission to organize a civilian government in the [[Philippines]], which had been ceded to the United States by [[Spain]] following the [[Spanish-American War]] and the [[Treaty of Paris (1898)|1898 Treaty of Paris]]. 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 [[Filipino people|Filipinos]]. In 1902, Taft visited Rome to negotiate with [[Pope Leo XIII]] 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 [[Manila]] as Governor-General.

==Secretary of War, 1904–1908==
In 1904, Roosevelt appointed Taft as [[Secretary of War]]. 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 [[Japan]], who alerted him of the probability of war with [[Russia]]. In 1906, Roosevelt sent troops to restore order in [[Cuba]] during the revolt led by General [[Enrique Loynaz del Castillo]], and Taft temporarily became the Civil [[List of Presidents of Cuba|Governor of Cuba]], personally negotiating with General Castillo for a peaceful end to the revolt. In 1907, Secretary Taft helped supervise the beginning of construction on the [[Panama Canal]]. 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.

==Presidency 1909–1913==
[[Image:TaftOfficial Portrait.jpg|thumb|right|Official [[White House]] portrait of William Howard Taft in the [[Blue Room (White House)|Blue Room]], 1911, oil on canvas by [[Anders Leonard Zorn]] (1860–1920), White House Collection.]]
{{see also|United States presidential election, 1908}}

===Policies===
[[Image:ElectoralCollege1908-Large.png|left|thumb|Electoral votes by state, 1908.]]
{{Sound sample box align right|A speech by Taft}}
{{Listen|filename=Taft - The Farmer and the Republican Party.ogg|title="The Farmer and the Republican Party"|description=A speech given in Kansas City, Missouri, 1908|format=[[Ogg]]}}
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After serving for nearly two full terms, the popular [[Theodore Roosevelt]] refused to run in [[United States presidential election, 1908|the election of 1908]]. 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 [[William Jennings Bryan]]. 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 [[Payne-Aldrich tariff]] of 1909 was too high for most reformers, but instead of blaming this on Senator [[Nelson Aldrich]] 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, [[U.S. Steel]], 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 [[Robert M. LaFollette, Sr.|Robert LaFollette]] of [[Wisconsin]] created the [[National Progressive Republican League]] 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 [[Gifford Pinchot]], a leading conservationist and close ally of Roosevelt. Pinchot alleged that Taft's Secretary of Interior [[Richard Ballinger]] was in league with big timber interests. Conservationists sided with Pinchot, and Taft alienated yet another vocal constituency.

Taft fought for the [[Antitrust|prosecution of trusts]] (eventually issuing 80 lawsuits),<ref>[http://www.whitehouse.gov/history/presidents/wt27.html Biography of William Howard Taft<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref> further strengthened the [[Interstate Commerce Commission]], established a [[Postal savings system|postal savings bank]] and a [[parcel post]] system, and expanded the civil service. He supported the [[Sixteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution|16th Amendment]], which allowed for a federal income tax, and the [[Seventeenth Amendment to the United States Constitution|17th Amendment]], mandating the direct election of [[United States Senate|senators]] by the people, replacing the previous system whereby they were selected by [[State legislature (United States)|state legislature]]s.
[[Image:Old-friend.JPG|right|thumb|Taft and Roosevelt were bitter enemies in the 1912 election]]

===Foreign policy===
Taft actively pursued what he termed "[[dollar diplomacy]]" 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 [[Nicaragua]]. When the United States shifted its interests to [[Panama]] for the purpose of building a canal, Nicaraguan President [[José Santos Zelaya]] negotiated with [[Germany]] 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, [[United States Marines]] landed on Nicaragua's [[Caribbean Sea]] coast. On [[December 17]], [[1909]], Zelaya resigned and left for exile in [[Mexico]]. The U.S.-sponsored conservative regime of [[Adolfo Díaz]] 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 [[world peace]]. Given his judicial sensibilities, he believed that international [[arbitration]] was the best means to effectuate the end of [[war]] on Earth. As such, he championed several reciprocity and arbitration treaties. In 1910, he convinced congressional Democrats to support a reciprocity treaty with [[Canada]], but the [[Liberal Party (Canada)|Liberal]] Canadian government of [[Wilfrid Laurier]] 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 [[United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland|Britain]] and [[France]] and thereafter was known as one of the foremost advocates of world peace and arbitration.

[[Image:WmHTaft.jpg|thumb|left|President William Howard Taft.]]

===16th Amendment===
To solve an impasse during the 1909 tariff debate, Taft proposed income taxes for corporations and a constitutional amendment to remove the apportionment requirement for taxes on incomes from property (taxes on dividends, interest and rents), on June 16, 1909.<ref>President Taft speech of June 16, 1909 [http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/print.php?pid=68517]</ref> 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 [[Flint v. Stone Tracy Co.]], upheld the tax. Receipts grew from $21 million in the fiscal year 1910 to $34.8 million in 1912.

In July, 1909, a proposed amendment to remove the apportionment requirement was passed unanimously in the Senate and by a vote of 318 to 14 in the House. It was quickly ratified by the states, and in February 3, 1913, it became a part of the Constitution as the [[Sixteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution|Sixteenth Amendment]], as Taft was leaving office.

===Party schism===
{{see also|U.S. presidential election, 1912}}
Despite his obvious achievements, progressives decried Taft's acceptance of the ''[[Payne-Aldrich Tariff Act]]'', which lowered the tariff on the farm products of the western states, whose citizens desired lower rates on Eastern factory products. Taft opposed the entry of the state of [[Arizona]] into the Union because of its judicial features. Progressives grumbled that he worked too closely with conservative Senator [[Nelson W. Aldrich]] and [[Speaker of the United States House of Representatives|Speaker of the House]] [[Joseph G. Cannon]]. 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 [[Elihu Root]], [[Henry Stimson]], and Roosevelt's own son-in-law, [[Nicholas Longworth]]. 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.

[[Image:ElectoralCollege1912-Large.png|right|thumb|Electoral votes by state, 1912.]]
Instead, Roosevelt was forced to create the [[Progressive Party (United States, 1912)|Progressive Party]] (or "Bull Moose") ticket, splitting the Republican vote in the [[U.S. presidential election, 1912|1912 election]]. [[Woodrow Wilson]], 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 [[Utah]] and [[Vermont]], 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.

===Administration and cabinet===
<div align="left">
{| cellpadding="1" cellspacing="5" style="margin:3px; border:3px solid #000000;"
!OFFICE
!NAME
!TERM
|-
!bgcolor="#000000" colspan=3 |
|-
|[[President of the United States|President]]||'''William Howard Taft'''||1909–1913
|-
|rowspan=2 valign=top |[[Vice President of the United States|Vice President]]||'''[[James S. Sherman]]'''||1909–1912
|-
| ''None''||1912–1913
|-
!bgcolor="#000000" colspan="3"|
|-
|[[United States Secretary of State|Secretary of State]]||'''[[Philander C. Knox]]'''||1909–1913
|-
!bgcolor="#D1D1D1" colspan="3"|
|-
|[[United States Secretary of the Treasury|Secretary of the Treasury]]||'''[[Franklin MacVeagh]]'''||1909–1913
|-
!bgcolor="#D1D1D1" colspan="3"|
|-
|rowspan=2 valign=top |[[United States Secretary of War|Secretary of War]]||'''[[Jacob M. Dickinson]]'''||1909–1911
|-
| '''[[Henry L. Stimson]]'''||1911–1913
|-
!bgcolor="#D1D1D1" colspan="3"|
|-
|[[Attorney General of the United States|Attorney General]]||'''[[George W. Wickersham]]'''||1909–1913
|-
!bgcolor="#D1D1D1" colspan="3"|
|-
|[[Postmaster General of the United States|Postmaster General]]||'''[[Frank H. Hitchcock]]'''||1909–1913
|-
!bgcolor="#D1D1D1" colspan="3"|
|-
|[[United States Secretary of the Navy|Secretary of the Navy]]||'''[[George von Lengerke Meyer|George von L. Meyer]]'''||1909–1913
|-
!bgcolor="#D1D1D1" colspan="3"|
|-
| rowspan=2 valign=top |[[United States Secretary of the Interior|Secretary of the Interior]]||'''[[Richard Achilles Ballinger|Richard A. Ballinger]]'''||1909–1911
|-
| '''[[Walter L. Fisher]]'''||1911–1913
|-
!bgcolor="#D1D1D1" colspan="3"|
|-
|[[United States Secretary of Agriculture|Secretary of Agriculture]]||'''[[James Wilson (U.S. politician)|James Wilson]]'''||1909–1913
|-
!bgcolor="#D1D1D1" colspan="3"|
|-
|[[United States Secretary of Commerce and Labor|Secretary of Commerce & Labor]]||'''[[Charles Nagel]]'''||1909–1913
|-
|}
</div>
[[Image:TAFT1909.JPG|thumb|Handing off responsibility in 1909.]]

===Supreme Court appointments===
During his presidency, Taft appointed the following Justices to the [[Supreme Court of the United States]]:

*[[Horace Harmon Lurton]] — 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.
*[[Charles Evans Hughes]] — 1910
:Even though Hughes resigned in 1916 to run in the [[U.S. presidential election, 1916|presidential election that year]], he became Taft's successor as Chief Justice.
*[[Edward Douglass White]] — 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.
*[[Willis Van Devanter]] — 1911
*[[Joseph Rucker Lamar]] — 1911
*[[Mahlon Pitney]] — 1912

Taft's six appointments to the Court rank (in number) third only to those of [[George Washington]] (who appointed the entire Court as the first President) and [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]] (who was president for twelve years); as well, his appointment of five new justices ties the number appointed by [[Andrew Jackson]] and [[Abraham Lincoln]]. 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 [[Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court|Associate Justice]], but later resigned to run for the [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican Party's]] presidential candidate in the [[U.S. presidential election, 1916|1916 election]], which he would lose. President [[Herbert Hoover]] renominated Hughes to the Supreme Court as Chief Justice following Taft's retirement.

===States admitted to the Union===
*[[New Mexico]]: [[January 6]], [[1912]]
*[[Arizona]]: [[February 14]], [[1912]]. Taft had opposed the admission of Arizona owing to what he viewed as defects in its judicial system.

==Post-presidency==
[[Image:NG1917 Charles Phelps Taft II.png|thumb|Taft says goodbye to his son, [[Charles Phelps Taft II]] as he leaves for [[World War I]]]]
Upon leaving the White House in 1913, Taft was appointed the Chancellor Kent Professor of Law and Legal History at [[Yale Law School]]. Upon his appointment, the Yale Chapter of the [[Acacia Fraternity]] made him an honorary member. At the same time Taft was elected president of the [[American Bar Association]]. He spent much of his time writing newspaper articles and books, most notably his series on American [[legal philosophy]]. He was a vigorous opponent of [[prohibition in the United States]], predicting the undesirable situation that the [[Eighteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution|Eighteenth Amendment]] and prohibition in general would create.<ref>[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,731975,00.html?promoid=googlep ''Burton, Baker, Taft''], ''Time Magazine'' (October 15, 1928).</ref> 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 [[League of Nations]] even before the [[First World War]] began.

When World War I did break out in [[Europe]] in 1914, however, Taft founded the '''League to Enforce Peace'''. He was co-chair of the powerful [[National War Labor Board]] between 1917 and 1918. Although he continually advocated peace, he strongly favored [[conscription]] 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 [[Warren G. Harding]] nominated Taft to take his place, thereby fulfilling Taft's lifelong ambition to become Chief Justice of the United States. Very little opposition existed to the nomination, and the [[United States Senate|Senate]] approved him 60-4 in a secret session, but the roll call of the vote has never been made public.<ref>[http://assets.opencrs.com/rpts/RL33225_20060105.pdf''CRS report on Supreme Court nominees 1789-2005], page 41</ref> 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 [[Calvin Coolidge]] (in 1925) and [[Herbert Hoover]] (in 1929). He remains the only person to have led both the [[executive (government)|Executive]] and [[judiciary|Judicial]] branches of the [[Federal government of the United States|United States government]]. 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."

[[Image:Taft-Harding-Lincoln.jpg|thumb|[[Chief Justice of the United States|Chief Justice]] Taft with [[President of the United States|President]] [[Warren G. Harding]] and former [[United States Secretary of War|Secretary of War]] [[Robert Todd Lincoln]], ca. 1922]]

In 1922, Taft traveled to [[England]] 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, [[George V of the United Kingdom|King George V]] and [[Mary of Teck|Queen Mary]] received Taft and his wife as state visitors. With what he had learned in England, Taft advocated passage of the ''[[Judiciary Act of 1925]]'' (often called the "Judges Bill"), which shifted the Supreme Court's appellate jurisdiction to be exercisable principally on review by [[writ of certiorari]], 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 [[law clerk]]s.

In 1929, Taft successfully argued for the construction of the [[United States Supreme Court building|Supreme Court Building]], reasoning that the court needed to distance itself from Congress as a separate branch of government. Until then, the Court had heard cases in [http://www.aoc.gov/cc/capitol/old_sen_ch.cfm the old Senate Chamber] of the [[United States Capitol|Capitol]]; 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 [[constitutional interpretation]] was essentially historical [[Constitutional interpretation#The contextualist approach|contextualism]]. Some of his more notable opinions include:

[[Image:1925 U.S. Supreme Court Justices.jpg|thumb|right|The U.S. Supreme Court in 1925. Taft is seated in the bottom row, middle.]]

*''[[Bailey v. Drexel Furniture Co.]]'', {{ussc|259|20|1922}} (opinion for the Court)
** Holding the 1919 Child Labor Tax Law unconstitutional.
*''[[Balzac v. Porto Rico]]'', {{ussc|258|298|1922}} (opinion for the Court)
** Ruling that the [[Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution|Fourteenth Amendment]] did not apply the criminal provisions of the [[United States Bill of Rights|Bill of Rights]] to overseas territories. This was one of the more famous of the "[[Insular Cases]]."
*''[[Adkins v. Children's Hospital]]'', {{ussc|261|525|1923}} (dissenting opinion)
** Disapproving of the Court upholding ''[[Lochner v. New York]]''.
*''[[Myers v. United States]]'', {{ussc|272|52|1926}} (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.
*''[[Gong Lum v. Rice]]'', {{ussc|275|78|1927}} (opinion for the Court)
** Ruling that the [[Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution|Fourteenth Amendment]] did not prohibit [[Mississippi]]'s prevention of [[Asian people|Asian]] children attending [[white (people)|white]] schools in the midst of [[racial segregation]].
*''[[Olmstead v. United States]]'', {{ussc|277|438|1928}} (opinion for the Court)
** Ruling that the judicial practice of excluding evidence obtained without a warrant was based on the [[Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution|Fourth Amendment's]] proscription on unreasonable [[search and seizure]] but did not apply to [[telephone tapping|wiretaps]].
*''[[Wisconsin v. Illinois]]'', {{ussc|278|367|1929}} (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.
*''[[Old Colony Trust Co. v. Commissioner]]'', {{ussc|279|716|1929}} (opinion for the Court)
** Holding that where a third party pays the [[Income tax in the United States|income tax]] 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 [[sleep apnea|obstructive sleep apnea]] 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 [[blood pressure]] dropped 40–50 mmHg (from 210 mmHg). Undoubtedly, this weight loss extended his life.<ref>http://www.apneos.com/taft_intro.html ''William Howard Taft and Sleep Apnea''</ref> 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.<ref>''The Edmonton Journal'', [[July 10]], [[1920]].</ref>

==Death and legacy==
[[Image:Taftheadstone.JPG|thumb|Taft's headstone at Arlington National Cemetery]]
Taft retired as Chief Justice on [[February 3]], [[1930]], because of ill health. He was succeeded by [[Charles Evans Hughes]], whom he had appointed to the Court while President. Taft died after succumbing to illness on [[March 8]], [[1930]]. Three days later, on [[March 11]], he became the first president to be buried at [[Arlington National Cemetery]].<ref name=Arlington>{{cite web | title = Biography of William Howard Taft, President of the United States and Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court | work = Historical Information | publisher = THE OFFICIAL WEBSITE OF ARLINGTON NATIONAL CEMETERY | url = http://www.arlingtoncemetery.org/historical_information/william_taft.html | accessdate = 2007-01-04}}</ref> His grave marker was sculpted by [[James Earle Fraser (sculptor)|James Earle Fraser]] out of [[Stony Creek, Connecticut|Stony Creek]] granite.<ref name=Arlington/>

A third generation of the Taft family entered the national political stage in 1938, with the election of the former President's oldest son [[Robert Taft|Robert A. Taft I]] to the [[United States Senate]], representing Ohio; he continued in office as a senator until his death in 1953. His other son, [[Charles Phelps Taft II]], served as mayor of [[Cincinnati, Ohio]], from 1955 to 1957. Two more generations of the Taft family later entered politics. The President's grandson, [[Robert Taft Jr.]], served a term as a [[U.S. Senator|Senator]] from Ohio from 1971 to 1977; the President's great-grandson, [[Bob Taft|Robert A. Taft II]], served as the [[governor of Ohio]] from 1999 to 2007. [[William Howard Taft III]] was U.S. [[Ambassador (diplomacy)|ambassador]] to [[Republic of Ireland|Ireland]] from 1953 to 1957. [[William Howard Taft IV]], currently in private law practice, was general counsel in the former [[Department of Health, Education, and Welfare]] in the 1970s, Deputy Secretary of Defense under [[Casper Weinberger]] and [[Frank Carlucci]] 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 [[United States Department of State]] 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 [[Cincinnati]], [[Ohio]], streets in Cincinnati, Ohio, and [[Manila, Philippines|Manila]], [[Philippines]], a law school in [[Santa Ana, California]],<ref>[http://www.taftu.edu ''http://www.taftu.edu''].</ref> and high schools in [[San Antonio, Texas|San Antonio]], [[Texas]], [[Woodland Hills, California|Woodland Hills]], [[California]], [[Chicago, Illinois|Chicago]], [[Illinois]], and the [[Bronx]], [[New York]]. After a fire burned much of the town of [[Taft, California|Moron]], California during the 1920s, it was renamed Taft, in his honor.

According to legend (though probably apocryphal), the traditional [[7th inning stretch]] at [[baseball]] games is owed to Taft.  The president was watching a game and, in the 7th inning, got up to stretch.  The crowd, out of respect for the president, also rose to their feet.  Since then, people have stretched during the 7th inning.

==Media==
{{multi-video start}}
{{multi-video item |
  filename      =  William Taft video montage.ogg|
  title         =  William Taft video montage|
  description   = Collection of video clips of the president.  (5.1 [[Megabyte|MB]], [[ogg]]/[[Theora]] format). |
  format        = [[Theora]]}}
{{multi-video end}}

==See also==
*[[Taft family]]
*[[History of the United States (1865-1918)]]
*[[Dollar Diplomacy]]
*[[List of United States Supreme Court cases by the Taft Court|United States Supreme Court cases during the Taft Court]]

==References==
===Citations===
{{reflist|2}}

===Primary Sources===
* Butt, Archie. ''Taft and Roosevelt: The Intimate Letters of Archie Butt'' (1930)
* Taft, William Howard
** ''Liberty Under Law'' Yale University Press, 1922.
** ''Popular Government'' Yale University Press, 1913.
** ''Present Day Problems''
** ''The Anti-Trust Act and the Supreme Court'' Harper and Row, 1914.
** ''The Collected Works of William Howard Taft''. Edited by David H. Burton. Ohio University Press, 2001–. 6 of 8 volumes have appeared.
** ''The President and His Powers''. Columbia University Press, 1924.
* Taft, Mrs. William Howard, ''Recollections of Full Years'' (1914)

===Secondary sources===
* Anderson, Donald F. ''William Howard Taft: A Conservative's Conception of the Presidency'' (1973)
* Anderson, Judith Icke. ''William Howard Taft: An Intimate History'' (1981).
* Anthony, Carl Sferrazza. ''Nellie Taft : The Unconventional First Lady of the Ragtime Era'' (2005)
* Bromley, Michael L. ''William Howard Taft and the First Motoring Presidency'' (2003)
* Burton, David H. ''Taft, Holmes, and the 1920s Court: An Appraisal'' (1998)
* Burton, David H., ''Taft, Roosevelt, and the Limits of Friendship'' (2005)
* Burton, David H. ''William Howard Taft, Confident Peacemaker'' (2005)
* Chace, James. ''1912: Wilson, Roosevelt, Taft and Debs — The Election that Changed the Country'' (2004)
* Coletta, Paolo Enrico. ''The Presidency of William Howard Taft'' (1973), standard survey
* Conner Valerie. ''The National War Labor Board' '(1983)
* Duffy, Herbert S. ''William Howard Taft'' (1930)
* Friedman, Leon, ed. ''The Justices of the United States Supreme Court: Their Lives and Major Opinions''. Vol 3,
* Hechler, Kenneth S. ''Insurgency: Personalities and Politics of the Taft Era'' 1940.
* Michael J. Korzi, ''Our chief magistrate and his powers: a reconsideration of William Howard Taft's "Whig" theory of presidential leadership'' (2003)
* Manners, William. ''TR and Will: A Friendship that Split the Republican Party'' 1969.
* Minger Ralph E. ''William Howard Taft and United States Diplomacy: The Apprenticeship Years. 1900–1908'' (1975)
* Mowry George E. ''The Era of Theodore Roosevelt'' (1958)
* Pringle, Henry F. ''The Life and Times of William Howard Taft: A Biography'' 2 vol (1939); Pulitzer prize; the standard biography
* Renstrom, Peter G. ''The Taft Court: Justices, Rulings and Legacy'' ABC-CLIO, 2003
* Scholes, Walter V. and Marie V. Scholes. ''The Foreign Policies of the Taft Administration'' 1970.
* Stanley D. Solvick. "William Howard Taft and the Payne-Aldrich Tariff," ''The Mississippi Valley Historical Review,'' Vol. 50, No. 3. (Dec., 1963), pp. 424–442. [http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0161-391X%28196312%2950%3A3%3C424%3AWHTATP%3E2.0.CO%3B2-5 in JSTOR]
* Sternberg, Jonathan. "Deciding Not to Decide: The Judiciary Act of 1925 and the Discretionary Court," ''The Journal of Supreme Court History'', Vol. 33, pp. 1-16 (March 2008).
* Wilensky, Norman N. ''Conservatives in the Progressive Era: The Taft Republicans of 1912'' (1965).

==External links==
{{Wikisource author}}
{{commons|William Howard Taft}}
{{wikiquote}}
*{{gutenberg author|id=William+H.+Taft|name=William Howard Taft}}
*[http://www.millercenter.virginia.edu/index.php/academic/americanpresident/taft Extensive essay on William Howard Taft and shorter essays on each member of his cabinet and First Lady from the Miller Center of Public Affairs]
*[http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/presiden/inaug/taft.htm Inaugural Address]
*[http://vvl.lib.msu.edu/showfindingaid.cfm?findaidid=TaftW Audio clips of Taft's speeches]
*[http://www.apneos.com/taft_intro.html Taft's sleep apnea]
*[http://www.doctorzebra.com/prez/g27.htm Taft's medical history]
*[http://www.whitehouse.gov/history/presidents/wt27.html White House biography]
*[http://williamhowardtaft.org Presidential Biography by Stanley L. Klos]
*[http://www.arlingtoncemetery.net/whtaft.htm ArlingtonCemetery.Net citing ''New York Times'' Obituary]
*[http://cylinders.library.ucsb.edu/search.php?query=william+howard+taft&queryType=%40attr+1%3D1 William Howard Taft cylinder recordings], from the [[Cylinder Preservation and Digitization Project]] at the [[University of California, Santa Barbara]] Library.
*[http://taft.stretching-it.com/Taft_humor_pg1.htm W.H. Taft Pages: Taft Humor and Anecdotes]
*[http://www.nps.gov/wiho William Taft National Historic Site]
*[http://www.army.mil/cmh-pg/books/Last_Salute/Ch2.htm The Last Salute: Civil and Military Funeral, 1921–1969, CHAPTER II, Former President William Howard Taft, State Funeral, 8–11 March 1930] by B.&nbsp;C.&nbsp;Mossman and M.&nbsp;W.&nbsp;Stark
*[http://missioninnmuseum.com/collect_movers/mov00005.htm The Taft Chair at the Mission Inn]

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{{USPresidents}}
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{{start U.S. Supreme Court composition | CJ=Taft}}
{{U.S. Supreme Court composition court lifespan| cj=William Howard Taft| years=1921–1930}}
{{U.S. Supreme Court composition 1921–1922}}
{{U.S. Supreme Court composition 1922}}
{{U.S. Supreme Court composition 1923–1925}}
{{U.S. Supreme Court composition 1925–1930}}
{{end U.S. Supreme Court composition}}

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{{Persondata
|NAME              = Taft, William Howard
|ALTERNATIVE NAMES = 
|SHORT DESCRIPTION = American politician, lawyer, jurist
|DATE OF BIRTH     = [[September 15]] [[1857]]
|PLACE OF BIRTH    = Cincinnati, Ohio, United States
|DATE OF DEATH     = [[March 8]] [[1930]]
|PLACE OF DEATH    = Washington, D.C., United States
}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Taft, William Howard}}
[[Category:Presidents of the United States]]
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[[Category:United States Secretaries of War]]
[[Category:Solicitors General of the United States]]
[[Category:Governors-General of the Philippines]]
[[Category:Colonial heads of Cuba]]
[[Category:Republican Party (United States) presidential nominees]]
[[Category:United States presidential candidates, 1908]]
[[Category:United States presidential candidates, 1912]]
[[Category:United States presidential candidates, 1916]]
[[Category:History of the United States (1865–1918)]]
[[Category:Judges of the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit]]
[[Category:American legal academics]]
[[Category:Yale Law School faculty]]
[[Category:Ohio lawyers]]
[[Category:Prosecutors]]
[[Category:Yale University alumni]]
[[Category:Yale Law School alumni]]
[[Category:Americans of English descent]]
[[Category:Americans with Huguenot ancestry]]
[[Category:People from Cincinnati, Ohio]]
[[Category:American Unitarians]]
[[Category:American Unitarian Universalists]]
[[Category:Bonesmen]]
[[Category:Burials at Arlington National Cemetery]]
[[Category:Taft family]]
[[Category:1857 births]]
[[Category:1930 deaths]]
[[Category:Deaths from cardiovascular disease]]
[[Category:Presidents of the ABA]]
[[Category:Ohio Republicans]]

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[[la:Gulielmus Howard Taft]]
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[[yi:וויליאם האווארד טעפט]]
[[zh:威廉·霍华德·塔夫脱]]