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William Howard Taft (September 15, 1857–March 8, 1930) was
the 27th (1909-1913) President of the United States, and the 10th Chief Justice of the United States.
Biography
He was born on September 15, 1857
in Cincinnati, Ohio to Alphonso Taft and Louisa Torrey. A prominent Republican, Taft's father served as secretary of war under
President Ulysses S. Grant. The younger Taft began his political
career in Ohio shortly after joining the bar in 1880.
In 1900, President William
McKinley appointed Taft chair of a commission to organize a civilian government in the Philippines which had been ceded to the United States at the close of the Spanish-American War. From 1901 to 1904 Taft served successfully as the first civilian governor of the Philippines. In 1904 Theodore Roosevelt
named Taft as Secretary of War.
After serving nearly two full terms, popular Theodore
Roosevelt refused to run in the
election of 1908. Instead, he promoted Taft as the next Republican president. With Roosevelt's help, Taft handily defeated
Democrat William Jennings Bryan. Throughout his
presidency, Taft contended with dissent from more liberal members of the Republican party, many of whom continued to follow the
lead of former President Roosevelt.
Progressive Republicans openly challenged Taft in the Congressional elections of 1910 and in the Republican presidential
primaries of 1912. When Taft won the Republican nomination, the Progressives organized a rival party (the United States Progressive Party, a.k.a. "Bull
Moose") and selected Theodore Roosevelt to run against Taft in the general election. Roosevelt's Bull Moose candidacy split the
Republican vote and helped elect Democrat Woodrow Wilson.
From 1921 until 1930, Taft served on the Supreme Court as Chief Justice of the United States. In an effort to make the Court work more
efficiently, he advocated passage of the 1925 Judges Act enabling the Supreme Court to give precedence to cases of national
importance.
A third generation of the Taft family entered the national political stage in 1938. The former president's son, Robert A. Taft, was elected to the United States Senate. A vociferous critic of the New Deal, Robert Taft was a Republican leader in the
Senate from 1939-1953. Two more generations of the Taft family later entered politics. The President's grandson, Robert Taft, Jr., served a term as a Senator from Ohio from 1971-1977; the President's great-grandson, Bob Taft, is the current Governor of Ohio.
Source: Library of Congress
- Horace Harmon
Lurton - 1910
- Charles Evans Hughes - 1910
- Edward Douglass White - Chief Justice - 1910 (an
associate justice since 1894)
- Willis Van
Devanter - 1911
- Joseph Rucker
Lamar - 1911
- Mahlon Pitney - 1912
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