27th President: William Howard Taft (1909-1913) Political Party: Republican William Howard Taft was born in Cincinnati, Ohio in 1857, the son of a distinguished judge. After graduating from Yale, he returned to Cincinnati to study and practice law. The reticent politician, he preferred law over politics, but nevertheless, he entered the political arena through Republican judiciary appointments, most notably as a Federal circuit judge at the age of 34. Jurisprudence being his true passion, he aspired one day to be a Supreme Court Judge. Fate would have its way first. Taft’s ascension to the White House was due to political appointments, having never been elected to public office prior to the Presidency. President McKinley sent him to the Philippines as chief civil administrator, where he excelled in bringing vast improvements to Philippine infrastructure and civil projects. Theodore Roosevelt made him Secretary of War, and groomed him to be his successor, and won the election in 1908. Taft grew to loath the office of the Presidency, tiring of the political trappings that embattled him with progressives and conservatives alike. He did not believe in stretching the powers of the Executive office as his predecessor Roosevelt had done with impunity. During his administration Congress sent to the states a Constitutional amendment to establish a national income tax and the direct public election of Senators. Regardless of the Republican Party’s disenchantment with Taft, and Roosevelt’s departure to lead the Progressives, he was re-nominated in 1912, but lost to Woodrow Wilson. Free from the trepidation of politics, Taft left the Presidency to serve as Professor of Law at Yale until President Warren G. Harding appointed him Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, a position he held until his death in 1930. To Taft, ever the reluctant President, the appointment was his greatest honor; he wrote: “I don’t remember that I ever was President.”
Posted on: Mon, 25 Nov 2013 15:36:33 +0000