Remembering Big Bill Taft
On March 8, 1930 (83 years ago today) William Howard Taft, the 27th President of the United States, and the 10th Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, died at his home in Washington, D.C. at the age of 72. He became the first president to be buried at Arlington National Cemetery.
Before becoming President, Taft, served on the Superior Court of Cincinnati in 1887. In 1890, Taft was appointed Solicitor General of the United States and in 1891 a judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. In 1900, President William McKinley appointed Taft Governor-General of the Philippines. In 1904, President Theodore Roosevelt appointed Taft Secretary of War in an effort to groom Taft, then his close political ally, into his handpicked presidential successor.
Riding a wave of popular support for fellow Republican Roosevelt, Taft won an easy victory in his 1908 bid for the presidency. In his only term in office, Taft's domestic agenda emphasized trust-busting (monopolies), civil service reform, strengthening the Interstate Commerce Commission, improving the performance of the postal service, and passage of the Sixteenth Amendment (the power to tax without proportionality). Internationally, Taft sought to further the economic development of nations in Latin America and Asia through "Dollar Diplomacy", and showed restraint in response to revolution in Mexico. Described as "task-oriented", Taft was oblivious to the political ramifications of his decisions, often alienating his own key constituencies. He was overwhelmingly defeated in his bid for a second term in the presidential election of 1912, when his former mentor Roosevelt ran a third-party campaign against him.
After leaving office, Taft spent his time in academia, arbitration, and the search for world peace through his self-founded League to Enforce Peace. In 1921, after the First World War, President Warren G. Harding appointed Taft Chief Justice of the United States. Taft served in this capacity until shortly before his death in 1930.
Following is an accounting of the end of Taft's life by his biographer Harry F. Pringle in the second of the two volume set William Howard Taft: His Life and Times at page 1079:
Taft could take little nourishment. He recognized hardly anybody. But a fragment of life would linger for a month. On February 11, Secretary Mischler came into the bedroom with the draft of a letter which must, if conceivably possible, be signed. It was to the justices of the Supreme Court and it was in answer to a final, moving tribute.
"We call you Chief Justice still, for we cannot give up the title by which we have known you for all these later years and which you have made dear to us," wrote Justice Holmes, and all the members signed it. "We cannot let you leave us without trying to tell you how dear you have made it. You came to us from achievement in other fields and with the prestige of the illustrious place that you lately had held and you showed us in new form your voluminous capacity for getting work done, your humor that smoothed the tough places, your golden heart that brought you love from every side and most of all from your brethren whose tasks you have made happy and light. We grieve at your illness, but your spirit has given life an impulse that will abide whether you are with us or away."
With difficulty, the former Chief Justice scratched his signature to the reply which had been drafted for him. The phrases were conventional. He could not "adequately say how deeply I am touched." His chief regret in leaving the court had been "the ending of those pleasant associations with each and all of you, which during the past nine years have been so dear to me. Only the advice of my doctors and my own conviction that I would be unable to continue adequately the great work of the court, forced me to leave you. That work, in your hands, will go on well without me."
He died on Saturday night, March 8, 1930.
Before becoming President, Taft, served on the Superior Court of Cincinnati in 1887. In 1890, Taft was appointed Solicitor General of the United States and in 1891 a judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. In 1900, President William McKinley appointed Taft Governor-General of the Philippines. In 1904, President Theodore Roosevelt appointed Taft Secretary of War in an effort to groom Taft, then his close political ally, into his handpicked presidential successor.
Riding a wave of popular support for fellow Republican Roosevelt, Taft won an easy victory in his 1908 bid for the presidency. In his only term in office, Taft's domestic agenda emphasized trust-busting (monopolies), civil service reform, strengthening the Interstate Commerce Commission, improving the performance of the postal service, and passage of the Sixteenth Amendment (the power to tax without proportionality). Internationally, Taft sought to further the economic development of nations in Latin America and Asia through "Dollar Diplomacy", and showed restraint in response to revolution in Mexico. Described as "task-oriented", Taft was oblivious to the political ramifications of his decisions, often alienating his own key constituencies. He was overwhelmingly defeated in his bid for a second term in the presidential election of 1912, when his former mentor Roosevelt ran a third-party campaign against him.
After leaving office, Taft spent his time in academia, arbitration, and the search for world peace through his self-founded League to Enforce Peace. In 1921, after the First World War, President Warren G. Harding appointed Taft Chief Justice of the United States. Taft served in this capacity until shortly before his death in 1930.
Following is an accounting of the end of Taft's life by his biographer Harry F. Pringle in the second of the two volume set William Howard Taft: His Life and Times at page 1079:
Taft could take little nourishment. He recognized hardly anybody. But a fragment of life would linger for a month. On February 11, Secretary Mischler came into the bedroom with the draft of a letter which must, if conceivably possible, be signed. It was to the justices of the Supreme Court and it was in answer to a final, moving tribute.
"We call you Chief Justice still, for we cannot give up the title by which we have known you for all these later years and which you have made dear to us," wrote Justice Holmes, and all the members signed it. "We cannot let you leave us without trying to tell you how dear you have made it. You came to us from achievement in other fields and with the prestige of the illustrious place that you lately had held and you showed us in new form your voluminous capacity for getting work done, your humor that smoothed the tough places, your golden heart that brought you love from every side and most of all from your brethren whose tasks you have made happy and light. We grieve at your illness, but your spirit has given life an impulse that will abide whether you are with us or away."
With difficulty, the former Chief Justice scratched his signature to the reply which had been drafted for him. The phrases were conventional. He could not "adequately say how deeply I am touched." His chief regret in leaving the court had been "the ending of those pleasant associations with each and all of you, which during the past nine years have been so dear to me. Only the advice of my doctors and my own conviction that I would be unable to continue adequately the great work of the court, forced me to leave you. That work, in your hands, will go on well without me."
He died on Saturday night, March 8, 1930.