Biography
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William Howard Taft was born on September 15, 1857, in Cincinnati. His father, Alphonso Taft, was a prominent attorney who served as President Ulysses Grant's Attorney General and later Secretary of War. From an early age, William was known to not be the most intelligent, but rather to be one of the most diligent of all his peers. He would come to attend Yale University (graduating second in his class) before studying law at the University of Cincinnati. He finished his education and was admitted to the bar, entering private practice in 1880. Taft worked as a judge in the Ohio Superior Court and in the U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals, before being assigned as the first civilian governor of the Philippines in 1901.
Taft took on the role of Secretary of War in the administration of Theodore Roosevelt, as well as a brief stint as provisional governor of Cuba in 1906. Roosevelt threw his support to the Ohioan as his successor in 1908. Generally more conservative than Roosevelt, Taft also lacked his expansive view of presidential power, and was generally a more successful administrator than politician. By 1912, Roosevelt, dissatisfied with Taft’s presidency, had formed his own Progressive Party, splitting Republican voters and handing the White House to the Democrat Woodrow Wilson. Nine years after leaving office, Taft achieved a longtime goal of his when President Warren Harding appointed him chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court; he held that post until just before his death in 1930, and was the only man to have held both that office and the presidency in his lifetime.
Taft took on the role of Secretary of War in the administration of Theodore Roosevelt, as well as a brief stint as provisional governor of Cuba in 1906. Roosevelt threw his support to the Ohioan as his successor in 1908. Generally more conservative than Roosevelt, Taft also lacked his expansive view of presidential power, and was generally a more successful administrator than politician. By 1912, Roosevelt, dissatisfied with Taft’s presidency, had formed his own Progressive Party, splitting Republican voters and handing the White House to the Democrat Woodrow Wilson. Nine years after leaving office, Taft achieved a longtime goal of his when President Warren Harding appointed him chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court; he held that post until just before his death in 1930, and was the only man to have held both that office and the presidency in his lifetime.
"I love judges, and I love courts. They are my ideals, that typify on earth what we shall meet hereafter in heaven under a just God."
— William Howard Taft, 1911
— William Howard Taft, 1911
William Howard Taft in 1930, as Chief Justice