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William Howard Taft is the only person to have served as both President of the United States 1909-1913 and Chief Justice of the United States 1921-1930. He was elected president in 1908 as Theodore Roosevelt’s chosen successor but lost reelection in 1912 after Roosevelt split the Republican vote. In 1921, President Warren G. Harding appointed him Chief Justice, a role he held until his death in 1930.
Names, aliases, and relatives of William Howard Taft — birth name, kin, and personal ties.
William Howard Taft by the numbers — life, work, and family.
William Howard Taft — early life, career, personal life, and legacy.
From his birth in Cincinnati, Ohio, on September 15, 1857, William Howard Taft was immersed in public service. His father, Alphonso Taft, served as Secretary of War and Attorney General under President Ulysses S. Grant. Taft attended Yale College, graduating in 1878, and then earned his law degree from the University of Cincinnati College of Law. His family’s political connections and his own scholarly dedication set him on a path toward national leadership.
Taft’s career began in law, but he quickly entered public service. He served as a judge, Solicitor General of the United States, and Governor-General of the Philippines before being appointed Secretary of War by President Theodore Roosevelt in 1904. Roosevelt handpicked Taft as his successor in 1908, and Taft won the presidency that year. His presidency was fraught with conflict with Roosevelt, who challenged him for the Republican nomination in 1912 and ran as a third-party candidate, leading to Taft’s defeat by Woodrow Wilson. After leaving office, Taft taught constitutional law at Yale University. In 1921, President Warren G. Harding appointed him Chief Justice of the United States, a position he held until resigning shortly before his death in 1930.
Taft married Helen Herron on June 19, 1886, and the couple had three children: Robert A. Taft, Helen Taft Manning, and Charles Phelps Taft II. Robert became a prominent U.S. Senator from Ohio. Taft joked about his immense weight, once claiming he gave up his seat on a streetcar to three ladies. He died in Washington, D.C., on March 8, 1930, and was buried at Arlington National Cemetery alongside his wife.
Taft remains the only individual to have served as both U.S. President and Chief Justice. His judicial career is highly regarded, and his great-grandson Bob Taft served as Governor of Ohio from 1999 to 2007. He was inducted into the International Mustache Hall of Fame in 2015 and the Kentucky Bourbon Hall of Fame in 2009. Despite his presidency being overshadowed by Roosevelt’s, Taft’s contributions to the judiciary and his unique dual role ensure his lasting place in American history.
Every award, honor, and recognition received by William Howard Taft — Grammys, hall-of-fame inductions, civic honors, lifetime achievements.
A wall of memorable lines from William Howard Taft — lyrics, interviews, and off-the-cuff remarks captured over a lifetime.
Anti Semitism Is a Noxious Weed That Should Be Cut Out. It Has No Place in America.
Substantial Progress Toward Better Things Can Rarely Be Taken Without Developing New Evils Requiring New Remedies.
The Trouble with Me Is That I Like to Talk Too Much.
I Am President Now, and Tired of Being Kicked Around.
We Live in a Stage of Politics, Where Legislators Seem to Regard the Passage of Laws as Much More Important Than the Results of Their Enforcement.
Enthusiasm for a Cause Sometimes Warps Judgment.
We Are All Imperfect. We Can Not Expect Perfect Government.
Don’t Write so That You Can Be Understood, Write so That You Can’t Be Misunderstood.
A Government Is for the Benefit of All the People.
Presidents Come and Go, but the Supreme Court Goes on Forever.
No Tendency Is Quite so Strong in Human Nature as the Desire to Lay Down Rules of Conduct for Other People.
If This Humor Be the Safety of Our Race, Then It Is Due Largely to the Infusion into the American People of the Irish Brain.
Socialism Proposes No Adequate Substitute for the Motive of Enlightened Selfishness That Today Is at the Basis of All Human Labor and Effort, Enterprise and New Activity.
I Am in Favor of Helping the Prosperity of All Countries Because, When We Are All Prosperous, the Trade with Each Becomes More Valuable to the Other.
Politics Makes Me Sick.
Don’t Worry Over What the Newspapers Say. I Don’t. Why Should Anyone Else? I Told the Truth to the Newspaper Correspondents but When You Tell the Truth to Them They Are at Sea.
I Am Afraid I Am a Constant Disappointment to My Party. the Fact of the Matter Is, the Longer I Am President the Less of a Party Man I Seem to Become.
I Think I Might as Well Give up Being a Candidate. There Are so Many People in the Country Who Don’t Like Me.
Action for Which I Become Responsible, or for Which My Administration Becomes Responsible, Shall Be Within the Law.
I Have Come to the Conclusion That the Major Part of the Work of a President Is to Increase the Gate Receipts of Expositions and Fairs and Bring Tourists to Town.
The World Is Not Going to Be Saved by Legislation.
Failure to Accord Credit to Anyone for What He May Have Done Is a Great Weakness in Any Man.
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.
No, the Only Things Which Do Not Bother Me Are the Elements. I Can Overcome Them Without a Fight. All One Has to Do to Get the Best of the Elements Is to Stand Pat and One Will Win.
As the Republican Platforms Says, the Welfare of the Farmer Is Vital to That of the Whole Country.
I’ll Be Damned If I Am Not Getting Tired of This. It Seems to Be the Profession of a President Simply to Hear Other People Talk.
I Do Not Know Much About Politics, but I Am Trying to Do the Best I Can with This Administration Until the Time Shall Come for Me to Turn It Over to Somebody Else.
A System in Which We May Have an Enforced Rest from Legislation for Two Years Is Not Bad.
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.
Little-known facts about William Howard Taft — origins, oddities, and behind-the-scenes details from a public life.
Though famous for his weight, Taft actually lost 137 pounds after leaving the presidency. He joked it was because the weight of the job was finally off his shoulders.
At well over 300 pounds, Taft was the heaviest American president. He once became stuck in the White House bathtub and had to be pried out; a wider tub was later installed.
Taft appeared on the 50-cent U.S. postage stamp in the Presidential Series issued December 8, 1938.
He is buried with his wife at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia.
A 4-cent regular series U.S. postage stamp featuring Taft was issued June 4, 1930.
Taft is the only person to have served as both President of the United States and Chief Justice of the United States.
His children were Helen, Charles, and Robert A. Taft.
He served as Chief Justice from July 11, 1921, resigning on February 3, 1930, shortly before his death.
He served as President from March 4, 1909, to March 4, 1913.
Taft was a seventh cousin twice removed of President Richard Nixon.
He was the first president to serve over the 48 contiguous states.
He was the first former president to lie in state who did not die in office.
The 1912 election was the only U.S. presidential election featuring a former president Theodore Roosevelt, an incumbent president Taft, and a future president Woodrow Wilson.
Goaded into running by Theodore Roosevelt, Taft actually hated the presidency and preferred his role as Chief Justice.
Taft had a great sense of humor about his weight, once joking he was an ultimate gentleman because he gave up his seat on a streetcar to three ladies.
He is the only former president to swear in a new president, administering the oath to Calvin Coolidge in 1923.
Taft was hand-picked by Roosevelt in 1908, but after Taft’s policies diverged, Roosevelt turned on him in 1912, splitting the Republican Party and ending their friendship.
His great-grandson, Robert Alphonso Taft II Bob Taft, served as Governor of Ohio from 1999 to 2007.
In 1914, Taft awarded the winner’s cup in a fat-baby contest to the one-year-old Lloyd Bridges.
During the 1929 inauguration of Herbert Hoover, Taft stumbled over the words, possibly due to early symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease.
Taft and John F. Kennedy are the only two presidents buried at Arlington National Cemetery.
Upon his death in 1930, Taft left the bulk of his estate, valued at $475,000, to his wife Helen.
He was the father of U.S. Senator Robert A. Taft.
While a professor at the University of Cincinnati School of Law, Taft advised student Miller Huggins to pursue baseball; Huggins later played for and managed Major League teams.
Inducted into the International Mustache Hall of Fame in 2015 inaugural class in Politics & Leadership.
Inducted into the Kentucky Bourbon Hall of Fame in 2009.
Taft is one of only two U.S. presidents who served as Secretary of War, the other being James Monroe.
His running mate James Sherman died six days before the 1912 election; Taft replaced him on the ticket with Nicholas Murray Butler.
His 23.2% of the popular vote in 1912 was the lowest ever for a sitting president or major party candidate since the Civil War.
Quick answers to the questions readers ask most about William Howard Taft.
Celebrities similar to William Howard Taft — same craft, ranked by reach.
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