William Howard Taft

William Howard Taft was born on September 15, 1857, in Cincinnati, OhioOhioOhio is a state in the Midwestern United States; its capital is Columbus. It joined the Union in 1803 as the 17th state, the first carved from the Northwest Territory, and its population in the 2020 census (April 1, 2020) was 11,799,448.Open the full entry. His father, Alphonso Taft, later served as secretary of war and attorney general (1876–77) under Ulysses S. GrantUlysses S. GrantUlysses S. Grant (1822–1885) was an American soldier and politician who commanded the Union armies in the final years of the Civil War (1864–1865) and served as the 18th president of the United States from 1869 to 1877.Open the full entry; his mother was Louisa Maria Torrey.⁠[1]

Taft was born in the family house on Auburn Avenue in Cincinnati, which Alphonso Taft had bought in 1851, and he spent his boyhood there.⁠[2]

As a boy Taft was athletic and loved baseball; his mother was active in civic causes. The Miller Center’s essay judges that his demanding parents, especially his father, left him under intense pressure to meet their expectations.⁠[3][4]

Taft graduated from Woodward High School in 1874 and from Yale College in 1878, second in his class. He then attended Cincinnati Law School, receiving an LL.B. in 1880, and passed the bar in May 1880.⁠[3][5][1]

Taft began practicing law in Ohio in 1880 and held several minor appointive posts, including that of prosecutor. In 1887 he filled the unexpired term of a judge of the Ohio superior court, and in 1888 he won a five-year term on that court, serving until 1890; apart from the presidency, it was the only office he ever won by popular vote.⁠[1][6][7][3]

On June 19, 1886, at the age of 29, Taft married Helen “Nellie” Herron. The Miller Center’s essay notes that she hoped for a life in national politics.⁠[3][5][4]

In 1889, at the age of 32, Taft sought appointment to the Supreme Court from President Benjamin HarrisonBenjamin HarrisonBenjamin Harrison (1833–1901) was an American lawyer, soldier, and Republican politician who represented Indiana in the U.S. Senate and served as the 23rd President of the United States from 1889 to 1893.Open the full entry, who instead appointed him solicitor general. Taft was the sixth solicitor general of the United States, serving from 1890 to 1892.⁠[7]

From 1892 to 1900 Taft was a judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit; during this time he also taught law as dean of the University of Cincinnati Law School.⁠[1][3]

On March 15, 1900, Taft resigned his judgeship to become chairman of the Second Philippine Commission, appointed by President William McKinleyWilliam McKinleyWilliam McKinley (1843–1901) was an American Republican politician who served in the U.S. House of Representatives and as Governor of Ohio before becoming the 25th President of the United States (1897–1901), leading the country through the Spanish-American War; he was assassinated in 1901.Open the full entry; in 1901 he became the first civilian governor of the Philippines, serving until 1904.⁠[1][6]

In the Philippines Taft set up courts, schools and a civil service and introduced land programs; during this period he twice declined appointment to the Supreme Court offered by Theodore RooseveltTheodore RooseveltTheodore Roosevelt (1858–1919) was an American Republican politician, writer, naturalist, and soldier who served as the 26th President of the United States from 1901 to 1909 and received the 1906 Nobel Peace Prize for mediating an end to the Russo-Japanese War.Open the full entry, preferring to remain in the islands.⁠[3][1]

The Miller Center’s essay judges that Taft built a civilian government in the Philippines and moved away from harsh military tactics, but doubted that Filipinos were capable of governing themselves.⁠[4]

From 1904 to 1908 Taft served as Theodore Roosevelt’s secretary of war while continuing to supervise Philippine affairs. He oversaw construction of the Panama Canal and matters relating to Cuba, and he travelled extensively, with much of the cost covered by his brother Charles.⁠[3][1][6]

Theodore Roosevelt had pledged not to run again in 1908 and strongly backed Taft as his successor; Taft himself preferred an appointment as chief justice and had to be persuaded to run by Helen Taft and Roosevelt. On June 16, 1908, at the Republican National Convention in Chicago, Taft won the presidential nomination on the first ballot with 702 votes (491 were needed; there were seven nominees).⁠[8][9]

On November 3, 1908, Taft defeated the Democratic candidate, William Jennings Bryan, winning 321 electoral votes to Bryan’s 162. In the popular vote Taft received 7,675,320 (51.6%), Bryan 6,412,294 (43.1%) and the Socialist candidate Eugene V. Debs 420,793 (2.8%).⁠[8][9]

On March 4, 1909, Taft was sworn in as president of the United States and delivered his inaugural address; on March 15 the Senate confirmed his cabinet, including Richard Ballinger as secretary of the interior.⁠[9]

On inauguration day Congress approved $40,000 to enlarge the temporary Executive Office Building, later the West Wing; in the summer of 1909 the architect Nathan C. Wyeth created the first Oval Office there, which was replaced in 1934.⁠[10]

On August 6, 1909, Taft signed the Payne-Aldrich Tariff Act. It created a Tariff Board, but lowered rates less than progressive Republicans had wanted and angered them.⁠[9][11][1]

Taft proposed to Congress a 2% tax on corporate net income and a constitutional amendment permitting a federal income tax. Congress passed the proposed Sixteenth Amendment on July 2, 1909, and on February 25, 1913, the secretary of state certified its ratification.⁠[11][9]

The land official Louis Glavis accused Secretary of the Interior Richard Ballinger of defrauding the public domain in the Alaskan coal fields. On September 13, 1909, Taft sided with Ballinger; on November 13 Collier’s published Glavis’s charges. On January 7, 1910, Taft dismissed Gifford Pinchot, head of the Forest Service, over a letter Pinchot had written supporting employees involved in the Glavis case, deepening the split in the Republican Party.⁠[9][11]

On January 19, 1910, Congress set up a joint committee to investigate. At its hearings Louis Brandeis brought out damaging information, but on December 7 that year the committee cleared Ballinger of illegality. Ballinger resigned on March 7, 1911, and Taft nominated Walter L. Fisher to succeed him.⁠[9][11]

From September 15 to November 10, 1909, Taft toured the southern and western states, giving 259 speeches. On October 16 he met Mexican President Porfirio Díaz in El Paso, TexasTexasTexas is a U.S. state in the south-central United States, with its capital at Austin and its largest city Houston. It was admitted to the Union on December 29, 1845, as the 28th state, and the 2020 census (April 1, 2020) counted 29,145,505 residents.Open the full entry, and Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, the first visit by a U.S. president to Mexico.⁠[9][11]

On November 18, 1909, two Americans serving with Nicaraguan rebels were captured and executed by government troops; on December 1 Taft ordered diplomatic relations broken off, and the Nicaraguan leader Zelaya resigned. U.S. troops landed off Bluefields on May 29, 1910. On June 6, 1911, the United States signed a convention with Nicaragua that would have made it a protectorate; the Senate rejected it. The American Presidency Project presents the convention as part of “dollar diplomacy.” U.S. Marines arrived in Nicaragua amid fighting on August 14, 1912.⁠[9][11]

The Taft administration also asked China to give American investors a share of a railroad loan floated by Europeans, and China reluctantly agreed.⁠[11]

Taft made six appointments to the Supreme Court: Horace Harmon Lurton (judicial oath January 3, 1910), Charles Evans Hughes (October 10, 1910), Willis Van Devanter and Joseph Rucker Lamar (both January 3, 1911) and Mahlon Pitney (March 18, 1912), and he elevated Associate Justice Edward Douglass White to chief justice (December 19, 1910).⁠[12][7]

On June 18, 1910, Taft signed the Mann-Elkins Act, which expanded the authority of the Interstate Commerce Commission and created a commerce court. On June 25 he signed the Postal Savings Bank Act, which created federally supervised postal savings banks paying 2% interest on small accounts, and the Mann Act, which banned transporting women across state or national borders for “immoral purposes.”⁠[9][11]

In the congressional elections of November 8, 1910, Republicans lost substantial ground in both chambers; Democrats won the House for the first time since 1894, while Republicans kept the Senate.⁠[9][11]

On May 15, 1911, the Supreme Court upheld the dissolution of Standard OilStandard OilStandard Oil was an oil company founded in 1870 in Cleveland, Ohio, by John D. Rockefeller and others. Through mergers and expansion, and organizational forms including the trust of 1882 and the New Jersey holding company of 1899, it at one time controlled most of the refining capacity in the United States. In 1911 the U.S. Supreme Court ordered the dissolution of its holding company under the Sherman Anti-trust Act, and the companies split off from it later evolved into oil companies including ExxonMobil and Chevron.Open the full entry; Chief Justice White’s majority opinion introduced a “rule of reason” test and allowed six months for divestiture. The Court then found the American Tobacco Company in violation of the Sherman Act and ordered its dissolution.⁠[11][9]

On October 26, 1911, the federal government sued U.S. Steel under the Sherman Act, alleging that Theodore Roosevelt’s earlier approval of a merger had been a mistake, which further damaged relations between the two men. Taft’s administration brought about twice as many antitrust prosecutions as Roosevelt’s.⁠[9][11][1]

On July 26, 1911, Taft signed the Canadian reciprocity legislation; on September 21 Canada rejected the agreement in its general election. On August 3 Taft signed general arbitration treaties with France and Britain, which Theodore Roosevelt and Senator Henry Cabot Lodge opposed.⁠[9][11]

During Taft’s presidency the tribunal at The Hague settled a British–American dispute over the Newfoundland fisheries, and the United States and Great Britain signed a treaty protecting pelagic fur seals in the Bering Sea.⁠[11]

On August 15, 1911, Taft vetoed the statehood bill for ArizonaArizonaArizona is a state in the southwestern United States; its capital and largest city is Phoenix. Arizona was admitted to the Union on February 14, 1912, as the 48th state. Its population at the 2020 Census (April 1, 2020) was 7,151,502.Open the full entry and New MexicoNew MexicoNew Mexico is a state in the Southwestern United States. Its capital is Santa Fe and its largest city is Albuquerque. It was admitted to the Union on January 6, 1912, as the 47th state, and had a population of 2,117,522 in the 2020 census (April 1, 2020).Open the full entry over its provision for the recall of judges. On January 6, 1912, he proclaimed New Mexico the 47th state, and on February 14 he proclaimed Arizona the 48th.⁠[9][11]

On January 17, 1912, Taft sent Congress a special message on economy and efficiency calling for a unified executive budget; the American Presidency Project notes that these reforms were realized under Warren G. HardingWarren G. HardingWarren G. Harding (1865–1923) was an American newspaper publisher and politician who served as lieutenant governor of Ohio and as a U.S. senator before becoming the 29th president of the United States in March 1921; he died in office in August 1923.Open the full entry.⁠[9]

On April 9, 1912, Taft signed the act creating the federal Children’s Bureau within the Department of Commerce and Labor; on April 15 Julia Lathrop was appointed to head it, becoming the highest-ranking woman in the federal government. On June 19 he signed an act limiting the workday to eight hours for all workers employed by the United States, the territories or the District of Columbia.⁠[9][11]

On August 24, 1912, Taft signed the Panama Canal Act, which exempted U.S. coastwise shipping from canal tolls; many regarded this as a violation of the Hay-Pauncefote Treaty.⁠[9][11]

Theodore Roosevelt, angered by the U.S. Steel suit and Pinchot’s dismissal, set out his “New Nationalism” platform after returning from Africa and Europe in 1910 and on February 24, 1912, signaled that he would accept the presidential nomination. The 1912 race was the first in which a sitting president campaigned in state primaries: Robert La Follette won North DakotaNorth DakotaNorth Dakota is a state in the north-central United States; its capital is Bismarck. It was admitted to the Union on November 2, 1889, as the 39th state, and its population in the 2020 census (April 1, 2020) was 779,094.Open the full entry and WisconsinWisconsinWisconsin is a state in the north-central United States; its capital is Madison and its largest city is Milwaukee. Wisconsin was admitted to the Union on May 29, 1848, as the 30th state, and the 2020 census (April 1, 2020) counted 5,893,718 residents.Open the full entry, Taft won New York, and Roosevelt won all the others.⁠[8][9]

On June 22, 1912, helped by his control of federal patronage and the Republican National Committee, Taft won the Republican nomination on the first ballot, with 561 votes to Roosevelt’s 187 and La Follette’s 41; Vice President James Schoolcraft Sherman was renominated. Roosevelt left the convention and formed the Progressive Party, nicknamed the Bull Moose Party, which nominated him in Chicago on August 6; the Democrats nominated Governor Woodrow WilsonWoodrow WilsonWoodrow Wilson (1856–1924) was an American scholar and politician who served as president of Princeton University and governor of New Jersey and was the 28th president of the United States from 1913 to 1921, leading the country through World War I and proposing the League of Nations.Open the full entry of New Jersey on the 43rd ballot.⁠[8][9][11]

On October 31, 1912, Taft issued a proclamation on the death of Vice President Sherman, and Nicholas Butler replaced him on the Republican ticket. In the election of November 5, Woodrow Wilson won 435 electoral votes, Roosevelt 88 and Taft only 8; Taft carried only UtahUtahUtah is a U.S. state bordered by Idaho to the north, Wyoming to the northeast, Colorado to the east, Arizona to the south and Nevada to the west, with its capital at Salt Lake City. It was admitted to the Union on January 4, 1896, as the 45th state, and the 2020 census (April 1, 2020) counted 3,271,616 residents.Open the full entry and VermontVermontVermont is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States; its capital is Montpelier and its largest city is Burlington. It joined the Union on March 4, 1791, as the 14th state, and its population in the 2020 census (April 1, 2020) was 643,077.Open the full entry and won less than a quarter of the popular vote, although Taft and Roosevelt together won more popular votes than Wilson.⁠[9][11][8][1]

On February 14, 1913, Taft vetoed an immigration bill that included a literacy test; on February 28 he vetoed the Webb-Kenyon Act, which banned shipping liquor into dry states, the only Taft veto Congress overrode. On March 4 Woodrow Wilson was inaugurated, ending Taft’s term, and the Department of Commerce and Labor was split into two cabinet departments that day; the Tafts then left Washington for Augusta, Georgia.⁠[9][11]

On April 1, 1913, Taft began teaching at Yale UniversityYale UniversityYale University is a research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Its predecessor, the Collegiate School, received a charter in 1701. Trustees chose New Haven in 1716; the institution became Yale College in 1718 and Yale University in 1887. Yale provides undergraduate, graduate and professional education and has 14 undergraduate residential colleges. As of October 2026, its president was Maurie McInnis, who took office in July 2024. In 2026, Yale expanded aid for incoming undergraduates and celebrated its 325th anniversary.Open the full entry as a professor of constitutional law, remaining until 1921. In 1916 he campaigned for the Republican presidential candidate Charles Evans Hughes.⁠[9][13][6][14]

On April 8, 1918, Woodrow Wilson named Taft co-chair of the National War Labor Board. After World War I, Taft supported Wilson’s European policy and U.S. membership in the League of Nations.⁠[9][14][13]

On June 30, 1921, President Warren G. Harding nominated Taft to succeed Edward Douglass White as chief justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, and the Senate confirmed him the same day the nomination was received.⁠[7][9]

On July 11, 1921, Justice A. A. Hoehling of the Supreme Court of the District of Columbia administered both the constitutional and judicial oaths to Taft; on October 3 he retook the judicial oath in open court before the senior associate justice, Joseph McKenna. The Court’s list of justices gives ConnecticutConnecticutConnecticut is a U.S. state in the New England region. Its capital is Hartford and its largest city is Bridgeport (2010 census). It entered the Union on January 9, 1788, as the 5th state, and had a population of 3,605,944 in the 2020 census (April 1, 2020).Open the full entry as the state from which he was appointed.⁠[15][12]

As chief justice Taft wrote 253 opinions, about one-sixth of the decisions handed down during his tenure. He worked to make the Court more efficient, and his influence was decisive in the passage of the Judges’ Act of 1925, which gave the Court more discretion in choosing its cases.⁠[14][13]

In Bailey v. Drexel Furniture Co. Taft ruled against Congress’s use of an excise tax on goods made by children to discourage child labor; on October 25, 1926, he wrote the majority opinion in Myers v. United States, which invalidated tenure-of-office restrictions on the president’s power to remove subordinates and upheld the president’s authority to remove federal officials.⁠[14][9][13]

Taft administered the presidential oath of office to Calvin CoolidgeCalvin CoolidgeCalvin Coolidge (1872–1933) was an American lawyer and politician who served as governor of Massachusetts and, from 1921, as vice president of the United States; he succeeded Warren G. Harding as the 30th president in August 1923, was elected to a full term in 1924 and served until 1929.Open the full entry (1925) and Herbert Hoover (1929), and he worked with the architect Cass Gilbert on the Supreme Court building.⁠[9][10]

Suffering from heart disease, Taft resigned as chief justice on February 3, 1930.⁠[13][12][7]

Taft died in Washington, D.C., on March 8, 1930, at the age of 72; the Miller Center lists complications of heart disease, high blood pressure and bladder inflammation as the cause. His was the first presidential funeral broadcast on radio. He was buried at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, VirginiaVirginiaVirginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a U.S. state whose capital is Richmond. It entered the Union on June 25, 1788, as the 10th state, and had a population of 8,631,393 in the 2020 census (April 1, 2020).Open the full entry; he and John F. Kennedy are the only presidents buried there.⁠[1][14][5]

Taft and Helen Herron (1861–1943) had three children: Robert Alphonso Taft (1889–1953), Helen Herron Taft (1891–1987) and Charles Phelps Taft (1897–1983). Taft was a Unitarian.⁠[5]

Helen Taft was a key political adviser to her husband. She is the only woman to have been both first lady and the wife of a chief justice, and she outlived her husband by thirteen years.⁠[1][14]

Helen Taft proposed turning the Speedway in Washington into a public promenade, the first public project led by a first lady. On March 27, 1912, she and Iwa Chinda, wife of the Japanese ambassador, planted the first two Japanese cherry trees near the Tidal Basin.⁠[10][9]

Public Law 91-132 of December 2, 1969, authorized the William Howard Taft National Historic Site to preserve in public ownership properties associated with Taft’s life. Managed by the National Park Service, the site preserves his birthplace and boyhood home, a two-story Greek Revival house, and includes the Taft Education Center.⁠[2][16][17]

The Miller Center’s essay judges that Taft struggled to live up to the legacy of his predecessor and mentor, Theodore Roosevelt; as president he preferred enforcing existing law to pushing new legislation and struggled over tariff reform.⁠[4]

William Howard Taft National Historic Site: Official website: https://www.nps.gov/wiho/index.htm (opens in a new window).⁠[16]

Supreme Court of the United States: Official website: https://www.supremecourt.gov/ (opens in a new window).⁠[18]