William H. Taft

BIRTH NAME
William Howard Taft

POLITICAL PARTY
Republican

RELIGION
Unitarian

EDUCATION
Yale BA 1878; Cincinnati Law School LLB 1880

VITALS
6 ft 2 in / 332 lbs (heaviest)

CAREER
1881-87 Practiced law in Hamilton County, Ohio
1887-90 Judge, Ohio Superior Court
1890-92 U.S. Solicitor General
1892-1900 Judge, U.S. Court of Appeals, 6th Circuit
1896-1900 Dean, Professor of law, University of Cincinnati
1901-04 Governor-General, Philippine Islands
1904-08 U.S. Secretary of War

PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION
November 3, 1908
Popular: Taft 7,679,006 (52%) William Jennings Bryan 6,409,106 (43%)
Electoral: Taft 321 Bryan 162

VICE PRESIDENT
James S. Sherman (1909-1912)

ADMINISTRATION
Payne-Aldrich Tariff (1909); Dollar Diplomacy, 16th Amendment (Income Tax)(1913)

SUPREME COURT APPOINTMENTS
Horace Lurton, Charles E. Hughes, Edward D. White (Chief), Willis Van Devanter, Joseph Lamar, Mahlon Pitney

NEW STATES
New Mexico, Arizona (1912)

FIRST LADY
Helen Herron (1909-1913)

POST-PRESIDENCY
1913-21 Kent Professor of Constitutional Law, Yale University
1913-14 President, American Bar Association
1918-19 Joint Chair, War Labor Board
1921-30 Chief Justice of the United States

“We are all imperfect. We can not expect perfect government.”
Address to the Board of Trade and Chamber of Commerce of Washington, D.C., May 8, 1909

Portrait of William Howard Taft by Anders Zorn, 1911.