1857 - 1930
William Taft
Our international policy is always to promote peace. We shall enter into any war with a full consciousness of the awful consequences that it always entails,…and we, of course, shall make every effort consistent with national honor and the highest national interest to avoid a resort to arms. Inaugural Address
Overview
William Howard Taft faced the difficult task as President of living up to the legacy of Theodore Roosevelt. Taft so disappointed his predecessor, former mentor, and friend, that Roosevelt opposed his renomination in 1912 and bolted from the Republican Party to form his own "Bull-Moose" party, creating an opening for Democrat Woodrow Wilson in the 1912 presidential election. Taft's lifelong ambition was to serve as Chief Justice of the United States, to which he was appointed after leaving the presidency. He remains the only man in American history to have gained the highest executive and judicial positions.
Fast Facts
William Howard Taft
Cincinnati, Ohio
Yale College (graduated 1878), Cincinnati Law School (LL.B., 1880)
Unitarian
Lawyer, Public Official
Republican
None
June 19, 1886, to Helen Herron (1861–1943)
Robert Alphonso (1889–1953), Helen Herron (1891–1987), Charles Phelps (1897–1983)
27
Arlington National Cemetery, Arlington, Virginia
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