50 Fun Facts About William Howard Taft

Taft is the only person to have held the presidency and which other office?

He was the 27th president (1909–13) and the tenth chief justice (1921–30).

In which city was Taft born in 1857?

The family lived in the suburb of Mount Auburn; his birthplace is now a National Historic Site.

Taft's father Alphonso held which two cabinet posts under Ulysses S. Grant?

Alphonso also co-founded Yale's Skull and Bones society, which his son later joined.

At which university was Taft an intramural heavyweight wrestling champion?

He graduated second in a class of 121 in 1878 and later returned as a law professor.

Which Yale secret society, co-founded by his father, did Taft join?

George H. W. Bush and George W. Bush are the other two presidents who were members.

What long-standing policy did Taft introduce as solicitor general in 1891?

The government concedes a case it won below if the solicitor general thinks it should have lost.

Which president appointed Taft solicitor general in 1890?

Taft won 15 of the 18 cases he argued before the Supreme Court in the role.

Taft's federal appeals judgeship was on which circuit?

Based in Cincinnati, it covered Ohio, Michigan, Kentucky and Tennessee.

Which president sent Taft to the Philippines in 1900 to set up a civilian government?

McKinley promised him the next Supreme Court vacancy in return; Taft became civilian governor on July 4, 1901.

Which general, military governor of the Philippines, regarded Taft's commission as a nuisance?

MacArthur, father of Douglas, had to cooperate because McKinley gave the commission control over funds.

Which department did Taft head in Roosevelt's cabinet from 1904?

The War Department ran the Philippines and the Panama Canal, so Taft kept both portfolios.

In 1905 Taft signed a memorandum with which Japanese prime minister?

It reaffirmed that Japan had no designs on the Philippines, a month before the Portsmouth peace talks.

Which island nation did Taft travel to in September 1906 to impose a US provisional government?

President Tomás Estrada Palma had asked for intervention amid election fraud and factional fighting.

Whom did Taft defeat in the 1908 presidential election?

It was Bryan's third losing run in four elections; Taft won 321 electoral votes to 162.

What did humorists say the letters TAFT stood for during the 1908 campaign?

Roosevelt even warned him against being photographed playing golf.

Which temperance crusader confronted Taft in 1908 and then called him irreligious?

Taft and Roosevelt had agreed the platform would take no position on prohibition.

Why was Taft inaugurated inside the Senate Chamber in March 1909?

His wife Nellie suffered a severe stroke two months later and he spent a year teaching her to speak again.

Who was Taft's secretary of state?

Knox had been attorney general under McKinley and Roosevelt; he and Taft reorganised the State Department by region.

What name was given to Taft's policy of using US investment to extend influence abroad?

It was unpopular with Latin American states that did not want to become financial protectorates.

Which 1909 tariff act raised rates when most Americans expected cuts?

Rhode Island senator Nelson Aldrich loaded the House bill with rate-raising amendments.

Which constitutional amendment, permitting an income tax, was sent to the states during Taft's term?

Taft preferred an amendment to a statute, fearing the Supreme Court would strike a tax down again.

Which country did Taft try, and fail, to sign a free-trade reciprocity accord with in 1911?

Britain still handled Canada's foreign relations; Canadians feared being dumped as in 1866.

Why did Taft veto Arizona's statehood bill in 1911?

Arizona dropped the clause, became a state in February 1912, then promptly put it back.

Which state became the 47th in the union under Taft in January 1912?

Arizona followed a month later as the 48th, completing the contiguous United States.

Roughly how many antitrust suits did the Taft administration bring in four years?

Roosevelt, the famous trust-buster, had brought 40 in seven years.

Which antitrust suit in 1911 offended Roosevelt by implying he had been "duped" by industrialists?

Taft had not even reviewed the pleadings; the rift with Roosevelt widened further.

Which conservation controversy pitted Taft's interior chief against the chief forester?

Richard Ballinger had acted as a lawyer for claimant Clarence Cunningham between government jobs.

How many Supreme Court justices did Taft appoint as president?

Only George Washington and Franklin Roosevelt appointed more.

Whom did Taft make the first associate justice promoted to chief justice, in 1910?

Taft had hinted the job would go to Hughes; he waited five months before choosing White.

Which New York governor did Taft put on the Supreme Court in 1910?

Hughes later resigned to run for president in 1916 and returned as chief justice in 1930, succeeding Taft.

Under what banner did Roosevelt run against Taft and Wilson in 1912?

Roosevelt had won 278 of 362 primary delegates but Taft controlled the convention machinery.

Which two states did Taft carry in the 1912 election?

Eight electoral votes in all — Roosevelt took 88 and Woodrow Wilson 435.

Who replaced the late James Sherman as Taft's running mate days before the 1912 vote?

Butler was president of Columbia University; the ticket won just eight electoral votes.

Who presided over the 1912 Republican convention as temporary chairman, helping Taft win?

Root ruled that contested delegates could vote on each other's seating — decisive for Taft.

After leaving the White House, Taft became a professor at which law school?

He had no pension and practising law would have meant appearing before judges he appointed.

Taft was president of which organisation campaigning for an international body to prevent war?

Wilson addressed it in 1916, previewing his League of Nations idea, which Taft supported.

Which Wilson Supreme Court nominee did Taft organise opposition against in 1916?

Taft never forgave Brandeis for his role in the Ballinger–Pinchot affair; the two later served together.

Which president appointed Taft chief justice in 1921?

Harding sounded him out at his Marion, Ohio home on Christmas Eve 1920, before Chief Justice White had died.

In which 1922 case did Chief Justice Taft strike down a federal tax aimed at ending child labour?

He wrote for an 8–1 majority that the tax was a penalty, not a revenue measure.

Myers v. United States (1926) upheld the president's power to do what without Senate approval?

He also declared the long-repealed Tenure of Office Act — used to impeach Andrew Johnson — invalid.

What was Taft's signature reform of the Supreme Court's workload, passed in 1925?

The Judiciary Act of 1925 let the justices pick most of their cases instead of hearing every appeal.

Where did the Supreme Court sit when Taft became chief justice?

Taft won the fight for a building of its own in 1927, but died before ground was broken.

Which architect designed the Supreme Court building that Taft championed?

Gilbert also designed the Woolworth Building; Henry Bacon was the Lincoln Memorial's architect.

What did Taft's weight peak at towards the end of his presidency?

By 1929 he was down to 244 pounds, walking three miles to the Capitol each day.

Which famous story about Taft and the White House is untrue, according to historians?

The cow was real — Nellie kept one for milk and butter as a cost-saving measure.

Which Washington landmark did First Lady Nellie Taft arrange, with a gift from the mayor of Tokyo?

She also replaced the White House horse and buggy with the first presidential car fleet.

Taft was the first president buried where?

He was also the first Supreme Court justice interred there; James Earle Fraser carved his marker.

Which Taft son became Senate Majority Leader and thrice sought the GOP nomination?

"Mr. Republican" lost the nomination each time to a more moderate candidate, including Eisenhower in 1952.

Which body did Taft chair as president, later fighting for Colorado marble over Georgia stone?

He quipped that, unlike losing the presidency, being removed from it would actually hurt.

Which British doctor served as Taft's dietary adviser for over twenty years?

Taft kept a daily log of his weight, food and exercise for the correspondence.