U.S. presidential administration from 1909 to 1913
The presidency of William Howard Taft began on March 4, 1909, when William Howard Taft was inaugurated as 27th president of the United States, and ended on March 4, 1913. Taft was a Republican from Ohio. The protégé and chosen successor of President Theodore Roosevelt, he took office after easily defeating Democrat William Jennings Bryan in the 1908 presidential election. His presidency ended with his landslide defeat in the 1912 election by Democrat Woodrow Wilson, after one term in office.
Taft sought to lower tariffs—a tax on imports—then a major source of governmental income. However he was out-maneuvered. The new Payne–Aldrich Tariff Act of 1909 raised rates when most people expected reductions. Taft expanded Roosevelt's efforts to break up trusts, launching legal cases against U.S. Steel and other very large companies. Taft made six appointments to the United States Supreme Court, more than all but two other presidents. In foreign affairs, Taft focused on China and Japan, and repeatedly intervened to prop up or remove Latin American governments. It followed a policy of Dollar Diplomacy, using American banking investment to bolster influence in Latin America and China, with little success.
His administration was filled with conflict between the conservative wing of the Republican Party, with which Taft often sympathized, and the progressive wing, led by Theodore Roosevelt and Robert M. La Follette. Controversies over conservation and over antitrust cases filed by the Taft administration served to further separate Taft and Roosevelt. Roosevelt challenged Taft at the 1912 Republican National Convention, but Taft was able to use his control of the party machinery to narrowly win his party's nomination. After the convention, Roosevelt left the party, formed the Progressive Party, and ran against Taft and Wilson in the 1912 election. Roosevelt had already blocked LaFollette's ambitions, so he endorsed Wilson. The deep split among Republicans doomed Taft's re-election, giving Democrats control of the White House for the first time in sixteen years, as well as control of Congress. Historians generally consider Taft to have been an average president.
Election of 1908.
After his victory in the 1904 presidential election, Theodore Roosevelt announced that he would not seek re-election in 1908. Roosevelt considered Secretary of War Taft to be his logical successor, although Taft was initially reluctant to run, and would have preferred being appointed to the position of chief justice of the Supreme Court. Roosevelt used his control of the party machinery to aid his heir apparent, and Roosevelt's political appointees were required to support Taft or remain silent. A number of Republican politicians, such as Treasury Secretary George Cortelyou, tested the waters for a run, but chose to stay out. New York Governor Charles Evans Hughes ran, but when he made a major policy speech, Roosevelt took steps to minimize coverage of Hughes's candidacy. Taft faced no serious opposition at the 1908 Republican National Convention and he won the presidential nomination on the first ballot. Taft hoped his running mate would be a Midwestern progressive such as Iowa Senator Jonathan Dolliver, but instead the convention named Congressman James S. Sherman of New York, a conservative. Taft resigned as Secretary of War on June 30 to devote himself full-time to the campaign.
Taft began the campaign on the wrong foot, fueling the arguments of those who said he was not his own man by traveling to Roosevelt's home at Sagamore Hill for advice on his acceptance speech, saying that he needed "the president's judgment and criticism". He supported most of Roosevelt's policies. Taft argued that labor had a right to organize, but not boycott, and that corporations and the wealthy must also obey the law. He attributed blame for the recent recession, the Panic of 1907, to stock speculation and other abuses, and felt some reform of the currency (the U.S. was on the gold standard) was needed to allow flexibility in the government's response to poor economic times. He also spoke out in favor of revisions to tariff rates and favored strengthening the Sherman Antitrust Act. Taft's opponent in the general election was William Jennings Bryan, the Democratic nominee for the third time in four presidential elections. He campaigned on a progressive platform attacking "government by privilege", and portraying Republicans as beholden to powerful corporate interests and to the wealthy. Given that many of Roosevelt's reforms stemmed from his proposals, the Democrat argued that he himself was the true heir to Roosevelt's mantle.
During the fall campaign Roosevelt showered Taft with advice and infused energy into his campaign. Consequently, accusations abounded that the president was in effect running Taft's campaign. His larger-than-life presence in the campaign also caught the attention of journalists and humorists who bombarded the public with jokes about Taft being nothing but a Roosevelt stand-in; one suggested that "T.A.F.T." stood for "Take Advice From Theodore. In the end, Taft defeated Bryan by 321 electoral votes to 162, carrying all but three states outside the Democratic Solid South. He also won the popular vote by a comfortable margin, receiving 7,675,320 votes (51.6 percent) to Bryan's 6,412,294 (43.1 percent); Socialist Party candidate Eugene V. Debs won 420,793 votes (2.8 percent). Nellie Taft said regarding the campaign, "There was nothing to criticize, except his not knowing or caring about the way the game of politics is played." Roosevelt, meanwhile, left office with regret that his tenure in the position he enjoyed so much was over. To keep out of Taft's way, he arranged for a year-long hunting trip to Africa.
Transition.
On November 17, 1908, President-elect Taft spoke in agreement with the stance expressed by Secretary of War Luke Edward Wright supporting free trade of sugar and tobacco with the Philippines.
On December 19, 1908, Taft announced that he had chosen Philander C. Knox to serve as his secretary of state. He also stated that Knox would play a role in advising him in selecting the rest of his Cabinet.
On February 17, 1909, it was reported that Jacob M. Dickinson would serve as Taft's secretary of war and Willis Van Devanter would serve as his secretary of the treasury. However, by March 4, Franklin MacVeagh was instead chosen for secretary of the treasury.
During his presidential transition period, Taft visited Panama, from January 29 through February 7, 1909. In Panama, he inspected the construction of the Panama Canal, and met with President of Panama José Domingo de Obaldía. During his transition, Taft also conducted some domestic traveling, including a visit to Atlanta where he was fed opossum at a dinner hosted by the Atlanta Chamber of Commerce on January 15, 1909. Taft would develop a somewhat famous affinity for eating the animal after this dinner.
Inauguration.
Taft's presidential inauguration was held on March 4, 1909. Due to a winter storm that coated Washington with ice, Taft was sworn in within the Senate Chamber rather than outside the Capitol, as is customary. Taft stated in his inaugural address that he had been honored to have been "one of the advisers of my distinguished predecessor" and to have had a part "in the reforms he has initiated. I should be untrue to myself, to my promises, and to the declarations of the party platform on which I was elected if I did not make the maintenance and enforcement of those reforms a most important feature of my administration". He pledged to make those reforms long-lasting, ensuring that honest businessmen did not suffer uncertainty through change of policy. He spoke of the need for reduction of the 1897 Dingley Tariff, for antitrust reform, and for continued advancement of the Philippines toward full self-government.
Administration.
Cabinet.
During the 1908 campaign, Taft and Roosevelt had discussed which Cabinet officers would stay on, but Taft kept only Agriculture Secretary James Wilson and George von Lengerke Meyer. Meyer was shifted from the position of Postmaster General to the position of Secretary of the Navy. Taft also asked Secretary of State Elihu Root to remain in his position, but Root declined and instead recommended former Attorney General Philander C. Knox for the position. Others appointed to the Taft's inaugural Cabinet include Secretary of the Interior Richard A. Ballinger, Secretary of the Treasury Franklin MacVeagh, Secretary of War Jacob M. Dickinson, Postmaster General Frank Harris Hitchcock, Secretary of Commerce and Labor Charles Nagel, and Attorney General George W. Wickersham. In 1911, Henry L. Stimson replaced Dickinson, and Walter L. Fisher replaced Ballinger.
Vice Presidency.
James S. Sherman had been added to the 1908 Republican ticket as a means to appease the conservative wing of the GOP, which viewed Taft as a progressive. As Taft moved to the right during his presidency, Sherman emerged an important ally to the president. Nominated for a second term at the 1912 Republican National Convention, he became ill during the campaign and died on October 30, 1912, just prior to the election. As the Constitution lacked a mechanism for choosing an intra-term replacement prior to ratification of the Twenty-fifth Amendment in 1967, the vice presidency remained vacant for the final days of Taft's presidency. During that time, Secretary of State Philander C. Knox was next in line to the presidency, per the Presidential Succession Act of 1886.
Press corps.
Taft did not enjoy the easy relationship with the press that Roosevelt had, choosing not to offer himself for interviews or photo opportunities as often as his predecessor had. His administration marked a change in style from the charismatic leadership of Roosevelt to Taft's quieter passion for the rule of law.
Judicial appointments.
Throughout his career Taft identified with the judiciary, and he made six appointments to the Supreme Court, the most of any president except George Washington and Franklin D. Roosevelt. He appointed Horace H. Lurton in 1909, Charles Evans Hughes, Willis Van Devanter, and Joseph R. Lamar in 1910, and Mahlon Pitney in 1912. Additionally, Taft elevated Associate Justice Edward Douglass White to the position of chief justice in 1910. The Supreme Court under Chief Justice White proved to be less conservative than both the preceding Fuller Court and the succeeding Taft Court, although the court continued to strike down numerous economic regulations as part of the Lochner era. Three of Taft's appointees left the court by 1917, while Pitney and White remained on the court until the early 1920s. The conservative Van Devanter was the lone Taft appointee to serve past 1922, and he formed part of the Four Horsemen bloc that opposed Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal. Taft himself would succeed White as Chief Justice in 1921, and he served with Pitney and Van Devanter on the Taft Court.
Taft also appointed 13 judges to the federal courts of appeal and 38 judges to the United States district courts. Taft also appointed judges to various specialized courts, including the first five appointees each to the United States Commerce Court and the United States Court of Customs Appeals.
Domestic affairs.
Tariffs and taxation.
Payne-Aldrich Tariff.
Immediately following his inauguration, Taft called a special session of Congress to convene in March 1909 for the purpose of revising the tariff schedules. Rates had been set by the 1897 Dingley Act, and were the highest in history. The Republican Party had made the high tariff the central plank of their economic policy since the end of the Civil War, but Taft and some other Republicans had come to believe that the Dingley Act had set the rates too high. Though the high tariff protected domestic manufacturing, it also hurt U.S. exports and raised the cost of living for the average American. Many saw the tariff as a de facto regressive tax on consumers, but favored policies that would shift the tax burden to corporations and high earners. While Roosevelt had largely avoided the tariff issue, Taft became the first Republican president to actively seek to lower tariff rates.
Representative Sereno E. Payne, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee and an ally of conservative Speaker of the House Joseph Gurney Cannon, took charge of drafting tariff legislation. On balance, the bill Payne introduced reduced tariffs slightly, but not nearly as much as Taft and progressive Republicans preferred. Payne's bill passed the House in April 1909; when it reached the Senate, the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, Nelson W. Aldrich, attached numerous amendments that raised tariff rates. Aldrich's amendments outraged progressives such as Wisconsin's Robert M. La Follette, who strongly opposed the high rates of the Payne-Aldrich tariff bill. Facing pressure from progressive