William Howard Taft | |
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Taft in 1909
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27th President of the United States | |
In office March 4, 1909 – March 4, 1913 |
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Vice President |
James S. Sherman (1909–12) None (1912–13) |
Preceded by | Theodore Roosevelt |
Succeeded by | Woodrow Wilson |
10th Chief Justice of the United States | |
In office July 11, 1921 – February 3, 1930 |
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Nominated by | Warren G. Harding |
Preceded by | Edward Douglass White |
Succeeded by | Charles Evans Hughes |
42nd United States Secretary of War | |
In office February 1, 1904 – June 30, 1908 |
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President | Theodore Roosevelt |
Preceded by | Elihu Root |
Succeeded by | Luke Edward Wright |
1st Provisional Governor of Cuba | |
In office September 29, 1906 – October 13, 1906 |
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Appointed by | Theodore Roosevelt |
Preceded by |
Tomás Estrada Palma (President) |
Succeeded by | Charles Edward Magoon |
Governor-General of the Philippines | |
In office July 4, 1901 – December 23, 1903 |
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Appointed by | William McKinley |
Preceded by |
Arthur MacArthur, Jr. (Military Governor) |
Succeeded by | Luke Edward Wright |
Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit | |
In office March 17, 1892 – March 15, 1900 |
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Appointed by | Benjamin Harrison |
Preceded by | Seat established |
Succeeded by | Henry Franklin Severens |
6th Solicitor General of the United States | |
In office February 1890 – March 1892 |
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President | Benjamin Harrison |
Preceded by | Orlow W. Chapman |
Succeeded by | Charles H. Aldrich |
Personal details | |
Born |
Cincinnati, Ohio, U.S. |
September 15, 1857
Died | March 8, 1930 Washington, D.C., U.S. |
(aged 72)
Resting place | Arlington National Cemetery |
Political party | Republican |
Spouse(s) | Helen Herron (m. 1886) |
Children |
Robert Helen Charles |
Parents |
Alphonso Taft Lousia Maria Torrey |
Education |
Yale University (BA) University of Cincinnati (LLB) |
Signature |
The Taft Cabinet | ||
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Office | Name | Term |
President | William Howard Taft | 1909–1913 |
Vice President | James S. Sherman | 1909–1912 |
none | 1912–1913 | |
Secretary of State | Philander C. Knox | 1909–1913 |
Secretary of Treasury | Franklin MacVeagh | 1909–1913 |
Secretary of War | Jacob M. Dickinson | 1909–1911 |
Henry L. Stimson | 1911–1913 | |
Attorney General | George W. Wickersham | 1909–1913 |
Postmaster General | Frank H. Hitchcock | 1909–1913 |
Secretary of the Navy | George von L. Meyer | 1909–1913 |
Secretary of the Interior | Richard A. Ballinger | 1909–1911 |
Walter L. Fisher | 1911–1913 | |
Secretary of Agriculture | James Wilson | 1909–1913 |
Secretary of Commerce & Labor | Charles Nagel | 1909–1913 |
William Howard Taft (September 15, 1857 – March 8, 1930) served as the 27th President of the United States (1909–1913) and as the 10th Chief Justice of the United States (1921–1930), the only person to have held both offices. Taft was elected president in 1908, the chosen successor of Theodore Roosevelt, but was defeated for re-election by Woodrow Wilson in 1912 after Roosevelt split the Republican vote by running as a third-party candidate. In 1921, President Warren G. Harding appointed Taft to be chief justice, a position in which he served until a month before his death.
Taft was born in Cincinnati in 1857. His father, Alphonso Taft, was a U.S. Attorney General and Secretary of War. William Taft attended Yale and was a member of Skull and Bones secret society like his father, and after becoming a lawyer was appointed a judge while still in his twenties. He continued a rapid rise, being named Solicitor General and as a judge of the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals. In 1901, President William McKinley appointed Taft civilian governor of the Philippines. In 1904, Roosevelt made him Secretary of War, and he became Roosevelt's hand-picked successor. Despite his personal ambition to become chief justice, Taft declined repeated offers of appointment to the Supreme Court of the United States, believing his political work to be more important.