President William Howard Taft, our 27th President, never gets a fair shake in history, due to the misfortune of being in office between two charismatic Presidents,Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson, and facing both in the Presidential Election of 1912, and ending up third, the only time a major party Presidential candidate ended up other than first or second in an election.
Taft may have had the worst re-election defeat in American history, winning only two states and 8 electoral votes in 1912, but despite that, Taft goes down in history as, in many ways, the most influential President on the matter of the Supreme Court, other than Franklin D. Roosevelt.
How is that, one might ask?
Well, Taft set a record of making the most appointments in one term ever in American history, as SIX vacancies opened up on the Court, including Chief Justice Edward Douglass White and Associate Justice Charles Evans Hughes having the most impact. Also, strong conservative Willis Van Devanter served 26 years on the Court, working against FDR’s New Deal in the 1930s.
Only George Washington and Franklin D. Roosevelt surpassed him in appointments, and Andrew Jackson matched him.
Since Taft served as Chief Justice by appointment of President Warren G. Harding after 1921 until 1930, he both picked his predecessor, and was followed as Chief Justice by Hughes, who was appointed by President Herbert Hoover as his replacement, with Hughes having resigned from the Court to run against Woodrow Wilson in 1916.
Additionally, Taft was the Chief Justice who did the lobbying that led to plans for a separate Supreme Court Building, although he died in 1930, never seeing the Court building completed and opened in 1935.
So William Howard Taft had a vast impact on the history of the Supreme Court!
I find this post very interesting. I had no idea about Taft’s influence on the Court.
Thanks, Max! I am glad to educate you! LOL
At least, you finally admit I am not totally wrong LOL and have some real knowledge and insights to spare! LOL hahahaha
And, by the way, Taft, a conservative, supported the Income Tax Amendment (!6th) and the Direct Election Of Senators Amendment (17th), both of which most conservatives wish to destroy, if they had a chance, a la Grover Norquist and Ann Coulter and others, who are destructive forces and harming the Republican Party to boot!
True though I doubt Taft would support what came afterwards. And bear in mind this was before the unconstitutional expansion of the Federal government and creation of the welfare state. Also in 1913, the top tax bracket was 7 percent on all income over $500,000 ($11 million in today’s dollars); and the lowest tax bracket was 1 percent. As Will Rogers said: “The difference between death and taxes is death doesn’t get worse every time Congress meets.â€
The 1913 tax looks nothing like it looks today. For example, where the actual form and directions fit on a mere four pages in 1913,
(http://www.bradfordtaxinstitute.com/Endnotes/IRS_Form_1040_1913.pdf) they total an intimidating 181 pages today.
(http://www.bradfordtaxinstitute.com/Endnotes/IRS_Form_1040_&_Inst_2010.pdf ). Intelligent people learn from past mistakes. So if Taft were alive today, and since he was an intelligent person, he would have learned from past mistakes, as would have many of that generation, except the leftist progressives of course. They just love all this bureaucracy and centralized power in the had of unelected and unaccountable bureaucrats.
Wow! We’ve actually educated him on something!
May I respectfully ask why my reply to you earlier where I posted to links to support what I was saying was not posted? It was waiting for the moderator approval and apparently it was not approved. Why? Did I violate any rules? Or was it just not convenient for your to allow others to read it? Just curious. Thank you.
I just got home, Max, and your entry earlier, for some reason, needed approval, not sure why. I have approved it, and that answers your query of one hour ago. Sorry for the confusion!
Don’t worry about it I was just curious and wondering if there was any rule against posting links, thanks!
Totally agree with the Professor. We are NOT going to have a smaller federal government. That will NOT work in this modern era.