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James Webb

2011-02-09T20:13:36Z

Saxonjf: Editing to note Webb's not seeking reeleciton

{{Officeholder
|name=Jim Webb
|image=Webb official color 144.jpg
|party=[[Democrat]]
|spouse=Barbara Samorajczyk (div.)<br/>Jo Ann Krukar (div.)<br/>Hong Le Webb
|religion=Protestant
|offices=
{{Officeholder/senator
|state=Virginia
|terms=January 3, 2007 - Present
|preceded=[[George Allen]]
|former=n
|succeeded=
}}
}}

'''James "Jim" Webb, Jr.''' (b. 1946) is the senior [[United States Senator]] from [[Virginia]] and a member of the [[Democratic Party]]. He briefly served as Secretary of the Navy under President [[Ronald Reagan]] from 1987-1988. Webb is a graduate of the [[United States Naval Academy|U.S. Naval Academy]], and a decorated [[Vietnam War]] veteran. He has announced that he will not seek reelection in 2012 in the [[conservative]] state of Virginia.<ref>http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/senate-races/142979-sen-webb-wont-seek-another-term-in-2012</ref>

==2006 Senate campaign==
On February 7, 2006, Webb announced that he would seek the Democratic nomination for the 2006 Senate race against one-term incumbent Virginia Senator [[George Allen]]. He won the Democratic primary by a 53%-47% margin in a race with a low voter turnout. The contest with Allen turned largely on Allen's controversial personality and identity. Allen's used the word "macaca" to insult one of Webb's campaign workers, and it backfired. On November 7th Webb narrowly defeated Allen and was elected to a six year term in the U.S. [[Senate]]. Analysts argue that Virginia was rapidly changing from a Republican stronghold to a competitive state. Black voters (85%-15%) voted for Webb over Allen. The black vote proved decisive in Webb's victory since Webb lost the white vote 41%-58%.<ref> Vote returns from [http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2006/pages/results/states/VA/S/01/epolls.0.html CNN Exit Poll]</ref>

==Naval Academy controversy==
Webb has been the subject of many controversies. During his Senate campaign a group female graduates of the United States Naval Academy accused him of fostering an air of hostility and harassment towards them within the academy. In a 1979 article by Webb, entitled "Women Can't Fight", he said he had never met a woman "whom [he] would trust to provide those men with combat leadership", while he was serving in the Vietnam War. He said of Bancroft Hall, a dorm at the Naval Academy that has 4,000 males and 300 females, was "a horny woman's dream." <ref>http://george.loper.org/archives/2006/Sep/9597.html</ref>

After his appointment as United States Navy Secretary, Webb referred to [[military]] women as "thunder thighs." After Webb retired, [[President Reagan]] wrote that "I don't think the Navy was sorry to see him go." <ref>http://www.nybooks.com/articles/21530</ref>

==Exchange with President Bush==
On November 28, 2006, at a White House reception for those newly elected to Congress, Senator-Elect Jim Webb refused to have his picture taken with [[Republican]] President [[George W. Bush]]. The President asked Webb "How's your boy?", referring to his son, a Marine serving in Iraq. Webb replied "I'd like to get them out of Iraq, Mr. President." Bush responded, "That's not what I asked you. How's your boy?" Webb responded, "That's between me and my boy, Mr. President." Webb was so angered by the exchange that he was reportedly tempted to "slug" the president. He later said "I'm not particularly interested in having a picture of me and George W. Bush on my wall."

==United States Senator==
On January 4, 2007 Webb was accompanied by Senator [[John Warner]] (R-VA) and sworn in to the United States Senate by Vice President [[Dick Cheney]]. Webb currently serves on the Committee on Foreign Relations, Committee on Armed Services, Committee on Veterans Affairs, and the Joint Economic Committee. On January 23, 2007, Webb delivered the Democratic response to the President's State of the Union address and threatened to "show President Bush the way."

==Controversy==
Jim Webb's ancestors were officers in the [[Confederate]] army.<ref>http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0608/10994.html , POLITICO Webb's rebel roots: An affinity for Confederacy, June 10, 2008</ref> He maintains that "Most Southern soldiers viewed the driving issue to be sovereignty rather than slavery." He said "Love of the Union was palpably stronger in the South." That doesn't make sense to the majority of people. Many detractors consider his statement sovereignty to continue slavery.

March 26 2007, an aide of Jim Webb, Phillip Thompson carried a concealed firearm into the Senate building. Routine scanning of briefcases turned up a loaded pistol and two loaded clips. He was immediately arrested by Capitol Police.<ref>http://fredericksburg.com/News/FLS/2007/042007/04282007/279797 , AP Webb aide's gun charge dropped by prosecutor, April 28, 2007</ref> Charges against the aide were dismissed.

==External Links==
*[http://www.webb.senate.gov/ Official Website]
*[http://www.ontheissues.org/Senate/James_Webb.htm Webb On the Issues]

== References ==
<references/>

{{DEFAULTSORT: Webb, Jim}}
[[Category:United States Senators]]
[[Category:Virginia]]
[[Category:Democratic Party]]
[[Category: 110th United States Congress]]
[[Category:111th United States Congress]]

William Howard Taft

2010-07-06T01:30:48Z

Saxonjf: /* Personality */ correcting ref. link

{{President
|image=William_taft.jpg
|seq=27
|term_start=March 4, 1909
|term_end=March 4, 1913<ref>http://home.comcast.net/~sharonday7/Presidents/AP060301.htm</ref>
|party=Republican
|vp=James S. Sherman
|vp_dates=1909-1912
|2vp=None
|2vp_dates=1912-1913
|previous=Theodore Roosevelt
|next=Woodrow Wilson
|birth_date=September 15, 1857
|birth_place=Cincinnati, Ohio
|death_date=March 8, 1930
|death_place=Washington, D.C.
|spouse=Helen Herron Taft
|spouse2=
|religion=[[Unitarian]]

}}
'''William Howard Taft''' was the 27th [[President of the United States of America]], serving from 1909 to 1913, and served as the 10th [[Chief Justice of the United States]]. A leader of the conservative half of the [[Progressive Era|progressive]] wing of the [[Republican Party]] in the early 20th century, his greatest achievement was to expel the left wing of the GOP in 1912 and to move the party, and the Supreme Court, to the right, for a generation.

Taft served as [[Solicitor General of the United States]], a federal judge, [[Governor-General of the Philippines]], and Secretary of War before being nominated for President by the 1908 Republican National Convention with the critical backing of the incumbent President and Taft's close friend [[Theodore Roosevelt]].

Taft, scion of the leading political family in Ohio, pioneered in [[international arbitration]]; his advocacy of [[world peace]] verging on [[pacifism]].

His presidency was characterized by raising the tariff, breaking up large monopolies, and promoting world peace. He failed in a new tariff program with Canada. In politics the GOP was splitting in half, and Taft, in the middle, finally joined the conservative camp; Roosevelt broke with him in 1911, charging Taft was too reactionary. Taft and the conservatives were alarmed at Roosevelt's attacks on the judiciary, and took control of the party machinery. Taft [[Republican_Party#Progressive_insurgents_vs._Conservatives|defeated]] Roosevelt for the Republican nomination in a bruising battle in 1912 that forced Roosevelt out of the GOP and left Taft people in charge for decades. During [[World War I]] he helped set national labor policy that reduced strikes and generated union support for the national cause. In 1921, he became Chief Justice. As President and Chief Justice he helped make the federal courts, especially the Supreme Court, much more powerful in shaping national policy.

==Early life==
Taft was born in [[Cincinnati, Ohio]], the third of five children. His mother, Louisa Torrey, was a graduate of [[Mount Holyoke College]]. His father, [[Alphonso Taft]], came to Cincinnati in 1839 to open a law practice. Alphonso Taft was a prominent Republican and served as Secretary of War under President [[Ulysses S. Grant]].

Taft was brought up in the [[Unitarian]] church and remained a faithful Unitarian his entire life.<ref> He said, "I do not believe in the divinity of Christ, and there are many other of the postulates of the orthodox creed to which I cannot subscribe." </ref> At age 18, he met his future wife, Helen Herron, in Cincinnati; she and Taft courted while he was away at college. The [[William Howard Taft National Historic Site]] is the Taft boyhood home. The house in which he was born has been restored to its original appearance. It includes four period rooms which reflect the family life during Taft's boyhood. The home also includes second floor exhibits highlighting Taft's life and career, as well as an educational center.<ref>[http://www.nps.gov/wiho ''http://www.nps.gov/wiho'']</ref>

===Education===
Taft attended public schools in Cincinnati, then (like most Tafts) he attended [[Yale College]] in New Haven, Connecticut. He was a member of "Skull and Bones", the secret society co-founded by his father in 1832. In 1878, Taft graduated from Yale, ranking second in his class out of 121. He then attended Cincinnati Law School, a third-rate institution, graduating with a Bachelor of Laws in 1880. While in law school, he worked on the local GOP newspaper ''[[The Cincinnati Commercial]]''.<ref>Pringle (1939) v. 1 </ref>

===Career===
After admission to the Ohio bar, Taft was appointed Assistant Prosecutor of Hamilton County, Ohio, based in Cincinnati. In 1882, he was appointed local Collector of Internal Revenue. People who disagreed with Taft's beliefs and opposed the decisions he made called him a “trust buster”. Taft married his longtime sweetheart, Helen Herron, in Cincinnati in 1886. In 1887, he was appointed as a judge of the Ohio Superior Court. In 1890, President [[Benjamin Harrison]] appointed him [[Solicitor General of the United States]]. In 1892 Harrison appointed him to the newly created Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, a post which he held until 1900. It was then that he met Theodore Roosevelt for the first time.<ref>Pringle (1939) v. 1 </ref>

In addition to his judgeship, between 1896 and 1900 Taft also served as the first Dean and a Professor of Constitutional Law at the [[University of Cincinnati]]. Eventually, he became the Chief Judge of the Sixth Circuit. One of Taft's most famous opinions was in ''[[Addyston Pipe and Steel Company v. United States]]'' (1898).<ref>Pringle (1939) v. 1 </ref>
==Philippines==
In 1900, President [[William McKinley]] appointed Taft as the chairman of a commission to organize a civilian government in the [[Philippines]], which had been ceded to the United States by [[Spain]] following the [[Spanish-American War]] and the 1898 Treaty of Paris. Although Taft initially had been opposed to the annexation of the islands and told McKinley that his real ambition was to become a justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, he reluctantly accepted the appointment when McKinley suggested that he would be "the better judge for this experience."

From 1901 to 1903, Taft served as the first civilian Governor-General of the Philippines, a position in which he was very popular among both Americans and Filipinos. He resolved one of the most aggravating problems in 1902, going to Rome to negotiate with [[Pope Leo XIII]] for the purchase of lands in the Philippines owned by the Roman Catholic Church. Taft then convinced Congress to appropriate $7,239,000 to purchase the lands, which he sold to Filipinos on easy terms. In 1903, President Roosevelt offered Taft a seat on the Supreme Court, but he reluctantly declined when Filipino groups begged him to remain in Manila as Governor-General.<ref>Pringle (1939) v. 1 </ref>

==Secretary of War, 1904-1908==
In 1904, Roosevelt appointed Taft as [[Secretary of War]]. Roosevelt made the basic policy decisions regarding military affairs, using Taft as a well-traveled spokesman who campaigned for Roosevelt's re-election in 1904. Taft met with the Emperor of [[Japan]], who alerted him of the probability of war with [[Russia]]. In 1906, Roosevelt sent troops to restore order in [[Cuba]] during the revolt led by General Enrique Loynaz del Castillo, and Taft temporarily became the Civil Governor of Cuba, personally negotiating with General Castillo for a peaceful end to the revolt. In 1907, Secretary Taft helped supervise the beginning of construction on the [[Panama Canal]]. Taft repeatedly had told Roosevelt he wanted to be Chief Justice, not President (and not an associate justice), but there was no vacancy and Roosevelt had other plans. He gave Taft more responsibilities in addition to the Philippines and the Panama Canal. For a while, Taft was Acting Secretary of State. When Roosevelt was away, Taft in effect was the Acting President.<ref>Pringle (1939) v. 1 </ref>

==Presidency 1909-1913==
[[Image:1909.jpg|thumb|270px|As Roosevelt leaves office he gives Taft custody of his "baby" (TR's policies)]]
==1908==
After serving for nearly two full terms, the popular Roosevelt refused to run for a third term in 1908. Roosevelt certified Taft as a genuine "progressive", pushing through the nomination of his Secretary of War for the presidency. At the age 51 Taft easily defeated liberal Democrat, [[William Jennings Bryan]], running for the third time.
===Progressive===
Taft considered himself a "progressive" because of his deep belief in "The Law" as the scientific device that should be used by judges to solve society's problems. Taft proved a less adroit politician than Roosevelt and seemed to lack the energy and personal magnetism of his mentor, not to mention the publicity devices, the dedicated supporters, and the broad base of public support that made Roosevelt so formidable. When Roosevelt realized that lowering the tariff would risk severe tensions inside the Republican Party, pitting producers (manufacturers and farmers) against department stores and consumers, he stopped talking about the issue. Taft ignored the risks and tackled the tariff boldly, on the one hand encouraging reformers to fight for lower rates, then cutting deals with conservative leaders that kept overall rates high. The resulting [[Payne-Aldrich tariff]] of 1909 was too high for most reformers, but instead of blaming this on Senator [[Nelson Aldrich]] and big business, Taft took credit, calling it the best bill to come from the Republican Party. Again, he had managed to alienate all sides.<ref>Pringle (1939) v. 1 </ref>

Unlike Roosevelt, Taft never attacked business or businessmen in his rhetoric. However, he was attentive to the law, so he launched 90 antitrust suits, including one against the country's largest corporation, [[U.S. Steel]], for an acquisition which Roosevelt personally had approved. As a result, Taft lost the support of antitrust reformers (who disliked his conservative rhetoric), of big business (which disliked his actions), and of Roosevelt, who felt humiliated by his protégé. Progressives within the Republican party began agitating against Taft. Senator [[Robert M. LaFollette, Sr.|Robert LaFollette]] of Wisconsin created the National Progressive Republican League] to replace Taft at the national level; his campaign crashed after a disastrous speech. Most of LaFollette's supporters went over to Roosevelt, leaving LaFollette embittered and alone. More trouble came when Taft fired [[Gifford Pinchot]], a leading conservationist and close ally of Roosevelt. Pinchot alleged that Taft's Secretary of Interior [[Richard Ballinger]] was in league with big timber interests. Conservationists sided with Pinchot, and Taft alienated yet another vocal constituency.

Taft fought for the [[Antitrust|prosecution of trusts]] (eventually issuing 80 lawsuits), further strengthened the [[Interstate Commerce Commission]], established a postal savings bank and a parcel post system, and expanded the civil service. He supported the 16th Amendment by Senator [[Nelson Aldrich]], which allowed for a federal income tax, and the 17th Amendment, mandating the direct election of senators by the people, replacing the previous system whereby they were selected by state legislatures.

===Foreign policy===
Taft actively pursued what he termed "[[dollar diplomacy]]" to further the economic development of less-developed nations of Latin America and Asia through American investment in their infrastructures. Throughout the early part of his presidency, Taft had difficulties with [[Nicaragua]]. When the United States shifted its interests to [[Panama]] for the purpose of building a canal, Nicaraguan President José Santos Zelaya negotiated with [[Germany]] and Japan in an unsuccessful effort to have a canal built in Nicaragua. The Zelaya administration had growing friction with Washington, which started giving aid to his Conservative opponents in Nicaragua. In 1907, U.S. warships seized several of Nicaragua's seaports. In early December, Taft sent in Marines to prevent a civil war; Zelaya left for exile in Mexico. The U.S.-sponsored conservative regime of Adolfo Díaz was installed in his place. Military invasions increased with Marine landings in 1910 and 1912. The Marines stayed in Nicaragua through 1925.
====Peace====
One of Taft's main goals while President was to further the idea of [[world peace]]. Given his judicial sensibilities, he believed that international arbitration was the best means to effectuate the end of war on Earth. As such, he championed several reciprocity and arbitration treaties. In 1910, he convinced congressional Democrats to support a reciprocity treaty with [[Canada]], but the Liberal Canadian government that negotiated the treaty was turned out of office in 1911 on a wave of anti-Americanism and the treaty was never ratified. In 1910 and 1911, however, he secured the ratification of arbitration treaties that he had successfully negotiated with Britain and France and thereafter was known as one of the foremost advocates of world peace and arbitration.

===16th Amendment===
To solve one impasse during the 1909 tariff debate, Taft proposed income taxes for corporations and business. His new tax on corporate net income was 1% on net profits over $5,000. Legally, it was designated an excise on the privilege of doing business and not a tax on incomes as such. In 1911, the Supreme Court, in ''Flint v. Stone Tracy Company'', approved it. Receipts grew from $21 million in the fiscal year 1910 to $34.8 million in 1912.
An income tax on ''individuals,'' (unlike the tax on corporations) required a constitutional amendment. One was passed with little controversy in July, 1909, unanimously in the Senate and by a vote of 318 to 14 in the House. It quickly was ratified by the states, and in February, 1913, it became a part of the Constitution as the Sixteenth Amendment, as Taft was leaving office.

===Party schism===
[[Image:1912fight.jpg|thumb|550px|TR (the bull) is attacked from all sides; Taft on horseback at left; Wilson (right) moves in for the kill. ''Puck'' magazine]]
Despite his obvious achievements, progressives decried Taft's acceptance of the ''[[Payne-Aldrich Tariff Act]]'', which lowered the tariff on the farm products of the western states, whose citizens desired lower rates on Eastern factory products. Taft opposed statehood for Arizona because of the liberalism of its proposed state constitution.
===GOP split===
Progressives on the left grumbled that he worked too closely with conservative Senator [[Nelson W. Aldrich]] and Speaker of the House [[Joseph G. Cannon]]. By 1910, Taft's party was deeply divided between left and right, with Taft on the right.
[[Image:1912GOP.JPG|thumb|250px|Taft forces defeated Roosevelt and controlled the convention]]

On his return in 1910, Roosevelt broke with Taft in one of the most dramatic political feuds of the 20th century. To the surprise of observers who thought Roosevelt had unstoppable momentum, Taft outmaneuvered Roosevelt and LaFollette, seized control of the GOP, and forced both out of the party. The main issue in 1911-12 was independence of the judiciary, which Roosevelt denounced. Most lawyers in the GOP supported Taft, including many of Roosevelt's key supporters like [[Elihu Root]], [[Henry Stimson]], and Roosevelt's own son-in-law, [[Nicholas Longworth]]. In lining up delegates for the 1912 nomination, Taft outmaneuvered Roosevelt, who had started much too late, and kept control of the Republican party.

1912 was the first year that some delegates were selected through primary elections. Primary elections were seen as a way to take power away from party bosses and put it in the hands of the people, and was favored in the anti-Taft states. Out of the 14 Republican primaries held, Roosevelt won 9, and Taft only won 3. Robert Lafollete won the other 2. Nevertheless, Taft had the delegates and won the nomination at the republican nominating convention in Chicago.

Instead, Roosevelt was forced to create the [[Progressive Party]] (or "Bull Moose") ticket, splitting the Republican vote in the 1912 election. [[Woodrow Wilson]], the Democrat, was elected, although many historians argue that Wilson would have won anyway, because the Republican factions would not support each other. Taft won a mere eight electoral votes, making it the single worst defeat for a President seeking re-election. He achieved his main goal, however, keeping permanent control of the party and making the courts sacrosanct.

[[Image:FORCE.JPG|thumb|350px|left|Taft proved immovable. ''Puck'' cartoon 1912]]

===Supreme Court appointments===
During his presidency, Taft appointed six Justices to the [[Supreme Court of the United States]]: [[Horace Harmon Lurton]] in 1910; [[Charles Evans Hughes]] in 1910; [[Edward Douglass White]] as Chief Justice in 1910; [[Willis Van Devanter]] in 1911; [[Joseph Rucker Lamar]] in 1911; and [[Mahlon Pitney]] in 1912.

==Post-presidency==
Upon leaving the White House in 1913, Taft was appointed Kent Professor of Constitutional Law at [[Yale Law School]]. The same year, he was elected president of the [[American Bar Association]]. He spent much of his time writing newspaper articles and books, most notably his series on American [[legal philosophy]]. He was a vigorous opponent of [[prohibition in the United States]]. He also continued to advocate world peace through international arbitration, urging nations to enter into arbitration treaties with each other and promoting the idea of a [[League of Nations]] even before the [[World War I|First World War]] began.

When World War I did break out in [[Europe]] in 1914, however, Taft founded the '''League to Enforce Peace'''. He was co-chair of the powerful [[National War Labor Board]] between 1917 and 1918. Although he continually advocated peace, he strongly favored [[conscription]] once the United States entered the conflict, pleading publicly that the United States not fight a "finicky" war. He feared the war would be long, but was for fighting it out to a finish, given what he viewed as "Germany's brutality."

==Chief Justice==
In 1921, when Chief Justice Edward Douglass White died, President [[Warren G. Harding]] nominated Taft to take his place, thereby fulfilling Taft's lifelong ambition to become Chief Justice of the United States. Virtually no opposition existed to the nomination, and the [[United States Senate|Senate]] unanimously confirmed Taft by [[voice vote]]. He readily took up the position, serving until 1930. As such, he became the only President to serve as Chief Justice, and thus is also the only former President to swear in subsequent Presidents, giving the oath of office to both [[Calvin Coolidge]] (in 1925) and [[Herbert Hoover]] (in 1929). He remains the only person to have led both the [[executive (government)|Executive]] and [[judiciary|Judicial]] branches of the [[Federal government of the United States|United States government]].

In 1922, Taft traveled to London to study the procedural structure of the English courts and learn how they disposed of such a large number of cases in such an expeditious manner. King [[George V]] Taft as a state visitor. With what he had learned in England, Taft advocated passage of the ''Judiciary Act of 1925'' (often called the "Judges Bill"), which shifted the Supreme Court's appellate jurisdiction to be excersisable solely on review by [[writ of certiorari]], thereby empowering the Supreme Court to give preference to cases of national importance and allowing the Court to work more efficiently.

In 1929, Taft successfully argued for the construction of the Supreme Court Building, reasoning that the Court needed to distance itself from Congress as a separate branch of government. Until then, the Court had heard cases in [http://www.aoc.gov/cc/capitol/old_sen_ch.cfm a designated room in the basement] of the Capitol. Taft, however, did not live to see the building's completion in 1935.

While Chief Justice, Taft wrote the opinion for the Court in 256 cases out of the Court's ever-growing caseload. His philosophy of [[constitutional interpretation]] was essentially historical contextualism. Some of his more notable opinions include:

*''[[Bailey v. Drexel Furniture Co.]]'', (opinion for the Court)
** Holding the 1919 Child Labor Tax Law unconstitutional.
*''[[Balzac v. Porto Rico]]'', (opinion for the Court)
** Ruling that the [[Fourteenth Amendment]] did not apply the criminal provisions of the [[Bill of Rights]] to overseas territories. This was one of the more famous of the "[[Insular Cases]]."
*''[[Adkins v. Children's Hospital]]''
** Disapproving of the Court upholding ''[[Lochner v. New York]]''.
*''[[Myers v. United States]]'', (opinion for the Court)
** Ruling that the President of the United States had the power unilaterally to dismiss executive appointees who had been confirmed by the Senate.
*''[[Gong Lum v. Rice]]'', (opinion for the Court)
** Reluctantly ruling that the Fourteenth Amendment did not prohibit Mississippi's prevention of Asian children attending white schools in state's [[Jim Crow]] system.
*''[[Olmstead v. United States]]'', (opinion for the Court)
** Ruling that the [[Fourth Amendment's]] proscription on unreasonable [[search and seizure]] did not apply to wiretaps.
*''[[Wisconsin v. Illinois]]'', (opinion for the Court)
** Holding that the equitable power of the United States can be used to impose positive action on the states in a situation in which nonaction would result in damage to the interests of other states.
*''[[Old Colony Trust Co. v. Commissioner]]'', (opinion for the Court)
** Holding that where a third party pays the income tax due to an individual, the amount of tax paid constitutes additional income to the taxpayer.

==Taft family==
Taft retired as Chief Justice on February 3, 1930, because of ill health. He was succeeded by [[Charles Evans Hughes]], whom he had appointed to the Court while President. Taft died of heart disease

A third generation of the Taft family entered the national political stage in 1938. The former President's oldest son, [[Robert Taft]], was elected to the United States Senate from Ohio. His other son, Charles Phelps Taft II, served as mayor of Cincinnati. Two more generations of the Taft family later entered politics. The President's grandson, Robert Taft Jr., served a term as a Senator from Ohio from 1971-1977; the President's great-grandson, Bob Taft, served as the [[governor of Ohio]] from 1999 - 2007. [[William Howard Taft III]] was U.S. [[Ambassador (diplomacy)|ambassador]] to [[Ireland (state)|Ireland]] from 1953 to 1957. [[William Howard Taft IV]], currently in private law practice, was general counsel in the former [[Department of Health, Education, and Welfare]] in the 1970s, Deputy Secretary of Defense under [[Casper Weinberger]] and [[Frank Carlucci]] in the 1980s, and and acted as Secretary of Defense during the vacancy of January-March 1989. In addition, he was a high-level official in the [[United States Department of State]] from 2000 to 2006.
==Personality==
Taft was severely overweight; legend says he became stuck in the bathtub in the White House several times, prompting the installation of a new bathtub capable of holding all of the men who installed it, something the White House denied. At 6 feet, and weighing over 350 pounds (159 kg), Taft is the heaviest person to be President, although Jefferson, Lincoln, Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson, and Clinton were taller. While governor of the Philippines, Taft one day sent a message that read "Went on a horseride today; feeling good." Secretary of War [[Elihu Root]] replied, "How's the horse?"<ref> See [http://www.cceia.org/resources/transcripts/5029.html quote]</ref>

Taft was an avid golfer and also a baseball fan, but contrary to myth he did not create the seventh-inning stretch, which was custom decades earlier. He was, however, the first American president to throw the ceremonial first pitch at a baseball game, April 14, 1910.

Taft's presidential salary of $50,000 equals about $1.8 million in 2009 dollars--and in terms of 2009 dollars exceeds all other presidents. (President Obama is paid $400,000.)

==Bibliography==
===Secondary sources===
* Anderson, Donald F. ''William Howard Taft: A Conservative's Conception of the Presidency'' (1973)
* Anderson, Judith Icke. ''William Howard Taft: An Intimate History'' (1981).
* Anthony, Carl Sferrazza. ''Nellie Taft : The Unconventional First Lady of the Ragtime Era'' (2005)
* Bromley, Michael L. ''William Howard Taft and the First Motoring Presidency'' (2003)
* Burton, David H. ''Taft, Holmes, and the 1920s Court: An Appraisal'' (1998) [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=14483258 online edition]
* Burton, David H., ''Taft, Roosevelt, and the Limits of Friendship'' (2005)
* Burton, David H. ''William Howard Taft, Confident Peacemaker'' (2005)
* Chace, James. ''1912: Wilson, Roosevelt, Taft and Debs -The Election that Changed the Country'' (2004)
* Coletta, Paolo Enrico. ''The Presidency of William Howard Taft'' (1973), standard survey
* Conner Valerie. ''The National War Labor Board' '(1983)
* Duffy, Herbert S. ''William Howard Taft'' (1930)
* Friedman, Leon, ed. ''The Justices of the United States Supreme Court: Their Lives and Major Opinions''. Vol 3,
* Gould, Lewis L. ''Four Hats in the Ring: The 1912 Election and the Birth of Modern American Politics'' (2008) by a leading scholar [http://www.amazon.com/Four-Hats-Ring-Presidential-Elections/dp/0700615644/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1208766113&sr=1-4 excerpt and text search]
* Hechler, Kenneth S. ''Insurgency: Personalities and Politics of the Taft Era'' 1940.
* Korzi, Michael J. ''Our chief magistrate and his powers: a reconsideration of William Howard Taft's "Whig" theory of presidential leadership'' (2003)
* Manners, William. ''TR and Will: A Friendship that Split the Republican Party'' 1969.
* Minger Ralph E. ''William Howard Taft and United States Diplomacy: The Apprenticeship Years. 1900-1908'' (1975)
* Mowry George E. ''The Era of Theodore Roosevelt'' (1958) scholarly survey of era [http://serv.ul.cs.cmu.edu/zoom/record.html?id=15584 online edition]
* Pringle, Henry F. ''The Life and Times of William Howard Taft: A Biography'' 2 vol (1939); Pulitzer prize; the standard biography [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=16296076 vol 1 online]
* Renstrom, Peter G. ''The Taft Court: Justices, Rulings and Legacy'' ABC-CLIO, 2003
* Scholes, Walter V. and Marie V. Scholes. ''The Foreign Policies of the Taft Administration'' 1970.
* Stanley D. Solvick. "William Howard Taft and the Payne-Aldrich Tariff," ''The Mississippi Valley Historical Review,'' Vol. 50, No. 3. (Dec., 1963), pp. 424-442. [http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0161-391X%28196312%2950%3A3%3C424%3AWHTATP%3E2.0.CO%3B2-5 in JSTOR]
* Wilensky, Norman N. ''Conservatives in the Progressive Era: The Taft Republicans of 1912'' (1965).

===Primary sources===
* Butt, Archie. ''Taft and Roosevelt: The Intimate Letters of Archie Butt'' (1930) [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=12075708 online edition] Butt was a top aide to both presidents
* Taft, William Howard
** ''Liberty Under Law'' Yale University Press, 1922.
** ''Popular Government'' Yale University Press, 1913.
** ''Present Day Problems''
** ''The Anti-Trust Act and the Supreme Court'' Harper and Row, 1914.
** ''The Collected Works of William Howard Taft''. Edited by David H. Burton. Ohio University Press, 2001-. 6 of 8 volumes have appeared.
** ''The President and His Powers''. Columbia University Press, 1924.
* Taft, Mrs. William Howard, ''Recollections of Full Years'' (1914)

==External links==
[http://www.millercenter.virginia.edu/index.php/academic/americanpresident/taft Extensive essay on William Howard Taft and shorter essays on each member of his cabinet and First Lady from the Miller Center of Public Affairs]
* [http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/presiden/inaug/taft.htm Inaugural Address]
* [http://vvl.lib.msu.edu/showfindingaid.cfm?findaidid=TaftW Audio clips of Taft's speeches]
* [http://www.apneos.com/taft_intro.html Taft's sleep apnea]
* [http://www.doctorzebra.com/prez/g27.htm Taft's medical history]
* [http://www.whitehouse.gov/history/presidents/wt27.html White House biography]
*[http://williamhowardtaft.org Presidential Biography by Stanley L. Klos]
* [http://www.arlingtoncemetery.net/whtaft.htm ArlingtonCemetery.Net citing ''New York Times'' Obituary]
* [http://cylinders.library.ucsb.edu/search.php?query=william+howard+taft&queryType=%40attr+1%3D1 William Howard Taft cylinder recordings], from the [[Cylinder Preservation and Digitization Project]] at the [[University of California, Santa Barbara]] Library.
* [http://taft.stretching-it.com/Taft_humor_pg1.htm W.H. Taft Pages: Taft Humor and Anecdotes]
* [http://www.nps.gov/wiho William Taft National Historic Site]
* [http://www.army.mil/cmh-pg/books/Last_Salute/Ch2.htm The Last Salute: Civil and Military Funeral, 1921-1969, CHAPTER II, Former President William Howard Taft, State Funeral, 8-11 March 1930] by B. C. Mossman and M. W. Stark

==References==
<references/>

{{USPresidents}}
{{USChiefJustices}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Taft, William Howard}}

[[category:Presidents of the United States]]
[[category:United States Supreme Court Justices]]
[[Category:Republican Party]]
[[Category:Progressive Era]]
[[Category:1920s]]
[[Category:Conservative]]

Zachary Taylor

2010-07-06T01:16:27Z

Saxonjf: /* Presidency */ sp. change

{{President
|image=Zachary taylor.jpg
|seq=12
|term_start=March 4, 1849
|term_end=July 9, 1850<ref>http://americanhistory.about.com/library/fastfacts/blffpres12.htm</ref>
|party=Whig Party
|vp=Millard Fillmore
|vp_dates=
|previous=James K. Polk
|next=Millard Fillmore
|birth_date=November 24, 1784
|birth_place=Barboursville, Virginia
|death_date=July 09, 1850
|death_place=Washington, D.C.
|spouse=Margaret Smith Taylor
|religion=[[Episcopalian]]
}}
'''Zachary Taylor''' was the 12th [[President of the United States of America]]. He served as the president from 1849-1850<ref>http://americanhistory.about.com/library/fastfacts/blffpres12.htm</ref>. He was the second president to die while in office. The first to die in office was [[William Henry Harrison]].<ref> [[Encyclopedia of Presidents Zachary Taylor]] by Zachary Kent, Children's Press, 1988. </ref>

==First Days==
[[Image:Ztaylor.jpg|thumb|260px|left]]

Zachary Taylor was born November 24, 1784 in Orange County, Virginia. He and his family moved west to Beargrass Creek, Kentucky. He later applied for the military and with help from his second cousin, [[James Madison]] he was accepted by the War Department as a Lieutenant. <ref> [[Encyclopedia of Presidents Zachary Taylor]] by Zachary Kent, Children's Press, 1988. </ref>

==Career in the military==
His earliest services were in Kentucky and New Orleans. He was promoted to Captain in the spring of 1811 and then given the command of Fort Knox (in Vincennes.) It was during his stay there that the War of 1812 occurred. He was put in command of Fort Harrison which he successfully defended from the shawnee chief, [[Tecumseh]]. He was given several assignments at various Forts such as Howard, Snelling and Crawford. He was later promoted to Colonel shortly before he was sent to do service in the illinois war against the indians. He also fought in the [[Second Seminole War]].
==Mexican War==
Taylor commanded an army in the [[Mexican-American War]] and won the decisive victory of Buena Vista. <ref> [[Encyclopedia of Presidents Zachary Taylor]] by Zachary Kent, Children's Press, 1988. </ref>

==Presidency==
[[Image:Taylor1848.jpg|thumb|290px|1848 election poster]] Zachary Taylor was recruited by the [[Whig Party]] to run for the office of President. His successful military career boosted his campaign and enabled him to win against Democratic candidate, Lewis Cass and Free Soiler, [[Martin Van Buren]]. He then chose several loyal whig members for his cabinet. During his time in office it was discovered he wanted states to choose whether of not they wanted slavery. Many southerners disliked Taylor for this stand on [[slavery]].

==Death==
Taylor contracted [[cholera]] and the [[typhoid fever]]; he died several days later on July 9, 1850.

== External links ==

*[http://ap.grolier.com/article?assetid=a2028720-h Zachary Taylor]
*[http://www.nndb.com/people/841/000031748/ Zachary Taylor]

==References==
<References/>

{{USPresidents}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Taylor, Zachary}}
[[Category:Whig Party]]
[[Category:Mexican American War]]