William Howard Taft always dreamed of being a Supreme Court Justice. He was even offered the chance several times throughout his career, but refused out of a sense of duty to the various posts he was already serving. After a term as President, the time was finally right for Taft to take his dream job – on July 11, 1921.
As President, Taft faced several struggles, largely from his own party. In spite of this, he managed to create peaceful relations through treaties with foreign nations, established the first presidential budget, and imposed several pieces of civil service reform.
After leaving the White House, Taft taught and wrote 1921, when he was appointed chief justice of the Supreme Court. He enjoyed an eight-year career in that position, reorganizing court systems, introducing lasting reforms, and promoting the construction of the U.S. Supreme Court Building. Taft retired in 1930 due to ill health and died five weeks later. He was the only chief justice to have a state funeral and the first President to be buried at Arlington National Cemetery.
U.S. President William Howard Taft. Before being elected as our twenty-seventh President, William Howard Taft also served as Secretary of War under Theodore Roosevelt. Although Roosevelt had chosen Taft as his successor, he later disapproved of Taft’s policies and ran against him on the Bull Moose ticket in the 1912 election. The Republican vote was split, and Wilson was elected our twenty-eighth President. After leaving the White House, Taft went on to become a professor of law at Yale University and a U.S. Supreme Court Justice – the only U.S. President to do so.
William Howard Taft quotes
“Don’t write so that you can be understood, write so that you can’t be misunderstood.”
“Unless education promotes character making, unless it helps men to be more moral, more just to their fellows, more law abiding, more discriminatingly patriotic and public spirited, it is not worth the trouble taken to furnish it.”
“Presidents come and go, but the Supreme Court goes on forever.”
“If they will play fair I will play fair, but if they won’t then I reserve all my rights to do anything I find myself able to do.”
“I’ll be damned if I am not getting tired of this. It seems to be the profession of a President simply to hear other people talk. ”
“A man never knows exactly how the child of his brain will strike other people.”
“Enthusiasm for a cause sometimes warps judgement.”
“I would like to have an ample fund to spread the light of Republicanism, but I am willing to undergo the disadvantage to make certain that in the future we shall reduce the power of money in politics for unworthy purposes.”
“A National Government cannot create good times. It cannot make the rain to fall, the sun to shine, or the crops to grow, but it can, by pursuing a meddlesome policy, attempting to change economic conditions, and frightening the investment of capital, prevent a prosperity and a revival of business which might otherwise have taken place.”
“We are all imperfect. We can not expect perfect government. ”
“Too many people don’t care what happens so long as it doesn’t happen to them.”
“We have a government of limited power under the Constitution, and we have got to work out our problems on the basis of law.”
“I am going to do what I think is best for the country, within my jurisdiction and power, and then let the rest take care of itself.”
“I am not in favor of having government do anything that private citizens can do as good or better”
“Next to the right of liberty, the right of property is the most important individual right guaranteed by the Constitution and the one which, united with that of personal liberty, has contributed more to the growth of civilization than any other institution established by the human race.”
