William Howard Taft

by Jeffrey Rosen

    21.  Letter from William Howard Taft to Helen Herron Taft, Oct. 3, 1909, in Lewis L. Gould, ed., My Dearest Nellie: Letters of William Howard Taft to Helen Herron Taft (1909–1912) (Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2011), 73.

    22.  Ibid.

    23.  William Howard Taft, “Address at a Dallas Banquet on Conservation of National Resources and Irrigation,” Oct. 23, 1909, in The Collected Works of William Howard Taft, vol. 3, ed. David H. Burton (Athens: Ohio University Press, 2002), 302.

    24.  Lewis L. Gould, The William Howard Taft Presidency (Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2009), 71.

    25.  Pringle, Taft, vol. 1, 480.

    26.  Abbott, Letters of Archie Butt, vol. 1, 208.

    27.  Arnold, Remaking the Presidency, 122.

    28.  Pringle, Taft, vol. 1, 472.

    29.  Gould, William Howard Taft Presidency, 72–73.

    30.  Ibid., 74; Arnold, Remaking the Presidency, 124–25.

    31.  Melvin I. Urofsky, Louis D. Brandeis: A Life (New York: Pantheon Books, 2009), 258–60.

    32.  Abbott, Letters of Archie Butt, vol. 1, 203.

    33.  Ibid., 245.

    34.  Gould, William Howard Taft Presidency, 75.

    35.  Ibid.

    36.  Abbott, Letters of Archie Butt, vol. 1, 254.

    37.  William Howard Taft, “Address to Congress on Conservation of National Resources,” Jan. 14, 1910, in The Collected Works of William Howard Taft, vol. 3, 428.

    38.  “Can This Be Whitewashed Also?,” San Francisco Call, Dec. 17, 1909, http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn85066387/1909-12-17/ed-1/seq-6.pdf [https://perma.cc/YSC6-QQX7].

    39.  Milkis, “Taft and the Struggle for the Constitution,” 71.

    40.  Arnold, Remaking the Presidency, 126.

    41.  Ibid., 127.

    42.  Anderson, Taft: An Intimate History, 184.

    43.  Ibid.

    44.  Letter from William Howard Taft to Knute Nelson (May 15, 1910), in “Investigation of the Dep’t of the Interior and of the Bureau of Forestry,” 61st Cong., Report of Commission (1911): 60, 62.

    45.  Ibid., 61.

    46.  Ibid., 62.

    47.  Ibid.

    48.  Goodwin, Bully Pulpit, 623.

    49.  Ibid., 626.

    50.  Milkis, “Taft and the Struggle for the Constitution,” 73.

    51.  Anderson, Taft: An Intimate History, 184.

    52.  Ibid.

    53.  Abbott, Letters of Archie Butt, vol. 1, 298.

    54.  James Chace, 1912: Wilson, Roosevelt, and Debs—The Election That Changed the Country (New York: Simon & Schuster Paperbacks, 2004), 17.

    55.  Ibid., 11.

    56.  Gould, William Howard Taft Presidency, 76; Lurie, Taft: Travails of a Progressive Conservative, 116.

    57.  Abbott, Letters of Archie Butt, vol. 1, 411.

    58.  Ibid., 497.

    59.  Ibid., 436.

    60.  Ibid., 482.

    61.  Chace, 1912, 57.

    62.  Theodore Roosevelt, “New Nationalism Speech,” Aug. 31, 1910, Ashbrook Center, Ashland University, http://teachingamericanhistory.org/library/document/new-nationalism-speech// [https://perma.cc/9E2L-22EU].

    63.  William Howard Taft, “Mr. Bryan’s Claim to the Roosevelt Policies,” Address in Sandusky, Ohio, Sept. 8, 1908, in The Collected Works of William Howard Taft, vol. 2, ed. David H. Burton (Athens: Ohio University Press 2001), 46.

    64.  Ibid., 44.

    65.  Ibid., 48.

    66.  “The Mann-Elkins Act, Amending the Act to Regulate Commerce,” Quarterly Journal of Economics (Aug. 1910), https://archive.org/stream/jstor-1883490/1883490_djvu.txt [https://perma.cc/QE8U-9XPQ].

    67.  William Howard Taft, “Address to Congress on Interstate Commerce and Anti-Trust Laws and Federal Incorporation,” Jan. 7, 1910, in The Collected Works of William Howard Taft, vol. 3, 409–10.

    68.  Ibid., 417.

    69.  Ibid., 418.

    70.  156 U.S. 1 (1895).

    71.  Taft, “Address to Congress on Interstate Commerce and Anti-Trust Laws,” 419.

    72.  Ibid., 422.

    73.  Henry F. Pringle, The Life and Times of William Howard Taft, vol. 2 (Norwalk, CT: Easton Press, 1986), 660.

    74.  Ibid., 663.

    75.  Standard Oil of New Jersey v. United States, 221 U.S. 1 (1911).

    76.  Anderson, Taft: An Intimate History, 199.

    77.  Standard Oil, 221 U.S. at 97–98 (Harlan, J., concurring in part and dissenting in part).

    78.  United States v. American Tobacco Co., 221 U.S. 106, 180–81 (1911).

    79.  Pringle, Taft, vol. 2, 665.

    80.  Ibid., 666.

    81.  Jonathan P. Hicks, “U.S. Steel: New Name Ends an Era,” New York Times, July 9, 1986, http://www.nytimes.com/1986/07/09/business/us-steel-new-name-ends-an-era.html?mcubz=1 [https://perma.cc/9VHW-FFD8].

    82.  Goodwin, Bully Pulpit, 297–98.

    83.  Ibid., 667.

    84.  Pringle, Taft, vol. 2, 670.

    85.  Theodore Roosevelt, “The Trusts, The People and the Square Deal,” Outlook, Nov. 18, 1911, http://www.theodore-roosevelt.com/images/research/treditorials/o65.pdf [https://perma.cc/2LXL-4CNM].

    86.  Goodwin, Bully Pulpit, 668.

    87.  Gould, William Howard Taft Presidency, 165–67.

    88.  Lawrence F. Abbott, ed., Taft and Roosevelt: The Intimate Letters of Archie Butt, Military Aide, vol. 2 (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, Doran, 1930), 813.

    89.  Roosevelt, “The Trusts.”

    90.  William Kolasky, “The Election of 1912: A Pivotal Moment in Antitrust History, Antitrust 25, no. 3 (2011): 82, 83, http://www.wilmerhale.com/uploadedFiles/WilmerHale_Shared_Content/Files/Editorial/Publication/The%20Election%20of%201912%20-%20Kolasky.pdf [https://perma.cc/G2FC-4FYF].

    91.  William Howard Taft, “Annual Message Part I, Address Before Congress on the Anti-Trust Statute,” Dec. 5, 1911, in The Collected Works of William Howard Taft, vol. 4, ed. David H. Burton (Athens: Ohio University Press, 2002), 162.

    92.  Ibid., 166–67.

    93.  Pringle, Taft, vol. 2, 657.

    94.  Ibid., 676.

    95.  Anderson, Taft: An Intimate History, 204.

    96.  Pringle, Taft, vol. 2, 678.

    97.  David H. Burton, William Howard Taft: Confident Peacemaker (Philadelphia: Saint Joseph’s University Press, 2004), 72.

    98.  Ibid.

    99.  Abbott, Letters of Archie Butt, vol. 2, 645.

  100.  Ibid., 733.

  101.  William Howard Taft, “Annual Message Part II,” Address Before Congress on Foreign Relations, Dec. 7, 1911, in The Collected Works of William Howard Taft, vol. 4, 177.

  102.  Ibid.

  103.  Ibid., 180.

  104.  Burton, Confident Peacemaker, 73.

  105.  Chris Edelson, Emergency Presidential Power: From the Drafting of the Constitution to the War on Terror (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 2013), 29.

  106.  William Howard Taft, The President and His Powers, in The Collected Works of William Howard Taft, vol. 6, ed. W. Carey McWilliams and Frank X. Gerrity (Athens: Ohio University Press 2003), 107. (Originally published in 1916 as Our Chief Magistrate and His Powers.)

  107.  Ibid.

  108.  Jean West Mueller and Wynell B. Schamel, “Lincoln’s Spot Resolutions,” Social Education
52 (Oct. 1988): 455–457, 466.

  109.  Burton, Confident Peacemaker, 63.

  110.  Ibid., 78.

  111.  William Howard Taft, “Special Message on Canadian Reciprocity,” Jan. 26, 1911, in The Collected Works of William Howard Taft, vol. 4, 109–10.

  112.  William Howard Taft, “Proclamation of March 4, 1911,” Address Before Extra Session of Congress to Consider Canadian-American Tariff Agreement, Mar. 4, 1911, in The Collected Works of William Howard Taft, vol. 4, 113–14.

  113.  William Howard Taft, “Special Message,” Address to Congress on the Reciprocal Tariff Agreement between the Dominion of Canada and the United States, Apr. 5, 1911, in The Collected Works of William Howard Taft, vol. 4, 115.

  114.  Pringle, Taft, vol. 2, 593.

  115.  Abbott, Letters of Archie Butt, vol. 2, 710.

  116.  Burton, Confident Peacemaker, 79.

  117.  “Making Canada an Adjunct,” Literary Digest 44 (1912): 1029, http://www.unz.org/Pub/LiteraryDigest-1912may18-01029 [https://perma.cc/3MUJ-7JN2].

  118.  Burton, Confident Peacemaker, 80.

  119.  Pringle, Taft, vol. 2, 599.

  120.  William Howard Taft, Popular Government: Its Essence, Its Permanence, and Its Perils, in The Collected Works of William Howard Taft, vol. 5, ed. David Potash and Donald F. Anderson (Athens: Ohio University Press, 2003), 157.

  121.  Pringle, Taft, vol. 2, 738.

  122.  Ibid.

  123.  Burton, Confident Peacemaker, 82.

  124.  “William Howard Taft—Foreign Affairs,” Profiles of U.S. Presidents, http://www.presidentprofiles.com/Grant-Eisenhower/William-Howard-Taft-Foreign-affairs.html [https://perma.cc/ZLN3-P255].

  125.  Abbott, Letters of Archie Butt, vol. 2, 757.

  126.  Pringle, Taft, vol. 2, 749.

  127.  Abbott, Letters of Archie Butt, vol. 2, 804.

  128.  Burton, Confident Peacemaker, 82.

  129.  Anderson, Taft: An Intimate History, 197–98.

  130.  Pringle, Taft, vol. 2, 713.

  131.  Ibid., 715.

  132.  Ibid., 755.

  5: “POPULAR UNREST”

    1.  Theodore Roosevelt, “A Charter for Democracy,” Feb. 21, 1912, Ashbrook Center, Ashland University, http://teachingamericanhistory.org/library/document/a-charter-for-democracy// [https://perma.cc/6XJZ-XZF7].

    2.  Ibid.

    3.  James Chace, 1912: Wilson, Roosevelt, and Debs—The Election That Changed the Country (New York: Simon & Schuster Paperbacks, 2004), 106.

    4.  Lawrence F. Abbott, ed., Taft and Roosevelt: The Intimate Letters of Archie Butt, Military Aide, vol. 2 (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, Doran, 1930), 850.

    5.  William Howard Taft, “Speech Delivered in Boston,” Apr. 25, 1912, in 38 Senate Docs., 62nd Cong. (Dec. 4, 1911–Aug. 26, 1912): 3–4.

    6.  Ibid., 5.

    7.  Ibid., 19.

    8.  Lewis L. Gould, The William Howard Taft Presidency (Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2009), 177.

    9.  Henry F. Pringle, The Life and Times of William Howard Taft, vol. 2 (Norwalk, CT: Easton Press, 1986), 783.

  10.  Doris Kearns Goodwin, The Bully Pulpit: Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, and the Golden Age of Journalism (New York: Simon & Schuster Paperbacks, 2013), 696.

  11.  Gould, William Howard Taft Presidency, 161.

  12.  Chace, 1912, 113.

  13.  Ibid., 116.

  14.  Ibid., 117.

  15.  Pringle, Taft, vol. 2, 802.

  16.  Jonathan Lurie, William Howard Taft: The Travails of a Progressive Conservative (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2012), 166.

  17.  Chace, 1912, 121.

  18.  Pringle, Taft, vol. 2, 809.

  19.  Chace, 1912, 123.

  20.  Pringle, Taft, vol. 2, 813.

  21.  Letter from William Howard Taft to Nellie Taft, July 15, 1912, in Lewis L. Gould, ed., My Dearest Nellie: The Letters of William Howard Taft to Helen Herron Taft (1909–1912) (Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2011), 209.

  22.  Pringle, Taft, vol. 2, 815.

  23.  Ibid., 816.

  24.  Ganesh Sitaraman, The Crisis of the Middle-Class Constitution: Why Economic Inequality Threatens Our Republic (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2017), 176–78.

  25.  Peri E. Arnold, Remaking the Presidency: Roosevelt, Taft, and Wilson, 1901–1916 (Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2009), 161.

  26.  “Progressive Party Platform of 1912,” Nov. 5, 1912, American Presidency Project, http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=29617 [https://perma.cc/8WUF-BUBE].

  27.  “Republican Party Platform of 1912,” June 18, 1912, American Presidency Project http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=29633 [https://perma.cc/47D2-GNGJ].

  28.  “1912 Democratic Party Platform,” June 25, 1912, American Presidency Project, http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=29590 [https://perma.cc/B2RL-Q4HJ].

  29.  The Democratic Text-Book, Democratic National Committee (1912): 2, https://hdl.handle.net/2027/mdp.39015030798477.

  30.  “Republican Party Platform of 1912.”

  31.  “Progressive Party Platform of 1912.”

  32.  Letter from William Howard Taft to Nellie Taft, July 16, 1912, in Gould, My Dearest Nellie, 211.

  33.  Letter from William Howard Taft to Nellie Taft, July 22, 1912, in Gould, My Dearest Nellie, 233–34.

  34.  Ibid., 234.

  35.  Letter from William Howard Taft to Nellie Taft, July 24, 1912, in Gould, My Dearest Nellie, 241.

  36.  “Speech Accepting the Nomination for the Presidency by the Republican National Committee,” Aug. 1, 1912, in The Republican Campaign Text-Book, Republican National Committee (1912): 7, https://hdl.handle.net/2027/hvd.hw2hd8.

  37.  Ibid., 11.

  38.  Ibid.

  39.  Ibid.,12.

  40.  Ibid., 22.

  41.  Letter from William Howard Taft to Nellie Taft, July 16, 1912, in Gould, My Dearest Nellie, 211.

  42.  William Howard Taft, “Popular Unrest,” In Their Own Voices: The U.S. Presidential Elections of 1908–1912, vol. 2, Marston Records 2000, recorded Oct. 1, 1912, https://www.marstonrecords.com/products/voices#1-23.

  43.  Judith Icke Anderson, William Howard Taft: An Intimate History (New York: W. W. Norton, 1981), 233.

  44.  Pringle, Taft, vol. 2, 838.

  45.  “1912 Presidential Election,” 270toWin, http://www.270towin.com/1912_Election/ [https://perma.cc/8K73-GM7J].

  46.  Gould, William Howard Taft Presidency, 197.

  47.  Ibid.

  48.  Ibid., 202.

  49.  Mark Alden Branch, “Big Man on Campus,” Yale Alumni Magazine (Mar./Apr. 2013), https://yalealumnimagazine.com/articles/3632-big-man-on-campus.

  50.  William Howard Taft, “Annual Message Part III, Address to Congress on the Departments of the Post Office, Interior, Agriculture, and Commerce and Labor and District of Columbia,” Dec. 19, 1912, in The Collected Works of William Howard Taft, vol. 4, ed. David H. Burton (Athens: Ohio University Press, 2002), 336.

  51.  “President Taft to Yale. Kent Professor-Elect Says He Is Happy to Return,” Yale Daily News 36, no. 117 (Feb. 25, 1913), http://digital.library.yale.edu/cdm/compoundobject/collection/yale-ydn/id/93011/rec/1.

  52.  William Howard Taft, “Veto Message to the House of Representatives on H.R. 28775,” Mar. 4, 1913, in The Collected Works of William Howard Taft, vol. 4, 366.

  53.  Pringle, Taft, vol. 2, 857.

  54.  Andrew Dolan, The Taft Diet: How President Taft Lost 76 Pounds (CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2012), 79, Kindle.

  55.  Allan B. Schwartz, “Medical Mystery: Who’s Snoring in the White House?,” Philadelphia Inquirer, Jan. 1, 2017, http://www.philly.com/philly/h
ealth/Medical-Mystery-Whos-Snoring-in-the-White-House—.html [https://perma.cc/3ZKF-CJGX].