#oldbill

William Howard Taft, born to a prominent family and educated, like his forefathers, at Yale, grew up to become President of the United States of America. Later in his life, he fulfilled his childhood dream. 

Taft was a man dedicated to justice and the rule of law: "for Taft, it was his religion; it was his life!" (Anderson, 1982, pg. 28). He is, in the opinion of this blog, unfairly remembered as a kind of lame president who didn't do much except embarrass the nation by doing things like being super fat and gaining exactly eight electoral votes (from Utah and Vermont) in his re-election (Anderson, 1982). Those doing the remembering don't bother to mention that he was exactly what folks always say they want: a president with integrity. 

People forget that this man gained the office in the first place as a favor to his close, personal friend Theodore "T-Rose" Roosevelt, who campaigned for him by saying "If they don't take Taft, they will get me." A slogan which brought many fence-sitters onto the Republican side (New York Times, 1930, "Obituary: Taft Gained Peaks In Unusual Career"). At Yale, "Old Bill" Taft was a brother of the Psi Upsilon fraternity and inherited a position as a Bonesman: his father had been one of the society's founders. He was a dedicated pre-law, coming in second in his class. He came in first for Yale's intramural Heavyweight wrestling tournament. I would be remiss not to mention that "he affiliate[d] himself with several eating clubs" (Warren, 1958, pg. 354)Preppy but by no means idle, he dreamed of becoming a judge; more specifically, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court (Anderson, 1982). 

Note the skull and bones tie pin

Following a rise through the ranks of the Ohio legal system at a speed that had not been seen before and has not, to my knowledge, been seen since, Taft was asked to serve as Secretary of War to Theodore Roosevelt. That's right. Our heaviest Commander in Chief did time as the original Big Stick. After Roosevelt decided to take some time off from the presidency, Taft stepped up as his placeholder. He played around with tariffs and sent troops to quash a Mexican rebellion, but mostly the man of justice kept the peace. If anything, he was so good he was boring: 

"Mr. Taft's faults as a President are his virtues. He is too great a scholar, too eminent a jurist, and too just and broad-minded an administrator to be a successful politician" (Crane, 1911, pg 10).

Earth 12 Lex Luthor famously asked "Do you have any idea how much power I'd have to give up to become President?"

William Howard Taft apparently felt similarly about the limitations of the executive office. He never wanted to be president. At least, that wasn't what he had dreamed of since before his days as a Bonesman. He returned to his alma mater to refresh his legal mind as a professor of law. More specifically, constitutional law. 

One Christmas Eve about eight years later, a travelling Professor President Taft met President-Elect Warren Harding for breakfast. Taft was a man who appreciated a good breakfast, and it is on record that they enjoyed "chipped beef, waffles, toast and coffee." (Warren, 1958, pg. 359). Harding asked the former president for his advice about cabinet appointments, and offered him a position as a justice of the supreme court. Taft replied that it was and always had been his greatest dream, but...

Harding, I'm guessing, took the bait. But I don't know that part for sure.

Either way, Taft went onto explain that he had been President of the United States. He had appointed three of the sitting justices and three no longer on the bench personally. He was prepared, but he was prepared only to assume the seat of Chief Justice (Warren,1958)

Once he was sworn into the office he had looked forward to his whole life, Taft happily proclaimed "I do not remember ever having been President."

A mustache combed daily with justice and waxed with the rule of law