1857-193O
Secretary of War, 1904-1908
President of the United States, 1909-1913

Reluctant Politician.

Few Americans had heard of William Howard Taft when President Theodore Roosevelt appointed him to replace Elihu Root as secretary of war in 1904. In 1908, when conservative Republicans championed him as their presidential candidate, Taft's family and friends had to persuade him to run. He aspired to a seat on the Supreme Court, but his wife had greater ambitions for him. A large man given to lethargy, he did not have the drive or the skill to be a truly successful politician. "Politics, when I am in it, makes me sick," he exclaimed.

Background.

Born on 15 September 1857 into a midwestern, staunchly Republican family of moderate wealth and some legal and political distinction near Cincinnati, Ohio, William Howard Taft was indoctrinated early with the conservative attitudes frequently found among members of the upper...