Taft, William Howard (1857-1930), was president of the United States from 1909 to 1913. In 1921, he was named chief justice of the United States. He was the only person in U.S. history who served first as president, then as chief justice. Taft did not want to be president. At heart, he was a judge and had little taste for politics. Above all, he wanted to be a justice of the Supreme Court of the United States.
Before becoming president, Taft, a Republican, served as governor of the Philippines and as U.S. secretary of war under President Theodore Roosevelt. However, Taft spent most of the first 20 years of his career as a lawyer and judge. His mother recognized his distaste for politics. "I do not want my son to be president," she said. "His is a judicial mind and he loves the law." But Taft's wife opposed his career as a judge because she felt it was a "fixed groove."
In the end, Taft's mother proved to be right. Hardly any other president has been so unhappy in office. When Taft left the White House in 1913, he told incoming President Woodrow Wilson: "I'm glad to be going. This is the lonesomest place in the world." When he was appointed chief justice of the United States eight years later, Taft said it was the highest honor he ever received. He wrote: "The truth is that in my present life I don't remember that I ever was president."
Taft was the largest person ever to serve as president. He stood 6 feet (183 centimeters) tall and weighed more than 300 pounds (136 kilograms). A newspaperman wrote that he looked "like an American bison a gentle, kind one." Taft had a mild, pleasant personality, but he clung firmly to what he considered the rugged virtues. He did not smoke or drink. He was honest by nature, plain of speech, and straightforward in action. He was completely, and sometimes blindly, loyal to his friends and to his political party.
The modest Taft felt he was not fully qualified for the presidency. He had no gift of showmanship like his predecessor, Theodore Roosevelt. Taft gave the public an adequate administration, but he failed to capture popular imagination. Many people called him a failure as president.
