Presidency of William Howard Taft

Presidency of William Howard Taft March 4, 1909 – March 4, 1913
Cabinet	See list
Party	Republican
Election	1908
Seat	White House
← Theodore Roosevelt Woodrow Wilson →
Seal of the president (1894–1945)

This article is part of a series about William Howard Taft
Early life Family Bibliography Legacy 27th President of the United States Inauguration Presidency (timeline) Executive actions Foreign policy Taftian theory Domestic policy Cabinet Judiciary Dollar diplomacy Income Tax amendment Payne–Aldrich Tariff Act Wireless Ship Act of 1910 Mann–Elkins Act Defense Secrets Act Radio Act of 1912 Commission on Economy and Efficiency U.S. occupation of Nicaragua Presidential campaigns 1908 convention election 1912 convention election 10th Chief Justice of the United States Appointment Supreme Court cases Post-presidency National Historic Site Death
v t e

The presidency of William Howard Taft began on March 4, 1909, when William Howard Taft was inaugurated as 27th president of the United States, and ended on March 4, 1913. Taft was a Republican from Ohio. The protégé and chosen successor of President Theodore Roosevelt, he took office after easily defeating Democrat William Jennings Bryan in the 1908 presidential election. His presidency ended with his defeat in the 1912 election by Democrat Woodrow Wilson.

Taft sought to lower tariffs—a tax on imports—then a major source of governmental income. However he was out-maneuvered. The new Payne–Aldrich Tariff Act of 1909 raised rates when most people expected reductions. Taft expanded Roosevelt's efforts to break up trusts, launching legal cases against U.S. Steel and other very large companies. Taft made six appointments to the United States Supreme Court, more than all but two other presidents. In foreign affairs, Taft focused on China and Japan, and repeatedly intervened to prop up or remove Latin American governments. It followed a policy of Dollar Diplomacy, using American banking investment to bolster influence in Latin America and China, with little success.

His administration was filled with conflict between the conservative wing of the Republican Party, with which Taft often sympathized, and the progressive wing, led by Theodore Roosevelt and Robert M. La Follette. Controversies over conservation and over antitrust cases filed by the Taft administration served to further separate Taft and Roosevelt. Roosevelt challenged Taft at the 1912 Republican National Convention, but Taft was able to use his control of the party machinery to narrowly win his party's nomination. After the convention, Roosevelt left the party, formed the Progressive Party, and ran against Taft and Wilson in the 1912 election. Roosevelt had already blocked LaFollette's ambitions, so he endorsed Wilson. The deep split among Republicans doomed Taft's re-election, giving Democrats control of the White House for the first time in sixteen years, as well as control of Congress. Historians generally consider Taft to have been an average president.