“echoing boom”: Boston Daily Globe, June 19, 1910.
“Turn around . . . all waiting for him”: Washington Post, June 19, 1910.
“unnumbered thousands” . . . surrounding streets: Boston Daily Globe, June 19, 1910.
“a life-size Teddy bear”: NYT, June 19, 1910.
“Delighted”: NYT, June 18, 1910.
“from street level to skyline”: New York Sun, June 19, 1910.
“Is there a stenographer”: Evening Tribune, June 19, 1910.
“No man could . . . the American people”: Washington Post, June 19, 1910.
A five-mile parade . . . lining the streets: Evening Post (Washington, DC), June 18, 1910.
“The sidewalks”: Chicago Tribune, June 19, 1910.
Rough Rider unit . . . escort of honor: Boston Daily Globe, June 19, 1910.
“incomparably the largest”: Evening Star, June 18, 1910.
Placards with friendly . . . front of the building: Chicago Tribune, June 19, 1910.
“You could not move”: New York Evening Post, July 18, 1910.
“the malefactors of great wealth”: St. Louis Times, June 19, 1910.
“Teddy! Teddy!”: Washington Post, June 19, 1910.
“unconcealed delight . . . Not a bit”: NYT, June 19, 1910.
with tears in his eyes: Boston Daily Globe, June 19, 1910.
a frightening storm: Chicago Tribune, June 19, 1910; Los Angeles Times, June 19, 1910.
“Everyone began talking”: AB to Clara, June 19, 1910, in AB, Taft and Roosevelt, Vol. 1, p. 402.
a festive meal: AB to Clara, June 19, 1910, in ibid., p. 401.
The severe rainstorm . . . “to the ground”: Washington Post, June 19, 1910.
“triumphal arches”: NYT, June 19, 1910.
“to live among you again”: Washington Post, June 19, 1910.
“the slightest trace of fatigue”: NYT, June 19, 1910.
“We lived in . . . sweet intimacy”: William Howard Taft, “My Predecessor,” Collier’s, Mar. 6, 1909, p. 25.
“the foremost member”: TR to WHT, June 9, 1903, in LTR, Vol. 3, p. 486.
his daily “counsellor”: TR to WHT, Feb. 14, 1903, in ibid., p. 426.
“I am quite as nervous”: TR to WHT, Sept. 19, 1907, in Elting E. Morison, ed., The Big Stick, 1905–1907, Vol. 5 of LTR, p. 796.
When Taft was elected . . . a “beloved” friend: TR to WHT, Aug. 2, 1906, in ibid., p. 341.
“Taft is as fine a fellow”: TR to Arthur Hamilton Lee, Dec. 20, 1908, in Elting E. Morison, ed., The Big Stick, 1907–1909, Vol. 6 of LTR, pp. 1432–33.
“I do not know any man”: TR to Gifford Pinchot, Jan. 17, 1910, Pinchot Papers.
asked Pinchot to meet him in Europe: TR to Gifford Pinchot, Mar. 1, 1910, Pinchot Papers.
all expressing a belief . . . Roosevelt’s hard-won advances: Albert J. Beveridge to Gifford Pinchot, Mar. 24, 1910; Jonathan P. Dolliver to Gifford Pinchot, Mar. 25, 1910, TRP.
On his final day: TR to Trevelyan, Oct. 1, 1911, in LTR, Vol. 7, p. 415.
“Roosevelt’s spirit was much troubled”: Edward Grey, Twenty-five Years, 1892–1916 (New York: Frederick A. Stokes Co., 1925), Vol. 2, pp. 93–94.
“What will Mr. Roosevelt do?”: Advocate (Newark, NJ), June 19, 1910.
the intensifying struggle . . . dividing the Republican Party: Ray Stannard Baker, “The Measure of Taft,” The American Magazine (July 1910), p. 362.
“There is one thing”: NYT, June 19, 1910.
“He looks haggard and careworn”: AB to Clara, Jan. 7, 1910, in AB, Taft and Roosevelt, Vol. 1, p. 254.
faded to a sickly pale: AB to Clara, Easter [n.d.], 1910, in ibid., p. 312.
“It is hard . . . murmur against the fate”: AB to Clara, Easter [n.d.], 1910, in ibid., p. 313.
“a man of tremendous . . . to show no resentment”: AB to Clara, Feb. 9, 1910, in ibid., p. 278.
his “secondary role”: AB to Clara, Feb. 13, 1910, in ibid., p. 281.
“he loves Theodore Roosevelt”: AB to Clara, Jan. 7, 1910, in ibid., p. 254.
“He is going to be”: AB, Dec. 10, 1908, in Abbott, ed., Letters of Archie Butt, Vol. 1, pp. 232–33.
“America incarnate”: William Allen White, “Taft: A Hewer of Wood,” The American Magazine (April 1908), p. 20.
a man who could “finish the things” . . . would “do much”: Ibid., pp. 31, 32.
“by flashes or whims . . . long, logical habit”: “Six Months of President Taft,” The World’s Work (September 1909).
“a great crusade . . . in the form of law”: George Kibbe Turner, “How Taft Views His Own Administration,” McClure’s (June 1910), p. 211.
“intense desire . . . for legal method”: WHT, “My Predecessor,” Collier’s, Mar. 6, 1909, p. 25.
Roosevelt had ended his presidency: TR to Kermit Roosevelt, May 10, 1908, in TR, Kermit Roosevelt, and Will Irwin, eds., Letters to Kermit from Theodore Roosevelt, 1902–1908 (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1946), p. 242.
“with the tools”: “Six Months of President Taft,” The World’s Work (September 1909).
He had “great misgivings”: WHT to HHT, Aug. 11, 1907, WHTP.
acceptance speech . . . “like a nightmare”: WHT to TR, July 12, 1908, TRP.
He feared . . . “make many people mad”: WHT to HHT, Aug. 13, 1907, WHTP.
negative press left him “very, very discouraged”: Nevada State Journal, Mar. 23, 1910.
refused to read unfavorable articles: AB to Clara, Nov. 14, 1909, in AB, Taft and Roosevelt, Vol. 1, p. 206.
“But I am made this way”: WHT to HHT, Aug. 15, 1907, WHTP.
his “campaign manager”: Syracuse [NY] Herald, June 14, 1908.
“I pinch myself”: WHT to Henry A. Morrill, Box 29, Pringle Papers.
“would rather be Chief Justice . . . to bear and undergo”: AB to Clara, Mar. 4, 1910, in AB, Taft and Roosevelt, Vol. 1, p. 294.
“overcome the obstacles”: WHT to Henry A. Morrill, Box 29, Pringle Papers.
Their sisters had been “schoolmates . . . forty years”: Helen Herron Taft, Recollections of Full Years (New York: Dodd, Mead & Co., 1914), p. 7.
“with such high feeling . . . during that period”: Ibid., p. 11.
“the deeper grew my respect”: WHT to Alphonso Taft, July 12, 1885, WHTP.
a “merciless but loving critic”: WHT to Nellie, June 28, 1895, WHTP.
“two men who are intimate chums”: Betty Boyd Caroli, First Ladies (New York: Oxford University Press, 1987), p. 130.
“the Taft Administration will be brilliant”: NYT, Mar. 4, 1909.
insisting “upon complete racial equality”: Carl Sferrazza Anthony, Nellie Taft: The Unconventional First Lady of the Ragtime Era (New York: HarperCollins, 2005), p. 148.
Taft turned “deathly pale”: AB to Clara, May 17, 1909, in AB, Taft and Roosevelt, Vol. 1, p. 88.
“great soul . . . wrapped in darkness”: AB to Mrs. John D. Butt, June 8, 1909, in ibid., p. 101.
“I have had a hard time . . . at the White House”: WHT to TR, May 26, 1910, TRP.
“this demonstration of amity . . . with the former President”: Indianapolis Star, June 12, 1910.
“charged with the dignity . . . to any man”: AB to Clara, June 16, 1910, in AB, Taft and Roosevelt, Vol. 1, p. 389.
“When you are being hammered”: WHT, Speech, Mar. 22, 1910, Series 9, reel 567, WHTP; Nevada State Journal, Mar. 23, 1910.
he “read with deep interest”: Evening Star (Washington, DC), June 18, 1910.
all “the members of the faculty . . . tremendous yell”: The North American (Philadelphia), June 19, 1910.
gaily decorated . . . 2,500 invited guests: Evening Bulletin (Philadelphia), June 18, 1910.
“The Roosevelt luck” . . . decision to speak indoors: Philadelphia Inquirer, June 19, 1910.
the entire audience rose: The North American, June 19, 1910.
a “flying visit”: Evening Bulletin, June 18, 1910.
&nbs
p; “He came to me”: Evening Star (Washington, DC), June 18, 1910.
“Banks, office buildings”: Philadelphia Inquirer, June 18, 1910.
“a terrific electrical storm”: Ibid.
“I thank you sincerely for coming”: WHT, “Speech at Lincoln University, June 18, 1910,” WHTP.
“one of the greatest men” . . . nation’s racial problems: Evening Star (Washington, DC), June 19, 1910.
the press could not resist drawing comparisons: The North American, June 19, 1910.
Taft was “travel-stained”: New York Herald, June 19, 1910.
exhausted when he boarded the train: Fort Wayne [IN] Journal-Gazette, June 19, 1910.
“in a free state of perspiration”: Galveston [TX] Daily News, June 19, 1910.
“ready and eager”: Waterloo [IA] Times-Tribune, June 19, 1910.
his bill . . . was awaiting his signature: New York Herald, June 19, 1910.
“an abiding faith . . . take care of itself ultimately”: WHT to R. L. O’Brien, June 28, 1910, in Donald F. Anderson, William Howard Taft: A Conservative’s Conception of the Presidency (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1973), p. 218.
“the first positive step”: “Six Months of President Taft,” The World’s Work (September 1909).
“for the first time, the power”: George Kibbe Turner, “How Taft Views His Own Administration; An Interview with the President,” McClure’s (June 1910), p. 215.
a postal savings bill “fought at every step”: Evening Bulletin (Philadelphia), June 18, 1910.
a secure place to deposit their money: WHT to William B. McKinley, Aug. 20, 1910, WHTP.
Taft “had unquestionably strengthened”: Evening Bulletin (Philadelphia), June 18, 1910.
“their laughs would mingle”: AB to Clara, June 15, 1912, in AB, Taft and Roosevelt, Vol. 2, p. 813.
“No other friendship”: William Allen White, “Taft: A Hewer of Wood,” The American Magazine (April 1908), pp. 23–24.
“The whole country waits and wonders”: Baltimore Sun, June 18, 1910.
CHAPTER TWO: Will and Teedie
“Louise is getting . . . clamorous appetite”: Alphonso Taft to Increase N. Talbot, Sept 21, 1857, WHTP.
“very large . . . made with belts”: LTT to DCT, Nov. 8, 1857, WHTP.
“took great comfort . . . boys growing up together”: LTT to Susan Torrey, November [n.d.], 1857, WHTP.
“He spreads his hands . . . dimple in one cheek”: Henry F. Pringle, The Life and Times of William Howard Taft [hereafter Life and Times] (New York: Farrar & Rinehart, 1939), Vol. 1, p. 3.
“deeply, darkly, beautifully blue”: LTT to DCT, November [n.d.], 1857, WHTP.
“healthy, fast-growing boy”: Alphonso Taft to DCT, Dec. 13, 1857, WHTP.
“upon being held . . . take care of himself”: LTT to DCT, November [n.d.], 1857, WHTP.
children “are treasures . . . too much”: LTT to Susan Torrey, Feb. 6, 1860, WHTP.
To her “great disappointment” . . . town of Millbury, Massachusetts: Horace Dutton Taft, Memories and Opinions (New York: The Macmillan Co., 1942), p. 3.
“She has great mental . . . synonymous with unhappiness”: Ishbel Ross, An American Family: The Tafts, 1678 to 1964 (Cleveland, OH: World Publishing Co., 1964), p. 18.
“If ‘ladies of strong minds’ ”: Ibid., p. 24.
“One day in an oat field . . . college was sacred in his eyes”: Taft, Memories and Opinions, pp. 4–5.
“I feel well assured”: Alphonso Taft to Frances Phelps, Oct. 9, 1838, WHTP.
“There are no such high . . . comparatively few”: Alphonso Taft to Sylvia Howard Taft, Nov. 15, 1838, WHTP.
“honourably famous”: Charles Dickens, American Notes, Vol. 11 of The Writings of Charles Dickens (New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1894), p. 514.
“I have not spent”: Alphonso Taft to Peter Rawson Taft, Mar. 30, 1839, WHTP.
her “noble husband . . . quiet joy”: LTT to DCT, Jan. 4, 1854, WHTP.
“I do feel under”: Pringle, Life and Times, Vol. 1, p. 13.
“the best husband”: Ross, An American Family, p. 20.
“Oh, Louise”: DCT to LTT, Jan. 18, 1854, WHTP.
“I had more pride”: LTT to Samuel Torrey, June 6, 1866, WHTP.
“Willie is foremost”: Alphonso Taft to Samuel Torrey, Oct. 16, 1872, WHTP.
“simplicity, courage”: Taft, Memories and Opinions, p. 5.
“If flattery or admiration”: Ibid., p. 106.
“It was very hard”: Ibid., p. 115.
“Scarcely a night”: Pringle, Life and Times, Vol. 1, p. 6.
“We might almost as well ask”: DCT to LTT, Jan. 17, 1859, WHTP.
“spread out before you like a map”: Alphonso Taft to Frances Phelps, Nov. 12, 1838, WHTP.
“the advantages of both . . . or to rough it”: Taft, Memories and Opinions, p. 13.
“wholesome and natural”: Ibid., p. 16.
“the city fairly blossomed . . . one end to the other”: LTT to Anna Torrey, April 18, 1865, WHTP.
“He was . . . a born judge”: Taft, Memories and Opinions, p. 11.
“the Constitution of the State”: S. B. Nelson & Co., History of Cincinnati and Hamilton County, Ohio; Their Past and Present, Including . . . Biographies and Portraits of Pioneers and Representative Citizens, Etc. (Cincinnati: S. B. Nelson, 1894), p. 189.
“the school board”: Martha Willard, “Notes for a Biographer,” unpublished MS, 1935, p. 92, WHTP.
“To be Chief Justice”: Ross, An American Family, p. 47.
“No leader of the Bar . . . patience and kindness”: Taft, Memories and Opinions, p. 11.
“rich real estate holders”: Lewis Alexander Leonard, Life of Alphonso Taft (New York: Hawke Publishing Co., 1920), p. 48.
“the path of virtue and integrity”: Ibid., p. 54.
“these children are unfortunate . . . cruel circumstances”: Ibid.
his unblemished reputation . . . “the day is long”: NYT, March 8, 1876.
“reform element . . . old regime”: Murat Halstead to Alphonso Taft, Mar. 7, 1876, WHTP.
a “fatty”: Bessie White Smith, Boyhoods of the Presidents (Boston: Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Co., 1929), p. 251.
a “lubber”: Pringle, Life and Times, Vol. 1, p. 20; Eugene P. Lyle, Jr., “Taft: A Career of Big Tasks, His Boyhood and College Days,” The World’s Work (July 1907).
“If you can’t walk”: Smith, Boyhoods of the Presidents, p. 251.
At the age of seven . . . “arithmetic and writing”: Ross, An American Family, p. 40.
“He means to be a scholar”: Ibid.
“Mediocrity will not do”: Pringle, Life and Times, Vol. 1, p. 22.
“His average was 95”: Alphonso Taft to DCT, Dec. 24, 1869, WHTP.
“We felt that the sun”: Taft, Memories and Opinions, p. 11.
“Love of approval”: AB to Clara, Aug. 10, 1910, in AB, Taft and Roosevelt, Vol. 2, p. 472.
“read up in the Gazetteer . . . impressive to him”: LTT to Anna Torrey, July 18, 1869, WHTP.
Alphonso re-created for Will: Alphonso Taft to WHT, Aug. 1, 1869, WHTP.
“a mastery of fact”: David H. Burton, The Learned Presidency: Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, Woodrow Wilson (Rutherford, NJ: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 1988), p. 91.
“the most conspicuous”: Taft, Memories and Opinions, p. 26.
“the great social event”: Ross, An American Family, p. 58.
the splendid Sinton mansion: HHT, Recollections of Full Years, p. 4.
the Times-Star, a Taft family holding: Ross, An American Family, p. 67.
“The result of coeducation”: WHT, “Woman Suffrage,” 1874, WHTP.
“from their constitutional peculiarities”: LTT to DCT, Aug. 16, 1874, WHTP.
“Give the woman the ballot . . . this great reform”: WHT, “Woman Suffrage,” 1874, WHTP.
the only obstacle . . . was laziness: Pringle, Life and Times, Vol. 1, p. 21.
Will st
ood over six feet . . . nickname “Big Bill”: David H. Burton, Taft, Roosevelt and the Limits of Friendship (Madison, NJ: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 2005), p. 21.
“To see his large bulk . . . a dreadnaught launched”: Edward H. Cotton, William Howard Taft: A Character Study (Boston: Beacon Press, 1932), p. 21.
“dragged bodily” . . . to victory: Oscar King Davis, William Howard Taft, the Man of the Hour; His Biography and His Views on the Great Questions of Today (Philadelphia: P. W. Ziegler Co., 1908), p. 40.
“I begin to see”: WHT to Alphonso Taft, Sept. 12, 1874, WHTP.
“It is not more”: LTT to DCT, Oct. 22, 1874, WHTP.
“Another week of this . . . your expectations”: WHT to Alphonso Taft, September [n.d.], 1874, WHTP.
His father “had other ideas”: WHT, “College Athletic,” American Physical Education Review (April 1916), p. 225.
“I doubt that such popularity”: Pringle, Life and Times, Vol. 1, p. 35.
“If a man has to be isolated”: WHT to LTT, Nov. 4, 1874, WHTP.
settled into a structured regimen: WHT to Alphonso Taft, Oct. 1, 1874, WHTP.
“As a scholar . . . moral force”: Herbert Wolcott Bowen, Recollections, Diplomatic and Undiplomatic (New York: F. H. Hitchcock, 1926), pp. 52–53.
He was the class leader: Herbert S. Duffy, William Howard Taft (New York: Minton, Balch & Co., 1930), pp. 5–6.
“safe and comforting”: Lyle, “Taft: A Career of Big Tasks . . .,” The World’s Work (July 1907).
appointed him “father” of their graduating year: Cotton, William Howard Taft, a Character Study, p. 4.
“was the most admired”: Bowen, Recollections, Diplomatic and Undiplomatic, p. 53.
“there was little . . . way to a degree”: David H. Burton, William Howard Taft, in the Public Service (Malabar, FL: Robert E. Krieger Publ. Co., 1986), p. 6.
“a course of outside reading . . . stick to the course”: Lyle, “Taft: A Career of Big Tasks . . .,” The World’s Work (July 1907).
“hard common sense”: WHT, “The Vitality of the Democratic Party, Its Causes,” Pringle Papers.
“Taft was judicial . . . before anything else”: Pringle, Life and Times, Vol. 1, p. 44.
“had more to do with stimulating”: Ibid., p. 34.
Considered one of the most gifted . . . “secret of his success”: Dumas Malone, ed., Dictionary of American Biography (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1935), Vol. 9, p. 218.
The Bully Pulpit: Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, and the Golden Age of Journalism Page 110
