Taft, William Howard

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Taft, William Howard (1857–1930) Twenty-seventh US President (1909–13) and tenth Chief Justice of the Supreme Court (1921–30). He gained great credit as Governor of the Philippines (1901–04), and entered the cabinet of Theodore Roosevelt. Taft won the Republican nomination for President and was elected in 1908. His lack of political experience and tendency to side with the conservatives in the Republican Party caused increasing dissension. In 1912, Roosevelt, having failed to regain the presidential nomination, set up his own Progressive Party. With the Republican vote split, the Democrat, Woodrow Wilson, won the election. Taft taught at Yale Law School until 1921. As Chief Justice, he greatly streamlined the operations of the federal judiciary.

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