It's On My Mind

October 1, 2019 (Tuesday)
Woodrow Wilson was born in Staunton, Virginia December 28,1856, and died February 3, 1924, in Washington, D.C. He was president 1913-1921. His father was a Presbyterian minister. He was married 1885-1914 to Ellen Axson, who died, and Edith Wilson, 1915-1924.
During the Civil War his father was a pastor in Augusta, Georgia, and during Reconstruction a professor in Columbia, South Carolina.
After graduation from Princeton (then the College of New Jersey) and the University of Virginia Law School, Wilson earned his doctorate at Johns Hopkins University and entered upon an academic career.
Wilson gained a reputation as a conservative young professor of political science and became president of Princeton in 1902.
His growing national reputation led some conservative Democrats persuade him to run for Governor of New Jersey in 1910. In the campaign he asserted his independence of the conservatives and of the machine that had nominated him, endorsing a progressive platform, which he pursued as governor.
He was nominated for President at the 1912 Democratic Convention and campaigned on a program called the New Freedom, which stressed individualism and states’ rights. In the three-way election he received only 42 percent of the popular vote but an overwhelming electoral vote.
Wilson maneuvered through Congress major legislation perceived as positive by progressives . By virtue of this legislation and the slogan “he kept us out of war,” Wilson narrowly won re-election. After the election Wilson concluded that America could not remain neutral in the World War. On April 2,1917, he asked Congress for a declaration of war on Germany.
Massive American effort slowly tipped the balance in favor of the Allies.
After the Germans signed the Armistice in November 1918, Wilson promoted a League of Nations, but the election of 1918 had shifted the balance in Congress and his efforts to establish an organization to maintain peace failed.
The President, against the warnings of his doctors, had made a national tour to mobilize public sentiment for the Versailles Treaty, which included proposals for a League of Nations, but he suffered a stroke and nearly died. Tenderly nursed by his second wife, Edith Bolling Galt, he lived until 1924.

Thomas Woodrow Wilson – President 1913-1921

October 1, 2019 (Tuesday)
William Howard Taft became our country’s 27th president at age 51, serving from 1909 to 1913. He was a Republican. He was born September 15, 1857 in Cincinnati, Ohio, and died March 8, 1930 in Washington D.C. He married Helen Herron and they had 3 children, Robert, Helen, Charles. His nickname was “Big Bill.”

William Taft was selected by President Teddy Roosevelt to be his successor. He is most famous for being the only president to serve on the Supreme Court after leaving office.

William grew up in Cincinnati, Ohio. His father was a lawyer who served as the Secretary of War and the Attorney General under President Ulysses S. Grant. William enjoyed sports and school. He was especially good at baseball and math. In 1878 he graduated from Yale University and then went to law school to learn to become a lawyer. In 1880 he passed the bar exam and opened his own law practice.

In addition to his law practice, Taft wanted to enter public service. He worked in a variety of government jobs including the Ohio Superior Court, Solicitor General under President Harrison, and judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals. He hoped that these jobs would prepare him for his dream job, which was to be on the U.S. Supreme Court.

When the United States gained control of the Philippines in the Spanish-American War, President McKinley asked Taft to set up a government there. Taft became governor of the Philippines serving there for four years.

In 1904, Taft joined President Theodore Roosevelt’s cabinet as the Secretary of War. While Secretary of War he oversaw the construction of the Panama Canal. Several times Taft was offered a position on the Supreme Court and each time he turned it down because he felt he had to finish his work for the president. When Teddy Roosevelt finished his second term, he recommended Taft for president. Taft wasn’t sure he wanted to run, but with his wife’s encouragement he ran and won the election. The year was 1909 and he spoke at the school in the town of Taft, Texas, which had been named after his half-brother, Charles P. Taft.

Taft had numerous accomplishments while president:

He established a parcel post service that helped stimulate nationwide commerce and trade.
The sixteenth amendment creating a federal income tax was passed.
The Department of Labor was created to help the average worker by insuring things like workplace safety, wage standards, work hours, and unemployment insurance.
The 17th amendment was passed stating that U.S. Senators were to be elected by the people rather than by the state legislatures.
The states New Mexico and Arizona were added to the country making Taft the first president over the 48 contiguous states.
Like his predecessor Teddy Roosevelt, Taft broke up many monopolies and trusts.

Despite all his accomplishments, Taft implemented some unpopular policies that gradually alienated Teddy Roosevelt, who set up his own party (“Bull Moose”) and opposed Taft. As a result he lost the next presidential election in a landslide to Woodrow Wilson.
After leaving the presidency, Taft did not want to retire. He took a job as a law professor at Yale University. Then in 1921 he finally got his dream job when President Warren G. Harding appointed him to the Supreme Court as Chief Justice. Taft truly enjoyed working on the Supreme Court. He worked almost up until the time of his death.
Taft died of heart disease in 1930. He was buried in Arlington National Seminary. His wife Helen was later buried next to him.
Facts About William Taft
At 332 pounds, Taft was the heaviest president in history. After getting stuck in the White House bathtub, he had the standard sized bathtub removed and a larger one installed.
He once fell asleep during a parade where he was the main attraction!
Helen Taft helped to coordinate the planting of 3,000 Japanese cherry trees around the Tidal Basin on the Washington D.C. National Mall. These cherry trees are a very popular tourist attraction every year when they bloom in the spring.
He started the tradition of throwing out the first ball of the MLB baseball season.
He was the first president to have a presidential car and the last to have a cow (for fresh milk at the White House).
While Chief Justice, Taft became the only former president to swear in a new president. He administered the oath to presidents Calvin Coolidge and Herbert Hoover.
(The material for this blog was found in web site for children, “ducksters.com.”
Most of it is copied word for word).

William Howard Taft – President 1909-1913

August 1, 2019 (Tuesday)

Theodore (“Teddy”) Roosevelt, (10/27/1858 – 01/06/1919), died at 60 years of age. He had served as President of the United States from 1901 to 1909. He was vice president under William McKinley as McKinley served 6 months of a second term, but became president when McKinley was assassinated. He was 42 years old when he took office, the youngest president ever to serve. He had no vice president until 1905 when Charles Fairbanks was elected.

People gladly named institutions after him The first 3 years of my school days were spent at Houston’s Theodore Roosevelt Elementary School (found on a map near the intersection of I45N and North Loop).

Theodore Roosevelt officially gave the White House its current name in 1901, so named because of its contrasting color near the red brick buildings of the area. Before that date, it had been known by several names, such as “Executive Mansion.”

Theodore Roosevelt – President 1901-1909

When I think of him, I think of his heroic charge up San Juan Hill in the Spanish-American war, and later his plea to President Wilson to let him, at the age of 58, lead soldiers into battle during the First World War. I think of his presidential campaign in 1912 when he was shot while making a speech. Acknowledging that he had been shot, he finished his speech, which was lengthy. His wound proved to be quite serious. He compared himself to a “Bull Moose,” which became the informal name of his new party.

When I think of him, I think of the family he and his wife raised at the White House. There was one child from his first marriage and five from his second. His children were everywhere, having the complete run of the place. They took their favorite pony, Algonquin, into the White House elevator, frightened visiting officials with a four-foot King snake, and dropped water balloons on the heads of White House guards. The First Family members were the darlings of the American public.

When I think of him, I immediately think of raw nature and wild animals. Our National Park system would probably not exist were it not for him.

He was a “bigger than life,” entusiastic leader. Ever hear of something called a “Teddy Bear?” It was named for him. He was popular. There has been only one Theodore Roosevelt. I’m thankful we have good records of his presidency. When I read of him, my heart nearly bursts with pride as an American. He was a great president.

August 1, 2019 (Monday)

The materials in this blog are copied directly from a web site operating as “The Library of Congress Reading Room.”

William McKinley, the 25th president of the United States, was born in Niles, Ohio on January 29, 1843. He enlisted as a private during the Civil War and distinguished himself in action earning the rank of major in 1865. He served in Congress from 1876 to 1890 and became a strong supporter of protective tariffs. McKinley was elected governor of Ohio in 1891, serving a second term in 1893. By this time, McKinley was considered an important national leader. In 1896, the Republican national convention nominated him for president, on a platform stressing protective tariffs and the maintenance of a monetary standard based on gold.

From the beginning of his administration, President McKinley was concerned about the Cuban insurrection. On February 15, 1898, the USS Maine was sunk on an official visit to Havana. President McKinley attempted to prevent war and endeavored to persuade the Spanish government to adopt a conciliatory policy with the Cuban insurrectionists. The Spanish government yielded too late to restrain the popular demand in the United States for intervention. On April 20, Congress adopted a resolution declaring war against Spain. A peace protocol ended hostilities on August 12, 1898. Under the peace treaty signed at Paris on December 10, 1898, Spain relinquished title to Cuba, and ceded Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Phillippines to the United States.

Following the acquisition of these possessions, McKinley questioned whether the Constitution applied to them as it did to the continental United States. He accepted the view of Congress that since they lay outside the free trade area of the United States and were not incorporated territories, the provisions of the Constitution did not apply to them.

In 1900, McKinley was re-elected President. During his second term, he was gratified by the Supreme Court’s decisions confirming the administration’s limited application of the Constitution to these insular possessions, such as in Balzac v. Porto Rico. McKinley did not complete his second term because he was shot by an anarchist on September 6, 1901. He died shortly thereafter, on September 14, 1901, from complications related to the gunshot wound.

William McKinley President 1897-1901

Benjamin Harrison was born on August 20, 1833, in North Bend, Ohio; he grew up on a farm located near the Ohio River below Cincinnati. His father, John Harrison, was a farmer, and his grandfather, William Henry Harrison, was elected as the ninth president of the United States in 1840, but died of pneumonia only one month after he took office in 1841. Benjamin Harrison graduated from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, in 1852 and married Caroline Lavinia Scott the following year; the couple would go on to have two children. After studying law in Cincinnati, Harrison moved to Indianapolis, Indiana, in 1854 and set up his own law practice.

Harrison became actively interested in politics, joined the Republican party. When the Civil War broke out in 1861, Harrison joined the Union Army as a lieutenant in the 70th Indiana Volunteer Infantry Regiment, and he would attain the rank of brevet brigadier general by 1865. Back in Indiana after the war, he campaigned for nomination as governor. He was unsuccessful, but tried again four years later and lost by a very slim margin.

In 1881 he was elected as a U.S. Senator. He worked for the rights of homesteaders and Native Americans against the expanding railroad industry and campaigned for generous pensions for Civil War veterans, among other issues. A highly principled and devoutly religious man, he worked against legislation that seemed to denigrate human rights.
Harrison lost his Senate seat after a Democratic victory in the Indiana state legislature in 1887, only to gain the Republican nomination for president the following year. Rather than travel around the country during the campaign, he gave numerous speeches to delegations that visited him in Indianapolis-an early example of so-called “front-porch campaigning.” In a controversial general election, Harrison lost the popular vote to the incumbent President Grover Cleveland by 90,000 votes but carried the electoral college, gaining 233 electoral votes to Cleveland’s 168 thanks to victories in the key swing states of New York and Indiana.

He worked with Congress on many projects, some of which were controversial in the eyes of his enemies, but all were intended by him to make life better for all. He lost his bid for re-election, returned to Indianapolis where he continued to practice law and serve as elder statesman and public speaker. He died March 13, 1901.

Benjamin Harrison – President 1889-1893