Despite his personal ambition to become chief justice, Taft declined repeated offers of appointment to the Supreme Court of the United States, believing his political work to be more important.

[11] Taft refused to dismiss competent employees who were politically out of favor, and resigned effective in March 1883, writing to Arthur that he wished to begin private practice in Cincinnati.

Nellie Taft was ambitious for herself and her husband, and was annoyed when the people he socialized with most were mainly Supreme Court justices, rather than the arbiters of Washington society such as Theodore Roosevelt, John Hay, Henry Cabot Lodge and their wives.

He landed solidly in McKinley's camp after former Nebraska representative William Jennings Bryan in July stampeded the 1896 Democratic National Convention with his Cross of Gold speech.

[31] The American takeover meant the Philippine Revolution bled into the Philippine–American War, as Filipinos fought for their independence, but U.S. forces, led by military governor General Arthur MacArthur Jr.[h] had the upper hand by 1900.

Roosevelt had Taft go to Rome to negotiate with Pope Leo XIII, to purchase the lands and to arrange the withdrawal of the Spanish priests, with Americans replacing them and training locals as clergy.

[55] There were U.S. concerns about the number of Japanese laborers coming to the American West Coast, and during Taft's second visit, in September 1907, Tadasu Hayashi, the foreign minister, informally agreed to issue fewer passports to them.

New York Governor Charles Evans Hughes ran, but when he made a major policy speech, Roosevelt the same day sent a special message to Congress warning in strong terms against corporate corruption.

Yet Taft did not have things his own way: he had hoped his running mate would be a midwestern progressive like Iowa Senator Jonathan Dolliver, but instead the convention named Congressman James S. Sherman of New York, a conservative.

[64] Taft began the campaign on the wrong foot, fueling the arguments of those who said he was not his own man by traveling to Roosevelt's home at Sagamore Hill for advice on his acceptance speech, saying that he needed "the President's judgment and criticism".

Bryan wanted the railroads to be owned by the government, but Taft preferred that they remain in the private sector, with their maximum rates set by the Interstate Commerce Commission, subject to judicial review.

[94][95] Taft and his Secretary of State, Philander Knox, instituted a policy of Dollar Diplomacy toward Latin America, believing U.S. investment would benefit all involved, while diminishing European influence in regions where the Monroe Doctrine applied.

[110][111] After the revolution broke out, the revolt's leaders chose Sun Yat-sen as provisional president of what became the Republic of China, overthrowing the Manchu dynasty, Taft was reluctant to recognize the new government, although American public opinion was in favor of it.

These included a settlement of the boundary between Maine and New Brunswick, a long-running dispute over seal hunting in the Bering Sea that also involved Japan, and a similar disagreement regarding fishing off Newfoundland.

[119] In October 1911, Taft's Justice Department brought suit against U.S. Steel, demanding that over a hundred of its subsidiaries be granted corporate independence, and naming as defendants many prominent business executives and financiers.

[127] In January 1910, Pinchot forced the issue by sending a letter to Iowa Senator Dolliver alleging that but for the actions of the Forestry Service, Taft would have approved a fraudulent claim on public lands.

According to Pringle, this "was an utterly improper appeal from an executive subordinate to the legislative branch of the government and an unhappy president prepared to separate Pinchot from public office".

[129] A congressional investigation followed, which cleared Ballinger by majority vote, but the administration was embarrassed when Glavis' attorney, Louis D. Brandeis, proved that the Wickersham report had been backdated, which Taft belatedly admitted.

[136] Justice David Josiah Brewer's death on March 28, 1910, gave Taft a second opportunity to fill a seat on the high court; he chose New York Governor Charles Evans Hughes.

By the time Taft nominated White and Van Devanter in December 1910, he had another seat to fill due to William Henry Moody's retirement because of illness; he named a Louisiana Democrat, Joseph R. Lamar, whom he had met while playing golf, and had subsequently learned had a good reputation as a judge.

His personal horror was shared by other prominent members of the nation's elite legal community, like Elihu Root and Alton B. Parker, and solidified in Taft's mind that Roosevelt must not be permitted to regain the presidency, whatever the cost.

[184] When Wilson asked Congress to declare war on Germany in April 1917, Taft was an enthusiastic supporter; he was chairman of the American Red Cross' executive committee, which occupied much of the former president's time.

[185] In August 1917, Wilson conferred military titles on executives of the Red Cross as a way to provide them with additional authority to use in carrying out their wartime responsibilities, and Taft was appointed a major general.

Justice Sutherland wrote for the majority that the recently ratified Nineteenth Amendment, guaranteeing women the vote, meant that the sexes were equal when it came to bargaining power over working conditions; Taft, in dissent, deemed this unrealistic.

Although Myers involved the removal of a postmaster,[206] Taft in his opinion found invalid the repealed Tenure of Office Act, for violation of which his presidential predecessor, Andrew Johnson, had been impeached, though acquitted by the Senate.

[y] A congressional committee investigating possible complicity of former Attorney General Daugherty in the Teapot Dome scandal subpoenaed records from his brother, Mally, who refused to provide them, alleging Congress had no power to obtain documents from him.

The outcome supported the right of parents to control the education of their children, and also, since the lead plaintiff (the society) ran Catholic schools, struck a blow for religious freedom.

The ruling held the exclusion on account of race of a child of Chinese ancestry from a whites-only public school did not violate the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution.

By the time Taft became chief justice in 1921, his health was starting to decline, and he carefully planned a fitness regimen, walking 3 miles (4.8 km) from his home to the Capitol each day.

[237] Anderson noted that Taft's prepresidential federal service was entirely in appointed posts, and that he had never run for an important executive or legislative position, which would have allowed him to develop the skills to manipulate public opinion, as "the presidency is no place for on-the-job training".