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PRESIDENTIAL CHILDREN: THE TAFTS OF OHIO

© John S. Cooper

Most presidential children have worked hard to avoid the glare of public life once their parents left the White House. There have been exceptions, most notably John Quincy Adams. Among these exceptions are the children of William Howard Taft. All of his children became leaders in politics or education, and one almost filled his father's shoes by becoming president. (Although, at 350 pounds, none of his children could ever hope to fill William Howard Taft's rather large shoes.)

William Howard Taft and his wife, Helen "Nellie" Taft, had three children. Both sons served in political positions, and their daughter became a leader in the field of education.

ROBERT ALPHONSO TAFT, 1889-1953. Robert was born in Cincinnati, Ohio on September 8, 1889. He attended Yale University, graduating in 1910. He was first in his class at Harvard law school, graduating in 1913. On October 17, 1914, he married Martha Wheaton Bowers in Washington, D.C. Because of his poor eyesight, he was not eligible for the U.S. Army during World War I. During the war, he served as the assistant general counsel to the Food Administrator, Herbert Hoover. (The Food Administrator coordinated national food conservation efforts during the war.) After the end of the war, Robert returned to Ohio and was elected to the Ohio House of Representatives, serving from 1920-1926. He was elected to the Ohio Senate where he served from 1931-1932.

In 1936, Robert Taft was the Ohio favorite son at the Republican presidential convention. Two years later, he was elected to the U.S. Senate, where he served from 1939 until his death in 1953. In the U.S. Senate, Robert quickly became a leader of the conservative faction of the Republican Party, earning the nickname of "Mr. Republican." As a Senator, he opposed the New Deal program of Franklin Roosevelt, and later opposed the Fair Deal program of Harry Truman. Until the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, he was a leading isolationist. After the war, he opposed U.S. participation in NATO and the United Nations. He was also the principal critic of the Nuremberg trial of Nazi leaders after the war. In a speech, he said, "The trial of the vanquished by the victors cannot be impartial no matter how it is hedged about with the forms of justice....About this whole judgment there is the spirit of vengeance, and vengeance is seldom justice. The hanging of the eleven men convicted will be a blot on the American record which we shall long regret." This position hurt him when he ran for president in 1952.

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