Since then, he has written books on, may be best book on the United States senate, may be further maybe for the republican party. President taft, roosevelt, mckinley. Hes written the history of wyoming, the written history of the first lady. She is an extraordinary historian. On the back quotes modern american presidency which might be the one book you ought to have on the presidency. Original,st and most steve neal, compelling analysis , robert who is also been here, where achievements rare achievements, a pleasure, strong and provocative. Highly readable, refreshing, required reading. And last but not leaving, as i introduce our fred, a friend of the library, formerly professor at the university of texas, a wonderful writer. I want to read what Richard Norton smith says. Ould does not hesitate to offer sobering conclusions and i want to say i know he will stay sober tonight. Gentlemen, lewis gould. [applause] lewis gould thank you for that kind and generous introduction. It is always late to return to kansas city. As a native of your city once observed, kansas eddie, everyone has some kind of bell to tap from that town. Kemper and they library for inviting me back that a personal shout out to Nelson Atkins who is here for thethat he does to make collection of medieval manuscripts one of the best in the area. And seeing the orioles come back and maybe when the world series, its important to our oh go ahead. [applause] lewis gould its good to be shameless. It is appropriate to remember the president who has the tradition of during out the first all on opening day was when howard taft in 1910. If people know anything about William Howard taft they recall he is the only person to have been president of the United States and chief justice of the United States. He was president for a single 1913 and chiefto justice from 1921 to 1930, when he had to resign because of ill health. The other thing everyone remembers is that he was a large man, weighing 350 pounds by the end of his presidency. Fat jokes proliferated. How he gave up his seat to three women on the trolley, or the response when he proclaimed manelf a fit and virile after a horseback ride through the hills of the philippines. The secretary of war got the telegram and fired back how is the horse . [laughter] lewis gould now for all of his weight he was very light on his feet and i would guess he may have been the most gifted residential dancer of all the 40 odd chief executives. You might say what about Theodore Roosevelt . One woman said he danced the way you would expect it, he hopped. Bulk facts about tafts exhaust manys knowledge about him and really does anyone ask how he became the first chief justice as a former president and be a forgotten figure . And waitt sit around for judicial lightning to strike him. He spent the eight years between the end of his presidency and his nomination in 1921 by warren g. Harding, keeping himself in the public eye and reminding fellow republicans that he was available. ,hese eight years intrigued me just how did he recover from a disastrous presidency to be the logical choice for president warned jihad in warren g. Harding . Twixt the white house at Supreme Court which the university of kansas brought out last fall. The critics within your shot of the now retired and distinguished director of the odard, press, fred wo and his choice made it easy to search for the book on google. I believe this book belongs in every household in america. Unlike j. K. Rowling, stephen king, and john grisham, my book sales fall short of that goal. On the premise that some of you, i know very few, may not have read the book yet, let me tell taft, thet says about presidency, and the fate of former president s a century ago. As you shall see, the situation after he left office in 1913 reveals a great deal of how the presidency changed in the last century and though the theme is hail to the chief, there will be insight on how different the presidency was in 1909 to 1913. I have written three books about the taskfts. Helen when he was president. Saying it is true, we are not ashamed of it, we do it. Doing so has been a great personal pleasure. He was a constant letter writer dictating to his secretary and having to write to his wife and longhand because she didnt like typewriters, his letters fill hundreds of pages in the library of congress. Their gossipy, opinionated, and fun to read because Theodore Roosevelt said of him one of the best papers i ever knew. About therned president s into the 20th century, one thing to keep in mind as people talk about roosevelt and wilson and others is how different the presidency was then from now. How small the president ial office was in terms of people who worked for chief executive. Taft had 18 his secretary. He went through three of them. The white house is now in tens of thousands. There was no bureaucracy in our sense of the word. Moreover, the white house was accessible in ways that seem incredible in our modern age. If one had business with the president , you could simply walk up to the front door, state your business to the guards, and they would let you in if you are a President Senate it senator or commerce. No security check, no background check, you are just an average american and you had put business with the president. A journalist once told me, he was a young reporter, he got to the white house and lost his way and theater Theodore Roosevelt came down and directed him to the press office on the second floor. Mind that the bureaucracy and the pictures, the movies that show this white house is heavily armed, were not true in 1913. To give you a sense, president s still have annual receptions. The public could line up on new years day and walk in and shake cans with the president and tell him what you thought of him. And passing out the white house, thousands of people lined up. They thought of the president as the First Citizen of the land, he was no different from other citizens as a human being. The president was not seen as some exalted figure, but only that First Citizen, no better than the average person in the legal sense. Only with fdr and world war ii and the cold war that followed to the white house become the imposing safeguard, sometimes under assault in movies, complex that it is today. The president ial papers were much smaller, though they were large in number, then they are now. To give you kind of an example, Theodore Roosevelts papers on microfilm, 485 reels. For taft there is 658. For fdr there were 20 tons of material. Every president since has had more papers than all the previous president s combined taken together. You can see how the presidency has metastasized over the last century. Taft had been elected over democrat William Jennings bryan. Bryan running for the third time. When he lost he said i guess they dont want to let me in there. Taft was the designated political air of Theodore Roosevelt. The assumption was he would carry on roosevelts legacy, political reform, government regulation, strong presidency. Almost at once, things began to go wrong for taft as his party split over the tariff, conservation, and government regulation of the economy. In 1910, the republicans became divided over the speaker of the house. Uncle joe cannon of illinois, who is a very conservative man, he was said that if he had been present at the creation of the universe, he would have voted for chaos. [applause] worse yet for taft, the close friendship he had with roosevelt fell apart. By early 1912, roosevelt threw his hat into the ring and challenged taft with the gop president ial nomination. The race for the nomination became bitter and all traces of their former friendship were vanishing. At one point, taft said of his former friend, i am a man of peace, and i dont want to fight. When i do fight, i want to hit hard. Even a rat in a corner will fight. President ial rhetoric, 1912. Roosevelt described his successor as flabbing, a puzzle and a fat head. They did not give out each others phone numbers in those days, but they battled back and forth in the spring of 1912. At one point, taft subject to a recorder, roosevelt was my dearest friend. Roosevelt claiming that taft had stolen the prize from him, there was a dispute about the delegates. Roosevelt created his own thirdparty, the bull moose was a progressive party. For those of you who like your politics with a side order of religion, roosevelt famously proclaimed that he was going after the president we stand at , armageddon and we battle for the lord. The democrats nominated Woodrow Wilson, who had an easy road. Taft did not campaign. That was another variant from today. It was thought to be undignified for the sitting president to go out and actually ask for votes. Most incumbent president s simply issued a letter of acceptance, and then kept quiet. Only in 1916 would Woodrow Wilson go out on a stump and ever since then, as we know, president s campaigned like mad. When the votes were counted, the democrat had almost 42 of the popular vote, while taft and t. R. Split the rest. As a result, wilson won easily with 435 electoral votes. Roosevelt had 88 votes from six states and taft had utah and vermont. It was a crushing repudiation of an incumbent president. A century ago, inaugurations were held on march 4th. They were changed in the 1930s in the midst of the depression to january 20th to reduce the time between the election and the inauguration of the presidency, so you do not have lame ducks like herbert hoover. At noon, Woodrow Wilson took the oath of office and became president. Taft and nelly were driving to the local train station and they could hear the bands playing and the crowds cheering for the new president. Talk about a moment in your lives. The transition between taft and wilson have been very polite, businesslike, and conducted in a very civilized manner. Unlike our era, political opponents then good still behave with a modicum of civility and good manners towards each other. I think weve lost something, if you compare taft and wilson with recent events. Taft and nelly departed for augusta, georgia, where taft could recuperate from the rigors of the presidency by playing the golf he loved so much. He felt very gratified. Now, to understand what taft faced in march of 1913, as i begin my book, as an expresident , thinking about ex president s, you have to put out of your mind all moderate assumptions about former president s. Today, men such as bill clinton and george w. Bush have left office with pensions, staff, secret service protection, and magnificent president ial libraries like the harry truman library. To glad to join and welcome the fraternity of president ial libraries because historians, we need them. We live for them, we visit them and do research on them. They are an ornament in american civilization. So in our day, before a a former president that has everything that makes him resemble the white house without the power, of course, but its a very comfortable existence as bill clinton and george w. Bush could testify. On 1913, nothing like that march 4, existed for taft. A former president on noon of march 4 and he became a private citizen was again. There was no government income, as in nothing. No pension, nothing. No secret service protection, no staff, no office, and no expectation he would ever have such things. Taft saved 2000 a month from his 75,000 salary as president. But he did have enough money to didnt didnt have enough money to live on and he would have to earn a living on his own. He was just a private citizen with no special place in society that he did not create for himself. If he wanted a secretary, he would have to employ one for himself at his own expense. Protection, nothing. Even though roosevelt had been the victim of assassination attempt in october 1912. Nobody said, maybe we should protect former president s. Taft was on his own. Taft had been a lawyer and federal judge before entering Government Service in 1900. When he went to the philippines to create a Colonial Government there. He had been on the government payroll almost his whole life. At first he thought about practicing law back in his hometown of cincinnati, but problems soon arose. As president have to head appointed so many federal judges that if he went in the courts, conflict of interests were bound to occur. He was going to deal primarily with civil cases which would take him into the courts where he would face judges he had appointed. He was not going to defend the accused criminals. If you were expecting a new series called big bill taft for the defense starring john goodman, forget about it. If you make it happen, i want residuals. How would this former president who had been a lawyer all his life going to make a living . A welcome solution emerged even before he left the white house. He was offered a teaching position at yale, his alma mater, as the professor of law. He would teach undergraduate courses in constitutional law while at the same time instructing the students in the dangers of Theodore Roosevelts reform ideas. As he put it to the yale daily news, when the constitution is regarded so lively by a class of enthusiasts, who could he mean . Seeking shortcuts to economic perfection and unscrupulous demagogue, now we know, who are promoting disrespect for the fundamental document, someone had to speak out. Taft was that man. He said that the Yale Administration are disposed to let me do whatever i want as long as i except. For eight and a half years he , taught the boys at yale. He was a somewhat dry lecturer, except for when whatever he was saying reminded him of an incident of when he was secretary of war or president , often would go on a digression sprinkled with the famous taft belly laugh and the boys found him fascinating. For his part, taft regarded the shores of grading examinations a taxing one. But as he traveled around the country, he graded all the papers himself. I must not kick about it, he told a friend, because that is the lean of the professors life and i would not be satisfied to let anybody else do the work for me as some professors do. A personal confession when i , taught classes of 500 at a time at the university of texas, i did use graders. As he surveyed his students, taft decided, he had had so many teachers over the generations that there had been a falling off of the College Students and quality. He wrote an article entitled the college slouch. He deplored lack of direct in different manners and slouching dress among the students. If you look back at yale yearbooks from 1914 and 1915, you will wonder how these neatly dressed, very tweedy yaleys achieved it with slouchiness. You have to wonder what he was talking about, especially if you compare the almost clothing optional approach of modern students. He also threaded fretted when the yale was he knew consorted with the chorus girls who hung hotel taft in new haven. Charles was the rich taft and he supported bill throughout his career. These theatrical damsels were no better than they had to be, and taft warned the administration that the decline in moral values was imminent. Blending the yale boys with the hotel girls enabled in tafts words young men of the college to dissipate. Dances at the taft soon ceased. We think about it, we need to keep in mind that the same boys in four years later would be facing german machine guns in france and some wood life forever in flanders field. On the whole, taft liked living in new haven. Nelly could go into new york to go to the theater and shop for a day. Taft could mingle with the yale faculty. He loved golf, as ive said. He once played at a local for somewhere he came out on a good end. He stormed into the locker room, through his clubs on the floor, and snorted with rage. A watching professor said, you feel worse about being beaten at golf here than you did on losing the presidency. Taft responded, well i do now. Taft golfed in part to keep his weight down, something he struggled with all of his life. As i said, he had gone up to 350 pounds. When the president of yale suggested that he occupy a chair of law, taft applied, the chair might not be adequate. If they had a sofa, that my might work. While he took jokes about his weight in good part he realize , that he had really ballooned during his presidency. He ate a 12 ounce steak for breakfast every morning. Out of office he resolved to get his poundage under control. He had also neglected his health. He revealed to his friends that he had not seen the dentist in 25 years. When he left the white house in march 1913, taft was something of a physical mess. He soon embarked on his first serious diet since he had tried unsuccessfully to lose weight before he became president. He needed to do it. His Blood Pressure was dangerously elevated. He cut back on his intake of meat. That was it for eating steak. As he told the correspondent, i have dropped potatoes, my bill of fare, and also bred in all d in all of its forms. Wise advice. Over the course of 1913, his weight steadily declined until by december you had lost nearly 70 pounds and weighted 271 pounds. Nelly was ambiguous about this because she had to buy him all new clothes. He combined the diet with exercise at a local health farm and play golf regularly. He never again gained weight throughout his judicial career and died weighing about 270. To earn money, taft, in addition to his yale salary of 5,000, which was big money in those days, taft became a lecturer, crisscrossing the country to give talks on constitutional and political topics. The Railroad Network in those days was very efficient. He could speak as far away as iowa one evening and get back the next day in time to meet his class the next day in new haven. To travel, he was a traveling president , and the routine of lecturing was both fulfilling and very lucrative for him in those years. Per in about 1500 to 2000 appearance, which in todays money would be about 40,000 dollars, so he was doing all right. Having lost all but two states in his reelection bid, taft knew that his life as a political candidate was over. Still, he hoped to play some part in guiding the destinies of the grand old party. He was especially intent on blocking any attempts of the friends of Theodore Roosevelt to take the republicans in a more progressive direction. Roosevelt, he vowed, must must not be the nominee in 1960. 1916. It was important to oust the hated democratic president Woodrow Wilson, and roosevelt might lose and they wanted to get somebody who would win. To give you a sense of how much they reviled wilson, he wrote, i never expected to hate anybody in politics with the hatred i feel towards Woodrow Wilson. Lodge was kind of a moderate. There were others who really despised wilson. Unlike roosevelt, who hated wilson, taft had an amicable Public Relations shift with the new president. In private, taft regarded his successor as deceitful and ambitious. Wilson had a habit of saying things that were technically true but when you looked at them more, they turned out to be false. Wilson called this grazing the truth. Only a republican president in 1917 could possibly fulfill tafts longheld desire to become chief. While he was cordial in public to wilson, taft wanted the president defeated. That posed a dilemma for taft, when war broke out in august 1914. The guns of august. At the time, the former president was at his summer home canada and inin the confusion of the outbreak of war, it took some time for taft to make his way home to new haven. There he found a letter from his old friend. I had begun to fear that you had been pressed into the canadian contingent for the war in europe, and i thought we would never see you again because if you got on the firing line, it would be impossible for the germans to miss you. [laughter] they wrote letters like that back and forth. Like most educated americans, taft found himself shaken with the outbreak of world war i. Taft naturally turned to what he he had shared the innocence thate world and felt humanity was becoming more peaceful and enlightened. The war changed all that and taft naturally turned to what he knew best to try to solve the problem of the war. He became much involved with an Organization Called the league to enforce peace. Composed mostly of conservative republicans and some democrats, the league wanted to create some mechanism, primarily legal, to prevent future conflicts. As long as Woodrow Wilson was president and in charge of american foreignpolicy, Foreign Policy came from the white house, and taft and the league had to get wilsons approval for any of their ideas. The problem the taft faced was that the closer he got to wilson, the more he alienated republicans. Yet when taft acted as a partisan republican, his influence passed away. As wilson was a very dogmatic man, somebody once said, there are two sides to every question. Wilson said, yes, the right side and the wrong side. Until the United States entered the war in april 1917, taft behaved like a partisan. He wrote articles opposing wilson for reelection in 1916, and there was a somewhat phony reconciliation with roosevelt on behalf of the republican candidate in 1916. Charles evans hughes. He lost a wilson and one of the most closely contested elections in our nations history. I will have a book coming out about the election next fall if youre planning your christmas list for next year. Taft to bitter blow to have to wait at least four years for a republican resident, by which time taft would be 64. As president he had established a rule that a judge had to be younger than the five 65. Bad for his looked chances of getting employment as chief justice. Taft and roosevelt achieved a public reconciliation in 1918, the year before roosevelt died. He was pleasant for taft even though roosevelt was still contentious of his old friend. Taft never discussed his side of break before he an died in 1930. Disappointment, taft hoped to have a role in making peace at the end of world war i but wilson had such a low opinion of taft there was no chance the president would ever give him a chance in the diplomacy that promoted the league of nations in 1919. Wilson rejected any idea of including taft as the american delegation in paris to hammer out what became the treaty of versailles and the league of nations. Wilson took only cronies with him in 1919. Wilson talked about having , but if youil disagreed with wilson you are out. 1919, taft sent wilson changes in the wording of the treaty of versailles that would meet potential public and objections. Includedsed alteration a time limit of 10 years for how long the league would exist and safeguard the monroe doctrine. Most important was taft seeking to water down article 10 of the treaty that bound future league to punish join down an aggressor whether Congress Approved and not. Wilson would not accept that the president cap the other changes made. However, these alterations did not placate wilsons enemies and they illustrated the limits of tafts political influence within his party. Muchlicans hated wilson so that they were determined to defeat the treaty of versailles at all cost. In 1916 and 1918, there is much that echoes contemporary attitudes toward the president. Taft could not be an honest broker between the two sides. Both taft and wilson advocated accepting the treaty of versailles without any of the amendments or reservations as they were known in 1919. The senate that not agree. Then taft decided a midsummer that the treaty could not be ratified without such changes. He wrote what he thought was a confidential letter to the chair of the Republican National committee. If you run a letter to washington marked confidential it will be in the newspapers the next day. Shift from his position soon became public news and created a political sensation. A former president was now breaking with president wilson. He calls what taft had done undercutting wilson in the white house and ended any influence he had with the president with the wilson administration. At the same time, the leap to as ace peace fell apart public leader undermined its position on the treaty. Taft was the scorned by both sides in the treaty and the senate and the treaty went down in defeat in november, 1919 and march 1920. And the great opportunity for the United States to go to the league of nations was loss. I am skeptical it wouldve prevented world war ii but wilson said if we fail we will break the heart of the world and there was some truth in what he said. When the president ial election of 1920, when the republicans gathered in the smokefilled room, and decided to nominate ohio senator warren g. Harding who opposed the treaty, it was said of ohio that it produced men who look at president s. Taft convinced himself that the republican nominee might succeed where wilson had failed. It was a false hope but taft did his best to elect harding who won in a landslide 61 . Wilson was rejected, repudiated, and complained of a lot by republican president s. Once said heelect was not a bad man, he was just a slob, that with taft at marion, ohio the day after christmas in 1920. In the conversation, harding said would you accept a position on the supreme bench . If you would, i would put you on that court. Taft observed that having appointed several sitting members of the court, six i think, he could only accept the post of chief justice but there was somebody already there. A democrat named Edward Douglas white that taft had appointed in 1910. Andes health was not good he told taft he would make way for a republican if there was a republican president. At the moment all taft had was hardings promise of a place should the position become vacant. The six months of followed were excruciating for taft. Chief justice Whites Health worsened and it indicated that taft would soon be named the replacement. Hardings attorney general who in the teapotjail no thatair, he let cap if he died either did put up. As the first half of 1921 past, taft could do nothing but watch, weight, and hope. He waxed philosophical to a friend. If the position which i would rather have than any other in the world does not come to me, i have no right to complain. For the lord has been good to me in every way and such Great Fortune as having been in my exalted position may be more than i deserve or at least more than my share. On may 19, 1921, chief Justice White died. Harding dithered. He told a reporter tell the big chief that i will put this over on the first of july. On junenominated taft 30, 1921. The administration hoped the nomination go through the Senate Without debate but it was not to be. There were no formal hearings on the nomination. The senateys, referred to what the president had done. Instead the senate that with the nomination in an executive session at the insistence of such progressive senators as robert mcculloch. He said in the senate, you are taking a man who has spent his life in politics and putting them at the head of the greatest judicial tribunal in the world. After the dissidents have had their say, the senate approved. Taft loved being chief justice. I 1925 he told friends he forgot he was president. The man and the job had found each other. Taft had come out of the presidency a rejected an repudiated figure in the political world. He did useful work in the years that followed but has succeeded at keeping his our options open. When a president came along and replace Woodrow Wilson, taft was right there for harding to pick. Tafts journey through the intricacies of american politics between 1930 in 1921 1913 and 1921, shows him to have been a more effective operator in the memory of his failed residency presidency. He also suggested as you go through the chiefs that theres more to know at ponder in the record of expresident s that historians and the general public sometimes relies. Think of how the postpresidency has restored jimmy carters reputation. Former president s are worthy of close attention for the way they manage their unique position in american life. In the case of taft, it was a wonderful years as he worked to achieve his lifes ambition. Thank you very much. [applause] susan g. Komen, he will take your questions. Ladies and gentlemen, he will take your questions. You speak of in serving on the Supreme Court, are you speaking of the people he put on the Supreme Court . Cap was one of those lucky president s who had a large number of Supreme Court appointments. White toEdward Douglas the chief justice position but he appointed five others. He got the court had deteriorated under roosevelt because of progressive appointments so he wanted to appoint conservatives so thats what he did. Mr. Taft reshaped the court and who was thereople for the court fight in the new deal, were appointed in 1911 under taft. Influence onge american constitutional law. There were several justices that roosevelt had appointed, one of whom was William H Moody who had rheumatism and had to retire. If he had stayed there and taft had not appointed his placement, the history of the court mightve been very different in 1920 into the 1930s. Health ands you how the constitution of the court can change. So taft was very proud. He said ive appointed you now, and you world in a conservative way. Thats why i put you there. A little more candid than modern president s. I understand that nelly was upset when he wanted to be a district judge. Was she happy that he finally became Supreme Court judge . Lewis gould the conventional wisdom is that nelly wanted to be first lady and that bill was a reluctant candidate. Assuming roosevelt wouldnt , what wereird term tafts options . He could go to the Supreme Court as an associate justice but that wasnt very socially acceptable. It was nice that it wasnt the position she thought she should have. To be president and i think he wanted to be president , it was the next space open. He clearly had a much more judicial temperament is political temperament. A progressive republican senator from iowa said taft is a large, amiable island surrounded by men who know exactly what they want. He wasnt successful as president but socially she found being the wife of chief justice quite acceptable. He didnt have to do that much entertaining as when first lady. Said president taft as president was undervalued, has been undervalued. Can you explain that c . Lewis gould cap president s, if you are defeated your bad. Youre a failure. Im not going to make the case for taft was a great president. That would be ridiculous. He got through some of the he got the tariff done. Achieved a trade agreement with canada that was rejected by the canadians is a contentious sometimes as you know. It was essentially a scandal free administration. The country was prosperous and contented. He had a creditable administration, i think he ranks about 21st. When i came time to do this book, i said he is only a president ial failure because he was defeated, he wasnt a failure because of what he did. People can agree or disagree. Thats what makes it so fascinating. Another question going on the sublime to the ridiculous. You mention he was the first to throw out the first pitch at a baseball season. There another baseball first he almost had. You talk about it in your book, before the black socks scandal. As they were trying to create a harry,baseball system, the owner of the red sox and some others got together and offered what would have been the position as the first commissioner of baseball. Can you talk about that . Lewis gould i didnt go much into it but there was no way to follow it up. In 1918. [laughter] taft would have been for the royals if he were here. League andmerican ,ational league got crossways they wanted to get a of baseball. What was pitched to taft is he would come in and solve a certain number of problems, but when they found out they wanted him to be commissioner of. Aseball fulltime, he said, no obviously, he could never become chief justice if that happened. He turned them down. Being commissioner of baseball being of course a higher calling than being chief justice . In your world, perhaps. [laughter] instead, we got the black socks, and all of that. Ultimately, marvin miller, and history unfolds. A good history of modern baseball would be a good thing. There is some good stuff in the papers about it. Well, thank you all very much. [applause] you are watching american. 48 hours of American History every weekend on cspan 3. Follow us on twitter for information on our schedule and to keep up with the latest history news. Emory University ProfessorsHank Klibanoff and brett gadseden talk about the intersection of politics and violence in the mid20th century georgia. They talk about a number of unsolved murders during the segregation era and the georgia civil rights cold cases project. This class is about 90 minutes. Im going to open up the georgia civil rights cold cases class by taking note of a particular milestone that occurs this week. Does anybody know who this is . This is emmett till. On this