the spanish-american war, etc.. books onn he's written -- maybe the best book on the united states senate, may the best book on the presidency, on the republican party. he's written about various presidents taft, roosevelt, mckinley, etc. he's written the history of wyoming. he's written a history of first ladies. he's an extraordinary historian. from historical americans, blurbs on the modern american presidency. the freshest and most original study of the modern presidency, compelling analysis and critique of robert dolly, who's also been here in the library, where achievements and , strong andnthesis provocative, richard ellis. highly readable, refreshingly revisionist required readings, stephen gillen. as i introduce our friend, friend of the library, friend of mine, formerly professor at the university of texas, wonderful writer, i want to read what richard norton says about him. gould does not hesitate to offer sobering conclusions. will stayt lew gould sober tonight. ladies and gentlemen, lewis gould. mr. gould: thank you for that kind and generous introduction. it's always good to return to kansas city. as the late great jazz trombonist of the city was observed, kansas city, everybody gets some kind of bill that gets a tap from this town. thanks to the public library for inviting me back one more time. as your beloved royals seek to return and win the world series, it's appropriate to remember -- [applause] it's good to be shameless. the appropriate to remember president who initiated the tradition of throwing out the first ball on opening day was william howard taft on april 14, 1910. people know anything about william howard taft, they recall that he's the only person to have been both president of the united states and chief justice of the united states. he was president for a single 1913 andm 1909 to chief justice from 1921 to 1930. . when he had to resign because of the ill health that led to his death. the other thing everyone remembers about taft is that he was a large man, weighing 360 pounds by the end of his presidency. fat jokes proliferate. how he gave up his seat to three women on the trolley, or the response when he claimed himself a fit and feral man after a brisk horseback ride through the hills of the philippines. the secretary of war got the telegram and fired back, how is the horse? [laughter] for all of his weight, taft was and iight on his feet, would say he was the best dancer. you might say, what about teddy roosevelt? t.r., heaid about dances the way he hops. rarely does anyone ask the question, how does taft become president first and then chief justice and still be an obscure and almost forgotten figure? did not sit around waiting 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. these eight years in treat me, just how to taft recover from a disastrous presidency to be the logical choice for president warren g. harding? i researched a book called "chief executive to chief justice, taft betwixt the white house and the supreme court," which the university press of kansas brought out last fall. betwixt was the brainchild of the creative mind of the now retired, very distinguished director of the kansas city press, fred waters, and his choice made it easy to search for the book on google. believe that my book belongs in every household in america. unlike j.k. rowling, stephen king and john grisham, my book sales fall a ted short of that goal. you,e premise that some of very few may not have read the book yet, let me tell you what it says about taft, the presidency, and the fate of former presidents a century ago. situationll see, the the taft faces after he left office in march 1913 reveals a great deal about how the presidency has changed in the last century. since your theme is hail to the chief, there will be some insights here about how different the presidency was 1909 to 1913. i've written three books about the tafts, and volumes of letters to his wife helen, known as nelly, when he was president. be old saying is that historians read other people's mail for a living. it's true. we do it. been a great personal pleasure. he was a constant letter writer, dictating them to his secretary and having to write to his wife in longhand because she did not like the secretary to type letters. his letter still hundreds of pages in the library of congress. they are opinionated and fun to read because taft was one of the best haters i ever knew. as we learn about presidents at of the early 20th centuries, people talk about roosevelt and wilson and others, how different the presidency was then from now, how small the presidential office was in terms of people who work for the chief executives. taft, for example, had only one aide, his secretary. he went through three of them, one after the other. though there were messengers and clerks, they numbered fewer than 100 people. the white house is now in the tens of thousands. there was no bureaucracy in our sense of the word. house wasthe white accessible in ways that seem incredible in our modern age. if one had business with the president, you can simply walk up to the front door, state your business to the guards, and they would let you in if you were a senator or congressman and you could see the president if you have an appointment. no security checks, no background checks. you were an average american, and you had business with the president you were in. a journalist once told me that he was a younger porter, he had gotten into the white house and lost his way. theodore roosevelt came down the stairs and said, can i help you? and directed him to the press office on the second floor of the white house. keep in mind that the bureaucracy in the pictures, the movies that show this white house is heavily armed, were not true in 1913. to give you a sense, presidents still have annual receptions. the public could line up on new walk in and shake cans with the president and tell .im what you thought of him they thought of the president as the first citizen of the land, he was no different from other citizens as a human being. as president was not seen some exalted figure, but only that first citizen, no better than the average person in the legal sense. 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 presidential papers were much smaller, though they were large in number, then they are now. to give you kind of an example, theodore roosevelt's papers on microfilm, 485 reels. for taft there is 658. for fdr there were 20 tons of material. hady president since has more papers than all the previous presidents 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 they said, i guess they don't want to let me in their. taft was the designated political air of theodore roosevelt. he wouldption was carry on roosevelt's 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. 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. taft, the close friendship he had with roosevelt fell apart. roosevelt threw his hat into the ring and challenge taft with the gop presidential nomination. the race for the nomination became bitter and all traces of their former friendship were vanishing. said of his, taft former friend, i am a man of peace, and i don't want to fight. when i do fight, i want to hit hard. even a rat in a corner will fight. presidential rhetoric, 1912. roosevelt described his puzzleor as flabbing, a with, and a fat head. they did not give out each other's phone numbers in those days that they battled back and forth in the spring of 1912. subject to a taft recorder, roosevelt was my dearest friend. taft to fetid roosevelt at the republican national convention and roosevelt claiming that taft had stolen the prize from him, there was a dispute about the delegates. roosevelt created his own third-party, the bull moose was a progressive party. for those of you who like your politics with a side order of religion, roosevelt famously was going that she 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 presidents 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, presidents campaigned like mad. the the votes were counted, 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. vermont.utah and it was a crushing repudiation of an incumbent president. a century ago, inaugurations were held on march 4th. they were changed in the 1930's 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. on, 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 band's 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. political era, opponents then good still behave with a modicum of civility and good manners towards each other. i think we've 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. ow, to understand what taft faced in march of 1913, as i begin my book, as an ex-president, thinking about ex presidents, you have to put out of your mind all moderate assumptions about former presidents. men such as bill clinton and george w. bush have left office with pensions, staff, secret service protection, and magnificent presidential libraries like the harry truman library. historians, we need them. we live for them, we visit them and do research on them. they are an ornament in american civilization. before a day, president that has everything that makes him resemble the white house without the power, a veryse, but it's comfortable existence as bill clinton and george w. bush to testify. -- 1913,4, 19193, nothing like that existed for taft. oformer president on noon 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 and nono office, expectation he would ever have such things. aved $2000 a month from his $75,000 salary as president. but he did 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. 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 presidents. taft was on his own. taft had been a lawyer and federal judge before entering government service in 1900. 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 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? i welcome solution emerged even before he left the white house. he was offered a teaching position at yale, his alma professor of law. he would teach undergraduate courses in constitutional law while at the same time instructing the students in the dangers of theodore roosevelt's 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 the yell administration -- yale administration are disposed to let me do whatever i want as long as i except. 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 professor's life and i would not be satisfied to let anybody else do the work for me as some professors do. 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." directored lack of bearing, 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 eysssed, very tweedy yal achieved slab genus. -- slouchiness. compare thef you almost clothing optional approach of modern students. he almost that she also fretted when the yale was he knew consorted with the chorus girls who hung out at hotel have to -- htoel totel 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 taft's words young men of the college to dissipate. now, and we think about it, we need to keep in mind that the same boys 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. into new york to go to the theater and shop for a day. taft could mingle with the yale faculty. beloved gulf, as i've said. -- he loved golf, as i've said. 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 on losingthan you did the presidency. taft responded, well i do now. 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 work. he realize that he had really ballooned during his presidency. steak for2 ounce 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 the stake. as he told the correspondent, i have dropped potatoes, my bill of fare, and also bred in all its forms. wise advice. over the course of 1913, his weight steadily declined until by december you had lost nearly 70 pounds and wait 271 pounds. this was ambiguous about 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. in additiony, taft, to his yale salary of $5,000, 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. taft love to travel, he was a traveling president, and the routine of lecturing was both fulfilling and very lucrative for him in those years. he earned about 1500 $2000 in appearance, which in today's about 40,000e 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 should take the republicans in a more progressive direction. must --t, he vowed, must not be the nominee in 1960. 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 , iy reviled wilson, he wrote never expected to hate anybody in politics with the hatred i feel towards woodrow wilson. there were others who really despised wilson. roosevelt, who hated wilson, taft had an amicable public relations shift with the new president. 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 taft's long-held desire to become chief. while he was corneal in public to wilson, taft wanted the president defeated. that post a dilemma for taft, when war broke out in august 1914. at the time, the former president was at his summer home and in then canada, 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. 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 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 foreign foreign-policy, policy came from the white house, and taft and the league had to get wilson's approval for any of their ideas. wasproblem the taft faced that the closer he got to wilson, the more he alienated republicans. as ahen taft acted partisan republican, his influence passed away. a very dogmatic man, somebody once said, there are two sides to every question. wilson said, the right side on 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 roo hughes, a great chief justice spoke to wilson. i have a book coming out about the election. if you are planning your christmas list for next year. it was a bitter blow to tap. b 64. as president he established a rule that a judge has to be younger than 65. cap was running against his own self-imposed rule. the staffers chances of ever giving -- getting his covenant of ointments as chief justice. this pleasant for to have even though roosevelt was still quote friend. >> he never did discusses side of their celebrated rate in 1912 40 died in 1930. finally his disappointment that he president reelection, hopes to be making peace at the end of world war i. he had such a low opinion of his mind. wilson took only cronies to paris. wilson talked about having common count. of 1919 make changes in the wording of the treaty of versailles. proposed alterations included 10 years and language to safeguard the monroe.. important, half sets a limit infamous article 10 that found future league members to join together. whether congress approved or not. wilson sent back in the president got the other changes made. however these alterations did not -- they illustrated the limits of test. the republicans hated wilson so much that they were determined to defeat the treaty of versailles. there was much of 1916 and 19 that echoes contemporary anarchy towards the -- contemporary attitudes toward the president. wilson abdicated the treaty of versailles without amendment to reservation. the senate did not agree. taft decided midsummer of the treaty not be ratified without such changes. he wrote what he thought was a confidential letter to the chair of the republican national committee. andented letter to someone market confidential it will be in the newspapers the next day. washington said the ship of state the top. created the political sensation. because of what tactic done undercut the average any influence he had with the president's wilson administration. at the same time fully to enforce the spell are. both that they treaty besides the senate when the treaty went down. the great opportunity for the united take the league of nations. i'm somewhat skeptical it would've prevented world war ii. wilson said if he failed we will break the heart of the world. there is some truth in what you said. down -- treaty went when the presidential election night 20 when the republicans gathered in a smoke-filled room and decided to nominate ohio senator warren g. harding who tafte the treaty, that he mightelf succeed where wilson hailed. it was also. wilson was rejected repeatedly. the president said he was not a bad man. he was just a slob. in their conversation, harding and by the way want to ask you to do except the position? he did i will put you on the. test observed having appointed several sitting members can only said the chief justice of the united date. democrat named edward douglas white in the south. his health was not good and he told cap he would make way for a republican if there was a republican president. the moment all caps at was,. six months that followed were excruciating. chief justice wise help stories appear in the press. cap would soon be named to replace him area partings .ttorney general went to jail tab, capfriendly to will be named. is journalists and forms tab the first half of 1921 past, cap could do nothing but watch wait and hope. he waxed philosophical to rent. it's a position i would rather have than any other the world does not come to me i have no right to lane. the lord has been very good to me in every way and such great origin as having been -- is more than i deserve or at least more than my share. chief justice white died. theune 21, harding told order to the chief and benefit this over. nominated onuly june 30, 1921. the administration of denomination would go through. it was not to be. there were no formal hearings on taps nomination. in those days the senate conferred to what the president had done. instead the senate dealt with it at the insistence of senators. moreau, known in washington as aurora for a alice. issaid you're taking men who is is what politics and putting him at the head of the greatest judicial unit in the world. faster than dissidents have their say 66-or. 1925 the man in the job found each other. cap to come out of the president repudiatedected and figure. you don't use a worse in the eight years that hollowed that he had succeeded keeping it open the work of a republican president in his mind would replace woodrow wilson area he was right there for harding to pick. his journey through the intricacies of american politics between 1913 and 21 -- i think he has been in dust was a better president than giving it were. suggests that there is more to know in the records of ex-president than historians on the general public sometimes realize. think for example how the first president the destroy jimmy carter's reputation area angles attention to the way they manage their unique position in american life. cap worked to achieve his life and vision. thank you very much. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] >> you speak to the people he put on the supreme court #>> taft was one of the lucky president who had a large number of supreme court. deborah douglas white the chief justice ship. that she felt the court had deteriorated under roosevelt so he wanted to point conservatives. that's what he did. towards and some of were appointed in 1911 under tab. caps on a huge influence on american constitutional law. there were several justices roosevelt of wanted. head rheumatism and had to retire area have to not appointed his replacement. history of the court might've been very different tonight in 20 minutes of the 1930's area shows you how health the constitution of the court and change by these actions. cap was very proud. a little more candid than modern president. >> i understand nelly was very a set when he wanted the district judge. was she happy that he finally >> yes.r judge? the conventional wisdom is that nelly wanted to be the first lady in the know was a reluctant candidate. but if you look at the situation forwards options? he could go on the supreme court as an associate justice that was not very socially acceptable. it was nice but it was not the position she thought she should have. she wanted him to be president. he wanted to be president but it was the next available as open. a not have had much more of judicial temperament than political temperament. a progressive republican editor from iowa cap does a large amiable island surrounded by men who know exactly what they want. resident. successful socially she found being the wife of the chief justice unacceptable area you did not have to do as much entertaining as you do in your first lady. that's a presidents was undervalued. can you explain my little bit of humor >> in the conventional wisdom about presidents if you are defeated from reelection your bad. i'm not going to make the top the -- the patriot act was a great resident. got the tariff done. he broke the party are but he also achieved a trade agreement with canada that was rejected by the canadians who can be tempestuous sometimes as you now. he hadnted the judges essentially is in the administration. came -- the country was ross perot's. he had a credible administration. i think he writes about 21st which is about right. linking to do the book on his presidency i said he is only presidential failure because he was to needed. not because of what he did. people agree or disagree. that's what makes my book fascinating. >> another question. you mention the fact that he was the first test to draw the first pitch. as another baseball first he almost had. in your book i wonder consistently about it. -- the black socks angle scandal as they were trying rate of modern baseball system i some others got together and offered what ultimately would be in the position of first commissioner baseball. >> i did not go much into it. there was going to follow it up. , cap would've been for the royals. the american league in the national league. they wanted to get a mission or. what was it to taft is that he would dominance all the certain number of. when he found out they wanted him to be commissioner based off of time he said no because obviously not the chief justice of that happened. he turned them down. >> in commissioner has a higher calling that you just is. perhaps.r world instead we got kenesaw mountain land. good modern history of a old. else is thank you all very much?. >> every weekend on american history tv on c-span3 48 hours that tell our nations tory. rhodes the white house rewind. look back at the 1988: a campaign of george herbert walker bush. the 20 minute color film is a john f. kennedy's trip to texas in november of 1983. the minute i wear live of the radio program. historyty of virginia professor. and university of richmond resident emeritus the film birth of the nation and the ends. american history tv all weekend every week and. >> all weekend american history tv is featuring syracuse new york, home of the year a canal. posted by our time warner cable partne