1952 WIN WITH TAFT Presidential Campaign Pin ROBERT A. TAFT REPUBLICAN Lot 2
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1952 WIN WITH TAFT Presidential Campaign Pin ROBERT A. TAFT REPUBLICAN Lot 2:
$40.00
1952 WIN WITH TAFT Presidential Campaign Pin ROBERT A. TAFT REPUBLICAN Lot 2 each
Eldest Son of President William Howard Taft
Robert Alphonso Taft 1940, 1948 & 1952 presidential candidate ... tried without success .... died 1953.
Robert Alphonso Taft(September 8, 1889– July 31, 1953) was aconservativeAmerican politician, statesman, and presidential hopeful who served as aUnited States SenatorfromOhiofrom 1939 until his death in 1953. A member of theRepublicanTaft political family, he was the elder son ofWilliam Howard Taft(the27thPresident of the United Statesand10thChief Justice of the United States).
Taft was theSenate\'s main opponent ofFranklin Roosevelt\'sNew Dealdomestic policies.
After the president\'s death, Taft successfully led theconservative coalition\'s efforts to curb the power oflabor unions. Taft was a leading advocate ofnon-interventionismin foreign policy. He failed in his quests to win the Republican Party\'s presidential nomination in 1940, 1948, and 1952. Throughout that period he battled New York GovernorThomas E. Dewey(leader of the moderate \"Eastern Establishment\") for control of the party. Taft\'s biographer, James T. Patterson, portrayed Taft as honest, conscientious, courageous, dignified, and highly intelligent but also faulted Taft\'s competitiveness, lack of public-relations skills, and extreme partisanship.[1]A 1957 Senate committee named Taft as one of America\'s five greatest senators, along withHenry Clay,Daniel Webster,John C. Calhoun, andRobert M. La Follette, Sr.[2]
Taft was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, a product of one of America\'s most prominent political families. He was the grandson ofAttorney GeneralandSecretary of WarAlphonso Taft, and the son of President and Chief JusticeWilliam Howard TaftandHelen Louise \"Nellie\" Herron. His younger brother,Charles Phelps Taft II, served as theMayorofCincinnatiand was the unsuccessful Republican candidate for Ohio Governor in 1952. As a boy he spent four years in thePhilippines, where his father wasgovernor. He was first in his class at theTaft School(run by his uncle), atYale College(1910), and atHarvard Law School(1913). He was a member ofPsi Upsilon, his father\'s fraternity[3]andSkull and Bones,[4]and edited theHarvard Law Review. In 1913, Taft scored the highest in the state on the Ohio bar exam. He then practiced for four years with the firm of Maxwell and Ramsey (now Graydon Head & Ritchey LLP) inCincinnati, his family\'s ancestral city. After a two-year stint in Washington working for theFood and Drug Administration, he returned to Cincinnati and opened his own law office. In 1924 he and his brother, Charles, helped form the law partnershipTaft, Stettinius, and Hollisterwith which he continued to be associated until his death and continues to carry his name today.
On October 17, 1914, he married Martha Wheaton Bowers (1889–1958),[5]daughter ofLloyd Wheaton Bowersand Louisa Bennett Wilson. Taft himself appeared taciturn and coldly intellectual, characteristics that were offset by his gregarious wife, who served the same role his mother had for his father, as a confidante and powerful asset to her husband\'s political career. In May 1950, Martha suffered a severestrokethat left her an invalid, leaving her confined to a wheelchair, unable to take care of herself, and reliant upon her husband, children, and nurses for support.[6]A biographer called his wife\'s stroke \"the deepest personal blow of [Taft\'s] life...there was no denying that he suffered.\"[7]Following her stroke, Taft faithfully assisted his wife, called her every night when he was away on business, read stories to her at night when he was at home, \"pushed her about in her wheelchair, lifted her in and out of cars...tenderly did his best to make her feel comfortable and happy, and helped feed and take care of her at public functions\" - facts which, his admirers noted, belied his public image as a cold and uncaring person.[8]They had four sons:William Howard Taft III(1915–1991), who became ambassador to Ireland;Robert Alphonso Taft Jr.(1917–1993), who was also elected to the U.S. Senate; Lloyd Bowers Taft (1923–1985),[9]who worked as an investment banker in Cincinnati,[10]and Horace Dwight Taft (1925–1983), who became a professor of physics and dean at Yale.[11]Two of Robert and Martha\'s grandsons areRobert Alphonso \"Bob\" Taft III(born 1942),Governor of Ohiofrom 1999 to 2007, andWilliam Howard Taft IV(born 1945),Deputy Secretary of Defensefrom 1984 to 1989.
In 1917, Taft and his wife bought a 46-acre (190,000m2) farm inIndian Hill, a well-to-do suburb of Cincinnati. Called Sky Farm, it would serve as Taft\'s primary residence for the rest of his life. The Tafts gradually made extensive renovations that turned the small farmhouse into a sixteen-room mansion. On the farm Taft enjoyed growingstrawberries,asparagus, andpotatoesfor profit. During the summer, Taft often vacationed with his wife and children at the Taft family\'s summer home atMurray Bay, inQuebec,Canada.[12]Although he was nominally a member of theEpiscopalchurch, his biographer James Patterson noted that Taft\'s \"religious inclinations were weak\" and that he was a \"Sunday morning golfer, not a church-going Episcopalian.\"[13]When reporters asked his wife Martha what church he attended, she jokingly replied, \"I\'d have to say theBurning Tree\", an exclusive country club and golf course in suburban Washington.[14]
Early public career[edit]Official portrait of Senator Robert A. TaftPart ofa style=\"margin: 0px; padding: 0px; list-style-image: style=\"margin: 0px; display: inline;\">Vico- v
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When the United States enteredWorld War Iin April, 1917 Taft attempted to join the army but was rejected due to his poor eyesight. Instead, he joined the legal staff of theFood and Drug Administrationwhere he metHerbert Hoover, who became his idol. In 1918 and 1919, he was inParisas legal adviser for theAmerican Relief Administration, Hoover\'s agency to distribute food to wartorn Europe. He came to distrust governmental bureaucracy as inefficient and detrimental to the rights of the individual, a principle he promoted throughout his career. He urged membership in theLeague of Nations[15]but generally distrusted European politicians. He endorsed the idea of a powerful world court to enforce international law, but no such idealized court ever existed during his lifetime. He returned to Cincinnati in late 1919, promoted Hoover for president in 1920, and opened a law firm with his brother, Charles Taft. In 1920 he was elected to theOhio House of Representatives, where he served as Speaker of the House in 1926. In 1930, he was elected to theOhio Senate, but was defeated for re-election in 1932; it would be the only general election defeat of his career. He was an outspoken opponent of theKu Klux Klan, and he did not supportprohibition. In 1925 he voted against a bill, sponsored by Ohio state representatives who were members of the Ku Klux Klan, to outlaw dancing on Sundays, and he led the fight against a Klan-sponsored bill requiring all Ohio public school teachers to read at least ten verses of the Bible each day in class.[16]In his speech opposing the bill, Taft stated that religion should be taught in churches, not public schools, and while the Bible was great literature, \"in it religion overshadows all else.\" The bill passed the legislature over the opposition of Taft and his allies, but it was later vetoed by Ohio\'s governor.[16]
Taft\'s period of service in the Ohio state legislature was most notable for his efforts to reform and modernize the state\'s antiquated tax laws.[17]
Throughout the 1920s and 1930s, Taft was a powerful figure in local and state political and legal circles, and he was known as a loyal Republican who never threatened to bolt the party. He confessed in 1922 that \"while I have no difficulty talking, I don\'t know how to do any of the eloquence business which makes for enthusiasm or applause.\"[18]A lackluster speaker who did not mix well or glad-hand supporters, Taft was still a tireless worker with a broad range of policy and political interests. His total grasp of the complex details of every issue impressed reporters and politicians. (Democrats joked, \"Taft has the best mind in Washington, until he makes it up.\")
Taft\'s loyalty to the conservative politicians who controlled Ohio\'s Republican Party had a price, as it often caused conflict with his younger brother, Charles, who as a local politician in Cincinnati had gained a reputation as a partymaverickand liberal. However, despite their occasional policy disagreements, Charles loyally supported all three of his brother\'s presidential offers.
US Senator[edit]Taft was elected to the first of his three terms as US Senator in1938. He first defeated Ohio Supreme Court justiceArthur H. Dayin the Republican primary, and then defeated the Democratic incumbent,Robert Bulkley, in the general election.[19]Taft engaged Bulkley in several debates and was generally regarded as the winner.[20]He struggled in the earlier debates but later came out on top through assistance from his wife, Martha,[20]who would be regarded as the most valuable asset in his campaign.[21]As a result, Taft gained the upper hand against Bulkley, who had earlier been regarded as the frontrunner in the race,[20]and won the election by nearly 171,000 votes, or 53.6% of the total vote.[22]
Opposition to New Deal[edit]Co-operating withConservative Democrats, he led theConservative Coalitionthat opposed theNew Deal. The Republican gains in the 1938 elections, combined with the creation of the Conservative Coalition, had stopped the expansion of the New Deal. However, Taft saw his mission as not only stopping the growth of the New Deal but also eliminating many of its government programs.
During his first term in the Senate, Taft criticized what he believed was the inefficiency and waste of many New Deal programs and of the need to let private enterprise and businesses restore the nation\'s economy instead of relying upon government programs to end theGreat Depression. He condemned the New Deal as socialist and attacked deficit spending, high farm subsidies, governmental bureaucracy, the National Labor Relations Board, and nationalized health insurance. However, he did not always follow conservative ideology; for instance, after investigating the lack of adequate housing in the nation, he supportedpublic housingprograms.[23]He also supported federal aid to the states to fund public schools.[24]
Taft set forward a conservative domestic program that promoted limited government spending, a balanced federal budget, low taxes, pro-business policies to spur economic growth, a limited number of social welfare programs (such asSocial Security, a minimum wage, public housing and federal aid to public education), and an adequate national defense focused on strengthening theNavyandAir Force.[25]In foreign policy, he advocated noninvolvement in European wars and military alliances.[26]He also strongly opposed the militarydrafton the principle that it limited a young man\'s freedom of choice.[27]Various historians have described Taft, in terms of political philosophy, as alibertarian; he opposed nearly all forms of governmental interference in both the national economy and in the private lives of citizens.[28]
Opposition to World War II[edit]Taft\'s greatest prominence during his first term came not from his fight against the New Deal but rather from his vigorous opposition to US involvement in theSecond World War. A staunchnon-interventionist, Taft believed that America should avoid any involvement in European or Asian wars and concentrate instead on solving its domestic problems. He believed that a strong military, combined with the natural geographic protection of theAtlanticandPacificOceans, would be adequate to protect America even if Germany overran all of Europe. Between the outbreak of war in September, 1939 and the Japaneseattack on Pearl Harborin December 1941 Taft opposed nearly all attempts to aid countries fighting Germany. That brought him strong criticism from many liberal Republicans, such asWendell WillkieandThomas E. Dewey, who felt that America could best protect itself by supporting the British and their allies. Although Taft fully supported the American war effort after Pearl Harbor, he continued to harbor a deep suspicion of American involvement in postwar military alliances, includingNorth Atlantic Treaty Organization. Taft was the representative to speak in opposition toJapanese-American internment.[29]
1944 re-election[edit]In1944Taft was nearly defeated in his offer for a second term in the Senate. His Democratic opponent,William G. Pickrel, received major support from Ohio\'slabor unionsandinternationalists, and lost by fewer than 18,000 votes out of nearly three million cast, or a margin of less than one percent.[30]Taft lost Cleveland, the state\'s largest city, by 96,000 votes, and he trailed in most of Ohio\'s largest urban areas, but he ran strong in the state\'s rural regions and small towns, carried 71 of Ohio\'s 88 counties, and so avoided defeat.[30]His near-defeat in 1944 \"was ever to confound Taft\'s insistence that he was a potent vote getter\", and played a role in his failure to win the Republican presidential nomination in 1948.[31]Following his re-election, Taft became chairman of theSenate Republican Conferencein 1944.
Condemnation of Nuremberg Trials[edit]Taft condemned the postwarNuremberg Trialsasvictor\'s justiceunderex post facto laws, in which the people who won the war were the prosecutors, the judges, and the alleged victims, all at the same time. Taft condemned the trials as a violation of the most basic principles of American justice and internationally accepted standards in favor of a politicized version of justice in which court proceedings became an excuse for vengeance against the defeated.[32]
I question whether the hanging of those, who, however despicable, were the leaders of the German people, will ever discourage the making of aggressive war, for no one makes aggressive war unless he expects to win. 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.[33]
His opposition to the trials was strongly criticized by Republicans and Democrats alike, and it is sometimes given as the main reason for his failure to secure the Republican nomination for president. Other observers, such as SenatorJohn F. Kennedy(inProfiles in Courage), applauded Taft\'s principled stand even in the face of great bipartisan criticism.
1947 Taft–Hartley Labor Act[edit]When the Republicans took control of Congress in 1947, he focused on labor-management relations as Chair of the Senate Labor Committee. Decrying the effect of theWagner Actin tilting the balance toward labor unions, he wrote the 1947Taft–Hartley Act, which remains the basic labor law. It bans \"unfair\" union practices, outlawsclosed shops, and authorizes the President to seek federal court injunctions to impose an 80-day cooling-off period if a strike threatened the national interest. Taft displayed all of his parliamentary skills in getting the bill through Congress. When PresidentHarry Trumanvetoed it, Taft then convinced both houses of Congress to override the veto.
Second term[edit]From 1947 to 1949, when the Republicans controlled the Senate, Taft was his party\'s leading voice indomestic policy. He was reluctant to support farm subsidies, a position that hurt the party inrural areas(especially in theMidwest) in the 1948 elections. Taft engineered the passage of theHousing Act of 1949, which fundedslum clearanceand the construction of 810,000 units of low-income housing over a period of six years. It was one of the fewFair Dealproposals of Truman that he liked.[34]
In foreign policy, he was non-interventionist and did not see Stalin\'sSoviet Unionas a major threat. However, he calledDavid Lilienthal\"soft on the subject of Communism.\"[35]The true danger, he believed, was big government and runaway spending. He supported theTruman Doctrineand reluctantly approved theMarshall Planbut opposedNATO, as unnecessary and provocative to the Soviets. He took the lead among Republicans in condemning Truman\'s handling of theKorean Warand questioning theconstitutionalityof the war itself:: \"My conclusion, therefore, is that in the case of Korea, where a war was already under way, we had no right to send troops to a nation, with whom we had no treaty, to defend it against attack by another nation, no matter how unprincipled that aggression might be, unless the whole matter was submitted to Congress and adeclaration of waror some other direct authority obtained.\"[36]
Taft was a supporter of the new state of Israel, called for an end to the arms embargo to the Middle East, and supported arms shipments and other military aid to the new country.[37]
1950 re-election[edit]In1950, Taft ran a more effective campaign for re-election to the Senate. Wooing factory workers, he visited 334 industrial plants and gave 873 speeches.[38]He won a third term by 431,184 votes, the second largest victory margin in Ohio Senate election history until then.[39]He benefited from a weak Democratic opponent– one observer reportedly said of \"Jumping Joe\" Ferguson, theState Auditor, \"If the Democrats want to win, they should send Ferguson on a mission abroad,\" but more importantly, Ohio\'s unions failed to use theTaft-Hartley Act of 1947, which they denounced as a \"slave labor law,\" against him. Additionally, Democratic GovernorFrank Lauschedid not endorse Ferguson and, according to journalist Sidney Lubell, almost openly supported Taft. In a post-election survey of voters, Lubell found that the overly aggressive, labor-backed anti-Taft campaign angered some Democrats.
Even many union members reportedly voted Republican to express their opposition to local union leaders, to support Taft-Hartley\'s ban on the closed shop, or to prevent, as one told Lubell, \"the Socialists from taking over the Democratic party.\"[40]
By the start of his third Senate term, Taft had been given the nickname \"Mr. Republican.\"[36]He was the chief congressional ideologue and spokesman for theconservatismof the Republican Party and the acknowledged national leader of its conservative faction.[41]
Presidential ambitions[edit]Distrust by Old Right[edit]Further information:Old Right (United States)While outsiders thought Taft was the epitome of conservative Republicanism, inside the party, he was repeatedly criticized by hardliners alarmed by his sponsorship ofNew Deal-like programs, especially federal housing for the poor. The real estate lobby was especially fearful about public housing. SenatorKenneth S. Wherrydiscerned a \"touch of socialism\" in Taft, and his Ohio colleague, SenatorJohn Bricker, speculated that perhaps the \"socialists have gotten to Bob Taft.\" The distrust on the right hurt Taft\'s 1948 presidential ambitions.[42]
1940 and 1944[edit]Taft first sought the Republican presidential nomination in1940but lost toWendell Willkie. Taft was regarded as a strong contender, but his outspoken support of a non-interventionist foreign policy, and his opposition to theNew Dealin domestic policy led many liberal Republicans to reject his candidacy. At the 1940 Republican Convention, Willkie, once a Democrat, and a corporate executive who had never run for political office, came from behind to beat Taft and several other candidates for the nomination. That year, Taft first clashed withThomas E. Dewey, then a New YorkDistrict Attorney, who had become nationally famous for successfully prosecuting several prominent organized-crime figures, especially New York mob boss\"Lucky\" Luciano. Taft felt that Dewey was not conservative or consistent enough in his principles for the Republican Party: \"Tom Dewey has no real courage to stand up against the crowd that wants to smear any Republican who takes a forthright position against the New Deal... there is only one way to beat the New Deal, and that is head on. You can\'t outdeal them.\"[43]In other letters, Taft described Dewey as \"very arrogant and bossy\" and worried that \"advisers will talk Dewey into too much internationalism...he comes from New York and sees the group opinions there as a lot more important than they are.\"[44]
In the 1944 presidential campaign Taft was not a candidate. He supported GovernorJohn W. Brickerof Ohio, a fellow conservative, for the nomination. However, Bricker was defeated by Dewey, who had become the Governor of New York in 1943. Dewey named Bricker as his running mate; the ticket would go on to lose to Roosevelt in the general election.
1948 and 1952[edit]In1948, Taft made a second try for the nomination but again was defeated by his archrival, Dewey, who led the GOP\'s moderate/liberal wing. In the1948 presidential election, Dewey was defeated by the Democratic presidential candidate,Harry S. Truman.
Taft sought to reach out to southern Democratic voters in his1952campaign. It was his third and final try for the nomination; it also proved to be his strongest effort. At the Republican State Convention inLittle Rock, he declared:
I believe a Republican could carry a number of southern states if he conducts the right kind of campaign.... Whether we win or lose in the South, we cannot afford to ignore public opinion in the southern states, because it influences national public opinion, and that opinion finally decides the election.... It is said that southern Democrats will not vote for a Republican candidate. They have frequently done so. They did so in Little Rock last November [1951] when they electedPratt Remmelmayor. I refuse to admit that if the issues are clearly presented, the southern voters will not vote on the basis of principle....[45]
Taft had the solid backing of the party\'s conservative wing. Former US RepresentativeHoward BuffettofNebraska(father of billionaireWarren Buffett) served as one of his campaign managers.[46]With Dewey no longer an active candidate, many politicalpunditsregarded Taft as the frontrunner. However, the race changed when Dewey and other moderates were able to convinceDwight D. Eisenhower, the most popular general ofWorld War II, to run for the nomination. Eisenhower ran because of his fear that Taft\'s non-interventionist views in foreign policy, especially his opposition toNATO, might benefit theSoviet Unionin theCold War.[47]
The fight between Taft and Eisenhower for the nomination was one of the closest and most bitter in American political history. When the Republican Convention opened in Chicago in July 1952, Taft and Eisenhower were neck-and-neck in delegate votes. On the convention\'s first day, Eisenhower\'s managers complained that Taft\'s forces had unfairly denied Eisenhower supporters delegate slots in several Southern states, including Texas, where the state chairman,Orville Bullington, was committed to Taft. The Eisenhower partisans proposed to remove pro-Taft delegates in these states and replace them with pro-Eisenhower delegates; they called their proposal \"Fair Play.\" Although Taft angrily denied having stolen any delegate votes, the convention voted to support Fair Play 658 to 548, and the Texans voted 33–5 for Eisenhower as a result. In addition, several uncommitted state delegations, such as Michigan and Pennsylvania, agreed to support Eisenhower.
The addition of the uncommitted state delegations, combined with Taft\'s loss of many Southern delegates by the Fair Play proposal, decided the nomination in Eisenhower\'s favor. Despite his bitterness at his narrow defeat and his belief that he had been unfairly ambushed by the Eisenhower forces (including Dewey), Taft issued a brief statement after the convention conveying his congratulations and support to Eisenhower. Thereafter, however, he brooded in silence at his summer home in Quebec, complaining, \"Every Republican candidate for President since 1936 has been nominated by theChase National Bank.\"[48]As the weeks passed, Eisenhower\'s aides worried that Taft and his supporters would sit on their hands during the campaign and that as a result Eisenhower might lose the election. In September 1952, Taft finally agreed to meet with Eisenhower, atMorningside Heightsin New York City. There, to gain Taft\'s support, Eisenhower promised that he would take no reprisals against Taft partisans, would cut federal spending, and would fight \"creeping socialism in every domestic field.\" In fact, Eisenhower and Taft agreed on most domestic issues; their disagreements were primarily in foreign policy.
Eisenhower firmly believed inNATOand was committed to the US support of anticommunism in theCold War.
Senate Majority Leader[edit]Following Eisenhower\'s election and the Republican takeover of Congress, Taft served asSenate Majority Leaderin 1953, and he strongly supported Eisenhower\'s domestic proposals. He worked hard to assist the inexperienced new officials of the administration. He even tried, with little success, to curb the excesses ofred-baitingUS SenatorJoseph McCarthy. By April, Eisenhower and Taft were friends and golfing companions, and Taft was praising his former adversary. Defeat in 1952, it seemed, had softened Taft. No longer burdened by presidential ambitions, he had become less partisan, less abrasive, and more conciliatory; he was now widely regarded as the most powerful man in Congress.
On May 26, 1953, Taft delivered his final speech, in which he presciently warned of the dangers of America\'s emergingCold Warforeign policy, specifically against US military involvement inSoutheast Asia, which would later become theVietnam War:
“I have never felt that we should send American soldiers to the Continent ofAsia, which, of course, includedChinaproper andIndo-China, simply because we are so outnumbered in fighting a land war on the Continent of Asia that it would bring about complete exhaustion even if we were able to win.... So today, as since 1947 in Europe and 1950 in Asia, we are really trying to arm the world againstCommunist Russia, or at least furnish all the assistance which can be of use to them in opposingCommunism.Is this policy of uniting the free world against Communism in time of peace going to be a practical long-term policy? I have always been a skeptic on the subject of the military practicability of NATO.... I have always felt that we should not attempt to fight Russia on the ground on the Continent of Europe any more than we should attempt to fight China on the Continent of Asia.[49]
”Death and legacy[edit]In early 1953, Taft began to feel pain in his hips, and after a painful golf outing with President Eisenhower in April 1953 he enteredWalter Reed Hospitalfor initial tests which led doctors to suspect a tumor or arthritis.[50]On May 26 he entered Holmes Hospital in Cincinnati for more extensive tests.[51]The doctors there discovered nodules on his forehead and abdomen, and after doing biopsies of samples of the nodules, found that they were malignant.[52]On June 7, he enteredNew York Hospitalfor more tests and treatment; to keep the news that he might have cancer a secret he registered under the assumed name \"Howard Roberts, Jr.\".[53]His doctors there agreed with the diagnosis of cancer, but disagreed as to the source of the primary tumor and method of treatment. Some of his doctors advocated exploratory surgery to keep the malignancy from spreading, while other doctors thought the tumors had spread too far, were inoperable, and recommended x-ray therapy to keep him comfortable.[54]After his death, an autopsy determined that Taft had been stricken withpancreatic cancer, which had quickly reachedmetastasisand spread throughout his body.[55]On June 10, 1953, Taft transferred his duties as Senate Majority Leader to SenatorWilliam F. Knowlandof California. He did not resign his Senate seat and told reporters that he expected to recover and return to work.[56]However, his condition rapidly worsened, and Taft returned to New York Hospital for surgery on July 4 during a Senate recess. The surgery \"did not take long, for the doctors quickly discovered cancer everywhere...there was no longer any doubt\" that his condition was terminal.[57]He died at New York Hospital on July 31, following a final brain hemorrhage just hours after his wife\'s final visit.[55][58]His body lay in state in theRotunda of the United States Capitol, where thousands of mourners offered their respects at his coffin.[59]On August 3, 1953, a memorial service was held in the rotunda; in addition to his family the service was attended by Eisenhower, Vice-PresidentNixon, the cabinet, members of the Supreme Court, and Taft\'s congressional colleagues. Following the service his body was flown toCincinnati, where he was buried in a private ceremony at Indian Hill Episcopal Church Cemetery.[59]
In 1957, a committee led by SenatorJohn F. Kennedyselected Taft as one of five great senators whose portraits would adorn the President\'s Room off the Senate floor. Kennedy would feature him inProfiles in Courage, and Taft continues to be regarded by historians as one of the most powerful senators of the 20th century.[60]
Statue at theRobert A. Taft Memorial and CarillonMemorial[edit]Main article:Robert A. Taft MemorialThe Robert A. Taft Memorial, featuring a 10-foot (3.0m) statue by the sculptorWheeler Williamsand a bell tower, is located north of the Capitol on Constitution Avenue. The inscription on the tower face behind him reads:
\"This Memorial to Robert A. Taft, presented by the people to the Congress of the United States, stands as a tribute to the honesty, indomitable courage, and high principles of free government symbolized by his life.\"[61]
In popular culture[edit]Taft is mentioned in the 2015 novelThe Madagaskar Plan, analternative historyin which the United States remainsisolationistallowingNazi Germanyto conquer Europe andAfrica. In the novel Taft wins the1952 Presidential Election. Without a European war,Dwight Eisenhowerdoes not become a revered general and thus is not there to defeat Taft for nomination.[62]
Electoral history[edit]Main article:Electoral history of Robert TaftSee also[edit]- List of United States Congress members who died in office (1950–99)
Robert A. TaftSenate Majority LeaderIn office
January 3, 1953– July 31, 1953WhipLeverett SaltonstallPreceded byErnest McFarlandSucceeded byWilliam F. KnowlandSenate Republican Policy Committee ChairmanIn office
January 3, 1947– January 3, 1953Preceded byNew PositionSucceeded byWilliam F. KnowlandUnited States Senator
fromOhioIn office
January 3, 1939– July 31, 1953Preceded byRobert J. BulkleySucceeded byThomas A. BurkeMember of theOhio SenateIn office
1931–1933Member of theOhio House of RepresentativesIn office
1921–1931Personal detailsBornRobert Alphonso Taft
September 8, 1889
Cincinnati,OhioDiedJuly 31, 1953(aged63)
New York City,New YorkNationalityAmericanPolitical partyRepublicanSpouse(s)Martha Wheaton Bowers materYale College
Harvard Law SchoolSignature
1952 WIN WITH TAFT Presidential Campaign Pin ROBERT A. TAFT REPUBLICAN Lot 2:
$40.00