History Archives - Page 9 of 32

William Howard Taft: From the White House to the High Court

A visit to the childhood home of William Howard Taft (former U.S. President and U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice) near Cincinnati, Ohio.

On February 3, 1930, William Howard Taft stepped down from his position as Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court. The resignation ended what was an impressive run in public service, as Taft is the only person to serve as both head of the Executive branch of government as President (1909-1913) and as head of the Judicial branch, as Chief Justice (1920-1930). By most accounts, he enjoyed his time as a Justice more than he did his time as President.

As president, Taft faced the problem of succeeding the popular Theodore Roosevelt, who initially supported Taft as his successor. But eventually, Roosevelt would challenge Taft when Taft ran for reelection in 1912, splitting the vote and giving the victory to Woodrow Wilson.

I recently visited Taft’s childhood home at the William Howard Taft National Historical Site near Cincinnati, Ohio. Taft came from a relatively powerful family, and the house showed that the family did well for themselves, even if they were not extremely rich.

The home is worth visiting. The tour of the house takes around 30 minutes, and there is a film about Taft’s life. The National Park Service and the people who worked on the house to restore it to its current state did a great job. At one point, the building had been converted into apartments, but now it is easy to imagine the Tafts living there. For example, in addition to the historic furniture, many rooms have the same carpet and wallpaper designs as when the Tafts lived there.

In contrast to presidential homes like those of Abraham Lincoln or of Franklin D. Roosevelt, there is no aura of awe and wonder. But a visit is a nice modest introduction to Taft’s political and public service career.

When Taft resigned from the Supreme Court in February 1930, he had been facing medical issues for some time. He had several heart attacks in 1924 and he had memory problems in the years after that. At the beginning of 1930, he experienced hallucinations, and after his retirement was often semi-conscious. He died on March 8, 1930, only about a month after his retirement from the Supreme Court.

Photos of Taft home by Chimesfreedom. Leave your two cents in the comments.

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Martin Luther King Jr.: “The Other America”

On April 14, 1967, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. gave a speech at Stanford University. During this time, which was about one year before King’s death, Dr. King’s movement addressed a range of issues, including race, Vietnam, poverty, and economic justice. This speech at Stanford would become known as “The Other America” speech, and King would continue to give various speeches on the theme for the next year.

In the speech, King explained: “But tragically and unfortunately, there is another America. This other America has a daily ugliness about it that constantly transforms the ebulliency of hope into the fatigue of despair. In this America millions of work-starved men walk the streets daily in search for jobs that do not exist. In this America millions of people find themselves living in rat-infested, vermin-filled slums. In this America people are poor by the millions. They find themselves perishing on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity.”

Yet, near the end of the speech, King still spoke of hope. “We shall overcome because the arc of the moral universe is long but it bends toward Justice. We shall overcome because Carlyle is right, “No lie can live forever.” We shall overcome because William Cullen Bryant is right, “Truth crushed to earth will rise again.” We shall overcome because James Russell Lowell is right, “Truth forever on the scaffold, Wrong forever on the throne — Yet that scaffold sways the future.” With this faith, we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope.”

A transcript of this speech is available here.

Leave your two cents in the comments.

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Franklin D. Roosevelt and “the Four Freedoms”

On January 6, 1941, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt addressed the U.S. Congress in a State of the Union address, asking for support to help European nations struggling against Adolf Hitler’s government in Germany. At the time, the U.S. was still about a year away from declaring war. As part of his speech, Roosevelt stated that the U.S. had an obligation to protect universal freedoms, and he listed “four freedoms” that United States citizens shared with people of the world.

The four freedoms he listed were: the freedom of speech and expression, a person’s freedom to worship God in the way of one’s choice, the freedom from want, and freedom from fear. In the recording below, Roosevelt gives the speech that references these four freedoms.

Roosevelt’s speech inspired painter Norman Rockwell to do a series of paintings depicting the four freedoms. And, after World War II and after Roosevelt died, his widow Eleanor Roosevelt invoked these four freedoms as she pushed for the passage of the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

United Nations “Four Freedoms” flag via public domain. Leave your two cents in the comments.

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The Cowboy Philosopher Will Rogers

On November 4, 1879, William Penn Adair Rogers was born on a ranch in Cherokee Indian territory. His birthplace was near what is now Oologah, Oklahoma. The family called the young boy by the name “Will,” and he would grow up to be beloved by the country as Will Rogers.

In 1898, the young man left home to work as a cowboy, and in 1902 began his show business career when he joined Texas Jack‘s Wild West show as a trick roper and rider. Before long, Rogers realized that audiences loved his humor and cowboy philosophy, eventually becoming a national celebrity through movie roles, magazine and newspaper articles, and in-person and radio appearances.

Bacon, Beans, and Limousines

Rogers’s honest humor struck a chord with America as it went into the Great Depression. In 1931, President Herbert Hoover’s Organization on Unemployment Relief asked him to address the nation. Rogers delivered what became known as his “Bacon, Beans, and Limousines” speech, where he addressed unemployment and the causes of the Depression.

Check out this video of the October 18, 1931 speech from the Will Rogers Memorial Museums.

Death

Will Rogers, however, did not get to see the end of the Depression, as he passed away on August 15, 1935. Rogers was an advocate for the early aviation industry, and he died in a plane crash while traveling in Alaska with renowned aviator Wiley Post. Many mourned the passing of one of the most beloved Americans whose life overlapped with another rising Oklahoma philosopher, Woody Guthrie (1912-1967).

TV and Film

The weekly television show Man of the Year paid tribute to Will Rogers when it looked back on the year 1935. The interesting episode featured a lot of video footage of Rogers. The show covereed the life of Will Rogers, and he host introduced humorists Steve Allen and Fred Allen to discuss the importance of the cowboy philosopher. [2024 Update: Unfortunately, this video is no longer available.]

Several actors have portrayed Rogers in movies, including Keith Carradine (who also played Woody Guthrie in a film). I recall first learning about Will Rogers from the 1952 film called The Story of Will Rogers, where Will Rogers, Jr. portrayed his father.

Many today may not know much about Will Rogers, but he was significantly influential in his time and worth remembering on this anniversary of his birth.

Public domain photo via Library of Congress. What is your favorite Will Rogers story? Leave your two cents in the comments.

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Harry Shearer’s New Series on Richard Nixon

Actor Harry Shearer, famous for his work in This Is Spinal Tap, Saturday Night Live, and The Simpsons, is tackling a new character with his YouTube mini-series, former president Richard M. Nixon. In the new series, entitled Nixon’s the One, Shearer portrays Nixon by following transcripts of actual audio recordings of Nixon. The results are both illuminating and funny.

Shearer and Nixon scholar and author Stanley Kutler listened to Nixon recordings to find segments that reveal Nixon’s everyday life. Shearer explained to CBS that he always felt that portrayals of Nixon missed something about the man. Shearer sees him as “this strange, self-torturing, self-destroying guy who was, in my point of view, darkly comic.” These new episodes attempt to capture that tragic and comic part of Nixon.

This segment of Nixon’s the One gives a hidden-camera view of Nixon talking to Henry Kissinger about John F. Kennedy.

One episode captures Nixon’s conversations as he prepares to give his speech to the nation announcing his resignation. As Nixon engages the reporters in small talk as he prepares to resign, the result is funny but also heartbreaking. Certainly, it captures the loneliness of Nixon at that moment. .

It should not be too surprising that the man who does the voice of Mr. Burns would help us see another side of President Nixon. Check out other segments of Nixon’s the One on YouTube. If you want to compare the resignation video to the real thing, see below.