Alphonso Taft (November 5, 1810 - May 21, 1891) was a lawyer, diplomat, politician, Attorney General, and Secretary of the United States War under President Ulysses S. Grant. He is also the founder of the American political dynasty, and the father of President and Supreme Court Justice William Howard Taft.
As Secretary of War, Taft reformed the War Department by allowing commanders in Indian strongholds to choose who could start and run post-trade. When he served as Attorney General, he firmly stated that African-Americans should not be denied the right to vote by intimidation and violence. Attorney General Taft worked together to draft the bill into Congress, signed into law by President Grant, who created the Election Commission that completed the controversial Hayes-Tilden election.
In 1882 Taft was appointed Austrian-Hungarian minister by Chester A. Arthur in 1882. He served until 4 July 1884, and was subsequently transferred by President Arthur to the Russian Minister at St. Petersburg. Petersburg and served until August 1885. Taft has a reputation as a political steward with integrity and character.
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Alphonso Taft was born in Townshend, Vermont, the only child of Peter Rawson Taft of the ruling Taft family and Sylvia Howard, on November 5, 1810. He was a descendant of Robert Taft who had migrated to America from England in 1640. His mother Sylvia was wrong a Scottish or Irish descendant. While the Taft family is substance and education, they are not considered rich. Taft attends local schools until the age of sixteen. He then taught the school to earn money to attend Amherst Academy. Taft entered Yale College in 1829 and graduated four years later in 1833. Taft helped create a secret society known as Skull and Bones in 1832 with William Huntington Russell.
After graduating, once again to earn money, Taft was an instructor in Ellington, Connecticut from 1835 to 1837. He then studied law at Yale Law School and was admitted to the Connecticut bar in 1838. When studying Taft's law held a coaching at Yale. Taft had no desire to remain in New England, and he declared to his father, Peter, in a letter written July 22, 1837 that Vermont was "a noble country to emigrate from." Taft does not want to practice law in New York because he believes people are under the influence of destructive prosperity. In 1839, Taft migrated to Cincinnati where he was a member of the Cincinnati City Council, and became one of Ohio's most influential citizens. He is a member of the supervisory board at the University of Cincinnati and Yale College.
Maps Alphonso Taft
Marriage, family, plantation
Alphonso Taft married twice. His first wife, Fanny (born March 8, 1823), whom he married in 1841 and with whom he had five children three of whom died in infancy) was the daughter of Judge Charles Phelps, from Townshend, Vermont:
- Charles Phelps Taft (December 21, 1843 - December 31, 1929).
- Peter Rawson Taft II (May 10, 1846 - June 3, 1889).
- Mary Taft (November 24, 1848 - November 29, 1848).
- Alphonso Taft (May 12, 1850 - March 2, 1851).
- Alphonso Taft (December 22, 1851 - June 22, 1852).
Fanny Phelps Taft died on June 2, 1852, just days before the death of his last child. On December 26, 1853, she remarried with Louisa Maria (nÃÆ' Â © e Torrey) (11 September 1827 - 8 December 1907), her fourth cousin twice moved, and daughter Samuel Davenport Torrey, from Millbury, Massachusetts. They also had five children, one of whom died in infancy:
- Samuel Davenport Taft (February 1855 - April 8, 1856).
- William Howard Taft (September 15, 1857 - March 8, 1930).
- Henry Waters Taft (May 27, 1859 - August 11, 1945).
- Horace Dutton Taft (December 28, 1861 - January 28, 1943).
- Frances Louise "Fanny" Taft (July 18, 1865 - January 4, 1950).
The Alphonso Taft plantation and his family, in Mount Auburn, a mile north of downtown Cincinnati, have been restored to their original appearance. It is open to the public and is now called William Howard Taft National Historic Site.
Cincinnati attorney and career
Alphonso Taft was a delegate to the Republican National Convention in 1856, and also that year made an unsuccessful run for the United States House of Representatives against George H. Pendleton. Taft had not served in the Union Army during the Civil War. He was a judge at the Cincinnati High Court from 1866 to 1872 when he resigned to practice law with his two sons. He was the first president of the Cincinnati Bar Association, serving in 1872.
In the case of the 1870 Education Council vs. Minor Education Court, Taft played a role in overturning a decision made by the Cincinnati High Court in 1869 concerning the reading of the Bible in public schools. Taft affirmed that the school board had violated their limits in their decision to continue reading the Bible in public schools. The Taft discourse made in the Ohio Supreme Court challenged the previous ruling, arguing that, according to the US Constitution, Protestants have no right to control religion within the scope of public education. In his talk, Taft specifically refers to Jewish groups opposed to Bible reading in public schools. As a taxpayer, Taft argues, Jews are also entitled to take advantage of public secular education. In addition, religion is a home issue and is protected by the Bill of Rights. To argue that the Bill of Rights only reflects the Protestant values ​​is inappropriate, according to Taft, since religious freedom is granted to all religious and Christian denominations "should not be considered sectarian under our constitution."
Many believed that Taft's opinion was the cause of much opposition, and contributed to the 1875 loss of a Republican nomination to the Governor of Ohio to Rutherford B. Hayes. However, the opinion that defeated his candidacy unanimously was affirmed by the Ohio Supreme Court. Taft's independence of opinion commanded widespread respect, a sentiment freely expressed when President Ulysses S. Grant in March 1876 made him Secretary of War and three months later the US Attorney General.
Taft was elected a member of the American Antiquarian Society in October 1876.
Secretary of War
When Grant President William W. Belknap's secretary resigned in 1876 for receiving profits from Indian Fort Sill merchants, Grant needed to find a replacement. Initially, Grant had Secretary George M. Robeson running the War Department and the Department of the Navy. Robeson, however, has told Grant that the two Cabinet positions are difficult to manage by one person. Grant then asked Taft to become Secretary of War. After consultation, Taft, who has a good reputation, accepted the position and was easily confirmed by the Senate without objection. Taft found that as Secretary of War he was very busy and was unable to attend a worship service in New York. The US military fought with the Great Sioux War when Taft became Secretary of War.
Taft made a series of reforms to the War department to restore the reputation and attachment caused by the embarrassing Belknap's resignation. Taft reversed the War Department policy by asking commanders at US military forts in the West to choose who would run trading posts. In addition, Taft ordered the Bureau chief and his Commander to lower their military expenses. The old way lets things run under Belknap and Robeson ends up under Taft and he is well received by the press.
AS. Attorney General
Grant pointed to Taft US Attorney General after he made a change of cabinet by appointing Minister Edwards Pierrepont to England. Taft was replaced by J. Donald Cameron as Secretary of War. In October 1876, after the highly contested Hayes-Tilden presidential election, Attorney General Taft supported military use by President Grant in South Carolina and Mississippi to suppress violence against African-Americans in the South. Taft gave a long speech in New York describing the atrocities committed by the South against blacks in the South. To prevent the US from the second civil war, Taft backed the bill, signed the law by Grant, who secured a peaceful election of 1876 with the Electoral Commission.
Offer for office
Taft was again a failing candidate for the Governor of Ohio in 1879, this time against Charles Foster.
AS. Minister
Taft was appointed by President Chester A. Arthur as US Minister for Austria-Hungary (1882-1884) and to Imperial Russia (1884-1885).
Family dynasty
Taft was the first in the political dynasty of the Taft family. His son, William Howard Taft, is the 27th President of the United States and the 10th Chief Judge of the United States, and is a member of Yale's Skull and Bones like his founding father; another son, Charles Phelps Taft, supported the establishment of Wolf's Head Society at Yale; his granddaughter and great-grandson, Robert A. Taft I (also Skull and Bones) and Robert Taft Jr., are US Senators; his grandson, Robert A. Taft II, was the Governor of Ohio from 1999 to 2007. William Howard Taft III was ambassador to Ireland; William Howard Taft IV worked in several Republican administrations, the last one from George W. Bush.
Alphonso Taft and his family were members of the First Unitarian Congregation Church in Cincinnati; he served as one of the guardians of the congregation for many years, and temporarily became chairman of the supervisory board. Although government business kept him away from the city and thus often away from the church in his final years, he remained in touch with the minister of the church on the occasion that he could return to Cincinnati. At the famous Taft 1848 family reunion at Elmshade, in Uxbridge, Mass., Alphonso delivered a fiery speech about the family history and origins of his father in this community, as recorded in his biography.
References
Source
Books
- Leonard, Lewis Alexander (1920). The Life of Alphonso Taft . New York: Hawke Publishing Company (Incorporated). Ã,
Biography dictionary
- Pringle, Henry F. (1936). Dumas Malone, ed. American Biography Taft Dictionary, Alphonso . New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. pp.Ã, 264-265.
Newspapers
- "The Rebel War Claim Speech Hon Alphonso Taft". The New York Times . October 26, 1876.
Further reading
- "Alphonso Taft". Secretary of War and Secretary of the Army . United States Army Military Historical Center. 1992. CMH Pub 70-12. Ã,
External links
- Works based on or about Alphonso Taft in the Internet Archive
- Ã, "Taft, Alphonso". Encyclopedia Americana . 1920.
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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