The spanishamerican war, etc. Books onn hes written maybe the best book on the United States senate, may the best book on the presidency, on the republican party. Hes written about various president s taft, roosevelt, mckinley, etc. Hes written the history of wyoming. Hes written a history of first ladies. Hes 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, whos 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. Its 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, its appropriate to remember [applause] its 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 hes 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 president s 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. Ive 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 peoples mail for a living. Its 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 president s 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 president ial 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, president s 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 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. Hady president since has 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 they said, i guess they dont want to let me in their. Taft was the designated political air of Theodore Roosevelt. He wouldption was 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. 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 president ial 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 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 puzzleor as flabbing, a with, and a fat head. They did not give out each others 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 thirdparty, 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 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. 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 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. 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 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. Political era, 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. Ow, 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. 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. 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 its 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 president s. 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 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 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 professors 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 tafts 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 ive said. He loved golf, as ive 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 todays 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 real