Alphonso Taft

Alphonso Taft ( born November 5, 1810 in Townshend, Windham County, Vermont, † May 21, 1891 in San Diego, California ) was an American politician ( Republican) and founder of a political dynasty in the United States. He was a member of the Cabinet of President Ulysses S. Grant as the Department of Justice and Minister of War.

Taft graduated from Yale University, where he was also a tutor, successfully in 1833 from. In 1832 he founded with his college friend William Huntington Russell which still exists today fraternity Skull and Bones at this university. He then studied law at the Yale Law School, was admitted to the bar in Connecticut in 1838 and moved in 1839 to Cincinnati, where he was a member of the City Council and became one of the most influential citizens of Ohio. He was a member of the trust companies of the University of Cincinnati and Yale College.

In 1856 he made ​​a failed attempt to be elected to the U.S. House of Representatives. Between 1866 and 1872 he was a judge of the Supreme Court of Cincinnati. In March 1876 he was appointed by President Grant as Minister of War in the Cabinet, three months later he was Attorney General of the United States.

After he had resigned as Minister of Justice in 1877, he went back to the practice courts. His candidature as governor of Ohio in 1875 and 1879 were unsuccessful. Taft in 1882 as the successor to William Walter Phelps Ambassador to Austria - Hungary, 1884-1885 he practiced this activity in the Russian Empire from.

His son, William Howard Taft was elected in 1908 to the 27th President of the United States of America and was also previously a member of the Skull & Bones Society. His grandson, Robert A. Taft I ( Skull & Bones member ) and his great grandson, Robert Taft Jr. were both U.S. senators, his great- great-grandson Robert A. Taft III was from 1999 to 2007 Governor of Ohio. William Howard Taft III was Ambassador to Ireland, William Howard Taft IV is an advisor to the U.S. State Department.