Alphonso Taft
In our boy days we often saw in our father’s bookstore in New Haven, Alphonso Taft, then a Yale student. He was tall, broad—even as a youth—heavy and strong, and then noted for his strong common sense and masculine grasp of intellect. He was a warm admirer of Daniel Webster, whom in some important aspects he resembled, and of the many eulogies pronounced upon that great man his tribute to his life and services is regarded by the family and friends of Mr. Webster as the most truthful and masterly. He once made a remark that is worth any printer’s ink, “it is a pretty bad case that has not to it two sides.”
Judge Taft was born in Townsend, Vermont, November 5, 1810: graduated at Yale in 1833; tutor there, 1833—1837; in 1838 admitted to the bar and after 1840 practised in Cincinnati, where he won high reputation. In 1856 he was a delegate to the National Republican Convention, and in the same year was defeated for Congress by George H. Pendelton; from 1866 to 1872 was Judge of the Superior Court of Cincinnati, when he resigned to associate himself in practice with two of his sons. In 1875 he was a candidate for the Republican nomination for the governorship but a dissenting opinion that he had delivered on the question of the Bible in the public schools was the cause of much opposition to him. The opinion that defeated his nomination was unanimously affirmed by the Supreme Court of Ohio, and is now the law of the State. He became Secretary of War March 8, 1876, on the resignation of Gen. William W. Belknap, and on 22d May following was transferred to the attorney-generalship, serving until the close of Gen. Grant's administration. Judge Taft appointed United States minister to Austria April 26,1882, and in 1884 was transferred to Russia, where he served till August 1, 1885, He has been a trustee of the University of Cincinnati since its foundation, and in 1872—82 served on the corporation of Yale, which gave hint the degree of LL. D. in 1867.” Four of his sons have graduated at that institution. He died May 21, 1891.
From Historical Collections of Ohio: By Henry Howe; Pub. 1888