Taft, Graft, and a Bull Moose in 1912

Speaking of POTUS in Portsmouth, here is a photograph I had not seen until now. It shows President William Howard Taft seated in a convertible flanked by police. Taft arrived in Portsmouth NH on October 23, 1912 amid his re-election campaign. The effort failed, in part, due to the creation of Teddy Roosevelt’s progressive “Bull Moose” party. Although Roosevelt hand picked Taft as his successor, the former president grew unhappy as he saw Taft drifting toward the conservative party. Roosevelt then ran against Taft in 192.

In an October 30, 1912 editorial the Portsmouth Herald argued: “Sine his occupying of the White House, Mr. Taft has measured up high in the respect of the people…Mr. Taft is the same man today that he was in 1902 and in 1908. He has not changed in any way.”

Crowds lined the streets to get a look at their chief executive, the Herald reported. Although skies were dark, the reception was warm as the president passed through the city en route to the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Kittery, Maine.

Taft visited the former Elks Home on Pleasant and Court streets where he signed the register. Another archived image shows Taft at the Rockingham Hotel.  His arrival came as the city was trying to clean out the Red Light district on Water Street, now Marcy Street. Four marines had been found dead in the South End that summer. With work slack at Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, officials pushed to get rid of corrupt Portsmouth’s Marshal Thomas Entwistle who had allowed the city’s bordello trade to flourish.

On September 21 the Portsmouth Herald announced that Entwistle had resigned, but the newspaper had to retract the report when the police official refused to go. With the incoming mayor vowing to close the brothels and with President Taft due to visit the city, Entwistle was finally forced out of his job. 

Taft too was forced out. The schism in the Republican party divided the vote between Taft and Bull Moose candidate Teddy Roosevelt. Woodrow Wilson, a Democrat, ended up winning the presidency.

Text (c) J. Dennis Robinson, all rights reserved.