ABSTRACT
The American historical experience, and the American application of the rule of law, were the foundation of Robert A. Taft belief. Like most American political leaders, he rarely referred to theoretical writers on liberty; he was a man of prescription and precedent, thoroughly schooled in the law and in constitutional history. "The trend of thought on forms of government throughout the entire world," Taft insisted, "has been pushing all peoples consciously or unconsciously away from democracy to different forms of totalitarianism. For Robert Taft, clearly, political liberty was no abstraction. American liberty was a body of chartered rights. To show how Robert Taft applied such concepts of freedom to pressing public concerns, it may be helpful to examine his stand on two large issues —civil liberties, and universal military training. Taft's attempt to reconcile these two genuine claims of right sometimes brought him into collision with other Republicans.
