Helen Herron Taft

And our surveys show that Americans, regardless of whether they're Republicans, Democrats, Independents, or have other differences, are really willing to cross all sorts of divides to serve together, to work together, to work on local boards and associations together, or to solve tough public problems together.

And Nellie Taft created a foundation both in the nation's capital and a spirit in the country that opened up opportunity for literally millions of people over time.

In 1909, First Lady Nellie Taft received a letter from Eliza Skidmore, a journalist and travel writer who had ventured all over East Asia.

For years, Skidmore had been trying to convince Washington officials to plant Japanese cherry trees in the nation's capital.

Finally, she found a supporter in Nellie Taft.

Taft took up Skidmore's cause as her own, and in a few short years, cherry blossoms bloomed in Washington.

But the trees did more than just beautify the Tidal Basin.

As today's guest, John Bridgeland, argues, Taft believed in the power of creating civic spaces that draw people together from all walks of life.

She serves as a fabulous hostess, both for Americans, but especially for Filipinos, making them feel, you know, part of the new government there.

And, you know, everyone who lives in or visits Washington in the springtime should thank Nellie Taft for the cherry trees.

Having spent time in Japan on the way to and from Manila, she saw the cherry trees and it was her idea to have cherry trees.

So those are just a few of the

much.

The Helen Taft story is really quite interesting because she, in many ways, was the first modern First Lady.

She introduced a lot of policies and practices in the White House.

and her involvement in various events.

I'm about to go through today when Obama was president, because I read a lot of political books, not the newest book by Ben Shapiro.

But I mean, history books like the history I have on my shelf right now of Nellie Taft, President Taft's wife.

and I love presidential biographies.

And so when I read these presidential biographies, I really learn a lot about government, far more than your sociological political science books of the moment.

The trees were a gift from the mayor of Tokyo in 1912, about 3,000 of them, as a symbol of friendship.

The first two were planted by First Lady Helen Taft and the wife of the Japanese ambassador.

The tidal basin gets very crowded at peak, so here are other places.

East Potomac Park at Haines Point has a four-mile loop lined with trees, and the Kwanzaa cherries there bloom a couple of weeks later.

This was Taft's darkest day, not just because his wife had been struck down, but because in that moment, the entire scaffolding of his presidency collapsed.

Helen Nellie Taft had been his compass, his advisor, his engine, and without her voice, his own began to falter.

She'd always been the ambitious one.

When others saw Taft as a jurist, a scholar, a judge content with the quiet dignity of the bench, Nellie saw a president.

She believed in his intellect, his empathy, and perhaps most importantly His potential to lead a fractured nation.

It was Nellie who had maneuvered him into Theodore Roosevelt’s orbit.

Nellie, who had encouraged his appointment as governor general of the Philippines.

Nellie, who had prodded him again and again out of judicial retirement and back into political life.