Billy Possum and Supreme Court Politics

Although everyone of course knows what a Teddy Bear is, knowledge of it's "origin story" is a bit less universal.  The Teddy involved was Teddy Roosevelt.  It seems that on a hunting trip in 1902 he declined to shoot a bear.  It's a nice story and one that fits with T.R.'s worthy commitment to the environment.  In actuality the story did end badly for the bear but legends can get messy if you insist on attention to such details.  

A stuffed animal was created to play off this story, and became a huge success.  The Teddy Bear.

Everyone loved stuffed animals.  Most people loved bears and Teddy Roosevelt.  The popularity of stuffed bears and the name connecting them to our 26th President have endured for generations.  And like all surprising and original successes, there were attempts to copy it.  Which brings us to Billy Possum. 

Roosevelt considered William Taft to be his logical successor.  Although they fell out later in life there seems to have been considerable mutual respect during the time when Taft was campaigning and ultimately winning the 1908 election.  

In January of 1909 Taft as President Elect supposedly attended a dinner in Atlanta Georgia.  On the menu was a local delicacy "possum and taters".  When the famously overweight Taft had indulged his appetite by consuming, unaided, an entire opossum stuffed with sweet potatoes the event organizers then presented him with a cute little stuffed opossum to commemorate the occasion.

A brief craze ensued in which cartoons, stuffed animals, campaign buttons etc were all marketed with the name "Billy Possum".  This was an obvious homage to the Teddy Bear so popular in the previous administration.

It was a marketing flop, one that was essentially over and done by Christmas.  Perhaps the legend of a bear being spared - although it was false - just resonated more than a fried up marsupial being consumed entire by an obese man.

Taft is considered an average president.  He suffered from being very much in the shadow of his mentor turned adversary the flamboyant Teddy Roosevelt.  It is also said that he was never all that keen on being President.  No, he really wanted to be Supreme Court Chief Justice.

Eventually in 1921 he got his wish, becoming the only man ever to occupy both the highest executive and highest judicial posts in America. 

In a story that resonates with the news of the day, Taft stayed on the court even in the face of declining health.  When he administered the oath of office to incoming President Hoover in 1929 he botched some of the words.  He continued to decline over the course of the year but refused to resign, out of concern over who the Democrat Hoover might nominate in his stead.  In a letter to his brother Horace, Taft wrote:

"I am older and slower and less acute and more confused. However, as long as things continue as they are, and I am able to answer to my place, I must stay on the court in order to prevent the Bolsheviki from getting control"

Eventually he was able to secure a promise from Hoover regards the next nominee to the Supreme Court.  Taft died, presumably at peace, on March 8th, 1930.

Reflecting on Supreme Court politics 90 years ago it appears that things were much the same...and also much different.  Yes, it was a time just as now, when a Justice might linger on long past the point where they could be expected to make sober, well reasoned decisions.  But it was also a time when in the face of a turbulent world, one with economic upheaval and the rise of authoritarian governments everywhere, that political rivals would sit down, reason together and compromise for the common good.