← a year earlier · day before · day after · a year later →

The United States on March 8, 1909

Who held every office, how Congress and the Court were made up, and what happened within a week. Diff this day against today →

President
Taft
William Howard Taft R · since Mar 4, 1909
Senate
43 R · 19 D
62 senators · 61st Congress
House
—
0 representatives
Supreme Court
6 R · 3 D
9 justices by appointing party
Union
46 states
15 amendments in force
Public debt
$2.6B
as of Jul 1, 1908
1909-03-08/executiveThe administration
President William Howard Taft R
since Mar 4, 1909
Vice President James Schoolcraft Sherman R
Secretary of Agriculture James Wilson R
since Mar 6, 1897
Secretary of War Luke Edward Wright D
since Jul 1, 1908
Attorney General George Woodward Wickersham R
since Mar 4, 1909
Secretary of the Interior Richard A. Ballinger R
since Mar 6, 1909
Secretary of State Philander C. Knox R
since Mar 6, 1909
Secretary of the Treasury Franklin MacVeagh R
since Mar 8, 1909
1909-03-08/congress61st Congress
Senate · 43 R · 19 D
John Hollis Bankhead (Democrat, AL)Jeff Davis (Democrat, AR)James Piper Taliaferro (Democrat, FL)Augustus Octavius Bacon (Democrat, GA)Thomas Hanson Paynter (Democrat, KY)Murphy James Foster (Democrat, LA)Isidor Rayner (Democrat, MD)John Walter Smith (Democrat, MD)Hernando De Soto Money (Democrat, MS)Anselm Joseph McLaurin (Democrat, MS)Furnifold McLendel Simmons (Democrat, NC)Robert Latham Owen (Democrat, OK)Benjamin Ryan Tillman (Democrat, SC)James Beriah Frazier (Democrat, TN)Robert Love Taylor (Democrat, TN)Charles Allen Culberson (Democrat, TX)Joseph Weldon Bailey (Democrat, TX)John Warwick Daniel (Democrat, VA)Thomas Staples Martin (Democrat, VA)Frank Putnam Flint (Republican, CA)Simon Guggenheim (Republican, CO)Morgan Gardner Bulkeley (Republican, CT)Henry Algernon du Pont (Republican, DE)Harry Alden Richardson (Republican, DE)Jonathan Prentiss Dolliver (Republican, IA)Albert Baird Cummins (Republican, IA)William Edgar Borah (Republican, ID)Shelby Moore Cullom (Republican, IL)Albert Jeremiah Beveridge (Republican, IN)Charles Curtis (Republican, KS)Henry Cabot Lodge (Republican, MA)Winthrop Murray Crane (Republican, MA)Eugene Hale (Republican, ME)William Pierce Frye (Republican, ME)Julius Caesar Burrows (Republican, MI)William Alden Smith (Republican, MI)Moses Edwin Clapp (Republican, MN)Knute Nelson (Republican, MN)William Warner (Republican, MO)Thomas Henry Carter (Republican, MT)Joseph Moore Dixon (Republican, MT)Porter James McCumber (Republican, ND)Elmer Jacob Burkett (Republican, NE)Norris Brown (Republican, NE)Henry Eben Burnham (Republican, NH)John Kean (Republican, NJ)Frank Obadiah Briggs (Republican, NJ)George Stuart Nixon (Republican, NV)Chauncey Mitchell Depew (Republican, NY)Charles William Frederick Dick (Republican, OH)Jonathan Bourne Jr. (Republican, OR)Nelson Wilmarth Aldrich (Republican, RI)George Peabody Wetmore (Republican, RI)Robert Jackson Gamble (Republican, SD)George Sutherland (Republican, UT)Carroll Smalley Page (Republican, VT)Samuel Henry Piles (Republican, WA)Robert Marion La Follette (Republican, WI)Nathan Bay Scott (Republican, WV)Stephen Benton Elkins (Republican, WV)Clarence Don Clark (Republican, WY)Francis Emroy Warren (Republican, WY)
House ·
1909-03-08/supreme-courtThe bench
John Marshall Harlan R
Associate Justice · appointed by Rutherford B. Hayes · since Nov 29, 1877
Melville Weston Fuller D
Chief Justice · appointed by Grover Cleveland · since Jul 20, 1888
David Josiah Brewer R
Associate Justice · appointed by Benjamin Harrison · since Dec 18, 1889
Edward Douglass White D
Associate Justice · appointed by Grover Cleveland · since Feb 19, 1894
Rufus Wheeler Peckham D
Associate Justice · appointed by Grover Cleveland · since Dec 9, 1895
Joseph McKenna R
Associate Justice · appointed by William McKinley · since Jan 21, 1898
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. R
Associate Justice · appointed by Theodore Roosevelt · since Dec 4, 1902
William Rufus Day R
Associate Justice · appointed by Theodore Roosevelt · since Feb 23, 1903
William Henry Moody R
Associate Justice · appointed by Theodore Roosevelt · since Dec 12, 1906
1909-03-08/weekWithin a week · Mar 1, 1909 – Mar 15, 1909
William Howard Taft takes office · Mar 4, 1909
Ruling Equitable Life Assurance Society of the United States v. Brown
Mar 1, 1909 · 213 U.S. 25
Ruling Western Union Telegraph Company v. Wilson
Mar 1, 1909 · 213 U.S. 52
Ruling Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway Company v. Sowers
Mar 1, 1909 · 213 U.S. 55
Law Copyright Act of 1909
Mar 4, 1909 · Pub. L. 60-349
Ruling Mammoth Mining Company v. Grand Central Mining Company
Mar 8, 1909 · 213 U.S. 72

Each office is shown as it stood at the end of the day. Cabinet records come from Wikidata and have gaps for some historical offices.