William Howard Taft was a man who held many titles in his life: president of the United States, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, and most significantly for this post, chairman of the Lincoln Memorial Commission. He held this post during his tenure as president, and oversaw the planning and selection of the site for the memorial. Eleven years later, as the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, he led the dedication of the Memorial on May 30, 1922.
Attempts had been made in the 19th century to erect a monument to Lincoln. In 1867, Congress passed a law (ch. XVIII, 15 Stat. 11) incorporating the Lincoln Monument Association. The purpose of this association was the erection of a “monument in the city of Washington, commemorative of the great charter of emancipation and universal liberty in America.” Later that year, Congress passed a joint resolution authorizing the secretary of war to place at the disposal of the Lincoln Monument Association damaged and captured brass and bronze guns and ordinance to be used in the casting of statutes of the principal figures in the proposed monument (no. 42, 15 Stat. 255). However, as this resolution notes, the association was charged with the raising of at least $100,000 for the memorial. Unfortunately, they did not meet this goal and neither memorial nor brass statutes were forthcoming.