![]() ![]() “I’m going to present it to the Smithsonian Institute anyway, because you know, my dear, it is against the Constitution for an official in the United States government to accept any kind of favours from foreign courts.” Nellie had often “met the Constitution face to face,” she recalled, but had previously accepted “its decrees with what I had hoped was patriotic resignation.” When Taft brought the gift home, Nellie protested that it was too large to be of use. Stopping off at the Imperial Palace in Tokyo, Taft received from the empress of Japan an elaborate tapestry for his wife, Nellie, a copy from the Gobelin original, showing the meeting of Columbus and Isabella. In 1905, as secretary of war, William Howard Taft set out on a diplomatic mission to the Far East. Helen "Nellie" Taft, the wife of the President Taft, raised Constitutional questions when she insisted on keeping a Gobelin tapestry given her by the Empress of Japan. ![]() His most recent book is William Howard Taft (Times Books), from which this essay is adapted. Jeffrey Rosen is a historian, law professor, and President and CEO of the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia. ![]()
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