Another important historical figure from our past that most people don’t know is Charles Evans Hughes. Charles Evans Hughes was a former popular Governor of New York. He was a brilliant legal mind and was nominated to serve on the US Supreme Court in 1910 by President William Howard Taft. Justice Hughes sat on the US Supreme Court as an Associate Justice for barely six years before he agreed to be the Republican Party’s standard bearer for the 1916 Presidential election.
The world was at war, and many did not think the current President, Woodrow Wilson, would prevent the US from entering the conflict. Hughes became the favorite, and on the day after the election, several prominent newspapers declared him the victor.
In actuality, Wilson won a second term in a very tight race. Hughes had lost his Supreme Court job, which he dearly loved, and then lost his shot at the Presidency, a job he truly desired. He wound up serving as Secretary of State in the 1920s, but then President Hoover nominated him to sit on the Supreme Court again, this time as Chief Justice. Hughes served as the 11th Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court from 1930 to 1941. I always find it fascinating that most people don’t know who he was, but he served as an important historical figure for nearly four decades.
