about the backdating by a stenographer prompted Taft to take responsibility for ordering it, though that stenographer and other employees were also fired. Brandeis's questioning made Ballinger's anti-conservationism clear, but did not unearth anything so serious as to warrant criminal charges. Nonetheless, public confidence in Ballinger's leadership of the Interior Department had waned. After the Republican party lost heavily in the midterm elections that November, Ballinger finally resigned on March 12, 1911. Taft had replaced Pinchot with Henry Graves, who was committed to protecting American forests, and Ballinger helped Taft to secure a new law which allowed Taft to withdraw public lands from private development, thus allowing them to protect as many acres in one term as Roosevelt had in nearly two terms. However, the series of Ballinger-related scandals, Taft's loyalty to his embattled appointee, and Ballinger's refusal to resign for more than nine additional months—combined with controversy over the Payne–Aldrich tariff—split the Republican Party and helped to turn the tide of the 1912 election against Taft. Death Ballinger returned to the private practice of law in Seattle, Washington, where he died on June 6, 1922, and was buried at the Lake View Cemetery. His wife Julia Albertson Ballinger (1864-1961) bore their sons Edwin B. Ballinger (1899-) and Richard Talcott Ballinger (1898-1971). See also Pinchot–Ballinger controversy Notes References External links |- 1858 births 1922 deaths United States Secretaries of the Interior Mayors of Seattle Williams College alumni General Land Office Commissioners Taft administration cabinet members 20th-century American politicians Washington (state) Republicans