February 2018 Auction Ends Thursday, February 22nd, 5pm Pacific
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 2/22/2018
William Howard Taft letter signed, composed shortly after he lost re-election to Woodrow Wilson in 1912. In this letter, Taft expresses his animosity both towards Wilson and also the ''Bull Moose'' party headed by Theodore Roosevelt, whose third party run split the Republican vote and swung the election in Wilson's favor. Writing to his friend, journalist Gus Karger, Taft begins by criticizing the appointment of Francis Burton Harrison as Governor-General of the Philippines, specifically regarding Harrison's four-times divorced status and also his ''light-waisted, ephemeral'' demeanor. He then goes on to critique Wilson's handling of the crisis in Mexico for its opportunism and inconsistencies; ''...Wilson...did not recognize Huerta just because it would give him an opportunity for a grant stand moral play...''
Lengthy 3pp. letter on Taft's personal stationery is datelined Cedar Point, Ohio on 9 September 1913, in part, ''...[Francis] Burton Harrison's appointment is a great mistake. The idea of sending a man, whose wife was divorced under the circumstances in his case, to a country where they don't have divorces, and then such a light-waisted, ephemeral kind of a man to take up a job that needs a real man for its performance. This appointment it seems to me shows weakness on the part of Wilson. I still doubt whether they know what they are going to do. Indeed your statements confirm my doubt about it. For opportunistic character, it seems to me the policy of this Administration takes the cake. I would like to bet a good many dollars that if Wilson had it to do over again he would recognize [Mexican President Victoriano] Huerta, but he did not recognize Huerta just because it would give him an opportunity for a grant stand moral play, and he might turn down an ambassador of the late administration. I [hand-annotated by Taft] felt certain that the statement must have come from him that they had verbal assurance that Huerta would not be a candidate, from the form it was given in the newspapers, and then to have [U.S. Charge d'Affaires for Mexico, Nelson] O'Shaughnessy deny it puts the President in bad, I think, as well as O'Shaughnessy. Before you get through with the distinguished head of the Government, I think you will find that his statements are as subject to change and his facts are as changeable as those of anyone you have had to deal with...I observe that in Maine a Republican [Edwin Burleigh] was elected, and that he took from Roosevelt's vote about 8,000, and that the Progressive vote was reduced from nearly 14,000 to a little more than 6,000. With the effort the Progressives made, with the money they had, and with the speeches of [James] Garfield and [Albert] Beveridge, it seems to me this has great significance with reference to the disintegration of the party. / I have been waiting sometime and watching as closely as I could the indication on the part of Roosevelt of jumping back into the party to seek the nomination. I think his trip to South America and Australia [the Roosevelt-Rondon Scientific Expedition] may offer him an opportunity to come back into the country with a great reception and then to be forced by his Republican supporters into an acceptance of a nomination by the Republican Convention, if it were to come, which he would not hesitate to go into and fight to win; but my hope is that the desire for success, which is the only thing that would lead to his nomination, would be moderated by the necessary result that he would lose a very large part of the Old Guard, and that this would defeat him and the party in any fight with the Democrats. / We have had a delightful summer, and even [Wendell Mischler, Taft's secretary] Misch has come to believe that Murray Bay is the only health resort in the country. Misch is longing for a little game, but up to this he has found no victims...if he does, look out, for he is thirsting for victory and plunder. / I hope to be in Washington at the meeting of the Lincoln Memorial Commission sometime between the 20th and 30th of September, and as things are now, I should suppose Congress would still be in session...[signed] Wm H Taft''. Karger's letter dated 7 September 1913 is included where Karger discusses the ''Mexican mess'', including the details of the ''verbal assurances'' regarding Huerta's presidency that Taft discusses in his letter. Taft's 3pp. letter on three separate sheets measures 8'' x 10.5''. Apart from a rusted paper clip attached at upper left, letter is in very good condition with folds and some haloing to typeface.
Fantastic William Taft Letter Signed Regarding Roosevelt's ''Bull Moose'' Progressive Party, Failings of President Wilson & Mexican President Huerta -- ''...weakness on the part of Wilson...''
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