TLS, one page, 7.75 x 10.25, January 10, 1901. Letter to Charles Edward Shinn. In full: “It was a genuine pleasure to hear from you again. I recognized the handwriting on the envelope of your letter the minute I saw it, and it gladdened my eyes.
I have felt the distance between Princeton and California, between you and me, I can’t tell you how many times, as a real distress; and if I have not written it has been because there was nothing in particular to write about, not because my affection for you had waned or grown faint.
I wrote to the Harpers for the sheets of the Washington as soon as possible after your letter came, and here they are To-day. I am forwarding them to you Under another cover, and beg that you will accept them as a belated New Year’s souvenir. I have not opened the package: I take it for granted the contents are Complete and what I ordered. I am very much interested that you want to extra-illustrate the book.
I am working away ‘like a nigger’ on the History now appearing in the Harper’s, and have scarcely time to breathe, so fearful is the rate at which the inexorable press is gaining on me. But I have time to think of you with all affection.” Along the left edge, Wilson writes a brief postscript, which reads, “I had done up the package before I thought of the autograph. I enclose a sheet to be bound in. W.W.” In fine condition, with intersecting folds, and a bit of light wrinkling.
Beginning in 1900, Harper’s Weekly began publishing political and social-issues articles by prominent figures such as Wilson. The future president was working on one such piece, the deadline pressure giving him “scarcely time to breathe, so fearful is the rate at which the inexorable press is gaining on me,” when he sent this message. His finished product was published in 1901, titled ‘A History of the American People.’ Wilson used that work to empathize with the suffering of fellow Southerners following the Civil War.
Describing the origins of the Ku Klux Klan, Wilson wrote, ‘In May, 1866, a little group of young men in the Tennessee village of Pulaski, finding time hang heavily on their hands after the excitements of the field...formed a secret club for the mere pleasure of association,’ going on to say that the youths participated in pranks, mischief, and ‘frolicking’—as well as preying upon blacks—with their fear described as ‘comic.’ He later conceded in the article that the purpose of the KKK shifted after ‘malicious fellows of the baser sort who did not feel the compulsions of honor’ took control of the group from the ‘sober men’ who founded it. His surprising comments continued as he defended Southern legislation designed to impede the progress of former slaves who were ‘unpracticed in liberty, unschooled in self-control; never sobered by the discipline of self-support, never established in any habit of prudence; excited by a freedom they did not understand...insolent and aggressive; sick of work.’ A shocking glimpse of Wilson’s ideals which during his presidency would set race relations back 50 years. Pre-certified John Reznikoff/PSA/DNA and RRAuction COA.
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