ALS as president, four pages on two adjoining sheets, 4.75 x 7.75, Executive Mansion letterhead, February 25, 1895. Letter to Commodore E. C. Benedict. In part: “I have received to-day the bonds and stock you kindly purchased for me and I inclose you herewith a receipt for the same…I shall take your advice and not be too anxious to see quotations. If however I occasionally bother you with inquiries as to the value and prospects of my property, you must remember that half the fun of holding stock and bonds is to see their values increase or decrease…If you are going out of active business…you have certainly done a very sensible thing in purchasing the Americans Club property…I am glad because your new purchase will give you pleasant occupation in its improvement and embellishment…I am thankful to you for the encouraging words you write me in regard to my cause in financial matters. Such expressions are my only comfort, except my wife and babies, in these turbulent perplexing days. The next week will be especially harassing and anxious and what will follow may add to my burdens. Do you know my dear Commodore that I have never been so sure as now that there is a high and unseen Power that guides and sustains the weak efforts of man? I feel it all the time and sometimes I have come to expect that I shall find the path of Duty and right, if I honestly and patriotically go on my way. I would be afraid to allow a bad low motive to find lodgment in my mind, for I know I should then stumble and go astray. I am conscious of being somewhat in a moralizing mood to-night. Perhaps it’s not amiss but I ought not to inflict it on you.” Signed vertically in the left margin of the first page. In fine condition, with a small separation to the central horizontal fold. The financial matter of “these turbulent perplexing days”—the Panic of 1893—was a depression caused by bad trade policy and monetary scarcity.
Ex. Walter R. Benjamin Autographs, April 23, 1980. Pre-certified PSA/DNA.
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