Uncommon ALS as president, signed “Wm. H. Taft,” two pages, 4.75 x 7.75, White House letterhead, December 11, 1912. Taft writes to his brother Horace. In full: “It seems pretty well settled that we shall be gone to Panama from the night of the 19th till noon of the 31st of December. I hope therefore you can arrange your visit to us after Dec. 31st. I have done nothing more about the Kent Professorship but every body with whom I talk seems to favor acceptance. We are rather quiet now—There is nothing except negotiation over the Canal Treaty and Canal law. How is your new building getting on?” In his fourth and last State of the Union Address, delivered just eight days before, Taft devoted some 500 words to Panama and the Panama Canal, including the observation that “recognizing the administrative problem in the management of the canal, Congress in the act of August 24, 1912, has made admirable provisions for executive responsibility in the control of the canal and the government of the Canal Zone....” He continued that he had, “by Executive proclamation, promulgated [a] schedule of tolls for ships passing through the canal,” listing them and reminding Congress that “We have been advised that the British Government has prepared a protest against the act and its enforcement ... concerning the Panama Canal.” On the evening of December 9th, two days before Taft wrote this letter, James Bryce, the British Ambassador to the United States, personally delivered to Secretary of State Philander C. Knox a lengthy letter of November 14, in which the British Foreign Minister, Sir Edward Grey, protested the exemption of American coastwise vessels from paying tolls. On January 23, 1913, Secretary of State Knox cabled a lengthy response, approved by Taft, to Irwin B. Laughlin, Chargé d’Affaires of the American Embassy in London. Knox told Grey that there was nothing to arbitrate, and that the Panama Canal Act of 1912 simply authorized the President to set the tolls, which he had done in his December 3 address. Vague paperclip impression to top edge of the second page and a very subtle suggestion of handling wear, otherwise very fine, bright, crisp condition. Unusually attractive and significant! Auction LOA John Reznikoff/PSA/DNA and R&R COA.
