Interesting TLS signed “Wm. H. Taft,” one page, 8 x 10, personal letterhead, January 7, 1920. Letter to the Honorable William Hunt of the United States Circuit Court. In full: “I have your very kind letter and reciprocate its good wishes. I hope you are finding your judicial service out in San Francisco as pleasant as you always have. Poor Hol is gone and suddenly. I went out to Cincinnati to deliver a memorial address on him. I enclose a copy of it. [copy not present]
It is too bad that the world and the country should be halted and have their best interests ground between the upper millstone of Wilson’s pride, vanity, inconsiderateness and mulishness and the nether millstone of Lodge’s pride, vanity, selfishness, lack of real patriotism and bitter partisan and personal hatred. But nothing worth having ever comes without a struggle and I am optimist. How soon do you come East again? I hope you and your family are well.” In fine condition.
Working together with Allied leaders to negotiate a peace treaty at the close of World War I, President Woodrow Wilson had built an insurmountable wall between himself and Republican Majority Leader and Chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, Henry Cabot Lodge, by not including any members of the Senate among the negotiators at the Paris Peace Conference. Unable to gain Republican support to ensure Senate approval of the Treaty of Versailles, for the first time in history the American Senate rejected a peace treaty on November 19, 1919. In a statement issued by Wilson four weeks later, he offered ‘no compromise or concession of any kind’ and pinned the fate of the treaty on the Republicans. Former president Taft, who had proposed the formation of a ‘league of peace or league of nations’ in 1915 and supported the ratification, captures the unfortunate position in this letter to William Henry Hunt, a judge in the US Court of Appeals, appointed during his administration. Deadlocked between “Wilson’s pride, vanity, inconsiderateness and mulishness” and “Lodge’s pride, vanity, selfishness, lack of real patriotism and bitter partisan and personal hatred,” the country would again watch the Treaty fail in the Senate in March of 1920, never to be brought up again, leaving the US out of the League of Nations. Pre-certified John Reznikoff/PSA/DNA and RR Auction COA.
This item is Pre-Certified by PSA/DNA
Buy a third-party letter of authenticity for
(inquire for price)
*This item has been pre-certified by a trusted third-party authentication service, and by placing a bid on this item, you agree to accept the opinion of this authentication service. If you wish to have an opinion rendered by a different authenticator of your choosing, you must do so prior to your placing of any bid. RR Auction is not responsible for differing opinions submitted 30 days after the date of the sale.
