TLS as president signed “Wm. H. Taft,” two pages on two adjoining sheets, 7 x 9, White House letterhead, February 28, 1910. Letter to Alice Hollister, the wife of Taft’s friend and Yale classmate, Howard ‘Hol’ C. Hollister, describing his satisfaction at having appointed Hollister a Federal Judge. In part: “One of the three or four personal gratifications I have had in being President was to appoint [Hol] to the Federal bench. With his sense of duty, his power of application, his judicial experience and his ability, he will vindicate the appointment without any difficulty…everybody in the community understands his high character…and I have no doubt about the confirmation…I am sending your note which has come to the office to Nellie at the White House. She, too, is rejoicing in the fact that I was able to appoint Hol.” Taft adds a few words to the text in his own hand: “the same to.” In very good to fine condition, with some light creasing, and scattered stains to the second page. Accompanied by the original mailing envelope.
On February 24, 1910, four days prior to this letter, Hollister was nominated by the president to be a Federal District Court Judge for the Southern District of Ohio. As Taft correctly predicted, he was confirmed by the U.S. Senate on March 7, 1910, and received his commission the same day. He served in this capacity until his death in 1919.
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