TLS as president, signed “Wm. H. Taft,” one page, 7 x 8.75, White House letterhead, July 31, 1912. Letter to William Loeb, Jr., Collector of Customs in New York City. In full: "I have yours of July 29th. I am glad to have it, and to have an opportunity of saying to you that I appreciate the great work you have done in the Custom House, and also the fact that it has called down upon you a good many enmities and a good many criticisms by persons whose toes have been stepped on by you in the necessary discharge of your duty. I have sympathized with you greatly in the embarrassing position in which you find yourself with respect to Mr. Roosevelt and me, and I think you have conducted yourself with wonderful poise under circumstances that might have led a man of less common sense into great difficulty. I haven't a word of complaint to utter in respect to your attitude, and I certainly would not [and] have [not] asked you to take part in the unpleasant controversy which has been forced upon me." Taft makes two handwritten additions to the text, denoted here by brackets. In fine condition.
President Roosevelt had mentored and groomed his vice president and political protégé, William Howard Taft, to be his successor in the White House, persuading him to run in the 1908 presidential election. However, Taft's administration took on a more business-centric and limited-government form of Republicanism—directly conflicting with Roosevelt’s progressive vision. Unhappy with Taft's approach, Roosevelt decided to oppose him in the 1912 election—splitting the Republican vote and handing the election to Democrat Woodrow Wilson. Important content from President Taft regarding a difficult political situation.
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