World War I-dated TLS, signed "Wm. H. Taft," one page, 7 x 9.25, personal letterhead, August 27, 1918. Addressed from Taft's summer home at Pointe-au-Pic, a brief letter to noted lawyer and writer Charles Stewart Davison, in full: “I have your various communications on the subject of Senator Lodge’s speech and the coming peace drive of the Germans, which I have read with interest.” In very good to fine condition, with faint edge toning, and two file holes to the top edge.
The referenced speech made by Massachusetts Senator Henry Cabot Lodge was assuredly about the ongoing debates over President Woodrow Wilson's ‘Fourteen Points’ speech and his proposal for a League of Nations, of which Lodge was a vocal critic. Lodge believed that the League, as outlined in the Treaty of Versailles, would compromise U.S. sovereignty and entangle the country in international conflicts without adequate safeguards for American interests.
Davison led the American Defense Society from 1918 to 1920. The society was founded in 1915 in response to Germany’s sinking of the British passenger ship Lusitania. The non-partisan society made of business leaders supported a strong national defense for the United States. It advocated the suppression of German publications, a boycott of German-made goods, and the registering of Americans who were pro-Germany.
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