Partly-printed DS, signed “Theodore Roosevelt,” one page, 16 x 19.5, December 6, 1921. President Warren G. Harding appoints William Russell Wright as an "Ensign…in the United States Naval Reserve Force Class Six." Signed at the conclusion by Theodore Roosevelt, Jr. as Acting Secretary of the Navy. The blue Navy Department seal remains affixed to the lower vignette. In fine condition, with toning from prior display.
The absence of President Harding’s signature is ostensibly due to his ongoing vacation. After the 1921 election, Harding announced that no decisions about appointments would be made until he returned from a vacation in December. He traveled to Texas, where he fished and played golf with his friend Frank Scobey (soon to be director of the Mint) and then sailed for the Panama Canal Zone. He visited Washington when Congress opened in early December, and he was afforded a hero's welcome as the first sitting senator to be elected to the White House.
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