808601
William Howard Taft
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William Howard Taft, 1857-1930. 27th President of the United States, 1909-1913; Chief Justice of the United States, 1921-1930. Typed Letter Signed, Wm. H. Taft, one page, on personal stationery, 7" x 9¼", with integral leaf attached, New Haven, Connecticut, December 31, 1913.
Less than a year after leaving the White House, the very busy ex-president refuses to turn down an appearance at his alma mater, “dear old Yale,” where he was then teaching law, although his schedule dictates that he should do. In part: “It is possible that I can be with you . . . but I can not agree to be present. I have to deliver four lectures the following week at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, and I shall be very busy preparing them. If I complete them so as to be able to come down to you . . . , on my way to Minneapolis, I shall be glad to look in on you. I can not agree, however, to make any formal address, because I am too busy. Of course I want to do what I can to help dear old Yale, and it is that which makes me weak in this letter."
Taft, a graduate of Yale Law School, returned to Yale in 1913 as the Chancellor Kent Professor of Law and Legal History. He served eight years before President Warren G. Harding appointed him Chief Justice of the United States in 1921. Taft thus became the only person ever to serve as both President and Chief Justice. A book review in the Yale Law Journal later noted:
It must have been envisaged by the more farsighted of those responsible for bringing Mr. Taft to New Haven that while Yale, as his Alma Mater, brought him back to her bosom, it was with the foreknowledge that in large measure he must be yielded back to a far wider and more general public. Those who sat in his classes always heard him gladly and profitably. So did the large audiences everywhere he spoke for he was in great demand as a speaker all over the country.
Taft, an Ohio native, returned to Cincinnati to study and practice law after graduating from Yale. He rose in prominence through Republican judicial appointments. He became a judge of the United States Court of Appeals, a step below the Supreme Court, at age 34. But politics beckoned. President William McKinley made him chief civil administrator of the Philippines in 1900. A capable administrator, Taft he improved the Philippine economy, built roads and schools, and gave the people some participation in government. Later President Theodore Roosevelt appointed Taft to be Secretary of War and decided that Taft should then succeed him in the White House. Taft was elected President in 1908.
But Taft alienated Roosevelt and the progressive wing of the Republican Party. In 1912, Roosevelt challenged Taft for the Republican nomination. When Taft was renominated, Roosevelt ran a third-party candidacy on the Progressive Party ticket. That split the Republican vote, and Democrat Woodrow Wilson was elected.
Taft was glad to leave the presidency. The appointment as Chief Justice, a position he held until just before he died in 1930, was, he said, his greatest honor. “I don't remember,” he wrote, “that I ever was president."
This letter is in very fine condition. Taft has boldly signed in black fountain pen. There is a very slight paper clip impression and a small stain at the top, but otherwise the letter has only a customary horizontal mailing fold and is very nice.
Unframed.
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