Beschreibung:

TAFT, William H. (1857-1930). President . Autograph letter signed ("W m H Taft") as former President, to Mr. Palmer, New Haven, 14 August 1914. 4 pages, 8vo (7 7/8 x 4 7/8 in.), Taft's personal stationery, remains of old mounting tape on last page, some light soiling , otherwise fine. TAFT POSTULATES ON THE NATURE OF AUTOGRAPH COLLECTING The former President ponders the subtleties of autograph collecting, handwriting analysis and the pleasures of being out of office. Taft has heard that Palmer is forming a collection of Presidential autographs. "I am sorry that I have not at hand a letter written while I was President. There is a difference between a man in office and a man who has left it in the eyes of the world and I presume in the estimation of collectors. I don't know that it makes a difference in his chirography, but it does in the interest he awakens in others, and in his own happiness and reasonable enjoyment of life if he is a philosopher. I am just in receipt of a request from some one who wishes thirty words of my handwriting in order that he may read my character and state of mind. If you have such powers and my handwriting speaks truly, it will show that the penman never passed a happier year than the one just passed and that he believes that in order to really enjoy life, one must have endured 'slings and arrows' of politics and public service and then have been retired to a place where he can preserve his interest in public matters and watch the play of the various interests and participants with a somewhat intimate knowledge of them and without presonal ambition or lingering desires to get even..." After his defeat in the Election of 1912 by Wilson, Taft left office in 1913 and accepted a position as Kent professor of law at Yale. He remained there until 1921, when he was appointed Chief Justice of the United States.