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WILSON, Woodrow. Autograph letter signed (“Woodrow Wilson”), to Horace Scudder (1838-1902), Princeton, 19 March 1893. 4 pages, 8vo, one small closed tear at end of fold.
BUTTERING UP A FELLOW AUTHOR IN PREPARATION FOR ASKING A FAVOR, Wilson offers a belated response to Scudder’s November 1892 piece in the Atlantic Monthly, “Two Programmes of 1892,” which analyzed the platforms of the Democratic and Republican Parties in that election year. “It seems to me even more just and courageous than it seemed when it came out,” Wilson writes. “It requires more courageous thinking to be just to two sides than to be just to only one.” But after heaping praise on Scudder’s writing he gets to “the real business of this letter,” which is a faculty position at Williams College, where both Wilson and Scudder were trustees. Wilson wants to recommend his brother-in-law, Stockton Axson, for the post. “I could submit evidence of his worth which you would think of great value, even when submitted by a kinsman…” He adds a postscript about his own writing, “I trust you will not dislike my little ‘Epoch,’ ‘Division and Reunion,’” Wilson’s history of the Civil War and Reconstruction Eras, which appeared in 1892. -- WILSON. Typed letter signed (“Woodrow Wilson”) as President, to Lewis Strauss, at the Cosmos Club in Washington, 10 September 1918. 1 full page, White House stationery, in a dark blue morocco folding protective case. With a signed photograph. WILSON DECLINES TO MAKE A NAVAL APPOINTMENT. Wilson tactfully declines to break a ban on Navy enlistments. “I realize how you must feel about your brother's case, and I fear that the rule stopping enlistments in the Navy has resulted in other instances in great disappointment but I'm sure that your judgment will sustain you in the conclusion that I dare not make exceptions. It would be manifestly impossible for me to judge as between one case and another, and I can only express very great regret and the hope that your brother may not long excluded from the service for which he is prepared and for which he has deliberately made ready.”
BUTTERING UP A FELLOW AUTHOR IN PREPARATION FOR ASKING A FAVOR, Wilson offers a belated response to Scudder’s November 1892 piece in the Atlantic Monthly, “Two Programmes of 1892,” which analyzed the platforms of the Democratic and Republican Parties in that election year. “It seems to me even more just and courageous than it seemed when it came out,” Wilson writes. “It requires more courageous thinking to be just to two sides than to be just to only one.” But after heaping praise on Scudder’s writing he gets to “the real business of this letter,” which is a faculty position at Williams College, where both Wilson and Scudder were trustees. Wilson wants to recommend his brother-in-law, Stockton Axson, for the post. “I could submit evidence of his worth which you would think of great value, even when submitted by a kinsman…” He adds a postscript about his own writing, “I trust you will not dislike my little ‘Epoch,’ ‘Division and Reunion,’” Wilson’s history of the Civil War and Reconstruction Eras, which appeared in 1892. -- WILSON. Typed letter signed (“Woodrow Wilson”) as President, to Lewis Strauss, at the Cosmos Club in Washington, 10 September 1918. 1 full page, White House stationery, in a dark blue morocco folding protective case. With a signed photograph. WILSON DECLINES TO MAKE A NAVAL APPOINTMENT. Wilson tactfully declines to break a ban on Navy enlistments. “I realize how you must feel about your brother's case, and I fear that the rule stopping enlistments in the Navy has resulted in other instances in great disappointment but I'm sure that your judgment will sustain you in the conclusion that I dare not make exceptions. It would be manifestly impossible for me to judge as between one case and another, and I can only express very great regret and the hope that your brother may not long excluded from the service for which he is prepared and for which he has deliberately made ready.”