Description:

William Taft
Pointe-au-Pic, Canada, August 19, 1922
Chief Justice William Howard Taft TLS
TLS
WILLIAM HOWARD TAFT, Typed Letter Signed, to Albert R. Beatty, August 19, 1922, Pointe-au-Pic, Canada. 1 p., 8" x 8.125". On "Supreme Court of the United States" stationery; short separation on one fold; some soiling; residue on verso from prior mounting. Includes 4.875" x 7.75" photograph of Taft.

Former President and current Chief Justice William Howard Taft declines an invitation to join a local YMCA advisory board as an honorary member because, as Chief Justice, "it is necessary for me to avoid local associations of any kind." Taft served as Chief Justice from 1921 to 1930. His correspondent from New Jersey was fifteen years old at the time he wrote to the Chief Justice.

Complete Transcript
"Pointe-au-Pic, Canada,
August 19, 1922.
My dear Sir:
I thank you for asking me to become an honorary member of your local advisory board in the Young Men's Christian Association, but I cannot accept. Were I to do so, it would involve me in similar functions in a great many Young Men's Christian Associations, and in my present position it is necessary for me to avoid local associations of any kind.
Sincerely yours,
Wm H Taft
Mr. Albert R. Beatty,
120 W. Washington Avenue,
Washington, N.J."

William Howard Taft (1857-1930) was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, and graduated from Yale College in 1878. He received a law degree in 1880 from Cincinnati Law School. After gaining admission to the bar, Taft worked on the Cincinnati Commercial newspaper full time, covering local courts. After a brief stint as an assistant prosecutor, Taft was appointed to the Superior Court of Cincinnati in 1887. In 1890, President Benjamin Harrison appointed him as Solicitor General of the United States, a position he held until Harrison appointed him to the United States Court of Appeals, where he served from 1892 to 1900. He was Governor-General of the Philippines from 1901 to 1903, then Secretary of War under President Theodore Roosevelt from 1904 to 1908. In 1908, he was elected President of the United States as a Republican over Democrat William Jennings Bryan. After his defeat in the three-way election of 1912, Taft joined the faculty of the Yale Law School from 1913 to 1921, when President Warren G. Harding appointed him as Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court, a position he held until his death nine years later.

Albert Roy Beatty (1906-1992) was born in New Jersey to a bookkeeper in the steel industry and his wife. In 1925, he married Elizabeth Goldsborough Owen (1906-1949), and they had one son. In 1930, he was an editor and lived in North Hempstead, New York. By 1940, he was living in Washington, D.C., where he was a publicist and assistant vice president for the Association of American Railroads for 34 years. In 1952, he married Frances Lucille Vasser (1926-1996). After retiring from the Association of American Railroads in 1971, he was a public relations consultant for the Southern Railway System. By the mid-1980s, he lived in Frederick, Maryland. From his childhood, Beatty also collected autographed photographs and letters from famous people throughout the world.

This item comes with a Certificate from John Reznikoff, a premier authenticator for both major 3rd party authentication services, PSA and JSA (James Spence Authentications), as well as numerous auction houses.

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  • Dimensions: 8" x 8.125"
  • Medium: TLS

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