Description:

Harding Florence

The TLS, signed on behalf of Florence Harding, is signed by her secretary “L. G. Bew” and addressed to one “Mr. Green”. Sharpless Dodson Green, a school administrator from Trenton, New Jersey, frequently contacted notables of the day, requesting they give life advice to graduating seniors. In response, Florence Harding’s secretary wrote: “She is not unmindful of the merit of your activities but is sure you will understand her reluctance to give public expressions at this time”.

 

Florence Harding (1860-1824) was a First Lady of many firsts: the first to vote, the first to own a radio, and the first to invite movie stars to the White House. Her second marriage to Warren Harding (1865-1923), an Ohio newspaper editor and aspiring Republican politician, enabled her to perfect her managerial and public relations skills. Harding was later elected as 29th U.S. President. During her tenure as First Lady, Florence Harding took an active interest in day-to-day governing as well as in abstract issues, like women’s suffrage.

 

Warren Harding died of a heart attack in August 1923 while he and the First Lady were undertaking their cross-country railroad Voyage of Understanding. The First Lady thus declined Green’s request for life advice, as it was still within the requisite year-long mourning period. Florence Harding died herself of renal failure not eight months after penning this free frank.

 

Free franking, or the ability to send mail free from postage, was instituted in the late eighteenth century. The privilege has been alternately granted, rescinded, expanded, and restricted over the last two hundred years. Traditionally, Presidents, Vice Presidents, and Congressmen like Daniel Webster, as well as former office holders and occasionally their spouses and relatives, held free franking privileges.

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