Description:

Taft William

Book rate postal cover fragment inscribed overall and signed by 27th U.S. President William H. Taft as “Hon. Wm. H. Taft” in sender’s return address, bearing three Teddy Roosevelt 5 cent stamps with Washington, DC postmarks. Brown butcher paper postal cover is addressed to one William Lucas of Philadelphia. In very good condition with expected weathering, wrinkling, and a few tears, measuring 9.25" x 7.125".

 

Both the “Honorable” prefix and Taft’s Washington, DC return address indicate that these covers date from Taft’s tenure as 10th Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, between 1921 and 1930. Regular issue Teddy Roosevelt 5 cent stamps were issued following October 1922, dating these postal covers from the period 1922-1930. These packages probably once contained autographed copies of Taft’s books, such as his Ethics in Service (1915) or The Presidency: Its Duties, Its Powers, Its Opportunities and Its Limitations (1916).

 

William H. Taft (1857-1930) returned to his alma mater Yale University in the spring of 1913 to serve as the Kent Professor of Law and Legal History. For the next eight years, Taft taught courses, delivered paid lectures, and published articles and books. Taft was appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court in 1921, making him the only person to date who has served as U.S. President and Supreme Court justice. Taft served as Chief Justice for the next nine years, overseeing primarily conservative court rulings.

 

At the onset of the new century, Taft and Roosevelt were fellow Republicans and close political collaborators. Taft was widely viewed as the ideological and practical successor of 26th U.S. President Roosevelt (1858-1919) when he was elected in 1908. Yet by 1909, their relationship had cooled. Roosevelt disapproved of many of Taft’s policies, and ran for Republican Party presidential candidate against his former protégé in 1912. Both Taft and Roosevelt lost to Democratic candidate Woodrow Wilson (1856-1924).

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