TLS signed “Bill,” one page, 8 x 10.5, War Department letterhead, April 11, 1906. Letter to C. H. Kelsey, in full: “I have your note of April 9th, and thank you for writing it. You are all wrong in any suspicion as to the President’s motive. I could show you a letter to me which explains the whole situation. Harry might show it to you if you would go and see him, because I have sent him a copy. I am not at all decided yet as to what I ought to do. So far as the Presidency is concerned, it is as remote as possible. It has no attraction for me, and to me the suggestion that I should wait for that is only a humorous one. My only hesitation to accept the Supreme Court Judgeship is caused by the doubt whether if I leave the War Department it will not affect injuriously the cause of the Filipinos. Now I cannot expect to remain in this office all the time, and the question is whether by remaining in sometime longer I can do good enough to justify my failure to embrace the opportunity to go into a place where I must think it possible for one to be of great use to the country for the next twenty years. I should like very much to go with Fred Potter if I can, but I doubt the possibility of it.” Taft adds “& affectionately” to the closing in his own hand, as well as two additions to the text. In very good to fine condition, with staining to edges, and a block of toning from prior display.
Appointed by Theodore Roosevelt as the US Secretary of War two years prior, Taft emerged as the next likely Republican nominee for president, even if he refused to actively campaign for the position. Less than a year after refusing Henry Brown’s seat, Taft again declined a Supreme Court seat in 1906, ever mindful of the Filipino people and the agricultural causes he would continue to support. Taft, of course, would go on to hold both the top positions of the executive and judicial branches, thus becoming one of America’s most successful and storied politicians. Pre-certified PSA/DNA.
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