Please ensure Javascript is enabled for purposes of website accessibility

Lot #205
Woodrow Wilson

The future president—of Princeton and the USA—sends his regrets to the Presbyterian Union

This lot has closed

Estimate: $0+
Sell a Similar Item?
Refer Collections and Get Paid
Share:  

Description

The future president—of Princeton and the USA—sends his regrets to the Presbyterian Union

ALS, two pages, 5.25 x 7.75, November 24, 1901. Letter to Mr. Noah C. Rogers of New York City. In full: “Mrs. Wilson and I greatly appreciate your kind invitation to be guests of honor at the Annual dinner of the Presbyterian Union…and are very deeply disappointed that we are obliged to decline.

Literally all of my college work in the class-room comes on Mondays and Tuesdays, and I cannot meet an engagement at a distance on either of the evenings without a positive and serious neglect of duty.

Pray express to the Executive Committee of the Union our warm thanks and deep regrets. I am sure that they will deem me no worse Presbyterian for performing my university duties to so tempting a pleasure.” Letter is archivally sleeved in acid-free Mylar. In fine condition, with intersecting folds and some very trivial toning.

Wilson, a devout Presbyterian himself and the son of a Presbyterian minister and theologian, must truly have been disappointed by being unable to attend the event mentioned here. His schedule would become no less congested the following year, upon his appointment as president of Princeton University. In that capacity, Wilson revised hiring practices, eliminating previously conservative Protestant orthodoxy and personally selecting educators based on their records, resulting in a more scholarly and diverse faculty. Despite his strong faith, Wilson would maintainthat Princeton was “a Presbyterian college only because the Presbyterians of New Jersey were wise and progressive enough to found it….The College is based on nonsectarianism.” To be sure, that nonsectarianism belief was later employed by Wilson as the nation’s twenty-eighth chief executive. Pre-certified John Reznikoff/PSA/DNA and RRAuction COA.

Auction Info

  • Auction Title:
  • Dates: #357 - Ended May 12, 2010





This item is Pre-Certified by PSA/DNA
Buy a third-party letter of authenticity for $75.00

*This item has been pre-certified by a trusted third-party authentication service, and by placing a bid on this item, you agree to accept the opinion of this authentication service. If you wish to have an opinion rendered by a different authenticator of your choosing, you must do so prior to your placing of any bid. RR Auction is not responsible for differing opinions submitted 30 days after the date of the sale.