TLS as president, two pages on two adjoining sheets, 7 x 8.75, White House letterhead, May 19, 1923. Letter to Charles C. Fisher about Henry Ford as a presidential candidate. In part: “I have your friendly note of May 10th, on which you express your interest concerning the development of a political following for Mr. [Henry] Ford, and your suggestion that I go to Ann Arbor in June and make an address in the hope of offering an antidote…the burden of speech-making which must accompany a trip across the continent have persuaded me that it would be no less than folly to take on any of the many engagements which are pressing…I doubt if any address that I could make at Ann Arbor would tend to check the popular feeling for Mr. Ford. If he is willing to consider the Democratic nomination I think he will be a very likely contender in the convention and I do not pretend at this time to make a prediction as to the support which he would enlist at the polls. The simple truth is I have had less anxiety and perturbation concerning presidential nominations and the election than probably anybody else in all the country. It has been my philosophy that if the present administration makes good there can not possibly be any doubt about re-nomination. If it does not make good there ought to be no re-nomination…It just occurs to me as I dictate that your nephew, Harry J. Fisher is to lunch with me today and play golf in the afternoon. I need not tell you that I am hoping to trim him.” In fine condition.
A poll conducted by Collier’s magazine in the spring of 1923 had Henry Ford as the front runner for the 1924 election, leading all candidates including the incumbent President Harding. Ford appealed to several disparate political factions as a ‘self-made man’ and the ‘people’s tycoon,’ and he had only narrowly lost in 1918 when he ran for senator. Harding, of course, did not make it to the next election; he suddenly passed away during a trip to San Francisco on August 2, just a few months after writing this letter.
Ex. Christie’s, November 15, 2005; sale 1685, lot 179. Pre-certified PSA/DNA.
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