Very rare pairing of letters signed by President Wilson: a TLS, one page, 5.25 x 8, White House letterhead, May 17, 1916, addressed to Secretary of War Newton D. Baker, in full: "I have your letter about the West Point commencement. I hope sincerely that I can arrange to attend. I have hoped ever since I came here to go to West Point and say a few words to the graduating class, and you may count on me unless I am prevented by circumstances which I cannot now foresee"; and an ALS, in pencil, one page, 4 x 6.25, handwritten the following day on May 18th, addressed to "My dear Ed," in full: "I am passing through the city on my way to West Point—but the interval is too brief to see you. Your letter reached me this morning just before I left. I shall be free to see you on Sunday afternoon and shall look forward to our talk with the greatest pleasure. I am anxious to have a chance to go over the whole matter." In overall fine condition, with old tape to the edges of, and a block of toning to, the typed letter; the handwritten letter shows brushing to a few words of text.
Three weeks after sending the typed letter to the Secretary of War, President Wilson indeed traveled to West Point for the first time and gave an address at the academy’s commencement ceremony on June 13, 1916. In response to the ‘Preparedness Movement’ and America’s vulnerability to foreign powers, he had signed into law the National Defense Act on June 3, 1916. The historic legislation expanded the scope and strength of the National Guard fourfold to 400,000 men, while incorporating the concept of a citizen-army that the president could mobilize during a national emergency. This sweeping revision galvanized the American public amid World War tensions and excited the scores of graduates that listened to Wilson speak. Wilson impressed upon his audience that America did not desire war, but threats to the nation would not go unanswered: ‘There is nothing that the United States wants that it has to get by war, but there are a great many things that the United States has to do. It has to see that its life is not interfered with by anybody else who wants something…We love that quiet, self-respecting, unconquerable spirit which does not strike until it is necessary, and then strikes to conquer.’ The autograph letter can be attributed to Wilson’s presidency as he admittedly had not been to West Point prior to May 17, 1916, and he would have been incapable of writing it after his stroke in 1919. It very well may have been written on May 18, 1918, as he was in New York City on that date to participate in the opening of a Red Cross fundraising campaign. A remarkable pairing of presidential letters boasting highly desirable West Point content.
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