Typed manuscript signed "Wm. H. Taft," two pages, 6.5 x 9, on stationery imprinted with a bust photograph of Taft in judicial robes on the first page, no date. Souvenir typescript of part of Taft’s speech at the dedication of the Lincoln Memorial on May 30, 1922, where he presented the memorial to President Warren G. Harding. In full: "The American people have waited fifty-seven years for a national memorial to Abraham Lincoln. Those years have faded the figures of his contemporaries and he stands grandly alone. His life and character in the calmer and juster vista of half a century inspire a higher conception of what is suitable to commemorate him.
Here on the banks of the Potomac, the boundary between the two sections whose conflict made the burden, passion and triumph of his life, it is peculiarly appropriate that it should stand. Visible in its distant beauty from the Capitol, whose great dome typifies the Union which he saved, seen in all its grandeur from Arlington, where lie the nation’s honored dead who fell in the conflict, Union and Confederate alike, it marks the restoration of the brotherly love of the two sections in this memorial of one who is as dear to the hearts of the South as to those of the North.
Here is a shrine at which all can worship. Here an altar upon which the supreme sacrifice was made in the cause of liberty. Here a sacred religious refuge in which those who love God can find inspiration and repose." In fine condition, with tiny binding holes along the left edge.
On February 11, 1911, President Taft signed into law a bill authorizing the building of the Lincoln Memorial. Built between 1914 and 1922, the Memorial was dedicated on May 30, 1922. Chief Justice Taft presented the Lincoln Memorial to President Harding and the American people in a dedication ceremony attended by more than 50,000 people. In addition, people across the country heard the speeches and benedictions on one of the first nationwide radio broadcasts.
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