140 / 230
194
195
194
●
TAFT, WILLIAM HOWARD. Photograph Signed and Inscribed, as President,
“For my warm friend JohnW Blodgett / of Grand Rapids with grateful appreciation / and
best wishes /WmHTaft,” bust portrait by Harris & Ewing, showing him looking into cam-
era. Inscribed in the blank lower margin. 9x6 inches (image), 13
3
/
4
x9 inches; minor
smudging to “JohnW Blodgett,” side edges trimmed. (TFC)
Beverly, OH, 5 July 1912
[500/750]
HOPESTHERE ARE STILL ENOUGH MENWITH
“BACKBONE” INTHE REPUBLICAN PARTY
195
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TAFT,WILLIAM HOWARD.Typed Letter Signed,“WmHTaft,” to
Baltimore American
publisher Gen. Felix Agnus, expressing his concern over the dying Progressive party and
the reaction of the fractured Republican Party to anticipated moves by Theodore
Roosevelt. 1
1
/
2
pages, 4to, personal stationery, written on the first and fourth pages of a
folded sheet; light soiling and discoloration, one short tear starting at horizontal fold. (TFC)
New Haven, 2 October 1913
[700/1,000]
“
. . . Unless we mistake the signs of the times, the Progressive party is rapidly disintegrating,
and the only danger now is that its head will take a running jump into the Republican party
and seek to obtain the nomination, in spite of all the abuse that he has heaped on the party. It
is the weak and cowardly in the party, and those who are willing for a victory to sacrifice princi-
ple, who approve such a result. My impression is that there are enough staunch men with
backbone in the party, of a conservative tendency, to show before a national convention that
should he become the nominee of the party, in spite of his admitted popularity, he will drive
away from the polls or into the support of the Democratic candidate, enough of the conservative
element of the Republican party as to make his victory impossible.When that becomes appar-
ent, then the time servers and the hurrah boys will cease to regard his nomination as the only
road to salvation. . . .”