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SPECULATING ON “THE PROBABILITY OF MY ELECTION”
197
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TAFT, WILLIAM HOWARD. Typed Letter Signed, “WmHTaft,” to
Baltimore
American
publisher Gen. Felix Angus, with holograph addition, respectfully declining
Angus’s request for an interview to help position Taft for the Republican nomination,
frankly explaining his fear that the interview would be ill-received and viewed as a coer-
cive act by his friends driving him towards the candidacy. 2 pages, 4to, written on rectos
only of separate sheets, personal stationery; faint paperclip stain, horizontal folds. (TFC)
New Haven, 2 April 1915
[600/900]
“
I have just had the pleasure of a long talk with Garthe. It has been a real pleasure, because it carries
me back to the days when I used to see him every day or two, and when he was trying to help when
help was very much needed; and I remember going over . . . to meet you after that long wait of two
hours . . . for a very late President. Garthe proposed to have an interview with me on the subject of
the Presidency, but I appealed to him not to insist on it, and I did it on two grounds: First, on the
ground that it would be very distasteful to me to give an interview upon the subject which would at
once thrust me forward as an earnest seeker after the nomination. I do not occupy that attitude, as you
know, and I wish earnestly to avoid the appearance of such a thing. Second, . . . the probability of my
election . . . would be greatly diminished were the public to get the impression that I was being pushed
by my friends, at my instance, or with my connivance.The only possibility, my dear General, of that
coming about which you are so kind as to wish, is my preservation of absolute silence on the subject
and the rising of a demand from the business men of the various communities for my nomination, on
the other hand, and the failure of any other candidate to satisfy the requirements of the situation after
the Convention has met and after the availability of every candidate has been tested by the long-
headed men who are to gather and represent the Republican party in that Convention. . . .”