WILSON, WOODROW Typed letter signed as President to William Bayard Hale. Washington: 15 January 1914. 1 1/4 page typed lette...

Description:

WILSON, WOODROW
Typed letter signed as President to William Bayard Hale. Washington: 15 January 1914. 1 1/4 page typed letter signed "Woodrow Wilson" on one folded sheet of White House stationery. 8 3/4 x 7 inches (23 x 18 cm); with a descriptive plaque but unframed. Usual fold, light handling creases, slight mat toning and fade to type and signature.

An intriguing letter from President Woodrow Wilson excusing the controversial figure William Bayard Hale from work so that he can recover from an illness. Wilson writes: "You have in my opinion done a great deal and been of very great service to us and I shall be at a loss where to turn for similar services in the time immediately ahead of me." Once quite close (Hale had authored a campaign biography on Wilson), this letter is written in the period between Hale's time as a confidential agent in Mexico in 1913 and his implication in 1915 of being a highly paid propaganda adviser for Germany in advance of the United States' entrance into World War I. Ostracized over his involvement with the Germans, Hale's relationship with Wilson turned cold, and his reputation was also hurt by his editorship of an article justifying the sinking of the Lusitania. Hale lived in Europe from 1917 until his death in 1924 and, endlessly bitter towards Wilson, outlined his acrimony in his 1920 book The Story of a Style: A Psychoanalytic Study of Wilson. Of Hale's treatment of Wilson in the book, H.L. Mencken wrote: "The plain people buried Woodrow. You have erected his imperishable tombstone."

C
Estimate $400-600

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