William H. Taft

Signed book: League to Enforce Peace. First edition. NY: Privately Printed, 1915. Hardcover, 5 x 7.5, 65 pages. Signed on the first free end page in ink, "Sincerely yours, Wm. H. Taft, Sept. 14th 1915." Autographic condition: fine, with a stain in the lower blank area of the signed page. Book condition: VG/None, with bumped corners, light wear to spine, and a "Library of Lawrence E. Miller" blindstamp to the last page.In 1915, Taft became the first president of the League to Enforce Peace, an organization that advocated the formation of an international coalition aimed at preventing war. The fruition of President Wilson's Fourteen Points plan similarly and more famously established the League of Nations at the Paris Peace Conference of 1919, with the League's charter later incorporated into the conference's WWI-dissolving Treaty of Versailles. Taft's public support of the League was chastised by many of his fellow Republicans, and his inconsistent views on the Versailles reservations were rebuked by both parties. Wilson's opposition to any amendments or reservations of the treaty subsequently concluded with its final rejection on March 19, 1920.

Format: Book