Auction Name: 2026 June 19 The John H. Freund Americana Collection Signature® Auction

Lot Number: 42199

Shortcut to Lot: HA.com/6331*42199

William Howard Taft Autograph Letter Signed ("Wm H Taft"). Two pages of a bifolium on White House letterhead, 4 7/8 x 7 7/8 inches; Washington; January 3, 1913.

Taft writes to Attorney General George Wickersham, reflecting on his service and accomplishments as the administrations nears its conclusion. In full:

"My dear George,

I thank you sincerely for Lincoln's works - I intend to read them in my coming leisure. Nagel gave me Hamilton's so that my cabinet are preparing my political education. I shall greatly regret the ending of our close official relation. It is a peculiar pleasure for me to feel that you have gone on in your work in the face of the loudest denunciation and have wrung from your bitterest opponents either a sullen but significant silence or an open confession that no other record has been equal to yours in the Department of Justice. You and the Court have worked out the trust question. And all quietly while demagogues and theorists were making the welkin ring with fatuous proposals for change -

With warmest wishes for a happy journey around the world and a safe return.
Believe me
Affectionally yours
Wm H Taft."

Taft writes in the closing weeks of his presidency, offering a candid and emphatic defense of Wickersham's record in antitrust enforcement. His remarks show the administration's reliance on the courts to address the "trust question," in contrast to more aggressively populist proposals circulating at the time. He further commends Wickersham for maintaining a steady course despite public criticism, framing his work as effective precisely because it avoided the louder, more theatrical calls for reform.

Condition: Very good. Flattened folds, minor toning, and a few areas of minor ink transfer.

References: Annual Report of the Attorney General of the United States, 1911 (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1912); Lewis L. Gould, The William Howard Taft Presidency (Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2009).

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