PRESIDENT RUTHERFORD B. HAYES - AUTOGRAPH LETTER SIGNED 04/27/1887 - HFSID 5238

RUTHERFORD B. HAYES
Rutherford B. Hayes sends an autograph letter asking for advice on what is wanted for a memorial for Beecher.
Autograph Letter Signed: "R.B. Hayes", 2p, 5½x8½, separate sheets. Fremont, Ohio, 1887 April 27. To Edward W. Bok. In full: "Absence from home and the death & funeral of a much loved relative have prevented an earlier reply to your letter touching the Beecher Memorial. Surely, if the friends of Mr. B. regard my words as interesting I can not think of refusing them. How? And how much? - Will a letter of ordinary length answer the purpose? What have others done? You will bear in my mind I am not an author, nor an Editor. As I said before I would emphasize his love and work for his country, and for mankind - his faithful, firm, and most effective advocacy of the cause of the needy and oppressed, with the anti Slavery conflict and the brilliant bearding of the Lion in the Civil War as illustrations." Rutherford B. Hayes had been out of office for six years when he wrote this letter. The former military hero and state administrator was involved in a number of charitable interests until his death at his home in Fremont on January 17, 1893. Here, the former 19th U.S. President (1877-1881) writes to Dutch-born Edward Bok, who came to America in 1870, and became widely known as a journalist and philanthropist. In 1886, he organized the Bok Syndicate to handle the publication of Henry Ward Beecher's sermons. A powerful and convincing speaker, the pastor of Brooklyn's Plymouth Congregational Church (1847-1887) had wide influence throughout the nation, as did his sister, Harriet Beecher Stowe, the author of Uncle Tom's Cabin. Reverend Beecher died on March 8, 1887, at the age of 73. Bok, the former editor of "The Brooklyn Magazine", sought to honor him. Two years later Bok, who was also an avid autograph collector, became Editor in Chief of "The Ladies' Home Journal" (1889-1919). His autobiography, The Americanization of Edward Bok (1920), was awarded the 1921 Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography. Lightly creased, shaded at edges, else fine condition.