PRESIDENT WILLIAM H. TAFT - TYPED LETTER SIGNED 06/05/1915 - HFSID 56629

WILLIAM HOWARD TAFT
He signs a typed letter to a bishop discussing travel plans in the Boston area, where he will deliver the commencement address at Wellesley College (1915).
Typed Letter signed: "Wm H Taft", 1 page, 7x9¼. New Haven, Connecticut, 1915 June 5. On personal letterhead to Bishop William Lawrence, Readville, Massachusetts. In full: "I have your letter of June 4th, and thank you and Mrs. Lawrence for your kind invitation, which I shall be very glad to accept. I regret, however, it will not be possible for me to arrive in Boston the evening before the Commencement Exercise at Wellesley. I have a commencement address to deliver Monday, June 14th, at the Lawrenceville School, Lawrenceville, New Jersey, and I shall not be able to reach Boston from New York until 6:25 on the morning of Tuesday, June 15th, on the Boston & Albany. I note you will have your motor car meet me on my arrival at the station, which will be the Huntington Avenue Station. I shall probably be able to leave the car by 7 o'clock, and shall be very glad to come out to Readville and breakfast with you and Mrs. Lawrence. Looking forward with much pleasure to seeing you and Mrs. Lawrence, believe me, my dear Bishop, Sincerely yours". After losing his bid for re-election in 1912, Taft taught law at Yale University during the eight years between his Presidential term (1909-1913) and his appointment as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court (1921-1930). Although Wellesley College has had many prestigious commencement speakers, Taft is the only former President to have graced the occasion. (Woodrow Wilson, Taft's successor in the White House, had given the commencement address in 1895, while still a professor of law and politics at Princeton University. William Lawrence (1850-1941) was the Episcopal Bishop of Massachusetts, known as "the banker bishop" for his talent for fundraising. Readville is a neighborhood in the Hyde Park section of Boston. Mailing fold, not at signature. Ink note (unknown hand) at lower right corner. Slightly creased at corners. Otherwise, fine condition.