PRESIDENT WOODROW WILSON - TYPED LETTER SIGNED 02/11/1915 - HFSID 258029

WOODROW WILSON
Woodrow Wilson signs a typed letter sending his regrets that he will not be able to speak at a luncheon.
Typed Letter Signed: "Woodrow Wilson" as President, 1p, 7x8¾. The White House, Washington, 1915 February 11. To Mrs. J.A. Dorritee, Clarenden, Virginia. In full: "I warmly appreciate your kind letter of February ninth and whish that I could have the honor of addressing the Potomac Presbytery in April when it meets here in Washington, but I am afraid that it is clearly impossible for me to do so. I doubt very much whether I shall be in Washington at that time and amidst the present pressure of tremendous matters of all sorts it does seem clearly out of the question for me to undertake addresses on subjects upon which I should have to prepare myself with some degree of care. Cordially and sincerely yours," The day before Wilson wrote this letter, on February 10, 1915, he issued his first warning to Germany, telling the German government that the U.S. would hold the German government to a strict accountability if any American life were lost because of the unlawful acts of the German Navy. Three months later, the Lusitania was sunk by a German submarine. The "pressure of tremendous matters" also included the civil war in Mexico between the Venustiano Carranza government and Pancho Villa revolutionaries. President Wilson was an elder of the Central Presbyterian Church in Washington and his father was a Presbyterian minister. Lightly rippled. Lightly shaded at blank margins. Fine condition.