TAFT ADDRESSES THE HAMILTON CLUB. TAFT, WILLIAM HOWARD. 1857-1930. Annotated galley proofs, 'Add...

TAFT ADDRESSES THE HAMILTON CLUB. TAFT, WILLIAM HOWARD. 1857-1930. Annotated galley proofs, 'Address of Ex-President Hon. Wm. Howard Taft, given at the Hamilton Club Luncheon,' 3 pages, tall folio (600 x 230 mm), [New York, 1915], heavily edited and corrected in pencil throughout by Taft, leaves toned, creased, chipped at edges, thumbsoiled, some minor restoration. Three years after his defeat by Woodrow Wilson, caused in large part by Teddy Roosevelt's abandoning the Republican Party to run as a third-party candidate with the Progressive or Bull-Moose Party, William Howard Taft addressed the membership of the Hamilton Club, an exclusive gentleman's club of New York. His remarks were later gathered for publication by the club, and Taft took a heavy hand to his original speech, making nearly 200 edits on the three galley pages. Taft opens his address by discussing the necessity of the two-party system in popular government. He leads with the example of Alexander Hamilton choosing country over party during the election of 1800: 'It turned out that Jefferson and Burr had the same number of votes, and then the question came of the selection in the house of Congress. There were federalists that were so bitter against Jefferson that they entered into a cabal to elect Burr instead of Jefferson, but Hamilton, knowing Burr, and feeling that it would be dangerous to the country to have a man as lacking in principle as he was, broke up that conspiracy and succeeded in electing Jefferson.' Taft addresses his own experience with party loyalty and betrayal in a section titled 'The Party Split of 1912.' He writes: 'I can not avoid coming to 1912 in these presence. I have not any resentment for what happened in 1912, but when I get into a company that seemed to me to be right in 1912, I can not help expressing a little greater satisfaction than when I am in a company of gentlemen whom I respect, but who, it seemed to me, were a little lacking in foresight in 1912. / There was a split in the party and a very decided split. It seemed to me that the dissensions were under the inspiration of a wonderful personality—and that they gathered together a crazy quilt of planks into a platform that some of them believed in, but most of them thought was all right for a platform, but that they would not work it out quite, and would not be under any heavy obligations to work it out if they got power and responsibility, and we were overwhelmingly defeated.' Taft analyzes what went wrong with the Republican party: 'We had been sixteen years in power; abuses had grown up, and the arty cohesion under the influence of the prosperity and continued success had weakened. Personal views had become more important; groups had interfered with that party loyalty that was necessary to give party success ... But my friends a platform of that find ... was not anything that any party could grow on and stand on....' Yet even as Taft assigns blame to himself and the Republican party, he closes with a section titled 'Democratic Party Not Responsible for Feverish Prosperity.' For further information on this lot please visit Bonhams.com For further information about this lot please visit the lot listing