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President Woodrow Wilson Asks Congress for a Declaration of War
WOODROW WILSON,
Printed Document Signed, “A Message Calling for War With the Imperial German Government in Defense of American Rights,” [April 2, 1917]. New York: Literary Digest, 1917. In three columns with elaborate initials in red and gold. 1 p., 16¼ x 22½ in.
“there are serious, very serious, choices of policy to be made, and made immediately, which it was neither right nor constitutionally permissible that I should assume the responsibility of making.”
In this address to Congress, President Woodrow Wilson reluctantly requests a declaration of war on Imperial Germany because of its announcement that “it was its purpose to put aside all restraints of law or of humanity and use its submarines to sink every vessel that sought to approach either the ports of Great Britain and Ireland or the western coasts of Europe or any of the ports controlled by the enemies of Germany within the Mediterranean.” Germany had cast aside its earlier restraint and begun to pursue unrestricted submarine warfare on vessels from every nation with a “reckless lack of compassion or of principle.”
Item #27120.99, $26,000
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French President Poincare Counters Conspiracy Theory by Anti-Semitic Editor Urbain Gohier (Who Later Fabricated the “Protocols of the Elders of Zion”)
ANTI-SEMITISM,
RAYMOND POINCARE, Autograph Letter Signed, to Unknown, May 22, 1916. 3 pp., 5⅛ x 8 in.
The President of the Third French Republic tells an unknown friend about a disturbing letter that he just received from right wing journalist and newspaper editor Urbain Gohier, in which Gohier had accused him, the sitting president, of colluding with Jewish and foreign elements.
Item #24843, $1,250
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Harding’s Return to Normalcy – and Isolationism – after World War I
WARREN G. HARDING,
Typed Letter Signed as President, to Senator Joseph Medill McCormick, Washington, D. C., August 29, 1921. With autograph emendations in two different secretarial hands. 8 pp.
Key political circular from the first-year Republican President written to influence off-year elections in New Mexico and other places. Harding justifies, and praises, the rapid postwar dismantling of America’s military by Congress, while backhandedly criticizing the inattention of his predecessor – Woodrow Wilson – to the peacetime transition. “Vast expenditure without proper consideration for results, is the inevitable fruit of war.”
Item #21124, $2,600
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Haim Laskov Writes to His Future Wife during WWII
HAIM LASKOV,
Autograph Letter Signed, to Shulamith Chen. Italy, Nov. 19, 1943. 2 pp. Heading in English, body in Hebrew.
“Night after night I watch (the stars) and read your regards.”
Item #20756, ON HOLD
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William K. And Harold Vanderbilt Signed
World War I Veterans Bonus New York State Bond
[WILLIAM K. VANDERBILT],
Partially Printed Document Signed. $50,000 World War Bonus Bond, issued to William K. Vanderbilt, Harold S. Vanderbilt, and Frederick W. Vanderbilt as trustees for Anna H. Vanderbilt, signed by first two. Certificate #64, with engraved vignette of the state seal. October 16, 1944.
Item #23087, $450
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President Harry S. Truman Signs Potsdam Declaration Demanding Japanese Surrender for Himself, Winston Churchill, and Chiang Kai-shek
HARRY S. TRUMAN,
Typed Document Signed, Potsdam Declaration, July 26, 1945. Truman also adds in his own hand the signatures of Winston Churchill (“Churchill”) and Chiang Kai-shek (“Chiang Kai-shek”). 3 pp. on 2 leaves, 8¼ x 11 in.
“Following are our terms. We will not deviate from them. There are no alternatives. We shall brook no delay.”
This remarkable document, signed by President Harry S. Truman and by him for British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Chairman Chiang Kai-shek of the Republic of China, sets forth their terms for Japan’s surrender. Within days, Churchill had been replaced as prime minister, and within two weeks, the United States Air Force had dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. On August 15, Japanese Emperor Hirohito accepted the terms of the Declaration.
Item #27126.99, $75,000
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