Details
HARDING, WARREN, President. Autograph letter signed ("W G H"). to [James E. Phillips], husband of Harding's paramour, Carrie Phillips, "Senate Chamber," 22 April [1917?]. 3 pages, 8vo.
"IT IS HIGHLY URGENT THAT SHE EXERCISE GREAT PURDENCE AND CAUTION"
A fine letter in which the extremely distraught Harding appeals to his paramour's husband to help silence Carrie Phillips' dangerously vocal pro-German statements, which are arousing suspicion and had attracted the attention of the Secret Service. "Several days ago I wrote to Carrie along the lines you suggested...and got a reply which in substance said you ran your own affairs. I rather felt my appeal very futile. I wrote her again...very seriously and earnestly, warning her of impending dangers. She is under the eye of Government agents, and it is highly urgent that she exercise great prudence and caution....I know, of course, that she is not deserving surveillance, but...prejudices are more pronounced as the casualty list grows....It's too serious to remain silent....I wonder if you could command. Frankly I doubt it. Perhaps you can appeal....She is under suspicion --all because of imprudent speech. She forgets we are in war--hellish war--and she forgets how Germany treats those who are against the government....If she is loyal and prudent the cloud may pass. She must be....I feel we must cooperate and save her from herself...." Carrie Fulton Phillips, of Marion, Ohio, "looked much like the Gibson-girl archtype," and was "the love of Harding's life," from about 1905 until their affair "ended in recrimination at the time he became a candidate for President in 1920" (F. Russell, The Shadow of Blooming Grove: Warren G. Harding and His Times, 1968, pp.166-167). Autograph letters of Harding are uncommon; the present is one of a small group of Harding's letters to Phillips which came onto the market in Ohio in the 1930s.
Provenance:
Elsie O. and Philip D. Sang Foundation (sale, Sotheby's, 14 November 1978, lot 421).
"IT IS HIGHLY URGENT THAT SHE EXERCISE GREAT PURDENCE AND CAUTION"
A fine letter in which the extremely distraught Harding appeals to his paramour's husband to help silence Carrie Phillips' dangerously vocal pro-German statements, which are arousing suspicion and had attracted the attention of the Secret Service. "Several days ago I wrote to Carrie along the lines you suggested...and got a reply which in substance said you ran your own affairs. I rather felt my appeal very futile. I wrote her again...very seriously and earnestly, warning her of impending dangers. She is under the eye of Government agents, and it is highly urgent that she exercise great prudence and caution....I know, of course, that she is not deserving surveillance, but...prejudices are more pronounced as the casualty list grows....It's too serious to remain silent....I wonder if you could command. Frankly I doubt it. Perhaps you can appeal....She is under suspicion --all because of imprudent speech. She forgets we are in war--hellish war--and she forgets how Germany treats those who are against the government....If she is loyal and prudent the cloud may pass. She must be....I feel we must cooperate and save her from herself...." Carrie Fulton Phillips, of Marion, Ohio, "looked much like the Gibson-girl archtype," and was "the love of Harding's life," from about 1905 until their affair "ended in recrimination at the time he became a candidate for President in 1920" (F. Russell, The Shadow of Blooming Grove: Warren G. Harding and His Times, 1968, pp.166-167). Autograph letters of Harding are uncommon; the present is one of a small group of Harding's letters to Phillips which came onto the market in Ohio in the 1930s.
Provenance:
Elsie O. and Philip D. Sang Foundation (sale, Sotheby's, 14 November 1978, lot 421).