William H. Taft 1910 Typed Letter Signed as President – On Red Cross Stationery

27th President. Typed letter signed (TLS) “Wm H. Taft” AS PRESIDENT, December 19, 1910, American Red Cross stationery, 6×8, to Elbridge Gerry in Newport, Rhode Island (grandson of the former Vice President and Declaration of Independence signer), in full:

As President of the American Red Cross and by authority of its Executive Committee, I hereby appoint you a member of the Rhode Island American Red Cross Endowment Fund Committee. By acting in this capacity I believe you will be rendering a public service to the country.

A letter of explanation will be sent by Miss Boardman.

After the 1905 American Red Cross Charter was granted by Congress, the most pressing job of the volunteer leaders of the reorganized American Red Cross was to rebuild the membership and its treasury. Mabel T. Boardmanand William H. Taft, then Secretary of War, a member of the Red Cross Board of Incorporators and a Boardman family friend, concentrated on fundraising for disaster relief abroad in an effort to develop the organization’s public image. After leading the faction that forced Clara Barton to resign in 1904, Boardman was the guiding force behind the Red Cross until 1944, two years before her death at 86. She felt that men should occupy the office of Red Cross President to keep the public’s confidence in the organization. Taft, while President of the United States, was titular head of Red Cross but Boardman made all the decisions. Today, continuing the precedent set by Taft, the President of the United States serves as Honorary President of the American Red Cross.

The recipient of the letter, Elbridge Gerry, usually called “Commodore” Gerry due to the office he held with the New York Yacht Club from 1886 to 1892, was an American lawyer and reformer who was the grandson of U.S. Vice President Elbridge Gerry.