Woodrow Wilson
Middletown, CT, December 23, 1889
Wilson ALS With Racial Content RE: Williams College Integration "might give any Southerner pause" Princeton Appointment too!
ALS

An autograph letter signed by a young Woodrow Wilson to his "literary Godfather", Horace E. Scudder. Middletown, Connecticut, dated December 23, 1889. Signed "Woodrow Wilson", the letter concerns Wilson's career prospects in teaching. At the time, Wilson was torn between several prominent schools, including Princeton, Wesleyan, and Williams College. With flattened mail folds and light edge toning. 4pp of a bifolium, measuring 5.25" x 8". Boldly signed.

In full:
"Any proposition coming from you comes with a special claim upon my acceptance because of my esteem for you and of my belief in your interest in my welfare. You are, in a sense, my literary Godfather. But, unhappily, - for a chair of American History has a very strong claim upon my interests and desire - I am in the present case obliged to plead 'a previous engagement'. My strongest interest, as you know, lies on the institutional side of politics, in the history of the political habit and of those legal relations and conceptions which underlie Public Law. Now Princeton is, as you may have seen in the newspapers, about to create a professorship in this very field, and, if she does, I shall feel bound to accept it, if offered me, because of the answers I have made to their overtures to me. Besides, Wesleyan, having just received liberal gifts of money, offers in effect to create such a chair as I want if I will stay here, and if I did not go to Princeton, I should feel bound on many grounds to accept this offer, which is so generous for a small college with departments as yet but partially differentiated.

I venture to thrust this full confidence upon you because I could not in any other way give you a genuine explanation of the impossibility of my considering a call to Williams, which would, under other circumstances be very attractive to me, despite the existence at Williamstown of a climate such as might give any Southerner pause. While I must make this answer to your question, however, I feel very keen satisfaction that I should have been your choice for the chair. I somehow wish I could accept it for the express purpose of trying to prove worthy of your confidence."

The "climate" at Williamstown which Wilson was referring to was the recent graduation of Williams College's first black student, Gaius C. Bolin (1864-1946). Bolin had enrolled at Williams College in 1885 and was joined by his brother, Livingsworth, the following year. After residing off-campus with a local Black family for his first year, Bolin moved into a room in what is now Fayerweather Hall as a sophomore. He was the first African American to graduate from the private liberal arts college in Williamstown, Massachusetts, and went on to study law. Today, the College honors him by offering a post-doctorate teaching fellowship in his name for underrepresented faculty.

From 1885 to 1888, Woodrow Wilson was employed at Bryn Mawr College, where he taught ancient Greek and Roman history, American history, political science, and other subjects. After leaving Bryn Mawr in 1888 due to clashes with M. Carey Thomas, the dean and a staunch feminist, Wilson accepted a position at Wesleyan University, an elite undergraduate college for men in Middletown, Connecticut. In early 1890, Wilson secured a job as the Chair of Jurisprudence and Political Economy at Princeton University. Twelve years later, Wilson was promoted to President of Princeton University, where he worked to keep African Americans out of the school, even as other Ivy League schools were beginning to accept black students.

This item comes with a Certificate from John Reznikoff, a premier authenticator for both major 3rd party authentication services, PSA and JSA (James Spence Authentications), as well as numerous auction houses.

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5.25" x 8"