May 05, 2016 - Sale 2413

Sale 2413 - Lot 156

Price Realized: $ 422
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 600 - $ 900
ACCEPTING NOMINATION WOULD BE HIS REPUBLICAN DUTY MCKINLEY, WILLIAM. Autograph Letter Signed, "William McKinley Jr.," as Representative, to journalist Guy S. Comly, with holograph "Confidential for the present" written at upper edge of first page, explaining that he would accept the nomination for Governor if an undivided Republican Party nominated him and, in a postscript, remarking that judgments about nomination should be left to the convention. 6 pages, 8vo, "House of Representatives" stationery, written on the rectos and versos of three sheets; horizontal folds. With the original envelope, addressed in his hand. (TFC) Washington, 26 December 1890
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". . . [A]bout the Governorship. I have noted with no feeling of indifference the sentiment throughout the State for my nomination--a sentiment which I have in no way influenced or promoted by any word or suggestion of mine; and therefore it is all the more gratifying to me. I have not thought that I ought to be a seeker for the nomination at the hands of the Republican party, and I cannot and will not be placed in that position. I would not want to be at the head of the ticket unless it was the manifest sentiment of a majority of the Republicans of the State. If that shall be the sentiment when the convention assembles and it shall so declare I should esteem it both an honor and a duty to respond to the call. . . . I think I know what labors and responsibilities would attach to a nomination at that time. It will be one of those periods in our political history in the State . . . when no Republican can afford to decline any call of duty which his party may make."
The postscript: "It may be that before the convention assembles some body else's nomination would seem the wisest to make, and therefore it would be best that no earlier judgment should be created which might embarrass the Republicans of the State. The strongest nomination must be made which it is possible to make."