Description
GOUVERNEUR MORRIS HANDWRITTEN LETTER SIGNED, "Admiringly yours, Gouverneur Morris", 3 pgs., on yellow colored note paper, 6 x 4.75, Feb 22, 1917, Aiken, South Carolina, to the Editor of New Augusta Herald, by American author and short story writer. In part: "...Your leader of the 21st instant 'No Time Now for Pleasant converse' is pure unvarnished Americanism, and will do a lot of good. I look to see it widely quoted both in the South and in the North. Also it will be quoted in the west. And that is even more important...The west is a little like China. The number of chinamen who thought that China had beaten Japan was only exceeded by the number who didn't know that there had been any war at all [He is probably referring to the Chino-Japanese War (July 1894-April 1895) fought between China and Japan]. It will always require you to remember that when far to many other editors, up and down this great country, were timorously watching and waiting, you saw to the heart of the greatest question with which we have ever been confronted, remembered only that you were an American, and spoke up like a man...." This emotional letter is probably in reference to the ongoing debate about America getting involved in WWI. Just a few weeks later, April 6, 1917, the U.S. joined it's allies--Britain, France, and Russia--to fight in WWI. Many Americans were not in favor of the U.S. entering the war and wanted to remain neutral. Obviously neither Gouverneur Morris nor the editor was in that camp. In fine condition, with usual letter folds and a few tiny holes not affecting the writing.
Gouverneur Morris IV (1876–1953) was an American author of pulp novels and short stories during the early twentieth century. He was a great grandson of American Founding Father Gouverneur Morris. Many of his works were adapted into films.
$250 #11242
