On the U.S.S. Maine disaster - photo 1

On the U.S.S. Maine disaster

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$ 6 250
Auction dateClassic
22.04.2021 10:00UTC -04:00
Auctioneer
CHRISTIE'S
Event location
USA, New York
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ID 517698
Lot 52 | On the U.S.S. Maine disaster
WILSON, Woodrow (1856-1924). Autograph letter signed as President to General J.G. Wilson, Washington, 19 May 1913.

One page on White House stationery, 221 x 174mm (a few minor toned spots). Matted and framed with a portrait.

Wilson declines an invitation to the dedication of a monument to the U.S.S. Maine, adding "My thoughts will be very much with you that day, as will, I am sure the thoughts of the whole country." Wilson adds that "All Americans must look back to the tragedy of the Maine with the profoundest sentiments of sorrow for the fine men who there so tragically and unexpectedly lost their lives, and must always feel that to have been one of the turning points of our consciousness of what was involved in the struggle for human liberty." The monument in question was erected at the southwest entrance to Central Park and unveiled on 30 May 1913. The event was attended by many of the survivors of the disaster with William H. Taft serving as the main orator of the day ("Unveil Memorial to Maine Heroes" New York Times, 31 May 1913, p. 3, which published the contents of the present letter). Two boards of inquiry, the first convened in 1898 and another in 1911, both concluded that the mine in the harbor was the source of the disaster—overlooking a Spanish inquiry that had concluded that the source was more likely the ship's coal bunker. In 1974, Admiral Hyman G. Rickover conducted his own investigation that arrived at the same conclusion as the original Spanish inquiry.
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