Other Correspondence
Document Type
Letter
Files
Download Full Text (569 KB)
Date
9-6-1911
Keywords
Charles D. Hilles, William Howard Taft, Philander C. Knox, Ambassador to Russia
Description
The document is a copy of a typed letter from the Assistant Secretary of State to Charles D. Hilles concerning Wilson's biographic submission in the Department of State's 1911 Register.
Sender
Francis Mairs Huntington-Wilson
Recipient
Charles D. Hilles
Corresponds to:
Folder 1-13, Document 13a
City
Washington, D. C.
Transcription
September 6, 1911.
Personal and Confidential.
My dear Hilles:
May I trouble you to take for me a moment of the President's time for the following small question? A year or more ago, after a Cabinet meeting, Secretary Knox showed me a bit of paper on which the President had written the inquiry whether I should like to be Ambassador to Russia. I remember it was when the Rockhills were complaining of the expense of the post. Secretary Knox then made me this offer and I cherish the compliment he paid me by saying, after my pious expressions of appreciation and of preference for remaining in the work here, that he would not have told me if he had thought I would accept. To make a long story short, - people always take the attitude that one's diplomatic career should be crowned with an appointment as Ambassador. In my own case I have been Special Ambassador and I think it very probable that after this Administration domestic politics would appeal
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to me more than further diplomacy. In these circumstances it would be a satisfaction to me to have the President's kind offer of record. I should like to do this by having inserted in our Department's official Register in the paragraph giving my service since 1897 these words, among the other items, "In 1910 was offered by the President appointment as Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to Russia but declined in order to remain in the Department". The Register is about to go to press. Will you please drop me a line saying whether my doing this would be entirely agreeable to the President?
Apologizing for troubling the President and you yourself with such a trifle, I remain, always, with kind regards,
Very sincerely yours,
[sgd: Huntington Wilson]
Charles D. Hilles, Esquire,
Secretary to the President,
Beverly, Massachusetts.
Language
English
Rights Statement
Please contact the Myrin Library Special Collections Department for permissions to use this document. https://www.ursinus.edu/library/archives-special-collections/
Recommended Citation
Huntington-Wilson, Francis Mairs, "Letter From Francis Mairs Huntington-Wilson to Charles D. Hilles, September 6, 1911" (1911). Other Correspondence. 215.
https://digitalcommons.ursinus.edu/fmhw_other/215
