William Howard Taft (1857-1930) 27th President. 5” x 7 ¾” autograph letter signed, “Affectionately, Bill,” five-pages, Rome, July 18, 1902, to “My dear Kelse.” “…I had no chance to say goodbye to you. I wanted to express to you my deep sense of obligation to you and Bill Gilbert for that dinner at the Yale Club. Nothing in my life has touched me more. My visit to Rome has not been as successful as I hoped. We struck the rock of the Religious Orders who are powerful here and found that while the Church is very anxious to make an agreement it will nt say anything in writing…Our stay in Rome has been very full of interest. We have glimpsed behind the scenes in the Nation & we have enjoyed something of Roman society…I was a good deal discouraged about the political outlook when I was in Washington but things have so shaped themselves now that even if the House goes Democratic…it will not be significant…The truth is that the Democrats in the Senate seem to have over doe…their attacks on the Philippines policy and on the army…The coal strike in uncomfortable but it does not seem to have great popular support….”