Letter from Cleveland H. Dodge to President Woodrow Wilson, March 5, 1917

Forms part of Woodrow Wilson papers, 1786-1957; for additional information, see: http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.mss/eadmss.ms009194
The United States was poised to enter World War I at the time of President Wilson's second inauguration in 1917. The President receives an encouraging letter from his lifelong friend and former Princeton classmate, Cleveland Dodge of New York, who campaigned for Wilson and later championed his League of Nations. Dodge was a wealthy businessman who had interests in lumber, copper mining, and railways. Generous in his philanthropies, he contributed to Princeton University, the American University in Beirut, the Red Cross, the New York Public Library, and the American Museum of Natural History in New York. In this letter to President Wilson, Dodge uses nautical imagery in offering his best wishes for a safe administration, saying: "Although you are sailing out to stormy seas, and the Old Ship of State is a wee bit creaky, and some of the crew are rather mutinous, yet thank God, you have an heart of oak, and must feel today, as never before, that you have with you the wishes and prayers, not only of nearly all your own people, but those of nearly the whole world. May God grant that your voyage may be prosperous and that after four years you may land safely and happily in a peaceful and spacious harbor."
Letter from Cleveland H. Dodge to President Woodrow Wilson, March 5, 1917.
Original document scanned in 1999-2000 for the former American Memory presentation “I Do Solemnly Swear”: Presidential Inaugurations (retired 2016).