Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. Autograph Letter Signed.

Rare autograph letter signed and entirely in the hand of SUPREME COURT JUSTICE OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES, JR.

Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. Autograph Letter Signed.

HOLMES, Jr..

Item Number: 112740

Rare autograph letter signed and entirely in the hand of American Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. One page folded on Supreme Judicial Court of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts letterhead, the letter is dated March 20, 1900 and reads, “Dear Mr. Ernst, I have meditated prayerfully on your kind suggestion that I should deliver the next 4th of July Oration and I think I ought not to attempt it. I shrink from assuming extra burdens at present and I have not so definite a sense of having something particular to say as to overcome the fear of avoidable fatigue. I write to you and not to his Honor the Mayor because you spoke to me. May I beg you to convince him that I am very humbled by the honor of the very suggestion. Sincerely your O.W. Holmes.”

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. was an American jurist who served as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1902 to 1932, and as Acting Chief Justice of the United States January–February 1930. Noted for his long service, his concise and pithy opinions and his deference to the decisions of elected legislatures, he is one of the most widely cited United States Supreme Court justices in history, particularly for his "clear and present danger" opinion for a unanimous Court in the 1919 case of Schenck v. United States, and is one of the most influential American common law judges, honored during his lifetime in Great Britain as well as the United States. Holmes retired from the Court at the age 90, making him the oldest Justice in the Supreme Court's history. He also served as an Associate Justice and as Chief Justice on the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, and was Weld Professor of Law at the Harvard Law School, of which he was an alumnus.

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