Elizabeth reported to me very graphically that visit with Mr. Harding.
I was so upset over the whole situation that I must have listened but
dully to the things she said. The above statements are all I can recall
now, with the exception of one other. This “one other” stands out
clearly above everything else that was told me by Elizabeth. She said
that when she entered his office he shook hands with her and remarked
with his Harding smile, “You are looking very stunning, Elizabeth!”
Knowing his charm when he said complimentary things, I must confess to
a tiny bit of jealousy, though I was naturally proud that he found my
sister so attractive. I loved Elizabeth very dearly.
Elizabeth and I discussed very fully after that visit the advantage
of such an arrangement, both from Elizabeth Ann’s standpoint and from
mine. It must have been about this time that Elizabeth told me that
she had been obliged to tell her husband, Scott Willits, the truth.
Although I resented this further confidence on her part at the time,
it was understandable in the light of many mysterious movements both
on my part and on the part of my sister, and it was only natural that
Elizabeth should take her husband into the secret.
[Illustration: This inscription is to the sister of the author--1921]
I wanted so much to have the baby with me. To give her up completely
through a legal adoption meant the greatest sacrifice of my life.
Elizabeth presented the question to me in the light of my helping Mr.
Harding at a time when he genuinely needed my co-operation. Of course I
wanted to help my darling, but I loved our child with a devotion that
was equal in its intensity to the love I felt for her father. I was so
profoundly disturbed over the thing that my sleep became nightmarish;
my nerves seemed to be gone completely.
Of one thing I was certain in my mind: I would not consent to Elizabeth
Ann’s being adopted by anyone, not even my sister and her husband,
unless I could have full control over her future, her education and her
welfare in general. For some reason my brother-in-law took exactly the
opposite viewpoint when we discussed it with him, and resisted such a
plan, desiring, as I desired, to have full authority. While I could
not understand then his attitude, I can more charitably view it now,
for indeed a child with three parents means “a house divided against
itself.” Scott Willits, my sister’s husband, was with the Chicago Opera
Company then, and they were about to go on tour. Elizabeth and he and
I talked and talked but what I agreed to did not seem to be what Scott
would agree to, though Elizabeth loved me so much she would have done
anything to make it possible for me to control my own child.
_58_
It must have been in early February, 1921, that Mr. Harding wrote
to me, telling me he and his family were going to Cleveland to have
some dental work done and that I should meet him at the Hotel Statler
there. I did so, following his instructions to await a messenger on
the mezzanine floor who would bring me a note in his (Mr. Harding’s)
handwriting so that I should know it was all right to accompany him
to where Mr. Harding would be waiting for me. This messenger, whose
name I do not recall, evidently thought I had considerable influence
with the President-elect, for he talked to me very earnestly about
certain things that Mr. Harding “ought to do,” all of which I listened
to without much comment. Then at the appointed time he escorted me
upstairs to the room which had been reserved for our interview. Mr.
Harding joined me in this room almost immediately and we remained there
for an hour or so. Outside the door a guard was stationed.
Mr. Harding looked worn and I asked him if he had had a trying time at
the dentist’s, to which he replied, “I’ve been in the chair for four
hours straight, Nan,” with a wry smile. I tried to kiss the memory of
it away.
I told Mr. Harding how I felt about the adoption, and that I could not
bring myself to give our child up to anyone. He said he understood how
I felt, but that the time had come when we would have to devise _some_
means of taking care of her and he did not feel the home of the nurse
was the proper place.
“How about putting her in a Catholic Home, dearie?”, he inquired
gently. I was sitting on his lap and at this suggestion I sat up very
straight and looked at him, astounded. “A Catholic Home!” I repeated
incredulously. “Why, Nan, they are not bad places--the surroundings are
refined, and she would receive excellent care until such time as you or
I might be able to take her,” he explained.
But the very idea of a “home” conjured up before me pictures too
distasteful for words. I remembered the “orphans’ home” near Marion,
which I occasionally used to pass when my father, who practised
medicine twenty-five years in Marion, took me with him on calls into
the country, and the memory of the pity and sense of fear with which I
shrunk from going past that “home” was something akin to the feeling I
experienced when Mr. Harding mentioned a “Catholic Home.” Once inside
such a place, perhaps one might have to remain--I didn’t know. And it
seemed all out of proportion to the character of our own special case
to suggest such a home for a President’s child.
I supposed I voiced these things aloud; I don’t remember. But Mr.
Harding was entirely sympathetic. “I’ll agree to anything you suggest,
dearie,” he said. Of course I had nothing to suggest. I would not
listen to his repeated suggestion that he see Mr. Scobey, or even that
he talk with his sister, Mrs. Charity Remsberg. I wanted Elizabeth Ann
myself, and somehow it seemed to me I would never _never_ see her again
if I allowed either of these families to take her, even though Mrs.
Remsberg _was_ my sweetheart’s sister.
“I guess the only thing is to let Elizabeth and Scott adopt her,” I
said resignedly. Then I could be with her at least. “See, here I have
Elizabeth’s itemized statement of her expenses if we decide to follow
such a course,” and I produced a small piece of paper on which my
sister had entered her necessary monthly expenses. Mr. Harding slapped
his Oxford glasses on his nose and looked at the final amount at the
bottom; he was never much interested in my money items except as a
whole. He agreed to the amount, saying if such an arrangement would
make me happier than would an arrangement such as he had suggested,
whereby later on I or he might take the baby as ours, he was agreeable
to it. He tried to impress upon me how I would want to take the baby
later on, but I could not see any future possibility of my being
able to do so; and would he not be in the White House for four long
years?--possibly eight. The adoption by the Willitses seemed to me
to be the only thing in sight, regardless of how I deplored the
arrangement.
Mr. Harding had met Scott Willits casually, immediately following his
nomination in Chicago. This meeting was prearranged by Mr. Harding
and me, and took place in the Florentine Room of the Congress Hotel.
It was late afternoon when Mr. Harding appeared where others besides
Elizabeth, Scott and I were waiting to shake his hand. He came in
hatless and the June warmth was in his face. I have never experienced
in Chicago, heat surpassing the heat of those exciting days of the
Republican Convention in 1920. My brother-in-law had been out of the
hospital less than a week where he had undergone a slight operation,
and his cheeks were sallow. How healthy Mr. Harding looked! His
greeting for all of us was one of such natural cordiality and long-time
friendliness that I am sure it did not go unremarked by others in
the room. We chatted several minutes, then Mr. Harding said with his
good-natured smile, “You know, we folks who run for office sometimes
neglect a lot of things--I just happened to think, standing here, that
I have had no luncheon!” I looked at the watch which he had given
me three years before. “Why, it’s four o’clock!” Mr. Harding looked
around cautiously at the others waiting to claim his time. “Yes, and
I must go--” I interrupted him. “You’re going _first_ and have some
luncheon--please!” I pleaded as he turned to Elizabeth and Scott and
held out his hand. I squeezed his fingers, and, as he turned away,
called after him again, “Don’t forget to eat!”
Now, on the occasion of my visit with him in the Statler Hotel, he
was recalling this meeting with Scott and assuring me that he thought
everything would be fine if we decided to proceed with the adoption
arrangement. I remember he said, “You love Elizabeth, don’t you,
dearie?” And when I sobbed against his shoulder, “Y-e-s, b-u-t,” he
said, “Well, I know she will do all in her power to see that you have
Elizabeth Ann with you as much as you wish.” I told him then that she
had indeed been a peach. “Yes,” agreed Mr. Harding, “I have never
known a more beautiful love between two sisters than that which exists
between you and Elizabeth.” He knew better than anyone else how I
adored my sister.
Then, in an attempt at a gayer mood, which I am sure the work of
the dentist and our serious considerations could not have genuinely
inspired, Mr. Harding told me how he thought he could have me often
in Washington. He promised to send for me just as soon after the
inauguration as possible. He gave me sufficient funds to carry me over
and to pay Elizabeth and Scott in advance, and urged me to complete
the adoption arrangements as soon as I comfortably could.
Then he kissed me goodbye and we parted again.
_59_
But Scott remained adamant. And so the controversy about where the
authority should rest which would govern Elizabeth Ann in the future
continued. However, Elizabeth and I did seek a lawyer, and I laid
before him in confidence my problem, and the three of us--Elizabeth,
Scott and I--had a long talk with him. He proved to be a judge--and a
Catholic. He pointed out to me the advantages in connection with the
Catholic “home” proposition, of course not dreaming he was advising
me in behalf of a child that belonged to the President of the United
States, or rather the President-elect. But I could not see that. The
only thing that seemed to hold out the promise of being with my baby
was the adoption.
When Scott left to go on tour with the Chicago Opera Company the final
decision had not been reached. But after he departed, Elizabeth wrote
to him, finally obtaining his consent to the adoption, which also
provided a legal guardianship which would give _me_ full authority over
Elizabeth Ann. In this way was the matter consummated, and I wrote to
Mr. Harding in Marion, telling him that final arrangements were being
made and requesting the necessary $300 which the lawyer said would
be his fee. Of course I had told the lawyer I wished the matter kept
strictly confidential, and I gave him my name as Nan Britton Christian,
though my name in the birth certificate registering our baby as
Elizabeth Ann Christian had been Emma Eloise Britton (Christian). Mr.
Harding sent me the $300 from Columbus where he was passing through on
his way to Washington for the inauguration, enclosing the money in a
note to me, the envelope being stamped only with a two-cent stamp and
not registered.
The lawyer was very kind to me, though Mr. Harding said upon my first
visit to him in the White House that the charge for the adoption papers
was exhorbitant. I have often thought that my statement to the lawyer
to the effect that Elizabeth Ann might some day have some money, and
that I wished to be in a position to take charge of all of her affairs,
may have had some influence in the matter of his arriving at so large a
fee. I know I did state to him that she would very likely have a small
amount to her credit immediately, and he suggested my investing it in
government bonds. However, in spite of the fact that Mr. Harding often
spoke to me of such a fund, he did not tell me definitely that he had
started it, and he died very suddenly, with an ocean between us.
I was distinctly given to understand by my lawyer that my legal
guardianship over Elizabeth Ann really constituted me the sole parent
in all but name. It was because I desired this statement in writing
from the lawyer that early in 1926 I was prompted to write to him,
recalling to his memory the circumstances surrounding the adoption and
requesting to know my legal status and whether I was obliged to report
back to the court in the matter. I told him I was under the impression
that it had been fixed up for all time so that such a report from me
was unnecessary. In his letter to me, dated June 26, 1926, he states,
“Where the appointment is only for the purpose of consenting to her
adoption and that having transpired and the accounting having been
filed and you having been excused from further accounting and further
duty by the court, there is no further necessity for a guardianship,
unless she receives some property and if that should happen in
Illinois, then you would be the legal guardian to control said property
until she becomes of legal age,” a statement widely at variance with
the positive one he made to me in 1921, viz., that by the arrangement
then made I would be Elizabeth Ann’s legal guardian, fully empowered
to act for her in all things, and that this arrangement would be final
and for all time. In fact, it was for this service I thought I paid
him the sum of $300. When I saw Mr. Harding for the first time in the
White House, I told him I was sure my Chicago attorney had been
obliged to go outside the regular procedure in cases of adoptions in
appointing me legal guardian for all time, thus endeavoring to explain
away the charge of $300 which Mr. Harding had termed “exhorbitant.” The
statement from my lawyer’s letter which I have just quoted--and the
general information contained in the full letter, which is of course in
my possession--does not point to the fact that I had at any time during
the legal proceedings been made Elizabeth Ann’s legal guardian for all
time as I fondly thought; though I may be wrong about this after all.
I am sure my sister Elizabeth and her husband both would be very much
surprised at this piece of contradictory information for they have
never been told by me that I have received such a letter and are, as I
was, under the decided impression that I am Elizabeth Ann’s guardian
for all time. Whether or not the difference in names given--the birth
certificate bearing my maiden name as Emma Eloise Britton (Christian)
and the adoption papers made out in the name of Nan Britton (Christian)
would in itself annul the adoption and make void even the action taken
back in 1921, I do not know. I know little about the law and its
intricacies.
[Illustration:
ADOPTION NOTICE.--STATE OF ILLInois. County of Cook, ss.--County Court
of Cook County. In the matter of the petition of Scott A. Willits and
Blanche E. Willits to adopt Elisabeth Ann Christian. Adoption. No.
45321.
To Elizabeth Ann Christian, Edmund N. Christian, Nan Britton
Christian, and all whom it may concern:
Take notice, that on the 2nd day of February, A. D. 1921, a petition
was filed by Scott A. Willits and Blanche E. Willits in the County
Court of Cook County, Illinois, for the adoption of a child named
Elizabeth Ann Christian and to change her name to that of Elizabeth
Ann Willits.
Now, unless you appear within twenty days after the date of this
notice and show cause against such application, the petition shall be
taken as confessed and a decree of adoption entered.
Dated, Chicago, Illinois. February 2nd, A. D. 1921.
ROBERT M. SWEITZER, Clerk.
Feb--3