Roosevelt, Theodore (1858-1919) 26th President of the United States (1901-09). Typed letter signed as associate editor of "Outlook" magazine, on "The Outlook" stationery, 6 pp, 9½" x 7¾", New York, 18 Sept. 1913. Fine; light toning. Roosevelt made numerous holograph corrections in this letter to Charles Sumner Bird, a candidate for Massachusetts Governor (he lost), as Roosevelt prepared to leave for South America.
The content of this letter is superb. In part: "…Over a year has passed since we founded the Progressive Party….Massachusetts has always taken the lead foro the right in every great crisis of our history….I make my appeal for your election not only to all the men who supported the Progressive ticket last year, but to all…who…felt there was hope of salvation within the two old parties to which they had so long paid allegiance….I appeal to…every Republican who is loyal to the principles of Abraham Lincoln, who is loyal to the great memories of Sumner and Andrew. Last year the bosses of the Republican Party stole from the rank and file of the Republican Party their right to nominate their own ticket and to enunciate their own platform. They turned the Republican Party with its back squarely to the principles of Abraham Lincoln and delivered it bound and shackled into the hands of those who are the enemies of every principle that Lincoln professed and practiced. These men have the Republican Party absolutely in their grip today. One of the prime agents in the theft lasy [sic] year was Mr. Lorimer of Illinois, and it was the Lorimer men who succeeded in breaking the deadlock in the Illinois Legislature by securing an alliance between the Republicans and Democrats against the Progressives….you cannot be true to the principles of the Republicans of the days of Lincoln…unless you turn and smite down the bosses of the party, and break up the evil alliance between commercialism and politics for which those bosses stand; and you can do this only by supporting the Progressive Party. As for the good and honest men and women who make up the rank and file of the Democratic Party, I ask them in their turn to consider what has been done by the Democratic machines in all the States of the Union….In New York State, Tammany has decreed the impeachment of the Governor [William Sulzer]…because that Governor has stood by the cause of the people…he has endeavored to put into jail certain of the prominent Tammany politicians for…malfeasance in office…. Finally, to all independent citizens, and to all party men who put country above party….The bosses have long counted upon the fact that revolt against boss domination in one party could only find expression in seating in power the boss-controlled opposition party. In the last analysis, the bosses on the two old parties work together….You can crush the boss system….You can express your abhorrence of the politicians who win power and position through promises which with cynical indifference they repudiate as soon as elected. You can work for far-reaching measures of social and industrial reform, for genuine popular rule, and for the exercise of this rule in a spirit of justice to all our people, business men, farmers and wageworkers alike…only by supporting the Progressive Party….
This letter sold for over $15,000 at a Superior auction about a dozen years ago.
Estimated Value $7,000 - 10,000
U.S. Presidents
