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Theodore Roosevelt

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles / Autographs Start Price:NA Estimated At:6,000.00 - 8,000.00 USD
Theodore Roosevelt

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Auction Date:2017 Aug 09 @ 18:00 (UTC-5 : EST/CDT)
Location:236 Commercial St., Suite 100, Boston, Massachusetts, 02109, United States
ALS - Autograph Letter Signed
ANS - Autograph Note Signed
AQS - Autograph Quotation Signed
AMQS - Autograph Musical Quotation Signed
DS - Document Signed
FDC - First Day Cover
Inscribed - “Personalized”
ISP - Inscribed Signed Photograph
LS - Letter Signed
SP - Signed Photograph
TLS - Typed Letter Signed
TLS, three pages, 7.75 x 9.5, The Outlook letterhead, February 14, 1913. Letter to "Mr. Henry M. Wallace, National Committeeman, Progressive Party," in part: "The Progressive Party stands for principles, not men. We have in our ranks very many ex-Democrats just as we have very many ex-Republicans. Our loyalty is due to both. The present Republican Party is under the absolute control of the men who stole from the rank and file of the Republican Party last June their right to their own choice for President, when Mr. Taft was fraudulently nominated; and he and his supporters Messrs. Barnes, Penrose, Guggenheim, Lorimer and company have no claim to the support of any honest man. The men who follow and support these men can have nothing in common with our plans and ideas of government. The Progressive Party was formed on principles which we believe to be eternal, which will live long after men of this generation have been gathered to their fathers. We are the spiritual heirs of Abraham Lincoln. The feat accomplished last election was an extraordinary feat. It is necessary to continue with the organization and to make a clear cut fight against both of the old party machines…Wherever the Republican Party has had the opportunity since the election, as in Maine and Massachusetts, it has put in office reactionaries, men of the old machine, men committed to the system of bossism in politics and privilege in business…these men showed that they are still committed to the practice of utter political dishonesty, and to the breaking down of the power of the people in favor of the bosses. We are fighting for great principles, and we are also fighting for honest citizenship against dishonesty in citizenship. We have a right to hope that Michigan will come to the front on this issue." In fine condition, with professional repairs to two areas of paper loss to the last page.

With this letter, Roosevelt hoped to inspire a Michigan Progressive Party leader with soaring, principled rhetoric, reminding him of the party’s strongest held ideals. Roosevelt formed the party—often remembered as the ‘Bull Moose Party’—after he was denied the Republican nomination in 1912, hoping to supplant the incumbent Taft in the presidential election. Running on a platform that called for regulating industry and protecting all classes of Americans, Roosevelt had the satisfaction of defeating Taft in both the popular vote and electoral vote; however, the split Republican vote gave the election to Democrat Woodrow Wilson. After the 1912 loss, the Republican Party hoped to bring their lost supporters back into the fold. Despite Roosevelt’s best efforts—exemplified in this very letter—the party faded, and in 1916 Roosevelt returned to the Republican Party.