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Theodore Roosevelt

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles / Autographs Start Price:NA Estimated At:20,000.00 - 25,000.00 USD
Theodore Roosevelt

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Auction Date:2018 Feb 07 @ 18:00 (UTC-05:00 : 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
Historic TLS from Roosevelt asserting his readiness to accept the Republican nomination for President of the United States, one page, 7.5 x 9, no date but circa February 1912. The letter is Roosevelt’s response to a dispatch sent to him by a group of seven Republican governors on February 10, 1912, announcing their support for his potential candidacy, in full: “I deeply appreciate your letter, and I realize to the full the heavy responsibility it puts upon me, expressing as it does the carefully considered convictions of the men elected by popular vote to stand as the heads of government in their several states. I absolutely agree with you that this matter is not one to he decided with any reference to the personal preferences or wishes of any man, but purely from the standpoint of the interests of the people as a whole. I believe with all my heart the principles for which I have stood and for which I now stand, and which I have always endeavored and always shall endeavor to reduce to action. If the people as a whole regard me as the best instrument to use at this particular moment for the task of putting these principles into effect, I will not shirk the duty that their demand would put upon me. But I very strongly feel that this matter should be settled by the free expression of the people themselves. I earnestly hope that so far as possible the people may be given the chance through direct primaries to express their preference as to who shall be the nominee of the Republican Presidential Convention. If the people do not wish me to undertake this task, most certainly I do not wish to undertake it; if the people do desire me to undertake it, I shall do so, and shall strive to perform the task with whatever of courage and ability I possess.”

The letter from the governors is also included, and reads, in full: “We, the undersigned Republican Governors, assembled for the purpose of considering what will best insure the continuation of the Republican Party as a useful agency of good government declare it as our belief, after a careful investigation of the facts, that a large majority of the Republican voters of the country favor your nomination, and a large majority of the people favor your election as the next President of the United States. We believe that your candidacy will insure success in the next campaign. We believe that you represent, as no other man represents, those principles and policies upon, which we must appeal for a majority of the votes of the American people and which, in our opinion, are necessary for the happiness and prosperity of the country. We believe that in view of this public demand you should soon declare whether if the nomination for the presidency comes to you unsolicited and unsought you will accept it. In submitting this request we are not considering your personal interests. We do not regard it as proper to consider either the interests or the preference of any man as regards the nomination for the presidency. We are expressing our sincere belief and best judgment as to what is demanded of you in the interests of the people as a whole. And we feel that you would be unresponsive to a plain public duty if you should decline to accept the nomination, coming as the voluntary expression of the wishes of a majority of the republican voters of the United States, through the action of their delegates in the next National Convention.” Signed at the conclusion by William E. Glasscock of West Virginia, Chester Hardy Aldrich of Nebraska, Robert P. Bass of New Hampshire, Joseph M. Carey of Wyoming, Chase Osborn of Michigan, Walter R. Stubbs of Kansas, and Herbert S. Hadley of Missouri. Both letters are impressively double-matted and framed with a portrait of Roosevelt and an engraved plaque to an overall size of 29.5 x 36.25. In fine condition, with a rusty paperclip impression to the top edge, and a couple chips and marks to frame edges.

Three years after backing William H. Taft to become his White House successor, Roosevelt sought to displace the sitting president with a late march into the Republican National Convention in June 1912. Roosevelt had initially planned to run for president in 1916, aiming to oust whichever Democrat beat Taft the election prior, but strong shows of support from Republican leadership and his own fast waning patience for Taft’s conservative policies prompted Roosevelt to declare in February 1912: ‘My hat is in the ring! The fight is on and I am stripped to the buff!’ Although Roosevelt won the majority of primaries, which included Taft’s home state of Ohio, his loss at the Republican Convention led to his formation of the Progressive or Bull Moose Party. Roosevelt carried a tireless campaign across 10,000 miles and 34 states, effectively using his ‘bully pulpit’ to speak out in favor of Progressive Era causes like minimum wage laws, conservation, women’s suffrage, safer workplaces, and the eight-hour workday. At a stop in Milwaukee on October 14, Roosevelt was shot in the chest by an assassin’s bullet; when he realized that he was not fatally injured, Roosevelt completed his full 90 minute speech. The historic presidential election of 1912—consisting of a former, current, and future president—was ultimately captured by Democratic candidate Woodrow Wilson, whose campaign was helped in large part by the Republican Party split. An early and historically significant letter relating to Roosevelt’s late entry into the 1912 presidential race; Roosevelt’s second place finish is widely considered one of the most successful third-party candidacies in American history.