Beschreibung:

ROOSEVELT, Theodore (1858-1919). President . Typed letter signed ("Theodore Roosevelt") to George W. Perkins, with six autograph corrections or additions, New York, 3 October 1916. 1 page, 4to . [With:] a typed letter signed of George Perkins sending Roosevelt's letter to James Byrne ROOSEVELT CENSURES PRESIDENT WILSON: "THE PRESIDENT IS A MOST DANGEROUS DEMAGOGUE" An outspoken letter in which the former President praises a letter of James Byrne critical of President Woodrow Wilson. Roosevelt's presidency (1901-1909) was marked by substantial progressive reform which had a dramatic impact upon labor, big business and the environment. His decision to run for the presidency again at the head of the new Progressive Party in 1912 was fueled by displeasure with his hand-picked successor William H. Taft. Not only did Wilson win the presidency, he adopted, in whole or part, many aspects of Roosevelt's own program for reform: "Gnashing his teeth all the while, Roosevelt was also forced to sit idly by and watch as Wilson stole much of the Progressive platform of 1912, and in a virtuoso performance, rammed it through a reluctant Congress" (Miller, Theodore Roosevelt, a Life , p. 539). Roosevelt's greatest animosity towards Wilson, however resulted from the President's neutral stance during the first years of World War I: "The Colonel's loathing for Woodrow Wilson was almost psychopathic in intensity...he wrote 'He is certainly a timid man in all that affects sustaining the honor and the national interests of the United States'"(Miller, p. 543). Here, only a month before the national election which Roosevelt hoped would drive Wilson from office, he writes: "That's a capital letter of Byrne's! He may be right as to the reason of the President's action and inaction. I am inclined to think that while all that Byrne's says about the President's loose tongue and fingers and inability to think anything through to the end is true enough, yet that fundamentally the President is a most dangerous demagogue, because he realizes and plays upon the capital American weakness of treating fine words as an offset to selfish or unworthy action." Making reference to the sending of notes to England, possibly an allusion to Wilson's diplomatic messages to the European belligerents, Roosevelt writes: "Again what Mr. Byrne's says about the note writing to England; I think he has put it exactly right, and I shall hereafter adopt his suggestion. I don't know what to say about his advice not to say that we have incurred the derision of mankind. It is a fact!"