Beschreibung:

ROOSEVELT, THEODORE, President. Typed letter signed in full to Major Rock H. Channing, Jr., Chief of Field Artillery, WITH LONG AUTOGRAPH ADDITIONS, Oyster Bay, N.Y., 27 July l9l8. One page, 4to, on imprinted stationery, with original stamped and postmarked envelope. AT THE HEIGHT OF THE CARNAGE ON THE MARNE, ROOSEVELT VOWS THAT "THE OLD SHOULD NOT LIVE WHEN THE YOUNG DIE" A striking expression of the former President's reaction to the news of the bloody warfare raging in Europe, which, for the first time, involved American troops of Pershing's American Expeditionary Force. Beginning in the late Spring, a series of major German army offensives had been launched, culminating in costly battles along the Marne River, at Belleau Wood, Vaux, and Chateau-Thierry (in June) and the costly Aisne-Marne counteroffensive, from July l8 to August 6. "I am very glad to get your letter. Well, I wish you and I were on the other side. [Added in manuscript:] It is hard for me because the old should not live when the young die. My four boys have done pretty well, haven't they?" Roosevelt had offered to raise and train a division of Americans to fight in the European conflict, but to his great outrage, President Wilson refused to activate the force, depriving Roosevelt of his last chance to go to war. His four sons, though, were soon serving in the Expeditionary force at the front; three were wounded in the ensuing conflict. Roosevelt sounded the same note of regret that he was not able to fight, and echoed his regrets that so many young men would die, in another letter of 14 August l9l8, to John Burroughs (sold in these rooms from the Doheny Library, 22 February l988, lot 2133, $6500).