ROOSEVELT, THEODORE, President. Typed letter signed ("Theodore Roosevelt") as President, with 8-line autograph addition, to Willard C. Gompf of Hartford, Conn.; Washington, D.C., 4 June 1908. 2 pages, 4to, on pages 1 and 4 of a four-page sheet, page 1 headed The White House, Washington, strongly marked "Private" in Roosevelt's hand at top corner.
ROOSEVELT, THEODORE, President. Typed letter signed ("Theodore Roosevelt") as President, with 8-line autograph addition, to Willard C. Gompf of Hartford, Conn.; Washington, D.C., 4 June 1908. 2 pages, 4to, on pages 1 and 4 of a four-page sheet, page 1 headed The White House, Washington, strongly marked "Private" in Roosevelt's hand at top corner. "WE HAVE BUNKER HILL, AND I AM NOT MUCH CONCERNED ABOUT WHO MAY OWN THE CANNON THAT WERE ON TOP OF IT" A exceptional and unusual letter from Roosevelt. Gompf had written to President Roosevelt concerning efforts to have returned to the United States a cannon captured by the British Army at the Battle of Bunker Hill (1775), and now reposing in the citadel in Quebec, Canada. Roosevelt's thoughtful reply, touching on the symbolic nature of war trophies is highly interesting: "...I am not certain that I sympathize with you in this matter. For instance, I had not the least sympathy with the people who wanted to purchase for America the flag of the Chesapeake, and I was glad a British subject purchased it and gave it to a British society. I did not want to regain that flag by gold; it was lost by blood. So with these cannon. We have Bunker Hill, and I am not much concerned about who may own the cannon that were on top of it. Certainly nothing could induce me to ask for them, and I should be exceedingly sorry to see any American ask for them. I suppose somewhere we have the cannon captured at Saratoga and Yorktown; and I would not want to get back the cannon captured from us unless it was in the way of an exchange. To my mind it would be proper to make an exchange of one trophy for another. That would create a different situation. But I should think that all soldiers would feel as I do, that the value of a trophy consists in the fact that it is a trophy; that it represents superior prowess; and that there is no point in getting back...in peace something that we lost by arms in war." In a bold hand-written addition, filling the blank portion of the second page, Roosevelt adds: "To ask outright for the restoration of a trophy (not in the way of exchange) to my mind puts my man asking, and his nation, in a rather humiliating and unworthy position." Provenance : Creighton Hart Collection (sale, Christie's, 9 December 1993, lot 296, $13,000).
ROOSEVELT, THEODORE, President. Typed letter signed ("Theodore Roosevelt") as President, with 8-line autograph addition, to Willard C. Gompf of Hartford, Conn.; Washington, D.C., 4 June 1908. 2 pages, 4to, on pages 1 and 4 of a four-page sheet, page 1 headed The White House, Washington, strongly marked "Private" in Roosevelt's hand at top corner.
ROOSEVELT, THEODORE, President. Typed letter signed ("Theodore Roosevelt") as President, with 8-line autograph addition, to Willard C. Gompf of Hartford, Conn.; Washington, D.C., 4 June 1908. 2 pages, 4to, on pages 1 and 4 of a four-page sheet, page 1 headed The White House, Washington, strongly marked "Private" in Roosevelt's hand at top corner. "WE HAVE BUNKER HILL, AND I AM NOT MUCH CONCERNED ABOUT WHO MAY OWN THE CANNON THAT WERE ON TOP OF IT" A exceptional and unusual letter from Roosevelt. Gompf had written to President Roosevelt concerning efforts to have returned to the United States a cannon captured by the British Army at the Battle of Bunker Hill (1775), and now reposing in the citadel in Quebec, Canada. Roosevelt's thoughtful reply, touching on the symbolic nature of war trophies is highly interesting: "...I am not certain that I sympathize with you in this matter. For instance, I had not the least sympathy with the people who wanted to purchase for America the flag of the Chesapeake, and I was glad a British subject purchased it and gave it to a British society. I did not want to regain that flag by gold; it was lost by blood. So with these cannon. We have Bunker Hill, and I am not much concerned about who may own the cannon that were on top of it. Certainly nothing could induce me to ask for them, and I should be exceedingly sorry to see any American ask for them. I suppose somewhere we have the cannon captured at Saratoga and Yorktown; and I would not want to get back the cannon captured from us unless it was in the way of an exchange. To my mind it would be proper to make an exchange of one trophy for another. That would create a different situation. But I should think that all soldiers would feel as I do, that the value of a trophy consists in the fact that it is a trophy; that it represents superior prowess; and that there is no point in getting back...in peace something that we lost by arms in war." In a bold hand-written addition, filling the blank portion of the second page, Roosevelt adds: "To ask outright for the restoration of a trophy (not in the way of exchange) to my mind puts my man asking, and his nation, in a rather humiliating and unworthy position." Provenance : Creighton Hart Collection (sale, Christie's, 9 December 1993, lot 296, $13,000).
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.jpg "Quelle: Christie's")
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