Beschreibung:

ROOSEVELT, Theodore. Autograph letter signed ("Theodore Roosevelt") to an unidentified correspondent ("Dear Sir"), State of New York, Assembly Chamber, Albany, N.Y., 1 May 1884. 8 pages, 4to (8 7/8 x 5 11/16 in.), boldy written on four sheets of decorative State Assembly stationery, several ink corrections in the text, each leaf neatly tipped to a larger sheet. Bound with calligraphic title-page, an early photographic portrait and a full transcript in orange-red morocco gilt, rubbed. THE YOUNG ROOSEVELT TACKLES MUNICIPAL CORRUPTION AND JAY GOULD, AND PROUDLY DESCRIBES HIS EFFORTS AS AN INDEPENDANT AT THE NEW YORK REPUBLICAN CONVENTION: AN IMPORTANT EARLY AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH An exuberant and detailed account, written very early in Roosevelt's political carreer, during his second term as Assemblyman and only three scant months after the wrenching deaths of his mother and young wife. It admirably evinces the 26-year-old politician's passionate committment to reform and includes an account of his key role in the 1884 New York Republican Party Convention, which brought him suddenly to the attention of the electorate: "I do not know where you would find a sketch of my life...I was born in New York...my father of old Dutch Knickerbocker stock; my mother was a Georgian, descended from the revolutionary Governor Bullock, I graduated at Harvard in 1880...taking degrees in Natural History and Political economy; and was fond of sparring, being champion light weight at one time." He notes with pride that he has "published sundry papers on ornithology...as well as "a 'History of the Naval War of 1812 with an account of the Battle of New Orleans...' which has gone through three editions. I am very fond of both horse and rifle, and spend my summers either on the great plains after buffalo and antelope or in the northern woods, after deer and caribou." He reports matter-of-factly on his marriage "to Miss Alice Lee of Boston" and that "my wife and mother died in February 1884." Elected to the Assembly in 1881, he became caught up in a controversy over bribery and corruption: "my chief work was endeavoring to get Judge Westbrook impeached on the ground of malfeasance in office and collusion with Mr. Jay Gould, in connection with railroad legislation." Re-elected in 1883, "when the Republicans were in a minority," Roosevelt recounts that he was a candidate for speaker "becoming their titular leader on the floor." Re-elected, he was again a candidate for speaker, losing to "Mr. Sheerd, who was backed by both the halfbreeds who followed Senator Miller, and the Stalwarts of President Arthur's train. This winter my main work has been pushing the Municipal Reform Bills for New York City," for which he has "conducted a number of investigations..." "In the [Republican Presidential] primaries [in Utica, 23 April]...I led the Independents in my District, who, for the first time in the history of New York City politics, won against the machine men, though the latter were backed up by all the Federal and Municipal patronage." Teddy's faction (which supported Senator Edmunds of Vermont) "held the balance of power between the followers of Blaine and Arthur" and "used our position to such good effect as to procure the election of all four delegates..." At the end he notes that "my recreations are reading, writing and shooting."