Description:

Roosevelt Theodore

Vice President Teddy Roosevelt TLS with lengthy handwritten postscript treating citizenship in U.S. territories

 

1p TLS signed by Vice President Teddy Roosevelt (1858-1919) as "Theodore Roosevelt" at center right. Including a lengthy handwritten postscript (45+ words) inscribed in black fountain pen. Purple typed ink on watermarked cream stationery with "The Vice President's Chamber, Washington, D.C." letterhead. Written at Oyster Bay, New York on June 3, 1901. In very good condition, with expected paper folds and some extra wrinkles and creases. Accompanied by a matching envelope. Roosevelt's pre-printed free franked signature appears at upper right; the letter bears several postmarks, and is opened at right.

 

Roosevelt had assumed the vice presidency just two months earlier, in March 1901; following President William McKinley's assassination three months later, he would become president. TR wrote this letter (with original spelling mistakes) to F.G. Fincke, a lawyer from upstate New York:

 

[Typed

 

"Oyster Bay, N.Y, June 3rd, 1901.

 

F.G. Fincke, Esq.,

 

30 Genesee St., Utica, N.Y.

 

My dear Fincke: --

 

I inclose the letters.

 

If you think that decision made us lose morally in the eyes of Europe, you have a mighty poor conception of European morality"

 

[Handwritten "! Seriously, unless we were to go back to the Dred Scott decision, I fail to see how the Supreme Court could do otherwise than it did; I should have felt another decision to be a real calamity, and am astounded at the narrowness of the margin in the vote."

 

[Typed

 

"Sincerely yours,"

 

[Signed

 

"Theodore Roosevelt."

 

Vice President Roosevelt is referring to the 5-4 Supreme Court decision concerning Downes v. Bidwell, which was announced just six days earlier, on May 27, 1901. The case concerned a New York fruit merchant who objected to paying import taxes on Puerto Rican oranges. As Roosevelt remarked, the case was narrowly decided. The Supreme Court resolved that the U.S. Constitution does not necessarily apply to citizens in U.S. territories. Instead, Congress could and should decide the extent of  constitutional liberties for citizens in territories not recognized on the path to statehood.

 

This letter illustrates Roosevelt's hardline conservative attitude towards U.S. imperialism. U.S. territorial gains in Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines following the Spanish-American and Philippine-American Wars generated heated national discourse about what constituted citizenship, who deserved it, and to what extent. Many of these ideas were discussed, articulated, and later codified by the Supreme Court in its series of so-called Insular Laws. 

 

In the letter, Roosevelt also referenced another significant legal case addressing the topic of citizenship. In its 1857 ruling on Dred Scott v. Sanford, the Supreme Court maintained that any black person whose ancestors had been enslaved were not American citizens and therefore had no standing in modern law courts. The plaintiff, a Virginia slave, had attempted to force his former mistress to sell him his and his family's freedom.

 

Roosevelt's conservatism and hawkishness would only harden over the course of his presidency. His most famous soundbite, "Speak softly and carry a big stick," expressed his approval of the use of military intimidation to expand U.S. control abroad.

 

Last, Roosevelt's cutting remark about European morality (or lack thereof) is consistent with his attitude of American exceptionalism. Who cared about public opinion in Europe, that ethical cesspool? Universal laws of conduct did not apply to the United States anyway.

 

F.G. Fincke, or Frederick Getman Fincke (1850-1912) was co-partner of the Utica, New York-based law firm Miller & Fincke. The Amherst College, Harvard University, and Columbia Law School educated lawyer later served as president of the Oneida County Bar Association. It's possible Roosevelt knew Fincke through the Harvard alumni network.

 

Sagamore Hill, the primary residence of Teddy and Edith Roosevelt, was a 23-room Queen Anne shingle-style bungalow near Oyster Bay on northern Long Island designed by New York architectural firm Lamb & Rich during the early 1880s. It was known as the "Summer White House" and frequently used for entertaining during Roosevelt's presidency.

 

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