Theodore Roosevelt: “I am in this fight to the finish, no matter what the result.”

This letter was obtained by us directly from the recipient’s family and has never before been offered for sale

During his campaign for the presidency in 1904, Theodore Roosevelt publicly resolved not to run in 1908; instead, he supported his secretary of war, William Howard Taft, as the Republican nominee. Taft was elected president in 1908, but his conservative politics led to a falling out with Roosevelt, who decided to return to the political arena in order to oppose his former ally. In the 1912 election, therefore, it was Roosevelt who accepted the nomination of the newly formed Progressive Party. Progressives held a convention in Chicago that was populated by dedicated reformers who wanted to radically remake America. Their numbers included suffragettes, social workers, urban planners, conservationists, labor activists, political reformers, and idealists of all strains. Neither the candidate nor the platform let them down. The platform and Roosevelt also called for the reform of political parties to make them more accountable to the people and less beholden to special interests.

The Progressive Party platform stated, “This country belongs to the people who inhabit it. Its resources, its business, its institutions and its laws should be utilized, maintained or altered in whatever manner will best promote the general interest…Instead of instruments to promote the general welfare, they have become the tools of corrupt interests which use them impartially to serve their selfish purposes. Behind the ostensible government sits enthroned an invisible government, owing no allegiance and acknowledging no responsibility to the people…To destroy this invisible government, to dissolve the unholy alliance between corrupt business and corrupt politics is the first task of the statesmanship of the day.”

The platform declared for direct primaries for the nomination of state and national officers, for nation-wide preferential primaries for candidates for the presidency, for the direct election of United States senators by the people, and initiative, referendum and recall of officeholders. Further, it called for legislation looking to the prevention of industrial accidents, occupational diseases, overwork, involuntary unemployment, and other injurious effects incident to modern industry; the fixing of minimum safety and health standards for the various occupations, and the exercise of the public authority of state and nation including the federal control over interstate commerce and the taxing power; the prohibition of child labor; minimum wage standards for working women, to provide a living scale in all industrial occupations; the protection of home life against the hazards of sickness, irregular employment and old age through the adoption of a system of social insurance adapted to American use; and establishing continuation schools for industrial education under public control and encouraging agricultural education and demonstration in rural schools. It was in favor the organization of the workers, men and women, as a means of protecting their interests and of promoting their progress, thus favoring unions. It demanded equal suffrage for women, and under TR’s influence, contained trust-busting provisions.

In the end, Roosevelt fell far of winning, drawing 27%, of the vote to Wilson’s 42%, but ahead of Taft’s 23%. Roosevelt received 88 electoral votes compared to 435 for Wilson and 8 for Taft. This was nonetheless the best showing by any third party since the modern two-party system was established in 1864. Roosevelt was the only third-party candidate to outpoll a candidate of an established party. This mainly positive showing led Progressive Party leaders to look to the future, and they hoped to do well in the 1914 Congressional elections. TR became a thorn in Wilson’s side, and Progressives contested 138 Congressional districts, candidates being women as well as men. However, just 5 were elected, and almost half the candidates failed to get more than 10% of the vote. The Progressive Party disappeared into history, and when in 1916 the Republicans nominated the progressive-leaning Charles Evans Hughes, TR supported him. Roosevelt never renounced his progressive credentials, but then turned his attention to advocating American involvement in World War I.

William Hinebaugh was chairman of the Republican Party in Illinois, but switched to the [Progressive] Bull Moose Party in 1912 when his friend, Theodore Roosevelt, split with the Republican Party. It was on the Progressive Party ticket that Hinebaugh was elected to the 63rd U.S. Congress from the 12th Illinois District, where he served one term, 1913-1915.

The Chicago statement he refers to occurred a month earlier, when he said that the Republican must adopt Progressive principles, not the other way around.

Typed letter signed, on his The Outlook letterhead, New York, September 2, 1913, to William Hinebaugh. “It does not seem to me to be well to notice newspaper articles like that. Just the other day at Chicago, after consultation with your leaders there and at their request, I issued the statement which they desired me to make right on this very point, a reiteration of what I have so often said that if the Republicans want to get together with us, they can do it only by accepting our platform in its entirety and throwing over their old leaders. This is what I have said again and again and again at Progressive meetings end in my articles for eighteen months, and I do not see how I could possibly make my position clearer. The only suggestion I have received about [a progressive] being entered in the Republican primaries was from a man whose name I have for the moment forgotten, to whom I wrote that under no circumstances would I allow it. I suppose these stories will appear from time to time, and be circulated from time to time, but it seems to me that the way to meet them is by simply publishing my public utterances such as that in Chicago the other day. If you will call on 0. K. Davis, he will show you the article I have written for The Century Magazine, which will be out about three weeks hence, and I think 0.K. will tell you, what you can see for yourself, that it is about as straightforward as it well can be.” TR adds in holograph, “But if after seeing it, you think I can be more explicit, I’ll be so! I am in this fight to the finish, no matter what the result.”

We have never seen a letter of TR taking such a determined position on these principles, and its words tell us a lot about the type of man he was: a fighter, not a quitter; and a man who sought vindication of the principles in which he believed rather than compromise.

This letter was obtained by us directly from Congressman Hinebaugh’s descendants and has never before been offered for sale.