By Richard A. Marini
SAN ANTONIO — Vice President Teddy Roosevelt was chafed. That much is apparent from even the most cursory reading of a three-page letter dated July 13, 1901, that will be sold via an online auction beginning today.
In the letter, written only three years after his victory with the Rough Riders in the Spanish-American War, Roosevelt airs his concern that an upcoming annual reunion might besmirch the regiment's “splendid record” if it is used as “an advertising scheme, or turned into a raree show.”
Reunions should be held less often, he proposed, and only “in one of the four territories in which the regiment was enlisted (or else in San Antonio).”
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In the letter, written from his home in Oyster Bay, Long Island, Roosevelt also rails against those former comrades who beseech him for military appointments and government jobs, or for help getting out of legal scrapes.
The surprisingly candid, behind-the-scenes glimpse of one of American history's most colorful characters will be sold online by Boston-based RR Auction in a sale running through Nov. 12.
The original, typewritten letter is addressed to Maj. William H.H. Llewellyn, who'd served under Roosevelt and been rewarded with a post as U.S. attorney in New Mexico.
Signed by Roosevelt and with several handwritten corrections — he added the parentheses around the phrase “or else in San Antonio” — the letter is one item in a lot of more than 850 historical documents, manuscripts and artifacts to be sold.
Purchased from one of Llewellyn's descendants three years ago by a New York collector, the Roosevelt letter carries a starting bid of $1,000, according to Bobby Livingston, executive vice president of RR Auction.
“Other than some scattered creases and a rusty staple hole at the top, the letter's in very good condition for its age,” he said. “It gives you an interesting look at Roosevelt's personality.”
Apparent in the letter, for example, is Roosevelt's keen interest in maintaining the Rough Riders' reputation. After all, the regiment's fame helped propel him to the second-highest office in the land. (What he could not know, of course, was that he'd be elevated to the presidency only two months hence, following the assassination of William McKinley.)
The letter begins with Roosevelt complementing Llewellyn for his prosecution of someone he calls simply “Britto.”
Research by the auction house revealed he likely was referring to Frank Brito, a one-time Rough Rider convicted of murder in the third degree after he tried to shoot his wife but mistakenly killed his sister-in-law instead.
Roosevelt's annoyance with others seeking military or political assistance from their now-influential commander is plain.
“We cannot afford to let it be thought that we either shield bad men because they are Rough Riders or press second rate men forward for the same reason,” he wrote, later adding, “The Oklahoma men have bothered me particularly, seeming to be unable to understand that I cannot possibly dictate the appointment of postmasters &c. I have asked for so many favors for men of the regiment that I am positively ashamed to go to a single department in Washington, and above all, to the War Department.”
As for the reunions, he expresses the belief that getting together annually might be too hard a burden for the “best and most hardworking” vets and instead suggests the next one — “a quiet meeting of the regiment without any outside show of a spectacular type” — be postponed until 1905.
According to contemporary reports, Roosevelt and 50 or so Rough Riders did indeed attend a reunion held here that year. While there were plenty of public events during the two-day affair, the agenda also included a private lunch and afternoon meeting with the president, and a farewell reception later that evening in the parlors of the Menger Hotel.
