Details
ROOSEVELT, THEODORE, President. Typed letter signed ("Theodore Roosevelt") to Reverend Paul R. Hickock, Oyster Bay, Long Island, 1 November 1915. 1 page, 4to, signature pale, personal stationery, matted and glazed in a protective wooden case with hinged cover, unexamined out of case.
"PRESIDENT LINCOLN OCCASIONALLY DRANK ALCOHOLIC LIQUOR"
The former presidential candidate for the tea-totaling Progressive Party discusses Abraham Lincoln's bibulous habits with a man of the cloth: "What I am about to say is of course purely confidential. Mr. [John] Hay mentioned to me on two or three occasions the fact that President Lincoln occasionally drank alcoholic liquor as a beverage but said that he never drank it in the least to excess. I do not think any profit would be gained from repeating these facts or making use of them; so I shall ask you to treat this as purely confidential and not for general use..."
John Milton Hay (1838-1905), Lincoln's personal secretary while President, later served as a diplomat, and was assistant Secretary of State and Secretary of State (1898-1905) under Roosevelt.
"PRESIDENT LINCOLN OCCASIONALLY DRANK ALCOHOLIC LIQUOR"
The former presidential candidate for the tea-totaling Progressive Party discusses Abraham Lincoln's bibulous habits with a man of the cloth: "What I am about to say is of course purely confidential. Mr. [John] Hay mentioned to me on two or three occasions the fact that President Lincoln occasionally drank alcoholic liquor as a beverage but said that he never drank it in the least to excess. I do not think any profit would be gained from repeating these facts or making use of them; so I shall ask you to treat this as purely confidential and not for general use..."
John Milton Hay (1838-1905), Lincoln's personal secretary while President, later served as a diplomat, and was assistant Secretary of State and Secretary of State (1898-1905) under Roosevelt.