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THE PROPERTY OF A GENTLEMAN
ROOSEVELT, Theodore. Draft typescript signed ("Theodore Roosevelt"), Sagamore Hill, 4 July 1916. 4 pages, 4to, HEAVILY AMENDED AND CORRECTED IN ROOSEVELT'S HAND, Metropolitan Magazine stationery, paperclip burn at top edge, small mat burn on top portion of first page.
Details
ROOSEVELT, Theodore. Draft typescript signed ("Theodore Roosevelt"), Sagamore Hill, 4 July 1916. 4 pages, 4to, HEAVILY AMENDED AND CORRECTED IN ROOSEVELT'S HAND, Metropolitan Magazine stationery, paperclip burn at top edge, small mat burn on top portion of first page.
A PATRIOTIC EULOGY FOR A DEAD AMERICAN AIRMAN, AND A VICIOUS ATTACK ON WILSON'S "PEACE OF COWARDICE"
Almost a year before the United States entered the Great War, Roosevelt writes this moving 4th of July eulogy for a young American who died in France. He struggles in his edits and cuts to keep the piece from being taken over by his partisan fury at the Wilson administration's neutrality policy. "On June 30th there was held in Trinity Church, New York, a memorial service for gallant young Victor Chapman, a corporal of the American Flying Squadron in France, who was recently slain fighting in the air over the trenches." He names several other Americans who had volunteered to fight with the Allies overseas. "Among these fine and gallant young fellows, Chapman was one of the most distinguished....His heart flamed with anger over the invasion of Belgium, and he felt it his high duty to fight for the Allies..."
Zeroing in on Wilson, he says, "The American nation has had scant cause for pride during the past two years, and much cause for bitter shame and humiliation. We are therefore all of us indebted to these young men" who showed "they were not 'too proud to fight', but that they were proudly willing to die for their convictions...they have partially redeemed us as a nation from the twin curses of gross materialism and silly sentimentalism..." He rounds into the Democrats who, "about the time that Victor Chapman was dying," held their presidential nominating convention in St. Louis where speaker after speaker praised what TR calls "the peace of cowardice." This entire, lengthy paragraph--which alludes to the Lusitania incident and goes on to denounce "the inglorious little wars which we have inefficiently waged in Mexico"--is struck through in pencil. But the excisions do not hide the fury and shame Roosevelt feels "that the American nation could not or would not protect the lives of American citizens..."
The U.S. entered the war in April 1917, with TR pleading to get a regiment to command overseas. Attacks like this did not make the administration disposed to accommodate him. Roosevelt paid dearly for American entry into the "war to end all wars." His son Quentin--a combat pilot like Chapman--was shot down and killed on 14 July 1918.
A PATRIOTIC EULOGY FOR A DEAD AMERICAN AIRMAN, AND A VICIOUS ATTACK ON WILSON'S "PEACE OF COWARDICE"
Almost a year before the United States entered the Great War, Roosevelt writes this moving 4th of July eulogy for a young American who died in France. He struggles in his edits and cuts to keep the piece from being taken over by his partisan fury at the Wilson administration's neutrality policy. "On June 30th there was held in Trinity Church, New York, a memorial service for gallant young Victor Chapman, a corporal of the American Flying Squadron in France, who was recently slain fighting in the air over the trenches." He names several other Americans who had volunteered to fight with the Allies overseas. "Among these fine and gallant young fellows, Chapman was one of the most distinguished....His heart flamed with anger over the invasion of Belgium, and he felt it his high duty to fight for the Allies..."
Zeroing in on Wilson, he says, "The American nation has had scant cause for pride during the past two years, and much cause for bitter shame and humiliation. We are therefore all of us indebted to these young men" who showed "they were not 'too proud to fight', but that they were proudly willing to die for their convictions...they have partially redeemed us as a nation from the twin curses of gross materialism and silly sentimentalism..." He rounds into the Democrats who, "about the time that Victor Chapman was dying," held their presidential nominating convention in St. Louis where speaker after speaker praised what TR calls "the peace of cowardice." This entire, lengthy paragraph--which alludes to the Lusitania incident and goes on to denounce "the inglorious little wars which we have inefficiently waged in Mexico"--is struck through in pencil. But the excisions do not hide the fury and shame Roosevelt feels "that the American nation could not or would not protect the lives of American citizens..."
The U.S. entered the war in April 1917, with TR pleading to get a regiment to command overseas. Attacks like this did not make the administration disposed to accommodate him. Roosevelt paid dearly for American entry into the "war to end all wars." His son Quentin--a combat pilot like Chapman--was shot down and killed on 14 July 1918.