Taft, Running for President Against Theodore Roosevelt, Calls Him a "General Menace" To the Country

October 31, 1912

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Taft, Running for President Against Theodore Roosevelt, Calls Him a "General Menace" To the Country
Typed Letter Signed
1 page | SMC 1290

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      Background

      Theodore Roosevelt, shot at less than three weeks before as he campaigned for a third term as a third party candidate, was barely out of the hospital when his hand-picked successor, Taft, wrote this withering assessment of his one-time mentor. Roosevelt, he says here, is “a genuine menace to the welfare of our country.” Even if he is defeated for re-election, Taft declares, he can stand it, having thwarted that third termer’s bid to regain the White House.
      Typed Letter Signed, as President, 1 page, quarto, The White House, Washington, October 31, 1912. To Frank D. Jamison in Cincinnati.
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      THE WHITE HOUSE
      WASHINGTON

      October 31, 1912

      My dear Frank:

      I want you to know that I greatly appreciate the kind words of your letter of October 27th. I am very hopeful of the outcome, but if I am to be defeated I can stand it because I shall have been an agent in preventing the return to the White House of the third termer whose candidacy I consider a genuine menace to the welfare of our country.

      With warm regards to you and Kate, believe me, as ever,

      Affectionately yours,

      WM H. TAFT

      Mr. Frank D. Jamison,
      114 Wellington Place,
      Mt. Auburn, Cincinnati, Ohio.

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      THE WHITE HOUSE

      WASHINGTON, D.C. 
      OCT 31
      12 - M
      1912

      Mr. Frank D. Jamison,
      114 Wellington Place,
      Mt. Auburn, Cincinnati, Ohio.