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PASSIONATE AND IMPORTANT LETTER BY THEODORE ROOSEVELT DEFINING THE NATURE OF THE PROGRESSIVE PARTY. The letter, signed and typed by Roosevelt on letterhead of The Outlook magazine (where Roosevelt was a contributor and associate editor) and dated February 14, 1913, is addressed to Progressive Party Committeeman Henry Wallace and reads in full: The Outlook 287 Fourth Avenue New York February 14, 1913 My dear Mr. Wallace, I have written a letter to Mr Watkins which I hope he will show you. Michigan is to elect a number of State officer and various county, city and township officers this Spring. I hope we shall have a straight Progressive ticket put up in the State and in every city and township. I see in the press that the regulars of the Republican Party are endeavoring to absorb our representatives. Now the Progressive Party stands for principals, not men. We have in our ranks very many ex-Democrats just as we have very many ex-Republicans. Our loyalty is due to both. â The present Republican Party is under the absolute control of the men who stole from the rank and file of the Republican Party last June their right to their own choice for President, when Mr Taft was fraudulently nominated; and he and his supporters Messrs Barnes, Penrose, Guggenheim, Lorimer and company have no claim to the support of any honest man. The men who follow and support these men can have nothing in common with our plans and ideas of government. â â The Progressive Party was formed on principles which we believe to be eternal, which will live long after the men of this generation have been gathered to their fathers. We are the spiritual heirs of Abraham Lincoln. The feat accomplished last election was an extraordinary feat. It is necessary to continue with the organization and to make a clearcut fight against both the old party machines. I earnest hope that you will make as hard a fight in Michigan as you know how for a straight-out Progressive ticket. Incidentally let me say that the unjustifiable action of the returning officer of Michigan in stealing away from the legally elected candidate in the Twelfth District his office, should be used for all that it is worth. This action of itself shows that the Republican leaders in Michigan are not to be trusted in any shape or way, and that their protestations of good conduct are worse than worthless. â â Wherever the Republican Party has had the opportunity since election, as in Maine and Massachusetts, it has put in office reactionaries, men of the old machine, men committed to the system of bossism in politics and privilege in business. In Michigan in the Twelfth Congressional District these men showed that they are still committed to the principal [corrected by hand to "practice"] of utter political dishonesty, and to the breaking down of the power of the people in favor of the bosses. We are fighting for great principles, and we are also fighting for honest citizenship against dishonesty in citizenship. We have a right to hope that Michigan will come to the front on this issue. I would rather that you did not make this letter public, but if you desire that any letter shall be made public, if you will write to me I will answer it along substantially the lines of this letter. Faithfully yours, [signed] Theodore Roosevelt Background: The date is February 14, 1913. The past year - the election year of 1912 - had been quite eventful for Theodore Roosevelt and for the nation. Tensions were high within the Republican Party after President William Howard Taft, presidential successor to Roosevelt and fellow Republican, failed to carry out the anti-trust crusade that Roosevelt had begun in his own presidential term. Infighting and hostility during the 1912 Republican National Convention in Michigan led to a major schism in the Republican party; namely, the creation of the "Progressive" or "Bull Moose" Party led by Theodore Roosevelt, the Party's presidential candidate. Although Roosevelt lost to the Dem. N° de ref. del artículo 2110
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