THEODORE
ROOSEVELT. Typed
Letter Signed as President to Rev. Dr. Thomas R. Slicer, Oyster Bay,
NY, 15 July 1905. 1½ pages, 8¾” x 7”, on White
House stationery.
Early
in his long public career, Theodore Roosevelt served as chairman of
the U.S. Civil Service Commission. As one biographer has noted, “Not
only did he regard appointment and advancement on merit as a tangible
measure of an open society, he viewed it as a linchpin of scientific
administration. His imaginative and energetic enforcement of the law
did much to make merit an integral...component of federal governance”
(from the profile of Roosevelt in American National Biography Online).
In this
letter written as President, Roosevelt demonstrates his continuing commitment
to hiring based on merit. He writes to the Reverend Thomas Slicer, pastor
at All Souls Church in New York City, who had recommended a man for
a job with the Panama Canal commission. In 1903, Roosevelt had encouraged
Panama’s efforts to become independent of Colombia and then had
negotiated a treaty giving the U.S. the right to construct a canal across
the isthmus. Work on the canal had started in 1904, the year before
this letter.
“I
have your letter of the 13th instant,” Roosevelt notes. “I
have a very strong feeling for John Shea, and have been asked by a number
of people of prominence politically to appoint him to the position you
mention. But I do not think that he has the technical knowledge that
would in any way fit him as purchasing agent of the Isthmian canal.
I understand we have an excellent man now in the position. I am sorry
not to be able to write you more encouragingly.”
Turning
to other matters, Roosevelt says, “I know of Hackley School
as my cousin, Laura Roosevelt, is sending her boys there. It is evidently
an excellent school.” The Hackley School, still in existence
today, was established in 1899 in Tarrytown, New York, as a college
preparatory school for Unitarians.
In what
may be a sports-related reference, Roosevelt adds, “More power
to your elbow in the other matters you mention.” He concludes
with a mention of a New York State political figure, “Poor
Norton Goddard! His death is a real loss to the State.” He
has signed in full, “Theodore Roosevelt.”
The letter
is written on pages one and four of a four-page lettersheet of White
House stationery; if laid out flat for display, all of the letter would
be visible. It has some very minor soiling, and small traces of prior
mounting in one blank margin. Overall, it is in very good condition,
with a strong, dark signature. $1500.00
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