My dear Colonel: Topeka, Feb. 26, 1907. Have been absent from here for the past week and did not have the opportunity of reading the daily papers. On my return, I am happy to find from the dispatches that you have either been, or surely will be, nominated by the President to succeed Judge Finkelnburg as judge of your district. This is as it should be, and I hasten to say to you how very much all your good fortune gratifies me. I know you will enjoy the work because you are both by temperament and education so well qualified for the place. Your appointment will be a just recognition of your excellent services to your country and a just tribute to your splendid manhood. The Master placed in your breast a big, warm heart. You have kept it well filled with red blood, so that it responds in sympathy as the heart of a Judge should. Created honest, you have remained so. In short, you have, to my mind, all the qualifications of a just and fearless Judge. While I congratulate you, I feel the Government is even more to be congratulated. That you may have a long and pleasant term of service on the bench is the wish of Your friend, John C. Pollock. (U. S. District Judge for Kansas) Hon. David P. Dyer, U. S. Attorney, St. Louis, Mo. The foregoing letters of recommendation and congratulation from gentlemen so distinguished, are most highly prized. To each and every one of them I owe a debt of lasting gratitude. XV THEODORE ROOSEVELT Continued More Letters-Naturalization Frauds - Northern Securities Case - Roosevelt in Pike County. After assuming the duties of judge, my friendly relations with President Roosevelt continued until his death. Little did he or I think at the time of my appointment that one of my age would survive him, so young, strong and vigorous. From this time I took no active part in politics, beyond observing the general sentiment of the country toward its public men and casting my vote as judgment and conscience dictated. No one will dispute the fact, I think, that in 1912 a very large majority of the Republican voters in the country favored the nomination and election of Colonel Roosevelt to the presidency. This desire and wish of the rank and file of the Republican party was defeated by political bosses and unprincipled political schemers. A majority of the men composing the National Republican Committee at that time belonged to and were active members of such a gang. In making up the roll of delegates entitled to seats in the convention, they kept off those that had been duly and fairly chosen and put on others who were not the representatives of the Republicans. Their purpose was to defeat the will of the people, i.e., the nomination of Roosevelt. No gang of pirates upon the high seas ever more deliberately scuttled a ship than these committeemen scuttled the Republican ship. The Republican voters in November of that year condemned by their votes the action of the committee. The so-called nominee of that convention received the electoral votes of only Utah and Vermont; Mr. Wilson was elected, and whatever good or bad to the country that election brought, was solely attributable to the bosses and schemers. If Roosevelt had been declared the nominee, as he by right should have been, his election to the presidency would have been certain. I voted for Abraham Lincoln in 1864 and for every Republican candidate for the presidency since then, which, of course, includes Theodore Roosevelt in 1912. In 1916 Honorable Charles E. Hughes of New York was nominated over Colonel Roosevelt for the presidency, and by a narrow margin was defeated by Woodrow Wilson in November following. The action of the convention in making a Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States the Republican candidate, was very questionable. Had Roosevelt been made the nominee, as a vast majority of the Republicans of the country desired, he would have been elected by a great majority. He was again defeated for the nomination by the bosses that cursed and still curse the party organization. These comments may be far-fetched and out of place here, but they will serve at least to preserve in a measure the opinions of one who has no purpose to serve other than to record what to him seems to be the facts. For a time after the nomination of Judge Hughes it was thought by some that Roosevelt would not support him for the presidency. Some feared and others hoped that this would prove true. However, in a short time, Colonel Roosevelt came out in a strong statement supporting the nomination of Judge Hughes. I wrote him a letter congratulating him upon his stand. He answered as follows: Office of THE METROPOLITAN Theodore Roosevelt. Dear Judge: New York, Sept. 20, 1916. No letter ever pleased me more than yours. You know that you are one of my heroes and I believe in you with all my heart. Hon. David P. Dyer, Faithfully yours, U. S. Dist. Court Judge, St. Louis, Missouri. Theodore Roosevelt. |