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Details
WILSON, Woodrow, President. Typed letter signed ("Woodrow Wilson") as President, TO COLONEL THEODORE ROOSEVELT, Washington, D.C., 6 August 1914. 1 page, 4to, White House stationery, signature slightly pale.
WILSON TO ROOSEVELT ON THE DAY OF THE FIRST LADY'S DEATH: "WE HAVE BY NO MEANS GIVEN UP HOPE"
A remarkable letter from Wilson to the former President. Wilson pens an optimistic report on his wife's conditon; in fact, she died later that day. "My dear Colonel Roosevelt: I deeply appreciate the telegram of sympathy you sent me yesterday. I am afraid I cannot say that the reports about Mrs. Wilson's condition are exaggerated, but we have by no means given up hope and the indications are today a little encouraging." A few hours later Ellen Wilson died.
Although manners and courtesy had motivated Roosevelt's note of sympathy, his "loathing for Woodrow Wilson was almost psychopathic in intensity;" his antipathy "was based upon more than mere envy and petty jealousy...The overriding reason...lay in the fact that throughout his presidency, Roosevelt had hoped for some momentous event whose resolution would enable him to stand with Washington and Lincoln in the pantheon of American heroes. How it galled him that a trick of fate had given Wilson--this 'schoolmaster'--the golden opportunity to make a mark upon history that had been denied him." (N. Miller, Theodore Roosevelt: A Life, p.543--544) The death of Ellen Louise Axson, Wilson's first wife, from Bright's disease on 6 August 1914, so devasted her husband that he confided to aide E.M. House that he hoped to be assassinated.
WILSON TO ROOSEVELT ON THE DAY OF THE FIRST LADY'S DEATH: "WE HAVE BY NO MEANS GIVEN UP HOPE"
A remarkable letter from Wilson to the former President. Wilson pens an optimistic report on his wife's conditon; in fact, she died later that day. "My dear Colonel Roosevelt: I deeply appreciate the telegram of sympathy you sent me yesterday. I am afraid I cannot say that the reports about Mrs. Wilson's condition are exaggerated, but we have by no means given up hope and the indications are today a little encouraging." A few hours later Ellen Wilson died.
Although manners and courtesy had motivated Roosevelt's note of sympathy, his "loathing for Woodrow Wilson was almost psychopathic in intensity;" his antipathy "was based upon more than mere envy and petty jealousy...The overriding reason...lay in the fact that throughout his presidency, Roosevelt had hoped for some momentous event whose resolution would enable him to stand with Washington and Lincoln in the pantheon of American heroes. How it galled him that a trick of fate had given Wilson--this 'schoolmaster'--the golden opportunity to make a mark upon history that had been denied him." (N. Miller, Theodore Roosevelt: A Life, p.543--544) The death of Ellen Louise Axson, Wilson's first wife, from Bright's disease on 6 August 1914, so devasted her husband that he confided to aide E.M. House that he hoped to be assassinated.