Franklin D. Roosevelt: Autograph Letter Signed....

Description

"I am ever grateful that I have always been an upstate farmer and therefore can't take part in N.Y. City politics!"

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In FDR's own hand in its entirety, an autograph letter signed on Fidelity and Deposit Company of Maryland letterhead, dated August 20, from Westport Point, Massachusetts as FDR also notes in his own hand. FDR writes to a Mr. Clarkson: "My dear Clarkson:/ Many thanks for your nice thought of me in the matter of the Mayoralty campaign – However I am ever grateful that I have always been an upstate farmer and therefore can't take part in N.Y. City politics!/ I shall be away till the end of September. After that do come in and see me some day./ Sincerely yours,/ Franklin D. Roosevelt." FDR was undoubtedly at Westport's Horseneck Beach visiting his key friend and advisor Colonel Louis McHenry Howe when he wrote this letter to Clarkson in his own hand. Although undated, the handwritten letter clearly gives insight to FDR's already public position against the Tammany Hall rule that dominated the New York Democratic Party. FDR's letter is a coy and witty response, particularly ironic in reference to being an upstate farmer, not interested in partaking in New York City politics. It is this cultivation of FDR's image as an upstate Patrician with farming roots, rather than as a city machine politician, that figured prominently into Governor Alfred E. Smith's decision to promote FDR for Governor of New York in his place in 1928, when Smith was the Democratic Party's candidate for President. Smith lost and FDR won. A fabulous letter, written by FDR in his own hand, dealing with a major political issue of FDR's own position as a New York politician, written from the home of his key political strategist, Louis McHenry Howe.