ROOSEVELT, THEODORE
Inaugural Address of President Roosevelt, March 4 1905. Washington, Government Printing Office, 1905. First edition, INSCRIBED BY THEODORE ROOSEVELT ON MARCH 4, 1905, THE DAY OF HIS INAUGURATION. Apparently one of a few large-paper copies prepared for the President's personal use, signed and dated in ink at the bottom of the final page of text, "Theodore Roosevelt/March 4th, 1905." Later three-quarters dark blue morocco by Stikeman & Co. for Charles Scribner's Sons, raised bands, top edge gilt. 10 1/8 x 6 3/4 inches (25.5 x 17.5 cm); [2], 12 pp., inscribed at the foot of the last leaf. A few spots of foxing, some bleed-through from the inscription, but in all a fine copy.
The Inaugural Address for Theodore Roosevelt's second presidential term in its large-paper form; when R. W. G. Vail, the one-time Librarian of the Roosevelt House (and later of the American Antiquarian Society) catalogued the copy in the Roosevelt collection at Harvard, he described it as a rarity. That copy was not signed. We can locate no copies at auction, inscribed or otherwise, and have located one signed copy institutionally, at the William Clements Library at University of Michigan.
As Roosevelt became president upon the assassination of William McKinley, there was just a swearing-in, but no inauguration before his first term, so this was Roosevelt's first inauguration. In his inaugural address, he discusses how America has been especially favored--"We have not been obliged to fight for our existence against any alien race" ... and that these advantages should create "a deep and abiding realization of all which life has offered us; a full acknowledgment of the responsibility which is ours; and a fixed determination to show that under a free government a mighty people can thrive best." He goes on to say that "Towards all other nations, large and small, our attitude must be one of cordial and sincere friendship" but qualifies that "We wish peace; but we wish the peace of justice, the peace of righteousness."
Provenance:
This copy was sold by Walter R. Benjamin Autographs in 1997, who described it with some justification as "Arguably one of the most extraordinary inaugural items ever on the market place." It contains a guarantee of authenticity signed by Christopher Jaeckel, then the director of the firm.