Theodore Roosevelt’s Original Handheld Manuscript Victory Message on Election Night 1898, The Key Moment in His Rise, As His Election As Governor Was Assured

“I shall do all in my power to redeem every promise I have made, expressed or implied…I believe I can best serve the Republican Party by doing everything I can to help it serve the state. I shall strive to administer the office of governor in the interests of the whole people. It is by so doing that I can best show my appreciation of the support given me by the independents and Democrats…”

Wrote Edward F. O’Keefe, CEO of the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library Foundation, of this document: “Though his exploits in Cuba made him a global celebrity, Theodore Roosevelt’s election as New York’s governor in 1898 was hardly assured. The Rough Rider reformer Republican won by less than 18,000 votes. The campaign was hard-fought. Democrats questioned his citizenship and legal right to run for governor since he paid taxes in Washington, D.C., not New York prior to his military service. I write in The Loves of Theodore Roosevelt about how TR’s younger sister countered the offensive by secretly giving her brother’s wartime letters to the press to ‘further fan the flames of her brother’s celebrity.’ This remarkable document reminds us there is a thin line between victory and defeat. Had Theodore lost that very close election in 1898, his political career would have been over before it reignited. TR knew he owed his victory to more than just Republicans: ‘I shall strive to administer the office of the governor in the interests of the whole people. It is by so doing that I can best show my appreciation of the support given to me by the independents and Democrats….'”

At the start of Roosevelt’s political career, he served three years as a member of the New York State Assembly. His next post was as a member of the U.S. Civil Service Commission (of which he later became head). In 1895 he undertook the direction of the New York City Police Department. Then in 1897 he joined President McKinley’s administration as assistant secretary of the Navy. None of these offices were stepping stones to a major political career, nor were they ones that placed the holder in the spotlight.

While in the Navy Department he had the foresight to see the Spanish-American War coming, and when it broke out in 1898, he found active service in Cuba as lieutenant colonel of a regiment of volunteer cavalry that he himself had raised from an unlikely combination of sons of prominent families in the East and hunters and cowboys in the West. He won great fame as leader of these – the Rough-Riders – the most renowned unit in the Spanish-American War. News of their exploits dominated the newspaper headlines during the conflict, and the men (and foremost their leader Roosevelt) were widely acclaimed upon their return home from Cuba. The Rough Riders were mustered out of the U.S. service in New York on September 15, 1898.

At that time, New York was the most populous state in the nation, and it had the most electoral votes. Business and industry were headquartered there, and the most influential press were concentrated there.  Its governor was in a position to exercise power, to regularly obtain visibility on a national scale, and for an ambitious man, to be considered as a serious presidential candidate. TR appreciated all this, and back in New York, he immediately announced his candidacy for governor. With the gubernatorial election just two months away, he planned his campaign with astuteness and cleverness. Tom Platt and the other Republican Party bosses, the men who would select the Republican nominee, were well aware of TR’s popularity and saw his electability. But they also knew that TR was not a machine Republican, was known to have in mind the uprooting of Republican “spoilsmen”, and would be hard to control.  Roosevelt went around them and approached the independent Citizens Union and suggested the nomination of a state ticket that would challenge bosses of both manor parties, and the independents liked the idea and planned to proceed. In doing this Roosevelt outmaneuvered Platt and the bosses, because the bosses realized that if Roosevelt ran as a third party candidate and divided the Republican vote, they would surely lose (which would cost them all their patronage and be even worse than having to deal with TR). So Platt met with TR, and after TR agreed to consult him on appointments to office and important policy matters, he offered Roosevelt the Republican nomination.

The election was held on November 8, 1898, and it was very close. Roosevelt, who had campaigned on a promise to run a “clean” administration, won by just 19,000 votes out of some 1.3 million cast. But he won and his career was launched.  The night of November 8, with the returns in, TR received word of his victory and sat down to prepare a statement to reporters, one that would reach and speak to readers not only in New York but all around the country. As a newspaper reported at the time, with full transcript of TR’s remarks, they were “…said after all doubt as to his election had been removed.”

This is that very statement, held by him and made to the press as the most important election of Roosevelt’s life was successfully concluded. Autograph Manuscript, New York, November 8, 1898, containing his entire election night victory remarks to the press and nation. “I appreciate the honor very deeply, and I appreciate even more deeply the responsibility involved in the honor. I shall do all in my power to redeem every promise I have made, expressed or implied. I am a good Republican, and I believe I can best serve the Republican Party by doing everything I can to help it serve the state. I shall strive to administer the office of governor in the interests of the whole people. It is by so doing that I can best show my appreciation of the support given me by the independents and Democrats who have themselves put the welfare of the state first, declining to follow those of their leaders who in this crisis either ranged themselves outright on the side of the forces of dishonesty or else supported them in effect by standing aside from the real contest.” This manuscript has been for very many years in a private collection. We understand that it first reached the market via legendary late 19th / early 20th century autograph dealer Walter Benjamin.

Of course, TR’s service as governor of New York led directly to his nomination for vice president of the United States in 1900, just a year and a half later, and his assumption of the presidency upon the assassination of President McKinley in September 1901. His election in 1898 was the key moment in his career.