Sold – McKinley Urgently Writes the Physician at the Bedside of His Dying VP

Garret A. Hobart was a prominent and successful businessman and industrialist from Paterson, New Jersey. He was selected to be William McKinley’s running mate in the election of 1896, and on March 4, 1897 he was sworn in as the 24th Vice President of the United States. During his tenure Hobart became one of the McKinley’s closest friends, confidants and advisers, sometimes being called “Assistant to the President”. Because of this and in contrast to the tradition of a powerless Vice Presidency, he is regarded as one of the most powerful Vice Presidents while in office. A journalist later wrote, “For the first time in my recollection, and the last for that matter, the Vice President was recognized as somebody, as a part of the Administration, as a part of the body over which he presided.”

Beginning in early 1899, Hobart suffered from fainting spells triggered by serious heart problems. That summer he performed a last major service for the McKinley administration when he helped the gentle president fire his scandal-ridden Secretary of War, Russell A. Alger. The 55 year old Hobart’s health declined and he returned to New Jersey to recover. Instead his condition worstened and he died from heart failure on November 21, 1899. He was the sixth of seven Vice Presidents to die in office. The office remained vacant until Theodore Roosevelt assumed it on March 4, 1901.

President McKinley anxiously followed his friend’s condition. On November 12, as Hobart was really declining, he sent a telegram to Hobart’s physician, William K. Newton, seeking an update. Autograph Telegram Signed on large (and uncommon) Executive Mansion telegram paper, Washington, Nov. 12, to Newton. “Dr. Newton, Paterson, N.J. How is the Vice President today??William McKinley.” The telegram has a one penny stamp affixed and is marked “Paid 2 &?Rush, charge President.” A collector later mistakenly added the date as 1900 when of course it was 1899. While this qualifies as an ANS rather than an ALS, McKinley’s holograph letters and notes of any kind with full signatures, and as President, are uncommon.