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CHARLES GRENFILL WASHBURN (January 28, 1857-May 25, 1908) was a congressman, manufacturer and writer who was born in Worcester, MA. 6 pp, 8 x 10 ½, TLS, Washburn writes to Massachusetts Congressman ROBERT LUCE, December 7th, 1918, in which he attempts to elucidate his views of Theodore Roosevelt, the Sherman Anti-Trust Act and Roosevelt s negative feelings toward William Howard Taft. Roosevelt groomed Taft to be his successor in the White House. But once Taft was elected in 1908, he based his administration on a business-centric and limited government form of Republicanism in direct conflict with Roosevelt s progressive vision. A displeased Roosevelt then ran for president in 1912. When he couldn t build significant support among Republicans, Roosevelt formed the Progressive or Bull Moose party. The split, however, resulted in the election of Democrat Woodrow Wilson. Washburn writes, .In commenting on the Roosevelt book [Theodore Roosevelt: The Logic of His Career], you mention the very palpable omission that I make no reference to the break between Roosevelt and Taft. I keenly appreciated that fact at the time I wrote the book, but I think it will be clear to you that, with both principals living, it would have been impossible to have treated that subject without stirring up controversy that would have entirely obscured the main purpose for which the book was written, namely: to demonstrate by the record,.that my views of Roosevelt s character, differing so widely from the views of many other people, were correct. I have always said that the most difficult task any friend of Roosevelt s could undertake would be to justify his attitude towards Taft, although I am satisfied that Roosevelt felt that he had abundant ground for his action. I think that I probably know as well as any one just how the difference arose and once the foundation was laid, it was very easy to erect upon it a superstructure of misunderstandings, the cumulative effect of which produced the state of mind which culminated in the break. If you can spare an hour some Thursday when I am likely to be in Boston, I shall be glad to tell you all I know about this and to substantiate all I saw with letters, which, because of their intimate nature, could not possibly be published certainly not now, perhaps never. Of course, I never had the slightest faith in the Progressive Party. I do not mean to say that its influence may not have been a good one, but I knew that it could never exist permanently, because it was based solely upon a personality and a sentiment. In some parts of the country, I think perhaps here, there was about it the fervor of a camp meeting. What you say about the recall of judicial decisions, and with the degree of ease in making Constitutional amendments, rather appeals to me, although perhaps my attitude in the Convention gave no indication of this. The fact is that most of us are unconsciously under the domination of traditions rather than of reason.It is my belief that twenty men, honest and open-minded, representing all phases of political thought, would make a more intelligent revision of the Constitution than was made by the Constitutional Convention.each one of whom is subjected to rigid cross-examination, must think much more deeply than if he attempts to think in the popular atmosphere of a large assemblage.It is the right of democracies, as it is of individuals to make mistakes. Wilson was re-elected because he kept us out of war; consequently, when he led us into war, no one in the country doubted the imperative necessity of the step. If we had a Republican congress, we would have had, to be sure, an aggressive war policy, but the Democratic party would have been hanging on our flanks, annoying and harassing in every way, and the compulsory draft probably could never have become law.".
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