TLS as president, two pages on two adjoining sheets, 7.25 x 8.75, White House letterhead, July 20, 1907. Letter to journalist Oscar King Davis, in full: "Anything from you is sure to have my most respectful and careful consideration. I have immensely admired the work you have done in connection with this trial. Nothing has bothered me more than the indictment of Senator Borah, but I think, with the grand jury acting as it did, even at the instigation of the District Attorney, I could do no worse thing for the cause of justice, in this particular Moyer and Haywood case than to seem to shield a United States Senator who was concerned in the prosecution. Of course if what you say as to the proceedings in the grand jury room is true, I should remove Ruick at once. I shall put your letter before the Attorney General and see if there is any way in which we can get at the matter. Perhaps we can send a special agent out there." Roosevelt makes a few handwritten emendations. In fine condition, with a crease to the lower left corner, and light haloing and offsetting to the signature. Accompanied by the original mailing envelope.
This historic letter, written during Congressional recess, concerns the controversy surrounding the appointment of William Borah as Idaho’s senator: he had been named senator by the state legislature, and presented his credentials at the Senate prior to the formal beginning of his first term on March 4, 1907. Between March 4 and December when Congress reconvened, Borah was given the opportunity to participate in two trials—the first as the prosecuting attorney, and the second as the defendant.
In the first trial, Borah prosecuted Big Bill Haywood for the bombing murder of ex-governor Frank Steunenberg. Borah, who viewed Steunenberg as a father figure, had seen his shattered and bloodied body on the night of his assassination. In closing arguments, he recounted: ‘I saw Idaho dishonored and disgraced. I saw murder—no, not murder, a thousand times worse than murder; I saw anarchy wave its first bloody triumph in Idaho.’ The recipient of this letter, Oscar King Davis, covered the Haywood trial as senior correspondent for the New York Times, and lavished praise on Borah’s final argument: ’Terrific, crushing, destroying, these are the words that come nearest to describing the tremendous power of the man in argument.’ Although Haywood was acquitted on the strength of Clarence Darrow’s defense, the trial transformed Borah from an obscure freshman senator into a national figure.
In the second trial, Borah faced prison in a land fraud case related to his work as counsel for the Barber Lumber Company. The case was perceived to be a political attack—Davis described it as an ‘unbelievable outrage, without the least color of foundation’—and US Attorney for Idaho Norman M. Ruick had expanded the grand jury from 12 members to 22 before he could get a majority vote for indictment. Davis’s reporting also found that Ruick had grossly violated protocol, admitting to the grand jury that he lacked evidence to indict Borah, but offering assurance that he would secure the evidence in the future. During the trial, the judge pointed out Ruick’s inability to tie Borah to any illegal offense, and the jury acquitted Borah of all charges in just ninety minutes. President Roosevelt dismissed Ruick as US Attorney in 1908, an action he alludes to here. Connecting a web of political, judicial, and journalistic turmoil—not unlike Watergate or today’s allegations of collusion—this is a remarkable letter that demonstrates President Roosevelt’s commitment to integrity.
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