The Fathers and Saviors of Our Country: A Presidential Sale

One page, 8vo (191 x 171 mm), on Executive Mansion stationery, with original mailing envelope, central fold, toning, very minor soiling. Matted and framed. Overall 20 x 13 1/2 in. Unexamined out of frame.

Sherman Bell first met Theodore Roosevelt during the Spanish-American War as a member of Roosevelt's Rough Riders. Following the end of the war, Bell moved to Colorado, where he served as Brigadier General of the Colorado National Guard and, in 1903, became infamous for his role as a strike buster during the Colorado Labor Wars. Under Bell's command, the National Guard began "a series of almost daily arrests" of labor leaders and possible sympathizers. In one particularly notable incident, Bell's men escorted the arrested men into a courtroom and stood guard while others positioned themselves outside of the courthouse with a Gatling gun and sniper rifles. These heavy-handed tactics, more than anything else, turned public opinion against Bell, whom both The Rocky Mountain News and The Denver Post opined should be relieved of duty.

During Roosevelt's 1900 Vice-Presidential campaign Bell had installed himself as Roosevelt's personal bodyguard; while campaigning in Victor, Colorado, Bell got into a fight with a group of miners whom he believed to have shown him insufficient respect and the miners retaliated by following Bell to Roosevelt's train car and throwing stones, an incident about which Roosevelt later said, "[my] principle fear in this distressing hour was that Sherman Bell would begin killing people." Despite this, the two remained close, and Roosevelt continued to defend Bell even as his reputation deteriorated due to his abrasive personality and heavy-handed tactics.