Lot 90: ROOSEVELT, Theodore. Typed letter signed ("Theodore Roosevelt"), as President, to Dr. Henry W. Coe (1857-1927), Washington, 20 March 1906. 1 page, 4to, White House stationery, with original White House envelope, marked "Personal" . Fine.

ROOSEVELT, Theodore. Typed letter signed ("Theodore Roosevelt"), as President, to Dr. Henry W. Coe (1857-1927), Washington, 20 March 1906. 1 page, 4to, White House stationery, with original White House envelope, marked "Personal". Fine.

"IT IS JUST THE KIND OF THING WHICH THE PRESIDENT MUST KEEP HIS HANDS OFF"

"You know how much I have valued your kindness in the past and my association with you;" T.R. tells Coe, who was trying to enlist him in an Oregonian political matter, "but, my dear Senator, you will understand that that is not a matter upon which I have a right to express an opinion. It is just the kind of thing which the President must keep his hands off."

Coe had asked T.R. whether he would endorse support Coe in a bid to win appointment to a lame-duck Senate vacancy that had suddenly occurred in Oregon. The two men went back to the Dakota days, both were sampling the rugged life of the western frontier. Each went on to distinguished, multifaceted careers. T.R. combined politics with literature while Coe combined politics with medicine. After graduating from the University of Michigan medical school, he specialized in the study and treatment of mental illness, becoming president of the North Dakota Medical Society in 1891, and later moving to Portland, Oregon where he became professor of nervous and mental diseases at Willamette University. He also served in the Oregon state Senate