An excellent foreign policy letter to Norman Davis - photo 1
An excellent foreign policy letter to Norman Davis - photo 2

An excellent foreign policy letter to Norman Davis

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$ 2 268
Auction dateClassic
19.10.2023 10:00UTC -04:00
Auctioneer
CHRISTIE'S
Event location
USA, New York
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ID 1033010
Lot 349 | An excellent foreign policy letter to Norman Davis
Franklin D ROOSEVELT (1882-1945). Typed letter signed ("Franklin D Roosevelt") with autograph corrections and postscript to Norman H. Davis, Warm Springs, GA, 20 April 1928.

Two pages, 183 x 265mm. (first page evenly toned, paper clip indents, staple hole in the upper corner).

Roosevelt elaborately discusses foreign policy, including the League of Nations: "I am advocating official participation in League matters, without actual membership on the old terms or any obligation to act..." Roosevelt writes regarding an upcoming article he has drafted for Foreign Affairs magazine, and takes his correspondent through some of the key points raised. Beginning by asserting the moral leadership demonstrated by the United States in 1919, Roosevelt then claims "a reversal of form during the last nine years, showing lack of such leadership as well as the failures like the Geneva conference ... and the complete loss of international friendship for this country..."

Roosevelt further advocates for active cooperation with the League of Nations and the World Court, then on the Naval side, he advocates for discussions on the use of warships, the rights of neutral ships, and "an immediate study on how to eliminate all further increase in naval armaments." Finally, he boldly asserts non-intervention in Latin American internal affairs, in favor of "joint study and offers of help where such are needed."

Finally, noting of the numerous autograph emendations made in his hand throughout, Roosevelt adds the humorous postscript: "As you will see, this was dictated by a local stenog[rapher] who has never heard of anything outside of the sovereign state of Georgia – "

The referenced magazine article was later published in the July 1928 edition of Foreign Affairs magazine. Norman Davis, Roosevelt's correspondent and a career diplomat, served as President Wilson's chief financial advisor at the Paris Peace Conference in 1917 and later served as the chairman of the American delegation at the 1933 Geneva Disarmament Conference under the Roosevelt administration. See the following lot for an inscribed photograph from Roosevelt to Davis.
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