TYPED LETTER SIGNED, 2 MAY 1911, TO WILLARD BARTLETT OF BROOKLYN, ON STATIONERY OF THE UNITED STATES SENATE

Single page, signed "Affectionately yours". Light old folds, Very Good.

Root was a prominent New York lawyer and a pillar of the Republican Party. He served, not only as U.S. Senator from New York, but also as Secretary of War for President McKinley and Secretary of State for President Roosevelt. He won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1912. His amusing Letter to "Dear Willard," his friend, former law partner, and a Judge on New York State's highest court [the Court of Appeals], reads as follows:
"I am much obliged to you for sending me the slip from the Brooklyn Eagle and the expression of your opinion about the Court of Claims grab game. I have read your article in the Luminary and it was admirable. I had already sent a copy of the pending bill to Wadhams with instructions to refer it to the Committee on Grievances, and to ask the Chairman or Secretary of that Committee to call a meeting of the Committee to take proper action upon it.
"I think by the side of Tim Campbell's famous aphorism, 'what is the constitution between friends?', we must put another, 'what is civil service between enemies?'
"It is a great thing to have a friend like Davenport. It is a great thing for an old and conservative Judge to have a friend like Davenport, who will pull him off the bench and whirl him through the country and let the wind whistle through his whiskers and increase the red corpuscles in his blood.