32nd President.  Impressive pair of Franklin D. Roosevelt autographed items with historical significance.  The archive consists of a signed hardcover book Two Ordeals of Democracy by John Buchan, published in 1925 by Houghton Mifflin Company, 56 page printing of "A Lecture At Milton Academy On The Alumni War Memorial Foundation October 16, 1924" signed on first free end page:  "For Mr. Marion M. Miller in memory of a very happy day in Toledo Franklin D. Roosevelt May 1928".

The book is accompanied by a typed letter signed (TLS) on White House stationery, July 10, 1935, to Miller, in full:  "In going over a lot of books at Hyde Park the other day I found this volume with an inscription - May, 1928 - and although it is seven years ago, I am sending it to you.  I hope you are having a good trip and that I shall see you one of these days."

Both items in fine condition - book with toning on FFEP but signature and inscription dark and bold, TLS with mailing fold and toning but signature remains striking

The historical significance in the archive is quite interesting.  In June 1922, the authorities at Milton Academy discussed how to honor the memory of its alumni, 22 overall, who had died in action during World War I.  The Trustees wanted a living memorial, rather than something "static or finished" such as a statue, and thus it was decided to fund an annual series of lectures at the Academy to address "the responsibilities and opportunities attaching to leadership in democracy."
 
The 1924 lecture was given by Englishman John Buchan. He used the opportunity to emphasize the identity of transatlantic feeling which had been induced by the conflict.  “The Great War, which we are here to commemorate,” he said, “made us for a time one household.”  He continued to his main theme, Abraham Lincoln:  “To me he seems one of the two or three greatest men ever born of our blood.  You will observe that I am talking as if we were one household and speaking of our blood, for no drop ran in his veins which was not British in its ultimate origins.  I like to think that in him we see at its highest that kind of character and mind which is the special glory of our common race.”  Buchan went on to refer to the understanding of democratic values which he felt to be shared within the Atlantic community more than elsewhere. 

His speech was, in fact, a call for an Atlantic alliance, and others saw it that way.  An American reviewer at the time wrote that Buchan “believes, furthermore, that the World War was not merely an aimless and sordid clash of brute forces, but a duel between two essentially conflicting theories of life, in which Great Britain and the United States stood should to shoulder in defense of civilization.”

The Milton lecture for 1925 was delivered by FDR who apparently read the message of Buchan’s speech from the previous year as he would inscribe a copy of the published lecture to Marion Miller, an Ohio banker and co-compiler of an edition of the Works of Abraham Lincoln.  The book would reside in FDR’s personal library at Hyde Park until he discovered it in the summer of 1935 (he spent June 8-12 and June 22-23 in Hyde Park) and forwarded it to Miller upon his return to the White House.  Of note, sales of the book were sluggish from its release through the mid-1930s but did pick up in 1935, corresponding with the appointment of Buchan as Governor-General of Canada.  At this time, with the rise of Hitler and Mussolini, it was seen that if America valued the survival of democracy, its natural allegiance was with Britain.

We cannot be sure if FDR specifically sought this book in his personal collection, but finding it clearly rekindled his interest in its content as he had gracious words to say about Buchan’s speech in a letter to him in early 1936.  They would continue to correspond on a variety of subjects including how America and the British Empire could best coordinate their efforts to prop up democratic politics then under threat in Europe.  Then, in 1941, Roosevelt would forge the Atlantic Alliance with Winston Churchill that Buchan had advocated in the very book we offer here seventeen years earlier.