Robert Newton Page papers, 1892-1930, bulk 1916-1920

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Summary

Creator:
Page, Robert Newton, 1859-1933
Abstract:
Bank president and U.S. Representative from North Carolina. Correspondence, clippings, and other papers (largely 1916-1920) relating chiefly to Page's resignation from Congress and his 1920 North Carolina gubernatorial campaign. Includes information on Page's congressional career, as well as letter from Page's brother, Walter Hines Page, while ambassador to England describing the English countryside and his activities as ambassador. Correspondents include Claude Kitchin, Angus Wilton McLean, and Charles Manly Stedman.
Extent:
3 Linear Feet
Approx. 2,764 Items
Language:
Material in English
Collection ID:
RL.00987

Background

Scope and content:

The papers in this collection deal largely with Page's resignation from Congress and his gubernatorial race in 1920. Most of the letters were written before his defeat in the first primary in 1920. The clippings deal exclusively with that race. The printed material contains not only papers of a political nature but also literature of the first World War period urging the purchase of War Savings Stamps.

The letter book (1916) is comprised solely of telegrams and letters which both oppose and applaud Page's refusal to seek re-election to Congress because Wilson had asked Congress to make the decision as to whether or not American citizens should be warned to stay off vessels of belligerent countries, which decision he thought Wilson should make himself. In 1916 Page wrote to his constituents explaining his stand and stating that the large loan to England by American capitalists and the profits of munition makers had destroyed even the semblance of neutrality in the U.S.

The letters from his constituents begin in 1904. In 1916 some of them wrote Page to oppose preparedness. On July 22, 1914 Page's brother, Walter Hines, then ambassador to England, wrote from a country house out from London which they had rented for three months. He speaks of the beauty of the English countryside, the life of an ambassador to England, his approval of what that session of Congress had done, and his close relations with the British Foreign Office (claims he induced the British government to keep quiet about Mexico).

Among the other papers, there is an invitation to a prohibition banquet in December 1916; a 1916 report on what had been accomplished among the natives of Alaska with the appropriations granted to the Bureau of Education by Congress; 1918 report of the N. C. Council of Defense to Gov. Thomas W. Bickett on its first year of war work; letters in 1918 and 1919 from people pledging their support to Page as a candidate for the governorship of N.C., a letter of December 28, 1918 from H.E.C. Bryant in which the author freely expresses his opinion as to Cameron Morrison and the role he thinks Sen. Furnifold M. Simmons and a number of other N. C. politicoes might play in the next gubernatorial election; letters attacking the political machine of Simmons, who supported Morrison in the 1920 campaign, and accusing Sen. Lee Overman of taking orders from Simmons; copy of an address delivered by Page on Mar. 11, 1920 to the students at the Univ. of N.C.; campaign literature; and a copy of Gardner for Governor Bulletin, April 1920.

Acquisition information:
The Robert Newton Page papers were acquired by the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book Manuscript Library in 1952.
Processing information:

Processed by Rubenstein Library staff, 1977

Encoded by Willeke Sandler and Paula Jeannet, April 2014

Accession(s) described in this finding aid: accession from 1952

Physical location:
For current information on the location of these materials, please consult the Library's online catalog.
Rules or conventions:
Describing Archives: A Content Standard

Contents

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Restrictions:

Collection is open for research.

Terms of access:

The copyright interests in this collection have not been transferred to Duke University. For more information, consult the copyright section of the Regulations and Procedures of the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library.

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Preferred citation:

[Identification of item], Robert Newton Page Papers, David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Duke University.