Manuscripts Collection
Robert Campbell Dunn was the Minnesota Republican Party's candidate for governor in 1904. He lost the election to the Democratic candidate John A. Johnson by about 7,800 votes out of nearly 304,000 votes cast, even though in the presidential race the Republican candidate Theodore Roosevelt carried Minnesota by more than 161,000 votes. Dunn attributed his loss to a deep split in the Republican party (particularly in Hennepin County), his opponent nearly sweeping the ethnic Swedish vote; opposition from corporations remembering his hard stance toward them as state auditor; and a charge that he was a pawn of James J. Hill. Previous to his first term in the Minnesota legislature in 1889, he served as county attorney for Mille Lacs County from 1884 to 1888 and town clerk for Princeton from 1878 to 1889. After being defeated in 1890, Dunn won another seat in the Minnesota legislature in 1892. In 1894 he was elected state auditor and served for two terms through 1902. In early 1904 Dunn entered the race for the governorship and defeated several rivals, including Loren W. Collins and Frank M. Eddy, for the nomination at the state Republican convention.
Dunn was born in Plumbridge, County Tyrone, Ireland on February 14,
1855. After spending a year in London, he emigrated the U.S. in 1870. After
living in several locales for several years, Dunn learned the printer's trade
in St. Louis and, by 1876, was living in Princeton, Minnesota. There he bought
out the local newspaper,
In February 1887 Dunn married Lydia McKenzie and the couple had two
children: a son, George, who became a doctor, and a daughter named Grace.
Despite losing the election in 1904, Dunn remained active in Republican Party
politics, continued to publish the
This collection pertains almost exclusively to Dunn's campaign for governor in 1904. It includes correspondence from late 1903, when Dunn was being urged to run from people throughout the state, through the Republican state nominating convention in late June, and through to election day in early November 1904. The incoming correspondence includes a large volume of letters from fellow newspaper editors (largely from rural Minnesota), other county auditors, local politicians, and acquaintances, as well as a number of personal friends. Letters contain a good deal of inside politics: who is for Dunn and who is against Dunn in a particular locale or county, and lining up delegates for the county and state conventions. After the nominating convention in late June, there are congratulatory letters, letters of advice and description of the local political situation, lining up campaign appearances, and even a few appeals for employment once Dunn is elected. Incoming correspondence stops a day or so before the election.
The outgoing correspondence, consisting of five indexed letterpress books, contains Dunn's replies to many of the people who wrote him during the campaign and, for the most part, are long and emotional. Dunn expresses his views frankly on a number of subjects and individuals, both opponents and supporters. There are a number letters dated after the election, which reveal his analysis of why he lost and indicate his great regret that he will not be able to reward his friends and supporters. While some of the correspondence, pamphlets, and statements predate and postdate the 1904 campaign, the vast majority dates from 1903 and 1904. A selection of speeches and newspaper clippings supplement the correspondence and add to an understanding of the 1904 campaign.
These documents are organized into the following sections:
This collection is indexed under the following headings in the catalog of the Minnesota Historical Society. Researchers desiring materials about related topics, persons or places should
Accession number: 16,023
Processed by: Rich Arpi, November 2004
Catalog ID number: 2961068
Several letters from June 1910 are at the end of the volume.
Two-page statement and two newspaper articles.
Pamphlet published by the Princeton Dunn Club.
Biographical sketch from unknown newspaper.