Quentin's letters to Flora and his father charted the course of America's entry into the war. While Theodore and Quentin were initially neutral, Theodore was incensed over the sinking of the British passenger ship RMS "Lusitania" in May 1915, in which 128 Americans drowned. Theodore campaigned vigorously on behalf of the 1916 Republican Presidential nominee, Charles Evans Hughes, during which he severely criticized Woodrow Wilson. Wilson was subsequently reelected on a neutrality platform, but took the country to war during his second term.