Platt, Thomas Collier, 1833-1910

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1906-01-31

Creator(s)

Loeb, William, 1866-1937

Recipient

Platt, Thomas Collier, 1833-1910

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1906-01-26

Creator(s)

Loeb, William, 1866-1937

Recipient

Platt, Thomas Collier, 1833-1910

President Roosevelt informs Senator Platt that it is necessary to hurry the appointment of the new district attorney as he will have to begin his tenure by undertaking “one of the most important suits that has been undertaken” by the Department of Justice. Roosevelt believes that Henry L. Stimson is the best man for the position, and Stimson has said he will accept if he is offered the position. Roosevelt hopes that Platt can support him.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1906-01-07

President Roosevelt informs Senator Platt that Attorney General William H. Moody has told him that his appropriation will not allow him to appoint another Assistant District Attorney. Further more, Francis J.  Carmody is “strikingly unfit” to serve in that position, and appointing him would be a scandal.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1905-12-21

President Roosevelt tells Senator Platt that he thinks he can place Cabot Ward. He asks Platt not to commit himself to the candidate Christopher Columbus Shayne favors, or to any other candidates, until Roosevelt has a chance to speak with him.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1905-12-18

President Roosevelt frankly tells Senator Platt that he does not think it wise to continue supporting Representative Jacob Van Vechten Olcott for chair of the County Committee of New York if it becomes evident that most Republicans in the area do not support him. He believes that if Platt continues to fight for Olcott against a man as clean and broadly-supported as Representative Herbert Parsons, he could give the impression that Olcott’s election is “a machine triumph,” which is the very thing that they are trying to avoid.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1905-11-25

President Roosevelt informs Senator Platt that several well-known Republicans in New York do not believe that Representative Jacob Van Vechten Olcott is the proper man to put forward for Chairman of the Republican county organization. Roosevelt makes it clear that he does not want to dictate who should be chairman and is merely providing his opinion. He believes that whoever is chosen should be “a man of the highest character and reputation” who possesses the independence necessary to conduct the affairs with efficiency and integrity. Roosevelt believes it is more important to focus on finding a man of this type, rather than on naming a specific person.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1905-11-23

President Roosevelt believes that a bill like the one Senator Platt proposes has no chance of passing, and would “actually accomplish nothing whatever but mischief.” While in the North it might please “a few white and colored agitators,” Roosevelt believes that it would hurt the “colored” people in the South. He acknowledges the “righteous feeling” behind the proposed measure, but believes that the only practical effects of introducing it will be bad. Platt can choose for himself whether or not to introduce the measure, and Roosevelt will appreciate that his decision is based on his own best judgment.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1905-11-22

President Roosevelt informs Senator Platt that he does not intend to appoint a New York man as Public Printer. He believes that he has identified the right man for the job but does not intend to make an announcement about it until he returns from his southern trip.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1905-10-17

President Roosevelt will ask that John William Burgess be appointed if possible. He tells New York Senator Platt that he has already instructed the post office to reappoint Mrs. Simpson and takes her reappointment as a “matter of course.”

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1905-09-06

President Roosevelt informs New York Senator Platt that Public Printer Francis Wayland Palmer started to remove Oscar J. Ricketts from his position, which made it compulsory for Roosevelt to request Palmer’s resignation. Roosevelt would like to hire “some good men” from outside the Public Printing Office who have no interest in any of the factional conflicts there.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1905-09-04

President Roosevelt thanks Thomas Collier Platt for his telegram. He asks if he will be in Washington, D.C., in October, as there are things he would like to talk with him about.

Comments and Context

The Russian and Japanese delegations to the Portsmouth Peace Conference had recently concluded negotiations, bringing the Russo-Japanese War to an end and prompting many people around the world to congratulate Theodore Roosevelt on his successful mediation. The official treaty would be signed several days later, on September 5, 1905.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

President Roosevelt would like to oblige Senator Platt, and will try to delay taking action on the matter Platt wrote to him about until they are able to meet in October. Roosevelt is dissatisfied with the factions present in the Government Printing Office, and is thinking of appointing someone from the western states not associated with either side.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1905-08-19

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1905-07-21

Creator(s)

Roosevelt, Theodore, 1858-1919

Recipient

Platt, Thomas Collier, 1833-1910

President Roosevelt tells Senator Platt he will take up the case of U.S. Treasurer Ellis H. Roberts with Secretary of the Treasury Leslie M. Shaw at once. Roosevelt had understood that “Roberts was past doing any useful work.”

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1905-06-05

President Roosevelt thanks Senator Platt for his courtesy and for considering his suggestions.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1905-05-31

President Roosevelt asks Senator Platt to work with Representative William Lorimer on Illinois and the Chicago strike to try to resolve the situation in a way that benefits both the employees and employers.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1905-05-27

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1905-05-22

Creator(s)

Roosevelt, Theodore, 1858-1919

Recipient

Platt, Thomas Collier, 1833-1910

President Roosevelt informs Senator Platt that he requested that the “gentleman in whom you are interested” be promoted to Consul at Barbados. Roosevelt shares that the current Treasurer of the United States, Ellis H. Roberts, will be replaced soon, and that per their recent conversation, Roosevelt can promote Charles H. Treat to Treasurer, and put Charles William Anderson in Treat’s place as Internal Revenue Collector in New York, with the goal of giving “conspicuous recognition” to an African American man there.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1905-02-28

President Roosevelt has discussed William Blumenthal’s matter with Assistant Secretary of State Francis B. Loomis, and informs Senator Platt that it will be attended to if it can be done properly. Edward Charles O’Brien accepted the offer of the Uruguay ministership, and Roosevelt cannot go back on it.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1905-02-04