Your TR Source
Newspaper article describing President Roosevelt’s enthusiastic reception in Charleston, South Carolina. It is suggested that the antagonisms of the Civil War have finally healed.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1902-04-10
Henry G. Thomas asks President Roosevelt for a contribution to be deposited with other “articles which will be of interest to future generations” in the cornerstone of a soldier’s memorial currently under construction (Stowe, Vermont). The monument will honor soldiers from the American Civil War, and Roosevelt is promised that any articles he deposits will not be read for many years to come.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1902-04-10
Albert Bushnell Hart questions why American colonial policy is allowing slavery in the Sulu Islands. The arguments for continuing slavery are the same that were used in the United States before the American Civil War. Hart believes that public sentiment would support ending slavery in the Philippines and the Supreme Court will likely rule against any form of servitude.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1902-01-23
William Allen White requests more time to secure the appointment for Cyrus Leland. If the position goes to someone else, it will be viewed as a personal victory for Senator Joseph Ralph Burton and will increase partisan politics in Kansas. The many veterans of the state will also be angered if a Civil War veteran is not appointed.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1901-12-13
A. Caperton Braxton informs Thomas Lafayette Rosser that he is ready to meet their friend. Braxton hopes that they will be part of a great reform that will affect public sentiment in the North and heal the wounds inflicted during the Civil War.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1901-11-26
Chief Justice Lore recommends Caleb Churchman for the position of collector of the port at Wilmington, Delaware. Churchman served during the Civil War and his son, Clarke Churchman, was killed at El Caney during the Spanish-American War. The Churchman family have been strong supporters of the Republican Party and Churchman is well qualified for the position.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1901-10-25
If President Roosevelt visits Roswell, Georgia, the home of his mother’s family, he may be able to meet the minister that married his parents, Reverend James Bulloch Dunwody. Roosevelt’s parents, Martha Bulloch and Theodore Roosevelt, were married in Roswell, Georgia, on December 18, 1853. Even though the marriage took place in Georgia, it was recorded in South Carolina, where the preacher’s parish was located.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1901-10
Richard Harding Davis supports President Roosevelt’s decision to host Booker T. Washington at the White House and describes the decision as an “act of every day civility.” The South does not realize that the Civil War is over and that the slave question has been decided.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1901-10-17
Justice Harlan speaks highly of Colonel Hunt’s military service and character. He recommends that Hunt be maintained in his position or promoted.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1901-10-12
Hermann Speck von Sternburg reviews the uses, training, and equipment of mounted infantry.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1901-10-05
William E. Ray, a veteran and longtime Republican, argues that veterans should receive larger pensions and preferential treatment in government jobs. He uses his own case to illustrate that able-bodied men who never served in the military sometimes succeed in retaining jobs that veterans could fill.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1901-08-28
Henry Nehemiah Burhans, president of the Veteran Association of Onondaga County, regrets that Vice President Roosevelt cannot accept their invitation. He reiterates the extensive planning for the county’s veterans reunion and notes that thousands of veterans will likely be involved. Burhans and the veterans want Roosevelt to open their reunion and will allow him to select the date.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1901-08-29
Sebastian Kerber summarizes his war record and difficulties with the Pension Board. He thanks Vice President Roosevelt for offering to look into his case, but declines as his appeal is pending.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1901-08-24
On behalf of the Veteran Association of Onondaga County, Henry Nehemiah Burhans invites Vice President Roosevelt to attend a reunion of Civil War veterans.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1901-08-24
William H. Altman sends Vice President Roosevelt some papers and “relics” he obtained from Roosevelt’s saddlebag and haversack while he was working at the Rock Island Arsenal, where equipment from Roosevelt’s troops were received for repairs after the troops returned from Cuba. Altman explains that he comes from “fighting stock,” gives a list of relatives who have served as soldiers, and asks for a remembrance from Roosevelt. Altman offers to send Roosevelt a copy of Rock Island Arsenal: In Peace and In War, if he does not already have one.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1901-02-27
Bradley T. Johnson has received Governor Roosevelt’s book The Rough Riders and calls it a “graphic story of a gallant feat” and compares the experience with his own charge at “The Rail Road Cut,” during the Civil War. Johnson discusses hunting, Roosevelt’s re-election campaign, and sends his love to the Roosevelt family. Johnson also mentions that he will speak with Senator Lodge around Christmas about getting Roosevelt a medal of honor.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1899-08-07
Major General Sickles urges United States military veterans to set aside partisan differences to oppose the election of the Democratic Party’s candidate for the 1896 presidential election, William Jennings Bryan. Sickles primarily denounces Bryan on the issue of replacing the gold standard with a looser silver standard, which will, according to Sickles, allow debtors to pay off creditors and government bonds with less valuable currency, defrauding many veterans and army widows of the value of their pensions. Sickles considers this an unconstitutional attack on the public credit, a move towards Populist mob-rule. Sickles also accuses Bryan of encouraging the type of sectionalism that sparked the American Civil War. Although Sickles identifies as a Democrat himself, he denounces the platform and candidate, Bryan, approved at the 1896 Democratic National Convention in Chicago, and voices support for the Republican Candidate, William McKinley.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1896-07
Transcript of speeches at the Democratic National Convention by August Belmont, chairman of the Democratic National Committee; Governor Horatio Seymour, president of the convention; and William Bigler, temporary chairman of the convention.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1864-08-29
Belmont, August, 1813-1890; Seymour, Horatio, 1810-1886; Bigler, William, 1814-1880
Details of William C. Allen’s military service during the Civil War, including his enlistment, capture and imprisonment, release through exchange, return to service, and eventual discharge.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1865-06-20
Mary H. Sumner Long is sending to Theodore Roosevelt a copy of the Memoirs of General Robert E. Lee, written by her husband, General A. L. Long. She was inspired to send the book because of the “beautiful tribute” Roosevelt paid the General in his biography of Thomas Hart Benton. Sumner Long explains that some critics have charged her husband with partiality, but she thinks Roosevelt will agree that the biographer has done justice to Lee’s “genius as a soldier” and his “character as a man.” She then tells Roosevelt that she is one of his greatest admirers and loves reading his articles.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1887-11-22