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President Roosevelt enjoyed General Alexander’s military memoir. Roosevelt goes on to state that family of his served for the Confederacy during the Civil War and he is proud to be able to claim his Georgian heritage through his mother just as much as his New York heritage through his father.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-07-16
President Roosevelt will not attend the Memorial Day commemoration at Indianapolis unless the people who organized the statue of General Henry Ware Lawton and those representing the Grand Army of the Republic reconcile their differences. Roosevelt tells Vice President Fairbanks that the veterans of the Spanish-American War should give precedence to those of the Civil War, since the latter conflict was of “infinitely greater nature” than the former and they are much older. Fairbanks should not make this public, but “any celebration of Memorial Day must be primarily a Grand Army celebration.”
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-04-16
President Roosevelt has read Charles H. True’s letter about his Civil War record with interest.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-04-06
President Roosevelt sees no value in printing the Civil War records, as Congress has previously been doing. Material should be curated and only the most important information published, with die-hard researchers being able to comb original files, should they wish to do so. Whatever system is applied is fine, but the existing system cannot stand; it is too wasteful.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-03-25
Secretary to the President Loeb encloses the requested signed quotations from President Roosevelt. The quotations are on Roosevelt’s opinion of Confederate General Robert E. Lee and national memory of the Civil War more broadly, praise of white backwoodsmen’s use of guns and axes in North American western expansion and imperialism, ideal gender roles for men and women, and the need for national commitment to “the life of strenuous endeavor.”
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-03-09
President Roosevelt thinks that the newly passed law concerning military pensions should resolve the need for special pension bills for Civil War veterans, and asks Representative Sulloway if he agrees.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-02-06
President Roosevelt sends Representative Sulloway the text of legislation proposed by Senator Porter J. McCumber on military pensions. Roosevelt asks if Sulloway’s House Committee on Invalid Pensions could act on such a law, which Roosevelt deems “admirable.”
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-02-09
President Roosevelt tells William B. Weeden his opinions and critiques of a book written by Weeden that he is reading on his trip to Panama. He compares the situations of Abraham Lincoln to his own, concluding that he has “bigger men than Lincoln had in his cabinet-men who have the great qualities of Seward, Chase and Stanton, without their great defects.”
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-11-12
President Roosevelt regrets that he cannot attend the dedication of the New York Monuments at the Battlefield of Manassas, but expresses to Thomas D. Mosscrop his “deep and reverent affection for the gallant men” who fought for their country during the American Civil War.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-10-09
President Roosevelt informs President of Harvard Eliot of his plan to send a separate message to Congress regarding the Reed memorial and asks him to send supporting materials to raise a subscription for the widow. Regrettably, he is unable to speak at Harvard next year. In “strict privacy,” he shares of President of Cuba Tomás Estrada Palmas’ request to intervene and in connection, discusses the justification of the Revolutionary War.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-09-13
President Roosevelt regrets that he cannot be present at the reunion of veterans of the American Civil War at Gettysburg on September 15, 1906. He asks John W. Frazier to extend his goodwill to all those present, and comments on the uniqueness of the Civil War, “where the men who fought against one another are now knit together by the closest ties of brotherly love.”
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-07-06
President Roosevelt responds to Ray Stannard Baker’s letter about the proposed maximum rate laws for railroad shipping. While Roosevelt agrees that a minimum rate law may benefit more people, he is unsure if such a law would be upheld by the courts. He stresses the importance of writing a law that will not be overturned in court, even if it cannot meet the demands of the people.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1905-11-28
For the upcoming celebration of the 250th anniversary of the settlement of Jews in the United States, President Roosevelt praises the citizenship of American Jews, and recounts a number of their greatest contributions to the United States to Jacob H. Schiff.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1905-11-16
President Roosevelt tells J. L. Underwood that he likes to hear from confederate veterans, but the incidents Underwood described concerning his mother Martha Bulloch Roosevelt and grandmother Martha Bulloch never happened. Roosevelt’s grandmother was “very infirm” during the Civil War and he does not believe she ever lived in Philadelphia.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1905-11-20
President Roosevelt makes it clear to Thomas Cochran that he will only reinstate Walter S. Elvidge as an act of mercy, not an act of justice. He does not want the implication that Elvidge did nothing wrong. (Elvidge had been fired after driving recklessly, causing his automobile to block Roosevelt’s carriage.)
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1905-11-03
President Roosevelt encloses a letter that he wrote to Thomas Cochran regarding the reinstatement of Walter S. Elvidge, who was fired after his reckless driving caused his automobile to block Roosevelt’s carriage. Roosevelt makes it clear to Secretary of Commerce and Labor Metcalf that he does not accept the explanation that Elvidge acted as he did because he was not aware that it was the President’s carriage; his conduct would have been just as bad regardless of whose carriage it was. If Elvidge behaves this way again, he will be dismissed.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1905-11-03
President Roosevelt tells George Otto Trevelyan how much he liked his letter and book. Roosevelt is especially keen about Trevelyan’s description of a “Greek War” in modern terms, and even agrees with his “carefully guarded statement” about wanting to live in Ancient Greece. Roosevelt also discusses the Civil War connections on his personal staff.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1905-10-07
President Roosevelt accepts most of University of Virginia President Alderman’s suggestions about his upcoming speech. He did not implement Alderman’s suggestion regarding “Lincoln’s warring to free the slave,” however, and explains his reasoning that it is an academic and technical objection, and he does not want to get into too fine of distinctions in his address.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1905-01-17
President Roosevelt agrees with William E. English, but offers the provisos that Civil War veterans should have “the right of the line,” and that he had already promised members of his own regiment and the New York Squadron they could be his personal escort. Roosevelt will discuss the matter with General John M. Wilson, chairman of his inaugural committee, to see if he can arrange the escort as English wishes.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1904-11-30
President Roosevelt thanks James W. Hardison and the Albert Sidney Johnston Camp of Confederate Veterans for the invitation. Roosevelt will stop in Paris, Texas, during his trip to San Antonio, Texas, if possible. Roosevelt informs Hardison he had family who fought on both sides during the Civil War and mentions two recent appointments he has made of the descendants of Confederate veterans.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1904-12-22