Americans--Politics and government

President Roosevelt writes to his son Kermit Roosevelt and relates stories of Archibald “Archie” B. Roosevelt and Quentin Roosevelt playing together. He says First Lady Edith Kermit Carow Roosevelt is back but is not feeling well. Ethel Roosevelt’s confirmation went well. Roosevelt is still having trouble with the Senate holding up the nomination of Ben Daniels and other legislation. Kermit has written some math problems on the envelope.

Collection

Harvard College Library

Creation Date

1906-03-19

President Roosevelt writes to his son Kermit to discuss the first volume of Phineas Finn and list some recent guests at the White House who went hiking. He says the “political pot” is heating up over his rate bill and mentions that the Republican leaders have betrayed him.

Collection

Harvard College Library

Creation Date

1906-04-01

President Roosevelt writes to his son Kermit to tell him that after reading his letter, Edith is okay with inviting Mr. and Mrs. Robert Ferguson to travel abroad with the family. Nick and Alice returned from their honeymoon trip and Ethel is now moved into Alice’s room. Cousin Sheffield Cowles has the measles and Roosevelt is going to visit although his eye is bothering him. Roosevelt says that he has been working very hard and has a hard time with passing the rate bill, the Philippine tariff bill, and some of his nominations in the Senate. Archie and Quentin went to a dog show.

Collection

Harvard College Library

Creation Date

1906-03-04

President Roosevelt writes to his son Kermit to say that he is glad Ted visited Kermit at Groton, and, if Kermit works hard, he can finish school at home next year. Roosevelt says he is having problems with the Panama Canal because of clashes between Secretary of War Taft and Chairman Shonts. Massachusetts is going crazy over the tariff as well. Roosevelt says he is getting plenty of tennis, rides, and scrambling walks. He adds that Edith has been reading a lot to Archie and Quentin and the next day African hunter Frederick Selous is visiting.

Collection

Harvard College Library

Creation Date

1905-11-12

Theodore Roosevelt expounds on the importance of Americanism, civic duty, military service, and military preparedness. He ends with a discussion of the infeasibility of “peace at any price.”

Collection

Harvard College Library

Creation Date

1917-01-10

An article praising President Roosevelt as a peacemaker.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1905-08-30

Article includes a political analysis of Woodrow Wilson, Theodore Roosevelt, and William H. Taft.

Collection

Sagamore Hill National Historic Site

Creation Date

1912-08

Commentary on politics, social conditions, and religion.

Collection

Sagamore Hill National Historic Site

Creation Date

1911

An editorial claims the American model of governing allows the president to hear directly from the people. President Roosevelt had hosted a dinner with leaders of differing viewpoints.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-11-13

Author claims many Catholic Universities would have gladly provided an education for Filipino refugees had they been given the opportunity and concludes by calling for an investigation into the decision making process.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-10-11

Director of the Boston Museum of Art Edward Robinson writes a letter to the editor of the Herald where he criticizes the United States Treasury Department’s recent decision to tax the frames of imported paintings.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-10-11

Theodore Roosevelt writes to John Callan O’Laughlin about a recent proposal that was defeated by President Woodrow Wilson’s administration.  Roosevelt directs O’Laughlin to a recent telegram he sent to Senator Henry Cabot Lodge. 

Collection

Harvard College Library

Creation Date

1917-05-12

Theodore Roosevelt writes to John Callan O’Laughlin seeking clarification on Roosevelt’s ability to be heard by the committee in Washington. If Roosevelt cannot be heard, he does not wish to make the trip and will send a letter instead.

Collection

Harvard College Library

Creation Date

1912-08-25

Theodore Roosevelt emphasizes to John Callan O’Laughlin that he does not want the nomination. However, Roosevelt is unwilling to issue a statement that, if nominated, he would decline the nomination.

Collection

Harvard College Library

Creation Date

1911-12-08

Theodore Roosevelt writes to John Callan O’Laughlin and comments on the libel suit by Simeon E. Baldwin and the William Lorimer case. Roosevelt regards the outcome of the Lorimer case as “one of the greatest infamies that could be perpetrated.”

Collection

Harvard College Library

Creation Date

1910-12-20

Republican National Committee Chairman Cortelyou informs President Roosevelt that he met with John Thomas McDonough and discussed all the work he would be doing.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-10-11

Tammany Hall boss Richard Croker, as a pirate, nails a new figurehead labeled “McClellan” to the bow of a ship labeled “Tammany.” The old figurehead labeled “Van Wyck” lies on the ground.

Comments and Context

If there is a historical flaw in Joseph Keppler’s cartoon, it is not that the Tammany ship (of the corrupt Democratic organization typically controlling New York City) found it facile to change the figureheads — mayors who were pliant to the will of the Tammany “boss.” Since Boss Tweed and John Kelly and Richard Croker, it had been so for decades.

By 1903, however, Richard Croker was a figurehead himself, barely active during the election of George McClellan as New York City mayor. The Irish-born Croker endured scandals that were worse than usual; had devolved some of his powers; and attempted to run the party and city from his estates in Ireland and England, where he managed stables of race horses.

New York Mayor Seth Low directs the bombardment of a Tammany Hall bunker flying a flag labeled “Tammany Graft.” Several men, among them former President Grover Cleveland, and Charles V. Fornes, pass shells labeled “Clean record, Capable administration, [and] Just return for taxes” for an “Anti-Tammany” howitzer. They are behind a sand-bag bunker labeled “Honest Government” and are flying the flag of “Municipal Reform.” Caption: “That ammunition fits our gun only.”

Comments and Context

“Regulars and Irregulars” — cartoonist Keppler illustrated the “fusion” aspect of Mayor Seth Low’s New York City administration.In 1901 Low had been elected as a Reform Republican and Fusion candidate, on the Citizen’s Union ticket.

In fewer than two years Low effected many reforms swiftly and forcefully, taking advantage of his unprecedented victory over Tammany Hall Democrats, who were demoralized and in disarray. And Low kept his coalition together. Public servants of all stripes supported him editorially or politically, as Keppler caricatured various leaders of various backgrounds.

President Roosevelt stands with his right hand on the left shoulder of an African American man, probably Booker T. Washington but not identified, and his left hand on a paper labeled “15th Amendment.” Behind them is a statue labeled “Lincoln – With Malice Toward None With Charity Toward All,” showing Abraham Lincoln standing at the top with freed African American slaves. Caption: President Roosevelt–Lincoln emancipated you, the people gave you citizenship and I’ll protect your rights.

Comments and Context

The controversy that clearly inspired this cartoon by Keppler was the famous Indianola, Mississippi, post office matter. In the weeks preceding this cartoon’s publication, Minnie Cox, the black postmistress of Indianola (having been appointed by President Harrison and again by President McKinley), was forced from her office by white Democrats of her town under threats including lynching. President Roosevelt exercised his prerogative as president and ordered her reinstated, and the post office closed until she returned to her post. Residents were obliged to travel 30 miles to transact postal business. Roosevelt had offended Southern whites by inviting Booker T. Washington to dine at the White House shortly after his assuming office. President Cleveland had invited the pioneer crusader for Black rights, Frederick Douglass, to the Executive Mansion amid even greater outcries, perhaps because Mrs. Douglass was white. It is interesting that Keppler here shows Roosevelt assuring a man (likely an unlabeled Booker T. Washington) and not Postmistress Minnie Cox herself.  There is no record of a public outreach to Booker T. Washington during this affair; however, he had become a political adviser publicly identified with Roosevelt, to whom he often turned for matters of policies and patronage.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Columbia stands on a globe labeled “United States,” holding a balance scale labeled “Constitutional Amendment” on which rests a large sword labeled “Centralized Government.”

Comments and Context

Beginning around this time in American national politics, traditional voices in the mainstream occasionally advocated, at least in theory, the benefits of centralization and regulation. Of course Theodore Roosevelt himself did, advocating the first measures of the regulatory state that peaked around 1906 with legislation and gained traction after 1910, the insurgent and Progressive movements. There was no one impetus, but the seemingly intractable challenge of the trusts might, to some, be solved by a corresponding consolidation of governmental power. Also, political and economic theorists among academics frequently urged centralization of the federal government. Countries in Europe, especially Germany, experimented with Socialism, with apparent success. When magazines like Puck (conservative Democrat, largely) and Judge (conservative Republican) argued occasionally for centralization and, for instance, municipal ownership of utilities, it seems surprising today. It was surprising then, but reform was in the air. It is also a matter of speculation about whether the voices of opinion, and leaders like Roosevelt, might be proud of the ideas they planted, or see centralization as a Frankenstein monster after the subsequent century.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs