Anti-imperialist movements

President Roosevelt tells Secretary of War Taft that he admires his willingness to sacrifice his own interests for a principle, but encourages him to avoid talking about delicate subjects where his words could be twisted. Roosevelt is glad that Taft understands the situation with another potential presidential candidate, Governor Charles Evans Hughes, remarking that he has a “distinct strength with the people.” The president believes that Taft will get the majority of the delegates in the West on the first roll and that the majority of people in New England are for Taft. Finally, Roosevelt notes that the New York papers are “almost insane” in regard to his actions, suggesting that Judas Iscariot and Benedict Arnold were “pretty good citizens by comparison.”

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1907-09-19

Creator(s)

Roosevelt, Theodore, 1858-1919

Secretary of State Hay sends President Roosevelt a letter from W. Cameron Forbes to Henry Lee Higginson. Hay wishes the letter could “be read by all the antis.”

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-12-23

Creator(s)

Hay, John, 1838-1905

Secretary of War Taft asks Governor Wright to review two letters which accuse Taft of lying. President Roosevelt has asked for Wright’s response. Taft also encloses an annual report. Taft expects more anti-imperialism critiques soon, now that the election is over.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-11-17

Creator(s)

Taft, William H. (William Howard), 1857-1930

Thomas E. Watson, William Randolph Hearst, and William Jennings Bryan push a wagon full of bricks—”free silver,” “government ownership,” “anti-imperialism,” and “populism”—on a rocky road. It is driven by a donkey that sits down and says, “I must sit down on this push.”

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-11-27

Creator(s)

Berryman, Clifford Kennedy, 1869-1949

William Bourke Cockran supports American involvement in the Philippines, to the dismay of Anti-Imperialists.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1905-08-12

Creator(s)

Unknown

President Roosevelt finds W. Cameron Forbes’s letter interesting and speaks to Secretary of State Hay about the “anti-foreign spirit” in the Japanese army about which Roosevelt has heard. He is particularly concerned because it seems to be especially violent against Americans.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-12-23

Creator(s)

Roosevelt, Theodore, 1858-1919

President Roosevelt tells Sir George Otto Trevelyan of his happiness regarding the recent 1904 presidential election, and remarks that he is glad people decided to support the positive message of the Republican Party, rather than the negativity of the Democratic Party. The president attributes his victory to the clear-cut message in his speeches and addresses as well as those canvassing for him. Roosevelt discusses the differences between the American president and other political leaders and believes the American president is more like the British prime minister than the French president. he additionally reflects on his intention not to run for a third term. Even without the convention of only two terms, the president believes it would be better for Secretary of War William H. Taft or Elihu Root to succeed him; they are similar in policy, but would have fresh thoughts and ways. Roosevelt concludes by discussing his recent reading. He praises a section from one of Abraham Lincoln’s speeches after his reelection and equates certain American political leaders to characters in Charles Dickens’s works.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-11-24

Creator(s)

Roosevelt, Theodore, 1858-1919

President Roosevelt asks Ambassador Reid if he would be able to petition Lord Robert Offley Ashburton Crewe-Milnes to write to officials in Uganda that Roosevelt would appreciate being given a guide and information that would allow him to hunt a white rhinoceros or elephant. The current unrest in India concerns Roosevelt, and asks what the feelings of British officials are towards it. Roosevelt also remarks briefly on his plans to leave immediately after William H. Taft’s inauguration as president, and comments on a controversy that arose at the 1908 Olympic Games in London, which is still fostering some resentment between the two nations. If Roosevelt can secure a third specimen of the white rhinoceros, he would be happy to send it to the British Museum.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1908-11-26

Creator(s)

Roosevelt, Theodore, 1858-1919

President Roosevelt thanks former Governor of Massachusetts Long for his letter and agrees with Long that recent actions in Cuba prove to the anti-imperialists “the folly of which we should have been guilty if we had followed their advice in the Philippines.”

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1906-10-06

Creator(s)

Roosevelt, Theodore, 1858-1919

President Roosevelt is shocked by the result of the election, particularly in carrying Missouri. Even though the campaign had been extremely dishonest in Roosevelt’s opinion, he still won by “such a landslide.” Roosevelt tells Major General Wood that he realizes he will have difficulties during the next four years, but at least there will not be “criminal blunders” regarding the Philippines, the Army and Navy, or foreign policy in general.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-11-14

Creator(s)

Roosevelt, Theodore, 1858-1919

President Roosevelt responds to a request from Senator Lodge that he comment on an article about Egypt written by Charles Francis Adams. Roosevelt observes that Adams was apparently not aware of many of the issues related to holding colonies before traveling to Egypt. Comparing the British occupation and control of Egypt and India with the relationship of the United States to Cuba, Puerto Rico, and particularly the Philippines, Roosevelt asserts that the goal of the United States must be to administer the islands for the good of the natives with an eye towards eventual self-government (whereas this has not always seemed to be the goal of the British). Roosevelt also quotes a letter from General Leonard Wood regarding the condition of British colonies and the topic of Chinese labor. Roosevelt believes that the United States has acted much more benevolently towards its island holdings than the British have towards their colonies, and praises the efforts that the United States has made in reducing corruption and increasing the effectiveness of the governments of these dependencies.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1906-04-30

Creator(s)

Roosevelt, Theodore, 1858-1919

Assistant Secretary of State Bacon writes to Ambassador George von Lengerke Meyer about the situation in Russia. The blame for the instability of the Duma should be evenly distributed between Tsar Nicholas II and his advisors. Bacon believed actual action and sacrifices mean more than words and sees the need for the formation of a constitutional government and a route out of bankruptcy as Russia’s highest concerns. The government is suppressing the distribution of the new Viborg Manifesto, created by former Dumas members.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1906-07-28

Creator(s)

Bacon, Robert, 1860-1919

Silas McBee writes to President Roosevelt to send him an advance copy of the Churchman containing an article by Secretary Taft which McBee describes as “commanding in its detachment from partisanship or special pleading and in its constructive presentation of facts and principles.” McBee expresses his and his wife’s appreciation at being Roosevelt and Edith Roosevelt’s guests on Sunday.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-09-28

Creator(s)

McBee, Silas, 1853-1924

Charles Francis Adams expresses his views about President Roosevelt’s intervention in the Anthracite Coal Strike, which Adams believes was an “egregious blunder.” He encloses a copy of a speech that was prepared for an anti-imperialist meeting.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-08-09

Creator(s)

Adams, Charles Francis, 1835-1915

Secretary of State Hay criticizes the speech that Charles Francis Adams gave at Boston.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-08-02

Creator(s)

Hay, John, 1838-1905

In an address to the Harvard Alumni Association, Secretary of War Taft discusses the Philippine-American War and the effect on the Filipino government of anti-imperialist criticism of the war.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-06-28

Creator(s)

Taft, William H. (William Howard), 1857-1930

Robert Wexelblatt praises Philip McFarland for his even-handed approach in his dual biography Mark Twain and the Colonel: Samuel L. Clemens, Theodore Roosevelt, and the Arrival of a New Century. Wexelblatt notes that the disagreements between the writer and the politician will interest most readers, and he highlights Twain’s anti-imperialism as the foremost of these issues. Wexelblatt commends McFarland for explaining the views of Twain, Roosevelt, and their contemporaries in the context of their time. He notes that McFarland also covers the similarities between “the two most famous and celebrated Americans,” and he credits McFarland for his research and his lively prose. 

Photographs of Twain and Roosevelt, and the front cover illustration of Mark Twain and the Colonel, accompany the review.

Collection

Theodore Roosevelt Association Journal

Creation Date

2013

Admission ticket for a gathering of Anti-Imperialists at Faneuil Hall on June 26, 1902, at which William Bourke Cockran is to be the featured speaker.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1902-06

Creator(s)

Unknown

President Roosevelt dives on the “canal treaty” football as an “anti-imperialist” and a “copperhead” attempt to tackle him or slow him down. Alabama Senator John Tyler Morgan jumps in the background. The crowds, meanwhile, chear in favor of Roosevelt, shouting: “Rah” and “He’s all right.”

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1903-11-12

Creator(s)

Triggs, Floyd W. (Floyd Wilding), -1919

Alton B. Parker hides underneath a bed and says, “I will speak.” “Miss Democracy” watches him as she knits. Caption: Miss Democracy—(After punishing her candidate for his anti-imperialistic language), No Alton, you must stay where you are. Silence in your case is indeed golden.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-10-18

Creator(s)

Davenport, Homer, 1867-1912