Benton, Thomas Hart, 1782-1858

President Roosevelt responds to Representative Williams’s claim that he does not understand the South. Although Roosevelt is “greatly puzzled” by some difficulties he has encountered in the South, he has tried to treat the Southern States fairly. Roosevelt believes there are no issues with what he has done in the South but how he has been misrepresented in the South. The president is fine if people disagree with his policies, but he does not like when the facts are misrepresented. He mentions statements made by Alabama Senator John Tyler Morgan and Williams himself that were incorrect. Roosevelt does not appreciate the application of base motives to the president of the United States, and believes if the people of the South have been misled, it is because Southern leaders have misled them. Roosevelt also does not appreciate white men in the South trying to get their vote to count more than those in the North, and believes African American men should be judged by the same tests as “ignorant, vicious and shiftless whites.” Roosevelt closes by saying that what the South “really needs” is for her leaders to tell the truth.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-12-05

President Roosevelt remembers Nathaniel T. Green’s help and thanks Green for the two volumes by Roualeyn Gordon-Cumming, who was an impressive hunter.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1909-01-27

President Roosevelt looks forward to reading William M. Meigs’s books, The Life of Thomas Hart Benton and The Life of Charles Jared Ingersoll, with great interest. Roosevelt would love to see Meigs if he ever visits Washington, D.C.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-12-22

William C. Carter explains how Thomas Hart Benton presented a life-size oil painting of himself to George Fitzhugh. The painting now belongs to Fitzhugh’s daughter, Emily Fitzhugh Dussenberry, who wants to sell it because of financial need. Since Theodore Roosevelt wrote about Benton, Carter offers him the opportunity to purchase the portrait or suggest someone else who might be interested.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1911-08-21

Cecil Spring Rice was delighted with Theodore Roosevelt’s letter and pleased with his remarks about India. He will stop bothering Roosevelt about sleeping sickness, but reminds him to listen to the locals’ advice and take the simple and necessary precautions against the tsetse flies. It would be wise for him to be cautious as many things need to be done and Roosevelt is the only one that can do them. Spring Rice comments on European relations and the strength of force Germany and Austria have over Europe. He wonders what Roosevelt thinks of the American tariff bill and hopes he has a “glorious time” on his safari.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1909-04-02

Corinne Stocker Horton reminds President Roosevelt of their conversation regarding Roosevelt’s opinion of Jefferson Davis as expressed in his biography of Thomas H. Benton. She asks if she can publish those remarks in the Atlanta Constitution. Clarke Howell wishes to use the remarks to write an editorial in response to attacks from Davis’ friends and family.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1905-05-11

Chronology of the daily life of Theodore Roosevelt from January 1884 to December 1891. Notable events include the deaths of Alice Lee Roosevelt and Martha Bulloch Roosevelt, Roosevelt’s time on his ranch, the completion of Sagamore Hill, Roosevelt’s engagement and marriage to Edith Kermit Carow, Theodore “Ted” Roosevelt’s birth, the “Great-Dieup” of cattle in North Dakota, and the founding of the Boone and Crockett Club.

Collection

Theodore Roosevelt Association

Creation Date

1985

Joseph R. Ornig chronicles Theodore Roosevelt’s work as a writer of histories, biographies, natural histories, essays, letters, and journalism. Ornig highlights some of these works, such as Roosevelt’s The Naval War of 1812 and The Winning of the West, by describing Roosevelt’s research, his aims, the books’ reception, and the time it took to complete them. Ornig also examines why Roosevelt wrote so much, citing the need to make money, articulating a reform agenda, and organizing his thoughts, and he notes those who acted as mentors to the literary Roosevelt like Henry Cabot Lodge and Owen Wister. Ornig also notes that Roosevelt assumed the role of mentor to many aspiring writers like the poet Edwin Arlington Robinson.

Eleven illustrations accompany the essay, including three of Roosevelt writing and two examples of his hand writing.

Collection

Theodore Roosevelt Association Journal

Frederick W. Marks explores why Theodore Roosevelt’s foreign policy record is either ignored or dismissed in high school textbooks. Marks examines Roosevelt’s diplomacy, especially his dealings with Latin American nations, to assert that Roosevelt had a record worthy of study and recognition. Marks notes the irony in Roosevelt’s poor treatment at the hands of historians as Roosevelt was an accomplished historian and a president of the American Historical Association. Marks concludes his article by asking why Roosevelt’s record is downplayed, and he argues that Roosevelt’s larger than life personality overshadows his achievements and that the standards for judging diplomatic behavior in 1900 and 1985 are markedly different. 

A photograph of Marks and of the Theodore Roosevelt Inaugural National Historic Site appear in the article.

Howard A. Sobel asserts that President Roosevelt condemned some of the radical journalists of the early twentieth century in his 1906 speech “The Man With the Muckrake” because he believed that their efforts only produced anger and division and did not promote constructive reforms achieved through the political process. Sobel stresses that Roosevelt believed in steady, gradual reforms that would address wrongs and curb public anger that could lead to class divisions and anarchy. Sobel argues that Roosevelt’s approach to reform can be seen in his biographies of Gouverneur Morris and Thomas Hart Benton.

Collection

Theodore Roosevelt Association Journal

Creation Date

1975

John A. Gable asserts that Theodore Roosevelt must be understood not just as a man of action, but as an accomplished thinker, intellectual, and writer. He cites as proof the many publications Roosevelt produced, from letters to works of history and natural science. Gable stresses Roosevelt’s work in the field of history and believes that his knowledge of history contributed to his success as President. He notes the literary organizations that Roosevelt belonged to and his friendship with many of the leading intellectuals of his time.

Collection

Theodore Roosevelt Association Journal

Creation Date

1975

This editorial calls attention to the fact that President Roosevelt, in his work, Life of Thomas Hart Benton, strongly criticizes Thomas Jefferson to an unwarranted degree, and criticizes him for it.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-10-31

This review of President Roosevelt’s work, Life of Benton, alleges that Roosevelt ends up contradicting his own actions by his words as he criticizes the hostile expansion of the earlier United States, while at the same time driving imperialism in the Philippines in the current day. Roosevelt also delves further into hypocrisy through his mention of Benton’s nomination to commanding general during the Mexican American War, which the author of this piece compares to Roosevelt’s own promotion of Leonard Wood to Major General. Such inconsistencies between Roosevelt the author and Roosevelt the president persist through the book.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-10-29

The highlighted article compares President Roosevelt’s assessment of Andrew Jackson in a speech Roosevelt gave at the Hermitage, to what he wrote about Jackson in his book, Thomas Hart Benton. The writer concludes that Roosevelt is able to more clearly assess Jackson now than when the book was written.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1907-10-23

Theodore Roosevelt asks that his book The Life of Thomas Hart Benton be sent to three people listed.

Collection

Harvard College Library

Creation Date

1887-01-08

Publisher Houghton, Mifflin and Company sends its semi-annual sales statement for President Roosevelt’s books Gouverneur Morris and Thomas Hart Benton.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1903-07-31

Congressman Williams would like to know what authority, or authorities, that Roosevelt used to base the statement that Jefferson Davis was one of the chief repudiationists in the state of Mississippi. The statement is found in Roosevelt’s biography of Thomas H. Benton.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1902-05-06

Photograph of Jessie Benton Fremont sitting in a wheelchair and wearing a “fine gown” from Japan. Fremont sent the photograph to President Roosevelt and inscribed a note to Roosevelt comparing him to her father, Thomas Hart Benton.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1901-09

Houghton Mifflin Company requests an update on Theodore Roosevelt’s revisions of his books Gouverneur Morris and Thomas H. Benton. The printers are almost out of copies of those articles and they are anxious to get the new editions, even if that means the introductions Roosevelt proposed are not quite ready yet. They hope Roosevelt can notify them of the status before he travels west with the Army.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1898-05-12

Houghton, Mifflin and Company received Assistant Secretary of the Navy Roosevelt’s prefaces to his books Thomas H. Benton and Gouverneur Morris: The Study of His Life and Work and inform him that as of January 1, 1898, the first book has sold 6,338 copies and the second, 5,385 copies.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1898-04-07