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President Roosevelt was pleased with Secretary Wilson’s letter and feels fortunate in having him as a Cabinet officer and friend.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1902-07-25
Edith Kermit Carow Roosevelt explains to Mary L. Elkins that she and President Roosevelt have had to decline all invitations to dine unless it is with Cabinet officers.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1901-12-31
“If Secretary Bonaparte keeps on lending battleships to his colleagues in the Cabinet there won’t be any left for him to use in case he should like to take an outing.”
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-07-11
Governor Hadley encloses a letter from Governor Vessey as it is Hadley’s understanding that Vessey has not communicated directly with Theodore Roosevelt. Hadley suggests that Roosevelt’s requests for advice from his friends regarding the Republican presidential nomination are being “indefinitely enlarged” as these correspondents confidentially show their friends and so on. This is creating a semi-authoritative statement of Roosevelt’s position that may be different from Roosevelt’s intentions. The confusion is also allowing letters to circulate from Roosevelt’s former friends that Roosevelt will not accept the nomination even if it were offered.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1912-02-01
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1911-12-02
Nicholls, Wallace B. (Wallace Blair), 1862-1912
Thomas D. Knight adds onto Tracy C. Drake’s letter to Theodore Roosevelt informing that he is aware that he is no longer making speeches but the Delta Kappa Epsilon Fraternity occasion is a fraternal one that does not require him to discuss public questions. Knights recalls Roosevelt sending 4 members of his cabinet when he was president of the Hamilton Club of Chicago and he would appreciate it if Roosevelt could grant them his presence.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1911-10-20
Secretary of Commerce and Labor Straus expresses his appreciation to President Roosevelt for the opportunity to serve in his cabinet. Straus recognizes that his appointment had importance beyond his own personal career, but was an expression of Roosevelt’s commitment to religious tolerance.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1909-03-03
Frank Ross McCoy reports on activities in Yosemite National Park, hoping to remind President Roosevelt of the “fine work and sport of the summertime.” John Muir, Joseph N. LeConte, and other members of the Sierra Club have said that the change in the valley has been very positive since it became part of the national park this year. The superintendent, Harry Coupland Benson, knows the park well and is popular with the Sierra Club. McCoy describes the park rangers and some encounters with grizzly bears, noting he found the instinct to shoot very strong but felt “stern duty’s restraining hand.” McCoy says Interior Secretary James R. Garfield came and went in a flurry, mentioning that he finds Roosevelt’s cabinet officers showing up everywhere to be “inspiring,” now that he has experienced it in the Philippines, Cuba, and the United States. McCoy offers his thoughts on race relations between the Californians and Japanese, as well as the attitudes of people on the West Coast regarding the Great White Fleet. McCoy regrets he cannot conduct Roosevelt and his family personally through the park.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-08-07
In lieu of their previous conversation where President Roosevelt spoke about republishing his appreciation of Secretary of War William H. Taft, Elbert F. Baldwin informs Roosevelt that American editor of The Outlook Ernest Hamlin Abbott is publishing his own appreciation of Taft and would like to include large excerpts from Roosevelt’s article.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1908-02-11
Bellamy Storer writes to President Roosevelt asking him to consider the facts, which Storer has enclosed as a statement of points, regarding his dismissal from diplomatic service. The dismissal was based on the grounds that both Storer’s conduct, in his capacity as an American ambassador, and his wife Maria Longworth Storer’s conduct in Rome, blurred the lines of public office and personal opinion regarding the promotion of Archbishop John Ireland to Cardinal. Storer defends his actions, including full and partial correspondence between those chiefly involved, to prove that he was acting in his public capacity at the request of President Roosevelt, which Roosevelt now denies. Storer is aggrieved that he was dismissed before his letter of resignation could have reached Washington since he was on leave in Egypt at the time he received Roosevelt’s request for his resignation.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-11-18
Secretary of War Taft informs President Roosevelt of the political situation in Idaho where he was sent to campaign for the reelection of Governor Gooding. Gooding is confident that he will win the gubernatorial race, but he faces significant opposition in response to the arrest of Charles Moyer and William Dudley Haywood and the efforts of the Western Federation of Miners to defeat him. Senator Dubois has been trying to make Mormonism another central issue in the campaign and to portray Taft in a negative light by associating him with the religious group. Taft concludes by stating his admiration for Secretary of State Root’s speech on William Randolph Hearst.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-11-04
Ambassador Meyer agrees with everything President Roosevelt said in his letter and appreciates the opportunity to be in St. Petersburg during the peace negotiations. Meyer is honored to join Roosevelt’s cabinet next winter. Meyer discusses conditions in Russia he has witnessed like Russians living conditions, their oppression, their lack of education, and the difficulty the Socialists or Anarchists will have in convincing the people that the Tsar is not “their little Father.” Meyer expresses his concern that the Revolutionists want everything at once and that none among them is a stand out leader. Meyer discusses the progress of his cure in Bavaria but assures Roosevelt that he is ready to return to St. Petersburg at a moment’s notice.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-09-02
Attorney General Moody has read the correspondence with Norman Hapgood and returned it to William Loeb. Moody retains the correspondence with Judge Jones so that he may examine Jones’ views critically, as he feels Jones’s interpretation of the 14th Amendment is wrong. Moody hopes President Roosevelt will not commit in his message to legislation which will ultimately be pronounced unconstitutional. Moody also asks Roosevelt when he feels it will be most appropriate to make a public announcement about Moody’s departure from the Cabinet.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-08-27
Secretary of War Taft informs President Roosevelt that his wife Helen would like to see him before he makes his final decision about whether to appoint Taft to the Supreme Court. In advance of a meeting between them, Taft reviews for Roosevelt both of their positions on the matter. Taft aspires to a judicial position and would like to one day be Chief Justice, although he is reluctant to leave his current position as Secretary of War. However, if Roosevelt believes that putting him on the Supreme Court better serves the public, Taft will accept. Helen “feels deeply on the subject” and Taft asks Roosevelt to “bear with her in any exaggerated ideas” and ambitions she may have for him.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-03-14
Secretary of Commerce and Labor Metcalf has received the communication that requested utter secrecy from those who attend Cabinet meetings and promises to comply with the request.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1905-10-23
Lyman Abbott conveys his opinion to President Roosevelt that no one has better qualities to be Secretary of State than Elihu Root.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1905-07-07
Senator Lodge writes President Roosevelt with questions regarding the leave of absence of Ambassador George von Lengerke Meyer and the shipping contracts for coal supplies to Panama. Lodge also mentions that Elihu Root wrote him, indicating health reasons prevent him from leaving retirement.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1904-08-24
The Department of Commerce and Labor was created during the administration of Theodore Roosevelt, with George B. Cortelyou being appointed the department’s first Secretary. Victor Howard Metcalf succeeded him on 1904 to become the second Secretary of Commerce and Labor, and was then succeeded himself in 1906 by Oscar S. Straus. In 1913, as William Howard Taft left the Presidency, Congress split the department into two–the Department of Commerce and the Department of Labor.
Theodore Roosevelt Association Journal
1989
Photograph showing President Roosevelt with his “Tennis Cabinet” on the White House lawn on March 1, 1909, when a farewell luncheon was held for the group. Shown from left to right behind Theodore Roosevelt are military aide Archie Butt, Third Assistant Secretary of State William Phillips, Commissioner of the Bureau of Corporations Herbert Knox Smith, Assistant Secretary of the Navy Beekman Winthrop, Chief of U.S. Forest Service Gifford Pinchot, Comptroller of Currency Lawrence O. Murray, U.S. District Attorney Henry L. Stimson, Assistant Secretary of the Navy Herbert Livingston Satterlee, Associate Justice William H. Moody, U.S. District Attorney John Carter Rose, Secretary of the Navy Truman Handy Newberry, G. W. Woodruff, French Ambassador J. J. Jusserand, William Walter Heffelfinger, Postmaster General George von Lengerke Meyer, Commission of Indian Affairs Francis E. Leupp, John Avery McIlhenny, Secretary of the Interior James Rudolph Garfield, U.S. Marshal Seth Bullock, Solicitor General Henry Martyn Hoyt, U.S. Marshal John R. Abernathy, Luther S. Kelly, Secretary of State Robert Bacon, Commissioner of Labor Charles Patrick Neill, William Wingate Sewall, Commissioner General of Immigration Daniel J. Keefe, First Assistant Secretary of State James Callan O’Laughlin, James Bronson Reynolds, Henry S. Pritchett, and secretary William Loeb. In the foreground is the Alexander Phimster Proctor sculpture, “Stalking Panther,” which was presented to Roosevelt by his “Tennis Cabinet” at the luncheon.
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1909-03-01
Following a number of legislative items, including voting on an amendment to a bill and a motion to investigate participation in international expositions, Senator Robert M. La Follette delivers a speech beginning with proposed tariff reciprocity with Canada, but quickly turning to his view that President William H. Taft has abandoned his campaign promises to continue the progressive policies of his predecessor Theodore Roosevelt. La Follette excoriates Taft on his stances on taxes and conservation, among other issues.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1911-07-15