Clemenceau, Georges, 1841-1929

President Roosevelt requests that Ambassador Reid explain to Robert Offley Ashburton Crewe-Milnes that his African trip is a scientific expedition to collect specimens for the National Museum, not “a game butchering trip.” However, if given the opportunity, Roosevelt may collect some trophies. The invitation from the chancellor of Oxford, George Nathaniel Curzon, to present the Romanes lecture gives Roosevelt a genuine reason to visit England on his return from Africa. He details his travel itinerary, plans for appropriate formal attire, and people to call upon. Roosevelt is interested in what the Japanese minister for foreign affairs Jutarō Komura says and includes his letter to Japanese ambassador Kogoro Takahira and the reply. Reid’s full statement on the incidents of the Olympics pleases Roosevelt, who believes intense international matches inevitably result in misunderstandings.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1908-08-20

Vance Thompson informs Caspar Whitney that in order to join one of the French expeditions, he needs a personal note from President Roosevelt written to French Prime Minister Georges Clemenceau or to Ambassador Henry White. If Whitney is not able to get that note from Roosevelt, Thompson encourages Whitney to let him know.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1907-09-19

United States Ambassador to the United Kingdom Reid gives President Roosevelt an update on international politics in Europe, especially events in the United Kingdom, France, Germany, and Russia. He assures the President that the London Morning Post has a good opinion of him, and proposes a solution to the problem of one of its correspondents writing unfairly on the Roosevelt administration.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1907-04-17

John St. Loe Strachey relays to President Roosevelt an account of his trip to France and Germany. He and his wife visited Ambassador Charlemagne Tower and his wife in Berlin as well as Ambassador Robert Sanderson McCormick and his wife in Paris. Strachey believes that Chancellor Bernard Fürst von Bülow will be defeated in his reelection bid and that the Emperor was also held in disfavor by the German people. Strachey is concerned about the warlike nature of the Germans. He relays his thoughts on some of the French politicians and theologians whom he met; he found the French people and politicians generally to be pacifistic.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1907-02-11

President Roosevelt congratulates Theodore P. Shonts and his daughter, Mary Theodora Shonts, Duchess de Chaulnes, on the recent birth of her son. Roosevelt is interested about what Shonts says about Georges Clemenceau, and hopes to see him when he is in Paris.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1908-12-12

President Roosevelt remarks that the recent sessions of the national legislatures of the United States, Great Britain, and France have all been very interesting. Roosevelt comments particularly on a speech by Prime Minister Georges Clemenceau of France. Looking at his own career, Roosevelt expects “the swinging of the pendulum” to occur soon, as he has been president for five years already. While there may be increasing resistance from Congress, however, he believes the past five years have been extremely productive and is proud of what he has accomplished. Roosevelt is interested in the proceedings of the upcoming Hague conference, and tells George Otto Trevelyan that there is a narrow path to walk between reducing armaments among European nations, and in going too far and “having the free peoples rendered helpless in the faces of the various military despotism and barbarisms of the world.”

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1906-08-18

President Roosevelt recently received a copy of French Prime Minister Georges Clemenceau’s recent speech, responding to Jean Jaurès, and asks French Ambassador Jusserand to tell Clemenceau of Roosevelt’s admiration of the speech. Roosevelt agrees with nearly everything Clemenceau said, and was interested to see that Clemenceau’s policies are very similar to Roosevelt’s own. He comments that if anything he would have been more extreme in his insistence of putting down mob violence, and reflects on situations in France and Russia, believing the Russian Duma is acting improperly by currently working to abolish the death penalty while at the same time assassination is rife in Russia. Congressman Nicholas Longworth is having Clemenceau’s speech translation and printed.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1906-08-16

Minnie Jones has fought so hard and so successfully for Edith Wharton’s war charities, and Wharton thanks Theodore Roosevelt for supporting the charities on her own and Minnie’s behalf. Roosevelt’s gift of $500 will be devoted to the convalescent home for refugee women and children. Wharton saw Ted Roosevelt in Paris, France, and he looked well. She wishes the Roosevelts could have seen the great outpouring of sympathy in France after the death of Quentin Roosevelt.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1918-09-02

Ambassador Reid writes President Roosevelt about a number of issues, both political and social. He adds more information about Lord Edward Marjoribanks Tweedmouth’s mental breakdown and discusses the man who will replace him. Reid also relays an indignant letter he got from Clarise S. Ramsay, an American who wrongly felt she should have been invited to a royal ball. Roosevelt’s plan to go on a safari in Africa after leaving office is, Reid thinks, a very good one, and Roosevelt should not need to worry about receiving proper treatment and courtesies from British officials there. On a personal note, Reid thanks Roosevelt for his kind wishes at the news of his daughter Jean’s engagement to John H. Ward. He discusses his future son-in-law and the couple’s plans following their marriage.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1908-06-04

United States Ambassador to France White encloses an article by André Tardieu in Le Temps. White is pleased with President Roosevelt’s observations with respect to religious toleration and reform leading to religious harmony. He thinks this view will be productive in France. He also encloses pictures of the new American embassy in Paris. Finally, White updates Roosevelt on the political situation in France. Emile Combes gave an unfortunate speech at a dinner honoring Henri Brisson, which hurt his own chances of ousting Georges Clemenceau as Prime Minister.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1908-03-20

Ambassador to Great Britain Reid has received photographs of President Roosevelt show jumping a horse, and will present them to King Edward VII when there are fewer dignitaries in town. Reid is amused by Roosevelt’s remark that he was not sure if his “encounter” with labor leaders and socialists was covered in the English papers – Reid describes the coverage as mostly in Roosevelt’s favor, adding his thoughts on the danger of anarchist ideas infiltrating labor movements in the United States and abroad. Reid discusses the similarity between the conflict between California and Japan and Newfoundland and the United States. Finally, Reid comments on the ongoing talks at the International Peace Conference at the Hague.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1907-06-07

Silas McBee encloses a letter from the Executive Committee of the Laymen’s Missionary Movement of the United States and Canada. McBee asks President Roosevelt if he would write a reference letter for the Movement that McBee could use in England. The French Ambassador told McBee about the conversation President Roosevelt had with the ambassador about the Peace Congress. The ambassador begged McBee to tell Prime Minister Georges Clemenceau what McBee had told Roosevelt.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1907-05-11

United States Ambassador to the United Kingdom Reid comments on Winston Churchill’s recent promotion to the Privy Council, noting that it acknowledges his rise in the party without giving him a seat in the Cabinet. Churchill is still not well liked. Reid relays the debates on Horace Curzon Plunkett in the House of Commons and reports on English newspaper coverage of Roosevelt’s speech at Jamestown. He comments on unease over labor relations in France, the planning of an event after the Colonial Premiers’ Conference, opposition to a proposed move for a limitation of armaments at the Hague Conference, and Lewis Harcourt’s proposed English Land Bill.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1907-05-01

Jean Jules Jusserand thinks President Roosevelt is right to appreciate Georges Clemenceau, who he says operates with cool-headedness and good sense. Jusserand told Clemenceau the things Roosevelt had said about him, and he assures Roosevelt that Clemenceau was delighted to hear them. Jusserand follows news of Russia and Cuba, as well as Roosevelt’s proposed spelling reforms.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1906-09-14

President Roosevelt confides to George Otto Trevelyan that he believes his administration has compiled a good record of legislation in his five years as president. Roosevelt contends that he must continually navigate between those who believe he is a radical and has not done enough and reactionaries who believe he has stretched the powers of government too far. Roosevelt also writes that he would like to see measures enacted to support arbitration of international disputes and limit naval forces, but not if it means abandoning “free peoples” and weakening the British and American navies.

Collection

Theodore Roosevelt Association Journal

Creation Date

1906-08-18

Louis B. Livingston chronicles the relationship between Theodore Roosevelt and the Marquis de Mores during their time together as cattle ranchers in the Dakota Badlands. Livingston focuses on the controversy as to whether the two seriously contemplated a duel to settle their differences, and he charts their divergent paths once they left the West after the ruin of their ranches. Livingston details de Mores’s obsession with antisemitism which he argues helped precipitate the notorious Dreyfus Affair in France, and he documents Roosevelt’s outspoken opposition to antisemitism during his political career.

Six photographs supplement the article, including two of de Mores and three of Roosevelt during their ranching years. A text box with the mission statement of the Theodore Roosevelt Association appears at the end of the article.

Collection

Theodore Roosevelt Association Journal

Joe F. Decker provides a comprehensive bibliography of the various accounts of Theodore Roosevelt’s attempt to form a volunteer division during World War I. Decker begins with Roosevelt’s own first account in 1917 and concludes with John Milton Cooper’s version in The Warrior and the Priest of 1983. Decker examines books, book chapters, and articles on the subject, and finds that the story still has not been “dealt with satisfactorily.” Decker points out the biases and the shortcomings of some of the authors, and notes that many of the accounts strongly favor either Roosevelt or his antagonist President Woodrow Wilson.

A full page-photograph of Roosevelt and General Leonard Wood accompanies the article. A photograph of Harrison Engle and Sidney D. Kirkpatrick who directed documentary films on Roosevelt is featured, along with three photographs of Roosevelt from newsreel footage used in the film The Indomitable Teddy Roosevelt.

A listing of the officers of the Theodore Roosevelt Association as well as the members of its executive, finance, and Theodore Roosevelt Birthplace committees is on page two of the article.

This film appears to have been photographed in France during WWI. There is a medium close shot of Quentin Roosevelt with a small building in background, followed by a brief shot of French and American officers, including Lieutenant Edward V. Rickenbacker at immediate right, talking. There is a view of a troop train moving through a European town as people line the tracks waving to soldiers. The final sequence is medium close panning shots, from left to right, of: John J. Pershing, commander in chief of American forces; Andre Tardieu, French diplomat; Premier Georges Clemenceau of France; Marshal Ferdinand Foch, commander-in-chief of French forces; an unidentified French officer; General Maxime Weygand, staff officer to Foch; and Major General James W. McAndrews, general chief of staff of American forces, posing as they leave a building.

Collection

Library of Congress Motion Picture, Broadcasting and Recorded Sound

Creation Date

1917-1918