Your TR Source
Robert Bunch Van Cortlandt would like to meet with President Roosevelt to discuss the situation in Colombia. He asks William Emelen Roosevelt to determine whether or not President Roosevelt will be willing to meet with him.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1905-08-21
Secretary of State Hay references correspondence from William Emlen Roosevelt and James Alexander Scrymser concerning their request to maintain “exclusive concession of the Central and South American Telegraph Company in Central America.” Hay would be glad to obey the instructions of President Roosevelt if anything further is required from the State Department in this matter.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1904-08-18
William Emlen Roosevelt points out mistakes in President Roosevelt’s letter concerning the Central and South American Telegraph Company. Roosevelt discusses the agreement with Colombia, which is now binding on Panama. He notes that they did not ask for protection from the Mackay Company, as they are the only American telegraph company near Panama.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1904-07-28
James Alexander Scrymser thanks Secretary of State Hay for his reply to Scrymser’s earlier letter about his company’s dispute with both Colombia and Panama over contracts giving the Central and South American Telegraph Company exclusive cable rights in both countries. Scrymser says he understands if the State Department cannot intervene at the moment but hopes that the department will support his claims.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1904-07-13
William Lawrence Penfield writes about James Alexander Scrymser’s request, in his capacity as President of the Central and South American Telegraph Company, for the United States to intervene on behalf of the company in Panama. Penfield details why the State Department should not intervene.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1904-06-16
James Alexander Scrymser encourages Assistant Secretary of State Loomis to pursue a treaty with Panama that will protect the interests of American companies in Panama in the way that France has done. Scrymser explains why the contract his company entered into with Colombia is not valid in Panama and seeks help from the State Department to pursue diplomatic intervention in his company’s business affairs in Panama.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1904-06-10
Map of a section of the Colombian coast with illustrations showing the path of a schooner that was boarded and then landed for an interview.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1903
Report on a meeting of the Council of Foreign Bondholders regarding Colombia’s external debt. The history of Colombia’s debt is summarized and the council passed a resolution encouraging Panama to assume an equitable portion of the debt.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1904-04-28
In a chapter titled “A Most Just and Proper Revolution,” taken from the second volume of his biography of Theodore Roosevelt, Theodore Rex, Edmund Morris details the machinations in Washington, D.C. and Panama that resulted in the revolution against Colombian rule on the Isthmus and the establishment of the independent nation of Panama. Morris describes the careful actions and words of administration figures like Roosevelt and Secretary of State John Hay, and he charts the movement of ships of the United States Navy sent in support of the insurrection. Morris adds to his Panama narrative interludes about the November 1903 elections in the United States, Roosevelt’s visit to Sagamore Hill, and his compilation of a reading list.
Theodore Roosevelt Association Journal
2001
John M. Thompson examines the domestic political dimensions of the United States’ efforts to secure a canal zone in Central America. Thompson identifies those who favored canal routes in Nicaragua or Panama, and he looks closely at the Congressional reaction to the revolt in Panama and the United States’ quick recognition of the new nation. Thompson lays out the opposition to the subsequent canal treaty from Democrats and anti-imperialists, and he details the publicity campaign waged by President Theodore Roosevelt’s administration to justify its course of action and win Senate approval of the treaty. Thompson highlights the role of Southern Democrats who supported the treaty because they saw the canal as aiding their region’s economy and because Democrats did not want to be seen as opposing a popular policy of constructing a canal. Thompson concludes his article by examining the various aspects of domestic politics that Roosevelt had to consider when making foreign policy decisions.
Ten photographs and five political cartoons populate the article.
In a pair of quotes, Theodore Roosevelt comments about how the Panamanians were justified in their revolution from Colombia, and that while he did not foment the revolution, neither did he stop it from happening.
Theodore Roosevelt Association Journal
1903-1915
John A. Gable begins the “Book Notes” column with a review of Sylvia Jukes Morris’s biography Edith Kermit Roosevelt: Portrait of a First Lady. In doing so, he provides a shorter, but still complete examination of Roosevelt’s life, and highlights the research Morris did utilizing letters, Roosevelt’s diary, and interviews.
Three pictures of Edith Roosevelt are included in the review: one considered the favorite of her husband, Theodore Roosevelt; a drawing by John Singer Sargent; and a third of Edith Roosevelt with Lou Henry Hoover, the wife of Herbert Hoover.
In Gable’s following review of Frederick W. Mark’s Velvet on Iron: The Diplomacy of Theodore Roosevelt, Gable places the work in the context of other studies of Roosevelt and argues that it represents a further step in an ongoing reappraisal of Roosevelt. He quotes extensively from Marks and from Edmund Morris’s review of the work.
A picture of Roosevelt at his desk at Sagamore Hill accompanies the review.
A listing of the officers and the members of the executive, finance, and Theodore Roosevelt Birthplace committees of the Theodore Roosevelt Association is included among the reviews.
In the “Book Notes” column, John A. Gable reviews two books that cover different aspects of the era of Theodore Roosevelt. He praises David McCullough’s The Path Between the Seas: The Creation of the Panama Canal, 1870-1914 for its “careful research, balanced judgment, and good prose.” Gable compares McCullough’s verdict on Roosevelt’s actions regarding the Canal with the work of other Roosevelt scholars, and he gives over much of his review to an extended quote from a letter McCullough wrote to President Jimmy Carter supporting passage of the 1977 Canal treaties.
Gable endorses, with some reservations, They Were Ragtime, a popular history of the United States in the Progressive era written by Warren Forma. Gable lists many of the personalities from entertainment, the arts, and the business world who populate Forma’s work, and he argues that the work is valuable for its look at popular culture in turn of the twentieth-century America.
Michael Caglioti challenges the assumption that President Roosevelt acted immorally in the negotiations and events leading to the Panamanian Revolution of 1903 that ultimately led to the construction of the Panama Canal by the United States in the independent nation of Panama. Caglioti details why Roosevelt wanted the Canal built, and looks at the treaties the United States entered into with various countries to pave the way for United States sovereignty over a future canal. He contends that elements of Colombia’s government, press, and public opinion refused to recognize the reality of the United States’ superior economic, diplomatic and military power when negotiating the canal treaty.
Caglioti further notes that the Colombian government refused to ratify the Hay-Herran Convention authorizing the building of the canal because it wanted more money, and details the benefits that Colombia would have received from the canal’s construction. He argues that Roosevelt’s “guilt” in the Panama affair is usually tied to whether his administration gave an explicit assurance of assistance to the Panamanian rebels. He says that Roosevelt acted, as he should have, in the best interests of the United States in helping the revolution succeed.
A photograph of Roosevelt sitting in one of the steam shovels used in the construction of the canal accompanies the article.
A poem about Panama written by W. R. Coates.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1911-11-06
The newspaper article “Roosevelt and Righteousness” discusses Theodore Roosevelt’s statements on morality and international justice, criticizing his foreign policy actions related to the Panama Canal.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1911-09-09
Edward Earl Britton writes his autobiography in several parts, discussing his youth and involvement in many business pursuits. He breaks briefly in 1908 before continuing in a second portion, written in 1911. After reaching the present, Britton continues on by offering a prediction for the future of economic development in Central and South America. During his life Britton became connected with the Eagle Savings and Loan Company, wand was sentenced to serve some time in prison for the company’s deeds. The final pages of his autobiography feature several letters from friends petitioning New York Governor Charles Evans Hughes for clemency.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1911-03
Assistant Secretary of State Loomis explains how he came to know the French engineer Philippe Bunau-Varilla, who is very interested in the Panama Canal and the state of affairs between Colombia and Panama. He also describes introducing him to President Roosevelt, and the nature of a conversation he and Bunau-Varilla had regarding the possible actions the United States might take in the event of a revolution in Panama.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1904-01-05
President Roosevelt rides a “jingoism” horse past Uncle Sam, who is peering his head out of a window. Caption: Paul Revere Roosevelt—”To arms! The Colombians are coming!!”
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1903-12-20
Uncle Sam holds “Guam,” “Philippines,” “Hawaii,” and “Porto Rico” in his arms as he reaches for “Panama.” “Mexico,” “Central America,” and “Colombia” are hidden in the foliage.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1903-12-20