Your TR Source
President Roosevelt agrees with Bishop Earl Cranston and says he will not listen to chancellor James Roscoe Day. No matter how many people ask him, Roosevelt has no intention of going on the stump.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1908-10-03
The writer challenges the pessimistic view of the degradation of American society, including quotes from President James Roscoe Day of Syracuse University and Chancellor Henry S. Drinker of Lehigh University.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-06-29
Edwin F. Sellers invites Theodore Roosevelt to address the Traffic Club of Philadelphia at their fourth annual dinner. The club has over 300 members consisting of railroad officials and industrial traffic managers. Sellers mentions his father, Major Edwin E. Sellers, and his brother, Lieutenant Commander David Foote Sellers, who was one of Roosevelt’s naval aides during his first administration as President.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1911-10-05
A large President Roosevelt has several small men jumping on his top hat: “Chancellor Day,” “Justice Brewer,” and “Ex-Senator Spooner.” “Wall Street’ collapsed on the brim of his hat and says, “I’m ‘most dead!”
This clever cartoon from the political-cartoon phase of A. D. Condo’s long career displays a seldom-recognized aspect of Theodore Roosevelt’s presidency, specifically concerning the possibility that he might have yielded to public pressure and accepted another nomination in 1908.
President Roosevelt celebrates his forty-ninth birthday with a variety of friends. In the upper left hand corner at the piano are New York Governor Charles Evans Hughes and Thomas Fortune Ryan singing, “Oh let us be joyful.” Booker T. Washington tells Henry Watterson, “Henry, I hope you’ll come down and visit me at Tuskegee.” Senator Joseph Benson Foraker says to Secretary of War William H. Taft, “I heard a good story today, Will.” Speaker of the House Joseph Gurney Cannon and Vice President Charles W. Fairbanks look at a picture of George Washington, and Fairbanks says, “That picture makes me sad. It reminds me of cherries.” William Randolph Hearst, James Roscoe Day, and Secretary of State Elihu Root look at a book of “Snapshots in New York.” William Jennings Bryan and Grover Cleveland play a game of checkers, and Bryan says, “After you, Grover.” J. Pierpont Morgan watches over the game with his hand on Bryan’s back. Henry Huttleston Rogers, F. Augustus Heinze, and Thomas William Lawson sit together. Lawson says, “Rogers, my boy, you must come over to Boston and visit me.” John D. Rockefeller points at Kenesaw Mountain Landis’s chest while President Roosevelt presents a bouquet to James J. Hill as William J. Long looks on. Finally, James T. Harahan, Edward Henry Harriman, and Stuyvesant Fish read “Snap Shots Along the Illinois Central.” Harriman remarks, “Very nice album, Stuyvesant, is it not?”
There are contexts behind this cartoon by John T. McCutcheon of The Chicago Tribune that might not be apparent to modern researchers. The first is somewhat evident by reading the dialog balloons between figures in the pairings or clusters. Almost appropriate for an April Fool’s cartoon instead of something closer to Halloween is the ironic juxtaposition in every case — political opponents or business rivals exchanging niceties. In fact, insights might be gained by reading the nature of their “about-face” encounters.
Theodore Roosevelt’s secretary thanks Caspar W. Hodgson for the copy of the letter Hodgson wrote to Chancellor Day.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1912-09-12
President Roosevelt responds to a letter from Nicholas Murray Butler that had criticized Roosevelt’s recent message to Congress. Roosevelt was not surprised by the letter, as Butler had been moving away from Roosevelt’s policies for the past year or two. While Roosevelt’s message did upset some people, he says that his real supporters have strongly supported it, and that he has received many letters to that effect. Roosevelt believes that he has done the right thing in speaking out against corruption in politics and business.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1908-02-06
President Roosevelt thanks Claudius Buchanan Spencer for the nice editorial and letter, and responds to the statement by Syracuse University Chancellor James Roscoe Day. Roosevelt believes that, “in a broad sense, if the chancellor is correct in his position, then from Lincoln down every President who has striven to act decently should be condemned,” and rejects Day’s position that the courts must not be criticized. He also protests against Day’s stance that Roosevelt should not personally advocate for legislation, and defends his record of helping pass beneficial legislation over the past several years. Roosevelt goes on to similarly condemn several other points Day tries to make.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-07-23
President Roosevelt informs Secretary of War Taft that James Roscoe Day “intends to make a fuss” about a controversy surrounding the appointment of George S. Richards in the army. Roosevelt believes that Richards was appointed under false pretenses, and that they should prepare to “stand up to the punishment and give punishment” if Congress makes a fuss. He advises Taft to emphasize that although Day stated that he could not trust Richards with more than a dollar at a time, he insisted that Richards be retained.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1905-11-06
Due to the overwhelming number of inquiries about the Peoples National Legal Ethics Society, Charles Freeman Johnson discusses its purpose and support in a letter to the editor of The Outlook. The organization seeks to cooperate with the American Bar Association through state advisory councils to adopt and enforce the Association’s code of ethics. Such enforcement throughout the country will significantly advance reform in legal procedures, and it is the type of movement President William H. Taft recommended in his speech in Chicago, Illinois. Johnson quotes lawyers and legal professionals who support the Society, which is expected to have 400,000 members within a year. He invites correspondence from interested parties.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1911-08-18
Extracts of letters from Gleason L. Archer, Charles Thaddeus Terry, and Madison Clinton Peters to Charles Freeman Johnson expressing their support of the Peoples National Legal Ethics Society’s movement to reform legal ethics. Includes a list of signers of the organization’s petition.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1911-08-14
John Appleton Stewart has received information from a friend in publishing that many copies are already circulating of the pamphlet “The Roosevelt Panic of 1907” and Chancellor James Roscoe Day’s book The Raid on Prosperity. Large sums of money are being spent on disparaging advertising in magazines such as Business Men’s Magazine of Chicago. Stewart’s friend also left him a copy of Francis A. Adams’s book on Roosevelt, and asked for editorial advice. The New York Press refers to Stewart as a “third termer,” to which he takes exception. If he is in Washington, D.C., he would like to bring the publisher friend to speak to Roosevelt in person.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-12-26
Senator Lodge writes to President Roosevelt regarding the letter Roosevelt sent to Attorney General Charles J. Bonaparte, which he hopes will not be published even if the statements are true and the intentions are to help Secretary of War William H. Taft. Although Roosevelt can express certain views because of his position, he can not expect the same outcome if Taft were to say them. In doing so, he may raise concern about Taft’s conservatism or radicalism among certain supporters. If Roosevelt’s aim is to secure his policies, Lodge feels the letter would only weaken this goal by seeming reactionary, and if the aim is to relieve personal feelings, giving his antagonists the publicity would have the opposite of the intended effect. He feels strongly that his reasons are correct if imperfectly stated.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-12-27
Claudius Buchanan Spencer, editor of the Methodist Episcopal Church newspaper Central Christian Advocate, asks whether William Loeb might provide comments to help Spencer respond to criticisms of President Roosevelt made by Chancellor James Roscoe Day of Syracuse University.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-07-19
The undersigned individuals petition for the adoption and enforcement of a uniform code of ethics by lawyers and courts of the United States.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1911-08-18
James Roscoe Day holds an umbrella as he looks toward the White House. In his back pocket is a “copy of interview attacking Roosevelt.” A storm cloud and lightning appear from the White House with the following note: “Washington, D.C.–It is reported that Chancellor Day’s name was mentioned at yesterday’s cabinet meeting.” In the background are three men running away.
Despite President Roosevelt’s popularity with the general public, and by all accounts with Republican voters, he faced significant opposition from a portion of professional politicians within his party. In many ways the story of his second-term successes is also a story of continual, determined, and often skillful warfare against fellow Republicans. Some policy victories were won in spite of his own party’s congressional leaders. They proudly called themselves the Old Guard and adopted “Stand Pat” as a battle cry against Roosevelt’s reforms. Some — like Roosevelt’s predecessor as Republic governor of New York, Frank Swett Black — identified themselves as opponents of the Square Deal, and claimed the label of “reactionary.”
In this detailed cartoon, a variety of individuals try to figure out if Oklahoma Governor Charles Nathaniel Haskell—who has run off—touched second base, which has a container of “oil” on it. Uncle Sam stands in the center of the diamond and says, “It’s a draw.” A large group of people congregate just off the first-base line, including William H. Taft, Samuel Gompers, William Jennings Bryan, Norman Edward Mack, William Loeb, President Roosevelt, William F. Sheehan, Alton B. Parker, and George von Lengerke Meyer. A variety of people are around the field: Charles Francis Murphy, Ohio Senator Joseph Benson Foraker, New York Governor Charles Evans Hughes, New York Lieutenant Governor Lewis S. Chanler, William James Conners, and Patrick Henry McCarren. John D. Rockefeller, John D. Archbold, Henry Huttleston Rogers, and James Roscoe Day all watch from the side. In another section of the audience, the Democratic donkey and Republican elephant fight. A handwritten note is included: “Mr. President: This is so good I have to send it to you.”
Frequently political cartoons have a subtext related news events, gossip about figures being caricatured, and the shadowy realm of the interests and agendas of publishers. All these factors were play in the genre scene composed by cartoonist Thomas E. Powers, nominally about Oklahoma Governor Charles Nathaniel Haskell.
Haskell was also Treasurer of the Democratic National Committee, with financial responsibilities in the presidential campaign of William Jennings Bryan. “Touching second base” or not, as the oil can with Standard Oil’s dollar sign, sits on the base that Haskell clearly avoids, is the nub of the cartoon.
A chef labeled “Special Privilege” holds a large platter on which rests a huge turkey with the face of Theodore Roosevelt. He is about to place the platter on a table around which sit several men labeled “Cannon, Rockefeller, Archbold, Haskell, Payne, Dalzell, Elkins, Sherman, Foraker, Harrimen, Day, Rogers” and Nelson W. Aldrich.
The “Teddy-Turk” cartoon by Udo J. Keppler in Puck was the magazine’s strongest — in fact one of its only — comments on the election just concluded.
Black ink cartoon of President Roosevelt dressed as a matador and waving a cape of “My Policies” at a bull representing James Roscoe Day, chancellor of Syracuse University.
Theodore Roosevelt Inaugural National Historic Site
1908-03-18
President Roosevelt is pictured in a variety of atypical situations. Clockwise from upper left: taking pictures of a bear family, playing chess, breaking up a scuffle between two boys, turning his back on a mother with a large family, and sitting with Syracuse University Chancellor James Roscoe Day in a hammock.
Theodore Roosevelt Inaugural National Historic Site
1907-08-21