Your TR Source
Harry Peyton Steger sends Theodore Roosevelt a copy of Basil Wilson Duke’s Reminiscences at Duke’s suggestion.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1911-12-12
President Roosevelt writes Richard Watson Gilder a lengthy refutation of an article in the Evening Post in which William Garrott Brown misconstrues his actions in the Republican Party. Namely, Brown accuses Roosevelt of neglecting Republicans in the South and of doing a poor job of making nominations to local offices and positions. Roosevelt asserts that where the Republican party is not strong in the South, he has had to appoint Democrats who were quality men, rather than incapable men who are Republicans. Where he believes the party has a chance to compete with Democrats, he does all he can to support it. Roosevelt also writes that he did not use his influence on officers to get William H. Taft the nomination, but rather Taft was nominated because Roosevelt’s policies were popular, and Taft is the man who will continue those policies. Roosevelt believes that Brown is either ignorant or willfully ignorant of a number of facts.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1908-11-16
President Roosevelt informs Judge Brawley that he thinks he promised to appoint General Basil Wilson Duke to the kind of position Brawley wrote about when it became available. He is happy to appoint Colonel Haskell if Duke does not want the position, and Roosevelt did not promise the position to anyone else.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-12-07
President Roosevelt agrees with Rachel Sherman Thorndike that “in dealing with the South one must often exercise patience and forbearance to a degree which I should not dream of extending to the North.” If some sons of former Confederate generals made a trip through Indiana and Ohio along the path of a raid that took place during the Civil War, Roosevelt believes no one would pay any attention to them, but the trip of Father Thomas Ewing Sherman, a son of William Tecumseh Sherman, through Georgia is causing an uproar. Roosevelt believes General William Penn Duvall let the information get out in the wrong shape, and that the trouble could have been avoided.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-05-03
General Duke was appointed before President Roosevelt received Representative Williams’s note.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1904-02-18
Paul H. McDonald has been recommended for a commission by General Basil Duke and President Roosevelt supports designating McDonald for an examination.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1902-11-10
General Basil Duke of Kentucky believes that no Republican save Theodore Roosevelt can be elected. Generally, people have “faith in his sincerity and his readiness to take action.”
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1916-05-05
Gifford Pinchot shares with Theodore Roosevelt the information that Alfred Bishop Mason gave him from General Basil Duke.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1916-05-08
John Barret reminds President Roosevelt that he was postmaster of Louisville, Kentucky, when Roosevelt was Civil Service Commissioner. Barret thanks Roosevelt for the political appointments he has made in Kentucky. He suggests additional ways the Republican party can be strengthened in the state. Barret closes by complementing Roosevelt on the Panama Canal.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1904-03-09
Augustus Everett Willson reviews efforts in Kentucky to avoid a struggle over the delegation to the Republican National Convention between William O’Connell Bradley and John Watson Yerkes. Willson believes that united action in support of President Roosevelt is possible if both sides are willing to make concessions.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1904-01-26
Richard Wilson Knott describes the negotiations, particularly between William O’Connell Bradley and John Watson Yerkes, to unite the Republican factions in Kentucky behind President Roosevelt.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1904-01-26
Augustus Everett Willson discusses Commissioner of Internal Revenue John Watson Yerkes’s wish to be both a member of the Republican National Committee and a Kentucky delegate-at-large for the Republican National Convention.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1904-01-27
William O’Connell Bradley describes to President Roosevelt the proceedings of the Kentucky Republican Convention. Bradley suggests there is political corruption there at the hands of Charles Earl Sapp. He includes a handwritten note stating that the convention adopted a resolution endorsing Roosevelt for a second term as President.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1903-07-17