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Chronology of the daily life of Theodore Roosevelt between January 1879 to December 1883. Notable events include Theodore Roosevelt’s engagement and marriage to Alice Hathaway Lee, his appointment to the New York State Legislature, and his first visit and buffalo hunt in North Dakota.
Theodore Roosevelt Association
1985
Various forms of graft, fraud, and bribery were committed by San Francisco mayor Eugene Schmitz and members of the Board of Supervisors. Following trials of many offenders, a report is published on the causes of the corruption and recommendations made on how to prevent municipal corruption in the future.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1910-01-05
“Prosperity” and “progress” cannons are pointed at “Port Parker” where a Democratic donkey and Alton B. Parker stand. Their two cannons—”charges of blackmail” and “attacks on Roosevelt”—are damaged. President Roosevelt looks up at them.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1904-11-05
A large police officer turns the crank on a large press labeled “Blackmail,” squeezing money out of a variety of merchants labeled “Boot Black, Gin Mill Keeper, Dive Keeper, Merchant, Green Goods, Contractor, Gambler, [and] Pawnbroker.” Caption: “Let no guilty man (or woman) escape – widout dey put up de stuff!”
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1894-10-03
An ape-like figure wears a hat labeled “Militarism” and holds a stone labeled “Forgery.” He is wounded in the side with an arrow labeled “J’Accuse,” and he is holding a female figure labeled “French Republic.” The ape may represent Alfred Dreyfus or one of several French military officials involved in the Dreyfus affair.
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1899-01-18
Theodore Roosevelt describes the Colombian president’s attempt to “blackmail” the United States in 1903 to secure a high price for the rights to build the Panama Canal. Roosevelt credits himself with refusing to pay the Colombian government and for paying the French Company for the land. President Wilson’s administration is now proposing to pay the Colombian government for its rights in Panama, to which Roosevelt is opposed.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1915-02
Santiago Cuebas has been granted a pardon in honor of the fifth anniversary of American troops landing in Puerto Rico. Cuebas had been convicted of seducing Antonia Cuebas, no relation. Santiago and Antonia were in a mutual relationship but Antonia’s mother attempted to use the relationship to extort Santiago’s father.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1903-07
A woman wearing a red dress, holding money, stands between the “Health Department Bureau of Licences and Inspection” and an opening in a wall labeled “Graft.” In a cut-away showing the scene behind the “Graft,” the man (probably a plainclothes officer) who collects the money through the opening in the wall is passing money to a uniformed officer, who in turn passes the money to a large hand (probably that of a politician) entering the frame from above. It is a wild scene with a woman lying on a table, the body of a man stabbed to death beneath the table, a man rolling dice, others drinking, and a shooting taking place in the background. While the woman in red hesitates, the implication is that she has no choice but to pay the graft. Caption: She is here. Man is responsible for her. His laws against her and her traffic but afford opportunity for police extortion. You know this. You may wince at the idea of “regulation,” but is not regulation preferable to the vilest forms of graft? Of two evils, must the greater be chosen?
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1913-01-15
After consulting with their lawyer and receiving Elliott Roosevelt’s permission, Commissioner Roosevelt has decided to make a financial settlement with Katy Mann, who claims to have a child fathered by Elliott. Roosevelt believes that Elliott is innocent and that Mann is a “pure blackmailer.” However, juries tend to favor the woman in this type of case and he hopes to avoid a public scandal.
1891-06-14
A dastardly figure peers from behind a bush in the background, as a matronly woman pushes a young woman, looking starry-eyed and carrying a suitcase bursting with cash and stocks, out the front door, in response to a note which shows a pink handprint and states “Put ze girl and ze money on ze doorstep or I will slap you on ze wrist. Ze Pink Hand.”
L. M. Glackens’s cartoon presumably is a cartoon reference to a crime wave that existed throughout America cities starting in the 1890s and having a peak of activity in 1908 — extortion of innocent people through letters signed by a Black Hand. The activity was most active in the Italian immigrant enclaves of New York City, Chicago, and coal-mining regions of northern Pennsylvania. That, as well as internal evidence of the notes and confessions of blackmailers, confirmed the Southern Italian component of the movement.
At first thought to be operations of the Camorra or Mafia, the Black Hand was rather an inspiration to amorphous and independent groups of blackmailers. Other immigrants were often the victims, but middle- and upper-class Americans were not immune; and even celebrities like operatic singer Enrico Caruso were recipients of extortion letters.
An allegorical female figure labeled “San Francisco” is being tortured “on the rack” by a cast of medieval-looking executioners labeled “Cement Dealer, Lumber Dealer, Iron Workers’ Union, Steel Trust, Bricklayers Union, Building Materials, [and the central figure] Greed” in the aftermath of the 1906 earthquake and fire that destroyed much of San Francisco. Caption: “Generosity” is easy when you can get your money back with interest.
There are many possible subtexts to Carl Hassmann’s brutal and explicit allegory of systemic political corruption in San Francisco. Or it might a “simple” indictment of the current administration’s mismanagement there, spectacular as it was.
The city’s political corruption certainly would rival of any city at any time in American history. In brief, a clever lawyer and city attorney named Abe Ruef managed to install puppets in almost every municipal office, including the mayor; with the exception of a district attorney who was not as corrupt as hoped. Investigations, exposes, scandals, and confessions spread like like stains. Railroad interests — the Southern Pacific basically controlled both parties in the state — were typically involved in graft and payoffs.
Typed transcript of an article from the Bismarck Tribune. The Marquis de Morès believes that his indictment for murder is a blackmailing scheme and he has no doubt that he will be acquitted.
Dickinson State University
1885-08-27
As the Senate committee was unable to see him, Theodore Roosevelt offers his testimony in writing. He denies knowledge of requests for campaign funds directed at the Standard Oil Company for his presidential campaign of 1904. These requests supposedly promised lenient treatment and favors in exchange for large contributions. Roosevelt offers documentary evidence that in 1904 he instructed any money received from Standard Oil to be returned. Furthermore, according to campaign records, no funds were ever received from Standard Oil.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1912-08-28
President Roosevelt forwards to Commissioner of Indian Affairs Leupp a letter that William H. Taft received from Egbert J. DeBell. DeBell seems to be trying to blackmail Taft, perhaps seeking to have his license as an Indian Trader reinstated. Roosevelt believes that what DeBell has claimed is a total fabrication, and that if he is found on any reservation, he should be forced out.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1908-07-13
President Roosevelt is grateful to Benjamin Ide Wheeler for the information he provided about Judge William C. Van Fleet. He is sorry to hear of the political corruption in San Francsico and Mayor Eugene E. Schmitz’s involvement in it.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-04-06
President Roosevelt says that E. G. Lewis is attempting to threaten and blackmail himself and George B. Cortelyou by claiming he has information on Judge Goodwin. Roosevelt will be ordering an investigation into Judge Russell P. Goodwin, but will not reconsider the order that Lewis’s publications be revoked. He is indifferent to Lewis’s threat.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-03-15
President Roosevelt explains to Martin A. Knapp the employment of Francis S. Monnett “was in effect a deliberate submission to blackmail.” Monnett claimed that Roosevelt had directed the Interstate Commerce Commission to not conduct an oil investigation and threatened to share the news with hostile senators. Roosevelt directs Knapp to investigate this matter, as well as the conduct of Edward A. Moseley, who hired Monnett. He includes the text of letters he wrote to Knapp and Monnett concerning the oil investigation, showing that it was merely put on hold, not cancelled.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-05-19
President Roosevelt explains why he is not in favor of Ray Stannard Baker’s suggestion that the Interstate Commerce Commission should be given the power to condemn railroad shipping rates. Roosevelt believes his maximum rate plan is the best option.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1905-11-20
President Roosevelt will not reinstate Converse J. Smith to his position in the Department of the Treasury, especially now that Senator Proctor has threatened to publish a letter written by Secretary of the Treasury Leslie M. Shaw which casts Shaw in a negative light if Smith is not reinstated. Smith was thoroughly investigated and found to be “inefficient.” Shaw has no recollection of writing the letter Proctor threatens to publish, and Roosevelt requests that Proctor present the original letter and any other evidence against Shaw.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1904-04-26
Rose B. Jaffee received Frank Harper’s letter and realizes she is asking a lot. She discusses how her husband, Benjamin M. Jaffee, a Jewish lawyer, is being blackmailed with the intent to have him disbarred. His case has been tried several times and is up again. She asks Theodore Roosevelt to help prevent a terrible wrong.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1911-10-27