Your TR Source
Robert H. Durbin invites Theodore Roosevelt to be the guest of honor at the Poor Richard Club’s annual dinner. Durbin hopes that although Roosevelt refused the invitation from the last President of the club, Thomas Martindale, Roosevelt will accept this year.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1911-12-12
Philip Ruxton invites Theodore Roosevelt to attend the annual dinner of the Typothetae of the City of New York and give a speech on any subject.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1911-12-12
David Starr Jordan thinks that if Americanism is the true motto of the country, then Japanese immigrants who meet all the qualifications should be naturalized as citizens. President Roosevelt and his administration have been successful in preventing the creation of a “Jim Crow” class while also protecting America’s dignity in interacting with Japan. Even in interfering in local matters, it has only been limited to when there are possible constitutional violations at stake, like when the local school board in San Francisco made their ruling about the Japanese school-aged children. There are definite economic advantages to maintaining trade with Asia, but an influx of immigration to the United States does raise some valid concerns along economic and social lines.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-01-03
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-04-03
Roosevelt, Theodore, 1858-1919
President Roosevelt has received William Allen White’s letter, and asks that he write to him again about Judge Dickerson and Judge Townsend. Roosevelt has been reading the advance sheets of White’s upcoming article, and appreciates all the things that White has written, whether or not he deserves them. He disagrees, however, with the implication that his administration could be compared to that of Washington, Lincoln, or Franklin, as they faced great crises while Roosevelt has not. Roosevelt is not concerned whether he will have a place in history, but simply wants to do his best to work with the other people in his administration to govern the nation well.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-11-28
President Roosevelt cannot speak at the James Wilson memorial as Lucien Hugh Alexander requests. Moreover, Roosevelt finds it impossible “to use himself and be used as an instrument for securing a different judgement of history on any man,” even past statesmen.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-09-17
President Roosevelt forwards Secretary of State Root copies of his correspondence with Charles Custis Harrison regarding the Franklin Bi-Centennial celebration in Pennsylvania. He asks Root to make remarks at the occasion expressing Roosevelt’s appreciation for the celebration and say that Root represents the whole administration through his presence there.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-04-12
Earl Grey will send Ambassador Reid the portrait of Benjamin Franklin which he is returning to the possession of the United States to be hung in the White House. Roosevelt asks Reid to arrange for it to be shipped there. He will write Reid at once about “this Morocco business.”
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-03-19
President Roosevelt tells C. Grant La Farge that he is unaware that he has one hundred Benjamin Franklin bicentennial medals. If he does, he will give one to Mrs. Pepper.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-01-31
President Roosevelt informs Governor Guild that he cannot provide a message for his celebration of Benjamin Franklin.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-01-13
President Roosevelt regretfully declines Edgar F. Smith’s invitation to speak before the American Philosophical Society to celebrate Benjamin Franklin’s birth. It is impossible to prepare speeches of the kind he would like while Congress is in session.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1905-11-21
President Roosevelt asks Senator Knox to deliver the enclosed letter to Edgar F. Smith, and further explains his reasons for declining to speak to celebrate the anniversary of Benjamin Franklin’s birth. With Congress in session, Roosevelt is too busy to conduct the necessary research or do the proper preparation that such a speech requires.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1905-11-21
President Roosevelt has made an “ironclad” rule not to write letters like the one Jacob H. Schiff requested. He explains to Schiff that were he to write such letters, he would write so many that it would be an “intolerable burden” and his letters would be “deprived of all significance.” He cannot accede to Schiff’s request without acceding to many others.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1905-11-04
John M. Schick implores Theodore Roosevelt to attend Franklin and Marshall College’s 125th anniversary celebration.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1911-11-10
Hannis Taylor sends Theodore Roosevelt a copy of “The Origin and Growth of the American Constitution,” and notes the importance of Benjamin Franklin in the creation of the American constitution.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1911-06-13
William C. Gill commends Theodore Roosevelt for his Memorial Day address at General Ulysses S. Grant’s tomb. He remarks on the ways in which various figures in American history have striven for peace, though that “theories are nicely and happily worked out in Dreamland but how different in practice in near-Utopias.”
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1911-05-31
Charles J. Kintner remembered to send Theodore Roosevelt additional articles published at the same time as George Washington’s letter to the governor of Virginia. He encloses a letter from Benjamin Franklin and an article signed “Nestor,” possibly a pen name for Alexander Hamilton. Kintner believes these items will be of interest and relevance.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1911-01-07
Annie Nathan Meyer encloses a letter from her cousin in New Orleans that she believes will interest President Roosevelt. She inquires about the possibility of meeting, accompanied by her husband Alfred Meyer, with Roosevelt and Edith Kermit Carow Roosevelt during the first ten days of the new year. If not, the Meyers will come in February or March. Meyer hopes that Roosevelt will be able to meet with a friend of theirs from England next time he is in Washington, D.C.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-12-12
James Bryce, British Ambassador to the United States, thanks President Roosevelt for forwarding a copy of a letter from Benjamin Franklin. Bryce is interested in Franklin’s “expression of his religious feeling” despite the popular perception that he was not a religious man.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-05-03
Earl Grey writes to President Roosevelt to return a painting of Benjamin Franklin that was taken by his ancestor when the British occupied Philadelphia. Part of the reason for this re-attribution is the Franklin Bicentennial Celebration planned in Philadelphia in 1906.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-02-08