Fraud

After speaking with Frank S. Cairns and Eugene Frederick Ladd, Secretary of War Taft believes the Cuban government under President Tomás Estrada Palma cannot continue. A small number of rurales and militia are spread around the island, with artillerymen and a few thousand municipal police concentrated in Havana. Insurgents are surrounding the city and also areas of Santa Clara, slowed by the arrival of United States troops on the Denver. Estrada Palma lacks support and is unprepared, and his office under Fernando Andrade is linked to abuses of power and election fraud. Without public support, Assistant Secretary of State Robert Bacon and Taft cannot recommend supporting Estrada Palma, yet insurgents still need to be driven out to protect the Cuban government and its people. A meeting will be held today with liberal leader Alfredo Zayas y Alfonso as well as insurgent leaders. Forcible intervention on the part of the United States cannot be avoided and Roosevelt’s approval is sought to move forward.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1906-09-21

Representative Parsons returns the letter from New York City Police Commissioner Theo. A. Bingham. Prentice and George Cromwell have been to see Bingham, and everything is proceeding favorably. Alderman James Cowden Meyers visited the Mayor, and Parsons thinks that rumors of fraud will not amount to much.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1906-09-14

Francis J. Heney notifies President Roosevelt that Special Inspector Thomas B. Neuhausen has exonerated William C. Bristol from any imputation of questionable conduct in the Oregon land fraud cases.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1906-02-07

Max J. Kohler expresses his concern that the Jewish Press is making fraudulent statements and collecting large sums of money. Kohler states the paper expects to receive an endorsement letter from President Roosevelt.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1905-10-25

George B. Cortelyou encloses a letter from Max J. Kohler regarding certain persons trying to obtain a letter from President Roosevelt.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1905-10-28

Leslie M. Shaw writes to President Roosevelt to discuss the appointment of a new postmaster in Yonkers, New York. Shaw believes it is bad practice for any special agent at ports to feel beholden for their appointment. He claims this encourages fraud and political deception. However, Shaw states that this is a matter of principle and does not apply in this specific instance.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1905-09-20

George E. Chamberlain writes to President Roosevelt to discuss members of the Oregon government. He does not understand the relationship between Judge McBride and Mr. Wood. However, he does “not believe any of the gentlemen whose names have been suggested for Judge are connected” with land fraud. He appreciates Roosevelt’s efforts toward good government.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1905-09-21

Senator Fulton thanks President Roosevelt for the answer to his prior letter, and suggests that Roosevelt may misunderstand his attitude regarding the issue of the Oregon land fraud trials. He seeks to clarify his stance, noting that he does not maintain the innocence of everyone, but rather only spoke on behalf of U.S. Marshal Walter F. Matthews. He has hardly spoken about anyone else involved with the trial, other than a comment about Senator John H. Mitchell.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1905-05-22

Australian tailor and outfitter William Young informs President Roosevelt that a man named S. E. Bulloch has been using Roosevelt’s name, posing as his cousin, and borrowing money fraudulently.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-09-15

Madame Vera Rose, a “truth seeker” with occult knowledge, is in Jefferson City, Missouri, and will read people’s lives and tell them when they will be successful. She claims to have read Theodore Roosevelt’s life. The advertisement contains a quote allegedly from Roosevelt that is endorsing her abilities.

Comments and Context

In a later letter, Theodore Roosevelt declares that this quote is a fake.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

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.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1910-01-05

President Roosevelt and Assistant Postmaster General Joseph L. Bristow pull back a curtain to reveal black paint that reads, “Bristow’s report regarding the Post Office Department scandal: corruption, fraud, bribery, and theft.” Roosevelt holds a paper in his hand: “The guilty shall be punished to the limit of the law.”

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1903-12

President Roosevelt charges up a hill toward several men behind “postal frauds” barriers while the “Democratic press” sits in a tree.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1903-12-01

President Roosevelt holds a sword in a man’s stomach as a Democratic donkey attaches a paper that says “blame” to his clothing. At the man’s feet is a paper that reads, “Postal frauds: born during Cleveland Administration—discovered and destroyed by Roosevelt Administration.” A raccoon gestures at Roosevelt and the donkey and says, “Now wouldn’t that jar you?”

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1903-12-02

President Roosevelt holds four men in his hands—”bribery,” “P.O. frauds,” “land grafter,” and “naturalization grafter”—and walks them toward the door of the jail.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1903-12-07

A woman holding a “Mother Jones” sign and a “labor problem” pitchfork rides a Republican elephant that rings the doorbell at President Roosevelt’s gate at Sagamore Hill. A sign reads, “Sagamore Hill: Positively no admission, except by invitation. T. R.” There are various signs attached to the elephant: “Ohio sandstone ring,” “postal scandal,” “Littauer glove scandal,” and “custom house frauds.”

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1903-07-29

President Roosevelt rolls up his sleeves as he looks at a pile of “U. S. Post Office Department” clothing that reeks of “scandal,” “corruption,” and “fraud.” The washtub is labeled “White House,” and the washboard is the “administration.” On the shelf, and in the president’s hand, is “strenuous soap.”

Comments and Context

Thanks in part to reforms initiated by Theodore Roosevelt, both as Civil Service Commission in the 1880s and ’90s, and as president, the Post Office gradually diminished its status as an institution of patronage and corruption as much as mail delivery. At one time every postmaster in every town, and other officials, were political appointees who depended upon victorious politicians who dispensed favors… and could be depended upon, in turn, to financially support their party benefactors.

For generations this system was a way of life in American politics; and the Postmaster General was in a way the most powerful figure in a president’s cabinet.

President Roosevelt pulls at a “free rural postal delivery” snake comprised of mailbags tightening around a Republican elephant. The snake is labeled as “fraud” and lets out “hot air.”

Comments and Context

Universal delivery of mail was envisioned by Benjamin Franklin; much debated through the decades’ seriously proposed in the 1897s; tentatively introduced in 1896; and largely — but not universally — was implemented in 1902. “Rural Free Delivery service is no longer in the experimental stage; it has become fixed policy,” President Theodore Roosevelt declared in his Annual Address in December of 1902.

The practice however, was not universal, nor without many complications, nor even welcomed by the whole country.

President Roosevelt rides a horse and directs Postmaster General Henry C. Payne riding on an “investigation” Republican elephant to go higher to the “postal frauds” mountain. In the background is a large star with the label of “Star Route frauds.”

Comments and Context

The “Star Route Frauds” were a series of corrupt arrangements and bribes connected to the nation Post Office department awarding mail route contracts and exclusive rights, especially in the West and South. Primary or favored routes were rated by stars; hence the nickname.

The assignment of postal-delivery contracts, whether to contracted parties, or because proximity to routes could prove lucrative, was an invitation to corruption and bribery in America’s Gilded Age. Star Route frauds were uncovered in the Grant and Hayes Administrations; and as the Republican Party had a long grip on the federal government, it was a challenge for Republicans to investigate Republicans.

President Roosevelt and Senator “Pitchfork” Benjamin R. Tillman, identifiable by their footwear, Rough Rider leggings and a farmer’s hobnail boots, are buried underneath a pile of trash as they hold up “the big stick” and a pitchfork. Various scraps of paper have words on them: “liar,” “thief,” “fraud,” and “spite work.”

comments and context

Comments and Context

The bitter controversy between the White House and Congress over the expansion of the Secret Service had evolved –or descended — into personal attacks, votes of censure, and the president’s Muckrake-like exposure of one senator’s illicit transaction involving western timber lands.