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President Roosevelt asks Secretary of Commerce and Labor Straus to help the State Department by having Congress take the appropriate action regarding the Fulton Memorial Exhibition at Bordeaux. Straus’s department has been given the plan and they will need to assist the State Department to manage it.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-01-18
President Roosevelt tells Cornelius Vanderbilt that he hopes to attend the upcoming anniversary event held by the Robert Fulton Monument Association, but needs to know more details before he can agree to do so.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-12-21
In his recent reading, J. H. Woodard found a book describing who the first charter for a steamboat navigation company was awarded to, which included Nicholas J. Roosevelt. Woodard suspects that this is President Roosevelt’s grandfather, and offers to send him the book if it is of interest to Roosevelt. He recently spent time at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition in St. Louis, Missouri, and asked a number of people about their opinion of Roosevelt, and reports that almost universally the response was positive.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1904-10-31
Ambassador Jusserand sends Theodore Roosevelt Christmas wishes and hopes for his continued safety. He informs Roosevelt of his election to the French Academy of Moral and Political Sciences on his own merits, with no opposing votes. Jusserand shares an incident of a mother cat saving her kitten from a caged tiger. Roosevelt’s letter was delightful and complemented his articles in Scribner’s Magazine, which everyone follows with interest. He does not have much to comment on regarding internal politics other than that he deplores the quarrel between Gifford Pinchot and Secretary of the Interior Richard Achilles Ballinger. Jusserand updates Roosevelt on several of their friends. Ambassador to France Robert Bacon was recently injured in a fall from his horse before leaving for his assignment. A letter “full of pleasant chattering” from Justice Alford Cooley hints at a possible improvement in health. Secretary of the Navy George von Lengerke Meyer and Assistant Secretary of the Navy Beekman Winthrop are trying to capture Jose Santos Zelaya in Nicaragua. While Henry Cabot Lodge and Anna Cabot Mills Davis Lodge are in good physical health, they still mourn for their son George “Bay” Cabot Lodge, especially on Christmas. Jusserand includes a newspaper clipping on Roosevelt’s election to the Academy and part of a political cartoon featuring Roosevelt.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1909-12-25
Five book reviews on six different books comprise this edition of the “Book Notes” column. In his review, Richard H. Collins focuses on Kathleen Dalton’s contribution to Robert J. Brugger’s Our Selves/Our Past, Psychological Approaches to American History. Dalton embraces a psychohistory approach to understanding Theodore Roosevelt, emphasizing his commitment to overcoming his childhood asthma and living the strenuous life. Collins argues that this approach is misguided and ignores Roosevelt’s class and his formidable intellect. Patrick C. Gable commends John Morton Blum for his appraisal of Roosevelt in The Progressive Presidents, but he faults him for blaming Roosevelt for the misdeeds and excesses of his Democratic successors.
Peter R. Fischer finds Charles C. Goetsch’s Essays on Simeon E. Baldwin “a worthwhile collection,” but he thinks the confrontation between Roosevelt and Baldwin over a federal labor law may not merit the importance that Goetsch assigns it. Elizabeth E. Roosevelt praises Mary Helen Dohan’s Mr. Roosevelt’s Steamboat for its depictions of life along the Mississippi River and for not overlooking the contributions of Lydia Latrobe Roosevelt to her husband’s success. Dennis Wood reviews Paul Schullery’s The Grand Canyon and Old Yellowstone Days. Theodore Roosevelt has an essay in each of these collections of writings about iconic American landscapes.