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President Roosevelt asks Attorney General Bonaparte what he thinks about the Oklahoma gerrymander and suggests action if it is justified. He also discusses Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis’s concerns about railroad employees’ testimony in the Standard Oil case.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-09-06
Secretary of War Taft agrees with President Roosevelt on Senator Henry Cabot Lodge’s speech and on the negative press from the New York papers. He describes his trip thus far and makes predictions about his success based on what he has been told. In light of the gerrymandering involving Oklahoma Governor Charles Nathaniel Haskell, Taft asks Roosevelt to help defeat an inadequate constitution in Oklahoma. Taft has asked Joseph L. Bristow to form another report on Panama, and he mentions an editor named Joseph Ralph Burton who has been attacking Roosevelt. Taft discusses the political campaigns and conflicts in the states he is passing through, in particular the political campaigns in Missouri, Oklahoma, and Denver. Taft’s mother Louise Maria Torrey Taft is recovering, and although the trip has been exhausting, Taft has a few days of rest ahead.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-08-30
The House of Representatives has passed a bill providing for the basis of representation in Congress according to the 1910 census. The Democratic representatives from Missouri inserted a provision into this bill that gave the duty of redistricting to the state legislatures. Governor Hadley believes that this was done to prevent redistricting through the initiative and referendum which was recently added to the Missouri Constitution. In recent elections, the Republicans have been very successful in Missouri but the Democrats maintain undue influence through gerrymandered districts. Hadley requests Theodore Roosevelt’s help to remove the redistricting by state legislatures from the Senate version of the bill.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1911-07-10
John Allison thanks President Roosevelt for his letter to his daughter, Emma V. Allison, who is ill. The letter brightened her mood considerably. Allison hopes, if Roosevelt is nominated for president in 1908, that not only is he elected, but that he receives the electoral vote of Tennessee. Allison provides a report on the Republican Party of Tennessee, calling it a “seething bed of factionalism” which has lost much of its power. Someone high up in the party should discipline the leaders in Tennessee. Allison explains how he would go about that if he were the one to do it.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-11-25
Attorney General Bonaparte updates President Roosevelt on several matters before him. Assistant Attorney General Alford Warriner Cooley has been investigating the situation in Alabama, where Bonaparte deems it necessary for Roosevelt to “call down” several politicians who are complicating judicial confirmations and the workings of the attorney general’s office with concerns over political patronage. In Arkansas, Cooley reports that there are many well qualified men to replace Assistant District Attorney Ulysses S. Bratton, who has been involved in improper conduct in a case involving postal inspectors. Bonaparte has recently met with Census Director S. N. D. North and explains the problems he has encountered with obtaining an accurate census of Oklahoma Territory, resulting in problems with representation of citizens there, and makes recommendations to solve the problem. Bonaparte has requested summaries for the injunction regarding the picketing of the Allis Chalmers company in Wisconsin, and is appointing a special counsel to take charge of litigation against a prominent official there. Bonaparte is ready to move against the Tobacco Trust and James Buchanan Duke.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-06-18
Vignettes struggle to find humor in war. A “Metropolitan Opera Star” is greeted with applause by the enemy. A woman frets over the escalating cost of perfume. A young student finds it senseless to study “geography – It’s going to be changed anyhow!” A German man asks a French man “vat vould be a good Cherman name for Paris?” Two men suspect a dachshund of “German spying!”
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1914-10-17
Senator Pritchard is ill but hopes to attend and address the Alabama Republican State Convention. He believes that Republicans can make substantial gains in Alabama and the South.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1902-09-15