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The ghost of Louis XVI of France warns Nicholas II of Russia to not make a hasty decision regarding the “Petition” presented by a crowd at the Winter Palace, which was met by police gunfire and the deaths of many in what became known as Bloody Sunday. Caption: Shade of Louis. — Warily, Brother.
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1905-02-08
President Roosevelt confidentially sends Governor of New Jersey Stokes some correspondence with Secret Service Chief John E. Wilkie. Roosevelt feels Alfred W. Wishart is being imposed upon by William MacQueen’s request for a pardon as there is no doubt, he is a “shiftless character” and anarchist. Roosevelt directs Stokes to share the substance of the letter with the Board of Pardons.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-09-19
President Roosevelt approves of Andrew Dickson White’s letter, which Richard Watson Gilder shared with him. Roosevelt in turn sends Gilder a letter he wrote to John Ellerton Lodge, who had wanted Roosevelt to meet Maksim Gorky, which shows that Roosevelt has taken the same view of Gorky that Gilder and White have.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-04-25
President Roosevelt disagrees with the contents of a letter that a preacher sent to Upton Sinclair in which he compared him to Leo Tolstoy, Émile Zola, and Maksim Gorky. Roosevelt believes that if the type of socialism advocated in Sinclair’s book were implemented, one of the first efforts made would be to eliminate starvation. He sites a work by Walter A. Wyckoff in which Wyckoff traveled the country doing physical labor and found that in many cases, it is possible to quickly gain a position with steady work that allowed him to save. He agrees with Sinclair that radical action must be taken to end the “arrogant and selfish greed” of capitalists. However, he thinks that it is more important to develop the hearts and minds of the working class.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-03-15
President Roosevelt was so interested in Ambassador Reid’s recent letter to his wife Edith Kermit Carow Roosevelt that he feels compelled to write Reid himself. He responds to a number of stories Reid told in his letter, and reflects at length upon the duties and responsibilities of rich officials verses poorer ones. Roosevelt believes that each man should live and entertain and conduct himself in “such a position as he has been accustomed to live.”
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1905-11-13
President Roosevelt responds to an offer, transmitted by John Ellerton Lodge, to have the Russian author and political activist Maksim Gorky visit during his trip to the United States. If Gorky were only an author, Roosevelt would have no objection to seeing him, but because of Gorky’s involvement with revolutionary movements, “which in governmental matters is a revolt against order as well as against tyranny, and in domestic matters is a revolt against the ordinary decencies and moralities even more than against conventional hypocrisies and cruelties,” Roosevelt is not interested in receiving him.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-04-23
Nicholas Murray Butler notes that President Roosevelt was correct in his assessment of matters concerning Maksim Gorky and that there is “clearly” a “break-up of all order and restraint” going on in Russia. Butler also excitedly tells of “some most astonishing things” going on in Kassel, Germany, in relation to Herman Ridder of the Staats-Zeitung. After struggling for an imperial audience with Kaiser Wilhelm II, Ridder was helped by American ambassador Charlemagne Tower to get access. However, when Ridder arrived and did not see as much of the Kaiser as he would have liked, Ridder fabricated a story about his visit and what the Kaiser told him, which was printed in the papers. Butler shares the press statement from the Palace, which reacted by contradicting Ridder’s claims. Butler is excited to see what the American papers will publish in relation to the incident since Ridder telegraphed his own story to America.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-08-23
Andrew Dickson White discusses the political turmoil in Russia and the problems Russians cause in the United States and abroad. White thinks it wise that Richard Watson Gilder, editor of The Century Magazine, has avoided involvement with Maxim Gorky, and he wishes that Mark Twain and William Dean Howells had done the same.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-04-18
John Ellerton Lodge writes to Theodore Roosevelt to apologize for a miscommunication on his part which caused writer Maxim Gorky to believe he could visit Judge George Chandler Holt’s residence.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-04-23
Edith Wharton introduces Lieutenant Zinovi Pechkoff, an officer in the French army who is the adopted son of Maksim Gorky. Pechkoff is traveling to the United States to lecture about the war, and Wharton hopes that Theodore Roosevelt can meet with him.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1914-1918
A circular by Charles J. Kluser denouncing the Socialist speaker Eugene V. Debs, labeling him a revolutionary and a liar, and begging any Christians not to pay to see him speak.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1911-10-12