Your TR Source
Photographs of the library at Sagamore Hill, Theodore Roosevelt’s Oyster Bay, New York home. Various animal heads and portraits adorn the walls, including one of Roosevelt’s father, Theodore Roosevelt.
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1912-1918
Albert M. Graves reminds Theodore Roosevelt they have shaken hands at the White House before, and Graves has sent Roosevelt several long letters and articles in the past. Graves believes he knows Roosevelt very well and wonders how Roosevelt said and did so many important things with no mistakes, except telling American’s to vote for William H. Taft. Graves includes a song about the Pope singing Noah’s Ark while waiting for Roosevelt to visit.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1911-12-15
John M. Leach asks Theodore Roosevelt to confirm that if William H. Taft is nominated, he will lose the presidency to the democrats. Leach does not understand why Taft would not step aside, and urges Roosevelt to take up the leadership of the Republican party and run for president.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1911-12-14
President Roosevelt expresses to Representative Knowland his desire to heed the people of the University of California, Berkeley, concerning the appointment of Berkeley’s postmaster. He suggests Clarence S. Merrill as a suitable candidate for the position.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-08-21
President Roosevelt congratulates U. S. Grant on his engagement to Edith Ruth Root, daughter of Secretary of State Elihu Root, and expresses the family’s friendship and admiration for the Grant family.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-07-30
President Roosevelt is not hurt by Finley Peter Dunne’s cartoons, and thinks they are written in “the nicest possible style.”
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-01-09
President Roosevelt thanks Postmaster General Cortelyou for the Daniel Webster letter. It will have a “place of honor” among his other historical letters.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-12-25
President Roosevelt tells Major General Grant that he will arrange to see the general’s daughter Julia Dent Grant Cantacuzene and her husband Prince Mikhail Mikhailovich Cantacuzene soon. Roosevelt also mentions that “a general order” of Grant’s father, President Ulysses S. Grant, has a direct bearing on the ongoing Brownsville investigation.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-12-08
Benjamin Davidson asks Theodore Roosevelt to send him a copy of the speech Roosevelt made at Grant’s Tomb last Decoration Day, which Davidson attended.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1911-10-11
John H. Johnston encloses cards about great grandchildren to Theodore Roosevelt. He thanks Roosevelt for the photos, which he has framed alongside letters and photos from other notable men.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1911-09-21
Henry P. Curtis describes a recent publication on European natural history that he believes Theodore Roosevelt might be interested in. He explains how many towns were named after the animals that once resided there, such as Wolverhampton (wolves).
Curtis also shares with Roosevelt that his father was a Whig, while Curtis is a Republican. He expresses admiration for Senator John Sherman, discusses his political adversaries, and wishes that Sherman, Alexander Hamilton, and Daniel Webster could have been presidents.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1911-09-15
Railroad executive William C. Brown encloses to William Loeb letters relating to the public’s attitude towards railroad companies, and the need for railroad companies, after a period of public condemnation, to have peace and encouragement. Brown cares deeply about President Roosevelt’s good opinion of him, and wanted to be sure that Roosevelt had the full context of the communications between Brown and the press on this topic. As such, he encloses the complete letter he wrote on the subject, an editorial from the Wall Street Journal, and an exchange between himself and the editor of the Wall Street Journal, Sereno Stransbury Pratt.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-02-03
Surveyor James Sullivan Clarkson tells William Loeb about a secret movement in Tammany Hall to put General Ulysses S. Grant’s son, Jesse Root Grant, on the democratic ticket for 1908. All the states involved in organizing the movement so far are in the West and Northwest, and the idea is to “head off” William Jennings Bryan and William Randolph Hearst. Clarkson thinks it is “a pretty smart game” and emphasizes how important it is to keep it from going public.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-01-24
Attorney General Moody writes to President Roosevelt regarding funding sources for American Indian Day and industrial schools. Members of Congress declared that public money could not be used to fund sectarian schools, but the Secretary of the Interior Hitchcock can use certain money for American Indians held in trust in any way he saw fit, including assistance to sectarian schools.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1905-02-02
Henry S. Pritchett, president of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, writes to President Roosevelt about “the Negro question.” Pritchett claims that Republican Reconstruction was a failure, and argues that the federal government should stop trying to enforce the Fourteenth Amendment, since legislative threats are not making the Southern states comply. He recommends that the Southern states be allowed to control their own voting laws, subject only to outside criticism without force. Pritchett admits the Southern states will immediately disenfranchise most African Americans, but that this will be fair since they will also disenfranchise ignorant whites. He believes Roosevelt will still be allowed to make some African American appointments pending approval of local white leaders. Pritchett encloses an article he wrote on the subject and pages from James Ford Rhodes’s history. Rhodes, a historian specializing in Reconstruction, adds a postscript to Pritchett’s letter saying he agrees with Pritchett’s recommendations and will discuss with Pritchett conversations he had previously on the subject with Roosevelt.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1904-12-06
Pritchett, Henry S. (Henry Smith), 1857-1939; Rhodes, James Ford, 1848-1927
President Roosevelt holds a “third term” teddy bear in his hand and thinks about George Washington and Ulysses S. Grant each holding up one hand with “no third term” papers beside them.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-11
This newspaper article includes several images of President Roosevelt on horseback, including the president instructing Ted Roosevelt in hurdling, the president himself hurdling a stone fence, Captain Fitzhugh Lee riding a horse, and the president sitting at his desk.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-06-02
Lieutenant Governor Guild of Massachusetts delivers a speech at an event commemorating President Ulysses S. Grant in Des Moines, Iowa. Guild reminds Iowans of their special connection to Grant, as Iowa regiments were key in his first great victory of the American Civil War, the Battle of Fort Donelson. Guild points out how Grant’s administration saw the beginnings of a lot of contemporary issues, like the fight between the gold and silver standard, the corruption of machine politics, and the ills of the spoils system. Guild does, however, defend Grant against his harshest critics, stating that Grant did punish many of the instigators of scandals like Credit Mobilier and the Whiskey ring, and that Grant’s idea to annex the Dominican Republic seems less extreme in light of recent South American upheavals.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1905-04-27
The writer of the article suggests that some political candidates are elected by their merits, and other through the “accident” of being broadly popular and facing an unpopular or bad candidate as an opponent. President Roosevelt has reached his office on his merits, and the writer argues against attempting to nominate Senator Marcus Alonzo Hanna to replace him.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1903-11-07
Vice President Charles W. Fairbanks, as Don Quixote, sits in a chair, reading, with a sword in raised right hand, with visions of former (and current) presidents, as well as some of the social ills that he hopes to correct. Caption: Our esteemed Vice-President takes his candidacy seriously.
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1905-05-24