Your TR Source
President Roosevelt congratulates Algernon Edward Sartoris and his wife, Germaine Cecile Nouflard Sartoris, on the birth of their baby, Herbert Charles Urban Grant Sartoris. He feels two presidential terms are enough.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-08-30
President Roosevelt had recently finished Owen Wister’s book Lady Baltimore, and sends Wister his thoughts and criticisms of the work. While he enjoyed the story, Roosevelt believes the book is unfairly critical of northerners and uncritical of southerners. Similarly, Roosevelt points out that while the book lauds the past at the expense of the present, there are many examples of violence, brutality, greed, and other vices in the past. Roosevelt also remarks on the status of African-Americans, and while he agrees with Wister in certain regards, believes the work has gone too far in the racist stereotypes. He hopes that Wister will be able to visit him soon. In a postscript, Roosevelt mentions a number of other books he has read or is reading that similarly make readers “feel that there is no use of trying to reform anything because everything is so rotten that the whole social structure should either be let alone or destroyed.”
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-04-27
President Roosevelt appreciated Sereno Stansbury Pratt’s recent Wall Street Journal article. Pratt responded to a letter from George Brinton McClellan Harvey which suggested that following tension between Roosevelt and Republican leaders in the Senate, Roosevelt’s popularity would wane by the end of his second term. Roosevelt assures Pratt that he is not concerned with his personal popularity, but rather with doing what is good for the country.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-03-03
President Roosevelt tells George Otto Trevelyan how much he liked his letter and book. Roosevelt is especially keen about Trevelyan’s description of a “Greek War” in modern terms, and even agrees with his “carefully guarded statement” about wanting to live in Ancient Greece. Roosevelt also discusses the Civil War connections on his personal staff.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1905-10-07
President Roosevelt asks General Lee if he can obtain a handwritten letter or letter and image of General Robert E. Lee for his collection of items from prominent leaders.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1905-02-02
President Roosevelt thanks Colonel Pride for allowing Representative Frederick Landis to show him the letter Ulysses S. Grant wrote to Pride.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1905-01-25
President Roosevelt tells James Ford Rhodes he has just finished reading his fifth volume, which has tied in well with Roosevelt’s other readings of Thomas Babington Macaulay’s History and Abraham Lincoln’s letters and speeches. Although the president agrees with Rhodes that the right is not all on one side and the wrong is not all on the other in quarrels, Roosevelt thinks the American Civil War is the exception, as he believes “the right was exclusively with the Union people.” Roosevelt talks about his plans to build up the Navy to avoid war, believing the Panama Canal will help. Finally, he discusses problems he has been having with the tariff and Southern states. He disagrees with Rhodes that the South is not trying to reinstate slavery, as there is peonage in three states right now. Roosevelt closes by mentioning how his opponents helped him during the election campaign.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1904-11-29
President Roosevelt conveys best wishes to Major Boynton and the Society of the Army of the Cumberland reunion, and expresses his high regard of the society, its past and present members, and legacy.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1904-09-02
President Roosevelt sends his regrets to General Blackmar that he will be unable to attend the annual encampment of the Grand Army of the Republic in Boston, Massachusetts. Roosevelt has the greatest respect for those who fought for “the very life of the Nation” and agrees with former president William McKinley that their “patriotic spirit still animates the Republic.”
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1904-08-06
Algernon Edward Sartoris informs President Roosevelt that Sartoris is now the father of a baby boy and his wife is doing well. He urges Roosevelt to run for a third term, deeming the practice of holding office for merely two terms “absurd in these days.” Due to Roosevelt’s established record, Sartoris feels he is the choice of the healthy young Republicans and of many Democrats of the Cleveland School. While in Paris, Sartoris met Roosevelt’s daughter, presumably Alice Roosevelt Longworth, whose impression he found pleasant.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-08-21
The Roosevelts enjoyed General Dodge’s visit, especially the stories of his experiences with Ulysses S. Grant and William T. Sherman during the Civil War. President Roosevelt believes that if these stories were written down they would make the best book that has been written about the Civil War.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1903-10-20
President Roosevelt is pleased that Augustus Saint-Gaudens is not opposing Edward Kemeys, as Roosevelt is a fan of Kemeys’s “wild beast figures.” Roosevelt was pleased with the Ulysses Grant statue selection but believes that Saint-Gaudens’s statue of General Sherman is the “greatest statue of a commander in existence.”
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1903-08-03
President Roosevelt regrets not being able to attend the banquet in honor of General Grant’s birthday.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1903-04-27
President Roosevelt wants a Republican of “national repute” to speak with the Americus Club of Pittsburgh on April 27, President Grant’s birthday. Roosevelt hopes that Senator Depew can accept the speaking engagement.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1903-03-14
Albert J. Beveridge is traveling to speaking engagements in Montana and California. Beveridge believes that Theodore Roosevelt will win in Massachusetts but if not, he quotes Ulysses S. Grant before the Battle of Shiloh, “never mind we will lick them tomorrow.”
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1912-04-30
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1911-12-06
Roosevelt, Theodore, 1858-1919
English
Holmes E. Offley hopes Frank Harper can get him a letter from Theodore Roosevelt to aid him in his efforts to get Congress to recognize his service in the Navy and the Navy Department from 1861 to 1876. He has testimonials from other prominent men.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1911-11-04
Walter Damrosch alerts Theodore Roosevelt to the enclosed letter wherein James W. Morrissey appears to misuse Roosevelt’s name. He discusses how Morrissey has an “unsavory reputation” in the managerial world for his schemes.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1911-11-02
C. P. Connolly writes Theodore Rosevelt and includes comments about a letter written by Judge Frederick W. Gnichtel in which Gnichtel compares Roosevelt to General Ulysses S. Grant. Connolly also praises Roosevelt’s Romanes Lecture as Roosevelt’s “highest reach in literature.”
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1911-09-02
Peter Twamley is surprised that Theodore Roosevelt is not interested in his case, especially since he heard it is illegal to demote a veteran without proven charges. The demotion from sampler to laborer will significantly decrease Twamley’s salary. He feels Roosevelt should make an exception for him, as he is a Civil War veteran.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1911-07-30