Imperialism

Letter from Theodore Roosevelt to Arthur Hamilton Lee

Theodore Roosevelt asks Arthur Hamilton Lee about the political situation in the House of Lords. Roosevelt also discusses relationships between the United States, Canada, and Great Britain, including the railway system and a peace and arbitration treaty. Roosevelt also expresses displeasure with politics and the press in the United States. Roosevelt thanks Lee for allowing him to stay at his two homes, especially at Chequers, and provides Lee with an update on his family.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1911-08-22

Letter from Theodore Roosevelt to Cecil Spring Rice

Theodore Roosevelt updates Cecil Spring Rice on the members of the Roosevelt family. Roosevelt feels that British politics are much more interesting than politics in the United States at the moment. He is disappointed in President Taft, and thinks that his leadership has divided the conservative and progressive streams within the Republican Party. However, Roosevelt would like to see Taft elected again. Roosevelt has “no sympathy with [Taft’s] arbitration treaty business” and believes the treaty should be strictly between Great Britain and the United States. Roosevelt also writes about his contentment with his life at the moment, writing for The Outlook.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1911-08-22

Letter from Theodore Roosevelt to F. R. Wingate

President Roosevelt sympathizes with the concerns that F. R. Wingate, Governor General of the Sudan, has about not getting the necessary money for developments. He is grateful for the work that Wingate and other Englishmen are doing to help him organize his safari. Roosevelt is desperate for a chance to shoot a white rhinoceros, and wants the same permissions that Winston Churchill did on his hunt. Although the first pair of white rhinoceros he shoots are promised to the Smithsonian Institution, Roosevelt wants Ambassador Whitelaw Reid to ask if the British Museum wants a second pair, should he be lucky enough to shoot one.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1908-11-27

Letter from Theodore Roosevelt to John A. Wyeth

Theodore Roosevelt tells Dr. Wyeth, a Confederate veteran and founder of the Polyclinic Hospital in New York, that he does not know what America should do with Mexico, but that he agrees with most of what Wyeth wrote in his article “The United States and Mexico” in the July 1915 edition of The North American Review. (In this article, Wyeth says the solution to Mexico’s problems is for the United States to annex Mexico.) Roosevelt remarks that this attitude is exactly what he would expect from Wyeth as a former soldier of Confederate cavalry General Nathan Bedford Forrest, of whom Wyeth had also written a biography.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1915-08-20

Letter from Theodore Roosevelt to Philander C. Knox

President Roosevelt advises Senator Knox, who will be president-elect William H. Taft’s secretary of state, on the importance and fragility of the relationship between the United States and Japan. Roosevelt explains why he believes that there is a real possibility that Japan will declare war on the United States, although this is by no means certain. Currently, many Americans are pursuing ineffectual and offensive strategies in an effort to prevent Japanese immigration to the United States. Roosevelt supports their goal but not their means. In Hawaii, meanwhile, Roosevelt disapproves of sugar planters encouraging large numbers of settlers from China and Japan to come work on their plantations. Roosevelt feels that the settlement of Hawaii by individuals from Southern Europe should be encouraged. His more general policy is threefold. He wants the government to prevent Japanese citizens from settling in America, while treating Japan “so courteously that she will not be offended more than necessary,” and building up the navy as a preventative measure. Although the value of this policy should be self-evident, Americans “are shortsighted and have short memories.”

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1909-02-08

Letter from Theodore Roosevelt to Harry Johnston

President Roosevelt tells Harry Johnston that he does not believe that the United States will intervene in Haiti, although he thinks that it ought to. Roosevelt does not like to act unless he can get the support of the American population behind him. In many cases in Central America and the Antilles, it either took a long time for the population to embrace interference or they never became interested. Roosevelt would have liked the United States to act in Venezuela, Central America, and Haiti, but says that people are “not merely blind, but often malevolently blind, to what goes on.” Roosevelt is pleased that Johnston’s impressions of New York are going to be published, and hopes that his thoughts on the Southern United States are likewise published.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1908-12-04

Letter from Theodore Roosevelt to William Bayard Hale

President Roosevelt approves of “needed reforms,” but their implementation can occasionally bring about minor irritations. For instance, he is now unable to appoint William Bayard Hale to the position where he feels that Hale could do the most good. Roosevelt muses that it may be possible to use Hale as a special agent for Haiti, but it is not likely. The trouble is not that the government does not know what to do for Haiti, but that many people refuse to accept that it is necessary for the United States to “exercise some kind of supervision over the island.” He cites several other instances in which the United States intervened in countries in the Caribbean or Central America, “in each case for the immeasurable betterment of the people.”

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1908-12-03

Letter from Theodore Roosevelt to Sydney Brooks

President Roosevelt sends Sydney Brooks a copy of a letter he wrote to Senator Henry Cabot Lodge accurately predicting the outcome of the recent presidential election. He is greatly amused to hear about the reaction of the British press to his involvement in the campaign of president-elect William H. Taft, and briefly comments on American politics. Roosevelt is glad to be joining the staff of The Outlook after leaving the presidency, and is looking forward to his safari, which he has received a great deal of help planning from his British friends. He is sorry to learn that a number of American papers have been attacking Britain for its rule over India, and says that he believes that while there have been faults committed, it is nevertheless “one of the mighty feats of civilization.” He also notes that some British papers have criticized the United States for its work in the Philippines.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1908-11-20

Letter from Theodore Roosevelt to Elihu Root

President Roosevelt sends Secretary of State Root a letter from Charles E. Magoon, the occupational governor of Cuba. Secretary of War William H. Taft has also seen it. Roosevelt’s assessment is that Magoon would be the best man to be minister of Cuba during the occupation, and that nothing else can be done until the Cubans elect a president. Magoon has made it clear that the troops should leave Cuba on the 1st of February.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1908-04-27

Letter from Theodore Roosevelt to Tui Manu’a Elisala

President Roosevelt thanks Governor Elisala for the letter, and is pleased to hear that Governor Charles Brainard Taylor Moore and Doctor Archibald M. Fauntleroy represented the American government well. Roosevelt is happy that Elisala reports that the Samoan people are more prosperous and moral than ever before.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1908-03-19

Letter from Theodore Roosevelt to William H. Taft

President Roosevelt has approved both Governor Charles E. Magoon’s report and Secretary of War Taft’s letter on the report, and will transmit both to Congress. He directs that the president and legislature of Cuba, which will be elected later this year, be put into power no later than February 2, 1909.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1908-01-13

Letter from Theodore Roosevelt to Charles E. Magoon

President Roosevelt introduces Sir John Rodger, Governor of the Gold Coast of Africa, to Governor of Cuba Magoon. He instructs Magoon to give Rodger any aid he can in examining the situation in Cuba.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1907-12-24

Letter from Theodore Roosevelt to Elihu Root

President Roosevelt encloses a letter from Colonel George W. Goethals for Secretary of State Root. As Roosevelt understands the situation, the State Department has assumed the position that Panama has no authority over the entryways into the canal or the canal itself, which is entirely under United States control.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1907-12-24

Letter from Theodore Roosevelt to Whitelaw Reid

President Roosevelt sends photographs of him jumping a horse to United States Ambassador to the United Kingdom Reid. He directs Reid to present the photographs to King Edward VII if he would like them. Roosevelt comments on the newspaper clippings that Reid sent, noting he was surprised at how Englishmen responded to Robert Bond’s criticism of New Newfoundland’s status in the British Empire, given their response to the proposed discriminatory legislation against Japanese students in California. Lately, Roosevelt has been most interested by his “encounter with the ultra labor men and socialists over the Moyer-Haywood-Debs matter.”

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1907-05-15

Letter from Theodore Roosevelt to William Coolidge Lane

President Roosevelt believes that most educated Cubans would like the United States to continue its occupation, though this is not possible. They are entitled to one more trial, but Roosevelt does not know what form it will take.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1907-04-15

Letter from Theodore Roosevelt to William H. Taft

President Roosevelt draws Secretary of War Taft’s attention to a paragraph in the Panama Daily Telegraph. He thinks the United States should “take advantage of [its] intervention to put the Cuban Government on as solid a basis of good legislation as possible.”

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1907-04-16

Letter from William Loeb to Julia Wyatt Bullard

Secretary to the President Loeb encloses the requested signed quotations from President Roosevelt. The quotations are on Roosevelt’s opinion of Confederate General Robert E. Lee and national memory of the Civil War more broadly, praise of white backwoodsmen’s use of guns and axes in North American western expansion and imperialism, ideal gender roles for men and women, and the need for national commitment to “the life of strenuous endeavor.”

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1907-03-09

Letter from Theodore Roosevelt to Grenville M. Dodge

President Roosevelt relays to General Dodge his stance on the recent actions taken by Secretary of War William H. Taft during his visit to Cuba. Roosevelt states he did not send Taft to Cuba until Cuban President Tomás Estrada Palma’s choice to resign was clear. Although Sir William Cornelius Van Horne and Mr. Menduley believe military control of Cuba is possible, Van Horne also states that “the Island is perfectly adapted to guerrilla warfare and…ten men to one would be required to suppress the insurrection and a great many lives would be lost doing it.” Roosevelt agrees that the cost of life is too great for the United States to hold Cuba by military force. Influential members of the Foreign Affairs Committee, Senator Joseph Benson Foraker, Senator Eugene Hale, and Senator Henry Cabot Lodge also believe in resisting more conflict and believe it is in best interest to “let the Cubans govern themselves.” However, Roosevelt believes the possibility of continued unrest in Cuba could sway public opinion and bring congressional support for future intervention from the United States.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1906-10-01

Letter from Theodore Roosevelt to John Morley

President Roosevelt is pleased that John Morely is taking a role in “directing the affairs of the British Empire.” He asks Morely to send his regards to John Burns.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1905-12-12

Letter from Theodore Roosevelt to Charles Henry Brent

President Roosevelt praises Bishop Charles Henry Brent’s “admiration of what is honest and upright in the English system,” while acknowledging the negative aspects of that system and avoiding those aspects in regard to the Philippines.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1905-10-04