Your TR Source
Theodore Roosevelt offers advice on the arbitration treaties. Roosevelt would like the treaties to fail and then be amended with Senator Lodge’s suggestion, but at a minimum Senator Root’s resolution needs to be adopted.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1912-01-10
Theodore Roosevelt agrees with A. T. Mahan. He questions whether silence or some other action is the best way he can do good. The New York Times’ recent editorial on arbitration treaties is “the most extraordinary bit of insincerity yet.” Roosevelt would value a signed copy of The Naval Strategy.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1911-12-05
Theodore Roosevelt wants to make sure John St. Loe Strachey knows his opinions personally. He admires Strachey’s articles on arbitration treaties and wrote a similar article, which he encloses.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1911-11-04
Jewish Americans have agitated against Theodore Roosevelt for his proposal regarding the Russian arbitration treaty. Roosevelt wanted to offer reasoning for abrogation of the treaty because reaction to the end of the treaty could cause problems, including anti-Jewish feeling. Edith Kermit Carow Roosevelt continues to recover but it will be many months until she is herself again. The memoirs and poems have arrived.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1911-10-27
Theodore Roosevelt would like the Permanent Court of Arbitration to examine the Russian arbitration treaty. He believes that nations should be able to exclude undesirable immigrants, but Russia is being foolish by turning away Jewish-American travelers. Roosevelt does not believe that this compares to American laws against Chinese immigration, as the Jewish Americans are not seeking to permanently join the Russian population. Edith Kermit Carow Roosevelt is “really better.”
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1911-10-20
Edith Kermit Carow Roosevelt was injured after falling from her horse and was unconscious for over twenty-four hours. There is no serious danger but she is in great pain. Theodore Roosevelt requests information on the Central American treaties which he supported. Senator Cummins will support the arbitration treaty if the Senate can confirm the commissioners. Roosevelt is not satisfied with Senate confirmation as it avoids several prominent arguments against the arbitration treaty and appointing commissioners would inevitably become a political matter.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1911-10-03
Theodore Roosevelt does not believe there will be much outcry for the arbitration treaty. Senator Root admitted that he opposed the treaty in its proposed form but wanted to ease the fall of the treaty’s supporters. Roosevelt finds it a “grim comedy” that Canada rejected the reciprocity agreement but at least now the average man can no longer claim a lack of reciprocity is America’s fault.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1911-09-22
Theodore Roosevelt is finding it difficult to be courteous to his Outlook colleagues due to their “unutterably silly” views on the arbitration treaties. They want to agree to arbitrate everything because it is unlikely that the issues that the United States would refuse to arbitrate will ever be submitted for arbitration. Roosevelt compares the issue to the tense situation in Europe that he believes will only be peacefully resolved if Germany concludes that France is willing to fight and Great Britain is ready to provide support. He knows that the German war plans involve flank marches through Belgium and Switzerland even though Germany has treaties with these nations guaranteeing their territories.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1911-09-12
Theodore Roosevelt believes that Senator Lodge will be pleased with the article he is writing regarding the arbitration treaties. He enjoyed Lodge’s article that appeared in The Outlook and is sending a copy of the magazine in case Lodge has not received one.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1911-08-29
Theodore Roosevelt informs A. T. Mahan that Lyman Abbott and his other colleagues are also doubtful of the peace treaties. He asks Mahan to write a letter about it for The Outlook.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1911-08-21
Theodore Roosevelt is pleased that the Democrats and Republican insurgents, led by Senator La Follette, have split up. He is willing to help Senator Lodge with the arbitration treaty. Roosevelt will write a strong article on the matter and has contacted Captain Mahan about writing an article against the unamended treaty. He appreciated the telegram regarding his new grandchild, Ted Roosevelt’s daughter Grace Green Roosevelt.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1911-08-22
Theodore Roosevelt agrees with Senator Lodge’s petition on the arbitration treaty. He can see no argument in favor of a commission which might contain foreigners exercising a power that rightly belongs to the President and the Senate.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1911-08-14
Theodore Roosevelt agrees with Admiral A. T. Mahan on how “hopelessly wrong” the arbitration treaties are. He does not object to having a closer relationship with Great Britain but considers it “atrocious” to consider the treaties as applicable to other nations.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1911-08-15
Theodore Roosevelt feels relieved after reading Senator Lodge’s letter regarding the arbitration treaty. He finds the phrase “‘and all questions internationally justiciable'” to be amusing since it “means nothing or everything.” Roosevelt has only seen a draft of the treaty in an editorial and found nothing particularly objectionable. Compared to what he read, Roosevelt views President Taft’s pronouncements on the treaty to be overblown and misleading.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1911-06-19
Theodore Roosevelt appreciated Captain Mahan’s letter, and enjoyed reading his piece on the Panama Canal in The Century. Roosevelt comments on how he views the international situation, saying that he believes that the United States and Great Britain can negotiate and cooperate well, but that he feels differently towards Germany and Japan.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1911-06-08
Theodore Roosevelt is concerned about the arbitration treaty. He views it either as a lie, because the American people will not allow it to be observed, or as a path to “national impotence and degradation.” Roosevelt is concerned about the potential arbitration of some issues if requested by foreign powers, such as unlimited Japanese immigration or Germany’s right to purchase the Danish West Indies. He does not believe that Senator Lodge should support the treaty without several revisions.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1911-06-12
Theodore Roosevelt agrees to give Senator Lodge’s article to the editors of The Outlook. He enjoyed seeing Secretary of the Navy George von Lengerke Meyer and encourages Lodge to meet with Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson. Roosevelt expects the arbitration treaty to pass, be very popular, and then be repudiated if it ever needs to come into effect.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1911-05-31
Theodore Roosevelt agrees with Dr. Rumely that the treaties bind the United States “hand and foot” to Great Britain, France, Italy, and Russia. Roosevelt says the treaties also bind the United States with Germany and Austria in spirit and believes they should be denounced.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1916-01-15
If it was right to originally sign the international arbitration treaties, then it should now be right to grant Germany’s request to have a commission of inquiry regarding the sinking of the Lusitania. However, President Wilson has succeeded in stalling and the public has forgot. Years of peace propaganda have created an “attitude of sluggishness and timidity.”
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1915-06-15
Theodore Roosevelt cannot approve of William Hutchinson Cowles’s editorial and opposes universal arbitration. Each nation and community has issues which they would refuse to arbitrate. The Wilson administration has signed thirty arbitration treaties and refused to abide by the treaty with Germany when the Lusitania was sunk. The public approved of President Wilson’s decision. Promises should not be made that the nation, its leaders, or the public do not intend to keep. The nations of Europe are fighting for their existence and will justifiably ignore calls for arbitration and pacifism from America. The United States needs to prepare for war and learn to keep promises.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1915-06-17