Intra-party disagreements (Political parties)

Letter from Ethan Allan Hitchock to Theodore Roosevelt

Secretary of the Interior Hitchcock writes President Roosevelt with updates on the New Hampshire gubernatorial campaign. Winston Churchill was seen as a serious contender to win the nomination but Charles Miller Floyd, who was the favorite of the Boston and Maine Railroad, ended up winning over Charles Henry Greenleaf, making considerable progress given his lack of experience.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1906-09-19

Letter from Oscar S. Straus to Theodore Roosevelt

Oscar S. Straus is surprised that President Roosevelt read his interview with James B. Morrow of the Cleveland Plain Dealer. Straus’s purpose in doing the interview was to “set right some of the exaggerated ideas some people have about the Jews.” Straus’s travels in France, Great Britain, and Germany have convinced him that Roosevelt’s efforts in the United States are garnering the United States respect throughout Europe. Straus says that the American people will insist on Roosevelt seeking a third term.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1906-09-18

Letter from Henry Cabot Lodge to Theodore Roosevelt

Senator Lodge asks President Roosevelt why he is unhappy with Lodge, as reported in the New York Herald. He also introduces the name of Roosevelt’s “old friend Dargan” as a possible candidate for a judgeship in South Carolina, if Roosevelt is willing to name a Democrat.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1906-02-26

Letter from James T. Rogers to Theodore Roosevelt

James T. Rogers requests an interview with President Roosevelt to discuss the “Speakership contest” in New York. Rogers believes Roosevelt intends to take a stand in the matter based on recent newspaper reports, likely endorsing assemblyman Cox, and that before Roosevelt reaches a decision he allow Rogers a chance to explain his position.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1905-12-16

Letter from John F. O’Brien to Theodore Roosevelt

New York secretary of state John F. O’Brien fears that his interest in Daniel W. Moran has caused the hostility from Justin B. H. Mongin, and explains the circumstances surrounding Mongin’s resignation as First Deputy Secretary of State for New York.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1905-12-06

Letter from Thomas Collier Platt to Theodore Roosevelt

Senator Platt is “surprised and somewhat disturbed” by President Roosevelt’s letter of November 23, 1904, concerning the chairmanship of the Erie County Republican Committee. Platt feels that Roosevelt is deserting him “right at the crisis of affairs here when I have the situation well in hand.” Platt favors William Olcott while Roosevelt suggests a “high class man” along the likes of Mr. Parsons or Mr. Davis.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1905-11-24

Letter from Theodore Roosevelt to George von Lengerke Meyer

Theodore Roosevelt tells George von Lengerke Meyer he is not sure there is anything to be done to make things better in politics. Roosevelt believes Republican leaders “stole the nomination” in Chicago, Illinois, and that such action “creates a train of evil consequences so extensive that it is almost impossible by any single act afterwards to undo the evil.” It was extraordinary to see men such as Bishop William Lawrence and President A. Lawrence Lowell of Harvard University “explicitly or implicitly, endorse the lowest forms of political immorality.” Roosevelt compares the Progressive platform to that of Abraham Lincoln and the early Republicans, and accuses the men who object to these principles of being the “spiritual heirs of the Cotton Whigs.” He believes that what happened in Chicago makes it likely that Woodrow Wilson and the Democratic Party will win the fall presidential election. When Roosevelt returns, he would like for Meyer and Frank B. Kellogg to visit him.

Collection

Massachusetts Historical Society

Creation Date

1913-10-07

Letter from Theodore Roosevelt to George von Lengerke Meyer

Theodore Roosevelt thanks George von Lengerke Meyer for the salmon and for what he said regarding the libel suit. Roosevelt would like to arrange a visit with Meyer and Frank B. Kellogg, but does not see what can be done about “getting the Republicans and Progressives together.” Roosevelt feels that the Progressives are “sundered” from the Republican Party by two causes. The first is the “utter dishonesty” of men such as Boies Penrose, William Barnes, Winthrop Murray Crane, Elihu Root, and their associates who “stole the convention” last summer. The second cause is that the Progressive Party, unlike the Republican Party, have in their platform “applied the principles of Abraham Lincoln to the present day.” Roosevelt will never again work with a party controlled by the men guilty of the theft last June or with any party that “does not take in their entirety the principles of Abraham Lincoln applied to the needs of the present day.”

Collection

Massachusetts Historical Society

Creation Date

1913-06-09

Speech of Theodore Roosevelt in Massachusetts

Theodore Roosevelt finds that the old parties of Massachusetts are “wedded to their idols” and do not offer any hope to the “man of vision.” He feels that there was “no surer touchstone of Bourbonism” than the support of the Payne-Aldrich Tariff Act. He urges the people of Massachusetts to remember that the present Wilson tariff, or the Revenue Act of 1913, was rendered possible only by the passing of the Payne-Aldrich Tariff Act and that the men who supported it represented the “extreme of reactionary Bourbonism within the Republican Party” against the interests of the American people. Roosevelt warns the people of Massachusetts that the man who supports the Payne-Aldrich Tariff Act “has his face toward the past” and will lead the state “backward against the current of proper political development.”

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1914

Bryan fiercely attacks Cleveland

In the most recent Commoner, William Jennings Bryan provides the history of the Democratic reorganization movement and portrays Grover Cleveland as the primary disruption in the party.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1903-05-13

Letter from Thomas B. Reed to Theodore Roosevelt

Speaker of the House Reed believes it was his duty to “go in again” and that his refusal to stand for reelection would make things unsatisfactory in his state given present conditions. Reed expresses distaste for Chairman of the Republican National Committee Marcus Hanna’s “coarse ways,” but it will not deter Reed from doing what “ought to be done.”

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1896-07-28