Your TR Source
Bat Masterson sends Theodore Roosevelt a copy of a letter from a Kansas judge, Mike Sutton. Masterson praises Sutton for his politics and sends Roosevelt warm regards for the holidays.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1911-12-21
Isaac W. Heysinger sends Theodore Roosevelt an excerpt from The Works of Hubert Howe Bancroft, Vol. XXXVI: Popular Tribunals, Vol. I describing a case of judicial recall that occurred in Oregon in 1852. The excerpt includes direct quotes from the book as well as portions summarized by Heysinger. The case involved the fight of two miners, Spenger and Sims, over the rights to a mining claim following an accident that left Sprenger crippled. After Justice Rogers ruled in favor of Sims, a popular tribunal was convened, reopening the case and charging Rogers with malfeasance. The people decided that Sprenger’s rights would be reinstated, and Rogers would have to resign.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1912-01-06
Photograph showing President Roosevelt being sworn in as President of the United States by Judge Melville Weston Fuller with a large crowd watching.
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1905-03-06
Photograph showing President Roosevelt surrounded by members of the Supreme Court congratulating him with a large crowd behind them.
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1905-03-06
Memorandum listing major problems with the facilities and services of the Children’s Court of New York County. The building that currently houses the court is inadequate and even though money has been allocated for a new building, the Board of Aldermen has stalled any action. There is one probation officer for 10,000 cases, nineteen have been requested but the Board of Aldermen has not yet acted. The Big Brothers of America have had excellent results with delinquent boys, but it is funded by volunteers and donors.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1911-11-02
Jonathan Bourne expresses criticism towards Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson over their disapproval of recalling elected judges. Roosevelt and Wilson fear if judges are able to be recalled, their opinions will be influenced by political interests, but Bourne argues that judges are already politically motivated to rule a certain way because of renominations and promotions.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1911-06-05
Circumstances in Cincinnati, Ohio, provide an illustration why citizens should have the power to recall judges. Two judges have broken with precedent by intervening to prevent a political boss from being tried for perjury, serving the interests of the political parties over that of the citizens of their jurisdictions. If citizens could recall judges from office, they would be more likely to work in the interest of the people, rather than the political bosses.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1911-03-27
Theodore Roosevelt has finally received Judge Baldwin’s recent letter, and states that his own earlier letter to Baldwin was based on what he knew of the letter from it’s appearance in the press. Roosevelt also received a copy of Baldwin’s decision in the case of William H. Hoxie, who was injured while working at his railroad job, and illustrates the case which Roosevelt was thinking of and which he feels is retrogressive, and in no way progressive. Roosevelt thoroughly comments upon the case and the way in which he feels it is a miscarriage of justice.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1910-10
President Roosevelt congratulates Attorney General Charles J. Bonaparte for his speech at Chicago, which showed his fair enforcement of the law. His attackers use the press and their wealth to recruit powerful people, like college presidents and corrupt judges, to their side at the cost of the “plain people.” These attackers know that developments like the Hepburn Rate Law, the Sherman Anti-Trust Law, the Pure Food and Drug Act, and protections for workers have been effective against moneyed interests and criminals, but they are often lawyers or editors who answer to the corporations. The individual men to whom he refers are, however, merely puppets, and the true issue should be taken with the offenders who stand behind them and control enormous wealth. He and Bonaparte are not responsible for the economic panic, but are striving for the right “in the spirit of Abraham Lincoln.”
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-12-23
Theodore Roosevelt recently responded to the open letter of Judge Simeon E. Baldwin, Democratic nominee for Governor of Connecticut, accusing Roosevelt of slander. In his speech, Roosevelt clarified his actual statement, which had been misquoted, and expanded upon his opinion that the statements of several judges, including Baldwin, regarding the unconstitutionality of enacting labor legislation limiting the hours of work was “a retrogressive attitude” and one which the Republican party opposed. While Roosevelt is sure that the judges holding these attitudes are honorable men, he strongly opposes their views.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1910-10-25
David B. Hill has an “I am a Democrat” feather and rides on Alton B. Parker’s shoulders as he walks from “Esopus” to the “White House.” Parker holds the “Constitution of the United States” while Hill has two papers—”Herrick for judge” and “Stanchfield for governor”—in his back pocket.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1904-09-04
President Roosevelt wears a mask and sits at a desk with Secret Service reports. On the wall are “Rogue’s Gallery no. 1–Members of Congress,” a “list of undesirable citizens–Harriman, Rockefeller, Foraker, Haskell, and Tilman,” and a March 1909 calendar. On the other wall is a sign–“Old Sleuth Hawkshaw & Co.: Private Investigations. Shadowing”–and some disguises, including “mollycoddle masks,” “Ananias masks,” “malefactors of great wealth,’ and a coat “for the frivolous judge disguise.” On the ground are “gum shoes” and a “Muck Rake” cat.
As President Roosevelt’s term drew to a close, many Democratic cartoonists who had routinely criticized him continued without abatement. Other partisans seized the opportunity to increase their level of bitterness and ridicule while he was on his way out.
Alton B. Parker faces two different ways. On one side, he stands up straight. On the other, he puts his hand to his head. Caption: “From the Judge is expected cautious deliberation; from the candidate, inspiration, energy, promptness and aggressive impulse.” —Advice from a Parker enthusiast.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1904-09-26
Secretary of War Taft encloses a letter from Judge Joseph F. Cooper, who is serving on the Supreme Court in the Philippines. The letter does not change Taft’s mind about asking for Cooper’s resignation.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1904-09-10
John Campbell Greenway is sending Theodore Roosevelt the book Life in Mexico. He has just returned from Great Britain and regrets not seeing Roosevelt while he was in New York. Greenway anticipates voting Democrat in the next election but is pleased that President Taft vetoed the Statehood Bill on account of the recall of judges.
1911-09-13
New York City Mayor Robert Anderson Van Wyck is a judge and Richard Croker is a policeman, holding a club labeled “Tammany,” bringing a man labeled “Reform” before the judge in a courtroom.
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1898-02-23
Print shows New York State Supreme Court justice Theodoric R. Westbrook wearing the white robe of Justice and his head mostly bound with cloth. The balance scale of justice sits at his feet, and he hands a crowbar, or “jimmy,” labeled “By Order of the Court,” to a masked man. Another man, in the background, is using a similar bar to pry open doors labeled “Broken, Assets, Stockholders Money, [and] Policy Holders Money.” Next to Westbrook is a container labeled “Court Orders” filled with crowbars. His left hand rests on a piece of paper that states “Supreme Court – Decisions by Everybody’s Friend – Westbrook.” Caption: How the receivers get at the assets of “busted” insurance companies.
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1882-05-24
Print shows the interior of a barn crowded with horses and even more trying to get in. On the left in the back, George M. Robeson, George F. Hoar, Rutherford B. Hayes, William Mahone, and Thomas Collier Platt are trying to enter; but Uncle Sam, holding a “Rejected” sign, stops them at the door. At center is Benjamin F. Butler leading a horse that looks like himself, followed by Puck’s “Independent” Party figure leading two horses identified as “Cleveland” and “Mayor Low.” Puck, holding a lithograph pencil and a sign that states “Supreme Judge,” is standing with newspaper editors Whitelaw Reid, Carl Schurz, James Gordon Bennett, Joseph Pulitzer, and Murat Halstead. Among the horses waiting in the barn are Chester A. Arthur “Present Holder of First Prize,” Samuel J. Tilden being groomed by Henry Watterson, Thomas Hendricks, Roscoe Conkling, James G. Blaine, Ulysses S. Grant, Winfield Scott Hancock, David Davis, John A. Logan, James D. Cameron(?), Hubert O. Thompson, George Hoadly, Samuel S. Cox, Allen G. Thurman, Thomas F. Bayard, Frederick Edson, Abram S. Hewitt, William S. Holman getting a “Sun Mixture” from Charles A. Dana, John Sherman, and John Kelly as a mule labeled “Tammany” with its owner the “Irish Vote.”
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1883-10-24
Two men, one labeled “Political Boss” and the other labeled “Special Privilege,” with copies of “Blank Injunctions” in his pocket, help a diminutive judge write a “Dictated Decision.” In the background, Justice is partially obscured by a note that states “Remember Thy Creator.” Caption: Does a protest against this type of justice assail “the integrity of the courts”?
The reform impulses in American politics — finally coalescing in electoral reform, political revolts, Muckraking literature, regulatory action, and the growth of insurgents and progressives in both political parties — finally reached the courts by 1908.
Reformers, of course, had long been frustrated by the court system as a bastion of defense for trusts, special privilege, and corruption. The Sherman Anti-Trust Act (1890), for instance, largely was made toothless by the courts. Judges routinely upheld corporations and governments against labor protests, organizing, and boycotts. When the Supreme Court barely upheld the Theodore Roosevelt Administration’s dissolution of Northern Securities in early 1904, it was the first sign of possible cracks in the monolith that was a monopoly-beholden justice system.
Theodore Roosevelt has had breakfasts with Platt and Governor Odell, but does not think the events have been viewed as important by the judge, of whom Roosevelt does not think highly. Roosevelt also does not approve of President Wilson’s and Secretary of State Bryan’s relations with Germany.
1915-05-14