Your TR Source
Theodore Roosevelt thanks Frank A. Harrison for sending him the exact remarks made by Senator Robert M. La Follette. Roosevelt approves of how La Follette answered the question.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1912-01-11
John O. Yeiser informs Frank Harper of the Nebraska Republican convention’s plan to split 16 delegate votes either for Robert M. La Follette or Theodore Roosevelt, depending on the preferential vote. Yeiser is advocating for Roosevelt to be the preferential vote, but Yeiser is sure those in favor of William H. Taft will devise a plan to defeat Roosevelt regardless of the preferential vote. Yeiser ends the letter by mentioning the pressure he has felt to withdraw his petition nominating Roosevelt for the primary ballot.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1911-12-30
John Mulholland voices his enthusiastic support for Theodore Roosevelt to run for president in 1912. Mulholland tells Roosevelt he can mobilize the unions in Ohio and use a confidential voter lists to help his campaign. Mulholland asserts that the country needs Roosevelt in this time of global social upheaval and says a progressive revolution is coming and it should be a “conservative progressive movement.”
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1911-12-21
John L. Francis tells Theodore Roosevelt that he does not think either President William H. Taft or Robert M. La Follette will win the presidential election and Roosevelt is the only man who can. Roosevelt has support of Republicans and Democrats throughout the west. Fracis hopes Roosevelt will allow his friends to put him name forward for nomination.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1911-12-21
A page from the Topeka Daily State Journal featuring a highlighted section of reminiscences of Frank P. MacLennan’s recent meeting and luncheon with Theodore Roosevelt, several editors and businessmen from The Outlook, and others in New York. Also included in the section titled “Chapter LII” is information about Roosevelt’s insistence he has no intention to be nominated as a Republican candidate in the upcoming election, Taft’s fight against big business, and LaFollette’s campaign efforts as the presidential election approaches.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1911-12-20
Theodore Roosevelt explains to Herman Henry Kohlsaat that he does not believe him to be a bad person, though he does not always agree with him. Roosevelt is upset that a private letter of his was made public. He recognizes that the letter accurately represents his opinions, so he could not care less that Robert M. La Follette or William H. Taft are offended by them. Roosevelt asks Kohlsaat if he has seen the letter and will forward it to him if he has not.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1912-02-05
Theodore Roosevelt introduces Medill McCormick to Cecil Andrew Lyon. Unlike Lyon, McCormick supports Robert M. La Follette and would like to discuss this with Lyon. Roosevelt adds that McCormick is worth talking to, regardless of politics, because “he is our kind of man.”
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1911-12-21
Edgar C. Logan, a traveling salesman, has asked, as he has traveled, who people think will be the next President, and their answer is “Roosevelt or a Democrat.” Logan believes that the people want Roosevelt to be their next President.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1912-01-01
Senator Robert M. La Follette will be leaving Washington soon to campaign aggressively in Ohio, William H. Taft’s home state. Public opinion has changed, indicating La Follette is not in the running for the nomination, instead Theodore Roosevelt and Taft will be the ones to fight to lead the Republican Party.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1911-12-14
Article debating who will be selected by the Republican and Democratic Parties to run for president in the 1912 presidential election. The author believes that Robert M. La Follette is no longer a potential candidate and Theodore Roosevelt is an obvious threat to President William H. Taft, but will “play the game like a gentleman”. The author believes Governor Woodrow Wilson is a potential Democratic Party candidate and sees no other Democratic possibilities at this time.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1911-12-13
Newspaper headline declaring that Theodore Roosevelt has more public support than President William H. Taft as a Republican candidate for the presidency. Senator Robert M. La Follette does not pose a danger to his candidacy.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1911-12
List of votes for Republican, Democrat, and Socialist presidential candidates for the election of 1912 published in the Toledo Weekly Blade. The list shows more Ohioans voted for Theodore Roosevelt over President William H. Taft, the Democrats, and the Socialists combined.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1911-12-07
Nathaniel C. Wright shares a newspaper clipping with Daniel Rhodes Hanna saying he is printing the article to offset the trouble caused by what The North American has been printing regarding Theodore Roosevelt not being a candidate for the presidency. The article states that while Roosevelt has made his intentions clear, progressive Republicans have not lost hope that he will step up if their efforts to have him nominated are successful.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1911-11-28
Paul V. Collins recently had the chance to speak with Theodore Roosevelt on a train approaching the Twin Cities, as well as in the offices of The Outlook, and recounts his experience speaking with the ex-president. Rather than Roosevelt being interviewed, Collins writes, it felt as though he was doing the interviewing. The two spoke about reciprocity and the political situation in the United States, although Roosevelt did not grant permission to be quoted.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1911-11-25
Bela Tokaji informs Theodore Roosevelt that the people have no confidence in William H. Taft and Robert M. La Follette will be unable to secure enough delegates to be nominated for president. Tokaji does believe Roosevelt would have enough delegates to become the presidential nominee and will win. Tokaji is a “Magyar” by birth and he is determined to agitate for Roosevelt’s nomination, no matter what Roosevelt says.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1911-11-25
The opinion of the recent meeting of the Garfield Club at Youngstown, Ohio, is that Theodore Roosevelt will draw Progressive Republican support away from Senator Robert M. La Follette, and that he is likely to be the presidential nominee of the Republican Party in 1912. La Follette’s managers would support Roosevelt if he was named as the candidate, but would not relish the benefits of their work being turned to Roosevelt’s advantage against President William H. Taft.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1911-11-21
J. A. Miller discusses how the current political issues resulted from the administrations of Theodore Roosevelt and William H. Taft and urges progressive Republicans to vote for the progressive Democratic Party.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1911-11-18
In her review of Patricia O’Toole’s When Trumpets Call: Theodore Roosevelt After the White House, Nicole E. Goldstein rejects O’Toole’s assertion that Roosevelt was powerless after leaving the White House. Goldstein asserts that the biography is marked by “amateur pop psychology,” wrong conclusions, and trite phrasing. A picture of the book’s front cover appears at the center of the first page of the review.
Theodore Roosevelt Association Journal
2005
In a letter to George Perkins, Oscar K. Davis, a reporter and the secretary of the Progressive National Committee, details the assassination attempt on Theodore Roosevelt in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on October 14, 1912. Davis covers Roosevelt’s decision to leave his presidential train for a hotel in Milwaukee, the subduing of the would be assassin, and Roosevelt’s refusal to go immediately to the hospital. Davis highlights Roosevelt’s insistence on giving his scheduled speech, his dramatic turns at turning away aid, and his subsequent examination and x-ray at a Milwaukee hospital. Davis notes that he wrote the account to counter false stories about the assassination attempt that would appear in newspapers.
The letter is preceded by two introductions by Gregory A. Wynn and William N. Tilchin. Wynn provides the background and context for the letter while Tilchin discusses how he prepared the letter for publication in the Theodore Roosevelt Association Journal. Reprints of one page of the original letter and a page from Roosevelt’s bullet damaged speech join a photograph of Roosevelt’s eyeglass case in illustrating the group.
Geoffrey Cowan examines the importance of primary elections in a number of twentieth-century presidential campaigns, highlighting the 1912 contest featuring Theodore Roosevelt. Cowan challenges some of the assumptions surrounding Roosevelt’s campaign, asserting that Roosevelt may have been led to run by his jealousy towards Robert M. La Follette of Wisconsin and by his need for a fight, and not just his feelings of betrayal towards President William H. Taft. Cowan also demonstrates that Roosevelt was skeptical about embracing the primary system for choosing party nominees until he used the system to his advantage in 1912. Cowan concludes his piece by examining how the primary system affected the 2016 presidential campaign.
Three photographs, a political cartoon, and two 2016 campaign advertisements supplement the text.