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President Roosevelt congratulates Representative Charles B. Landis on his brother Kenesaw Mountain Landis’s work as a judge.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-03-03
President Roosevelt has had letters both for and against appointing James Shanklin Harlan to a judgeship in Chicago, but tells Frank B. Noyes his is the first letter against Kenesaw Mountain Landis.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1905-03-14
President Roosevelt corrects newspaper reports regarding the appointment of circuit court judges in Chicago for Victor F. Lawson of the Chicago Daily News. Roosevelt outlines his thinking regarding the decision between appointing several men, and future plans for potential appointees who are not appointed at this time.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1905-03-13
President Roosevelt tells Franklin MacVeagh he has head good things about Jesse A. Baldwin, John Maynard Harlan, Kenesaw Mountain Landis, and Solomon Hicks Bethea, prominent lawyers and judges from Illinois.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1905-03-02
Attorney General Bonaparte wishes President Roosevelt a merry Christmas, and offers his opinion about how to proceed regarding the recent sentencing of Samuel Gompers. While Roosevelt has the power to pardon Gompers, Bonaparte says that to do so would be inappropriate while an appeal is pending, and so any requests for Roosevelt to pardon Gompers at this point would be premature. Bonaparte remarks confidentially that from his current understanding of the case, the sentences imposed by Judge Daniel Thew Wright are much too severe, even though he does not hold any sympathy for Gompers’s case.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1908-12-25
William Emlen Roosevelt does not think the fault is purely to be placed on the Panama Railway Company, as the officials in Panama have not been able to closely follow all correspondence to which he has been privy due to a large change in the heads of the company. Roosevelt believes that the root of the problem comes from an honest desire to make an all-American cable, making the American government obliged to the company. He also updates President Roosevelt on the difficulties in the banking field this winter. The depression has hurt business. While Roosevelt supports some regulation, he urges his cousin to impose more moderate fines on corporations.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1908-01-29
Benjamin Ide Wheeler, returning from a meeting of the Association of State University Presidents, discusses his support for a national public university with President Roosevelt. Wheeler also relays the popularly held belief among “capitalists” in New York that restoring trust in the economy is key to recovering from the current economic crisis and suggests that with Spencer F. Eddy’s promotion to Ambassador to Argentina, John W. Garrett should take over his former position as First Secretary in Berlin.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-11-24
The Department of Justice sends United States Attorney Edwin Walter Sims instructions on how to proceed in his upcoming cases concerning interstate commerce.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-09-21
Attorney General Bonaparte informs President Roosevelt about a variety of telegrams he has received pertaining to current issues, such as the trial in Idaho concerning Senator William Edgar Borah, the work of Special Assistant U.S. District Attorney Grace Humiston (Mrs. Quackenbos), and a revised constitution for the Territory of Oklahoma.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-09-10
Attorney General Bonaparte acknowledges receipt of William Loeb’s letter regarding enforcement of the law regarding alcohol sales in Indian Territory. Bonaparte also lists his thoughts regarding the Chicago & Alton Railroad Company immunity. If the action is deferred until after a decision in the court of appeals, it would cause a delay of many months. Bonaparte informs President Roosevelt that he is willing to read the entire testimony if Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis assembles it. At the end, Bonaparte includes a copy of a telegram he received about another instance of a request for immunity.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-09-09
Attorney General Bonaparte informs President Roosevelt of his meeting with Charles B. Morrison regarding the Standard Oil case. Morrison reported that Standard Oil magnates had met with Frank B. Kellogg and himself confidentially to come up with a settlement that would “preserve them from a criminal prosecution.” Bonaparte told Morrison that the government could not deal more favorably with the Standard Oil Company as compared with the Drug Trust and that the whole matter would have to be presented to President Roosevelt for consideration. Bonaparte also mentions other matters, including correspondence from Governor Charles E. Magoon of Cuba and the present situation in Oklahoma Territory.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-09-08
Attorney General Bonaparte sends President Roosevelt letters from United States Attorney Edwin Walter Sims and Assistant Attorney General Marsden C. Burch along with a clipping about Special Assistant U.S. District Attorney Grace Humiston (Mrs. Quackenbos). Bonaparte thinks his statement will suffice until he gets to Chicago, but the press will likely attack them anyway. It puzzles Bonaparte that Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis does not see that going back on the matter the would be exactly what Standard Oil wants.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-09-05
Attorney Otto Gresham sends President Roosevelt a letter from Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis. Gresham shares his views, as well as the views of various local lawyers and judges, on Landis’s actions and the proceedings of the Standard Oil case. Gresham also summarizes the conversations he had with Landis regarding the potential reversal of the case and the imposition of the fine. After discussing the history of law in Britain, Gresham concludes that the people support Roosevelt in his actions to control the corporations.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-09-04
Attorney General Bonaparte tells President Roosevelt that District Attorney Edwin Walter Sims has asked for a postponement in Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis’s case, perhaps due to Landis’s behavior. The press covering Secretary of State Elihu Root and Thomas Fortune Ryan has been sensationalized, and Bonaparte feels it is unfortunate that Root is taking the blame on the whiskey situation. Bonaparte will get an update from Department of Justice Agent Peyton Gordon about Agent Ormsby McHarg. As he will be traveling, Bonaparte sends his forwarding address. He encloses telegrams from Assistant Attorney General Marsden C. Burch regarding Judge Frank Sigel Dietrich.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-09-04
Attorney General Bonaparte updates President Roosevelt on the situation between United States Attorney Edwin Walter Sims and Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis. Bonaparte feels Sims’s behavior could be harmful. Any relevant evidence should have been made available initially, and although Bonaparte does not think an inquiry will change the case now he will do as the Landis asks.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-09-02
Attorney General Bonaparte reviewed the Chicago and Alton Railroad Company case. He sends President Roosevelt a copy of his letter to United States District Attorney Edwin Walter Sims and asks him to look it over.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-08-21
The writer petitions United States Attorney Sims make a motion that the federal government repudiate its promise of immunity in the case of the United States vs. The Standard Oil Company of Indiana. The writer provides a thorough review of the case history beginning in June 1906.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-08-20
Senator Lodge acknowledges E. T. Colburn and his friend’s concerns over the decline in the stock market. However, this decline results from many causes affecting not only the United States but the world. Therefore, Lodge argues that blaming President Roosevelt’s administration and investigations of corporations is unreasonable and unjust.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-08-19
Senator Lodge shares with President Roosevelt the points he went over with Assistant Attorney General Alford Warriner Cooley and District Attorney Asa P. French regarding the investigation of the New York, New Haven, and Hartford Railroad Company and Charlie Morse’s supposed steamship monopoly deal. Lodge discusses his concerns about the severe decline in stocks, the possibility of a financial panic, and the potential impact on future election results.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-08-12
Secretary of State Root feels President Roosevelt’s Provincetown speech is strong and presents Roosevelt’s view “with great force.” He offers some points of revision, in particular removing the reference to receivership. Root believes they can better discuss the Japanese situation in person than in letters. Overall, Root thinks the tendency leans towards a war occurring several years in the future.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-08-08