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Lee, Robert E. (Robert Edward), 1807-1870

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Letter from Theodore Roosevelt to Hilary A. Herbert, et al.

Letter from Theodore Roosevelt to Hilary A. Herbert, et al.

President Roosevelt regrets to inform the Committee of Arrangement for the Celebration of the Hundredth Anniversary of the Birth of General Robert E. Lee that he will not be able to attend their celebration. However, he would like to join them in honoring Lee’s life and career as a “great soldier and high-minded citizen whose fame is now a matter of pride to all our countrymen.” He reflects on Lee’s life, character, and accomplishments and describes a man who “in the closing years of his life, served those who sorely needed what he so freely gave.”

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1907-01-16

Creator(s)

Roosevelt, Theodore, 1858-1919

Memorandum for the Secretary of War relative to the alleged summary disbandment, by General Robert E. Lee, Confederate States Army, of a battalion of infantry, in October, 1864.

Memorandum for the Secretary of War relative to the alleged summary disbandment, by General Robert E. Lee, Confederate States Army, of a battalion of infantry, in October, 1864.

A memorandum from the War Department discusses the historical accuracy of an alleged order from the Civil War used by President Roosevelt as an exhibit accompanying a message to the Senate concerning the discharge of soldiers in Brownsville. The alleged order is from Robert E. Lee disbanding the 22nd Virginia Battalion in 1864 for poor conduct. A search of the Confederate archives does not substantiate this order, instead showing that a request to redistribute members of the Battalion was never followed.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1907-01-03

Creator(s)

Ainsworth, Fred C. (Fred Crayton), 1852-1934

Letter from Lawrence F. Abbott to Theodore Roosevelt

Letter from Lawrence F. Abbott to Theodore Roosevelt

Lawrence F. Abbott apologizes to President Roosevelt for requesting his estimate of General Robert E. Lee, knowing how busy Roosevelt is. Abbott describes a speech given to the Quoin Club by Commissioner Franklin K. Lane of the Interstate Commerce Commission, in which Lane expressed the belief that the era should be regarded as one of “construction and real conservatism, not of irresponsible radicalism.” Abbott remarks that even in New York City, “fair-minded” businessmen recognize Roosevelt as the leader of a “great democratic industrial movement.”

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1906-12-14

Creator(s)

Abbott, Lawrence F. (Lawrence Fraser), 1859-1933

Letter from Lawrence F. Abbott to Theodore Roosevelt

Letter from Lawrence F. Abbott to Theodore Roosevelt

Lawrence F. Abbott asks President Roosevelt to review upcoming articles for the Outlook that celebrate the birthday of General Robert E. Lee. Abbott hopes Roosevelt will write something for the magazine on Lee and also discusses the seemingly new unity of the country based on northerners of abolitionist ancestry celebrating the Confederate general. Abbott also includes a handwritten postscript specifying the deadline if Roosevelt did wish to contribute materials.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1906-12-11

Creator(s)

Abbott, Lawrence F. (Lawrence Fraser), 1859-1933

Letter from Theodore Roosevelt to Kermit Roosevelt

Letter from Theodore Roosevelt to Kermit Roosevelt

President Roosevelt agrees with Kermit Roosevelt about the book Martin Chuzzlewit, and criticizes Charles Dickens’s character and inability to see the positive traits of America and Americans, which led to such great men as Abraham Lincoln. He concedes, however, that some of the negative characteristics that Dickens’s characters portray do persist in some Americans, including Senator Benjamin R. Tillman, William Randolph Hearst, and John D. Rockefeller. Roosevelt enjoyed a recent visit from Kermit’s older brother, Theodore Roosevelt.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1908-02-29

Creator(s)

Roosevelt, Theodore, 1858-1919

Letter from Theodore Roosevelt to Duncan Clinch Heyward

Letter from Theodore Roosevelt to Duncan Clinch Heyward

President Roosevelt cannot serve on the advisory board, but will write a letter for Duncan Clinch Heyward. Roosevelt suggests Heyward contact University of Virginia president Edwin Anderson Alderman, as he was the one who originally suggested writing the letter about Robert E. Lee. Heyward is heading the movement to commemorate the centennial of Lee’s birth.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1907-07-02

Creator(s)

Roosevelt, Theodore, 1858-1919

Letter from William Loeb to Julia Wyatt Bullard

Letter from William Loeb to Julia Wyatt Bullard

Secretary to the President Loeb encloses the requested signed quotations from President Roosevelt. The quotations are on Roosevelt’s opinion of Confederate General Robert E. Lee and national memory of the Civil War more broadly, praise of white backwoodsmen’s use of guns and axes in North American western expansion and imperialism, ideal gender roles for men and women, and the need for national commitment to “the life of strenuous endeavor.”

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1907-03-09

Creator(s)

Loeb, William, 1866-1937

Letter from Theodore Roosevelt to James Ford Rhodes

Letter from Theodore Roosevelt to James Ford Rhodes

President Roosevelt tells James Ford Rhodes he has just finished reading his fifth volume, which has tied in well with Roosevelt’s other readings of Thomas Babington Macaulay’s History and Abraham Lincoln’s letters and speeches. Although the president agrees with Rhodes that the right is not all on one side and the wrong is not all on the other in quarrels, Roosevelt thinks the American Civil War is the exception, as he believes “the right was exclusively with the Union people.” Roosevelt talks about his plans to build up the Navy to avoid war, believing the Panama Canal will help. Finally, he discusses problems he has been having with the tariff and Southern states. He disagrees with Rhodes that the South is not trying to reinstate slavery, as there is peonage in three states right now. Roosevelt closes by mentioning how his opponents helped him during the election campaign.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-11-29

Creator(s)

Roosevelt, Theodore, 1858-1919

Letter from Theodore Roosevelt to George Brinton McClellan Harvey

Letter from Theodore Roosevelt to George Brinton McClellan Harvey

President Roosevelt defends a statement he made about Jefferson Davis eighteen or twenty years ago, in which he compared Davis with General Benedict Arnold. Roosevelt believes Davis a traitor because he intrigued for secession, and therefore the destruction of the republic, in support of slavery. Unlike Arnold, Davis received office for his treachery. Roosevelt also sends Colonel George Harvey a copy of Rough Riders to clear any confusion about Roosevelt’s participation on a specific day during the Spanish-American War.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-09-19

Creator(s)

Roosevelt, Theodore, 1858-1919