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Daniel W. Baker got all the presentments he asked for in President Roosevelt’s libel suit against newspaper publishers. The Grand Jury even decided to prosecute Joseph Pulitzer. Attorney General Bonaparte hopes to keep this news secret for a few days, so they can prepare the indictments.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1909-01-30
Louisa Lee Schuyler writes to President Roosevelt referencing a libel case of New Jersey vs. William Duane that was brought before Judges William Paterson and Richard Peters of the Third Circuit Court in Philadelphia on October 11, 1800. Duane was indicted under the Sedition Act. Schuyler mentions it in case it has any bearings on the present government. Schuyler outlines her travel schedule and relays that she is hoping to see them in the White House before the end of February.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1909-01-24
Richard H. Taylor provides details to William Loeb about the investigation and court case about Oklahoma Governor Charles Nathaniel Haskell. Haskell has been charged with conspiracy to defraud the government concerning town lots sold in Muskogee, Oklahoma, in 1902. Taylor has several character witnesses lined up to testify against Haskell. In association with this case, William T. Hutchings has confessed to forging the names of relatives and friends to thirty-one deeds. Haskell issued a statement to defend himself to the Associated Press. Taylor is concerned with President Roosevelt’s decision to align with William Randolph Hearst to “defame” Haskell while Roosevelt is enmeshed in a libel suit. Taylor believes that unless there is a “great miscarriage of justice,” Haskell will be sent to a Federal prison.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1909-01-24
Attorney General Bonaparte encloses a letter from Henry L. Stimson on President Roosevelt’s anticipated libel case involving Panama, and points specifically to Stimson’s suggestions for involving Secretary of State Elihu Root in the case. Bonaparte promises a future memorandum on the “Perkins matter” and asserts he is sure an offense has been committed under Section 1782, but it will be hard to prove.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1909-01-16
District Attorney Stimson informs Attorney General Bonaparte that he has served the subpoenas for the Panama libel case and discussed it with the prosecuting attorney, William Travers Jerome. Jerome has expressed interest in prosecuting a newspaper for libel against Secretary of State Elihu Root, although Root is apprehensive. Stimson believes the additional case may help to minimize any criticism of President Roosevelt in relation to the Panama case, and he encourages Bonaparte to discuss it with Root.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1909-01-15
German Ambassador Sternburg thanks President Roosevelt for his letters. He has been gravely ill but hopes to return to his duties in October. He is upset over the accusation that poor information from him to Emperor William II caused the incident with Ambassador David Jayne Hill. Sternburg asks Roosevelt not to say anything about his illness. He congratulates Roosevelt on the Great White Fleet’s accomplishments, which are “unique in the history of the world’s navies.”
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1908-08-16
William Dudley Foulke understands that what is being written about President Roosevelt is false. Foulke has experience with Louis Ludlow, an Indiana journalist who published libel about him in the past. The article that Foulke sent to Charles J. Bonaparte “amounts to a charge of personal corruption” against both Roosevelt and Secretary of War William H. Taft, and Foulke believes that men who write libel should be held accountable for their actions. They could be charged under existing libel laws, but it is not customary for public figures to do so.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1908-03-17
W. J. Stock forwards the contents of a telegram to Minnesota Governor Johnson, in which Teofilo Petriella accuses Sheriff William B. Hoolihan of turning union members and their families out of their homes. Stock maintains that this allegation is false, and invites Johnson to investigate the matter in person.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-07-25
Papal Chamberlain Francis Augustus MacNutt wants to explain to Henry White about William Dudley Foulke’s suggestion that he “correct certain calumnies spread against me in Rome.” MacNutt knows that White intends to speak with the Portuguese Ambassador to the Vatican, M. d’Antas, who has been MacNutt’s loyal friend. The Austrian Ambassador Count Nikolaus Szécsen von Temerlin has received misguided information that needs correcting. MacNutt worries that President Roosevelt has been misled concerning MacNutt’s conduct and reputation and that only Roosevelt can correct the injury done to his character.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-09-03
Secretary of War Taft returns to President Roosevelt the letters from White and William H. Fleming. Taft does not think there is anything to do about the charges against General Leonard Wood, which he considers largely untrue and slanderous. Taft read Fleming’s letter, and is surprised Thomas W. Hardwick could have been elected to Congress. There is no need to dignify Hardwick’s statements about repealing the Fourteenth and Fifteenth amendments, which granted citizenship and voting rights to African Americans, as he “writes himself down an ass.” Taft tells Roosevelt that he is welcome to discuss the plan with Congressman Joseph Gurney Cannon. In a postscript, Taft clarifies that he read Fleming’s letter again and acknowledges that the situation is perhaps more serious than he suspected, and Congress ought to take notice.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-08-23
George Haven Putnam asks President Roosevelt for his assistance in combating possible libel charges brought by Deputy Commissioner of Police Thomas F. McAvoy. McAvoy has “taken the first steps in a libel suit” seeking damages of fifty thousand dollars for “utterances” Putnam made in a recent political campaign. Putnam reminds Roosevelt of the “serious charges” brought against McAvoy “some years back” for accepting bribes prior to Roosevelt’s tenure as Commissioner of Police in New York City, and asks Roosevelt if he could provide information about the matter to be used in the “strictest possible confidence.”
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1905-12-01
George Haven Putnam thanks President Roosevelt for his “prompt and very friendly attention” to Putnam’s recent “troublesome personal inquiry” about conditions in the New York City police force when Roosevelt became police commissioner. Putnam has written to Avery De Lano Andrews asking for an appointment, and he will use Roosevelt’s letter as suggested. Putnam is also pleased to see Roosevelt’s commendation of the revised copyright statute that he has been working on and hopes the process will be finalized by January.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1905-12-06
Representative Rhinock explains his reasons for publicly revisiting an incident that occurred in the Latonia club house in Kentucky that involved Alice Roosevelt.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1905-07-14
Senator Foraker tells President Roosevelt that the gossip about Ohio State Senator David H. Moore’s indictment by an Athens County grand jury is false. Foraker transcribes in his letter the text of a telegram from the Prosecuting Attorney which states this fact.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1905-05-30
Governor General of the Philippines Wright responds to Secretary of War Taft’s telegram saying that Dorr and O’Brien are serving their sentences in Bilibid, and although they petitioned for pardon, Wright denied it because “the libel was gross and was part of policy of attack on Filipino Commissioners in particular and policy of the government generally in employing Filipinos.”
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1904-10-01
Judge Jones regrets that his disagreement with the referees concerning the removal of Deputy Marshal Colquitt has been put into print. Jones argues that the court must be “absolutely non-partisan in the administration of justice.” Since Jones does not believe that “propriety requires a Judge to keep his mouth shut when his friends are libeled,” he is willing to disprove certain statements if this incident is used “for campaign purposes elsewhere.”
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1904-08-08
Edgar S. Wilson encloses a clipping where “the vulgarian,” most likely referring to James Kimble Vardaman, “enters a denial.” Wilson stresses that this paper must not be lost. He believes that President Roosevelt may already have a copy of the paper where “the same party editorially blackguarded” President McKinley.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1904-08-03
Robert Halstead writes to William Loeb about a journalist, Newton, from the Herald who is danger of losing his position because of a mistake he made in a story about President Roosevelt. Halstead explains that Newton is a Republican and is generally kind to Roosevelt in his stories and did not have the authority to correct the story.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1904-07-15
Charles C. Goetsch examines the legal, philosophical, and political dispute between Theodore Roosevelt and Simeon E. Baldwin, a Yale Law School professor, Chief Justice of the Connecticut Supreme Court of Errors, and Governor of Connecticut. He details the conservative legal outlook of Baldwin and how this view clashed with the progressive political beliefs of Roosevelt. Goetsch shows how a legal dispute over the constitutionality of the Federal Employers Liability Act extended from the courts to the 1910 election campaign where Roosevelt’s rhetoric prompted Baldwin to consider a libel suit against the former president.
Two pictures, one of Simeon E. Baldwin and the other of Theodore Roosevelt speaking from the platform of a train car, are included in the article.
A listing of the officers and the members of the executive, finance, and Theodore Roosevelt Birthplace committees of the Theodore Roosevelt Association is included in the article as well as an advertisement for the Roosevelt Savings Bank of Garden City, New York.
In a statement published in the London Times, the Amateur Athletic Association in Great Britain responds to “unfair and untrue statements” about the conduct of the Olympics in the American press. The American Amateur Athletic Union accused the A.A.A. of unfairness and poor conduct in several matters, objecting in particular to the disqualification of John C. Carpenter in the 400 meter final. The A.A.A. denies any claims of unfairness.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1908-11-17