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On behalf of the Committee of Arrangements, G. P. Eckman invites Theodore Roosevelt to give an address at the Methodist Episcopal Church General Conference. More than 3,000 Methodists will be in attendance, representing the largest Protestant denomination in the United States.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1911-12-15
Peter W. Shute tells Theodore Roosevelt he is the only man to unite the Republican Party, but also suggests a new political party be formed, the Union Party. Shute believes there should be more focus on prohibition and temperance in politics, and less in the Church. Shute shares his grievances regarding William H. Taft and Robert M. La Follette and hopes Roosevelt will step up and save the party and the country.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1911-12-12
President Roosevelt appreciates John W. Webb’s letter and highly respects Methodist Church ministers and laymen.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-08-23
President Roosevelt would like Senator Perkins to recommend a Methodist from California to be appointed as an army chaplain.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1901-10-16
Theodore Roosevelt is glad to hear from Bishop Cranston and will read the pamphlet he sent with interest. Roosevelt agrees that there is a need for Methodists to get “into one body.”
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1911-04-21
Although President Roosevelt has just told the Presbyterian clergyman John Watchorn that his letter was the best he has received, he now believes that the honor will have to go to Bishop Vincent’s telegram. He admires the Methodist Church, and appreciates receiving a telegram from a Methodist bishop.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1908-11-10
Bourke Cockran is “violently attacking” Theodore Roosevelt, because Roosevelt is not standing up for the Catholics in the Philippines. Roosevelt believes that he is a good citizen who treats Catholics and Baptists equally.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1904-09-30
Theodore Roosevelt has been hearing good reports from New York, but there may be some “luke-warmness among the Methodists.” They were devoted to William McKinley. Roosevelt believes Charles Fairbanks should be able to help them with the Methodists.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1904-08-13
President Roosevelt asks his running mate for vice president, Charles W. Fairbanks, to look after the Methodists in New York as well as he has been looking after them in Indiana. Roosevelt suggests that Fairbanks speak to George B. Cortelyou, chairman of the Republican National Committee, about how best to rally the Methodist bishops, clergymen, and laymen, whom he hopes will vote unanimously for them as they did for former President William McKinley. Roosevelt also tells Fairbanks that the zealous Rev. Dr. Smythe will call on him.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1904-08-13
Samuel V. Leech sees in the papers that Theodore Roosevelt strongly supports renominating President William H. Taft. As a Republican and Roosevelt’s devoted friend, Leech offers advice. He regularly corresponds with Methodist preachers who are primarily Roosevelt men, but bitterly oppose Taft due to his treatment of Methodist senators Jonathan P. Dolliver, Albert J. Beveridge, and Joseph L. Bristow. Leech feels that only Roosevelt and Justice Charles Evan Hughes can lead the party to success in 1912.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1911-07-31
William MacNicholl invites Theodore Roosevelt to address his congregation of Methodists in October after hearing his previous lectures to other Christian groups such as the Catholic youth and a neighboring Methodist congregation.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1911-05-22
Ralph M. Easley informs President Roosevelt that labor leader John Mitchell will be publishing a letter in the Mine Workers’ Journal next week which will repudiate the hand bill and telegram that are being circulated with an interview he did not endorse. Easley believes that this will lead to attacks on Samuel Gompers for violating instructions. Easley also reports that he has been given information that William H. Taft is being criticized on Catholic and Unitarian matters, although he is being defended by Homer C. Stuntz, who was in the Philippines during the Taft administration.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1908-10-16
J. Henry Smythe met a man, James H. Norman, in St. Louis, who said that he is a friend of Reverend J. M. Buckley, editor of the Christian Advocate, and that Buckley will do anything for him. Smythe tells President Roosevelt’s secretary William Loeb that Buckley can do big things for the Republican Party if he helps in New York. William A. Quayle, who was Charles W. Fairbanks’s pastor in Indianapolis, will vote for President Roosevelt in Missouri.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1904-09-06
President Roosevelt addresses a crowd at the laying of the cornerstone of the McKinley Memorial on the American University campus. Roosevelt believes it is appropriate that the university should be founded by Methodists who “furnished the pioneers in carving out of the west what is now the heart of the great American Republic,” and that they should build a college to teach the science of government in McKinley’s name.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1902-05-14
President Roosevelt addresses representatives of the Methodist Church gathered in Carnegie Hall on the bicentennial of John Wesley’s birth. He opens by noting that it is in the United States that the Methodist Church has grown the most, starting from about the time of the Revolutionary War. The Methodist Church has also played “a peculiar and prominent part in the pioneer growth” of the country, particularly in westward expansion. Methodist preachers and ministers served as a moral guide for the frontiersmen and women to help them conquer both the “forces of spiritual evil” and the hostile terrain of the frontier. Roosevelt urges the church of the present day to show the same spirit of courage and determination as these earlier pioneers in order to advance humanity, kindliness, and brotherhood within the nation.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1903-02-26
President Roosevelt addresses representatives of the Methodist Church gathered in Carnegie Hall on the bicentennial of John Wesley’s birth. He opens by noting that it is in the United States that the Methodist Church has grown the most, starting from about the time of the Revolutionary War. The Methodist Church has also played “a peculiar and prominent part in the pioneer growth” of the country, particularly in westward expansion. Methodist preachers and ministers served as a moral guide for the frontiersmen and women to help them conquer both the “forces of spiritual evil” and the hostile terrain of the frontier. Roosevelt urges the church of the present day to show the same spirit of courage and determination as these earlier pioneers in order to advance humanity, kindliness, and brotherhood within the nation. This is a press copy of his speech with edits marked in pencil.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1903-02-26
President Roosevelt addresses representatives of the Methodist Church gathered in Carnegie Hall on the bicentennial of John Wesley’s birth. He opens by noting that it is in the United States that the Methodist Church has grown the most, starting from about the time of the Revolutionary War. The Methodist Church has also played “a peculiar and prominent part in the pioneer growth” of the country, particularly in westward expansion. Methodist preachers and ministers served as a moral guide for the frontiersmen and women to help them conquer both the “forces of spiritual evil” and the hostile terrain of the frontier. Roosevelt urges the church of the present day to show the same spirit of courage and determination as these earlier pioneers in order to advance humanity, kindliness, and brotherhood within the nation. This is a press copy of his speech.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1903-02-26
Theodore Roosevelt declines C. L. Salyards’ invitation to speak and apologizes for doing so.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1912-03-25