Meyer, George von Lengerke, 1858-1918

Silver cup dedicated to First Assistant Secretary of State Robert Bacon inscribed with the signatures of fellow members of the Tennis Cabinet, including President Roosevelt, Assistant United States Attorney General Alford Warriner Cooley, Commissioner of Corporations James Rudolph Garfield, French Ambassador J. J. Jusserand, Postmaster General George von Lengerke Meyer, Lawrence O. Murray, United States Forest Service Chief Gifford Pinchot, Herbert Knox Smith, and Assistant Secretary of the Treasury Beekman Winthrop. In addition to the signatures, the cup is inscribed with the date October 11, 1907.

Comments and Context

While president, Theodore Roosevelt’s unofficial “Tennis Cabinet” comprised an inner circle of unofficial advisors with whom Roosevelt would play tennis and discuss policy matters. Including men both from within and outside Roosevelt’s official administration, the group was influential in helping shape and carry out many of Roosevelt’s policies and reforms.

Collection

America

William N. Tilchin examines why Theodore Roosevelt won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1906 for his mediation of the Russo-Japanese War. Tilchin asserts that Roosevelt had gained a great deal of diplomatic experience prior to the 1905 negotiations at Portsmouth, New Hampshire, including his work in acquiring the rights to build the Panama Canal. Tilchin also notes that Roosevelt had a sense of the larger geopolitical stakes at hand in the war; namely, preserving the balance of power in both Asia and Europe, and he highlights how Roosevelt deployed his friendships with Kentaro Kaneko of Japan and the United States Ambassador to Russia George von Lengerke Meyer throughout the negotiations.

Three photographs appear in the essay, including one of Roosevelt with the peace commissioners from Russia and Japan and one of Tilchin at the site of the treaty negotiations at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard.

Collection

Theodore Roosevelt Association Journal

Henry J. Hendrix describes the negotiations in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, between Russia and Japan in an effort to end the Russo-Japanese War in 1905. Hendrix also details the role played by President Theodore Roosevelt, especially his use of third parties to act as intermediaries between him and the warring powers. Hendrix notes that Roosevelt persuaded the Japanese to surrender their demand for an indemnity from the Russians, convincing them that asking for a payment would appear to the world as continuing the war simply for money. Hendrix asserts that studying the negotiations reveals that Roosevelt was in charge of his diplomacy; that he was “deeply involved” in the process; and that he made effective use of back-channel or third party diplomacy. 

Two photographs and two political cartoons of Roosevelt illustrate the article.

William N. Tilchin examines why Theodore Roosevelt won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1906 for his mediation of the Russo-Japanese War. Tilchin asserts that Roosevelt had gained a great deal of diplomatic experience prior to the 1905 negotiations at Portsmouth, New Hampshire, including his work in acquiring the rights to build the Panama Canal. Tilchin also notes that Roosevelt had a sense of the larger geopolitical stakes at hand in the war; namely, preserving the balance of power in both Asia and Europe, and he highlights how Roosevelt deployed his friendships with Kentaro Kaneko of Japan and the United States Ambassador to Russia George von Lengerke Meyer throughout the negotiations. 

A silhouette illustration and three photographs of Roosevelt accompany the article as does a text box acknowledging the financial firm Roosevelt & Cross for its support of the Theodore Roosevelt Association.

John A. Gable discusses the discovery of three photographs that show Theodore Roosevelt and his cousin Franklin D. Roosevelt together. Gable also provides context for the photographs, discovered by the author Geoffrey C. Ward, in detailing the libel case brought against Theodore Roosevelt by William Barnes. The three photographs show the two Roosevelts on their way to court in Syracuse, New York, on May 4, 1915. Two of the photographs appear in the article. The photograph on the back cover of this issue, and referenced in the article, shows Franklin D. and Eleanor Roosevelt onboard a ship with Theodore Roosevelt upon his return to the United States from his African safari in 1910.

Collection

Theodore Roosevelt Association Journal

Creation Date

1990

Photograph showing President Roosevelt with his “Tennis Cabinet” on the White House lawn on March 1, 1909, when a farewell luncheon was held for the group. Shown from left to right behind Theodore Roosevelt are military aide Archie Butt, Third Assistant Secretary of State William Phillips, Commissioner of the Bureau of Corporations Herbert Knox Smith, Assistant Secretary of the Navy Beekman Winthrop, Chief of U.S. Forest Service Gifford Pinchot, Comptroller of Currency Lawrence O. Murray, U.S. District Attorney Henry L. Stimson, Assistant Secretary of the Navy Herbert Livingston Satterlee, Associate Justice William H. Moody, U.S. District Attorney John Carter Rose, Secretary of the Navy Truman Handy Newberry, G. W. Woodruff, French Ambassador J. J. Jusserand, William Walter Heffelfinger, Postmaster General George von Lengerke Meyer, Commission of Indian Affairs Francis E. Leupp, John Avery McIlhenny, Secretary of the Interior James Rudolph Garfield, U.S. Marshal Seth Bullock, Solicitor General Henry Martyn Hoyt, U.S. Marshal John R. Abernathy, Luther S. Kelly, Secretary of State Robert Bacon, Commissioner of Labor Charles Patrick Neill, William Wingate Sewall, Commissioner General of Immigration Daniel J. Keefe, First Assistant Secretary of State James Callan O’Laughlin, James Bronson Reynolds, Henry S. Pritchett, and secretary William Loeb. In the foreground is the Alexander Phimster Proctor sculpture, “Stalking Panther,” which was presented to Roosevelt by his “Tennis Cabinet” at the luncheon.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1909-03-01

This newspaper article speaks about the negative press coverage of the meeting between Theodore Roosevelt and William H. Taft. 

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1911-06-08

It is reported that at a dinner with President Roosevelt, Ambassador to Italy George von Lengerke Meyer was told that his resignation is expected, in order for former New York City mayor Seth Low to take up the post. Meyer was made ambassador by William McKinley in 1900, with the understanding that he would resign after a year. Meyer has not resigned, much to the consternation of Secretary of State John Hay.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-06-26

It has been reported that former New York City mayor Seth Low accepted an ambassadorship from President Roosevelt in a recent meeting. Low will become ambassador of Mexico, or of Italy. Reports state that he would prefer Italy, and thus would displace current ambassador George von Lengerke Meyer, whose term expires in December.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-06-25

President Roosevelt opens his cabinet, which features busts of his cabinet members, and tells them, “Come now, all of you must take the stump.” In the foreground is the “Taft campaign stump” and the following cabinet members are depicted as busts: Secretary of Commerce and Labor Oscar S. Straus, Secretary of the Treasury George B. Cortelyou, Bureau of Corporations James Rudolph Garfield, Secretary of State Elihu Root, Secretary of War Luke E. Wright, Secretary of Agriculture James Wilson, Postmaster General George von Lengerke Meyer, Secretary of the Navy Victor Howard Metcalf, and Attorney General Charles J. Bonaparte.

comments and context

Comments and Context

The cabinet as a cabinet: two factors attest to the appropriate characterization of events pictured by P. B. McCord’s political cartoon during the last week of the 1908 presidential campaign.

In this detailed cartoon, a variety of individuals try to figure out if Oklahoma Governor Charles Nathaniel Haskell—who has run off—touched second base, which has a container of “oil” on it. Uncle Sam stands in the center of the diamond and says, “It’s a draw.” A large group of people congregate just off the first-base line, including William H. Taft, Samuel Gompers, William Jennings Bryan, Norman Edward Mack, William Loeb, President Roosevelt, William F. Sheehan, Alton B. Parker, and George von Lengerke Meyer. A variety of people are around the field: Charles Francis Murphy, Ohio Senator Joseph Benson Foraker, New York Governor Charles Evans Hughes, New York Lieutenant Governor Lewis S. Chanler, William James Conners, and Patrick Henry McCarren. John D. Rockefeller, John D. Archbold, Henry Huttleston Rogers, and James Roscoe Day all watch from the side. In another section of the audience, the Democratic donkey and Republican elephant fight. A handwritten note is included: “Mr. President: This is so good I have to send it to you.”

Comments and Context

Frequently political cartoons have a subtext related news events, gossip about figures being caricatured, and the shadowy realm of the interests and agendas of publishers. All these factors were play in the genre scene composed by cartoonist Thomas E. Powers, nominally about Oklahoma Governor Charles Nathaniel Haskell.

Haskell was also Treasurer of the Democratic National Committee, with financial responsibilities in the presidential campaign of William Jennings Bryan. “Touching second base” or not, as the oil can with Standard Oil’s dollar sign, sits on the base that Haskell clearly avoids, is the nub of the cartoon.

This photograph includes the entire cabinet: President Roosevelt, Secretary of State Elihu Root, Secretary of Commerce and Labor Oscar S. Straus, Secretary of the Interior James Rudolph Garfield, Secretary of the Navy Victor Howard Metcalf, Secretary of the Treasury George B. Cortelyou, Secretary of War William H. Taft, Postmaster General George von Lengerke Meyer, Secretary of Agriculture James Wilson, and Attorney General Charles J. Bonaparte.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1907-10-25

An elephant holds a tennis rule book that reads, “Love 40–The Deuce,” and thinks, “Every evidence of a dangerous game.”

comments and context

Comments and Context

President Andrew Jackson convened his informal “Kitchen Cabinet,” a term used more by political opponents for executive branch meetings apart from the regular confabs after the scandal-rumor events of the Peggy Eaton Affair. Eventually it came to mean presidential informal advisers, separate from cabinet secretaries. Often, such a circle has provided expert, dispassionate, and private counsel.

An article in The American Review of Reviews reflects on the current political situation in Congress, especially lamenting that both houses are controlled by powerful cliques who work in their own interests, often at the expense of legislation that would benefit the people. In particular, tariffs and appropriations for the construction of battleships are discussed. The author also speculates about the outcomes of the Republican and Democratic National Conventions and the upcoming presidential campaign, as well as the necessity of a good man to run the Republican convention.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1908-05-21

This Times article discusses President Roosevelt’s campaign against anarchism in the United States, especially in light of several recent anarchist attacks in the United States in 1908. The article suggests if Roosevelt can figure out a way to suppress anarchist doctrines, he will be doing a great service to mankind.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1908-04-10

President Roosevelt issues a memorandum on his personal relationships with several people, including Senator Henry Cabot Lodge, George H. Lyman, Francis C. Lowell, and Winthrop Murray Crane. Roosevelt seeks to add some additional context to a memorandum by Lodge, and comments on when he came to know these men, and how, if at all, his personal relationships shaped his actions in giving or not giving certain people positions in the administration.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1908-02-10

President Roosevelt issues a memorandum on his personal relationships with several people, including Senator Henry Cabot Lodge, George H. Lyman, Francis C. Lowell, and Winthrop Murray Crane. Roosevelt comments on when he came to know these men, and how, if at all, his personal relationships shaped his actions in giving or not giving certain people positions in the administration.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1908-02-10

Charles Willis Thompson writes in the Washington Post that while George von Lengerke Meyer is the nominal Postmaster General of the United States, it is in fact Frank H. Hitchcock, the First Assistant Postmaster General, who runs the Post Office Department.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1907-07-07

Frank H. Hitchcock has two competing job opportunities. President Roosevelt and Postmaster General George von Lengerke Meyer want Hitchcock to stay in his position as Assistant Postmaster General, while Secretary of the Treasury George B. Cortelyou wants him to replace the current Assistant Secretary of the Treasury. Hitchcock is dismayed that the press makes him out to be the only man who can assess the current political climate in the Roosevelt administration, and swears that he is not currently campaigning for any candidate for president. Hitchcock has traveled around the South, Midwest, and Pacific coast, alarming local politicians who assume he is campaigning. Hitchcock has jurisdiction over several thousand postmasters in the United States, further establishing his influence over the nominating process.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1907-07-01

Secretary of the Treasury and former Postmaster General George B. Cortelyou delivers a speech in honor of Postmaster General George von Lengerke Meyer. Cortelyou describes how the post office is improving under Meyer’s supervision. Cortelyou mentions that the postmasters are being treated by their supervisors as equals and are building morale among the different members of the office. The new policies offer a more meritorious system of promotions.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1907-05-22