Your TR Source
The third and final draft of President Roosevelt’s speech to the National Congress of Mothers, which was delivered on March 13, 1905, and addressed the role of mothers and fathers in child rearing. This draft was cut into sections by the printer and contains notes made by Roosevelt.
1905-03-02
The first and second drafts of a speech written by President Roosevelt to be delivered before the National Congress of Mothers discussing the roles of mothers and fathers.
1905-02
Kentarō Kaneko informs President Roosevelt of having received a letter from Viscount Kagawa, Chamberlain to the Empress. The Empress is very pleased and appreciative of the speech given by Roosevelt to the Congress of Mothers, which she had ordered translated into Japanese and read to her. Roosevelt’s speech now occupies a place in her library.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1905-06-29
W. H. Harland writes that he enjoyed Theodore Roosevelt’s autobiography. He asks how Edith Roosevelt kept up with “external interests” and discusses the different roles mothers play.
Sagamore Hill National Historic Site
1914-01-10
Theodore Roosevelt asserts that there is little difference between having one child and no children at all, as both cases will lead to the extinction of the race. Roosevelt believes that an average couple able to have children should have at least three, as one in every three children either dies before reaching adulthood or never has a family of their own. Roosevelt compares having less than three children to a soldier doing only a third of his duty on the battlefield.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1911-04-21
Theodore Roosevelt permits Mary Emma Miller to publish the letter. He finds Miller’s family interesting and believes her in particular because she shows that a woman can do “all the things which her sterile sisters who prattle about being advanced insist cannot be done” while also being a wife and mother. Roosevelt declares himself a woman suffragist, arguing that “women should have entire equality of rights with the man.” However, it is an equality of rights, not identity.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1911-01-13
Theodore Roosevelt appreciates the article that appeared in the November issue about a mother raising her boy to be a soldier and if everyone did the same, the country would be safe from war.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1915-11-20
Theodore Roosevelt compliments Mrs. John C. Graham for her bravery and for being the daughter and mother of brave men. Roosevelt loathes war but would be ashamed if his sons shirked war, just like he would be ashamed if his daughters shirked motherhood. He argues that the best way to avert war is to be prepared.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1915-03-05
Theodore Roosevelt thanks William A. Secrest for his letter and congratulates the families that Secrest referred to in his previous letter. Roosevelt agrees with Secrest’s sentiment that there is no “race suicide there.”
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1912-12-12
President Roosevelt cheers Winifred Buck Abbott for the birth of her son, Lyman Abbott. He comments that “[t]he pains of childbirth render all men the debtors of all women” and ranks mothers above solders. Roosevelt tells Lawrence F. Abbott that he regrets getting involved in the nature faker controversy, but explains that he finds it difficult to avoid work outside of the Presidency. He felt compelled to review poet Edwin Arlington Robinson for The Outlook because Robinson “merited more consideration” and to condemn naturalist William J. Long because “he is so impudent and so shameless an imposter.” Roosevelt encloses clippings of other’s opinions on Long.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-07-08
President Roosevelt congratulates Emily Borie Rhodes as the mother of thirteen children on behalf of “all good citizens.”
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-06-20
President Roosevelt thanks C. Grant La Farge for his letter. Archibald B. Roosevelt is improving from his illness. Edith Kermit Carow Roosevelt is tired from tending to her son.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-03-10
President Roosevelt was touched by the quilt that Catherine O’Leary’s mother made for him and sends her two volumes of his speeches to give to her mother. He highlights two speeches that he thinks may be of interest. He remarks that he “could not respect the bravest soldier of the Civil War more than I respect a woman who, being suddenly left a widow, and blind, is yet able to bring up her eight children as your mother brought up hers.”
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-05-04
Vice President Roosevelt is content with the speech he made and is happy for the way Mrs. G. A. Cook felt about her children. He thinks that a good family with healthy children stands “head and shoulders” above all citizens. Roosevelt did not take a stand on Rough Rider organizations in “sister states” because he realizes the response that might come because of his position. However, he views Wyoming as the “real home of the Rough Riders.”
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1901-08-27
Mildred May Wilder Stopp asks Theodore Roosevelt for his opinion on “race suicide” and whether she is wrong for not having more children because she and her husband are not financially stable. Stopp lists several facts about her husband and herself, shares they have one perfect daughter, but are barely scraping by with the money they have and the risk is too great if they add more children to their family. Stopp feels she is not doing her duty by the State and asks Roosevelt if she is wrong in her decision to not have children, despite longing to have another baby.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1911-11-23
Florence Rich recently read Theodore Roosevelt’s preface to The Woman Who Toils by Mrs. John Van Vorst and Marie Van Vorst. She sends him a typed copy of a recent article from the Columbus Medical Journal titled “Some Thoughts on Race Suicide” as she finds it to be a good counterargument to Roosevelt’s position regarding childless women.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1911-05
Dewitt Wise sends Theodore Roosevelt his poem extolling the divine role of mothers.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1911-01-01
Judge Lindsey writes that he appreciates author Jane Dearborn Mills’ book The Mother-Artist. Both he and his chief probation officer have read it and found it to be a useful guide for mothers. He congratulates her on the work and the good it will no doubt accomplish. Mills notes at the bottom that she is “an entire stranger to Judge Lindsey.”
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-06-01
Ralph Delahaye Paine is proud to report that his wife had a baby and both are in good health. Paine and his wife sincerely appreciate the letter and note of congratulations from President Roosevelt. Paine’s book, The Praying Skipper and Other Stories, will be published this week.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-03-31
George W. Smalley writes to President Roosevelt in regard to his address to “the mothers.” Smalley states that maternity is one of the highest duties and integral to the development of women. He refers to a quotation by Napoleon indicating that women who bear children are the most admirable. Smalley tells Roosevelt that he states his views “in a way that best reaches the ‘plain people.'”
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1905-03-20