Naval art and science

President Roosevelt reluctantly concludes that the only course of action is the one Acting Secretary of the Navy Newberry outlines in his previous letter. Had the officials listened to the younger officers, Roosevelt feels the Utah and Florida would be more formidable. He regards “it as a mistake not to consult at length the best of the younger officers.” Captain Cameron McRae Winslow submitted a letter on the necessity of greater armor protection, which Roosevelt hopes Newberry will consider.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1908-08-28

President Roosevelt finds Rear Admiral Cowles’s message interesting and important. While unable to express his opinion on the subject, Roosevelt believes it will revolutionize naval warfare. He wants Cowles to discuss it with Captain Cameron McRae Winslow in connection with plans for new battleships.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1908-08-25

Admiral Brownson, chief of the Bureau of Navigation, sends President Roosevelt a letter from Admiral Robley D. Evans with information about the Great White Fleet. Brownson comments on Evans’s points about fleet movements, maneuvers, and supplies. He feels it best to have just one journalist accompany the fleet.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1907-08-19

James F. J. Archibald reports to President Roosevelt on the submarine defense of the Pacific Coast and the Hawaiian Islands. Archibald believes America to be “so far behind” other nations in this area of marine warfare—particularly Great Britain, France, and Japan. Upon visiting principal cities and harbors, he finds the Pacific Coast and Hawaiian Islands in a “deplorably defenseless position” and notes that the people living in these areas feel vulnerable because of the large extent of “oriental labor and immigration.” Whereas guns and mines are not ideal defense weapons because of the foggy weather, Archibald feels the Pacific Coast is prime territory for the use of submarines due to the large harbors, climates, and topography of the region. Archibald details the number of submarines and personnel he believes to be needed at each of four geographic locations–the Puget Sound, the mouth of the Columbia River, the San Francisco Bay, and the San Diego Bay–as well as the costs of these fortifications, and he emphasizes that his opinions are shared by military officers and civilian experts.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1907-01-02

Industrialist Andrew Carnegie, peace advocate and sponsor of the upcoming International Peace Congress at the Hague, holds a shepherd’s hook labeled “Peace Congress” and reaches up to grab the “naval program” horn dangling from a moon featuring President Roosevelt’s likeness.

comments and context

Comments and Context

Andrew Carnegie had been persuaded to be the principal supporter of the Second International Peace Conference at Hague, set for October 1907. Since the first conference in that Dutch city, nominally convened at the invitation of Russia even as it planned its own military buildups, Carnegie had sold his steel and related enterprises, and became arguably the world’s richest man. With that increased fortune, and more time to himself, the canny Scots-American pursued interests from simplified spelling to establishing “free libraries” to promote peace.

President Roosevelt believes Sir Cecil Spring Rice’s informant was misguided regarding the events of the Battle of the Yellow Sea and discusses the actions of the Japanese and Russian fleets.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1905-02-27

Munroe Smith exactly stated the grounds on which Theodore Roosevelt would have based American actions in Cuba and would like to base action in Mexico. Roosevelt sent an American fleet to the Pacific with the understanding that this could lead to war with Japan. He did not believe there would be war, but instructed the fleet to operate as if it were at war and always be prepared for hostilities. Sending the fleet turned out to be the “greatest stroke for peace that could be struck.” If Japan had declared war, Roosevelt would have known that the Japanese had simply been waiting for an opportunity to strike.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1915-04-10

Theodore Roosevelt thanks Munroe Smith for sending his pamphlet, “Military Strategy versus Diplomacy.” Roosevelt corrects Smith that he served as Assistant Secretary of the Navy to John Davis Long and while Long was a “high-minded, honorable man,” Roosevelt believes he was unfit to lead the Navy. For example, one of Long’s theories was to hold all warships in port until there was danger of war. After the sinking of the USS Maine, Long refused to prepare the Navy for war as he believed this would “tend to bring about war.” Roosevelt’s actual advice to William McKinley was that the Spanish government should be informed that the United States would consider the Spanish fleet being sent to American waters as a declaration of war. If the fleet were still sent, then it would be attacked on the high seas. This is different from Long’s statement but Roosevelt doubts that Long sees the distinction.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1915-03-24

Theodore Roosevelt understands that the United States could help stop the war by prohibiting the shipment of supplies. However, he argues this would be dishonorable as it would mostly harm the allies and benefit Germany. Roosevelt is “plain United States” and wants the country to do their duty towards other nations and to themselves. To do this, the country must be prepared and should have started months ago. The United States needs to prepare for self defense, judge other nations by their conduct, live up to their obligations, and “not be neutral between right and wrong.”

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1915-03-03

The success of German submarines has given Theodore Roosevelt a “very uneasy feeling.” Roosevelt is concerned that Great Britain’s ability to continue fighting might rely on American merchant shipping. As such, the British should be cautious when protesting neutrality rights and confiscating cargoes. Great Britain must decide what is in their own interests, but if they are mistaken the responsibility is upon them. Roosevelt hopes the British will avoid a “clash” with the United States, no matter who is in the right. The Wilson administration is courting the German vote and Roosevelt understands British contempt for the administration.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1915-02-05

President Roosevelt has read Lieutenant Commander Key’s reports with interest and thinks that Key, Cameron McRae Winslow, and William Sowden Sims have served well by calling attention to defects in the naval administration of the United States. In spite of this, however, Roosevelt thinks that some of the criticisms have been exaggerated and that the solutions Key has proposed may not work as well as he thinks. Roosevelt discusses the placement of armor belts on ships as one example of this. He also speaks about a proposed shift within the Navy that will give line officers more authority than they currently have and says that the suggested balance will actually accomplish very little and that what is required is more along the lines of a change in staff.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1908-03-26

President Roosevelt tells Secretary of the Navy Bonaparte that he hopes to keep Rear Admiral C. H. Davis at sea in his present position until the end of his term of active service and asks that Bonaparte let him know if there is any plan to the contrary.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1906-05-18

President Roosevelt asks Minister Rockhill to take care of his daughter Alice Roosevelt if she visits Beijing on her way to the Philippines. He waits for details on how the Japanese destroyed the Russian warships.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1905-05-31

President Roosevelt asks Minister Griscom to take care of his daughter Alice Roosevelt during her visit to Tokyo, Japan, on her way to the Philippines. He waits for details on how the Japanese destroyed the Russian warships.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1905-05-31

The Army and Navy Journal appears alarmed over the accident with USS Iowa‘s guns and the February 8 order from the Bureau of Ordnance. President Roosevelt would like a full report.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-03-05

President Roosevelt was distressed at Representative Burton’s speech regarding the navy. He argues that a strong navy, including naval fortifications, is required for the United States to maintain its position across the globe.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-02-23

President Roosevelt returns a “first-class” letter from William Mayhew Folger who is the “right man for the place.” At the next Cabinet meeting they will consider sending additional ships to Asia.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-02-13

President Roosevelt has had a good deal of vacation over the summer and spent part of it rereading A. T. Mahan’s book. He also read a biography of military men. Roosevelt’s reading also led him to realize the “eternal tendency to injustice in humanity,” and views this injustice in the American public’s high opinion of Nelson Appleton Miles and Admiral Winfield Scott Schley.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1903-09-01

Edith Kermit Carow Roosevelt would like Mr. Leonard, the one-armed Marine captain, to be detailed to the White House, and President Roosevelt wants William S. Cowles to remain his naval aide even after Cowles goes to sea. Secretary of the Navy Moody should do what he believes is right and proper regarding the command of the Atlantic squadron. Roosevelt requests that the bowsprit of the USS Sylph be repaired.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1903-07-16

President Roosevelt congratulates Admiral Higginson on his excellent record while serving as commander of the North Atlantic Fleet, particularly the fleet’s improvement in marksmanship.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1903-07-08