Your TR Source
James Noel Brown congratulations Leslie M. Shaw on his work as Secretary of the Treasury and for his suggestion of an “Emergency Currency.”
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-10-23
Chief Engineer Stevens is familiar with Walston H. Brown, and knows him “to be able.” He recommends that, if it is amenable to President Theodore Roosevelt and Secretary of War William H. Taft, the government enter into a contract with Brown and his associates as soon as possible to ensure a quick start to construction in Panama.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-07-27
Benjamin Ide Wheeler writes about President Roosevelt’s reputation with the business world versus the general public. Wheeler also discusses the future of the Republican Party and a candidate for a foreign summit on agriculture.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-07-01
Secretary of War Taft discusses the “misuse and abuse” that has led to the concentration of capital “in the hands of the comparatively few,” and the demand of the public for legislation to restrain, regulate, and supervise “the exercise of the mighty means of good and evil which organized capital has proven to be.” Taft stresses, however, it is important to keep in mind that wealth used as capital for the production of goods and services is essential to the life and comfort of the people, and without it, the country would not have prospered. Taft provides a history of government involvement in regulating “organized capital” through legislation and discusses present efforts to expand the rights of laborers.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-08-29
Ambassador Meyer writes to President Roosevelt regarding his dinner meeting with English Ambassador Egerton and Egerton’s words about the Russian loan. Meyer then mentions his discussion with the King who anticipates Meyer’s move to Saint Petersburg, Russia. The King foresees Russian conflict over China, shares his bad experience involving his tampered letters in Russia, and describes a case in Saint Petersburg involving an Italian Embassy official being bribed by someone seeking to crack the telegraph code.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1905-02-14
A. Maurice Low writes for The National Review that President Roosevelt “as a candidate is self-restrained, modest to the verge of extreme caution, commonplace almost to decrepit dullness.” Low also argues that many “Wall Street men” make up Roosevelt’s supporters.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1904-09
Secretary of the Treasury Shaw writes to President Roosevelt to express his confidence in the success of the Republican Presidential campaign and to say that Judge Alton B. Parker is not inspiring voters. He expresses his opinion that Missouri’s electoral votes will go to Roosevelt, largely on anti-Wall Street feeling. He also sends his schedule for the coming week and expresses his appreciation for Roosevelt’s letter of acceptance.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1904-09-21
Franklin Matthews writes a letter of apology and explanation to President Roosevelt why an interview given by Roosevelt and the article written by Matthews did not appear in Harper’s Weekly. Matthews believes Harper’s Weekly management may have been afraid to print the article due to the possibility of offending Wall Street investors related to the magazine.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1904-05-22
A Wall Street banker summarizes the Panic of 1907. They describe the weak banking laws which created the precarious conditions on Wall Street, and how J.P. Morgan & Co. took advantage of these conditions to achieve the “greatest financial confiscation the world has ever known.”
This was enclosed in a letter dated 27 September, 1911, but that letter states it was written during 1907.
Henry White reports information he has learned since returning to London that might provide insight into the prospects of President Roosevelt’s renomination and reelection. Josiah Quincy reported that the Democrats do not feel they have a chance of winning. Craig W. Wadsworth also learned that Democrats do not believe that they will win. White delivered Roosevelt’s messages to various people. He also says that the sentiment on Wall Street regarding Roosevelt has changed, and that his nomination now seems more likely.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1904-02-05
A market letter sent to investors by well-known investment firm Dick Bros. & Co. The letter is highly critical of President Roosevelt and his actions surrounding the financial panic, calling him a “Mad Messiah” and describing Roosevelt’s recent hunting trip “with swashbucklers and clowns” as “pursuing bobcats and slaying semi-domestic fat bears” at a time when Wall Street is in crisis.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-12-13
A series of newspaper articles warn about a bear market during the Ides of March on Wall Street.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-05-22
Amasa Pierce Thornton thinks it “practically settled” that Alton B. Parker will be the Democratic nominee for President and cites Parker’s favorable decisions to labor as the reason. With President Roosevelt and Parker both hailing from New York, Thornton notes that one of them will lose his home state and opines that there is presently “a good deal of dissatisfaction” over President Roosevelt there. Weighing the factors at play, though, Thornton predicts that New York will go to Roosevelt, and when he returns from Europe, Thornton will be “ready to take off my coat” to campaign for him. As for the gubernatorial election, he believes that Governor Benjamin B. Odell is right in stepping down and believes the Republican candidate should be Cornelius Newton Bliss because of his business standing, party loyalty, and great friendship with President William McKinley.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1904-04-25
Nicholas Murray Butler discusses the articles of Lincoln Steffens that discuss President Roosevelt’s reelection. He writes that he is unsure of Steffens’s political aims but believes he is writing his article about Roosevelt merely for success as a journalist.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1904-03-02
There is growing evidence that the “Wall Street contingent” is searching for an alternate candidate to support in opposition to President Roosevelt. An initial favorite was Senator Hanna and current gossip reports growing support for Senator Quay. The first choice of the people remains Roosevelt.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1904-01-16
Black ink cartoon featuring President Roosevelt pouring something from a bottle into a cup and smoking a cigarette. Roosevelt is surrounded by empty bottles and lit cigarettes on the floor.
Theodore Roosevelt Inaugural National Historic Site
1908-04-22
An old hag sits on a large ticker tape machine, on Wall Street, spewing “Inside Information,” “False Financial News,” and rumors that ensnare large groups of investors. Caption: The witch of Wall Street.
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1909-09-08
Print shows Cyrus W. Field and Jay Gould as parts of a candle holder labeled “Wall Street” with a candle burning the flame of “Speculation.” The candle draws moths with their savings to the light, and as the moths get too close to the flame, they die and drop their savings into the “Wall Street” candle holder.
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1882-04-26
Print shows Jay Gould bowling on Wall Street using bowling balls labeled “Private Press, General Unscrupulousness, False Reports, [and] Trickery” to knock down pins labeled “Banker, Small Operator, Speculator, Stock Dabbler, Broker, Inexperienced Investor, Capitalist, [and] Curb Stone Broker.” At the right is a slate showing Gould’s holdings in various railroads, “Western Union, Missouri Pacific, Manhattan ‘L’, Wabash, New York Metr. ‘L’, [and] Wabash Preferred” totaling “53,000,000.”
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1882-03-29
Ferdinand Ward, as Napoleon I, sits on a pile of stones labeled “Ludlow St. St. Helena” in the middle of a river with the New York City skyline behind him. Some of the signs on buildings state “I don’t know Ferdinand Ward,” “His name is familiar, but I can’t place him,” “I never had anything to do with Ward,” and “Never heard of Ward.” Caption: The friends of his “flush” days don’t care to know him now.
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1885-10-21