Newfoundland and Labrador

Letter from Theodore Roosevelt to Charles Wendell Townsend

Theodore Roosevelt acknowledges receipt of Charles Wendell Townsend’s letter and book. Roosevelt especially enjoyed Townsend’s chapter on the mating habits of sea fowl in Labrador and goes on to discuss points Townsend made about duck plumage and coloring. Roosevelt remarks that Abbott Handerson Thayer was so extreme about his theories on concealing coloration, that it caused people to not take it seriously. Roosevelt thinks this is a good thing.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1911-12-21

Book notes

The “Book Notes” column has two separate articles dealing with the historiography of Theodore Roosevelt. In “Paperbacks on T.R.,” John A. Gable looks at seven works, mostly biographies and mostly published in the 1960s, about Theodore Roosevelt and notes the contributions that each makes to the study of Roosevelt. Frederick W. Marks reviews ‘A Good Innings’: The Private Papers of Viscount Lee of Fareham in “A Special English Friend: Arthur Hamilton Lee.” Marks traces the history of the Roosevelt-Lee friendship, examines the editing of the volume by Alan Clark, and remarks on Lee’s descriptions of prominent Americans. 

Collection

Theodore Roosevelt Association Journal

Creation Date

1977

Letter from Theodore Roosevelt to Unknown

Theodore Roosevelt introduces L. C. Sanford and Edward William Nelson, who hope to collect biological samples in Newfoundland. He vouches for their zoological interest, and assures the Newfoundland government that they will comply with any conditions requested of them.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1911-06-20

Letter from Theodore Roosevelt to John Hay

President Roosevelt feels he and Secretary of State Hay should focus on the arbitration treaties and the San Domingan protocol rather than the Newfoundland treaty. Roosevelt received a membership invitation to the Academy of Arts and Letters. Uncertain if he should accept, he shares his thoughts on the ridiculous nature of such “foolish” academies.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1905-01-28

The Newfoundland fisheries

The Foreign Office released a modus vivendi, a temporary international accord, stating that the government of Newfoundland wishes to conduct the upcoming herring fishing season according to the rules observed in the previous year. The United States accepted this proposal, with the provision that they will not abandon the use of purse seines, pending the outcome of arbitration before the Hague Tribunal. The article goes on to examine the legality of this agreement from the point of view of the British people.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1908-08-14

Letter from Robert Bacon to Theodore Roosevelt

First Assistant Secretary of State Bacon apologizes for canceling on President Roosevelt and ruining his game this afternoon. He was held up because Secretary of State Elihu Root wanted him to stay in a meeting with Viscount Bryce about the Newfoundland fisheries question.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1908-05

Telegram from Alvey A. Adee to William Loeb

Acting Secretary of State Adee sends William Loeb a communication from Ambassador to Great Britain Whitelaw Reid about changes in the fisheries modus vivendi.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1907-08-28

Letter from Frederick Courteney Selous to Theodore Roosevelt

Frederick Courteney Selous thanks President Roosevelt for the generosity of writing a foreword for his new book, African Nature Notes and Reminiscences, especially considering Roosevelt’s other important duties. Selous wishes he could get J. H. Patterson to contribute a chapter about his experiences with the man-eating lions of Tsavo, but Patterson has just written his own book on the topic. Selous discusses his dealings with the publishing industry and his recent works, A Hunter’s Wanderings in Africa and Recent Hunting Trips in British North America. Selous has had to cancel his hunting trips this year due to losses in many of his investments. Recently Selous was in Turkey, but had to leave because it was unsafe. Selous thanks Roosevelt for the photographs of him on his horse Roswell, noting that “he must be a splendid animal to carry a man of your weight over a brush hurdle.”

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1907-06-20

Letter from Theodore Roosevelt to Robert Harry Munro Ferguson and Isabella Ferguson

President Roosevelt was pleased to hear that Kermit and Edith Kermit Carow Roosevelt are enjoying the company of the Fergusons. He gives permission for Ronald Craufurd Munro Ferguson to speak to Whitelaw Reid, perhaps about an appointment in Washington, D.C., as he goes on to say there are some “ticklish things” coming up regarding the Newfoundland fisheries, and it may be important to have “a good man here.”

Collection

Arizona Historical Society

Creation Date

1906-07-20

Letter from Theodore Roosevelt to Alfred Harmsworth

Theodore Roosevelt explains to Lord Northcliffe that he is presently unable to visit with Lord and Lady Northcliffe in Newfoundland.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1911-01-31

Draft convention between Great Britain and the United States of America for the improvement of commercial relations between the United States and His Britannic Majesty’s Colony of Newfoundland

Unsigned draft of a commercial agreement between the United States and Great Britain with the goal of improving commercial relations between the United States and Newfoundland.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1902-09-30

Reciprocity office

After reviewing the annexed papers regarding a reciprocity treaty with Newfoundland, J. B. Osborne has determined that the Blaine-Bond Project of 1890 is a poor basis for a current reciprocity treaty.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1902-09-13

Letter from Alvey A. Adee to Theodore Roosevelt

Assistant Secretary of State Adee offers to set up a meeting between President Roosevelt and Robert Bond, Prime Minister of Newfoundland.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1902-09-12

Telegram from Whitelaw Reid to Elihu Root

Ambassador Reid received a dispatch from the Newfoundland government reporting that there has been no attempt to prevent American fisherman from catching fish.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1905-10-16

Letter from H. Mortimer Durand to Elihu Root

British Ambassador Durand shares the response of the Newfoundland government regarding the fishing off the treaty coast.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1905-10-14

Letter from Theodore Roosevelt to John Hay

President Roosevelt asks Secretary of State Hay not to speak with Illinois Senator Shelby M. Cullom until Roosevelt has had a chance to discuss the proposed amendments to the Newfoundland Treaty with some senators. The president also encloses a copy of his letter to Andrew Dickson White, “which explains itself.”

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-12-13

Letter from Theodore Roosevelt to Hesketh Hesketh-Prichard

Theodore Roosevelt thanks H. Hesketh-Prichard for the interesting letters and photograph. Roosevelt is interested in Prichard’s statement that the “tame barrenground Norwegian deer interbred freely with the woodland wild deer of Newfoundland at St. Anthony.” Roosevelt writes this bears out his belief that “caribou is a genus which is in process of differentiation inter-species.” Roosevelt is interested in the number of deer in Quebec versus Labrador and the new sub-series of West Coast eland, a pygmy form, found off the West Coast of Africa.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1911-07-29

Letter from Theodore Roosevelt to Whitelaw Reid

President Roosevelt thanks Ambassador Reid for the interesting letter, especially for the insight on Newfoundland. He is interested in what Secretary of State of India John Morley says about India, and discusses the intricacies surrounding “the control of thickly peopled tropical regions by self-governing northern democracies.” Roosevelt hopes to speak with Morley after presenting the Romanes lecture at Oxford. He asks Reid to inquire of the British statesman, Robert Offley Ashburton Crewe-Milnes, about conditional hunting on the reserves. The Vermont elections went well.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1908-09-03

Letter from Theodore Roosevelt to Whitelaw Reid

President Roosevelt thanks Ambassador Reid for keeping him updated on personal matters in the midst of his other work. He specifically mentions learning about George Macaulay Trevelyan from Algernon Charles Swinburne’s work, Songs Before Sunrise. Roosevelt is concerned about Secretary of State Elihu Root and believes turning smaller matters over to Assistant Secretary Robert Bacon has helped. Roosevelt is interested in Root’s and Reid’s opinions on British administration of Newfoundland.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1907-09-06

Letter from Theodore Roosevelt to Whitelaw Reed

President Roosevelt approves of the response sent to the Smart Set magazine in response to a request for his endorsement. He says reports of Ambassador Reid’s “ostentation” and other unflattering news reports about official embassy conduct are harmless; he appreciates all the speeches Reid has made in an effort to unite the “right classes” of Americans and English people. Roosevelt agrees with Reid regarding pursuing arbitration in a treaty dispute with Great Britain over fisheries in Newfoundland. He also comments briefly on the result of the trial of Big Bill Hayward, calling it a “gross miscarriage of justice.” Edith Kermit Carow Roosevelt appreciates the silver bowl Elisabeth Mills Reid sent as a gift.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1907-07-29