Your TR Source
President Roosevelt tells Senator Alger that diplomat Thomas J. O’Brien is a good man, but that the men he has promoted over O’Brien have served longer and are more entitled to the positions. Roosevelt notes that he has his eye on O’Brien.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-12-22
Maurice Francis Egan sends President Roosevelt a book about the Icelandic-Celtic sagas and informs the president about giving Thomas J. O’Brien’s letter of recall to Danish King Frederick VIII on September 6, 1907. Egan recounts his visit to Frederik VIII and his wife, Queen Louise, mentioning his discussion with Louise about Christian Science and her opinion that Roosevelt was handling race relations and treatment of African Americans in a Christian way. Although Egan feels that Danish is difficult to learn, he believes he is getting along well.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-09-12
President Roosevelt provides Secretary of State Hay with a list of appointments in the diplomatic and consular service after March 4, 1905. Roosevelt includes a handwritten note, “All this is tentative.”
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1904-12-17
Theodore Roosevelt will write Ambassador Thomas J. O’Brien on Augusta Saint-Gaudens’s behalf.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1911-11-28
Theodore Roosevelt is happy to help Augusta Saint-Gaudens. He instructs her to write Ambassador Thomas J. O’Brien along with the letter he encloses. She needs to recite what she wrote Roosevelt that she wants to gift the bas-reliefs to Victor Emmanuel III, King of Italy and to sell the La Page production to him.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1911-11-15
President Roosevelt has instructed William Loeb to send Secretary of State Elihu Root the enclosed draft of a dispatch. Loeb is also to ask Root to look it over and if he approves, send it to Ambassador to Japan Thomas J. O’Brien to give to Emperor Meiji.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1908-10-22
President Roosevelt encloses a dispatch from Ambassador to Japan Thomas J. O’Brien which reports that over a thousand steerage passengers have left Japan for the United States and Hawaii in April. He tells Secretary of State Root that Japan should understand that if this continues, an exclusion law will be passed.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1908-05-04
President Roosevelt tells Secretary of State Root to have Japanese Ambassador O’Brien tell Japanese officials that complaints about Japanese immigration to Hawaii come not only to the American government, but also to the general population in the mainland.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-11-27
President Roosevelt would like to know what Ambassador to France Henry White thought about the visit from Haakon VII, King of Norway. Roosevelt is extremely concerned with the race riots in San Francisco. He expects that there will be more trouble, and has arranged troops to be nearby, but he needs to make sure the situation warrants troops. He blames some of the problems on Japanese extremists, but states Japanese are right to want Japanese treated better here. Roosevelt says “every nation has, of course, the right to limit immigration and naturalization according to its own view of public policy.”
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-06-15
President Roosevelt asks Secretary of State Root for news on United States Ambassador to Denmark Thomas J. O’Brien’s answer. Roosevelt wants to handle the matter quickly and offer the ambassadorship to Maurice Francis Egan as soon as possible.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-05-15
President Roosevelt has responded to Minnesota Governor Johnson’s letter. In the meantime Thomas F. Drake, the superintendent of insurance in Washington, D.C., will meet with St. Paul Commissioner of Insurance Thomas D. O’Brien and will participate in the conference Johnson proposed.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1905-11-27
President Roosevelt admits he likes the looks of William W. Wedemeyer, but tells Representative Townsend he cannot say if he could be appointed to the Interstate Commerce Commission, and that it would not be possible to send another Michigan man into the diplomatic service.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1905-02-24
President Roosevelt tells Senator Alger, “Indeed, you are all trumps! Does O’Brien speak French?”
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1904-12-21
Augusta Saint-Gaudens thanks Theodore Roosevelt for his advice and has written to Thomas J. O’Brien, as Roosevelt suggested. Saint-Gaudens hopes the rules of the Italian Court might relax through O’Brien’s efforts.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1911-11-29
Augusta Saint-Gaudens tells Theodore Roosevelt that after doing as he suggested and writing to Thomas J. O’Brien, and Mr. Fox, the secretary of the American Art Department, she received the enclosed letter. Saint-Gaudens would prefer Victor Emmanuel III, King of Italy have the medal made by Augustus Saint-Gaudens, which he first selected, and would appreciate any suggestions Roosevelt may have to help her accomplish this.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1911-11-24
President Taft informs Oscar S. Straus that Ambassador Thomas J. O’Brien does not want to transfer from his post in Japan to Turkey because he has not been in Japan very long and feels he has done good work there. Taft asks if Straus would be willing to take the post in Constantinople in the hopes that after a year he can be transferred to Japan.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1909-03-13
With Canadian Member of Parliament Rodolphe Lemieux currently in Japan discussing Canadian policies on Japanese immigration to British Columbia, Secretary of State Root telegraphs the State Department’s recommendations for new regulations on immigration to Ambassador Thomas J. O’Brien rather than mailing them.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-11-19
Ambassador Reid sends an addition to “the bundle of gossip” he recently sent to Edith Kermit Carow Roosevelt, noting that this dispatch is a bit more serious and more likely to interest President Roosevelt with his description of a number of political events, in addition to more social fare.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-08-01
Maurice Francis Egan is delighted by President Roosevelt’s response. Egan has always been a fan of John Boyle’s work because he “does not mistake virility for brutality.” The John Barry commission was to be decided by a contest, and therefore, the statuette should not have been sent to Roosevelt. Boyle has insisted that if Roosevelt will not accept the statuette he sent to him, then he will not sell it. Egan will hold onto it and if Roosevelt wants to buy it later, he may.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-06-09
Ambassador White updates President Roosevelt on diplomatic events in France and elsewhere: White attended a dinner with several important French diplomats where Roosevelt was spoken of warmly and “Washington topics” were warmly recalled; a state visit from the King and Queen of Norway that was cordial except for one Swedish minister who was quite rude to the King at a reception; the state of relations between Japan and California; and the appointment of Thomas J. O’Brien as ambassador to Japan.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-05-29