Platt, Orville Hitchcock, 1827-1905

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1905-04-22

Creator(s)

Roosevelt, Theodore, 1858-1919

Recipient

Platt, Jeannie Penniman Smith, 1834-1927

Senator Platt writes to President Roosevelt regarding the service of Commissioner of Patents Frederick Innes Allen. Platt believes Allen has been a successful appointment and cites the opinions of Senators Orville Hitchcock Platt, Alfred B. Kittredge, and Louis E. McComas as well.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1905-01-27

President Roosevelt asks Joseph Bucklin Bishop to give his opinion about Roosevelt’s policies and actions. He comments on speeches that he has given and the reactions of various members of Congress. Roosevelt goes on to discuss the tariff question and provides his opinions on the matter. He also mentions the reaction of the press to his response to labor issues surrounding the Union Pacific Railroad.

Collection

Harvard College Library

Creation Date

1903-04-27

Theodore Roosevelt, as Hercules, wears a lion skin and holds a sword. He faces a nine-headed hydra, with each head identified as that of a senator. The hydra’s tail is labeled “U.S. Senate.”

comments and context

Comments and Context

In an earlier time, such as when this cartoon in Puck appeared, average people were conversant with elements of Western intellectual heritage like Greek mythology. The contextual background of this political cartoon by J. S Pughe might have been evident to many readers in 1905. In one of ancient Athens’ most durable myths, the Second Task of Hercules was to conquer the multi-headed monster Hydra.

A troop of senators, as Confederate soldiers being led by an officer on horseback labeled “Trusts,” march down a street past the house with “Barbara Fritchie” labeled “Dingley Tariff” leaning out the window, waving a flag labeled “High Protection.” Caption: “Who touches a hair on yon swelled head / Dies like a dog! March on!” he said.

comments and context

Comments and Context

The reference-point of cartoonist Pughe’s cartoon is the famous poem by John Greenleaf Whittier, “Barbara Fritchie.” The legend about the old lady is almost certainly apocryphal — the Union patriot who waved her stars and stripes as occupying Confederate forces rode by her house in Frederick, Maryland.

Cartoon depicts President Roosevelt slamming his fist against a table which is breaking over various government officials. Item is regarding Roosevelt’s return to work following his hunting trip to Mississippi.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1902-11-22

A list of names noted to be “for ten o”clock tomorrow morning.”

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1902

President Roosevelt informs Secretary of State Hay that Elihu Root made an error regarding the message. He will send it in and asks if Hay has any documents to go with it.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1905-03-02

President Roosevelt thanks Jeannie Penniman Smith Platt for the photograph of the memorial to her husband, Orville Hitchcock Platt.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1907-12-22

President Roosevelt describes to Mark Sullivan the considerations that have gone into his selections for federal judgeships. Roosevelt reviews his appointments in detail, noting that some were made at the request of the local organization and some against their wishes. The goal in each case was to appoint someone “of the high character, the good sense, the trained legal ability, and the necessary broad-mindedness of spirit…essential to a good judge.”

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1907-05-13

President Roosevelt wishes the United States did not have the custom forbidding the President from going abroad, as he believes he could be of help at the Hague conference mediating between Kaiser William II of Germany and the authorities of France and England. Roosevelt tells Andrew Carnegie that he hopes to see progress from the peace conference, including a stop or a slowing of the current arms race. He comments, however, that without a real system of international police countries are not able to entirely demilitarize. Rosevelt has been disappointed by the lack of support from the American peace movement for the passage of arbitration treaties. The Pan-American Conference has gone well, and Roosevelt hopes the Senate will ratify the Santo Domingo treaty.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1906-08-06

President Roosevelt tells Supreme Court Justice Harlan that he does not plan on taking action on an appointment until he is able to discuss the matter with some Cabinet officers and Senators. Roosevelt also clarifies a statement he made in a previous letter that some Senators have mentioned to him that Supreme Court Justice David J. Brewer seems to have been setting the stage to address whether an act is unconstitutional, and that if that is the case it would not be good for the son of a justice to be “holding an office under an act upon the constitutionality of which his father, as one of the justices, was to pass.” Roosevelt does not know how much weight he gives the argument, but tells Harlan that it is a matter that he must consider.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1906-07-21

President Roosevelt thanks Jeannie Penniman Smith Platt for the photograph of her late husband, Senator Orville Hitchcock Platt.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1905-12-11

President Roosevelt asks Charles Henry Butler to pass along his expression of admiration to Senator Orville Hitchcock Platt, Butler’s guest for the evening.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1905-03-18

President Roosevelt explains the complex reasons he cannot appoint Senator Hale’s nominee, James Edmund Dunning, to the American Consulate in Milan, Italy, after all.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1905-03-06

President Roosevelt forwards Secretary of the Treasury Shaw a letter from Senator Orville Hitchcock Platt regarding Borgfeldt and Company, whom Roosevelt feels are guilty. He comments on the appointment of an assistant secretary.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1905-02-01

President Roosevelt sends George Haven Putnam a copy of the letter he wrote Senator Orville Hitchcock Platt.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1905-01-21

President Roosevelt sends Speaker of the House Cannon a copy of a telegram from Connecticut Senator Orville Hitchcock Platt discussing reducing the Philippine tariff to 50 percent. Roosevelt wants the House of Representatives to support this reduction and does not believe there will be “serious opposition” from the cigar and tobacco industry.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-12-23

President Roosevelt invites Elihu Root and his wife, Clara, to dinner. Roosevelt also compliments Root on bringing Governor Benjamin B. Odell and Senator Thomas Collier Platt together.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-03-21

President Roosevelt wants Consul Hughes removed. Secretary of State Hay should discuss with Senator Oliver Hitchcock Platt of Connecticut to fill the position and put in John Todd Hill if desired.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1903-12-05