Political conventions

Chronology of the daily life of Theodore Roosevelt from January 1884 to December 1891. Notable events include the deaths of Alice Lee Roosevelt and Martha Bulloch Roosevelt, Roosevelt’s time on his ranch, the completion of Sagamore Hill, Roosevelt’s engagement and marriage to Edith Kermit Carow, Theodore “Ted” Roosevelt’s birth, the “Great-Dieup” of cattle in North Dakota, and the founding of the Boone and Crockett Club.

Collection

Theodore Roosevelt Association

Creation Date

1985

Chronology of the daily life of Theodore Roosevelt from January 1871 to December 1878. Notable events include the Roosevelt family’s trip to Europe and Egypt, Roosevelt’s entrance to Harvard, the death of Theodore “Thee” Roosevelt, Roosevelt’s trip to Maine, and Roosevelt meeting Alice Hathaway Lee.

Collection

Theodore Roosevelt Association

Creation Date

1985

Newsreel footage of both 1932 Republican National Convention and Democratic National Convention. Herbert Hoover is seen being nominated for president. Edith Kermit Carow Roosevelt speaks to the crowds from the podium. At the Democratic Convention, delegates march with banners supporting Franklin D. Roosevelt.

Collection

Sherman Grinberg Film Collection

Creation Date

1932-06-01

Newspaper clipping of cartoon showing Theodore Roosevelt herding a pig “Delegate” into a pen labeled “The Taft Lot.” Cartoon refers to Roosevelt’s efforts to wrangle delegates for William H. Taft in the 1908 election.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1908

Photograph showing the assembled delegates at the Progressive Party convention in Chicago, Illinois in August 1912. The photograph’s caption provides details about the convention.

Collection

Theodore Roosevelt Association Journal

Creation Date

1980

The author “congratulates” John Milliken Parker’s “Boss-ship” during the successful Good Government League convention and his triumph in Judge Luther Egbert Hall’s nomination. In truth, Parker’s actions are an “inexcusable breach of faith,” and the League’s convention was an “insidious attack on the integrity of the party.”

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1911-07-28

The author recounts “fighting Democrat of New Orleans” John M. Parker’s comments during the League Orleans meeting. He assures the audience that the League will give “the most honest and the squarest election” by listening to the people, not the political machine. 

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1911-07-28

Senator Lodge agrees with President Roosevelt that the outcomes in Illinois and Oregon were better than expected, showing that the Republican vote is strong in the northwest. Lodge asks if Roosevelt spoke to Henry C. Payne about becoming chairman, and notes that it would be awkward to turn down now that the matter has gone so far. He would like to see Roosevelt in June, either in Oyster Bay or Washington. In a handwritten postscript, Lodge notes that it will be a shame to lose Philander C. Knox as Attorney General, but Knox’s becoming Senator is a good thing.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-06-10

The state Republican Convention in Connecticut adopted a resolution supporting President Roosevelt for renomination and named its delegates to the National Convention in Chicago. The fact that the president of the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad, Charles S. Mellen, and two directors, Charles F. Brooker and Edwin Milner, were named delegates proves that not all railroad interests are against Roosevelt.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-05-12

Following a confusing and contentious ballot, Harry B. Smith was elected chairman of the Republican county central committee in Indianapolis. After the counts on the initial ballot were confused, Smith’s rival, Robert Metzger, requested that Smith be elected by acclamation.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-04-08

Senators Joseph Benson Foraker and Marcus Alonzo Hanna disagree on whether or not the upcoming Republican State Convention in Ohio should endorse President Roosevelt’s renomination for the presidency. Foraker supports making such a resolution, while Hanna does not. Hanna claims he simply believes that this should be done in the 1904 convention. Foraker believes that as the party has no other candidate it wishes to nominate, it will do no harm to endorse Roosevelt a year early.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1903-05-24

In this letter to the editor of the Boston Transcript, Joseph Bucklin Bishop discusses the unique character of the upcoming Republican Party convention, in which Theodore Roosevelt will be unanimously nominated as the candidate for president of the United States, in opposition to most of the party’s machine politicians. Bishop reflects on Roosevelt’s popularity, which he attributes to his doing what is for the good of the people, independent of party politics.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-06

William Jennings Bryan runs away from Oyster Bay with “the big stick” that has a label: “loaned for convention week only –T.R.”

comments and context

Comments and Context

The suggestion of cartoonist Nelson Harding in this drawing is not that President Roosevelt would have cooperated, or even passively colluded, with William Jennings Bryan. Just the opposite, but the artist’s point was that Bryan might need a Roosevelt-style Big Stick to prevail against rivals the Democratic National Convention, scheduled to open three days after publication of this cartoon.

A “third term” bear chases President Roosevelt into the “national convention 1908” canyon.

comments and context

Comments and Context

Cartoonists of the day, when pairing Theodore Roosevelt and bears, usually depicted bears as getting the worst of encounters; or, perhaps, shown as cuddly prototypical teddy bears of the stuffed variety. But Claude Maybell of the Democratic Brooklyn Eagle, routinely a cartoonist of mundane concepts, here broke molds of the craft and his own limitations.

Senator Lodge reports that everything at the Republican National Convention has gone “most admirably,” with the platform remaining largely as it was, and Secretary of War Elihu Root’s speech and Frank S. Black’s nomination speech going particularly well.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-06-23

Senator Lodge agrees with President Roosevelt’s telegram stating that the seating of delegates at the Republican National Convention should be decided on the merits of each case, rather than on compromise. Thus far there have been no dubious cases. Now that Solomon Luna has arrived, Lodge believes it would be unwise for Chairman of the Republican National Committee Frank H. Hitchcock to take another proxy or sit on committee.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1908-06-07

An article in The American Review of Reviews reflects on the current political situation in Congress, especially lamenting that both houses are controlled by powerful cliques who work in their own interests, often at the expense of legislation that would benefit the people. In particular, tariffs and appropriations for the construction of battleships are discussed. The author also speculates about the outcomes of the Republican and Democratic National Conventions and the upcoming presidential campaign, as well as the necessity of a good man to run the Republican convention.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1908-05-21

William Emlen Roosevelt tells the President Roosevelt of a recent conversation with Gherardi Davis. Davis inquired if Roosevelt desired to run again as the answer would inform his political actions. He t assures his cousin that he did not speak officially on his behalf and instead instructed Davis to ask the president. While hopeful of improvement, Emlen reports continued financial strain and foresees additional troubles. He reminds the president of his views against currency reform, believing such intervention will cause further issues, and, instead, advises legal resolution.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1907-11-08

Theodore Roosevelt thanks George von Lengerke Meyer for the salmon and for what he said regarding the libel suit. Roosevelt would like to arrange a visit with Meyer and Frank B. Kellogg, but does not see what can be done about “getting the Republicans and Progressives together.” Roosevelt feels that the Progressives are “sundered” from the Republican Party by two causes. The first is the “utter dishonesty” of men such as Boies Penrose, William Barnes, Winthrop Murray Crane, Elihu Root, and their associates who “stole the convention” last summer. The second cause is that the Progressive Party, unlike the Republican Party, have in their platform “applied the principles of Abraham Lincoln to the present day.” Roosevelt will never again work with a party controlled by the men guilty of the theft last June or with any party that “does not take in their entirety the principles of Abraham Lincoln applied to the needs of the present day.”

Collection

Massachusetts Historical Society

Creation Date

1913-06-09

Theodore Roosevelt has been informed that “certain office-holders” in Postmaster General George von Lengerke Meyer’s department intend to go to the Republican National Convention as delegates to express their support for Roosevelt’s renomination. Roosevelt tells Meyer that “this cannot be” and asks him to inform the officers that any advocacy or positions in favor of Roosevelt will be “regarded as a serious violation of official propriety.”

Collection

Massachusetts Historical Society

Creation Date

1907-11-19