Postal service

Return receipt of a package sent by George Otto Trevelyan to George J. Bart to Wallington Estate in Northumberland, England.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1911-11-14

Article describes a future where all the countries of the world become one nation. The article closes with the statement, “If this should come to pass soon we nominate Theodore Roosevelt for President.”

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1905-10-01

President Roosevelt encloses the registry receipt for the letter in which he enclosed a coin that he sent to William Sturgis Bigelow. Roosevelt is very concerned that the coin apparently has not reached Bigelow and asks if he is sure it was not in the letter when he received it.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1908-10-10

President Roosevelt informs California Senators Perkins and Flint that he cannot appoint Charles E. Thomas as postmaster in light of the “emphatic protest” of those connected to the University of California, especially President Benjamin Ide Wheeler.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1907-08-29

Mary A. Swan writes to inform Theodore Roosevelt that she intends to send a large package of letters to Roosevelt at Oyster Bay. Swan asks Roosevelt to read the letters, which outline her work, and share his support.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1911-10-10

Senator Lodge informs President Roosevelt of a request from the Post Office Department to reinstate Rachel F. Sullivan of Hyde Park, Massachusetts, to the classified service. Lodge had her resign some time ago due to evidence that she might be taking money, but within a few weeks, the post office discovered that it was another employee. Lodge is asking for Roosevelt’s assistance because she can only be restored via executive order.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1907-09-14

Isaac H. Cocks informs William Loeb that the supervisors have proposed closing the mail passing for a duration of time every morning. If this occurs, Cocks believes there will be no government business mail for 12-hour blocks of time, frustrating the New York mail system.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1907-09-14

Isaac H. Cocks informs William Loeb that half of his mail comes through Westbury, New York, and that there are no problems as mail is received promptly. He also tells Loeb about his son William W. Cocks’s voyage to Hawaii and the Philippines.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1907-09-11

Isaac H. Cocks asks William Loeb about the endorsement of a petition for a rural delivery route in Massapequa, New York.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1907-08-29

University of California President Wheeler is satisfied with President Roosevelt’s letter to Representative Joseph R. Knowland. He reports that the post office has been “miserably managed for years,” a claim confirmed by an inspector’s reports. Knowland’s underhanded attempt to appoint Charles E. Thomas reflects poorly on both his and Thomas’s characters. Wheeler calculates that the university produces half, if not more, of the city’s mail. He highly appreciates Roosevelt’s Provincetown speech.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1907-08-26

Assistant Postmaster General Shallenberger answers an inquiry from President Roosevelt about details given by Representative Victor Murdock in a speech to Congress. The issue is the average amount of mail carried by the railroads, which influences the amount the government pays to the railroad companies. Shallenberger describes the way in which the mail ought to be measured, provides a history of the issue and related developments, and notes that this issue has been previously examined by many lawyers. After presenting evidence for his argument, Shallenberger concludes that Murdock’s statement was incorrect.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1906-12-27

Postmaster General Wynne forwards to William Loeb the opinion of the Attorney General stating that details from the Post Office Department to the White House are illegal.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1905-01-05

President Roosevelt holds his “big stick” as he is trapped below the “feathered bed of private life.” Meanwhile, Uncle Sam sits on him and holds up a “candidacy lightning rod” with multiple prongs on it: “peace of Portsmouth,” “rate legislation,” “Panama Canal,” “beef trust,” “post office cleansing,” “coal strike,” “railroad merger,” “New Orleans,” and “departmental investigations.” Lightning from the “Republican nomination 1908” storm cloud hits this rod. Three other men—Ohio Senator Joseph Benson Foraker, Vice President Charles W. Fairbanks, and Leslie M. Shaw—hold up much smaller lightning rods with no success.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1905

Uncle Sam points President Roosevelt, who holds his rifle, to the “grafter’s paradise” woods. There are a number of wild animals in there, including a “government land grabber” beaver, a “tobacco trust” hog, a “Tammany” tiger, and a “Panama Canal” cat. Caption: “Mr. President, there’s the big game. Now, fire away!”

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1905-09

An old man labeled “St. Valentine,” carrying a “U.S. Mail” letter pouch, delivers valentines to “Col. W.D. Mann,” John A. “McCall,” Henry H. “Rogers,” John D. Rockefeller Jr., John D. “Rockefeller,” “Son McCurdy,” Edward L. “Hamilton,” and Richard “Pat McCurdy.” Caption: St. Valentine — Don’t be afraid to take ’em, boys. They’re valentines; not subpoenas.

comments and context

Comments and Context

Even on Valentine’s Day, Puck pursued the scoundrels of the insurance industry and Standard Oil with barbs of criticism, and not the arrows of a Cupid. The figures in the doorway were prominent names before the scandal-hungry public in 1905 and 1906.

Secretary George B. Cortelyou encloses a letter from newspaper editor, William Allen White regarding the post office in Emporia, Kansas.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1902-04-15

William Loeb expresses to George B. Cortelyou that President Roosevelt has no objection to a Sunday mail, but the Postal Department should be informed that he does not request it.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1902-07-21

At the direction of President Roosevelt, George B. Cortelyou encloses communications from Representative Campbell Slemp and S. Brown Allen for Postmaster General Henry C. Payne’s confidential reading and suggestions. [S. Brown Allen is transposed as S. Allen Brown in this letter.]

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1902-12-24

At the direction of President Roosevelt, George B. Cortelyou encloses a communication and requests a report regarding the postmastership at Wilmerding, Pennsylvania.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1902-03-12

Perry S. Heath has been implicated in the Post Office frauds. There is not sufficient evidence to convict Heath but Postmaster General Payne should have an inspector make a thorough investigation.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1903-10-15