Your TR Source
On the occasion of his inauguration, the New York Times re-examines President Roosevelt’s record of the past three years, and asks, can the nation expect an even bolder Roosevelt in the years to come? Roosevelt’s policies and actions of the past three years are subjected to a critical analysis.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1905-03-04
The writer analyzes President Roosevelt’s campaign and presidency.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1905
Announcement for a documentary narrated by George C. Scott on Theodore Roosevelt. Provides an overview of the documentary, including names of actors, producers, and historical consultants.
Theodore Roosevelt National Park
1986-03-31
Theodore Roosevelt updates Cecil Spring Rice on the members of the Roosevelt family. Roosevelt feels that British politics are much more interesting than politics in the United States at the moment. He is disappointed in President Taft, and thinks that his leadership has divided the conservative and progressive streams within the Republican Party. However, Roosevelt would like to see Taft elected again. Roosevelt has “no sympathy with [Taft’s] arbitration treaty business” and believes the treaty should be strictly between Great Britain and the United States. Roosevelt also writes about his contentment with his life at the moment, writing for The Outlook.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1911-08-22
Theodore Roosevelt gives his opinion on Commissioner McIlhenny and discusses the issues with President Wilson’s management of the civil service.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1915-12-29
Theodore Roosevelt thanks Lawrence Godkin for publishing Dr. White’s statement. Roosevelt states the German American propaganda reflected poorly on President Wilson’s administration.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1915-09-01
Theodore Roosevelt expects William Allen White, as a newspaper man, not to be deceived by false stories about Roosevelt and his opinions. Roosevelt defends his opinion that President Wilson is similar to James Buchanan. He compares Buchanan’s views towards succession to Wilson’s views on military readiness. Roosevelt believes the world war is of much greater significance then the American Civil War even though the United States is not a combatant. The war can “at any moment prove to be fraught with almost as much consequence” even to Americans. Roosevelt agrees with other leading Progressives that there is little political hope for the near future.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1915-08-03
Theodore Roosevelt thanks Edith Wharton for the letter and is pleased she liked his book. He criticizes President Wilson and his policies.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1915-06-23
Theodore Roosevelt declines W. C. Brewer’s invitation to address Brewer’s points in writing. Roosevelt believes President Wilson’s administration has dishonored the United States.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1915-04-10
Theodore Roosevelt declines David M. Goodrich’s invitation to speak in Canada due to his pending libel suit. Roosevelt also criticizes President Wilson’s administration and states if he was going to speak he would do so to the American people.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1915-02-22
Theodore Roosevelt asks Senator Clapp to try to add an amendment that forbids the United States from purchasing ships from wartime enemies. Roosevelt criticizes President Wilson’s administration.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1915-01-27
Theodore Roosevelt will write to Governor Johnson again regarding proposed legislation that has an interest for the Japanese. Roosevelt criticizes President Wilson and his administration’s management of international affairs.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1914-11-30
President Roosevelt is planning to take Sydney Brooks’ advice in describing the British attitude in India in an upcoming speech. He liked Brooks’ article, and is pleased that he is going to write another one. Roosevelt appreciated Brooks’ praise of his achievements in office, but highlights what he believes are his greatest achievements while in the presidency, including increasing the size of the navy, the construction of the Panama Canal, the creation of forest reserves, and the involvement of the United States in international affairs to promote world peace. He encloses several volumes of his Presidential addresses and State papers.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1908-12-28
President Roosevelt remarks that the recent sessions of the national legislatures of the United States, Great Britain, and France have all been very interesting. Roosevelt comments particularly on a speech by Prime Minister Georges Clemenceau of France. Looking at his own career, Roosevelt expects “the swinging of the pendulum” to occur soon, as he has been president for five years already. While there may be increasing resistance from Congress, however, he believes the past five years have been extremely productive and is proud of what he has accomplished. Roosevelt is interested in the proceedings of the upcoming Hague conference, and tells George Otto Trevelyan that there is a narrow path to walk between reducing armaments among European nations, and in going too far and “having the free peoples rendered helpless in the faces of the various military despotism and barbarisms of the world.”
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-08-18
President Roosevelt authorizes Secretary of War Taft to use funds to stable the cavalry at Boise, Idaho as General Fred C. Ainsworth mentioned. Roosevelt additionally comments on several appointments, saying he believes that Walston H. Brown should be allowed to carry out his proposal, that he has decided to appoint James Shanklin Harlan to the Interstate Commerce Commission, and that he is inclined to appoint Horace H. Lurton, which will necessitate appointing a new Circuit Court Judge. Roosevelt also writes at length about some recent articles by Poultney Bigelow which contain some “slanderous falsehood,” but about which he believes some response should be made.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-08-17
President Roosevelt thanks Claudius Buchanan Spencer for the nice editorial and letter, and responds to the statement by Syracuse University Chancellor James Roscoe Day. Roosevelt believes that, “in a broad sense, if the chancellor is correct in his position, then from Lincoln down every President who has striven to act decently should be condemned,” and rejects Day’s position that the courts must not be criticized. He also protests against Day’s stance that Roosevelt should not personally advocate for legislation, and defends his record of helping pass beneficial legislation over the past several years. Roosevelt goes on to similarly condemn several other points Day tries to make.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-07-23
President Roosevelt comments on the ongoing furor surrounding the trials of Charles H. Moyer and Big Bill Haywood, looking down on he support they are receiving from socialists and anarchists from across the country. He reflects that he has had an odd presidency, and that “a goodly number of the things I have done which i regard as most important will probably never see the light and will be known to only a few people,” including the situation in Idaho, the Russo-Japanese peace negotiations, the Algeciras conference, and the Alaska boundary dispute.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-07-10
President Roosevelt would be pleased for Jacob A. Riis to speak about him, but unsure how to answer some of Riis’s requests for information. Roosevelt responds to the criticism that he interferes with Congress by saying that if he did not, there would not be a host of positive bills that he has signed into law. He struggles with considering “exactly what anyone would consider the chief points of what [he] had done,” and eventually says he stands for the sort of “substantive achievement” his cabinet officers have succeeded in bringing about, and for trying to do justice to the American people. He will send Riis a copy of a volume of his speeches for reference, if Riis does not already have one.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-06-26
After talking with George Horace Lorimer, President Roosevelt went back and read The Plum Tree through all the way, after previously having read only half of it. The ending of the book reconciles Roosevelt to many of the problems he had with it throughout, but he still holds many issues with the book which he lays out for Lorimer. The author, David Graham Phillips, falls into the trap of overstating the sort of corruption that is present in politics, and while Roosevelt freely admits that corruption is present–which, he points out, he is working against–there are also many good people working in politics as well. In a postscript of several days later, Roosevelt comments on several of Phillips’s articles on the Senate, in which he acts similarly by taking “certain facts that are true in themselves, and […] ignoring utterly a very much large mass of facts that are just as true and just as important.” Roosevelt criticizes Phillips for working with William Randolph Hearst to achieve notoriety.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-05-12
President Roosevelt shares his thoughts about his recent inauguration and the work he hopes to do in his second term with Major General Wood. In particular, Roosevelt is proud of his work building up the United States’s battleship fleet. Roosevelt mentions that Secretary of War William H. Taft will travel to the Philippines the upcoming summer.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1905-03-09