Your TR Source
President Roosevelt accepts Corinne Roosevelt Robinson’s invitation to the dedication of a library and asks about the best way to travel, emphasizing that he does not want to be inundated with requests to speak, so it is best to travel at night and to keep the trip secret.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1908-07-25
President Roosevelt has written to Ambassador Lloyd Carpenter Griscom and hopes his words will carry some weight.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1908-07-27
President Roosevelt tells his aunt, Ella Sears Bulloch, that if Thomas E. Greenshields, a friend of the family, is presented to him he will greet him with all possible warmth. Roosevelt feels the same as Bulloch about not accepting the nomination for a third term as president, and did not intend to break his word under any circumstances. Roosevelt thinks it will be best for him to be out of the country for a year after the end of his term, and thinks that his wife, Edith Kermit Carow Roosevelt, “is very good” about him going to Africa on safari.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1908-07-31
President Roosevelt confesses to Herbert W. Collingwood that he is unsure what to think about the New York gubernatorial race. Roosevelt summarizes many letters he has received, both vehemently for and against renominating Governor Charles Evans Hughes. Roosevelt will only become involved in the race with great reluctance.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1908-07-31
President Roosevelt tells Assistant Treasurer Fish that it is impossible for him to interfere with politics in New York. The last time he helped Governor Charles Evans Hughes, Hughes’s friends took an attitude that would make it “a good deal worse than folly” for Roosevelt to do so again.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1908-04-27
President Roosevelt tells John A. Sleicher that he is not sure he can get the legislation to address the current financial crisis from Congress. He urged for reforms to currency and trust laws in his 1905 and 1906 messages to Congress to no avail.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-11-04
President Roosevelt heartily sympathizes with Thomas P. McLoughlin’s proposal and has sent it to the War Department with his stated support. Roosevelt asks McLoughlin to write to as many Congressmen as he can about the project and Roosevelt will back him.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-11-06
President Roosevelt thanks Charles Wagner for his letter, but regrets he is unable to fulfill the conditions for an art exhibition to which Wagner’s friend, French artist William Laparra, wishes to donate. Roosevelt asks that Wagner express his appreciation to Laparra.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-10-09
President Roosevelt finds it difficult to respond to Iowa Governor Cummins’ letter, but Roosevelt has always tried to be fair in how he manages post offices so he can avoid personal entanglements and focus on principles. Roosevelt hopes Cummins will come to Washington soon and Roosevelt can explain his position in more detail.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-10-28
Although President Roosevelt might agree with the “subject matter of the appeal” he cannot use his influence to help Reverend Slicer. Roosevelt refuses letters of introduction to Andrew Carnegie, and would never give a direct request for money “for any purpose.”
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-10-11
President Roosevelt cannot “comment upon the declaration of the Massachusetts Federation of Labor against the Republican candidates for Congress” in Massachusetts, as he would then be obliged to do so in every state. Roosevelt tells Representative Peabody he has stated his views on labor, and to quote him rather than ask for a personal statement.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-10-12
President Roosevelt tells Dean Hurlbut of Harvard College he thinks the editor of the Independent displayed “grosely improper conduct” concerning his son Theodore Roosevelt. Roosevelt does nothing concerning the offending editorial, but has turned the author’s brother away from a ministership in Venezuela.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-10-13
President Roosevelt cannot write a letter of support for Representative Augustus Peabody Gardner, and tells Senator Lodge about the many requests he gets for such letters and their impracticality, as well as the chore to decline them.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-10-13
President Roosevelt cannot do as Daniel C. Gilman suggests. Because he receives requests for “many worthy causes,” he must decline them so as not to “hurt the feelings of people in other cases.” However, in securing action by the government authorities and communicating with Lyman Abbott and Congress, Roosevelt argues he has done more to achieve Gilman’s purpose than a mere subscription while not complicating contributions to other causes.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-09-10
While he dislikes responding negatively, President Roosevelt informs D. B. Fairley, Chairman of the Republican State Central Committee, he cannot publish the letter endorsing Phillip Battell Stewart as a gubernatorial candidate of Colorado. However, to achieve the same effect, Roosevelt suggests Stewart find quotations from previous letters to him that illustrate Roosevelt’s trust.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-09-12
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 finds Alexander Lambert’s detailing of William Travers Jerome’s plan “interesting and characteristic.” Despite sometimes giving good advice, Roosevelt calls Jerome out as a lying “fakir.” Roosevelt has done all he can to help Representatives Parsons and Wadsworth, finding presidential interference does not help even in exceptional circumstances.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-08-27
President Roosevelt writes to Charles E. Matthews, known as “Billy Smith” to say that he is afraid he is too old to box now. He was pleased to appoint Matthews as a Deputy United States Marshal, and is always glad when he can help a former Rough Rider.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-08-13
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.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-08-06
President Roosevelt tells Senator Lodge that he plans to “convulse the googoos and mugwumps with horror by taking the chance to write a letter making as strong a plea as I know how for the election of a Republican Congress.” He agrees with Lodge regarding organized labor, and comments on several political candidates. Roosevelt additionally describes some of his recent sailing and rowing adventures he has gone on with his family.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-08-09