Public opinion, American | - Theodore Roosevelt Center

Letter from Theodore Roosevelt to Brooks Adams

President Roosevelt tells Brooks Adams that he doubts the community agreed with his position regarding the 25^th infantry, who are the African American soldiers involved in the recent episode at Fort Brown in Brownsville, Texas. Roosevelt also believes that Senator Joseph Benson Foraker has been representing Wall Street in attacking the president related to the Brownsville affair.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1906-12-22

Letter from Lawrence F. Abbott to Theodore Roosevelt

Lawrence F. Abbott thanks President Roosevelt for his letter and offers for himself or his father to speak with Roosevelt about campaign contributions. Abbott believes that recent criticism from the press about this topic is not shared by the public. He returns enclosures sent to him by William Loeb. He thanks Roosevelt for sharing information about a naval expedition and promises to include it in the next edition of The Outlook, as he feels it will be very interesting to their readers.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1907-09-20

Letter from Theodore Roosevelt to Kermit Roosevelt

Theodore Roosevelt writes to his son Kermit about the amazing things American newspapers are saying about Roosevelt’s four sons and how they contrast them with German Kaiser Wilhelm II’s sons. He says Quentin Roosevelt’s grave has been discovered and his fiancee Flora Payne Whitney will stay with Ethel Roosevelt Derby. Roosevelt talks of letters from Belle Roosevelt and Aunt Emily Tyler Carow and how he is doing all he can to get people to speed up the war.

Collection

Harvard College Library

Creation Date

1918-08-10

Letter from Theodore Roosevelt to Kermit and Belle Roosevelt

Theodore Roosevelt writes to his son Kermit and daughter-in-law Belle with updates on members of the family including Archie and his decisions regarding Harvard clubs. Roosevelt details his leisure time at Oyster Bay and says he will send a speech he made to the Knights of Columbus. Roosevelt says the public initially object to him and his opinions but then come around to his point of view. He criticizes President Wilson but says that Wilson has finally recognized that the country wants to be prepared for war.

Collection

Harvard College Library

Creation Date

1915-11-02

Letter from Theodore Roosevelt to Kermit Roosevelt

Theodore Roosevelt writes to his son Kermit to say he will back him up in whatever decision he makes. He writes about Archie being elected into the Signet club at Harvard and Archie’s attitude toward college. Roosevelt makes reference to his writing for Metropolitan magazine and that he tells the American people what they need to hear even though they wish not to. He takes credit for President Wilson finally endorsing preparedness for war. Ethel had her appendix out, Ted’s wife Eleanor had a second boy, and Quentin wishes to be manager of the football team at Groton School.

Collection

Harvard College Library

Creation Date

1915-10-24

Letter from Theodore Roosevelt to Curtis Guild

President Roosevelt chides Governor Guild for being involved with a petition that recently came to Roosevelt’s desk on behalf of Africans in the Congo Free State. Roosevelt receives hundreds of such petitions on a variety of topics based on whatever the current social cause is. If he had absolute power, and the United States were “prepared to embark on a long career of disinterested violence on behalf of all sufferers outside its limits,” then Roosevelt would gladly intervene, but as it stands he does not have any authority to intervene in any of the cases presented to him. Moreover, as the United States would not actually go to war in any of the cases, Roosevelt feels that the government should not “put itself into the ridiculous position of making a fuss which it does not intend to back up.”

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1906-04-02

Letter from Theodore Roosevelt to George Otto Trevelyan

Theodore Roosevelt thanks George Otto Trevelyan for his kind words. Roosevelt does not think of himself as a hero, but rather as a decent American citizen trying to do the right thing. Roosevelt considers what happened to the battalion in Dardanelles to be a “dreadful tragedy.” He is glad Trevelyan liked his article on reading and tells him he recently lunched with his son.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1915-05-29

Letter from Theodore Roosevelt to Whitelaw Reid

President Roosevelt asks Ambassador Reid if he would be able to petition Lord Robert Offley Ashburton Crewe-Milnes to write to officials in Uganda that Roosevelt would appreciate being given a guide and information that would allow him to hunt a white rhinoceros or elephant. The current unrest in India concerns Roosevelt, and asks what the feelings of British officials are towards it. Roosevelt also remarks briefly on his plans to leave immediately after William H. Taft’s inauguration as president, and comments on a controversy that arose at the 1908 Olympic Games in London, which is still fostering some resentment between the two nations. If Roosevelt can secure a third specimen of the white rhinoceros, he would be happy to send it to the British Museum.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1908-11-26

Letter from Theodore Roosevelt to Halsey Cooley Ives

President Roosevelt feels that the American public will support the enterprise Halsey Cooley Ives is engaged in, and feels that the creation of such a museum of art will “be one of the strongest factors in the development of art education and of the appreciation of art,” not only in Missouri, but throughout the United States. He hopes that Ives is able to do the work he suggests.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1906-04-18

Letter from Anselm Schaff to Theodore Roosevelt

Anselm Schaff shares his opinions on the “troubles of our times” with Theodore Roosevelt. In doing so, Schaff outlines issues with the federal government and economics.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1911-07-23

Letter from Harry White to Theodore Roosevelt

France’s Foreign Office has asked Ambassador White whether decorating William Bailey Howland with the Legion of Honor would be well received by the American people. As Howland is the publisher of The Outlook and has recently secured President Roosevelt to write for it, White wonders whether this association would influence the magazine’s future coverage of France. White believes that “the American people would not care in the least one way or the other,” but will act in accordance with Roosevelt’s views on the matter.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1909-02-09

Letter from Seth Bullock to William Loeb

Seth Bullock reports to William Loeb on attendance at the Public Lands Convention held in Denver, Colorado, and on support for Roosevelt for a second elective term as president.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1907-06-28

Letter from Jonathan Bourne to William Loeb

Senator Bourne agrees with William Loeb’s commendation of Attorney General Edward Terry Sanfrod and apologizes if his request for information was a breach of ethics. Bourne hopes that Loeb will soon be able to further enlighten the American electorate. He hopes that Roosevelt will follow their command to seek a second elective term, if it is given. He expects that within 90 days it will be known whether there is a general desire for Roosevelt to run for president again in 1908.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1907-06-25

Letter from Nicholas Murray Butler

In a letter to an unspecified party, Columbia University President Butler speaks about how organizer of the Association for International Conciliation baron Paul-Henri-Benjamin Balluet Estournelles de Constant has requested Butler’s help organizing public relations in regards to the agency. He states that it is particularly desirable for the American representatives at the upcoming Hague Conference to be able to rely upon “instructed and sympathetic public opinion.” Butler asks for the recipient’s opinion on who should be asked to join a related committee.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1906-12-05

Letter from Edward Grey to Theodore Roosevelt

British Foreign Secretary Grey informs President Roosevelt that Ambassador H. Mortimer Durand will be replaced, and while he understands Roosevelt’s desire to have Arthur Lee in his place, that is politically impossible. Temporarily, Esmé Howard will be sent to Washington as Councillor to the Embassy. Grey appreciated Roosevelt’s explanation of his telegram to German Emperor William after the Portsmouth Peace. Grey explains that his foreign policy is not anti-German, but to be independent he feels it necessary to strengthen the entente with France and come to an agreement with Russia. Grey believes that his generation has had enough of war, and the British people feel a special bond with the United States. Grey hopes the dispute between Canada and the United States over Newfoundland will soon be settled. He also adds that many in Great Britain are upset over reports of slavery and plunder in the Belgian Congo.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1906-12-04

Letter from O. D. M. Gaddis to William H. Andrews

O. D. M. Gaddis spoke with Charles Henry Akers, editor of the Arizona Gazette, about the matter of joint statehood. Akers is eager to use his paper to support statehood, but fears a loss of advertising business might result. Gaddis asks if a sum of five thousand dollars can be raised for Akers to “start the ball rolling.” Gaddis argues that if they secure Akers’s support, their cause will have a leading daily and the only Republican paper in Phoenix, Arizona.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1906-08-06

Letter from Theodore Roosevelt to Archibald B. Roosevelt

Theodore Roosevelt shares details of his involvement with the Red Cross, speaking engagements, and his efforts to raise awareness on the government’s “inefficiency and delay” in the war effort.

Collection

Harvard College Library

Creation Date

1918-05-19