Your TR Source
Theodore Roosevelt thanks William Sidney Rossiter for his paper on Vermont and encourages him to write about race decadence as Rossiter outlined in his letter. Roosevelt believes that all of the arguments made in opposition to the concept have been based on ignorance or thinly-veiled selfishness.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1911-05-02
Theodore Roosevelt does not understand how Reverend Campbell’s argument about the “production of a better quality” race relates to the eventual death of the race, which was the subject of Roosevelt’s article. Roosevelt is only able to point Campbell to the content of his article, which did not deal with racial quality in relation to family size.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1911-04-25
Theodore Roosevelt asserts that there is little difference between having one child and no children at all, as both cases will lead to the extinction of the race. Roosevelt believes that an average couple able to have children should have at least three, as one in every three children either dies before reaching adulthood or never has a family of their own. Roosevelt compares having less than three children to a soldier doing only a third of his duty on the battlefield.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1911-04-21
Theodore Roosevelt’s secretary informs M. A. Mairesse that Roosevelt would be happy for her to translate his article on race decadence into French for publication as she sees fit.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1911-04-21
Theodore Roosevelt discusses the future and reforms of a race.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1915-01-14
President Roosevelt thanks Henry Fairfield Osborn for the efforts he took to help Roosevelt edit his Romanes lecture. He comments on the topic of races and racial mixing, raised by several prominent anthropologists, as well as Osborn himself. Roosevelt is somewhat intimidated by the importance that Osborn has said that his lecture will carry.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1908-12-21
President Roosevelt thanks Rachel Sherman Thorndike for writing to him. He says, “The white man is very ‘uncertain,'” and he will only feel “confident of the result” after the votes have been counted.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1904-10-22
President Roosevelt agrees with Lucius B. Swift regarding Chinese immigration and has asked Secretary of Commerce and Labor George B. Cortelyou to look at Swift’s letter.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1904-01-05
President Roosevelt describes his policy for making federal appointments in the South and believes he has been fair.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1904-01-02
President Roosevelt tells French Ambassador Cambon that he is pleased to read anything from him, and agrees with Cambon regarding the use of the term “Anglo-Saxon” with reference to Americans.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1903-07-08
Brander Matthews sends sentiments to Theodore Roosevelt regarding Edith Kermit Carow Roosevelt’s accident. Matthews also shares a recent publication from a colleague about medieval ideas, he is sure Roosevelt will enjoy reading it.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1911-10-19
Sherman G. Savage agrees with Theodore Roosevelt’s view on race suicide. He has nine children and wants Roosevelt’s approval of his large family.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1911-08-16
Professor Ross was pleased to receive Theodore Roosevelt’s letter regarding Ross’s article entitled “The Struggle for Existence in China.” Ross has been anticipating an effort to end barriers against “Oriental immigration” as part of a policy to expand trade. The article was an effort to have an “unanswerable argument” against Chinese immigration without the “taint of racial prejudice.” Ross will soon be publishing a new book entitled The Changing Chinese and may be able to see Roosevelt in New York on September 15.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1911-08-01
Israel Frederick Fischer issues a protest against “Hebrew” being included as a race in travel-related paperwork issued by the Immigration Service. Fischer has already contacted Secretary of Commerce and Labor Charles Nagel regarding the issue, but has not achieved any results. He asks Theodore Roosevelt for his opinion on the matter.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1911-06-28
William Sidney Rossiter will send Theodore Roosevelt a memorandum regarding the “race decadence problem.” He wonders whether Roosevelt saw his article on government methods in Atlantic Monthly.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1911-05-06
Rossiter, William Sidney, 1861-1929
Florence Bayard Lockwood La Farge replies to President Roosevel’s recent letter about books, and agrees with him on what he has written about Jane Addams. She believes that Addams’s arguments are not well thought out. La Farge wishes that emigration could stop for five years while the United States assimilates its citizens into a more unified whole. She recommends the book The World Machine by Carl Snyder.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1908-02-20
Stephen R. Fox takes a wide angle lens approach to American history in the twentieth century with an emphasis on the years 1950 to 1997 by identifying the trends, movements, and undercurrents found in this period among five topics: politics, technology, religion, race, and sex. Fox notes the turn against the strong executive that was in vogue until the Vietnam War and Watergate scandal, and he rails against the conservatism and policies of President Ronald Reagan. Fox highlights the rise of the environmental movement, and he says that changes in technology are eroding community and increasing social isolation. Fox identifies five trends in religious practice and notes the resilience of religious belief in American society.
Fox’s look at race focuses on the changes in leadership among African-Americans from the days of Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. Du Bois, and he notes how the views and attitudes of African-Americans are often markedly different from their contemporary leaders. Fox concludes his survey with a look at the evolution of sexual mores away from Victorian standards to a more permissive stance on issues such as premarital sex.
Three photographs, including one of Fox, and all from the Theodore Roosevelt Association luncheon at Harvard’s Pusey Library, supplement the text.
“Social Equality” chapter from Terence Vincent Powderly’s Thirty Years of Labor, 1859-1889. The chapter is wide ranging and deals with labor, race, and the Knights of Labor’s activities.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1890
President Roosevelt’s speech at the Exposition Building in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He thanks the citizens, mayor, and government officials of the city for setting an example for the country. He discusses the mixing of races and ethnicities in American history and the importance of learning from the past. Roosevelt also discusses the lessons of the Civil War and the virtues of citizenship.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1903-04-03
Senator Lodge encloses an account of a race meeting held in Boston. A reference made to “Italian cunning” referred to the administration. The meeting was mostly concerned with Koester (probably George R. Koester, a candidate for government office in South Carolina who was accused of having participated in a lynching years before).
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1902-05-19