Riots

With delight, President Roosevelt shares with Senator Lodge the newspaper account of a riot in Brownfield, Texas, over the erection of a Roosevelt statue. He is glad for the invitation from George Nathaniel Curzon, the Chancellor of Oxford, to present the Romanes lecture on his return from Africa. It is an honor, and it gives him a legitimate reason for visiting England. The matter of renominating Governor Charles Evans Hughes grows worse, and Roosevelt worries about the impact it may have on William H. Taft’s election.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1908-08-18

Creator(s)

Roosevelt, Theodore, 1858-1919

George von Lengerke Meyer informs President Roosevelt of the strikes in Saint Petersburg. Meyer believes the tsar should have handled the situation better. There is some debate over who will be appointed ambassador.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1905-01-28

Creator(s)

Meyer, George von Lengerke, 1858-1918

A man holds a small “riot” stick while President Roosevelt holds a large “big stick.”

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1905-05-15

Creator(s)

Evans, W. L. (Walter Lewis), 1875-1959

Lloyd Carpenter Griscom writes to William Loeb regarding the destruction of Christian churches during a riot in Tokyo, Japan. Military authorities intend to offer protection.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1905-09-08

Creator(s)

Griscom, Lloyd Carpenter, 1872-1959

A man labeled “Riotous Striker” pushes down pillars labeled “Order, Law, Capital, Labor, Enlightenment, [and] Progress,” causing a building (or temple) to crash down upon itself. Caption: He is always the first victim of his own violence.

comments and context

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1901-07-31

At a meeting in a Chinese mission, a collection is being taken up, “Contributions received here to save the foreign devils.” Five accompanying vignettes show how the United States is viewed by the Chinese, including “Kentucky feuds,” “Burning Negros at the stake,” “Labor riots,” “Anti-Chinese riots,” and “New York City government” where the Tammany Tiger is shaking down a citizen. A sign on a wall in the mission states, “Help the Heathen.”

comments and context

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1900-11-21

President Roosevelt writes that District Attorney of Alaska Nathan V. Harlan should be removed. The leaders on both sides of “the recent trouble in Alaska” should be prosecuted, as the Governor Wilford B. Hoggatt recommended.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1907-12-21

Creator(s)

Roosevelt, Theodore, 1858-1919

President Roosevelt hopes that Lyman Abbott makes it clear in his editorial that he disapproves of several corporations acting in the Rocky Mountains, and remarks that people often have difficulty understanding that it is imperative for people to “disprove equally of the murderous lawlessness of labor unions which degenerate into thugism of the Molly McGuire kind, and of the practically as arrogant and greedy lawlessness of quite as noxious a type shown by certain big corporations.” Roosevelt considers it important to be against lawlessness wherever and whenever it is found. He compares his actions with those of several other figures, and says that while former president Grover Cleveland acted both against corporations and labor unions, William Jennings Bryan and Senator Robert M. La Follette refuse to attack labor.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1906-07-01

Creator(s)

Roosevelt, Theodore, 1858-1919

President Roosevelt takes issue with the way that certain newspapers, including the New York Times, New York Evening Post, and New York World, report on the issue of campaign funds in the last election. Roosevelt assures Elbert F. Baldwin that he has never offered favors to those who have given large sums of money to his campaigns, and that he was unaware that several corporations had donated. He also discusses whom he can trust regarding the situation between Russia and Japan. He encloses a very rough draft of his upcoming message and asks Baldwin and Lyman Abbott to make suggestions.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1905-09-20

Creator(s)

Roosevelt, Theodore, 1858-1919

President Roosevelt reflects on the terms of the peace between Russia and Japan. He believes that each country did the right thing in giving certain concessions to the other side to end the war. Roosevelt ponders the implications of peace for both Russia and Japan, believing Russia will have to move toward self-government, while Japan must deal with riots by its people. In despite of this, Roosevelt admires and respects Japan and sees her entrance into “the circle of great civilized powers” as a good thing overall.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1905-09-11

Creator(s)

Roosevelt, Theodore, 1858-1919

In light of Senator Lodge’s campaign commitments, President Roosevelt says he does not need to go to Oyster Bay to meet with Joseph Hodges Choate. Roosevelt hopes that Curtis Guild’s gubernatorial race in Massachusetts goes well. He discusses the current unrest in Japan, where foreigners and Christians are being targeted in riots.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1905-09-08

Creator(s)

Roosevelt, Theodore, 1858-1919

President Roosevelt discusses the military prowess of the Roman Empire. He tells German Ambassador Sternburg that he believes that the Japanese government did a poor job of communicating to their people how much they gained in the Treaty of Portsmouth. The Japanese are now rioting because the country did not receive a large indemnity. Roosevelt also tells Sternburg about problems with stockholders, as well as his trip in the submarine Plunger.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1905-09-06

Creator(s)

Roosevelt, Theodore, 1858-1919

President Roosevelt is going to try and get Secretary of State Elihu Root and Joseph Hodges Choate to come to Sagamore Hill when Senator Lodge will be there. He tells Lodge about the current situation in the Government Printing Office, where Francis Wayland Palmer was removed from his position and Roosevelt is trying to decide on a replacement. He also discusses the current unrest in Japan and tells Lodge that he has instructed Root to deal with the Newfoundland matter “as soon as possible.”

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1905-09-06

Creator(s)

Roosevelt, Theodore, 1858-1919

Levi D. Lynds, a Civil War veteran from Vermont, writes to thank Theodore Roosevelt for everything he has done for veterans. Lynds was sent to New York in 1863 to help with the riots there.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1909-08-01

Creator(s)

Lynds, Levi D., 1846-1918

Senator Lodge finds the incident of the statue in Brownfield, Texas, comedic. He is glad President Roosevelt is going to Oxford but admonishes him to also visit Germany, for “it would never do to omit the Kaiser.” Lodge believes Roosevelt’s visits around Europe will be valuable for the United States. As a favor, Lodge requests Roosevelt look into the situation concerning the purchase of the Windsor ships.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1908-09-07

Creator(s)

Lodge, Henry Cabot, 1850-1924

Kentarō Kaneko discusses the relations between the United States and Japan, especially regarding the current debate surrounding immigration. He describes Japanese responses to the unrest in San Francisco and urges President Roosevelt to stop it before it damages relations further. Kaneko praises Roosevelt’s views on international relations, as well as his new immigration commission, and condemns Cardinal James Gibbons’s recent article on international peace, which Kaneko feels is anti-Japanese.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1907-07-07

Creator(s)

Kaneko, Kentarō, 1853-1942

Alvey A. Adee encloses a dispatch from Havana detailing the latest uprising in Cuba.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1906-08-29

Creator(s)

Adee, Alvey A. (Alvey Augustus), 1842-1924

Third Assistant Secretary of State Peirce advises William Loeb that although there were no American war vessels in Shanghai during the riot, the State Department has just received a recommendation that a cruiser be stationed there until matters in the area quiet down.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1906-02-24

Creator(s)

Peirce, Herbert H. D. (Herbert Henry Davis), 1849-1916

Cecil Spring Rice provides Edith Kermit Carow Roosevelt with a detailed synopsis of the ongoing turmoil in Russia, including student demonstrations, labor strikes, and violent police reprisals. Spring Rice believes Roosevelt has seen accounts of the “inconceivable brutality” of the attacks on students and Jews, and that the “accounts are not exaggerated.” He believes the army is the only organized force left in Russia but wonders how long it will last. Spring Rice believes that no one either trusts or likes Sergei Vitte or his government and due to all the uncertainty “the forces of anarchy flourish.”

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1905-11-27

Creator(s)

Spring Rice, Cecil, Sir, 1859-1918

Rudolph Forster writes to William Loeb to relay a message from Secretary of War Taft, which discusses the riots of Tokyo.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1905-09-17

Creator(s)

Forster, Rudolph, 1872-1943