Separation of powers

Letter from Theodore Roosevelt to Robert Jackson Gamble

The enclosed papers show that there should be an investigation by the Board of Managers of the National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers, which is led by James Wolcott Wadsworth. President Roosevelt tells Senator Gamble that the incident demonstrates that this sort of executive work should be done by executive departments which answer the President, rather than by legislative bodies.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1908-10-12

Creator(s)

Roosevelt, Theodore, 1858-1919

Letter from Theodore Roosevelt to John Hay

President Roosevelt has met with Representative Joseph Gurney Cannon who is concerned that Congress’s foreign policy prerogatives are being overlooked. Congress is apparently sensitive on the subject and Secretary of State Hay should consult with Representative Robert R. Hitt whenever Congress’s power of action is in question.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1903-11-07

Creator(s)

Roosevelt, Theodore, 1858-1919

Letter from Theodore Roosevelt to James De Witt Andrews

President Roosevelt thanks James De Witt Andrews for sending him his editions of the works of Supreme Court justice James Wilson. Roosevelt agrees with Andrews’s assessment that the country needs a line of demarcation between federal and state powers.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1906-12-26

Creator(s)

Roosevelt, Theodore, 1858-1919

Memorandum to accompany Sundry Civil Bill, 1909

On his last day in office, President Roosevelt will sign the Sundry Civil Bill, but he expresses extreme reservations about Section 9 of the bill. The section would prohibit the use of government funds or clerks to help the work of commissions and boards that were not specifically authorized by Congress. Roosevelt is particularly concerned about the effect this would have on bodies appointed by the executive, such as the Conservation Commission and the Country Life Commission.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1909-03-04

Creator(s)

Roosevelt, Theodore, 1858-1919

Letter from Theodore Roosevelt to Frederick Landis

President Roosevelt feels the same as Frederick Landis about the division of powers and provides his opinion on the politicians who are “straight, decent, and fearless representative[s] of the people.” Roosevelt uses Abraham Lincoln as an example, citing his consistent tenacity and popularity before and after he took office. He claims the public stood by Lincoln “because he was right both times.”

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1909-01-14

Creator(s)

Roosevelt, Theodore, 1858-1919

Letter from Theodore Roosevelt to John Wolcott Stewart

President Roosevelt asserts his right as executive to appoint and dismiss officers in the armed forces. He tells Senator Stewart that Congress thus lacks the power to carry out Senator Joseph Benson Foraker’s proposal regarding his dismissal of African American troops at Brownsville.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1908-05-07

Creator(s)

Roosevelt, Theodore, 1858-1919

Letter from Theodore Roosevelt to Francis E. Warren

President Roosevelt tells Senator Warren that he agrees with the bill that Warren sent as representative of the views of Senators Henry Cabot Lodge and William Warner. Roosevelt also criticizes a bill from Senator Joseph Benson Foraker that would permit the companies who were discharged as a result of the Brownsville incident to, upon swearing an oath of innocence, rejoin the army. Roosevelt believes that many people from these companies either committed the attack or had knowledge of it, and that this bill therefore “amounts simply to a proposal to condone murder and perjury in the past and put a premium upon perjury in the future.”

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1908-03-09

Creator(s)

Roosevelt, Theodore, 1858-1919

Letter from Theodore Roosevelt to Lincoln Steffens

President Roosevelt sends the text of a card, approved by him, instructing officers and employees of the government to “tell Mr. Lincoln Steffens anything whatever about the running of the government by or under officers of the Executive.” Roosevelt has since come to believe that the responses may include stories about United States Senators or Representatives, which was not his intent and is outside his authority to address. Roosevelt asks Steffens to show him “anything reflecting upon Senators or Congressmen” before Steffens publishes the findings.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1907-03-12

Creator(s)

Roosevelt, Theodore, 1858-1919

Letter from Theodore Roosevelt to John St. Loe Strachey

President Roosevelt thanks John St. Loe Strachey for remembering the upcoming wedding of his daughter Alice to Congressman Nicholas Longworth. Roosevelt is pleased with Longworth and hopes that he will have a successful career in politics. He reflects at length about politics in both Great Britain and the United States. In particular, Roosevelt discusses the function and manner of the United States Senate, and envies that a labor man is in Great Britain’s Cabinet.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1906-02-12

Creator(s)

Roosevelt, Theodore, 1858-1919

Letter from Theodore Roosevelt to Redfield Proctor

President Roosevelt returns Miss Jackson’s letter to Senator Proctor, and says he believes that her suggestions impact the legislative branch more than the executive branch. Roosevelt encourages Proctor to influence his colleagues to do the things that Jackson requested; he particularly wants there to be no delay in giving Puerto Ricans citizenship.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1906-01-30

Creator(s)

Roosevelt, Theodore, 1858-1919

Letter from Theodore Roosevelt to Walker D. Hines

President Roosevelt believes that the bill Walker D. Hines proposes would give the real power to the court, and not the Interstate Commerce Commission. Roosevelt believes that the commission is the proper body to give judgment, with the court only acting in clear cases of abuse by the commission.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1905-12-30

Creator(s)

Roosevelt, Theodore, 1858-1919

Letter from Theodore Roosevelt to Alice Sterne Gitterman

President Roosevelt explains to Alice Sterne Gitterman that while he can call attention to the matters which concern her, as the executive he cannot pass legislation. He emphasizes that he has done all he can do, and that it is up to Congress to pass the laws she is concerned with.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1905-03-01

Creator(s)

Roosevelt, Theodore, 1858-1919

Letter from Theodore Roosevelt to Orville Hitchcock Platt

President Roosevelt informs Senator Platt that he has instructed Secretary of State John Hay to “endeavor to procure” an amendment to Article 2 of the Bering Sea Tribunal of Arbitration, per the request of several senators. Roosevelt goes on to point out that the original text of the treaty was approved in advance by the members of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations prior to to negotiation, and that a joint resolution by the House and Senate requested Roosevelt to negotiate and conclude the treaty governing the hunting of fur seals with Great Britain.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1905-02-23

Creator(s)

Roosevelt, Theodore, 1858-1919

Letter from Theodore Roosevelt to Nicholas Murray Butler

President Roosevelt tells Nicholas Murray Butler, president of Columbia University, that he wishes Professor John William Burgess would share his opinion about the right of the Senate to amend a treaty. Roosevelt decries those who claim the Senate can modify a treaty, or that the president can veto line items in an appropriation bill. 

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1905-02-18

Creator(s)

Roosevelt, Theodore, 1858-1919

Letter from Theodore Roosevelt to John St. Loe Strachey

President Roosevelt fully approves of John St. Loe Strachey’s editorial regarding lynching, murder, and corruption in the United States and hopes that growing public opinion on the matter may have “some slight…effect against the evil.” Wishing he could write more, Roosevelt briefly discusses the harm of delegating too many powers to local, instead of central, government, along with communities’ conflicting responses and tolerances. He is currently facing a dispute with the senate on arbitration treaties.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1905-01-09

Creator(s)

Roosevelt, Theodore, 1858-1919

Letter from Theodore Roosevelt to Joseph Gurney Cannon

President Roosevelt writes to Joseph Gurney Cannon, Chairman of the Notification Committee, to formally accept his nomination as the Republican presidential candidate and to approve the platform adopted by the Republican National Convention. In the letter, Roosevelt provides a comprehensive defense of his foreign and domestic policies and outlines what he believes are the major differences between the Republican and Democratic parties in the upcoming election. Roosevelt discusses, among other topics, his position on international relations, antitrust legislation, tariffs, the gold standard, pensions for Civil War veterans, the military, civil service, commerce, agriculture, taxation, and self-government in the Philippines.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-09-12

Creator(s)

Roosevelt, Theodore, 1858-1919

Letter from Charles J. Bonaparte to Theodore Roosevelt

Attorney General Bonaparte writes to President Roosevelt to follow up with him on recent conversations regarding interstate commerce and anti-trust legislation, and to put some of his positions in writing so that Roosevelt may reflect upon them more thoroughly. Bonaparte discusses a proposed change in anti-trust legislation altering the language to read “in unfair or unreasonable restraint of trade,” saying that such a change would produce major complications as it would essentially delegate a judicial duty to an executive officer or board. He also describes how the proposed changes to the law would alter the government’s ability to enforce certain parts of the law, and comments on the idea of the government giving amnesty to corporations who had previously violated anti-trust legislation in minor ways.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1908-03-12

Creator(s)

Bonaparte, Charles J. (Charles Joseph), 1851-1921

Letter from Theodore Roosevelt to Orville Hitchcock Platt

Senator Platt shares his interpretation of the treaty ratification process and subsequent arbitration process as relates to the seal hunting treaty with Great Britain.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1905-02-25

Creator(s)

Platt, Orville Hitchcock, 1827-1905

Reflections upon the president

Syracuse University Chancellor James Roscoe Day takes exception to an editorial called “The Scandal-Mongering Epoch” which stated that he “strikes no sympathetic chord in the Methodist Church” when he reflects upon the limits of presidential power. Day outlines several of his reflections that he believes should align with Methodist values and decries the role of the press in contributing to the current national mood.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1906

Creator(s)

Day, James Roscoe, 1845-1923

Roosevelt as usurper

Frederic Jesup Stimson gave a lecture at the Lowell Institute about the enumerated powers of the Executive and Legislative branches in the Constitution. Stimson argues that these powers were given to the President and Congress not to interfere with interstate commerce, but to prevent the various states from doing so. By altering the interpretation of the word “commerce” in the Constitution to include all manufacturers doing business in more than one state, President Roosevelt would radically alter the Constitution. This would insert the federal government into transactions the Constitution did not intend.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1907-11-03

Creator(s)

Unknown