Your TR Source
President Roosevelt congratulates Lieutenant Rothrock on winning the national individual match. A great responsibility for protecting the country falls on citizen soldiers like Rothrock. Even though rifles are not used in service, possessing such expert knowledge of shooting is crucial for instructing others.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1908-09-26
President Roosevelt congratulates Lieutenant Harris on his victory in the Military Rifle Championship. Although Roosevelt has also written to the two other winners, Harris’s high aggregate displays a superior excellence. Roosevelt believes all officers should be able to shoot with a rifle, especially infantry and cavalry officers.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1908-09-26
President Roosevelt asks Emily Tyler Carow if she could bring a book about Rome by Italian historian Guglielmo Ferrero, which he believes is entitled The Greatness and Decline of Rome. Roosevelt tells Carow the family is looking forward to her visit and updates her on their last days at Oyster Bay, New York.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-09-13
President Roosevelt congratulates Sergeant Berg on his victory in the President’s Match competition of the National Rifle Association. Roosevelt believes that it is essential that American men should be good soldiers and good citizens. The president is particularly proud of Berg, a national guardsman, because he has been one himself.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-09-17
President Roosevelt tells Kermit Roosevelt that he is glad that the cavalry march and chicken shoot went well. Roosevelt details various happenings in the family for Kermit, and wishes him well.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-09-06
President Roosevelt wishes Kermit Roosevelt good luck on his shooting trip. He additionally updates Kermit on Ted Roosevelt’s trip to Minnesota and on the their recent tennis matches, as well as Archie Roosevelt’s interest in sailing. Roosevelt is busy working on his speeches for the Mississippi River trip, but he is still enjoying the holiday.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-08-31
President Roosevelt is impressed with Major Brown’s ability to shoot targets at night. He remembers the good shooting Brown and Stewart Edward White did when they visited.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-08-26
President Roosevelt sends Edward McKay a photograph of him in the Rough Riders, and says he will always think of him as “one of Uncle Sam’s little boys,” and remembers him playing with Roosevelt’s son, Quentin. Roosevelt tells McKay about all the sports and activities his sons Quentin and Archie are involved in, and describes a camping trip where two bold young foxes visited the party.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-07-30
James Andrew Drain writes to President Roosevelt as president of the National Rifle Association. Drain shares his goals for the organization, which include the promotion of rifle practice. Drain would like Roosevelt to become a lifetime member of the NRA and to send a letter suitable for publication that endorses the objects and purposes of the Association.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-02-16
A boy fires a gun at the leg of another older man labeled “Teacher,” who is jumping into the air. Caption: “When the young idea is taught to shoot a la Roosevelt.”
The inspiration and point of cartoonist Hedrick’s cartoon likely is not the president’s bloodthirsty or murderous tendencies, but rather the recent Simplified Spelling controversy. Theodore Roosevelt joined the crusade, a relatively short-lived fad, to eliminate traditional Anglo-Saxon words of their apparent illogical elements. Partisans like Andrew Carnegie and Mark Twain were proponents; in Roosevelt’s case his interest might have been motivated a lifelong problem with spelling and punctuation (until he died, for instance, he invariably spelled (or spelt) the contraction “don’t” as do’n’t.” His friends and associates kidded him for advocating the fad, especially as he promulgated an executive order to government printing office — unsuccessful adopted.
Theodore Roosevelt writes his son Kermit to say he has received a letter from his friend Frederick Selous and he feels sorry for him being so unhappy. Roosevelt says that, unlike him, Selous cannot be happy just retiring to his home. He says that he is ready to send Kermit’s article “The sheep of the desert” to some publishers. Roosevelt gives updates on the family: Archie shot a crow, Quentin must have his tonsils out, and Ethel had Billy Appleton over.
1911-09-11
Theodore Roosevelt updates his sister Anna on where he is at in his travels with his brother Elliott. He reminds his sister of a list of things he needs sent to him in his travel bag. Roosevelt also describes his view of Chicago and going shooting.
1880-09-02
Theodore Roosevelt asks Johann Heinrich Bernstorff to read the enclosed letter from Stewart Edward White. Roosevelt requests Bernstorff and his government grant White’s request to shoot in Germany, and he vouches for White’s character and conduct.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1911-12-13
Theodore Roosevelt thanks L. L. Morrison for the invitation to go shooting but cannot accept. He does not plan to visit Houston, Texas, in January.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1911-11-29
Theodore Roosevelt is against spring shooting and feels that the date of possession should close concurrently with the shooting season.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1911-05-31
Theodore Roosevelt is glad to hear from C. B. Howard, but asks Howard to please refrain from quoting him. Roosevelt is concerned that if he allows himself to be quoted on every subject that interests him, his opinions will lose all power to influence. Roosevelt expresses his strong objection to “spring shooting” and hopes that it will be prohibited, but he has not given thought to the question of pump guns and he has not made a study of fish.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1911-05-05
Theodore Roosevelt supports George Wood Wingate’s plan for an organization in America supporting rifle shooting, like the groups in Switzerland, Great Britain, Argentina, Chile and elsewhere.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1915-10-05
Theodore Roosevelt writes an endorsement of James Drain to Cecil Spring Rice. Drain is a man of “great efficiency and high character.” He specializes in rifle-shooting and ordinance supplies.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1915-02-23
Theodore Roosevelt writes an endorsement of James Drain to Jean Jules Jusserand. Drain is a man of “great efficiency and high character.” He specializes in rifle-shooting and ordinance supplies, and Roosevelt finds him “honest and trustworthy.”
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1915-02-23
Theodore Roosevelt writes Henry Cabot Lodge that there are a number of Progressives who would not support William H. Taft. Roosevelt could not support Woodrow Wilson, either. The U.S. Collector of Customs is in John Campbell Greenway’s hospital, because he was shot on American soil by Mexicans.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1915-02-06