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President Roosevelt tells Judge Jones that he received the copy of The Montgomery Advertiser. He was just speaking with a “high-minded man” who was surprised the New York papers had declined to support Jones because they only wanted to show what the administration was doing wrong. Roosevelt wants to schedule a meal with Jones.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-09-09
President Roosevelt thinks that it is “a wicked thing” for the idea of adding about one Japanese child to every Californian school to jeopardize relations between the United States and Japan, whether or not the schools have the constitutional right to deny the children admittance. He also hopes that Japan will propose a reciprocal agreement in which American laborers will be kept out of Japan and vice versa.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-01-09
President Roosevelt appreciates James D. Andrews’s letter and gift of ornithologist Alexander Wilson’s works. He agrees with Andrews that the Supreme Court needs to create a clear boundary between the power of the states and the federal government.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-12-26
James Kennedy reminds Theodore Roosevelt of a previous letter he sent containing a speech he gave to Congress about railroad legislation. He resends a copy, and asks that Roosevelt carefully consider and respond to it, as it is relevant to a recent decision made.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1911-09-18
Silas McBee agrees to come to dinner and appreciates the opportunity to see Ambassador James Bryce. McBee praises Roosevelt’s address before the Harvard Union, especially his description of state’s rights.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-02-19
Judge Amidon asks Judge Purdy about where he can find the full speech that President Roosevelt gave at Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Amidon explains that he will be delivering the address at the next meeting of the American Bar Association, and he would like to speak to the recent criticisms of Roosevelt and Secretary of State Elihu Root. He quotes a variety of former politicians and justices to make the point that state issues have become important on a national scale. Amidon believes the Constitution should be interpreted liberally and “should respond only to the deep, abiding, organic things of the nation’s life.”
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-02-08
David Starr Jordan thinks that if Americanism is the true motto of the country, then Japanese immigrants who meet all the qualifications should be naturalized as citizens. President Roosevelt and his administration have been successful in preventing the creation of a “Jim Crow” class while also protecting America’s dignity in interacting with Japan. Even in interfering in local matters, it has only been limited to when there are possible constitutional violations at stake, like when the local school board in San Francisco made their ruling about the Japanese school-aged children. There are definite economic advantages to maintaining trade with Asia, but an influx of immigration to the United States does raise some valid concerns along economic and social lines.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-01-03
John William Burgess, a prominent American political scientist, reports to President Roosevelt on the success of the Roosevelt Professorship, and the exchange program, at Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universita¨t Berlin. Burgess describes the impact of his inaugural address as Roosevelt Professor, that it was pre-approved by both the Prussian Ministry of Education and by Emperor Wilhelm II’s former tutor Georg Hinzpeter, and well-received by the Germans and by the Emperor himself. He says those who objected were Americans and Englishmen who oppose friendship between the United States and Germany. He says this press completely misrepresented what was said through the “journalistic hysteria” that was published in American papers. Burgess reports that the Roosevelt Professorship is now “on a foundation which cannot be shaken.” Burgess also expresses his view the issue of states’ rights and federal treaties, namely that the Constitution gives the president treaty-making powers which the citizens of the states are bound by just as they are to laws of Congress.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-12-18
Vice President Charles W. Fairbanks, Secretary of State Elihu Root, Secretary of War William H. Taft, and Speaker of the House Joseph Gurney Cannon — all depicted like chickens — and a large mother hen labeled “Roosevelt’s policies” squawk at a duck depicting Philander C. Knox in the pool of “states’ rights.”
If Philander C. Knox was not an ugly duckling in the Republican Party of his day, his close relationship with Theodore Roosevelt made him an odd duck in Roosevelt’s circle.
President Roosevelt, dressed in a Harvard boxing uniform, hits a boxing bag labeled “States’ Rights.”
President Roosevelt’s recent speech to the Harvard Union: ostensibly on athletics, although largely devoted to football, was enough of a thread for the cartoonist “June,” whose real identity is lost to posterity, on which to hang a political-cartoon idea.
Uncle Sam sits in a chair smoking a pipe as a man labeled “California” and “States Rights” pleads with him. On a map of the United States in the background, an explosion appears over California; and newspapers in the foreground display headlines like “President’s Message Stirs Up Storm in San Francisco” and “California Dissatisfied.”
The year 1906 was possibly the busiest of President Roosevelt’s presidency. It was the high-water mark of the Muckrakers, the journalists, authors, and reformers who explosively attacked corruption in American business and finance. Congress passed many reform laws, and the administration promulgated many regulations, in many areas of American life from conservation to corporate affairs. The president engaged himself in battles with trust moguls like Edward Henry Harriman (whom the president called an unfit citizen); and other magnates like John D. Rockefeller had to defend themselves in lawsuits. Roosevelt’s own affairs included the Simplified Spelling and “Nature Fakir” crusades; and the controversy over dismissed Black soldiers in Brownsville, Texas, occupied his attention.
President Roosevelt appreciates Judge Cleland’s letter and the enclosed paper, but as he has already strongly called it to the attention of Congress, he is not sure what he can do about the matter. Roosevelt notes that in a discussion of criminal reform, procedure does not currently take into account the offender’s family. Roosevelt would support physical punishment for certain types of crime, such as physical abuse. He agrees with Cleland that the matters he discussed could be reached through the Federal government, but that people in favor of states’ rights object.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1908-10-21
President Roosevelt thanks Seth Low for the letters. He believes that the Southern states demand northerners give them the liberty they deserve but refuse northerners the same freedoms.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1905-09-08
William T. Hughes sends Theodore Roosevelt a copy of his book, saying that Roosevelt’s “bold and progressive” statements about the necessity of “a government unhampered by state rights” inspired him while he was writing it. In particular, Hughes believes that unsettled laws, “a demoralizing judiciary,” and unfair taxation lead to disturbances of public peace.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1911-02-08
If Gifford Pinchot cannot get the names engraved, he will send the bronze lion to Theodore Roosevelt. Though Roosevelt has doubts, Pinchot remains confident in the strength of progressive feeling in the nation but agrees that the Republican Party may be beaten in the New York state elections. Regardless of the outcome, Pinchot feels that Roosevelt can afford to be beaten on progressive issues but “cannot afford not to make the fight.”
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1910-08-18
Judge Speer encloses a list of United States judges who will likely be appointed by Democratic nominee William Jennings Bryan. He explains to President Roosevelt the ramifications of having Bryan potentially nominating a large number of justices to federal courts at various levels. The Bryan judges would likely jeopardize peonage laws and the Employers Liability Act, among other things. Democrat-appointed judges would shift jurisprudence to favor states’ rights over federal authority.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1908-10-26
John Allison warns President Roosevelt of some “clouds … in the political skies.” Allison predicts that several states will send delegates to the Republican Convention for Roosevelt rather than the currently existing field, and he thinks that there are many districts that William H. Taft will not be able to carry. He recognizes Roosevelt’s delicate position, and thinks that no matter what happens to Roosevelt in the election he is a winner. Allison advises Roosevelt to not speak any more on potential delegates, as it is a State’s rights question. He also comments on the state of the Republican Party in Tennessee, and advises Roosevelt to not put anyone from Tennessee on the ticket for Vice President. He hopes Alice Roosevelt Longworth recovers from her operation quickly.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-12-12
Judge Lurton supports Judge Jones and his opinions on a series of rate cases he had recently handled. While Jones’s decisions have been controversial, Lurton assures Jones that his decision was necessary to preserve the balance between federal and state powers, as he also believes the cases in question clearly fell under federal and not state jurisdiction.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-11-18
New Mexico Territory Governor George Curry notifies President Roosevelt that he objects to Ormsby McHarg’s interference in matters over which he has no authority, as the Department of Justice has no right to give orders to subordinate Territorial officials as McHarg has done in the Pennsylvania Development Company case.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-10-31
In his review of Josh Hawley’s Theodore Roosevelt: Preacher of Righteousness, Harry N. Lembeck stresses Hawley’s contention that Theodore Roosevelt was always more than just a man of action, and he refers to Roosevelt as “a deep political thinker.” Lembeck relays points from Hawley’s study, including Roosevelt’s desire to greatly strengthen the federal government to insure the rights of Americans in the twentieth century. Lembeck takes issue with Hawley’s focus on race, and with his use of the term “racialism,” and Lembeck admits to Roosevelt’s shortcomings on issues such as condemning and stopping lynching.