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Assistant Secretary of the Navy Roosevelt sends Maria Longworth Storer’s amusing letter to Alice Lee. He feels things worked out for the best for the Storers. Roosevelt comments on the Police Board changes. A. T. Mahan’s recent article is noble, as are those of Hilary A. Herbert and John Robert Procter.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1897-09-03
Senator Lodge wants to do all he can to save the battleship legislation and thanks Theodore Roosevelt for writing to Senator Clapp. He is angered by the publication of a private letter by Maria Longworth Storer from Roosevelt.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1912-06-01
David B. Ogden thanks President Roosevelt for his letter and its enclosures. Ogden says Francis Augustus MacNutt did not earn his admiration until after the situation arose. Ogden promises to adhere to Roosevelt’s instructions about the letters.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-12-15
Representative Longworth acknowledges the importance of the appointment of the collector at Toledo by President Roosevelt, not in itself but as an indication of who will be consulted on such appointments in future. Longworth will wait to update Roosevelt on political conditions in Ohio until they meet in Washington, D.C. He details Alice Roosevelt Longworth’s travel plans and relays that she was disappointed that Roosevelt did not receive her letter. He jokes about Aunt Ia’s (i.e. Maria Longworth Storer) new edition of Roosevelt’s letters.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-05-16
President Roosevelt provides Secretary of State Root information regarding a pamphlet that Bellamy Storer sent to the members of the cabinet. Storer did not give a full account of the events that led up to his dismissal from his ambassadorial post. Roosevelt seeks to address this by including the text of letters between himself and the Storers.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-12-02
Maria Longworth Storer asks to be sent as special envoy to a wedding in Madrid.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-11-30
Bellamy Storer writes to President Roosevelt asking him to consider the facts, which Storer has enclosed as a statement of points, regarding his dismissal from diplomatic service. The dismissal was based on the grounds that both Storer’s conduct, in his capacity as an American ambassador, and his wife Maria Longworth Storer’s conduct in Rome, blurred the lines of public office and personal opinion regarding the promotion of Archbishop John Ireland to Cardinal. Storer defends his actions, including full and partial correspondence between those chiefly involved, to prove that he was acting in his public capacity at the request of President Roosevelt, which Roosevelt now denies. Storer is aggrieved that he was dismissed before his letter of resignation could have reached Washington since he was on leave in Egypt at the time he received Roosevelt’s request for his resignation.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-11-18
President Roosevelt has directed Acting Secretary of State Bacon to answer one particular point in Bellamy Storer’s letter. Roosevelt’s letter of December 11 was not a personal, private letter but rather a communication between officials of the United States. Storer was supposed to read the accompanying letter and pass it on to his wife, Maria Longworth Storer, who was to take “certain definite action” to prevent the severance of Storer’s post in diplomatic service. She did not fulfill these conditions and Bacon finds it difficult to count Storer’s lack of reply to Roosevelt’s letter as mere “folly.”
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-09-10
B. Storer, former Minister to Spain, endeavors to fully and frankly answer Francis Augustus MacNutt’s inquiry. He reports that President Roosevelt, then Civil Service Commissioner, and Senator Henry Cabot Lodge communicated the manner and reason for Macnutt’s departure from the diplomatic service in 1892 or 1893. Storer assumed it to be “absolutely sound authority” as Roosevelt and Lodge spoke of it openly and in positives terms. He believes Minister to Spain Archibald Loudon Snowden initially reported on MacNutt’s departure.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-09-01
William H. Taft makes a copy of a portion of a letter explaining a recent letter to Maria Longworth Storer. Storer had sent Taft letters from John Ireland and Salvatore Cortesi in order to explain why she did not reply to President Roosevelt’s letter.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-07-24
William M. Laffan explains a recent encounter with Maria Longworth Storer and Bellamy Storer that involved a cable from President Roosevelt.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-04-08
Eugene A. Philbin acknowledges receipt of President Roosevelt’s letter with information on the “Storer incident.” Philbin writes that he will be able to communicate with Roosevelt more on the incident in the future and believes that its solution will be agreeable to Roosevelt’s stance.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-04-06
John Ireland writes to President Roosevelt about the misunderstanding between Roosevelt and the Bellamy Storers. Ireland states that the President will “have no trouble hence forth” from Maria Longworth Storer. He hopes that Bellamy Storer will continue to serve in his ambassadorial position in Vienna. He also advocates for the Storers to be selected as the United States official representatives at the wedding of Alfonso XII of Spain.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-02-19
State Department memo regarding the potential arrival of the Storers from Vienna, most likely referring to Ambassador Storer and his wife Maria Longworth Storer.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-02-03
The writer criticizes Theodore Roosevelt’s recent selections for postmaster and judge in Washington, D.C., and states both men are “Romanists.”
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-04-22
An article in the California Christian Advocate has published an article discussing Maria Longworth Storer’s attempt to secure President Roosevelt’s endorsement in a “scheme” to convince Pope Pius X to appoint Archbishop John Ireland a cardinal. Roosevelt did not give his endorsement because it would be improper to interfere in the official business of the Catholic church. Nonetheless, Storer “caused the impression to be conveyed to the pope that the President desired Ireland” for the cardinal position, although Pope Pius X denies this. The writer of the article believes Roosevelt to be “so open-minded, so sincere, so frank, that the Roman church has found him an easy mark for its schemes.” The writer goes on to accuse Rome of “defying” the President by trying to prevent the recall of Ambassador Storer.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-04-22
William H. Taft warns President Roosevelt that Bellamy and Maria Longworth Storer are about to descend on him. While Taft likes Mrs. Storer and thinks her an admirable woman, she is indiscreet. Taft will be giving an address at Notre Dame University in October, but if the President thinks it unwise, politically, for Taft to speak at a Catholic university, he will postpone until after the election.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1904-09-02
Dr. John Allen Gable, Executive Director of the Theodore Roosevelt Association, offers an address at Richland College giving an overview of the five phases he sees in the historiography of Theodore Roosevelt. Moving from the early hero-worship of Roosevelt in the years after his death, Gable sees historical opinion vary between critical perspectives of Roosevelt and more favorable representations, frequently moving in conjunction with the issues of the era the author is writing in. The most contemporary era, Gable believes, is a revival of Roosevelt’s reputation and scholarship. Further developments in the field of Roosevelt studies, Gable believes, will come from a stronger holistic understanding of the various facets of Roosevelt’s personality. Throughout his address Gable relies on a number of instances from Roosevelt’s life to illustrate his points, including the Venezuela Crisis, the Storer Controversy, and the 1912 Assassination Attempt.
For more information on some of the episodes in Theodore Roosevelt’s life that Dr. Gable mentions, see the Theodore Roosevelt Center’s encyclopedia articles on the Dear Maria Controversy, the Venezuela Debt Crisis and Roosevelt Corollary, or some of the multiple blog posts and articles about the political campaign of 1912, John Flammang Schrank and his attempt to assassinate Theodore Roosevelt.
Dr. John Allen Gable, Executive Director of the Theodore Roosevelt Association, offers an address at Richland College giving an overview of the five phases he sees in the historiography of Theodore Roosevelt. Moving from the early hero-worship of Roosevelt in the years after his death, Gable sees historical opinion vary between critical perspectives of Roosevelt and more favorable representations, frequently moving in conjunction with the issues of the era the author is writing in. The most contemporary era, Gable believes, is a revival of Roosevelt’s reputation and scholarship. Further developments in the field of Roosevelt studies, Gable believes, will come from a stronger holistic understanding of the various facets of Roosevelt’s personality. Throughout his address Gable relies on a number of instances from Roosevelt’s life to illustrate his points, including the Venezuela Crisis, the Storer Controversy, and the 1912 Assassination Attempt.
For more information on some of the episodes in Theodore Roosevelt’s life that Dr. Gable mentions, see the Theodore Roosevelt Center’s encyclopedia articles on the Dear Maria Controversy, the Venezuela Debt Crisis and Roosevelt Corollary, or some of the multiple blog posts and articles about the political campaign of 1912, John Flammang Schrank and his attempt to assassinate Theodore Roosevelt.
David B. Ogden insists on the innocence of Francis Augustus MacNutt, his cousin Margaret van Cortlandt Ogden MacNutt’s husband. Ogden notes MacNutt’s neighbors spoke highly of him and that Maria Longworth Storer’s statement was only believed because she stated that President Roosevelt was the authority for it. Ogden does not understand how the president has any personal knowledge of MacNutt’s disloyalty and argues against Roosevelt’s supposed position.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-12-12