Your TR Source
Text of the speech given by President Roosevelt at the opening of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition in which Roosevelt discusses the history and reasons for American expansion.
Sagamore Hill National Historic Site
1903-04-30
Thomas Alexander Wood, Grand Commander of the Indian War Veterans, writes to Governor Roosevelt asking for help in the passage of House Bill 53 and Senate Bill 340, which would provide benefits for Veterans of the Indian Wars.
Sagamore Hill National Historic Site
1900-02-10
Arnold White writes about the international situation in Europe, addressing first Russia’s desire for a warm water port, and then his impression of Germany’s goals with regards to Europe. Germany, White says, is the only nation with something to gain from a European war, and that the push for war is coming from the Jewish influence in Germany. With President Roosevelt’s election and friendship towards Germany, the United States has been removed as a potential deterrent toward German aggression. White ends with a prediction that if war happens, it will come through German aggression towards the Netherlands moving towards a collision with Great Britain, and he admonishes his reader that Germany must be watched.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1905-04
Secretary to the President Loeb encloses the requested signed quotations from President Roosevelt. The quotations are on Roosevelt’s opinion of Confederate General Robert E. Lee and national memory of the Civil War more broadly, praise of white backwoodsmen’s use of guns and axes in North American western expansion and imperialism, ideal gender roles for men and women, and the need for national commitment to “the life of strenuous endeavor.”
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-03-09
Theodore Roosevelt declines an invitation to attend the National Irrigation Congress in El Paso. Roosevelt believes that irrigation is essential for national expansion.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1904-10-10
President Roosevelt explains to Henry W. Taft that the federal government needs to tackle trusts and monopolies because using common law is not possible, and Senator Philander C. Knox, Attorney General William H. Moody, Secretary of the Treasury Leslie M. Shaw, and Secretary of War William H. Taft all agree that the action is constitutional. Regarding American expansion in the Philippines and Cuba, Roosevelt states that Cuba has a measure of independence but not in its entirety, and that similar measures could be taken in the Philippines with certain safety precautions.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1904-09-28
Secretary of State Root records an interview he conducted with Special Envoy Tang Shaoyi of China. Much of what was discussed involved the indemnity payments that China had been forced to pay following the Boxer Rebellion, and the return of these payments by the United States to China to be used for educational purposes. Additional subjects include adjustments to the tariff, the situation in Manchuria, and the Chinese Eastern Railway.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1908-12-09
Manuscript summarizing the westward expansion and development of the United States. The text was created as part of a contest to decide on an inscription to be placed at Mount Rushmore.
Unknown
Poetic timeline of the history of the United States which marks significant dates in the formation of the country.
1934-06-11
Theodore Roosevelt thanks members of the Arctic Brotherhood for the greeting and gifts. According to Roosevelt, men who questioned the expansion of the country during the Louisiana Purchase and the conflict with the Philippines were proved wrong. Alaska is seen as an area with great potential. Roosevelt specifically speaks of the agricultural and pastoral potential within the state.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1903-05-23
President Roosevelt addresses representatives of the Methodist Church gathered in Carnegie Hall on the bicentennial of John Wesley’s birth. He opens by noting that it is in the United States that the Methodist Church has grown the most, starting from about the time of the Revolutionary War. The Methodist Church has also played “a peculiar and prominent part in the pioneer growth” of the country, particularly in westward expansion. Methodist preachers and ministers served as a moral guide for the frontiersmen and women to help them conquer both the “forces of spiritual evil” and the hostile terrain of the frontier. Roosevelt urges the church of the present day to show the same spirit of courage and determination as these earlier pioneers in order to advance humanity, kindliness, and brotherhood within the nation.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1903-02-26
President Roosevelt addresses representatives of the Methodist Church gathered in Carnegie Hall on the bicentennial of John Wesley’s birth. He opens by noting that it is in the United States that the Methodist Church has grown the most, starting from about the time of the Revolutionary War. The Methodist Church has also played “a peculiar and prominent part in the pioneer growth” of the country, particularly in westward expansion. Methodist preachers and ministers served as a moral guide for the frontiersmen and women to help them conquer both the “forces of spiritual evil” and the hostile terrain of the frontier. Roosevelt urges the church of the present day to show the same spirit of courage and determination as these earlier pioneers in order to advance humanity, kindliness, and brotherhood within the nation. This is a press copy of his speech with edits marked in pencil.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1903-02-26
President Roosevelt addresses representatives of the Methodist Church gathered in Carnegie Hall on the bicentennial of John Wesley’s birth. He opens by noting that it is in the United States that the Methodist Church has grown the most, starting from about the time of the Revolutionary War. The Methodist Church has also played “a peculiar and prominent part in the pioneer growth” of the country, particularly in westward expansion. Methodist preachers and ministers served as a moral guide for the frontiersmen and women to help them conquer both the “forces of spiritual evil” and the hostile terrain of the frontier. Roosevelt urges the church of the present day to show the same spirit of courage and determination as these earlier pioneers in order to advance humanity, kindliness, and brotherhood within the nation. This is a press copy of his speech.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1903-02-26
President Roosevelt speaks to the citizens of Indianapolis and thanks them for their greeting. He discusses his travels and expansionism. Roosevelt also discusses the character of the American people.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1903-06-04
Governor Roosevelt responds to questions raised by William Jennings Bryan regarding trusts, expansion of the military, and Filipino policy. He defends the Republican’s trust policy, an army of 100,000 men, and the legitimacy of the acquisition of the Philippines. Two copies, one with handwritten revisions.
1900-10-12
A large African man is leaning against a tree, asleep. Several European countries are staking claims to portions of Africa, planting flags labeled “England, Portugal, Belgium, Turkey, Italy, Germany, Spain, [and] France” all around the sleeping man. Caption: Cutting a continent out from under him.
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1911-10-25
Governor Roosevelt thanks William Tudor for his letter and is glad he approves of his decision. The only thing that would make Roosevelt anti-expansionist is if he felt America could not manage the new colonies.
1900-02-23
Abbott Lawrence Lowell writes to President Roosevelt to discuss expanding American interests into undeveloped areas. He speaks specifically of Canada, west of the Great Lakes.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1903-06-12
Basil Wilson Duke, a Confederate officer during the American Civil War, commends Theodore Roosevelt on his biography of Thomas Hart Benton.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1888-05-19