U.S. Customs Service

President Roosevelt sends the civil service commission report and the documents collected from the Port Huron custom house to Secretary of the Treasury Cortelyou, to be made public as a warning. The collector of customs there, Lincoln Avery, was either ignorant or intentionally allowing the harmful practices for ten years, and Roosevelt will now remove him along with Special Treasury Agent Charles A. Bailey.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1908-10-01

Creator(s)

Roosevelt, Theodore, 1858-1919

President Roosevelt is glad former Rough Rider Frederick W. Hawes has been transferred to the U.S. Customs Service. He praises Hawes for his previous work but strongly advises him to stop drinking.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1907-08-10

Creator(s)

Roosevelt, Theodore, 1858-1919

Henry Hall writes to E. P. McAdams attesting to U.S. Collector of Customs William F. Tebbetts’ excellent management of his office.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-12-26

Creator(s)

Hall, Henry

David G. Browne writes to Frederick Herrig to inform him that his request for blanks used in civil service examinations has been fulfilled and that Browne will have the local board examiner forward the blanks to Herrig.

Collection

Sagamore Hill National Historic Site

Creation Date

1900-03-31

Creator(s)

Browne, David G., 1859-1919

Senator Carter writes to Governor Roosevelt acknowledging his reception of Roosevelt’s recommendation for Frederick Herrig. Carter will communicate with the Collector of Customs on behalf of Herrig and Roosevelt.

Collection

Sagamore Hill National Historic Site

Creation Date

1899-12-21

Creator(s)

Carter, Thomas Henry, 1854-1911

President Roosevelt promises Senator Frye that he will investigate the reappointment of William Frye Tebbetts as collector of claims in Mobile, Alabama. However, Roosevelt is hesitant to make any firm promises since President-elect William H. Taft has his own ideas on appointments in the South.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1909-02-20

Creator(s)

Roosevelt, Theodore, 1858-1919

President Roosevelt tells former Rough Rider Adolph H. Rebentish that he has already asked the Collector of Customs to appoint two former Rough Riders, so he may not be able to appoint a third. He believes, however, that Rebentish would make an excellent inspector, and instructs Rebentish that he can use the letter as an endorsement.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1906-03-24

Creator(s)

Roosevelt, Theodore, 1858-1919

Charles Rufus Skinner thanks Theodore Roosevelt for his letter, but insists he did not request any references or commendations for a particular position. Skinner explains that, in 1906, Roosevelt appointed him Assistant Appraiser and he has since upheld his pledges in office. To make way for a reorganization, Skinner has been asked to resign and has done so, and he inquires if he has done the right thing.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1911-05-29

Creator(s)

Skinner, Charles Rufus, 1844-1928

William Loeb provides the record of William L. Speiden’s service in the U.S. Customs Service from 1870-1910.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1911-05-08

Creator(s)

Loeb, William, 1866-1937

Recipient

Speiden, William L., 1864-1914

Henry W. Taft sends a newspaper clipping to William Loeb that suggests Representative George Roland Malby would support New York Governor Charles Evans Hughes as the Republican presidential nominee. Taft recommends extending Walter C. Witherbee’s term as Plattsburg Collector of Customs to the beginning of July to avoid accusations that he was not reappointed for not backing Secretary of War William H. Taft. Since Representative Malby is in charge of appointing the Collector, he reasons that delaying until after the spring primaries will also help in ascertaining who Representative Malby actually supports.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1907-12-03

Creator(s)

Taft, Henry W. (Henry Waters), 1859-1945

William Franklin Swan announces his retirement as collector for the United States Customs Service, Port of Biloxi, Mississippi, to President Roosevelt and thanks him for the appointment.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1905-12-01

Creator(s)

Swan, William Franklin, 1848-1932

Governor Guild writes to President Roosevelt about Acting Secretary of the Treasury Robert B. Armstrong and recent public relations scandals relating to his work, including the “pickled sheepskin case,” the cigar stamps, and “reduction of the conveniences of the Port of Boston.” Guild suggests Armstrong might need to be replaced and speaks highly of the work of Deputy Collector Fiske of Boston.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-10-03

Creator(s)

Guild, Curtis, 1860-1915

Attorney General Moody provides his opinion to President Roosevelt on the question of whether the Secretary of the Treasury has the power to change the design of imported cigar stamps. Moody argues that the statutes give the Secretary the power to make these types of decisions, which are then final and considered acts of the President. Moody advises Roosevelt to ignore the appeal to change Secretary Leslie M. Shaw’s decision.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-09-28

Creator(s)

Moody, William H. (William Henry), 1853-1917

Acting Secretary of the Treasury Taylor informs William Loeb that three men—Park Agnew, E. P. McLean, and Thomas Lowry—have been asked to resign from the Republican State Central Committee of Virginia and to review requirements about “political assessments and undue political activity.”

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-09-23

Creator(s)

Taylor, Horace Adolphus, 1837-1910

Secretary of the Treasury Shaw explains to President Roosevelt the history of the imported cigar stamp and Shaw’s decision to order a new design that would be less attractive and less likely to be reused to sell domestic cigars. Shaw notes that Roosevelt has been contacted by cigar manufacturers even though the new design has not been implemented. He advises Roosevelt to wait to make a decision until Shaw can address the matter.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-09-23

Creator(s)

Shaw, Leslie M. (Leslie Mortier), 1848-1932

Republican National Committee Chairman Cortelyou tells William Loeb that members of the tobacco industry have been “camping on [his] trail for a day or two” over the question of whether boxes of cigars will be required to carry an additional stamp. He suggests Loeb assemble all the facts for President Roosevelt’s review.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-09-17

Creator(s)

Cortelyou, George B. (George Bruce), 1862-1940

Uncle Sam opens the “Protection Gate” at the “U.S. Custom House” where a sign states “Reduction of Tolls from 50 to 38 Percent. Wool, Lumber, Twine, and Fresh Fish, Free!!” The Roman god Mercury is driving a wagon labeled “Commerce,” pulled by horses labeled “Prosperity” and “Business Revival,” and loaded with such commodities as “Leather, Flour, Jute, Coal, Cotton, Steel, [and] Wool,” through the gate. Caption: Uncle Sam (to the genius of Commerce)–Those tolls ain’t as low as we want ’em; but they’re the best we can do at present. Now let business go on!

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1895-08-29

Creator(s)

Dalrymple, Louis, 1866-1905

Vignettes depict scenes from travel, including a shocked woman confronted by a “U.S. Customs” scarecrow; a distorted view of Pisa aided by “a wonderful quality of chianti”; a Dutch woman exchanging her traditional costume for the latest Parisian fashions after the tourists have gone home; a composite of images from “one of those hurried tours around the world,” compressing sites from many places into a single image/impression; ruins that remind the traveler of construction projects back home; a woman sitting on a lonely beach populated with signs for the many different “seas” she has encountered while traveling; and what may be a self-portrait of the artist sending postcards from places around the world, while never leaving home.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1914-08-29

Creator(s)

Mayer, Henry, 1868-1954

Senator Foraker encourages President Roosevelt to replace Collector of U.S. Customs in Sandusky, Ohio, Edmund H. Zurhorst, with Ohio State Senator Charles A. Judson.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-01-23

Creator(s)

Foraker, Joseph Benson, 1846-1917

George H. Lyman encloses a letter he received from Edward E. Norton, appealing for Godfrey Morse to be included in an upcoming meeting regarding the B’nai B’rith petition to be presented to Emperor Nicholas II. Lyman vouches to President Roosevelt for Morse as a Harvard man, conservative lawyer, business man, and “representative Hebrew” of the community.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1903-07-09

Creator(s)

Lyman, George H. (George Hinckley), 1850-1945