Villard, Oswald Garrison, 1872-1949

Letter from Theodore Roosevelt to William Allen White

President Roosevelt understands that the clipping William Allen White sent is funny and meant in jest, but he takes exception to the implication that, along with William Jennings Bryan, Oklahoma governor Charles Nathaniel Haskell, and William Randolph Hearst, he is also a liar and a rascal. Roosevelt writes that certain “conscienceless and unscrupulous” journalists who imply that there is no difference between honest and dishonest men, are worse for public life than the worst businessmen and politicians. He believes that White is a decent journalist who does not want to confuse the public and urges him not to publish such jokes.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1908-10-07

Creator(s)

Roosevelt, Theodore, 1858-1919

Letter from Theodore Roosevelt to Henry Reuterdahl

President Roosevelt is interested in what Henry Reuterdahl has to say about the attitudes of the Sun, Herald, and Post towards the navy, and discusses his opinion on the stances of each paper. In a postscript, Roosevelt says he has received the painting of the Great White Fleet Reuterdahl has sent and is delighted with it.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1908-08-08

Creator(s)

Roosevelt, Theodore, 1858-1919

Letter from Theodore Roosevelt to Kermit Roosevelt

President Roosevelt tells his son Kermit that Secretary of War William H. Taft’s victory in the presidential election seems assured, despite the American Protective Association’s movement among Protestants who are against Taft because he is Unitarian. Roosevelt also lashes out at some of the newspaper men he says spread lies. He closes by saying he was interested in Kermit’s letter to Mother.

Collection

Harvard College Library

Creation Date

1908-10-24

Creator(s)

Roosevelt, Theodore, 1858-1919

Letter from Theodore Roosevelt to Kermit Roosevelt

President Roosevelt writes his son Kermit about how long he thinks Congress will be in session and the status of some of his bills. Roosevelt says that despite attacks from various groups and people, he has done a good job of getting his legislation through. He also adds that his ankle is still preventing him from exercising.

Collection

Harvard College Library

Creation Date

1906-06-17

Creator(s)

Roosevelt, Theodore, 1858-1919

Letter from Theodore Roosevelt to John P. Whitman

Theodore Roosevelt appreciates John P. Whitman’s letter but feels it inappropriate to write the letter to his brother, Russell R. Whitman, as requested. He suggests they meet at a club the next time they are both in New York to discuss the matter further. Roosevelt condemns much of William Randolph Hearst and his papers but finds him less loathsome than some of the other editors of New York newspapers. 

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1911-07-31

Creator(s)

Roosevelt, Theodore, 1858-1919

Letter from Theodore Roosevelt to Henry Reuterdahl

Theodore Roosevelt believes he may have to “attack” Henry Ford due to Ford’s public support of pacifism. Roosevelt does not feel Oswald Villard is worth attention.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1915-11-30

Creator(s)

Roosevelt, Theodore, 1858-1919

Letter from Theodore Roosevelt to Elbert F. Baldwin

Theodore Roosevelt thanks Elbert F. Baldwin for sending him a clipping written by Oswald Villard of the Evening Post. Roosevelt refers to Villard as a “kind of hyphenated-American whom I loathe more than anyone.” Roosevelt also discusses William Roscoe Thayer and notes his recent review of Thayer’s Life and Letters of John Hay for Harvard Graduate Magazine.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1915-10-30

Creator(s)

Roosevelt, Theodore, 1858-1919

Letter from Theodore Roosevelt to Joseph Bucklin Bishop

Theodore Roosevelt writes to Joseph Bucklin Bishop about the recent editorial in the Evening Post. Roosevelt thinks Oswald Villard, although educated, is an “utterly rotten and vile creature” and beneath other Harvard graduates in New York.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1915-10-25

Creator(s)

Roosevelt, Theodore, 1858-1919

Letter from Theodore Roosevelt to Henry Cabot Lodge

Theodore Roosevelt was pleased to hear of the publication of Lodge’s “reminiscences,” which he has been enjoying. Roosevelt addressed the military branch of the Historical Association, and he enjoyed explaining that the Bulgarians would have been harmless against the Ottoman Turks if they had been taught that questions of vital interest could be arbitrated.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1912-12-31

Creator(s)

Roosevelt, Theodore, 1858-1919

Letter from Theodore Roosevelt to Richard Watson Gilder

President Roosevelt writes Richard Watson Gilder a lengthy refutation of an article in the Evening Post in which William Garrott Brown misconstrues his actions in the Republican Party. Namely, Brown accuses Roosevelt of neglecting Republicans in the South and of doing a poor job of making nominations to local offices and positions. Roosevelt asserts that where the Republican party is not strong in the South, he has had to appoint Democrats who were quality men, rather than incapable men who are Republicans. Where he believes the party has a chance to compete with Democrats, he does all he can to support it. Roosevelt also writes that he did not use his influence on officers to get William H. Taft the nomination, but rather Taft was nominated because Roosevelt’s policies were popular, and Taft is the man who will continue those policies. Roosevelt believes that Brown is either ignorant or willfully ignorant of a number of facts.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1908-11-16

Creator(s)

Roosevelt, Theodore, 1858-1919

Letter from Theodore Roosevelt to William Dudley Foulke

While President Roosevelt agrees with William Dudley Foulke that Delavan Smith of the Indianapolis News is bad, the publishers of the New York Sun, New York World, and Evening Post are just as bad or worse. Certain newspapers publish so many lies about Roosevelt that if he were to respond to all of them, he would spend most of his time refuting lies. Roosevelt outlines several lies that have been printed about him in various papers, and invites Foulke to visit and look over the papers that prove them false. Roosevelt would like to speak with Foulke and Lucius B. Swift about whether or not he should respond to Smith and other publishers like him.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1908-10-30

Creator(s)

Roosevelt, Theodore, 1858-1919

Telegram from Theodore Roosevelt to William Dudley Foulke

President Roosevelt does not think there is any use in publishing the letter. However, he hopes that William Dudley Foulke and Lucius B. Swift will visit after the election to discuss if it is worth writing a letter to settle the matter. In such a letter, Roosevelt would take on all of the newspaper editors he takes issue with at once.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1908-10-26

Creator(s)

Roosevelt, Theodore, 1858-1919

Letter from Theodore Roosevelt to Kermit Roosevelt

President Roosevelt believes that the political situation has changed in William H. Taft’s favor since he last wrote Kermit Roosevelt. He does not understand the movement of the “ultra Protestant bigots” of the American Protective Association against Taft. He thinks that it may cost them Ohio and Indiana. Roosevelt also complains about various newspaper men from the New York Sun, New York Evening Post, Indianapolis News, and others.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1908-10-24

Creator(s)

Roosevelt, Theodore, 1858-1919

Letter from Theodore Roosevelt to William Dudley Foulke

President Roosevelt responds to William Dudley Foulke’s request to call the Indianapolis News to account for the falsehoods they are spreading. Roosevelt explains that he does not believe it will do any good, because the paper is simply on par with other papers like the New York World, New York Sun, and New York Evening Post. Such papers will simply repeat their falsehoods and spread new ones if they are corrected. Roosevelt believes that it is useless to deny false stories in the news because papers do not attempt to prove their assertions. In particular, Roosevelt mentions false stories about his raising campaign funds and the purchase of the Panama Canal.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1908-10-24

Creator(s)

Roosevelt, Theodore, 1858-1919

Letter from Theodore Roosevelt to William Dudley Foulke

President Roosevelt explains to William Dudley Foulke that he does not think that it is worth responding to the three false editorials in the Indianapolis News. This paper, under editor Delavan Smith, is just as bad as the New York Sun and New York Evening Post. Roosevelt refutes these editorials, but does not think it is worth making public; if he were to deny all of the falsehoods and stories based on rumors that were printed about him, it would take him all day, every day.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1908-10-24

Creator(s)

Roosevelt, Theodore, 1858-1919

Letter from Theodore Roosevelt to Whitelaw Reid

President Roosevelt informs Ambassador Whitelaw Reid that it appears that Secretary of War Taft will be the Republican Presidential nominee, and reflects on the arguments he has made to try to persuade people who nevertheless want Roosevelt to remain in office for another term. Roosevelt also remarks that when he feels gloomy from the renown given to “the more preposterous variety of mugwump,” who writes for magazines and is treated as a thinker, he reads articles by a British analogue. He hopes to be on safari in a year’s time.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1908-06-13

Creator(s)

Roosevelt, Theodore, 1858-1919

Letter from Theodore Roosevelt to Finley Peter Dunne

President Roosevelt sends Finley Peter Dunne three cheers, and asks him to come visit soon. Roosevelt remarks that at some point he must “have a serious talk with you about some of your present associates,” such as William Randolph Hearst or David Graham Phillips. Roosevelt wishes that “the men who profess to be most sensitive about evil conditions in public life and in the business world would themselves refrain from at least those grosser forms of wrong-doing which range from slander of what is decent to the advertisement, and therefore support, of what is indecent.”

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1906-06-18

Creator(s)

Roosevelt, Theodore, 1858-1919

Letter from Theodore Roosevelt to Lyman Abbott

President Roosevelt emphasizes that he wrote to Lyman Abbott because he trusts the Outlook more than other periodicals, listing a number of other problems and biases he sees in other prominent periodicals. Roosevelt thinks they should make it clear that “we war on the evil of human nature, whether shown in the labor man or the capitalist,” and illustrates this statement by describing how he is fighting both against capitalist organizations in enforcing government inspection of meat packing plants, as well as fighting labor unions in his prosecution of Charles H. Moyer and Big Bill Haywood, who have been accused of the assassination of ex-Governor Frank Steunenberg of Idaho. Both sides, in their respective cases, claim to want justice while working to prevent it.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1906-06-18

Creator(s)

Roosevelt, Theodore, 1858-1919

Letter from Theodore Roosevelt to Kermit Roosevelt

President Roosevelt will see his son, Kermit Roosevelt, around the Fourth of July, but does not believe he will be able to get away before then because of the schedule of Congress. Roosevelt has not been able to exercise much because of an injured ankle, but has put in plenty of work on various pieces of legislation. He remarks that the presidency is certainly a place to learn to keep his temper, as he is frequently attacked from every side of the political spectrum.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1906-06-17

Creator(s)

Roosevelt, Theodore, 1858-1919

Letter from Theodore Roosevelt to Elbert F. Baldwin

President Roosevelt takes issue with the way that certain newspapers, including the New York Times, New York Evening Post, and New York World, report on the issue of campaign funds in the last election. Roosevelt assures Elbert F. Baldwin that he has never offered favors to those who have given large sums of money to his campaigns, and that he was unaware that several corporations had donated. He also discusses whom he can trust regarding the situation between Russia and Japan. He encloses a very rough draft of his upcoming message and asks Baldwin and Lyman Abbott to make suggestions.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1905-09-20

Creator(s)

Roosevelt, Theodore, 1858-1919