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Francis Hopkinson Smith tells Theodore Roosevelt he will gladly come and shared when he is available. Smith says the news about Woodrow Wilson, Henry Watterson, and George Brinton McClellan Harvey is the funniest political mess right now.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1911-12
President Roosevelt thanks Judge McSurley for sending him the anecdote, which made him laugh. He jokingly tells McSurley not to let Henry Watterson get ahold of it because he “will die of apoplexy.”
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1908-10-09
President Roosevelt celebrates his forty-ninth birthday with a variety of friends. In the upper left hand corner at the piano are New York Governor Charles Evans Hughes and Thomas Fortune Ryan singing, “Oh let us be joyful.” Booker T. Washington tells Henry Watterson, “Henry, I hope you’ll come down and visit me at Tuskegee.” Senator Joseph Benson Foraker says to Secretary of War William H. Taft, “I heard a good story today, Will.” Speaker of the House Joseph Gurney Cannon and Vice President Charles W. Fairbanks look at a picture of George Washington, and Fairbanks says, “That picture makes me sad. It reminds me of cherries.” William Randolph Hearst, James Roscoe Day, and Secretary of State Elihu Root look at a book of “Snapshots in New York.” William Jennings Bryan and Grover Cleveland play a game of checkers, and Bryan says, “After you, Grover.” J. Pierpont Morgan watches over the game with his hand on Bryan’s back. Henry Huttleston Rogers, F. Augustus Heinze, and Thomas William Lawson sit together. Lawson says, “Rogers, my boy, you must come over to Boston and visit me.” John D. Rockefeller points at Kenesaw Mountain Landis’s chest while President Roosevelt presents a bouquet to James J. Hill as William J. Long looks on. Finally, James T. Harahan, Edward Henry Harriman, and Stuyvesant Fish read “Snap Shots Along the Illinois Central.” Harriman remarks, “Very nice album, Stuyvesant, is it not?”
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-10-27
In one circle, President Roosevelt holds a box labeled, “Nobel Peace Prize.” In another, Andrew Carnegie cuts a paper labeled “Inheritance” that is divided in half. One side reads, “This piece is for the children,” and the other reads, “This piece is to be returned to the ‘community.'” In the last circle, Henry Watterson faces Roosevelt and holds a bag with a tag, “To Europe,” and a paper sticking out that says “T.R. is all right.” Two men are outside the circles with a paper that says, “We got ours,” while a government clerk looks through a telescope at the number “20%.”
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-12-17
In one vignette, Henry Gassaway Davis puts his hand on West Virginia Senator Stephen B. Elkins’s shoulder. Caption: Mr. Davis—That it’s all in the family. In the second, an elephant holds President Roosevelt’s hold “to victory.” Caption: G.O.P.—That it had a strenuous leader. In the third, William Jennings Bryan sits by a grave with a headstone that reads, “Safe & Sane Democrat 1904.” Caption: Mr. Bryan—That it wasn’t his friends. In the fourth, Missouri Senator Francis Marion Cockrell stands by “national esteem” wreaths outside the “White House.” Caption: Mr. Cockrell—That it’s an ill wind, etc. In the fifth, Henry Watterson sits in a rocking chair on a boat bound for Europe. Caption: Mr. Watterson—That there’s another country. In the sixth, a badly beaten donkey stands up by a sign that reads, “Under no circumstances will I again be a candidate for the presidency. T. Roosevelt.” Caption: Democracy—That there’s a ray of sunshine.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1904-11-24
“Corbin How about Watterson? TR / Alaska boundary report on / Army moral report”
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1902-03-25
The Democratic Donkey, as a woman, sits in a pew in a church with William Jennings Bryan preaching “Jeffersonian Simplicity” from a pulpit. On Bryan’s left are Alton B. Parker, Henry Watterson, and William Randolph Hearst, and among those on his right are New York City Mayor George B. McClellan Jr., former Representative Tom Watson of Georgia, Representative John Sharp Williams of Mississippi, and Senator “Pitchfork Ben” Tillman. All are preaching except Hearst, who righteously looks up to the heavens. In the background, the sun illuminates a stained glass window labeled “Our Thomas” and showing Thomas Jefferson. In a far corner of the church, Grover Cleveland is asleep. Caption: The Democratic Donkey (drowsily) — He-e-e Haw! What a lot of ways to be saved!
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1905-05-10
An elderly woman labeled “Democracy” stands next to a trunk labeled “Old Issues” and with a tag that states “To the White House.” Standing at the curb are several cab drivers labeled “Parker, Olney, Johnson, Shepard, Gorman, [and] Watterson” hoping to pick up a fare, and two other drivers labeled “Cleveland” and “Bryan” sitting on their carriages. Cleveland does not appear interested, though Bryan, on his cab labeled “16 to 1,” holding up his hat, calls out above the others.
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1903-12-09
Several men, identified as “Hill, Jones, Olney, Clark, Bailey, Shepard, Watterson, [and] Lamont,” carry planks of lumber which are identified as Democratic policies from previous election platforms and proposed new planks. As they construct the new “Democratic Platform,” Puck points to a plank they have forgotten, “Tariff Reform,” which sits on a platform in the background on the right. In the background on the left stands William Jennings “Bryan” holding a “Free Silver” plank of rotten wood. Caption: Puck — You are neglecting the only plank you ever did win with, – and the only one you ever can win with!
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1902-04-16
The Democratic Party platform is in flames with a donkey labeled “Democratic Party” rising from the flames as the mythological phoenix. Eleven Democratic Party members have gathered around the fire to supplicate the supernatural being. Caption: The Democratic Phoenix. — If they’d just keep that Bryan boy from playing around me with matches I wouldn’t have to do this stunt every four years.
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1901-01-02
Illustration shows two views of William Jennings Bryan sitting at a desk working on his campaign principles. The lower scene shows Bryan preparing for the 1896 presidential election. To the right are Carl Schurz, Henry Watterson, William Bourke Cockran, Richard Olney, and David B. Hill, all in disagreement with Bryan, each holding a sheet of paper disclaiming his principles. In the upper scene, Bryan has crossed out 1896 and replaced it with 1900, adhering to, and remaining consistent with, his earlier principles. To the right are the same five disclaimers. This time they bow to Bryan and offer only one comment: “We do not believe you will do what you promise to do, and we admire you because we think you are insincere. Hill, Olney, Cockran, Watterson, Schurz.”
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1900-10-24
President Roosevelt would like to replace Henry Watterson with L. Clark Davis on the Board of Visitors to the Military Academy.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1902-04-28
Ida B. Hiltz informs Theodore Roosevelt that he was elected as an Honorary Vice President of the American Association for the Conservation of Vision by its board of managers, alongside several other notable figures. Hiltz urges him to lend his name to the organization, which works toward the prevention of blindness.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1911-05-25
Ida M. Tarbell appreciates Theodore Roosevelt’s opinion on the sketch of James Gordon Bennett. However, she still defends his inclusion in the “Interesting People” exhibit and Henry Watterson’s writing.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1911-05-02
Tarbell, Ida M. (Ida Minerva), 1857-1944
Asa M. Steele reports that Wall Street forces hostile to President Roosevelt are planning to precipitate a panic. He urges Roosevelt to consider running for president, because the current Republican contenders do not have his popularity or support from the people.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1908-04-14
Francis B. Loomis writes to President Roosevelt about the upcoming return of Secretary of State Root from his Pan-American visit. Loomis calls it an “important international event” that is receiving much press coverage. He hopes Root’s return is met with equal fanfare. Loomis envisions a homecoming event that is national and bipartisan, and suggests names for speakers and organizations to involve.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-09-20
In a chapter titled “A Most Just and Proper Revolution,” taken from the second volume of his biography of Theodore Roosevelt, Theodore Rex, Edmund Morris details the machinations in Washington, D.C. and Panama that resulted in the revolution against Colombian rule on the Isthmus and the establishment of the independent nation of Panama. Morris describes the careful actions and words of administration figures like Roosevelt and Secretary of State John Hay, and he charts the movement of ships of the United States Navy sent in support of the insurrection. Morris adds to his Panama narrative interludes about the November 1903 elections in the United States, Roosevelt’s visit to Sagamore Hill, and his compilation of a reading list.
Theodore Roosevelt Association Journal
2001
Aloysius A. Norton contends that Theodore Roosevelt “was able to think as a man and as a woman” because he had a strong sense of intuition that he often used to make decisions. Norton argues that the intuitive sense is most often identified with women and with the right side of the brain, but Norton says that Roosevelt made use of both sides of his brain, and he cites writers and thinkers who have studied the topic as well as contemporaries of Roosevelt such as William Allen White.
Theodore Roosevelt Association Journal
1991
John H. Vivian examines the controversy that swirled around President Theodore Roosevelt’s executive order of August 1906 mandating a simplified form of spelling in certain government documents. He looks at the reaction of newspapers from around the country, and says that their initial reactions were overdone but were later tempered. He also examines the reaction from some agencies of the federal government, and notes opposition to the plan in Congress that centered less on concerns about spelling and more on Roosevelt’s use of executive power.
This article is also noteworthy as it is the first article in the Theodore Roosevelt Association Journal to have endnotes.
The Lincoln Farm Association invites Theodore Roosevelt to attend the dedication of the Lincoln Memorial Hall. Includes a card about special trains, an invitation from Governor Augustus Everett Willson, and a list of officers and trustees of the Lincoln Farm Association.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1911-11-09