Whig Party (U.S.)

Henry P. Curtis describes a recent publication on European natural history that he believes Theodore Roosevelt might be interested in. He explains how many towns were named after the animals that once resided there, such as Wolverhampton (wolves).

Curtis also shares with Roosevelt that his father was a Whig, while Curtis is a Republican. He expresses admiration for Senator John Sherman, discusses his political adversaries, and wishes that Sherman, Alexander Hamilton, and Daniel Webster could have been presidents.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Theodore Roosevelt regrets that he cannot attend the mass convention and moose barbeque in Michigan to which Harold G. High invited him. Roosevelt expresses confidence that Michigan, which saw the foundation of the Republican Party, will support the Progressive Party, which is now doing the work of Abraham Lincoln. Roosevelt compares Lincoln’s departure from the Whig Party to his own departure from the Republican Party, which he sees as dragged down by bosses like Senator Guggenheim, Boies Penrose, and William Barnes.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1912-08-13

Theodore Roosevelt is pleased by Albert Shaw’s writing in the Review of Reviews. Roosevelt discusses his views of the Progressive Party as a new party comparable to the Republican Party after it broke away from the Whig Party. Roosevelt discusses the Progressive Party running as a third party and also agrees with Shaw about the Vice-Presidency.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1912-08-03

Theodore Roosevelt comments on John St. Loe Strachey’s editorials on Roosevelt’s attempts as governor of New York, as president, and as a political figure to “strengthen the bonds of good will, regard, and sympathy” between the United States and England. He also talks on his former statements about the office of the presidency – how, if he had explicitly stated that he did not believe in a president’s holding a consecutive third term, then all his enemies would have believed he was announcing his bid for a second term before the first had finished. Likewise, Roosevelt believes that he could not honorably back out of his current presidential campaign due to a desire for moderate progress akin to George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, William Pitt, Thomas Babington Macaulay, and the Whigs of the reform bill.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1912-03-26

Senator Lodge is glad to hear of Judge Horace H. Lurton’s opinions; Lodge is most concerned at present with the difference between nationalists and separatists. Lodge would like to see a judge on the bench who holds the views of Alexander Hamilton and John Marshall not Thomas Jefferson and John C. Calhoun. He would someday like to see Attorney General Moody in the Supreme Court. Lodge closes with a discussion of his anxiety regarding the campaign in Maine.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1906-09-10

Henry Cabot Lodge spoke with Attorney General Moody about the platform he is preparing for the Republican State Convention. During their conversation, Lodge learned that President Roosevelt is thinking about appointing Democratic Judge Horace H. Lurton to the Supreme Court. Lodge has strong feelings that the Republican Party should only appoint Republican judges. As a Hamiltonian in his beliefs on the Constitution, he worries about appointing a “strict constructionist who inherits the separatist tradition.” Lodge concludes with some comments about William Jennings Bryan, the beef trust, and “the silver question,” also called bimetallism.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1906-09-01

William D. Washburn offers President Roosevelt his views on the matter of tariff reform. He has heard that, as the result of a meeting between Speaker of the House Joseph Cannon, James Sherman, and Roosevelt, the issue of revision of the tariff is not going to be a campaign issue. Washburn argues against this, saying that in the states of the Mississippi River Valley, and in Minnesota in particular, the tariff is still an important issue that deserves to be addressed. He points out that when the Whig party dismissed the issue of slavery, a new party rose up to address it and killed off the old one. If the Republican party ignores the issue of the tariff, history could repeat itself.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1906-08-09

David C. Outlear thanks the members of the New York County Colored Republican Organization for electing him as president to the newly established Republican Organization. He hopes to bring together African American Republicans to defeat Democrats who have been turning Republicans to their side. Outlear hopes their organization will be able to work with the “regular Republican organization” to maintain Republican influence and success. The article includes a photograph of Outlear.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1911-09-30

Theodore Roosevelt tells George von Lengerke Meyer he is not sure there is anything to be done to make things better in politics. Roosevelt believes Republican leaders “stole the nomination” in Chicago, Illinois, and that such action “creates a train of evil consequences so extensive that it is almost impossible by any single act afterwards to undo the evil.” It was extraordinary to see men such as Bishop William Lawrence and President A. Lawrence Lowell of Harvard University “explicitly or implicitly, endorse the lowest forms of political immorality.” Roosevelt compares the Progressive platform to that of Abraham Lincoln and the early Republicans, and accuses the men who object to these principles of being the “spiritual heirs of the Cotton Whigs.” He believes that what happened in Chicago makes it likely that Woodrow Wilson and the Democratic Party will win the fall presidential election. When Roosevelt returns, he would like for Meyer and Frank B. Kellogg to visit him.

Collection

Massachusetts Historical Society

Creation Date

1913-10-07