Yerkes, John Watson, 1854-1922

Letter from Theodore Roosevelt to Charles J. Bonaparte

President Roosevelt agrees with Attorney General Bonaparte on the appointment of Assistant Attorney General Marsden C. Burch in the Idaho land fraud case. On the New Mexico issue, Roosevelt details Attorney General William H. H. Llewellyn’s rise as an attorney. In light of Judge James H. Beatty’s letter, Roosevelt feels there is no need to be involved. Although Roosevelt does not trust rumors, it does seem based on recent behavior that Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis may be suffering a breakdown. In a post script, Roosevelt comments on William Randolph Hearst’s recent supposed sympathy toward Bonaparte after his siding with Wall Street. In Roosevelt’s view, the recurrent rumor about Bonaparte resigning to appease financiers has actually shown the public that Bonaparte alarms those who are corrupt.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1907-08-31

Letter from Theodore Roosevelt to Charles J. Bonaparte

President Roosevelt enjoyed visiting with Attorney General Bonaparte and agrees with his views of United States District Attorney N. M. Ruick and Senator William Edgar Borah. In a postscript, Roosevelt discusses how Ruick has been “playing a sharp, clever, tricky game” and hopes Francis J. Heney can take over. Roosevelt shares his thoughts on the situation in New Mexico.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1907-08-12

Letter from Albert J. Beveridge to Theodore Roosevelt

Senator Beveridge answers President Roosevelt’s letter regarding a successor to Internal Revenue Commissioner John Watson Yerkes. Beveridge had hoped for someone from his own state of Indiana, but acknowledges that Roosevelt has a better man from Kentucky. Beveridge adds in a handwritten postscript that Lieutenant Governor Hugh T. Miller is to be the next governor.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1907-04-05

Letter from Theodore Roosevelt to Albert J. Beveridge

President Roosevelt tells Senator Beveridge that if John Watson Yerkes is to resign his post of Commissioner of Internal Revenue, then he must be replaced by a Kentuckian.  

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1907-04-02

Letter from Theodore Roosevelt to Thomas F. Marshall

President Roosevelt has met with John Watson Yerkes and Yerkes strongly favors Representative Marshall’s bill. Roosevelt does not want to bother Speaker of the House Joseph Gurney Cannon more than necessary and asks Marshall to meet with Cannon and show him the letter.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1907-02-02

Letter from Theodore Roosevelt to Henry Beach Needham

President Roosevelt hopes Henry Beach Needham will not think poorly of him if his first involvement with the People’s Lobby is highlighting the issue discussed by Commissioner of Internal Revenue John Watson Yerkes in the enclosed letter. It appears the Lobby’s informant report is erroneous. Based on Roosevelt’s investigation, the bill in question is proper and was not “sneaked thru.”

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1906-09-25

Letter from Theodore Roosevelt to Augustus H. Price

President Roosevelt appreciates Augustus H. Price’s letter. He understands the Department of Justice does not share Commissioner of Internal Revenues John Watson Yerkes’s unfavorable impression of Price’s performance.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1906-08-27

Letter from Theodore Roosevelt to Jeter Connelly Pritchard

President Roosevelt tells Judge Pritchard that it is out of the question to reopen the case of former Internal Revenue Collector Herschel S. Harkins, as he was removed on the recommendation of both Secretary of the Treasury Leslie M. Shaw and Commissioner of Internal Revenue John Watson Yerkes. Furthermore, Harkins’s successor has already been appointed.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1906-07-09

Letter from Theodore Roosevelt to Nathan Bay Scott

President Roosevelt has received Senator Scott’s letter, and remarks that he hopes that Commissioner of Internal Revenue John Watson Yerkes’s sickness is temporary. Roosevelt would not like to make any statements about a possible successor to Yerkes, as he hopes “there is no immediate likelihood of a vacancy.”

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1906-07-06

Letter from Theodore Roosevelt to William H. Taft

President Roosevelt believes that John Watson Yerkes in Kentucky stands strong in favor of civil service reforms against “the assaults of Senators and Congressmen and the spirit of Yale ’78 as embodied in the Secretary of War.” He asks Secretary of War Taft why he thinks Ingram is a good candidate when he was an inefficient clerk under Yerkes.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1906-01-24

Letter from Theodore Roosevelt to Jacob A. Riis

President Roosevelt regrets having to send Jacob A. Riis a letter from Commissioner of Internal Revenue John Watson Yerkes, but believes that he either has to stand by Yerkes, “or give up every pretence [sic] of cleaning up and rendering more efficient the internal revenue service.” When Yerkes previously tried to remove inefficient men from the Internal Revenue Service, they would frequently try to appeal to Roosevelt to reinstate them, and Roosevelt has pledged to stand by Yerkes in his attempt to improve the service. While he would like to oblige Riis and Paul Underwood Kellogg in this instance, he does not feel that he can.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1905-08-17

Letter from Theodore Roosevelt to John C. Spooner

President Roosevelt reports to Senator Spooner that Commissioner of Internal Revenue John Watson Yerkes is of the opinion that Henry Fink, Collector of Internal Revenue for Milwaukee, is “useless and indeed detrimental in the service,” and should be replaced. He encloses the most recent two letters from Yerkes to Fink for Spooner to read. Roosevelt wished to speak with Spooner before taking action.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1905-08-03

Letter from Theodore Roosevelt to Philander C. Knox

President Roosevelt tells Senator Knox that he wishes he could get someone appointed to Internal Revenue Collector at Pittsburgh in place of Daniel B. Heiner, as he is not filling the role satisfactorily. Roosevelt encloses the last two letters set to Heiner by Commissioner of Internal Revenue John Watson Yerkes.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1905-08-03

Letter from Theodore Roosevelt to Leslie M. Shaw

President Roosevelt sends Secretary of the Treasury Shaw some messages from the United States Civil Service Commission, and asks him to direct Internal Revenue Commissioner John Watson Yerkes to instruct Internal Revenue Collector William McCoach to dismiss Clarence Meeser, Deputy Collector of Internal Revenues for Philadelphia, immediately. He also expects Yerkes to investigate cases of this sort on his own initiative in the future without having to turn to the Civil Service Commission.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1905-06-20

Letter from Theodore Roosevelt to William Eleroy Curtis

In response to a letter from William Eleroy Curtis about the quality of his appointments in Alabama, President Roosevelt offers the facts. He asks Curtis to ask people whether the new men he has appointed are better than the ones he replaced. He also clarifies that he did not bar appointees from serving on national and state committees, but that he prefers that appointees do not dominate them. In response to Curtis’s demands that he replace postmasters in Dothan, Andalusia, and Marion, Roosevelt says that one was removed, an inspector recommended that a second be kept, and an investigation into the third is ongoing.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1905-03-28

Letter from Theodore Roosevelt to Leslie Combs

President Roosevelt tells Leslie Combs his plans regarding placing people in government positions. He hopes that Combs will read his Lincoln Day address once it is published.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1905-01-12

Letter from Charles J. Bonaparte to Theodore Roosevelt

Attorney General Bonaparte updates President Roosevelt on the progress of the Idaho land fraud cases. He forwards Roosevelt his telegram to Assistant Attorney General Marsden C. Burch demanding that N. M. Ruick take no part in the case. Bonaparte updates Roosevelt on other matters and suggests the two schedule a meeting.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1907-09-28

Letter from Charles J. Bonaparte to Theodore Roosevelt

Attorney General Bonaparte updates President Roosevelt that he told United States District Attorney N. M. Ruick that Senator William Edgar Borah must be tried immediately. He discusses conditions related to the case. During his travels, he ran into “some hungry reporters whom I tried to fill up with a little chaff.”

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1907-08-10

Telegram from William Allen White to William Loeb

William Allen White informs William Loeb that attorney John Watson Yerkes will visit tomorrow in accordance with President Roosevelt’s instructions to provide the senator with legal representation.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1907-08-09

Letter from Phillips Lee Goldsborough to Charles J. Bonaparte

Phillips Lee Goldsborough asks Secretary of the Navy Bonaparte if he believes President Roosevelt will permit him to be chairman of William H. Jackson’s congressional campaign even though he is a collector for the Internal Revenue Service. Goldsborough believes he will be granted permission based on a conversation he had with Commissioner John Watson Yerkes in which Yerkes confirmed that Roosevelt had allowed a collector to act as chairman of a state committee.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1906-09-15