Roosevelt, Theodore (1901-09)

Notes from a compilation of the messages and papers of the presidents 1789-1897, 10 vols.,
by James D. Richardson (U.S. Representative from Tennessee), ed., (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, published by AUTHORITY OF congress, 1897, 1899; Washington, D.C.: Bureau of National Literature and Art, 1789-1902, 11 vols., 1907, 1910).

On Tuesday, December 6, 1904, in his Fourth Annual Message to Congress, President Theodore Roosevelt stated:

It is inevitable that such a nation [as ours] should desire eagerly to give expression to its horror on an occasion like that of the massacre of the Jews in Kishenef, or when it witnesses such systematic and long-extended cruelty and oppression as the cruelty and oppression of which the Armenians have been the victims, and which have won for them the indignant pity of the civilized world.
(Vol. XIV, p. 6903,6915-6916,6921-6922,6924-6925,6928-6929).

On Monday, May 24, 1920, in a special message to Congress asking permission to assume the mandate for Armenia under the League of Nations, the President Woodrow Wilson stated:

Testimony adduced at the hearings conducted by the sub-committee of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations has clearly established the truth of the reported massacres and other atrocities from which the Armenian people have suffered… The people of the United States are deeply impressed by the deplorable conditions of insecurity, starvation and misery now prevalent in Armenia… I received and read this document with great interest and with genuine gratification, not only because it embodied my own convictions and feelings with regard to Armenia and its people, but also, and more particularly, because it seemed to me the voice of the Armenian people expressing their genuine convictions and deep Christian sympathies and intimating the line of duty which seemed to them to lie clearly before us…

In response to the invitation of the council at San Remo, I urgently advise and request that the Congress grant the Executive power to accept for the United States a mandate over Armenia. I make this suggestion in the earnest belief that it will be the wish of the people of the United States that this should be done. The sympathy with Armenia has proceeded from no single portion of our people, but has come with extraordinary spontaneity and sincerity from the whole free-will offerings Armenia has practically been saved at the most critical juncture of its existence. At their hearts this great and generous people have made the cause of Armenia their own… I am conscious that I am urging upon Congress a very critical choice, but I make the suggestion in the confidence that I am speaking in the spirit and in accordance with the wishes of the greatest of the Christian peoples. The sympathy for Armenia among our people has sprung from untainted consciences, pure Christian faith and an earnest desire to see Christian people everywhere succored in their time of suffering and lifted from their abject subjection and distress and enabled to stand upon their feet and take their place among the free nations of the world. (Vol. XVIII, pp. 8853-8855).

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