JOSEPHUS DANIELS A REGISTER OF HIS PAPERS IN THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS Prepared by Roy R. Thomas, and Joseph F. McKeever with the assistance of Sherralyn F. McCoy Revised and expanded by Lia Apodaca and Patrick Kerwin Manuscript Division Library of Congress Washington, D.C. 2006 Papers of Josephus Daniels Page ii Collection Summary Title: Papers of Josephus Daniels Span Dates: 1806-1948 (bulk 1913-1921) ID No: MSS17715 Creator: Daniels, Josephus, 1862-1948 Size: 331,000 items; 934 containers; 373.8 linear feet; 399 microfilm reels Repository: Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. Abstract: Diplomat, journalist, and secretary of the navy. Correspondence, diaries, speeches and writings, and papers of the Daniels, Bagley, Seabrook, and Worth families and other material. The bulk of the collection relates to events and policy decisions during Daniels's service as secretary of the navy during the administration of Woodrow Wilson, but also concerns his career as editor of the Raleigh News & Observer, his work with the Democratic Party, and his role as ambassador to Mexico. Papers of Josephus Daniels Page 1 Administrative Information Provenance: The papers of Josephus Daniels, diplomat, journalist, and secretary of the navy, were the gift of his sons, Josephus Daniels, Jr., Worth Bagley Daniels, Frank A. Daniels, and Jonathan Worth Daniels, 1948-1974. Processing History: The papers of Josephus Daniels were arranged and described in 1975. The Daniels papers have been partially described on pp. 3-10 of the Library of Congress Quarterly Journal of Current Acquisitions, vol. 7, Aug. 1950. The finding aid was revised in 2005. Transfers: Photographs and a recording have been transferred to the appropriate divisions of the Library of Congress where they are identified as part of these papers. Copyright Status: Copyright in the unpublished writings of Josephus Daniels in these papers and in other collections of papers in the custody of the Library of Congress has been dedicated to the public. Microfilm: A microfilm edition of part of these papers is available on 399 reels. Consult a reference librarian in the Manuscript Division concerning availability for purchase or interlibrary loan. Preferred Citation: Researchers wishing to cite this collection should include the following information: Container or reel number, Josephus Daniels Papers, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. Papers of Josephus Daniels Page 2 Biographical Note 1862, May 18 Born, Washington, N.C. 1880-1893 Newspaper editor, Wilson, Kinston, and Raleigh, N.C. 1885 Attended summer law school, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, N.C.; passed bar examination (never practiced) 1888 Married Adelaide Worth Bagley 1893-1895 Chief, Appointment Division, United States Department of the Interior, Washington, D.C. 1894-1913 Editor, Raleigh News and Observer 1898 Published The First Fallen Hero, A Biographical Sketch of Worth Bagley. Ensign, U.S.N. Norfolk, Va.: S. W. Bowman. 1905 Completed purchase of the controlling interest in the Raleigh News and Observer 1912 Chief, Publicity Bureau, presidential campaign of Woodrow Wilson 1913-1921 Secretary of the navy 1919 Published The Navy and the Nation: War-Time Addresses. New York: G. H. Doran Co. 1921-1933 Edited Raleigh News and Observer 1922 Published Our Navy at War. Washington, D.C.: Pictorial Bureau. 1924 Published The Life of Woodrow Wilson, 1856-1924. Philadelphia: J. C. Winston Co. 1933-1941 Ambassador to Mexico Papers of Josephus Daniels Page 3 1939-1947 Published Tar Heel Editor. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press. 1942-1948 Editor, News and Observer 1944 Published The Wilson Era; Years of Peace, 1910-1917. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press. 1946 Published The Wilson Era; Years of War and After, 1917-1923. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press. 1948, Jan. 15 Died, Raleigh, N.C. Papers of Josephus Daniels Page 4 Scope and Content Note The papers of Josephus Daniels (1862-1948) trace his career in journalism, the Democratic Party, the United States Navy, and the diplomatic service. They also reflect his private life, especially his family relationships. Although the papers span the years 1829-1948, they are concentrated in the period 1913-1921. The period before 1913 is represented mainly by family letters because a fire in that year destroyed correspondence and records stored at the Raleigh, North Carolina, News and Observer plant. Although in the collection contians diaries, family papers, correspondence, subject files, speeches and writings, and miscellany, not much pertains to the activities of Daniels or his family before 1913. Included are Daniels’s small collection of nineteenth century North Carolina newspapers (with the July 1877 edition of the Cornucopia, an amateur newspaper that he edited with his brother Frank), detailed letters to his mother, and correspondence beginning in 1887 with “Addie” Bagley, whom he married in 1888. Daniels’s correspondence with his wife, which continued until her death in 1943, is the longest and perhaps the most nearly complete in the collection. Besides revealing their deep affection, the letters contain frank comments on the newspaper business, local and national politics, and Daniels’s government service. Other family papers include those that Daniels collected relating to five generations of the Daniels, Seabrook, Bagley, and Worth families, as well as Daniels’s correspondence with his brothers Frank, a judge, and Charles, an attorney for the Department of Justice. Letters exchanged with the wife, children, and grandchildren of each brother are interfiled with the correspondence of the particular brother, an arrangement that is followed throughout the Family Papers series. Daniels’s work in the Democratic Party’s publicity office during the presidential campaigns of William Jennings Bryan and Woodrow Wilson is described in letters in the Special Correspondence subseries with Newton D. Baker, William Jennings Bryan, Albert S. Burleson, Homer Cummings, Joseph P. Tumulty, William G. McAdoo, and Woodrow Wilson. Other election material, including lists of county chairmen and contributors to Democratic campaigns in North Carolina and information on party activities at the national level, is in the General Subject File. Material concerning the Raleigh News and Observer is also in the General subseries of the Subject File. Though chiefly dating from 1913, some items relate to Daniels’s early years with the paper. There are a few documents concerning its reorganization under Daniels’s Papers of Josephus Daniels Page 5 leadership, subscription correspondence, information on a 1904 contempt of court citation against Daniels, summaries of the paper’s financial condition, communications regarding various press associations or syndicates, legal briefs, and offers of help after fires in 1913 and 1915. With Daniels’s appointment to Wilson’s cabinet, the letters in the News and Observer file become more concerned with day-to-day publishing activities than with such infrequent crises as lawsuits and conflagrations. From Washington, its owner attempted to influrence editorial policy, improve news coverage of local affairs, increase circulation, mediate disputes between staff members, and maintain the paper’s reputation for constructive criticism while avoiding embarrassments to the Wilson administration. Daniels sent lengthy instructions to editor Edward E. Britton, and he consulted frequently with business manager William Henry Bagley and financial adviser Herbert Worth Jackson, both relatives of Mrs. Daniels. Daniels served as secretary of the navy throughout the Wilson administration. Most of the papers relating to policy decisions during his tenure are in five subseries: Cabinet Diaries, Special Correspondence, Letterbooks, Miscellaneous Correspondence, and the Navy Subject File. The nearly illegible notes he made in pencil about his activities, except for jottings in a pocket volume coverning the period July 8-22, 1920, were published in The Cabinet Diaries of Josephus Daniels, 1913-1921 (Lincoln, University of Nebraska Press [1963]), edited by Edmund David Cronon. The letterpress copies of Daniels correspondence often duplicate the carbon copies in other subseries. The Special Correspondence files contain holograph private letters as well as official correspondence and case files in the form of enclosures. Exchanges with several naval admirals and marine generals include candid discussions of departmental affairs. Within this group are the letters of Charles J. Badger, George Barnett, William S. Benson, Victor Blue, Frank F. Fletcher, Albert Gleaves, John A. Lejeune, Samuel McGowan, Henry T. Mayo, Albert Niblack, Hugh Rodman, Archibald H. Scales, William S. Sims, Thomas Washington, and Albert G. Winterhalter. Correspondence between the secretary and his civilian assistants, Howard A. Banks, Edward E. Britton, Gilbert F. Close, John W. Jenkins. Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Frank Smith, tends to be concerned with the daily routine of office as do communications with his uniformed aides, Percy Foote and Leigh C. Palmer. After he left the department, Daniels continued to write to many of these men, often to clarify for his autobiography accounts of events that occurred when he was secretary. As secretary of the navy, Daniels’s innovations included an attempt to make the navy more democratic by elevating the status of enlisted men. Papers bearing on his efforts to make each ship a school may be found in the Navy Subject