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Title: Thomas St. John Gaffney Papers
Dates: 1887-1941
Collection Number: XX227
Creator: Gaffney, Thomas St. John, 1864-1945
Collection Size:
3 manuscript boxes, 2 oversize boxes
(3 linear feet)
Repository:
Hoover Institution Archives
Stanford, California 94305-6010
Abstract: Correspondence, writings, and printed matter, relating to international relations, the World War I war guilt question, reparations,
Irish independence, American domestic politics and foreign policy, and Jews. Includes correspondence with Kaiser Wilhelm II
in exile, Baron Hermann Speck von Sternberg (German ambassador to the United States), and Jules Cambon (French ambassador
to Germany).
Physical Location: Hoover Institution Archives
Languages:
English and
German
Collection is open for research.
The Hoover Institution Archives only allows access to
copies of audiovisual items. To listen to sound recordings or to view videos or films during your visit, please contact the Archives
at least two working days before your arrival. We will then advise you of the accessibility of the material you wish to see
or hear. Please note that not all audiovisual material is immediately accessible.
For copyright status, please contact the Hoover Institution Archives.
[Identification of item], Thomas St. John Gaffney Papers, [Box number], Hoover Institution Archives.
Acquired by the Hoover Institution Archives in 1942.
Materials may have been added to the collection since this finding aid was prepared. To determine if this has occurred, find
the collection in Stanford University's online catalog at
http://searchworks.stanford.edu/ . Materials have been added to the collection if the number of boxes listed in the online catalog is larger than the number
of boxes listed in this finding aid.
Sir Roger Casement Papers, Hoover Institution Archives
| 1864 | Born, Limerick, Ireland |
| 1882 | Came to the United States |
| 1889 | Admitted to the New York Bar |
| 1897 | President, Patriotic League of America |
| Circa 1900 | Co-author with Joseph Smith, American in the Orient: The United States, Russia, and France and the Anglo-Japanese Treaty |
| 1902 | Named Chevalier of the Legion of Honor by French President Émile Loubet |
| 1905 | Conferred by King Leopold of Belgium with the officer's cross of the order of Leopold II |
| 1905-1913 | Consul General for Dresden, appointed by President Theodore Roosevelt |
| 1913-1915 | Consul General for Munich, appointed by President Woodrow Wilson |
| 1915 November | Forced to resign after making partisan statements in support of Germany |
| 1930 | Author, Breaking the Silence: England, Ireland, Wilson and the War |
| 1945 | Died |
Scope and Content of Collection
The collection contains materials largely pertaining to the war guilt question after WWI, reparations, Irish independence,
American domestic politics and foreign policy, Jews, and the activities of Kaiser Wilhelm II in exile. After his forced resignation
in 1915, Gaffney returned to Germany a number of times and continued his interactions with German officials and other diplomats.
Although Gaffney's relationship with Sir Roger Casement was one of the motivating factors for his resignation, the collection
contains little on the Irish nationalist.
Gaffney's
Correspondence provides the most information into the breadth of his political interests and activities from before his appointment as consul
general to after the publication of his memoir
Breaking the Silence. Of particular note in this series is a letter to Herbert Hoover in 1929 regarding war guilt and reparations, punctuated
with a handwritten note by Kaiser Wilhelm II.
The
Scrapbooks series contains correspondence, clippings, and photographs compiled by Gaffney documenting his relationship with Kaiser Wilhelm
II in exile in Doorn. Loose items filed within the scrapbook pages were left in place.
The biographical materials in the
Clippings and Collected materials series are comprised of articles by and about Gaffney printed in American and German newspapers. Among the collected materials
filed by subject in this series are German propaganda flyers from WWI published by the Fichte-Bunde and distributed in the
United States.
Gaffney's
Speeches and Writings focus mostly on his interpretations of the War Guilt Clause in the Treaty of Versailles and its implications on Germany and
German-Americans. The researcher should be aware that some writings are under the pen name Arthur Fleming. Additional writings
are filed by subject in the Clippings and Collected materials series.
The collection is organized into 4 series: Correspondence, Speeches and Writings, Clippings and Collected materials, and Scrapbooks
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the library's online public access catalog.
Jews.
World War, 1914-1918--Reparations.
Germany--Foreign relations--United States.
Great Britain--Foreign relations.
Ireland--History--20th century.
United States--Foreign relations--Germany.
Diplomats--United States.
Cambon, Jules Martin, 1845-1935.
Sternburg, Hermann Speck von, Freiherr, 1852-1908.
William II, German Emperor, 1859-1941.