Your TR Source
Letters to the editor debating the veracity of accounts of President Roosevelt’s actions as a Rough Rider during the event at the San Juan heights.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1904-08-28
This article comments on William H. Fleming’s report of President Roosevelt’s military record. Fleming, a Rough Rider, is responding to Colonel Bacon’s statement disputing Roosevelt’s account of his actions during the Battle of San Juan Hill.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1904-08-17
President Roosevelt thanks Lyman Abbott for the poem. He encloses a letter from William H. Fleming that he feels “is worth your while.”
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-09-05
President Roosevelt is glad that Secretary of War Taft is looking into all the matters he mentioned in his recent letter, and is especially pleased that Taft will stay in his cabinet. He forwards a letter from William Allen White, and asks Taft’s opinion about whether they should do anything about the charges against General Leonard Wood. Roosevelt additionally asks Taft’s advice regarding a letter from former Georgia Representative William H. Fleming.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-08-20
President Roosevelt enjoyed reading Secretary of War Taft’s letter and expresses his admiration for Taft. He can sympathize with the difficulties Taft worries about but does not feel they are as great as Taft makes them out to be. While Taft will likely be attacked on Panama and the Philippines, Roosevelt reassures him that he believes Taft has acted correctly, comments that they “play the game very much alike,” and describes some of the difficulties he is presently encountering. Roosevelt is glad that Taft will be staying in his cabinet longer.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-08-02
President Roosevelt sends Judge Horace H. Lurton a recent speech given by former Congressman William H. Fleming that he thinks is very good, and would like to hear Lurton’s thoughts on it.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-07-18
President Roosevelt is glad that Dana Estes is going to publish ex-Congressman William H. Fleming’s admirable speech, and approves of the profits being donated to the Tuskegee and Hampton Institutes. Roosevelt agrees with Fleming’s purpose, saying that “the problems of any one part of our great common country should be held to be the problems of all our country,” to the extent that the difficulties experienced by citizens are deserving of the sympathies of other citizens, and that working to solve the problems is deserving of praise.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-07-25
President Roosevelt tells James Ford Rhodes he is at his wits’ end about the Southern question. When he became president, Roosevelt met with Booker T. Washington. They agreed to appoint men of the highest character in the Gulf and South Atlantic States, including a few African American men. Every Southerner agrees with this plan, which Roosevelt has executed, but it has been maligned in the press, creating a “bitterness” in the North. Roosevelt encloses an article written by William H. Fleming and a letter to Silas McBee.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1904-12-15
Clark Howell thinks President Roosevelt is on the “right line” in his response to the race question. Howell believes that if Congress acts on the suggestion “a decidedly forward step” will be taken on “harmonious relations between the races.” Howell further states that the “situation in the South” is “menacing” and if Roosevelt can settle the problem, it will be “the greatest work accomplished by any president since the Civil War.”
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-10-31
This Augusta Chronicle article written by William H. Fleming details Fleming’s opinions of a recent race riot as well as the suppression of African American voters in Alabama and Georgia.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-11-09
Lyman Abbott writes to President Roosevelt that he is sorry to have kept the letter from William H. Fleming so long. He mentions the “barbaric” recent riots in Atlanta and the “splendid work Taft is doing in Cuba.”
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-09-24
Secretary of War Taft returns to President Roosevelt the letters from White and William H. Fleming. Taft does not think there is anything to do about the charges against General Leonard Wood, which he considers largely untrue and slanderous. Taft read Fleming’s letter, and is surprised Thomas W. Hardwick could have been elected to Congress. There is no need to dignify Hardwick’s statements about repealing the Fourteenth and Fifteenth amendments, which granted citizenship and voting rights to African Americans, as he “writes himself down an ass.” Taft tells Roosevelt that he is welcome to discuss the plan with Congressman Joseph Gurney Cannon. In a postscript, Taft clarifies that he read Fleming’s letter again and acknowledges that the situation is perhaps more serious than he suspected, and Congress ought to take notice.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-08-23
Lyman Abbott advises Theodore Roosevelt against heeding William H. Fleming’s advice in matters concerning corrupt election practices and disenfranchisement of African Americans. Abbott suggests that Congress insist that the southern states follow the provisions and measures for enfranchisement laid out in the Constitution and follow the English House of Commons’ model for dealing with corrupt election practices and disenfranchisement.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-08-28
Lyman Abbott is keeping William H. Fleming’s letter so he can show it to his son. Abbott wants to help men like him, but does not know how to do it without arousing the antagonisms of the South. Abbott asks the recipient if he has met Robert C. Ogden.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-09-12