Your TR Source
President Roosevelt thanks Governor Noel of Mississippi for the invitation to Edith Kermit Carow Roosevelt, but says that she cannot accept, as she is trying to avoid public functions. Her trip to Mississippi is only to take the Roosevelt children on a short holiday.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1908-03-23
President Roosevelt tell his son Ted about his recent trip down the Mississippi River, and gives him details about both a bear and a deer he shot. Roosevelt also mentions his reception on the trip down, particularly in Mississippi. Roosevelt is also concerned about his son’s health and wonders if he will be able to play with Harvard’s first string of football.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-10-22
President Roosevelt informs Secretary of War Taft about conditions in the South regarding Taft’s nomination to be the presidential candidate for the Republican Party. One of Roosevelt’s informants told him that the constituents in Alabama will vote for Joseph Benson Foraker if Taft is approved. Roosevelt still believes that the southern states will be in favor of Taft. On another matter, Roosevelt reports that many people want him to nominate John K. Beach over Walter Chadwick Noyes for a circuit court judge position.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-07-10
President Roosevelt writes to Lyman Abbott encouraging him to publish a speech by LeRoy Percy, a Southern Democratic lawyer who operated sharecropping plantations in Mississippi. Roosevelt believes that Percy’s speech demonstrates the path that the nation must take to promote racial harmony in the South.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-05-23
President Roosevelt describes to Mark Sullivan the considerations that have gone into his selections for federal judgeships. Roosevelt reviews his appointments in detail, noting that some were made at the request of the local organization and some against their wishes. The goal in each case was to appoint someone “of the high character, the good sense, the trained legal ability, and the necessary broad-mindedness of spirit…essential to a good judge.”
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-05-13
President Roosevelt will read the article that Robert P. Porter of The Times sent with interest as it seems like the kind that has not appeared in an English newspaper for a long time. He will be going to Mississippi in October.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-04-22
President Roosevelt likes William H. Fleming’s response to Judge Alexander L. Miller’s attack on Fleming’s recent speech on race. Roosevelt was surprised that Fleming received criticism from Miller, noting that he would have expected it only from men like Governor James Kimble Vardaman of Mississippi. Roosevelt has received letters from Judges Horace H. Lurton and Thomas Goode Jones, who both strongly support Fleming’s position.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-08-11
President Roosevelt tells John Milliken Parker that it appears he will not be able to go hunting in November, but that there is a possibility of doing so either next spring or next November. He questions Parker about which of these options would be better, and says that if he gets the chance he is anxious to go on a hunt.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-06-23
President Roosevelt thanks Mary Abarr and the children of the Sunshine Sunday School for their generous contribution to the Japanese famine fund.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-04-05
Although President Roosevelt has officially relieved him of his duties as an active advisor regarding political appointments in Mississippi, he would still like Edgar S. Wilson to update him on any issues, or if there is “any falling off in the high character of the government appointees” whom Roosevelt has appointed mainly based on Wilson’s advice.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1905-10-07
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.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1905-03-28
President Roosevelt responds to an editorial in the Outlook criticizing a measure related to voting representation. He says it is a great injustice to let white people suppress the votes of black citizens and then fraudulently cast their votes as their own. This results in some states receiving more representatives without representing the entire population. There can be no moral argument for allowing this to go on. Yet moving too quickly risks making a bad situation worse. Roosevelt hopes that the Outlook might emphasize, along with its condemnation of the proposed remedy, that the injustice being practiced by leaders in the South is responsible for inciting those in the North to make legislative proposals such as this.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1904-12-16
President Roosevelt includes a section from the Biloxi Daily Herald, a Democratic paper, that discusses Roosevelt’s treatment of the South in a letter to Silas McBee. Although Southerners are more likely to look at Roosevelt’s harmful deeds in the South than the good ones, the clipping suggests Roosevelt has been unfairly criticized by those who know little about him and briefly discusses how the president has benefited Mississippi.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1904-12-17
President Roosevelt quotes an article from the Biloxi Daily Herald, a Democratic paper that discusses Roosevelt’s treatment of the South, in a letter to Henry S. Pritchett. Although Southerners are more likely to look at Roosevelt’s harmful deeds in the South than the good ones, the clipping suggests Roosevelt has been unfairly criticized by those who know little about him and briefly discusses how the president has benefited Mississippi.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1904-12-17
President Roosevelt quotes a significant section from the Biloxi Daily Herald, a Democratic paper, that discusses Roosevelt’s treatment of the South in a letter to James Ford Rhodes. Although Southerners are more likely to look at Roosevelt’s harmful deeds in the South than the good ones, the clipping suggests Roosevelt has been unfairly criticized by those who know little about him and briefly discusses how the president has benefited Mississippi.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1904-12-17
President Roosevelt fundamentally agrees with Henry S. Pritchett and James Ford Rhodes about the Southern question. Although Roosevelt believes it is unwise and impractical to repeal the Fifteenth Amendment now, he does agree it should not have been passed in the first place. The president can also agree with Pritchett and Rhodes that Congress should not press for active enforcement of the Fifteenth Amendment; however, it cannot go too far with Mississippi Senator John Sharp Williams having more power than Speaker of the House Joseph Gurney Cannon. Roosevelt believes Southern states cannot enforce the laws themselves because they are trying to readopt slavery through peonage. Additionally, Southerners demand the exclusion of African Americans from offices, although Southerners have approved of Roosevelt’s choices for offices in the South on the whole even though the president has appointed some African Americans. Roosevelt insists he has tried Pritchett’s course of action, but it has not worked because the South has not met him even halfway. The president believes cooperation depends on Southerners, and the difficulty will vanish when they “quit lying.” Finally, Roosevelt says he has not observed outside criticism of the South and asks Pritchett how Congress needs to respond since it has not controlled the South. Roosevelt concludes by asking for one specific thing he is doing wrong, as he wants to learn.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1904-12-14
President Roosevelt thanks Thomas C. Carter, an ex-Confederate soldier, for his letter and says it is a “peculiar pleasure” when he is able to do something for an ex-Confederate soldier, giving several examples of former Confederate soldiers, wives, or offspring he has appointed to public offices.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1904-12-03
President Roosevelt tells Lyman Abbott that his editorial was beneficial, showing him newspaper clippings from Mississippi as evidence. Additionally, Roosevelt wishes that Abbott could have heard some Missourians discuss the Missouri senatorial situation, as it would have helped him understand why Roosevelt did not interfere in Delaware. Roosevelt asks Abbott to tell the “gentleman whose letter you showed me” to visit him Washington, D.C., and says he will be happy to explain the entire situation.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1904-11-21
President Roosevelt finds amusement in the clipping from The World about the Evening Post, and he thinks it base and hypocritical for the Post to continue to support the candidacy of Alton B. Parker in light of such speeches as that of Henry Gassaway Davis. Roosevelt provides two quotations addressing the “colored issue” for inclusion in his speech and letter of acceptance. Roosevelt aims to make his points clear while at the same time making them in such a way as to cause minimal irritation in the south.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1904-10-12
President Roosevelt cannot attend the bear hunt this year, but will try and make it next year.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1904-08-06