Your TR Source
A picture indicates that Americans are mistreating Chinese workers in their country, ignoring their contributions to the infrastructure, and making the Chinese outcasts. This angers the Chinese and sparks their peaceful protests of America through boycott.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1905-08-10
Leonard Phinizy discusses the “southern suffrage plank” of the Republican party, a proposal that would “reduce the representation in Congress of certain southern states who have disfranchised the negro.” Phinizy argues that the Democrats should accept this proposal, because he believes the policy would result in the elimination of black citizens from political participation in the South.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1904-08
In a letter to the editor, Max Heller criticizes President Roosevelt for inviting Booker T. Washington to the White House, as an example of inappropriate familiarity between the races. Heller defends, however, the right of African Americans to education and uplift, and argues that every man should be judged on his own merits.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1904-11-17
Diplomatic opinion in the United Kingdom, France, and Germany is that the United States will lose a war with Japan if one breaks out. President Roosevelt believes that the only thing that can prevent a war is making the Japanese believe they will be beaten, which can only be done by making the Navy more efficient. Roosevelt is inclined to warn officials in San Francisco of the injury created by their discriminatory policies against Japanese immigrants.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-07-23
Secretary of State Root informs President Roosevelt that he will visit this evening after all. Root has prepared a telegram to San Francisco Mayor Eugene E. Root. If Roosevelt approves it, Root asks that Roosevelt have the White House operator send it. Root suggests that he and Roosevelt could write a telegram to send to the Governor of California James Norris Gillett about the threat of discrimination against Japanese students in California school. Root expresses his frustration, writing “Did you ever see such idiots?”
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-03-10
Albert P. Wright writes to President Roosevelt upon hearing that someone told Roosevelt he had a drinking problem, which Wright states he does not. Wright discusses the difficulties in the Philippines, especially in regard to conflict between Filipinos and Americans. He openly divulges his antipathy for the Filipinos on the island.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1905-06-15
Booker T. Washington suggests William H. Lewis for a vacancy in the United States District Attorney’s office in Boston. Washington believes this appointment will counter Southern criticism about appointing African Americans.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1904-12-06
Henry S. Pritchett, president of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, writes to President Roosevelt about “the Negro question.” Pritchett claims that Republican Reconstruction was a failure, and argues that the federal government should stop trying to enforce the Fourteenth Amendment, since legislative threats are not making the Southern states comply. He recommends that the Southern states be allowed to control their own voting laws, subject only to outside criticism without force. Pritchett admits the Southern states will immediately disenfranchise most African Americans, but that this will be fair since they will also disenfranchise ignorant whites. He believes Roosevelt will still be allowed to make some African American appointments pending approval of local white leaders. Pritchett encloses an article he wrote on the subject and pages from James Ford Rhodes’s history. Rhodes, a historian specializing in Reconstruction, adds a postscript to Pritchett’s letter saying he agrees with Pritchett’s recommendations and will discuss with Pritchett conversations he had previously on the subject with Roosevelt.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1904-12-06
Booker T. Washington sends newspaper clippings to President Roosevelt. One is a letter to the editor of the New Orleans Times Democrat.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1904-12-05
Lyman Abbott forwards a letter from Bishop Robert Strange along with a copy of Strange’s speech concerning race relations in the South. Abbott hopes both will be beneficial to President Roosevelt.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1904-12-05
John Byrne congratulates President Roosevelt on the recent election results. Byrne is sure that Roosevelt will be one of the greatest presidents ever. He writes about the major issues the president must address.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1904-11-15
South Carolina Senator Benjamin R. Tillman and Virginia Representative A. C. Braxton, both Southerners, recently delivered speeches in New York. Following Senator Tillman’s speech, in which he spoke derogatorily of African Americans, southern newspapers denied that he represented the views of the South. However, both Representative Braxton’s speech and the reception it received gave a different impression. Braxton denounced the Fifteenth Amendment and heralded the restrictions Southern states have put on voting, ensuring that “the vast sea of ignorant, venial and vicious negroes is now safely and perpetually shut out.” Braxton is well respected in his state and was cheered enthusiastically by southerners who live in New York.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1903-02
African American delegates who were excluded from the Alabama Republican State Convention issue an open letter “To the Republicans of Alabama,” protesting that their exclusion violates both the state and federal constitutions and deserves the “severest condemnation.”
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1902-09
African Americans are being ignored and discriminated against by southern Republicans. In Alabama, sixteen African American delegates to the state convention were excluded from political recognition. President Roosevelt will need to intervene to prevent southern discrimination from affecting the African American vote in northern states.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1902-09-23
This newspaper excerpt is a letter to the editor of the Evening Post about an editorial discussing President Roosevelt’s views on lynching.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1904-08-17
John Byrne congratulates President Roosevelt on the recent election results. Byrne is sure that Roosevelt will be one of the greatest presidents ever. He writes about the major issues the president must address. Roosevelt’s notes are at the top of page one.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1904-11-15
This article discusses a quote from Henry S. Barker, a prominent African American in Washington, who lauds how African Americans were treated at the Republican Convention and says that if Theodore Roosevelt is elected president, African Americans will demand that Booker T. Washington be the Republican candidate for vice president in 1908. The article says that Democrats will resent the “threat” made in the letter and that the South should stand together for white supremacy.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1904-07-28
At a meeting in a Chinese mission, a collection is being taken up, “Contributions received here to save the foreign devils.” Five accompanying vignettes show how the United States is viewed by the Chinese, including “Kentucky feuds,” “Burning Negros at the stake,” “Labor riots,” “Anti-Chinese riots,” and “New York City government” where the Tammany Tiger is shaking down a citizen. A sign on a wall in the mission states, “Help the Heathen.”
In addition to criticizing American bigotry and religious hypocrisy, which Puck frequently did in its cartoons, Pughe’s cartoon here has particular relevance because the Boxer Rebellion was in the news, a matter of much curiosity and concern. The Chinese anti-foreigner insurrection was directed at Christian missionaries, no less than at any other group. Puck saw particular irony in that fact.
President Roosevelt defends his appointments of African Americans, particularly the appointment of Dr. William Demos Crum as collector of customs in Charleston, South Carolina. Roosevelt will look into charges that Crum is unfit for the appointment but he will not reject Crum, or anyone else, on the basis of skin color. He denies that “negro domination” enters into the matter.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1902-11-24
President Roosevelt reflects on the combatants and potential outcome of the Russo-Japanese War. He likes the Russians but they have shown “stupendous mendacity” regarding Manchuria and cannot take their proper place until they “gain a measure of civil liberty and self government.” Roosevelt has a higher opinion of the Japanese and is impressed with their rise in becoming a “great civilized nation.” The Japanese have told Roosevelt that their goal is to remove Russia from Manchuria and to turn the territory over to China. However, Roosevelt is also wary of continued Japanese aggression and sees the potential for this aggression to clash with American interests.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1904-06-13