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Text of an amendment to an apportionment act based on the twelfth census. The act proposes to limit the number of delegates in certain Southern States to account for illiterate “Negroes” who are “practically excluded from the suffrage” of those states.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1905-11-21
Theodore Roosevelt’s secretary believes that the clipping that Charles E. Simpson sent falsely reports Roosevelt’s statements regarding race relations. For clarification, he points Simpson toward Roosevelt’s addresses, published by both the Review of Reviews Company and P. F. Collier & Son and available at public libraries.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1912-07-15
President Roosevelt writes to Philip A. Stanton to discuss a new California law that forbids Japanese children from going to school with white children. Roosevelt says this law would violate America’s treaty with Japan and the Federal government would challenge it in court. The rest of the telegram is missing.
1909-02-08
Frank Harper writes to Duse Mohamed about the Progressive Party’s position on the negro question. Harper sends a pamphlet that includes a letter written to Julian LaRose Harris, Harris’s response, Theodore Roosevelt’s statement about the negro during his speech at the Progressive Party Convention, and the response of the colored delegates.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1912-08-29
Frank Harper writes Medill McCormick about progressive candidates running against Cannon and Wilson. Harper then states that Theodore Roosevelt does not believe he needs to excuse his actions in the Brownsville affair. Roosevelt would treat any soldier, white or black, in the same manner, if the soldier acted as the soldiers in Brownsville, Texas, had.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1912-08-29
President Roosevelt tells General Otis in confidence that he is attempting to negotiate an agreement with Japan that would mutually exclude laborers from immigrating. He would like to restrict immigrants from the “lowest standard of living” from Europe as well. However, he believe that the Japanese already here should be treated like every other citizen, and that “the cry against them is simply nonsense.”
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-01-08
President Roosevelt was pleased by B. Lawton Wiggins’s letter. He feels that his response to the Brownsville incident is “one of those vital matters” where he can not consider his own political or personal needs.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-12-26
President Roosevelt explains that the way he has been attacked for the dismissal of the soldiers in the Brownsville affair has nothing to do with the dismissal at all, but rather his policies towards corporations.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-12-26
President Roosevelt tells Henry W. Taft that he is sorry Taft would not accept the nomination for Governor of New York. Roosevelt thanks Taft for standing up for Roosevelt’s interpretation of the Constitution. Roosevelt believes that if someone wants to bring up his actions towards the Constitution, they should also talk about the South wanting to nullify the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Constitutional Amendments as that is the true violation. He accepts his failure if someone wants to blame him for not protecting those amendments. Roosevelt asks Taft to come to lunch.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1904-09-12
President Roosevelt believes that the “race problem” is the greatest concern for the distant future.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1903-07-11
President Roosevelt explains to Henry Cabot Lodge that he had decided to replace Assistant Secretary of State Thomas W. Cridler with Herbert H. D. Peirce before speaking with Cabot; he mentions the “ferocious” reaction of some to that decision. Roosevelt also discusses southern reaction to his having had Booker T. Washington to dinner at the White House, ascribing it to the aggressive spirit of the American South. He states that such attitudes will not cause him to change his appointments.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1901-10-28
The Macon Telegraph describes Senator Benjamin R. Tillman’s inconsistent reactions to President Theodore Roosevelt’s views on race relations.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-01-14
Attorney William H. Fleming appreciates President Theodore Roosevelt’s suggestion that the appointment of a commission would be most palatable if it comes from “some high class southern senator or congressman.” Fleming suggests Senator Alexander Stephens Clay, Congressman Clark Howell, or Congressman William Gordon Brantley for the task. Fleming commends Roosevelt’s caution in the matter and agrees to discuss it with him before the meeting of Congress. Fleming encloses an editorial he wrote about race hatred in Georgia that rebuts the claims of Hoke Smith and Congressman Thomas William Hardwick and discusses the disenfranchisement situation in Alabama.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-11-09
Senator Platt has been approached by the Republican Club of New York, proposing that he sponsor a bill in the United States Senate that would reduce the number of delegates from certain southern states, due to illiterate Negro citizens. Platt had introduced such a bill in 1904, but he now requests an opinion from President Roosevelt. He has stated that if Roosevelt supports such an idea, he will propose it. If not, he will ask to be excused.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1905-11-21
The Constitution argues that Senator Benjamin R. Tillman’s antagonism to President Theodore Roosevelt’s reaction to the Brownsville affair is “inexplicable on any other ground than that it is, simply, Senator Tillman.”
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-01-14
Surgeon General O’Reilly argues the appointment of African American physicians is undesirable and would negatively affect the Armed Forces. These include the “repugnance” that would be felt by white families treated by an African American doctor and the complexities of rank and race in the service. O’Reilly states clearly the War Department is not concerned with the broader concept of African American rights but with the practicalities of service conditions and morale.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1904-12-24