Your TR Source
Martin V. Calvin sends Theodore Roosevelt a copy of The Tradesman, published in Chattanooga, Tennessee, with an article on corn production in the cotton states. Calvin highlights the lower yield per acre and challenges in managing share-tenants who are African American, in the cotton states, compared to Eastern and Western states.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1911-09-12
Charles William Anderson appeals to William Loeb on behalf of his good friend Dr. John W. Prather, who has been working as an immigration inspector in Montreal. Prather has recently been transferred to a post in Santa Maria, Texas, near Brownsville. Anderson fears Prather would be unsafe there as a colored man, and so he asks Loeb to bring this matter to President Roosevelt’s attention so that he might revoke the transfer. He apologizes for the intrusion, but feels strongly in this matter.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-09-20
Maurice Francis Egan sends President Roosevelt a book about the Icelandic-Celtic sagas and informs the president about giving Thomas J. O’Brien’s letter of recall to Danish King Frederick VIII on September 6, 1907. Egan recounts his visit to Frederik VIII and his wife, Queen Louise, mentioning his discussion with Louise about Christian Science and her opinion that Roosevelt was handling race relations and treatment of African Americans in a Christian way. Although Egan feels that Danish is difficult to learn, he believes he is getting along well.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-09-12
Senator Lodge informs President Roosevelt that fifty soldiers at Fort Riley tried to rescue a comrade from jail and were fired on by the sheriff. It reminds Lodge of the Brownsville case, and he encourages Roosevelt to treat the Fort Riley case with care so that no one can suggest that more severity was shown to African American troops than to white troops. Lodge also notes his interest in the riots occurring in Vancouver, British Columbia against the Japanese.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-09-10
Kentarō Kaneko hopes that President Roosevelt’s son, Archie, is recovering from his illness. He assures Roosevelt that he did all he could in light of racial tensions in San Francisco, and will remind the Japanese government that Roosevelt has been a friend to Japan in the past.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-04-15
Secretary of War Taft tells Senator Foraker that he has correctly stated Taft’s initial suggestion, but he now believes it is unwise to recommend the adoption of the proposed amendment to the statute. He is anxious not to delay the settlement of the unfortunate controversy, referring to the Brownsville matter, which has interfered with the discipline of the Army.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-02-01
Emily Tyler Carow describes her experiences in Egypt, including her concern about an “undercurrent of hostility” that seems to be present in the Egyptian Arab people. Carow tells Roosevelt about her conversations with Lord Evelyn Baring Cromer and his dinner guests, which have been about topics such as the British occupation of Egypt, the American occupation of Cuba and the insular possession of the Philippines, whether Roosevelt will run for president again, and the natural beauty of the desert.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-02-01
Nicholas Murray Butler updates President Roosevelt on the progress being made to establish the Association for International Conciliation, with funding from Andrew Carnegie. The peace work of the association is to be done as quietly as possible and in accordance with the wishes of Roosevelt and Secretary of State Elihu Root. In addition, Butler offers Roosevelt his support in regard to the Brownsville affair and encourages Roosevelt to keep up a “stiff front” to the “Senate oligarchy.” Butler also shares his observations regarding how railroad officials are trying to make the new railroad rate law unpopular, but concludes that, despite challenges, the law will succeed in the end.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-01-21
Senator Albert J. Beveridge requests the number of African Americans President Roosevelt has appointed during his presidency, as well as a short account of the three or four “bitter fights that have been made against him on account of some of these appointments.”
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-01-20
William H. Fleming believes that Senator Benjamin R. Tillman’s attack on President Roosevelt was only representative of Tillman’s own beliefs. The Brownsville matter should show Southern whites that Roosevelt is willing “to do justice to them,” while at the same time not having prejudice against African Americans. Senator Tillman predicts an impending race war, but Fleming does not believe this will happen, although it is good that there are not more senators as outspoken as Tillman.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-01-16
Judge Emory Speer of Georgia seems to be of the opinion that President Roosevelt “did not proceed without authority and certainly not without precedent” when he discharged without honor the African American troops involved in the “shooting up” of Brownsville, Texas, comparing the situation to an incident involving George Washington and the “Connecticut Light Horse” militia. Speer notes that the language of Article 5 of the Federal Constitution suggests that a “different method of punishment” can be inflicted by the President when crimes are committed by members of land and naval forces.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-01-09
Statistics on the number of executions and lynchings completed in the United States, organized by year, between 1885 and 1906.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906
This article, published in The Outlook, seeks to present the principles which “should, and eventually will, determine the whole question of the treatment of the Oriental races in this country.” Considering specifically the case of California, where Japanese children were being excluded from public schools, the article highlights three issues: the prerogative of the states to control and make decisions about public schooling, the right of the Federal Government to determine who may enter into the country, and the power of Congress to make naturalization laws to determine who may become a citizen. After explaining these, the article then applies them to the situation in California.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-12-29
This article describes an outbreak of violence at Fort Leavenworth between African-American soldiers and a crowd of people on a trolley car. The author blames the violence on Senator Foraker of Ohio, who the article says is in the pocket of large corporations, as well as the Constitution League of New York. While the author says that Senator Foraker’s opinion is to be expected, the article opines that the Constitution League is different, and is made up of misguided people who should know better.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-12-31
This article describes an incident between an African American soldier and a white woman. The article expresses some surprise that more of these sorts of incidents have not happened and blames Senator Joseph Benson Foraker for denouncing President Roosevelt’s handling of the Brownsville incident, wherein African-American soldiers were rumored to have opened fire on citizens.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-12-31
James Jeffrey Roche shares his views on a range of topics with President Roosevelt, including Roosevelt’s handling of Bellamy Storer’s “indiscretion” in Rome, the public’s response to the Brownsville case, and Roche’s support for Roosevelt’s simplified spelling idea.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-12-28
The article praises President Roosevelt’s bravery in advocating on behalf of the Japanese people amidst the persecution they have suffered in California. America can be proud of having such a statesman in leadership.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-12-10
After James Sullivan Clarkson reads about a speech that Abraham Lincoln gave in 1858 in Abbott’s History of the Civil War and the Growth and Downfall of Slavery, he forwards a copy to President Roosevelt.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1905-02-07
James Sullivan Clarkson forwards to William Loeb a dispatch about a situation in Louisiana that he does not understand.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1905-01-03
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