Your TR Source
President Roosevelt wishes to act regarding African-American soldiers Booker T. Washington previously wrote to him about. Roosevelt wishes to act upon facts from the investigation rather than privately from Washington himself.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-11-05
President Roosevelt thanks William H. Fleming for the letter, and informs him that he took the liberty of forwarding it to Secretary of War William H. Taft so that they may discuss the matter. Regarding Fleming’s suggestion, Roosevelt is anxious to do something to help, but is more concerned with not doing anything that may hurt the matter. He discusses the issues surrounding the enforcement of laws and voting rights, with African Americans being prevented from voting, but still contributing to population numbers when determining the number of representatives those states get. Roosevelt does not feel that he can force changes, and has determined that his best course of action is to uphold men of the south who are acting correctly. He muses about inviting several men to Washington, D.C., to discuss the best course of action.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-08-20
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 authorizes Secretary of War Taft to use funds to stable the cavalry at Boise, Idaho as General Fred C. Ainsworth mentioned. Roosevelt additionally comments on several appointments, saying he believes that Walston H. Brown should be allowed to carry out his proposal, that he has decided to appoint James Shanklin Harlan to the Interstate Commerce Commission, and that he is inclined to appoint Horace H. Lurton, which will necessitate appointing a new Circuit Court Judge. Roosevelt also writes at length about some recent articles by Poultney Bigelow which contain some “slanderous falsehood,” but about which he believes some response should be made.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-08-17
From the extracts he has seen, President Roosevelt believes that Representative Fleming addressed the “race question” well, and asks to get a copy of Fleming’s address.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-07-09
President Roosevelt was impressed by what Booker T. Washington tells him about the Cox family of Indianola, Mississippi, and comments that it is “one of the most astounding things in our recent history,” and is “infamously and shamefully discreditable to the mob of Indianola.” In a handwritten postscript, Roosevelt mentions that the consulship in the Congo Free State has already been filled by promotion.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-06-21
President Roosevelt sends Owen Wister the text of a letter he received describing the situation of the Cox family at Indianola, Mississippi. Minnie M. Geddings Cox was previously in the center of a disturbance after being forced out of her job as postmistress by residents of the town. In the time since that event, her husband, Wayne W. Cox, has started a bank in town, and has received no objections to his serving as the president of the bank. Roosevelt comments on the hypocrisy of the residents of Indianola, saying that “now the fantastic fools and moral cowards who encouraged or permitted the mob to turn [Minnie M. Geddings Cox] out are depositing their funds in the husband’s bank and have him as a director in a white bank, and she and her husband own one of the best houses in Indianola and one of the best plantations in the neighborhood.”
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-06-21
President Roosevelt had recently finished Owen Wister’s book Lady Baltimore, and sends Wister his thoughts and criticisms of the work. While he enjoyed the story, Roosevelt believes the book is unfairly critical of northerners and uncritical of southerners. Similarly, Roosevelt points out that while the book lauds the past at the expense of the present, there are many examples of violence, brutality, greed, and other vices in the past. Roosevelt also remarks on the status of African-Americans, and while he agrees with Wister in certain regards, believes the work has gone too far in the racist stereotypes. He hopes that Wister will be able to visit him soon. In a postscript, Roosevelt mentions a number of other books he has read or is reading that similarly make readers “feel that there is no use of trying to reform anything because everything is so rotten that the whole social structure should either be let alone or destroyed.”
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-04-27
President Roosevelt is sorry to hear that J. M. Dickinson cannot go to Norway but assures him that such an offer was not done as a favor but as a recognition of Dickinson’s ability and a tribute to him for the work he did as part of the Alaska Boundary Tribunal. He is pleased that Dickinson approves of the way he has been handling the question of African Americans in the South. While he knows there is no perfect solution, he hopes to “make it as little acute as possible, and cautiously endeavor to make things a little better in such way as will not mean making them ultimately worse!”
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-05-02
President Roosevelt writes to Owen Wister about a letter Roosevelt received from Judge J. M. Dickinson. Dickinson suggested that while the race question may never be settled, he believes that Roosevelt has helped quiet it for a time. Roosevelt believes that this is a common view in the South. He asserts that while many problems still remain in race relations and universal suffrage, the current situation has improved upon the past.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-05-03
President Roosevelt tells William L. Pryor that Governor James Kimble Vardaman and Senator H. D. Money have willfully been misleading in recounting statements he made about lynching. He encloses for Pryor copies of his speeches and letters to prove his actual statements on the matter. Roosevelt says he always makes a point of denouncing the alleged crime that proceeded a lynching in speeches on the subject.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1905-11-13
President Roosevelt encloses the remarks he intends to make at Tuskegee, and asks Judge Jones if he has said anything wrong.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1905-10-12
President Roosevelt informs Senator Platt that he requested that the “gentleman in whom you are interested” be promoted to Consul at Barbados. Roosevelt shares that the current Treasurer of the United States, Ellis H. Roberts, will be replaced soon, and that per their recent conversation, Roosevelt can promote Charles H. Treat to Treasurer, and put Charles William Anderson in Treat’s place as Internal Revenue Collector in New York, with the goal of giving “conspicuous recognition” to an African American man there.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1905-02-28
President Roosevelt believes Judge Trieber is correct in his assessment that race relations in the south suffer due to a “lack of moral courage” on the part of white upper class people there. Roosevelt is especially interested in Trieber’s work with black and white juries.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1905-03-01
President Roosevelt is glad James Ford Rhodes liked his speech, but while he agrees with Rhodes that the Reconstruction scheme based on “universal negro suffrage” was folly, he reminds Rhodes that the “initial folly was with the southern people themselves,” bringing Africans into the country and enslaving them. Roosevelt discusses the bitterness felt by southerners as well as northerners in the wake of the war and Reconstruction.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1905-02-20
President Roosevelt thanks Senator William P. Frye for forwarding the letter from Mr. Stratton, and tells him that he has taken immediate action to begin inquiries into the two postmasters mentioned in the letter. Roosevelt mentions that he has received protests regarding the conduct of William Frye Tebbetts in Montgomery. Roosevelt rates the opinion of Judge Jones about Mr. Thompson more highly than Mr. Stratton’s opinion. He is thinking of following Mr. Stratton’s suggestion to send Colonel Mosby to investigate the conditions in Alabama.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1905-01-10
President Roosevelt is unsure of what to do about William Frye Tebbetts, recently appointed Customs Collector in Mobile, Alabama. Roosevelt is concerned about how he has behaved toward African Americans based on comments from Booker T. Washington. Roosevelt informs President pro tempore of the Senate Frye he needs to know that Tebbetts will give all people—white or black—a square deal. Otherwise, Tebbetts cannot keep the position.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1904-12-22
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 invites Columbia University President Nicholas Murray Butler to have dinner with him and stay the night at the White House. Roosevelt remarks that there is little hope for unintelligent Southerners if intelligent ones like Thomas Nelson Page have such views about the removal of the Indianola, Mississippi, post office and other actions. Roosevelt feels that he “would have been unfit to sit in the chair of Abraham Lincoln had [he] acted otherwise,” and informs Butler he will be anything but apologetic in his Lincoln Day address.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1904-12-20
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