United States. Army. Infantry Regiment, 25th

John B. Ashbaugh examines Theodore Roosevelt’s complicated views on race and charts his history with various ethnic and racial groups, including Native Americans, African-Americans, and Jews. Ashbaugh highlights the influence of Roosevelt’s southern born and raised mother and her brothers, both of whom served the Confederacy during the Civil War. Ashbaugh stresses that Roosevelt’s views evolved over time, and he demonstrates how Roosevelt believed in and promoted the Progressive views of his time such as the assimilation of Native Americans, but that he also respected many aspects of Native culture and had enduring friendships with individual Native Americans. Ashbaugh presents Roosevelt’s views on Jews and immigration, and he details many aspects of Roosevelt’s feelings toward and relationship with African-Americans, including his condemnation of lynching, his White House dinner with Booker T. Washington, and the Brownsville incident.

Five photographs and two illustrations appear in the text.

Collection

Theodore Roosevelt Association Journal

Secretary of War William H. Taft grabs “Mingo Saunders 25 yrs good service” by the shoulder and brings him toward President Roosevelt who uses “the square deal” shoe to kick an African American into a “door of hope” river as he says, “Midnight assassins.” The other men of the U.S. Army’s 1st Battalion, 25th Infantry stand watching.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1908-09-26

Sergeant Mingo Saunders, decorated with medals labeled “One of the Best,” “Faithful,” “Honest,” and “Brave,” and with stripes on his sleeve that read, “Nearly 30 Years a Soldier,” holds a paper: “Discharged Without Honor from the Army of the U.S.” Below is an article about Saunders’s discharge. The article encourages African Americans to vote for Senator Joseph Benson Foraker rather than William H. Taft, who advocates for disenfranchisement of African Americans. If Foraker is not an option, the paper suggests Vice President Charles W. Fairbanks because Senator James A. Hemenway, who works for Fairbanks’s campaign, has assisted Foraker in advocating for the discharged soldiers.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1908-04-11

Speaker of the House Joseph Gurney Cannon says, “Tariff revision or an extra session!” in one cartoon. The next includes a teddy bear and President Roosevelt reading a paper that says, “Mr. President: Anything you say goes! California.” Another cartoon depicts a government clerk holding a bag that says, “50% salary increase” while Uncle Sam says, “And more if necessary.” The next cartoon depicts William Jennings Bryan saying to William Randolph Hearst, “After you, my dear Willie!” with a sign that reads, “To presidency.” Another one shows South Carolina senator Benjamin R. Tillman depicted with a pitchfork walking toward the White House with a dove of peace. Finally, the last cartoon depicts Senator Joseph Benson Foraker with a sign that says, “Reenlistment” in front of a group of soldiers labeled, “25th Infantry” — the black regiment at the center of the Brownsville Incident.

comments and context

Comments and Context

When cartoonist Clifford Kennedy Berryman switched, shortly prior to this drawing’s publication, from the Evening Star from the Washington Post, his drawing style improved: a better ability to capture celebrities’ likenesses to place atop little bodies. This cartoon fell back on the erstwhile cartoonists’ annual chestnut — a reliable theme to use once a year, the Valentine cards for politicians — either dream-fantasies or the unlikeliest of scenarios.

Uncle Sam holds a paper to which he has just signed “OK” that reads, “Discharge of Negro Soldiers at Brownsville.” Meanwhile, President Roosevelt has two dogs depicting Senators Joseph Benson Foraker and Benjamin R. Tillman barking at him. He says to Uncle Sam, “Oh! Don’t mind them, Uncle–That’s the only way they can attract any attention–these days!” Caption: And then they can go home and brag that they barked at a real president!

comments and context

Comments and Context

The Denver Post, for about thirty years following the purchase by legendary owners Frederick Gilmer Bonfils and Harry Heye Tammen in the 1890s, was (and remains) one of the most interesting cases in American journalism; and was one of the most successful and influential papers in the active city of Denver and the growing mountain states at the time.

President Roosevelt looks off into the distance as he ponders what is written on a piece of paper: “Discharge of Negro soldiers without honor.” Just above the cartoon are verses from the book of Daniel and the directive to “hold this page up to the light and look through the blank space.” Caption: The warning.

comments and context

Comments and Context

A Virginia newspaper reprinted this cartoon by Eugene Zimmerman (“Zim”) in Judge Magazine about President Roosevelt’s dilemma following his dismissal of black troops in the “Brownsville Affair.” Judge was a Republican weekly political-cartoon journal, the counterpart of Puck, and was established by former Puck cartoonists.

President Roosevelt hangs from a hot air balloon “The 25th Regiment Affair” and holds onto a big stick labeled, “Prestige.” The U.S. Capitol building and Washington Monument can be seen on the ground. Caption: I’d let go of this Blamed thing, but I might break my “Big Stick.”

comments and context

Comments and Context

Cartoonist G. T. Hayward, in an awkward amalgam of icons and symbols, portrays the famed “Big Stick” of President Roosevelt as a cartoon prop signifying prestige rather than the routine attributes of power and persuasion.

Senator Joseph Benson Foraker, depicted as Marc Antony, gestures to a group of African American men looking down at one man on a pole stretcher covered with a blanket labeled “Brownsville Battalion” with the number 23 on the side. Caption: Antony: “If you have votes, prepare to shed them now.”

Comments and Context

The New Orleans Times-Democrat was one of the South’s newspapers that beat the editorial drum loudest against the cashiered soldiers in the Brownsville Affair. While the shooting death and wounding of two men outside a saloon near Black Army barracks was — and still is — an unsolved matter, cartoonists like Trist Wood were judges and juries all by themselves.

In this cartoon the blacks are portrayed stereotypically, even to a straight razor supposedly favored in internal squabbles, and the Republican (and longtime, preternatural anti-Roosevelt partisan) Senator Joseph Benson Foraker of Ohio haranguing them. Oddly — since black votes carried little weight at the time — his motives are cast as electoral pandering.

Secretary of War William H. Taft labeled “Full-back,” President Roosevelt labeled “Quarter-back,” and Uncle Sam labeled “Center” holding a ball with the words “Justice for Treason” stand on a football field looking at a group of men with a sign, “25th Infantry.” In the stands beside the group of men is one man holding a pennant labeled “T–Traitor” while the other side has a big “W” with a megaphone shouting, “Rickety Ram, Rickety Ram, Theodore, William, and Uncle Sam.”

comments and context

Comments and Context

It would be hard to find a political cartoon about the Brownsville Affair more blatantly dismissive of the implicated black soldiers. The controversy was the dishonorable discharge of an entire regiment suspected but never found guilty of any act related to the murder and wounding of two men outside a bar near their barracks. Outside the South, this cartoon by Jack H. Smith was the boldest in support of President Roosevelt’s hardline position, his Secretary of War, William H. Taft; and by the cartoonists’ icon of Uncle Sam, the nation as a whole.

In one vignette, “Congress” shaped like Speaker of the House Joseph Gurney Cannon looks at President Roosevelt. Caption: That he has three more days of grace. In another, Vice President Charles W. Fairbanks, Secretary of War William H. Taft, and Secretary of the Treasury Leslie M. Shaw hold a paper that reads, “President’s anti-third term declaration.” Caption: That it is irrevocable. In a third vignette, a man with a pickaxe sweats and smiles. Caption: That the president has gone. In the fourth vignette, “Dorsey” looks at a sign that reads, “Dismissal of colored troops—25th Infantry.” Caption: That he wasn’t in it. In the fifth vignette, William Jennings Bryan sits in a chair. Caption: That the N.Y. democracy did so splendidly.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1906-11-29

President Roosevelt stands next to a big stick and a suitcase with a “Panama” tag. He looks at Secretary of War William H. Taft who sits on a “25th Inf. ‘Discharged Without Honor'” container. Taft says, “Oh! I was only off a few minutes.”

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1906-11-24

General Frederick Dent Grant and General Andrew Sheridan Burt (commander) returning from Mount Arayat, at the head of the famous 25th Infantry, colored. Filmed March 23, 1900, in the Philippine Islands, following the 25th Infantry’s participation at the battle of Mt. Arayat in January 1900.

Collection

Library of Congress Motion Picture, Broadcasting and Recorded Sound

Creation Date

1900

Theodore Roosevelt appreciates Warrington Dawson for his letter for Edith Kermit Carow Roosevelt and updates him on her recovery and condition. Roosevelt comments that his stance remains the same on the Brownsville affair, its investigation, and his position towards African American soldiers.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1911-10-20

President Roosevelt has seen Secretary of War Luke E. Wright since he wrote to Senator Aldrich this morning. Wright is of the opinion that the Brownsville Affair bill would not require the president to allow the reenlistment of eligible men. Roosevelt is relieved, but wants this interpretation to be explicitly outlined in the bill for future reference. He is sure that future presidents will listen to the board, but he does not want his successors to be “compelled” to act on their recommendations.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1909-02-02

A notable lawyer’s interpretation of the current version of the Brownsville Affair bill compounds the dissatisfaction with the bill’s wording that President Roosevelt has already articulated to Senator Aldrich. Roosevelt worries that the bill will compel the reenlistment of any man found innocent by the board of officers, a measure that he strongly opposes.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1909-02-02

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.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

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.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1906-12-26

President Roosevelt tells Major General Grant that he will arrange to see the general’s daughter Julia Dent Grant Cantacuzene and her husband Prince Mikhail Mikhailovich Cantacuzene soon. Roosevelt also mentions that “a general order” of Grant’s father, President Ulysses S. Grant, has a direct bearing on the ongoing Brownsville investigation.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1906-12-08

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.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

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.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1907-02-01