Taking on Theodore Roosevelt

by Harry Lembeck

  3. Kelly Miller, The Everlasting Stain (Washington, DC: Associated Publishers, 1924), pp. 329–30.

  4. Mark Twain, Autobiography of Mark Twain: The Complete and Authoritative Edition, eds. Benjamin Griffin and Harriet Elinor Smith, vol. 2 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2013), pp. 133, 524. A search of the online archives of the New York Times did not find this article.

  5. Between six million and seven million Ukrainians are estimated to have died in two years. “Ukrainian Famine,” Revelations from the Russian Archives, http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/archives/ukra.html (accessed May 21, 2014). The Russian successor government to the Soviet Union continues to deny the Ukrainian Famine as genocide. The government of Ukraine does, and it has made denial illegal. “Ukraine Famine,” United Human Rights Council, http://www.unitedhumanrights.org/genocide/ukraine_famine.htm (accessed May 21, 2014).

  6. Theodore Roosevelt, letter to Jacob Schiff, July 26, 1906, in The Letters of Theodore Roosevelt, ed. Elting E. Morison, vol. 5, The Big Stick: 1905–1907 (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1952), p. 336. Questioning America's inaction came from Russia itself. In a letter from one of the survivors, “We are considering why you in America, who are constantly doing so much good in the world, remain idle now. You made peace for Japan. Why are you not doing something for us?” “Bombs Sold Openly on Bialystok Streets,” New York Times, June 17, 1906.

  7. “William Lynch (Lynch Law),” Wikipedia, last modified August 19, 2013, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Lynch_(Lynch_law) (accessed September 30, 2014), citing “Lynch, Charles,” American National Biography and Southern Literary Messenger 2 (May 1836): 389. Mark Gado, “Carnival of Death: Lynching in America,” Crime Library, http://www.crimelibrary.com/notorious_murders/mass/lynching/lynching_2.html (accessed May 21, 2014). “Lynch Law,” Daily Alta California (San Francisco), July 20, 1887, available online at http://cdnc.ucr.edu/cgi-bin/cdnc?a=d&d=DAC18870720.2.48.

  8. Miller, Everlasting Stain, pp. 324–28.

  9. Theodore Roosevelt, letter to John M. Parker, October 3, 1906, box 27, Correspondence Photostats, Theodore Roosevelt Collection, Houghton Library, Harvard University.

  10. Theodore Roosevelt, Address to the Proceedings of the New York State Conference of Charities and Correction at the First Annual Session, pp. 7–8, cited in Roosevelt Cyclopedia, eds. Albert B. Hart and Herbert R. Ferleger (New York City: Roosevelt Memorial Association, 1941), p. 321.

  11. Theodore Roosevelt, letter to Philander Knox, July 24, 1903, in The Letters of Theodore Roosevelt, ed. Elting E. Morison, vol. 3, The Square Deal: 1901–1903 (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1951), p. 528.

  12. Theodore Roosevelt, letter to Winfield Taylor Durbin, August 6, 1903, in Morison, Letters of Theodore Roosevelt, 3:540.

  13. “The Wilmington Lynching,” New York Times, October 29, 1903.

  14. Negro with a lowercase n was in the transcript of the message. See, for example, Miller Center, http://millercenter.org/president/speeches/detail/3778, and the New York Times, December 5, 1906. The author used the transcript in these two sources for quoted material from the annual message.

  15. The theory of “conspiracy of silence” seems never to have been applied to lynching. Lynchers were rarely caught and arrested, more rarely tried, and most rare of all, ever convicted, because a conspiracy of silence was between more than the lynchers and their abettors; it included sheriffs, local police, and other authorities. Lynchings took place with their knowledge, consent, and help. Lynching was worse than a perversion of a system of justice; it was a tool for terrorizing and controlling blacks—and occasionally others, such as Leo Frank, a Jew, in Atlanta.

  16. Theodore Roosevelt, letter to Silas McBee, November 27, 1906, in Morison, Letters of Theodore Roosevelt, 5:509.

  17. Booker T. Washington (address, National Negro Business League, Atlanta, August 29, 1906), in Harlan and Smock, Booker T. Washington Papers, 9:65, 62. The text has negro with a lowercase n, though it may not have been in the original. By 1906, Washington had been spelling Negro with an uppercase N for some years.

  18. Donald L. Grant, The Way It Was in the South: The Black Experience in Georgia (New York: Birch Lane, 1993), p. 208.

  19. Milholland Diary, September 23, 1906, John E. Milholland Papers (1887–1924), Ticonderoga (NY) Historical Society.

  20. James Krohe Jr., “Reading: Anatomy of a Race Riot,” Chicago Reader, September 13, 1990, http://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago/reading-anatomy-of-a-race-riot/Content?oid=876322 (accessed September 30, 2014).

  21. “Atlanta Views on Riots,” New York Times, September 24, 1906.

  22. On the day of the riot, newspapers told of four assaults of women by Negroes. Journalist Ray Stannard Baker investigated and learned only two may have been assaults. The other two “were nothing more than fright on the part of both the white woman and the Negro.” Ray Stannard Baker, Following the Color Line: An Account of Negro Citizenship in the American Democracy (Williamstown, MA: Corner House, 1973), pp. 9–10.

  23. “Rioting Goes On, Despite Troops,” New York Times, September 24, 1906 (with the subheadline “Exodus of Black Servants Troubles City”); “The Atlanta Riots,” editorial, New York Times, September 25, 1906; Kathy Lohr, “Century-Old Race Riot Still Resonates in Atlanta,” National Public Radio, September 22, 2006, transcript available online at http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6106285 (accessed September 30, 2014).

  24. “Atlanta Riots.”

  25. See Russell S. Bonds, War Like the Thunderbolt: The Battle and Burning of Atlanta (Yardley, PA: Westholme, 2009), for a superb narrative of the Battle of Atlanta. The expulsion of its residents and the city's burning are in chapters 11 and 12. Ray Stannard Baker makes the point that both races were bound by fear of the other race. Whites were afraid of Negro crime, especially rape. Negroes also feared Negro crime, for they, more than whites, were hurt by it. But Negroes also feared whites and the brutal consequences of what otherwise would be innocent encounters with them. Baker tells of an unnamed white woman who described how she was bumped by a Negro man who didn't see her on the street as he came out of a building. “When he turned and found it was a white woman he had touched, such a look of abject terror and fear came into his face as I hope never again to see on a human countenance. He knew what it meant if I was frightened, called for help, and accused him of insulting or attacking me…. It shows, doesn't it, how little it might take to bring punishment upon an innocent man!” Baker, Following the Color Line, p. 8.

  26. Francis J. Grimké, “The Atlanta Riot” (speech, Washington, DC, October 7, 1906), University of Georgia Library.

  27. See Edmund Morris, Theodore Rex (New York: Random House, 2001), pp. 451–52.

  28. Harlan and Smock, Booker T. Washington Papers, 9:73.

  29. Theodore Roosevelt, letter to Booker T. Washington, October 8, 1906, box 27, Correspondence Photostats, Theodore Roosevelt Collection.

  30. “An Account of a Speech in New York,” New York Times, September 21, 1906, reprinted in Harlan and Smock, Booker T. Washington Papers, 9:74–75.

  31. See S. Laing Williams, letter to Booker T. Washington, October 7, 1906, in Harlan and Smock, Booker T. Washington Papers, 9:91. “I note your going to Atlanta in the midst of the anarchy down there. It was an exceedingly courageous thing for you to do and, like thousands of others I thank you for this exhibition of that sort of courage which counts in trying affairs.”

  32. David L. Lewis, W. E. B. Du Bois: Biography of a Race, 1868–1919 (New York: Henry Holt, 1993), p. 335. The wife of John Hope, the president of Atlanta Baptist College, now Morehouse College, remembered the mob turning back from its campus rather than having to go through a “notoriously tough black ghetto” nearby (Lewis, W. E. B. Du Bois: Biography of a Race, p. 333).

  33. Theodore Roosevelt, letter to Ray Stannard Baker, “Personal and Private,” March 30, 1907, in Morison, Letters of Theodore Roosevelt, 5:634–35. Baker had been traveling the South to study the Negro “problem”
there when Atlanta broke apart. The following spring, he wrote a series of articles titled “Following the Color Line” in the American Magazine. Roosevelt read the articles, and it was what they said about the causes of the Atlanta riots that he said he now agreed with. Baker later converted the articles into a book with a similar title, Following the Color Line: American Negro Citizenship in the Progressive Era.

  34. Baker damns the white community. And he reveals that the foreman of the jury who tried (and acquitted) Negroes charged with crimes during the riot did too. Baker, Following the Color Line, pp. 14–16.

  35. “Atlanta Views on Riots.”

  36. Lewis, W. E. B. Du Bois: Biography of a Race, p. 335.

  37. Ibid., p. 337.

  38. Ibid., p. 342.

  39. Louis R. Harlan, introduction to Up from Slavery, by Booker T. Washington (New York: Viking Penguin, 1986), p. xiii.

  40. Ann J. Lane, The Brownsville Affair: National Crisis and Black Reaction (Port Washington, NY: Kennikat, 1971), p. 77.

  41. T. Thomas Fortune, letter to Booker T. Washington, December 8, 1906, in Harlan and Smock, Booker T. Washington Papers, 9:156–58. Fortune never liked Roosevelt. Just after he was elected governor of New York, Fortune told Washington, “He is no good, and you will find it out.” T. Thomas Fortune, letter to Booker T. Washington, November 30, 1898, cited in T. Thomas Fortune: Militant Journalist, by Emma L. Thornbrough (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1972), p. 220. The feeling was mutual. While Roosevelt was in the White House, Fortune tried time and again for a federal appointment but never got one.

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN: A DIFFERENT BURDEN OF PROOF

  1. See “Washington Begged President Not to Dismiss Troops,” New York Age, November 15, 1906. In this article is the related story about Pitcher: “There is reason to believe that Booker T. Washington is at the bottom of Col. Pitcher's trouble, though this cannot be established definitely.”

  2. “President Expels an Army Battalion,” New York Times, November 6, 1906.

  3. U. S. Grant, letter to Mary B. Pitcher, July 12, 1869, in The Papers of Ulysses S. Grant, ed. John Y. Simon, vol. 19, July 1, 1868–October 31, 1869 (Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1995), p. 204.

  4. “Cadet Smith,” New York Times, August 2, 1872.

  5. “Censures Lieut. Col. Pitcher,” New York Times, November 18, 1904.

  6. “Race Feeling Rampant among Negro Soldiers,” New York Times, November 7, 1906.

  7. One was the Brownsville Herald. “Dismissed by President,” Brownsville Herald, November 8, 1906.

  8. “Grants in Washington,” New York Times, February 25, 1907. Pitcher immediately denied the charges against him. The New York Age reported on November 15, 1906, his statement that “he had never entertained and never expressed such sentiments. He explained that he had served with colored troops in the past and had seen them do heroic fighting” (“Pitcher, of Course, Denies”).

  9. “Infantry's Officers Remiss; Did Not Examine Rifles until Day after the Brownsville Riot,” New York Times, November 15, 1906.

  10. “May Punish Officers of Negro Battalion,” New York Times, November 13, 1906; “Officers to Be Tried for Brownsville Riot,” New York Times, November 15, 1906.

  11. Maj. Augustus P. Blocksom Report, Summary Discharge or Mustering Out of Regiments or Companies…, S. Doc. No. 59-155, vol. 11 (2d sess. 1907) (hereafter cited as SD-1), p. 425; A. B. Nettleton Letter, SD-1, p. 533.

  12. “Negro Troops Praised,” New York Times, November 27, 1906. The Washington Post stories of November 27 and 29 are included in Henry Fowler Pringle, Research Notes for Theodore Roosevelt: A Biography, 7th year, p. 4, Houghton Library, Harvard University.

  13. A. B. Nettleton, letter to William Howard Taft, SD-1, p. 535. Nettleton said nothing about Captain Macklin drinking beer while officer of the day. When Garlington later was questioned about Macklin going to sleep while on duty, he said it was no concern; “this was the usual custom in the service.”

  14. Fred W. Carpenter (Taft's private secretary), memorandum to the general staff, December 6, 1906, SD-1, p. 291.

  15. Theodore Roosevelt, letter to William Howard Taft, December 5, 1906, SD-1, p. 291; Fred W. Carpenter, letter to the general staff, December 6, 1906, SD-1, p. 291; statement that matter was “very much a question,” SD-1, p. 291; Macklin's response, SD-1, p. 296; Garlington's response, SD-1, p. 292; Roosevelt approves court-martial, SD-1, p. 299. The genesis of the courts-martial may have been a statement Maj. Charles Penrose made to Gilchrist Stewart on the day the last soldier was mustered out at Fort Reno. “There goes the last of the best disciplined, best behaved and regulated battalion in the entire United States Army.” Stewart asked him if this was for publication. “Yes, indeed, I would say that anywhere.” Stewart told it to the Washington Post, which published it on November 27, the day Roosevelt returned from Panama. On Thanksgiving, Roosevelt would have read in the Post that morning that Penrose's statement had caused indignation at the War Department. “It was flagrantly insubordinate, and his court-martial would surely follow.” The Washington Post stories of November 27 and 29 are included in Pringle, Research Notes, 7th year, p. 4. President Roosevelt may have seen this was a message to him. The New York Times ran with the story that same day. “Negro Troops Praised,” New York Times, November 27, 1906.

  16. See Frederick Funston, Commanding General, Southwestern Division, to Military Secretary, December 5, 1906, Summary Discharge or Mustering Out of Regiments or Companies: Message from the President of the United States…, S. Doc. No. 59-155, vol. 11, pt. 2 (2d sess. 1907) (hereafter cited as SD-1), p. 201.

  17. Maj. Augustus Blocksom, letter to Capt. William Kelly and Frederick Combe, December 4, 1906, SD-1, pp. 202–203.

  18. See Report of the Judge-Advocate General of the Army upon the Subject of Discharge without Honor, SD-1, pp. 279–82.

  19. Stewart Report may be a complete misnomer. What was given to President Roosevelt and Senator Foraker was signed by officers of the Constitution League and referred to as a “Petition.” Properly it should be referred to as the Constitution League Report. Stewart made the investigation on which it was based and had the major role in writing it, and to keep its continuity with his investigation clear, it will be referred to from this point on as the Stewart Report.

  20. The date of Roosevelt's telegram (actually Loeb's on his behalf) to Stewart was December 8, 1906, and is referenced in Humphrey's cover letter with the report on December 10, 1906. SD-1, p. 205. Stewart, reply telegram, December 8/9, 1906, Theodore Roosevelt Papers, Library of Congress.

  21. Milholland Diary, December 9, 1906, John E. Milholland Papers (1887–1924), Ticonderoga (NY) Historical Society. They had been working on it since the first of the month, as indicated by Milholland's diary for that date, when Stewart got back from Fort Reno.

  22. James A. Tinsley, “Roosevelt, Foraker, and the Brownsville Affray,” Journal of Negro History 41, no. 1 (1956): 50.

  23. See Stewart Report, SD-1, pp. 229–30. Frazier's correctly spelled name is in the army record at SD-1, p. 266.

  24. According to the New York Times, Stewart “was assisted by a Mr. Barbour,” a local attorney. “Negro Troops Answer Inquiry under Oath,” New York Times, November 25, 1906.

  25. The affidavits appear at SD-1, pp. 216–34.

  26. “Short Evening with Gilchrist Stewart on Roosevelt Telegram,” diary entry, Milholland Diary, December 8, 1906, Milholland Papers.

  27. It is not certain when Smith left for Brownsville. Milholland wrote in his diary, “I'm preparing to send for Joe Smith to investigate the shameful actions of the Administration in dealing with the Black Soldiers at Brownsville and Oh let me be free, Good Lord, that I may free others!” This probably was sometime in September, possibly September 10, because it is sandwiched between the September 9 and September 11 entries. We know for sure the draft of the report was ready on November 24, because on that date Milholland wrote, “Spent entire day in the house scouring [illegible] from Smit
h and Stewart. Smith's…was superb, better than I expected & my expectations were lofty. Stewart's was good but his appeal to Washington premature and a mistake.” Milholland Diary, November 24, 1906, Milholland Papers. Milholland's praise for both men and failure to comment on the faulty affidavits suggests he had only the report interpreting the affidavits and other evidence but not the affidavits themselves.

  28. Stewart Report, SD-1, pp. 205–35. For this argument, see pp. 205–206 and p. 209. Stewart may have brought this up to Taft before he left Fort Reno. Brownsville historian John Weaver wrote that he wired Taft from Fort Reno, “[Soldiers] not allowed to present their side and investigation a farce.” In his report he modified this argument to say they had such an opportunity but whatever they said had not been considered or even received by the War Department until after their guilt was presumed. Weaver's citation of authority is “National Archives.” John D. Weaver, The Brownsville Raid (College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 1992), pp. 109, 301.

  29. Constitution League Report, SD-1: Residents’ bias, p. 209; shooters wore khaki, p. 211; witnesses were unable to identify, p. 208; mixed arms, p. 214; rifle in common use, p. 217; and prejudging case, p. 220.

  30. Milholland Diary, December 7, 1906, Milholland Papers.

  31. See ibid., December 9, 1906. On December 2 Milholland's diary reflected his mounting frustration with the investigation's costs and his acceptance of them. “Our report on the Negro Battalion Discharge in preparation by Gil Stewart and Joe Smith wired from San Antonio for $50 I think making to him $200. This Negro Soldier [illegible] will cost me more than $500 and I don't begrudge a cent of it. This is for the Republic.”

  32. The time and date are fixed by Loeb's cover letter to Taft forwarding the report. William Loeb, forward letter to William Howard Taft, December 11, 1906, SD-1, p. 204. There was no mention of the telegrams exchanged between Stewart and the White House in November when Roosevelt was in Panama. The report was to have been ready and delivered on November 27; perhaps the Constitution League did not want to remind Roosevelt it was late.