Taking on Theodore Roosevelt
Page 55
21. Francis E. Warren, letter to William E. Chaplin, December 31, 1906, Warren Papers.
22. Theodore Roosevelt, letter to Ethan Allen Hitchcock, October 10, 1905, in The Letters of Theodore Roosevelt, ed. Elting E. Morison, vol. 5, The Big Stick, 1905–1907 (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1952), p. 51. In this letter Roosevelt put Hitchcock to his proof. He asked him for the names of each Department of Interior employee Hitchcock was referring to and “whether he holds office by your appointment or by mine.”
23. Ethan Allen Hitchcock, letter to Alford W. Cooley, US Civil Service Commission, June 30, 1906, Hitchcock Papers. Also see Morison, Letters of Theodore Roosevelt, 5:445n1.
24. And the senator knew it. “Linnen and Hintze are now in Denver. There is no doubt but they mean the ugliest kind of ugliness.” Francis E. Warren, letter to W. A. Richards, September 22, 1906, Warren Papers.
25. Warren was a piker compared to others. A man named H. J. Weare was alleged to have illegally enclosed 149,000 acres. G. F. Pollock, Acting Commissioner, General Land Office, letter to Ethan Allen Hitchcock, October 15, 1906, Warren Papers.
26. E. B. Linnen, letter to Ethan Allen Hitchcock, September 7, 1906, p. 8. Warren Papers. The United States District Attorney for Wyoming, Timothy F. Burke, was alleged, as the administrator for an estate, to be “maintaining an illegal inclosure; and that he was, in fact, obstructing the enforcement of the public land laws instead of bring the offenders to justice.” E. B. Linnen, letter to Ethan Allen Hitchcock, November 15, 1906, Warren Papers.
27. The most damning was his relationship with Special Agent M. A. Meyendorff. See “Amazing Tale of Land Fraud Told in Detail,” Washington Times, November 29, 1906.
28. Francis E. Warren, two letters to Theodore Roosevelt, October 5, 1906, Warren Papers.
29. See Francis E. Warren, letter to W. W. Gleason, January 19, 1907, Warren Papers. “The President promised me it should be as I asked, and on the next day, October 6th, he wrote a letter to the Secretary.”
30. Theodore Roosevelt, letter to Ethan Allen Hitchcock, October 6, 1906, in Morison, Letters of Theodore Roosevelt, 5:445.
31. Theodore Roosevelt, letter to Ethan Allen Hitchcock, October 27, 1906, in ibid., 5:481.
32. “Roosevelt has waited, so far as he is concerned—year after year for the people to get their fences down or for Congress to legislate.” Francis E. Warren, letter to William E. Chaplin, December 31, 1906, Warren Papers.
33. Theodore Roosevelt, letter to Ethan Allen Hitchcock, October 9, 1906, box 27, Correspondence Photostats, Theodore Roosevelt Collection, Houghton Library, Harvard University.
34. W. A. Richards, letter to Francis E. Warren, November 1, 1906, Warren Papers.
35. “Son of Martyred Ohio President Will Become a Member of the Nation's Cabinet,” Cincinnati Enquirer, November 8, 1906, in box 156, James Rudolph Garfield Papers, Library of Congress.
36. “Garfield to Cabinet,” New York Tribune, November 8, 1906.
37. Roosevelt was not so cooperative with other stockmen (none as powerful as Warren), many of whom were taken to court in Cheyenne in an event called locally the “Roosevelt Roundup.” Some were fined; others given a short time in jail. All were respected men. Spring, William Chapin Deming of Wyoming, p. 123.
38. “By direction of the President, Secretary Hitchcock to-day [January 4, 1907] issued an order to Commissioner Richards” to notify interested parties that the law against enclosing public lands “will be rigidly enforced after April 1, 1907” (author's emphasis). “Ultimatum to Cattle Men,” New York Times, January 5, 1907.
39. “I, for one, am feeling no resentment because my company has had 100 miles or more of fence to pull down, and to be at vast expense arranging other matters.” Francis E. Warren, letter to William E. Chaplin, December 31, 1906, Warren Papers. Chaplin was yet another part of the Warren Machine. Between 1893 and 1895 he was the register of the US Land Office in Cheyenne and knew all about the land acquired by Warren. Roosevelt told Hitchcock that Linnen's judgment and findings with reference to Warren were discredited. Theodore Roosevelt, letter to Ethan Allen Hitchcock, January 24, 1907, in Morison, Letters of Theodore Roosevelt, 5:564–65. Note this was two days after the Senate approved the Brownsville investigation by Warren's Military Affairs Committee.
40. William Loeb, letter to Francis E. Warren, December 4, 1906, Warren Papers. Also referred to in Theodore Roosevelt, letter to Ethan Allen Hitchcock, December 4, 1906, in Morison, Letters of Theodore Roosevelt, 5:519; and William Loeb, letter to W. H. Moody, Attorney General, December 4, 1906, Warren Papers.
41. Francis E. Warren, letter to W. W. Gleason, December 10, 1906, Warren Papers.
42. Francis E. Warren, letter to W. W. Gleason, January 19, 1907, Warren Papers.
43. “Senator Warren Exonerated,” New York Sun, July 12, 1907.
44. Francis E. Warren, letter to James R. Garfield, July 10, 1907, Warren Papers. This “new” report carefully spoke in the present tense, stating that in July there were none. By then Gleason had them torn down. In 1913, when the Democrats took control of Congress, a House committee determined by a vote of 5–2 (one dissenter being Franklin W. Mondell, another gear in the Warren Machine) “that Senator Warren had been guilty of the illegal enclosure of public lands.” See commentary in Morison, Letters of Theodore Roosevelt, 5:445–46.
45. Garfield Diary, March 5, 1907, Garfield Papers.
CHAPTER TWENTY: THE SOLDIERS’ PATRON AND PATRONAGE
1. The Republicans were Warren, relieved of his concerns about Wyoming land irregularities, and Lodge, President Roosevelt's best friend who doubted the need for an investigation in the first place, William Warner, and Henry A. Du Pont. Four of the Democrats in the majority were from the South: James P. Taliaferro (Florida), Murphy J. Foster (Louisiana), Lee S. Overman (North Carolina), and J. B. Frazier (Tennessee), and one from a border state, James B. McCreary (Kentucky).
2. Joseph B. Foraker, Notes of a Busy Life, 2 vols. (Cincinnati: Stewart & Kidd, 1917), 2:260. He never changed his mind either; his quote beginning this chapter and asserting the soldiers’ innocence was written three days after the hearings began.
3. Ibid., 2:260. The majority's report is at pp. 23–27 of The Brownsville Affray, Part I, S. Doc. No. 60-309 (1908); the number of witnesses is at p. 23. The three volumes of hearings are Affray at Brownsville, Tex.: Hearings Before the Comm. on Military Affairs…, S. Doc. No. 60-402, pts. 4, 5, 6 (1908) (hereafter cited as SMAC-1 [pt. 4], SMAC-2 [pt. 5], and SMAC-3 [pt. 6]).
4. The saloon owners bore losses disproportionately greater than other businesses. And they made up a smaller group and were therefore more likely to successfully pull off such a thing and keep it a secret. Their Jim Crow discrimination had turned on them, and they were losing money. First Sergeant Jacob Frazier thought this. See SMAC-1, pp. 78–79 (answer of 1st Sgt. Frazier to Sen. Warner).
5. “Officer's Belief Shaken,” New York Times, March 30, 1907. See SMAC-2, pp. 1747–48 (testimony of 2nd Lt. Harry S. Grier). “Major Penrose Acquits Blacks,” Atlanta Constitution, April 5, 1907. Capt. Sam Lyon had always believed the men were innocent.
6. The minority Foraker-Hemenway report is at S. Doc. No. 60-309, pp. 27–30; and the Bulkeley-Foraker memorandum is at pp. 31–107.
7. Foraker, Notes of a Busy Life, 2:260.
8. The American system of justice protects persons accused of crime by making the trial not a determination of guilt or innocence but a test of the prosecution's evidence. The verdict is either “guilty” (the prosecution's evidence showed “beyond a reasonable doubt” that the defendant committed the crime) or “not guilty” (the prosecution did not). There is never a verdict of “innocent.” If a jury believes the defendant did the crime but the prosecution did not prove it beyond a reasonable doubt, it must acquit the defendant. In the Military Affairs Committee the soldiers had no such protection.
9. See John D. Weaver, The Brownsville Raid (College Station: Texas A&M University, 1992), p. 151.
10. SMAC-3, pp. 2032, 2035, 2037, 2059 (testimony of George Rendall).
11. See testimony of Lt. Henry Wiegenstein, Twenty-Fifth Infantry, given at the Penrose court-martial. Affray at Brownsville, Tex…. Proceedings of a General Court-Martial…in the Case of Maj. Charles W. Penrose, S. Doc. No. 60-402 (1908), pp. 989–99.
12. Foraker-Hemenway Report, S. Doc. No. 60-309, p. 31; SMAC-3, p. 1936 (testimony of Maj. Penrose); SMAC-3, p. 1836 (testimony of Capt. Lyon).
13. SMAC-2, p. 1350 (testimony of Henry Watson).
14. SD-1, pp. 315–31 (Sturgis), 331–41 (Winnemucca), 352–60 (Fort Bliss), 361–64 (Fort Niobrara). Nothing about this was noted in Raynor's official records. See SMAC-2, p. 1757.
15. Foraker-Hemenway Report, S. Doc. No. 60-309, p. 43.
16. See chapter four; see also SMAC-3, p. 2392 (testimony of Mayor Combe) and SMAC-2, p. 1933 (testimony of Penrose).
17. SMAC-3, pp. 2853, 2862–63 (testimony of Gen. Crozier).
18. SMAC-3, p. 2862.
19. J. H. Rice, Captain, Ordnance Department, US Army, letter to Gen. William Crozier, January 10, 1907, S. Doc. No. 59-155, vol. 11, pt. 2 (hereafter cited as SD-2), p. 177.
20. SMAC-1, pp. 395–96, 404, 405 (testimony of Sgt. McMurray).
21. Joseph B. Foraker, letter to John E. Milholland, January 30, 1907, box 68, Foraker Papers.
22. Joseph B. Foraker, letter to Benjamin J. Edger, February 11, 1907, box 63, Foraker Papers.
23. This took place while Macklin awaited his court-martial. Joseph B. Foraker, letter to Capt. Edgar Macklin, March 11, 1907, and Capt. Samuel Lyon, letter to Joseph B. Foraker, March 14, 1907, box 68, Foraker Papers.
24. Unidentified correspondent, letter to Joseph B. Foraker, February 23, 1907, box 63, Foraker Papers.
25. Capt. Ralph E. Gambell, letter to Joseph B. Foraker, December 21, 1906, box 49, Foraker Papers. Foraker answered Gambell, “No one will know that you have written me on the subject.” Joseph B. Foraker, letter to Capt. Ralph E. Gambell, January 6, 1907, box 64, Foraker Papers. Not all the correspondents were encouraging or supportive. S. L. French of Plymouth, Pennsylvania, wrote, “I am addressing you to express my sincere regret at your course in opposition to the President.” From Z. Preston Fuller of Brooklyn, “I have always voted the Republican ticket…but if you were the Republican candidate and W. R. Hearst were the democratic I should vote for him…because of your attitude against the President on the troop question & I am no Southerner being born & raised in N. Y. City.” To Mr. French, Foraker wrote politely, “I have no desire with respect to the matter except only to secure for these unfortunate men a chance to be heard somewhere, sometime, some way, in their defense.” Mr. Fuller merited no explanation, only politeness: “I appreciate very highly your acquainting me with your views.” S. L. French, letter to Joseph B. Foraker, December 26, 1906; Joseph B. Foraker, letter to S. L. French, December 28, 1906; Z. Preston Fuller, letter to Joseph B. Foraker, December 31, 1906; Joseph B. Foraker, letter to Z. Preston Fuller, January 2, 1907; all in box 49, Foraker Papers.
26. See SMAC-1, pp. 77 and 74, respectively. Senator Lodge, possibly still wounded from his disappointing performance during the Senate investigation debate, remained surprisingly quiet during the hearings and rarely said anything that might have invited a clash with Foraker. However, he remained Roosevelt's not-so-hidden mole on the committee and alerted him to opportunities to defend his position as they came up. On the last of the hearings before the committee's summer recess, he wrote Roosevelt about a visit Lieutenant Harry G. Leckie of the Twenty-Sixth Infantry made to Mexico. “Leckie's going to Mexico seems to me very improper.” Henry Cabot Lodge, letter to Theodore Roosevelt, June 14, 1907, in Selections from the Correspondence of Theodore Roosevelt and Henry Cabot Lodge, 1884–1918, 2 vols. (New York: C. Scribner's Sons, 1925), 2:270.
27. SMAC-1, pp. 2472, 2474.
28. SMAC-3, pp. 2608–2609. Blocksom thought Sergeant Reid lied when he denied sounding the “Call to Arms” on his own. If he had it might have been warning the raiders to get back to the fort. When Foraker pointed out Major Blocksom had ordered Private Charley Hairston to instruct Reid to sound the alarm, Blocksom changed his mind. This created some doubt the shooting was planned by the soldiers.
29. SMAC-1, p. 63.
30. SMAC-2, p. 1184.
31. W. H. Lucas, letter to Joseph B. Foraker, April 16, 1907; W. W. Dudley, letter to Joseph B. Foraker, December 26, 1906; F. H. M. Murray, letter to Joseph B. Foraker, December 29, 1906; Katie Leahy, letter to Joseph B. Foraker, March 18, 1907; all in Foraker Papers. Lincoln and Foraker became pen pals. When he wrote Foraker to caution him not to accept at face value news reports about Negro crime in El Reno, especially during the Macklin and Penrose courts-martial, Foraker asked him to send him facts. Charles P. Lincoln, letter to Joseph B. Foraker, December 29, 1906, Foraker Papers; Joseph B. Foraker, letter to Charles P. Lincoln, December 31, 1906, Foraker Papers.
32. E. N. Martin, letter to Joseph B. Foraker, June 18, 1907, Foraker Papers.
33. Theophilus Steward, letter to John Cromwell, March 3, 1907, cited in Unveiled Voices, Unvarnished Memories: The Cromwell Family in Slavery and Segregation, 1692–1972, by Adelaide M. Cromwell (Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 2007), p. 312. John Cromwell was on the executive committee of the AME churches.
34. “Colored Soldiers Testifying Strongly,” Boston Guardian, February 23, 1907, Guardian of Boston/Trotter Collection, Howard Gotlieb Archival Research Center, Mugar Library, Boston University.
35. A. B. Humphrey, letter to Joseph B. Foraker, March 28, 1907, folder 4, box 17, Fox section, Guardian/Trotter Collection.
36. John E. Milholland, letter to N.B. Marshall, May 16, 1907, folder 5, box 4, Foraker Papers.
37. SMAC-2, pp. 1292–93.
38. A civilian whose job it was to remove refuse from the post.
39. Maj. Augustus Blocksom, telegram to the adjutant general, March 17, 1907, SMAC-2, p. 1292; “Pronounced a Fake,” Washington Evening Star, March 18, 1907.
40. “Army Rifles Fired at Brownsville,” New York Times, March 19, 1907.
41. SMAC-2, p. 1295.
42. Foraker, Notes of a Busy Life, 2:259.
43. John Galvin, letter to Joseph B. Foraker, January 29, 1907; Joseph B. Foraker, letter to John Galvin, February 1, 1907; John Galvin, letter to Joseph B. Foraker, May 14, 1907, all in box 67, Foraker Papers.
44. See Robert A. Caro, The Years of Lyndon Johnson: Master of the Senate (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2002), pp. 27–28.
45. “General Grant on Senatorial Courtesy,” Sacramento Daily Record-Bulletin, June 23, 1881.
46. Roberta Sue Alexander, A Place of Recourse: A History of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio, 1803–2003 (Athens: Ohio University Press, 2005), pp. 230–32.
47. Roosevelt confirmed these disappointments at the hand of Foraker. Theodore Roosevelt, letter to William Dudley Foulke, February 7, 1908, in The Letters of Theodore Roosevelt, ed. Elting E. Morison, vol. 6, The Big Stick: 1907–1909 (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1952), pp. 927–33. The reference to Foraker is at p. 930.
48. Weaver, Brownsville Raid, pp. 227–28.
49. “Trouble Brews on Every Hand,” Cleveland Plain Dealer, December 23, 1905, box 25, James Rudolph Garfield Papers, Library of Congress. “I now find myself obliged to give Ohio a second appointment in the shape of Jim Garfield. For reason I will explain, the announcement was made earlier than I expected, which is the reason I did not write you in advance.” Theodore Roosevelt, letter to Joseph B. Foraker, November 8, 1906, Foraker Papers. President Arthur did not consult Ohio senator John Sherman about his appointment for the vacant collector of revenue for Cincinnati. On his own he appointed William H. Taft. Henry F. Pringle, The Life and Times of William Howard Taft: A Biography, 2 vols. (Hamden, CT: Archon Books, 1964), 1:61.
50. Theodore Roosevelt, letter to George B. Cortelyou, March 16, 1907, box 37, George B. Cortelyou Papers, 1871–1948, Libra
ry of Congress. Roosevelt sent a virtually identical letter to George von L. Meyer, who had succeeded Cortelyou as postmaster general. Theodore Roosevelt, letter to George von L. Meyer, March 16, 1907, in The Letters of Theodore Roosevelt, ed. Elting E. Morison, vol. 5, The Big Stick: 1905–1907 (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1952), p. 625. Well into the twentieth century, the postmaster general's most important job was patronage.
51. George B. Cortelyou, letter to Joseph B. Foraker, May 20, 1907, box 64, Foraker Papers.
52. Cincinnati Enquirer, January 30, 1907, container 1, Nicholas Longworth Papers, Library of Congress.
53. Foraker, Notes of a Busy Life, 2:258.
54. Everett Walters, Joseph Benson Foraker: An Uncompromising Republican (Columbus: Ohio History Press, 1948), p. 259. Walters cites a report of the Roosevelt-Burton meeting in the Cincinnati Enquirer, March 6, 1907.
55. Theodore Roosevelt, letter to Theodore Burton, March 14, 1907, in Morison, Letters of Theodore Roosevelt, 5:619–21.
56. Ethel Marie Foraker, letter to Joseph B. Foraker, February 15, 1907, box 49, Foraker Papers.
57. “James R. Foraker Dead,” New York Times, April 28, 1907.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE: OTHER COALITIONS, OTHER FRONTS
1. Charles W. Anderson, letter to Booker T. Washington, “(Personal) Private & Confidential,” May 27, 1907, in The Booker T. Washington Papers, ed. Louis R. Harlan and Raymond W. Smock, vol. 9, 1906–8 (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1980), 9:274–77. Occasionally Washington personally “dished the dirt.” He took a moment to reinforce Anderson's information about Hershaw in his own letter to Garfield. Booker T. Washington, letter to James Garfield, May 27, 1907, in Harlan and Smock, Booker T. Washington Papers, 9:278.
2. Booker T. Washington, letter to Arthur Vorys, July 8, 1907, in ibid., 9:301.
3. Booker T. Washington, letter to George Myers, June 11, 1907, George A. Myers Papers, 1890–1929, Ohio History Connection, Columbus. This letter was sent on National Negro Business League stationery, so that Myers would see the names of its officers and executive committee.