Theodore Rex - Edmund Morris [394]
22 Roosevelt (attended) Seale, President’s House, vol. 2, 699; William E. Curtis to George Cortelyou, 10 Jan. 1903 (GBC); “Official Report” (TAB).
23 The President, oblivious See Wister, Roosevelt, 113–14, for an account of this supper, and TR’s chortling recitation of “Alone in Cubia” in front of Finley Peter Dunne.
Chronological Note: The Roosevelts entertained three thousand guests in the first week of the new year alone. Between the reopening of the White House in November 1902 and the beginning of Lent in 1903, their record-breaking guest numbers were as follows:
Houseguests 200
Breakfasts 50
Lunches 275
Teas 6,000
Musicales 1,800
Receptions 5,000
State dinners 270
Private dinners 720
Suppers 1,500
Total 15,815
TR was by now spending his entire salary on entertaining. He paid the wages of twenty-three servants, the fees of musical performers, and the costs of the White House equipage. Every state dinner, down to the champagne and cigars, cost him eight hundred dollars (about sixteen thousand dollars in modern currency). When Colonel Theodore A. Bingham, Superintendent of Public Buildings and compiler of the above-cited “Official Report,” criticized the Roosevelts’ lavish lifestyle, he was dismissed. Washington Evening Star, 11 Jan. 1903; Boston Herald, 12 Feb. 1903; New York Sun, 15 Feb. 1903; New York World, 17 Feb. 1903; Morris, Edith Kermit Roosevelt, 363–65.
24 AT BREAKFAST THE next The following conversation is taken from Wister, Roosevelt, 116–17.
25 William D. Crum George Cortelyou memorandum, 31 Jan. 1903 (TRP). It is impossible to read TR’s voluminous correspondence with black leaders in 1902 and early 1903 and believe that he did not realize the consequences of his Crum appointment, long before Wister challenged him. For the complex state of South Carolinian politics at this time, involving both the White House and the United States Senate, see Gatewood, “Theodore Roosevelt and Southern Republicans.”
26 Thirteen Negro The Washington Post, 29 Mar. 1902. George Cortelyou memorandum, 31 Jan. 1903 (TRP); Booker T. Washington Papers, vol. 7, 28. With the exception of Crum, all TR’s current black appointees were to offices already held by blacks. Most of them, indeed, were reappointments. The Washington Post, 26 Apr. 1903.
27 Moreover, most had Booker T. Washington Papers, vol. 2, 328.
28 Roosevelt’s argument Gatewood, Theodore Roosevelt and the Art of Controversy, 91–100; TR, Letters, vol. 3, 383.
29 Not until 11 Wister, Roosevelt, 118.
30 WISTER FLATTERED Ibid., 119. Wister’s book, like countless others of its kind, scrupulously lists the occasions when the President of the United States profited from his counsel.
31 Mrs. Minnie Cox For a congressional record of this affair, see “Resignation of the Postmaster,” 57 Cong., sess. 2, 1903, vol. 9, H. Doc. 42.
32 “she would get” Congressional Record, 57 Cong., sess. 2, 1903, vol. 36, 853; “Resignation of the Postmaster,” 33. Anselm J. McLaurin of Mississippi is not to be confused with his outgoing senatorial colleague, John L. McLaurin of South Carolina.
33 Roosevelt’s reaction White House press releases, “1.34” (TRP).
34 In deference “Resignation of the Postmaster,” 18, 23, 9, 12; Gatewood, Theodore Roosevelt and the Art of Controversy, 64. The Indianola post office eventually reopened with a white postmaster, but was downgraded to fourth-class status. Cox, meanwhile, bought a local savings bank and prospered mightily. Ibid., 88–89.
35 ON 12 JANUARY New York Sun, 13 Jan. 1903; Booker T. Washington Papers, vol. 1, 442. The black ADA-designate was William H. Lewis, a Harvard graduate and All-American football player.
36 The New York Times The New York Times, 29 Jan. 1903; New York Herald, 12 Jan. 1903; J. Henry Essen to TR, ca. 27 Jan. 1903 (TRP); Gatewood, Theodore Roosevelt and the Art of Controversy, 85.
37 “a 14-karat” Nashville Daily News, 15 Jan. 1903.
38 By now, Roosevelt A Southern Republican commented, in words that were read into the record: “Mr.