Theodore Rex - Edmund Morris [395]
39 He pointed out TR, Letters, vol. 3, 431; Booker T. Washington Papers, vol. 7, 28.
40 “Why the appointment” TR, Letters, vol. 3, 431.
41 Black leaders Booker T. Washington to TR, 24 Jan. 1903, and unidentified news clip, 15 Jan. 1903, Presidential scrapbook (TRP).
Historical Note: “No President has had the gratitude and loyal support of a race to the extent that you have it now,” Booker T. Washington wrote, when TR’s determination became known (Booker T. Washington Papers, vol. 7, 11). In Rome, Pope Leo XIII (unaware, no doubt, that he had once laid a benedictive hand on the head of eleven-year-old Teedie Roosevelt) praised the President’s determination “to seek equality of treatment of all the races.” Robinson, My Brother, 47; New York World, 15 Feb. 1903.
A simultaneous pair of resolutions, by black and white groups, emphasized the paradox of the President’s political situation. In Washington, the National Afro-American Council praised his commitment to “human rights,” and found him “an inspiration to a people struggling heroically beneath the burden of hate” (Associated Press release, 27 Jan. 1903, Presidential scrapbook [TRP]). But in Alabama, white Republicans announced that Roosevelt had “failed absolutely” to carry out the policies of William McKinley. They demanded an extraordinary state convention “solely for the purpose of retracting the resolution endorsing him for President in 1904.” The party chairman said that 95 percent of the delegates would support a presidential bid by “the greatest American statesman,” Senator Mark Hanna (The New York Times and New York Herald, 27 Jan. 1903).
This was an ominous development. Alabama, as Roosevelt well knew, was the first state on the national roll call. If it cast its vote for Hanna, Arkansas would be tempted to follow. But he could not, in conscience, back down. Resentfully, he told some Southern visitors that he did not understand why “so much fuss” should attend his few black appointments. Presidents Harrison, Cleveland, and McKinley had all made more than he—so far (The New York Times, 27 Jan. 1903; Baltimore Sun, 8 Feb. 1903). TR wrote privately to Booker T. Washington on 9 Feb. 1903, asking that all future black endorsements be kept “very mild,” to avoid hindering him politically. Booker T. Washington Papers, vol. 7, 62.
42 ROOSEVELT WORKED TR, Letters, vol. 3, 406, 408, 412; Adams, Letters, vol. 5, 327; James R. Garfield diary, 17 Jan. 1903 (JRG).
43 “Il est plus” “He is more English than an Englishman, and more American than an American.” Qu. in Pierre de Margérie to Théophile Delcassé, 12 Jan. 1903, Documents diplomatiques, series 2, vol. 3, 26.
44 “I see you” Gwynn, Letters and Friendships, vol. 1, 359; Pierre de Margérie to Théophile Delcassé, 18 Jan. 1903, Documents diplomatiques, series 2, vol. 3, 43–45, tr. Sharon Harris. The Kaiser confirmed, via the American diplomat Lloyd Griscom in March 1908, that he had “tried to send you a man you would like.” Draft, 18 Mar. 1908, in LG.
45 This confidence Dennis, Adventures in American Diplomacy, 294. Italy, as a lesser creditor, was also a party to the talks.
46 “Mr. Bowen is” Pierre de Margérie to Théophile Delcassé, 18 Jan. 1903, Documents diplomatiques, series 2, vol. 3, 43–45.
47 “The debts will” Ibid. For British Prime Minister Arthur Balfour’s early approval of the Corollary, see Tilchin, Theodore Roosevelt, 35.
48 “That is precisely” Tilchin, Theodore Roosevelt, 35. When TR voiced such patronizing sentiments publicly, as he sometimes did in reference to the Monroe Doctrine, he deeply offended Latin Americans. “If we live