Theodore Rex - Edmund Morris [411]
4 The Delaware affair The Washington Post, 23–24 June 1903; 135 Americans had been lynched in 1901, 97 in 1902, but only 20 so far in 1903. The encouraging last figure, however, proved illusory. In the first week after the Delaware riot, six more lynchings occurred in the South. By year’s end, the total had risen to 104. And, as Walter F. White points out, the sadism of lynchings grew steadily worse during TR’s Presidency. The New York Times, 24 June 1903; Public Opinion, 2 July 1903; White, Rope and Faggot (New York, 1929, 1969), 19–35.
5 On 24 June Jusserand, What Me Befell, 241–43. The Savoy volumes, Feldsüge des Prinzen Eugen von Savoyen (Vienna, 1876–1891), had been presented to TR by the Italian Ambassador (Washington Evening Star, 15 June 1903). TR appears to have read, or at least browsed, a French translation of these volumes (now preserved at Sagamore Hill). He also read, in French, Arneth’s three-volume biography of the Prince.
6 “Where will it begin” Jusserand, What Me Befell, 243.
7 The next morning Foreign Relations 1903, 154; Charles W. Bergquist, Coffee and Conflict in Colombia, 1886–1910 (Durham, N.C., 1978), 216.
8 “Out of consideration” TR, Letters, vol. 3, 508. 251 CANNONS CRASHED The New York Times, 28 June 1903.
9 Only Alice Morris, Edith Kermit Roosevelt, 271–74; New York World, 24 May and 13 June 1903; TR, Letters, vol. 3, 484.
10 “Father doesn’t care” Alice Roosevelt diary, 27 Jan. 1903 (ARL). In extended conversations with Michael Teague toward the end of her life, Alice Roosevelt Longworth spoke often of the ghost of Alice Hathaway Lee. Far from fading, “it became a problem” between them as she grew up. She knew that he felt her resentment of his silence about her mother, but knew also that he “could not or would not” break it. Michael Teague interview, 13 Aug. 1984. Teague’s Mrs. L., consisting largely of transcriptions of Alice’s tea-table monologues, remains the best biographical study of this brilliant, wounded woman.
11 “I wish she” TR, Letters, vol. 3, 408.
12 Ted, now fifteen Endicott Peabody to TR, 1 Oct. 1903 (TRP); TR, Letters, vol. 3, 490.
13 Kermit, thirteen Morris, Edith Kermit Roosevelt, 298; TR, Letters, vol. 3, 490.
14 Ethel, nearly Adams, Letters, vol. 5, 331; TR, Letters, vol. 3, 408.
15 The two smallest Face, badger, and extremities may be viewed in Morris, Edith Kermit Roosevelt, 269.
16 “WASHINGTON IS NOW” Speck von Sternburg to John C. O’Laughlin, 30 June 1903 (JCOL); Francis B. Loomis to TR, 1 July 1903 (TRP).
17 Roosevelt was mystified Wolf, Presidents I Have Known, 199. Stults, “Roosevelt,” notes Hay’s “major reversal of policy” on Russian Jews after TR interested himself in their cause. Jules Jusserand expressed the views of much of Washington’s diplomatic corps when he accused TR of currying the favor of “the influential Jewish coterie,” and creating “a most vexatious precedent … a very dangerous policy.” He wondered how the Administration would like it if France forwarded a petition of black Martinicans decrying lynchings in the United States. Jusserand to Théophile Delcassé, 30 June 1903 (JJ).
18 A peremptory telegram TR to Francis B. Loomis, 1 July 1903 (TRP).
19 Throwing all semblance Wolf, Presidents I Have Known, 200–202; Oscar S. Straus, Under Four Administrations: From Cleveland to Taft (Boston, 1922), 173. Cassini sailed on 8 July. New York World, 9 July 1903.
20 John Hay, unaware John Hay to TR, 1 July 1903 (TD).
21 His letter came New York World, 3 July 1903; Miner, Fight for the Panama Route, 387.
22 A DAY OR TWO Washington Times, 8 July 1903; John Hay to TR, 9 and 11 July 1903 (TD); Clymer, John Hay, 195.
23 “I always find” John Hay to Mrs. Hay, 4 July 1903 (TD).
24 Sure enough, Ibid.; New York Sun, 30 Aug. 1903. TR’s other guests were Mark Hanna, Thomas Kearns, Charles Fairbanks, Clement Griscom, Guy Wetman Caryl, and Winthrop Chanler.
25 When they did John Hay to Mrs. Hay, 4 July 1903 (TD); Foreign Relations 1903, 155–58. The extent of Marroquín’s influence on the Colombian Congress remains a matter of historical debate.