Theodore Rex (154 page)
Authors: Edmund Morris
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. McKinley so mellowed up the Southern people that they were ready to go into the Republican party by the thousands. Mr. Roosevelt is bitterly hated today by almost all Southern white men.… His position on the Negro question has solidified the Democrats as no other conceivable policy could have done. He has aroused the bitterest of race feeling, and it is a question of time when murders will result therefrom.”
Congressional Record
, 57 Cong., 2 sess., 1903, vol. 36, pt. 2, 1188.
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 in disorder,” Colombia’s
El Porvenir
remarked, “we live in our own house, and nobody has a right to meddle with it.” Qu. in Miner,
Fight for the Panama Route
, 265.
49
ON 22 JANUARY
The Washington Post
, 23 Jan. 1903.
50
Under the Spooner
Story of Panama
, 271; DuVal,
Cadiz to Cathay
, 196. Cullom was for appropriating Panama outright, on grounds of “universal public utility.”
51
“I am commanded”
Story of Panama
, 322.
52
“everything might be lost”
DuVal,
Cadiz to Cathay
, 203.
53
Late in the
Story of Panama
, 272.
54
Four or five
New York
Sun
, 24 Jan. 1903.
55
“ ’Pears lak us”
Georgia Social Sentry
, 13 Feb. 1903, Presidential scrapbook (TRP).
56
White reactionaries
“This is about the limit,” the
Richmond News
raged.
Literary Digest
, 14 Feb. 1903; Vardaman editorial in Greenwood, Miss.,
Commonwealth
, 10 Jan. 1903, copy in TRP; Gatewood,
Theodore Roosevelt and the Art of Controversy
, 37.
57
This was not
Senator Tillman duly appeared at the hearings, and patronized Crum so effectively (“If he were a white man he’d be all right”) that a majority of the Committee voted to disapprove the nomination. Roosevelt refused to withdraw it.
The New York Times
, 23 Jan. 1903.
58
He was lucky
Gatewood,
Theodore Roosevelt and the Art of Controversy
, 80;
The New York Times
, 25 Jan. 1903;
Congressional Record
, 57 Cong., sess. 2, 1903, vol. 36, pt. 1, 1180–81.
59
“It is as idle”
Congressional Record
, 57 Cong., sess. 2, 1903, vol. 36, pt. 2, 1178. The complete text of Spooner’s remarks is printed in ibid., 1174–90. Even the violent Tillman praised him afterward for his “calm and dispassionate and very earnest and eloquent speech.” Ibid., 2571. N.b.: Spooner used the word
duress
in the sense of
coercion
or
compulsion
.
60
He cabled home
DuVal,
Cadiz to Cathay
, 206. Later in the year, the Colombian Minister of Foreign Affairs reportedly confirmed that Herrán’s signature on the treaty was as good as his own. William Nelson Cromwell to Tomas Herrán, 5 July 1903 (TH).
61
“Gladly shall I”
DuVal,
Cadiz to Cathay
, 206–7.
62
IN THE LAST DAYS
The New York Times
, 25 Jan. 1903.
Chronological Note:
On 18 Jan., Germany’s half-forgotten gunboats suddenly bombarded Fort San Carlos, Venezuela. Twenty-five people were killed. There was no apparent provocation, although the Reich claimed Venezuela fired first. John Hay memorandum, 21 Jan. 1903 (JH). Livermore, “Theodore Roosevelt”; Jeffrey M. Dorwart,
The Office of Naval Intelligence: The Birth of America’s First Intelligence Agency, 1865–1918
(Annapolis, 1979), 76.
From Caracas came news that the allied blockade, while starving Venezuelans of bread and salt, was permitting the importation of arms by antigovernment guerrillas; it appeared that the Kaiser was deliberately fomenting unrest as an excuse to land German marines. Dennis,
Adventures in American Diplomacy
, 294.
63
had secretly directed
The New York Times
, 25 Jan. 1903; Parsons, “German-American Crisis.” An even more secret memorandum, from the head of the Office of Naval Intelligence, noted that Germany might well be protracting the Venezuela crisis deliberately. With Dewey’s ships tied down in the Caribbean, “no other objective point in the United States is now so inviting for attack as the city of Washington.” Kennedy,
War Plans
, 55–56.
64
The arbitration
Jules Jusserand to Théophile Delcassé, 7 Feb. 1903 (JJ); J. Fred Rippy,
The Caribbean Danger Zone
(New York, 1940), 189; Dennis,
Adventures in American Diplomacy
, 294.
65
That sounded
There were additional rumors in early 1903 that the Kaiser wanted to establish a permanent Caribbean naval squadron, and bid for Panama Canal rights, should Colombia fail to ratify the Hay-Herrán Treaty.
66
“Are people in”
Vagts,
Deutschland
, vol. 2, 1595. Public concern was also rising again in Britain. George Smalley in
The Times
(London), 24 Jan. 1903; Gelber,
Rise of Anglo-American Friendship
, 120–21. Perhaps significantly, TR’s luncheon guests on 29 Jan. included the Admiral of the Navy, the Chief of the Bureau of Navigation, the Secretary of the Navy, and the Secretary of War. White House diary (TRP).
67
He did not
Beale,
Theodore Roosevelt
, 425. “The friend of peace cannot do anything but pray for you, Mr. President.… Cablegrams which I have received yesterday and today convince me that the excitement in Germany has gone to an absolutely unreasonable degree” (Hugo Münsterberg to TR, 24 Jan. 1903 [TRP]). Münsterberg, a professor at Harvard, was a member of TR’s
secret du roi
. He had useful private contacts on the Wilhelmstrasse.
68
BARON VON STERNBURG
Blake, “Ambassadors at the Court.” Technically, von Sternburg was not yet credentialed to the United States. He was obliged to play the face-saving fiction that he was deputizing for the “sick” von Holleben. His
proper accreditation did not arrive until the spring. Beale,
Theodore Roosevelt
, 429–30.
69
After his first
Gooch and Temperley,
British Documents
, vol. 2, 168; Gelber,
Rise of Anglo-American Friendship
, 123; Herwig,
Politics of Frustration
, 81.
70
Von Sternburg sent
Parsons, “German-American Crisis,” 445. See also John Hay to Sir Michael Herbert, draft, 5 Feb. 1903 (JH). This was a much milder version of an earlier Hay-Roosevelt draft expressing “profound regret” at the slowness of the negotiations, and warning that “a state of unrest and anxiety exists throughout the Western Hemisphere, which if suffered to increase might bring about results which would universally be deplored” (JH).
Historical Note:
On 5 Feb. 1903, TR requested a comparative analysis of United States and German naval strength in the North and South Atlantic “and the seas contiguous thereto.” The answer, supplied by the Office of Naval Intelligence on 11 Feb., showed that his current temporary advantage in the Caribbean would not last long in a full war. In table form, the all-out opposition would be as follows:
| | United States | Germany |
|---|---|---|
| Ships | | |
| Battleships, 1st class | 7 | 10 |
| Battleships, 2d class | 1 | 2 |
| Monitors/gunboats | 4 | 13 |
| Guns | | |
| Very big | 32 | 0 |
| Big | 0 | 50 |
| Smaller | 110 | 144 |
From this it will be seen that TR’s Big Stick was more psychological than actual. Its efficacy derived from the speed and power with which he threatened to use it.
71
Whether it was
Dana G. Munro quotes TR as complaining about Germany’s “impossible stand” as late as 9 Feb.
Intervention and Dollar Diplomacy in the Caribbean, 1900–1921
(Princeton, N.J., 1964), 73. But J. Fred Rippy shows that acquiescence began around 4 Feb.—i.e., the day after von Sternburg’s urgent telegram.
Caribbean Danger Zone
, 191.