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Writing to a New York City philanthropist, President Theodore Roosevelt advocates equal rights for African-Americans and frames his sentiments in historical context. “I have never seen that letter. I am genuinely interested in it and of course heartily admire the way in which the Virginia President saw the kernel of the situation. What he says about emancipation is just as true now in reference to the policy of fair and square treatment of the freed blacks.”

THEODORE ROOSEVELT. Typed Letter Signed to John D. Crimmins, Washington, D. C., March 23, 1903. 1 p. On White House stationery, with four words added in Roosevelt’s hand.

Inventory #21000       SOLD — please inquire about other items

Complete Transcript

White House, Washington

                                                                                    March 23, 1903.

My dear Mr. Crimmins:

            I have never seen that letter. I am genuinely interested in it and of course heartily admire the way in which the Virginia President saw the kernel of the situation. What he says about emancipation is just as true now in reference to the policy of fair and square treatment. [added in his own hand:] of the freed blacks..

            With heartiest thanks, I am,

            Faithfully yours,

                        Theodore Roosevelt

 

Mr. John D. Crimmins,

40 East 68^th Street,

New York, N.Y.

Historical Background                                  

Theodore Roosevelt delivered his “square deal” speech to the New-York State Agricultural Society in September of 1903, and in it he advocated treating “each man on his worth and merits as a man” and the “equal domination of the law over all men alike.” In the months that followed, his commitment to those principles would be tested by the virulent racism still pervasive throughout areas of the country.

On November 10, Roosevelt nominated Dr. Crum, a black physician from South Carolina, to be collector of customs at Charleston. Pressured to withdraw the nomination, Roosevelt refused, and the resulting controversy quickly garnered national attention.  Though Crum’s nomination was ultimately scuttled by Congress, Roosevelt would face a similar situation with his reappointment of Indianola, Mississippi Postmaster Minnie Cox. Cox, an African American appointed by Benjamin Harrison and still serving when Roosevelt was elected, resigned effective January 1, 1903 under threat of mob violence after the Mayor and Sheriff refused to protect her. Roosevelt responded by closing the Indianola post office on January 2, 1903, declining Mrs. Cox's resignation, and continuing her salary, which forced Indianola residents to collect their mail at Greenville, 30 miles away. Mrs. Cox later declined reappointment, and Roosevelt appointed Cox’s friend, a white Democrat, to the position a year later.

Roosevelt’s reference to a letter once written by ‘the Virginia president’ is tantalizing. By implication, Crimmins must have mentioned such a letter to Roosevelt, prompting the president’s response. Our research shows that Crimmins was a manuscript collector who owned a letter signed by Thomas Jefferson, dated August 25, 1814, to Edward Coles. In this letter, Jefferson attacked the institution of slavery, praised the English movement to abolish the slave trade, and encouraged his protégé to take up the cause of abolishing slavery by degrees in the United States. He reiterated his observations of what slavery did to white men like himself, “nursed and educated in the daily habit of seeing the degraded condition, both bodily and mental, of those unfortunate beings.” Jefferson concluded, to Coles, that “the hour of emancipation is advancing in the march of time. It … is a leaf of our history not yet turned over.” It is possible, though not provable, that this is the letter Roosevelt refers to here.

Roosevelt’s letter, written in the midst of his battle to attain “fair and square treatment” for two African American nominees, illuminates his thoughts on race at a critical juncture in his presidency. 

References

“Original Documents: Thomas Jefferson on Slavery,” Magazine of History (1907).

Thomas Jefferson to Edward Coles, http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/collections/jefferson_papers/

“$11,000 Raised at Crimmins Sale,” New York Times, April 9, 1907.