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TLS as president, one page, 7 x 8.75, White House letterhead, April 18, 1908. Letter to noted New Orleans businessman and merchant Pearl Wight, in full: “I have your letter of the 16th instant. Of course it is not in my province in any way to dictate, but I am very sorry that it is not possible for you to send any colored man from Louisiana. I did my best to get New York State to send a colored man as a delegate at large, and succeeded in having him sent as an alternate at large. The very considerations which make me set my face like flint against white and black demagogs who attack me for my action in the Brownsville matter, make me feel that we should be scrupulously careful to do justice to the decent colored man. I have asked the Attorney General to report to me about the marshal.” Roosevelt adds the word “very” in his own hand. In fine condition, with light soiling and a few small stains. Wight was a longtime member of the Republican National Committee, who was depended upon by both Presidents Roosevelt and Taft for hand-picking presidential appointees from Louisiana. In 1907, President Roosevelt tendered him the appointment as commissioner of Internal Revenue, a position that Wight was forced to decline following the Panic of 1907.
A fascinating letter from President Roosevelt that finds him seeking African American support for presidential hopeful William H. Taft prior to the Republican National Convention, which was held in Chicago from June 16 to June 19, 1908. Roosevelt leveraged his connections with African American leaders, including Booker T. Washington, while working hard to assure them that Taft would continue to promote their interests and uphold the progress made under his administration.
This particular effort by Roosevelt compelled him to cite “the Brownsville matter,” an incident of racial discrimination that resulted in one of Roosevelt’s most glaring mistakes as president. On August 13, 1906, a race-related fracas occurred in Brownsville, a town in south Texas, that resulted in the wounding of a white police officer and the death of a white bartender. When the town’s citizens blamed the African-American soldiers of the 25th Infantry stationed at nearby Fort Brown, President Roosevelt discharged without honor the entire regiment of 167 men, although all the soldiers asserted their innocence. No military trial was ever held and Roosevelt never expelled the white officers, who attested that the soldiers had been in their barracks at the time of the melee.
Roosevelt’s dismissal of the innocent soldiers was devastating to the men, who lost their careers, salaries, pensions, and military honors. Roosevelt faced criticism from many sectors but never backed down, changed his mind, or apologized. In 1972, Congress, on the research of journalist John Weaver, reversed Roosevelt’s order of dismissal and made restitution to the soldiers.
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