CHAPTER XXXVIII
Roosevelt’s Visit to Texas
A few years after this incident Dallas was making great preparations to receive and entertain President Roosevelt, on an invitation extended him by Colonel John N. Simpson of the National Exchange Bank.
Colonel Simpson and Roosevelt were neighbors, on adjoining ranches in the great Northwest and were great friends. When Colonel Roosevelt raised his regiment of Rough Riders at San Antonio, Colonel Simpson’s son, Sloan Simpson, quit Harvard College and joined the regiment at San Antonio and was with his regiment in their engagement at San Juan Hill, which furthermore increased their friendship.
In April of that year I received a Congressional pamphlet containing a speech of Congressman Kitchin of North Carolina, scoring President Roosevelt on many of his expressions and acts while in office. This was just preceding his second nomination for the Presidency. We had had some bitter denunciations of the President by Senator Vardaman of Mississippi and Tillman of South Carolina, and after reading the speech of Kitchin, in which he referred to Roosevelt’s book on the life of Benton, which had the largest circulation of any he ever published and in which occurs the expression, “Through the Southern character runs a streak of coarse brutality,” and another passage, “As long as the word treason is in the English dictionary, so long will Jefferson Davis stand the Archtraitor of this country,” and again Kitchin said, “Would I startle this House to call attention to a speech delivered by this man, the President of this great country, in the Capital City of the Nation, denouncing the Confederate soldier as an anarchist!”
In connection with this I would state that President Roosevelt’s mother was a Southern woman, born and raised in Georgia, sister of ex-Governor Bullock. How could he reconcile such an expression as his first; certainly it was a strange expression under the circumstances.
Pondering over the situation frequently, I came to the conclusion that this speech of Kitchin’s had been sent broadcast over the State and if so, we had a thousand Vardamans in Texas that would be sure to make his visit to Texas unpleasant and might result in his being insulted, which of course, would place Texas in a very unenviable position with the people of the North and East. I finally concluded to write Mr. Roosevelt a letter, calling attention to Kitchin’s speech and quoting the above remarks from this speech and suggesting his correction of his position on these matters, before he made his visit to Texas. In my letter I especially referred to the Indiana flag incident, enclosing copies of the affair, which I requested returned.
Dallas, Texas, March 8, 1905.
To the Hon. Theodore Roosevelt,
President of the United States,
Washington, D. C.
My Dear Sir: I have read with deep interest your recent expressions in response to invitations from Southern communities indicating an earnest desire to bring about a better understanding, and forever obliterate the last vestige of sectional feeling resulting from the unfortunate conflict of forty years ago; particularly, your letter accepting an invitation from the Confederate Camp at Paris, Texas, which induces me to offer a few suggestions, and more fully inform you of the position of the Confederate soldier today, who I know is as solicitous of this country’s future as you possibly can be, and on which I feel assured, you require no further evidence than he has furnished both in private and public life particularly, in his country’s hour of peril incident on foreign war.
Camp Sterling Price of this city—the largest camp in our Confederate organization—immediately on receipt of your patriotic expressions extending the olive branch to the solid South, in which you rose superior to party limitation, originated a resolution inviting you to become the guest of our camp when on your visit to Texas. This resolution was drawn and introduced by a gallant comrade—who has since passed over the River—and supported with one of the most eloquent and patriotic appeals ever delivered in our Camp’s meeting, but opposed by me, because of your former expressions on the character of Southern people, and particularly, on the Confederate soldier, which forbid such action until you could correct statements so damaging to our character, so degrading in the estimation of our children and in the eyes of the civilized world, thereby reviving and strengthening the unjust prejudice of a large class of Northern people.
These, your expressions referred to, I find in a speech of the Hon. Claud Kitchen of North Carolina, delivered in Congress on the 23rd of April last, as follows:
“Mr. Chairman, your party and your section might have expected great things and good treatment at the hands of Mr. Roosevelt, but we of the South could not. We knew that twenty-five years after Lee surrendered this gentleman, in two of his public volumes, had denounced Jefferson Davis as an Arch traitor, and had declared that until out of the dictionary had been stricken the word ‘Treason’ Jefferson Davis was a traitor. We felt then, and we feel now, that that was a strike across the memory of the idolized dead, at the whole South and the Confederate soldiers. We knew, too, that in one of his volumes—the Life of Benton—perhaps the most widely read work of which he is author, he declared that ‘through the Southern character there ran a streak of coarse and brutal barbarism.’ We could expect little from him. Would I startle this house to remind it that after the passing of nearly forty years from Appomattox, Mr. Roosevelt, President of the United States and of a united people, stood here in the Capital City of our Nation and proclaimed to the world that the Confederate soldier was an anarchist? So surprising was this utterance, so revolting was it, that the Washington Post, a loyal supporter of Mr. Roosevelt’s Administration, was led to observe, editorially: ‘It is disagreeable enough to the Southern people to be officially designated as Rebels, and now to add anarchist is an exasperation which we find it impossible to believe the President really intended.’ These words from the lips of a President, and at the National capital, while yet the grave at Canton was wet with the tears of Southern grief!”
It is needless to say that these expressions were not known to the members of the Confederate Camp who extended you these invitations, but no doubt will become known before you visit the State, and when so known will prove embarrassing to all concerned. This must, and can be avoided, simply by a correction on your part, a withdrawal of your terrible arraignment of the people of the South, and particularly, the Confederate soldier.
Please understand, the organization I have the honor to represent, as Commander of the Fourth Texas Brigade, United Confederate Veterans, which numbers eighty-nine Camps, the Paris Camp among them, and a membership of about five thousand, is especially charged with the preservation of the truth of history, and the protection of the Confederate character. Northern historians are still branding the Confederate soldier a traitor; what will be the effect on the minds of our children, nay, the entire country, to have Confederates paying homage to one who has even gone a step further, and denounced the Confederate soldier as anarchist? Consider, Mr. President, the lofty character of Robert E. Lee; General Robert E. Lee branded an anarchist by the President of this great Nation! The same sense of duty and sublime patriotism that prompted Lee to take up arms in defense of principle and country, prompted every true Confederate soldier in the ranks.
I do not deem it necessary to enter into a further presentation of the unfortunate attitude you occupy toward the people of the South and the Confederate soldier until a correction is made—which it is in your power now to do, and I am persuaded to believe, as a fearless, brave and honorable man you will not hesitate to do, and by this act of simple justice accomplish more towards a complete conciliation of all sections than anything else done.
To impress on you more fully the importance of such action at this most opportune moment, all Texas is stirred up on your contemplated visit and is anxious to honor you, but the Confederate soldier until this correction is made, is barred by his very manhood from participating in a demonstration that should be one of great unanimity. It should be a true and unreserved Texas welcome, which would have the approval of the entire Southern people.
Please understand, there are more Confederate soldiers and their descendants in Texas today than perhaps in any other four Southern States. To give you a better appreciation of what grand result would follow such a course on your part, I enclose herewith for your careful perusal the history of an incident of but a few years ago, wherein the broad-gauged Governor of Indiana and his patriotic Legislature, extended the Olive Branch to our Lone Star State, which was promptly and properly responded to by our own Executive and Legislature, and permit me to assure you, that the salutary effect of this sublime occasion cannot be overestimated in the accomplishment of its grand purpose. In this instance only two States were participants; what would be the effect to have the President of this great Nation extending the Olive Branch to a remnant band now fast passing away, whose gallant soldier record was never equaled in this world’s history?
In conclusion, I will state, although born in a foreign land—in the City of Bremen—I yield to no native born citizen a greater love for, and interest in this country’s future. Reared in the Lone Star State from childhood, under the shadow of the Alamo, Goliad and San Jacinto, and through personal acquaintance with participants of the latter engagement, I had instilled within me a kindred patriotism and love of liberty and country that is stronger today than it has ever been, and which must be my excuse for submitting this communication, which I trust will receive your careful and earnest consideration.
Please have returned to me the Indiana papers at your convenience, as they are highly prized by my children.
I am with great respect,
Yours very truly,
H. W. GRABER.
In reply to this letter I received the following:
The White House,
Washington.
March 13, 1905.
Sir: Your letter of the 8th instant has been received, and the enclosures are herewith returned, as requested.
Very truly yours,
WM. LOEB,
Secretary to the President.
Mr. H. W. Graber,
511 Wilson Building,
Dallas, Texas.
When the letter was handed me, with carbon copies, by my stenographer, I happened to have in my office Judges Rainey and Talbot, who were going to take lunch with me. When I handed them the letter, asking their careful perusal of the same, and after their return from lunch, to tell me their opinion about sending it, when Judge Rainey told me to send it, “It’s a good letter and may have a good effect.”
Some week or ten days after mailing the letter I concluded I would see Colonel Simpson in regard to the matter and handed him a copy of the letter to read, when, after reading it, he became furious, stating that it was an outrage to insult the President, as I had done; first to invite him to our town and after his accepting the invitation, then insult him by asking him to take back what he had said. I called his attention to a clause in the letter, giving my position on a resolution introduced by a member of our Camp, inviting him to be the guest of our Camp while here, which resolution I opposed and succeeded in defeating, however, the matter was passed over with Simpson and I am not advised whether he ever made mention to Roosevelt about this letter. Simpson stated that he believed that he would wire Roosevelt not to come, when I told him he had better do so and not have him come with these expressions hanging over him and lay himself subject to being insulted.
When Mr. Roosevelt started to Texas on his visit, he made a great speech at Louisville, Kentucky, one of the most conciliatory on sectional differences he had ever made and paid a magnificent compliment to the Southern people and especially the Confederate soldiers. This speech was published all over the country, as also here in Dallas, and effectually removed any feeling on the part of the Southern people engendered through his writings and expressions, derogatory to our character.
Then followed the magnificent reception and welcome extended him on his arrival here in Dallas and his subsequent visits to Fort Worth, Austin and San Antonio, where he received grand ovations and also on his subsequent tour of the South, gaining in popularity to the extent of receiving almost the united vote of the South, resulting in his sweeping victory in the November election.