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.