tion — one of them as a director of the Buffalo ex-
position. The question raised by you and Mr.
in the statements to which I refer, is simply whether
it is to be declared that under no circumstances
shall any man of color, no matter how upright and
honest, no matter how good a citizen, no matter
how fair in his dealings with his fellows, be per-
mitted to hold any office under our government.
I certainly can not assume such an attitude, and
you must permit me to say that in my view it is
an attitude no man should assume, whether he looks
at it from the standpoint of the true interest of
the white men of the South or of the colored men
of the South — not to speak of any other section of
the Union. It seems to me that it is a good thing
from every standpoint to let the colored man know
that if he shows in marked degree the qualities of
good citizenship — the qualities which in a white
514 Presidential Addresses
man we feel are entitled to reward — then he will
not be cut off from all hope of similar reward.
Without any regard to what my decision may
be on the merits of this particular applicant for this
particular place, I feel that I ought to let you know
clearly my attitude on the far broader question
raised by you and Mr. ; an attitude from
which I have not varied during my term of office.
Faithfully yours.
Theodore Roosevelt.
Hon.
Charleston, S. C.
White House, Washington,
February 24, ipoj
My dear Mr. Howell :
I have a high opinion of the gentleman you men-
tion and if the opportunity occurs I shall be glad
to do anything I can for him.
Now as to what you say concerning Federal ap-
pointments in the South. Frankly, it seems to me
that my appointments speak for themselves and
that my policy is self-explanatory. So far from
feeling that they need the slightest apology or jus-
tification, my position is that on the strength of
what I have done I have the right to claim the
support of all good citizens who wish not only a
high standard of Federal service but fair and equi-
table dealing to the South as well as to the North,
and a policy of consistent justice and good-will
And State Papers 515
toward all men. In making appointments I have
sought to consider the feelings of the people of each
locality so far as I could consistently do so with-
out sacrificing principle. The prime tests I have
applied have been those of character^ fitness and
ability, and when I have been dissatisfied with what
has been offered within my own party lines I have
without hesitation gone to the opposite party — and
you are of course aware that I have repeatedly done
this in your own State of Georgia. I certainly can
not treat mere color as a permanent bar to hold-
ing office, any more than I could so treat creed or
birthplace — always provided that in other respects
the applicant or incumbent is a worthy and well-
behaved American citizen. Just as little will I treat
it as conferring a right to hold office. I have scant
sympathy with the mere doctrinaire, with the man
of mere theory who refuses to face facts; but do
you not think that in the long run it is safer for
everybody if we act on the motto "All men up,"
rather than that of "Some men down" ?
I ask you to judge not by what I say but by what
during the last seventeen months I have actually
done. In your own State of Georgia you are com-
petent to judge from your own experience. In the
great bulk of the cases I have reappointed President
McKinley's appointees. The changes I have made,
such as that in the postmastership at Athens and in
the surveyorship at Atlanta, were, as I think you
will agree, changes for the better and not for the
worse. It happens that in each of these offices I
5i6 Presidential Addresses
have appointed a white man to succeed a colored
man. In South Carolina I have similarly appointed
a white postmaster to succeed a colored postmaster.
Again, in South Carolina I have nominated a col-
ored man to fill a vacancy in the position of col-
lector of the port of Charleston, just as in Georgia
I have reappointed the colored man who is now
serving as collector of the port of Savannah. Both
are fit men. Why the appointment of one should
cause any more excitement than the appointment of
the other, I am wholly at a loss to imagine. As I
am writing to a man of keen and trained intelli-
gence I need hardly say that to connect either of
these appointments, or any or all of my other ap-
pointments, or my actions in upholding the law at
Indianola, with such questions as "social equality"
and "negro domination" is as absurd as to connect
them with the nebular hypothesis or the theory of
atoms.
I have consulted freely with your own Senators
and Congressmen as to the character and capacity
of any appointee in Georgia concerning whom there
was question. My party advisers in the State have
been Major Hanson of Macon, Mr. Walter John-
son of Atlanta — both of them ex-Confederate sol-
diers — and Mr. Harry Stillwell Edwards, also of
Macon. I believe you will agree with me that in
no State would it be possible to find gentlemen abler
and more upright or better qualified to fill the posi-
tions they have filled with reference to me. In
every instance where these gentlemen have united
And State Papers 517
in making a recommendation I have been able to
follow their advice. Am I not right in saying that
the Federal office-holders whom I have appointed
throughout your State are, as a body,' men and
women of a high order of efficiency and integrity?
If you know of any Federal office-holder in Georgia
of whom this is not true pray let me know at once.
I will welcome testimony from you or from any
other reputable citizen which will tend to show that
a given public officer is unworthy; and, most em-
phatically, short will be the shrift of any one whose
lack of worth is proven. Incidentally I may men-
tion that a large percentage of the incumbents of
Federal offices in Georgia under me are, as I un-
derstand it, of your own political faith. But they
are supported by me in every way as long as they
continue to render good and faithful service to
the public.
This is true of your own State; and by applying
to Mr. Thomas Nelson Page of Virginia, to Gen-
eral Basil Duke of Kentucky, to Mr. George Craw-
ford of Tennessee, to Mr. John Mcllhenny of
Louisiana, to Judge Jones of Alabama, and Mr.
Edgar L. Wilson of Mississippi, all of them Demo-
crats and all of them men of the highest standing
in their respective communities, you will find that
what I have done in Georgia stands not as the ex-
ception but as the rule for what I have done through-
out the South. I have good reason to l^elieve that
my appointees in the different States mentioned —
and as the sum of the parts is the whole, necessarily
51 8 Presidential 'Addresses
in the South at large — represent not merely an im-
provement upon those whose places they took, but
upon the whole a higher standard of Federal service
than has hitherto been attained in the communities
in question. I may add that the proportion of col-
ored men among these new appointees is only about
one in a hundred.
In view of all these facts I have been surprised,
and somewhat pained, at what seems to me the in-
comprehensible outcry in the South about my ac-
tions — an outcry apparently started in New York
for reasons wholly unconnected with the question
nominally at issue. I am concerned at the attitude
thus taken by so many of the Southern people ; but
I am not in the least angry; and still less will this
attitude have the effect of making me swerve one
hair's breadth, to one side or the other, from the
course I have marked out- — the course I have con-
sistently followed in the past and shall consistently
follow in the future.
With regard.
Sincerely yours,
Theodore Roosevelt.
Hon. Clark Howell,
Editor, "The Constitution,"
Atlanta, Ga.
On May i8, 1903, William A. Miller was re-
moved by the Public Printer from his position of
Assistant Foreman at the Government Printing Of-
fice. Mr. Miller filed a complaint with the Civil
And State Papers 519
Service Commission alleging that his removal had
been made in violation of the civil service law and
rules. After an investigation of the complaint,
and upon July 6th, the Civil Service Commis-
sion advised the Public Printer of its decision as
follows :
"Section 2 of Civil Service Rule XII, governing
removals, provides that no person shall be removed
from a competitive position except for such cause
as will promote the efficiency of the public service.
The Commission does not consider expulsion from
a labor union, being the action of a body is no
way connected with the public service nor having
authority over public employees, to be such a
cause as will promote the efficiency of the public
service.
'As the only reason given by j^ou for your re-
moval of Mr. Miller is that he was expelled from
Local Union No. 4, International Brotherhood of
Bookbinders, you are advised that the Commission
can not recognize his removal and must request that
he be reassigned to duty in his position."
Mr. Miller's complaint had also been filed with
the President, under whose direction it was being
investigated by the Secretary of Commerce and La-
bor simultaneously with the investigation by the
Civil Service Commission. As a result of such in-
vestigations, the following letters, under dates of
July 13th and 14th, 1903, were written by the
President :
510 Presidential Addresses
Oyster Bay, N. Y.
July IS, iQos
My dear Secretary Cortelyou :
In accordance with the letter of the Civil Service
Commission of July 6th, the Public Printer will re-
instate Mr. W. A. Miller in his position. Mean-
while I will withhold my final decision of the whole
case until I have received the report of the investi-
gation on Miller's second communication, which you
notify me has been begun to-day, July 13th.
On the face of the papers presented, Miller would
appear to have been removed in violation of law.
There is no objection to the employees of the Gov-
ernment Printing Office constituting themselves into
a union if they so desire ; but no rules or resolutions-
of that union can be permitted to over-ride the laws
of the United States, which it is my sworn duty to
enforce.
Please communicate a copy of this letter to the
Public Printer for his information and that of his
subordinates.
Very truly yours,
Theodore Roosevelt.
Hon. George B. Cortelyou,
Secretary of Commerce and Labor.
Oyster Bay, N. Y",
July 14, ipoj
My dear Mr. Cortelyou :
In connection with my letter of yesterday I call
attention to this judgment and award by the An-
And State Papers 521
thracite Coal Strike Commission in its report to me
of March i8th last:
It is adjudged and awarded that no person shall
be refused employment or in any way discriminated
against on account of membership or non-member-
ship in any labor organization, and that there shall
be no discrimination against or interference with
any employee who is not a member of any labor
organization by members of such organization.
I heartily approve of this award and judgment
by the commission appointed by me, which itself
included a member of a lalx)r union. This com-
mission was dealing with labor organizations work-
ing for private employers. It is of course mere
elementary decency to require that all the Govern-
ment departments shall be handled in accordance
with the principle thus clearly and fearlessly enun-
ciated.
Please furnish a copy of this letter both to Mr.
Palmer and to the Civil Service Commission for
their guidance.
Sincerely yours,
Theodore Roosevelt.
Hon. Geo. B. Cortelyou,
Secretary of Commerce and Labor.
September 2q, ipo^
Pursuant to the request of Samuel Gompers,
President of the American Federation of Labor, the
President granted an interview this evening to the
6— Vol. XIV
522 Presidential Addresses
following members of the executive council of that
body: Mr. Samuel Gompers, Mr. James Duncan,
Mr. John Mitchell, Mr. James O'Connell and Mr.
Frank Morrison, at which various subjects of legis-
lation in the interest of labor, as well as executive
action, were discussed. Concerning the case of Wil-
liam A. Miller the President made the following
statement :
I thank you and your committee for your cour-
tesy, and I appreciate the opportunity to meet with
you. It will always be a pleasure to see you or any
representatives of your organizations or of your
Federation as a whole.
As regards the Miller case, I have little to add to
what I have already said. In dealing with it I ask
you to remember that I am dealing purely with the
relation of the Government to its employees. I
must govern my action by the laws of the land,
which I am sworn to administer, and which dif-
ferentiate any case in which the Government of the
United States is a party from all other cases what-
soever. These laws are enacted for the benefit of
the whole people, and can not and must not be
construed as permitting discrimination against some
of the people. I am President of all the people of the
United States, without regard to creed, color, birth-
place, occupation, or social condition. My aim is to
do equal and exact justice as among them all. In
the employment and dismissal of men in the Gov-
ernment service I can no more recognize the fact that
a man does or does not belong to a union as being
And State Papers 523
for or against him than I can recognize the fact
that he is a Protestant or a CathoHc, a Jew or a
Gentile, as being for or against him.
In the communications sent me by various labor
organizations protesting against the retention of
Miller in the Government Printing Office, the
grounds alleged are twofold: i, that he is a non-
union man ; 2, that he is not personally fit. The ques-
tion of his personal fitness is one to be settled in the
routine of administrative detail, and can not be al-
lowed to conflict with or to complicate the larger
question of governmental discrimination for or
against him or any other man because he is or is not
a member of a union. This is the only question now
before me for decision; and as to this my decision
is final.
Oyster Bay, N. Y.
August 6, ipoj
My dear Governor Durbin :
Permit me to thank you as an American citizen for
the admirable way in which you have vindicated the
majesty of the law by your recent action in reference
to lynching. I feel, my dear sir, that you have made
all men your debtors who believe, as all far-seeing
men must, that the well-being, indeed the very
existence, of the Republic depends upon that spirit
of orderly liberty under the law which is as incom-
patible with mob violence as with any form of des-
potism. Of course mob violence is simply one
form of anarchy; and anarchy is now, as it al-
524 Presidential Addresses
ways has been, the handmaiden and forerunner
of tyranny.
I feel that you have not only reflected honor upon
the State which for its good fortune has you as its
Chief Executive, but upon the whole nation. It is
incumbent upon every man throughout this country
not only to hold up your hands in the course you
have been following, but to show his realization
that the matter is one which is of vital concern
to us all.
All thoughtful men must feel the gravest alarm
over the growth of lynching in this country, and es-
pecially over the peculiarly hideous forms so often
taken by mob violence when colored men are the vic-
tims — on which occasions the mob seems to lay most
weight, not on the crime, but on the color of the
crinimal. In a certain proportion of these cases the
man lynched has been guilty of a crime horrible be-
yond description ; a crime so horrible that as far as
he himself is concerned he has forfeited the right to
any kind of sympathy whatsoever. The feeling of
all good citizens that such a hideous crime shall not
be hideously punished by mob violence is due not
in the least to sympathy for the criminal, but to a
very lively sense of the train of dreadful conse-
quences which follows the course taken by the mob in
exacting inhuman vengeance for an inhuman wrong.
In such cases, moreover, it is well to remember that
the criminal not merely sins against humanity in in-
expiable and unpardonable fashion, but sins par-
ticularly against his own race, and does them a
And State Papers 525
wrong far greater than any white man can possibly
do them. Therefore, in such cases the colored peo-
ple throughout the land should in every possible way
show their belief that they, more than all others in
the community, are horrified at the commission of
such a crime and are peculiarly concerned in taking
every possible measure to prevent its recurrence and
to bring the criminal to immediate justice. The
slightest lack of vigor either in denunciation of the
crime or in bringing the criminal to justice is itself
unpardonable.
Moreover, every effort should be made under the
law to expedite the proceedings of justice in the case
of such an awful crime. But it can not be necessary
in order to accomplish this to deprive any citizen of
those fundamental rights to be heard in his own de-
fence which are so dear to us all and which lie at the
root of our liberty. It certainly ought to be possible
by the proper administration of the laws to secure
swift vengeance upon the criminal ; and the best and
immediate efforts of all legislators, judges, and citi-
zens should be addressed to securing such reforms in
our legal procedure as to leave no vestige of excuse
for those misguided men who undertake to reap ven-
geance through violent methods.
Men who have been guilty of a crime like rape or
murder should be visited with swift and certain pun-
ishment, and the just effort made by the courts to
protect them in their rights should under no circum-
stances be perverted into permitting any mere tech-
nicality to avert or delay their punishment. The
S'lS Presidential Addresses
substantial rights of the prisoner to a fair trial must
of course be guaranteed, as you have so justly in-
sisted that they should be; but, subject to this guar-
antee, the law must work swiftly and surely, and all
the agents of the law should realize the wrong they
do when they permit justice to be delayed or
thwarted for technical or insufficient reasons. We
must show that the law is adequate to deal with
crime by freeing it from every vestige of technicality
and delay.
But the fullest recognition of the horror of the
crime and the most complete lack of sympathy with
the criminal can not in the least diminish our horror
at the way in which it has become customary to
avenge these crimes and at the consequences that are
already proceeding therefrom. It is of course inevi-
table that where vengeance is taken by a mob it
should frequently light on innocent people; and the
wrong done in such a case to the individual is one
for which there is no remedy. But even where the
real criminal is reached, the wrong done by the mob
to the community itself is wellnigh as great. Espe-
cially is this true where the lynching is accompanied
with torture. There are certain hideous sights which
when once seen can never be wholly erased from the
mental retina. The mere fact of having seen them
implies degradation. This is a thousandfold stronger
when instead of merely seeing the deed the man has
participated in it. Whoever in any part of onr coun-
try has ever taken part in lawlessly putting to death
a criminal by the dreadful torture of fire must for-
And State Papers 527
ever after have the awful spectacle of his own handi-
work seared into his brain and soul. He can never
again be the same man.
This matter of lynching would be a terrible thing
even if it stopped with the lynching of men guilty of
the inhuman and hideous crime of rape; but as a
matter of fact, lawlessness of this type never does
stop and never can stop in such fashion. Every vio-
lent man in the community is encouraged by every
case of lynching in which the lynchers go unpun-
ished to himself take the law into his own hands
whenever it suits his own convenience. In the same
way the use of torture by the mob in certain cases is
sure to spread until it is applied more or less indis-
criminately in other cases. The spirit of lawlessness
grows with what it feeds on, and when mobs with im-
punity lynch criminals for one cause, they are certain
to begin to lynch real or alleged criminals for other
causes. In the recent cases of lynching, over three-
fourths were not for rape at all, but for murder, at-
tempted murder, and even less heinous offences.
Moreover, the history of these recent cases shows the
awful fact that when the minds of men are habitu-
ated to the use of torture by lawless bodies to avenge
crimes of a peculiarly revolting description, other
lawless bodies will use torture in order to punish
crimes of an ordinary type. Surely no patriot can
fail to see the fearful brutalization and debasement
which the indulgence of such a spirit and such prac-
tices inevitably portends. Surely all public men, all
writers for the daily press, all clergymen, all teachers,
528 Presidential Addresses
all who in any way have a right to address the pub-
lic, should with every energy unite to denounce such
crimes and to support those engaged in putting them
down. As a people we claim the right to speak with
peculiar emphasis for freedom and for fair treatment
of all men without regard to differences of race,
fortune, creed, or color. We forfeit the right so to
speak when we commit or condone such crimes as
these of which I speak.
The nation, like the individual, can not commit a
crime with impunity. If we are guilty of lawlessness
and brutal violence, whether our guilt consists in ac-
tive participation therein or in mere connivance and
encouragement, we shall assuredly suffer later on be-
cause of what we have done. The cornerstone of
this Republic, as of all free government, is respect for
and obedience to the law. Where we permit the law
to be defied or evaded, whether by rich man or poor
man, by black man or white, we are by just so much
weakening the bonds of our civilization and increas-
ing the chances of its overthrow, and of the substitu-
tion therefor of a system in which there shall be vio-
lent alternations of anarchy and tyranny.
Sincerely yours,
Theodore Roosevelt.
Hon. Winfield T. Durbin,
Governor of Indiana,
Indianapolis, Ind.
And State Papers 529
MESSAGE OF THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED
STATES, COMMUNICATED TO THE TWO
HOUSES OF CONGRESS, AT THE BEGIN-
NING OF THE FIRST SESSION OF THE
FIFTY-SEVENTH CONGRESS
Message
To the Senate and House of Representatives:
The Congress assembles this year under the shad-
ow of a great calamity. On the sixth of Septem-
ber, President McKinley was shot by an anarchist
while attending the Pan-American Exposition at
Buffalo, and died in that city on the fourteenth of
that month.
Of the last seven elected Presidents, he is the
third who has been murdered, and the bare recital
of this fact is sufficient to justify grave alarm
among all loyal American citizens. Moreover, the
circumstances of this, the third assassination of an
American President, have a peculiarily sinister sig-
nificance. Both President Lincoln and President
Garfield were killed by assassins of types unfortu-
nately not uncommon in history; President Lincoln
falling a victim to the terrible passions aroused by
four years of civil war, and President Garfield to
the revengeful vanity of a disappointed office-seeker.
President McKinley was killed by an utterly de-
praved criminal belonging to that body of criminals
who object to all governments, good and bad alike,
who are against any form of popular liberty if it
is guaranteed by even the most just and liberal laws,
530 Presidential Addresses
and who are as hostile to the upright exponent of
a free people's sober will as to the tyrannical and
irresponsible despot.
It is not too much to say that at the time of Presi-
dent McKinley's death he was the most widely loved
man in all the United States; while we have never
had any public man of his position who has been
so wholly free from the bitter animosities incident
to public life. His political opponents were the first
to bear the heartiest and most generous tribute to
the broad kindliness of nature, the sweetness and
gentleness of character which so endeared him to
his close associates. To a standard of lofty in-