#taft administration

[deadpresidents]

"I have always said you would be the greatest President, bar only Washington and Lincoln, and I feel mighty inclined to strike out the exceptions! My affection and respect for you are increased by your attitude about [campaign] contributions. But really I think you are oversensitive."

-- President Theodore Roosevelt, to his friend and handpicked successor, William Howard Taft, in a letter written on August 7, 1908, just a couple of weeks after Taft accepted the Republican Presidential nomination.

President Roosevelt thought Taft -- who was determined to publicly identify all major financial contributors to his campaign and reticent about accepting large amounts of money from certain donors -- was being overly sensitive when it came to what Roosevelt considered the necessary evil of campaign fundraising.

Despite personally selecting Taft to succeed him when he decided not to run for another term in 1908, Theodore Roosevelt quickly grew disappointed with the Taft Administration (and hungry to once again be President). In 1912, Roosevelt challenged Taft for the Republican nomination and, when he didn't receive it, bolted the party to become the nominee of the Progressive or "Bull Moose" Party. The once close friends engaged in a nasty campaign with President Taft suggesting that Roosevelt was no longer fit for office while Roosevelt responded by saying that "Mr. Taft never discovered that I was dangerous to the people until I discovered he was useless to the people." On the campaign trail, Roosevelt not only denigrated Taft's Presidency but resorted to calling his former friend names like "a fathead...with the brains of a guinea pig," which devastated the President -- with a journalist at one point reportedly finding Taft in tears.

With Roosevelt and Taft attacking each other and splitting the votes of Republicans, the Democratic Presidential nominee, Governor Woodrow Wilson of New Jersey, coasted to victory. In 1918, Roosevelt and Taft ran into each other at the restaurant inside Chicago's Blackstone Hotel, and quickly reconciled. When Roosevelt died just a few months later Taft was asked by Roosevelt's son, Archie, to sit with the Roosevelt family near the front of the church during the funeral service. And as Roosevelt's casket was being laid to rest in the snowy Long Island cemetery, Taft was again seen quietly crying.

In July 1921, just a few days after becoming the only former President to also serve as Chief Justice of the United States (which he called "the greatest day of my life"), William Howard Taft wrote to Roosevelt's sister, Bamie:

"I want to say to you how glad I am that Theodore and I came together after that long painful interval. Had he died in a hostile state of mind toward me, I would have mourned the fact all my life. I loved him always and cherish his memory."

[todaysdocument]

“Now before any Negro can register [to vote] he must go into a little side room and read and write to the entire satisfaction of one or two white men  . . . “ Letter from C. Dearborn to Pres. Taft, 7/18/1912

File Unit: 150719-62, Section 2, 1904 - 1974

Series: Straight Numerical Files, 1904 - 1974

Record Group 60: General Records of the Department of Justice, 1790 - 2002

Transcription:

"Hottentot"

AN EXTERNAL REMEDY

SERIAL NO. 30154.

[stamp] JULY 24 9-23 AM 1912

[stamp] THE WHITE HOUSE / JUL 21 1912 / RECEIVED

[handwritten] Justice

[stamp] RESPECTFULLY REFERRED FOR ACKNOWLEDGMENT AND CONSIDERATION

"HOTTENTOT" will afford quick and valuable relief for Headache, Neuralgia, Rheumatism, Pleurisy, Pneumonia, Indigestion, Acute Indigestion, Congestion, Female Complaints, Asthma, Diarrhoea, Cramps, Colic, Tonsilitis, Eczema, Piles, Erysipelas, Bronchitis, Gout, Peritonitis, Cerebro Spinal Meningitis, Ringworm, Sore Eyes Soft Corns, Bunions, etc.

"Hottentot" is manufactured only by C. DEARMAN, Tulsa, Oklahoma. P.O. Box 183.

OFFICE 212 N. FRANKFORT ST.

TELEPHONE 1188.

Tulsa, Oklahoma, U.S. A. 7/18/12.

Hon, W.H. Taft, President of the United States of America.

Washington, D.C.

Honored Sir: -- I am asking you in the interest of the qualified Negro voters of the State of Oklahoma and more [word struck out] especially the city of Tulsa, Okla to arrange with the Department of Justice in a way whereby immediate action will be taken to secure the right of every qualified Ngro voter in the State of Oklahoma and especially in the city of Tulsa, Okla. to vote in the coming elections without being intimidated and otherwise prevented from voting.

The tactics of the election officials in the city of Tulsa, Okla. now, are as follows: As pertaining to the Negroes each and every one must register only at the court house, regardless of how many times they have here-to-fore voted,.

It is stated by the election officials that any one not registering during the present registration will not under any circumstances be allowed to vote in the coming election,

Now before any Negro can register he must go into a little side room and read and write to the entire satisfaction of one or two white men, if it takes six hours continuous reading and writing to satisfy them there is no one to object but the Negro trying to become qualified to vote, and his objections dont amount to anything unless he pledges to support the democratic ticket, the majority if not all of which the election officials are. [Words struck out] they allowed my writing to pass which is very poor and which you will find enclosed, they refused to allow other negroes waiting to pass that to my mind is much better than my writing, Why? because I kick good and hard when ever it is necessary, and vote just as I please. But the majority of negroes will not kick either [letter struck out] thru fear or indifference and those are the ones that I am praying and pleading for. The question that I often ask my self is, that if the continued oppression of and the discrimination against the negro should at some future day cause war, would those that are foremost in oppressing and discriminating against the negro, be foremost on the battle field, [word struck out] well I have an idea that they would be the very first to beat a hasty retreat at the first sound of the bugle.

Hoping that immediate action will be taken,

Very truly yours.

[signed] C. Dearman.

[stamp] RECORDS

[stamp] 150719-62 / DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE / JUL 24 1912 / MAIL & FILES DIVISION / Harr-Logan / ACTION

[deadpresidents]

"Taft is the most polite man I ever saw in my life. Why, the other day I was in a street car with him and he got up and gave his seat to three women."

-- Supreme Court Justice David Josiah Brewer, on William Howard Taft (President: 1909-1913; Chief Justice: 1921-1930), who reportedly weighed 354 lbs. when he was inaugurated as President.

[deadpresidents]

President Theodore Roosevelt and President-elect William Howard Taft en route to the U.S. Capitol for Taft's Inauguration, March 4, 1909.

Over ten inches of snow fell on Washington, D.C. on Inauguration Day, leading to the Inaugural ceremonies being moved indoors from the East Portico of the U.S. Capitol. Chief Justice Melville W. Fuller administered the oath of office to Taft inside the Senate Chamber.