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ROOSEVELT, Theodore. Typed letter signed (“Theodore Roosevelt”), as Governor, 2 May 1900. 1 page, 4to, Executive Chamber stationery, a few holograph emendations.
“THE BRITISH OUTNUMBER THE BOERS AT LEAST FOUR OR FIVE TO ONE, AND IT IS EXTRAORDINARY HOW THOSE ROUGH, HARD-FIGHTING PEASANTS STAND THEM OFF”
TR reacts to the string of British defeats at the hands of Boer irregulars from December 1899 through March 1900. “Heavens and earth, what a muss [sic] the British have been making of the South African business!” He does not “understand the publication of Roberts’s censure of Buller and Warren unless those two generals were to be recalled. Neither can I understand the ambuscades as that in which Broadwood lost his seven guns. The British outnumber the Boers at least four or five to one, and it is extraordinary how those rough, hard-fighting peasants stand them off. I do not feel inclined to public criticism, for I have a keen remembrance of the antics of our people cut in the Spanish war; but somehow we have grown to expect better things of the British regular army.” Generals Redvers Buller and Charles Warren were the joint authors of the British disaster at Spion Kop of 24 January 1900, a battle witnessed by both war correspondent Winston S. Churchill and stretcher bearer Mohandas K. Gandhi. Both men would eventually be replaced by commander in chief, Field Marshal Frederick Lord Roberts. The disasters, however, continued into the spring, at the Battle of Sanna’s Post, on 31 March 1900, when the Boers ambushed General Robert Broadwell, killing 155 of his men in addition to seizing the seven guns.
Roosevelt also mentions the flood of legislation on his desk at the close of session, “being as usual hopelessly puzzled by the large number of bills which contain both good and bad, so that I have some misgiving about either signing or vetoing them; and I must do one or the other.” He promises to examine a report Roe has sent him and mentions “the Croton Dam strike.” A fine TR letter written less than a year of assuming the Vice-presidency and 16 months before becoming President.
“THE BRITISH OUTNUMBER THE BOERS AT LEAST FOUR OR FIVE TO ONE, AND IT IS EXTRAORDINARY HOW THOSE ROUGH, HARD-FIGHTING PEASANTS STAND THEM OFF”
TR reacts to the string of British defeats at the hands of Boer irregulars from December 1899 through March 1900. “Heavens and earth, what a muss [sic] the British have been making of the South African business!” He does not “understand the publication of Roberts’s censure of Buller and Warren unless those two generals were to be recalled. Neither can I understand the ambuscades as that in which Broadwood lost his seven guns. The British outnumber the Boers at least four or five to one, and it is extraordinary how those rough, hard-fighting peasants stand them off. I do not feel inclined to public criticism, for I have a keen remembrance of the antics of our people cut in the Spanish war; but somehow we have grown to expect better things of the British regular army.” Generals Redvers Buller and Charles Warren were the joint authors of the British disaster at Spion Kop of 24 January 1900, a battle witnessed by both war correspondent Winston S. Churchill and stretcher bearer Mohandas K. Gandhi. Both men would eventually be replaced by commander in chief, Field Marshal Frederick Lord Roberts. The disasters, however, continued into the spring, at the Battle of Sanna’s Post, on 31 March 1900, when the Boers ambushed General Robert Broadwell, killing 155 of his men in addition to seizing the seven guns.
Roosevelt also mentions the flood of legislation on his desk at the close of session, “being as usual hopelessly puzzled by the large number of bills which contain both good and bad, so that I have some misgiving about either signing or vetoing them; and I must do one or the other.” He promises to examine a report Roe has sent him and mentions “the Croton Dam strike.” A fine TR letter written less than a year of assuming the Vice-presidency and 16 months before becoming President.