SM Rittenhouse to Woodrrow Wilson
Title
SM Rittenhouse to Woodrrow Wilson
Creator
Rittenhouse, SM
Identifier
CS39
Date
1914 November 13
Description
Letter regarding the Trotter incident and the custom of appointing an African American to the office of Recorder of Deeds in the District of Columbia.
Source
Library of Congress
Wilson Papers, Series 4, 152A Reel 231, Manuscript Division
Wilson Papers, Series 4, 152A Reel 231, Manuscript Division
Publisher
Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library & Museum
Subject
Trotter, William Monroe, 1872-1934
African-Americans--segregation
Contributor
Althea Cupo
Maria Matlock
Language
English
Provenance
Digital copy acquired from federal archives by previous WWPL Archivist, Heidi Hackford.
Text
109 S. 40th Street,
3 clippings
Hon. Woodrow Wilson,
My dear Sir:
Apropos of your very just and wholesome rebuke of that recalcitrant negro Trotter ("Bog Trotter?"), please find herewith inclosed two several clippings from yesterday's issue of the Evening Bulletin touching certain outrages perpetrated by negro fiends - "Whose name is legion!"
My maternal grandfather and namesake, Samuel Whitall, sometime of Red Bank, New Jersey, owned and manumitted negro slaves in antebellum days, albeit they remained in his service to the death. Now, as touching the custom of appointing a negro to the office of the Recorder of Deeds, D. C., I submit that it is a custom more honored in the breach than in the observance! And this too, for the manifold reasons stated by me in a recent letter to my quondam friend, the Hon. Blair Lee, whom I have known for many moons. I have served my quasi novitiate in the said office, having made the "Law of Real Property" (Vide Williams et al.) a specialty and examined many titles in the said office and become thereby conversant with the minutiae of its modus operandi. My parents and grandparents and I, myself, have been taxpayers, D. C. for some three (3) generations, and hence, I submit, Sir, that I should have a prior right (prior tempore, potior jure) to the said office in comparison with any "carpet bag" negro. If I recollect right, the custom in question was inaugurated by one Rutherford B. Hayes, sometime de facto President, U.S. vs. the Hon Samuel J. Tilden, de jure. "Vox popule, vox Dei!" But if you have committed yourself in behalf of any other candidate for the said office, may I not refer you to the Hon. George Gray (i.e. Judge George Gray), Hon. A. Mitchell Palmer, J. Washington Logue (et al. inter alia) in re Superintendent, U.S. Mint, in this city, my distinguished ancestor, Dr. David Rittenhouse, having been the first incumbent of the said office, q.v.
Very respectfully,
S. W. Rittenhouse.
3 clippings
Hon. Woodrow Wilson,
My dear Sir:
Apropos of your very just and wholesome rebuke of that recalcitrant negro Trotter ("Bog Trotter?"), please find herewith inclosed two several clippings from yesterday's issue of the Evening Bulletin touching certain outrages perpetrated by negro fiends - "Whose name is legion!"
My maternal grandfather and namesake, Samuel Whitall, sometime of Red Bank, New Jersey, owned and manumitted negro slaves in antebellum days, albeit they remained in his service to the death. Now, as touching the custom of appointing a negro to the office of the Recorder of Deeds, D. C., I submit that it is a custom more honored in the breach than in the observance! And this too, for the manifold reasons stated by me in a recent letter to my quondam friend, the Hon. Blair Lee, whom I have known for many moons. I have served my quasi novitiate in the said office, having made the "Law of Real Property" (Vide Williams et al.) a specialty and examined many titles in the said office and become thereby conversant with the minutiae of its modus operandi. My parents and grandparents and I, myself, have been taxpayers, D. C. for some three (3) generations, and hence, I submit, Sir, that I should have a prior right (prior tempore, potior jure) to the said office in comparison with any "carpet bag" negro. If I recollect right, the custom in question was inaugurated by one Rutherford B. Hayes, sometime de facto President, U.S. vs. the Hon Samuel J. Tilden, de jure. "Vox popule, vox Dei!" But if you have committed yourself in behalf of any other candidate for the said office, may I not refer you to the Hon. George Gray (i.e. Judge George Gray), Hon. A. Mitchell Palmer, J. Washington Logue (et al. inter alia) in re Superintendent, U.S. Mint, in this city, my distinguished ancestor, Dr. David Rittenhouse, having been the first incumbent of the said office, q.v.
Very respectfully,
S. W. Rittenhouse.
Original Format
Letter
To
Wilson, Woodrow, 1856-1924
Files
Collection
Citation
Rittenhouse, SM, “SM Rittenhouse to Woodrrow Wilson,” 1914 November 13, CS39, Race and Segregation Collection, Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library & Museum, Staunton, Virginia.