Rare memo: Confederate general, ‘hater of…negroes,’ called Democrats ‘his party’

A collection of historical notes and photos from prominent world leaders is heading to auction this week, featuring one from Harry S. Truman complaining about an anti-lynching vote and another from Theodore Roosevelt railing against Confederate general who called the Democrats “his party.” The online sale from Alexander Historical Auctions also includes two items expected to fetch big dollars because of their importance: an Adolf Hitler inscribed photo of him and a school girl he knew to be Jewish and a letter from World War II Gen. George S. Patton complaining about “Waffel Assed people who never take a chance.” And a key feature of the sale is the holy grail for autograph seekers, Red China’s Chairman Mao inscription on a copy of his book, The New Democracy.

Auctioneer Bill Panagopulos said, “I’ve never seen such amazing – and shocking – pieces of history. In the current national and international political environment, they take on even more importance.” The sale takes place Tuesday and Wednesday online. Bidding is ongoing.

In a separate offering, former President George H.W. Bush lashed out in a letter at former Vice President Al Gore the year he ran against George W. Bush for president. ,“I have gotten so I can't stand Al Gore,” the elder Bush wrote in 2000.

Auctioneer Panagopulos often tips Secrets off to his historically important items for sale, but this group is extraordinarily broad. Other items he listed: “Ernest Hemingway urging an aspiring writer to avoid writing for newspapers, Marlon Brando’s personal signed and annotated script from “The Ugly American,” a signed photo of Robert E. Lee, and a signed drawing of a pig done by Winston Churchill while blindfolded.”

In the Truman letter, the former Missouri senator wrote regrettably about having to stay in Washington to vote for an anti-lynching law. “I cannot under any circumstances leave here if there is a possibility of a vote on the Anti-Lynching Bill because every negro organization in the State has an agreement with me to vote for it and I will almost have to deliver under the circumstances. I am sincerely hoping that we get it out of the way before the weekend,” he wrote.

And Roosevelt, before becoming president, wrote of his disdain for retired Confederate general George Johnston when the two were on the U.S. Civil Service Commission. To a friend, he wrote, “Yes, I did have a savage time of it here with that unreconstructed rebel, old [George] Johnston. He was a real type of the fire-eater; he always was armed with a revolver, and was always bullying and threatening and was talking about his deeds as a General in the [Civil] War, and ‘his people the Southerners’ and ‘his party’ the Democrats.” Roosevelt, who was chairman, said he kicked Johnston off the commission and explained, “he was an inveterate hater of Republicans in general, of Northerners, and especially of negroes.”

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/washington-secrets/rare-memo-confederate-general-hater-of-negroes-called-democrats-his-party