The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt

by Edmund Morris

  77. Lan. 119.

  9: THE HONORABLE GENTLEMAN

  Important sources not in Bibliography: 1. New York Assembly, Hearings of the Roosevelt Investigation, January–April 1884 (Albany, 1884). Copy in Butler Library, Columbia University. 2. Theodore Roosevelt, In Memory of My Darling Wife (privately printed, 1884). Only known copy in TRC.

  1. HUN.28; Hunt, supplementary statement, 11; New York Times, Dec. 27, 1883.

  2. Put.368 ff.

  3. The figures were 72 to 56 in the Assembly and 19 to 13 in the Senate.

  4. This para based largely on Put.365–366. See also Sto.121–2. Senator Miller’s nickname referred to his professional involvement in the wood and paper industry of his home county, Herkimer.

  5. New York Sun, Dec. 28, 1883.

  6. Mor.62.

  7. Ib. 63.

  8. Put.369.

  9. Put.370; Hunt, supplementary statement, 11; HUN.27–8.

  10. New York Herald, Jan. 1, 1884; N.Y.T., same date; Sun, Dec. 27, 1883.

  11. See Put. 371–3, or his source, TR.Scr., for a detailed account of the Speakership contest. Sun, Dec. 28, 1883; Put.371; HUN.28; Put.373.

  12. HUN.28.

  13. Put.373; Sun, Jan. 1, 1884.

  14. Put.373.

  15. World, Jan. 1, 1884. (Note: not the Sun—Pringle’s mistake, which Putnam copied.)

  16. TR.Auto.87; World, Jan. 2, 1884; MBR to E, Jan. 3, 1884 (FDR); HUN.29.

  17. Hunt, supplementary statement, 12; Put.374 and fn.; HUN.29.

  18. TR.Wks.XIII.60;TR.Auto.43. These sessions came to an end when TR discovered that Ryan was by profession a burglar, and had been incarcerated in the Albany jail.

  19. Mor. 64.

  20. PRI.n. “Those who knew her then recall that she was somewhat lonely, and that TR’s time was too much taken up with politics.”

  21. Put.377 fn. The house at 55 West Forty-fifth Street was taken over by Elliott Roosevelt and his new bride, Anna Hall.

  22. Put.385; Mrs. Longworth int., November 1954. TRB; Mrs. Sheffield Cowles int. Dec. 28, 1954; TRB: Corinne Roosevelt Robinson to Henry F. Pringle, PRI.n.

  23. Ib.

  24. Ib.; also letters of condolence to Bamie in TRC.

  25. Mor.64. One Assemblyman declared he had “never seen anyone look so pretty” as Alice when she begged her husband not to tell the “shaved lion story” (see Mor.48).

  26. Ib., 64–5.

  27. This phrase, borrowed from Longfellow’s Saga of King Olaf (IV), was frequently used by TR in connection with Alice Lee.

  28. Put.366, 376.

  29. HUN.26.

  30. See Put. 374–6 for an indication of the close relations between the liquor industry and the political machines.

  31. HUN.29; Put.374; TR.Wks.XIV. 31.

  32. TR.Auto.84; Put.381.

  33. Auto.84.

  34. Mor.65.

  35. World, Feb. 6, 1884; Sun and Her., same date.

  36. Mor.60. Putnam errs in stating (p. 380) that “unhappily, no verbatim record of it exists.” The Herald (Feb. 6) prints TR’s speech in full, and the World and Sun have detailed paraphrases.

  37. E.g., Sun, Mar. 9, 1883.

  38. Her., Feb. 6, 1884.

  39. Qu. Put.380.

  40. Her., Feb. 6, 1884.

  41. Ib.; see also World, same date.

  42. Qu. Put.381.

  43. See Put.365–8 and 376–7 for municipal background to TR’s investigation.

  44. Put.376.

  45. Mor.1471.

  46. Put.376.

  47. TR.Scr.; Her., Jan. 20, 1884.

  48. Hearings, 57–8.

  49. Ib.

  50. World, Feb. 3, 1884.

  51. Evening Post, Feb. 11; World, Feb. 12, 1884.

  52. Put.385; Pri.50; PRI.n.

  53. World, Feb. 14, 1884.

  54. N.Y.T., Feb. 13 and 12, 1884.

  55. Ib., Feb. 13, 1884. See also Her., Feb. 14, 15; World, Feb. 14; Sun, Feb. 15; Trib., Feb. 14 passim.

  56. Put.384; see Roseberry, Cecil R., Capitol Story (New York State, 1964) 52 ff., 82 ff.

  57. Put.380; World, Feb. 15, 1884.

  58. Ib.; HUN.52; TR.Wks.XIII.48.

  59. HUN.51–2.

  60. Hunt, supplementary statement, 33; HUN.50.

  61. TR.Auto.91.

  62. Ib., 90–1.

  63. TR.Wks.XIII.66–7.

  64. This story is contained in TR’s essay, “Phases of State Legislation,” reprinted in TR.Wks.XIII.70–72.

  65. See Hunt, supplementary statement, 23.

  66. Mor.65.

  67. Hunt, supplementary statement, 23; Put.382.

  68. HUN.68.

  69. PRI.n. Put. (p. 386) has Elliott saying this directly to Theodore; but he contradicts his only source, Pringle, who says the statement was made to Corinne Roosevelt Robinson. Having examined Pringle’s own sources—an interview memo and autograph letter in TRC, the author must regretfully conclude that Putnam, usually so meticulous, has here yielded to a romantic temptation.

  70. Jacques Offenbach, who traveled this route a few years earlier, had reason to complain of the bell’s funereal toll. See Roland van Zandt, Chronicles of the Hudson, Rutgers U., 1971.

  71. N.Y.T., Feb. 14, 1884.

  72. Anna Bulloch Gracie to Archibald Bulloch Sr., May 14, 1884 (TRP).

  73. Corinne in PRI.n.

  74. N.Y.T., Feb. 15; Put.386.

  75. World, Trib., N.Y.T., Feb. 15, 1884.

  76. Her., Feb. 15, 1884.

  77. TR, In Memory; Put.388–9, qu. ib.

  78. See Sun, Her., Feb. 17, 1884; HAG.Bln., Put.387–8 for accounts of the funeral. TR Sr.’s funeral service had been held in this same church six years before.

  79. Put.387.

  80. HAG.Bln.

  81. Ib.

  82. Cutler to Sewall, HAG.Bln.; C to E, Mar. 4, 1884 (FDR).

  83. Mor.6.966; qu. Put.391.

  84. Pri.53; Put.390–1.

  85. TR’s memory is not at fault here. His engagement had been privately announced on Feb. 14, Valentine’s Day; but the public announcement was not made until Monday, Feb. 16.

  86. TR.Pri.Di. Feb. 16, 1884.

  87. Roosevelt, Nicholas, TR as I Knew Him (Dodd, Mead, 1967) 24–5. Two recorded mentions of his bereavement to Bill Merrifield and Bill Sewall are noted below (Ch. 11).

  88. The scrapbook, with all its mutilations, can be seen in TRC.

  89. Corinne to Henry F. Pringle, PRI.n.

  90. Ib.

  91. Edith Kermit Roosevelt, qu. Mrs. Longworth int., Nov. 9, 1954; TRB memo.

  10: THE DELEGATE-AT-LARGE

  Important sources not in Bibliography: 1. New York Assembly, Hearings of the Roosevelt Investigation, January–April 1884 (Albany, 1884). Copy in Butler Library, Columbia University.

  1. TR.Pri.Di. Feb. 16, 1884; COW.

  2. Mor.66.

  3. COW.

  4. Ib. It appears that Bamie was given a month’s extension of this deadline, since the Roosevelts were still in occupancy at least through the third week in May. See MBR to E, Dec. 10, 1880 (FDR), for a typical account of one of Mittie’s parties.

  5. COW; Hag.RF.9. This was the actual cost of the house. But TR had also contracted for outbuildings, at an extra cost of $5,160. His land property there represented an investment of $22,500 (after selling of $7,500 worth to Bamie), bringing the total expenditure to $44,635. Memorandum by Gary Roth, curator, Sagamore Hill National Historic Site.

  6. TR to Sewall, March 9, 1884 (TRP).

  7. COW; Mor.66.

  8. Put.393–397 meticulously details all TR’s activities from Feb. 25 through Mar. 14.

  9. Hearings, 416–7, 474, 484, 502, 553, 540–1; C to E, Mar. 4, 1884 (FDR).

  10. Hearings, 602; HUN.46.

  11. HUN.46–7; supplementary statement, 27–28; Evening Telegram, Mar. 14; N.Y. Herald, Mar. 15; Put.397. TR’s report caused an instant furor in the House and in the press. “Sensational Report … How the City is Robbed,” headlined the Evening Telegram. The Wor
ld called it “Roosevelt’s Blunderbuss,” and the Commercial Advertiser warned it was “Dangerous as Dynamite.” The Hour called it “one of the most excellent pieces of work of its kind that have ever been sent to a legislative body. It is well written, is full of facts, clearly presented, and it fully justifies the investigation.” (Mar. 14, 15, 22.) TR.Scr. has the complete text.

  12. These facts were repeated, in another interview, by the Sun of Feb. 26.

  13. Hearings, passim; see also Put. 401–11.

  14. See Put.396–405 for a more detailed account of TR’s efforts on behalf of these bills. Qu. Put.399.

  15. Hunt, supplementary statement, 14.

  16. Put.397–9.

  17. Ib., 415. Arthur, despite his excellent record in the White House, had alienated party conservatives with his support of Civil Service Reform, while failing to convince the reformers that he was sincerely on their side.

  18. Put.420–3 minutely analyzes TR’s attitude to Blaine at this time.

  19. N.Y.T., Jan. 18, 1884.

  20. Hunt, supplementary statement, 16; Pri.79. Put.418 fn. agrees that revenge was “unquestionably one object,” but suggests that larger political ambitions guided TR.

  21. Ib.416.

  22. World, Apr. 23, 1884. See also Sun, Trib., N.Y.T., etc., Apr. 23–5 for general convention coverage. These newspapers, and Put.413–24, provide the basis of the following account.

  23. Sun, Apr. 23, 1884.

  24. Put.417; Sun, Apr. 23, 1884.

  25. Sun, Apr. 24, 1884; Trib., same date.

  26. Sun, Apr. 24, 1884.

  27. Eve. Post, N.Y.T., Sun, Apr. 24, 1884. Rochester Morning Herald, May 13.

  28. Sun, Apr. 24, 1884 (See Ch. 9, n. 4). Put.416.

  29. World, Apr. 25, 1884.

  30. HUN.31; Hunt, supplementary statement, 16–17.

  31. HUN.31.

  32. Ib., 41, 68.

  33. World, Apr. 25, 1884.

  34. N.Y.T., Apr. 25, 1884; Eve. Post, Apr. 29.

  35. Cutler to B, Apr. 18, 1884 (TRB mss). A more typical press comment: “Theodore Roosevelt has won a brilliant victory by keen intuitions and resolute, swift action, which place him at the front of his party in the state … his young head is dizzy tonight with the congratulations being heaped upon him.” Philadelphia Press, n.d., in TR.Scr. See ib. for the avalanche of praise TR earned at Utica.

  36. HCL, Address to Congress, Feb. 9, 1919.

  37. See Put.400; Hud.146; HUN. passim. Harper’s Weekly, Apr. 19, 1884.

  38. Hud.146.

  39. Ib., 147.

  40. The following anecdote closely follows ib., 148–9. Hudson, reminiscing many years later, mistakenly writes “Chicago” instead of “Utica,” but otherwise his story coincides with legislative and historic facts. See also Put.400–1 and Nev.142.

  41. Cleveland proved as good as his word on the Tenure of Office Bill, which he vetoed, to TR’s extreme mortification, on May 10, 1884. The other bills were rewritten, repassed, and approved on May 15. For Cleveland’s opinion of TR’s bill-writing at this time, see below, Ch. 14.

  42. World, Apr. 25, 1884; Hunt, supplementary statement, 23.

  43. Ib., 23 and 6; HUN.73; Lod.21.

  44. Mor. 66–7.

  45. Put.430; Mor.68.

  46. “I already had every room empty,” B remembered in COW.

  47. Description of HCL based on Henry Adams, The Education of Henry Adams (Modern Library reprint, 1996), 419–20; Gar.124–8 and passim; Wis.153 ff; the unpublished Autobiography of Mrs. Joseph Alsop Sr. (Alsop papers, TRC); Howard of Penrith, Lord Esmé, Theatre of Life (London, 1936) 2.105; Put.426; Mor.5, 163.

  48. Mrs. Joseph Alsop Sr., Autobiography; Wis.158.

  49. Gar.61.

  50. Lodge had lectured at Harvard during the period that TR was there, and met him once or twice at the Porcellian (Lod.25). There was another brief encounter at St. Botolph’s Club, Boston, in the winter of 1882/3 (see Ch. 7, n. 18). Apparently they took little notice of each other on these formal occasions.

  51. Put.426–7; Pri.88.

  52. See Put.426–9 for another, more detailed discussion of their relationship.

  53. Put.430; Sun, June 2, 1884; Trib., June 4.

  54. Un. press clip, qu. Foraker, Joseph, Notes of a Busy Life (Stewart & Kidd, 1917) 167.

  55. See Mor.69.

  56. James G. Blaine, Chester A. Arthur, George F. Edmunds, John A. Logan, John Sherman, Joseph R. Hawley, Robert T. Lincoln (son of the late President), W. T. Sherman (the general, and brother of John), Benjamin Harrison. Harrison withdrew late Saturday night, leaving eight candidates before the Convention.

  57. See TR in Chicago Tribune, June 1, 1884.

  58. Lod.11 implies that he and TR made rather more free with this information than the facts seem to indicate.

  59. Qu. Sul.215–6.

  60. White, Andrew D., Autobiography (Macmillan, 1905) 1.204 ff.

  61. See Mor.71. TR’s incorrigible optimism made him set the ratio at “fifty-one cases out of a hundred” for vox deo, and the remaining forty-nine for vox diaboli.

  62. The following faces from the album of TR’s coming years were visible in the crowd: Benjamin Harrison (50), John D. Long (46), Russell A. Alger (48), Thomas C. Platt (50), Marcus Alonzo Hanna (46), William McKinley (41), Elihu Root (39), Joseph D. Foraker (37), Carl Schurz (55), Chauncey Depew (50). See also Sul.215–6.

  63. Sul.215.

  64. Put.441; Alex.4.23, TR.Scr.; Sun, May 31, June 1–4, 1884; Chi. Trib., June 2.

  65. Sun, June 2, 1884; un. clips qu. Foraker, Life, and in Sul.217.

  66. Sun, June 2, 1884. See also Boston Herald correspondent, qu. World, June 9: “He is simply an honest, straightforward young man, with a great big load of brains and a tremendous personal energy, which goes beyond anything I have ever seen … all his movements and conversation are of the kind which indicates that he thinks much more rapidly than he can by any human possibility talk.”

  67. Sun, June 2.

  68. Ib., and World, same date.

  69. Ib.

  70. Chi. Trib, June 4, 1884.

  71. Ib.; pictures in New York Public Library Collection. Sun, June 4.

  72. Collage from various newspapers cited passim.

  73. Chi. Trib., June 4. According to Andrew D. White, who overheard this remark, it was made on the last day of the Convention, when the portrait of Lincoln dominating the hall was suddenly removed. But contemporary newspapers confirm that Garfield’s portrait replaced that of the Emancipator at the beginning of the proceedings.

  74. Put.431–2, various newspapers cited passim.

  75. Sun, June 4, 1884; Chi. Trib., N.Y.T., same date; Put.430 fn. and 434.

  76. Sun, June 4, 1884; Put.434.

  77. Mor.72; TR.Wks.XIV.37.

  78. Sun, June 4, 1884; World, same date. (But see Chi. Trib., June 4, ed.) Note that Putnam, whose biography is flawed by occasional racial bias, studiously leaves out the key element in TR’s speech (p. 435).

  79. Put.435; Sun, June 4; Foraker, Life, 161. Mrs. Foraker, in her own, excellent autobiography, I Would Live It Again (Harpers, 1932), remembers TR at this time as a “scowling and raspily positive” young man whose “fire and point of view” attracted her husband. She notes the irony of the fact that it was a black man that brought them together, and a black regiment (at Brownsville) that caused their spectacular falling-out in 1907.

  80. Sun, June 4, 1884.

  81. Ib., June 5, 1884.

  82. Ib., June 6, 1884.

  83. Chi. Trib., June 6, 1884.

  84. Andrew D. White, Autobiography, 1.206–7; Chi. Trib., Sun, June 6, 1884.

  85. Mor.72. “Governor Long” was John D. Long, TR’s future superior at the Navy Department.

  86. N.Y.T., June 7, 1884.

  87. Sun, June 7, 1884.

  88. Ib.; see Put.440–1.

  89. Ib.; Sun, June 7, 1884; HUN.23.

  90. Chi. Trib., June 7, 1884. See also Andrew D. White, Autobiography, 1.205; other news
papers cited passim.

  91. Qu. Sun, June 7, 1884; qu. Har.40.

  92. Sun, June 7, 1884; Chi. Trib., same date.

  93. Nation, June 12, 1884; N.Y.T., June 7.

  94. World, June 7, 1884. According to the unpublished memoirs of Eugene Hay (LC), TR privately told fellow delegates that he had been sounded out by the Blaine forces as a possible Vice-Presidential candidate.

  95. See Put.446.

  96. St. Paul Pioneer Press, June 9, 1884. See also Put.448. In another careful self-positioning, TR had by now separated himself from the Free Trade Club, which was anathema to protectionist GOP conservatives. “I’m a Republican first; Free Trader afterwards,” he wrote a club officer, Poultney Bigelow. Quoted in unpublished biographical sketch of TR by Bigelow in Poultney Bigelow Papers, New York Public Library. (Undated letter, probably Jan. 1884.)

  97. TR to B, June 23, 1884 (TRB); TR.Wks. 1.152.

  11: THE COWBOY OF THE PRESENT

  1. TR.Wks.I.150. The following account of TR’s solo expedition is taken from his own narrative, “A Trip on the Prairie,” first published in Hunting Trips of a Ranchman in 1885. Supplementary details from TR. Pri.Di. June 17–22, 1884, and other sources cited passim.

  2. TR.Wks.I.307–9; 1.2; II.54.

  3. Ib.

  4. See p. 27.

  5. TR.Wks.I.150; 308; 309–10.

  6. Apparently TR saw no live buffalo on his peregrinations through the Badlands in 1884. He comments in TR.Pri.Di. only on the countless skulls and skeletons to be seen everywhere. In other words, the future president of the American Bison Society must have killed one of the very last buffalo in Dakota on his hunt the previous fall.