The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt

by Edmund Morris

  117. Ib.

  118. Ib.

  119. Spark, Muriel, John Masefield (London, 1953) 38; John Masefield to Hermann Hagedorn, Mar. 25, 1952 (TRB mss.); Igl.111-2. The man who attempted to kill TR in 1912 was a saloonkeeper from New York City. He testified that he first became aware of his future victim during this season of dry Sundays in 1895. N.Y.T., Oct. 15, 1912.

  120. Journal, Aug. 6, 1895.

  121. AND.137–8; Boston Herald, July 21, 1895 (“They do not seem to understand Theodore Roosevelt very well in his native city”); see also Review of Reviews clip, n.d., in TR.Scr.: “… From San Francisco to New Orleans to Bangor and Minneapolis the daily newspapers are giving him the space that is allotted to the most important subject before the people.” London Times, Aug. 10, 1895; Mor. 472–3.

  122. Trib., Aug. 22, 1895.

  123. Pri.136, qu. World, July 23, 1895; Rii.29.

  124. N.Y.T., Aug. 6, 1895; AND.73.

  125. Her., Aug. 14, 1895. “It was a blemish due less to egotism,” Andrews comments mildly (p. 69), “than to the recognition that, in effect, he was actually the Board.” See also Journal, July 12.

  126. “Big Tim represented the morals of another era,” TR wrote in his Autobiography. “That is, his principles and actions were very much those of a Norman noble in the years immediately succeeding the Battle of Hastings.” (192.)

  127. All from World, Aug. 8, 1895.

  128. Mor.475; World, Aug. 8, 1895.

  129. HCL to TR, Aug. 31, 1895.

  130. TR to B, passim; see also AND.34, Mor.486.

  131. Ib., 475; Her., Sep. 6, 1895.

  132. N.Y.T., Aug. 24, 1895.

  133. TR to B, Sep. 8, 1895. Statistical and other documentary assessments of TR’s crusade in behalf of the Excise Law are given in Ber.105–16.

  134. Trib., Sep. 26, 1895. This was, of course, before the age of the press photograph.

  135. The following description based on World, Sep. 26, 1895, also Trib., Her., same date.

  136. World, Sep. 26, 1895.

  137. Ib.

  138. Her., Sep. 26, 1895. The warmly admiring tone of this article shows that the yellow press was not blind to TR’s merits.

  139. Ib., Trib., same date.

  140. N.Y.T., July 22, 1895.

  141. Ste.258–60.

  142. See, e.g., AND.172. Mor.484; AND.141 ff.; also Trib., May 23, 1895; Har.85.

  143. See Mor.477; TR.Wks.XIV.184; TRB clips.

  144. Mor.490.

  145. Ib., 485–89. See also ib., 488, TR.Wks.XIV.212, and Journal, Jan. 31, 1896, for details of this quarrel, which was later patched up. (Mor.496).

  146. Ib., 483, 485; Outlook, Oct. 10, 1895; Mor.480, 490; see Trib., Sep. 12, World, Oct. 29, and Journal, Jan. 31, 1896, for sample articles on TR’s election policies. World, Aug. 19, 1895; Mor.493.

  147. Ib., 481, 487, 489, 493; TR to B, Oct. 27, 1895.

  148. AND. 176 puts the German vote-loss alone at 30,000. Har.85.

  149. Unpublished letter, Nov. 5, 1895, in TRB mss. Specifically, it deals with the Venezuela border dispute between the U.S. and Great Britain, which was then approaching its crisis point.

  150. N.Y.T., Nov. 7, 1895; AND. 176–7.

  151. Journal, Nov. 22, 1895; Sun, Dec. 14. Mor.500.

  152. TR to B, Dec. 1, 1895; Bigelow to HCL, Nov. 23, 1895, qu. in Murakata, Akiko, “Selected Letters of Dr. William Sturgis Bigelow,” Ph.D. diss., George Washington University, 1971, 84. Notwithstanding Bigelow’s fears, TR avoided collapse, and Volume IV of WW was finished by Dec. 23. See Mor.499–504.

  153. Ib., 503.

  154. Stoker, Bram, Reminiscences of Sir Henry Irving (NY, 1906) II, 236. Charles Eliot Norton used similar words, about this time, to the English journalist David Alec Wilson. “I’ll tell you what, if Roosevelt lives, he’ll be President of the United States … He is a strong and able man, who is not to be bought.” Wilson, East and West (Methuen, 1911) 262.

  20: THE SNAKE IN THE GRASS

  1. Pla.295; Gos.48–59.

  2. Pla.8.

  3. Gos.1 says Platt and TR had political relations with each other since the mideos, but does not specify any actual meetings. Pla. 178, 193 says essentially the same, again without mentioning any personal contact. The unreliable Louis J. Lang in his appendix to ib. (522) says without documentation that TR, George F. Edmunds, and George W. Curtis met with Platt in New York “a few days before the Republican National Convention” in 1884. This is possible, but improbable, since TR and HCL made a special journey to Washington at that time to meet Edmunds there; no contemporary letters or newspapers mention the New York meeting. TR’s letters to HCL in 1895 give the strong impression that Platt was a personal stranger to him. The best account of their early relationship remains Gos.29–72.

  4. Ib., 29–30, 32–3; see Chs. 10, 14.

  5. Gos.34.

  6. Ib. 230; Ber. 36; Lod.I.144.

  7. See Pla.178, 183; Gos.229–31; AND.18–19; Pla.527.

  8. See Mor.482, 476; Pla.300 ff.; New York Times, Jan. 24, 1896; AND.78.

  9. Mor.499; N.Y.T., July 8, 1896. Murray was now Excise Commissioner of New York.

  10. Gos.57; TR.Auto.294; Pla.488.

  11. Description of Platt based on pors. in Pla., passim, and Library of Congress; Sto.168; un. clip by EGR, Sep. 7, 1919, in TRB; White, William Allen, “Platt,” in McLure’s 18.146 (Dec. 1901); Thompson, Charles Willis, Party Leaders of the Time (NY, 1906) 105; Chessman, G. Wallace, Governor TR (Harvard, 1965) 7 ff.

  12. See, e.g., his open letter to Governor Levi P. Morton, dated Jan. 3, 1896, in which he dresses the Governor down with the assurance of a headmaster punishing a schoolboy. (Pla.307–10.)

  13. N.Y.T., July 8, 1896; Mor.509. This legislation proposed to transfer from Mayor Strong to Governor Morton the power to hire and fire Police Commissioners. Morton was then in Platt’s debt, as the latter had undertaken to secure him the Presidential nomination in July. He could thus be relied on to dismiss TR promptly—and with a certain amount of satisfaction, for Morton was irked by the Commissioner’s support of Thomas B. Reed for the Presidency. See N.Y.T., Jan. 23, 1896; Mor.499.

  14. Mor.509.

  15. N.Y.T., July 8, 1896.

  16. Ib., Jan. 23, 1895; text in TR.Wks.XIV.215–6.

  17. Igl.115–6; Journal, Jan. 21, 1896. See Sun, Jan. 23, 1896. Connable, Alfred, and Silverfarb, Edward, Tigers of Tammany Hall (NY, 1967) 215; N.Y.T., Jan. 24, 1896.

  18. Herald, Jan. 22, 1896. A letter from TR to Strong dated Jan. 21, 1896, confirms that their relations were “cordial” again. (Municipal Archives, Strong Mss.)

  19. AND. 186. Brant, Donald Birtley, “TR as New York City Police Commissioner” (unpublished dissertation, Princeton, 1964), reports it surfacing again in March.

  20. N.Y.T., Jan. 24, 1896; Mor.509.

  21. N.Y.T., Jan. 23, 1896.

  22. Bis.I.62.

  23. Sun, June 27, 1896, quoting TR. John J. Milholland, a Republican yard worker, also warned TR that “Parker could not be trusted … that he was not loyal to him as head of the Commission.” “Not loyal to me?” TR exclaimed. “Impossible!” (Int. FRE.)

  24. N.Y.T., July 8, 1896; Mor.504–5; see World, Feb. 18, 1896.

  25. Sun, Mar. 29, 1896. The account of the police promotions crisis of 1896, which begins here and occupies much of the chapter, is distilled from so many sources, and is itself so simplified (for the record was complicated by myriad questions of procedure and board-room politics) that documentation of every sentence will be fatal to the clarity of the whole. Major sources, however, are cited throughout. In general the story is based on New York City Police Department, Minutes of the Board, 1896 (TRB); the comprehensive reporting of N.Y.T.; AND.Scr; AND.92 ff; TR to B and HCL, passim; supplementary details from Sun, World, Eve. Post, and Journal.

  26. World, Mar. 13, 1896.

  27. Herald, Mar. 15, 1896.

  28. Ib.; N.Y.T., Mar. 18, 1896.

  29. AND.66; on p. 93 he remarks that Conlin “was never a str
ong character.”

  30. World, Mar. 13, 1896; Journal, Mar. 28. For Conlin’s personal view of the matter, see Ste.280.

  31. See AND.202; World, Mar. 13, 1896; P.D. Minutes, 604.

  32. TR to B, Mar. 15, 1896. The following anecdote is undated in its source, Bis.I.62–3. However TR and Parker both confirm that the dinner took place in their testimony of July 8 and 9, 1896 (N.Y.T., July 9 and 10) and mention Bishop’s presence. Furthermore TR specifically states that Parker was invited on March 13 “to meet” Bishop. It follows that Parker and Bishop could not have met at any previous dinner in TR’s house; since TR was in no mood to invite Parker ever again after March 13, the anecdote may be conclusively inserted here.

  33. Parker, testimony July 8, 1896 (N.Y.T., July 9).

  34. TR to B, Mar. 15, 1896.

  35. Bis.I.63.

  36. Ib., 63–4.

  37. P.D. Minutes, 614; N.Y.T., Mar. 19, 1896; Journal, Mar. 24.

  38. Her., Mar. 15, 1895.

  39. Journal, Mar. 24, 1896.

  40. Her., Mar. 15, 1895.

  41. Evening Post, Mar. 24, 1896.

  42. TR to B, Jan. 19, 1896.

  43. See Ch. 19, n. 149, and Mor.504 n. The Venezuela affair was not settled until November 1896. For Cleveland’s reply to TR’s letter (“It seems to me that you and I have both been a little misunderstood recently”) see Bis.I.69. Mor.522.

  44. Lod.204; TR qu. by Talcott Williams in Century Memorial to TR, 74; Mor.509.

  45. Ib., 505–6; Chicago Tribune, Feb. 23, 1895.

  46. Eve. Post, Jan. 14, 1896.

  47. Ib.

  48. TR to B, Feb. 2, 1896; Lod.213.

  49. N.Y.T., June 6, 1896; Mor.503.

  50. Eve. Post, Apr. 1, 1896; see Commercial Advertiser, Apr. 4.

  51. Mor.525.

  52. Journal, Apr. 11, 1896; AND.193; Mor.525–6; N.Y.T., Apr. 17. AND.194 confirms.

  53. Mor.525; Journal, Apr. 10, 1896.

  54. Ib. TR’s childhood friend, Fanny Smith Parsons, was watching from the gallery, and regretted that he did not behave to better effect. (Par.112.)

  55. See Mor.524–32. Her., Apr. 15, 1896.

  56. Sun, Apr. 16, 1896; Evening News, Apr. 19.

  57. Eve. Post, May 1, 1896.

  58. Ste.276.

  59. World, May 6, 1896. The following account is taken from two articles in this newspaper, plus others in the Her., Comm. Adv., Eve. Post, Journal, Trib., and N.Y.T., same date.

  60. Journal, May 6, 1896.

  61. World, May 6, 1896.

  62. Trib., May 6, 1896; Eve. Post, May 6; Sun, n.d. (TR.Scr.); Her., May 7.

  63. Ib.; N.Y.T., May 7, 1896.

  64. TR to B: “I am on pretty good terms with the old boy now, and he is trying to turn Parker out.” June 1, 1896. Press, May 7.

  65. AND.30–1; Comm. Adv., June 2, 1896; N.Y.T., Apr. 22; Recorder, Apr. 28.

  66. Recorder, May 20, 1896. See also Ste.276.

  67. A copy of this statement, with TR’s covering letter, is in the New York Municipal Archives, Strong Mss.

  68. Ber. 117–18; TR to B, June 1, 1896, also Apr. 26: “Unfortunately I cannot be sure of Parker’s financial honesty … I feel very uneasy lest he compromises.” Andrews memo, TRB.

  69. Recorder, May 21?, 1896 (TR.Scr.).

  70. Sun, May 28, 1896.

  71. P.D. Minutes, 17; AND.148.

  72. TR.Wks.XIII.126.

  73. The following account is taken from Sun and Her., June 2, 1896, plus various artists’ sketches in TRB.

  74. The mid-nineties marked the peak of the “bicycle boom” in the United States, and the proliferation of two-wheelers in New York City streets, combined with wagons and carriages, caused serious traffic jams long before the advent of the automobile. See AND.146–52; also TR.Auto. 187–8.

  75. See, e.g., Her., June 2, 1896.

  76. Eve. World, June 3, 1896.

  77. Ib.; Her., same date.

  78. Eve. World, June 3, 1896; World, June 4.

  79. Ib.

  80. Ib.

  81. Trib., June 9. The day before, this paper had become the first to call for Parker’s resignation. According to Jessup, Philip C., Elihu Root (Dodd, Mead, 1938) I.190–191, TR and Andrews drew up the charges together, although they publicly denied this.

  82. Max Fishel, Eve. World reporter, int. FRE. Jan. 1922, TRB; see also TR.Scr.

  83. Riis, Jacob, Making of an American (NY, 1902) 334–5.

  84. Ib.

  85. AND.199; Gos.68.

  86. See Trib., June 9, 1896; World, June 10.

  87. N.Y.T., June 22, 1896. This newspaper contains the fullest session-by-session account of the Parker trial, and its issues of June 12, 13, 19, 22, July 3, 8, and 9 form the basis of the following summary. Other sources: AND.198–9; TR.Scr.

  88. World, July 8, 1896; AND.158 agrees TR was too hasty in promotion procedures.

  89. World, July 8, 1896; Mor.546.

  90. Her., June 26, 1896; Sun, July 3.

  91. N.Y.T., July 10, 13, 1896

  92. See, e.g., Lod.212; Pri.158. It will be remembered that TR had helped make Reed Speaker in 1889 (Ch. 16), and doubtless expected to be rewarded with a Cabinet post if he helped make him President.

  93. Rho.12.

  94. TR, qu. Dun.20.

  95. TR to HCL, Feb. 27, 1896 (LOD.).

  96. TR to B, Mar. 21, 1896 (TRB); Pla.212–4; qu. Pri.159.

  97. Lod.222; Mor.543.

  98. N.Y.T., June 19, 1896; Rho.16–17.

  99. N.Y.T., July 19, 1896.

  100. Mor.543.

  101. N.Y.T., Aug. 11, 1896; World, Aug. 3.

  102. Her., July 22, 1896: “Henceforth it will be war to the knife in the councils of the heads of the Police Department.”

  103. Mor.545.

  104. This is confirmed in Mor.556 and Lod.229.

  105. See Lod.214.

  106. Mor.512, 519; TR to B, Apr. 26; Mor.542, 544. Bamie Roosevelt had amazed her family by marrying Commander Cowles in November 1895. She was then in her forty-first year. See Rixey, Lillian, Bamie: TR’s Remarkable Sister (David McKay, 1963) 86–7.

  107. Mor. 544.

  108. Storer, Maria Longworth (Mrs. Bellamy), “How Theodore Roosevelt Was Appointed Assistant Secretary of the Navy,” Harper’s Weekly, 56 (June 1, 1912). See also ib., Theodore Roosevelt the Child (privately printed, 1921) 15. Mrs. Storer dated this visit “in July 1896” and said that it lasted “several days.” Her memory was slightly in error, since TR in a letter to B, Aug. 2, 1896, writes: “The dear Storers are spending Sunday with us.” They probably arrived Saturday evening, Aug. 1, and left Monday morning, Aug. 3.

  21: THE GLORIOUS RETREAT

  1. TR to CSR, Jan. 16, 1893. See also Storer, “How Theodore Roosevelt,” Harper’s Weekly, 56 (June 1, 1912), Theodore Roosevelt the Child, 15.

  2. See Lee. 58–60 and Mott, T. Bentley, Myron T. Herrick, Friend of France (NY, 1924) 72–74 for details of McKinley’s “debt” to the Storers. His financial situation was entirely honorable in that he had endorsed the notes of a friend, totalling $130,000, believing that they would be paid off. The financial panic of 1893 caused the notes to fail, and McK took it upon himself to redeem them.

  3. Storer, Child, 1.

  4. Ib., 15.

  5. Storer, “How TR Was Appointed,” also see subsequent text. Ib.

  6. Mark Hanna’s arrival had been widely reported in the local papers, e.g., New York Times, July 29. See Rho.2 for his “comet-like” entry into the political scene. For the early relationship of MH and McK, see Lee.66-9; Rho.9–11; Morg.52 ff.

  7. N.Y.T. and Tribune, July 29, 1896.

  8. Mor.552. The adjective “coarse” was changed to “rough” by HCL when editing this letter for publication.

  9. Ib., 556; Trib., Aug. 4, 1896. Aug. 3 was formal opening day at HQ. The suggestion that TR was being evasive about the two July 28 visits to MH is prompted by the tone of his letter describing the Aug. 3 visit to the Storers: “The day after you left I saw Mark H
anna, and after I thought we had grown intimate enough, the chance arriving, I spoke of Bellamy …” (author’s italics). It seems odd he should write of Hanna thus as a stranger, having dined with him à quatre only six days before.

  10. Mor.556.

  11. Trib., Aug. 4, 1896; Mor.556.

  12. Rho.10, 17–8; Whi.157; TR to B, Aug. 2, 1896. John Hay, visiting HQ at this time, remarked on the nervousness of the general atmosphere. Tha.150.

  13. World, July 31, 1896; Trib., Aug. 4; Mor.226–7, 230; Pri.160.

  14. Boorstin, Daniel J., ed., An American Primer (U. Chicago Press, 1966) II.573 ff. gives the complete text of Bryan’s speech.

  15. Trib., Aug. 5 and 6, 1896, reports that MH was having difficulty attracting “name” speakers who would be effective over a wide area of the country. TR was emphatically in this category.

  16. Whi.329. TR told Hanna’s biographer that the Chairman had “not a single small trait in his nature.” Cro.361. In TR.Auto.157 TR wrote with a trace of wistfulness, “I do not think he ever grew to like me.”

  17. Description of MH based on sketch reproduced at beginning of this chapter; other sketches and pors. in Review of Reviews, XIV.4. (Oct., 1896). Prose sources: White, William Allen, Masks in a Pageant (Macmillan, 1928) 155 ff.; Whi.292; N.Y.T., July 29, 1896; World, ib., and July 30; Murat Halstead in R. of Rs., cited above; Rho., Sul., Sto., and Bee., passim.

  18. Rho.12; Whi.292; Morg.230,253.

  19. Ib., 219; Rho.10.

  20. See McK to MH, Nov. 12, 1896, qu. Cro.229; also ib., 221. Although the National Committee ended the campaign with a considerable surplus, MH refused to accept reimbursement of the $100,000 he had spent before the Convention. For McK’s metallic quality, see Tha.III.78; White, Masks, 175.

  21. MH’s despondency lasted at least through mid-August. Cro.219. TR to B, Aug. 2, 1896; Mor.554.

  22. Sun, Aug. 13, 1896.

  23. TR was very defensive about this bad publicity. See Lod.230. Certainly the huge size of the crowd and high temperatures (New York was in the middle of a heat wave) must be counted as extenuating circumstances. Other newspapers guardedly praised the security arrangements, and the Democratic National Committee sent a formal note of thanks to Chief Conlin. Even so, there were some peculiar goings-on which the Police Department never satisfactorily explained. George Spinney, TR’s old reporter friend from Albany days, was told that “the doors is locked” when he presented his press pass. Spinney protested, and was instantly arrested on a charge of disorderly conduct. World, Aug. 13, 1896. Several other eminent citizens and newsmen suffered the same treatment, as did many members of the general public. These were all “mysteries of reform,” the Sun editors remarked, “to which Mr. Theodore Roosevelt had better apply his intellect without delay.” Ib., Aug. 14.