The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt

by Edmund Morris

  76. Che.48.

  77. Ib.; Gos.192.

  78. Ib.

  79. Ib.; Pla.370–3; Sun, Sep. 29, 1898; Trib., Sep. 28.

  80. See Mor.878–9; Trib., Sep. 28, 1898. Che.46–8.

  81. Pla.367; HUN.59. TR paid his taxes—$995.28—on Oct. 3, 1898. Trib., Oct. 4.

  82. Sun, Sep. 26, 1898; Mor.880.

  83. Trib., Sep. 28, 1898; Her., same date.

  84. Sun, Sep. 28, 1898. See Trib., Sep. 28 for verbatim report of what Root did say. Her., Sep. 28. The nominating speech was made by Chauncey Depew. “I have done that a great many times in conventions,” he wrote in his Memories of Eighty Years, “but have never had such a response.” (162).

  85. Trib., Sep. 28, 1898; Mor.881.

  86. Her., Oct. 5, 1898.

  87. Ib.; N.Y.T., same date. Author’s italics.

  88. Her., Sep. 5, 1898. Van Wyck was the brother of Robert W. van Wyck, Mayor of New York.

  89. Che.50–1.

  90. Her., Sep. 6, 1898.

  91. See Mor.882 for TR’s reply to McK. Her., Sep. 6, 1898.

  92. TR.Wks.XIV.290–1. See Her., Sep. 6, 1898, for audience reaction.

  93. Howe, Chapman, 470.

  94. TR.Auto.280; Mor.883; Che.54; ib., 59–60; Odell int. FRE. See Gos.131–8 for an account of TCP’s manipulation of various periodicals.

  95. TR on Oct. 7, 1898, qu. Hagedorn in TRB memo; Her., Oct. 15.

  96. See Che. passim.

  97. Trib., Oct. 10, 1898; two Herald clips, both dated Oct. 15, in TRB.

  98. Ib.

  99. The following account of TR’s campaign day is based on “Roosevelt On A Wild Goose Chase,” article in Her., Sep. 15, 1898.

  100. Ib., and Sep. 16, 1898; Gos.142.

  101. Her., Oct. 15, 16, 1898; Trib., Oct. 23; Che.57–8. TR had been aware for some time that Judge Daly would not receive the Democratic nomination, and had seen to it that he appeared on the Republican ticket. He considered this nomination “a great card for us.” Che.57.

  102. Her., Oct. 16, 1898; Che.59.

  103. Her., Oct. 18, 1898; Che.60.

  104. Ib.; Gos.141–2.

  105. Her., Oct. 18, 1898; World, same date.

  106. Her., Oct. 18, 1898.

  107. Che.61.

  108. Her., Oct. 18, 1898; O’Neil qu. Mor.896.

  109. Che.63; Sun, Oct. 21, 1898.

  110. Ib.

  111. TRB clips, passim.

  112. Sun, Oct. 21, 1898; cf. p. 634.

  113. Press clip, n.d., in TRB; see, e.g., TR’s chivvying of Quigg in Mor.887.

  114. Sun, Oct. 25, 1898.

  115. Ib.; Clarke, John Proctor, “Random Recollections of Campaigning with Roosevelt,” TRC; TR.Auto.127.

  116. Sun, Oct. 25, 26, 27, 29, 30, 1898.

  117. Ib., Oct. 29, 1898.

  118. Che.66; Rii.203–7.

  119. Mor.918; Pla.537–8; Troy Times, Nov. 5, 1898, qu. Gos.143.

  120. Ib., 149. TR scored 661,715 to van Wyck’s 643,921. The narrowness of TR’s margin (17,794) can be gauged by contrasting it with Gov. Black’s in 1896—787,516 votes to a Democratic total of 574,524. Ib.

  121. Che.68, qu. Depew and Platt; TR.Auto.282.

  122. Mor.888.

  123. EKR to Emily Carow, June 22, 1900, TRC. TR’s Lowell Lectures are described by Rev. William E. Barton in “Theodore Roosevelt: An Address,” pamphlet, 1919, in the Walter Merriam Pratt collection (TRB). “They were the most popular Lowell Lectures I have heard.”

  124. Original manuscript of The Rough Riders in New York State Library, Albany.

  27: THE BOY GOVERNOR

  1. Par.123.

  2. See TR.Auto.293–4, and below.

  3. Because January 1, 1899, fell on a Sunday, TR and other elective officials had taken their oaths in the Secretary of State’s office shortly after noon on Sat., Dec. 31, 1898. Sun, Jan. 1.

  4. TR.Auto.286.

  5. Ib.

  6. Ib., 290.

  7. Obvious as such a publicity policy may seem in this media-conscious age, it was near-revolutionary in the shadowy world of New York State politics at the end of the nineteenth century. A comprehensive study of TR’s whole career as a publicist has yet to be written: should any skilled historian undertake the project, it would be of revelatory significance and interest.

  8. Sun, Jan. 3, 1899.

  9. See Roseberry, Cecil R., Capitol Story (New York State, 1964) 9, and passim.

  10. Sun, Jan. 3, 1899.

  11. See Public Papers of Theodore Roosevelt, Governor (Albany, 1899–1900) 248–9; Gos.196; Pri.209; and Che. passim for discussion of various aspects of this Annual Message.

  12. New York State Legislature, A Memorial to Theodore Roosevelt, Feb. 21, 1919, 37

  13. TR.Auto.295. Superintendent G. W. Aldridge had asked to be suspended while certain charges purporting to involve him in the “canal steal” were being investigated. Gos.208.

  14. TR.Auto.294–5.

  15. Che.72; Mor.891–902.

  16. Gos.209; Che.72–3, 178–9. TR had private doubts about Partridge at first (“I do not think he is a very strong man”), but they turned out to be unfounded. The superintendent effected a 25% saving in public works expenses by Oct. 1, 1899, and was singled out by the Eve. Post to be a model state official. Che.178–9.

  17. Youngs, William J., “A Short Résumé of the Administration of Theodore Roosevelt [Governor],” TRP., 4; Gos.209–14; Har.114; Che.73. See ib., passim, for analyses of other gubernatorial appointments. TR’s only personal indulgences were the selection of his old mentor, Joe Murray, as First Deputy in the Public Works Dept., Avery D. Andrews as Adjutant-General, and some impoverished Rough Riders to unimportant sinecures.

  18. Che.75; Har.122.

  19. Secretary William J. Youngs declared that “the happiest moments of the Governor’s administration were the 15-minute talks with reporters, morning and afternoon.” Un. clip, c. June, 1900, entitled “Studies in American Character, No. 5,” TRB. See also Che.75, quoting Brooklyn Eagle, Jan. 4, 1899, and Albany Argus, June 6, 1899. This description of TR in press conference is also based on the reminiscences of reporters who knew him well, notably Joseph B. Bishop and J. J. Leary.

  20. TR.Auto.285.

  21. Ib., 289. The following three paragraphs are based on ib., 283–93.

  22. Ib., 285.

  23. Ib., 289.

  24. The preceding four sentences closely follow Che. 158–9.

  25. TR.Auto.292.

  26. For TR’s handling of the Martha Place case, see Mor.938 ff., and n. 56, below.

  27. See calendar in Mor. 1498 ff. for a list of TR’s day-to-day business as Governor. Mor.918.

  28. Ada.208; Mor.902.

  29. TR.Auto.297; Mor.1498 ff.; Wis.70.

  30. TR.Auto.297–8. See also Che.76.

  31. TR qu. Che.133.

  32. Gos.196; Che.133–7. Ib., 132, says TR was not necessarily referring to the Ford Bill, but at any rate “favored some positive step toward franchise tax that year.” Since there was no other franchise-tax legislation on the books, and in view of TR’s own hurry to get such a law passed in 1899, it is difficult to see what other measures he could have had in mind. TR did, nevertheless, express grave doubts about at least one of the Ford Bill’s clauses. (See text below.) For the full story of TR’s works on the franchise bills, see Che. Ch. 6, “The Honest Broker.”

  33. Gos.197; Che.135, 137, 133 TR’s pied-à-terre was 689 Madison Ave., where Bamie (now Mrs. Sheffield Cowles, and a mother) delighted to play hostess for him. COW. Occasionally TR took TCP to breakfast at Corinne’s house, 422 Madison Ave. Rob.185.

  34. TR.Auto.308.

  35. Gos.198; TCP qu. Che.138; for complete text of TCP’s views on the Ford Bill, see William Barnes v. Theodore Roosevelt: Case on Appeal (Walton, N.Y., 1917) 2368 ff.

  36. TCP qu. Che.138.

  37. Che.138; Gos.196; Public Papers, 54–7; Gos.197; Che.139.

  38. New York Herald, qu. Che.139; Mor.982, 1006.

  39
. TR.Auto.312; Che.140; Mor.982. Three days after this, TR was in Chicago as guest of honor at the Appo-mattox Day meeting of the Hamilton Club. Mor.1499. Here he delivered his famous “Strenuous Life” speech, the definitive statement of his pre-presidential philosophy. It is reprinted in TR.Wks.XIII.

  40. Che.140.

  41. Ib.; New York Tribune, Apr. 15, 1899.

  42. Che.141.

  43. TR.Auto.311. Gos.197: “He kept talking to the newspaper men about its desirability.” See, e.g., Trib., Apr. 15, 1899.

  44. See Che.75 on TR’s use of reporters as legislative contacts. Ib., 143.

  45. TR.Auto.308.

  46. Ib., 311–2; Che.143–4; Mor.1007; TR.Auto.312.

  47. Ib; Mor.1008.

  48. Public Papers, 1899, 89.

  49. TR.Auto.312.

  50. See his letter to HCL, Apr. 17, 1899, Mor.997–8.

  51. For an excellent brief summary, see Har.114–121.

  52. Mor.997; New York Times, Apr. 29, 1899; Che.79.

  53. See Che.200–25 for a largely favorable review of TR’s labor policies as Governor; Hurwitz, Howard L., TR and Labor in New York State, 1880–1900 (Columbia U. Press, 1943) passim for a more negative assessment.

  54. Mor.998; Har.120–121.

  55. Ib. But see Che.215 ff. for TR’s subsequent difficulties with labor groups, and ib., 221 for his over-reaction to the Croton Dam riots in April 1900.

  56. Martha Place, a resident of Brooklyn, was found guilty of killing her stepdaughter and attacking her husband with an axe. Although she claimed not to remember the murder, state medical examiners informed Roosevelt that she was sane. She was executed on March 20, 1899.

  57. Mor.950: “As for Mrs. Place, you can rest assured that the last thing that will influence me will be any statement that no man can become President if he allows a woman to be executed. In the first place, being myself sane, I have no thought of becoming President. In the next place, I should heartily despise the public servant who failed to do his duty because it might jeopardize his own future.” (TR to Francis W. Jones, Feb. 21, 1899.)

  58. Mor.938.

  59. See Che. 177 ff. for an extended discussion of this subject.

  60. Mor.998. For a compact modern assessment of the governorship of Theodore Roosevelt, within the larger context of New York politics, see McC. 157–63. According to McCormick, TR took “moderate but creative” steps toward addressing the burgeoning phenomenon of interstate corporate combinations. His policy innovations were few, but his rhetoric galvanizing, and “his management of economic issues notably anticipated—though it did not inaugurate—twentieth-century methods of governance.” (158) TR’s instincts remained conservative (and actually friendly toward entrenched corporate interests), even as his antitrust rhetoric heated up. He was notable for his “fear of class politics,” and determinedly democratic in weighing the conflicting claims of special-interest groups—as shown in his open-minded, moderately reformist attitude to labor. (160) Although his main legislative achievement was indeed the Ford Franchise Act, he really only “vitalized” the issue it entailed. The best that can be said overall of TR’s gubernatorial administration, in McCormick’s view, is that he pointed New York State “toward a political accommodation with the powerful, clashing interests of an industrial society.” (163)

  61. Ib., 999. See also TR to C. Grant LaFarge, May 1, 1899, TRP.

  62. See Che.147; N.Y.T., May 5, 1899.

  63. TR.Auto.309. Author’s italics.

  64. Ib.

  65. Ib., 309–10; Gos.148; see Barnes v. Roosevelt, 2368–2375 for complete text.

  66. Mor. 1004–1009. “These two letters,” TR wrote in his Autobiography, “express clearly the views of the two elements of the Republican party, whose hostility gradually grew until it culminated, thirteen years later.” (311) For a more extended version of TR’s views at the time, see his address on “The Uses and Abuses of Property” (Buffalo, May 15, 1899), in TR.Wks.XIV.321–9.

  67. Mor. 1004–1009. Che.150 says that the idea of recalling the Legislature was first suggested to TR by corporation counsel on May 11, 1899. But TR’s letter to TCP clearly shows that he had been thinking along the same lines as early as May 8.

  68. Mor.1011.

  69. TR’s legal experts were Judge William N. Cohen and Prof. E.R.A. Seligman of Columbia University. Che.151–2.

  70. See Mor.1017 for TR’s account of the frantic activities of TCP’s representatives. Che.152, 153; Mor.1017.

  71. Her., May 26, 1899.

  72. Mor.1017.

  73. Ib., 1501, 1018.

  74. See Che.160. TR discussed the subject with at least two editors en route.

  75. See Mor.954 ff. The first few requests came through Mr. Bellamy Storer, but he was at no time anything more than a mouthpiece for his formidable wife. Mrs. Bellamy Storer soon lost patience with his lack of success, and began to negotiate with TR herself.

  76. Mor. 954, 968, 971–2, 1001, 1015, 1019.

  77. See Mor.893, 894, 901, 902, 919 esp., 935, 1395 for TR’s desperate attempts to secure the Medal of Honor; also Appendix B to Ch. VII of TR.Auto., which shows how his failure still rankled in 1913.

  78. See Lod.I.399; also Mor.1021.

  79. Ib., 1022.

  80. White wrote many years later that he began this work—with TR’s full approval—in 1898, even before the gubernatorial election. “He did not want to be Governor of New York. He wanted to be President of the United States.” Whi.327.

  81. Emporia Gazette, June 26, 1899. See also Kohlsaat, H. H., From McKinley to Harding (Scribner’s, 1923) 76 ff. for anecdotes of this trip. He says that at several stops along the way crowds brandished “Roosevelt in 1904” cards.

  82. See, e.g., N.Y.T., June 29, 1899.

  83. In July 1969 Jesse Langdon attended the seventieth and last Rough Rider Reunion at Las Vegas. His two surviving comrades, Frank Brito and George Hamner, were too ill to join him. Walker, Dale, “The Last of the Rough Riders,” Montana, XII.3 (July 1973). TR on McK’s renomination: see N.Y.T., June 30, 1899; Trib., same date.

  84. World, July 5, 1899; N.Y.T., same date.

  85. Mor.1023.

  86. See Chessman, G. Wallace, “Theodore Roosevelt’s Campaign Against the Vice-Presidency,” The Historian, XIV.2 (Spring 1952).

  87. Trad.; see, e.g., Morg.225.

  88. Mor.1023.

  89. Ib.

  90. Ib., 918.

  91. Ib., 1023. See Young, K. H., and Lamar Middleton, Heirs Apparent (NY, 1948), and Williams, Irving G., The Rise of the Vice-Presidency (NY, 1956) for indications of how insignificant the office really was at the end of the nineteenth century.

  92. Mor.1024; un. clip, TRB, c. July 1, 1899; Rob.195. Note: Corinne wrongly places the date of Cromwell’s composition in 1900.

  93. Probably Elihu Root, qu. Arthur Lee in TR.Wks.X. 169–70.

  94. Mor.1043; ib., 1046; World, July 9, 1899; Mor.1038–9, 1502.

  95. Ib., 1043, 1046. TR exceeded his word quota from Scribner’s by some twenty thousand words. The serial purchase price was $5,000, plus 15% in book royalties. Ib., 1049.

  96. Eve. Post article, “Roosevelt the Ideal Contributor,” n.d., but c. Feb. 1919, TRB; Mor.1053; Lee in TR.Wks.X. 170.

  97. Wis.65–6.

  98. Mor. 1047.

  99. See Trib., July 9, 1899; N.Y.T., July 16. See also TR to HCL, July 21, Mor. 1036–9, for a complete account of the meeting with McK.

  100. Mor. 1037. TR was particularly scrupulous as the meeting had in fact been suggested by himself, in a letter to Secretary of State Hay on July 1, 1899. See Mor. 1024–5. His intention was to advise that Maj.-Gen. Francis V. Greene be put in command of the entire U.S. force in the Philippines, and that Maj.-Gen. Leonard Wood be given similar powers in Cuba. Mor.1025.

  101. Secretary Long, who attended the meeting, was at any rate impressed. “I believe Roosevelt to be thoroughly honest, and his ambition is one for the good of the service. Sometimes, I distrust his judgment, but he is so abov
e all purely selfish and dishonorable intentions that I esteem him very highly.” Journal, July 8, 1899, LON. As for TR’s reaction to the accession of Elihu Root to the Secretaryship of War, see Mor. 1041. His letter of congratulation is a startlingly cold document, avoiding direct compliments. It betrays more than a hint of anger that circumstances prevented TR himself being offered the position. Mor.1036.

  102. Ib., 1062. Ib., 1052–3 gives TR’s upstate itinerary.

  103. Ib., 1062.

  104. Ib.

  105. Ib.

  106. See, e.g., World, July 5, 1899; N.Y.T., Oct. 2.

  107. See Spector, Ronald, Admiral of the New Empire (Louisiana State U., 1974) 111. Dewey was said by his family and friends to be a Republican (he remained mum on the subject himself) so TR naturally assumed that, as a loyal officer, he would support the renomination of his Commander-in-Chief. When Dewey subsequently announced he would, indeed, run for President, and under the Democratic banner, TR’s fury knew no bounds. Spector, Admiral, 106 ff., tells the full story of Dewey’s act of hubris.

  108. Ib., 104–5; Bee.261.

  109. TR had been hoping to ride in boots and breeches, as befitted a Colonel of Cavalry, but his brother-in-law Douglas Robinson protested that it would be “unwise, and … undignified.” Mor. 1072.