Theodore Rex

by Edmund Morris

  37 Roosevelt decided TR, Letters, vol. 4, 880.

  38 “sweetest of all” Morris, Edith Kermit Roosevelt, 351.

  39 “Edith and I” Letters from Theodore Roosevelt to Anna Roosevelt Cowles, 260–61.

  40 In New York Wheaton, “Genius and the Jurist,” 357–58; Crosson, “James S. Clarkson.”

  41 A female reporter Kate Carew, New York World, 12 Aug. 1904.

  42 Also unlike Hanna Wheaton, “Genius and the Jurist,” 358; Dawes, Journal of the McKinley Years, 383. By the end of Aug., Dawes already noted “great savings” in all contract matters. “At last we have a Committee whose work is untainted by fraud of any kind.”

  43 The Senator softened Dawes, Journal of the McKinley Years, 378.

  44 Roosevelt tried once TR, Letters, vol. 4, 886–87; Bishop, Theodore Roosevelt, vol. 1, 325.

  45 ROOSEVELT HAD LONG See Anne Venzon, “Gunboat Diplomacy in the Mediterranean,” Proceedings of the U.S. Naval Institute, supplement, Mar. 1985.

  Chronological Note: On 27 Aug. 1903, John G. Leishman, United States Minister in Constantinople, had cabled the State Department with news of the assassination of an American diplomat in Beirut. The local government’s response was inadequate and unsatisfactory. TR immediately ordered three warships to Beirut. No sooner had he done so than another cable arrived, stating that the first telegram had contained an error; the diplomat had been “shot at” rather than “shot.”

  TR saw the incident as a perfect opportunity to settle several longstanding issues between the United States and the Ottoman Empire, including indifference of local officials toward the security of Christian diplomats, and discrimination and harassment suffered by American missionaries. The warships would therefore stay in Turkish waters for as long as it took to clear up such issues. On 3 Sept., Hay reported that he had told the Turkish minister “that if he does not want our ships in Turkish waters, it is very easy to cause them to depart.” The Sultan had only to settle “two or three matters which have dragged too long.” However, Hay’s prediction that this would take only “a few days” was not quite accurate. While satisfactory action regarding the shooting incident was taken by mid-Sept. (thanks to the appointment of a new governor in Beirut), the Ottoman government frustratingly refused to recognize that the Squadron’s presence was anything other than a “friendly visit.” However, TR, Hay, and Leishman continued to hope that the United States naval presence in Turkish waters would eventually persuade the Sublime Porte to deal with the relevant issues. While some minor claims were settled in Oct., nothing more substantive came about, and finally, on 1 Feb. 1904, the Squadron left Beirut (Foreign Relations 1904, 774; Still, American Sea Power, 157–64; Venzon, “Gunboat Diplomacy,” 27, 30–31). For an exhaustive treatment of both the Turkish and Moroccan crises of 1903–1904, see also Hourihan, “Roosevelt and the Sultans.”

  46 the Sublime Porte The phrase Sublime Porte was used in 1904 much as the Kremlin is used today. It derived from the gate that gave access to Ottoman departments of state in Constantinople.

  47 He demanded Foreign Relations 1904, 749. There is a sketch of Leishman in Lewis Einstein’s memoir, A Diplomat Looks Back (New Haven, 1968), 30; see also Hourihan, “Roosevelt and the Sultans,” passim.

  48 Their high hopes Except where otherwise indicated, the following account of Parker’s notification ceremony is based on news clips that the judge himself pasted into his scrapbook, and on photographs in the Evening Mail Illustrated Sunday Magazine, 20 Aug. 1904 (ABP).

  49 Parker received Excerpts from Parker’s speech are printed in Harbaugh, “Election of 1904,” 2022–23. Ironically, the cameraman was working for a moving-pictures company.

  50 AFTERWARD, LOYAL Public Opinion, 18 Aug. 1904; Wheaton, “Genius and the Jurist,” 393–94; Washington Evening Star, 11 Aug. 1904.

  51 Cortelyou’s textbook Wheaton, “Genius and the Jurist,” 397–400, 487–89; Republican Campaign Textbook (New York, 1904), passim.

  52 The Democratic textbook Wheaton, “Genius and the Jurist,” 395, 397–400; Schlesinger and Israel, History of American Presidential Elections, vol. 3, 1986.

  53 Neither party Wheaton, “Genius and the Jurist,” 399. The best that could be said about lynchings in 1904 was that the year’s total of eighty-six was down from 104 in 1903. Ziglar, “Decline of Lynching in America.”

  54 the most eagerly awaited Merrill, Republican Command, 168. See, e.g., the Sun’s 3 Aug. 1904 comment on TR’s labor policies: “He is on the side of the men who are every day seeking to overthrow the Constitution.” TR was greatly annoyed by this accusation. TR, Letters, vol. 4, 876–77.

  55 WITHIN DAYS OF Foreign Relations 1904, 826; Dennis, Adventures in American Diplomacy, 464; Still, American Sea Power, 158–64. See also William J. Hourihan, “The Big Stick in Turkey: American Diplomacy and Naval Operations Against the Ottoman Empire, 1903–1904,” Naval War College Review 34.5 (Sept.–Oct. 1981).

  56 Roosevelt hastened TR, Letters, vol. 4, 885, 891; “I am well aware that I have no right to make war,” he wrote on 8 Aug., “and have not the dimmest or remotest intention of doing so.”

  57 Thanks to Hay’s TR, Letters, vol. 4, 890; Literary Digest, 20 Aug. 1904.

  58 For almost a month Review of Reviews, Oct. 1904; The Cambridge Modern History (New York, 1934), vol. 12, 590–91.

  59 Farther inland Review of Reviews, Oct. 1904; Cambridge Modern History, vol. 12, 591–92.

  60 “The Russians think” TR, Letters, vol. 4, 913.

  61 “Unless I am” Albert J. Beveridge to TR, 26 Aug. 1904 (AJB).

  62 The “speaking” Harbaugh, “Election of 1904,” 2024–27.

  63 A quieter voice Wheaton, “Genius and the Jurist,” 396; Nicholas Murray Butler to TR, 6 May 1904 (TRP); Thompson, Party Leaders, 81; New York Sun, 24 June 1904; New York Evening Post, 21 June 1904.

  64 At six foot Champ Clark, My Quarter Century in American Politics (New York, 1920), vol. 2, 281; Thompson, Party Leaders, 33, 81–82; Fleming, Around the Capitol, 228; Dunn, From Harrison to Harding, vol. 1, 219; Thomas R. Shipp, “Charles W. Fairbanks,” Review of Reviews, Aug. 1904.

  65 This awkwardness New York Sun, 24 June 1902; Republican speaking schedule in Wheaton, “Genius and the Jurist,” 599.

  66 The first tests M. Des Portes to Théophile Delcassé, 7 Sept. 1904 (JJ).

  67 Both states were Public Opinion, 15 Sept. 1904; Review of Reviews, Oct. 1904; Wheaton, “Genius and the Jurist,” 373–74.

  68 “Unless we throw” TR, Letters, vol. 4, 919.

  69 “The people need” Joseph Pulitzer, open letter to Josephus Daniels, New York World, 8 Sept. 1904.

  70 THE PRESIDENT CHOSE TR, Letters, vol. 4, 921–43.

  71 At least twelve Wheaton, “Genius and the Jurist,” 601.

  72 “Our opponents” TR, Letters, vol. 4, 921, 930, 939.

  73 “There is not” Ibid., 923–42.

  74 “We have striven” Ibid., 942.

  75 The President’s letter Wheaton, “Genius and the Jurist,” 409–10; Public Opinion, 22 Sept. 1904; John Hay to TR, 13 Sept. 1904 (TRP).

  76 “WELL, MY PART” TR, Letters, vol. 4, 945.

  77 Cortelyou’s first The Wall Street Journal, 12 June 1903; Thorelli, Federal Antitrust Policy, 592–93; Merrill, Republican Command, 168–70.

  78 When one did George Cortelyou, interviewed by Louis Wiley, 29 June 1906, transcript in GBC.

  79 “Now, Mr. Bliss” Campaign Contributions, 123.

  80 “You need have” Ibid., 128. According to Archbold’s testimony, this interview took place in mid-Sept. In 1912, TR vehemently denied that it took place “with my consent or knowledge” (TR, Letters, vol. 7, 603). “I cannot of course say whether or not it is true that Mr. Bliss asked for or received such a contribution.”

  81 AT 10:00A.M. The New York Times, 23 Sept. 1904.

  82 The bedlam continued Ibid.

  83 Parker’s next Ibid.

  84 The judge spent Ibid., 23–25 Sept. 1904; Alton Parker scrapbook (AB
P).

  85 “War grows more” John Hay to Joseph H. Choate, 1 Sept. 1904 (JHC).

  86 Roosevelt, younger Japan’s special interest in Korea had been sanctioned by the Anglo-Japanese agreement of 1902. On 26 Feb. 1904, Korea agreed without protest to become a virtual protectorate of Japan.

  87 “I would like” Jules Jusserand to Théophile Delcassé, 18 Oct. 1904 (JJ).

  88 “Look how long” Ibid.

  89 Jusserand, whose Ibid.

  Chronological Note: The role of international arbiter, so different from that of Rough Rider, appealed to TR, and he was flattered to play it in preview on 24 Sept. 1904, when two hundred delegates from the Interparliamentary Union visited him at the White House. They read a resolution from their recent convention in St. Louis, where legislative officials from Europe, the British Empire, and South America had called for a peacekeeping “congress of nations” (New York Tribune, 25 Sept. 1904). They begged Roosevelt to call a second Hague Conference, along the lines of the one that had established the International Court of Justice in 1899. One delegate reminded him that the first conference had postponed the vital question of arms limitation. “In applying to you we address ourselves to an earnest defender of international justice, and we bear in mind that you were the first head of state who turned governments toward the Permanent Court of Arbitration at the Hague.” TR agreed to their plea, telling them, “At an early date I shall issue the call for the conference you request.” Republican officials did not doubt he would choose a date “early” enough for the election. See also Literary Digest, 8 Oct. 1904.

  90 Joseph Pulitzer complained New York World, 1 Oct. 1904.

  91 The aggregate George Cortelyou, interviewed by Louis Wiley, 29 June 1906, transcript in GBC.

  92 Cortelyou’s friends Cortelyou’s difficulties, which are amply documented in GBC, arose out of the deaths of three investors in a preparatory school he founded and headed in 1887. When the venture failed, he refused insolvency and entered the Postal Service, determined to reimburse their estates. By 1905, he was clear of all debt.

  93 Soon Democratic campaign Wheaton, “Genius and the Jurist,” 473–80.

  94 All Cortelyou said Presidential scrapbook (TRP). “My determination to keep quiet,” Cortelyou wrote the President on 2 Oct. 1904, “has been largely with the hope of drawing their fire far enough ahead of the election” (TRP).

  95 The fighter in TR to George Cortelyou, 2 Oct. 1904 (GBC); TR, Letters, vol. 3, 963. Perhaps coincidentally, he wrote a few days later to praise the hunter Stewart White’s prowess in killing “105 pigs in two weeks” with a knife. He doubted that he could pull off such a feat himself, although “I have a bully knife … with a fourteen-inch blade, and I firmly believe that one thrust would do the business … even against a boar.” TR, Letters, vol. 3, 978.

  96 “Mr. Cortelyou is” Cornelius Bliss to TR, 3 Oct. 1904 (TRP). Another professional impressed by Cortelyou’s quiet, yet effortlessly thorough, performance was James S. Clarkson. “The red light is no longer a color in politics and the brass band has departed. Instead of trying to capture men in the mass, [his] system is to go to them in detail and reach them along the lines of effective influence.” Clarkson to Leigh Hunt, 1 Oct. 1904 (JSC).

  97 After Elihu Root’s McCormick, From Realignment to Reform, 189; TR, Letters, vol. 4, 962.

  98 The Democratic National James S. Clarkson to Leigh Hunt, 1 Oct. 1903 (JSC).

  99 “Pray get out” McCormick, From Realignment to Reform, 191; TR, Letters, vol. 4, 961.

  100 “The drift here” William D. Foulke to TR, 6 Oct. 1904 (TRP). TR had privately used the same metaphor himself. TR to George Cortelyou, 2 Oct. 1904 (GBC).

  101 At 1 Madison Campaign Contributions, 685.

  102 “Who is this?” Ibid., 685–86.

  103 “I would rather” Long afterward, when this telephone conversation was put on the record, Scott hedged his memory of it, saying the President might have said, “Mr. Harriman is coming to see me.” Whoever made the first move, each man had cause to seek the interview.

  104 Harriman was a Harriman had also served as a delegate to the Republican National Convention (Klein, Life and Legend of E. H. Harriman, 363). Wheaton, “Genius and the Jurist,” 494ff., suggests that Harriman’s new interest in politics was an extension of his business rivalry with J. P. Morgan. TR was aware of this rivalry, and encouraged it by sedulously consulting “now the one [man], now the other” (495).

  105 “In view of” TR, Letters, vol. 4, 979.

  106 “Now, my dear” Ibid., 983.

  107 Harriman was thus TR, Letters, vol. 4, 983; vol. 5, 448. Klein, Life and Legend of E. H. Harriman, 364, notes that this addendum also served as “evidence” that if Harriman came south to see the President, it was on his own initiative. Eight years later, TR cited it to that exact purpose. See TR, Letters, vol. 7, 609.

  108 When Harriman called John Hay diary, 15 Oct. 1903 (JH); TR, Letters, vol. 3, 985; vol. 5, 448.

  109 Twelve thousand New York World and The New York Times, 20 Oct. 1904. According to a survey conducted by the Odell organization, TR could expect a 96,000-vote plurality in New York State, while Higgins was trailing his Democratic opponent. Wheaton, “Genius and the Jurist,” 498.

  110 Roosevelt received E. H. Harriman to TR (telegram), 20 Oct. 1904; William Loeb to TR, 21 Sept. 1912 (TRP); EKR diary, 20 Oct. 1904 (TRC).

  111 Roosevelt spent TR in Letters, vol. 7, 608; William Loeb in Campaign Contributions, 529; E. H. Harriman in ibid., 693; Benjamin B. Odell in ibid., 112. TR appears to have conveniently forgotten to raise the subject of railroad regulation. Another subject of great interest to Harriman that TR wished to avoid was Governor Odell’s desire to have Chauncey Depew appointed United States Ambassador to France, thus making Depew’s Senate seat available to himself.

  112 Whatever else John L. Heaton, The Story of a Page: Thirty Years of Public Service and Public Discussion in the Editorial Columns of the New York World (New York, 1913), 317.

  113 He had a pleased Merrill, Republican Command, 166; Campaign Contributions, 693.

  114 HARRIMAN PROVED Campaign Contributions, 440–41.

  115 Millionaires virtually Corey, House of Morgan, 370–71; Don C. Seitz, Joseph Pulitzer: His Life and Times (New York, 1924), 305. Gould’s donation alone was worth nearly two million dollars in contemporary [2001] valuation.

  116 Other donations Pringle, Theodore Roosevelt, 357–58. Heaton, Story of a Page, 320. TR’s final fund total was $2,195,000, more than 70 percent of it from corporations. For an exhaustive, if often speculative, analysis of the corporate-financing issue, and Harriman’s relations with TR, see Wheaton, “Genius and the Jurist,” passim. Wheaton estimates that “between one-fourth and one-third [of the GOP fund] was put into the treasury in the last two weeks of the campaign” (606).

  117 “Corporate cunning” Qu. in Sullivan, Our Times, vol. 2, 249–50.

  118 “It tires me” TR qu. in The New York Times, 12 Jan. 1919.

  119 As one workingman Review of Reviews, Nov. 1904. An oft-reproduced cartoon by Homer Davenport portrayed Parker as a sphinx in judicial robes (ABP).

  120 “Well, you are” Alton Parker, Autobiography Notes (ABP). For another version of this anecdote, see Campaign Contributions, vol. 1, 899–900.

  121 The judge returned Alton Parker, Autobiography Notes (ABP).

  122 As luck would New York World and The New York Times, 24 Oct. 1903; Heaton, Story of a Page, 209.

  123 His remarks made The New York Times, 24 Oct. 1903.

  124 “We are at” Hay, Letters, vol. 3, 319–20.

  125 ALICE LIKED TO One “posterity letter” survives in which TR, afraid that his eccentric elder daughter might cause a scandal in the waning days of the campaign, lectures her sternly over his full signature.

  Dear Alice, Do you know how much talk there has been recently in the newspapers about your betting—matching quarters at the races & c.—and courting notoriety with that unfortunate snake? … Do try to remem
ber that to court notoriety by bizarre actions is underbred and unladylike. You should not bet at all, and never in public.… When you do foolish things, you make it certain that worse than foolish things will be ascribed to you. To run into debt and be extravagant as to your clothes—such pointless extravagance, too—is not only foolish but wicked. Your father, Theodore Roosevelt. (28 Aug. 1904, copy in AC)

  126 Some instinct TR, Letters, vol. 3, 996–97.

  127 He did not Ibid., 995–96.

  128 By telegram, he Ibid., 996–98. These documents, plus others written in the weeks ahead, were absorbed by TR into the longest and most vehement of all his “posterity letters,” to the Senate Committee investigating campaign contributions in Aug. 1912. It is printed in ibid., vol. 7, 602–25.

  129 “I congratulate you” Elihu Root to TR, 28 Oct. 1904 (ER).

  130 IN THE LAST DAYS Wheaton, “The Genius and the Jurist,” 513.

  131 “Has my request” TR, Letters, vol. 3, 1004.

  132 There was no Wheaton, “Genius and the Jurist,” 530.

  133 “Although this may” Ibid., 531; Alton Parker speech script, 31 Oct. 1904 (ABP). See also New York World, 1 Nov. 1904.

  134 “I have never” EKR to Henry Cabot Lodge, ca. 1 Nov. 1904 (HCL). On this same day, Alice Roosevelt wrote in her diary, “I am positive he won’t be elected.… I can’t bear it” (ARL).

  135 The question TR, Letters, vol. 3, 1013. See the whole of this strategic letter for further examples of TR’s exquisite sense of press timing.

  136 Parker was tempted Pringle, Theodore Roosevelt, 355.

  137 This was going Gould, Presidency of Theodore Roosevelt, 143.

  138 Old-time journalists Heaton, Story of a Page, 210.

  139 “Mr. Parker’s accusations” White House press statement, 4 Nov. 1904 (TRP).

  140 Roosevelt asked Ibid.

  141 “The statements made” Ibid. For TR’s even stronger draft statement (which aides apparently toned down), see TRP.

  142 “VICTORY. TRIUMPH.” Alice Roosevelt diary, 8 Nov. 1904 (ARL). According to Wheaton, “Genius and the Jurist,” 519, Parker’s telegram was prompted by the collapse of his hopes in New York, and was sent to RNC headquarters at 8:30 P.M. By the time the landslide reached Chicago, most Democratic officials headed for home.