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Impressions
of
Theodore Roosevelt
By Lawrence F. Abbot

Cjarden @ty      2{ew York
'Doubleday, ''Page & Company
1920

THEODORE ROOSEVELT AT WORK
From a photograph taken in 1912 at his desk in the office
of the Outlook

COPYRIGHT, 1919, BY
DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED, INCLUDING THAT OF
TRANSLATION INTO FOREIGN LANGUAGES,
INCLUDING THE  SCANDINAVIAN

TO  MY FATHER
WHOM THE MORAL LAW COMMANDS ME TO LOVE BUT WHOM OF MY OWN VOLITION I LIKE AS THE MOST DELIGHTFUL AND DESIRABLE OF FRIENDS AND COMPANIONS

PREFACE
this book makes no pretense of being a biography of Theodore Roosevelt. Nor will the reader find in it a chronological narrative of the events of his career. Those who wish to know these chronological facts are referred to his own Autobiography; to the forthcoming "Life and Letters" by Mr. Joseph Bucklin Bishop, who was named by Mr. Roosevelt as its authorized editor; to the introduction, notes, and appendices which I furnished for his volume of "African and European Addresses"; and to the article on Theodore Roosevelt which I contributed to The Eleventh Edition of  the Encyclopedia Britannica.
The purpose of the present volume is to record some personal impressions which this great American made upon me in the course of an acquaintanceship of twenty-two years, during the latter half of which our relations were those of intimate association and friendship. It is with the hope of supplying some useful details for the final portrait which will be painted by the historians of the future that this simple, informal, and free-hand sketch is undertaken.
lawrence F. abbott. The Outlook Office,
New York, July 30, 1919.
vii

CONTENTS
BAPTEB	PAGE
I.   acquaintanceship	3
How I Came to Know Theodore Roosevelt
The Police and Good Government His Connection with the Outlook A Cabinet Meeting Roosevelt as a Journalist A "Standard Oil" Incident
II.    politics	33
An Hereditary Republican Joe Murray's Story Roosevelt's Relation to the Bosses The Nomination of Elaine
III.	the progressive party	52
"I Am Going Down Like Dewey" The Return to Politics Why Mr. Taft Was Nominated in 1908 The Break with Taft The Sudden Formation of the Progressive Party
Roosevelt's Nomination "The Irish and the Dutch"
IV.	statesmanship	   92
The Need of Political Machinery An Estimate of Senator Lodge

t	CONTENTS
•Arm	r»n«
A Joyous President and Ex-President
Senatorial Conflicts
Nationalism
The Battle Fleet's Visit to Japan
Political and Industrial Reform
Conservation
Colonial Policy
The Russo-Japanese Peace
The Panama Canal
V.   foreign affairs	142
Remission of the Chinese Indemnity The Origin of the Guildhall Speech "Govern-or-go" Roosevelt The Sorbonne Speech and Its Effect on
France How Roosevelt Helped to Save Egypt
VI.	A man of letters	169
The Volume and Variety of Roosevelt's
Writings
The Pigskin Library Hero Tales of American History •   An Arizona Snake Dance An Essay on Progressivism An Estimate of Tolstoy
VII.	the african and european tour     .    200
Roosevelt's Desire to Get out of the
Limelight
An Experience in "Tipping" The Controversy with the Vatican What Fogazzaro Thought About It

CONTENTS	xi
CHAPTE*	MG«
The Democratic King of Italy How Roosevelt Met the Kaiser Afternoon Tea with the King of Norway Sir Percy Girouard's Estimate of Roose-"velt '
VIII.   roosevelt's personal qualities .    .    264 His Caution His Courage His Sense of Humour His Gentleness
IX.   the end.	312
The Simple Funeral The Hillside Grave,'

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Theodore Roosevelt at Work	        Frontispiece
PAGE
As President of the Board of Police, New York City,
1895-97		6
In cowboy costume during his early years as a ranchman	14
In 1885, in North Dakota, four years after Joe Murray
started Mr. Roosevelt's political career    ....	30
As a member of the New York Assembly     ....	38
As Civil Service Commissioner, 1889-1895 ....	38
With a party of Republicans who came to tell him that
he was their nominee for President		7°
The Inaugural Address of 1904		70
Addressing a street audience with characteristic gesture
and emphasis		78
A rear platform speech to a group of citizens in Ohio    .	94
In his English Academic robes		102
This is believed to have been Colonel Roosevelt's favour
ite photograph of himself		102
Reviewing the Battle Fleet at the time of its world
cruise	    .	no
Theodore Roosevelt as President		118
The last meeting of the Roosevelt Cabinet .     .     .     .	118
With members of the Conservation Commission    .     .	126
Peace Envoys on board Mayflower, August, 1905   .     .	134
At Panama inspecting the Canal which "he took"      .	134
Crossing a part of the desert near Khartum .    .    .	150

xiv	LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
MOl
Reviewing native Nubian and African troops of the
.'=British Army of the Sudan at Khartum    .     .    .    .	150
As Lieutenant-Colonel of the Rough Riders ....	198
With the Rough Riders		198
In Africa photographing a jackal eating his fill inside
the carcass of an elephant		206
With the author, viewing the Roman Forum from a
point on the Palatine Hill		222
Arriving with his party in England from Germany, in
1910		254
With a group of distinguished citizens reviewing a
parade		270
In the Yosemite Valley     ..."		278
A hunting trip in Colorado		278
Mr. and Mrs. Roosevelt with their children      .    .    .	286
The Roosevelt Home at Sagamore Hill on Long Island.	302
The last photograph of Colonel Roosevelt    ....	310
The Hillside burial       		310

ROOSEVELT'S CHIEF WRITINGS, EXCLUDING NEWSPAPER ARTICLES AND STATE PAPERS
"African  and  European  Addresses."   New York:  G.   P.
Putnam's Sons, igio.I "African Game Trails."   New York: C. Scribner's Sons,
1910. "America and the World War."    New York: C. Scribner's
Sons, 1915. "American Ideals and Other Essays Social and Political."
New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1904. "A Book-lover's Holidays in the Open." New-York: C. Scribner's Sons, 1916. "Fear God and Take Your Own Part."   New York: G. H.
Doran Company, 1916. "The Foes of Our Own Household."   New York: G. H.
Doran Company [cop. 1917]. "Good Hunting in Pursuit of Big Game in the West."    New
York: Harper and Brothers, 1907. "Gouverneur   Morris."    Boston:   Houghton,   Mifflin   and
Company,    [ist pub. 1888.]    (American statesmen.) "The Great Adventure; Present-day Studies in American
Nationalism.    New York: C. Scribner's Sons, 1918. "History as Literature, and Other Essays."    New York:
C. Scribner's Sons, 1913. "Hunting Trips of a Ranchman: Sketches of Sport on the
Northern Cattle Plains."    New York: G. P. Putnam's
Sons, 1885.    [Also other editions.] "Life of Thomas Hart Benton."    Boston: Houghton, Mifflin
and Company, 1887.    (American statesmen.) xv

xvi	ROOSEVELT'S CHIEF WRITINGS
"National Strength and International Duty." Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1917 (Stafford Little lectures for 1917.)
"Naval War of 1812; or, The History of the United States Navy During the Last War with Great Britain." New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1882. 8th edition.
"New York." New York: Longmans, Green and Company, 1903. (Historic towns.)
"Oliver Cromwell."    New York: C. Scribner's Sons, 1900.
"Ranch Life and the Hunting-trail." New York: Century Company, 1896.
"The Rough Riders."    New York: C. Scribner's Sons, 1899.
"The Strenuous Life: Essays and Addresses." New York: Century Company, 1900.
"Theodore Roosevelt; an Autobiography." New York: Macmillan Company, 1913.
"Through the Brazilian Wilderness." New York: C. Scribner's Sons, 1914.
"The Wilderness Hunter." An account of the big game of the United States and its chase with horse, hound, and rifle. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1893.
"The Winning of the West." 4 volumes. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1889-96. Various editions; Standard library edition, 4 volumes each; Sagamore edition, 6 volumes each.
Roosevelt, Theodore, and Heller, Edmund.
"Life Histories of African Game Animals."    New York: C. Scribner's Sons, 1914.    2 volumes.

ROOSEVELT CHRONOLOGY
Born in New York City, October 27, 1858
Graduated from Harvard, 1880
Elected to New York Legislature, 1881, 1882, 1883
Republican candidate for Mayor of New York, 1886
Civil Service Commissioner, 1889
Police Commissioner, 1895
Assistant Secretary of the Navy, 1897
Lieutenant-Colonel and Colonel, Rough Riders, 1898
Governor of New York, 1899-1900
Elected Vice-President, November 4, 1900
Became President on death of President McKinley, September 14, 1901
Elected President of the United States, 1904
Became associated with the Outlook in spring of 1909
Sailed for Africa in March, 1909
Organized Progressive Party and was Progressive Party Candidate for President, 1912
Shot at Milwaukee, in October, 1912
Visited South America, October, I9i3-June, 1914
Resigned from the Outlook in 1914, and later became special contributor to the Metropolitan Magazine and the Kansas City Star
In the autumn of 1918 he had a recurrence of the jungle fever which he contracted in South America
Died at Sagamore Hill, January 6, 1919