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THEODORE ROOSEVELT

THE   LOGIC   OF   HIS CAREER

BY
CHARLES G. WASHBURN

HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY BOSTON  AND  NEW YORK 1916

CHAPTER 1

FROM THE TIME  OF   HIS  GOING  TO   COLLEGE IN 1876 UNTIL   HE  BECAME  PRESIDENT  IN  1901

 Roosevelt since we entered Harvard together in the autumn of 1876. I knew him intimately in college; and, while I have seen him only at irregular intervals since we graduated in 1880, I have always followed his career closely and with the most intense interest. Through all these years I have had very definite views of his character which I have never seen any occasion to change. These views differ radically from those held by many people. I purpose to express them here, and if no one shall find the recital either instructive or interesting, it will at least be a satisfaction to me to leave a record of my estimate of a man whom I have known and loved for nearly forty years. This is in no sense a history or even a finished sketch of his life. It is a record of my personal impressions, fortified by such facts as would seem to justify my conclusions, and with no attempt to secure a complete perspective, through the relative amount of detail with which Roosevelt's characteristics and the events of the time are discussed.

In order to make the trend of my discourse clear, I will say at the outset that my purpose is to give the reasons upon which I base my conclusion that Roosevelt has never been a " politician"; that his opinions, regarded by many as radical and by some as even revolutionary, were carefully considered for many years before they found expression; and that in the campaigns of 1912 he was seeking to advance a cause and not any personal ambition. I shall discuss some of the great questions with which he dealt, and shall not even refer to others perhaps equally or more important. Incidentally I shall give my reasons for believing that Roosevelt is, and always has been, a person of great simplicity of character, of the highest ideals, and with a wider range of genuine human sympathies than any other man who ever occupied the Presidential office. I say wider range of genuine human sympathies, not deeper sympathies, for I have Lincoln in mind. I shall attempt to account for his great popularity and to state the reason why he deliberately and unselfishly, as I believe, chose a course which, for the time being at least, has cast a shadow upon his pathway.

I will say here, lest I forget to say it elsewhere, that the qualities I knew in the boy are the qualities most observed in the man, and that of all the men I have known for as long a time he has changed the least.

As a boy in college, he was a good student, but not a "grind"; he entered into and enjoyed every phase of college life — intellectual, physical, social; he was popular with all, loved by many; the natural sciences, history, and political economy were the studies that interested him most; he had honorable mention in natural history, had a Commencement part, and was a member of the Phi Beta Kappa. He was intense in everything he did; his occupation for the moment was to the exclusion of everything else; if he were reading, the house might fall about his head, he could not be diverted. This power of concentration, a great gift, is one which has contributed so largely to his ability to accomplish so much in so many fields of activity.
He was fond of athletics, but never greatly excelled; he never claimed to: he did the best he could. Boxing was his favorite sport, but he was greatly handicapped because he was nearsighted. Many people have said that Roosevelt wore glasses when he boxed. Referring to this, he once said: —
No human being could box with spectacles or glasses on. It would be absolutely certain that he would have them broken in the first minute or two, and in all human probability he would then be blinded permanently. The usual result when I boxed with any really first-class man . . . was that I got thoroughly well pounded, and with no one of those men would my glasses have lasted thirty seconds.
He had a lively sense of humor. I remember well with what glee he told us that he had gone to Boston to get a basket of live lobsters for laboratory purposes, and on the way back they escaped, much to the consternation of the women in the horse-car.

His love for the open was in constant evidence. During the intervals in the semi-annual examinations it frequently happened that a boy would have a little time at his disposal. "Teddy" would take advantage of the opportunity to go to the Maine woods to hunt and trap. He would come back with tales of exposure and hardship, as it seemed to us, which he had enjoyed. He was then, as a boy, in a class by himself, as he has been ever since.

"Teddy," as he was called in college, was always immune from the criticism which would be visited upon another under the same conditions.

He was far from being a ready speaker. I remember that at the "Pudding," we often incited a discussion for the purpose of rousing "Teddy." In his excitement he would sometimes lose altogether the power of articulation, much to our delight. He had then almost a defect in his speech which made his utterance at times deliberate and even halting. It became evident very early that Roosevelt was a person sui generis, and not to be judged by the ordinary standards, and very early in our college life I came to believe in his star of destiny. I once received a note from him, of no great consequence which I carefully preserved, thinking, as I said at the time, that some day it would possess a peculiar value.

Roosevelt was married in October, 1880; he spent the summer of 1881 in Europe, and while in Switzerland made the ascent of the Matter-horn and the Jungfrau — the initiatory experience of so many explorers.

His entrance into politics can best be recorded by the introduction here of his appeal to his constituents dated November i, 1881, and his endorsement by certain residents of the 21st Assembly District in New York: —
new york, November ist, 1881. dear sir,
Having been nominated as a candidate for member of Assembly for this District, I would esteem it a compliment if you honor me with your vote and personal influence on Election day.
Very respectfully,
theodore roosevelt.

40th to 86th Sts.,	Lexington to 7th Aves.
We cordially recommend the voters of the Twenty-first Assembly District to cast their ballots for
THEODORE ROOSEVELT for Member of Assembly,
and take much pleasure in testifying to our appreciation of his high character and standing in the community. He is conspicuous for his honesty and integrity, and eminently qualified to represent the District in the Assembly. new york, November ist, 1881.
F. A. P. Barnard, William T. Black, Willard Bullard, Joseph H. Choate, Wm. A. Darling, Henry E. Davies, Theodore W. Dwight, Jacob Hess, Morris K. Jesup, Edward Mitchell, William F. Morgan, Chas. S. Robinson, Elihu Root, Jackson S. Schultz, Elliott F. Shepard, Gus-tavus Tuckerman, S. H. Wales, W. H. Webb.
At about this time I wrote him a letter evidently containing some jocular charge that he had become a politician, for I received the following reply: —
6 W. 57 St.,
new york,
Nov. 10, '81.
Too true, too true; I have become a "political hack." Finding it would not interfere much with my law, I accepted the nomination to the Assembly and was elected by 1500 majority, leading the ticket by 600 votes. But don't think I am going to go into politics after this year, for I am not.
This letter is evidence that Roosevelt at that time had a serious purpose to become a lawyer and had no intention of remaining in politics. Hi? chief interest in the Legislature is thus described in his own words: —
I paid attention chiefly while in the Legislature to laws for the reformation of Primaries and of the Civil Service and endeavored to have a certain Judge Westbrook impeached, on the ground of corrupt collusion with Jay Gould and the prostitution of his high judicial office to serve the purpose of wealthy and unscrupulous stock gamblers, but was voted down.
This has a familiar sound: the reform of what he regarded as abuses was Roosevelt's occupation thirty years ago and has been ever since.

Contrary to the purpose expressed in the letter I have quoted, Roosevelt was again a candidate in 1882 and ran 2000 ahead of his ticket. He was nominated as the Republican candidate for Speaker in 1883, but as his was the minority party, the nomination was a mere compliment.

"Harper's Weekly" for April 21, 1883, said of him: —

With energy and ardor and with a directness and plainness of speech from which older legislators shrink, Mr. Roosevelt, in the last session, moved the Westbrook inquiry, and in the present session he has urged proceedings to vacate the charter of the Manhattan Elevated Railway Company. He has also introduced the Municipal Civil Service Reform Bill, and his voice and vote are sure for whatever is honest, wise and progressive. Like many of the younger Republicans, Mr. Roosevelt holds the soundest views upon public questions with the feeling that the Republican party is the organization which, from its traditional principles and the character of its membership, is more likely wisely to secure the public welfare.
Meantime, in 1882, his first book was published, "The Naval War of 1812." Here is a striking instance of Roosevelt's versatility; the subject interested him, and he wrote the book. He was twenty-four years old at the time. I shall make the following quotation from the preface for future reference: —
At present people are beginning to realize that it is folly for the great English-speaking Republic to rely for defense upon a navy composed partly of antiquated hulks, and partly of new vessels rather more worthless than the old.
He was reflected for a third term, and was made chairman of the Committee on Cities and of a legislative investigating committee which passed a series of laws which practically revolutionized the municipal government of the City of New York. The session of 1884 ended his service in the Assembly. He refused a renomination and two nominations for Congress. His purpose to abandon political life seems clear.

One of the early cartoons of Roosevelt, in February, 1884, represents him in the act of cutting the claws of the Tammany tiger, destroying the confirming power of the Board of Aldermen by an act of the Legislature; and again, a month later, the Tammany tiger is exhibited in a state of total collapse, teeth and claws scattered about, while Roosevelt and Governor Cleveland, arm in arm, survey the wreck, Roosevelt holding in one hand a pair of shears inscribed, "Roosevelt Bill."

I will refer here to an act in the passage of which Roosevelt was interested, entitled "An act to improve the public health by prohibiting the manufacture and preparations of tobacco in any form in tenement houses, in certain cases." The law was passed to remedy a very real evil which Roosevelt had appreciated through a personal investigation of conditions in tenement houses, where a family with a boarder or two might be found living in one or two rooms, while the manufacture of cigars was being carried on in close proximity to the stove or kitchen sink. The law was passed in 1884, and was declared unconstitutional by the Court of Appeals in January, 1885. The court held in general terms that this was not a proper exercise of the "police power," and that the law interfered with the profitable and free use of his property by the owner or his lessee and that a constitutional guaranty was violated. The court said, among other things: —
It cannot be perceived how the cigar-maker is to be improved in his health or his morals by forcing him from his home and its hallowed associations and beneficent influences to ply his trade elsewhere.
As applied to the kind of tenement I have referred to, this reference to the "home and its hallowed associations" seems grotesque or tragic, depending upon the point of view. It is not surprising that Roosevelt's wrath should have blazed up at such a narrow view of the police power. I have referred to this matter in some detail, because, as I shall point out later, I find here the beginning of Roosevelt's revolt against the disposition of some courts in this class of cases unduly to restrict the exercise of the police power in safeguarding the health and morals of the people. The recall of judicial decisions advocated in the Columbus speech of 1912 is an attempt to remedy what Roosevelt recognized as an abuse in 1884. It was not, as some of his critics have suggested, the unreasoning appeal of the demagogue, but the result of years of reflection. Whether one agrees with his conclusion or not, — and I do not, — one must acquit Roosevelt of any other purpose than to right what he believed to be a wrong, and what in many cases is a wrong.

His wife and mother died in February, 1884, and thereafter for several years, Roosevelt spent most of his summers on his cattle ranch on the Little Missouri in western Dakota and in making hunting trips from it after bear, elk, and buffalo. His time was pretty evenly divided, as he said, between ranching, literature, and politics.

In the campaign of 1884, Roosevelt was for Edmunds for President and against  Blaine and Arthur. He headed the New York delegation to the National Convention. The Chairman of the National Committee nominated Powell Clayton, of Arkansas, for temporary chairman. Henry Cabot Lodge nominated John R. Lynch, a colored man, of Mississippi. In speaking to this nomination, Theodore Roosevelt said: —
I trust that the motion made by the gentleman from Massachusetts [Mr. Lodge] will be adopted, and that we will select as Chairman of this Convention that representative Republican, Mr. Lynch, of Mississippi. Mr. Chairman, it has been said by the distinguished gentleman from Pennsylvania [Mr. Stewart] that it is without precedent to reverse the action of the National Committee. Who has not known numerous instances where the action of a State Committee has been reversed by the State Convention? Not one of us but has known such instances. Now, there are, as I understand it, but two delegates to this Convention who have seats on the National Committee; and I hold it to be derogatory to our honor, to our capacity for self-government, to say that we must accept the nomination of a presiding officer by another body; and that our hands are tied, and we dare not reverse its action.

Now, one word more. I trust that the vote will be taken by individual members, and not by States. Let each man stand accountable to those whom he represents for his vote. Let no man be able to shelter himself behind the shield of his State. What we say is, that one of the cardinal doctrines of the American political government is the accountability of each man to his people; and let each man stand up here and cast his vote, and then go home and abide by what he has done.

It is now, Mr. Chairman, less than a quarter of a century since, in this city, the great Republican party for the first time organized for victory, and nominated Abraham Lincoln, of Illinois, who broke the fetters of the slave and rent them asunder forever. It is a fitting thing for us to choose to preside over this Convention one of that race whose right to sit within these walls is due to the blood and the treasure so lavishly spent by the founders of the Republican party. And it is but a further vindication of the principles for which the Republican party so long struggled. I trust that the Hon. Mr. Lynch will be elected Temporary Chairman of this Convention.
Blaine was nominated, and a serious defection of Republicans led to the election of Cleveland. Roosevelt voted for  Blaine. I met him in New York about this time, and he told me that while he was opposed to  Blaine, he did not feel justified in bolting the ticket as he had participated in the deliberations of the Convention, but that in the course he had taken he had alienated many friends and the only kind of political support he valued. I always felt that Roosevelt did right in supporting the ticket, although I did not do so myself. In judging of a man's actions, his motive must be first considered. Roosevelt's action was governed in this case by what he regarded as his duty, which was opposed to his inclination as well as to what he believed to be for his interest. ,

At this point should be noted the fact that Roosevelt showed no desire to continue in politics. The usual course, if he had cared for a political career, would have been to go to Congress as he had opportunities to do, but he turned in another direction, and for the following five years devoted himself to literature, hunting, i and travel. At this time he contributed a number of political essays and sketches of sport and adventure to the "Century Magazine," the "North American Review," the "New Princeton Review," and to "Harper's." He published an enlarged edition of the "Naval War of 1812" and wrote in 1885, in two volumes, the "Hunting Trips of a Ranchman," in 1886, the "Life of Thomas H. Benton," and in 1889 published the "Winning of the West."
Roosevelt's love of nature and his exultation in physical life is well illustrated in the quotation from Browning with which "Ranch Life and the Hunting Trail" opens: —
"Oh, our manhood's prime vigor! No spirit feels waste; Not a muscle is stopped in its playing nor sinew unbraced. Oh, the wild joys of living!  the leaping from  rock to
rock, 
The strong rending of boughs from the fir tree, the cool
silver shock 
Of the plunge in a pool's living water, the hunt of the
bear, —
 And the sleep in the dried river channel where bulrushes
tell
That the water was wont to go warbling so softly and well. How good is man's life, the mere living."
One can understand how such a spirit could enjoy a trip down the Little Missouri during the spring freshet. I happened to meet Roosevelt going West in February, 1886. Evidently I had sent him a newspaper clipping, for I find the following letter from him: —
elkhorn ranch,
medora, dakota,
Mar. 27, '86.
The slip of paper was very amusing; I counted myself lucky to meet you as I did. I am now about starting off down the river, which is swollen and full of ice, to go to Mandan about three hundred miles off.
It was on this trip, I imagine, that Roosevelt, acting as deputy sheriff, and his associates chased down the river three men who had stolen his boat. They overtook the men, and finally, after a journey of great hardship, delivered the thieves into the hands of the sheriff.

It was Roosevelt's experience with frontier life that led to his writing the " Winning of the West," in the preface of which he said: —
In conclusion, I would say that it has been to me emphatically a labor of love to write of the great deeds of the border people. I am not blind to their manifold shortcomings, nor yet am I ignorant of their many strong and good qualities. For a number of years I spent most of my time on the frontier, and lived and worked like any other frontiersman. The wild country in which we dwelt and across which we wandered was in the Far West; and there were, of course, many features in which the life of a cattleman on the great plains and among the Rockies differed from that led by a backwoodsman in the Alleghany forests a century before. Yet the points of resemblance were far more numerous and striking. We guarded our herds of branded cattle and shaggy horses, hunted bear, bison, elk, and deer, establishing civil government, and put down evildoers, white and red, on the banks of the Little Missouri, and among the wooded, precipitous foothills of the Bighorn, exactly as did the pioneers who a hundred years previously built their log cabins beside the Kentucky or in the valleys of the Great Smokies. The men who have shared in the fast vanishing frontier life of the present feel a peculiar sympathy with the already long vanished frontier life of the past.
What lover of nature can fail to be thrilled by the introduction to "The Wilderness Hunter"?
In hunting, the finding and killing of the game is, after all, but a part of the whole. The free, self-reliant, adventurous life, with its rugged and stalwart democracy; the wild surroundings, the grand beauty of the scenery, the chance to study the ways and habits of the woodland creatures — all these unite to give to the career of the wilderness hunter its peculiar charm.

The chase is among the best of all national pastimes; it cultivates that vigorous manliness for the lack of which in a nation, as in an individual, the possession of no other qualities can possibly atone. No one but he who has partaken thereof can understand the keen delight of hunting in lonely lands. For him is the joy of the horse well ridden and the rifle well held; for him the long days of toil and hardship, resolutely endured and crowned at the end with triumph. In after years, there shall come forever to his mind the memory of endless prairies shimmering in the bright sun; of vast snow-clad wastes lying desolate under gray skies; of the melancholy marshes, of the rush of mighty rivers; of the breath of the evergreen forest in summer; of the crooning of ice-armored pines at the touch of the winds of winter; of cataracts roaring between hoary mountain masses; of all the innumerable sights and sounds of the wilderness; of its immensity and mystery and of the silences that brood in its still depths.

In the fall of 1886, he was the Republican candidate for Mayor ofj New York against Henry George, the Labor candidate, and Abram S. Hewitt, the nominee of the United Democracy, who was elected.

On May 10, 1889, Roosevelt was appointed a member of the United States Civil Service Commission, and, to quote his own words some time later: —

Have been up to my ears in one unending fight to take and keep the Civil Service out of the hands of the politicians; and I may say without question that during this year the law has been observed in the classified service under our charge more rigidly and impartially than ever before.
President Harrison, who was not given to exuberance of expression, said of him: —
If he had no other record than his service as an employee of the Civil Service Commission, he would be deserving of the nation's gratitude and confidence.
Roosevelt continued as Civil Service Commissioner until April, 1895, a period of nearly six years. It was not a place that any one with any political ambition would have sought, and would, I think, be commonly regarded as a veritable graveyard for any political aspirations. I remember seeing in the New York "Tribune," about this time, an interview with Roosevelt in which he said that he might like to go into politics, but that he had no constituency, by which I understood him to mean that his prolonged absence from New York had put him completely out of touch with political affairs there. It is reasonably clear that at this time and during his term as Civil Service Commissioner, Roosevelt had no expectation of entering politics. Meantime, in November, 1890, he had published a history of the City of New York; in 1893, in two volumes, "The Wilderness Hunter"; and in April, 1895, 'm conjunction with Senator Henry Cabot Lodge, "Hero Tales from American History."

In April, 1895, Roosevelt was appointed Police Commissioner in the City of New York, and continued in that office until April, 1897. Again he filled a position which led nowhere in politics, however great the opportunities for service that it offered, evidence that opportunity for service without the slightest regard for political advancement was the controlling motive of Roosevelt's life.

His sense of humor, often light, sometimes grim, but always palpably present or lurking in the near background is well illustrated in an article on the Vice-Presidency, written in September, 1896; speaking of the Southern Populists, he said: —
They distrust anything they cannot understand; and as they understand but little, this opens a very wide field for distrust. They are apt to be emotionally religious. If not, they are then at least atheists of an archaic type. Refinement and comfort they are apt to consider quite as objectionable as immorality. That a man should change his clothes in the evening, that he should dine at any other hour than noon, impress these good people as being symptoms of depravity instead of merely trivial. A taste for learning and cultivated friends, and a tendency to bathe frequently, cause them the deepest suspicion. . . . Senator Tillman, the great Populist, or Democratic, orator from South Carolina, possesses an untrammeled tongue any middle-of-the-road man would envy; and, moreover, Mr. Tillman's brother has been frequently elected to Congress upon the issue that he never wore either an overcoat or an undershirt, an issue which any Populist statesman finds readily comprehensible, and which he would recognize at first glance as being strong before the people.

' In April, 1897, he was appointed Assistant Secretary of the Navy by President McKinley, John D. Long, of Massachusetts, being Secretary. This was a most congenial place for Roosevelt, and he devoted himself with his customary energy to the duties of his office. He not only got the navy ready for war, but, to put it mildly, did not shrink from the then impending conflict with Spain. Against the urgent advice of most of his friends, he resigned his position May 6, 1898, and entered the military service as lieutenant-colonel, 1 First United States Cavalry Volunteers, "The Rough Riders," organized by Colonel Leonard Wood and himself. Secretary Long said of him:
 ( He declined the Colonelcy.   " Fortunately," said Roosevelt, • " I was wise enough to tell the Secretary that while I believed I could learn to command the regiment in a month, yet that it was just this very month which I could not afford to spare, and that, therefore, I would be quite content to go as Lieutenant-Colonel, if he would make Wood Colonel.")
He was heart and soul in his work. His typewriters had no rest. He, like most of us, lacks the rare knack of brevity. He was especially stimulating to the younger officers who gathered about him and made his office as busy as a hive. He was especially helpful jn the purchasing of ships and in every line where he could push on the work of preparation for war. Almost as soon, however, as it was declared, he resigned the assistant-secretaryship of the navy to accept the lieutenant-colonelcy of the Rough Rider regiment in the army. Together with many of his friends, I urged him strenuously to remain in the navy, arguing that he would there make a signal reputation, and that to go into the army would be only to fight mosquitoes on the Florida sands or fret in camp at Chickamauga. How right he was in his prognosis and how wrong we were in ours, the result has shown. He took the straight course to fame, to the governorship of New York and to the presidency of the United States. He has the dash of Henry of Navarre without any of his vices. His room in the Navy Department after his decision to enter the army, which preceded for some time his resignation as Assistant Secretary, was an interesting scene. It bubbled over with enthusiasm, and was filled with bright young fellows from all over the country, college graduates and old associates from the Western ranches, all eager to serve with Roosevelt. The Rough Rider uniform was in evidence; it climbed the steps of the Navy Department; it filled the corridors; guns, uniforms, all sorts of military traps, and piles of papers littered the Assistant Secretary's room, but it was all the very inspiration of young manhood.

This is the reason he gave for his action: — While my party was in opposition, I had preached with all the fervor and zeal I possessed our duty to intervene in Cuba and to take this opportunity of driving the Spaniard from the Western world. Now that my party had come to power, I felt it incumbent on me, by word and deed, to do all I could to secure the carrying-out of the policy in which I so heartily believed; and from the beginning, I had determined that, if a war came, somehow or other, I was going to the front.

Meantime he had published in October, 1897, his "American Ideals" in two volumes, and in April, 1898, the "Life of Gouverneur Morris."

Of the Cuban campaign it is enough to say here that Roosevelt was commended for gallantry and promoted colonel, and was in command at San Juan Hill. I once asked him what act of his life or what experience had given him the most pleasure and satisfaction. He reflected for a moment, and then replied, "The charge up San Juan Hill."
I do not mean to suggest that he attached undue importance to that battle. Speaking at Chattanooga in 1902 he said: —

Compared to the giant death wrestle that reeled over the mountains roundabout this city, the fight at Santiago was the merest skirmish; but the spirit in which we handled ourselves there, I hope, was the spirit in which we have to face our duties as citizens if we are to make this Republic what it must be made.

On July 27, 1898, Hay wrote to Roosevelt:1

I am afraid I am the last of your friends to congratulate you on the brilliant campaign which now seems drawing to a close, and in which you have gained so much experience and glory. When the war began I was like the rest; I deplored your place in the navy, where you were so useful and so acceptable. But I knew it was idle to preach to a young man. You obeyed your own daemon, and I imagine we older fellows will all have to confess that you were in the right. As Sir Walter wrote: —

" One crowded hour of glorious life Is worth an age without a name."

You have written your name on several pages of your country's history, and they are all honorable to you and comfortable to your friends.

A characteristic remark was reported of Roosevelt upon his return from Cuba. As the Transport cast anchor off Montauk some one called out and asked him how he was feeling — "Disgracefully well," was his reply. He seemed to think that when so many were returning sick and weak, it was not creditable to him to be in such good physical condition.

(1 The quotations from John Hay's Letters are as they appear in Mr. William Roscoe Thayer's Life and Letters of John Hay. feoston, 1915.)

He was mustered out at Camp Wickoff, Long Island, September 15, 1898.

Certainly, up to this point, there has been disclosed no settled purpose in Roosevelt's life, excepting to be hard at work in some field of activity — physical or mental. And now he was to enter politics again, not by his own volition, but because of the desire of others. A Republican candidate for Governor of New York was wanted who could carry the State. Roosevelt with his military record was the only man who could do it. The politicians took him, not because they wanted him, but because they needed him, and he was elected for the term beginning January r, 1899, and ending December 31,1900.

Speaking of the negotiations which led up to his nomination, Roosevelt says in his "Autobiography":—
It was Mr. Quigg who called on me at Montauk Point to sound me about the governorship; Mr. Platt being by no means enthusiastic over Mr. Quigg's mission, largely because he disapproved of the Spanish War and of my part in bringing it about. Mr. Quigg saw me in my tent, in which he spent a couple of hours with me, my brother-in-law, Douglas Robinson, being also present. Quigg spoke very frankly to me, stating that he earnestly desired to see me nominated and believed that the great body of Republican voters in the State so desired, but that the organization and the State Convention would finally do what Senator Platt desired. He said that county leaders were already coming to Senator Platt, hinting at a close election, expressing doubt of Governor Black's availability for reelection, and asking why it would not be a good thing to nominate me; that now that I had returned to the United States this would go on more and more all the time, and that he [Quigg] did not wish that these men should be discouraged and be sent back to their localities to suppress a rising sentiment in my favor. For this reason he said that he wanted from me a plain statement as to whether or not I wanted the nomination, and as to what would be my attitude toward the organization in the event of my nomination and election, — whether or not I would "make war" on Mr. Platt and his friends, or whether I would confer with them and with the organization leaders generally, and give fair consideration to their point of view as to party policy and public interest. He said he had not come to make me any offer of the nomination, and had no authority to do so, nor to get any pledges or promises. He simply wanted a frank definition of my attitude toward existing party conditions. To this I replied that I should like to be nominated, and if nominated would promise to throw myself into the campaign with all possible energy. I said that I should not make war on Mr. Platt or anybody else if war could be avoided; that what I wanted was to be Governor and not a faction leader; that I certainly would confer with the organization men, as with everybody else who seemed to me to have knowledge of and interest in public affairs, and that as to Mr. Platt and the organization leaders, I would do so in the sincere hope that there might always result harmony of opinion and purpose; but that while I would try to get on well with the organization, the organization must with equal sincerity strive to do what I regarded as essential for the public good; and that in every case, after full consideration of what everybody had to say who might possess real knowledge of the matter, I should have to act finally as my own judgment and conscience dictated and administer the State Government as I thought it ought to be administered. Quigg said that this was precisely what he supposed I would say, that it was all anybody could expect, and that he would state it to Senator Platt precisely as I had put it to him, which he accordingly did; and, throughout my term as Governor, Quigg lived loyally up to our understanding.

Letter from Roosevelt to Quigg
camp wickopf,
montauk point, L.I.,
Sept. 12, 1898.
I hope that Saturday will do with the mustering-out. It is a simple impossibility for me to get in before. As I telegraphed, your representation of what I said was substantially right; that is, it gave just the spirit. But I don't like the wording of some of your sentences. At first, on account of this, I hesitated how to reply; but finally came to the conclusion that the last sentence of your "report" covered the whole matter sufficiently. I shan't try to go over your different sentences in detail; but for instance, instead of saying that I would not "wish" to be a figurehead you should have used the word "consent," and there are various other similar verbal changes to which I think you would agree. Then I wish you could have brought out the fact that these statements were not in the nature of bids for the nomination, or of pledges by me, and that you made no effort to exact any pledges, but that they were statements which I freely made when you asked me what my position would be if nominated and elected (you having already stated that you wished me nominated and elected). However, I need not go into the matter more in detail, and I am not sure that it is necessary for me to write this at all, for I know that you did not in any way wish to represent me as willing to consent to act otherwise than in accordance with my conscience; indeed, you said you knew that I would be incapable of acting save with good faith to the people at large, to the Republicans of the United States, and to the New York Republican organizations; and this seems to about cover it.
P.S. In short, I want to make clear that there was no question of pledges or promises, least of all a question of bargaining for the nomination; but that I promptly told you the position I would take if I was elected Governor and suggested what I thought it would be best for both Senator Platt and myself to do so as to prevent the chance of any smash-up, which would be disastrous to the welfare of the party and equally disastrous from the standpoint of good government. I was not making any agreement as to what I would do on consideration that I received the nomination; I was stating the course which I thought it would be best to follow, for the sake of the party, and for the sake of the State — both considerations outweighing infinitely the question of my own nomination.
During his term as Governor, he published" "The Rough Riders," "The Strenuous Life," and the "Life of Oliver Cromwell." Roosevelt had the confidence of the people in larger measure than any other Governor of New York for years. He promised to pursue Republican with even greater avidity than Democratic rascals, and kept his promise by making a Democratic lawyer the prosecutor of those involved in the Canal frauds. Roosevelt carried out the principle which he expressed in his inaugural address, that in the long run, he serves his party best who most helps to make it instantly responsive to every need of the people, and to the highest demands of that spirit which tends to drive us onward and upward.
He demanded the repeal of the law enacted in the administration of his predecessor, Governor Black, for the purpose of taking the "starch" out of the Civil Service law and showed little regard for the spoilsmen. A paper constantly critical of him said: "Roosevelt is probably the only Republican in the State capable of an act so contrary to party amenities as this."

He was strong for the enforcement of the state law regulating the employment of women and children in factories and to prevent excessive hours of labor on surface railroads. The Civil Service and Labor portions of his first message were the most prominent. He favored the equipment of the National Guards with modern arms, the substitution of biennial for annual sessions of the Legislature, and the extension of the area within which suffrage could be exercised by women, particularly in reference to the schools.1 He searched the State for the best men he could find, urged legislation in the best interests of the people and put every stumbling-block possible in the way of bad legislation. He defied both machines.

(1 Some years later (1908), Roosevelt said, "Personally I believe in Woman's Suffrage, but I am not an enthusiastic advocate of it because I do not regard it as a very important matter.")
His message in January, 1900, dealt largely with the subject of taxation. He suggested that trusts should be subject to the law of publicity, and that where a trust becomes a monopoly, the State has an immediate right to interfere. Care should be taken not to stifle enterprise or disclose any facts of a business that are essentially private, but the State, for the protection of the public, should exercise the right to inspect, to examine thoroughly all the workings of great corporations, just as is now done with banks; and wherever the interests of the public demand it, it should publish the results of its examination. Then, if there are inordinate profits, competition or public sentiment will give the public the benefit in lowered prices; and if not, the power of taxation remains.
The principle of government regulation and not the disintegration of large corporations is one that he has always adhered to.

Much was made by his critics of the fact that Roosevelt occasionally "had breakfast with Platt," as evidence that he was under the domination of the latter, then the "boss" of the Republican party in New York, and also United States Senator. The fact is that while Roosevelt was a reformer, he was not one of those unpractical persons who railed at the shortcomings of others and refused to take a hand himself in the remedy of abuses. The role of critic is a pretty contemptible one unless accompanied by the desire and ability for effective performance. Roosevelt would always work with such tools as he had at his command, but never refused to work because the tools were not perfect or to his liking. He has often been bitterly condemned by well-meaning people who stood on the side lines with folded hands, because he was working with "corrupt politicians." Well, he did work with them when they served his purpose for the very simple reason that he had to work with them or not work at all. He would have been delighted if the people had given him tools more to his liking, but as they failed to do this, and still demanded that the work should be done, Roosevelt went ahead and did it.

In his article on "Latitude and Longitude among Reformers" he said: —
The cloistered virtue which timidly shrinks from all contact with the rough world of actual life, and the uneasy, self-conscious vanity which misnames itself virtue, and which declines to cooperate with whatever does not adopt its own fantastic standard, are rather worse than valueless, because they tend to rob the forces of good of elements on which they ought to be able to count in the ceaseless contest with the forces of evil.
This determination to do the best he could under existing conditions, whatever they might be, was always characteristic of him.

Meantime, Governor Roosevelt attracted the attention of the country by his direct and fearless manner of dealing with public affairs. In 1899, Mr. James Bryce said of him, "Theodore Roosevelt is the hope of American politics."

As his term drew to a close, his desire was for reelection to carry to full completion some of his plans, but in this he was thwarted, and, much against his will, was elected Vice-President of the United States for the term beginning March 4, 1901. "Shelved," as many of his political enemies said, with keen satisfaction that the New York "boss" had kicked him upstairs in fulfillment of his vow that Roosevelt should not be Governor again. Roosevelt's relations with Platt at this time, both as regards the Vice-Presidency and as to his successor in the Governorship, are disclosed in the following letters dated February i, August 13, and August 20, 1900, respectively: —
Roosevelt to Platt
February 1st, 1900.

First, and least important. If you happened to have seen the "Evening Post" recently, you ought to be amused, for it is moralizing with lofty indignation over the cringing servility I have displayed in the matter of the insurance superintendent. I fear it will soon take the view that it cannot possibly support you as long as you associate with me!

Now as to serious matters. I have, of course, done a great deal of thinking about the Vice-Presidency since the talk I had with you followed by the letter from Lodge and the visit from Payne, of Wisconsin. I have been reserving the matter to talk over with you, but in view of the publication in the "Sun" this morning, I would like to begin the conversation, as it were, by just a line or two now. I need not speak of the confidence I have in the judgment of you and Lodge, yet I can't help feeling more and more that the Vice-Presidency is not an office in which I could do anything and not an office in which a man who is still vigorous and not past middle life has much chance of doing anything. As you know, I am of an active nature. In spite of all the work and all the worry, — and very largely because of your own constant courtesy and consideration, my dear Senator, — I have thoroughly enjoyed being Governor. I have kept every promise, express or implied, I made on the stump, and I feel that the Republican party is stronger before the State because of my incumbency. Certainly everything is being managed now on a perfectly straight basis and every office is as clean as a whistle.
Now, I should like to be Governor for another term, especially if we are able to take hold of the canals in serious shape. But as Vice-President, I don't see there is anything I can do. I would be simply a presiding officer, and that I should find a bore. As you know, I am a man of moderate means [although I am a little better off than the "Sun's" article would indicate], and I should have to live very simply in Washington and could not entertain in any way as Mr. Hobart and Mr. Morton entertained. My children are all growing up and I find the burden of their education constantly heavier, so that I am by no means sure that I ought to go into public life at all, provided some remunerative work offered itself. The only reason I would like to go on is that as I have not been a money-maker I feel rather in honor bound to leave my children the equivalent in a way of a substantial sum of actual achievement in politics or letters. Now, as Governor, I can achieve something, but as Vice-President I should achieve nothing. The more I look at it, the less I feel as if the Vice-Presidency offered anything to me that would warrant my taking it.

Of course, I shall not say anything until I hear from you, and possibly not until I see you, but I did want you to know just how I felt.
Roosevelt to Platt
oyster bay, August I3th, 1900.

I noticed in Saturday's paper that you had spoken of my suggesting Judge Andrews. I did not intend to make the suggestion public, and I wrote you with entire freedom, hoping that perhaps I could suggest some man who would commend himself to your judgment as being acceptable generally to the Republican party. I am an organization Republican of a very strong type, as I understand the word " organization," but in trying to suggest a candidate for Governor, I am not seeking either to put up an organization or a non-organization man, but simply a first-class Republican, who will commend himself to all Republicans, and, for the matter of that, to all citizens who wish good government. Judge Andrews needs no endorsement from any man living as to his Republicanism. From the time he was Mayor of Syracuse through his long and distinguished service on the bench he has been recognized as a Republican and a citizen of the highest type. I write this because your interview seems to convey the impression, which I am sure you did not mean to convey, that in some way my suggestions are antagonistic to the organization. I do not understand quite what you mean by the suggestion of my friends, for I do not know who the men are to whom you thus refer, nor why they are singled out for reference as making any suggestions about the governorship.
In your last interview, I understood that you wished me to be back in the State at the time of the convention. As I wish to be able to give the nominee hearty and effective support, this necessarily means that I do have a great interest in whom is nominated.
Roosevelt to Platt
oyster bay, August 20th, 1900. '••'
I have your letter of the i6th. I wish to see a straight Republican nomination for the governorship. The men whom I have mentioned, such as ex-Judge Andrews and Secretary Root, are as good Republicans as can be found in the State, and I confess I have n't the slightest idea what you mean when you say, " if we are to lower the standard and nominate such men as you suggest, we might as well die first as last." To nominate such a man as either of these is to raise the standard; to speak of it as lowering the standard is an utter misuse of words.

You say that we must nominate some Republican who "will carry out the wishes of the organization," and add that " I have not yet made up my mind who that man is." Of one thing I am certain, that, to have it publicly known that the candidate, whoever he may be, "will carry out the wishes of the organization," would insure his defeat; for such a statement implies that he would merely register the decrees of a small body of men inside the Republican party, instead of trying to work for the success of the party as a whole and of good citizenship generally. It is not the business of a Governor to "carry out the wishes of the organization" unless these wishes coincide with the good of the party and of the State. If they do, then he ought to have them put into effect; if they do not, then as a matter of course he ought to disregard them. To pursue any other course would be to show servility; and a servile man is always an undesirable — not to say a contemptible — public servant. A Governor should, of course, try in good faith to work with the organization; but under no circumstances should he be servile to it, or "carry out its wishes" unless his own best judgment is that they ought to be carried out.

I am a good organization man myself, as I understand the word "organization," but it is in the highest degree foolish to make a fetish of the word "organization" and to treat any man or any small group of men as embodying the organization. The organization should strive to give effective, intelligent and honest leadership to and representation of the Republican party, just as the Republican party strives to give wise and upright government to the State. When what I have said ceases to be true of either organization or party, it means that the organization or party is not performing its duty, and is losing the reason for its existence.
The fact is that the delegates to the National Convention at Philadelphia, without much regard to the wishes of any one, wanted Roosevelt. As one of the Southern delegates said, "We want a candidate we can yell for." And so the ticket was made up, as some one has put it, — McKinley, "the Western man with Eastern sympathies," and Roosevelt," the Eastern man with Western sympathies." He took a very active part in the campaign. In October, 1900, he wrote me: "You have no conception of the strain I am under. The National Committee have worked me nearly to death. I have spoken 300 times already and my voice is on the verge of a complete breakdown."

I am not a superstitious person, but I said at that time to a friend who has since reminded me of it: "I would not like to be in McKinley's shoes. He has a man of destiny behind him."

Chief Justice White told me within two years that when Roosevelt came to Washington as Vice-President, he called upon him, and Roosevelt said that he expected to have some time on his hands, as the duties of his office would not be onerous. He asked Mr. Justice White, as he was then, if it would be infra dig. for him to attend law lectures in Washington with a view to being admitted to the bar. After some reflection, Mr. Justice White said that he did not think that he could with propriety do this, but offered to supply Roosevelt with law books and to give him a "quiz" every Saturday evening. The offer was accepted with alacrity and the books were collected, but before the plan could be carried out, Roosevelt had ceased to be Vice-President. This is a good illustration of his passion for improving his time.
September 6, 1901, President McKinley was shot at Buffalo. He died on Friday, September 13, and Theodore Roosevelt became President of the United States.

The news of McKinley's death, conveyed by messenger, found Roosevelt in the Adirondacks on a tramping expedition just returning from the top of Mount Marcy. A ten-mile walk, a rapid and reckless ride in the storm, and a flight of a mile a minute by railroad brought him to Buffalo, where he took the oath of office on Saturday, September 14. In response to the request of Mr. Root, then Secretary of War, that he take the oath of office at once, Roosevelt said: —
I shall take the oath of office in obedience to your request, sir, and in doing so, it shall be my aim to continue absolutely unbroken the policies of President McKinley for the peace, prosperity, and honor of our beloved country.
After he had taken the oath of office, he said :•—
In order to help me keep the promise I have taken, I'would ask the Cabinet to retain their positions at least for some months to come. I shall rely upon you, gentlemen, upon your loyalty and fidelity, to help me.
At this time I wrote Roosevelt as follows:—
princeton, massachusetts, 22 Sept.,'1901.
I have been profoundly moved by the sad incidents of the recent past, but am beginning to see that out of this great sorrow much good may come to us. You cannot move eighty millions of people with a common impulse without bringing them permanently into closer sympathy,

If William McKinley has cemented this Union with his blood, the sacrifice becomes a triumph. I have for a long time felt certain that you would be President of the United States by nomination and election. I feel so now. Meantime, is it not something to be deeply grateful for, that you have a united country and a united party behind you, free from any bitterness that always accompanies a contest for nomination and election?

May God give you the strength and wisdom, as I know He will, to fill the great office, to which you have been so mysteriously called, to the lasting benefit of your countrymen.
To this I received the following reply:—•

executive mansion washington
September 25, 1901.

I thank you for your letter and appreciate it.
Certainly no one had ever reached the office of President through such an unusual pathway. No one would seriously contend that, up to this point, Roosevelt had given"" evidence of any political ambition or done anything with the purpose to advance his political fortunes. He entered the Legislature unexpectedly and, as he thought and intended, for a single year. After three years of service, he voluntarily abandoned politics and engaged in other pursuits. He was called to a place in the Civil Service Commission and as Police Commissioner, neither office offering the slightest hope of political preferment. He became Assistant Secretary of the Navy and left the office to be a soldier. He was elected Governor without the slightest volition of his own, was forced into the Vice-Presidency, and made President by the act of God. There is lacking in his progress every element that usually makes for political advancement.