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CHAPTER  II
The Crisis of   1884

M
R. ROOSEVELT was made one of the four delegates-at-large from New York to the national Republican convention of 1884, and was chosen as chairman of the State delegation. This was a very unusual honor for so young a man, and is an evidence of the influential rank he had already attained. James A. Garfield had been elected President in 1880, but his assassination had placed the Vice-President, Mr. Arthur, of New York, in the White House. The idol of the Republican masses of the Middle West was the Speaker of the House, Mr. James G. Elaine, of Maine. President Arthur was a candidate for renomination, and many of the anti-Blaine men rallied about him. He belonged to the " Stalwart" faction of the party in New York, of which Senator Conkling was the mentor, while Mr. Elaine was the inspiration of the so-called " Half-breeds " of the Empire State.
Roosevelt was not in alliance with either faction; and he strongly hoped, with many of the reformers and conservative men of the day, that it might be possible to secure the nomination as a compromise candidate of Senator Edmunds, of Vermont, then the strongest and most respected figure in the United States Senate.

Popular sentiment triumphed, and Mr. Elaine was nominated. The reformers admitted Mr. Elaine's brilliancy as a party leader, but distrusted his judgment and his character. Until that time, Carl Schurz, George William Curtis, Henry Ward Beecher, and many other prominent reformers had been acknowledged leaders of the Republican party. Curtis and Schurz had been great figures in Republican conventions. They were deeply disaffected by the nomination of Elaine and went home in silence, waiting to see what the Democrats would do. Mr. Roosevelt, meanwhile, went out to his Dakota ranch, primarily to attend to his cattle business, but also to think over the political situation.

The Democrats had the wisdom to
nominate Governor Cleveland, of New
York, and the disaffected Republicans,
led by Schurz and Curtis, organized
the so-called "Independent" or "Mug-
wump" movement, and decided to	the new voyage begun
.	(An emblematic cartoon of a later period)
support Cleveland against Blame.	From the North American <Pnila(lelphlfO

8

A Cartoon History of Roosevelt's Career

Copyright, 1884.    By permission	PHRYNE   BEFORE   THE   CHICAGO
ardent advocate :  " Now,  gentlemen,  don't make any mistake  in
Mr. Whitelaw Reid, of the New York Tribune, is presenting James G. Blaine to the Republican convention of 1884 figure from the reader's right. On Mr. Roosevelt's left, in their .order, appear Carl Schurz, Senator Evarts, next to Sherman is John A. Logan, with his black hair and heavy mustache. Other notable delegates are

The Crisis of 1884

BUNAL.—From Puck, June 4, 1884.
decision.     Here's  Purity  and  Magnetism for yon.    Can't be heat!"
'hicago. Mr. Roosevelt, as chairman of the powerful New York delegation, is seen in the front row. the fourth George William Curtis. Immediately behind Mr. Roosevelt is John Sherman, with the white hair, while ered about in the group.

10

A Cartoon History of Roosevelt's Career

LITTLE   BO-PEEP,   LOST   HER   SHEEP,
AND   DIDN'T   KNOW   WHERE   TO   FIND    THEM;
(The " lost sheep " in this cartoon are those Republicans  who vigorously opposed Mr. Blaine at the Chicago conv of Vermont.    After the convention had given its voice for  the " Plumed Knight," however, Mr. Roosevelt, instead Hcan fold and gave his entire support to the party throughout  the  campaign.     See   Mr.   Roosevelt's  statement   on   tl

The Crisis of 1884

11

From Judge, June 21, 1884
OH!   LET   THEM   ALONE,   AND   THEY'LL   COMB   HOME, AND   CARRY   THEIR   TAILS   BEHIND  THEM.
tion of 1884. Prominent among these was Mr. Roosevelt, whose candidate for the nomination was Senator Edmunds, bolting the party and joining in the independent movement with Schurz, Curtis, and others, remained in the Repub-subject on page 12.)

12

A Cartoon History of Roosevelt's Career

ib      k

THE   SIZE   OF   THE   INDEPENDENT   ARMY
This is the third time they have marched around.    There are  just about nine of them, not ninety thousand. (It was mistakenly assumed that Roosevelt would join in the   movement.)—Prom Judge, July, 1884.
It was believed by the Independents and the Democrats that Roosevelt would also support Cleveland; and even the Elaine Republicans had little hope of holding him within party lines. But after a brief interval, Mr. Roosevelt came out with a public statement so characteristic of him that it ought to be quoted in this record. It was as follows:
" I intend to vote the Republican Presidential ticket. A man cannot act both without and within the party; he can do either, but he cannot possibly do both. Each course has its advantages, and each has its disadvantages, and one cannot take the advantages or the disadvantages separately. I went in with my eyes open to do what I could within the party; I did my best and got beaten, and I propose to stand by the result. It is impossible to combine the functions of a guerrilla chief with those of a colonel in the regular army; one has greater independence of action, the other is able to make what action he does take vastly more effective. In certain contingencies, the one can do the most good; in certain contingencies, the other; but there is no use in accepting a commission and then trying to play the game out on a lone hand. During the entire canvass for the nomination Mr. Elaine received but two checks. I had a hand in both, and I could have had a hand in neither had not those Republicans who elected me the head of the New York State delegation supposed that I would in good faith support the man who was fairly made the Republican nominee. I am, by inheritance and by education, a Republican; whatever good I have been able to accomplish in public life has been accomplished through the Republican party; I have acted with it in the past, and wish to act with it in the future."

The Crisis of 1884

13

The cartoons relating to this period that are reproduced herewith indicate how general was the belief that Mr. Roosevelt would abandon his party. Grover Qeveland was his personal friend; and his views were regarded as more nearly like Roosevelt's than were those of the successful Republican candidate. But Roosevelt believed that his place was with the Republican party, and that in the long run he could be far more useful to the country as a member of his own political organization than as a critical outsider.

Bereavements in his family just at this time lessened his public activity; but he made some speeches before the campaign was over, and indulged in no bitterness toward those who reproached him for abandoning the leadership of Curtis and Schurz. He had predicted,—while the fight was on in the convention and there was some chance to nominate Edmunds,—that Elaine could not be elected. The issue in November was very close; but the Democrats won and Grover Cleveland was inaugurated as President in March, 1885.

Mr. Roosevelt had maintained the party regularity that was a valuable asset in his subsequent political career, while by his position in the convention of 1884 and during the campaign he had firmly established his position as a man of independence and self-direction within the party councils. He followed no political boss in the New York organization, and he worshipped at the shrine of no popular idol. He was never wholly forgiven by Mr. Schurz and the leaders of the revolt; nor, on the other hand, was he ever in full favor with Mr. Blaine and those closest to the ambitions of the so-called " Plumed Knight."

But he had worked out a consistent line of action for himself, and on more than one occasion in subsequent years, when there might have seemed some good reason of the moment for acting in opposition, he preferred to stay in the Republican camp, while freely criticising the party's mistakes.

THE COWBOY AND THE LOCOMOTIVE   (See next chapter.)
A very simple little story of the political plains,  plainly   told.      (Roosevelt,   as  the   Republican   "cowboy" candidate for Mayor of New York, trying to   lasso  the Democracy, with Abram Hewitt at its head.)
From the World (New York), October 31, 188G