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CHAPTER XIII
A Half-Year as Vice-President
A
FTER the election early in November, Mr. Roosevelt had still to serve nearly two months as governor at Albany. He had then an interval of two months in which to prepare for changing his residence to Washington and assuming the dignities of the Vice-Presidency after the 4th of March. He quietly resumed his literary work (he had already written in 1898 his famous book, " The Rough Riders," and in 1899, while governor, had written a . characteristic life of " Oliver Cromwell"), spent a much-needed winter vacation hunting the cougar, or mountain lion, in the Rocky Mountains, with pen as well as with gun, and reconciled himself to the prospects of four years of

 

THE ELECTION OP McKINLEY AND ROOSEVELT
G. O. P. :  " Four—four—four years more."
From the World (New York)

PRESIDING OVER THE SENATE From the  Post  (Washington)

A Half-Year as Vice-President

71

WILLIE (McKINLBY) AND HIS PAPA (THE TRUSTS)
the trusts : " No, Teddy, you haven't got a living show for that piece of pie (the Presidential nomination of 1904) ; nursie (Hanna) has her eye on it."
Prom the Journal (New York)
SURE   THING
New  York  will   furnish
" easy  Boss "  platt: the next President."
roosevelt reed odeli. root
—" I wonder if he means me !' From the Journal  (Minneapolis)
RUSHING   THE   BABY   SHOW
uncle  sam :   " You're  altogether  too  early,  ladies;   the  show  doesn't open for a good while yet."
From the Journal  (New York)
self-repressed, observant, and studious life in the functionless office of Vice-President.
The Senate was convened for a brief session in March to confirm the President's appointments. And thus Mr. Roosevelt had his opportunity to sit as its presiding officer for a few days. The regular session was not to begin until the first week in December, and it so happened that this brief experience in March completed his service as presiding officer of the Senate.
Already the politicians were looking forward to the year 1904. They

72

A Cartoon History of Roosevelt's Career

 

' Why, Willie, you seem angry.    What is irritating you? '' ' Teddy Is getting up a ' Hall of Fame," and I ain't in it."

" Crying again, Willie?    What is it now?" " Teddy isn't satisfied with riding his horse ; he wants to ride the elephant, too."

 

" Well, well, Willie ; what is it this time? " " We're playing Republican minstrels, and Teddy wants to be the two end men and the middleman, too."

"What's the row here, Willie?"
" Teddy is going out to Meeker, Colorado, next week to shoot mountain lions, and he's practicing a little beforehand."

(Another group of cartoons taken from Mr. Opper's series of "Willie and His Papa." These also appeared in the Evening Journal, of New York, after the election of the McKinley-Roosevelt ticket in the fall of 1900, and during Mr. Roosevelt's brief period of service as Vice-President.)

A Half-Year as Vice-President

73

supposed that Mr. Odell, or possibly ex-Speaker Reed (who had retired from Congress and had come to New York to practice law), might secure the support of the New York delegation and carry off the Presidential honors. Mr. Roosevelt, however, with no machine behind him, had won hosts of ardent friends throughout the country in typical groups, like the Hamilton Club, of Chicago, and other Western organizations. Many of those who had professed to be his close political friends in fair weather, had sought other political society. Among the time-serving politicians, Roosevelt's stock had declined to a low figure. Few men are so little able to discern the real signs of the times in American politics as the machine leaders. They know the rules of the game as they play it themselves, but the larger forces of public opinion are quantities that they can never estimate.
THE  FOURTH  OP MARCH,  1901
(A photograph taken on the day when Theodore Roosevelt was sworn in as Vice-President of the United States.)
At the very time in July and August, 1901, when they were most certain that Mr. Roosevelt had been excluded from influence and power in the politics of his own State, and sidetracked from a career that would have led to the Presidency or to the Senate, the Roosevelt movement was, in fact, taking on strength and form throughout the whole country. Hosts of influential men were joining in it, though mainly without the cognizance of the old-fashioned professional politicians. The men of the earlier political type could not understand that a new era had dawned in American affairs. With the rising men of a new generation, Roosevelt was stronger than any one else. These men had made it plain to Mr. Roosevelt that they were determined to control the national convention in his interest in 1904; and while he was taking no active steps himself, he could not refuse to listen and to observe.
Meanwhile Mr. Roosevelt was determined to be ready for whatever might happen. He resumed the reading of law that had been interrupted by his election to the legislature exactly twenty years before. His repute was such that he could not have failed at the end of four years in the Vice-Presidency to form connections that would enable him to earn an easy competence at the bar.
He laid out projects, moreover, for literary work; and proposed to use his sojourn in Washington and his seat in the presiding chair of the Senate to add every day to his already extraordinary knowledge of the men and the subjects about which a President ought to be well informed.
For a good while previous to the convention of 1900, the Vice-Presidency had as a rule been regarded with disfavor by men of ambition, and had usually been conferred upon men either of advanced years or comparative obscurity. Roosevelt's fame and position were already national, he had youth in his favor, and he could afford to take his chances in a great country where opportunities, whether in public or in private life, seemed well-nigh boundless.

REINCARNATION
(President Roosevelt making the statement: "It shall be my aim to continue absolutely unbroken the policy
of  President  McKinley.")—From  Judge.