The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt (159 page)

BOOK: The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt
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29.
TR.Wks.XIII.48; Ib., XIV.18.

30.
Put.305; Hunt, supplementary statement, 33–4.

31.
Hudson,
Recollections
, 147. “All the NY dailies gave Roosevelt a good deal of space … and he often got on the front page. The
Herald
, especially, sent up an extra man, Thomas J. White, to stand behind him and help develop his career as a reform legislator.” (Peter P. McLaughlin, ex-Assemblyman, in FRE.)

32.
Put.288.

33.
TR.Wks.XIV.21;
Observer
, Mar. 10, 1883 (TR.Scr.).

34.
HUN.53; Put.285–6.

35.
Put.283–5; Nev.116;
N.Y.T.
, Jan. 8, 1883.

36.
Nev.116–7; Put.284; Bis.1.20.

37.
Albany Argus
, Mar. 5, 1883; Put.284; TR.Scr.

38.
Albany Argus
and
N.Y. World
, Mar. 3, 1883.

39.
The phrase rated headlines in, e.g.,
Chicago Tribune
, May 7, 1883. The paper published a long editorial on “this startling proposition.” See also Sul.386.

40.
World
, March 3, 5, 13, 1883; Put.286. But see also
Commercial Advertiser
(Mar. 3) praising TR’s “courage and manliness” in this, “the most extraordinary confession that perhaps was ever heard in a deliberative body.”

41.
N.Y. Sun
, Mar. 8, 1883; Put.286.

42.
TR.Wks.XIV.16–21 for complete text of this speech. Interestingly, TR considered it, not the
mea culpa
of Mar. 2, his “main speech” of the session. (Mor.67.)

43.
Sun
, Mar. 10. TR petulantly declared that even though his resignation had been refused, he would “not do another stroke of work with the Committee.” (ib.)

44.
See, e.g.,
Observer
, Mar. 10, 1883 (TR.Scr.).

45.
World
, Mar. 10, 1883.

46.
HUN.38–40.

47.
Ib.; Hunt, supplementary statement, 8–9.

48.
Nev.112ff.

49.
TR.Wks.XIV.23–4;
N.Y.T.
, Apr. 10, 1883.

50.
Ib.

51.
Nev.123. (But see Put.232. fn.)

52.
HUN.39; Nev.123.

53.
Mor.3.634.

54.
TR to Jacob Riis (Rii.59).

55.
TR.Auto.82; Put.302.

56.
Put.282;
N.Y.T.
, Mar. 26, 1883; Put.283; TR.Wks.XIV.25; Put.290–1;
Morning Journal
, Feb. 19, 1883.

57.
N.Y.T.
, Mar. 26, 1883.

58.
Harper’s Weekly
, Apr. 21, 1883.

59.
Parker, George F.,
Recollections of Grover Cleveland
(NY, 1911) 250.

60.
N.Y.T.
, May 29, 1883.

61.
Ib.

62.
Hag.RBL.8–9.

63.
See, e.g., MBR to E, Dec. 7, 1880: “Teddie tho’ he rejoices with you in your prospects for your Hunt longs to be with you—and walks up and down the room like a Caged Lynx. When Alice appeals to him he smothers her with kisses and tells her he is perfectly happy with her but some time he must go off with his gun instead of pouring [sic] over Brown versus Jenkins etc.” (FDR).

64.
Hag.RBL.8–9; Put.308–9.

65.
See Ch. 5; also Hag.RF.6.

66.
TR to Editor,
Country Life in
America
, Oct. 3, 1915 (Sagamore Hill collection).

67.
TR to MBR, Sep. 4, 1883 (TRC).

68.
Mor. 60.

69.
The full text of this letter is in Mor.60–1.

70.
Anna Bulloch Gracie diary, July 1, 1883; memorandum by Gary Roth, curator, Sagamore Hill National Historic Site; see also Hag.RF.6–7.

71.
COW.

72.
TR to B, Aug. 25, 1883 (TRB); E to B, Aug. 29 (FDR); MBR to E, Aug. 30 (FDR).

73.
TR to MBR, Sep. 4, 1883; Mor.76.

74.
Ib.

75.
TR’s train journey reconstructed from his letters to MBR of Sep. 4 and 8, 1883, and
Official Railways Guide
, July–September 1883. Description of the Badlands on arrival of a stranger from an 1882 travel article in HAG.Bln., and author’s own experiences of a midnight visit.

76.
TR to MBR, Sep. 8, 1883.

77.
TR.Auto.95.

8: T
HE
D
UDE FROM
N
EW
Y
ORK

1.
TR.Auto.95.

2.
Hag.RBL.10; TR.Auto.95; Lan.52–3.

3.
Ib.

4.
Ib.

5.
Put.320; Lan.53.

6.
Hag.RBL.7–8; Lan.48, 56.

7.
Brown, Dee,
Trail Driving Days
(Scribner’s, 1952) 185.

8.
Hag.RBL.48; Put.313.

9.
Hag.RBL.10-11.

10.
See Put.313–7 for a more detailed account of the destruction of the northern herd, estimated at 1.5 million animals only a decade before. Other details from Lan.23–25. “Bone merchants” were freelance scavengers employed by the big phosphate companies.

11.
Hag.RBL.11; Lan.
passim
.

12.
Put.321; Hag.RBL.10; 16, 11.

13.
Ib., 12; Mor.3.551; see also Put.322–3. Putnam is confused by Hagedorn’s mistaken assertion that it was the Winchester that was broken. TR himself confirms, in the letter to John Hay cited above, that the Sharps was faulty.

14.
Hag.RBL.12; Put.324; Mor.3.551; HAG.Bln.

15.
Lan.70; Put.316; Hag.RBL.49–50; HAG.Bln.; Put.325; Lan.69–70.

16.
Hag.RBL.49; Twe.29.

17.
Twe.
passim;
Hag.RBL.59; Dr. Stickney in HAG.Bln.; O’Donald, qu. Paddock at trial, Twe. 83.

18.
Hag.RBL.61.

19.
Goplen, Arnold O., “The Career of the Marquis de Mores in the Bad Lands of North Dakota,”
North Dakota History
, Jan.-Apr. 1946, 11; Twe.
passim;
Put.351; Howard Eaton in HAG.Bln.; Twe.69, 71.

20.
Hag.RBL.336; Twe.
passim
.

21.
Qu. Put.351; Goplen, 11; Twe. 111–3.

22.
Twe.
passim
.

23.
The chimney still stands in Medora, N.D., symbolizing exactly the opposite.

24.
Goplen, 17.

25.
Mor.50. The text hereafter closely follows Put.353–60. See also Hag.RBL., Twe., and Lan.71–2.

26.
Lan.71.

27.
Bismarck Daily Tribune
, qu. Put.355, 356; Hag.RBL.63.

28.
Put.538.

29.
Ib., 356.

30.
This description of the buckboard’s trip south to the Maltese Cross ranch is based on Hag.RBL.13; Put.325–6; HAG.Bln.; Lan.
passim;
and personal observations made by the author on a visit to the Badlands in 1974.

31.
Lan.46.

32.
Ib., 44; Put.325; Schoch, Henry A.,
TR National Memorial Park: The Story Behind the Scenery
(National Park Service, 1974) 23.

33.
Ib., 4.

34.
Hag.RBL.13; TRB memo.

35.
Hag.RBL.13–5; HAG.Bln.; Put.321 and
passim;
TR.Auto.95; Put.334.

36.
TR.Auto.95-6; Hag.RBL.14.

37.
Ib., 16–7. TR, who was no man to hold grudges, forgave their initial distrust of him to the extent of awarding all three men commissions when he became President. Joe Ferris was made Postmaster of Medora; Sylvane Ferris, Land Officer of North Dakota; William Merrifield, Marshal of Montana. (TR.Auto.96).

38.
Text follows Putnam’s assumption that TR here, as in the nights following, refused to occupy the bunks of his hosts.

39.
Hag.RBL.17–8. The following description of the Badlands is based on a personal visit by the author, with touches borrowed from Lan., Hag.RBL., Put., and Schoch
passim
. Note: The Badlands of the Little Missouri (not to be confused with the better-known Badlands of South Dakota) straddle the common border of North Dakota and Montana with an average width of 50 miles. North to south the area measures approximately 225 miles.

40.
TR.Pri.Di. Jan. 3, 1883; qu. Put.312.

41.
Put.326–8; Hag.RBL.18–9; Lan.83, 101–2.

42.
The following section is based on Lan. 100 ff.

43.
Ib., 101–2.

44.
Put.317–29; Hag.RBL.19; Lan.
passim
. (Gregor Lang bought the cabin, actually an old hunting shack, from Frank O’Donald.)

45.
Lan.86, 100 ff.

46.
Lan.113. The following account of TR’s buffalo hunt is taken primarily from his own narrative in “The Lordly Buffalo” (TR.Wks.I.185–206). Hereafter this source will be abbreviated as “Buffalo.” Secondary sources: Hag. RBL.23–46; Put.329–345; HAG.Bln.; Lan.

47.
Hag.RBL.24.

48.
Lan.113.

49.
Ib., 104, 111; Lang, qu. HAG.Bln.

50.
Lan.104, 111. Lang states that TR’s views on “the race suicide question” were essentially the same in 1883 as those he made famous as President. “I admire the men who are not afraid to propagate their kind as far as they may,” he told Gregor Lang—conscious, no doubt, of his own seed swelling in the body of Alice Lee.

51.
Lan.109.

52.
Lang, qu. Hag.RBL.28.

53.
Ib.

54.
See Put.339.

55.
Lang qu. Hag.RBL.27.

56.
From now on text follows TR’s own account in “Buffalo.”

57.
Joe Ferris stated that TR “bled like a stuck pig.” (HAG.Bln.) He was, by all accounts, a prodigious bleeder all his life.

58.
“Buffalo,” 202; Hag.RBL.34 fn.

59.
“Buffalo,” 202; Hag.RBL.36.

60.
“Buffalo,” 204–5.

61.
Qu. Hag.RBL.37.

62.
Lan. 116–7.

63.
Hag.RBL.41.

64.
Ib., 28, 38–9.

65.
Qu. Hag.RBL.42–43. (Hagedorn, reconstructing this conversation in 1919, relied on the memories of Sylvane, Merrifield, and Lang.) The deal was later sealed with a contract worked out by Gregor Lang and agreed to by all parties before TR’s departure from Dakota. TR signed it on Sep. 27, 1883, in St. Paul, Put.343; see Appendix to Hag.RBL. (original edition) for text.

66.
Hag.RBL.39.

67.
Following details from Put.337.

68.
TR to E, Nov. 28, 1880 (FDR). James A. Roosevelt, elder brother, executor, and trustee of TR Sr., also acted as the family banker.

69.
Pri.54.

70.
Author’s calculation, based on accounts in TR.Pri.Di., 1883.

71.
Lan.105.

72.
Hag.RBL.44.

73.
“Buffalo,” 205–6.

74.
Hag.RBL.45. Many of TR’s guides mention his near-pathological exuberance after killing large game.

75.
“Buffalo,” 206; Lan. 119.

76.
“Buffalo,” 206. Putnam (p. 338 fn.) points out the problem of reconciling Hagedorn’s account with TR’s, and both with the few dates that can be confirmed. These are Sep. 8 (TR’s letter announcing his arrival to MBR); Sep. 16, confirmed as a Sunday by Joe Ferris in interview; and Sep. 27, confirmed by contract date in St. Paul. Putnam’s attempt to straighten out the chronology errs in giving TR five days of rain after arriving at Lang’s. It could only have been four. Both he and Hagedorn have TR returning to the kill the day after, i.e., Sep. 21, to behead the carcass; but TR clearly says that the beheading took place on the same day as the kill. All sources agree that the kill took place in the mid-morning, and Lincoln Lang recalls TR and Ferris returning with their “paens of victory” in the
evening;
so they probably did their work on the carcass in between. This would mean that TR left for Little Missouri on Sep. 21, not 22, and allow him at least five nights there, making Hagedorn’s “week” seem a little more plausible.

77.
Lan. 119.

9: T
HE
H
ONORABLE
G
ENTLEMAN

Important sources not in Bibliography:
1. New York Assembly,
Hearings of the Roosevelt Investigation
, January–April 1884 (Albany, 1884). Copy in Butler Library, Columbia University.
2
. Theodore Roosevelt,
In Memory of My Darling Wife
(privately printed, 1884). Only known copy in TRC.

1.
HUN.28; Hunt, supplementary statement, 11;
New York Times
, Dec. 27, 1883.

2.
Put.368 ff.

3.
The figures were 72 to 56 in the Assembly and 19 to 13 in the Senate.

4.
This para based largely on Put.365–366. See also Sto.121–2. Senator Miller’s nickname referred to his professional involvement in the wood and paper industry of his home county, Herkimer.

5.
New York Sun
, Dec. 28, 1883.

6.
Mor.62.

7.
Ib. 63.

8.
Put.369.

9.
Put.370; Hunt, supplementary statement, 11; HUN.27–8.

10.
New York Herald
, Jan. 1, 1884;
N.Y.T.
, same date;
Sun
, Dec. 27, 1883.

11.
See Put. 371–3, or his source, TR.Scr., for a detailed account of the Speakership contest.
Sun
, Dec. 28, 1883; Put.371; HUN.28; Put.373.

12.
HUN.28.

13.
Put.373;
Sun
, Jan. 1, 1884.

14.
Put.373.

15.
World
, Jan. 1, 1884. (Note: not the
Sun—
Pringle’s mistake, which Putnam copied.)

16.
TR.Auto.87;
World
, Jan. 2, 1884; MBR to E, Jan. 3, 1884 (FDR); HUN.29.

17.
Hunt, supplementary statement, 12; Put.374 and fn.; HUN.29.

18.
TR.Wks.XIII.60;TR.Auto.43. These sessions came to an end when TR discovered that Ryan was by profession a burglar, and had been incarcerated in the Albany jail.

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