The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt (164 page)

22.
Ib., Oct. 27, 1886.

23.
Mor. 112–3.

24.
See TR.Wks.XIV.70–1.

25.
Mor.114.

26.
Star
, Oct. 28, 1886.

27.
N.Y.T.
, Oct. 28, 1886;
Journal, Mail and Express
, same date.

28.
N.Y.T.
, Oct. 28, 1886;
Star
, same date.

29.
Telegram, Mail and Express, Trib., N.Y.T., Journal
.

30.
GEO.
passim
. TR’s double-dictation technique was as follows. While reporters scribbled down his answer to a question, he would dictate some rapid sentences to his stenographer; while she scribbled those, he turned his attention to the next press question, apparently with no loss of continuity on either side.
(Mail and Express
, Oct. 18, 1886.)

31.
Ib.

32.
Sun
, Oct. 26, 1886.

33.
The following account of the Cooper Hall meeting is based on
N.Y.T.
, Oct. 28, 1886; supplementary
details from
Trib., Star, World
, same date.

34.
N.Y.T.
, Oct. 28, 1886.

35.
Commercial Advertiser
, Oct. 27, 1886.

36.
World
, Oct. 28.

37.
Daily News, Trib.
, Oct. 29, 1886.

38.
See TR’s own Oct. 28 analysis in Mor.8.1426. See also
Trib.
, Nov. 4, 1886, for his confession that there was a mid-campaign moment when victory seemed possible.

39.
Alex.71.

40.
Ib., 71; Nev.460–2; GEO. clip., un., Oct. 5, 1886; Nev.464.

41.
Daily Graphic
, Oct. 22, 1886. This slogan was repeatedly bandied by Democratic newspapers as the campaign progressed.

42.
Trib.
, Oct. 29.

43.
B to Edith in Europe, Oct. 23, 1886. (Derby mss.)

44.
The following narrative based on
N.Y.T.
, Oct. 29, 1886;
Trib.
, same date.

45.
See ib.: “Mr. Roosevelt has given much attention to the colored men, among whom he is a favorite.”

46.
Ib.

47.
Ib.;
N.Y.T.
, Oct. 29, 1886.

48.
Bamie had relocated earlier in the year to 689 Madison Avenue.

49.
Mail and Express
, Oct. 30, 1886.

50.
World
, Oct. 31, 1886. Hewitt, in appealing for Republican votes, suavely played on TR’s fears. “I trust that at some future time he will receive the reward due to his energy, his ability, and his character, but he has made a mistake. He has allowed himself to be the tool of designing men.” Qu. Nevins,
Hewitt
, 468.

51.
Sun
, Oct. 31, 1886.

52.
Her.
, Oct. 31, 1886.

53.
GEO.
passim
.

54.
Journal
, Oct. 26, 1886;
Daily Graphic
, Nov. 1.

55.
Lincoln, Charles T., ed.,
Messages from the Governors
, VII, 1072, qu. Nevins,
Hewitt
, 142.

56.
Her.
, Oct. 31, 1886;
Trib.
, Oct. 29.

57.
Her.
, Oct. 31, 1886.

58.
Mail and Express
, Oct. 30, 1896; Nevins,
Hewitt
, 463; Condon, “Election of 1886,” 363.

59.
For a more optimistic election-eve forecast, see
Trib.
, Nov. 1, 1886.

60.
Telegram
, Nov. 3, 1886.

61.
GEO. clip, un., Nov. 3, 1886.

62.
Her.
, 3.

63.
Nevins,
Hewitt
, 468.

64.
This was TR’s first defeat at the polls. He would not suffer another such until 1912.

65.
Sun
, Nov. 3, 1886; Lod.150.

66.
Sun
, Nov. 4, 1886;
World
, same date.

67.
Alex.82. Nevins’s figures differ slightly at 90,466, 67,930, and 60,477. Historically, the average Republican Mayoral vote was 98,715
(Eve. Post
, Nov. 3, 1886).

68.
Alex.82–3;
Eve. Post
, Nov. 3, 1886.

69.
Trib.
, Nov. 4, 1886.

70.
“I do not disguise from myself that this is the end of my political career,” TR told Robert Underwood Johnson. The poet wrote many years later: “I cannot remember to have seen a man so cast down by political defeat.” Johnson in TR.Wks.X.342.

71.
Luther B. Little int. FRE. See also Alex.83, and Abbot, Lawrence F.,
Impressions of TR
, 6: “I never heard him talk about it—as he was glad to do about his other political experiences.”

72.
Daily Graphic
, Nov. 3, 1886. For sample range of other comments, see
Comm. Adv.
, Nov. 3; letter to
Eve. Post
, Nov. 5; F. B. House int. FRE. Other recommended reading: Hurwitz, Howard L.,
TR and Labor in New York State
, 1880–1900, and Condon, “Election of 1886.”

73.
N.Y.T.
, Nov. 7, 1886; COW; see also Mor. 115. The
Times
erroneously reported next day that Corinne and her husband, Douglas Robinson, sailed
with them too. Why TR was at such pains to conceal his departure, now that the campaign was over, is a mystery. Perhaps he merely felt weary of crowds and fuss. The formal news of his engagement certainly caused a sensation. Elliott, who saw TR off, went on to a society wedding afterward and found the congregation buzzing with conversation, not about the bride and groom, but about Edith and Theodore. (E to B, Nov. 10, 1886, FDR.)

74.
N.Y.T.
, Nov. 7 and 8, 1886.

75.
All from COW.

76.
Portrait of CSR from Gwy.
passim;
Roosevelt family letters; COW.; Cha.

77.
N.Y.T.
, Nov. 14, 1886; TR.Auto. 33; COW.

78.
TR.Auto.33.

79.
COW.

80.
Gwy.48. “Roosevelt was surprised to find that Henry George’s campaign for the Mayoralty had been widely publicized in Britain, and that he in consequence was something of a celebrity.”
Her.
, Mar. 28, 1887. Mor. 116–7. George Joachim Goschen, Liberal Cabinet minister, just about to become Lord Randolph Churchill’s successor as Chancellor of the Exchequer. John Morley, Liberal statesman and distinguished literary biographer (for his later opinion of TR, see Prologue). James Bryce, statesman, scholar, and one of the most brilliant conversationalists in England. He was then engaged on his classic
The American Commonwealth
. (See Ch. 15.) Morley and Bryce were to become TR’s lifelong friends.

81.
COW.

82.
Ib. TR’s and Edith’s addresses are on their marriage certificate, reproduced in Lor.240. Under “Rank or Profession” TR wrote: “Ranchman.”

83.
Mor.117.

84.
COW; Gwy.48. Both men were nearly late for the ceremony, having been “intensely occupied in a discussion of the population of an island in the Southern Pacific.” (Bamie, qu. Gwy.48).

85.
TR to William Sewall, TRB memo. Apparently, TR’s quietude did not last. For an amusing anecdote about his too-exuberant Americanism in London, see Harris, Frank,
Contemporary Portraits
(New York, 1915), 266–68.

Important sources not listed in Bibliography:
1. Mattison, Ray H., “The Hard Winter and the Range Cattle Business,”
Montana Magazine of History
, Vol. 1.4 (Winter, 1950). This is authority for all the chronological details in the following account, supplemented by
Dickinson Press
and
Mandan Pioneer
coverage, October 1886–March 1887. Files in North Dakota State Historical Society.

1.
Brown, Dee,
Trail Driving Days
(Scribner’s, 1952) 224–5; Lan.245–6.

2.
Mattison, “Winter,” 10 ff.; Lan.24 ff.

3.
Put.592; Lan.242 ff.; HAG.Bln.

4.
TR.Auto.98.

5.
Earl Henderson, pioneer, in Fifty Years in the Saddle Club,
Looking Back Down the Trail
, Vol. 1 (Watford City, N.D., 1963) 230.

6.
Mattison, “Winter,” 11.

7.
Ib.

8.
Brown,
Trail Driving
, 225; Lan. 242–3; Mattison, “Winter,” 12; “A Dakota Blizzard,” anonymous article
in Atlantic
, Dec. 1888.

9.
TR.Wks.I.346–7; Mattison, “Winter,” 12.

10.
Brown,
Trail Driving
, 225.

11.
“A Dakota Blizzard”; Hag. RBL.435–6; TR.Wks.I.346; Brown,
Trail Driving
, 225.

12.
Bismarck Tribune
, Nov. 1886, qu. Hag.RBL.430; TR.Wks.I.347;
Mandan Pioneer
, Jan. 28, 1887; Hag.RBL.435; Mattison, “Winter,” 12; Lan.259.

13.
Ib.; Hag.RBL.436–8; Mattison, “Winter,” 14; HAG.Bln; Lan.594.

14.
Qu. HAG.438.

15.
Hag.RBL.439; Clay, John,
My Life on the Range
(NY Antiquarian Press, 1961) 179. See Robinson, Elwyn B.,
History of North Dakota
(U. of Nebraska Press, 1966) 190–6 for the effect of the winter on the economy of the Dakotas. For details of its particular effect on TR’s business, see below.

1.
This, the fourth of TR’s pre-presidential trips to Europe, was, with a fifth quick visit to Paris in 1892, to make TR the most widely traveled Chief Executive since John Quincy Adams. The Roosevelts’ honeymoon itinerary was as follows. After the wedding they crossed the Channel to begin “an idyllic three weeks trip” south to Provence via Paris and Lyons. They made their “leisurely way” from Hyères along the French and Italian Rivieras by carriage to Pisa, then visited Florence and Rome before moving south to Naples, which they reached on Jan. 16, 1887. After exploring Sorrento and Capri they began to move north again, revisiting Rome early in February before going on to Venice, where they took moonlit gondola rides and witnessed that rarest and most beautiful of phenomena, a Venetian snowstorm. They crossed over to Milan, whose pillared Cathedral reminded TR of Rocky Mountain forests. In Paris he decided he was too poor to order a cellarful of claret for Sagamore Hill, yet splurged on three days of classical riding lessons at an
école d’équitation
. The Roosevelts returned to London about Feb. 23, 1887, and after three weeks in that city sailed from Liverpool on March 19. TR to B, Dec. 3, 1886-Mar. 12, 1887; also Lod.52–3.

2.
New York Times, Herald, Sun, Tribune
, all Mar. 28, 1887. See also TR to C re his “daily overeating,” Mor. 118–9.

3.
Ib., 123.

4.
Ib., 123–6; TR to B, Mar. 12, 1887.

5.
Trib.
, Mar. 28, 1887;
Her., N.Y.T., Sun
, same date.

6.
See TR to B, Jan. 10, 1887.

7.
TR to B, Sep. 20, 1886. In fact he insisted. “Theodore has against my will insisted on my keeping Baby,” Bamie wrote Nannie Lodge on Nov. 2, 1886.

8.
TR to B, Jan. 10, 1887.

9.
TR to B, Apr. 16 and May 16, 1887.

10.
Nor, apparently, could Alice. She loved Bamie extravagantly always, while preserving at best an ambiguous relationship with Edith. In old age Alice remarked sadly that “Auntie Bye did talk about my mother to me … none of the others ever mentioned her.” (Int. Nov. 9, 1954, TRB.)

11.
Ib.

12.
Rixey, Lilian,
Bamie: TR’s Remarkable Sister
(David McKay, 1963) 68; Gwy.60–1.

13.
See Wag.210–16.

14.
TR to B, Jan. 3, 1887. The words are Theodore’s, but the thoughts are manifestly Edith’s.

15.
Ib. The hunting horse, at least, won a reprieve, for TR became quite maudlin about it. See Mor. 119. EKR, meanwhile, had to operate Sagamore Hill on a budget of something like half of what B had spent there. (Hag.RF. 15.)

16.
TR.Wks.I.347; TR to W. Sewall, qu. Hag.RBL.441; Lan.246; Hag.RBL. 438.

17.
Ib., 441; TR.Wks.I.347. Over the years he had bought a total of 3,000 head (Put.523 fn.), which reproduction probably raised to around 4,000 in 1886. One authority, Elwyn B. Robinson in
History of North Dakota
, puts the total as high as 5,000.

18.
Lan.259; Mattison, Ray H., “The Hard Winter and the Range Cattle Business,”
Montana Magazine of History
, Vol. 1.4 (Winter, 1950) 18.

19.
Put.594; Lan.246–59;
North Dakota History
, Vol. 17.3; Mattison, “Winter,”
passim
.

20.
TR.Wks.I.347; author’s estimate; Put.594. TR told a fellow-rancher he was “utterly crushed by the fearful tragedy.” Hoffman, W. Roy,
TR: His Adventuring Spirit
(unpublished ms. in TRB) qu. Pierre Wibaux, 311.

21.
Mor.126. Actually the figure was in excess of $85,000. See Put.523 fn. and 588 fn. TR had himself predicted during the fall of 1886 that an overall loss of 50% would affect the range cattle industry should a harsh winter strike the overgrazed Badlands. See TR.Wks.I.290. Not for twelve years did he finally manage to extricate himself. During that period Merrifield and Ferris succeeded, by judicious management, in reducing his loss to $20,292. Put.595. But in 1887 any such relief seemed inconceivable.

22.
Mor.127.

23.
Lan.259;
Dickinson Press
, Jan.–April 1887,
passim;
Hag.RBL.451–2; Put.595–6; Lan.263; Twe.111–5; HAG. Bln.

24.
Dickinson Press
, May 7, 1887; Clay, John,
My Life on the Range
(NY Antiquarian Press, 1961) and Twe.
passim
.

25.
Twe.70; Hag.RBL.450; John Good-all, pioneer, qu. Fifty Years in the Saddle Club,
Looking Back Down the Trail
, 288. Soon after TR arrived home, he must have read that the Marquis had been arrested in New York for nonpayment of business debts. See, e.g.,
Sun
, May 20, 1887. De Morès bought his way out of this and other American entanglements, escaping to Europe later that summer. He returned to the Badlands only once, but like TR came only to hunt. After visits to India and China he settled in his native country and became an arch-reactionary, fighting on behalf of French royalists to overthrow the Republican government. He was for a while an ardent disciple of Boulanger. Later the Marquis decided that Jews were responsible for France’s economic and social ills. In May 1892 he was seen, immaculate in tails and top hat, throwing spitballs at Juliette de Rothschild’s wedding. Tiring once more of “civilization,” he went in 1896 to Morocco, hoping to promote a Franco-Islamic alliance against the British Empire. While crossing the Sahara en route to Sudan he was ambushed and killed by a band of Tuaregs. Brave to the end, de Morès left a circle of dead tribesmen around him before collapsing into the sand. His funeral in Paris was a public event. In its front-page obituary,
Le Figaro
commented: “Morès was always marvellously optimistic … everywhere that he went was like a novel of chivalry … he was the classic man of action, officer, agitator, or colonial of old France.”
Le Siècle
viewed him somewhat differently. “Morès was a dangerous madman.” For a full account of the Marquis’s later years, see Twe.