The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt (180 page)

BOOK: The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt
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85.
Thwing, Eugene,
The Life and Meaning of TR
(Current Literature, 1916) 257.

86.
Sun
, Sep. 27, 1900;
Trib.
, same date.

87.
TR.Auto.127.

88.
See Scharf, Barbara C.,
Mr. Dooley’s Chicago
(Doubleday, 1977) for early relationship of TR and Finley Peter Dunne.

89.
Harper’s Weekly
, Oct. 13, 1900.

90.
See
Chicago Times-Herald
, Oct. 21, 1900. Less factual, and considerably more annoying to TR, were persistent press rumors that he was often drunk on tour. Similar rumors, stimulated by his high color and constant air of excitement, were to dog him for the next decade.
Harper’s Weekly
, Dec. 7, 1901; Ickes, Harold L.,
Autobiography of a Curmudgeon
(New York, 1943), 55. See also Morr.82.

91.
Hag.RBL.466.

92.
Lee.559; Pri.226; Mor.507.

93.
Milholland int., FRE; Thayer, William R.,
Theodore Roosevelt: An Intimate Biography
(Houghton Mifflin, 1919), 157. See also Dun.I.355. For an almost identical expression of foreboding, in the words of one of Roosevelt’s oldest friends, see Par. 13
6
.

94.
Qu. Pri.214.

95.
See Har.129–30 for a modern confirmation of TR’s boast.
Eve. Post
qu. Che.300.

96.
In preparing this summary the author acknowledges the scholarly assistance of John Allen Gable, historian
of the progressive movement and author of
The Bull Moose Years: Theodore Roosevelt and the Progressive Party
(National University Publications, 1978).

97.
“While I know I need not say to my officers in what a deep regard I hold them, they will not mind my saying that just a little bit closer come the men.” TR’s farewell address to the Rough Riders, Sep. 13, 1898, TR.Wks.XI.157 fn.

98.
John Allen Gable in letter to the author.

99.
TR qu. Morg.508.

100.
Mor.3.6–7. Milholland int. FRE.

E
PILOGUE:
S
EPTEMBER, 1901

1.
See Mor.4.1343 ff. for a calendar of TR’s Vice-Presidency.

2.
Washburn, Charles G.,
TR: The Logic of His Career
(Houghton Mifflin, 1916) 39.

3.
Par.137. (See Hag.RF.108 ff. for TR’s domestic activities through the fall of 1901.)

4.
Par.137; TR.Auto.338. TR to Steffens, Aug. 8, 1901 (Columbia U., Steffens Papers).

5.
Mor.3.1345; Morg.518.

6.
The following account is taken from the reminiscence of Frank Lester Greene, one of TR’s friends in the Fish and Game League, as recorded in Woo. 81 ff.

7.
Olcott,
McK
, II.316.

8.
Ib.

9.
Pri.231; Hagedorn memo, TRB mss. Secretary of State John Hay received similar assurances that McK was recovering, and proceeded to write a circular letter communicating the good news to all U.S. Embassies. “I thought it might stop the rain of enquiries from all over the world. After I had written it the black cloud of foreboding, which is always over my head, settled down and enveloped me and I dared not send it.” Hay to Henry Adams, Sep. 19, 1901, ADA.

10.
The following description of TR’s expedition up Mount Marcy is based on these sources: Tahawus Club Guest Book, memoranda by George G. Whee-lock, club president, and Beverly R. Robinson, member, Sep. 12, 1901;
World
, Sep. 15, 1901; Noah La Casse, int. Harry V. Radford,
Forest Leaves
, Winter 1904; TR.Auto.364; TR to J. J. Leary, Leary Notes, TRB; Hagedorn Notes, TRB; letter from Julia Hill, local resident, in ib.; reminiscences of EKR in
Women’s Roosevelt Memorial Association Bulletin
(Fall 1933); Harmes, Edward A., “2.15 A.M.,” article in
The Adirondac
, Nov.-Dec. 1963; Taylor, Dorothy, “Noah La Casse, Presidential Hiking Mate,”
Adirondack Life
, 1972.3(2) 9–11. Scenic material from ib., 1972.3(1) 37, and 1973.4(3) 40.

11.
Taylor, “La Casse.”

12.
EKR in
WRMA Bulletin;
Radford, La Casse int.

13.
Ib.; Hagedorn Notes; Taylor, “La Casse.”

14.
Rii.76.

15.
Radford, La Casse int.

16.
Ib.; TR.Auto.364. La Casse testified that TR “became very calm” as he watched the ranger approach. TR to Leary: “I instinctively knew he had bad news … I wanted to become President, but I did not want to become President that way.”

ILLUSTRATIONS

frt.1
Theodore Roosevelt at the time of his Harvard entrance examinations, 1876.
Theodore Roosevelt Collection, Harvard College Library
.

prl.1
Theodore Roosevelt receives the American people on New Year’s Day.
Brown Brothers
.

p1.1
Martha Bulloch Roosevelt at twenty-two.
Brown Brothers
.

2.1
Theodore Roosevelt Senior, aged about forty-five.
Author’s Collection
.

3.1
Theodore Roosevelt the Harvard freshman, 1877.
Theodore Roosevelt Birthplace National Historic Site, New York
.

4.1
Alice Hathaway Lee when Theodore Roosevelt first met her.
Theodore Roosevelt Association
.

4.2
Alice Lee, Theodore Roosevelt, and Rose Saltonstall on their
“tintype spree.”
Alice Sturm Collection, privately held
.

4.3
Theodore Roosevelt at the time of his assault on the Matterhorn, 1881.
Theodore Roosevelt Association
.

5.1
Theodore Roosevelt at the time of his election to the New York State Assembly.
Theodore Roosevelt Association
.

6.1
The New York State Assembly Chamber in 1882.
New York Public Library
.

6.2
Alice, Corinne, and Bamie Roosevelt, about 1882.
Theodore Roosevelt Association
.

7.1
Assemblymen Roosevelt, Howe, Spinney, Hunt, and O’Neil.
Theodore Roosevelt Association
.

8.1
Antoine-Amédée-Marie-Vincent-Amat Manca de Vallombrosa, Marquis de Morès.
North Dakota State Historical Society
.

9.1
Hallway of the Roosevelt mansion at 6 West Fifty-seventh Street, New York, 1880s.
Sagamore Hill National Historic Site
.

10.1
Governor Grover Cleveland. Painting by Eastman Johnson.
New York State Library
.

10.2
The first public advertisement of the Maltese Cross brand, 1884.
Theodore Roosevelt Association
.

11.1
Theodore Roosevelt in his buckskin suit, 1884.
Theodore Roosevelt Collection, Harvard College Library
.

12.1
Sagamore Hill in 1885.
Theodore Roosevelt Association
.

12.2
Edith Kermit Carow at twenty-four.
Sagamore Hill National Historic Site
.

13.1
Deputy Sheriff Roosevelt and his prisoners.
Theodore Roosevelt Association
.

14.1
Cecil Arthur Spring Rice at thirty-five.
Theodore Roosevelt Birthplace
.

col.1
Dying cow, December 1886. Painting by Charles Russell.
Montana Stockgrowers Association
.

15.1
The Meadowbrook Hunt meeting at Sagamore Hill in the 1880s.
Theodore Roosevelt Association
.

16.1
Congressman Henry Cabot Lodge, by John Singer Sargent, 1890.
National Portrait Gallery
.

16.2
Elliott Roosevelt about the time of his marriage to Anna Hall.
Franklin Delano Roosevelt Library
.

18.1
The Grand Court of the World’s Columbian Exposition, Chicago, 1893.
Avery Architectural Library, Columbia University
.

19.1
Police Headquarters, New York City, 1890s.
New York Public Library
.

19.2
Theodore Roosevelt as president of the New York City Police Board.
Theodore Roosevelt Association
.

20.1
Thomas Collier Platt in the 1890s.
Theodore Roosevelt Birthplace
.

20.2
New York City Police Commissioners Andrews, Parker, Roosevelt,
and Grant.
Theodore Roosevelt Association
.

21.1
Mark Hanna on 2 August 1896.
New York Public Library
.

22.1
Assistant Secretary Roosevelt at the Naval War College, 2 June 1897.
Theodore Roosevelt Association
.

22.2
President William McKinley at the time of the Spanish-American War.
Sagamore Hill National Historic Site
.

23.1
Wreck of the
Maine
, Havana Harbor, February 1898.
Sagamore Hill National Historic Site
.

23.2
A troop of black volunteers en route to Tampa, 1898.
Theodore Roosevelt Association
.

24.1
Piazza of the Tampa Bay Hotel, early summer 1898.
Theodore Roosevelt Collection
.

25.1
Colonel Roosevelt and his Rough Riders atop San Juan Heights, Cuba.
Theodore Roosevelt Association
.

26.1
Colonel Roosevelt preparing to muster out at Camp Wikoff,
Long Island.
Theodore Roosevelt Collection
.

27.1
The New York State Capitol, Albany, late nineteenth century.
New York Public Library
.

28.1
Theodore Roosevelt at the time of his election to the Vice-Presidency.
Theodore Roosevelt Association
.

epl.1
The second Inauguration of William McKinley, 4 March 1901.
Theodore Roosevelt Collection
.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

E
DMUND
M
ORRIS
was born in Nairobi, Kenya, in 1940. He was schooled there, and studied music, history, and literature at Rhodes University, Grahamstown, South Africa. After leaving Africa in 1964, he became an advertising copywriter in London. He immigrated to the United States in 1968 and became a full-time writer in 1972.
The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt
began as a screenplay. It was published in 1979 and won the Pulitzer Prize and American Book Award. In 1981, Morris was appointed the official biographer of President Ronald Reagan. The resultant work,
Dutch: A Memoir of Ronald Reagan
, caused a controversy when it appeared in 1999 because of its use of a partly imaginary narrator.
Theodore Rex
is the second volume in a planned trilogy on the life of Theodore Roosevelt.

Edmund Morris lives in New York City with his wife and fellow biographer, Sylvia Jukes Morris.

T
HE
M
ODERN
L
IBRARY
E
DITORIAL
B
OARD

Maya Angelou

Daniel J. Boorstin

A. S. Byatt

Caleb Carr

Christopher Cerf

Ron Chernow

Shelby Foote

Stephen Jay Gould

Vartan Gregorian

Charles Johnson

Jon Krakauer

Edmund Morris

Joyce Carol Oates

Elaine Pagels

John Richardson

Salman Rushdie

Arthur Schlesinger, Jr.

Carolyn See

William Styron

Gore Vidal

Read on for a preview from Edmund Morris’s
COLONEL ROOSEVELT

 

LATER THAT AFTERNOON
, the
Mayflower
hitched itself to another train and headed for Wisconsin. Advance word came that a “GXLC” situation portended in Milwaukee, with plans for a grand parade and public dinner before Roosevelt’s speech. Dr. Terrell refused to let his patient be subjected to these strains.

Upon the train’s arrival in Milwaukee at six o’clock, members of the local Progressive committee came aboard, and were told that the Colonel was “extremely tired.” He would dine privately in his car, rest for an hour or so, and not use his voice until the time came for him to speak at the Auditorium. Even then, he would be able to make only a few opening remarks. The main text of his address would have to be read for him. O. K. Davis explained that Roosevelt had long speeches scheduled every night for the rest of the campaign.

The committee chairman complained so bitterly that Roosevelt took pity on him and said to Davis, “I want to be a good Indian, O. K.”

From that moment he was the committee’s prisoner. He was driven through a mile-long, rejoicing crowd to the Gilpatrick Hotel on Third Street. A hospitality suite awaited him upstairs. Before sitting down to dinner, he lay back in a rocking chair and napped—something Davis had never seen him do before. Shortly after eight, he folded his speech typescript into his inner right jacket pocket and walked down two flights of stairs to the lobby. Henry Cochems and a bodyguard named Alfred Girard preceded him. He was flanked on one side by Elbert Martin and Cecil Lyon, and on the other by Philip Roosevelt and Fred Leuttisch, a Party security man.

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