The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt (89 page)
Read The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt Online
Authors: Edmund Morris
At this point another letter arrived from Elliott,
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reiterating his innocence but authorizing Theodore to pay Katy Mann “a moderate sum” in exchange for a quit claim. The lawyers suggested three thousand dollars, rising to four if necessary.
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That was much more than Elliott had in mind, but they reminded Theodore that in cases of this kind, involving boozy playboys and humble servant girls, the jury’s sympathy was always with the plaintiff. In a letter to “dear old Nell,” dated 14 June 1891, Theodore tried desperately to convince his brother—and himself—that the amount was worth paying.
If you and I were alone in the world I should advise fighting her as a pure blackmailer, yet as things [are] I did not dare …
The woman must admit that on her own plea she must have been a willing, probably inviting party. But she has chosen her time with great skill. During that week [of the alleged seduction] you were very sick, and for hours at a time were out of your head, and did not have any clear recollection of what you were doing. You wandered much about the house those nights, alone. She could get testimony that you were often wild and irresponsible, either from being out of your head or from the use of liquor or opiates. At present you are not in any condition to go on the stand and be cross-examined as to your past and your personal habits by a sharp and unscrupulous lawyer. So that however the suit went, it would create a great scandal; and much would be dragged out that we are very desirous of keeping from the public.
This appeal to his brother’s sense of reason was rendered academic by a letter from Bamie the next day, saying that Elliott had
begun to suffer from
delirium tremens.
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Worse news arrived with almost every mail. Elliott no longer denied sleeping with Katy Mann; he merely said “he could not remember” doing so. He refused to be shut up against his will, and threatened to cut Anna off without a penny if she deserted him. Simultaneously he threatened to go off on a long sea voyage as soon as her baby was born.
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“He is evidently a maniac morally no less than mentally,” Theodore wrote in despair.
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As the Commissioner pondered each fresh letter and telegram, he could detect a certain animal ruthlessness in Elliott’s behavior. What that golden sot really wanted was to have everything—to hold on to his wife and children as symbols of respectability, to drink as much as he liked, sleep with whomever he pleased, and squander his money on himself, rather than alimony and paternity suits.
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Elliott could not care less about Katy Mann’s threats. He knew that the family elders were so afraid of scandal they would silence her at all costs. If he refused to pay her the $4,000, somebody else assuredly would.
Theodore did not doubt this, having already, in an unfortunate gaffe, told Elliott that an uncle was willing to provide the hush-money.
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He confessed to Bamie on 20 June that he was at his wits’ end as to what to advise; he could only insist, ad nauseam, that Anna must come home and not condone Elliott’s “hideous depravity” by continuing to live with him “as man and wife.”
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But there seemed little chance of that: Bamie wrote to say that Anna had called longingly for Elliott while giving birth to their son, Hall, on 28 June. “It is dreadful to think of the inheritance the poor little baby may have in him,” Theodore wrote somberly—and prophetically.
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The thought of Elliott now being free to return to Anna’s bed saddened and sickened him. In his opinion, sex between them should cease until Elliott “by two or three years of straight life” had canceled out the sin of adultery.
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It did not occur to him that Anna, who had no sins to atone for, might be in any way inconvenienced by such an arrangement.
R
OOSEVELT’S WORRIES ABOUT
Katy Mann, aggravated by nervousness over the political consequences of his Baltimore report
(still pigeonholed despite frantic pleas from reformers for its release), plunged him into gloom as June gave way to July. “I am at the end of my career, such as it is,” he wrote to Henry Cabot Lodge. “… I often have a regret that I am not in with you, Reed, and others in doing the real work.” About the only people who seemed to approve of him at the moment were the mugwumps, and he needed none of
their
lisping praises. The “good party men” whose respect he craved seemed to cherish nothing but “bitter animosities” toward him.
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His mood was not improved by an awkward business meeting with President Harrison on 1 July. “Throughout the interview he was as disagreeable and suspicious of manner as well might be,” Roosevelt wrote Lodge. “He
is
a genial little runt, isn’t he?”
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Actually the meeting had positive results. Harrison approved some new Civil Service rules governing promotions which Roosevelt had been pressing as part of his campaign to root out favoritism in government departments; but the coolness between the two men was such that even their treaties seemed like truces.
R
OOSEVELT WAS NOW FREE
to leave Washington for the summer, there being little work in his hot, musty office that he could not do at Sagamore Hill. Edith and the children had long since preceded him north, and he missed them so painfully he would look over his shoulder for them on walks through Rock Creek Park. Pausing only to stuff a suitcase with fireworks, he caught the Limited to New York on Friday, 3 July,
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arriving home in time for the holiday.
It was not a very festive weekend. On Sunday he was obliged to cross the Sound for the funeral of his cousin Alfred—killed horribly under the wheels of a train
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—and he returned to news that Katy Mann had finally named her price: $10,000. This, Theodore wrote Bamie, was “so huge a sum” that the hoped-for compromise seemed unlikely. The scandal would break any day now, he feared. It was impossible to deny Elliott’s culpability: an “expert in likenesses” had seen the baby, and its features were unmistakably Rooseveltian.
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Telegrams from Europe crossed his letter to report that Elliott had been inveigled into an inebriate asylum outside Paris. He was now safely under lock and key, and Bamie had persuaded Anna to return to the States without him.
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About this time the figure of Katy Mann begins mysteriously to fade from history. The last specific reference to her in Theodore’s correspondence is a remark dated 21 July
:
“Frank Weeks [Elliott’s lawyer] advises me that I have no power whatever to compromise in the Katy Mann affair. I suppose it will all be out soon.” But the scandal never broke. Evidently the girl got her money, although how much, and when, and who paid it, is unknown.
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A
SCANDAL OF ANOTHER SORT
began to loom on 4 August, when Roosevelt sent advance copies of his Baltimore report to the White House and Post Office Department. Official reaction to the document was best symbolized by Assistant Postmaster General Clarkson, who took one look at it and placed it under lock and key.
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An abridged form of the report was released for publication on 16 August, and instantly became front-page news.
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Fortunately both President Harrison and Postmaster General Wanamaker were on vacation, and would not return until early September, by which time Roosevelt planned to be two thousand miles west in the Rockies.
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The inevitable confrontation between them would thus be delayed until October at least.
Try as he might, Roosevelt could not keep his name out of current headlines. On 17 August, the day after his Baltimore report was broadcast to the nation, the
New York Sun
splashed the following sensational story:
ELLIOTT ROOSEVELT INSANE
His Brother Theodore Applies for a Writ in Lunacy
A Commission [has been] appointed by Justice O’Brien of the Supreme Court to enquire into the mental condition of Elliott Roosevelt, with a view to having a committee
appointed to care for his person and for his estate. The application was made by his brother, United States Civil Service Commissioner and ex-Assemblyman Theodore Roosevelt, with the approval of Elliott Roosevelt’s wife, Anna Hall Roosevelt.…
Theodore Roosevelt avers in the papers in the case that the mental faculties of his brother have been failing him for nearly two years. He says he saw him frequently until Elliott went to Europe in July 1890, and he had remarked the gradual impairment of his intellect. His conversation had been rambling and he could not tell a story consecutively … During the winter of 1890 he had several bad turns. He became violent and on three occasions threatened to take his own life. He had to be placed in surveillance. Mr. Roosevelt says he is “unable to say how far the result is due to indulgence in drink or other excesses.” He alleges that the property of his brother in this State consists of real estate, bonds, stocks, and is worth $170,000.
Substantially the same news item appeared in all the major dailies. Never before had the Roosevelts, that 250-year-old clan of unimpeachable respectability, been tarnished with such shameful revelations.
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The resentment of family elders against Theodore for having precipitated it may well be imagined, but he was convinced he had done the right thing for Anna and the children. It had been necessary to act hastily before Elliott was released from his French asylum and returned to the United States to claim his property. Even so, the court might not decide in time. “It is all horrible beyond belief,” Theodore wrote Bamie. “The only thing to do is go resolutely forward.”
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All in all, the summer of 1891 must have been a time of anguish for the beleaguered Commissioner. Its only discernible blessing was the birth, on 13 August, of his fourth child and second daughter, “a jolly naughty whacky baby” named Ethel.
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Even this was saddened by the almost simultaneous death of Wilmot Dow, the younger and more lovable of his Dakota partners. “I think of Wilmot all the time,” he wrote. “I can see him riding a bucker, paddling, shooting,
hiking.…” Solace was to be found out West. At the end of the month he left for Medora and the Rockies.
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