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^^ a^^^ Excerpts from 
 
 BooseYeltlan Fact M Fable 
 
 By Mrs. Annie Riley Hale 
 
 With addenda 
 
 Illustrated by Will H. ChancUee 
 
 After Reading this Book 
 Please Pass it Alprig , 
 
 Printed for the Author by 
 
 Trow Press 
 
 New York 
 
 13a 
 
EXCERPTS FROM 
 
 ROOSEVELT IAN 
 
 FACT AND FABLE 
 
 BY 
 
 MRS. ANNIE RILEY HALE 
 
 WITH ADDENDA 
 
 ILLUSTRATED BY WILL H. CHANDLEE 
 
 Printed for the Author by 
 
 TROW PRESS 
 
 New York 
 
CooyrUfht 1908. 
 Mrs. ANNIE RILEY HALE 
 
 All riehts reserved. 
 
DEDICATION. 
 
 To the Galleries, 
 
 to whom my hero lias played so long 
 
 and so successfully, 
 
 ihis little volume is affectionately dedicated 
 
ALTTHOR'S PREFACE. 
 
 The bcx)k is intended merely as a contribution to the 
 truth of history, and is offered without malice, and 
 without apology. Its author is neither Mr. Roose- 
 velt's apologist nor his accuser, — save as the Facts 
 accuse him. She has no personal grudge to satisfy in 
 the publication of things derogatory, and no private 
 wrongs to avenge. As a disinterested "looker-on here 
 in Vienna" during the past five years, she has watched 
 the progress of events surrounding the head of the 
 nation, and noted the utterances falling from Execu- 
 tive lips. She has marveled ofttimes at the swift in- 
 genuity with which these events were wrested from 
 their original setting, and given a wholly different col- 
 oring from that they at first wore ; marvelled likewise 
 at the equal celerity with which other doings and say- 
 ings of the Strenuous President were hustled com- 
 pletely out of sight, and the public mind immediately 
 occupied with different matters. Out of this watching 
 and wondering grew the idea for this little book. 
 
 To those whose admiration for Roosevelt is a mat- 
 ter of conviction rather than of fore-ordination; to 
 those who still have the courage to look a fact in the 
 face, and the honesty to assign it its proper place in 
 any summing up of character, this faithful compila- 
 tion of Fact and Fable may appeal with some force, 
 and to that extent fulfill its modest mission of shed- 
 ding light in dark places. But having been bom and 
 reared a Presbyterian, the writer early learned the 
 folly of going counter to a fore-ordained belief, and 
 
ii Preface 
 
 how idle and irrelevant is any evidence in the court 
 whose mind is made up in advance of it. 
 
 All this class of Rooseveltian worshippers therefore, 
 — ^large or small as the case may be — are hereby 
 warned against wasting any valuable time on these 
 pages. 
 
 It may be true, as P. T. Bamum once observed, that 
 "the Americans love to be humbugged," — love it, at 
 least, while the delusion lasts. 
 
 But there are straw indications, here and there, that 
 many of them are emerging from the Roosevelt spell. 
 The time seems ripe for appealing from the American 
 people drunk to the American people sober; and to 
 take advantage of the lull in the shouting, for applying 
 the historic measuring-rod to the Roosevelt dimensions. 
 
 A. R. H. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 His Public Beginnings i 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 The San Juan Hill Myth 12 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 "Roosevelt's Round Robin" 23 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 "Roosevelt Reform" Legends 41 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 Roosevelt, the Preacher 72 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 Roosevelt and the "Bosses" 78 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 Roosevelt and the Mothers 96 
 
Contents. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 Caesar Puts by the Crown 191 
 
 ADDENDA. 
 "Showing His Teeth" to General Miles 199 
 
 How Roosevelt Fought the "Bosses" of New 
 
 Mexico in 1906-7 211 
 
ROOSEVELTIAN FACT AND FABLE. 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 HIS PUBLIC BEGINNINGS. 
 
 It IS recorded that when District Worker "Toe" 
 Murray had quarreled with his chief, Barney Hess, 
 and was casting about in 1881 for a proper instrument 
 of revenge upon Hess, he hit upon Theodore Roose- 
 velt as his most available candidate to represent the 
 Twenty-first District in the New York Assembly, in 
 the year of our Lord, 1882. 
 
 Theodore is described at that time as a thin, pale 
 stripling, just emerged from Harvard and European 
 travel, in his twenty-third year. 
 
 The reason assigned by the historians for Murray's 
 choice of this untried political quantity was that his 
 Family Name was one to conjure with in the Twenty- 
 first District, being a Name of great age and eminent 
 respectability in that locality. The adoring Jacob Riis 
 rapturously asserts: "It was the bluest of old Knick- 
 erbocker blood !" A less fervid, but perhaps more ac- 
 curate historian, affirms: "It (the Name) had been 
 borne by five generations of smug, sleek, thrifty busi- 
 ness men, following an ancestor of homely, sturdy 
 frugality. Though they had not been of great im- 
 portance in civil life, aldermen and other municipal 
 officers had risen from their ranks. They were men 
 of substance and power. A remote strain of Jewish 
 blood had possibly intensified the native Dutch shrewd- 
 ness." Nothing particularly high-sounding about this 
 
2 ROOSEVELTIAN FaCT AND FaBLE 
 
 lineage, to ears unattuned to the higher Rocscveltian 
 symphonies, even the' one must concede it is always a 
 problem beset with more or less difficulty — to deter- 
 mine the precise quantity and quality of "blue blood" 
 in this Red-White-and-Blue Republic of ours. 
 
 Perhaps "A Member of the Weil-Known Bulloch 
 Family of Georgia" may save the day for T. Roose- 
 velt's aristocratic pretensions, — however, it is with 
 more important things than the Roosevelt "blue blood" 
 that this narrative is concerned. 
 
 Having been elected a New York Assemblyman in 
 1882, by the grace of "Joe" Murray and the accumu- 
 lations of his thrifty Dutch ancestors, our hero quickly 
 "found himself" politically. It appears that at first he 
 went in for "reform," tho' the reform program ex- 
 hibits serious breaks early in his career. The above- 
 quoted historian further says of the Name: "Pursuit 
 of money for money's sake had worn its keen edge to 
 dullness. Fads of charity and public service had 
 grasped this good name. It was known by its works 
 as well as by its thousands." 
 
 Theodore Senior — whose death occurred in the 
 third year of his son's college course — had been active 
 in New York's Social Settlement and Charitable or- 
 ganizations. It was partly following a family tradi- 
 tion, therefore, when the son flashed his maiden sword 
 under the banners of reform. Again, the political 
 complexion of New York at this time^ — (and most all 
 other times) — ^made the reform program the only 
 alternative for a legislative novice seeking to attract 
 attention. 
 
 A well-known political writer thus sums up the sit- 
 uation: "Tammany Democrats looted the city; ma- 
 chine Republicans as regularly looted the State. Ma- 
 chine Republicans covered up their own iniquities by 
 exposing the city wickedness of Tammany. Tam- 
 many Democrats defended their plunderous strong- 
 
ROOSEVELTIAN FaCT AND FaBLE 3 
 
 holds by bombarding the hypocrisy and crookedness of 
 the up-State hordes." In a place where political cor- 
 ruption was the established order, in both the great 
 parties, our young statesman quickly perceived that 
 the easiest way to focus on himself the wondering gaze 
 of the multitude, was to make a noise like a "re- 
 former" — and so he chose his role. His aggressive 
 temper, and the odd sense of proportion in all matters 
 affecting himself which hath ever covered him like a 
 garment — provoked some derision in this first legist 
 lative Assembly, and from the older Republican mem- 
 bers the gentle admonition to "go back and sit down." 
 Needless to say, the attractions and advantages of a 
 back seat have never appealed strongly to the Roose- 
 velt fancy. 
 
 His "strenuosity," as it became later known to the 
 nation, was not so pronounced in those days, tho' he 
 early exhibited the restless energy which delights in 
 "stirring things up," and an insatiable craving for the 
 lime-light which time hath not abated. In this first 
 year, he learned the value of dramatic display, and 
 from his trading ancestry he drew the full importance 
 of liberal advertisftig. It was remarked of him even 
 then that he went out of his way to cultivate the favor 
 of newspaper men. The devoted Riis (at that time on 
 the staff of the New York Sun) makes an heroic 
 episode of the noisy part his virtuous young so Ion bore 
 in the impeachment of a federal judge in this first ses- 
 sion of the N. Y. Legislature, tho', it seems, nothing 
 much came of the impeachment. Even Riis admits, 
 "in the end the corruptionists escaped" — a fate which 
 appears to have pursued the reform measures of this 
 particular reformer throughout his reforming career. 
 But as in this instance, the faithful Riis took care of 
 the "glory" for his hero, even so, there hath ever been 
 found an obliging and clever artist to paint the re- 
 former in letters of light, with little or no attention 
 
4 ROOSEVELTIAN FaCT AND FaBLE 
 
 paid to the insubstantial character of the reform. In- 
 deed, as much as possible, the people are made to for- 
 get about the reform, and to concentrate their 
 thoughts upon the reformer. The reform is but an 
 incident — ^the reformer is the main thing. 
 
 Francis Leupp, Indian Commissioner, and member 
 of the "Tennis Cabinet," finds evidence of rare prom- 
 ise in the fact that, "while still a mere youth, Roose- 
 velt had risen to the leadership of the Republican side 
 in the Assembly at Albany." Historian Leupp did not 
 think it necessary to remark in that same connection, 
 that the New York Assembly in which Roosevelt "rose 
 to the leadership of the Republican side" — was over- 
 whelmingly Democratic, having come in with the vic- 
 torious Cleveland over the wreck of the Republican 
 machine; and that so many of the veteran Republican 
 legislators had gone down to defeat, Roosevelt — 
 whose district was a Republican stronghold — easily 
 captured the barren honor of "minority leader" on the 
 floor. The emptiness of the title, per se, is well set 
 forth in the following story: The nine-year-old son 
 of John Sharp Williams, Minority Leader in the Na- 
 tional Congress, was required by his teacher in a pub- 
 lic school exercise, to write down the name of his 
 father's vocation. "Please, ma'am," said Kit, hesitat- 
 ingly, holding up his hand for attention, "he is leader 
 of the minority, but I don't know v^hat that is, nor 
 how to spell it. But I know he goes over to the Capitol 
 every morning." "Oh, well," returned the sapient 
 shooter of juvenile ideas, "just say he works at the 
 Capitol !'_' _When the incident was related to the face- 
 tious Mississippian, he remarked with grim humor: 
 "Better 50 years a scrub-lady than a cycle of mock- 
 sway !" 
 
 In this Democratic Assembly of 1883, Roosevelt as 
 "minority leader," accredited with reform leanings, 
 was permitted to introduce and pass a primary law 
 
ROOSEVELTIAN FaCT AND FaBLE 5 
 
 recommended in Governor Cleveland's message, but 
 from the rest of the Cleveland reform program, he 
 appears to have held aloof. 
 
 This is notably true of the Civil Service law which 
 was passed by this Democratic Legislature, and later 
 appropriated by Mr. Roosevelt's biographers as one 
 of his achievements. Fact and Fable are so sharply 
 at issue in the matter that it becomes necessary to be 
 specific. 
 
 Stratemeyer in his "American Boy's Life of Theo- 
 dore Roosevelt," says : 
 
 "One of the greatest services done by Roosevelt at 
 that time (when he was assemblyman) was the sup- 
 port given by him to a Civil Service law for the 
 State." On page 34 of Leupp's "The Man, Roose- 
 velt," may be found the statement: "Mr. Roosevelt 
 who had been his (Dorman B. Eaton's) enthusiastic 
 colleague in the National Civil Service Reform 
 League, was author of the bill which passed the New 
 York Legislature during Gov. Cleveland's administra- 
 tion, about simultaneously with the Federal Act." Riis 
 likewise claims the credit of this first New York Civil 
 Service law for his hero, and with a fine disregard of 
 chronology, says this "Roosevelt law" was made the 
 model for the national law ! 
 
 Now for the Facts in the case so grossly and 
 strangely perverted by the aforesaid authorities. Civil 
 Service Reform had been agitated by such men as 
 George Wm. Curtis, Carl Schurz, and Allen Jenckes 
 of Rhode Island, while Roosevelt was yet in pina- 
 fores — back in the 6o's. Several Presidents had en- 
 dorsed it, and finally through the persistent efforts of 
 Pendleton, Democrat, of Ohio, in Congress, assisted 
 by Dorman B. Eaton, Independent, of New York, and 
 backed by the Curtis crowd and the Civil Service Re- 
 form League on the outside, a national Civil Service 
 law was placed on the statute books in January, 1883, 
 
6 ROOSEVELTIAN FaCT AND FaBLE 
 
 This was about the time the New York Legislature 
 convened, which five months later passed the first ef- 
 fective State civil service law, with Grover Cleveland 
 in the governor's chair. Five months later, yet Riis 
 says it furnished the model for the Federal law. 
 Perhaps if the dear, simple-hearted old Dane had sus- 
 pected how little his hero had to do with framing or 
 passing this law, he would not have been tempted to 
 play such havoc with the dates. So far from having 
 fathered or promoted this state Civil Service law, the 
 records show that Roosevelt„did. not even vote for it. 
 Several bills were introduced (none of them ¥y Roose- 
 velt), the one which finally passed by a vote of 96 to 2 
 was introduced by Michael C. Murphy of New York 
 City, and chairman of the Committee on Affairs of 
 Cities. There were about 85 Democrats and 48 Re- 
 publicans in the Assembly, and on pp. 1338-39 of the 
 Assembly Journal Theodore Roosevelt is recorded "not 
 voting" on this bill, tho' if he was not present when the 
 vote was taken, he was shortly before, and perhaps the 
 eulogists will explain why he was not on hand to honor 
 with his vote a measure for which he was supposed 
 to have such patriotic zeal that they have marked it for 
 his own. 
 
 In 1884, the Republican machine came into its own 
 again, and began to celebrate its return to power by 
 assaulting the Qeveland Civil Service law. While 
 there is no evidence that Roosevelt openly joined in 
 the attack, neither is there any proof .that he made 
 any strenuous defence of it. Certainly, tho' he was a 
 prominent member of that Assembly, he could not, or 
 did not prevent its emasculation at the hands of its 
 enemies. Concerning this coy attitude toward Civil 
 Service in its inception, John W. Bennett, in his 
 "Roosevelt and the Republic," says : 
 
 "In the civil service matter, Theodore Roosevelt's 
 action was characteristic. This wise and discreet 
 
ROOSEVELTIAN FaCT AND FaBLE J 
 
 young man had already learned not to pin his faith to 
 new and strange measures of doubtful and untried 
 popularity. Let others do the pioneer work. The 
 band-wagon must be well filled and tooling along 
 swimmingly before he claims a seat, he then sees to 
 it that the most conspicuous place is accorded him. 
 Our discreet young solon — as in after life — was im- 
 pulsive only on the surface. Impulsiveness with him 
 was a stage business, used only for dramatic and ad- 
 vertising purposes. Under the skin, Theodore 
 Roosevelt was wary as a wood-lynx. . . . Time 
 would tell how the crowd would take this Cleveland 
 measure, supported by impossible Tammany men. If 
 popular, there would be plenty of time to use it in 
 one's business; if it proved a fiasco, the Tammany 
 shoulders were broad and strong — Roosevelt's skirts 
 were clean." 
 
 We next find our hero, at the age of twenty-six, 
 figuring in national politics. He was made chairman 
 of the New York delegation to the National Conven- 
 tion of 1884 which cast its vote for Senator Edmunds, 
 leader of the Reform forces in the State. 
 
 Blaine, "the Plumed Knight" of brilliant parts and 
 besmirched reputation, was everjrwhere supported by 
 machine Republicans, and the allied forces of corrup- 
 tion. He was hostile to everything which savored of 
 reform, — civil service, tariff revision, and clean poli- 
 tics. In addition, the Mulligan and Fisher letters had 
 unearthed a black scandal connected with his name, 
 convicting him of using his office of Speaker for pri- 
 vate gain — a scandal which not even his dazzling and 
 magnetic personal qualities could wholly offset. The 
 Reformers would have none of him, and Roosevelt, 
 Curtis and Company fought him valiantly in caucus 
 and in convention. But Blaine secured the nomina- 
 tion of his party, despite the Reform contingent, and 
 
8 ROOSEVELTIAN FaCT AND FaBLE 
 
 flung down the gauntlet to Graver Cleveland and the 
 "unterrified Democracy." 
 
 Hundreds of Independent Republicans abandoned 
 their party to its fate, and gave their votes to the Dem- 
 ocratic candidate who brought into the contest a rec- 
 ord for official efficiency and clean politics. 
 
 And what of Theodore Roosevelt in this crisis? The 
 Cleveland program was the Roosevelt program, as 
 Roosevelt himself had noisily proclaimed it from his 
 seat among the Reformers. Surely, for this earnest, 
 insistent young "reformer," of lofty ideals and clam- 
 orous honesty, there could be but one choice between 
 these two. Nay, gentle reader, be not o'erhasty in 
 judging the actions of the great. Theodore Roose- 
 velt bade adieu to his Reform associates without a 
 tremor, and cheerily took his stand under the soiled 
 banner of "the Plumed Knight." 
 
 This crucial test applied at the outset of his politi- 
 cal career, demonstrated that which has had frequent 
 demonstration since, that, above everything else, Mr. 
 Roosevelt is a partizan. And one may be a partizan, 
 and be a good man, so far as honesty goes. Or one 
 may be a civic reformer, if he prefers that role, the' 
 this is more difficult. But one must make a choice — 
 the two are absolutely incompatible. 
 
 It were as easy to serve God and Mammon. 
 
 Roosevelt is accredited somewhere with the pious 
 formula, that "sometimes a man must sacrifice party 
 allegiance to the public weal," or words to that effect ; 
 but he is extremely fortunate in never having encoun- 
 tered this painful necessity in his own experience. The 
 closest inspection of his political record throughout, 
 fails to discover a single instance wherein he permitted 
 party action to separate him for ever so short a time 
 from the Republican fold. Even Historian Leupp 
 makes the surprising statement : "Bom with the men- 
 tal and moral equipment of an independent, he has 
 
ROOSEVELTIAN FaCT AND FaBLK 9 
 
 made of himself, by unremitting endeavor, a pretty 
 good partizan." How fortunate is Mr. Roosevelt 
 again in having a discerning biographer to wreathe his 
 partizanry with the halo of self-sacrifice I 
 
 In that third session of the New York Assembly of 
 which Roosevelt was a prominent member, a measure 
 came up which was vital to good government. This 
 was a constitutional Amendment for municipal home 
 rule, whose effect was to exempt the city's affairs from 
 interference or control by the State government at 
 Albany — a prolific source of corruption and misrule. 
 This Amendment would have done more than any- 
 thing else to secure the municipal reforms for which 
 Roosevelt had put forth such noisy advocacy. At the 
 critical moment, when its friends were pressing it to a 
 vote, Roosevelt suddenly became solicitous about the 
 legal form of it, and defeated it by springing upon it 
 the time-honored device of legislative crooks, of refer- 
 ring it to the Judiciary Committee. 
 
 It was never heard of more. 
 
 As assemblyman, Roosevelt also got through a "re- 
 form" measure, taking away from aldermen the power 
 of confirming mayoralty appointments. 
 
 New York mayors were sometimes Republican, the 
 Board of Aldermen was nearly always Democratic. 
 As this law would prevent a virtuous Republican 
 mayor from being handicapped in his appointments by 
 corrupt Democratic aldermen, it was of course, in the 
 interests of "good government." Once establish the 
 doctrine that all good was practically resident in the 
 Republican party; that no evil was so much to be 
 dreaded for the State or the city as Democratic control, 
 and the path was made smooth for our "refijrmer's" 
 feet. David Harum's liberal dictum, that "one man 
 has as much human nature as another — if not more," 
 has no place in the Roosevelt reform creed. 
 
 Panegryist Riis gives us this explanation of Roose> 
 
to ROOSEVELTIAN ,FaCT AND FaBLK 
 
 T«lfs choice of a political career, warm from his 
 hero's lips: "I suppose, for one thing, plain, every- 
 day duty s«nt me mere to begin with. But more than 
 that, I wanted to belong to the governing class, not to 
 the governed," — concerning which, an unfeeling critic 
 makes the cynical observation, "It could never occur 
 to him, that the two might be the same." 
 
 But taking his motive at his own appraisement, let 
 ■ns see, as tms narrative proceeds, whether the "plain 
 duty" or the "governing^' instinct ran ahead in the 
 race. 
 
 Yet whatever harsh verdict the Facts may bring in 
 at the close of the Roosevelt trial, it will be modified 
 in every charitable mind by a perusal of the worship- 
 ful biographies of Messrs. Leupp and Riis. 
 
 Scant admiration goes to the fulsome adulation of 
 a President, with patronage to dispense; or to the 
 fawning that goeth before thrift; but real genuine 
 affection, wherever bestowed, should command not 
 only respect but sympathy. Especially does this apply 
 to the dog-like devotion of Jacob Riis, the simple- 
 hearted, simple-minded old Dane, whose love for his 
 chief is as sincere as his judgment of him is awry. It 
 Is worthy of note also, that Mr. Riis has never accepted 
 any of the "spoils of office" in liquidation of his hero- 
 worship debt. 
 
 One can but feel, however, that this epic-hymning 
 pair would have made out a stronger case for their 
 'arma virumque," had not their enthusiasm betrayed 
 them into reproducing upon their luminous pages a 
 youthful portrait of "Theodore Roosevelt at twenty- 
 four," which is well, to say the least of it — disquieting. 
 It suggests the villain in the play "being good" for a 
 season; or, more aptly, the melodramatic hero of a 
 mining camp, who has come to church, it is true, but 
 whether to join with the worshippers, or raise a row 
 
ROOSEVELTIAN FaCT AND FaBLE II 
 
 on the back seat, is a question not to be settled at a 
 glance. 
 
 However the students of history and psychology 
 may agree in the future, that the devices whicn 
 brought Theodore Roosevelt into the "governing 
 class" were not such as to develop the man's better 
 nature, that he had a better nature, no one will doubt 
 who reads the idyllic odes to Roosevelt, penned by 
 Jacob Riis. We are ready to believe that "Teddy" 
 may have had something "really good and sweet" in 
 his early make-up, — albeit the look of that young 
 photograph is disconcerting. 
 
 Its friends should suppress it. 
 
ta ROOSEVELTIAN FaCT AND FaBLE 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE SAN JUAN HILL MYTH. 
 
 '^t was on his war record that he made his cam- 
 paign for the governorship of New York." 
 
 This, being quoted from Historian Leupp, must be 
 authoritative. 
 
 An irreverent critic has dubbed Leupp's book "a 
 Campaign Life of Roosevelt," it having appeared 
 simuhaneously (in January) with the campaign year 
 of 1904. 
 
 Perhaps as the "war record" had done such valiant 
 and successful campaign service in New York in 1898, 
 it was still counted on to fire a few shots in the Presi- 
 dential fight of 1904. A war record which has made 
 so many drafts on the nation's gratitude, should be 
 something out of the ordinary, and may be worth in- 
 vestigating. 
 
 In the winter of 1897-98 prior to the Spanish- Amer- 
 ican blaze, Roosevelt (according to the biographers) 
 made the acquaintance of one Leonard Wood, an army 
 surgeon, who was immediately engaged as military 
 coach for the future commander of the "Rough 
 Riders." 
 
 Wood had also been McKinley's family physician 
 when McKinley was a congressman, and now stood in 
 high favor with the President. 
 
 As both Wood and Roosevelt were spoiling for a 
 fight, it was speedily arranged with President McKin- 
 ley that Wood should be made Colonel, and Roosevelt 
 Ldeutenant-colonel of a regiment which Roosevelt 
 
ROOSEVELTIAN FaCT AND FaBLE I3 
 
 had decided should be called "the Rough Riders." 
 From Historian Leupp we get the information that 
 "the idea of the Rough Rider regiment was Roose- 
 velt's own." There is a tradition (found in enqyclor 
 paedias) that the original "Rough Riders" were a 
 class of couriers employed on the Western frontiers in 
 1859, before the days of the "pony express," and 
 Colonel Wm. F. Cody— "Buffalo Bill"— had made 
 them a feature of his "Wild Western Show." 
 
 How entirely natural, how perfectly in keeping with 
 everything bearing the stamp of Rooseveltian activity 
 before and since, that when our nascent "war-lord" 
 came to choose his fighting men, he should find the 
 regimentals best suited to his fancy under a circus tent ! 
 
 So many "ideas" and "policies" have been attributed 
 to Mr. Roosevelt which rightfully belonged elsewhere, 
 that it is positively refreshing to encounter one Roose- 
 veltian idea whose authorship is beyond dispute. 
 
 The "Rough Riders" had been riding, while Roose- 
 velt was yet in swaddling clothes, but the idea of deck- 
 ing out a regiment of soldiers in their picturesque 
 garb was — as Mr. Leupp claims for him — "all his 
 own." 
 
 After some drilling and parading on American soil, 
 bv way of getting the spectacular brigade well into the 
 public eye, we find the gallant Rough Riders "drawing 
 first blood" in Cuba, at the ill-considered and prema- 
 turely fought battle of Las Guasimas. As has been 
 so often recounted, the Rough Riders under Wood 
 and Roosevelt ran into an ambush on this occasion — ■ 
 Spaniards hidden in an old cemetery between the 
 creek and the road — from which they were narrowly 
 rescued by the timely arrival of the Negro troops, this 
 last having furnished the text for much reproachful 
 oratory since the Brownsville affair. 
 
 As it was, 68 brave fellows went down before the 
 unseen fire, i6 of them to rise no more. Among tha 
 
14 ROOSEVELTIAN FaCT AND FaBLE 
 
 slain was the gallant Captain Allyn Capron, who had 
 done more than anyone else to increase the efficiency 
 of the Rough Rider brigade. Reliable military his- 
 torians relate that General Wheeler, who commanded 
 the cavalry, had weakly yielded to the importunities of 
 "the ardent young Roosevelt and others" in giving the 
 order for this attack, or "reconnaissance"; thereby 
 violating his own order from the superior officer to 
 wait for General Lawton with the infantry. 
 
 And that "rough old General Lawton," coming up 
 and seeing the blunder, "said some unpleasant things" 
 — ^bluntly charging the blood of Captain Capron and 
 the slain troopers upon this unauthorized haste. 
 
 Roosevelt received his first baptism of fire and blood 
 at Las Guasimas, and having accomplished his pur- 
 pose of securing for the "Rough Riders" the credit of 
 having "started things in Cuba," it is not to be sup- 
 posed he allowed the casualties of war to disturb his 
 complacent reflections. There was more "glory" 
 ahead. Panegyrist Riis says : 
 
 "All the way up, it (the Rough Rider regiment) 
 had been the vanguard. ... lo days of marching 
 and fighting in the bush culminated in the storming of 
 the San Juan hills, with Colonel Roosevelt in full com- 
 mand, Colonel Wood having been deservedly promoted 
 after Las Guasimas !" 
 
 The picce-de-resistance of all the Rough Rider ex- 
 ploits, — as it exists in the popular fancy — was the as- 
 sault on the Spanish entrenchments on top of San 
 Juan Hill. This has been "suiig in song and story" 
 until it ranks in the annals of military glory with 
 Pickett's charge up the Gettysburg Heights. It is a 
 thankless task to show that, as a Rough Rider achieve- 
 ment, it more properly finds a place among Baron 
 Munchausen's Tales, or in some standard work '^k 
 mythology, — ^yet such is the merciless showing of ihe 
 Facts. Let us first note the heroic Fable. The New 
 
ROOSEVELTIAN FaCT AND FaBLE IS 
 
 York Sun of date, July 4, 1898, published the follow- 
 ing vivid account of the San Juan charge: "When 
 they came to the open, smooth hillside, there was no 
 protection. Bullets were raining down at them, and 
 shot and shells from the batteries were sweeping 
 everything. 
 
 "There was a moment's hesitation, and then came 
 the order: Forward, charge! Colonel Roosevelt led, 
 waving his sword. Out into the open the men went 
 and up the hill. Death to every man seemed certairi. 
 The crackle of the Mauser rifles was continuous. Out 
 of the brush came the Riders. Up, up they went, with 
 the colored troops alongside of them, not a man flinch- 
 ing, and forming as they ran. Roosevelt was a hun- 
 dred feet in the lead. Up, up they went, in the face 
 of death, men dropping from the ranks at every step. 
 The Rough Riders acted like veterans. It was an in- 
 spiring sight and an awful one. . . . The more 
 Spaniards were killed, the more seemed to take their 
 places. The rain of shells and bullets doubled. Men 
 dropped faster and faster, but others took their places. 
 . . . Roosevelt sat erect on his horse (all authorities 
 now agree there was not a horse in the fight), holding 
 his sword, and shouting for his men to follow hims. 
 Finally, his horse was shot from under him, but he 
 landed on his feet, and continued calling for his men 
 to advance. . . . 
 
 "He charged up the hill afoot. It seemed an age to 
 the men who were watching, and to the Rough Riders 
 the hill must have seemed miles high. But they were 
 undaunted. They went on, firing as fast as their guns 
 would work. At last the top of the Hill was reached. 
 The Spaniards in the trenches could still have anni- 
 hilated the Americans, but the Yankee daring dazed; 
 "them. They wavered for an instant, and then turned: 
 and ran. 
 
 "The position was won, and the block-house cap- 
 
16 ROOSEVELTIAN FaCT AND FaBLE 
 
 tured. In the rush, more than half of the Rough 
 Riders were wounded." . . . 
 
 This vivid, glowing picture, with Roosevelt on 
 horseback as the central figure, was copied in the 
 press throughout the country, and the Russian mili- 
 tary painter, Vereschagin, was inveigled into commit- 
 ting the salient details to canvas. Riis declares with 
 ecstatic fervor, that "it will live forever in the Ameri- 
 can mind," and cause a thrill in the American heart, 
 unequalled by any other vibration before or since. 
 
 It really seems nothing short of sacrilege to mar 
 this heroic picture in any of its inspiring details. Yet 
 the clear, cold light of history, unmindful of the pangs 
 of the hero-worshippers, has been steadily turned on 
 this glowing battle scene, with the cruel result (to the 
 worshippers) of completely eliminating the central 
 heroic figure — horse and all ! 
 
 The first to turn on the disillusioning stream was 
 Senator Alger in his "Spanish-American War," pub- 
 lished in 1 90 1. 
 
 On page 164 of Alger's History, we read : "A part 
 of the cavalry division which first attacked Kettle 
 Hill, did not advance on San Juan Ridge at the time of 
 the assault by Kent's infantry division. The 1st Vol- 
 unteer Cavalry, under Colonel Roosevelt, as well as 
 parts of the Regular regiments which captured Kettle 
 Hill, did not join the infantry in its charge on San 
 Juan block-house and that portion of San Juan Ridge 
 to the left of Santiago Road, commonly known as 
 San Juan Hill." 
 
 The "Kettle Hill" here referred to, was a low, steep 
 knoll, surmounted by a farm house and some huge iron 
 caldrons — whence its name — to the right of San Juan 
 Ridge whereon were the main Spanish entrench- 
 ments, and separated from them by an open, grass- 
 covered glade, a third of a mile wide. "Kettle Hill" 
 therefore presented the first obstacle to the American 
 
ROOSEVELTIAN FaCT AND FaBLE IJ 
 
 advance, and was held by a skirmish line of Spaniards, 
 who quickly gave way before the attacking force, con- 
 sisting (according to Alger, p. 157) of "one squadron 
 of the 1st Cavalry, the 9th Cavalry (colored), and the 
 1st Volunteer Cavalry (under Colonel Roosevelt), who 
 all charged together over the crest." 
 
 And here, according to the best authorities, the gal- 
 lant Rough Riders rested on their laurels. Having 
 easily dislodged the Spaniards from this unimportant 
 and slightly defended hillock, they calmly watched 
 their comrades, the Infantry division led by Hawkins 
 and Kent, storm and capture the main Spanish posi- 
 tion on top of San Juan Hill. 
 
 Historian Alger — who was Seer etary-of -War Alger 
 when this history was in the making — very cleverly 
 makes Historian Roosevelt himself corroborate his ac- 
 count of the disposition of the troops in this battle, by 
 citing an isolated paragraph from the "Rough Riders," 
 pp. 134-136: "No sooner were we on the crest of Ket- 
 tle Hill than the Spaniards from their line in our front, 
 where they were strongly entrenched, opened fire upon 
 us with their rifles and two pieces of artillery. . . . 
 On the top of the hill was a huge iron kettle, probably 
 used for sugar refining. Several of our men took shel- 
 ter behind this. M'^e had a splendid mew of the charge 
 on San Juan block-house to our left and a third of a 
 mile to the front, where the Infantry of Kent, led by 
 Hawkins, were climbing the Hill." . . . 
 
 The average reader will wonder how he missed this 
 tell-tale paragraph in Colonel Roosevelt's book, which 
 somehow or other conveys such an impression of 
 Rough Rider valor and omnipresent activity, that one 
 forgets all other participants in the war, and agrees 
 with Mr. Dooley that the book should have been 
 named "Alone in Cuba." Surely Historian Alger has 
 made a mistake. We turn to the indicated page in- 
 credulously. No, there it is as quoted, securely sand- 
 
l8 ROOSEVELTIAN FaCT AND FaBLE 
 
 wiched between Rough Rider acts fore and aft in the 
 rapidly moving picture — paeans to right of it, paeans to 
 left of it. Yet obscured as it is by the more important 
 business (in the mind of the author) of glorifying the 
 Rough Riders, and completely bst as it has been m all 
 the shouting evoked by the publication of the myth; 
 here is the statement in plain black and white from 
 their gallant commander himself, that, instead of lead- 
 ing the charge on the San Juan block-house, the dash- 
 ing troopers (including their commander) mewed it 
 from behind the sugar kettle a third of a mile away! 
 
 We never could have believed it upon any other 
 authority, though other authorities are not lacking. 
 The military reports of General J. Ford Kent, of Cap- 
 tains A. C. Markley, Henry Wygant and Charles 
 Dodge of the 24th Infantry, all of whom took part in 
 the San Juan Hill charge, make no mention of Colonel 
 Roosevelt or the Rough Riders. Captain Herbert H. 
 Sargent's book on the Santiago campaign, and General 
 Shafter's (Commanding General) Report in 1898, es- 
 tablish the fact that Las Guasimas was a cavalry fight, 
 but that the victory at San Juan was due primarily to 
 the Infantry. 
 
 Moreover the Cavalry division was only one-sixth 
 of the strength of the corps actively engaged before 
 Santiago on this July ist, and the Rough Riders made 
 up but one-fifth or less of the Cavalry. So that the 
 whole Rough Rider organization counted not more 
 than one-thirtieth in the fight, and their commander — 
 directing only about 500 men out of 16,000 — could not 
 have had any great influence upon the result. 
 
 Commenting on Roosevelt's statement that, at a cer- 
 tain stage of the battle he "found himself at the front, 
 in command of fragments of all six regiments of the 
 Cavalry division," John W. Bennett asks : "What had 
 become of Wheeler, Sumner and Wood? not to speak 
 of the other brigade and regimental officers, many of 
 
ROOSEVELTIAN FaCT AND FaBLE IQ 
 
 whom, down to lieutenant-colonel, must have out- 
 ranked Roosevelt? Did they all think themselves in 
 command of all six regiments? Participants in a bat- 
 tle rarely get the true historic perspective, or properly 
 gauge their own or the part borne by others in the 
 fight. Disinterested civilians like Bonsai say the In- 
 fantry took the Hill and the Cavalry came afterward. 
 This seems to be the Fact." 
 
 It long ago became apparent to the country, that 
 there was not enough glory in that Spanish-American 
 imbroglio to "go around." 
 
 Barring the Sampson-Schley controversy, and the 
 Dewey Parade, most of the participants— even includ- 
 ing Richmond Pearson Hobson — have tacitly agreed 
 that it served its highest mission in furnishing a con- 
 venient stage setting for the Rough Rider star actor, — 
 and to let it go at that. By the time the 5th Army 
 Corps were mustered out on Long Island in the sum- 
 mer of 1898, Theodore Roosevelt, commander of 500 
 men in an army of 16,000, loomed bigger than every 
 living soldier in the Republic ! 
 
 Such things are incredible, and inexplicable to the 
 understanding of the ordinary individual, but it is all 
 clear as day in the mind of the press agent. 
 
 The New York Sun of date June 28, 1908, under an 
 editorial caption, "Once More the Old Fiction," calls 
 attention to the recurring persistence of this San Juan 
 Hill fable every time a Rough Rider dies (or gets 
 himself arrested for disorderly conduct), citing a case 
 in point — an obituary sketch of Lieutenant-Colonel 
 Augur of the 24th Infantry who died at Fort Thomas, 
 Ky., on June 25th — and concludes by severely holding 
 Roosevelt responsible for the wide circulation of the 
 misleading picture, and calls on him to "either suppress 
 the picture, or courageously change the mendacious 
 title." 
 
 In view of its present attitude, it must make the Sun 
 
20 ROOSEVELTIAN FaCT AND FaBLE 
 
 mighty mad to remember (or does the Sun remem- 
 ber?) that this "mendacious" picture of the Rough 
 Rider charge appeared in large type on its own front 
 page on the morning of July 4, 1898. Ten short years 
 make a wonderful difference in the point-of-view some- 
 times, but the Sun may take comfort in the thought 
 that it is not the first or only great dispenser of truth 
 who has been too hasty in enlightening the world. 
 
 Moreover, as appears from Mr. Roosevelt's own ac- 
 count of the San Juan battle, he did not claim to have 
 led the charge on the block-house, but distinctly states 
 that he "viewed" it from the crest of "Kettle Hill"; 
 and as probably for one person who read the book, a 
 thousand read the newspaper story, perhaps the Sun's 
 responsibility for the wide circulation of the menda- 
 cious account, is greater than Mr. Roosevelt's. 
 
 True, the book ("The Rough Riders") did not ap- 
 pear until 1900, after Mr. Roosevelt had been safely 
 elected Governor of New York — "on his war record," 
 according to Leupp — and was on his unconscious way 
 to the White House. True also, that there is nowhere 
 any mention of Roosevelt's having "courageously" de- 
 nied this "mendacious" newspaper account during the 
 gubernatorial campaign which was "made on it," 
 soothing his conscience no doubt with the mental res- 
 ervation that he had at least told the truth in his book. 
 As further experience of the Roosevelt conscience, re- 
 veals occasions wherein it was appeased on much slen- 
 derer grounds, there is no special reason for carping in 
 this instance. 
 
 After all, why should the Sun or any other ill-na- 
 tured stickler for accuracy be raising a rumpus now 
 about the Facts in this bit of Spanish- American his- 
 tory, when Mr. Roosevelt has been enjoying the sub- 
 stantial benefits of the popular fiction for ten years ? 
 
 Certainly, it is not with any thought of undoing 
 what has been done, or of depriving Mr. Roosevelt of 
 
FORT MEYER 
 
 IV:-^ 
 
 /v-i, 
 
 K0f 
 
 lit 
 
 /?<? 
 
 -'#»a;>sP'" 
 
 "PERHAPS, LIKE RIIS, HE HAD LEARNED TO 
 LOVE THE PICTURE" 
 
ROOSEVELTIAN FaCT AND FaBLE 21 
 
 the fruit of his toil. It is only interesting as a striking 
 instance of the curious and ingenious fashion in which 
 Fable has donned the garb of truth to serve the needs 
 of Roosevelt, and as throwing considerable light on 
 Rooseveltian methods early in his career. 
 
 In 1902, Mr. Roosevelt being President, Verescha- 
 gin, the famous Russian painter of war scenes, came to 
 V\'ashington, and taking up his abode at Fort Meyer, 
 began his now celebrated painting of the San Juan 
 Hill Charge. By whose order, or upon whose initia- 
 tive, this was done, no one now living in Washington 
 appears to have any knowledge. There are residents 
 who "remember that an eflfort was made to induce the 
 Government to buy the picture," but by whom this 
 effort was made no one will undertake to affirm. Cer- 
 tain old newspaper correspondents of Washington re- 
 member vaguely seeing the painting "while it was on 
 exhibition at the White House," but the White House 
 ushers are all afflicted with confusing recollections. 
 "It may have been there, or it may not," is the baffling 
 reply to all queries. Inquiry of Wm. Loeb, Jr., as to 
 "when this picture was at the White House?" elicited 
 the illuminating response, that he "has no idea where 
 the picture is now, nor whether any copies of it are 
 extant in Washington." Diligent search in various 
 quarters has failed to discover any "copies" of the 
 painting in Washington. 
 
 From a Fort Meyer employee, the writer learned 
 that the picture was sent to New York, after Verescha- 
 gin's death in 1904, and sold for $10,000. This Ft. 
 Meyer employee, who was on the spot when the paint- 
 ing was being executed, further vouchsafed the infor- 
 mation, that the work was done mostly "under cover," 
 the artist not inviting public inspection; that he (the 
 Ft. Meyer attache) had seen it only once, and was 
 struck with the equestrian figure of the President in 
 the center; that the President came several times to 
 
22 ROOSEVELTIAN FaCT AND FaBLE 
 
 F®rt Meyer during the progress of the painting and 
 was in consuitation with the artist. 
 
 Perhaps by this time the President had forgotten 
 the details of the battle which he had put into his 
 "Rou^h Rider" annals; perhaps familiarity with the 
 sight of that horse-back figure in the thick of the fray, 
 had convinced him of its truth; perhaps, like Riis, he 
 had learned to "love the picture," and as we have 
 learned by this time, the President is notoriously 
 "short of memory." The artist, Vereschagin, might 
 have unfolded a tale to set all doubts at rest, but he 
 did not tarry long in this country, after finishing this 
 masterpiece, and thereafter very prudently got himself 
 drowned on board a Russian battleship at the siege of 
 Port Arthur, thereby escaping likely membership in 
 the "Ananias Club." 
 
 This San Juan Hill picture, in what it represents, 
 and taken in connection with Historian Leupp's state- 
 ment that it secured the governorship of New York, is 
 a conspicuous and fitting illustration of the sort of 
 foundation on which was reared this fair structure of 
 Rooseveltian greatness and fanje. 
 
ROOSEVELTIAN FaCT AND FaBLE 23 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 "Roosevelt's round robin." 
 
 The dictionary definition of "round robin" is: "A 
 petition or manifesto signed by a number of persons, 
 the signatures being inscribed in a circle, so that no 
 one should have precedence of the others" ; but who- 
 ever imagines Colonel Roosevelt taking part in any 
 business where "no one is to have precedence of the 
 others," does not know the man. This is entirely op- 
 posed to the Rooseveltian scheme of things. 
 
 There came a time, it is true, when he was none too 
 eager to have the authorship of the Cuban Round 
 Robin ascribed to him, but at the time of the promul- 
 gation of that historic paper, he took some pains, as 
 this chapter will show, to have it associated with his 
 name, and to appropriate all the credit for the good 
 results claimed for it. 
 
 Biographer Riis calls it "Roosevelt's Round Robin" 
 in his "Roosevelt, the Citizen," and Riis should be 
 good authority on this point. His testimony is rein- 
 forced by the New York Tribune and New York Sun 
 of date August 5, 1898, both good Roosevelt wit- 
 nesses at that time. The Tribune published a dis- 
 patch from Santiago de Cuba, date August 3rd, to 
 the efifect that Major-General Shafter had summoned 
 all the commanding and medical officers of the 5th 
 Army Corps to a conference, resulting in the framing 
 and sending of the famous Round Robin to the Sec- 
 retary of War at Washington. 
 
 The Tribune further states: "As an explanation of 
 
34 ROOSEVELTIAN tACT AND J^ABLE 
 
 the situation, the following letter from Colonel Roose- 
 velt to General Shafter was handed by the latter to a 
 correspondent of the Associated Press for publican- 
 tion." 
 
 Then follows the "Colonel Roosevelt letter": 
 "Major-General Shafter, Sir: "In a meeting of the 
 general and medical officers called by you at the Pal- 
 ace this morning, we were all, as you know, unani- 
 mous in view of what should be done with the army. 
 To keep us here, in the opinion of every ofiScer com- 
 manding a division or a brigade, will simply involve 
 the destruction of thousands. There is no possible 
 reason for not shipping practically the entire com- 
 mand north at once. Yellow fever cases are verj' 
 few in the Cavalry division, where I command one of 
 the two brigades, and not one true case of yellow 
 fever has occurred in this division, except among the 
 men sent to the hospital at Siboney, where they have, 
 I believe, contracted it. But in this division there have 
 been 1,500 cases of malarial fever. Not a man has died 
 from it, but the whole command is so weakened and 
 shattered as to be ripe for dying like rotten sheep when 
 a real yellow fever epidemic, instead of a fake epi- 
 dtanic like the present strikes us, as it is bound to, if we 
 stay here at the height of the sickness season, August 
 and the beginning of September. Quarantine against 
 malarial fever is much like quarantining against the 
 tooth-ache. All of us are certain, as soon as the au- 
 thorities at Washington fully appreciate the condi- 
 tions of the army, to be sent home. If we are kept 
 here, it will in all human possibility mean an appalling 
 disaster, for the surgeons here estimate that over half 
 the army, if kept here during the sickly season, will 
 die. This is not only terrible from the standpoint of 
 the individual lives lost, but it means ruin from the 
 standpoint of military efficiency of the flower of the 
 American Army, for the great bulk of the regulars 
 
ROOSEVELTIAN FaCT AND FaBLE 2$ 
 
 are here with you. The sick list, large tho' it is, ex- 
 ceeding 4,000, affords but a faint index of the debili- 
 tation of the Army. Not lo per cent, are fit for active 
 work. Six weeks on the North Maine coast, for in- 
 stance, or elsewhere, where the yellow-fever germs 
 cannot possibly propagate, would make us all as fit as 
 fighting-cocks, able as we are and eager to take a lead- 
 ing part in the great campaign against Havana in the 
 Fall, even if we are not allowed to try Porto Rica. 
 We can be moved north if moved at once, with abso- 
 lute safety to the country, altho' of course it would 
 have been infinitely better if we had been moved north 
 or to Porto Rico two weeks ago. If there were any 
 object in keeping us here, we would face yellow fever 
 with as much indifference as we face bullets, but there 
 is no object in it. The four immune regiments or- 
 dered here are sufficient to garrison the city and sur- 
 rounding towns, and there is absolutely nothing for us 
 to do here, and there has not been since the city sur- 
 rendered. It is impossible to move into the interior. 
 Every shifting of camp doubles the sick rate in our 
 present weakened condition, and anyhow, the interior 
 is rather worse than the coast, as I have found by 
 actual reconnaissance. Our present camps are as 
 healthy as any camps at this end of the Island can be. 
 I write only because I cannot see our men who have 
 fought so bravely and who have endured extreme 
 hardship and danger so uncomplainingly, go to de- 
 struction without striving so far as lies in me to avert 
 a doom as fearful as it is unnecessary and undeserved. 
 "Yours respectfully, 
 
 "Theodore Roosevelt, 
 
 "Colonel Commanding First Brigade." 
 
 Had not "circumstances" rendered the immediate 
 
 suppression of this famous epistle expedient for many 
 
 reasons, besides rescuing the "brave fellows" from the 
 
 yawning yellow fever peril, it might also have served 
 
■^ ROOSEVELTIAN FaCT AND FaBLE 
 
 a more peaceful but not less noble purpose as a model 
 of Engflish composition in an eighth-grade Grammar 
 School. Mr. Roosevelt's fame as a writer is as wide- 
 spread as his renown as statesman and warrior, and 
 the inspiration this historic document would impart to 
 the literary buds which flower in the public school at- 
 mosphere, as well as the ease with which they could 
 copy its ornate, pellucid style, must commend its use 
 to all progressive and patriotic instructors in English. 
 
 On the same page with the "Colonel Roosevelt let- 
 ter" in the old files of the New York dailies, is found 
 the "Round Robin," addressed to Major-General Shaf- 
 ter, and by him forwarded to the War Department: 
 "We, the undersigned officers commanding the vari- 
 ous brigades, divisions, etc., of the Army of Occupa- 
 tion in Cuba, are of the unanimous opinion that this 
 army should be at once taken out of the Island of Cuba 
 and sent to some point on the northern sea coast of 
 the United States ; that it can be done without danger 
 to the people of the United States; that yellow fever 
 in the Army at present is not epidemic; that there are 
 only a few sporadic cases ; but that the army is disa- 
 bled by malarial fever to the extent that its efficiency 
 is destroyed, and that it is in a condition to be practi- 
 cally entirely destroyed by an epidemic of yellow fever 
 which is sure to come in the near future. We know 
 from the reports of competent officers, and from per- 
 sonal observations, that the Army is unable to move 
 into the interior, and that there are no facilities for 
 such a move, if attempted, and that it could not be 
 attempted until too late. 
 
 "Moreover, the best medical authorities of the Is- 
 land say that, with our present equipment, we could 
 not live in the interior during the rainy season, without 
 losses from malarial fever, which is almost as deadly 
 as yellow fever. This Army must be moved at once, 
 or perish. 
 
ROOSEVELTIAN FaCT AND FaBLE ■2'J 
 
 "As the Army can be safely moved now, the persons 
 responsible for preventing such a move, will be re- 
 sponsible for the unnecessary loss of many thousands 
 ox lives. Our opinions are the result of careful per- 
 sonal observation, and they are also based on the unani- 
 mous opinion of our medical officers with the army, 
 who understand the situation absolutely. 
 
 "Signed: Maj.-Gen. Jos. Wheeler, Maj-Gen. J. 
 Ford Kent, Maj-Gen. J. C. Bates, Maj.-Gen. Adnah 
 R. Chaffee, Maj.-Gen. H. W. Lawton, Brig.-Gen. 
 Sam'l S. Sumner, Brig-Gen. Will Ludlow, Brig.-Gen. 
 Adalbert Ames, Brig.-Gen. Leonard Wood and Col. 
 Theodore Roosevelt." 
 
 As appears from the above, the Round Robin was 
 merely the Roosevelt letter boiled down and with the 
 edge taken off. Even thus, it was too much for the 
 military palate of bluff old General Lawton, who ac- 
 companied his signature to the memorable petition with 
 the following protest: 
 
 "In signing the above letter, I do so with the under- . 
 standing it has been seen and approved by the Com- 
 manding-General. I desire to express it as my strong 
 opinion that the best medical authorities of the Island, 
 and all the surgeons of the command be also required 
 to sign the paper. I desire also to express the opinion 
 that the mandatory language used in the letter is im- 
 politic and unnecessary. . . . Milder expressions to 
 those in high authority accomplish just as much, &c., 
 &c." 
 
 At this time "the Big Stick" had not been heard of, 
 but General Lawton appears to have caught a pro- 
 phetic swish of it in the Round Robin, and to have 
 otherwise regarded with suspicion this apparently 
 proper paper. 
 
 Needless to add. General Lawton's protest was not 
 "handed to the press correspondent for publication," 
 along with the Round Robin and the Colonel Roose- 
 
28 ROOSEVELTIAN FaCT AND FaBLE 
 
 velt letter, but found its way with these to the War 
 Department, and is reproduced on page 267 of Alger's 
 History. 
 
 However the responsibility for the Round Robin 
 proper may be divided up among the "signers in the 
 circles," there can be no possible question as to the 
 authorship and individual responsibility for the com- 
 munication signed "Theodore Roosevelt, Colonel, com- 
 manding the First Brigade." The only question — one 
 which has rarely if ever been raised, be it remembered 
 — is, how did these important communications, car- 
 rying such weighty state secrets, and presumably in- 
 tended only for the confidential ear of the War De- 
 partment, find their way into the public prints? We 
 know who received praise for the action, at the time 
 when it was hastily adjudged worthy of praise, from 
 an editorial which appeared in the New York Tribune 
 of that same date, August 5, 1898: "Colonel Theodore 
 Roosevelt is credited with having taken the initiative 
 in making representations which put any delay in this 
 matter out of the question. 
 
 "If the Round Robin was due to his efforts, then 
 his well-known aggressive activity has been of good 
 value to his fellow soldiers, &c." 
 
 That the Tribune's view of the matter was not 
 shared by President McKinley and the War Depart- 
 ment, appears from Alger's statement: "When Presi- 
 dent McKinley read the Round Robin for the first 
 time in the newspapers, he became very much excited 
 and indignant. . . . The matter was regarded so 
 seriously that, after a conference at the White House, 
 the following reprimand was cabled to General Shaf- 
 ter: "White House, Washington, August 5, 1898. 
 Maj.-Gen. Shafter, Santiago: 
 
 ' At this time when peace is talked of, it seems 
 strange that you should give out your cable signed by 
 your general officers, concerning conditions of your 
 
ROOSEVELTIAN FaCT AND FaBLB 2g 
 
 army to the Associated Press, without permission from 
 the War Department. You did not even await a reply 
 to your communication. 
 
 "R. A. Alger, Secretary of War." 
 
 To which Gen. Shafter cabled prompt reply : 
 
 "To the Hon. R. A. Alger, Secretary of War, 
 Washington: The report was given out, as I have 
 learned since, before it reached me. I called the gen- 
 eral officers together to tell them what I proposed to 
 do, to express to them my views and to ask them to 
 give me theirs. I found we all felt alike. Someone 
 then proposed they write me a letter setting forth their 
 views, and I told them to do so. Meanwhile I wrote 
 my telegram, and later it was handed in and forwarded 
 with the letter of the surgeons and that of the officers. 
 It was not until some time after, that I learned this 
 letter had been given to the press. It was a foolish, im- 
 proper thing to do, and I regret very much that it 
 occurred. . . . 
 
 "Roosevelfs letter I know nothing of, nor of what 
 he said. ... I have been very careful about giving 
 to the press any information, and I will continue to 
 be so. 
 
 "W. R. Shafter, Major-General." 
 
 This telegram in which Gen. Shafter completely ex- 
 onerates himself from any complicity or responsibility 
 for the "foolish and improper" publications, is found 
 in full in the New York Sun of issue August 6, 1898, 
 in a dispatch from Washington, on page 271 of Alger's 
 book, with the significant elision (in the book) of the 
 sentence referring to "Roosevelt's letter." 
 
 Now then, the New York Tribune of August 5, 
 1898, stated that the Roosevelt letter had been handed 
 by General Shafter (to whom it was ostensibly ad- 
 dressed) to a correspondent of the Associated Presi 
 for publication ; but General Shafter, the highest com- 
 manding officer of the Army in Cuba, in a cablegram 
 
30 ROOSEVELTIAN FaCT AND FaBLE 
 
 tB the Secretary of War, which is to become part of 
 the history of the country, emphatically denies this 
 statement, and further disclaims all knowledge of the 
 letter or its contents. If there were any missing link 
 in the chain of evidence fixing the responsibility for 
 this publication upon Theodore Roosevelt, it was fur- 
 nished by Senator Foraker in an illuminating sentence 
 uttered in the Senate last Spring. 
 
 Wm. Alden Smith of Michigan had declined to pro- 
 duce in the Senate a letter addressed to him by Presi- 
 dent Roosevelt, or to confirm a report of it which had 
 appeared in the morning paper, saying he was not re- 
 sponsible for its publication, as he "made it a rule never 
 to divulge any personal communication from the Pres- 
 ident." (Wise Senator Smith!) 
 
 Whereupon Senator Foraker, with his most judicial 
 air, enunciated the following syllogism: "There are 
 but two parties to a letter, the man who writes it and 
 the man who receives it. Since the recipient in this 
 case declares he did not give it to the public, it must 
 have come from the White House." 
 
 So it is manifest, the only "two parties" to the Round 
 Robin letter were Colonel Roosevelt and the press -cor- 
 respondent ! 
 
 Close attention to the subject matter of that letter 
 must convince any candid mind that it was never in- 
 tended for General Shafter, but for the public to whom 
 it was "handed" without delay. Such a letter in- 
 tended merely as a private communication to a superior 
 officer is an absurdity, on its face. The minute and ex- 
 pansive details as to the physical features of the Is- 
 land, and the condition of the Army, addressed to the 
 commanding officer who was on the spot, and supposed 
 to be as familiar with the whole situation even as 
 Colonel Roosevelt himself, must have appeared very 
 Pickwickian to any but the Rooseveltian sense of hu- 
 mor. 
 
ROOSEVELTIAN FaCT AND FaBLE 3I 
 
 The Round Robin letter was the picturesque fore- 
 runner of that notable series of "personal communi- 
 cations" which Mr. Roosevelt has thought proper to 
 "hand" to the press before mailing to their lawful re- 
 cipients ; and which have formed such a unique feature 
 of his public career. 
 
 Concerning the Round Robin, on page 269 of his 
 "Spanish-American War," Alger says: "Of the 
 Round Robin itself, I have no criticism to offer. 
 
 "General Shafter invited his officers to a confer- 
 ence, and himself telegraphed to the War Department 
 their conclusions and recommendations, which was 
 entirely proper for him to do. But I do criticise the 
 agencies through which these alarming utterances 
 were given to the world. 
 
 "The publication of the Round Robin at that time 
 was one of the most unfortunate and regrettable inci- 
 dents of the war. It did not, as commonly reported, 
 result in the selection of Montauk Point, nor hasten 
 the return of the Santiago Army, as every possible 
 effort had already been made, and was then making 
 for the re-patriation of our troops. . . . 
 
 "The Round Robin dated August 3rd was not re- 
 ceived at the War Department until August 4th, after 
 General Shafter had already been ordered to send the 
 Cavalry division back on August ist, and the entire 
 Army on August 3rd. For reasons of public policy, 
 these orders, as well as the alarming messages re- 
 ceived from General Shafter as to the condition of the 
 Army, were not made public. It was therefore gen- 
 erally believed that the 'Round Robin' was responsible 
 for the order issued for the return of the 5th Corps, 
 and for the selection of Montauk Point. As a matter 
 of fact, it had nothing to do with either. ... On 
 the other hand, the information this startling paper 
 made known, not only brought terror and anguish to 
 half the communities and neighborhoods in the land. 
 
32 ROOSEVELTIAN FaCT AND FaBLE 
 
 but it returned to Cuba in due time to spread demorali- 
 zation among our troops. ... It threatened and 
 might have accomplished an interruption of the peace 
 negotiations then in progress between the United 
 States and Spain, which had reached their most deli- 
 cate stage at the time when the Round Robin, with all 
 its suggestion of panic and disaster, was made public 
 to the four corners of the earth. That a satisfactory 
 agreement between the two governments was at last 
 reached, cannot be credited to those who precipitately 
 gave out information which might have prevented 
 ft. . . . 
 
 "Moreover, the publication of this official letter was 
 a gross breach of army regulations and military disci- 
 pline; and through its agency the enemy secured in- 
 formation regarding our situation, when the Govern- 
 ment was most anxious to conceal the facts, until the 
 acceptance of the demands of the United States could 
 be secured." 
 
 A wayfaring man or a quick-witted child may grasp 
 the proposition, — had a less debilitated foe than Spain 
 been given to understand that disease in the American 
 ranks was fighting on her side, she would not have been 
 o'er hasty in concluding terms of peace. Besides the 
 international complications threatened by the Round 
 Robin publication, Alger thus writes of its effect at 
 home: "It would be impossible to exaggerate the 
 mischievous and wicked effects of the Round Robin. 
 It afflicted the country with a plague of anguish and 
 apprehension. There are martyrs in all wars, but the 
 most piteous of these are the silent, helpless, heart- 
 broken ones who stay at home to weep and pray and 
 wait — ^the mother, sister, wife, and sweetheart. To 
 their natural suspense and suffering, these publications 
 added the pangs of imaginary terrors. They had en- 
 dured through sympathy, the battle-field, the wasting 
 
ROOSEVELTIAN FaCT AND FaBLE 33 
 
 hardships of the camp, the campaign in the tropics, 
 the fever-stricken trench. 
 
 "They might at least have been spared this wanton 
 torture, this impalpable and formless, yet overwhelm- 
 ing blow." (Span.-Am. War, p. 273.) 
 
 And there was yet another feature of the Round 
 Robin episode, which has not been much exploited, 
 and which places the insistent demand of the noble 
 Rough Riders to be removed from Cuba in no very 
 heroic light 
 
 In order to relieve the 5th Army Corps at Santiago, 
 five regiments of U. S. Volunteers — so-called "im- 
 munes" — were ordered there for garrison duty, and 
 of this Alger says: "As soon as the announcement 
 was made that the "immune" regiments were to be 
 sent to Santiago, many protests were received against 
 such action. No attention, however, could be paid to 
 these communications." 
 
 One of these protests, sent by Senator Bacon of 
 Georgia, against allowing the 3rd regiment of Volun- 
 teers, a company of young Georgians, to go into the 
 fever-stricken country, set forth the facts, that these 
 young fellows — most of them minors — had not stood 
 any "immune" test ; that, as a matter of fact, they were 
 not as much "immune" as the soldiers already in Cuba, 
 and quite naturally, they had no greater relish for be- 
 ing sent there "to die like rotten sheep" than the men 
 who were so urgently seeking to avoid that fate ; that, 
 of course, if there were fighting to be done, and more 
 men needed, they were volunteers, and ready for ac- 
 tion. But to be sent into a pestilential region as a 
 vicarious sacrifice for the soldiers who had reaped the 
 "glory of the fighting" and were now fleeing the pesti- 
 lence, was a wholly different matter, and did not ap- 
 peal either to their sense of justice or of patriotic 
 duty. 
 
 Doubtless considerations of this nature formed the 
 
34 ROOSEVELTIAN FaCT AND FABLE 
 
 basis of the "many other protests" filed with the War 
 Department. But as Secretary Alger relates, "no at- 
 tention could be paid to them." The fiat had gone, 
 forth. The star actor in the gallant Rough Rider 
 show had heard the curtain call in New York — ^he 
 must away! The 5th Corps must be repatriated, and 
 the "immunes" must take their chances with the fever. 
 
 On page 271 of Alger's book, occurs this statement: 
 "Every possible effort was made to ascertain the name 
 of the person responsible for its (the Round Robin) 
 publication, that he might be called to proper account 
 for the act, but in vain." 
 
 It is very painful to encounter a snag like this in 
 the smooth current of an apparently truthful narra- 
 tive, and from the pen of a man whose historic integ- 
 rity is above reproach. But there are extenuating cir- 
 cumstances. A present United States Senator who 
 served in the Cuban campaign, is authority for the 
 statement, "Alger knew who was the author of the 
 Round Robin mischief, and made no secret of his 
 wrath in a conversation I had with him on my return 
 from the war." There is other evidence that the Secre- 
 tary of War was not suffering from any delusion re- 
 garding the military character of the Rough Rider 
 commander. 
 
 On the same date (August 5, 1898) on which it 
 published the Round Robin and the "Colonel Roose- 
 velt letter," the New York Sun, in a dispatch from 
 Washington, published an interesting bit of corre- 
 spondence between Colonel Roosevelt and the Secre- 
 tary of War of a previous date, July 23rd, which the 
 dispatch stated the Secretary had just given out for 
 publication. This ran as follows : "Santiago de Cuba, 
 July 23. My Dear Mr. Secretary : I am writing with 
 the knowledge and approval of General Wheeler. We 
 earnestly hope that you will send us most of the regu- 
 lars, and at any rate the cavalry division, including 
 
ROOSEVELTIAN FaCT AND FaBLE 35 
 
 the Rough Riders, who are as good as any regulars, 
 and three times as good as any state troops, to Porto 
 Rica. 
 
 "There are i,8oo effective men in this division. If 
 those who were left behind were joined to them, we 
 could land at Porto Rica in this cavalry division close 
 to 4,000 men, who would be worth easily any 10,000 
 National Guards armed with black powder, Spring- 
 fields, or other archaic weapons, &c., &c., &c. 
 "Very respectfully, 
 
 "Theodore Roosevelt." 
 
 Following this, the Sun gives the rebuke which was 
 cabled to Colonel Roosevelt: "Your letter of the 23rd 
 is received. The regular army, the volunteer army, 
 and the Rough Riders have done well, but I suggest 
 that, unless you want to spoil the effects and glory of 
 your victory, you make no invidious comparisons. The 
 Rough Riders are no better than other volunteers. 
 They had an advantage in their arms, for which they 
 ought to be very grateful. 
 
 "R. A. Alger, Secretary of War." 
 
 The hero-worshippers were scandalized by this 
 publication, and the obedient press "wondered why 
 Secretary Alger wanted to publish a correspondence 
 of this sort" ; even as Secretary Alger doubtless won- 
 dered why Colonel Roosevelt wanted to publish a cor- 
 respondence like the Round Robin. 
 
 "The Rough Riders are no better than other volun- 
 teers !" 
 
 The promulgation of this new and strange and au- 
 dacious doctrine stamps the promulgator as a man of 
 exceptional moral courage. But Alger resigned from 
 the War Department in 1899 — probably in disgust — 
 and his "Spanish- American War" did not appear until 
 1901, after Mr. Roosevelt, by the death of McICinley, 
 had succeeded to the presidency. 
 
 There is a rumor — which the writer of this took 
 
36 ROOSEVELTIAN FACT AND FaBLE 
 
 some pains to verify — ^that the Alger History was 
 edited, revised and partly written by a well-known 
 newspaper man of Washington. Ah! Now the light 
 breaks on what was before enveloped in mystery. Un- 
 der the deft, discriminating touches of one of those 
 clever, chameleon artists who manufacture editorials 
 for the Washington local press, one understands how 
 the incriminating sentence, "I know nothing of the 
 Roosevelt letter, nor of what he said," disappeared 
 from the Shafter telegram. It is perfectly clear like- 
 wise, how the Roosevelt letter itself, and all reference 
 to it, or to any possible connection he might have had 
 with the Round Robin, were most carefully omitted 
 from the Alger book. For these Washington artists 
 are thoroughly imbued with the conviction — handed to 
 them with their salaries — ^that there is no crime in the 
 category like lese majeste toward the White House 
 throne. Historical accuracy, individual conviction, 
 and every other consideration must be sacrificed to the 
 paramount duty of making the "present administra- 
 tion" — whatever its complexion and while it lasts — in 
 all its details and appurtenances, "one grand, sweet 
 song I" 
 
 But while this explains the misleading paragraph 
 and the significant omissions in the Alger book, it 
 does not explain the "conspiracy of silence" between 
 the War Department, the military authorities in Cuba, 
 and the New York press — all of whom had knowl- 
 edge of the facts — ^to shield Colonel Roosevelt in the 
 Summer of 1898 from the consequences of his "gross 
 breach of army regulations and of military disci- 
 pline" — according to Alger. 
 
 To understand this, one must review the political 
 situation in New York at that time. The Republican 
 outlook in that State was not a cheerful one, — as the 
 managers themselves admitted. Governor Black's 
 overwhelming plurality in 1896 had given an extra 
 
ROOSEVELTIAN FaCT AND FaBLE 37 
 
 reckless swing to the Piatt machine. The "Boss" in- 
 terpreted the sweeping Republican victory as a special 
 tribute to his personal popularity. But Governor 
 Black no sooner began to rule than he began to blun- 
 der. Then the Canal scandal was unearthed, revealing 
 $3,000,000 of the people's money wasted and stolen by 
 Republican leaders and heelers. To re-nominate 
 Black, with all the sins of his administration crying to 
 Heaven, meant certain defeat at the polls ; and no other 
 available candidate was in sight. Finally after a 
 gloomy conference, one of the leaders remarked to an- 
 other, "If Teddy comes home a hero, we will nomi- 
 nate and elect him governor." That settled it. "Teddy 
 must come home a hero !" 
 
 In that same historic summer of 1898, Richard 
 Croker was accredited with the cynical remark, that 
 "no man need be nominated for governor of New 
 York, who could not show at least one scat received in 
 the Cuban fight." 
 
 And so it came about, as set forth by Historian 
 Leupp that "Teddy" made his campaign for the gov- 
 ernorship upon his "war record," and "court-martial 
 proceedings" would not have looked well in a "war 
 record" employed in such a noble cause. John W. 
 Bennett in his (pp. 102-12) "Roosevelt and the Re- 
 public," gives an interesting account of another im- 
 portant factor which entered into this far-reaching 
 gubernatorial campaign. Bennett relates that Roose- 
 velt made a bargain with the "Citizens' Union" — the 
 Independent organization of New York who were en- 
 couraged by the peculiar political muddle to put out a 
 ticket — to accept their nomination, upon condition they 
 would allow him to use the backing of the Independ- 
 ents as a "club" to force the regular Republican nom- 
 ination; with the further understanding that if he 
 failed to secure the Republican nomination, he would 
 be free to reject the Independent nommation also. To 
 
38 ROOSEVELTIAN FaCT AND FABLE 
 
 this the Independents agreed, stipulating in their turn, 
 that they would select the other names on their ticket, 
 and that not all of them would be Republicans. To 
 this, Roosevelt agreed also, and thus they parted, with 
 the distinct understanding that if he ran for governor 
 at all, he was irrevocably committed to the Independ- 
 ent nomination. The Republican nomination was to 
 be additional. Thus the agreement stood for weeks^ 
 while the Independents perfected their organization — 
 involving some statutory complications — and ear- 
 nestly canvassed the State in Roosevelt's behalf. Then 
 when this Independent side-show had served the pur- 
 pose for which he had engaged it— ^that of capturing 
 the Republican nomination — Roosevelt calmly threw 
 over the Independents, and took up his political head- 
 quarters in the camp of Piatt, Odell & Co. — ^the very 
 men whom he had covenanted with the Independents 
 to overthrow. The Independents, astonished and ag- 
 grieved, contented themselves with publishing the facts 
 and naming another candidate, but too late to do any 
 *(ffective work for him. They had "shot their bolt" 
 for Roosevelt, and it was past recall. Commenting on 
 ttiis episode, Bennett says: "If a cleverer piece of 
 political manipulation can be found in the history of 
 the United States, it has escaped our notice. Roose- 
 velt demonstrated himself a past master at the game of 
 politics. Squeamish persons might object to the bad 
 faith involved, but they make the mistake of judging 
 Roosevelt by ordinary standards. 
 
 "What would have been rank trickery in Piatt, Quay, 
 or Gorman, might be quite laudable in a gentleman of 
 high and holy motives, seeking an end much to be de- 
 sired." 
 
 Roosevelt had not had the nomination many weeks 
 before his astute political sagacity warned him that he 
 would be beaten unless he broke the policy of silence 
 imposed on him by the Piatt machine, and openly de- 
 
ROOSEVELTIAN FaCT AND FaBLB 39 
 
 nounced the Canal thieves. Taking his cue with the 
 promptitude of the born actor, he rushed through the 
 State, carrying a few Rough Riders along as a re- 
 minder of his "war record," declaring from the rear 
 end of his car at every stop that, "if there were Canal 
 thieves, they should be punished." By dint of work- 
 ing both roles at once, as military hero and civic re- 
 former, ably assisted by the substantial efforts of the 
 Republican machine and the contributory blunders of 
 Richard Croker, our Strenuous hero attained his goal 
 — ^the State House at Albany, by a narrow plurality of 
 17,000 votes, as contrasted with Gov. Black's plurality 
 of 212,000, two years previous, and Odell's plurality 
 of 111,000, two years later. After all, the "war rec- 
 ord" may have had a great deal to overcome in the 
 way of reluctance on the part of voters to support this 
 particular hero and reformer. And the "Round Robin" 
 incident, which was a part of the "war record," was 
 completely relegated to the limbo of oblivion, dropped 
 from the stage properties henceforth. 
 
 But for those silent witnesses, the yellowed files of 
 the New York dailies of ten years back, there is no 
 scrip nor sign to show that Mr. Roosevelt ever had 
 any connection with the once famous document. 
 
 True, the devoted Riis, who has the happy faculty 
 of turning every Rooseveltian act into a paean of 
 praise, in his book (which was not brought out until 
 his hero became President) speaks of it: "The Colonel 
 of the Rough Riders at the head of his men on San 
 Juan Hill, much as I like the picture, is not half so 
 heroic a figure to me, as Roosevelt in this hour of 
 danger and doubt, shouldering the blame for the step 
 he knew to be right!" 
 
 This is interesting as showing to what maudlin 
 lengths of misrepresentation even a good man may go, 
 when he resigns himself unreservedly to the trans- 
 ports of hero-worship, and also as pointing to the fact 
 
40 ROOSEVELTIAN FaCT AND FaBLE 
 
 that Riis also knew Roosevelt to be the author of the 
 Round Robin. 
 
 So far from "shouldering the blame for what he 
 knew to be right" — tho' everybody else knew it to be 
 wrong — there is every reason to believe Roosevelt 
 tried to affix the blame of the publication — if blame 
 there should be — ^upon Gen. Shafter, by authorizing the 
 New York Tribune's statement that "Gen. Shafter 
 had handed the letter to the press correspondent." If 
 Col. Roosevelt did not authorize that statement, who 
 did? 
 
 He and the press correspondent were the only two 
 individuals who had any knowledge of the letter prior 
 to its being given to the public. 
 
 Perhaps the correspondent just dreamed Gen. Shaf- 
 ter handed it to him. 
 
 President Roosevelt was rather severe upon a "con- 
 spiracy of silence" some years later, when Negro sol- 
 diers were the guilty party ; but will the American peo- 
 ple render harsher judgment in the case of negroes — 
 following a blind racial instinct — than in the case of 
 the highest military and governmental officials in the 
 land? It was a curious trick of Fate, that the benefi- 
 ciary of the Round-Robin "conspiracy of silence" 
 should by means of it, mount the steps of his judg- 
 ment-throne to pass sentence upon the negroes ! Un- 
 less the Roosevelt sense of humor is an inappreciable 
 quantity, he must smile to himself over this sometimes. 
 

 ^f'-r^: 
 
 ^":^\ 
 
 ! ' ■. : i ' ' ' . '««■ » aft 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 -I 
 
 
 "MOUNTED THE STEPS OF HIS JUDGMENT-THRONE 
 TO PASS SENTENCE ON THE NEGROES" 
 
ROOSEVELTIAN FaCT AND FaBLE 4X 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 "roosevelt-reform" legends. 
 
 Of all the plastic poses struck by Mr. Roosevelt be- 
 fore an admiring public, the one which suits him best 
 is that of "reformer." Out of the entertaining notion 
 that the universe somehow revolves about his belt, 
 was evolved that other engaging idea that everything 
 was wrong until he touched it. With him, to see is to 
 condemn, and having condemned, the natural and logi- 
 cal business is to "reform." He would have "re- 
 formed" all those faulty statesmen and so-called 
 "great men" of the Past, had they not considerately 
 passed off the boards before he came up with them. 
 Having escaped in the flesh, he was forced to content 
 himself with assailing their memories, and pointing out 
 to this generation of deluded Americans, the radical 
 defects and moral deformities of such men as Thomas 
 Jefferson, James Madison, Monroe, Morris, Otis, Sam- 
 uel Adams, and Patrick Henry; while Aaron Burr 
 and Jefferson Davis are selected to point the moral 
 and adorn the hideous tale of American treason. All 
 these weighty deliberations, and infallible estimates 
 were made up by the author at the mature age of 
 thirty, and handed out in his Lives of Benton and 
 Morris, and his "Winning of the West." 
 
 Any Rooseveltian admirer who has not yet found 
 opportunity to become acquainted with his hero in his 
 capacity as a maker of literature, should take a day off 
 and read some of these marvelous literary creations. 
 It will be hard work, but it will repay the trouble, in 
 
42 ROOSEVELTIAN FaCT AND FaBLE 
 
 the illumination it will shed on the writer's order of 
 intellect and cast of thought; more especially on that 
 bumptious arrogance and "cock-suredness" which hath 
 ever characterized the great thinkers of all ages. 
 
 Having settled the case of the dead statesman in his 
 books, Mr. Roosevelt next turns his attention to their 
 living prototypes, the politicians, who, as everybody 
 knows, are always in need of "reforming." 
 
 So hot has been his pursuit of their manifold wick- 
 edness, and so faithfully have the newspaper claquers 
 heralded the proceedings, that the average American 
 who absorbs his knowledge of men and affairs from 
 his morning paper between morsels of toast and cof- 
 fee, who reads no histories, consults no official records, 
 and wastes no valuable time putting two and two to- 
 gether to reach a conclusion not being voiced by the 
 crowd — is morally certain that Roosevelt is the great- 
 est civic reformer that ever came down the American 
 pike ; and that whenever he passes in the neighborhood 
 of Thomas Circle in Washington, the bronze statue of 
 Martin Luther trembles on its base. Equally certain 
 is this well-informed average American that all the 
 "wicked trusts" and "high financiers" in the country 
 are cowering in their predatory lairs, in hourly expec- 
 tation of a blow from the Big Stick. 
 
 It will be an interesting, tho' difficult and dehcate 
 task, to investigate these "reform" legends which have 
 taken such a hold on the popular mind. But we shall 
 ask these plain, every-day Americans, those who toil 
 and spin, and love and hope ; those who have no special 
 interest in fostering delusions — either in themselves or 
 in others — about the "governing class," to travel with 
 us a little way into the realm of Fact. 
 
 Let us get right down to "brass tacks" — the historic 
 and official records — and find out for ourselves luhat 
 has actually been done by this Strenuous "reformer" 
 who is claiming so much glory for his performances. 
 
ROOSEVELTIAN FaCT AND FaBLE 43 
 
 We have seen how he toyed with the Civil-Service 
 law, pass«;d by the New York Legislature during Gov- 
 ernor Cleveland's administration ; have seen also how 
 lightly he shed his "reform" garment to don the par- 
 tizan regimentals of Blaine in 1884. After Blaine's 
 defeat, finding his old Reform associates in New York 
 look somewhat coldly on him, Roosevelt sought the se- 
 clusion of the Dakota wilds, and solace for his 
 wounded spirit in the warm blood of grizzlies c^nd other 
 roaming beasts. It was here he acquired some ac- 
 quaintance with, and taste for, cow-boy life and man- 
 ners. Here also, he is supposed tb have gained in a 
 few months, that intimate knowledge of the habits and 
 peculiarities of the wild creatures — denizens of the 
 forest, field, air and water — which was to throw con- 
 fusion and terror into the ranks of the "nature-fakirs" 
 (some of whom had vainly devoted their lives to the 
 same study) in after years. 
 
 From the Dakota wilds, our hero answered the par- 
 tizan call from his native State to come back and carry 
 the Republican standard in the mayoralty contest of 
 New York in 1886, when Henry George and his So- 
 cialistic followers were threatening "property and re- 
 spectability" in that city. 
 
 The result was the election of the Tammany candi- 
 date, and Roosevelt came out a poor third in the vot- 
 ing. This was not particularly flattering, but then he 
 had saved the city from the "anarchists" — saved it to 
 Tammany and the "interests," and laid another votive 
 offering before "the star-eyed goddess of Reform !" 
 
 As a reward for his active services in the Harrison- 
 Qeveland campaign of 1888, Roosevelt asked to be 
 made Assistant Secretary of State. But Blaine, the 
 then premier, opposed his appointment, having no 
 fancy seemingly for this aggressive and self-assertive 
 trouble-maker to complicate affairs of state in his De- 
 partment. Such is the short-lived gratitude of princes 
 
44 ROOSEVELTIAN FaCT AND FaBLE 
 
 and "plumed-knights." Foiled in this design of ad- 
 vancing his position among the "governing class," 
 Roosevelt was forced to accept the humbler office of 
 Civfl-Service Commissioner. 
 
 But by the attention this attracted, from the flam- 
 boyant methods of the new incumbent, it suddenly took 
 rank with the most important offices in the Govern- 
 ment. The pioneer work done by Cleveland, Eaton, 
 Lyman, and others, had cleared the way and assured 
 the popularity of the "merit system." The new Com- 
 missioner was taking no risk in championing it, and 
 he had no sooner warmed his seat than through 
 effusive magazine articles, he was telling the country 
 all about Civil-Service. He lambasted its "enemies"; 
 courted newspaper controversies with congressmen and 
 senators who had been heard to criticise the system. 
 An unsympathetic observer remarks: "It was not his 
 fault that these men were prominent, nor his misfor- 
 tune that, because of their prominence he could by 
 means of these controversies mount into the public 
 view." 
 
 The work which had hitherto been done quietly and 
 unostentatiously, was now done clamorously and in big 
 type. Historian Leupp unconsciously confirms this: 
 "Whoever expected Mr. Roosevelt to remain long hid- 
 den in any position, however insignificant, did not 
 know the man. . . . Hence it came about that on 
 Mr. Roosevelt's entrance into it, the Civil-Service Com- 
 mission, for the first time since its foundation, threw 
 open its office doors freely to all comers. The news- 
 paper correspondents in Washington were made wel- 
 come, and furnished with any information that could 
 properly be given out" 
 
 Naturally enough, the eyes of the country were fre- 
 quently turned toward the Civil Service Commission, 
 where "the thunderous Roosevelt always held the cen- 
 ter of the stage." Just as naturally the impression 
 
ROOSEVELTIAN FaCT AND FaBLE 45 
 
 grew that here was the original if not the only C. S. 
 reformer. 
 
 Biographer Riis tells us: "He found 14,000 Gov- 
 ernment employees under Civil-Service rules, and left 
 40,000." Riis likewise makes the unblushing state- 
 ment: "In the New York Legislature he had forced 
 through a civil service law that was substantially the 
 same as he was here set to enforce (as C. S. Com- 
 missioner)." 
 
 We have seen how he "forced it through," by de- 
 clining to honor it with his vote 1 
 
 Pushing aside fulsome biographies and "inspired" 
 newspaper reports, let us for a little while inspect some 
 facts and figures taken fresh from the books of the 
 Civil-Service Commission. At the end of Arthur's 
 administration and the beginning of Cleveland's re- 
 gime, there were in the classified service about 14,500 
 places out of a total 125,000. During his first term 
 President Cleveland by executive orders, added 7,000 
 places to the classified service; natural growth added 
 5,000 more. So that when Cleveland left office in 
 1889, the date of Roosevelt's entrance as Commis- 
 sioner, there were approximately 28,000 employees un- 
 der civil service rules, representing a gain of nearly 
 100 per cent, in four years. 
 
 Civil Service reform made slow progress under 
 President Harrison, until he was defeated for re-elec- 
 tion, and then, Jan. 5, 1893 — ^^^o months before he 
 must yield the place to President Cleveland, Harrison, 
 by executive order, placed all the free-delivery post- 
 offices under the classified service. 
 
 By this "eleventh-hour" coup, 7,660 places were 
 added to the classified list, and 7,660 Republicans were 
 ■ threby made secure from the anticipated assaults of 
 Qeveland's hungry followers.. Before this, Harrison 
 had added only about 350 other places in the three 
 vears of his administration, and yet this shabby par- 
 
46 ROOSEVELTIAN FaCT AND FaBLE 
 
 tizan trick has been charged up on the credit side of 
 Mr. Roosevelt's Civil-Service account ! 
 
 When Cleveland returned to the helm, he resumed 
 the extension of the classified list, placing therein 
 teachers in the Indian schools, meat inspectors, mes- 
 sengers in the Departments, and vs^atchmen. Smaller 
 customs-houses, steamship mail clerks, railway mail 
 clerks, and many excepted places in the postal service 
 were also included. Roosevelt resigned in May, 1895, 
 to become Police-Commissioner of New York City, 
 but the Civil-Service Commission appears to have 
 wagged along pretty well without him. 
 
 The Treasury Department, Pension agencies, In- 
 dian affairs, and the Government printery were all suc- 
 cessively brought under the Commission, and by the 
 Cleveland order of May 6, 1896, nearly half the places 
 in the executive list were brought under C. S. rules, a 
 gain of 25 per cent, since Harrison's exit. A recent 
 writer on Civil Service says : "Cleveland was also ac- 
 cused of getting his partizans under cover of Civil 
 Service before giving up his official ghost; but as his 
 sweeping order was made nearly a year before his term 
 expired, and his work in the same direction had been 
 so consistent throughout, the charge has little force. 
 
 For practical, consistent work, Cleveland stands 
 head and shoulders above every other presidential 
 civil-service reformer. While his work was done 
 quietly and simply, it was thorough, greatly strength- 
 ening the weak places, and striking down evasion and 
 fraud." The same writer speaks thus of Roosevelt; 
 "Without adding to or subtracting from Roosevelt's 
 record as C. S. Commissioner, we may say he was an 
 efficient officer, despite his bluster and grand-stand 
 fiosing. . . . Aside from the clamor of it, however, 
 his record is in no sense extraordinary. Had Roose- 
 velt never been connected with the Civil-Service Com- 
 mission, it is more than probable the cause would be 
 
ROOSEVELTIAN FaCT AND FaBLE 47 
 
 |ust as far advanced. . . . Effective fighting was 
 done by his predecessors and by his overshadowing 
 chief. His work in the Commission was that of a 
 faithful, but noisy and spectacular, tho' very ordinary 
 officer, nothing more." 
 
 Certain is it, that but for Harrison's "eleventh-hour" 
 stroke, for the protection of his partizans, his adminis- 
 tration — under which Roosevelt served the bulk of his 
 term as Commissioner — would have meant very little 
 for the cause of Civil-Service reform; and but for 
 Cleveland's timely return to power to swell the classi- 
 fied list during the last two years of Roosevelt's term 
 as Commissioner, there would have been no such 
 plethoric array of Civil-Service figures for anybody to 
 translate into Roosevelt "reform" glory. 
 
 So much for his Civil-Service halo, which suffered 
 further tamishment during his administration of the 
 presidency. Historian Leupp gives an amusing ac- 
 count (Leupp didn't intend to be amusing) of Roose- 
 velt when Commissioner, assembling all the Southern 
 newspaper representatives in Washington, and bidding 
 them spread the glad tidings throughout the benighted 
 and poverty-stricken Southland that He — Roosevelt, 
 was now at the helm ; and that it was his magnanimous 
 desire that the blessings of Civil Service fall equally 
 upon the descendants of the secessionist and the slave- 
 driver. Leup adds, with charming naivette: "The 
 effect was magical. The examinations on the South- 
 ern routes began to swarm with bright young fellows, 
 to whom, by the then modest standards of the South a 
 salary of $1,200 was riches!" 
 
 It is very painful to have to subtract anything from 
 Mr. Roosevelt's Southern credit-sheet, but facts are 
 facts, and this is a true story. 
 
 That the South has found a better use for her 
 "bright young fellows" than to permit them to stag- 
 nate in the executive Departments at Washington, is 
 
48 ROOSEVELTIAN FaCT AND FaBLE 
 
 abundantly proven by the notorious fact, that far 
 fewer men from the South have been caught by the 
 departmental lure than from any other section of the 
 country. The heads of the C. S. Commission will tell 
 you to-day, that despite the cordial invitations ex- 
 tended not only by Roosevelt, but by several of his 
 successors, the examinations on the Southern routes 
 have not "swarmed" with applicants, and that all ef- 
 forts on the part of the Commission have been una- 
 vailing to induce Southern young men to abandon 
 more independent, not to say more lucrative jobs at 
 home. It is no exaggeration to say that, with the 
 South's industrial renaissance, at any time during the 
 past twenty years, a thoroughly efEcient cotton buyer 
 or travelling salesman received more salary — some of 
 them twice as much, as Mr. Leupp says, "by the 
 South's modest standards," was accounted "riches." 
 It is not improbable that the South's standard of 
 riches and of most other things, is not more "modest" 
 than are Mr. Leupp's demands on the public credulity 
 with his Roosevelt fairy tales. 
 
 Having exhausted all the arts of the press-agent in 
 the office of the Civil-Service Commission, Roosevelt 
 wearied of the place, and and turned his eyes toward 
 New York — "the storm-center." He was accredited 
 with congressional aspirations at that time, and in or- 
 der to get himself prominently before the people, 
 Leupp says, "he yielded to Mayor Strong's solicta- 
 tions" to become the head of the re-organized Police 
 Commission. 
 
 Another authority says Mayor Strong offered him 
 the position in response to a timely suggestion from 
 one of Roosevelt's friends, that Roosevelt would like 
 to have it. That is immaterial. Friends and foes alike 
 testify that he made a good police commissioner, one 
 of the best New York has had. Bennett says of him 
 in this capacity: "Roosevelt is an excellent censor of 
 
ROOSEVELTIAN FaCT AND FaBLE 49 
 
 commonplace morality. He appreciates order and re- 
 spectability. Order and respectability are the things 
 policemen are designed to enforce. Roosevelt was in 
 his element." 
 
 He was also in his element in being assigned the 
 agreeable task of castigating Tammany offenders. Of 
 aU his "reform" roles, none has given him such holy 
 joy as that of the Republican St. George slaying the 
 Tammany dragon. Parkhurst, the fiery zealot, in his 
 crusade against police rottenness, had blazed the way ; 
 Mayor Strong, elected on the reform wave, had re- 
 organized the Board. Everything was in readiness for 
 the coming of Roosevelt, — and he came. Needless to 
 say, the work of reform went on merrily, and with the 
 usual brass-band accompaniment. 
 
 As it had been in the C. S. Commission, so it was 
 in the Police Board, the doors were thrown wide open 
 to inter-viewers, and for months the city talked of 
 Roosevelt and police, — to the secret joy of certain 
 "high financiers" who knew the people thus harm- 
 lessly engaged, would not keep such close tab on their 
 maneuvers. Of which, J. W. Bennett testifies: "Roose- 
 velt and Parkhurst, both resonantly honest, cast out 
 real Tammany devils whose numbers were legion, 
 while the 'Interests,' silently, deftly, swiftly, captured 
 New York public privileges richer than Golconda." 
 
 So intent was the Strenuous commissioner in im- 
 pressing his own righteous will upon the New York 
 police system, that he ruthlessly trampled police stat- 
 utes, which to mere ordinary thinkers might seem to 
 make for fairness. One of these was that no man 
 should be dismissed from the service without a trial, 
 and the Commissioner's action was reviewable by the 
 courts. Another was, that policemen should be chosen 
 by competitive examination. During Mr. Roosevelt's 
 administration of police affairs, loo men "walked the 
 plank" without trial ; and the candidates for examina- 
 
50 ROOSEVELTIAN FaCT AND FaBLE 
 
 tion, ivere chosen by himself — he of course being the 
 best and final judge of their fitness ! When as an 
 Assemblyman, he had been appointed to investigate 
 Tammany wickedness, he had found this arbitrary se- 
 lection of men by the Police Board, a final sign of 
 partizan depravity. 
 
 Historian Leupp finds it necessary to "explain" this 
 apparent inconsistency, as he does many other things in 
 his "campaign life" of Roosevelt. 
 
 Leupp evinces occasional glimmerings of the fact 
 (of which Riis appears wholly oblivious), that there 
 may be somewhere abroad in the land a different view 
 (erroneous of course) of the Roosevelt acts from that 
 so enthusiastically held by himself and other members 
 of the "Tennis Cabinet" ; or at least that some of these 
 acts are susceptible of being "misjudged" by some per- 
 verse and mischievous critic. And so Apologist Leupp 
 puts forth with impressive gravity a blanket "explana- 
 tion" of all suspicious Roosevelt acts: His hero, tho' 
 a man of lofty moral concepts, yet has a saving "prac- 
 tical" side (he owned to this himself later, it will be 
 remembered), which invariably rushes in, in the nick 
 of time, to save his "reform" policies from running to 
 the demnition-bow-wows in the Democratic camp. 
 
 This Apologist Leupp calls "sacrificing the lesser to 
 the larger good," — "the larger good" being always the 
 success of the Republican party, and the personal 
 glorification of T. Roosevelt. The "lesser good" may 
 be most any old thing which happens to conflict with 
 these laudable ends. Should the laudable ends them- 
 selves be at variance, — as has occasionally happened — 
 why then the Republican party becomes the "lesser 
 good." Whatever goes or stays, T. Roosevelt musi 
 have personal glory. 
 
 Though opinions differ as to his "reform" methods 
 on the New York police force, there is practical unan- 
 
ROOSEVELTIAN FaCT AND FaBLE $1 
 
 imity in the testimony that they produced an awful row 
 in the Board. One writer says : "The friction became 
 public, and discipline suffered." He also asserts that, 
 in the factional strife engendered by his methods," 
 Roosevelt was driven into a corner, and finding him- 
 self without support, threw up his hands. Instead of 
 holding on to the end, like a thoroughbred fighter, he 
 quit, — like a fake prize fighter, retired under fire, and 
 went to the post of Assistant Secretary of the Navy, 
 which Friend Lodge had in readiness for him at 
 Washington." 
 
 Needless to state, this raconteur is not catalogued 
 among Mr. Roosevelt's admirers. But here is what 
 Apologist Leupp says of that portion of his hero's ca- 
 reer: "The result was disappointing. For in spite of a 
 series of notable reforms, the influence of one of his 
 colleagues blocked so many of his projects for im- 
 provement, that he mas glad of the chance afforded by 
 President McKinley's election to go to Washington as 
 Assistant Secretary of the Navy." 
 
 Which may, after all, be only another way of stating 
 the same fact. 
 
 In his "Roosevelt and the Republic," John W. Ben- 
 nett does not lavish praise upon Mr. Roosevelt, tho' he 
 exonerates him from any taint of "dollar lust," and 
 says he might have served his country better in the 
 office of Secretary of the Navy, in beating off the rapa- 
 cious and conscienceless naval constructors who beset 
 the Government at that time, than by the most signal 
 gallantry on the battle-field : "A man of stern integrity 
 in financial matters, such as Roosevelt undoubtedly is, 
 was sorely needed right there to fight American 
 ghouls, rather than Spanish soldiers? . . . There 
 were plenty of volunteers to fight the Spaniards in the 
 field, few to fight the grafters at home." 
 
 As to how well the Assistant-Secretary deserved this 
 
52 ROOSEVELTIAN FaCT AND FaBLE 
 
 encomium from his sometime unsparing critic, as well 
 as to his methods of "beating-off" the pirates with 
 ships to sell, we learn from Leupp's "campaign life," 
 see pp. 107-110. With much explanatory preamble, 
 and apologies on the side, Leupp gives in detail, a dra- 
 matic incident in the office of the Assistant Secretary, 
 when he one day surprised him in the act of excoriat- 
 ing an attorney for one of these rascally naval con- 
 tractors. Leupp would have beat a hasty retreat, but a 
 signal from his chief, rooted him to the spot, and made 
 him an involuntary witness of the verbal storm. The 
 attorney was told in thunderous tones that he "ought 
 to be ashamed of himself to come there day after day, 
 offering his worthless craft to the Government in its 
 time of need," and letting fly a few more fulminating 
 bolts, the chief actor in the one-act farce conclued 
 wrathfully: "No! I don't want any more of your old 
 tubs. The one I bought yesterday is good for nothing 
 except to sink somewhere in the path of the enemy's 
 fleet. It will be God's mercy if she doesn't go down 
 with brave men on her — men who go to war and risk 
 their lives, instead of staying home to sell rotten hulks 
 to the Government!" 
 
 Then after the naval grafter had crawled through 
 the small hole adapted to his shrivelled dimensions, the 
 facile actor turns toward his admiring audience with 
 a beaming smile: "You came just in time," he cried. 
 (To be sure. Just in time to give it a write-up.) "I 
 wanted you to hear what I had to say to that fellow; 
 not that it would add materially to your pleasure, but 
 that it would humiliate him to have anyone else present 
 while I gave him his punishment. It is the only way 
 I have of getting even !" 
 
 This incident illustrates to a dot the quality of the 
 Roosevelt "reforms." He "got even'' with the naval 
 grafter with a verbal castigation, even while confessing 
 
ROOSEVELTIAN FaCT AND FaBLE 53 
 
 to him that he had bought his "rotten hulks," and as 
 both he and the naval grafter knew — he intended to 
 buy others, and to pay the price demanded, after he 
 had satisfied his melodramatic instincts with this child- 
 ish rodomontade. His responsibility to the Govern- 
 ment, and to the American sailors whose lives he was 
 jeopardizing on these worthless ships, does not appear 
 to have weighed on him greatly. 
 
 Apologist Leupp says, "It was the best he could do" ; 
 that, if he had refused these insecure and high-priced 
 boats, "Heaven only knew where any good ones were 
 coming from to take their places (immediately). . . . 
 He was not the man to waste much time figuring on 
 the consequences. . . . The one fact which stared 
 him in the face was that the Government must have 
 coalers, and right away!" 
 
 Ah! Here is the Senegarnbian in the Roosevelt- 
 Leupp puzzle picture. For the Assistant-Secretary to 
 have adopted the resolute and obviously proper course 
 of refusing this worthless craft, and of holding the 
 whole grafting horde up to public scorn until they 
 were forced to furnish better ships, would have de- 
 layed the war with Spain, in which Roosevelt thirsted 
 to bear a spectacular part. According to his biogra- 
 phers, he had done much "to bring the Cuban contro- 
 versy to a head" ; he admits it himself with com- 
 mendable modesty, and now his martial spirit, aroused 
 to fever-pitch, would brook no delay. 
 
 In his view, the all-important thing was to rush the 
 war with Spain. All other considerations were sec- 
 ondary. Here again, he is subordinating "the lesser 
 to the larger good." The "lesser good" in this case 
 was the honor of the American Government; protec- 
 tion to American sailors ; and justice to American tax- 
 payers. All these were ruthlessly, but justifiably sac- 
 rificed to the "larger good" of gratifying Mr. Roos«- 
 
54 ROOSEVELTIAN FaCT AND FaBLE 
 
 velt's military spirit, and subserving his personal am- 
 bitions ! 
 
 The author of "Roosevelt and the Republic" scores 
 somewhat in : "When men and nations stand up to be 
 judged before some higher, more clear-sighted civili- 
 zation of the future, the part played by many American 
 newsp^ers and public officers in forcing a war with 
 Spain, will not be a subject of highest praise." How 
 much of tbis "praise" or condemnation of the future 
 should go to Mr. Roosevelt, may not be determined 
 with exactitude. As is generally conceded, he was a 
 "very busy" Assistant-Secretary. During the frequent 
 and prolonged absences of Secretary Long, the nomi- 
 nal head of the Navy Department, Roosevelt was in 
 entire charge. We all know what it means when Mr. 
 Roosevelt "takes charge" of things; there must be ac- 
 tion of some sort. If it were he who sent the Maine on 
 her foolish and fateful errand into Cuban waters, there 
 should be no difficulty in gauging his responsibility for 
 the war. 
 
 Even now, ten years from the date of the conflict, 
 without waiting for the light of a future civilization, 
 there is a growing conviction that, that "glorious war 
 for humanity," was neither so glorious nor so humane 
 as it onCe appeared. Even now, some of Mr. Roose- 
 velt's admirers regret the premature haste of biogra- 
 phers in claiming so much credit for his efforts in 
 "bringing it to a head." True, it made him governor 
 of New York, according to Leupp, and that, in 
 Leupp's and Roosevelt's view, was subserving "the 
 larger good." 
 
 It is recorded that when Governor Roosevelt sent 
 his first message to the Legislature, "New Yorkers 
 blinked, rubbed their eyes, and blinked again. Had 
 they after all elected Roosevelt President? Or had 
 New York over night become an independent nation ; 
 
ROOSEVELTIAN FaCT AND FaBLE 55 
 
 For the message congratulated the PEOPLE OF 
 NEW YORK on carrying to a successful conclusion 
 'one of the most righteous wars of modern times !' " 
 
 This first message likewise ran the whole gamut of 
 righteous legislation which the new governor wanted 
 enacted at once. He ordered an investigation of the 
 Canal scandal, and that there might be no suspicion 
 of bad faith, he commissioned two Democratic law- 
 yers, Messrs. McFarlane and Fox, to conduct the in- 
 vestigation. The lawyers reported crookedness a 
 plenty, but for technical reasons, clear only to the pro- 
 fession, the offenders could not be prosecuted. In the 
 end, no Canal thieves were punished. The story of 
 the State Trust Co. investigation will be told else- 
 where. He dismissed Lou Payn, whose administration 
 of the office of Insurance Commissioner had been no- 
 toriously scandalous, but permitted him to go un- 
 scathed, and permitted Piatt to name his successor. He 
 revived and placed upon the statute-book the civil ser- 
 vice law passed by Cleveland and scuttled by Black. 
 He also advocated the Ford Franchise law, a measure 
 to tax the big corporations introduced by Senator Ford, 
 and characterized as a "mild reform, but a step in 
 the right direction." 
 
 Some progress was als© made in dealing with lab©r 
 problems, and tenement conditions, but the extent of 
 the Roosevelt achievements in his administration of 
 the governorship, may be inferred from the following 
 summary in the New Yoric Tribune, usually a very 
 friendly critic of Roosevelt : 
 
 "His position at the beginning of his term was ex- 
 ceedingly strong, and he might have made it impreg- 
 nable. Doubtless he has meant to do so, but he has not 
 succeeded. He has rendered himself liable to attacks 
 which it will not be the easiest thing in the world to 
 repel, and is now forced to admit that he needs an- 
 other term to finish the work which his own indiscre- 
 
56 ROOSEVELTIAN FaCT AND FaBLE 
 
 tions have made unnecessarily difficult. ... In case 
 his desire for re-election is gratified, we shall hope to 
 see him grow to the full stature befitting a great 
 office." ... 
 
 And the rest of the "Roosevelt-Reform" legends, are 
 they not written in the book of the Acts of T. Roose- 
 velt, President of the United States? 
 
ROOSEVELTIAN FaCT AND FaBLE 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 ROOSEVELT, THE PREACHER. 
 
 "Oh, master ! grant us only this, we prithee ; 
 Preach not! but mutely guide to bless, we prithee! 
 We walk not straight? Nay, 'tis thou who squintest 
 Go heal thy sight, and leave us in peace, we prithee." 
 
 — Rubaiyat. 
 
 Concerning a ruler of Mr. Roosevelt's maaiy-sided 
 personality, there must of necessity exist various, and 
 sometimes conflicting opinions. 
 
 The only Roosevelt trait about which there is practi- 
 cal unanimity of view, with never a dissenting note, is 
 his preaching habit. All agree on this point, however 
 widely they may diverge at others. Rooseveltian 
 critics of every degree, hostile, friendly, serious, jibing, 
 caustic or gay, can all rally on this common meeting- 
 ground to hear Roosevelt, the preacher. 
 
 It appears to have been one of his earliest developed 
 tendencies. Riis reveals him to us teaching a Sunday- 
 school class at a tender age, and tho' this appears to 
 have had a stormy sequel — Riis relating that he became 
 involved in a row with the Sunday-School authorities, 
 wherein of course Roosevelt cleaned up the bunch and 
 came off with flying colors — this only adds the heroic 
 touch so necessary to the Riis view of all Rooseveltian 
 performances. 
 
 He carried his preaching habit into his public life, 
 and so insistent and platitudinous were his precepts, 
 that they provoked Thomas Brackett Reed's famous 
 
ROOSEVELTIAN FaCT AND FaBLE "JJ, 
 
 sarcasm, that what he "particularly admired about 
 Roosevelt, was his original discovery of the Ten Com- 
 mandments." All his public addresses, and even his 
 state papers strongly betoken the moral guide and 
 ethical teacher, whilst his impressive manner of drag- 
 ging forth some old maxim or well-established truism 
 and stamping it with the bran-new Roosevelt O. K., 
 has conveyed a wide-spread notion of him as "a man 
 of sensitive moral sense" and of deep religious convic- 
 tions. 
 
 It was Drvimmond who said, "the religious life of 
 a great many people consists entirely of religious 
 phraseology," and taking this standard, one easily 
 comprehends the popular notion anent Roesevelt's 
 "goodness." 
 
 His "religious phraseology" has been more abun- 
 dant and obtrusive than that of any other president or 
 public man the country has produced, — more even than 
 the average pulpit-occupant who is paid to preach. 
 
 Wherever he goes, he sets up an impromptu pulpit, 
 and his pious enunciations fall — like the rain and sun- 
 shine, upon the just and the unjust — accompanied with 
 a timely warning to the latter to look sharp ! 
 
 So impressed were some of the patriots in Gjngress 
 with the great value to the people of this movable pres- 
 idential pulpit, that when the railroads were restrained 
 (two years ago) from their munificent and indiscrimi- 
 nate practice of handing out passes to everybody una- 
 ble to pay or walk (like senators, congressmen, federal 
 judges, and such like impecunious persons, including 
 the President of the United States), these congres- 
 sional patriots promptly voted an additional $25,000 a 
 year for the President's "travelling expenses," in-order 
 that "the great unwashed" might not be deprived of 
 the privilege of gazing upon the countenance, and 
 li.';tening to the inspired words of the Preacher. 
 
 True, some one (Representative Underwood of Ala- 
 
74 ROOSEVELTIAN FaCT AND FaBLB 
 
 bama) pointed out, awkwardly enough, that there was 
 a constitutional provision forbidding this sort of 
 thing; and having "the courage of his convictions" in 
 the back of his head, and a copy of the Qjnstitution in 
 his hand, he rose and read it to the astounded and 
 grieved legislators: Article II. Sec. I. (7) Const. U. S. : 
 
 "The President shall, at stated times, receive for his 
 services a compensation, which shall neither he in- 
 creased nor diminished during the period for which 
 he shall have been elected, and he shall not receive 
 within that period any other emolument from the 
 United States or any of them." 
 
 The Constitutional objector and his supporters were 
 promptly overruled, the discussion taking a non-par- 
 tisan turn. The Hon. Wm. Bourke Cockran of New 
 York, Bourke the Magnificent, the Oratorical, than 
 whom no man living better knows the value of spon- 
 taneous eloquence, gave his voice to the measure, de- 
 claring in his impassioned Celtic speech, it would be a 
 shame — for the sake of a paltry $25,000 a year, to deny 
 to the people the profit and pleasure of seeing and 
 hearing their Chief Magistrate. 
 
 Mr. Sherley of Kentucky did not purpose to let any 
 small, picayunish notions of expenditure enter into his 
 large. Blue-grass liberality towards the head of the 
 Nation. The idea advanced by some of the objectors, 
 that the Executive, having all his expenses — except 
 the food on his table and the clothes on his back — paid 
 out of the public Treasury, might, with a salary of 
 $50,000, move about over the country at his own ex- 
 pense, with as much ease as congressmen. Supreme 
 justices, and other public servants, who out of much 
 smaller salaries had also to provide houses, servant- 
 hire, equipages, &c., for themselves and families, — 
 was denounced as rank socialism. The "points of 
 order" leveled at the bill (it having ridden in on a 
 general appropriation bill) were likewise brushed aside, 
 
ROOSEVELTIAN FaCT AND FaBLE 75 
 
 and the House of Representatives cast its vote in favor 
 of making the people pay the railroad fare of the 
 Presidential circuit-rider. 
 
 When the bill reached the Senate, Senator Bailey 
 suggested that, if the measure were so framed as not 
 to become effective until the present Executive had re- 
 tired from office, and for the benefit of some future 
 President, that would remove the Constitutional ob- 
 jection. 
 
 But no, no! That would not answer. The people 
 wanted to hear Roosevelt ! 
 
 His high moral precepts, his beautiful platitudes 
 anent law and order, his wonderful pronouncements 
 on the evils afHicting the body politic, as well as the 
 governmental remedies implied, when not boldly ex- 
 pressed, must appeal to every patriotic senator as a 
 great means of educating the masses. Senator Till- 
 man, ever on the qui vive for the African in the legis- 
 larive wood-pile, while conceding Mr. Roosevelt's un- 
 usual gifts as a preacher, expressed the fear that the 
 President's travelling companions, in a campaign year 
 for instance, might not be such as could properly adorn 
 a preacher's staff. Tillman was tormented with a 
 vision of "Uncle Joe" Cannon, "Little Tim" Woodruff, 
 and other sporty Republican spell-binders accompany- 
 ing these moralizing and highly instructive pleasure 
 jaunts. Senator Foraker also had doubts abotit the 
 constitutionality of the measure, and always thought- 
 ful of Roosevelt, Foraker proposed that the resolution 
 be divorced from the appropriation bill, and made a 
 separate and independent bill, so that if the President 
 should wish to veto it, upon the ground of its uncon- 
 stitutionality (so sure was Foraker that President 
 Roosevelt would not accept any unconstitutional 
 favors), he might do so, without the embarrassment 
 of vetoing the whole Appropriation bill. This 
 thoughtfulness upon Senator Foraker's part turned 
 
76 ROOSEVELTIAN FaCT AND FaBLE 
 
 out to be wholly unnecessary, since the President 
 promptly signed the bill when presented to him — with 
 never a constitutional misgiving — and it became a law 
 June 25, 1906. 
 
 After all, as Grover Cleveland's Irish henchman re- 
 marked to him on one occasion : "What is the Consti- 
 tuti©n, between friends?" And they were all "friends" 
 in that first session of the 59th Congress. 
 
 With the Republican President urging the passage 
 of a measure taken bodily out of the Democratic na- 
 tional platform; and all the Republican representa- 
 tives in Congress forced to vote for it — except Sena- 
 tor Foraker, and "the man with sand" from Massachu- 
 setts — Samuel McCall, rancorous party lines were 
 effaced — almost. In the noble enthusiasm evoked by 
 the righteous battle for railroad-rate regulation, even 
 the Tillman lion and the Teddy-bear consented to "lie 
 down" for a season; though as might have been ex- 
 pected, they got into a scrap before they rose up. 
 
 The battle won, and everybody in fine humor, they 
 were ready to donate an additional $25,000 a year to 
 send the presidential voice crying again into the wil- 
 derness, to prepare the way for other gigantic reforms. 
 
 The Roosevelt sermons are too long and too numer- 
 ous to be reproduced in any work of ordinary size, but 
 here are a few sample texts : 
 
 "Let reverence for the law be taught in schools and 
 colleges, be written in primers and spelling books; be 
 published from pulpits, be proclaimed in legislative 
 houses, and enforced in the courts of justice." 
 
 "He is the most unsafe adviser who would suggest 
 the doing of evil that good may come." 
 
 "The party man who blindly follows party, right or 
 wrong, and who fails to make that party in any way 
 better, commits a crime against the country." 
 
 "The people who do harm in the end are not the 
 wrong-doers whom all execrate ; but they are the men 
 
ROOSEVELTIAN FaCT AND FaBLE fj 
 
 who do not do quite as much wrong, but who are 
 applauded instead of being execrated." 
 
 "Calhoun's purposes seem to have been in the main 
 pure; but few criminals have worked as much harm 
 to their country as he did. The plea of good intentions 
 is not one that can be allowed to have much weight in 
 passing historical judgment upon a man whose wrong- 
 headedness and distorted way of looking at thinrs, 
 produced, or helped to produce such incalculable evil" 
 
 "A man is not a good citizen, I care not how lofty 
 his thoughts are in the abstract, if his actions do not 
 square with his professions." 
 
 Sometimes the utterances are Delphic in character, 
 like, "We must shackle cunning, as we have shackled 
 force" ; and then all the people fall on their faces and 
 cry, "Great is Theodore, oracle and preacher !" 
 
 To find fault with the exponent of such immaculate 
 theories is but a thankless ofSce usually. But taking 
 Text Number 6 as our gfuide, we will now turn from 
 the realm of ornamental philosophy to the considera- 
 tion of a few historic Facts. 
 
78 ROOSEVELTIAN FaCT AND FaBLE 
 
 CHAPTER Vn. 
 
 ROOSEVELT AND THE "BOSSES." 
 
 "There must be no compromise with official corrup- 
 tion. . . , We can not trust those base beings who 
 treat politics only as a game — out of which to wring 
 a soiled livelihood. . . . The real and dangerous 
 foe is the corrupt politician. . . . No man who is 
 corrupt, no man who condones corruption in others, 
 can possibly do his duty by the community." 
 
 This is taken from the Rooseveltian repertoire of 
 ornamental texts, but when it comes to the business of 
 advancing his own political ends, Roosevelt imme- 
 diately becomes "a practical man," and Rooseveltian 
 practice is a far cry from Rooseveltian preachment, as 
 these presents shall demonstrate. 
 
 The acknowledged prince of political corruptionists 
 in New York when Roosevelt was seeking the nomi- 
 nation for governor, was Thomas C. Piatt, — other- 
 wise designated as "his feline majesty of the U. S. 
 Senate"; and his disciple and lieutenant in jxjlitical 
 chicanery, was Benjamin B. Odell. When after a 
 conference with these two, Roosevelt learned that in 
 order to secure the Republican nomination, he must 
 break with the Independents whose alliance he had 
 sought, and with whom he had covenanted to over- 
 throw Piatt and Odell, he did not hesitate to break 
 faith with his Independent allies and join forces with 
 the corruptionists. 
 
 Roosevelt himself refers to Odell as "my trusted 
 friend and adviser in every crisis." This ideal friend- 
 
ROOSEVELTIAN FaCT AND FaBLE 79 
 
 ship suffered some estrangement, in after years when 
 "the trusted friend and adviser" had nothing more to 
 contribute to the Rooseveltian program — a fate which 
 has not infrequently overtaken the Roosevelt friend- 
 ships. In the summer of 1900, having announced his 
 wish for another term as Governor, Roosevelt de- 
 clared : "Under no circumstances could I, or would I, 
 accept the nomination for the vice-presidency," 
 adding, "I am happy to state that Senator Piatt cor- 
 dially acquiesces in my views in the matter." This 
 virtual acknowledgment of Piatt domination received 
 very striking and emphatic confirmation some weeks 
 later, when Roosevelt donned his Rough Rider regi- 
 mentals and went down to Philadelphia, where sat the 
 Republican National Convention, and swearing by all 
 his gods that he "would not be the vice-presidential 
 candidate" — quiescently suffered Piatt, Quay and 
 Company to "kick him upstairs" into the vice-presi- 
 dency ! 
 
 Various explanations have been given of this epi- 
 sode in the Rooseveltian march of events, some 
 friendly and apologetic, others cynical, and all in- 
 genious. But the episode itself seems to stand out in 
 sufficient bas relief, without explanation of any kind. 
 It was very characteristic and typical of the Roose- 
 velt mode (now very familiar) of fierce charge, and 
 quick surrender. Some have speculated on whether he 
 was really sincere in his clamorous renunciation (we 
 have had so many verbal renunciations from him 
 since) of the vice-presidential nomination, or cleverly 
 scheming to get it. ... That seems immaterial. 
 The point is, the whole proceeding shows him to have 
 been in the hands of Piatt, — Piatt, the corrupt politi- 
 cal "boss," with whom Roosevelt, the preacher, says, 
 "There must be no compromise." ^^He knew he could 
 not have the re-nomination for Governor, if Piatt op- 
 posed it ; and if Piatt wanted him to be the Vice-Presi- 
 
80 ROOSEVELTIAN FaCT AND FaBLE 
 
 dent, that was all there was in it for Roosevelt, and 
 he was never the man to pass up the only things in 
 sight. 
 
 It was an open secret that McKinley didn't want 
 Roosevelt for a running mate, and Marc Hanna, Mc- 
 Kinley's manager, who was a "practical" politician of 
 the old-fashioned pattern — with no misleading "re- 
 form" frills basted on him — had no fancy for this 
 newly risen Rough Rider type, whose chief political 
 asset was a perennial circus parade. 
 
 But Piatt, Quay & Co. willed it otherwise, and 
 Piatt, Quay & Co. were in the lead in that Convention. 
 Hanna was overruled in the matter of the vice-presi- 
 dential candidate, and told to confine his personal at- 
 tention to the "barrel." From this it will appear that 
 Roosevelt as governor had not proved an acceptable 
 quantity to "his Feline Majesty," and this of course 
 is seized upon by the hero-worshippers as presumptive 
 and inductive proof of Rooseveltian virtue. But it 
 was a fact observed by all, that as governor, Roose- 
 velt was openly friendly with "the machine" ; he him- 
 self had announced before election, in a letter to his 
 friend Leupp (one of those strictly personal communi- 
 cations of his, which in some inadvertent fashion al- 
 ways find their way into the public prints), that, if 
 elected, he "would consult and treat with the leaders — 
 not once, but continuously, and earnestly strive to 
 agree with them on all important questions." 
 
 Yet it would be difficult to imagine two men more 
 opposite in temperament and methods, than Piatt and 
 Roosevelt, — albeit possessing practically the same 
 standards of political ethics — with the sUght balance, 
 if any, going to Piatt. It is not surprising that they 
 were not harmonious. Piatt himself throws some 
 light on the situation when he says : "It was not that 
 Roosevelt wouldn't do what we wanted. It was the 
 things he did, that we didn't want." 
 
ROOSEVELTIAN FaCT AND FaBLE 8I 
 
 The story of Mr. Roosevelt's unholy "compromises" 
 with the political "Bosses" after he became President, 
 is a long and interesting one, and may be summed up 
 in Friend Leupp's statement that "Mr. Roosevelt 
 cherishes an alrnost morbid horror of doing anything 
 to split his party I" 
 
 How is that as a prime qualification for the leading 
 performer in a "reform" programme? 
 
 The Pennsylvania appointments, McMichael as 
 Philadelphia postmaster, and McClain (one of the 
 impeccable "city fathers" of Philadelphia) as Internal- 
 Revenue Collector, made early in his administration, 
 show President Roosevelt subservient to the "Boss- 
 rule" in that State, In 1902, the New York Nation 
 stated that Addicks, the giant corruptionist of Dela- 
 ware — making Piatt and Quay almost respectable by 
 comparison — "was made the sole dispenser of federal 
 patronage in that State, having the President's sup- 
 port. In order to appoint an Addicks tool U. S. Dis- 
 trict Attorney, Mr. Roosevelt passed over the tem- 
 porary incumbent of the office, J. P. Nields, who was 
 endorsed by nearly every lawyer in the State, irre- 
 spective of party, by both federal judges, and the en- 
 tire judiciary of Delaware. The Addicks tool, W. M. 
 Byrne, was notoriously unfit, having been rdbuked in 
 open court by Judge Bradford for neglect of duty, 
 and to take such a man at the behest of Addicks, was 
 imspeakably degrading and humiliating. . . . 
 
 "The loathing which the honest people of Delaware 
 and of the whole country felt for Addleks Gould not 
 have been unknown to President Roosevelt. The 
 facts were beyond dispute. . . . What excuse does 
 the President give for this flagrant compounding with 
 brazen corruption? He says, in effect; th^t Addicks 
 had 12,000 votes behind him, wWle his Republican 
 opponents could show but 8,000; that he, Roosevelt, 
 cannot interfere with a factional fight within his own 
 
82 ROOSEVELTIAN FaCT AND FaBLE 
 
 party; that he is forced to deal with any party leader 
 whom the majority of the party voters send him, and 
 that he must recognize Addicks as he has recognized 
 Piatt and Quay." ... 
 
 How is this, as a rule of conduct, for a President 
 "with a sensitive moral sense," — to embrace brigands 
 whenever they come to him with the party label on 
 their backs? But it seems not even this dubious rule 
 would apply to Addicks. The Nation goes on to say 
 of him: "He was not yet elected senator; not like 
 Quay, a successful pirate in charge of the ship. Ad- 
 dicks was still fighting, and the beleaguered crew 
 hoped to beat him off; whereupon the President, see- 
 ing the piratical assailants outnumber the crew in dan- 
 ger of massacre by 12 to 8, decides to go to the aid of 
 the buccaneers!" 
 
 Friend Leupp, in his Campaign Book of Apologies 
 for Roosevelt, says that this "unfortunate excuse" for 
 the President's course in the Addicks mix-up, was 
 unwisely and incontinently put out by Postmaster- 
 General Payne, during the President's absence, and 
 Leupp is rather severe upon Payne for so misrepre- 
 senting his incorruptible and high-minded chief. Not 
 that Leupp denies the facts in Roosevelt's alignment 
 with Addicks ; or with the other Republican "bosses," 
 he admits them all ; but Leup has a different "explana- 
 tion" of the President's motives, from that given out 
 by Payne ; though Leupp's book is a remarkable illumi- 
 nation of the text that, "explanations never explain." 
 The Apologist makes no effort to square the Presi- 
 dent's action in the Byrne case with his removal of 
 Internal-Revenue Collector Bingham of Alabama, 
 "for the corrupt and vicious scheme of denying to ne- 
 groes qualified to vote under the laws of the State, 
 their just political rights," though even in the judg- 
 ment of Northern Republicans, Byrne's offence was 
 fully as flagrant as Bingham's. Did the President 
 
ROOSEVELTIAN FaCT AND FaBLE 83 
 
 pause to inquire whether the Collector and his asso- 
 ciates represented the dominant faction among Ala- 
 bama Republicans? What is good for Delaware 
 might be considered good for Alabama, tho' this is 
 by no means a solitary instance wherein President 
 Roosevelt has taken observations of longitude and 
 latitude in making federal appointments. The reason 
 assigned by Apologist Leupp for the President's de- 
 ferring to the wishes of the "bosses" in the distribu- 
 tion of federal patronage, resulting ofttimes in ap- 
 pointments so obnoxious to his righteous feelings, is, 
 that "senatorial courtesy would hold up any appoint- 
 ment not endorsed by the Senators from the State in 
 which the appointment is to be made." 
 
 And will Apologist Leupp or some other competent 
 authority, kindly inform us what became of this same 
 obstructing "senatorial courtesy" in the South Caro- 
 lina Crum case? Not only the Senators from that 
 State, but every Southern Senator on the floor, voicing 
 the unanimous white sentiment of the entire South 
 country, vehemently protested against the appoint- 
 ment of a negro Collector of the Port at Charleston, 
 but it did not prevent his appointment. Republican 
 Senators appear to have done their best in upholding 
 their end of "senatorial courtesy," — having refused to 
 confirm the appointment of Crum through a long, a 
 short, and an extra session of Congress. Only after 
 our Strenuous and sinuous and law-abiding Presi- 
 dent had taken advantage of a provision in the Consti- 
 tution never designed to fit such cases, but only for 
 filling vacancies caused by death or resignation, — to 
 appoint his negro Collector during a recess of Con- 
 gress, and the Senate still withholding confirmation 
 during the extra session convened in November, 1903, 
 he attempted a still further twisting of the Con- 
 stitution, in his "constructive recess" appointments 
 of Dr. Crum, Mr. Byrne, and others; and finally, 
 
84 ROOSEVELTIAN FaCT A1?D FaBLE 
 
 when the close of both the extra and regular sessions 
 found the Crum appointment still unconfirmed, he 
 threatened — and there was a rumor of an all-night 
 seance at the White House endeavoring to restrain 
 him from carrying out the threat, to hold another 
 extra summer session of Congress to compass Crum's 
 appointment, — then, and not till then, did the Republi- 
 can Senate yield in the matter of "senatorial cour- 
 tesy," and promised his Strenuosity, if he would only 
 get quiet, they would confirm his negro Collector of 
 the Port of Charleston the first thing at the following 
 regular session, e'en tho' Tillman's "pitchfork" and 
 every Southern objector barred the way! And the 
 Republican Senate kept its pledge. 
 
 When the "Reform battle" was on in Philadelphia in 
 1906, when the decent people of that city were making 
 a life-or-death struggle to wrest their municipal gov- 
 ernment from the hands of the corrupt "gang" which 
 had so long abused their patience, Wayne MacVeagh, 
 Garfield's Attorney-General, and one of the reform 
 leaders, in an article in the North American, pointed 
 to "the extraordinary fact, that the whole effective 
 power of the Administration at Washington was 
 against the reformers." 
 
 Commenting on the alliance between the Executive 
 Department of the National Government and the 
 "Bosses" engaged in despoiling Philadelphia and the 
 State, MacVeagh assM-ts: "Almost every person in 
 Pennsylvania honored with a commission bearing the 
 signature of Roosevelt, was the avowed, persistent, 
 and reckless opponent of that decency and honesty in 
 politics for which the President is supposed to stand." 
 
 MacVeagh was to learn, in common with many other 
 people, that President Roosevelt will "stand for" most 
 any good thing when the "standing for" involves 
 nothing more than the formulation of a high-sound- 
 kig preachment. 
 
ROOSEVELTIAN FaCT AND FaBLE 8^ 
 
 So long as people are willing to accept words for 
 deeds; so long as they are content with profession 
 instead of performance, and exempt from honest criti- 
 cism those in high official position; just so long will 
 artists of the Rooseveltian genus flourish in this world 
 of "mortals" discovered by Puck. 
 
96 ROOSEVELTIAN FaCT AND FaBLE 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 ROOSEVELT AND THE MOTHERS. 
 
 In the days when every utterance from the Rough 
 Rider commander and the Hero of San Juan was duly 
 recounted and applauded, in the buoyant confidence 
 that when the words could not pass muster for real 
 wisdom or real wit, they would be accepted by the 
 people as "real cute," an exuberant writer in the Metro- 
 politan, Cosmopolitan, or some other polite magazine, 
 thus describes the Hero's home-coming: When the 
 ships bringing the victorious Rough Riders touched 
 shore, and they stepped forth amid the plaudits of the 
 assembled multitude, the spokesman of the political 
 delegation commissioned to welcome Colonel Roose- 
 velt and whisper gubernatorial hopes in his ear, 
 stepped up to him, and after cordial greeting, inquired 
 after his health. 
 
 "I feel like a bull-moose!" responded the gallant 
 Colonel, and thus it was recorded in the magazine. 
 
 It is not surprising that the exponent of such lusty 
 animalism should be found exploiting Napoleon's view 
 of womankind, "that she is greatest who hath borne the 
 most sons for the Republic." Hence among the first 
 presidential lectures to the people, is the one to mothers, 
 on the duties of maternity, and the awful, awful sin of 
 race-suicide 1 
 
 The mother's vitality, the father's financial ability 
 to care for a numerous brood, are secondary considera- 
 tions — indeed not mentioned. 
 
 It is not the quality but the size of the family that is 
 
ROOSEVELTIAN FaCT AND FaBLE 9/ 
 
 important; the first and greatest Rooseveltian cora> 
 mandment is like that post-diluvian one: "Be fruitful 
 and multiply, and replenish the earth" — the "earth" 
 being a polite name for the United States, while Roose- 
 velt is steering the ship of state. 
 
 After the first fulmination against the race-suicide 
 criminals, we find Roosevelt figuring in "Mothers' 
 Congresses," and such like assemblies, ever reiterating 
 the cardinal idea. All mothers "look good" to Roose- 
 velt, but those are most esteemed who can exhibit the 
 longest family registers. There is apparently no rec- 
 ognition of the fact that there are mothers, and moth- 
 ers; so-called Christian mothers as faithless to their 
 trusts as Medea, whilst some of the truest, sweetest 
 mothers the world has ever known, have been the old- 
 maid guardians of orphaned ones who never tasted the 
 joys of maternity. But having said so much in praise 
 and exaltation of the office and estate of motherhood, 
 we shall at least expect to find President Roosevelt 
 treating the individual mother — or using the term 
 generically — the individual woman with marked con- 
 sideration. 
 
 Let us see how the Rooseveltian preachment com- 
 ports with Rooseveltian practice in this regard in spe- 
 cific instances. 
 
 The President holds every year certain official recep- 
 tions ; one in honor of the Supreme Court, one for the 
 Foreign Ambassadors, one for Congress, and one for 
 the Army and Navy. Not a great while after Mr. 
 Roosevelt succeeded to the presidency, at a White 
 House reception given to the Supreme Court, some 
 members of the Diplomatic Corps arriving about the 
 same time as the Supreme Justices, through some- 
 body's blundering, the Diplomats were presented to 
 the President and his "receiving line" before the wait- 
 ing justices in whose honor the reception was held. 
 
 This was of course a serious breach of official eti» 
 
98 ROOSEVELTIAN FaCT AND FaBLE 
 
 quette, for which no one, however, could possibly hold 
 President Roosevelt responsible, since he is not sup- 
 posed to attend to such details. While it was regret- 
 table, there being no lives lost and no bones broken, 
 sensible people were not disposed to magnify the inci- 
 dent. It appears, however, that some of the justices 
 were resentful (cherishing a great notion of their dig- 
 nity as one of their constitutional traditions), and even 
 threatened to leave without greeting the President, tho' 
 they did not carry out the threat. 
 
 The Society editor of one of the Washington dailies, 
 a woman highly respected in her profession, heard in 
 the course of the evening the remarks of the offended 
 justices, and in her report of the reception, she re- 
 ferred to the incident, as she avers, with no thought of 
 malice or wrong doing. Those who know her testify 
 that she is a conscientious and accurate reporter ; that, 
 with large opportunities to write unpleasant things, she 
 has carefully abstained from the sensational and un- 
 worthy. 
 
 But Washington correspondents and reporters of 
 every class and degree have learned that, under the 
 Roosevelt Administration, it is a flagrant example of 
 lese majeste to chronicle any misdeed or mischance 
 occurring at the White House ; and this Society editor 
 was to have the fact impressed on her in most uncom- 
 fortable fashion. As soon as her story of the reception 
 appeared in the paper next day, its Managing Editor 
 received a phone message from the President's private 
 secretary, telling him the writer of the story would no 
 longer be permitted to enter the White House, and he 
 must send some one else to report the social doings 
 under the presidential roof; if he desired an explana- 
 tion, he could call at the Executive office. It is un- 
 happily true, that with very many managing editors — 
 and some in this town of Washington, such a message 
 from the White House would have meant dismissal 
 
ROOSEVELTIAN FaCT AND FaBLE gf 
 
 for the offending reporter. But fortunately in this 
 case, the editor, possessing a quality which many lack, 
 and upon investigation finding his Society reporter 
 had only stated the facts, refused to be influenced by 
 the presidential displeasure; and quietly informed the 
 Executive office that Miss Blank would remain in his 
 employ, and that if she were not acceptable to the 
 White House authorities, he would make up his paper 
 without the chronicling of White House social news 
 thereafter. And for three years, this particular Wash- 
 ington paper was not represented at White House 
 functions. At the end of that time, the owner of the 
 paper died, a.nd the office changed managing editors, 
 likewise proprietors. In due time came the same in- 
 sistent demand from the White House for a change in 
 the head of the Society department, and the new man- 
 ager — being of different caliber to the old — acceded to 
 the unworthy request, and gave Miss Blank her dis- 
 charge. Only think of presidential vengeance pursu- 
 ing for three years a young woman who had not only 
 her own living to earn, but upon whose efforts com- 
 bined with her sister's, two aged and semi-invalid pa- 
 rents were dependent. The writer had the young 
 woman's own assurance that this circumstance was 
 brought to Mr. Roosevelt's attention by her friends, 
 who tried in vain to remove from her the White House 
 cloud of disapproval. Not only the local paper with 
 which she was connected, but all the big New York 
 press bureaus, which had employed her to gather their 
 Washington Society notes, were notified that Miss 
 Blank was persona non grata at the White House ; and 
 while this did not prevent her furnishing to them social 
 news from other quarters, it greatly crippled her use- 
 fulness, and involved a pecuniary loss to her of four 
 or five hundred dollars each winter. And consider, if 
 you please, the nature and magnitude of the offence 
 for which this woman suffered this persecution 1 
 
lOO ROOSEVELTIAN FaCT AND FaBLE 
 
 It has been stated in certain quarters, that not the 
 President, but his wife had been the cause of this 
 woman's banishment from the White House, that Mr. 
 Roosevelt himself had so stated to the managing editor. 
 
 All who admire the President more in this Adamic 
 role are welcome to accept this plea. To the mind of 
 the writer, the most pathetic feature in the whole story 
 is, that the mother of the young woman,-^old and in- 
 valid, and hailing from the rock-ribbed Republican 
 State of Pennsylvania, grieved most of all, that her 
 daughter should have fallen under the displeasure of a 
 Republican President 1 
 
 In the summer of 1903, Postmaster-General Payne 
 (according to Historian Leupp removed Miss Huldah 
 Todd, postmistress at Greenwood, Del., because she 
 was distasteful to Senator Allee, the latter having 
 donned his toga by the grace of Addicks, and Miss 
 Todd's brothers — so it was charged — were guilty of 
 the heinous offence of belonging to the anti-Addicks 
 element of Delaware. This of course was ample cause 
 for overturning Civil-Service in Miss Todd's case, by 
 an administration with a particularly sensitive con- 
 science toward Civil-Service. But Apologist Leupp 
 says it was all the fault of that "blundering" Post- 
 master-General Payne. Payne appears to have been as 
 useful in the capacity of scapegoat in those early days 
 as Wm. Loeb, Jr., in more recent times. 
 
 Anyway, by the time the matter was brought to the 
 attention of our good President, the deed was done, 
 and past recall. Sifting the evidence in his most judi- 
 cial temper, and finding himself in "a most uncomfort- 
 able position" by some conflict in the testimony, he 
 finally delivered a verdict as convincing as it was orac- 
 ular, and must have been entirely satis fatcory to Miss 
 Todd : "Had he been consulted before the Postmaster- 
 General acted, he would not have considered the case 
 against Miss Todd strong enough to warrant her dis- 
 
ROOSEVELTIAN FaCT AND FaBLE IOI 
 
 missal ; as she was already out, however, and her place 
 filled, he did not consider the evidence in her favor 
 strong enough to demand her reinstatement." This 
 reasonable and righteous decree does not appear to 
 have met with the popular favor it deserved, since 
 Leupp says : "The whole effect of Mr. Payne's tactless 
 performance was to bring unnecessary public censure 
 upon the President," and he darkly hints that for less 
 offences, Cabinet officers have resigned. 
 
 The saddest case wherein a woman was made to feel 
 the weight of the "Big Stick," which has fallen under 
 public observation, is that of Mrs. Minor Morris, the 
 brutal mode of whose ejectment from the White House 
 on January 4, 1906, shocked the whole country — such 
 portion of the country at least as keep their sensibili- 
 ties in trim for receiving a shock. Here again, nobody 
 would have thought of holding President Roosevelt 
 responsible — had he not voluntarily assumed the re- 
 sponsibility — since the outrage upon Mrs. Morris and 
 affront to American womanhood, was the work of an 
 ill-bred underling — an assistant secretary of some sort, 
 and the ruffianly White House guards who executed 
 the secretary's order. The President was as innocent 
 of the outrage as he was ignorant of it at the time it 
 occurred. An account of the affair appearing in one 
 of the afternoon papers, however, an account writt«i 
 by an eye-witness of the proceedings, and which, while 
 exonerating Mrs. Morris of everything except a fool- 
 ish desire to petition the President for some private 
 grievance, showed the conduct of the under-secretary 
 (whose name was Barnes) and his ruffianly minions in 
 a most unfavorable light, — President Roosevelt had his 
 private secretary write to the editor of the paper that 
 this account of the Morris incident published by him 
 was "very displeasing to the President and everyone 
 else at the White House !" 
 
 Whereupon the plucky Washington editor (may his 
 
102 ROOSEVELTIAN FaCT AND FaBLE 
 
 tribe increase!) sent back the prompt and vigorous 
 reply that he was satisfied his reporter had stated only 
 the facts as he witnessed them, that he — the editor — 
 had been managing his paper for some years without 
 any suggestions from the White House, and if the "Big 
 Stick" was to inaugurate a policy of muzzling the 
 press, it must begin with some other than the Wash- 
 ington Evening Star, — or words to that effect. 
 
 The Washington Star is a staunch Republican or- 
 gan, and up to the date of the Morris incident had 
 been a consistent supporter of the Roosevelt adminis- 
 tration. Yet its venerable and respected editor, Mr. 
 Crosby S. Noyes, in an address before the National 
 Editorial Association, June 13, 1907, speaking of Pres- 
 ident Roosevelt, said: "His hasty approval of the 
 brutal deeds of his subordinates at the White House 
 when the 'knock-down-and-drag-out' outrage was 
 committed upon Mrs. Minor Morris, a refined, cul- 
 tured, respectable Christian woman, was an act of 
 cruel, heartless injustice." 
 
 The incident was published in detail by the press 
 throughout the country at the time, but as some of 
 these accounts — tho' not all — evinced the artistic 
 touches of the White House cuckoos, ft were well to 
 state the facts connected with it in this truthful his- 
 tory of Rooseveltian acts, that all men may know them, 
 and be able to distinguish them from the "inspired" 
 fables they may encounter elsewhere. 
 
 From the time of issuance of his reprimand to the 
 Evening Star for publishing the truth, President 
 Roosevelt made Secretary Barnes's cause his own, and 
 the movements instituted and the means employed to 
 vindicate Barnes, must be considered as carrying the 
 President's endorsement. The first statement of the 
 unhappy occurrence, given out by a newspaper man 
 who witnessed it from the door of the White House 
 press room, is as follows: 
 
ROOSEVELTIAN FaCT AND FaBLE IO3 
 
 "Coming in from lunch at i o'clock, I noticed in 
 the general lobby, near Mr. Loeb's door, a lady whom 
 I afterwards found out to be Mrs. Minor Morris, sit- 
 ting very quietly, evidently waiting to see one of the 
 secretaries. 
 
 "She was not different in appearance from other 
 well-dressed women, and I gave no special heed to 
 her, as I passed into the press-room — which opens oil 
 the lobby — and engaged in conversation with three 
 other newspaper men who were in there. The door to 
 the press-room is always open, and as it was near the 
 President's lunch hour, everything was unusually 
 quiet in the lobby. . . . Very suddenly we heard a 
 loud exclamation which sounded like, 'Oh, no, no ! 
 Don't do that !' 
 
 "All of us jumped to the door and entered the main 
 room, where we found a secret-service man and Officer 
 Freeh in the act of pulling the woman out of the chair 
 in which she was sitting. Prior to this, we had heard 
 no loud voice, and I am positive there was no boister- 
 ous conduct. 
 
 "A word spoken above an ordinary tone would have 
 reached our ears very easily. The men pulled the 
 woman to the door, where Officer Murphy relieved the 
 secret-service man. Their object was to get her to 
 the guard-room just opposite the Treasury Building. 
 To do this, they had to carry her down the path lead- 
 ing to the basement of the White House, and through 
 the long corridor used during receptions. Before go- 
 ing twenty feet Mrs. Morris fell to her knees, but was 
 jerked to her feet and dragged on. Before they dis- 
 appeared from sight, she must have fallen six or eight 
 times. Just before disappearing thro' the archway 
 leading to the basement, I saw a negro man, CharUe 
 Reeder, the President's footman, rush out and pick 
 her up by the heels. The last I saw of Mrs. Morris 
 she was being carried off like a sack of salt, with the 
 
104 ROOSEVELTIAN FaCT AND FaBLE 
 
 negro at her feet, and her dress hanging above her 
 knees. I went around to the guard-room, and saw 
 Mrs. Morris literally thrown into a waiting cab, which 
 carried her to the House of Detention." 
 
 This account of the manner of Mrs. Morris's arrest 
 and expulsion from the White House, was corro- 
 borated by other newspaper men who were in the press 
 room at the time, and who had no plausible motive for 
 misrepresentation. Moved by the indignation ex- 
 pressed in the local press, at the Capitol, and in Wash- 
 ington circles generally, Secretary Barnes, the princi- 
 pal in the disgraceful scene, issued the following 
 statement from the White House, manifestly with the 
 President's sanction: "Mrs. Morris called at the 
 Executive office yesterday about i o'clock, and asked 
 to be allowed to see the President. . . . Upon in- 
 quiry as to the nature of her business, she stated with 
 considerable reluctance, that her husband had been 
 unjustly dismissed from the War Department; that 
 she did not propose to have anything to do with the 
 Secretary of War concerning it, but that she wanted 
 the President to take it up and see that justice was 
 done. She was informed that the President could not 
 give personal attention to such a matter, and that the 
 decision of the Secretary of War would be final. She 
 insisted that she must see the President, and when told 
 that that was out of the question, she asserted in a 
 boisterous manner that she would not be prevented 
 from seeing him, and that she would remain where 
 she was for a month, if need be, unless she saw him 
 sooner. She was allowed to remain for some mo- 
 ments. When Mr. Barnes returned to the reception 
 room shortly after, he found her pacing excitedly to 
 and fro, and informed her as quietly as possible, that 
 she could not see the President, and it would be use- 
 less for her to wait. She replied in a loud voice that 
 she would see him, and that she would stay there 
 
ROOSEVELTIAN FaCT AND FaBLE I05 
 
 until she did. She was again advised to drop the 
 matter and go away quietly. This in still louder tones 
 she refused to do. She was then told she must either 
 leave the office at once voluntarily, or it would be 
 necessary to have her put out of the building. At this 
 she shrieked at the top of her voice, 'I will not be 
 put out,' rushed to a chair, threw herself into it, 
 and shouted : 'Don't you have any hands laid on me. 
 I'm going to stay here until I see tiie President !' Mrs. 
 Morris's piercing shrieks were heard throughout the 
 building, and it became necessary in the interest of 
 order to have her removed. She was accordingly 
 taken in charge by a police officer who had witnessed 
 the whole affair. He asked her to go with him quietly. 
 She refused, and told him that if she was removed, she 
 mould have to be dragged every step of the way. Be- 
 fore applying force, flie officer asked her three times 
 to leave the office quietly. She shrieked her refusal to 
 each request, and was then led from the room. 
 
 "She struggled violently with the two police officers, 
 striking, kicking and biting them all the way from 
 the office building to the eastern entrance of the 
 White House. As soon as she was outside the office 
 building, she threw herself on the ground, and it be- 
 came necessary to carry her. The officers repeatedly 
 asked her to stand up, and walk quietly with them, so 
 that they would not to have to use force, but she re- 
 fused to do so, and defied them with shrieks that were 
 heard throughout the White House. She was finally 
 removed to police headquarters, where she was 
 charged with disorderly conduct. . . . There is no 
 truth whatever in the statement made by many of the 
 morning papers, that a negro laid hold of Mrs. Morris 
 and assisted in carrying her. One of the colored 
 messengers of the office followed the policemen, and 
 gathered up such small articles as were dropped in the 
 
I06 ROOSEVELTIAN FaCT AND FaBLE 
 
 woman's struggles, but there was no other foundation 
 whatever for the statement." 
 
 As will be seen, this Barnes statement, issued under 
 Executive approval, represents Mrs. Morris behaving 
 very badly indeed upon the occasion of her ill-fated 
 call at the White House, and like the story turned in 
 by the cub reporter, "it is important, if true." Con- 
 sidering what it had to defend, one may almost forgive 
 the gross exaggerations and whole-cloth fabrications 
 which it was later proven to contain. 
 
 Mrs. Morris testified that Barnes's statement of 
 what occurred was wholly false, except the part relat- 
 ing to telling him the nature of her business with the 
 President, which she did, reluctantly as he says, be- 
 cause he informed her that it would first have to be 
 transmitted to the President through one of his secre- 
 taries, before she would be accorded an audience with 
 him, if at all. As she was averse to speaking to him 
 at all on the subject, she says she purposely lowered 
 her voice, that others might not hear ; that when told 
 the President was engaged, and could not see her then, 
 she had replied that if there were any chance of seeing 
 him for even five minutes, she would gladly wait all 
 day, as she had nothing particular to do ; and that, 
 tho' Mr. Barnes was exceedingly gruff and rude in 
 his manner from the outset, she at no time raised her 
 voice above the ordinary tone in her pleading with 
 him for a presidential hearing, until he signalled to the 
 officers to seize her, and then she uttered the exclama- 
 tion heard in the press-room, and which brought the 
 reporters on the scene. As her story in this particular 
 is fully corroborated by five or six reputable newspa- 
 per men of Washington, there seems no good reason 
 to doubt it, nor to accept in lieu of it Barnes's state- 
 ment that "her shrieks rang throughout the White 
 House" before he ordered her forcibly removed — not 
 even though the latter was issued under Executive 
 
ROOSEVELTIAN FaCT AND FaBLE IO7 
 
 Kinction. Of his assertion that she threw herself on 
 the ground, Mrs. Morris said she fainted, — and this 
 also is easily credited, if there was any faint in her — 
 that was certainly the occasion for it. It is the greater 
 pity that the poor woman could not remain uncon- 
 scious throughout the whole degrading proceedings. 
 Barnes, later, was forced to retract his emphatic denial 
 of the negro footman's part in the dragging-out per- 
 formance. Too many witnesses were found who had 
 "seen it with their own eyes," and told Mr. Barnes 
 so, up and down, without any blinking. Then the 
 noble secretary, backed by his chivalric chief, took 
 refuge behind the excuse that the officers who reported 
 the matter to him, had their attention so engrossed by 
 the struggling, screaming Mrs. Morris, that they could 
 not affirm positively (tho' Mr. Barnes had affirmed 
 very positively for them) mho else had assisted their 
 humane efforts. This is what "Uncle Remus" would 
 call "a mighty likely tale!" Their engrossed atten- 
 tion also prevented their noticing or affirming posi- 
 tively who subtracted the seven or eight dollars from 
 the purse, which was dropped with the other "small 
 articles in the woman's struggles," and which Mrs. 
 Morris said was empty when returned to her. 
 
 Consider this for a moment, if you will, fellow- 
 citizens of free America! An American mother, a 
 lady and a Christian, is insulted, assaulted, and robbed 
 in the White Palace by the Potomac which was built 
 for Washington, occupied by Jefferson, Madison, 
 Monroe and the two Adamses; by the chivalric Jack- 
 son, and the great-hearted Lincoln, and the silent, pro- 
 digious Captain who said, "Let us have peace." In 
 all the long, illustrious line of American Presidents 
 who had gone before, there was none whose reign had 
 looked on such a spectacle. Let us at least return 
 thanks for this. 
 
 And what said Theodore Roosevelt, the then occu- 
 
Io8 ROOSEVELTIAN FACT AND FaBLE 
 
 pant of the historic mansion, of this unseemly happen- 
 ing beneath his official roof -tree? 
 
 Surely the President who has gone out of his way 
 to expatiate more than all his predecessors upon the 
 dignity and beatitude of motherhood, as soon as the 
 facts in the case are brought out, will repent his hasty 
 message to the Evening Star, will use "the Big Stick" 
 upon the miscreant Barnes, and send some kindly 
 message of apology to his victim? 
 
 We shall see. The ejectment occurred on January 
 4th. On the 17th, Senator Tillman — whose special 
 mission in the United States Senate is to see that no 
 Roosevelt misdemeanors "get by," without his ringing 
 the publicity bells on them — announced more in sor- 
 row than anger, that he had waited nearly two weeks 
 for the President to make reparation, and finally, fail- 
 ing to discover that the Chief Magistrate who had sent 
 a message of sympathy to Fitzsimmons, the prize- 
 fighter, had made any movement to assuage Mrs. Mor- 
 ris's injured feelings, he (Tilknan) felt it his duty, 
 &c., &c. 
 
 As he was detailing the incident in his graphic way, 
 Tillman was interrupted by Senator Hale of Maine, — 
 that same Senator Hale, who on a former occasion, 
 had risen with so much dignity, and announced: "If 
 the Senator from South Carolina will but modify his 
 extreme language toward the Chief Executive, I will 
 assure him of my support in his resolution against the 
 'constructive recess' proposition. I believe the Con- 
 stitution of our fathers to be a frank, open document, 
 framed by open, fair-minded men, who never intended 
 it to be a trap for any of us." 
 
 And now Senator Hale, with equal dignity, sternly 
 rebuked Tillman for "making such serious and de- 
 famatory charges against the President of all the 
 United States,— having nothing whatever that he ad- 
 duces as proof. It is not seemly that he should make 
 
ROOSEVELTIAN FaCT AND FaBLB IO9 
 
 this chamber the place to exploit his personal malice 
 toward the nation's Chief." 
 
 The Senator from Maine should have learned ere 
 this, that Tillman, tho' only "a corn-field lawyer," upon 
 his own confession — seldom came into court without 
 his "proofs" well-primed and assorted. White with 
 wrath, tho' with marvelous composure (for him), he 
 now faced the Maine Senator : 
 
 "I want to say to you, sir, that if you will offer a 
 resolution appointing a committee of this body, — 
 composed of Republicans alone — ^to examine into the 
 facts, I will give you the names of four witnesses, as 
 reputable as you or I, who will swear to the statement 
 I have made as to what actually occurred." 
 
 Hale not anticipating this broadside, wavered some- 
 what, but resuming the original line of attack, reiter- 
 ated, "Let us have the proof" ; and Tillman fired back: 
 "Bring on your committee." 
 
 Finally, after some sparring, Hale, who had raised 
 the issue, told Tillman, if he would offer a resolution 
 for an investigation into the facts of the case, "no- 
 body on this side the Chamber will oppose your reso- 
 lution." 
 
 Tillman, never the man to decline a gage-of -battle 
 flung squarely in his teeth, thereupon gave notice that 
 he would offer such a resolution in the Senate the fol- 
 lowing morning. Then rose up that courtly gentle- 
 man of the old school. Senator Daniel of Virginia, and 
 "hoped the Senator from South Carolina would re- 
 consider this intention. Not that he — Daniel — as 
 everybody knew, would condone any mistreatment or 
 discourtesy shown a lady. But he did not consider it 
 seemly or consistent with senatorial dignity or good 
 taste, for the Senate to inquire into the domestic 
 affairs of the President's house, any more than it 
 would be proper for the President to inquire into 
 domestic happenings in a Senator's home. He thought 
 
riO ROOSEVELTIAN FaCT AND FaBLE 
 
 they must assume that the President would do the 
 proper thing in the matter, &c., &c., &c. 
 
 Ironically acknowledging his indebtedness to both 
 the Senator from Maine and from Virginia, for the 
 lesson in manners he so much needed, Tillman stuck to 
 his text : Barnes was a public servant, paid out of the 
 public Treasury; Congress appropriated the money 
 from which he was paid. If he had been guilty of 
 improper and unofficial conduct, and his official mas- 
 ter, the President of the United States, failed to call 
 him to account, it was both the right and the duty of 
 Congress to inquire into his offence. 
 
 Stating further that he would leave the question of 
 senatorial dignity, courtesy, &c., for the Maine and 
 Virginia and other Senators to settle, whilst he would 
 strive to see justice done to this maltreated woman. 
 
 True to his word, next morning Tillman offered his 
 resolution, and Senator Daniel, pursuing his courteous 
 idea, promptly moved to table it. 
 
 All the Democratic Southern Senators, who couldn't 
 dodge it by being either absent or "paired," voted with 
 the Virginia Senator, except eight: 
 
 The two Senators from Kentucky, two from Mis- 
 sissippi, two from South Carolina, one from Mis- 
 souri (Stone), and the one from Tennessee (Frazier), 
 who was present, voted to sustain Senator Tillman's 
 resolution of inquiry. 
 
 All the Republican Senators voted to table it except 
 Hale, who taking counsel only of his own fairminded- 
 ness, had assured Tillman that "no one on that side 
 of the Chamber would oppose it." 
 
 Foiled in his honest purpose, and rebuked by his 
 own Southern colleagues for a breach of senatorial 
 decorum, Tillman subsided on the Morris case for 
 some weeks. The nine-days' wonder over, the inci- 
 dent would probably have slept with others of its kind 
 in the limbo of things forgot, had President Roosevelt 
 
ROOSEVELTIAN FaCT AND FaBLE III 
 
 been content to let bad enough alone. But his Strenu- 
 osity never goes in for half-way measures in such 
 laudable undertakings as this. By way of further put- 
 ting the seal of his approval on Barnes, and the stigma 
 of his disapproval upon Mrs. Morris, Roosevelt on 
 April I, 1906, appointed his delectable under-secretary 
 to be City Postmaster for the city of Washington, one 
 of the most important and lucrative positions within 
 the gift of the Executive. 
 
 When the Barnes appointment came to the Senate 
 for confirmation, Tillman brandished the "pitch- fork" 
 afresh. He sent a written statement to the Committee 
 on Post-offices and Post-roads, preferring specific 
 charges against Barnes: That he had been guilty of 
 brutal conduct in ordering Mrs. Morris's arrest, and 
 had issued a false statement about it afterwards ; that 
 he had lodged a charge of insanity against Mrs. Mor- 
 ris, causing her to remain a prisoner several hours; 
 and that he had caused the circulation of stories derog- 
 atory to her character and mental condition. 
 
 To these charges against Barnes, Tillman ap- 
 pended the names of seven well-known newspaper men 
 of Washington, whom he asked to have called as wit- 
 nesses in the case. 
 
 The battle was on between the "pitch- fork" and 
 "the Big Stick." 
 
 Roosevelt was forced to go through the form of 
 ordering an "investigation" of the Barnes-Morris inci- 
 dent. Maj. Sylvester, Chief of Police for the City of 
 Washington, conducted the investigation. Some very 
 interesting facts were brought out in the evidence 
 submitted. Tillman reviewed them all in the open 
 Senate, and they were inserted in the Congressional 
 Record of that date, where they may be found to-day. 
 
 It appeared that Officer Freeh, Barnes's brother-in- 
 law, and one of those to execute his brutal order, had 
 at first only charged Mrs. Morris with "disorderly 
 
112 ROOSEVELTIAN FaCT AND FaBLE 
 
 conduct" when they arrived at the police station; but 
 on returning to the White House, and conferring with 
 his amiable relative, he learned that he should have 
 said she was crazy; and he accordingly rushed back 
 and lodged the additional charge of insanity. This 
 necessitated holding her a prisoner, until a medical 
 board could be found to pass upon her sanity. The 
 doctors, when called, promptly removed the charge of 
 insanity, saying that while much shaken up, and very 
 hysterical, "she was not insane." 
 
 One of the things adduced by the argument for the 
 defense, as evidence of Mrs. Morris's mental disor- 
 ders, was the statement of the police matron, that as 
 soon as she was released from the grip of the officers, 
 "she fell on her knees in the parlor of the Detention 
 House, and prayed aloud !" 
 
 Tillman's expression in commenting upon this dam- 
 aging testimony, was very characteristic and amusing. 
 
 Numerous letters and statements were produced, all 
 dealing with Mrs. Morris's peculiarities and eccen- 
 tricities, to show how little deserving she was of any 
 public sympathy. About the most important of these 
 was a statement obtained from Dr. A. B. Weaver of 
 Asheville, N. C, to the effect that Mrs. Morris, two 
 years before on her return from Florida, had stopped 
 in Asheville, and been under the professional care of 
 Dr. Weaver, who testified that, "she was very pe- 
 culiar indeed, — what is commonly called a crank." 
 
 When Dr. and Mrs. Morris issued a statement, 
 sworn to before a notary public, that neither of them 
 had ever been in Asheville, N. C, neither two years 
 previous nor at any other time, "this pink of medical 
 propriety" — as Tillman characterized him — tissued a 
 retraction in the Asheville paper, saying he "had 
 treated a Mrs. Morris at the time referred to, but 
 whether Mrs. Minor Morris, or some other Morris, 
 he could not say positively; he had supposed it to be 
 
ROOSEVELTIAN FaCT AND FaBLE II3 
 
 the same from the fact her husband was a physician, 
 but he really did not remember the first name of his 
 former patient ; and he concluded by complaining that 
 he had been tricked into making an unprofessional 
 statement about a patient, having believed it to be 
 confidential, and not for publication." 
 
 The Weaver deposition was typical of many others, 
 and whatever credence should attach to them, they 
 bear prima facie evidence of the fact, that somebody 
 had been in the "muck-raking" business, — to further 
 increase the woes of Mrs. Minor Morris; and 
 whether Barnes or Roosevelt had manipulated the 
 "muck-rake" will be settled according to individual 
 opinion and preference. Tillman also pointed out the 
 important fact that none of these so-called "affidavits" 
 collected for Maj. Sylvester's use, which had any 
 bearing on the case, were sworn to; but were simply 
 uncertified statements ; that he (Tillman) had person- 
 ally inspected them all and knew such to be the fact. 
 He stated it on his honor as a senator, at any rate, 
 showing the farcical character of Maj. Sylvester's 
 "investigation." Tillman likewise called attention to 
 the very peculiar circumstance, that of the seven 
 newspaper witnesses whom he had cited, only one, 
 Ebner E. Payne, had been permitted to testify in the 
 case. He had prepared, at someone's request, a 
 "memorandum" for the President, which set forth Mr. 
 Barnes's conduct in the best-possible light; applying 
 the white-wash brush deftly where it was most needed, 
 and conveying the general impression that the under- 
 secretary "had really done the best he could, under 
 the circumstances!" This "memorandum" showed a 
 marked revision of Mr. Payne's first impression of the 
 affair, as according to his associates in the press-room, 
 he was as indignant as any of them the afternoon it 
 occurred. 
 
 Tillman's illuminating "pitch-fork" brought forth 
 
114 ROOSEVELTIAN FaCT AND FaBLE 
 
 the further interesting circumstance, that, about the 
 time Maj. Sylvester and Elmer E. Payne rendered 
 their important services to the cause of Barnes, two 
 Annapolis cadetships were awarded by the President 
 to the two sons respectively, of Maj. Sylvester and of 
 Mr. Payne. Of course, it might only have been a 
 coincidence, wholly unconnected with the Barnes case, 
 but Tillman regarded it as "very peculiar" (almost as 
 "peculiar" as Mrs. Morris herself) — the more espe- 
 cially, as the President is supposed to award the cadet- 
 ships within his bestowal only to sons of Army and 
 Navy officers, who have no congressional districts 
 from which they could be appointed. Merely a coin- 
 cidence, but "very peculiar!" 
 
 To make a long story short, Mr. Barnes was vindi- 
 cated and confirmed, and still rules over the City Post- 
 Ofi&ce in Washington. "The Big Stick" had prevailed 
 over the "Pitch-fork," as was of course to be ex- 
 pected; but it is such a valiant and ffearless "Pitch- 
 fork" withal, that the mothers of the country at least 
 should pause to do it reverence. 
 
 In concluding his defence of Mrs. Morris, Senator 
 Tillman said: "It is not my province to play Don 
 Quixote, and roam around the country, in Washington, 
 or elsewhere, as the champion of distressed women. 
 But in my home, since my mother now dead, used to 
 hug me to her bosom and say — "My son, tell the 
 truth' ; and since her departure, my association for 38 
 years with another woman as wife who has been an 
 inspiration and solace, my every instinct as a man has 
 taught me to respect and love women. 
 
 "And when I see a man who ought to be a gentle- 
 man, altho' in high official position, ignore his plain 
 duty to seek out the truth, make due apology, right the 
 wrong as far as he could, and punish those about him 
 who are guilty of this outrage, I would have been false 
 
ROOSEVELTIAN FaCT AND FaBLE 115 
 
 to every instinct of my nature, if I had reniained silent 
 on this occasion. ..." •■ 
 
 In a magazine article (Sept. Review of Reviews, 
 1896), Mr. Roosevelt once observed: "In Tillman 
 and Watson is embodied retribution on the South for 
 having failed to educate her cracker, the poor white 
 which gives them strength." 
 
 It is related that, after Mr. Watson had explained 
 to Roosevelt's satisfaction that he did not belong in 
 the "cracker" class, but had had a "grandfather"— 
 who, if the Honorable Tom's account is to be credited, 
 was really more distinguished than any Roosevelt 
 grandfather of whom we have record, the gracious 
 Roosevelt promptly made the amende honourable for 
 his error in Mr. Watson's case. Senator Tillman 
 (whose lineage is probably as good as either Wat- 
 son's or Roosevelt's) declined to join in the "grand- 
 father" controversy, thereby demonstrating himself a 
 better man than either. 
 
 Questions of family, rank, and official titles aside, 
 it may be safely left to the chivalric sense of the world 
 to decide, whether Senator Tillman or President 
 Roosevelt appears in the more manly role, in the un- 
 happy occurrence above related. And Mrs. Morris, 
 what of her? Ah, yes, Mrs. Morris! The newspa- 
 pers stated about a year ago that "Mrs. Minor Mor- 
 ris, the lady so summarily ejected from the White 
 House some time ago, has been adjudged insane by a 
 board of alienists, and sent to a private sanitarium." 
 
 That was all. Just a press-dispatch, but to those 
 acquainted with the circumstances, how full of tragic 
 import! A Washington woman of high character 
 and culture, who was associated with Mrs. Morris in 
 the League of American Pen- women, testified of her: 
 "She was a little peculiar, tho' I always liked her, per- 
 ceiving her good traits as well as her peculiarities. 
 She was one of the brainiest women in the League, 
 
Il6 ROOSEVELTIAN FaCT AND FaBLE 
 
 and perhaps the most accomplished. Besides being 
 an essayist and poet of no mean order, she was a 
 brilliant pianist, having had exceptional advantages in 
 the best musical schools of Europe. Her technique 
 surpassed that of many professionals. She was kind- 
 hearted, and deeply religious. She was moreover a 
 very generous woman with her means, and more loyal 
 in her friendships than the average woman. I always 
 found her truthful and honorable. She was foolishly 
 fond of her husband (perhaps this made her "a little 
 peculiar" in the City of Washington), and that was 
 what caused her trouble. She didn't care for the sal- 
 ary attached to her husband's position in the War De- 
 partment, but she felt that some sort of disgrace or 
 blight hung over him because of it. And so she re- 
 solved in his absence to make her appeal to the Presi- 
 dent, with such unhappy sequel. She was extremely 
 jealous of her dignity, and this, added to her quick, 
 excitable temper, made her a little inharmonious with 
 some members of the League. Her husband seemed 
 fond of her also, and they appeared very happy in 
 their home." 
 
 "Jealous of her dignity," super-sensitive, ah ! pitying 
 Heaven! What agonies of mortification must this 
 woman have endured! Is it matter for wonder, that 
 brooding over her wrongs, smarting under her deep 
 humiliation, morbid imaginings took possession of her 
 reason? And does the man who has such keen appre- 
 ciation of retributive justice for others, and keeps 
 such close tab on cause and effect, where it involves 
 a local election, that he sent his Secretary of State to 
 New York to charge the murder of McKinley on 
 Wm. Randolph Hearst — in a Marc Anthony harangue 
 over Caesar's body — does he feel no twinge of con- 
 science for this chattering mad-woman, and the wreck 
 of her happy home? Her only offence so far as he 
 was concerned, was taking at its full face value his 
 
ROOSEVELTIAN FaCT AND FaBLE II7 
 
 posing as Haroun the Just; and such was her faith 
 in, and admiration for him, that one little kindly 
 message from him would have gone far toward heal- 
 ing her wounds, grievous tho' they were. But it might 
 not be. 
 
 Platitudes anent mothers, and motherhood in the 
 abstract, are one thing. Kindness to real mothers, if 
 it involves any sacrifice of the doctrine of Roosevelt 
 infallibility, is what Kipling calls "another story." 
 
 Since this went to press, Mrs. Morris has returned 
 to Washington in normal mental health, having es- 
 caped from the asylum where she was fraudulently 
 detained for ten months, as she will undertake to prove 
 in the courts. 
 
ROOSEVELTIAN FaCT AND FaBLE I9I 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 CAESAR PUTS BY THE CROWN. 
 
 Altho' the Constitution does not fix the limit of 
 presidential service in the United States, the prece- 
 dent established by our first President, and followed 
 by all his successors, has made the two-term custom 
 and tradition as binding as any written law; and is 
 probably more respected by the mass of the people 
 than a great many of the graven statutes. When Mr. 
 Roosevelt was elected Vice-president in 1900, he was 
 at the same time elected president — in the event of cer- 
 tain untoward happenings, which in this case hap- 
 pened. When therefore he was re-elected in 1904, it 
 probably never occurred to anybody except himself 
 that he was entitled to any more presidential runs, and 
 there was no occasion for any lofty and resonant re- 
 nunciation of a third-term prog'ram, so far as the pub- 
 lic was concerned. Since a man can only renounce 
 that which he possesses, or is reasonably sure of ob- 
 taining — and in this case, it is only a lively hope — the 
 force of this great Roosevelt self-sacrifice is not read- 
 ily obvious to just a plain every-day sort of person, 
 accustomed to reason about things in just a plain 
 every-day fashion. His election-night declaration, 
 that he would not again be a candidate for the presi- 
 dency, did not attract very much attention, nor im- 
 press anybody very deeply at the time, it seems, — ^most 
 persons passing it by as one of the more harmless 
 manifestations of Rooseveltism — until sometime af- 
 terwards, when it became manifest that Mr. Roosevelt 
 
192 ROOSEVELTIAN FaCT AND FaBLE 
 
 repented his hasty renunciation of a third-term ambi. 
 tion. 
 
 Then was inaugurated that systematized effort by 
 all the various press agencies in the employ of Roose- 
 velt, to create the impression that there was a great 
 popular demand for a continuance of Roosevelt rule. 
 This suggestion, appearing here and there in the press, 
 in special articles, and in cartoons, as early as 1906, 
 became more frequent in 1907, and grew more insist- 
 ent up to the time of the Chicago Convention in June. 
 1908. Finding himself handicapped both by presiden- 
 tial precedent and his own express declaration, Mr. 
 Roosevelt found it necessary either to declare for him- 
 self or for some other, in order to justify his activity 
 in strengthening his hold upon the "organization," so 
 that it would still be his to wield either in the interest 
 of his own candidacy, or of a candidate of his selec- 
 tion. Thus in November, 1907, he issued his famous 
 order to his Cabinet heads, to forbid Federal office- 
 holders who might go to the National Convention be- 
 ing instructed for himself, at the same time ordering 
 them to go unimstructed, so that they would still lie in 
 the hollow of Roosevelt's hand, to be turned to him- 
 self, or to another, as events might render expedient 
 or imperative. And so he let it be known through his 
 faithful cuckoos that it was his desire to have Secre- 
 tary Taft as his successor. Still the third-term talk 
 kept up, in one form or another, and the President 
 when appealed to for confirmation or denial, took ref- 
 uge in non-committal silence or "impenetrable ambig- 
 uity" — ^to quote Colonel George Harvey. 
 
 So patent was it that the President was playing a 
 waiting game in the presidential nomination, that it 
 elicited an open rebuke from one of the members of 
 our highest tribunal. Justice Brewer of the U. S. Su- 
 preme Court, addressing the Civic Forum of New 
 York, Nov. 20, 1907, in advocacy of a single seven- 
 
ROOSEVELTIAN FaCT AND FaBLE I93 
 
 year elective term for our presidents, said: "If that 
 were the provision, with ineligibility to re-election, we 
 should not now have the spectacle of our strenuous 
 President playing hide and seek with the office." 
 
 Finally this intermittent and recrudescent third-term 
 talk for Roosevelt caused such uneasiness and uncer- 
 tainty in the ranks of the Taft boomers, that they re- 
 solved to force Mr. Roosevelt to a positive, unequivo- 
 cal declaration of his position, — which they did. As 
 he could not yet read his fate in the stars, he was 
 forced to reiterate his election-night declaration. And 
 so the campaign for Mr. Taft's nomination went mer- 
 rily forward, with Roosevelt as commander-in-chief 
 of all the forces in the field. Federal officeholders in 
 every portion of the Union were set to work on the 
 Taft boom, and those keeping tab on the maneuvering, 
 reported them all very busy. Where federal appoint- 
 ees were found more favorable to some other presi- 
 dential aspirant, they were promptly displaced, and 
 Taft men put in. President Roosevelt had long since 
 abolished a safeguard which Grover Cleveland had 
 imposed for the protection of Civil Service employees, 
 — ^that they should not be dismissed without a charge 
 filed against them by the head of the Department, and 
 an opportunity afforded them for a reply to the 
 charge. 
 
 Our foreign possessions, and our construction of 
 the Panama Canal, "as the President may direct," had 
 opened up numberless opportunities for special ap- 
 pointments, and temporary appointments by the Presi- 
 dent, all of which were bestowed as "spoils" upon 
 those who could serve the President's purposes. Mr. 
 Hitchcock was taken from the head of the Post Office 
 Department, and made the manager of the Taft cam- 
 pagin. His knowledge of postal affairs might make 
 him as useful in that capacity as Manager Cortelyou's 
 knowledge of corporation affairs had made him. 
 
194 ROOSEVELTIAN FaCT AND FaBLE 
 
 Washington dispatches of March, 1907, gave in detail 
 the story of 32 postmasters appointed in Ohio to help 
 Secretary Taft control the State. 
 
 So flagrant and notorious was this manipulation of 
 federal offices in the interest of Mr. Taft's candi- 
 dacy, that a writer in the March, 1908, Arena, George 
 L. Rees, emphatically charges: "Mr. Roosevelt has 
 farmed out federal patronage in as shameful a man- 
 ner as the French Louises sold the tax-coUectorships 
 to the highest bidders. 
 
 But in this manner, Mr. Roosevelt built up a pow- 
 erful "organization," which was to be the obedient 
 creature of his imperious will when the time came to 
 use it. Then about two or three months before the 
 date fixed for the Republican National Convention, 
 sinister reports began to circulate anent Mr. Taft'S 
 "inherent weakness" as a candidate; and tho' Presi- 
 dent Roosevelt was still depicted as the ardent, strenu- 
 ous supporter of his heir-apparent, the impression was 
 getting more and more prevalent, that the country 
 wanted — not Taft, but Roosevelt ! 
 
 In the days when he was "playing hide-and-seek" 
 with the third-term lure, President Roosevelt was re- 
 ported as saying, "if he believed he could break the 
 Solid South, he might be tempted to reconsider his de- 
 termination not to try again for the presidency," and 
 whether this inspired John Temple Graves' maudlin 
 toast, or the maudlin toast inspired "Teddy's" wob- 
 bling on the third-term proposition, is not recalled in 
 the exact order of sequence — ^nor does it matter. What 
 ititerests and impresses us is T. R.'s sudden and affec- 
 tionate solicitude for the Solid South. When he was 
 making up his general estimates of peoples and things, 
 which he has embalmed in his "literary works," he had 
 observed that "through the Southern character has 
 ever run a streak of coarse and brutal barbarism." 
 Not content with the ordinary appellation of "traitors," 
 
ROOSEVELTIAN FaCT AND FaBLE I95 
 
 he had in a Washington address referred to the ex- 
 Cbnfederates as "anarchists" ; and he had gone out of 
 his way to be particularly offensive in his characteri- 
 zation of Jefferson Davis, — even assailing his pri,vate 
 character, which at least had escaped criticism from 
 reputable Northerners before the time of Roosevelt. 
 
 But now if the "brutal and barbarous, traitorous 
 and anarchistic" South will only display a genial rift 
 in its solid front for the Roosevelt sun-god, and 
 thereby afford him an excuse for going back on his 
 word, and attempting to overturn the third-term prece- 
 dent, the magnanimous T. R. is willing to forgive and 
 forget — "until after election" anyhow! 
 
 And so, about a week or two before the Chicago 
 meet, a pretty story appeared in one of the Washing- 
 ton papers, written by a Georgian, describing a won- 
 derful "Roosevelt wave" in the Sunny South; begin- 
 ning in the little town of Rossville, the home of Presi- 
 dent Roosevelt's mother (by way of lending a romantic 
 touch), a petition was circulated, beseeching for four 
 years more of Roosevelt, and with incredible rapidity 
 it grew and grew, until 30,000 Southerners had affixed 
 their signatures to the petition! 
 
 The writer of the story avowed himself wholly at a 
 loss to account for the phenomenon, averring it was 
 "unprecedented" in the political history of the coun- 
 try. But being from Georgia, we think he should 
 have been able to understand most any ovation to a 
 "Member of the Well-known Bulloch Family," and it 
 is likely the "signers" themselves could not. have given 
 any better explanation of their enthusiasm, had they 
 been asked. 
 
 It was freely rumored in the Washington papers 
 that though everything was in readiness for Mr. 
 Taft's nomination, there was a strong likelihood of the 
 Convention "stampeding" for Roosevelt, and dis- 
 patches from Chicago gave out the thrilling news that 
 
196 ROOSEVELTIAN FaCT AND FaBLK 
 
 mention of the "stampede" was sending nervous diills 
 up the spinal cords of the Taft men. 
 
 Then the fateful day dawned, and Washington 
 headlines reported 50 minutes' cheering for the namt 
 of Roosevelt in the Chicago Convention ! 
 
 After this, the stampede seemed imminent, and we 
 bowed our heads in Christian resignation, and waited 
 for the final rush. If 30,000 "signers" in Georgia and 
 50 minutes' hand-clapping in Chicago are not war- 
 ranted to bring on a stampede, we have no clue to the 
 proper combination, and no advice worth offering. 
 That this combination should have worked, we are 
 convinced, because we are reliably informed it was 
 expected to, — but it didn't. The stampeders got all 
 balled up, for some unknown reason, and the stam- 
 pede refused to work, and went all "a-gley" — like mice 
 and men and other perverse things. Instead of the 
 stampede, there was only the steady crunch, crunch of 
 the "steam-roller," rolling over the "Allies" and seat- 
 ing the Taft delegations. And then it was duly an- 
 nounced that the Hon. William Howard Taft, and the 
 Hon. James Schoolcraft Sherman would lead the Re- 
 publican hosts to victory in November, 1908. 
 
 And while the New York Sun and Harper's Weekly 
 were feeling contrite and mean over the uncharitable 
 things they had been saying about T. R.'s wishing to 
 take the nomination away from Taft; and after the 
 New York Times had declared editorially that T. R.'s 
 resolutely putting off a crown like that, which the 
 American people were literally forcing on his head — 
 was one of the most sublime acts of self-abnegation 
 the world had ever seen, — this story was given the 
 writer, first-hand, by an active participant in that Chi- 
 cago drama, one of the wheel-horses in the camp of 
 the Allies, who vouches for its truth: "On the night 
 before the day when the balloting was to begin, a 
 messenger came from Washington; a man close to 
 
ROOSEVELTIAN FaCT AND FaBLE IpJ 
 
 the President, an ex-Senator. Knowing my opposi- 
 tion to Taft, and thinking perhaps I might be more 
 friendly to Roosevelt, he took me aside, and said : 'If 
 the Convention should stampede for Roosevelt, I am 
 authorized to say he would accept.' I replied to him: 
 'My friend, the President has reached this conclusion 
 too late. He has overplayed his Taft game, and in 
 my judgment, Mr. Taft will be nominated to-morrow.' 
 Arid it was so, but it is probable that no one of the 
 so-called Allies was more sore over the result of that 
 balloting than was Mr. Roosevelt !" 
 
 And thus did our Cassar put by the coveted crown, 
 tho' like his great Roman prototype, with much in- 
 ward heart-burning, and many a fond, lingering look 
 behind. 
 
 And now it is announced, as the next thing on the 
 Rooseveltian program, he is going to Africa, elephant- 
 hunting, — a most appropriate occupation and to work 
 off his joy over Mr. Taft's nomination. It is also 
 announced that he is to write a book about his African 
 traveds, for which an American publishing company — 
 completely overturning the traditional cru 5t-in-a-gar- 
 ret ijotion of the wages of genius — have t ffered him 
 a dollar a word! If the book lambasts the wild living 
 creatures of Africa as much as some of his others do 
 the dead statesmen of America, it will probably fur- 
 nish very interesting reading matter for the Nature- 
 fakirs; otherwise, and if the publishers are depending 
 on the general reading public, they are likely to lose 
 money on their $i a word investment. They are 
 doubtless calculating on the phenomenal personal pop- 
 ularity of the author, of which there has been such 
 persistent, insistent proclamation by the newspaper 
 claquers. 
 
 Without assuming to deny the much exploited 
 Roosevelt popularity, let us submit it to a little critical 
 dissection, in the instances wherein it has been sub- 
 
198 ROOSEVELTIAN FaCT AND FaBLE 
 
 jected to a practical test. When he ran for governor 
 of New York — as was noted in another place — he re- 
 ceived a bare 17,000 plurality, which while sufficient 
 to make him governor, was not a striking proof of 
 "o'erwhelming personal popularity" in his own State, 
 numbering 1,500,000 voters. When he was elected 
 President in 1904, — when most of the shouting over 
 the "phenomenal popularity" was pulled off — an old 
 Republican resident of Washington, a man accus- 
 tomed to keep tab on popular elections, and rarely 
 found tripping in his "figgers," estimated that the ex- 
 cess of Roosevelt's plurality over McKinley's, corre- 
 sponded very closely to the normal increase in the 
 Republican voting population, whilst his large plurality 
 over Parker was accounted for by the disgruntled 
 Democratic vote which stayed at home. After the in- 
 teresting revelation made by the Insurance investiga- 
 tion and the Harriman letters of the Roosevelt-Co rtel- 
 you campaign methods, it would seem his large plu- 
 rality over Parker might be accounted for in some 
 other ways beside Democratic disaffection. Surely, in 
 the light of those revelations, no one will claim that 
 the election of 1904 carries convincing evidence of 
 Theodore Roosevelt's "overwhelming personal popu- 
 larity." It may be as claimed, that he has this "over- 
 whelming popularity," but it may also be claimed that 
 it has never successfully stood any practical test. 
 
 Perhaps Fate was kinder to T. R. than he knew, in 
 not permitting him to risk the explosion of the "popu- 
 lar-idol"conceit in this campaign year of our Lord,i9o8. 
 To conclude otherwise, is to despair of the love of 
 truth and the sense of humor in the American people. 
 
ADDENDA 
 
 "SHOWING HIS TEETH" TO GENERAL 
 MILES. 
 
 The True Version of a Variously Reported Incident. 
 
 "I'll show you I've got teeth" — suiting the action to 
 the word and lifting a menacing forefinger. "I've got 
 teeth, and you shall feel them!" 
 
 The speaker was Theodore Roosevelt, President of 
 the United States, and the person addressed in these 
 savage words was Nelson A. Miles, Commanding 
 General of the United States Army. The time was 
 December, 1901 ; the place, the reception hall in front 
 of the executive office in the White House; and the 
 audience, an indiscriminate assemblage of senators, 
 congressmen, newspaper men, and others. 
 
 The immediate and aggravating cause of this presi- 
 dential explosion, was an interview which Miles had 
 given to an inquisitive reporter some days before in 
 Cincinnati, wherein he had expressed his approval of 
 Admiral Dewey's verdict — just made public — in the 
 "Schley Court of Inquiry," which convened in Sep- 
 tember, 1901, had not concluded its work until De- 
 cember. It will be recalled that this Naval Court, 
 called to decide on the merits of the Santiago cam- 
 paign, was composed of three admirals — Dewey, Ben- 
 ham, and Ramsay; and that Admiral Dewey, the pre- 
 siding member of the Court, had rendered a verdict at 
 variance with the other two. The majority verdict, 
 being reviewed and approved by the Secretary of the 
 
 199 
 
200 Addenda 
 
 Navy, was suffered to stand; from it there was no 
 appeal, except to the President of the United States, 
 and he, when appealed to some weeks later by Ad- 
 miral Schley, agreed with the majority finding. 
 
 At the time General Miles gave the Cincinnati inter- 
 view, however, the President had not rendered his 
 decision against Schley; it was not apparent, at that 
 stage of the proceedings, that he had had any part in 
 the findings of the Naval Court. General Miles's com- 
 ment, therefore, could not have carried any criticism 
 of Roosevelt, save in that peculiar Rooseveltian sense 
 wherein he assumed responsibility for everything 
 which happened under his administration — except the 
 panic. 
 
 It was soon divulged that the Cincinnati interview 
 had given deep offence to President Roosevelt how- 
 ever, and the Secretary of War was ordered to de- 
 mand an explanation of Miles. It was given in the- 
 f ollowing letter : 
 
 "Sir :— 
 
 "I have the honor to state that my observations, as 
 substantially reported, had no reference to the action 
 pending, or otherwise, of a co-ordinate branch of the 
 service. They were merely my personal views, based 
 upon matters set forth in various publications given 
 to the world, and concerning which I conceive there 
 was no impropriety in expressing an opinion, the same 
 as any other citizen, upon a matter of such public in- 
 terest. My observations were in no sense intended 
 as a criticism of a co-ordinate branch of the service, 
 and the statement that I had no sympathy with the 
 effort to disparage a distinguished and gallant officer, 
 likewise had no such reference. 
 
 "Respectfully, 
 "(Signed) Nelson A. Miles, 
 
 "Lieut.-General, U. S. A." 
 
Addenda 201 
 
 Having dispatched this explanation to the Secretary 
 of War, General Miles repaired to the White House, 
 to make his peace with the President, little dreaming 
 what awaited him there. The account here given of 
 what occurred is taken first hand from two reliable 
 witnesses who were standing quite near the main par- 
 ticipants in the scene; and who, unless eyes and ears 
 both played them false, could not have been mistaken. 
 
 According to these. General Miles was standing 
 within a window embrasure, talking to a gentleman, 
 when a stir near the door made him aware of the 
 President's entrance. He immediately started toward 
 him with right hand extended; the President quickly 
 thrust his hand behind him, and the General as quickly 
 dropped his — standing at attention. The eyes of all 
 those in the room at once fastened on the pair, and, 
 under this stimulus, Roosevelt's theatrical sense rose 
 'rapidly. His wrath was manifested in manner, tone, 
 and sharp explosive sentences : "Yes, yes ! I wanted 
 to see you. I wish you to understand that I will have 
 no criticism of my administration from you, or any 
 other officer in the Army. Your conduct is worthy of 
 censure, sir. You had no business to express an opin- 
 ion, etc., etc. I have got teeth, and you will find that 
 I can show them," shaking his finger in the General's 
 face and baring all his dental armories. 
 
 Miles's attempted explanation was cut short by a 
 repetition of the foregoing — menacing forefinger, 
 teeth, and all. Whereupon the old soldier of a hun- 
 dred battles lifted his chest and his chin in quiet dis- 
 dain and allowed his assailant to rave ; thinking, as he 
 afterward remarked, that "he must surely stop pres- 
 ently for lack of breath." Having reached this breath- 
 less point, the President turned abruptly and left the 
 Commanding General standing in silence amid the 
 gaping spectators. 
 
 The following day. General Miles received from the 
 
202 Addenda 
 
 Secretary of War a formal reprimand, which was at 
 the same time made public "by the direction of the 
 President" : 
 
 "Lieut.-General Nelson A. Miles, U. S. A. 
 "Sir:— 
 
 "Your explanation of the public statement made by 
 you is not satisfactory. You are in error if you sup- 
 pose that you have the same right as any other citizen 
 to express publicly an opinion regarding official ques- 
 tions pending in the course of military discipline. 
 . . . (Here follows a partial quotation of Army 
 Regulations.) You had no business in the controversy, 
 and no right to express an opinion. Your conduct was 
 in violation of the Regulations above cited, and you 
 are justly liable to censure, which I now express." 
 
 Had the full text of the Army Regulations been * 
 quoted, the irregularity and injustice of this "repri- 
 mand" would have been manifest to all. After wait- 
 ing a whole month for the President's wrath to cool, 
 and willing to forgive much to what was popularly 
 supposed to he the "Roosevelt impetuosity," General 
 Miles, carrying a full copy of the Army Regulations, 
 again sought the Executive presence; and, pointing 
 out the suppressed clause, Miles asked Mr. Roose- 
 velt, as a matter of simple justice and manly repara- 
 tion, to order a retraction of the reprimand. Roose- 
 velt promised to "think about it," and there being no 
 by-standing gallery to play to this time, he treated the 
 Commanding General with a measure of civilityi 
 Needless to recount, however, his pondering on the 
 circumstances of the "reprimand," did not result in a 
 retraction. Admissions of error are fatal to one pur- 
 posing to establish a habit of infallibility, and the 
 closest study of Rooseveltian annals will not disclose 
 any such mollycoddlish indices of weakness upon his 
 
Addenda 203 
 
 part. It is "the other fellow" who is mistaken always ; 
 never T. R. 
 
 The popular outcry which went up over the land at 
 the treatment of General Miles was not without its 
 disturbing effect upon the President, however. It could 
 not stir him to the nobility of a manly confession, but 
 it drove him to his customary shift of denial and eva- 
 sion. This was accomplished through the medium of 
 his obedient press bureau at Washington. 
 
 One dispatch stated: "The President is much an- 
 noyed by the criticisms appearing in the press on his 
 censure of General Miles. While the President does 
 not object to honest criticism (oh, no!), he does not 
 like to be misrepresented. It is now denied that the 
 scene was as sensational as at first reported, though 
 the language used was emphatic. . . . It is not 
 believed that the President shook his finger in General 
 Miles's face," etc., etc., etc. 
 
 Still another obliging and ingenious correspondent 
 so worded his report as artfully to lay the blame for 
 the whole business upon Secretary Root! 
 
 The Army and Navy publications of that period, 
 however, were not so sparing of the Roosevelt sensi- 
 bilities. The Army and Navy Journal of December 
 28, 1901, said: "By Article 898, of the Army Regula- 
 tions, punishment for light offences is limited to the 
 censure of the commanding officer ; and a reprimand, 
 such as has been administered to General Miles, can 
 only be administered on the verdict of the court-mar- 
 tial; since it is a distinct and well-defined punishment 
 for specially named offences. Even a non-commis- 
 sioned officer is under the protection of Article 256, 
 which directs superior officers to be cautious in re- 
 proving him in the hearing of private soldiers. Is it 
 not incumbent that at least equal consideration should 
 be shown to the Commanding Officer in the presence 
 of his military inferiors?" 
 
204 Addenda 
 
 The Army and Navy Register, in a January (1902) 
 issue, offered this comment : "General Miles's as- 
 sumed views did not justify the severity — not to say 
 the brutality — of phraseology adopted by the President 
 in the letter signed by Mr. Root; and there was no 
 reason for advertising the Executive humiliation to 
 which General Miles was so crudely and so cruelly 
 subjected. . . . The President offended the 
 amenities of official and unofficial intercourse when 
 he personally rebuked the Commanding General while 
 calling at the White House. It is not possible to jus- 
 tify that incident, notwithstanding the habit which Mr. 
 Roosevelt has contracted of losing his temper. . . . 
 It is also undeniable that the President was bound to 
 hear an explanation if General Miles had one to offer. 
 The latter was not, however, permitted to speak in his 
 own behalf ; and, in the presence of others, who must 
 have wondered at the spectacle, Mr. Roosevelt ap- 
 proached General Miles in a manner which, without 
 exaggeration, may be described ^s savage." 
 
 The incident further serves to cast an illuminating 
 ray upon the "Roosevelt impulsiveness," which has be- 
 come so fixed a portion of the popular conception of 
 this illustrious personage. 
 
 We have seen how the "teeth-showing" castigation 
 had been planned and rehearsed to two previous call- 
 ers. Afterward, despite Miles's plea for "sober, sec- 
 ond thought," and despite the President's promise to 
 consider reparation. General Miles became, thence- 
 forth, the object of studied slights and petty persecu- 
 tions at the hands of the Roosevelt administration, 
 which, beginning with the "reprimand" in December, 
 1901, did not end with the "retirement order" in 
 August, 1903. His request to be sent to the Philip- 
 pines in March, 1902, was denied, and his plan for 
 ending the war in those islands was rejected. 
 
 Later, in the Spring of 1902, it was currently ru- 
 
Addenda 205 
 
 mored in Washington that the President would retire 
 Miles more than a year before the legal age for his 
 retirement, and would appoint a successor to the post 
 of Commanding General. 
 
 The press was prompt with its explanation: Miles 
 was not harmonious with the Administration ; he had 
 opposed the Secretary's Army bill for the creation of a 
 "General Staff," with a"Chief of Staffwho would take 
 the place of the "Commanding General"; and he had 
 indulged some rather frank criticisms of the existent 
 order before the Senate Committee in charge of the 
 bill. Then came a lull in retirement rumors, when 
 presently they ceasgd altogether. Speculation was 
 rife, to account for the change; various explanations 
 were advanced, some even ascribing the credit to Sec- 
 retary Root— he who had been made the scapegoat 
 for the reprimand ! The following story, .vouched for 
 by a high official in Washington, may shed some light 
 on the puzzle picture : 
 
 Among those who heard with deep disfavor the 
 President's determination to inflict further humilia- 
 tion upon General Miles was the late Senator Hoar, of 
 Massachusetts. Taking with him six other Republi- 
 can senators, leaders like himself of "the greatest de- 
 liberative body on earth," Senator Hoar waited on 
 President Roosevelt, and became spokesman for the 
 group. He told the President that Miles was a very 
 popular man in Massachusetts, highly esteemed by all 
 classes; that he (Hoar), though a political opponent, 
 would be greatly incensed by a needless affront to a 
 distinguished soldier and patriot ; and that there were 
 thousands like him in the Bay State, who would never 
 forgive it. 
 
 Then, with that astute appreciation of human mo- 
 tives — in which some have supposed the venerable 
 savant lacking— Senator Hoar presented the argument 
 — um ad hominem: "This is a shaky year for the Re- 
 
2o6 Addenda 
 
 publicans of Massachusetts; several congressional dis- 
 tricts are trembling in the balance, which this contem- 
 plated move of yours against Miles would surely make 
 Democratic." 
 
 Mr. Roosevelt listened with a thoughtful air, as his 
 mind took in the significance of a visit from seven Re- 
 publican senators, with one purpose ; then, with a psy- 
 chomotor display of teeth, he replied to Senator Hoar : 
 
 "What you say impresses me very deeply, Senator. 
 I will consider it most carefully." 
 
 Possibly the reports which began to appear in the 
 press, in regard to Miles's candidacy for the presi- 
 dency in 1904, impressed Mr. Roosevelt even more 
 deeply than the senators' visit, or Hoar's words of 
 warning. 
 
 In October, 1902, the War Department consented 
 that General Miles should go to the Philippines, to in- 
 spect the troops and report conditions. If they had 
 known what he was going to find, more especially if 
 they had known what he was going to report, it is 
 most likely the President and the Secretary of War 
 would have kept him at home, despite the great per- 
 sonal relief to themselves to get him out of the coun- 
 try for awhile. 
 
 It was not to be supposed, however, that the man 
 who had exposed the "embalmed beef" scandal in 
 1898 — braving the wrath of corrupt officials — would 
 keep silent concerning the mediaeval tortures and bar- 
 baric cruelties practised by American soldiers upon 
 defenceless Filipinos in 1902. Still less would he con- 
 nive at the scandal in the Commissary Department, 
 growing out of the "reconcentration order," wherein 
 hundreds of thousands of natives were ordered into 
 the towns on fifteen days' notice — gathering in such 
 property as they could carry — and held there for sev- 
 eral months ; during which time the enterprising heads 
 of the Commissary Department sold them "second 
 
Addenda 207 
 
 quality rice, and damaged flour," at profits ranging 
 from 25 to 100 per cent. ! 
 
 This Philippines Report submitted by General Miles 
 February 19, 1903, is not exhibited with noticeable 
 zest at the War Department, but a copy of it may be 
 seen in the Army and Navy Journal of May 2, 1903, 
 and the "Anti-Imperialist League" at Boston is al- 
 ways pleased to furnish copies to applicants. The lan- 
 guage of the Report is clear and to the point. It does 
 not deal in vague generalities, it makes specific 
 charges, names specific individuals, and cites the 
 proof. 
 
 The pains taken by Mr. Roosevelt at the time the 
 Report was issued to refute the truth of it, by trying 
 to produce counter evidence — in which he failed — 
 should have served to impress it on his memory; but 
 we cannot believe he had it in mind when he exhorted 
 the Britishers — in his Guildhall speech — to model 
 their government of the Egyptians upon "My Policy 
 in the Philippines and in Panama" ! 
 
 Naturally enough, this Philippines Report did not 
 tend to improve General Miles's relations with Mr. 
 Roosevelt, and when August 8, 1903 — the date for the 
 former's legal retirement — arrived, it brought the 
 President's opportunity to even the score. This date 
 also marked the passing of the "Commanding Gen- 
 eral," as the new order would begin with the installa- 
 tion of the "General Staff." 
 
 The office had been created for General Washing- 
 ton, in 1798. It had been held by such distinguished 
 soldiers as Winfield Scott, George B. McClellan, and 
 Generals Halleck, Grant, Sherman, and others. It 
 was bestowed upon General Miles by Grover Cleve- 
 land, in 1895, upon the retirement of General Scho- 
 field. 
 
 It had been the immemorial custom, in retiring these 
 commanding figures in the Army, for the Secretary of 
 
2o8 Addenda 
 
 War to issue simultaneously with the retiring order 
 a formal eulogy — commemorating the valiant deeds, 
 public services, and private virtues of the retiring of- 
 ficer. Here is an exact duplicate of the order issued 
 to General Miles: 
 
 "Washington, Aug. 8, 1903. 
 
 "By direction of the Secretary of War, the retire- 
 ment from active service, by the President, Aug. 8, 
 1903, of Lieut. -General Nelson A. Miles, by operation 
 of law under the provisions of the Act of Congress 
 approved June 20, 1882, is announced. Lieut.-General 
 Miles will proceed to his home. The travel enjoined 
 is necessary for the public service. 
 
 "By order of the Secretary of War. 
 
 "H. C. CoRBiN, Adj't-General." 
 
 To get the full significance of the Miles retiring or- 
 der, let us compare it with that of his immediate 
 predecessor, perhaps the least illustrious of the com- 
 manding generals : 
 
 "Lieut.-General John M. Schofield, having reached 
 the age entitling him to relief from active military 
 service, is hereby placed upon the retired list of the 
 Army. It is with much regret that the announcement 
 is made, that the country is thus to lose from the com- 
 mand of its Army this distinguished General, who has 
 done so much for its honor and efficiency. His gal- 
 lantry in war challenges the admiration of all his coun- 
 trymen; while they will not fail gratefully to remem- 
 ber and appreciate how faithfully he has served his 
 country in times of peace. His career furnishes to 
 the Army an example of inestimable value, and should 
 teach all our people that the highest soldierly qualities 
 are built upon the keenest sense of the obligations of 
 good citizenship. 
 
 "By order of the Secretary of War. 
 
 "Geo. D. Ruggles, Adj't-General." 
 
Addenda 
 
 209 
 
 And what of this man, Nelson A. Miles, whose re- 
 tiring order reads like the curt dismissal of a corporal 
 in disgrace? Had he no claim upon the country's 
 "grateful recollection"? Just a glance, if you please, 
 at his war record — lest we forget, and to better appre- 
 ciate this episode of the Roosevelt regime, with its re- 
 flex light on the Roosevelt character. 
 
 At the age of 22, Miles entered the Federal service 
 in the Civil War, as Captain of the Twenty-second 
 Massachusetts Volunteers. Within a year he became 
 successively, lieutenant-colonel and colonel of the 
 Sixty-first New York Infantry. In May, 1864, he was 
 made Brigadier-General of Volunteers, and in Octo- 
 ber, 1865, Major-General of Volunteers. 
 
 He was twice breveted in one day. At the close of 
 the Civil War he went West to fight the Indians, en- 
 tering the Regular Army as Colonel of the Fortieth 
 Infantry. In 1880 he again attained the rank of 
 Brigadier-General, and that of Major-General in 1890. 
 Cleveland appointed him Commanding General in 
 1895, and Congress created him Lieut.-General in 
 .1900. 
 
 These are his military titles and honors, and here are 
 a few of the daring deeds which won them : At the 
 Battle of Fredericksburg (1862) Miles commanded 
 the Sixty-fourth New York Volunteers, comprising 27 
 officers and 408 men; 3 of his officers were wounded 
 and 105 of his men killed, wounded, or missing; yet 
 he remained a gallant figure on the firing line until he 
 received a severe wound in the throat, and even then 
 was forcibly restrained from leading one more desper- 
 ate charge on the Confederate breastworks. 
 
 At Chancellorsville Miles held until wounded — it 
 was supposed mortally — a line of abattis and rifle-pits 
 against a determined attack of the Confederates, made 
 in two columns on each side of the road. He had an 
 important command in the Gettysburg campaign, and 
 
2IO Addenda 
 
 in the Mine Run campaign; he was actively engaged 
 in the battles of "the Wilderness," and the battles 
 around Richmond. At Spottsylvania he led his bri- 
 gade into the renowned "Bloody Angle," and was 
 foremost in the fighting before Petersburg; his divi- 
 sion led the advance from Richmond to Appomatox. 
 In a word, he was in every battle fought by the "Army 
 of the Potomac," except one — which he missed on ac- 
 count of a severe wound. He received his commis- 
 sion as Brigadier-General in 1864, after every officer 
 under whom he had served — including Grant, Mc- 
 Clellan, Burnside, Hooker, Meade, and a dozen others, 
 had recommended him to the Secretary of War. 
 
 General Sheridan said of Miles's Indian warfare, "it 
 was the most comprehensive and most successful in 
 this country since its settlement by the whites." 
 
 General Hancock said, in 1882, "Miles is second to 
 none — not even to Napoleon." 
 
Addenda 211 
 
 HOW ROOSEVELT FOUGHT THE "BOSSES" 
 OF NEW MEXICO IN 1906-7. 
 
 Colonel Roosevelt's valiant boast that in this 1912 
 campaign he is leading the fight against "boss-rule" 
 and "machine politics," makes pertinent an illuminative 
 page from his past, in re of the administration of Her- 
 bert J. Hagerman, Territorial Governor of New Mex- 
 ico from January 22, 1906, to May 3, 1907. Hagerman 
 was appointed Governor by President Roosevelt upon 
 the recommendation of Hon. Ethan Allen Hitchcock, 
 then Secretary of the Interior, whose secretary of em- 
 bassy Hagerman had been when Hitchcock was Am- 
 bassador to Russia. 
 
 In grieved tones, and with virtuous mien, our for- 
 mer President told the new Governor how distressed 
 he was by the tales which had reached his ears of con- 
 ditions in New Mexico, where political free-booters 
 had been for years using the Republican organization 
 for their own selfish ends — to exploit and corrupt the 
 Territory. For this reason he was appointing "a man 
 of the Hagerman type," able, clean, and fearless ; and 
 without consulting the machine out there, in order that 
 he might have a free hand in the drastic reforms he 
 was expected to inaugurate, and for which lyas 
 pledged the full support of the Federal power. 
 
 In a word. Governor Hagerman understood that he 
 was given carte blanche to "clean up the gang" in New 
 Mexico, and forthwith went his unsuspecting way, to 
 the prompt and full execution of his appointed task. 
 The principal members of the New Mexican "^ang" 
 which Hagerman had been delegated to chastise were 
 
212 Addenda 
 
 H. O. Bursum, chairman of the Territorial Repubhcan 
 Committee and Superintendent of the Territorial 
 Prison; William H. Andrews, Delegate to Congress 
 from New Mexico, and formerly a member of the 
 Quay machine in Pennsylvania; Major W. H. H. 
 Llewellyn, United States Attorney, who posed as a 
 rough-rider intimate of Roosevelt; Attorney-General 
 Pritchard ; J. Wallace Raynolds, Territorial Secretary, 
 and Max Frost, editor of the Santa Fe New Mexican. 
 The new Governor removed Bursum from the office 
 of Prison Superintendent, after an investigation re- 
 vealed him nearly $5,000 short in his accounts — which 
 he was forced to refund — and other evidences of fla- 
 grant malfeasance ; he replaced Attorney-General Prit- 
 chard with Captain Reid, and made one or two other 
 official changes. Having reported these to the Secre- 
 tary of the Interior, at Washington, Hagerman re- 
 ceived from the President the following telegram, 
 dated March 13, 1906: 
 
 "Secretary Hitchcock has shown me your letter. I 
 entirely approve of your course. I shall give you an 
 entirely free hand in the Territory, because I hold you 
 to an absolute responsibility for the conduct of affairs. 
 Remove, whenever you deem wise, the three men 
 whom you report as unsatisfactory, and any others 
 whom you find unsatisfactory. If any of my appoint- 
 ees hamper you, let me know at once and I will re- 
 move them. You are welcome to show this telegram 
 to any one you desire. 
 
 "(Signed) Theodore Roosevelt." 
 
 How well President Roosevelt kept the pledge of 
 this telegram, as well as his other promises of support 
 to his reform appointee, will appear as this narrative 
 — based on official documents — shall unfold. 
 
 Although the changes effected by Governor Hager- 
 
Addenda 213 
 
 man were all good, from an administrative point of 
 view, and approved by all honest citizens of the Terri- 
 tory, without regard to party, his efforts to cleanse 
 the Augean stables of New Mexican politics quite 
 naturally aroused the bitterest antagonism of the 
 members of the phmderbund, who soon saw that, un- 
 less they could rid themselves of the new Executive, 
 they would have to go out of business — and thus they 
 began to plot his downfall. Before many months had 
 elapsed, they found the President of the United States 
 ' a compliant accessory to their scheme. 
 
 Had Hagerman's faith in Roosevelt been less abso- 
 lute, he might have discerned "the cloud no bigger 
 than a' man's hand" which was ultimately to o'ercast 
 his whole sky, and cut short his reforming career in 
 the Territory, in the following letter from William' 
 Loeb, Jr., in March, 1906 : 
 
 "I am directed by the President to ask whether 
 there is any position under you, or subject to appoint- 
 ment by the President in New Mexico, to which Cap- 
 tain George Curry can be appointed? Curry is com- 
 ing home soon, and the President very much wishes to 
 provide him with a position." 
 
 Governor Hagerman replying that the only position 
 in the Territory open at that writing was that of Game 
 Warden, Loeb wrote again, in April of that year : 
 
 "The President doubts if Captain Curry could ac- 
 cept the position of Game Warden, as the salary is not 
 sufficient." 
 
 J The next time Governor Hagerman encountered 
 "the President's desire to provide a place for Captain 
 Curry" (one of the rough-rider braves then in the 
 Philippines) , nearly a year had elapsed, and the Presi- 
 
214 Addenda 
 
 dent's move for the accomplishment of his desire was 
 so disguised that the Governor did not recognize it 
 until subsequent events enabled him to trace the fate- 
 ful threads of hidden fire connecting plot and plotter. 
 
 In the closing days of the Territorial Legislature, 
 which convened in January, 1907, a "spite resolution" 
 was introduced into the Lower House — which had 
 been thoroughly organized by Mr. Bursum, the de- 
 posed Prison Superintendent — charging the Governor 
 with misconduct in re of the Pennsylvania Develop- 
 ment Company, and providing a committee to be ap- 
 pointed by the Speaker, who was bitterly hostile to 
 Hagerman, to investigate the charges and report their 
 findings to the Plouse. 
 
 The resolution was adopted, and the report of the 
 committee was just what was expected by the conspir- 
 ators — one-sided, false, and venomous. The special 
 message sent by the Governor, fully explaining his 
 action in the case, and a perfect defence to any one 
 looking for the truth — was ruled "out of order" by 
 the Speaker ; and the message was never read nor com- 
 municated to the House in any manner! The "report" 
 was put into the hands of a subordinate attorney in 
 the Department of Justice at Washington, a Mr. Coo- 
 ley, who, without waiting to hear a word on the other 
 side, rendered a preliminary decision adverse to Gov- 
 ernor Hagerman. 
 
 And President Roosevelt, also without waiting to 
 hear anything in rebuttal, accepted this ex parte "Coo- 
 ley Report" unreservedly, and made it the alleged 
 basis of his ultimate action in the matter. No intima- 
 tion of the President's attitude was vouchsafed to 
 Governor Hagerman at this juncture, however. On 
 the contrary, his friend Mr. Barnes, who had been in 
 Washington in February, stated on his return that 
 Secretary Garfield (who had succeeded Hitchcock as 
 head of the Interior Department) had told him there 
 
Addenda 
 
 215 
 
 was no truth in the rumor circulating in New Mexico, 
 that the President would request Hagerman's resigna- 
 tion. 
 
 This statement being questioned, Barnes telegraphed 
 the Secretary, and received the following reply : 
 
 "Will C. Barnes, 
 
 "Santa Fe, N. M. 
 "Answering your telegram, you were correct in 
 quoting me as saying that the Department approved 
 Governor Hagerman's efforts for honest administra- 
 tion, and that his removal was not contemplated. 
 
 "(Signed) J. R. Garfield." 
 
 Of the same date as the Garfield telegram (March 
 7), a letter from Mr. Loeb informed Governor Hager- 
 man that "the President would like to see him at the 
 White House on the morning of March 28" ; but upon 
 Hagerman's signifying his readiness to comply, the in- 
 vitation was withdrawn by telegram on March 20. 
 
 Garfield likewise wired the Governor: "I prefer 
 that you postpone your leave of absence for a few 
 weeks." 
 
 Finally, on April 8, Hagerman was notified that "the 
 Secretary would be pleased to see him in Washington 
 whenever it was convenient for him to come," and he 
 left Santa Fe immediately, accompanied by Mr. Levi 
 Hughes, the newly appointed Territorial Treasurer, 
 arriving in Washington the night of April 12. 
 
 Early on the morning of the 13th, they called on 
 Secretary Garfield, who told Hagerman the President 
 was waiting to see him, and instructed him to report 
 at the White House at 11 o'clock. Neither from the 
 previous correspondence, nor from the Secretary in 
 this interview, could Hagerman obtain an inkling as 
 to what was wanted of him ; but at the appointed hour 
 he repaired to the White House with Mr. Hughes, who 
 
2i6 Addei^da 
 
 alone was admitted to "the presence," while the Gov- 
 ernor was requested to wait outside with Mr. Loeb. 
 About noon, Mr. Garfield came from the President's 
 office, and handed Hagerman a copy of the "Cooley 
 Report," with the message that the President desired 
 him to return at 3 o'clock to "talk over the Report, 
 and one or two other matters." 
 
 Then, for the first time, the Governor understood 
 that he had been summoned to Washington to answer 
 charges in the Pennsylvania Development Company 
 land matter. To his surprised protest, that the time 
 was rather short in which to digest a voluminous re- 
 port and prepare an answer, Mr. Garfield offered no 
 comment. 
 
 In the anteroom Mr. Hughes was waiting, mani- 
 festly much disturbed over his interview with the 
 President, who, as soon as he learned that Hughes 
 had accompanied Hagerman to Washington, showed 
 symptoms of deep anger, and told Mr. Hughes "it 
 would be absolutely useless for him to say anything in 
 the Governor's defence; that what he had done was 
 so bad it would be ridiculous to listen to any friend 
 of his." He further intimated that Hagerman had 
 surrendered the deeds to the Pennsylvania Company 
 "in order to get the endorsement of the Democratic 
 Territorial Convention, and to harm Delegate An- 
 drews in his campaign." 
 
 Delegate Andrews, be it remembered, was a most 
 conspicuous exponent of that particular brand of poli- 
 tics which President Roosevelt had expressly depu- 
 tized Governor Hagerman to stamp out in New Mex- 
 ico ! Hagerman says of him : "His reputation was so 
 opposed in every way to the ideal I had conceived of 
 Roosevelt that I confess I felt much chagrin when I 
 discovered that the President was championing Mr, 
 Andrews." 
 
 After this, Governor Hagerman foresaw that his 
 
Addenda 217 
 
 hearing before the President would be a mere formal- 
 ity ; but at the appointed hour — after reading as much 
 of the "Cooley Report" as possible in the time allotted 
 ^he once more presented himself at the White House. 
 Mr, Roosevelt started "the hearing" by telling the Gov^ 
 ernor that what he had done was so bad his usefulness 
 in New Mexico was ended; that if he did not know 
 him to be honest, he would have summarily removed 
 him on the "Cooley Report" alone ; that if he had been 
 "an ordinary Governor" he would never have given 
 him an opportunity to come to Washington at all! 
 What followed is best given in Hagerman's own 
 words : 
 
 "The President went on to say, in effect, that he de- 
 sired my resignation to be brought about with as little 
 annoyance and pain to me as would be consistent with 
 his opinion about 'the end of my usefulness in New 
 Mexico.' He wished the contents of the 'Cooley Re- 
 port' to remain known only to himself, Mr. Garfield, 
 Mr. Cooley, and myself. He wished me to go back to 
 New Mexico and send in my resignation ; on receiving 
 it, he would write a private letter for my eyes alone, 
 in which he would say my usefulness had ended, and, 
 therefore, he accepted my resignation; and then he 
 would write another letter for the office files, and for 
 publication — if I desired to publish it — in which he 
 would say I was strictly upright and fearless, and 
 would mention what I had done for the Territory. 
 Turning to the Secretary, he asked to be reminded 
 what I had done, when the time came for writing this 
 second letter, the first draft of which I might return 
 to him with any suggestions and additions of my own, 
 before the final draft was signed by him — the draft 
 ■which might he published! 
 
 "This proposal in regard to the letters seemed very 
 extraordinary to me; that one in his position should 
 ■want to employ so devious and unusual a method for 
 
2i8 Addenda 
 
 accomplishing a simple result. I told him I was ready 
 to give him my resignation then and there, intimating 
 politely that I thought this the more simple and dig- 
 nified course. He did not desire it, however, and I 
 decided to let the matter take its way. When given an 
 opportunity to speak, I went over, as fully as I could, 
 the land matter, and asked him how it was that this — 
 which at the worst could only be called an error of 
 judgment — could offset all the other things I had done 
 for the public weal in New Mexico? 
 
 "He replied that 'it was infinitely more than an er- 
 ror of judgment; that it was a very serious offence.' 
 While I could hold his reluctant attention I briefly re- 
 viewed the achievements of my administration in line 
 with what I thought he wanted done — all which was 
 hastily brushed aside, as he indicated 'the hearing' was 
 ended ; and reiterated that the incident had been very 
 painful to him, that he was 'deeply grieved' to have to 
 take the step he was taking. During the interview Sec- 
 retary Garfield only spoke when addressed by the 
 President, and then in briefest terms of acquiescence." 
 
 Before leaving Washington, however. Governor Ha- 
 german demanded of the Secretary a hearing on the 
 Pennsylvania Development Company case before the 
 law officers of the Department; and this was granted, 
 though Garfield warned him : "When a man in an ap- 
 pointive position disagrees with the President, there is 
 nothing for him to do but accept the President's point 
 of view." 
 
 The Departmental lawyers, Mr. Woodruff and Mr. 
 Holcombe, after going thoroughly into the case, sus- 
 tained Hagerman's action, and promised to give their 
 opinion to the Secretary, though Mr. Holcombe said 
 he had never asked for it. (Mr. Hagerman has heard 
 from various sources that the subject of his eviction 
 from the governorship of New Mexico is one which 
 Mr. Garfield refuses to discuss.) 
 
Addenda .219 
 
 Governor Hagerman went from Washington to St. 
 Louis, and there, on April 17, he saw an Associated 
 Press dispatch from the White House that "Governor 
 Hagerman had told the President he would resign, and 
 that Captain Curry had been appointed." 
 
 Thus did Mr. Roosevelt keep his part of his own pre- 
 arranged program. When the news reached New Mex- 
 ico, it raised a storm of protests. A mass meeting was 
 held at Albuquerque, voicing the popular indignation ; 
 two leading lawyers of the Territory, one a Democrat 
 and the other a Republican, came to Washington to 
 plead the Governor's cause with the President. The 
 only answer anybody got from him was that " the in- 
 cident was closed." 
 
 On April 22 Governor Hagerman sent in his for- 
 mal resignation, and on May 3 he received the follow- 
 ing: 
 
 "The White House, 
 "Washington, April 29, 1907. 
 "My Dear Governor Hagerman : — 
 
 "In response to your letter of 22d inst., I accept your 
 resignation, to take effect forthwith. While the mat- 
 ters which I went over with you verbally, and which 
 it is not necessary now to recapitulate, make it neces- 
 sary to request your resignation, I wish to say that I 
 am entirely convinced of your personal integrity, and 
 your zealous desire to accomplish good results for the 
 Territory. Much that you have done was of lasting 
 importance to do ; and, while I did not think it for the 
 interests of the public to continue you in your present 
 position, I am glad to state I believe there are many 
 positions in the public service which you could fill with 
 honor to yourself and profit to the Government. 
 
 "Wishing you all success in your future life, believe 
 me, "Very truly yours, 
 
 "(Signed) Theodore Roosevelt." 
 
220 Addenda 
 
 An interesting side-light on this letter is an inci- 
 dent which occurred several years later in a club in 
 St. Louis when a gentleman, on being introduced to 
 Mr. Hagerman, inquired if he were the ex-Governor 
 of New Mexico. Answered in the affirmative, this 
 gentleman related he had always wanted to meet Ha- 
 german, because of an interview he had partly over- 
 heard between President Roosevelt and Assistant At- 
 torney-General Cooley (author of the memorable "re- 
 port"), upon the occasion of his calling at the White 
 House with Mr. Cooley, on or near April 13, 1907. In 
 the presence of this visitor Roosevelt began talking to 
 Cooley about Hagerman, saying the matter was trou- 
 bling him a great deal, and that they "would have to 
 do something to fix it up." He asked Cooley whether 
 he did not think the governorship of Porto Rico might 
 he offered to Hagerman — and at that moment they 
 withdrew into an adjoining room, and the visiting gen- 
 tleman heard no more. 
 
 It will be observed that this story tallies with the 
 closing sentence in the Roosevelt letter just quoted, 
 and serves to accentuate by contrast the general tone 
 and purport of a second letter from the same source, 
 penned two days later, May i, 1907, from which we 
 gather that the immediate and aggravating cause of 
 the presidential change-of-front toward the Hagerman 
 character, that which converted it over night from ben- 
 evolent intention to malevolent accusation, was the re- 
 ceipt of two telegrams : one addressed by Governor 
 Hagerman to Hon. Gifford Pinchot, and the other by 
 his father to the State Department — indicating the 
 wide range of the Roosevelt counselors at that time. 
 
 The Pinchot telegram — assuming the President's ig- 
 norance of the fact — asked to have it brought to his 
 personal attention that hundreds of persons in New 
 Mexico had sent telegrams protesting against his ac- 
 ceptance of Hagerman's resignation. This, of course. 
 
Addenda 221 
 
 offered needless irritation to a presidential conscience 
 already perturbed ; and, seeking to quiet its qualms and 
 placate its victim with an adroit tender of official pa- 
 tronage; and it is no surprise to find "offended 
 majesty" writing to the hapless ex-Governor: "This 
 renders it necessary to speak very plainly to you" ! 
 But, in order that the full extent of the Hage.rman of- 
 fending be known, and nothing lost of its exasperating 
 details, we quote the entire telegram sent by the elder 
 Hagerman to the State Department : 
 
 "Please ask President to delay action on resignation 
 of Governor Hagerman until latter has time to answer 
 charges, which are known to be unfounded, and made 
 by party free-booters to restore themselves to power. 
 President has been shamefully deceived, and put in 
 false light by men unworthy of his confidence. 
 
 "Last week Major Llewellyn stated to reputable 
 men in Roswell that he knew six weeks before that 
 President would remove Hagerman and appoint Curry. 
 This is causing impression very unfavorable to the 
 President; he owes it to his^good name, to the Repub- 
 lican Party, to people of New Mexico, to truth and 
 justice, to sift this thing to the bottom before final ac- 
 tion. ... I send this because of the impression 
 here that communications about this matter never reach 
 the President. "Respectfully, 
 
 "(Signed) J. J. Hagerman." 
 
 The main count in the presidential indictment of 
 Governor Hagerman, contained in the "plain spoken" 
 letter of May i, was that his delivery of the deeds to 
 the Pennsylvania Development Company, for land ac- 
 quired before he became Governor, consummated "a 
 grossly fraudulent transaction, which could not have 
 been completed without this action, made with full 
 knowledge of its fraudulent character." 
 
2,22 Addenda 
 
 This main charge is garnished and embellished with 
 such delicate suggestions as, "the inference which 
 ought legitimately to be drawn from the facts," that 
 the Governor had been actuated in his "grossly im- 
 proper and presumably unlawful conduct" by his de- 
 sire to secure Democratic aid in the faction fight; and 
 "there seemed" — to the sensitive Roosevelt conscience 
 — "no moral doubt that, in appointing six members of 
 the Legislative Council to lucrative positions," Hager- 
 man was guilty of "bartering offices for legislative sup- 
 port"! 
 
 The grave accusation: "You accepted from Mr. 
 Hopewell his personal check for $11,113" — to ^ cur- 
 sory reading — might easily convey the notion that this 
 was the Governor's personal fee for aiding the "grossly 
 fraudulent" deal, which probably under strong out- 
 ward pressure had been "subsequently deposited with 
 the Land Commissioner" — so careful is Mr. Roosevelt 
 to withhold the fact that the Territory had derived any 
 benefit from Governor Hagerman's action. 
 
 Then follows the gratuitous slap at the elder Hager- 
 man: "Secretary Root has handed me a long telegram 
 from your father. . . . What he means by saying 
 the charges are unfounded, I am unable to imagine. 
 . . . With the gossip that your father repeats, and 
 the inferences he draws therefrom, I have no concern. 
 . . . Charges of a very grave character were made 
 to me against your father himself in connection with 
 his land transactions in the past. Whether they were 
 true or not, I cannot say, since a preUminary investi- 
 gation showed action on them would be barred by the 
 statute of limitations." 
 
 This May i letter is marked throughout with a lofty 
 tone of outraged virtue and long-suffering forbearance, 
 so befitting a righteous judge wishing to temper justice 
 with clemency ! Particularly impressive are the refer- 
 ences to the findings of the Departments of Justice and 
 
Addenda 223 
 
 of the Interior, as lending an air of official sanction to 
 the presidential spleen. 
 
 In very favorable contrast is the quiet self-restraint 
 and dignified candor of Governor Hagerman's reply: 
 "Due regard to your exalted station forbids that I 
 should answer your letter in terms justifiable under the 
 provocation it offers. ... I hope, however, that 
 my reply will not be less forceful because of the ab- 
 sence of harsh language." He then reviews the facts 
 in re of the Pennsylvania Development Company, as 
 he had reviewed them before at the White House and 
 to the lawyers of the Interior Department: At the 
 time Governor Hagerman, acting on the advice of his 
 attorney-general, delivered the deeds to Mr. Hopewell 
 — ^agent for the Pennsylvania Company — the land de- 
 scribed therein had been for years in the possession 
 of the company, or its assigns. $10,000 of the purchase 
 money had been paid, and the remainder, a little over 
 $10,000, had been paid by a note; and the deeds had 
 been executed, but retained in the Land Commission- 
 er's office as surety for the unpaid balance. Quantities 
 of timber had been cut by the company, for which the 
 sum previously paid was inadequate compensation; a 
 suit by the Territory to recover the value of the tim- 
 ber would have been of doubtful efficacy; and the 
 deeds, whether in the Territorial Land Office or in the 
 possession of the company, would have been equally 
 available as a defence to any such suit. If the title 
 could pass at all in this case, it had, as a matter of 
 equity, already passed. If the whole business was, as 
 the President declared, unlawful from its inception, 
 the mere delivery of the deeds could have no validating 
 effect. Everything possible to complete the alleged 
 unlawful contract had been done before Hagerman 
 came into office, and his surrender of the deeds neither 
 helped the company nor impaired the rights of the 
 Territory, and was of no importance except as it en- 
 
224 Addenda 
 
 abled him to get for the Territory something over $ii,- 
 ooo which might serve as indemnity for the timber — if 
 the attempted sale were declared void. 
 
 Mr. Hagerman then reminds his august accuser that 
 all this had been embodied in a report submitted by 
 him in September, 1906; that he had been advised by 
 the Secretary of the Interior that the report was satis- 
 factory to him, and he believed equally so to the Presi- 
 dent ; and concludes his defence with the manly words ; 
 "And now, Mr. President, permit me to say that, but 
 for your gratuitous and irrelevant attack upon my fa- 
 ther, I might have refrained from making any reply to 
 your letter, notwithstanding it is easy to refute every 
 suggestion of improper conduct you make against me. 
 My father is advanced in years, and in feeble health; 
 he has spent much of his life and fortune in the devel- 
 opment of the West, and has never, to my knowledge, 
 been accused of fraudulent or improper conduct. I, 
 therefore, ask you, as a square man, to make your al- 
 legations specific, so that he can meet them, and I will 
 undertake for him that he will not plead any 'statute 
 of limitations.' I submit, that every principle of fair- 
 ness requires that you withdraw what you said about 
 my father, or that you say more. 
 
 "(Signed) H. J. Hagerman." 
 
 This dieted a brief, sharp reply, through Mr. Loeb, 
 of date May 23, 1907 : 
 
 "Sir :— 
 
 "I am directed by the President to state that what 
 he said about your father was, in view of your father's 
 telegram, the least that could be said. The President 
 says, moreover, that your explanations explain nothing, 
 and do not aid your defence, as they leave the state- 
 ment of the Assistant Attorney-General unaffected." 
 
Addenda 225 
 
 The elder Hagerman wrote twice to President 
 Roosevelt, earnestly and respectfully asking him to 
 state specifically the charges against him, and who had 
 made them. There was never the slightest acknowledg- 
 ment of these letters. 
 
 Corroborative of the telegram which was made both 
 the occasion and the defence of Roosevelt's unwar- 
 ranted attack, is the following affidavit, of which Gov- 
 ernor Hagerman holds the original : 
 
 "Territory of New Mexico, 
 "County of Chaves, ss.: 
 "J. F. Hinkle, being duly sworn on oath, states that 
 on April 20, 1907, near the Grand Central Hotel in 
 Roswell, affiant met Major W. H. H. Llewellyn, and 
 remarked: 'Well, Major, you fellows have succeeded 
 in getting Hagerman out.' To which Llewellyn re- 
 plied: T did not have anything to do with it, but I 
 knew Curry would be appointed six weeks ago. I was 
 bound in confidence not to mention it until after the 
 appointment was made.' 
 
 "(Signed) J. F. Hinkle. 
 "Subscribed and sworn to before me this May 30, 
 1907. "(Signed) Myrtie Aldrige, 
 
 "Notary Public." 
 
 The Llewellyn statement received further corrobo- 
 ration some months later from Governor Curry, who 
 stated at a banquet given him in Roswell, on August 
 6, that the governorship of New Mexico had been of- 
 fered him in February (1907) before he left the Phil- 
 ippines. This was before the adjournment of the Ter- 
 ritorial Legislature; before the introduction of the 
 "spite resolution"; before the date of Garfield's tele- 
 gram to Barnes. And this was "the gossip" with which 
 President Roosevelt stated he "had no concern" ! 
 
 If further confirmation were needed of the prear- 
 
226 Addenda 
 
 ranged verdict in the Hagerman case — as well as the 
 whole opera bouffe character of Roosevelt's reform 
 program in New Mexico — it was furnished by events 
 following Governor Hagerman's removal. Having 
 thundered in the index of the Territorial land transac- 
 tions, it was, of course, incumbent to keep up the 
 mimic show a little longer — until public attention 
 could be averted. 
 
 In the summer of 1907 Messrs. McHarg and Gor- 
 don were sent out to make "a thorough investigation" 
 of public lands and other matters in New Mexico ; but 
 when, instead of establishing Hagerman's guilt and 
 sustaining the President's verdict, the investigation 
 brought to light the shady records of the men upon 
 whose testimony the verdict had been rendered, and 
 likewise implicated some of the President's personal 
 friends, the investigators were called off, and soon re- 
 turned to Washington. Their activities, with the net 
 results, may be briefly summarized : Suit was brought 
 against the Pennsylvania Development Company, the 
 American Lumber Co., and others, for the recovery 
 of lands and timber sold by the Territory prior to Gov- 
 ernor Hagerman's induction to office. These sales had 
 been made in violation of a restrictive provision in the 
 Act of Congress, June 21, 1898, regulating the sale of 
 public lands ; said provision limiting the quantity which 
 might be sold to each person or corporation to 160 
 acres; but, being regarded as unwise, had been disre- 
 garded by New Mexican authorities almost from its 
 inception. Quantities of land largely in excess of 160 
 acres had passed to the possession of individuals and 
 corporations, with the approval of Governor, Land 
 Commissioner, and Legislative Assembly. In many in- 
 stances large sums had been spent for improvements, 
 flourishing business houses erected on these lands ; and 
 because of the complications arising therefrom the law- 
 yers of the Interior Department were very chary of ad- 
 
Addenda 227 
 
 vice or opinions for the guidance of a perplexed Exec- 
 utive seeking to square the rights of the Territory and 
 the rights of purchasers with the letter of the law. 
 Governor Hagerman, therefore, receiving no answer 
 to his numerous appeals to the Department, was forced 
 to exercise his own discretion, assisted by the advice of 
 his attorney-general. 
 
 After several months of probing and agitating by the 
 Government agents, no indictments were found against 
 any one for connection with the land sales; but nine- 
 teen persons were indicted for alleged fraudulent coal 
 land entries. Shortly thereafter a Washington dis- 
 patch announced "all but three or four of the nineteen 
 indictments will be dismissed." As a matter of fact, 
 all the coal land cases were, in a few months dismissed 
 and Assistant Attorney-General Cooley issued the fol- 
 lowing statement : "I cannot talk for publication about 
 the Department's plans in detail; but I can say that 
 Mr. Hagerman will not be indicted, and that whatever 
 may be the facts about his connection with land mat- 
 ters in the Territory he has not been guilty of any 
 moral wrong." 
 
 Mr. Cooley was subsequently appointed District 
 Judge in New Mexico and sought, through Governor 
 Curry, an interview with ex-Governor Hagerman, 
 maintaining to him that, upon the evidence presented to 
 him, he could not make any other "report" than the one 
 he rendered; but that since coming to New Mexico, 
 and realizing conditions there, he wanted Hagerman's 
 friendship, etc., etc. In view of this, and the further 
 fact that it nowhere appears, from the records, that the 
 "Cooley Report" was ever submitted to the Attorney- 
 General for approval, the inference seems not wholly 
 strained, that this weighty document — declared to be 
 the sole basis of Roosevelt's action — may have been 
 framed at the dictation, and under the express direc- 
 tion, of the President himself. 
 
228 Addenda 
 
 The documentary proofs of this story — including 
 the official correspondence between Roosevelt, Hager- 
 man, and Garfield — are all contained in a pamphlet is- 
 sued by the ex-Governor for private circulation in 
 1908; copies of which ex-President Eliot, of Harvard, 
 is said to have advised placing in all the public libraries 
 of the country. In concluding his statement. Governor 
 Hagerman says: 
 
 "The President may have been influenced in this 
 matter by higher motives of public policy than appears 
 on the face of things; but he has never revealed to 
 any one, to my knowledge, what those motives were. 
 Irrespective of the justice or injustice of his acts con- 
 cerning me personally, it is not unfair to summarize 
 the effects of them upon New Mexico as follows : 
 
 "I. A distinct lowering of the standards of public 
 morality, and the fostering of moral cowardice in re- 
 gard to public affairs. 
 
 "II. The rehabilitation of a corrupt and discredited 
 political machine, hated or feared by all decent people 
 in the Territory ; by virtue of which 'Bull' Andrews re- 
 turned to Congress, and Mr. Bursum reimbursed him- 
 self from the Territorial Treasury for the $5,000 
 shortage he had been forced to pay into it. 
 
 "HI. The intimidation and subserviency of public 
 officials throughout the Territory, tending toward the 
 growth of a fawning bureaucracy. 
 
 'TV. The widespread belief that special privileges 
 and immunities are granted by the Administration for 
 political reasons to unworthy men, and that defama- 
 tion and persecution are sure to follow him who incurs 
 its displeasure." 
 
 And it was thus that Colonel Roosevelt, when 
 President, purified politics in New Mexico, and ad- 
 ministered his favorite nostrum of "the square deal" 
 to the Hagermans — father and son. 
 

 
 
 
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