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 Copyright. 1908. 
 
 BY 
 
 JOHN W. BENNETT. 
 
 All rights reserved. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 PREFACE i 
 
 INTRODUCTION: Roosevelt's estimate of fa- 
 mous Americans — Jefferson, Madison, Monroe, 
 Jackson, George Clinton, Samuel Adams, Pat- 
 rick Henry, Martin Van Buren, Oliver Ells- 
 worth, Thomas Paine, Judge Taney, Jefferson 
 Davis, and others I 
 
 CHAPTER 1. 
 
 "Joe" Murray falls out with "Barney" Hess — "Joe" 
 discovers a budding statesman — A name — An- 
 cestry — Harvard — Prowess, Associates, Charac- 
 teristics — New Assemblyman 1 
 
 CHAPTER n. 
 Roosevelt, the SoIon^Political stress — Spoils — Cor- 
 ruption — Large programme — Position of novice 
 — Committees — "Finds" himself — Murphy, Be- 
 gan et al. — Civil service reform — Traction — In- 
 vestigator — Reformer — Claims — Facts — Accom- 
 plishment — An incident 8 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 Roosevelt, investigator — Practical situation — Grover 
 Cleveland — Union League Club takes initiative 
 — Scope of inquiry — Roosevelt's light not to be 
 hidden — "Rippering" — Up- State machine and 
 Tammany — Municipal home rule — Prohibition 
 — Elevated Railway legislation — Accomplish- 
 ment 21 
 
** Contents 
 
 CHAPTER IV. PAGE 
 Roosevelt makes crucial decision— Blaine— Edmunds 
 —Stalwarts, halfbreeds, Independents— Roose- 
 velt avows his partisanship 33 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 Answers call to the wilds— Longings of hunter- 
 Adding cubits to stature horizontally— Ranch- 
 man— Answers partisan call— Candidate for 
 Mayor of New York 38 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 Civil Service Commissioner— Changes flavor of body 
 —Dramatic as against quiet effort— Pug- 
 nacity— In controversy with prominent men — 
 Real work— Harrison— Cleveland— "Midnight" 
 order of 1893 .._ 41 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 Enters storm center in New York— Police commis- 
 sioner—Genesis—Strong—Union League Club 
 — Committee of Seventy— Tammany — Police re- 
 form-Civil service— Roosevelt in his element 
 — Efficiency — Troubles — Quits 48 
 
 CHAPTER VIIL 
 "Head" of Navy Department— Conditions— Trials 
 —Naval personnel— Difficulties— Quits 59 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 Leader of Rough Riders— Organization— Equip- 
 ment— Regular officers— To Cuba— Las Guasi- 
 mas— Race for "lirst blood"— Wheeler— Young 
 —Wood— Roosevelt— Lawton's wrath— Losses. 69 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 San Juan and days that followed— Wheeler makes 
 proposition— Plan of advance— Spanish valor 
 —Queer order to bivouac— Desperate position 
 —A trap— The assault— Up to the trenches— 
 Roosevelt s place— The part he played— After 
 the battle — War horrors gj 
 
Contents Hi 
 
 CHAPTER XI. PAGE 
 
 Santiago falls — Game of bluff — American luck — 
 Roosevelt's round robin — Going home 98 
 
 CHAPTER XH. 
 Roosevelt gets the nomination — Skillful political 
 manipulation — Piatt and the Independents — ■ 
 Roosevelt again chooses partisanship — Good or 
 bad faith? — Rough Rider campaign — Governor 
 — Starts out bravely — -War message — Piatt and 
 Odell as advisers — Canals — Payn — Trust Com- 
 pany investigation — Messages — V/ork unfin- 
 ished — Dangers and difficulties — Piatt's magic 
 ring — Estimates of Roosevelt's work — Accom- 
 plishment—Quits 102 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 Menaced by vice-presidency — Piatt, Quay and 
 Roosevelt — Woe for Senator Hanna — Roosevelt 
 yields — The campaign — Roosevelt as spokesman 
 — Denounces opponents, Filipinos and others — 
 Wins 132 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 Tragedy makes Roosevelt president — Flight to 
 Adirondacks — Dramatic entrance — Pledges — 
 Civil Service — Tariff — Philippines — Conditions 
 — Exploitation — Legislation against assassins — 
 Roosevelt's message 139 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 Race problems confront administration — Booker 
 Washington — Crum — Indianola — Brov^rnsville — 
 Lynch law 151 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 President takes up reform — Northern Securities — 
 Beef— Postal scandal 156 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 President captures canal site — Mr. Hay's politeness 
 
Vi G)NTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 and envy — Lightning change of front follow- 
 ing "muckrake" speech — Now steering "reform" 
 movements 313 
 
 CHAPTER XXVIII. 
 Roosevelt in literature — Atavistic in theme — War 
 and chase his favorite topics — First book best 
 — Autobiography in books — Sublime subjective- 
 ness — Mania for executive messages — Annual 
 cyclopedia of universal knowledge 324 
 
 CHAPTER XXIX. 
 Roosevelt, war and peace — Glorification of war 
 spirit — Conquest and commercialism — Non-re- 
 sistant creed — Sermon on Mount — Rome and 
 Christianity — The "true man's part" — Carl 
 Schurz and Gen. Sherman comment on war — 
 As a poet sees it 329 
 
 CHAPTER XXX. 
 What Roosevelt has done for Washington society — 
 Greater "individuality" — More exclusiveness — 
 Public receptions curtailed — The "Social Sec- 
 retary" — Roosevelts refuse to meet the "mob" 
 — Traveling contingent fund — White House 
 expenditures 344 
 
 CHAPTER XXXI. 
 
 A bit of autobiography — Biographers differ 353 
 
 CHAPTER XXXII. 
 Sidelights on Roosevelt's character — Tariff — 
 Friends — Ananias Club^Reformer, etc., etc... 357 
 
 CHAPTER XXXIII. 
 Some recent history — "My policies" — Progress by 
 states — Politicians clamor — Railway lobbyists 
 as "reformers" — Roosevelt fortunate in his 
 enemies — He "helps" in Chicago — Railroads fail 
 — Loeb discovers "conspiracy" — Roosevelt's tol- 
 
Contents vii 
 
 PAGE 
 
 erance — "Undesirable citizens" — Suspends pilot 
 —"Sport" — A successor — Fleet to Pacific — 
 Roosevelt "helps" Cleveland — Oklahoma consti- 
 tution — Financial panic — "Honest money" — 
 Roosevelt's responsibility — What his platforms 
 asserted — Different ox gored 377 
 
 CHAPTER XXXIV. 
 Critical view of Roosevelt — His character, his 
 ideals, his aims, his achievements — Place in his- 
 tory 400 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 This is not a biography of President Roosevelt. 
 We are interested in Roosevelt the man only in 
 so far as his peculiarities throw light upon Roose- 
 velt the office-holder. 
 
 It is our aim to journey freely along the public 
 pathway followed by Roosevelt in his march 
 from obscurity to eminence. We shall pick up 
 on the way, and examine evidences of his in- 
 fluence upon this Republic. 
 
 In taking this excursion, we shall try to 
 hamper ourselves as little as possible with the 
 baggage of preconceived opinion. Our own 
 opinion, we shall give for what it is worth, 
 indicating where possible its foundation. Those 
 who prefer to take their opinions of men, their 
 political philosophy, or even their politics, blind- 
 folded, would do well not to travel with us. 
 
 Americans, as a rule, have improved upon the 
 old maxim, "noblesse oblige." To persons in 
 high place we prefer to apply the more com- 
 fortable fiction, "The king can do no wrong." 
 Having no king, many of us try to make kings 
 of every popular person. Being without 
 heroes, we are not discriminating as to whom we 
 shall give this distinction. We might have made 
 it treason to criticize those in high place, as it is 
 infamous presumption to suggest that they ever 
 speak unwisely. But our sense of self-restraint 
 has held us back. 
 
if Preface 
 
 Extraordinary authority is not hampered with 
 extraordinary responsibility in high places. We 
 assume a divine sanction for every act of a 
 person vi^hom we have honored. Each v^^ord 
 from the lips of a high official contains prophet 
 wisdom. Each peccadillo we find a virtue in 
 disguise, each offense a scintillation of genius. 
 
 Peans of hero worship are not especially easy 
 for us, but we shall try to fulfill expectations. 
 If at any time we should seem to treat the sub- 
 ject of our inquiry as just an American citizen, 
 with rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of 
 happiness merely equal to those of other Ameri- 
 can citizens, it will not be because we forget 
 the more popular viewpoint. As for standards 
 of truth and righteousness to which we shall sub- 
 ject the acts of our characters indiscriminately, 
 we shall make due allowance for high place and 
 the trials and temptations surrounding it. The 
 sequel will show whether our standards will be 
 more strict or more liberal for one in authority. 
 
 An administration which has attracted much 
 attention is about to close. It has been different 
 in some respects from other administrations. 
 This is an excellent time to take stock and to 
 inquire what influence that administration has 
 had upon this Republic. Pleas are being made 
 for a continuation of certain governmental poli- 
 cies. We could not take better time to inquire 
 whether we wish them continued. 
 
 Your indulgence we bespeak. Walk with us 
 with open mind. Let us try to get perspective in 
 which near as well as distant objects appear in 
 their just proportions. 
 
Preface iii 
 
 Give tolerant ear, we beseech you, to our In- 
 troduction. Ponder it carefully. Prejudices 
 must be cleared away or sterilized. In no better 
 way than by studying the opinions there ex- 
 pressed can we get the viewpoint of the man we 
 are about to study. Giving us a more instructive 
 insight into the motives, abilities and characters 
 of the nation's past great, it will aid us in 
 judging more correctly the great of the present 
 and of the future. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 President Roosevelt has made many and 
 lengthy literary excursions into various fields. 
 There has he met many of the great, the good, 
 the highly honored of this nation. Freely has 
 he expressed his opinion of their characters, their 
 services and their worth. It is interesting to 
 hear him speak of them: — 
 
 Thomas Jefferson.— "The father of nullifica- 
 tion and therefore of secession. . . . Consti- 
 tutionally unable to put a proper value upon 
 truthfulness." (Roosevelt's Life of Benton, 
 page 95.) 
 
 "Characteristically enough, he only showed his 
 annoyance by indirect methods." (Roosevelt's 
 Life of Morris, page 293.) 
 
 "Jefferson was using them (the alien and 
 sedition laws) as handles to guide seditious agita- 
 tion." (Rooseveh's Life of Morris, page 323.) 
 
 "He (Morris) despised Jefferson for a tricky 
 and incapable theorist." (Roosevelt's Life of 
 Morris, page 331.) 
 
 "Jefferson . . . was perhaps the most 
 incapable executive that ever filled the presiden- 
 tial chair. ... He was utterly unable to 
 grapple with the slightest actual danger, and 
 even excepting his successor, Madison, it would 
 be difficult to find a man less fit to guide the 
 fttate with honor and safety." 
 
 Roosevelt says that the burning of the Capitol 
 
ii Introduction 
 
 at Washington was as nothing compared with 
 the "cowardly infamy" of Jefferson and Madison, 
 who failed to take means adequate to protect it. 
 
 James Madison. — "Excepting Jefferson we 
 have never produced an executive more helpless 
 than Madison when it comes to grappling with 
 real dangers and difficulties." (Roosevelt's Life 
 of Morris, page 348.) 
 
 "The indignation naturally excited by the utter 
 weakness and folly of Jefferson's second term 
 and the pitiable incompetence shown both by him 
 and his successor," etc. (Roosevelt's Life of 
 Morris, page 344.) 
 
 Madison's followers in the South and West. — 
 "They themselves, for all their bluster, were but 
 a shade less incompetent than their nominal chief 
 when it came to actual work, and were shame- 
 fully unable to make their words good by deeds." 
 (Witness Jackson at New Orleans.) 
 
 "The administration thus drifted into a war 
 which it had neither the wisdom to avoid nor 
 the foresight to prepare for." (Roosevelt's Life 
 of Morris, page 348-9.) 
 
 Congress at Madison's time. — "With almost 
 incredible folly the Congress that declared war, 
 voted down the bill to increase the navy by 
 twenty battleships." (American Ideals, page 
 260.) 
 
 James Monroe. — "I think he was as much of a 
 failure as his predecessors (Washington, Adams, 
 Jefferson and Madison), and a harsher criticism 
 could not be passed upon him. Like other 
 statesmen of his school, he was mighty of word, 
 but weak in action ; bold to plan, but weak to per- 
 
Introduction i" 
 
 form." (Roosevelt's Naval War of 1812, page 
 
 456.) 
 
 "A very amiable gentleman, but one who comes 
 distinctly in the class of one whose greatness was 
 thrust upon them." (Roosevelt's Life of Mor- 
 ris, page 293.) 
 
 President Martin Van Buren. — "Van Buren 
 faithfully served the mammon of unrighteous- 
 ness, both in his own state and later on at Wash- 
 ington; and he had his reward, for he was ad- 
 vanced to the highest office in the gift of the 
 nation. He had no reason to blame his own 
 conduct for his final downfall; he got just as far 
 along as he could possibly get, he succeeded be- 
 cause of, not in spite of his moral shortcomings ; 
 if he had always governed his actions by a high 
 moral standard, he would probably never have 
 been heard of." (Roosevelt's Life of Benton, 
 page 187.) 
 
 President Tyler. — "He was a mediocre man; 
 but that is unwarranted flattery — he was a poli- 
 tician of monumental littleness. . . . His 
 chief mental and moral attributes were peevish- 
 ness, fretful obstinacy, inconsistency, incapacity 
 to make up his own mind . . . together with 
 inordinate vanity . . . ." 
 
 "His mind which was not robust at best, was 
 completely dazzled by his sudden elevation, and 
 his wild hopes that he could continue to keep the 
 place that he had reached." (Roosevelt's Life of 
 Benton, pages 239 and 257.) 
 
 Andrew Jackson. — "Few men were ever more 
 unlike than the scholarly, timid, shifty, doctrinaire 
 (Jefferson) who supplanted the elder Adams, and 
 
vi Introduction 
 
 because of the words he uttered." (Roosevelt's 
 Life of Morris, page i6o.) 
 
 Thomas Paine. — "So the filthy little athei.'-.t 
 had to remain in prison." (Roosevelt's Life of 
 Morris, page 289.) The occasion for rejoicing 
 on the part of Mr. Roosevelt, was Gouverneur 
 Morris' strange indifference to the imprisonment 
 of the great pamphleteer of the Revolution, in a 
 French prison. There are historians who hold 
 that the pen of Thomas Paine did more for the 
 Revolution than was done by any other one man 
 except Jefferson and Washington. Gouverneur 
 Morris shov/ed as much feeling and patriotism in 
 this matter as he did in the burial of Mr. Roose- 
 velt's "corsair" (John Paul Jones). 
 
 "Judge Taney of unhappy fame." (Life of 
 Benton, page 358.) 
 
 Wendell Phillips. — "After the war and until 
 the day of his death his position upon almost 
 every public question was either mischievous or 
 ridiculous, and usually both." (Roosevelt's 
 Life of Benton, page 160.) 
 
 Jefferson Davis and Aaron Burr. — "The moral 
 difference between Benedict Arnold on the one 
 hand and Aaron Burr and Jefferson Davis on 
 the other, is precisely the difference which ob- 
 tains between a politician who sells his vote 
 for money and one who supports a bad measure 
 in consideration of being given high place." 
 
 President Polk and the Abolitionists. — "Aboli- 
 tionists joined hands with Northern roughs and 
 Southern slavocrats to elect the man who was, 
 excepting Tyler, the very smallest of the small 
 presidents who came between Jackson and Lin- 
 
Introduction vi! 
 
 coin." (Observe the compliment to Harrison, 
 Taylor, Filmore and the others.) 
 
 "Owing to a variety of circumstances the 
 Abolitionists have received an immense amount 
 of hysterical praise which they do not deserve 
 and have been credited with deeds done by other 
 men whom they in reality hampered and opposed 
 rather than aided." (Roosevelt's Life of Ben- 
 ton, page 292.) 
 
 Whole classes of Americans, too, came in for 
 Mr. Roosevelt's emphatic disapproval. 
 
 Jefferson's followers. — "Four fifths of the 
 talent, ability and good sense of the country 
 was to be found in the Federalist ranks." (Roose- 
 velt's Life of Morris, page 321.) 
 
 Cowboys, small farmers and mechanics. — ■ 
 "When drunk on villainous whiskey of the fron- 
 tier towns, they (the cowboys) cut mad antics, 
 firing their pistols right and left . . . and 
 indulging too often in deadly shooting affrays, 
 brought on by the incidental conduct of tlie mo- 
 ment or some long standing grudge, or perhaps 
 because of bad blood between certain ranches or 
 localities. . . . They are much better fel- 
 lows and pleasanter companions than small farm- 
 ers or agricultural laborers ; nor are mechanics 
 or workmen of the big cities to be mentioned 
 in the same breath." (Roosevelt's Ranch Life 
 and Hunting Trail, page 10.) 
 
 Catholics (who believe in miracles). — "Those 
 persons of arrested mental development who now 
 make pilgrimages to our Lady of Lourdes, had 
 plenty of prototypes in the atheistic France of 
 
viii Introduction 
 
 the French Revolution." (Roosevelt's Life of 
 Morris, page 291.) 
 
 Merchants and traders. — "He (Morris) had 
 no patience with those despicable beings, the 
 merchants and traders." (Life of Morris, page 
 297.) 
 
 Napoleon. — "He (Morris) fully appreciated 
 Napoleon's utter unscrupulousness and marvel- 
 ous mendacity." (Life of Morris, page 303.) 
 
 Quakers (As seen by Roosevelt, historian), — 
 "It is a bitter and unanswerable commentary on 
 the non-resistant creed that such outrages and 
 massacres as those committed on the helpless 
 Indians, were more numerous in the colony that 
 the Quakers governed than in any other ; their 
 vaunted policy of peace . . . caused the ut- 
 most possible evil . . . their system was a 
 direct incentive to crime and wrong-doing. No 
 other colony made such futile contemptible efforts 
 to deal with the Indians ; no other colony showed 
 such supine selfisn helplessness. (Winning 
 West I. -98.) "A class of professing non-com- 
 batants is as hurtful to the real healthy growth 
 of the nation as a class of fire-eaters, for a weak- 
 ness or a folly is as bad for a nation as a vice, 
 or worse, and in the long run a Quaker may 
 be quite as undesirable a citizen as a duelist. 
 No man not willing to bear arms and fight for 
 his rights can give a good reason why he should 
 be entitled to the privilege of living in a free 
 community." (Life of Benton, page 37.) 
 
 Taken to task later for the statement, Presi- 
 dent Roosevelt in a campaign said : "Were I now 
 to rewrite the sentence I should so phrase it that 
 
Introduction ix 
 
 it could not be construed as offensive to the 
 Society of Friends." In a speech at Plainfield, 
 N. J., in 1900, he praised the Quakers. That 
 was in a campaign. He also made some modi- 
 fication of his views on farmers and mechanics. 
 
 Germans and Irish. — "The habit of importing 
 indentured Irish servants as well as German 
 laborers under contract, prevailed throughout the 
 colonies, and the number of men thus imported 
 was quite sufficient to form a considerable ele- 
 ment in the population, and to add a new, al- 
 though, perhaps, not a very valuable strain to 
 the already mixed blood." (Roosevelt's Life of 
 Morris, page 34.) 
 
 Bryan, Sewall, Watson, Populists, Democrats 
 and other Americans who disagreed with Roose- 
 velt in politics in 1896. — "McKinley believes in 
 sound finance. That is a currency based on gold 
 and as good as gold. McKinley believes in a 
 protective tariff. McKinley believes in the only 
 way of enforcing orderly liberty, that is, in see- 
 ing that the laws are enforced at any cost." 
 
 "Mr. Watson would be a more startling, more 
 attractive and more dangerous figure (than 
 Sewall) for if he got the chance, he could lash 
 the nation with a whip of scorpions, while Bryan 
 would be contented with the torture of ordinary 
 thongs." 
 
 "Mr. Bryan, the nominee for the presidency, 
 and Messrs. Sewall and Watson, the nominees 
 for the vice-presidency, are almost equally de- 
 v^oted adherents to the light-weight dollar and of 
 a currency (not clearing house certificates) 
 which shall not force a man to repay what he 
 
X Introduction 
 
 borrowed, and shall punish the wrong-headed 
 laborer who expects to be paid his wages in 
 money worth something, as heavily as the busi- 
 ness man or the farmer who is so unmoral as to 
 wish to pay his debts." 
 
 "Loud-mouthed predecessors of Mr. Bryan 
 and his kind then thought good enough for them 
 . , , Neither Mr. Bryan nor Mr. Sewall nor 
 ]\Ir. Watson has advocated a two-cent copper 
 dollar. Still they are striving toward that ideal." 
 
 "Mr. Sewall distinctly lags behind the leader 
 of the spike team, Mr. Bryan, and still more dis- 
 tinctly behind his rival or running mate, or what- 
 ever you may choose to call him, the Hon. 
 Thomas Watson." 
 
 "He (Mr. Sewall) is a well-to-do man. In- 
 deed in many communities he would be called 
 a rich man. He is a banker, a railroad man, a 
 ship-builder, and has been successful in business. 
 Now if Mr. Bryan and Mr. Watson really stand 
 for any principle, it is hostility to this kind of 
 success. Thrift, industry and business energy, 
 are qualities which are quite incompatible with 
 true populistic feeling. Paying of debts, like 
 the suppression of riots, is abhorrent to the 
 populistic mind. Such conduct strikes the popu- 
 list as immoral." 
 
 "Populism never prospers save where men 
 are unprosperous, and your true populist is 
 especially intolerant of business success. If a 
 man is a successful business man, he at once 
 calls him a plutocrat. He makes only one excep- 
 tion. A miner or speculator in mines may be 
 
Introduction xI 
 
 many times a millionaire, and yet remain in good 
 standing in the populist party." 
 
 "Silver is connected in his mind (the popu- 
 list's) with scaling down debts, the partial re- 
 pudiation of obligations, and other measures 
 aimed at those odious moneyed tryants who lend 
 money to those who insist upon borrowing, or 
 who have put their ill-gotten gains in savings 
 banks and kindred wicked institutions for the 
 encouragement of the vice of thrift. . . . 
 Not even the fact that the rich silver mine own- 
 ers may have earned their money honestly, can 
 outweigh the other fact that they champion a 
 species of currency which will make most thrifty 
 and honest men poorer, in the mind of the truly 
 logical populist." 
 
 There are rich scoundrels, Mr. Roosevelt says, 
 who make their money dishonestly, and other 
 men who make their money honestly. "But the 
 populist draws no line of division between the 
 classes." 
 
 "In the minds of most thrifty, hard-working 
 men who are given to thinking at all about 
 public questions, the free-silver plank is very 
 far from being the most rotten of the many 
 rotten planks put together with such perverted 
 skill by the Chicago architects. A platform 
 which declared for free and unlimited rioting, 
 and which has the same strenuous objection to 
 the exercise of the police power by the Federal 
 government that is felt in the circles presided 
 over by Herr Most, Eugene V. Debs, and all the 
 persons whose pictures appear in the detective 
 bureaus of our great cities, cannot appeal to per- 
 
xii Introduction 
 
 sons who have gone beyond the unpolished stone 
 period of civiHzation. The men who object to 
 governmetit by injunction, are as regards essen- 
 tial principles of our government, in hearty sym- 
 pathy with their remote skin-clad ancestors, who 
 lived in caves, fought one-another with stone- 
 headed axes and ate the mammoth and the woolly 
 rhinoceros. They are interesting as representing 
 a geological survival. . . . They are not in 
 sympathy with men of good minds and of sound 
 civic morality." 
 
 "Mushy sentimentalists and wrong-doers," 
 Roosevelt says, made the Chicago platform. 
 Their attack upon the Supreme Court repre- 
 sents "recurrence to the ways of thought of 
 their remote barbarian ancestors." . . . 
 "Populists realize that the judiciary stands be- 
 tween them and plunder." 
 
 "He (Sewall) has a vein of the erratic in his 
 character, otherwise he would not be in such 
 company at all. But on the whole, his sym- 
 pathies must be with the man who saves money, 
 rather than with the man who proposes to take 
 away the money that has been saved ; with the 
 police who arrest a violent criminal, rather than 
 with the criminal. Such sympathy puts him at 
 a disadvantage in the populist camp." 
 
 In other words, Mr. Sewall. Mr. Roosevelt 
 said, must have been uncomfortable. 
 
 "Mr. Watson, whose enemies now call him a 
 Georgia cracker, is in reality a far more suitable 
 companion for Mr. Bryan. With Mr. Bryan, 
 denunciation of the gold bug and banker is 
 largely a mere form of intellectual entertainment, 
 
Introduction xii? 
 
 but with Mr. Watson it represents a ferocious 
 conviction. ... In Watson and Tillman is 
 embodied retribution on the South for having 
 failed to educate the cracker, the poor white, 
 which gives them strength. Mr. Watson is cer- 
 tainly an awkward man for a community to de- 
 velop." 
 
 "They (the Southern populists) distrust any- 
 thing they cannot understand ; and as they under- 
 stand but little, this opens a wide field for dis- 
 trust. Refinement and comfort they are apt to 
 consider quite as objectionable as immorality. 
 That a man should change his clothes in the 
 evening, that he should dine at any other hour 
 than noon, impresses these people as symptoms 
 of depravity, instead of merely trivial. A taste 
 for learning and cultivated friends and a tend- 
 ency to bathe frequently cause them the deepest 
 suspicion." 
 
 Mr. Roosevelt tells how out of place Mr. 
 Watson is in Georgia, where modern ideas have 
 obtained some hold, and regrets that Mr. Wat- 
 son could not have the more suitable South Caro- 
 lina constituency which had been developed by 
 Tillman. 
 
 "Moreover, Mr. Tillman's brother has been 
 frequently elected to Congress on the issue that 
 he never wore an overcoat nor an undershirt, 
 an issue which any populist statesman finds read- 
 ily comprehensible, and which he would recog- 
 nize at a glance as being strong before the 
 people." 
 
 "Altogether, Mr. Watson with his sincerity, 
 his frankness, his extreme suspicion and distrust 
 
xlv Introductioit 
 
 of anything he cannot understand, and the feel- 
 ing he encourages against all the elegancies and 
 decencies of civilized life, is an exceedingly 
 interesting personage. . . . Bryan, after all, 
 is more or less of a sham and a compromise." 
 
 "Now in the event of Mr. Bryan having more 
 votes than Mr. McKinley, that is, in the event 
 of the country showing strong bedlamite tenden- 
 cies next November" . . . "Farrago of sin- 
 ister nonsense making up the Democratic plat- 
 form." 
 
 The above complimentary notice of Mr. Bryan, 
 Mr. Watson, Mr. Sewall and a considerable 
 mass of American voters, is quoted from the 
 Reviezu of Revieivs for September, 1896. 
 
 We have quoted liberally from the above as a 
 model of the temperate and gentlemanly way in 
 which a political controversy should be con- 
 ducted. This calm and enlightening discussion 
 of the issues of a campaign in one of America's 
 leading reviews by a Harvard man, a historian, a 
 member of the New York Four Hundred, a 
 former high Federal officer who had reached the 
 age of 38, is set forth as a model for the youth 
 of the land to be followed on similar occasions. 
 The manner of treating the subject is so frank 
 and fairminded, the chivalry and fairness shown 
 to rivals is something which could not be found 
 in the discourse of just an ordinary American 
 citizen, certainly not in a man of less education 
 and refinement. High ideals shine through the 
 whole discourse. After listening to the misrep- 
 resentations, the innuendo, the demagogic ap- 
 peals, the highly colored and narrowly prejudiced 
 
Introduction xv 
 
 stuff of the ordinary cross-roads orator, this 
 classic piece of literature is like a breath of 
 cool salt air on a sultry day. Such scholarly 
 poise, such historic love of justice. No hasty 
 words these, but carefully thought out polished 
 periods such as befitted the man and the 
 periodical. 
 
 Still there are those who if the above matter 
 had proceeded from another source, might have 
 thought it pure demagogy. To one not fully 
 considering the high motives, it might be thought 
 demagogy of the most outrageous sort. The 
 undiscerning reader might think he saw whole- 
 sale appeal to class prejudice, wholesale im- 
 pugning of motives, cynical sneering at the lowly, 
 poor and less fortunate classes, wholesale charges 
 of iniquitous dishonesty on the part of the ma- 
 jority of the American people; for the American 
 people, strangely enough did show the Bed- 
 lamite propensities and McKinley was actually 
 a minority candidate, various groups of radicals 
 having cast the majority of the country's vote. 
 
 Had the notice come from a source capable of 
 being doubted, there are those who would have 
 applied to it the quotation taken approvingly by 
 Mr. Roosevelt from Thomas H. Benton and 
 applied to President Franklin Pierce: — 
 
 "Arguing with undaunted mendacity, moral 
 callousity, and mental obliquity; exemplifying 
 . . . all the modes of conveying untruths, 
 direct assertion, fallacious inference and false 
 innuendo." (Roosevelt's Life of Benton, page 
 
 345-) 
 
XVI Introduction 
 
 But then President Pierce was subject to 
 criticism. 
 
 Another passage from Mr. Roosevelt might 
 by the undiscriminatmg be appHed to his Re- 
 view of Reviezvs discussion : — 
 
 "All forms of coarse and noisy slander being 
 apparently considered legitimate weapons to em- 
 ploy against men of the opposite party or fac- 
 tion. Public men, good and bad, are assailed 
 as scoundrels. The effect is two- fold: — The 
 citizen learning to disbelieve any statement he 
 may see in a newspaper, so that the attacks on 
 evil lose their edge ; and on the other hand acquir- 
 ing a deeprooted belief that all public men are 
 more or less bad. The worst offense that can be 
 committed against the Republic is the offense of 
 the public man who betrays his trust ; but second 
 only to it comes the offense of the man who tries 
 to persuade others that an honest and efficient 
 public man is dishonest and unworthy. Down- 
 right foul abuse may be after all less dangerous 
 than incessant aspersions, sneers and those half 
 truths that are the meanest lies." (American 
 Ideals, page 53, quoted in part from memory.) 
 
 Our good president places on the same plane 
 the "man in public life who is a demagogue, 
 or who is corrupt, and the newspaper writer who 
 fails to attack him because of his corruption, or 
 who slanderously assails him if he be honest." 
 
 "If there was a wholly irrational state of 
 mind," says Mr. Roosevelt, "it was that in which 
 the Jacksonians kept themselves. Every canvass 
 on the part of Jackson was full of sound fury 
 and excitement of appeals to passion, prejudice 
 
Introduction Xvli 
 
 and feelings, but never the reason of the hearers. 
 A speech for him was usually a frantic denuncia- 
 tion of whoever or whatever opposed him, 
 coupled with fulsome adulation of the old hero. 
 . . . The cool judgment of the country was 
 apt to be against them." (Life of Benton, page 
 
 I35-) 
 
 History is said sometimes to repeat itself. 
 
 Mr. Roosevelt's article in the Review of Re- 
 views undoubtedly had its effect, as such a tem- 
 perate, calm and patriotic article from such a 
 high source must have. Strangely enough, it 
 grieved Mr. Watson, and Mr. Watson wrote 
 thus rudely to the distinguished author: — 
 
 Hon. Theodore Roosevelt : It pains me to be 
 misunderstood by those whose good opinion I 
 respect, and upon reading your trenchant article 
 in the September Review of Reviews the impulse 
 was strong to write you. 
 
 When you take your stand for honester gov- 
 ernment and for better laws in New York, as 
 you have so courageously done, your motives 
 must be the same as mine — for you do not need 
 the money your office gives you. You can under- 
 stand instinctively what you feel — what your mo- 
 tives are. You merely obey a law of your nature 
 which puts you into mortal combat with that you 
 think wrong. You fight because your own sense 
 of self-respect and self -loyalty compels you to 
 fight. Is not this so? 
 
 If in Georgia and throughout the South we 
 have conditions as intolerable as those that sur- 
 round you in New York, can you not realize 
 why I make war on them? 
 
xviii Introduction 
 
 Tammany itself has grown great because the 
 mistaken leaders of Southern democracy catered 
 to the Kelly s and Crokers and feared to defy 
 them. 
 
 The first "roast" I ever got from a Democratic 
 press of this State followed a speech I had made 
 denouncing Tammany, and denouncing the craven 
 leaders who obeyed Tammany. 
 
 It is astonishing how one honest man may 
 honestly misjudge another. 
 
 My creed does not lead me to dislike the men 
 who run a bank, a factory, a railroad, or a foun- 
 dry, I do not hate a man for owning a bond or 
 having a bank account, or having cash loaned at 
 interest. 
 
 Upon the other hand, I think each should make 
 all the profit in business he fairly can ; but I do 
 believe that the banks should not exercise the 
 sovereign power of issuing money, and I do 
 believe that all special privileges granted and all 
 exemptions from taxation work infinite harm. 
 I do believe that the wealth of the Republic is 
 practically free from Federal taxation, and that 
 the burdens of government fall upon the 
 shoulders of those least able to bear them. 
 
 If you could spend an evening with me among 
 my books and amid my family, I feel quite sure 
 you would not again class me with those who 
 make war upon "all the decencies and elegancies 
 of civilized' life." And if you could attend one 
 of my great political meetings in Georgia and 
 see the good men and the good women who 
 believe in Populism, you would not continue to 
 
Introduction xix 
 
 class them with those who vote for candidates 
 upon the "no undershirt" platform. 
 
 In other words, if you understood me and 
 mine, your judgment of us would be different. 
 
 The "Cracker" of the South is simply the man 
 who did not buy slaves to do his work. He 
 did it all himself — like a man. Some of the best 
 generals in war and magistrates in peace have 
 been of the "cracker" class. As a matter of fact, 
 however, my own people from my father back 
 to revolutionary times, were slave-holders and 
 land-owners. In the first meeting held in Geor- 
 gia to express sympathy with the Boston patriots 
 my great-grandfather bore a prominent part, and 
 in the first State Legislature ever convened in 
 Georgia, one of my ancestors was the repre- 
 sei Lative of his county. 
 
 My grandfather was wealthy and so was my 
 father. My boyhood was spent In the idleness 
 of a rich man's son. It was not till I was 
 in my teens that misfortune overtook us, sent us 
 homeless into the world, and deprived me of the 
 thorough collegiate training my father intended 
 for me. 
 
 At sixteen years of age I thus had to com- 
 mence Hfe moneyless, and the weary years I 
 spent among the poor, the kindness I received in 
 their homes, the acquaintance which I made with 
 the hardship of their lives, gave me that pro- 
 found sympathy for them which I still retain — 
 though I am no longer poor myself. 
 
 Pardon the liberty I take in intruding this 
 letter upon you. I have followed your work in 
 New York with admiring sympathy, and have 
 
XX Introduction 
 
 frequently written of it in my paper. While 
 hundreds of miles separate us, and our tasks 
 and methods have been widely different, I must 
 still believe that we have much in common, and 
 that the ruling force which actuates both is to 
 challenge wrong and to fight the battles of good 
 government. 
 
 That is the end of Thomas Watson's letter. 
 We give it in full. 
 
 There was one salvation about it. It took 
 Watson out of the despised class of "Crackers," 
 or poor whites, and Mr. Roosevelt felt that he 
 could be treated as a "near" gentleman, even if 
 he had some queer notions. This is what Roose- 
 velt says : — 
 
 "I intended to draw a very sharp line between 
 Mr. W'atson and many of those associated with 
 him in the same movement. ... To Mr. 
 Watson's own sincerity and courage, I thought 
 I paid full tribute. . . ." 
 
 "The staunchest friends of order and decent 
 government fully and cordially recognized Mr. 
 Watson's honesty and good faith — men for in- 
 stance like Senator Lodge of Massachusetts and 
 Congressman Bellamy Storer of Ohio." (This 
 was before "dear Bellamy" had joined the 
 "Ananias Club.") 
 
 This is the way in which Mr. Roosevelt drew 
 the "very sharp line." 
 
 "Mr. Watson was, in a sense born out of place 
 when he was born in Georgia." He should have 
 been born in South Carolina, where Tillman had 
 such a following. "Moreover, Mr. Tillman's 
 brother has been frequently elected to Congress 
 
 f 
 
Introduction xxi 
 
 on the issue that he never wore an overcoat nor 
 an undershirt — an issue which any popuUstic 
 statesman finds readily comprehensible, and which 
 he would recognize at a glance as being strong 
 before the people." 
 
 "Altogether, Mr. Watson with his sincerity, 
 has frankness, his extreme suspicion and dis- 
 trust of anything he cannot understand and the 
 feelings he encourages against all the elegan- 
 cies and decencies of life, is an exceedingly in- 
 teresting personage. 
 
 "Mr. Watson is certainly an awkward man for 
 a community to develop." 
 
 Certainly Mr. Roosevelt drew a very sharp 
 line not only between Mr. Watson and those 
 with whom he was associated, but also between 
 Mr. Watson and the decent civilized portion of 
 the community. Mr. Roosevelt's generous and 
 ingenuous explanation must put him right with 
 all fair-minded persons. It was made in the 
 January following the elections. 
 
 Anyway, how was a high-minded gentleman 
 and cultured literary man to know that a wild- 
 eyed populist actually came from decent ances- 
 tors. He ought to have remained in his class, 
 and if he had, such mistakes could not have oc- 
 curred. Moreover, facts in cases like this are 
 really not essential. They tend to hamper the 
 expression of an imaginative literary man bent 
 upon producing an effect, and altogether serve 
 no useful purpose. 
 
 With this explanation we pass on. Thus have 
 we cleared the ground. We have fixed the lines 
 of our structure. Our distinguished statesman- 
 
xxii Introduction 
 
 historian has shown us how to deal with public 
 men. He has shown us that the men honored 
 by the American people with presidential office 
 have been mostly small, mean and incompetent, 
 if not corrupt. Presidential place is no criterion 
 of worth, for the majority of those whom the 
 people chose with devoted enthusiasm, were 
 weaklings or scoundrels when their true measure 
 was disclosed by our distinguished statesman- 
 historian. We should not forget, as our mentor 
 has clearly indicated, that it is the petty incident 
 which to a really discerning biographer or his- 
 torian must fix the real character of our distin- 
 guished men. If they err in small things, little 
 good can be found in them. 
 
 Neither should we weakly permit ourselves to 
 attribute high motives to actions which to us 
 seem reprehensible. Motives in such cases are 
 much more likely to be selfish, sordid, mean, un- 
 worthy; — as our distinguished statesman-histor- 
 ian has found in examining the records of many 
 honored by their own and subsequent generations, 
 and still considered great by the uninformed 
 masses. 
 
 Even whole sections of the people may be 
 wrong-headed and essentially wicked. On occa- 
 sion a majority of the American people may be 
 foolish, uncivilized, dishonest, immoral, meanly 
 envious and vindictive and bent upon despoiling 
 their more intelligent, more virtuous and more 
 fortunate fellows. This is what calm investiga- 
 tion convinced our distinguished literary-states- 
 man in 1896 to be the fact. It is what we too, no 
 doubt, could have found if we faced facts with 
 
Introduction xxiii 
 
 the fearless comprehension with which this good 
 and g^reat leader is endowed. 
 
 Indeed, he has taught us most unequivocally 
 that as high-motived narrators of fact, we should 
 not hesitate one moment in visiting even the 
 tombs of this nation's honored dead and tearing 
 from them with ruthless hands the entwined 
 wreaths of laurel and ivy placed there by gen- 
 erations of loving and admiring souls. 
 
 In following the example of so distinguished 
 a historian in this little excursion among the 
 great, we shall try not to forget that undistin- 
 guished men like ourselves must walk more cir- 
 cumspectly than our high ideal. We could not 
 assume, like him, to speak with such infallible 
 assurance of men and things. Yet his example 
 must be our pillar of cloud by day and our pillar 
 of fire by night to guide us on our pathway. 
 
ROOSEVELT AND THE REPUBLIC. 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 "joe" MURRAY DISCOVERS A STATESMAN. 
 
 District worker "Joe" Murray wanted revenge 
 upon his quondam district leader, Barney Hess. 
 Murray had been misused. The reward which 
 should have been the meed of faithful service 
 in caucus, primary and party conference, had 
 passed to another. Murray's wrath burned red. 
 He would revolt and show them who was the 
 real power in the 21st District. 
 
 Murray needed an instrument, a vehicle, a 
 triumphal car, as it were, to which he might 
 chain his vanquished foes. Assemblyman of the 
 Twenty-first district was the immediate stake. 
 The capture of that position was to show Mur- 
 rav's prowess. 
 
 Right here Murray had an inspiration. There 
 was a name in that district to conjure with. It 
 was eminently respectable in a district where 
 bourgeois respectability counted for much. The 
 name was old. Five generations or more had 
 borne it. They were generations of smug, sleek, 
 thrifty, successful business men, following an 
 ancestor of homely, sturdy frugality. Though 
 they had not been of great importance in civil 
 life, aldermen and other minor municipal officers 
 had risen from their ranks. They were men of 
 
2 Roosevelt and the Republic 
 
 substance and power. Possibly a remote strain 
 of Jewish blood had intensified the native Dutch 
 shrewdness. But 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. 
 
 A new Scion of this precious stock had broken 
 into bloom in the ancestral garden. He had fol- 
 lowed circumspectly the beaten road to the 
 threshold of a career. Boyhood had been passed 
 most respectably between the proper town man- 
 sion and ample country home. There were ten- 
 nis courts, stables and kennels, the equipment of 
 the American gentleman of leisure, of the name 
 graduated from trade to membership in the lesser 
 gentry. Rides, hunts, games, dogs, all the 
 badges of ease and respectability surrounded the 
 young Scion. 
 
 There was the preparatory school, not an 
 Eton, to be sure, but a New England school 
 quite as sufficient. And afterward Harvard, the 
 Oxford of America, so to speak. 
 
 Our Scion marched through Harvard in the 
 congenial society of other rich men's sons. His 
 was a class noted for the worldly wealth of its 
 members in a school in which the standard of 
 living was high for America. Our Scion's class 
 was without special enthusiasm or distinction 
 while in college, but its purse-strings hung 
 loosely, and it was not unpopular. Ami ig them 
 all Scion was noted for his liberality. His purse 
 counted for more than his prowess in athletics. 
 
Roosevelt and the Republic 3 
 
 He took a prominent part in financing Har- 
 vardian muscle developments. 
 
 Scion's biographer says that his hero might 
 have lived in elegance at Harvard, but instead 
 chose only two modest rooms in the unpretentious 
 two-story-and-attic wooden residence of Mr. 
 Richardson at No. 16 Winthrop street. There 
 he lived alone without chums, cut off from his 
 fellows in the college dormitories. On parade 
 he drove a genteel horse and trap. Sometimes 
 he essayed tandem driving, for Scion was some- 
 thing of a swell. 
 
 Letters were furnished him from the Name to 
 other Names in Boston, and they unlocked for 
 him "Back Bay" society. Purse and Name and 
 inclination carried him into the Natural History 
 Club, Athletic Association, Art Club, Rifle Corps, 
 OK Society, Finance Club, Hasty Pudding Club, 
 Alpha Delta Phi Club, and to an editorial chair 
 on the college paper. Once in, goodfellowship 
 and good nature kept him there. 
 
 It was a time of transformation at Harvard. 
 Looking across the water to dear old London, 
 the numerous Scions, long of purse, envied their 
 brethren who went from Oxford and Cam- 
 bridge to careers in politics. By sheer neglect 
 since the time of the younger Adams, the wealth 
 and "respectability" of America had left politics to 
 the "hoi polloi." Harvard had awakened to the 
 opportunities of wealth and college breeding in 
 politics. It mourned the days of the Adamses 
 and resolved that its sons should again become 
 a power in the "ruling class." 
 
 Harvard had its Walker. Awakened by the 
 
1$ Roosevelt and the Republic 
 
 political revival, Harvard men saw other things 
 British to admire. There was a rebirth of the 
 idea of free trade, after the years of class taxa- 
 tion and commercialism following the Civil war. 
 Civil service reform, too, as England had it 
 looked good to Harvard. It became also a fad. 
 Our Scion shared all of these fads, for most of 
 his real work outside of natural history was done 
 in civil history and economics. Nothing import- 
 ant did our Scion do. He was not the worst 
 student in college, but was far from the best. 
 "Honors" in scholarship flew all about him. 
 They hit him but once and that a glancing blow. 
 
 Possibly the atmosphere of great wealth which 
 surrounded Scion in his college career was not 
 conducive to scholarship. At all events his class 
 is noted for its politicians and men of aflfairs. 
 Robert Bacon, first lieutenant of J. P. Morgan ; 
 H. G. Chapin, traffic manager of the Boston and 
 Albany Railway ; Henry N. Collison, the prom- 
 inent Boston Democrat; William A. Gaston, of 
 the Metropolitan Railway of Brooklyn; R. A. 
 Saltonstall of business prominence; Arthur Hale, 
 of the Pennsylvania Railway; Josiah Quincy, 
 Boston's former mayor; Richard Trimble, of the 
 Federal Steel Company ; Robert VVinsor, success- 
 ful promoter, and Charles G. Washburn, of the 
 wire corporation, all were schoolmates of the 
 Scion. 
 
 With college oratory, Scion had not speaking 
 acquaintance. His writings consisted of a char- 
 acteristic exhortation upon athletics. This is the 
 only thing he is said to have written for the col- 
 lege paper. A certain "prize fight" or "glove 
 
Roosevelt and the Republic 5 
 
 contest," in which he came out second best, and 
 a turtle episode of possible mythological char- 
 acter intended to illustrate natural history lean- 
 ings, marked his special distinction at college, 
 if we except liberality of purse. Scion was wise 
 in his generation. He garnered for the future. 
 
 Bereavement which came to him in the third 
 year of his college course, the loss of a distin- 
 guished father, left Scion at the end of his college 
 career, virtually head of his house. As if to 
 emphasize his bourgeois respectability and give 
 dignity to his new position, Scion married, a few 
 months after his graduation, the blue-blooded 
 and accomplished daughter of an "aristocratic" 
 Boston family, Alice Lee. 
 
 Shunning the ancestral trade which had given 
 Scion his thousands, his respectability, his stand- 
 ing, his shrewd business sense and power of 
 organization. Scion went into the law office of 
 his uncle in New York City. He joined a polit- 
 ical club. With some impulse, possibly from his 
 Bullock ancestry of the South, he deliberately 
 chose politics as a career because, as he frankly 
 declared afterward, he "wanted to belong to the 
 governing, not the governed class." To him 
 they could by no means be the same. In order, 
 however, that there might remain undone nothing 
 which ought to be done by a man of his station 
 and his fortune, he took the precaution of a trip 
 to Europe, climbed the Jungfrau and the Matter- 
 horn and joined the London Alpine Club, where 
 the Name gave him entry. 
 
 This was Scion when discovered by the re- 
 vengeful "Joe" Murray, disgruntled district 
 
6 Roosevelt and the Republic 
 
 worker of the Twenty-first district, on the eve 
 of an Assembly election. A young man of Har- 
 vard training; a Name with centuries of respect- 
 ability upon it ; avaricious dollar-lust dulled to 
 satiety by generations of plenty; confronted by 
 no vulgar problem of bread and butter — the prob- 
 lem that has harried the ambition and even the 
 soul out of many a promising career; ample 
 time and money at his disposal ; ancestral busi- 
 ness shrewdness and organizing efficiency with 
 an ambition to use it in politics rather than the 
 counting room ; Republican traditions ; residence 
 in the "silk-stocking" or "diamondback" district 
 of New York City where Republicanism and the 
 Name were all-powerful, these were the assets 
 of Scion on the threshold of his career. In 
 addition, there was district worker "Joe" Murray 
 to point out the political opportunity. 
 
 Is it any wonder that Scion in his twenty- 
 fourth year should shoot up as Theodore Roose- 
 velt, assemblyman from the Twenty-first district 
 of New York, by grace of circumstances and dis- 
 trict worker "Joe" Murray, Mentor. There was 
 some campaigning, primary and final election, 
 to be sure, but in the light of conditions the re- 
 sult was inevitable. "Joe" Murray had his re- 
 venge. He has also come to his reward, for 
 Theodore Roosevelt does not forget his friends, 
 if they persevere in meeting the demands which 
 his friendship makes upon them. "Joe" Murray 
 came into a comfortable berth in the immigration 
 service. 
 
 While in college. Theodore Roosevelt had been 
 a thin, pale stripling of a youth. He stepped 
 
Roosevelt and the Republic 7 
 
 into the political arena, polished, lithe, alert, but 
 with the nascent lines of bulldog countenance and 
 character. These have deepened and broadened 
 as the years have gone by. 
 
Roosevelt and the Repubuc 
 
 \ 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 ROOSEVELT THE SOLON. 
 
 Stress and tension ruled in politics when the 
 Assembly met at Albany in 1882. New York 
 was, as usual, the storm center. Tiklen's elec- 
 tion to the presidency, the plot, hatched in the 
 New York newspaper office, and Tilden's count- 
 ing out by a commission ; the threatened con- 
 test of blood and iron barely averted, were events 
 still fresh in political memories. Stalwarts with 
 Blaine's plume and Conkling's banner in the van 
 had tried to ride down Garfield's halfbreeds and 
 had been unhorsed. Then came the assassination 
 of the victorious President by a disappointed 
 office-seeker, with its fearsome fanning of fac- 
 tional flames and its awakening of the country 
 to the danger of spoils politics. 
 
 Scandals which had blossomed rank in the 
 rotten soil of Grant's administration still gave 
 out their decaying stench. It was becoming less 
 fashionable to sneer with Conkling and Blaine 
 at political virtue. Political regeneration after 
 a carnival of political unrighteousness seemed at 
 length at hand. Never in the history of the 
 nation was it more sorely needed. Each cam- 
 paign reeked with scandalous accusation, and the 
 pity of it was that much that was said was true. 
 
Roosevelt and the Republic 9 
 
 But young men and new ideas were coming to 
 the front and old leaders going to temporary or 
 permanent retirement. New York Republicans 
 were split into yawning factions, ready to do 
 battle to the hilt. It all had resulted in a Demo- 
 cratic assembly. Alonzo B. Cornell was still 
 governor. 
 
 Under these conditions Roosevelt went to his 
 task as a partisan Republican, attached in sym- 
 pathy and by blood-feud to the halfbreeds, but 
 keeping aloof as far as he might from party fac- 
 tion. Even then, this man of seeming impulsive- 
 ness and bulldog tenacity was passing wary. 
 
 Democrats ruled in the assembly, but their 
 slender majority of eight made their factional 
 differences so serious, that it was almost a month 
 after the opening of the session before Charles 
 E. Patterson secured the needed majority in the 
 speakership contest. Roosevelt voted with con- 
 sistent partisanship for Thomas G. Alvord, the 
 minority candidate who by the rules of the game 
 became minority floor leader. 
 
 Important matters came before the Assembly. 
 In his message Governor Cornell ran the gamut, 
 from the assassination of Garfield to the biennial 
 session of the legislature. Taxation, canals, in- 
 surance, militia, oleomargarine, agriculture, 
 pleuro pneumonia, railway discrimination, pri- 
 sons, increased murders, imprisonment for debt 
 in New York City, Indians, health, immigration, 
 licensing saloons, lotteries, reform in New York, 
 exposition, army laws, Adirondacks, forestry, 
 penal code, contested elections, bribery at the 
 polls and reapportionment, were some of the in- 
 
lo Roosevelt and the Republic 
 
 gradients of this legislative menu. Young Roose- 
 velt had full scope for his solon wisdom then and 
 there. Even the railway question which was to 
 loom so big in his career, confronted him at the 
 very doorstep. 
 
 Besides, he was to become acquainted with 
 an entirely new set of men with slender claim 
 to respectability according to the Roosevelt 
 standards. It was then that the young Knicker- 
 bocker gentleman met with the Bogans, the Cos- 
 tellos, the O'Neills, the O'Briens, the McCarrens, 
 the McClellans, the Murphys, the McDonoughs, 
 the McManuses, the Mahers, the Haggerties, the 
 Welches, and the whole brood of undesirable 
 citizens, undesirable in name, at least, to Theo- 
 dore Roosevelt, aristocrat. The assembly roll 
 call sounded in sections like a Fenian roster. 
 
 Your novice is not an important personage 
 in American legislative halls. Young Roosevelt 
 was no exception. With the Name to conjure 
 with, with the prestige and acquaintance which it 
 gave him, with his unique position as the repre- 
 sentative from New York of wealth and social 
 standing in the assembly, he received unusual 
 attention from some periodicals and newspapers. 
 Roosevelt's innate modesty did not cause him to 
 shrink from the publicity. Measures were placed 
 in his hands by friends and political backers, to 
 be presented to the Assembly. Every novice, if 
 he have backers, has like opportunity. It serves 
 to bring him into the limelight where he can be 
 measured up and catalogued by the political 
 sharps who make a business of legislation. These 
 sharps sized up young Roosevelt. 
 
Roosevelt and the Republic i i 
 
 His committee assignments were not bad. His 
 favorite committee, and that through which he 
 afterwards gained most of his notoriety as an 
 assemblyman, was that on "Affairs of Cities." 
 He had no chairmanship. In this session, how- 
 ever, he seems not to have been identified with 
 all of the legislation relating to New York City, 
 that passed through the committee and the 
 Assembly. He was, however, sponsor for a 
 minor measure relating to the metropolis. 
 
 In this first year of his service, Theodore 
 Roosevelt "found" himself. Like Kipling's ship, 
 the stays and yards of him, the sails, the rudder 
 and even the compass, were put in working order. 
 Roosevelt learned the rules of the game. He was 
 schooled to debate at ease, to give and take upon 
 the floor. In fact he figured in a more or less 
 violent controversy over the impeachment of a 
 judge, an impeachment which resulted in little 
 of importance. That bulldog chin, and the teeth 
 of him, Theodore Roosevelt learned to display 
 to advantage. 
 
 Two things this wise young man learned above 
 all others.' He learned the value of dramatic 
 display and liberal publicity. With him melo- 
 dramatic action was instinctive. Almost at once, 
 he learned the way in which it impresses and 
 sways the crowd the part it plays in the career 
 of the ambitious public man. Very well ! 
 Thereafter he would be dramatic, melo-dram- 
 atic when occasion required. Neither did 
 Roosevelt forget the rainbow-tinted posters an- 
 nouncing the show. There must be publicity 
 »--the stage announcements. Therefore the 
 
12 Roosevelt and the Republic 
 
 bulldog visaged one cultivated newspapers and 
 newspaper men. 
 
 His fellows, too, learned something from him 
 as well as of him. They learned that a well- 
 fitting coat and a clean collar do not necessarily 
 conceal a white liver or a weak heart. One does 
 not need to be named Murphy or Bogan in order 
 to have a convincing right hand. The fine lines 
 of the royal young bulldog are even more indica- 
 tive of dogged physical courage than the sullen- 
 est and ugliest mongrel visage that ever glared 
 into a fighting ring. 
 
 Not all of these sapient lessons were taught 
 or learned in legislative halls. It is related pic- 
 turesquely, even fawningly by biographers that a 
 night brawl in the neighborhood of a hotel cafe 
 or barroom in Albany finally established Roose- 
 velt's reputation in legislative circles for phys- 
 ical courage and a mighty right arm, just as 
 that reputation has been established for many 
 humbler bruisers. It was a dramatic incident, 
 losing nothing in the garnished telling by these 
 imaginative biographers. 
 
 Our solon, alone, unattended proceeded at 
 night from the lobby of the hotel to the cafe or 
 barroom. This Albany hostelry was a favorite 
 resort for legislative politicians. Meanwhile a 
 foul plot had been hatched by revengeful ene- 
 mies, "Shorty" was to be the instrument of 
 execution. Of course "Shorty's" record was red 
 with prize-ring gore, and plethoric with prize- 
 ring victories. Otherwise vital dramatic elements 
 in the story would have been lacking. Forming 
 the apex of a flying wedge "Shorty" was thrust 
 
Roosevelt and the Republic 13 
 
 rudely in the path of our Solon, barring his bar- 
 ward progress, and jostling his manly feelings 
 as well as his slender person. With vicious 
 uppercut" the "Shorty" right shot out, that 
 right which had done such prize-ring execution. 
 But only to fan unsubstantial air. Solon 
 smiled engagingly and with the quickness of 
 light, or at least, electricity, Solon's well-direct- 
 ed smash sent "Shorty" to the hard, unsym- 
 pathetic stones. 
 
 Since biographers are blessed with different 
 degrees of imaginative enthusiasm, the narrative 
 at this point varies, the most entertaining if not 
 the most plausible version being that Solon smote 
 the human flying wedge and the human com- 
 ponents thereof hip and thigh until the lobby 
 floor was strewn thickly with the fallen. Then 
 with long, melodramatic stride he confronted the 
 conclave of scowling, conspiring, discomfitted 
 enemies and flippantly, even mirthfully hurled 
 contemptuous defiance full in their faces, baring 
 his teeth the while in a chilling smile, without so 
 much injury as a spectacle awry. Thereafter his 
 wicked "enemies" respected the compelling logic 
 of his argument. This was to be expected. 
 John L. Sullivan's prowess was never illustrated 
 by a more convincing tale. Scott could not tell 
 a prettier story of Richard Lionheart. 
 
 To young Roosevelt, one term in the Assembly 
 meant another. This time Bogan et al. were in 
 overwhelming numbers, for they marched in 
 with the triumphant Cleveland over the wreck of 
 the rotten Republican machine. This machine 
 with characteristic unrighteousness, but with a 
 brazen boldness, rather than its usual smug but 
 
14 Roosevelt and the Republic 
 
 shifty hypocrisy, had placed itself in opposition 
 to every reform that the people demanded. 
 Roosevelt's district, however, was so safe a Re- 
 publican stronghold that he survived the deluge. 
 With so many of the veteran Republican clans- 
 men swept into the abyss, Roosevelt and his year 
 of legislative experience loomed conspicuously 
 in the Assembly. He was made Republican can- 
 didate for the speakership with the incidental dis- 
 tinction of minority floor leader. Considering 
 the Democratic majority, this was a barren honor. 
 At least it might have been barren for any other 
 person. It gave young Roosevelt opportunity 
 to develop his dramatic and fighting qualities 
 and to court further publicity. 
 
 In accomplishment for Roosevelt, this session 
 was scarcely less barren than the last; still he 
 made progress. Your machine politician makes 
 red relentless warfare upon the real independent, 
 as soon as the independent one has unequivocally 
 placed himself. His sympathies go out to the 
 partisan, even in the opposition. It makes little 
 difference, too, how rabid the partisan. Murphy, 
 Bogan et al Unally catalogued Roosevelt as a 
 thick-and-thin Republican partisan, and figur- 
 atively speaking they took him to their political 
 bosoms. His bark was annoying, but not dan- 
 gerous. They learned to enjoy it on occasion. 
 In an Assembly Democratic five to three, they 
 permitted Roosevelt to introduce and pass a 
 primary law, the primary law recommended by 
 Governor Cleveland in his message and agreed 
 to by the partisan politicians. It indicated that 
 Roosevelt was not unpopular with the "braves," 
 
Roosevelt and the Republic 15 
 
 Biographers tell a pretty story of the young 
 assemblyman standing at first aloof striving after 
 high ideals, a chaste and pure isolated peak. 
 Soon he felt his loneliness and impotence. The 
 political Mahomet would not come to the moun- 
 tain, and strange to say this "isolated peak" de- 
 veloped motion and came to the political Ma- 
 homet, somewhat reversing the old order of 
 things. This, primary law came when "isolated 
 peak" had become perambulatory. 
 
 In the great reform programme of Governor 
 Cleveland, Theodore Roosevelt, naturally, was 
 assigned no other number and took but a 
 critic's part. Civil service reform was the 
 piece-de-resistance of this programme. Since 
 Roosevelt had been in knickerbockers, civil ser- 
 vice reform had been agitated. Such men as 
 Curtis, Godkin and Schurz had been urging it 
 with greater and greater emphasis. The useful 
 Allen Jenckes, despite his plebeian name and his 
 coming out of that most unholy little common- 
 wealth, Rhode Island, must be given the credit 
 for getting a hearing for this reform. His work 
 began in the sixties. Several presidents had re-' 
 ferred to it officially and otherwise. At length 
 by dint of the enthusiastic support of such men 
 as Curtis, and his friends outside, and the per-j 
 sistent efforts of Pendleton, Democrat, in Con-' 
 gress, civil service had become an issue in poli- 
 tics. Garfield's assassination by an office-seeker 
 with a grievance made it a burning issue.' 
 Cleveland and the Democrats took it up in New 
 York. 
 
 For two years a law had been prominently 
 
i6 Roosevelt and the Republic 
 
 before Congress, urged by the persistent Pendle- 
 ton. In January, 1883, about the time that the 
 New York Legislature convened, a national 
 measure was passed. Dorman B. Eaton of New 
 York, backed by Curtis and the Civil Service 
 Reform Association, had whipped the Pendleton 
 measure into a satisfactory piece of legislation 
 and it passed a RepubHcan congress by a non- 
 partisan vote, counting its friends and its enemies 
 on both sides of the chamber. 
 
 Then it was "up to" New York Democrats to 
 make good platform pledges and to pass a similar 
 measure applying to New York State. Several 
 bills were introduced, but the bills fathered by 
 Assemblymen Miller and Brooks seem to have 
 been those favored by the committee. They had 
 the sanction of the New York Civil service or- 
 ganization. These bills were pushed forward in 
 the legislature until on May 2, 1883, a bill made 
 up of some of the elements of both was offered 
 by Michael C. Murphy of New York City, chair- 
 man of the committee on Affairs of Cities. It 
 passed the Assembly by a vote of 96 to 2. 
 (There were about 48 Republicans and about 
 85 Democrats in the Assembly.) Only Assem- 
 blymen Avery and Small voted against the 
 measure. 
 
 Theodore Roosevelt, civil service reformer, did 
 not vote, although he was present in the Assem- 
 bly immediately before, if not, indeed, at the 
 time the vote was taken. (Assembly Journal 
 for 1883, page 1338-9.) The measure two days 
 later passed the Senate unanimously. It became 
 the first effective state civil service law. 
 
Roosevelt and the Republic i/ 
 
 Some strange aberrations are shown by Roose- 
 velt's sapient biographers in deaHng with his 
 early record on civil service reform. One biog- 
 rapher is sure that Roosevelt originated the idea 
 or at least introduced it into the country. He is 
 made by this biographer, not only the author of 
 the New York measure, which he did not see fit 
 to support with his vote, but the national measure 
 is modeled upon the New York measure! It 
 seems to make no difference at all to this his- 
 torian that the National measure was in Congress 
 before Roosevelt left college and was on the 
 statute books about the time of the convening 
 of the New York legislature which passed its 
 own measure five months later. 
 
 Stratemeyer in his "American Boy's Life of 
 Theodore Roosevelt" says that one of the great- 
 est services done by "Theodore Roosevelt at that 
 time" (when he was assemblyman) "was the 
 support given by him to a civil service law for 
 the state." 
 
 Our good Indian, Francis E. Leupp, in his 
 campaign life of Roosevelt shows an even more 
 capricious imagination as to this portion of his 
 hero's record : — 
 
 "Mr. Roosevelt, who had been his" (Dorman 
 B. Eaton's) "enthusiastic colleague in the Na- 
 tional Civil Service Reform League, was author 
 of the bill which passed the legislature of New 
 York during President Cleveland's administra- 
 tion about simultaneously with the Federal act." 
 (Leupp's Life of Roosevelt, page 34.) 
 
 Shades of George William Curtis, and Roose- 
 velt did not even vote for the measure; civil ser- 
 
i8 Roosevelt and the Republic 
 
 vice had passed Congress months before; im- 
 possible Tammany men had prepared and passed 
 the Cleveland law in New York! Even so blase 
 and sophisticated a biographer as Mr. Leupp 
 can on occasion perpetuate a "wonder story" 
 when Theodore Roosevelt is the subject. Not 
 nearly so exact was this as the George Wash- 
 ington hatchet story which was exploded by 
 Theodore Roosevelt's good friend Lodge. 
 
 In the civil service matter Theodore Roose- 
 velt's action was characteristic. This wise and 
 discreet young man had already learned not to 
 pin his faith to new and strange measures of 
 doubtful and untried popularity. The knowledge 
 was kept before him throughout his subsequent 
 career. Let others do the pioneer work. The 
 band-wagon must be well filled and tooling along 
 swimmingly, before he claims a seat. Then he 
 sees to it that the most conspicuous place is 
 accorded him. 
 
 Our discreet young solon, as in after life, was 
 impulsive only on the surface. Impulsiveness 
 with him was a stage business, used for dra- 
 matic attractiveness and advertising purposes. 
 Under the skin Theodore Roosevelt was wary 
 as a wood lynx. Platonic affection for free trade 
 or civil service reform w-as all right. It tended 
 to bring good fellowship at Harvard and in the 
 Reform Club, but a young solon with a poli- 
 tical future in the "ruling class" must be careful. 
 Time would tell how the crowd would take this 
 Cleveland measure supported by Bogan et al. 
 There would then be plenty of time to use it in 
 
Roosevelt and the Republic 19 
 
 one's business. If it proved a fiasco, the Tam- 
 many shoulders were broad and strong. Roose- 
 velt's skirts were clean. 
 
 It was not the last of civil service during 
 Roosevelt's legislative career. The next New 
 York assembly counted its Republicans in num- 
 bers like unto the Democrats in 1883. These 
 high-minded reformers immediately began as- 
 saults upon the Cleveland civil service law. 
 Roosevelt was a prominent member. It is to 
 be presumed that by this time he had sufficient 
 confidence in civil service reform to consider it a 
 safe thing to tie to for even the most discreet 
 of young men. History does not record that the 
 coy young Roosevelt aided or abetted the as- 
 sault upon the Cleveland civil service law. There 
 are some indications that his activity was in sup- 
 port of the measure's integrity. However that 
 may be, the Republican Assembly of 1884, of 
 which Roosevelt was an influential member, did 
 emasculate the Cleveland civil service law, and 
 it is not recorded that Roosevelt made strenu- 
 ous effort to prevent that emasculation. The 
 law was made a milk-and-water thing by re- 
 pealing the section (Section 10) prohibiting 
 political assessments upon state office-holders 
 by outsiders ; by exempting soldiers and sailors 
 from its operation, and by other touches deft 
 and cunning. It was extended to cities as a 
 compulsory measure, but in such extenuated 
 form that firemen, police officers and most of 
 the important classes escaped through its wide- 
 open meshes. If one has not the milky way 
 
20 Roosevelt and the Republic 
 
 notion of Theodore Roosevelt's importance, his 
 legislative record on civil service reform, in 
 view of his subsequent clamorous insistence of 
 the reform's importance, would surprise one, 
 to say the least. 
 
Roosevelt and the Republic 21 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 ROOSEVELT BECOMES AN INVESTIGATOR. 
 
 According to folk lore, in the third trial lay the 
 eharm, and this proved true of Roosevelt. With 
 a third term he rounded out his legislative career. 
 Republicans v^ere in the saddle. He found un- 
 usual opportunity. New York political tactics 
 were simple as a child's primer. Tammany 
 Democrats looted the city; machine Republicans 
 as regularly looted the state. Machine Republi- 
 cans covered up their own iniquities by exposing 
 the city wickedness of Tammany. Tammany 
 Democrats defended their plunderous strongholds 
 by bombarding the hypocrisy and crookedness 
 of the up-state hordes. 
 
 Grover Cleveland had entered as a disturbing 
 element, for the moment putting to rout the Tam- 
 many enemies up-state, but finally betraying his 
 unsavory metropolitan allies to Republican am- 
 bush and defeat. It was a beautiful situation. 
 Here the up-state machine could use to mighty 
 advantage the clamorous honesty of young As- 
 semblyman Roosevelt. 
 
 A patriotic, non-partisan organization, the 
 Union League Club of New York, whose political 
 actions are always highly disinterested, — strictly 
 for the public good, initiated this particular as- 
 
22 Roosevelt and the Republic 
 
 sault upon Tammany. (I neglected to say that 
 all tlie members of this Union League Club are 
 Republican partisans in good standing who 
 habitually find practically all virtue in the Republi- 
 can party, as it will be remembered Historian 
 Roosevelt found in its Federalist ancestor.) It 
 was important that this Union League movement 
 sliould have the appearance of disinterested re- 
 form. Possibly it was Thomas Ryan's friend, 
 the distinguished Elihu Root who fathered these 
 resolutions and spoke to them convincingly. We 
 do not now remember distinctly. At all events 
 a proper member must be found in the New 
 York Assembly to serve as official head for the 
 assaulting column. 
 
 Two Republican party wheel-horses. Littlejohn 
 and House, took the Union League Club resolu- 
 tions into the assembly and Gibbs did like service 
 in the Senate. As soon as the legislative branches 
 had formally declared war, House and Littlejohn 
 modestly retired, remarking that they wished to 
 use their time for legislative purposes at Albany. 
 At first it was suggested that the direct physical 
 assault (the investigation) be left to the com- 
 mittee on Affairs of Cities of which Roosevelt 
 was chairman. Then it was decided to appoint 
 a special committee with Roosevelt still chair- 
 man. His clamorous honesty would be a buckler 
 and shield in the up-state campaign against Tam- 
 many. Roosevelt entered into the spirit of the 
 movement. 
 
 Right here there was a little rift in the partisan 
 lute, seemingly so well attuned to anti-Tammany 
 battle strains. Union League, as everyone knows, 
 
Roosevelt and the Republic 23 
 
 is too respectable to give anyone a general com- 
 mission to smash political crockery right and 
 left, even though it be Tammany crockery. Some 
 of its friends, like Thomas F. Ryan and William 
 C. Whitney might suffer. Union League wanted 
 Hugh O. Thompson and his department of public 
 works investigated. It did not care to go fur- 
 ther. Take down the bars and one could not 
 tell where such an investigation may lead. 
 
 Gibbs was well in hand and consented. As- 
 semblyman Roosevelt wanted a general commis- 
 sion, a sort of letter of marque against Tam- 
 many. Some of the Gibbs men suggested that 
 the House and Senate committees should be con- 
 solidated into a general committee. This would 
 make it a Gibbs committee. Roosevelt's name 
 would be left out. His clamorous honesty would 
 have no dramatic avenue of expression. News- 
 paper headlines would contain the name of Gibbs 
 instead of Roosevelt, That would not do. There 
 were two committees. 
 
 Probably at no time for a century could a 
 reasonably efficient inquisition have investigated 
 Tammany officials of New York City (or anti- 
 Tammany officials for that matter), or the up- 
 state machine, without finding rottenness amply 
 sufficient to warrant the investigation. Gibbs 
 and Roosevelt both found Tammany rottenness. 
 Roosevelt with his superior talent for stage busi- 
 ness, exploited his find the more dramatically. 
 He got the thing dear to ambitious young men 
 of precious dramatic sense — generous newspaper 
 advertising. A few bills were the result of 
 Roosevelt activity, giving to certain Tammany 
 
24 Roosevelt and the Republic 
 
 officers generous salaries rather than plethoric 
 fees. A thing righteous and just. 
 
 Good campaign material were these lurid dis- 
 closures. They argued eloquently for a Republi- 
 can mayor in New York City next time. Mayor 
 Edson had some broad powers of appointment 
 which would hamper his successor. To meet 
 this situation, Roosevelt and his associates es- 
 sayed the gentle art of "rippering" the New York 
 City administration. It was a mild "rippering," 
 hardly worthy of the name, but it sufficed. Quay 
 legislators in Pennsylvania bent upon smother- 
 ing opposition in Pittsburg, and Cox's Ohio 
 legislature with similar intentions as to Cincin- 
 nati and Cleveland, followed the Roosevelt 
 precedent. Besides Roosevelt got through a 
 measure taking away from Aldermen the power 
 of confirming mayoralty appointments. Although 
 there was a possibility of getting a Republican 
 mayor, there was none of getting a Republican 
 board of Aldermen, so the virtuous partisans of 
 the legislature did the best they could. It was 
 the only way to secure control of New York 
 for the Union League patriots. Of course this 
 making of a little municipal czar of the mayor 
 was entirely in the interest of "good govern- 
 ment." It was always easier to elect a "good" 
 czar and put him in control, than to have decent 
 minor officers. 
 
 Senator Gibbs with much less fireworks and 
 public clamor, pushed through two measures, 
 excellent in general purport, making elective the 
 places of comptroller and president of the board 
 of aldermen. His good intentions were greatly 
 
Roosevelt and the Republic ^5 
 
 disfigured by a provision placing the power of 
 removal in the hands of the governor, rather than 
 in those of the mayor of New York. This was 
 part of the everlasting machine programme of 
 governing New York City from Albany in the 
 interest of the up-state machine. 
 
 While the astute Gibbs and the clamorous 
 Roosevelt were industriously smashing Tammany 
 and making capital for themselves and the up- 
 state machine^ a matter vital to good government 
 in cities came before the legislature. It was a 
 constitutional amendment embodying the enlight- 
 ened principle of municipal home rule. Albany's 
 interference with New York City affairs had 
 probably caused ten times the corruption in the 
 metropolis that otherwise would have been pos- 
 sible of accomplishment by a league of all the 
 powers of the world the flesh and the Tammany 
 devil. It just destroyed the resisting power of 
 New York City's citizenship. 
 
 In 1882 the legislature had recognized this 
 fact and had voted to submit a municipal home 
 rule amendment to the State constitution. That 
 amendment must pass another legislature before 
 it could be submitted to the people for approval. 
 It was up in this legislature where Roosevelt 
 clamorously contended for pure municipal gov- 
 ernment. The amendment failed. Roosevelt did 
 not fight it directly or openly, for he had voted 
 for it in the former legislature when it did not 
 need his vote, and stultifying oneself is danger- 
 ous business even for a wary young legislator of 
 clamorous honesty. Friends of the bill were 
 pressing it to a vote in the Assembly. Roose- 
 
26 Roosevelt and the Republic 
 
 velt all at once became anxious about the meas- 
 ure's legal form. He lay in ambush and sprung 
 upon the harcl-beset thing the bushwhacking mo- 
 tion of reference to the judiciary committee. 
 There it died, killed in exactly the same way as 
 other legislative measures of merit, beset by legis- 
 lative crooks. Roosevelt was not a legislative 
 crook. Perish the thought. He merely adopted 
 their methods upon this occasion in order to re- 
 tain Albany control of New York City municipal 
 government, as a handy asset of the up-state 
 machine. 
 
 Here was a world of enlightenment as to the 
 quality of our reformer. There was opportunity 
 to do the one thing worth while to meet the con- 
 ditions with which he battled. Roosevelt chose 
 the more dramatic route of evanescent exposure. 
 As a result New York City continued to have 
 government by Tammany — and hysterics. 
 
 Temperance too was a problem with the As- 
 sembly. In mellow autumn days, when prepar- 
 ing the lines of battle for capturing the spoils of 
 office, the up-state machine in solemn state con- 
 vention had pledged the Republican party to 
 submit to the voters of New York a prohibition 
 constitutional amendment. A venerable member 
 who was also a clergyman was possessed by the 
 strange delusion that platform pledges were 
 made to keep. He offered and pressed a resolu- 
 tion for such an amendment. With the fervor 
 and eloquence of a Peter the Hermit he con- 
 tended for this thing to which his party had so 
 recently pledged itself. Assemblyman Roosevelt 
 of clamorous anti-Tammany honesty was de- 
 
Roosevelt and the Republic 2"^ 
 
 tailed to disabuse the venerable member's mind. 
 Boldly he counseled the lawmakers to repudiate 
 their ante-election platform pledge. To keep it 
 would be disastrous to the Republican party, 
 he said. Party success at that moment loomed 
 bigger to him than party honor. Partisan bias 
 silenced the conscience of this young man of 
 high ideals. Roosevelt somewhere has said that 
 an honest man will keep a platform pledge just 
 as he will keep a personal pledge. But possibly 
 a party platform is not so sacred as a rostrum 
 statement. 
 
 Prohibition was not the only issue involved ; 
 hardly the main issue. If it were Assemblyman 
 Roosevelt might have had firmer ground to stand 
 upon. His venerable clerical friend was not ask- 
 ing the Assembly to pass a prohibition law. 
 High-minded reformers of insistent honesty can- 
 not be expected to feel bound by party pledges 
 to which mere office-seekers might adhere. The 
 thing asked here was merely giving the people of 
 New York the opportunity to say whether or no 
 they wanted prohibition. 
 
 With Roosevelt it was a matter of principle. 
 In his first book thereafter, in which there was 
 an opportunity he justified himself by denounc- 
 ing as witless fools legislators who would obey 
 the will of tlieir constituents against their better 
 judgment. Poor ignorant voters must be kept 
 in tutelage by their wise solons and given the 
 best government which they are capable of re- 
 ceiving. 
 
 Friends and enemies both made capital of an 
 episode in Roosevelt's legislative career. Each 
 
28 Roosevelt and the Republic 
 
 has a different tale to tell. There is dearth of 
 record in checking the laudatory as well as the 
 condemnatory versions of this interesting tale. 
 Either version is characteristic in its way. Each 
 has doubtless in it something of truth. 
 
 Tammany and up-state patriots joined hands 
 in 1883 in pushing through the New York legis- 
 lature a bill reducing the fares on the elevated 
 railways of New York from ten to five cents. 
 One at that time in high place in New York 
 politics and later of national fame as a Wash- 
 ington lawmaker tells the story in this cynic 
 fashion : — 
 
 "It was a 'strike' pure and simple. The boys 
 felt that they were being neglected by the public 
 service interests of New YorK City and took 
 this way of showing themselves alive. At that 
 time a five-cent fare was probably unjust to 
 the roads, and I believe the courts would have 
 held such legislation a violation of the transit 
 company's franchise. The roads, therefore, felt 
 that Cleveland might be relied upon to kill the 
 bill when it came to him, and they paid no man- 
 ner of attention to the menacing 'strike.' In 
 pique at this defiance the Assembly and the 
 Senate both passed the measure. Roosevelt 
 voted for it. 
 
 "Sure enough, when the measure reached 
 Cleveland he vetoed it and returned it with a 
 smoking message to the Assembly. Newspapers 
 took it up and made things uncomfortable for 
 the 'striking' solons. It ceased to be a badge of 
 honor to have voted for low fare. In fact ex- 
 
Roosevelt and the Republic 29 
 
 planations were required to show that it was not 
 a badge of graft. 
 
 "When the measure came up for passage over 
 the veto of Governor Cleveland, there was 
 scurrying of the timid to cover, — with many 
 contrite explanations. Roosevelt also ex- 
 plained. 
 
 " 'I was busy at my desk,* declared Roose- 
 velt, his thin voice rising in shrill crescendo, 
 'when this measure came up for passage. I asked 
 the gentlemen about me what it was, and they 
 assured me it was a meritorious measure. I took 
 their word for it and voted for the bill. Now I 
 find I have been deceived. I shall place no 
 further confidence whatever in these gentlemen.' 
 
 "Roosevelt did a "flipflop," said the narrator, 
 contemptuously, flipping one hand over the other 
 in illustration of a somersault. "Characteris- 
 tically he pleaded the baby act, placing the blame 
 upon the other fellow who so wickedly seduced 
 him from the straight and narrow path." As 
 may be guessed, this narrator loved not Roose- 
 velt. 
 
 The other version has Roosevelt arising upon 
 the floor and frankly announcing that Cleveland 
 had converted him. He felt that it would be 
 injustice to the roads to put a lower fare in force 
 and Roosevelt could no more do an injustice 
 than Washington could tell a lie. He would 
 support the veto of Governor Cleveland. 
 
 As the record shows, Roosevelt voted for the 
 measure when it originally passed the Assembly, 
 but switched about and voted against it when 
 it came up on the questioa of overturning 
 
30 Roosevelt and the Republic . 
 
 Cleveland's veto. He did explain his vote. 
 Whether cynic narrative or hero tale be true, 
 we must judge as we read. If the righteous 
 young solon shifted the blame for his mistake 
 upon other shoulders, it was not the last time 
 he was to take such praiseworthy action. If he 
 permitted his solicitude for the welfare of the 
 corporation to crowd out his sympathy for its 
 patrons, it was not to stand as an isolated peak 
 in his career. Probably Roosevelt made both 
 explanations, for both are characteristic. One 
 thing is certain, whether or not his stand was 
 courageous and manly, his motives certainly were 
 not corrupt. For Roosevelt has no taint of dol- 
 lar-lust dishonesty. 
 
 In the next session the New York street rail- 
 ways had the Assembly better in hand for up- 
 state influences governed. Lines of communi- 
 cation were less obstructed. This up-state ma- 
 chine was as successful a band of political free- 
 booters as ever — outside of Pennsylvania — • 
 looted a confiding municipality of its priceless 
 public service franchises. Through this legisla- 
 ture in which Roosevelt was a prominent mem- 
 ber of the dominant party, was passed a railway 
 consolidation act which was the progenitor of 
 practically all of the subsequent legislation which 
 has served to loot New York City out of its 
 street railway wealth. Nowhere do we find re- 
 corded determined opposition of the strenuous 
 one to this nascent steal. Yet it meant millions 
 to New York where Tammany peculation meant 
 thousands. 
 
 Assemblyman Roosevelt bade good-bye to the 
 
Roosevelt and the Republic 31 
 
 legislative chamber a wiser man than when he 
 entered, and with fewer and different ideals. 
 The faithful Riis tells of the young man in his 
 first year of service playing the role of "isolated 
 peak" standing apart in cold ideal purity. He 
 learned to be practical, to do things to the ever- 
 lasting benefit of other legislators who dote upon 
 the fleshpots of legislation's pleasant valley. 
 
 Possibly this was all true. Roosevelt un- 
 doubtedly thought himself an isolated peak, for 
 this distinguished man has always taken him- 
 self with great seriousness. In his estimation, 
 events must necessarily revolve about him. But 
 if there was really an isolated peak in the New 
 York legislature in 1882, it was well concealed 
 in the partisan jungle. At all events Roosevelt 
 quickly descended into the delectable valley of 
 politics and power. 
 
 That Roosevelt made a very marked impres- 
 sion upon his fellows of the New York Assembly, 
 goes without saying. His work, however, was in 
 no way extraordinary. It would be difficult to 
 point out anything of permanent value which he 
 accomplished for the State. Undoubtedly his 
 experience was of permanent value to himself. 
 If Roosevelt differed from the average legislator, 
 he was greater rather than less. 
 
 No problem with which he dealt was touched 
 by him at a vital spot. He blazed no pioneer trail. 
 Our young hero was cautiously rash, as well as 
 clamorously aggressive, yet he traveled legisla- 
 tive highways well worn by meeker men. Never 
 did he delve beneath the surface. Symptoms 
 were the only things he essayed to treat. No 
 
32 Roosevelt and the Republic 
 
 probe of his struck the deep-gnawing disease. 
 Roosevelt wanted to be understood and appre- 
 ciated by men. To win appreciative applause, 
 one must learn to play upon prejudices as upon 
 a well-thumbed lute. Roosevelt schooled him- 
 self in all the popular stops and keys. From 
 legislative halls Roosevelt came with serpent wis- 
 dom. If there was drama in the situation 
 Roosevelt could stage it as nobody else could. 
 At the end of his legislative career, he was a 
 connoisseur in the political show business, from 
 multichrome posters to the dying declaration of 
 the villain. Stage business came naturally to 
 him. 
 
 Substantial accomplishment is another story. 
 Roosevelt dodged civil service. Probably he dis- 
 trusted the new plan. Later it became the most 
 important business of his career. Upon tem- 
 perance, municipal government, franchise legis- 
 lation, his record was indifferent. Whether 
 through failure of comprehension or mistaken 
 sympathies, one is left to judge. Against the 
 development of the democratic idea, his influence 
 was set like a flint. This was on principle. This 
 highly practical and wise young man, had in 
 three short years narrowed from a man of ideals 
 to a partisan politician — and the partisan poli- 
 tician, whether he will or no, must place party 
 above city, state or nation where their interests 
 clash. But few learn to place it also above 
 the interests of No. i. Roosevelt did not. 
 
Roosevelt and the Republic 33 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 ROOSEVELT MAKES CRUCIAL DECISION". 
 
 Theodore Roosevelt soon had occasion to use 
 all the political wisdom he had acquired as as- 
 semblyman. He stepped from legislative work 
 into national politics. Strenuous times were 
 these. Stalwarts, half-breeds and independents 
 were contending in deadly struggle for suprem- 
 acy in the Empire state. 
 
 Newspaper prestige had he. He had appended 
 his name to a sensational report of sensational 
 investigation. New York with the ardor as well 
 as the fickleness of a courtesan was pushing her 
 new favorite to the front. 
 
 Blaine like Clay of earlier days had been pur- 
 suing the presidential phantom for many weary 
 years. Now it seemed almost within his grasp. 
 Machine Republicanism and the forces of cor- 
 ruption, which in the years of iniquity following 
 the Civil war had grown strong, were every- 
 where working in his support. But New York 
 had one of her spasms of virtue. In the presi- 
 dential caucuses Blaine and his stalwart forces 
 had gone down in defeat before the allied forces 
 of half-breed and independent. Senator Ed- 
 munds was New York's candidate. Roosevelt 
 who had fought as an independent, led the dele- 
 
34 Roosevelt and the Republic 
 
 gation. This delegation contained such men as 
 George WilHam Curtis (a curious commentary 
 on the way politics often pushes to the front the 
 untried and the immature, ignoring those of long 
 and honorable service ) . 
 
 In the convention Roosevelt seems to have 
 fought manfully for his candidate, but Blaine 
 was nominated. It was a sore blow to "inde- 
 pendent" forces. Almost immediately a nasty 
 scandal suppressed for years, broke upon Blaine 
 with full force. Everybody open to conviction 
 had the convincing, damning Blaine record be- 
 fore him. This record was black enough. The 
 Mulligan and Fisher letters convicted Blaine of 
 corruption in office — using his position as speaker 
 of the House of Representatives for private gain. 
 In addition he practiced mendacity to escape the 
 charge. 
 
 Blaine was inimical to every enlightened do- 
 mestic policy. At this time when there was 
 promise of civic awakening Blaine had his face 
 turned to the setting sun. He was hostile to civil 
 .service reform, to tariff reform, to clean politics. 
 Blaine was not a Quay, but he was of the Quay 
 school. Brilliancy and personal magnetism 
 glossed over his rascally traits. 
 
 Against this proved corruption was pitted 
 Grover Cleveland, who up to that time had an 
 official record of sterling, stalwart integrity. 
 Cleveland was right on civil service reform, right 
 on the tariff, and he stood for clean politics. 
 Public office was to him, at that time, at least. 
 a public trust, and there was not a breath of 
 suspicion that this trust had ever been betrayed. 
 
Roosevelt and the Republic 35 
 
 Independent Republicans deserted in shoals the 
 Republican battle-standard with Blaine's be- 
 smirched plumes waving at its side. George 
 William Curtis and Carl Schurz were types of 
 those who declared their independence. 
 
 Theodore Roosevelt had moved with these 
 men. He was a member of the Civil Service Re- 
 form Association. Tariff reform was a favorite 
 tenet from college days. Clamorous was he for 
 honesty in the public service. When Tammany 
 men held the offices, these high ideals were held 
 up before gods and men. He would not be de- 
 nied. One of his hobbies was clean politics. He 
 knew Grover Cleveland as a man of official ef- 
 ficiency, purpose, intelligence and integrity. 
 Cleveland's programme at that time was prac- 
 tically Roosevelt's programme in public affairs, 
 if we are to judge by the declarations and asso- 
 ciation of Theodore Roosevelt. 
 
 This rash, this impulsive, this earnest young 
 man, this young man of high ideals and fixed 
 convictions seemed to have no choice. Indepen- 
 dents were sure he must come with them. 
 
 They were mistaken. The rash young man 
 of twenty-six showed a serpent wisdom and 
 caution unknown to timorous gray-beards. 
 Scarcely halting or hestitating, he bade good-bye 
 to his independent friends and stepped blithely 
 under the besmirched banner of James G. Blaine. 
 This young man who had demonstratively stood 
 up in the New York Assembly and asked his 
 party to repudiate its platform for its own bene- 
 fit, now found party action especially binding 
 upon all party men. He supported Blaine the 
 
36 Roosevelt and the Republic 
 
 corruptionist, the prevaricator, the opponent of 
 civil service reform, the hide-bound protectionist, 
 the man of unclean political associations. Roose- 
 velt could do all this but he could not lay him- 
 self open to the charge of partisan irregularity. 
 Convictions on official integrity, civil service re- 
 form, tariff reform and the rest were sluffed 
 off and discarded like a last year's garment and 
 in their stead he donned the robe of mere parti- 
 sanship. Roosevelt supported Blaine. As every 
 partisan on occasion must do, he placed partisan 
 regularity above country, above public good, 
 above convictions, above clean ideals, above civic 
 integrity. 
 
 Never a Bogan, a McCarren, or a Murphy, 
 or a follower of Bogan, a McCarren or a Mur- 
 phy, has shown more narrow or hide-bound par- 
 tisanship. If Croker's Indians had been as con- 
 scientious in partisan regularity as Theodore 
 Roosevelt has shown himself upon this occasion, 
 the boss would still be gathering plums upon 
 Manhattan. For the only way to get political 
 crooks out of power, or to rebuke villainous 
 nominations on the part of political machines is 
 for intelligent men to refuse to be bound by 
 iniquitous party action. Otherwise corruption 
 once in the saddle of a majority party would re- 
 main in power forever and a day. 
 
 Opportunity had knocked again at the gate of 
 the rising young politician. His decision to re- 
 main in the partisan fold was the most moment- 
 ous thus far in his political life, possibly the most 
 momentous in his whole life. It means much for 
 a young man of high ideals to place his civic 
 
Roosevelt and the Republic 37 
 
 integrity, his civic conscience in the hands of his 
 party leaders to do with it as they will. This is 
 the very thing which has made of voters dumb 
 driven cattle moving under the lash of self-seek- 
 ing political bosses. Public privilege exploiters 
 rhake it their stock in trade. It has laid a paralyz- 
 ing hand upon the Republic from its inception. 
 Blind partisanship has been responsible for at least 
 nine-tenths of the political corruption in Ameri- 
 can history. Should every voter adhere to it, 
 it would mean the speedy death of the Republic. 
 In Pennsylvania only has this ideal held sway 
 with practical uniformity for a considerable 
 period, and we all know Pennsylvania. When 
 all men reputed to be honest, honorable, patriotic 
 and intelligent in politics, refuse to rebuke their 
 recalcitrant party by temporarily withdrawing 
 support, we may ring the deathknell of self-gov- 
 ernment. Open revolt in such circumstances is 
 the only bond of party decency. It is not a 
 question of abandoning the party, merely one of 
 castigating it into cleanliness. 
 
 Roosevelt, then showed rare courage, rare as 
 Foraker ever displayed, in taking the merely par- 
 tisan course. In his later writings he says there 
 are occasions upon which men must break with 
 their party. He has been fortunate in never 
 finding an occasion on which he found it neces- 
 sary to do so. Roosevelt at least kept his parti- 
 san record clear, his influence as a partisan unim- 
 paired for future use. Probably it was better 
 to do so in view of an overmastering ambition to 
 belong to the "governing class." 
 
38 Roosevelt and the Republic 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 ROOSEVELT ANSWERS A CALL TO THE WILDS. 
 
 Coincident with Blaine's defeat was the retire- 
 ment of Theodore Roosevelt for a time from 
 politics. Atavistic longin^-s for the excitement 
 of the primordial hunter thrilled him. He had 
 met personal bereavement in the deaths of his 
 wife and mother. A sullen wish to get away 
 from men possessed him. It must be quenched 
 in the red blood of livings things. His biog- 
 rapher says that Roosevelt must have been born 
 with the instincts of the hunter. When he was 
 given his first gun at ten. all else was forgotten 
 for a time while child Roosevelt indulged the 
 primordial lust to kill. Now again, Roosevelt 
 sought the wilds. Violent, uncouth men and 
 strange beasts were selected for companions. 
 Like a Saxon forest baron Roosevelt drew rough 
 retainers about him and spent his days in tending 
 herds and in slaughter of the wild. 
 
 Up to this time Roosevelt had preserved the 
 slenderness of youth. Now he showed remark- 
 able increase in girth. The filling out which 
 comes to most healthy men, especially those who 
 pass a spare and angular youth, now came upon 
 Roosevelt. He became possessed of rough 
 physical strength. 
 
Roosevelt and the Republic 39 
 
 With his biographers this was due to Roose- 
 velt virtue. It was an indication of what will- 
 power could do. He had evaded the Biblical 
 rule and added cubits (in circumference) to his 
 stature. To the faithful Riis, whose pathetic 
 canine loyalty unhorses his judgment whenever 
 Roosevelt is the theme, the thickening of Roose- 
 velt's form was a miracle due to Roosevelt's 
 wonderful will. All others who think it over, 
 will find that what happened here happens with 
 the great majority of the healthy sons of women 
 between their twenty-second and twenty-eighth 
 years. 
 
 To Roosevelt on his crude ranch in the barren 
 Dakotas came the well-recognized partisan call. 
 A municipal election was in progress in the 
 Knickerbocker city. It was not Tammany this 
 time. A great popular leader, beloved of the 
 toiling masses, was beginning a campaign which 
 menaced Wall street privileges and Wall street 
 millions. Tammany leaders, those mercenaries 
 of corrupt privilege, took the alarm. They nom- 
 inated a gentleman of eminent respectability to 
 uphold the traditions of Democracy — and Tweed. 
 There was still danger. The Tammany rank 
 and file would not listen to discipline. Hosts of 
 young men were restive. It was difficult to say 
 how they would vote. At this crisis, the up- 
 state machine commanded its useful son. He 
 came. Not that he had any message to give or 
 programme of city government to carry out. 
 But Roosevelt was a young "reformer." Just 
 the man to keep in the fold young enthusiasts 
 whose ideas might lead them into the George 
 
40 Roosevelt and the Republic 
 
 ranks, even to a war on privilege. Roosevelt 
 heeded the call. He went through a campaign 
 with his usual aggressive assurance. Young en- 
 thusiastic voters were divided. Tammany's 
 highly respectable representative was elected with 
 the aid of the young "reformer." George went 
 down to defeat. Privilege was safe. Roosevelt 
 came out a rather poor third in the voting, a 
 thing not especially flattering to the regular 
 nominee of one of the two great parties. Roose- 
 velt was a good soldier and did not complain. 
 He was proud in the consciousness that he had 
 served his party and saved New York City to the 
 respectable element in government. Privilege, 
 too, had won a victory. Mr. Ivins and his com- 
 mission have recently been furnishing facts as 
 to how valuable such a victory was. 
 
 Roosevelt went back to his cow-punchers and 
 his hunting. Here he killed the forest popula- 
 tion and wrote epics of the killing. He became 
 part of the primitive lawless life of the frontier. 
 Thus was he to know intimately the two extremes 
 of life — that of the New York Four Hundred 
 and that of the primordial life of the frontier 
 wilderness. 
 
Roosevelt and the Republic 41 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 ROOSEVELT BECOMES CIVIL SERVICE COMMISSIONER. 
 
 While Roosevelt punched cows and killed bears 
 in the far west he kept an anxious eye upon poli- 
 tics in the East. Political club membership was 
 kept up. He had still the ambition to belong to 
 the governing class. 
 
 Activity in the Harrison-Cleveland struggle in 
 1 888 brought its reward in Roosevelt's appoint- 
 ment to membership in the Civil Service Com- 
 mission. He was to serve with Charles Lyman 
 and Hugh Thompson, the former a veteran in 
 the work. 
 
 At this time the "merit" system in civil ser- 
 vice had been tried out and its popularity proved 
 beyond question. It was no raw experiment. 
 Great respectability had come to it. It was en- 
 tirely safe for the most cautiously rash young 
 politician. There were then none of the dangers 
 and problems that beset its pioneer path. No 
 other reform had been so quickly accepted by the 
 respectable elements. Few were less vital in 
 principle to democracy. Not that the "merit" 
 system was not a great improvement over the 
 spoils system. As applied thus far, both have 
 evil elements. The "merit" system, as at present 
 administered, far the fewer. 
 
42 Roosevelt axd the Republic 
 
 Tlicretofore the commission had busied itself 
 with organizing the new bureau and pushing for- 
 ward its claims as rapidly as discretion would sug- 
 gest. Much had been accomplished. At the end 
 of the Arthur administration there were about 
 14,500 places in the classified service out of a 
 total of 125,000 places. At that time the classi- 
 fication applied to little more than the depart- 
 ments in Washington. The great postal service 
 and the customs service were touched but lightly. 
 Internal revenue, justice and the rest, not at all. 
 
 By executive orders during his first term, 
 President Cleveland had added 7,000 positions to 
 the classified service. Natural growth had added 
 about 5,000 more. When President Cleveland 
 left office in 1889 there were in the classified ser- 
 vice approximately 28,000 employees, an increase 
 in the four years of nearly one hundred per cent. 
 This aggregate of 28,000 represented practically 
 five years of patient and unostentatious work on 
 the part of the commission in the application of 
 the law. In this period the commission was 
 headed for the most part by Dorman B. Eaton. 
 Eaton had done much to get the civil service 
 law through Congress. The organization and 
 progress of the commission during this formative 
 period was due largely to him. 
 
 With the support of a president, the most 
 consistent civil service reformer who has thus 
 far occupied the White House, the commission 
 had succeeded in getting about eighteen per cent, 
 in numbers of the executive civil service classi- 
 fied. Considering the importance of the posi- 
 tions, the proportion was much greater. 
 
Roosevelt and the Republic 43 
 
 Roosevelt's entrance into the commission was 
 the beginning of a new regime. Then for the 
 first time the reports of the commission became 
 pugnaciously controversial. Enemies were "lam- 
 basted" and the work of the commission ex- 
 ploited. What before had been done quietly and 
 rneekly was now done clamorously and ostenta- 
 tiously. Roosevelt's dramatic instinct shines 
 through the dry pages of the reports. Every- 
 thing becornes superlative. Dramatic situations 
 set in stage business are exploited before an ad- 
 miring public. As would the editor of a sen- 
 sational journal bent on street sales, the com- 
 missioners pick out some one stirring incident 
 and write their reports around it. 
 
 This sort of tactics called the attention of the 
 public to the civil service commissioners. When 
 they looked the thunderous young Roosevelt was 
 always at the center of the stage. He courted 
 newspaper controversies with cabinet ofificers, 
 Congressmen and Senators. It was not his fault 
 that they were prominent and that controversies 
 with them brought Roosevelt prominently into 
 public notice. Neither was it his misfortune, 
 thus to mount into public view on the shoulders 
 of conspicuous public characters. Roosevelt 
 soon had a reputation as a wonderful "civil ser- 
 vice reformer." 
 
 As for the real work of the commission, it 
 went on much as usual. Progress during the 
 five years of Roosevelt's service as a commission 
 member was approximately the same as for the 
 previous five years. But the road was naturally 
 
44 Roosevelt and the Republic 
 
 much smoother. Eaton and his pioneers had 
 cleared the way. 
 
 Up to this time poHticians had pressed each 
 administration to play football with the civil ser- 
 vice law. President Arthur had not learned how 
 and President Cleveland, for the most part, re- 
 sisted the solicitations. But the gang was too 
 strong for Harrison, backed as he was by the 
 insistent and pugnacious Roosevelt. Progress 
 including new places had been painfully slow 
 until President Harrison had been defeated for 
 re-election. His followers, up to that time, 
 seemed to need all the patronage that they could 
 scrape together. But January 5, 1893, less than 
 two months before President Harrison yielded 
 the place to President Cleveland, by executive 
 order he placed all the free-delivery post offices 
 under the classified service. Theretofore only 
 post offices with more than fifty employees had 
 been classified. By this skillful coup of the 
 eleventh hour 7,660 places had been added to the 
 classified list. At the same time 7,660 Republi- 
 cans who had been happy partakers of the spoils 
 of office, were placed under the protection of 
 civil service rules in anticipation of the assaults 
 of Cleveland's hungry followers. Almost to a 
 man these spoilsmen thus protected were Harri- 
 son party, partisans. 
 
 History repeated itself. The order of January 
 5, 1893, was an echo of the Adams midnight 
 judges. A more shabby trick would be difficult 
 to think of, or a more hypocritical one, seeing 
 that it was done in the name of civil service 
 reform. There were murmurings and ques- 
 
Roosevelt and the Republic 45 
 
 tioning of motives. Harrison and his friends 
 of the Civil Service Commission vv^ere held up 
 to scorn. Circumstances looked bad. Still the 
 thing was done for all time, and however shab- 
 by the trick it would be difficult to say at this 
 time that it was not of benefit to the country. 
 
 By driblets, before this eleventh-hour coup, 
 Harrison had added about 350 other places, so 
 that the end of his administration found about 
 8,000 places added by executive order and 7,000 
 new places by natural growth. Without the 
 "midnight" order, Harrison's administration 
 would have meant very little indeed to civil ser- 
 vice, even though Roosevelt had been a commis- 
 sioner a large portion of the time. There were 
 now approximately 43,000 places in the classified 
 service out of a total of 170,000. The number 
 had increased from eighteen per cent, of the 
 whole to twenty-five per cent, of the whole. 
 
 As soon as Cleveland took up the work of his 
 second term, he resumed the extension of the 
 classified service. In 1894 he extended the 
 classification to assistant teachers in the Indian 
 schools, to meat inspectors and to messengers in 
 the departments. Also watchmen. Both these 
 positions were open doors through which spoils 
 appointees got into the classified service. Smaller 
 customs houses and steamship mail clerks were 
 also included. Railway mail service was classi- 
 fied. Many excepted places in the postal ser- 
 vice came under the classification. Cleveland 
 closed the back door entrance to classified pro- 
 tection by providing that persons appointed to 
 pon-classified places could not be transferred to 
 
46 Roosevelt and the Republic 
 
 those which were classified. Roosevelt in one 
 of his reports slyly belittles this work of Cleve- 
 land. No political opponent, somehow, has been 
 able to do much capable of meeting the approval 
 of Air. Roosevelt. 
 
 Roosevelt resigned May 5, 1895, to become 
 police commissioner in New York City. No halt 
 was made in the extension of the classified ser- 
 vice. Treasury department, pension agencies, 
 Indian affairs were successively brought under 
 the commission. Government printery followed. 
 By the Cleveland order of May 6, 1896, prac- 
 tically all the places in the executive civil service 
 coming within the scope of the law of 1883 were 
 brought under the commission. It was one of 
 the most important orders in the history of the 
 civil service. Only fourth class postmasters and 
 a few thousand other employees were excluded 
 from the classified list. In an executive civil list 
 of 178,717 there were 87,101 classified places. 
 Outside of the classified list, but capable of 
 classification, there were 72,371 places of which 
 66.725 were fourth class postmasters. Approx- 
 imately fifty per cent, of the places were classi- 
 fied, a gain of twenty-five per cent, since Har- 
 rison's exit. Cleveland was also accused of get- 
 ting his partisans under cover of the classified 
 service before giving up his official ghost. The 
 charge has little force. His sweeping order was 
 nearly a year before the end of his term, and his 
 work in the same direction had been so consistent 
 theretofore, that his motive could hardly be ques- 
 tioned. For practical, consistent work, Cleve- 
 land stands head and shoulders above every 
 
Roosevelt and the Republic 47 
 
 other presidential civil service reformer. While 
 his work was done quietly and as a matter of 
 course it was thorough, greatly strengthening the 
 weak places and striking down evasion and fraud. 
 Without adding to or subtracting therefrom, 
 we have given Theodore Roosevelt's record as 
 civil service commissioner. He was an efficient 
 officer, despite his bluster and his grandstand 
 posing. Aside from the clamor of it, his record 
 is in no sense extraordinary. Eaton, Lyman or 
 Proctor, although figuring far less in the news- 
 papers could have shown as great accomplish- 
 ment. If we consider the greater difficulty of 
 pioneer work either of these men undoubtedly 
 did more for civil service than Theodore Roose- 
 velt. Had Roosevelt never been connected with 
 the Civil Service Commission it is more than 
 probable that the cause would still be just as far 
 advanced. Effective fighting was done by his 
 predecessors and his overshadowing chief. His 
 work in the commission was that of a faithful, 
 but noisy and spectacular though very ordinary 
 officer, nothing more. But his personality was 
 never ordinary. He gave a melodramatic 
 glamour to everything he touched. Civil service 
 was no exception. We shall meet him again in 
 the presidency and see what he has accomplished 
 there for this reform. 
 
48 Roosevelt and the Republic 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 enters storm center in new YORK. 
 
 Theodore Roosevelt finally grew weary of 
 tennis and civil service reform. Literary activity 
 palled upon him. His commissionership in 
 Washington and the opportunities it gave "the 
 bumptious young man" cynically "forgiven" by 
 the New York Sun for "knowing it all," had 
 made Roosevelt a national figure. His enemies 
 thought him a national joke. 
 
 When in office but three months he was telling 
 the country through periodicals and newspapers 
 all about the civil service. Nobody else knew 
 quite so well or could tell the story so impress- 
 ively. Modesty prevented him from claiming 
 responsibility for the whole civil service move- 
 ment. But it remained for him to give it real 
 vitality. Such was the spirit, if not the tenor of 
 his fecund elucidations. 
 
 Things were happening in New York. Roose- 
 velt looked thither, yearning for a part in the 
 excitement. He wanted to be at the storm center, 
 he said. Parkhurst, the zealot, had blazed the 
 way for Lexow, a small county tool of the up- 
 state machine. Of course the machine took ad- 
 vantage of the situation, and got the credit for 
 the awakening, as Lexow got the credit for the 
 work really done by Recorder Gofif. 
 
Roosevelt and the Republic 49 
 
 Good people of New York were aroused. 
 Tammany, the unspeakable, had been wading 
 deeper than usual in its welter of corruption. It 
 had been preying, vampire-like, upon the powers 
 that prey, a parasite upon parasites. Tammany 
 demands grew exorbitant. It wanted too much 
 of the plunder. Respectable big "interests" pro- 
 tested. Small grafters suffered in silence and 
 stored up wrath for the days to come. This 
 made an opportunity. Piatt was there to grasp 
 it, for at that time Piatt was in the heyday of his 
 power. His Sunday levees at the Fifth Avenue 
 Hotel had become the talk of the nation. Piatt 
 was paving the way for the golden age of Gov- 
 ernor Black and President McKinley. 
 
 At almost any time the citizens of New York 
 City have just cause to flagellate Tammany, just 
 as at any time New York state would be justified 
 in crucifying, figuratively speaking, the up-state 
 machine. Let a crusader arise, a Peter the Her- 
 mit, like unto Parkhurst, honest but narrow, and 
 with a real message, and he can find material for 
 a popular uprising. While Parkhurst confined 
 himself to police graft and kindred evils, the in- 
 terests were at his elbow encouraging on his 
 mission, which was to humble the grasping avar- 
 ice of Tammany pride. Politicians must have 
 their lesson. Otherwise nothing may be left for 
 the big "interests." An assault upon disrepu- 
 table powers that prey may. however, in the dust 
 of its conflict cover the taking over of king's ran- 
 soms by highly respectable "interests." 
 
 Mayor Strong rode into office upon such a 
 swell of circumstances. Parkhurst's flaming 
 
50 Roosevelt and the Republic 
 
 sword had put to flight the obvious powers of 
 darkness. He and his friend Lawyer AIoss were 
 a pair to conjure with. Lexow got his com- 
 mission for legislation from the same power as 
 Strong. Public utility exploiters in partnership 
 with the up-state machine were not to go unre- 
 warded. Piatt followers, lean from the stony 
 hills up-state fed fat upon the fleshpots of the 
 metropolis. 
 
 Harper's Weekly and the Nation saw no good 
 in the Lexow Police measure. To them the 
 cloven foot of Piatt was clearly visible. He was 
 trying to make New York police precincts part 
 of his browsing ground. But the mayor was the 
 right man. Ijusiness man of reputation, re- 
 spectable, practical and complaisant, if he should 
 approve these Piatt measures even iniquity would 
 be given tone. 
 
 Police rottenness had been the issue. Now 
 we must have a correct police board. This was 
 the one thing additional to make the setting per- 
 fect. On all sides it was conceded that Tam- 
 many's man Martin must go. Mayor Strong 
 selected A. D. Andrews, an Elihu Root Democrat. 
 Or was it William C. Whitney who stood 
 sponsor? Murray and Kirwin who did yoeman 
 service in defeating Tammany were to remain 
 on the commission. Piatt forces, at least, so 
 understood. Strong, backed by the Union 
 League Club and tiie Committee of Seventy, was 
 not so anxious to carry out ante-election pledges, 
 especially since they seem to have been am- 
 biguous pledges. Through Andrews, the Demo- 
 crat, he started a fight upon Murray and Kirwin 
 
Roosevelt and the Republic 51 
 
 as obstructionists, and incontinently bade them 
 go. It looked squally for Piatt. 
 
 Mayor Strong floundered around a bit, offer- 
 ing a place on the regenerated commission to 
 Henry Campbell and then to former Sheriff 
 O'Brien. Both declined. By a happy thought, 
 or a timely suggestion Strong hit upon Civil Ser- 
 vice Commissioner Roosevelt. Everybody re- 
 joiced, Roosevelt among the rest. He was to be 
 in the "storm center." Now they would have real 
 police reform. 
 
 On the other hand Roosevelt was entirely satis- 
 factory to the "interests." Piatt, Lauterbach, 
 and their followers were standing in their own 
 light, as mere politicians are likely to do. Pos- 
 sibly they were putting up a show of fight in 
 order to get in on the "melon-cuttings" of the 
 "interests," and by the capture of two places, 
 tlirough Frederick Dent Grant and A. D. Parker, 
 they put themselves in the succession. At least 
 they were collateral heirs. 
 
 Roosevelt has the knack of doing things, and 
 doing them noisily, clamorously. While he is in 
 the neighborhood the public can no more look 
 the other way than the small boy can turn his 
 head away from a circus parade followed by a 
 steam calliope. Roosevelt with pen in hand and 
 his doors wide open to the interviewers took up 
 hi? work as president of the police board. 
 
 For months New York talked Roosevelt and 
 police. High financiers rejoiced. A public en- 
 gaged in such harmless pastime is not over 
 watchful of more important things. Roosevelt 
 and Parkhurst, both resonantly honest, cast out 
 
52 Roosevelt and the "Republic 
 
 real Tammany devils whose numbers were legion, 
 while the "mterests," silently, deftly, swiftly cap- 
 tured New York public privileges richer than 
 Golconda. 
 
 Had Roosevelt's ancestors not reached business 
 satiety, Theodore Roosevelt would have been one 
 of the successful business men of to-day, instead 
 of the most successful politician. Eminently he 
 has the executive talent. This with an utter lack 
 of idealism, the hard-headed practicality of the 
 counting room, the pushing energy of the pro- 
 moter and an opportunist attitude toward moral 
 questions, made Roosevelt an excellent police 
 head. His were the talents which have made 
 many an American wealthy. 
 
 Police administration consists in "doing 
 things." Police should know no principles but 
 those of the law. They should have no policies 
 but law enforcement, sympathetic, human and in- 
 telligent, to be sure, but rigid and uncompromis- 
 ing. Roosevelt met the conditions. Lack of 
 idealism might leave his policies narrow and soul- 
 less. He might display little strength in the 
 legislative field. Great questions concerning 
 great peoples might be too much for him. But 
 he could take a body of men and police a city. 
 Roosevelt knew his men reasonably well. Energy 
 and the power of concentration brought his per- 
 sonality to bear with maximum weight upon 
 those in his control. Roosevelt is an excellent 
 censor of commonplace morality. He appre- 
 ciates order and respectability. Order and re- 
 spectability are the things police are designed to 
 enforce. Roosevelt was in his element. He 
 
Roosevelt and the Republic 53 
 
 made a good police department head, one of the 
 best that New York has produced. 
 
 It is said that he had congressional ambitions 
 at that time and wanted to get himself promin- 
 ently before the people. If so he succeeded. At 
 all events in the light of the good which he ac- 
 complishd as a police chief we can forgive his 
 clamorous methods. Big "interests" also for- 
 gave them. 
 
 Corruption was rife in the police force, but it 
 seems not to have penetrated the rank and file. 
 Change of policy and the removal of a few men 
 in high places, put the force upon a footing of 
 reasonable efficiency. The disposition of the 
 commission as a whole was to make an efficient 
 police force. Harper's Weekly at the time, in a 
 thoroughly friendly and laudatory article upon 
 Roosevelt's administration of the New York 
 police gave the whole commission credit for the 
 work that was being done. 
 
 To write an epic upon police administration 
 is not an easy task, yet that is the task some of 
 Roosevelt's biographers have set themselves. _ 
 
 With access to the columns of leading periodi- 
 cals, Commissioner Roosevelt did not permit his 
 light to be hidden, nor the sounds of his ex- 
 ploits to die away. Critics then and thereafter 
 attacked the police administration of Commis- 
 sioner Roosevelt. They ridiculed the Oriental 
 midnight visitations, setting it down as mere 
 stage business. Melo-dramatic exploitation, they 
 said, left unguarded the by-ways of serious 
 crime. It is a controversy into which we do 
 not care to enter. 
 
54 Roosevelt and the Republic 
 
 Certain it was that the cleansing of the police 
 had been made easy by Parkhurst and Lawyer 
 Moss. Roosevelt and his associates had police 
 resources far beyond their predecessors. They 
 appointed about 1,700 new men to the force, un- 
 hampered by civil service rules. 
 
 One might find good grounds for legitimate 
 criticism. An anonymous "roast" upon Chief 
 Byrnes was given out by the board while the 
 chief was still in office, without taking the 
 trouble to identify the writer or sift the charges. 
 This extraordinary method of dealing with sub- 
 ordinates in office has never been satisfactorily 
 explained. Certainly it did not make for disci- 
 pline. The victim, at least, could not see wherein 
 it was just or manly. 
 
 When law runs counter to the wishes of Theo- 
 dore Roosevelt, something is likely to happen to 
 the law. Some of the New York police statutes 
 were stretched almost to the breaking point, if, 
 indeed they were not actually fractured. One 
 required that men be given a trial before being 
 removed from their positions. Action of the 
 police commissioners in this matter were review- 
 able by the courts. Roosevelt and his associates 
 boasted that they had found a way to beat the 
 law. At least 100 men walked the plank with- 
 out trial. Considering their own highminded- 
 ncss, there was really no need of law to protect 
 underlings. Some men could not act unfairly if 
 they tried, for whatever they might do would 
 not be unfair. Theodore Roosevelt is one of 
 the few men who can claim this high privilege. 
 
 Other civil service principles were taken liber- 
 
Roosevelt and the Republic 55 
 
 ties with too by the poHce commissioners. When 
 as a member of the New York legislature, Roose- 
 velt "investigated" the police of New York City, 
 he found a very wicked state of affairs in the 
 commissioners arbitrarily designating the men 
 who should be candidates for examination and ap- 
 pointment. Police Commissioner Roosevelt 
 found it convenient, as well as highly proper 
 that men privileged to take examinations for pro- 
 motion should be designated thus arbitrarily by 
 the commissioners. Commissioners should have 
 the privilege of saying who should get an op- 
 portunity to rise, and who should be condemned 
 to plod onward in the ranks. Commissioner 
 McAdoo of later years criticizes this sort of 
 system sharply. Participated in by a commis- 
 sioner capable of doing wrong, carping critics 
 might see in it the cloven foot of spoils politics, 
 even log-rolling. But of course Theodore 
 Roosevelt could not be suspected of anything 
 like that. He could toy with temptation but 
 never fall. This gave him a new opportunity 
 "to come out strong." 
 
 After Roosevelt had his sort of men in office 
 he made an honest effort to give them protection 
 on civil service principles. Like the trick of 
 President Harrison's administration v/ith the 
 postal employees, it finally conferred a benefit on 
 the force. Unlike the Harrison coup, Roosevelt 
 had not filled the places with time-servers. His 
 appointees averaged high. 
 
 Good Intentions did not save Roosevelt. 
 Trouble thickened about him. In trying to hit 
 Tammany, Roosevelt went too far in his excise 
 
56 Roosevelt and the Republic 
 
 crusade. He offended soni. good New York 
 people with his all too puritanical Sunday. His 
 stage business, always ridiculously vulnerable 
 was exploited in opposition newspapers until in a 
 large section of the popular mind, Roosevelt be- 
 came something of a joke. American sense of 
 humor refused to take seriously his gasconade. 
 
 Piatt had things about where he wanted them. 
 Roosevelt's distracting activity became annoying 
 rather than helpful. He took himself and his 
 work so seriously as to become obstreperous. 
 Then Piatt and Tammany put their heads to- 
 gether to tame the obstreperous one. Commis- 
 sioners Parker and Grant began sticking official 
 pins in the president. Everything' Roosevelt 
 stood for they opposed. Popular support in an 
 important sense had not yet come to Roosevelt. 
 Antagonism soon became acute friction. Fight- 
 ing Theodore Roosevelt had all the fight he 
 wanted right in his own household. The biparti- 
 san board divided athwart party lines, Roosevelt 
 and Andrews standing upon one side and Parker 
 and Grant on the other. 
 
 Bickerings became public and discipline in the 
 police force suffered. Chief Conlin said so. He 
 blamed the commissioners for the condition. 
 This was rank insubordination. When brought 
 to task, Conlin refused to explain or apologize. 
 Parker and Grant prevented punishment. Roose- 
 velt was driven into a corner and baited until the 
 strenuous fighting man threw up his hands. In- 
 stead of holding on like a thoroughbred and 
 fighting it out to the end, Roosevelt quit — like a 
 fake prize-fighter, his enemies said. His friend 
 
Roosevelt and the Republic 57 
 
 Lodge had found an opening for him in the Navy 
 Department. Roosevelt proceeded thither. 
 
 We are not prepared to say that Roosevelt was 
 unwise in his action. Probably he realized that 
 he had lost his grip, and further struggle would 
 have meant defeat and humiliation. He might 
 have known what outsiders could not know, that 
 in the police commissionership of New York 
 under conditions as they then were, there was 
 failure ahead. In that case it was wise to move 
 on and avoid the unpleasant denouement. 
 
 Lawyer Moss who with Parkhurst paved the 
 way for Roosevelt, succeeded in his place, mak- 
 ing a much quieter, but hardly less efficient com- 
 missioner. Really "the jig was almost up." 
 New York tired of Piatt and the up-state ma- 
 chine. The spell of hysterics had run its course. 
 Union League Club disinterestedness was no 
 longer accepted without question. Even there 
 were axes to grind in the Committee of Seventy. 
 New York had made a spasmodic effort for in- 
 dependence and failed. It flew for deliverance 
 to the arms of Tammany and Van Wyck, as lesser 
 evils. In making this move New York did not 
 escape the "up-state" machine, nor Piatt, nor the 
 Union League Club, nor the "interests." But it 
 found the receptive arms of Tammany — the same 
 old Tammany that it had spurned. 
 
 Thus did the police commissionership of Theo- 
 dore Roosevelt end rather unsatisfactorily. But 
 it supplied New York a new sensation, humored 
 its fit of hysterics, and improved somewhat the 
 New York police force. No indelible impress 
 was left by Roosevelt upon the service, for after 
 
58 Roosevelt and the Republic 
 
 Roosevelt came Tim Sullivan, William Devery 
 and Jerome. More remarkable than all this how- 
 ever, was Roosevelt's retreat under fire. This 
 would have been galling to such a born fighter 
 less thoroughly protected by an embracing armor 
 of self-satisfaction. 
 
Roosevelt and the Republic 59 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 BECOMES HEAD OF NAVY DEPARTMENT. 
 
 From the gridiron heat of the Police Commis- 
 sioner seat, Roosevelt went to the calm serenity 
 of Washington tennis, literature and naval af- 
 fairs. Things were happening in Washington. 
 That, too, promised to become a storm center in 
 the near future. Good people who had saved 
 the country from "dishonest dollars," "free riot," 
 "no undershirts" and a score of other dangerous 
 or untidy things, now felt that they should have 
 their reward. Senator Hanna of Ohio was the 
 chief saint among these disinterested patriots. 
 President McKinley's piety was so all-embracing 
 as to give a glamour to all his surroundings, 
 transforming questionable acts into those of the 
 very greatest merit. Hanna and the President 
 had saintliness sufficient for everybody. Their 
 followers were hungry. Well doing alone could 
 not sustain them. Richly did they reap their 
 reward. 
 
 "Honesty" seems to have been entirely ex- 
 hausted in the campaign. As soon as President 
 McKinley was inaugurated, the black flag of 
 piracy was raised on every industrial sea. A 
 carnival of graft, public and private, swept over 
 the country from Maine to California and from 
 
6o Roosevelt and the Republic 
 
 Canada to Mexico. Greedily were the eyes of 
 its votaries set upon rich pickings in other lands. 
 The spasm of paper morality and lip virtue so 
 evident during the most ingeniously insincere and 
 shamelessly mendacious national campaign in our 
 history was to counterbalance all the seething in- 
 iquity of the years to come. 
 
 When Roosevelt went into the Navy Depart- 
 ment, darkening on the horizon was that sullen 
 cloud which later burst into the flash and thunder 
 of the war with Spain. There was unrest in the 
 Orient. China, the mighty sleeping giant of 
 Asia was stretching his limbs in a strife-beset 
 awakening. Audible rumblings of the storm to 
 come were rolling over the African veldt. Roose- 
 velt heard and saw. He felt that he must get 
 into the turmoil. 
 
 Roosevelt was an "authority" upon naval mat- 
 ters even before he entered the department. Like 
 "Book-taught Bilkins" he was an authority upon 
 most subjects under the sun. This was a great 
 advantage to Roosevelt. One of his biographers 
 tells how fortunate it was for the country that 
 such a man was at the HEAD of the Navy De- 
 partment at such a time. Peace-loving Mr. Long 
 of Massachusetts who had the title of Naval 
 secretary, did not seem to count at all. Roose- 
 velt seems to have taken the same view. His 
 seat was scarcely warm in his new place when 
 he was enunciating naval policies and telling the 
 public about them in sapient periodical communi- 
 cations. His facile pen was still with him. Also 
 his power of granting interviews or inspiring 
 
Roosevelt and the Republic 6i 
 
 news items in which Assistant Secretary Roose- 
 velt's name appeared. 
 
 For a close corporation among the American 
 "governing class" we have nothing else approach- 
 ing the navy. It is almost as exclusive as the 
 British peerage and like that peerage, manages 
 to digest some especially verdant morsels. The 
 British peerage shows sour stomach for a gen- 
 eration or two after swallowing a brewer with 
 his brewery, or a Hebrew banker with his bank, 
 but the greenest Yankee in America can be pol- 
 ished naval gentleman in six years handling. Or 
 if he cannot, he can be cast out. We do not wish 
 to reflect upon the material in the navy. It has 
 some of the best men in the nation. They are 
 really wonderful men if they have any American- 
 ism left after a lifetime in the service. The 
 naval ideal does not harmonize with democratic 
 institutions. 
 
 But the training does not lead to effeminacy. 
 The well-groomed pedigreed bull-dog will fight 
 as well as the gutter cur of the same breed. So- 
 ciety, however, counts for much in the navy. 
 Such being the case one cannot wonder at the 
 persistent recommendation for big-fighting ships 
 which can be made into floating palaces for these 
 fighting gentlemen, of elegance and leisure. 
 Hence also the navy personnel bill. But we 
 anticipate. 
 
 Roosevelt had social standing before he went 
 to Washington. He could do something for the 
 navy social circle and it could do something for 
 him. They got along swimmingly together. He 
 was a man after the navy's own heart. 
 
62 Roosevelt and the Republic 
 
 Then the campaign began. Naval officers had 
 a plan all built, varnished and polished to a 
 piano finish. No naval officer wanted to father 
 it. Congress can be pretty nasty to navy and 
 army meddlers. They merely wanted the results 
 which this plan would bring when once installed. 
 The problem to be solved was difficult. Its 
 object once stated, would insure its defeat. As 
 everybody who is anybody knows, the unpardon- 
 able badge of dishonor in polite society is labor 
 with the hands. It means acknowledged in- 
 feriority if one cannot compel others to do his 
 manual service. Work-begrimed fingers are 
 proof positive that one earns his bread instead 
 of exploiting it from others, and since we have 
 had a "governing class" no gentleman has ever 
 earned his bread in the sweat of his own face. 
 Nowhere better than in the navy has this lesson 
 been bred into the bone. It is one of the navy's 
 most holy traditions. 
 
 Circumstances and the ante-Roosevelt plan of 
 organization made the rule difficult of application. 
 Those beautiful floating palaces, the ocean war 
 dogs of Uncle Sam, are put together by skilled 
 human hands. Only the brain that plans for and 
 guides these human hands can fully understand 
 the complicated mechanism instinct with throb- 
 bing life. Only hands deft with practice can 
 restore deranged mechanism. 
 
 Young midshipmen guide the fortunes of these 
 complicated fighting engines. Responsibility for 
 their condition is put upon these young men. 
 Training must fit them for this responsibility. 
 This is impossible without actual work day after 
 
Roosevelt and the Republic 63 
 
 day with hand and brain. Even after the work 
 of the school the naval man must live with his 
 engines if he is to know and understand them. 
 
 This means grimy hands. Grimy hands do not 
 harmonize well with the immaculate whiteness 
 of above-deck dress parade. Naval officers above 
 deck could not live up to their traditions and 
 fraternize with the grimy ones. Engineer of- 
 ficers might emerge reeking with grease and of- 
 fend the punctillious propriety of ,my Lord Ad- 
 miral of His Majesty's ship Invincible. My lady 
 may take deadly offense at the greasy fellow, you 
 know. It was quite impossible that there should 
 be a class of manual- working commissioned en- 
 gineers ranking with the officers of the line above 
 deck. To make this impossible officially as well 
 as socially was the problem set for Roosevelt 
 to solve. 
 
 Roosevelt faced the issue. His prodigious ex- 
 perience of several long months in the depart- 
 ment peculiarly fitted him for the task. He knew 
 how to handle congressmen. He headed a board 
 of naval officers who made recommendations and 
 submitted a personnel bill. It was really the 
 piano-polished measure which we have met be- 
 fore. This time Roosevelt was proud to 
 acknowledge it as his progeny. Secretary Long 
 added the weight of his authority to that of 
 his assistant. As a result the bill got an im- 
 petus which finally placed it upon the statute 
 books. No begrimed mechanic can now fra- 
 ternize with the fighting gentlemen of the navy. 
 We have a personnel bill as irreproachable from 
 the standpoint of caste as that of any European 
 
64 Roosevelt and the Republic 
 
 aristocracy. But its efficiency. Oh! that is an*' 
 other story. 
 
 In its way, the personnel bill is a wonderful 
 measure. When it came first before Congress, 
 the New York Nation pointed out that it would 
 require each Annapolis graduate to be an in- 
 fantry drillmaster, hydrographer, electrician, 
 navigator, naval tactician, strategist, ordnance 
 expert, acquainted with the making of guns, gun- 
 powder, projectiles, armor, torpedoes; expert 
 machinist, mechanical engineer — and all in the 
 limited course, taking a grammar school educa- 
 tion as a starting point. Nobody looks for such 
 midshipmen prodigies. The thing was absurd. 
 Naval men turned their backs squarely upon the 
 modern lesson of specialization, the only method 
 in matters of this sort, leading to efficiency. They 
 tried to turn back the dial to the time of sail 
 fighting craft. The dial would not turn. Gen- 
 telmen fighting men were preserved in their spot- 
 lessness. We paid the price. 
 
 When the test comes we are likely to find that 
 ability to manage warships and fight them, has 
 been sacrificed to the exigencies of the ballroom. 
 There are those who trace the dire disaster of 
 the Bennington with its sacrifice of scors of 
 human lives, to the inefficiency of midshipmen in 
 looking after modern ships. Midshipmen are 
 not to blame. It is the system of which the per- 
 sonnel bill is an application. There have beer 
 a superfluity of naval accidents these late years. 
 A fleet commander cannot steer his fleet into 
 New York Harbor without running it aground. 
 When our next war comes, there is a serious 
 
Roosevelt and the Republic 65 
 
 question as to whether we shall have skilled en- 
 gineers to man our vessels. We have neither 
 thorough drill-masters, nor hydrographers, nor 
 electricians, nor strategists, nor navigators 
 among the young men receiving our naval com- 
 missions. What the final result may be is not 
 nice to contemplate. We are trying to remedy 
 it by marooning civilian warrant officers upon 
 our ships. 
 
 Fathering this sort of plan was Roosevelt's 
 great work in the navy department. To be sure 
 his biographers made him responsible for the 
 efficiency of the fleet in the Spanish war. Every 
 ship engaged in that war, with insignificant ex- 
 ceptions, was afloat and equipped before Roose- 
 vlt came into the service. Target practice had 
 already become a policy among naval officers. 
 There is no record of Roosevelt having trained 
 either Dewey or Schley. Watson never went to 
 his school. Probably he could not teach Evans 
 how to fight. 
 
 Roosevelt's connection with the navy was char- 
 acteristic. While the navy was seeking legisla- 
 tion and talking reorganization and expansion, 
 Roosevelt was in the thick of the fray with pen 
 and voice. When it faced Spain on the one 
 hand, and on the other as conscienceless a band 
 of civilian free-booters as ever traitorously tried 
 to make riches out of their country's necessities, 
 Roosevelt sought laurels in more spectacular 
 fields. He remained long enough, however, to 
 see what service he might have been to the nation 
 if he had been content to work in inglorious 
 silence. A man of stern personal integrity in 
 
66 Roosevelt and the Republic 
 
 financial matters, as Roosevelt imdoubtedly is, 
 was needed sorely right there to fight American 
 g-honls rather than Spanish soldiers. Roosevelt 
 preferred to give over the inglorious task to a 
 new and untried successor. 
 
 His rough-riding brought him more spectac- 
 ular glory. He got more newspaper notice and 
 better paved the way for higher place in the 
 governing class. His service to his country, 
 however, in the Spanish war was infinitesimal as 
 compared with what it might have been if he 
 had stuck to his post in the Navy Department. 
 There were plenty of volunteers to fight the 
 Spaniards in the field, few to fight the grafters 
 at home. 
 
 Roosevelt claimed a hand in bringing about 
 the Spanish war. Such a distinction was not a 
 thing to envy, for it would be difficult to imagine 
 a more needless and therefore a more iniquitous 
 war, or one fraught with direr consequences to 
 the aggressor nation. Possibly Roosevelt as as- 
 sistant naval secretary sent the Maine upon its 
 fool's errand of bluff to death and destruction in 
 Havana harbor. The man who was responsible 
 for that fine piece of strategy might well claim 
 credit for the war, much as the picador with his 
 red rag may claim credit for bringing on the bull 
 fight. Sacrificing uselessly the lives of 260 
 American sailors and officers may be mentioned 
 as another item in the credit account of the man 
 responsible for the visit of the Maine. At all 
 events Roosevelt felt that since he had had a 
 hand in bringing about the war, he must take 
 
Roosevelt and the Republic dy 
 
 an active part in that "bigger hunting expedi- 
 tion" of the tropical summer. 
 
 To be sure, America had then no dearth of 
 fighting men. Literally an army of a million 
 could have been raised. The struggle was not 
 serious in magnitude, however serious the results. 
 Physical cowards are a rare human product. But 
 men away from the blare of trumpets and the 
 roll of drums, from the inspiring "glory" of 
 waving flags and booming guns, away from the 
 eye of the news reporter, with no hope of crown- 
 ing fame who will sit down and battle to the 
 death silently with the sordid powers that prey, 
 are scarce indeed. Roosevelt had the opportun- 
 ity. He fled the field of silent heroism for the 
 spectacular field of glory. This glory came. 
 
 Excitement, Theodore Roosevelt finds the very 
 breath of life. The Spanish war offered real 
 new thrills. Aside from book knowledge, Roose- 
 velt knew little of military matters and nothing 
 of war. But Roosevelt had the divine gift of 
 self-confidence. If he were called upon to fresco 
 St. Peters and promised a brass band accom- 
 paniment, a newspaper writeup with scare head- 
 lines and a commission from magazine and book 
 publishers to tell how he did it, he would under- 
 take the task. This courage to undertake has 
 been an important element in the success of his 
 career. 
 
 Possibly Roosevelt has no gift of painting, but 
 he has a gift for military leadership. It meets 
 an intense aspiration. He is fitted for it as for 
 nothing else. Had fate placed him in proper 
 su/roundings, he might have attained great prom- 
 
'6S Roosevelt and the Republic 
 
 inence as a military man. Keener still is his 
 dramatic sense. He would have made a "yellow 
 journal" editor such as this country has not 
 known, had his lines been laid in such pleasant 
 places. As a circus manager he would have 
 rivalled Barnum. Nobody else saw as Roose- 
 velt saw the picturesque possibilities of a rough 
 rider regiment. Few others understood the vista 
 of newspaper advertising opened up by that idea. 
 Volunteer regiments were just volunteers from 
 this or that state, important only to the state that 
 sent them. Roosevelt would head a regiment 
 that would have the eyes of the world upon it 
 as a novel military experiment. Possibly no 
 other person had the insistence and means of ad- 
 vertising to get together such a body of men. 
 It was certainly a laudable ambition upon Roose- 
 velt's part to have the whole country watch him 
 fight and see how well he could do it. He took 
 the most effective way of producing this result. 
 Roosevelt went into the Spanish war under con- 
 ditions which to him were most auspicious. 
 
Roosevelt and the Republic 69 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 LEADER OF ROUGH RIDERS. 
 
 When men and nations stand up to be judged 
 before some higher, more clear-sighted civiUza- 
 tion of the future years, the part played by many 
 American newspapers and public officers in forc- 
 ing a war with Spain will not be a subject of 
 highest praise. 
 
 Wild stories with slight foundation were sown 
 broadcast among the American people. Spain 
 certainly was not wholly responsible for the de- 
 vastation which meant gaunt famine and grim 
 pestilence in Cuba. Patriot Cubans killed and 
 burned as well as the Spaniards. To be sure, 
 Spain had no business in Cuba exploiting its 
 island people for Spain's selfish advantage. But 
 Spain was not unique in that regard. Nearly all 
 nations were doing it then, and are doing it 
 now. But let us grant that Spain deserves little 
 sympathy for the humiliation that is hers. Then 
 we must add that the course which the United 
 States has pursued in Cuba, Porto Rica and 
 more especially the Philippines, fully justifies 
 Spain so far as America assumes to be a critic. 
 
 America might have been sincere in April, 
 1898. The American people, as distinguished 
 from official America, undoubtedly were sincere 
 
70 Roosevelt and the Republic 
 
 in taking Spain to task "in the name of human- 
 ity," for her Cuban misdeeds. In this year of 
 grace, 1908, America is in no such position. 
 With traditions of Hberty and self-government 
 making silent but indignant protest, America has 
 followed Spain in her programme of oppression; 
 followed her without the necessities of Spain. 
 Spain was merely holding what she considered 
 her own and what the rest of the world con- 
 ceded to be hers. She was ruling Cuba as her 
 traditions taught her to rule. America robbed 
 Spain "in the name of humanity," and adopted 
 Spain's murderous policy to retain the plunder. 
 Spain might have been a monster of tyranny. 
 America became a monster of tyranny and 
 hypocrisy. Spain despoiled and oppressed be- 
 cause it was the only governmental lesson she 
 knew. America threw to the winds her most 
 sacred tenets in order to plunge into a carnival 
 of oppression and despoliation. We would par- 
 don in the slum-dweller what we would consider 
 heinous in the college professor. America has 
 descended from the seats of the mighty, who are 
 mighty because they are just and free into the 
 pack of plunderers and slave-drivers of whom 
 Spain was a most unhappy and warning example. 
 Apart from all this, America was unjust to 
 Spain. It took the violent and bloody course in 
 securing what might have been won by patient 
 but persistent firmness. Spain was as tired of 
 the Cuban contest as was the rest of the world. 
 But Spain was proud. America knew it. Wise 
 America would have considered Spanish pride 
 and would have left open a possible highway of 
 
Roosevelt and the Republic 71 
 
 retreat without vital humiliation, Spain was 
 ready to meet such a movement more than half 
 way. She had already conceded more than would 
 have been asked of any strong nation no matter 
 how monstrous the provocation. That did not 
 suit the war-makers. They wanted blood — "a. 
 bigger hunting." 
 
 America furnished the first victims. Baited 
 and at bay Spain was put under the menace of 
 American guns, bristling from an American war- 
 ship. If Spain was friendly, such a threat was 
 an insult. Inclined merely to be hostile, these 
 guns were an irritant. In any view it was a 
 piece of imbecility, for it promoted trouble with- 
 out providing means to meet it. It was the wild 
 west way of showing good will — by trenchant 
 display of many big guns. Some insane Span- 
 iard probably set a match to the fuse which 
 America had laid. Two hundred and sixty brave 
 men of the Maine were sacrificed to as rank 
 a piece of fool-hardy official bluster as often mars 
 the history of a sober nation. War-makers had 
 won. Frenzy seized America. Revenge! 
 
 Official Spain was undoubtedly as much 
 shocked as was the rest of the world. It was 
 willing to have an impartial tribunal ascertain 
 the facts. America would none of it. Spain 
 acceded to America's request for an armistice 
 with the Cuban patriots. Reconcentrado camps 
 would be broken up. "Butcher" Weyler had 
 gone home. This country cried : "Remember the 
 Maine!" Official Washington pretended not to 
 understand what Spain said. Before President 
 McKinley sent his war message — two weeks be- 
 
7^ Roosevelt and the Republic 
 
 fore, — he knew and the State Department knew 
 that Spain was anxious for a peaceful settlement 
 — even would give up Cuba. 
 
 Whether Senators or Congressmen knew it 
 also, we cannot say. Certain it is, the informa- 
 tion was not given officially to Congress nor at all 
 to the country. War-makers were in the saddle. 
 They captured the President. 
 
 Fortunately for Roosevelt, he missed the staff 
 position that he sought with Lee and turned his 
 attention to the Rough Riders. His lack of mili- 
 tary experience was amply compensated by his 
 talent for using others for his own purposes. 
 Surgeon Leonard Wood was this time a willing 
 victim. Captain Allyn Capron was induced to 
 leave the Second Cavalry. He furnished the 
 military talents for the Rough Rider enterprise. 
 Roosevelt became its all-sufficient press agent and 
 promoter. His knowledge of the political wires 
 in Washington, supplemented by that of Dr. 
 Wood, proved invaluable. With this and the 
 long purses of their friends, they had no trouble 
 in securing equipment. Additional regular army 
 officers were placed in subordinate places to 
 leaven the loaf. 
 
 No vulgar "ordinary farmer" or "city me- 
 chanic" marred this new military aggregation. 
 It was made up of proper gentlemen of the East 
 with zest for a man-hunt, and wild, reckless 
 frontiersmen who loved strife for strife's sake. 
 
 Six weeks on the Southwestern plains gave the 
 regiment the rudiments of discipline. Official 
 pull rounded out the equipment so that this one 
 regiment was on about the same footing as the 
 
IIOOSEVELT AND THE REPUBLIC 73 
 
 fegular troops. Where other volunteers had 
 black powder, short-range Spring-field rifles and 
 a paucity of artillery, the Rough Riders had 
 smokeless powder, the regulation flat-trajectory, 
 long-range rifle, machine and dynamite guns. 
 
 Pull energy and insistence, vulgarly known as 
 "gall" or "cheek" put the Rough Riders on 
 the Yucatan with the regulars of the first 
 army of invasion, bound for Cuba. Roose- 
 velt "stood in with the navy," and in the struggle 
 through the. surf at Daiquiri, naval assistants 
 gave the Rough Riders preference over the reg- 
 ulars. It was a most important service. Be- 
 cause of it Roosevelt and his Rough Riders were 
 some of the first to emerge from the tangle on 
 Cuban soil. 
 
 Blithely did everybody look forward to the 
 advance. It was to be a holiday jaunt. Span- 
 iards could not or would not fight. This was the 
 cheerful view taken by nearly all Americans, but 
 more especially by the men of the army. They 
 had forgotten the lesson that Napoleon once 
 learned in Spain. If this man or that was to 
 share in the "glory" he must get early into the 
 "mess." It was to be merely a race for "glory." 
 That was all. 
 
 Strange as it may seem to those who read 
 the history of this struggle, however, the officers 
 of our army seem actually to have had a plan 
 for attacking Santiago. Lawton was to feel out 
 the Spanish line in a flanking movement to the 
 right, working his way about the city until he had 
 it invested from the land side. This would coop 
 Up the Spanish troops, cut off their supplies and 
 
74 Roosevelt and the Republic 
 
 finally result in their capture. Frontal attack, 
 especially assault, was not to be attempted. 
 
 "The best laid schemes o' mice an' men, gang 
 aft a-gley." Soon this "agleyness" became a 
 foregone conclusion. Cavalry and infantry 
 started a contest for "first blood." Volunteer 
 cavalry contested with the regular cavalry for the 
 same honor. Plans did not count. Scores of 
 officers must not miss bagging a Spaniard before 
 the season closed. Leaders must secure a trophy 
 of this "bigger hunt" in the tropics. 
 
 Gen. Wheeler was ordered to proceed to Jura- 
 gua and to throw forward pickets to Juraguacita 
 or Siboney so as to get in touch with Gen. Linares' 
 Spaniards and to observe their position. The 
 old Confederate cavalry fighter was warned not 
 to bring on an engagement until Gen. Lawton 
 had pushed into position and until the remaining 
 troops had been landed and organized for ad- 
 vance. Officers who took time to think thanked 
 their stars that the Spaniards had not cut them to 
 pieces in the surf and on the beach as they might 
 have done. These officers wished to tempt fate 
 no further by trusting to blind chance. 
 
 No such consideration entered Gen. Wheeler's 
 head. Here was an opportunity to serve the flag 
 he had once abandoned, and this opportunity 
 would not be missed. Hogsheads of ink and 
 acres of display type would exploit the officer 
 who "started things" in Cuba. Gen. Wheeler 
 wanted it known that he was serving the Union. 
 Brigade and regimental officers were his way of 
 thinking. The men wanted to get at the Span- 
 iards. What mattered it that no thought had 
 
Roosevelt and the Republic 75 
 
 been taken for the morrow, that there were no 
 provisions, no adequate transportation for provi- 
 sions, no tents, no medicines, no hospital service 
 available, no ambulances, no proper ammunition 
 trains, no reserves available for support should 
 the attack develop serious resistance. 
 
 Gen. Young says in his official report of Las 
 Guasimas that "I asked and obtained from Gen. 
 Wheeler (commanding the cavalry division) au- 
 thority to make a reconnoisance in force for this 
 purpose." (The purpose of obtaining positive 
 information as to the position and movements of 
 the enemy in front.) 
 
 Gen. Wheeler did not put it in quite that way. 
 He found the Cubans overjoyed with the pros- 
 pect of going to battle shoulder to shoulder with 
 their American deliverers. Cubans knew the 
 country. Therefore it was not necessary that 
 the American army officers should know it. Gen. 
 Wheeler, probably to gratify the joy of the 
 Cubans, at all events directly in the face of 
 orders to the contrary from his superior officers, 
 "resolved to attack as early (in the day) as pos- 
 sible." 
 
 Whether Wheeler was weakly inveigled by 
 the ardent Young, Roosevelt et al., into making 
 an attack under the guise of a reconnoisance in 
 force, or whether deliberately ignoring orders he 
 "resolved to attack" an indefinite number of 
 Spaniards in an unknown position, is difficult to 
 determine. He had an opportunity to outrun 
 Lawton and his infantry in the race for first 
 blood, and he could not resist, neither could his 
 officers. Lawton, on the other hand, was ham- 
 
"jd Roosevelt and the Republic 
 
 pered by his soldiery heeding of orders from his 
 superiors, and the necessity of preparing to meet 
 serious resistance before plunging into the fray. 
 
 Accordingly, two squadrons of the Rough Rid- 
 ers, dismounted, under Col. Wood and Lieuten- 
 ant Col. Roosevelt, and a squadron each of the 
 First and Tenth regulars, also dismounted, were 
 lined up in the early morning on the Santiago 
 road near Siboney 964 strong. There was to be 
 a foot race for first blood, the regulars and the 
 Rough Riders taking separate, but parallel trails. 
 In column of twos or single file, as the exigencies 
 of the trail permitted, the troops rushed forward 
 in their race for glory into an unknown and by 
 them, unexplored jungle, in some part of which 
 an enemy lurked. 
 
 Regulars went to the right. Rough Riders to 
 the left. With the main body treading upon the 
 heels of the scovits, the race went on. It must 
 have delighted the heart of the most crass and 
 fool-hardy among the reckless Rough Riders. 
 The troops were like two bands of schoolboys 
 racing for a berry patch, ignoring the guarding 
 bulldogs. 
 
 Col. Wood's Rough Riders started fifteen min- 
 utes later than the regulars, and if they were to 
 be in at the killing they must make the dust fly. 
 Company and subaltern officers seem to have 
 been ordered to sacrifice everything to making 
 speed forward. Young was with the regulars in 
 person. Possibly he was more cautious than his 
 rival runners, Wood and Roosevelt. Whether 
 through caution or luck, he did discover the 
 Spaniards in time to deploy his men and plant his 
 
Roosevelt and the Republic jy 
 
 Hotchkiss guns for the trouble to come. Young 
 says that he sent a Cuban to Wood to warn him 
 of the danger and that the regulars delayed the 
 attack so that the action of both flanks should 
 begin simultaneously. Gen. Wheeler came up 
 and pronounced the arrangement good. Then 
 came the attack, "simultaneously on both wings." 
 Americans drove the Spaniards forward from the 
 ridge beyond; or the Spaniards repulsed the 
 American attack and then retreated, or with- 
 drew their skirmish line. One can take his own 
 view of the matter according to his bias or his 
 judgment. 
 
 As we see it, the Rough Riders ran into an 
 ambuscade through the impetuous folly of their 
 officers and were needlessly slaughtered. They 
 were saved from utter rout only by the individual 
 courage of the men, and the timely support of 
 the Tenth regulars who had been more fortunate. 
 Sixty-eight of the brave fellows fell in the use- 
 less race for glory, sixteen of whom found 
 graves in Cuba. Captain Allyn Capron, who did 
 more than any other man in the Rough Riders' 
 organization to produce the efficiency which was 
 to give glory to others, was among the slain. 
 
 This was Roosevelt's first baptism of blood 
 and fire. He stood it bravely as the rest, con- 
 tent to share with them the result of the blunder 
 for which he was. no doubt, in part responsible. 
 
 Precariously did the racers cling to their posi- 
 tion while Wheeler appealed earnestly for sup- 
 port. Fortunately the Spaniards had no inten- 
 tion of holding this ground. It marked for them 
 a mere skirmish line. They lost from seven to 
 
78 Roosevelt and the Republic 
 
 eleven killed. Everything indicates that the 
 Americans got the worst of it. The cavalry got 
 first blood — the blood of its own troopers. 
 
 Wrath welled up in the heart of rough old 
 General Lawton when he heard of the misadven- 
 ture. He sent support, the coming of whom in 
 full sight of the Spaniards probably helped on 
 their retreat. But Lawton said unpleasant 
 things. His infantry had been deprived of its 
 position in the van. Plans of attack had to be 
 reformed. Soldiers had to be rushed forward 
 without supplies, rations or the means of getting 
 them. Retreat was the alternative to frontal at- 
 tack on the line of greatest resistance to Santiago. 
 A blunder had been committed which would 
 make the whole campaign doubly destructive and 
 difficult. All to give Wood and Roosevelt's 
 Rough Riders, Young's cavalry and Gen. Joe 
 Wheeler the credit of having fought the first 
 engagement before Santiago. 
 
 Lawton told Wheeler plainly that the blood 
 of Captain Capron and the slaughtered troopers 
 was upon his head. There is no doubt as to 
 the force of Americans who took part in the 
 engagement — 964. Wild estimates of the Span- 
 ish strength are made by American historians of 
 the event. Roosevelt's 1,200 is certainly liberal 
 enough. Yet Yoimg says 2,000 to 2.500 and 
 hints that there might have been 4,000 Spaniards 
 in this fight of June 24. It is doubtful if the 
 Spaniards at that time had 4,000 men supporting 
 that whole line of defenses to Santiago. Lieu- 
 tenant Miller Tejeira is probably close to the 
 mark in placing the Spanish strength at seven 
 
Roosevelt and the Republic 79 
 
 companies and two guns under Gen. Rubin — > 
 about 800 men. 
 
 Las Guasimas blundering is excused on the 
 ground that it showed the Spaniards what fight- 
 ers the Americans were. Spaniards fought just 
 as hard at San Juan and El Caney. Las Guasi- 
 mas developed the enemy's position. Very w^ell. 
 On July I the Americans knew so little of the 
 Spanish position that they actually blundered 
 into a place where they had to advance by des- 
 perate assault or retreat in disastrous rout. So 
 far as appears, two scouting companies could 
 without bloodshed have done all that was accom- 
 plished at Las Guasimas. If time had been taken 
 for such orderly precedure, and if the advance 
 had been organized properly before it w^as at- 
 tempted, the army would have been spared untold 
 suffering due to lack of food, shelter, medical sup- 
 plies and transportation facilities. The advance 
 upon Santiago would not have been one-tenth as 
 bloody. Many a brave fellow sleeping to-day 
 under the Cuban palms would still have been 
 breathing the free air of America; many in- 
 valided for Hfe by unbearable hardships would 
 still have been useful citizens. Las Guasimas 
 was the initial blunder of a tragedy of official 
 errors before Santiago. In the face of a more 
 resolute and enterprising foe, it would have been 
 the initial disaster, resulting in courts martial in- 
 stead of glory for the responsible officers. Pos- 
 sibly these officers had the keenness to judge 
 their foe aright and deserve credit for their 
 
 wisdom. 
 
 5^ j^ * * * * * 
 
8o Roosevelt and the Republic 
 
 (Note) — I. Rough Riders had 500 men. 
 Eight were killed and 34 injured. Regulars lost 
 seven killed and eighteen wounded. 
 
 (Note) — 2. Lodge says: "Then suddenly there 
 were hostile volleys pouring through the brush 
 and a sound like the singing of wires overhead. 
 No enemy was to be seen. The smokeless powder 
 gave no sign. The chapparal screened every- 
 thing. Under the intense heat the men had al- 
 ready given way. Now they began to drop, some 
 wounded and some dead." 
 
 If running into brush infested by an unseen 
 foe and encountering fire from an unseen enemy, 
 fire to which the troops could not reply, was sur- 
 prise, then the Rough Riders were surprised. 
 
Roosevelt and the Republic 8i 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 SAN JUAN AND DAYS THAT FOLLOWED, 
 
 Las Guasimas sobered Americans somewhat, 
 and eke the Rough Riders. After all this war 
 was not to be a holiday jaunt. Admiral Samp- 
 son had shown more enthusiasm than judgment 
 in his cable message that ten thousand men could 
 take Santiago in forty-eight hours. 
 
 Still American commanding officers were not 
 ready to begin work before Santiago in a busi- 
 ness-like manner. They must adopt Wheeler's 
 blunder and follow the line of maximum resist- 
 ance into Santiago. Still there was no concerted 
 plan, no holding of division officers to their 
 place, no organization of an adequate transporta- 
 tion or medical or hospital service. Wagons and 
 ambulances and medical supplies, with few excep- 
 tions, had been left at Tampa or on the trans- 
 ports. By some hocus pocus of political schem- 
 ing or some queer freak of fortune, a general 
 who needed a steam winch and a soft mattress 
 for transfer was placed in command, and things 
 moved with consistent rapidity. Thus far it had 
 been a comic-opera war. The dread tragedy of 
 the thing had scarcely begun. 
 
 Gen. Wheeler got two batteries June 28th and 
 29th and wanted Shafter to let him reduce EI 
 
82 Roosevelt and the Republic 
 
 Caney. Shafter preferred to let Lawton do it, 
 as originally planned. With abominable judg- 
 ment, Wheeler thought it would be a skirmish 
 of an hour. This opinion seemed to have been 
 shared to some extent by Shafter and made 
 disastrous his whole plan for the San Juan fight. 
 In fact El Caney was the most stubborn battle 
 of the war. Lawton's whole division of about 
 5,000 men, outnumbering the Spaniards at least 
 five to one — probably seven or eight to one, 
 fought before El Caney from early morning 
 until late in the afternoon. When the battle 
 was over four American officers and eighty-four 
 men lay dead before the little gray church anjl 
 the antiquated fort, and twenty- four officers and 
 232 men had been taken to the rear wounded. 
 But a handful of the 500 or 700 Spaniards were 
 found in the little grimy Spanish town when it 
 surrendered. Their general lay dead with most 
 of his men. 
 
 It was a strategic point, which meant water 
 and food for the Spaniards, and the few men who 
 could be spared to defend it fought with most 
 desperate valor. There were tangled masses of 
 human debris in the Spanish rifle pits. Broken 
 and wounded men moaned in the little dim- 
 lighted church. Tangled heaps of slain showed 
 ghastly upon the roads. Spaniards fought from 
 iiouse to house in the village, in the little church, 
 in the blockhouses to the right, and finally in a 
 boulder strewn field. Retreat was cut off by the 
 Second brigade. Only a body of Spanish cav- 
 alry escaped early in the engagement and those 
 under artillery fire. Lawton and Chaflfee had 
 
Roosevelt and the Republic 83 
 
 reconnoitered their position and had fought as 
 skillfully as gallantly. If the battle had been 
 left to Gen. Wheeler and Las Guasimas methods, 
 it is difficult to say what El Caney might have 
 cost. 
 
 According to plans made by the ponderous 
 military genius in command of the army, Lawton, 
 supported by Bates with his independent infantry 
 was to take El Caney, sweep about the Spanish 
 left and strike the Spaniards on the left flank, 
 doubling them back upon Santiago, while Kent 
 and Sumner, who had succeeded Wheeler, ill on 
 June 30 when the attack of the next day was 
 planned, were to move forward toward San Juan 
 and get in position for a general attack as soon 
 as Lawton had successfully executed his turning 
 movement, and come into touch with Sumner's 
 right. Duffield was to make a demonstration 
 before Aguidores and keep the Spaniards in the 
 dark as to the real point of attack. 
 
 It was not a bad plan, but the commander of 
 ponderous physical weight had not taken the 
 trouble to learn anything of the character of the 
 field of battle. He had reckoned, too, without 
 taking into account the desperate character of 
 Spanish valor when pressed into a corner. 
 
 Spanish troops occupied a steep, rugged ridge 
 of hills in front of Santiago, covered by in- 
 trenchments and guarded by a fort or blockhouse, 
 called San Juan. This position was flanked upon 
 the extreme American right by El Caney and on 
 the extreme American left by Aguidores, both 
 out of full touch with the main position. The 
 American front, or rather the American line of 
 
S4 Roosevelt and the Republic 
 
 march into position formed an acute angle witfi 
 this ridge, the left of the American position 
 coming into close touch with it. Gen. Wheeler 
 says he knew the ground between the armies and 
 told Shafter of its character. Whether or no 
 Wheeler's information was insufficient or Shafter 
 misunderstood it, there can be no question about 
 the blundering. Shafter ordered Kent and Sum- 
 ner's divisions forward two miles from their posi- 
 tion near El Poso to bivouac and await the result 
 of Lawton's attack. They were to move into 
 position very early on the morning of July i and 
 Lawton was to begin his attack upon El Caney 
 still earlier. 
 
 Sumner, according to Col. Roosevelt, knew 
 nothing of the ground he was to occupy until 
 the day of the battle. Stephen Bonsai says Sum- 
 ner knew no more about the creek bed he was 
 to hold or the ground beyond than he did about 
 the topography of central Borneo. Hawkins 
 seems to have been no better informed. Execut- 
 ing Shafter's order brought them both under 
 Spanish artillery and Maviser fire at from 800 to 
 1,500 yards range. Our ponderous commanding 
 genius actually sent these two divisions into a 
 death-trap — a fine place to bivouac and to await 
 results ! 
 
 Repeatedly the American artillery was tried to 
 cover the advance of the troops, but with its 
 black powder it could make no stand against the 
 masked Spanish batteries. Each attempt ended 
 not only disastrously to the artillery, but also to 
 the troops it attempted to support. The clouds 
 of smoke made a target for the dons. 
 
Roosevelt and the Republic S5 
 
 Troops found the jungle impracticable and 
 were obliged to advance along the roads, in con- 
 centrated order. Finally when the roads became 
 untenable the Americans were deployed m the 
 iungle and under cover of the creek banks which 
 lav between them and the Spaniards. _ But the 
 Spaniards had the range of the American hues, 
 and their deadly fire never_ ceased 
 
 All that long hot morning bullets sang the 
 song of death in the jungle, along the narrow 
 traits and in the glades before San Juan. The 
 scythe of the grim reaper spung unseen. Men 
 turned over and groaned or threw up their arms 
 wildly and fell forward. Only a little blue mark 
 told the story. Or was it a shrapnel shell that 
 came screaming like an angry demon and turned 
 a whole platoon of our devoted men into a mass 
 of quivering, groaning mangled flesh ? Our men 
 could not reply for they could not see the foe. 
 It was like fighting air. They had only to pur- 
 sue do<rffedly, grimly under the scorching tropi- 
 cal su^along the quagmire trail or through the 
 taneled iungle, their march of death. 
 
 A captive balloon tugged at its cable. Bullets 
 buzzed and whistled about it like a hive of bees 
 Down the cable came the deadly humming, until 
 the brave fellows at its base caught the death 
 hail Congested on the trails, massed at the 
 fords, tangled in the jungles, they crept on, the 
 same song of death sounding dirgelike m men s 
 gg^j-s At every turn the same spiteful, hissmg 
 stealthy messengers took their companions from 
 them as the troops moved on. It was a trying 
 ordeal for seasoned veterans. For volunteers, 
 
86 Roosevelt and the Republic 
 
 it was more than flesh and blood could stand, 
 to remain just targets for a deadly fire from an 
 unseen foe. For the troops with the long-range 
 rifles and the smokeless powder, there was still 
 some hope. They could volley back at random 
 the deadly leaden storm. But for the men with 
 Springfields, firing meant merely a smoke target 
 and sure destruction. 
 
 A less ponderous military genius would not 
 have sent the infantry and dismounted cavalry 
 into such a death trap. He would have had his 
 longer range artillery and a line of skirmishers 
 keep the Spaniards in their trenches until Law- 
 ton had done his work at El Caney. If the real 
 attack upon San Juan had come a day later and 
 had been accompanied by a flanking movement 
 on the part of Lawton, it is probable that the 
 ridge would have been taken without great re- 
 sistance. 
 
 Like a horse in a quagmire, the more the 
 troops struggled, the deeper they sank into the 
 mire of their impossible position. They were 
 paying in full measure for the folly of their 
 officers in plunging into such a place without 
 knowing their ground. After this heart-break- 
 ing struggle forward through the sweltering 
 jungle or along the steaming trails under the 
 deadly Spanish fire and the scarcely less deadly 
 tropical sun, the Americans finally found them- 
 selves deployed before the Spanish position. 
 
 Gen. Hawkins with the Sixteenth and Sixth 
 United States infantry of Kent's division held 
 an advanced position at a wire fence, beyond a 
 wood at the foot of the hill just beyond the San 
 
Roosevelt and the Republic S7 
 
 Juan river. He made up the American center, 
 almost facing fort San Juan. On the left were 
 the Thirteenth and Twenty- fourth (colored) 
 United States infantry, and still further to the 
 left a little to the fear, the Ninth United States 
 infantry. To the left still further in reserve were 
 the Tenth, Second and Twenty-first United 
 States infantry. To the right was the cavalry 
 division — well to the right of San Juan fort and 
 its defenses. The cavalry was placed with the 
 Sixth regiment in touch with Hawkins' right, 
 and the Third, Ninth, Rough Riders, Tenth and 
 First regiments extending in this order to the 
 right. Rough Riders were at the center of the 
 cavalry line to the right of and quite beyond San 
 Juan fort. A low hill lay in front of the cavalry 
 division, called the Hill of the Kettles, or Blue- 
 house hill. Beyond this there was a depression 
 and then the San Juan ridge. When the Ameri- 
 cans advanced they found a strong skirmish line 
 on the Kettles Hill. 
 
 Americans found that the Spaniards had the 
 range of the American lines while Americans 
 were only guessing at the location of Spain's en- 
 trenchments. Iron men could not remain in- 
 definitely mere targets for a concealed fire. The 
 troops were beginning to show nervousness. 
 Then was it realized that the army of invasion 
 in Cuba was in a desperate position. Orders to 
 "bivouac and await results of Lawton's attack" 
 were seen to be absurd, for the battle was still 
 raging at El Caney. 
 
 Lieutenant Ord of Gen. Hawkins' staff found 
 and climbed a very tall cocoanut tree. He it 
 
8S Roosevelt and the Republic 
 
 was who first saw the exact Spanish position 
 and located the San Juan fort. Hawkins saw at 
 once that the only way to save the army was to 
 assault and take San Juan hill. He returned to 
 the ford and so told Kent and Sumner, They 
 agreed. Col. Miley of Gen. Shafter's staff took 
 the responsibility of directing Gen. Hawkins to 
 advance with his brigade and capture San Juan 
 blockhouse. Gen. Hawkins ordered his brigade 
 brought forward and exploring further to the 
 front, he discovered a trail leading to the open 
 meadows at the foot of San Juan Hill. The 
 Sixth and Sixteenth were deployed on either side 
 of the trail as they came up. Hawkins sent for 
 the Seventy-first New York, but the horrors of 
 Aguidores ford and bloody angle were too much 
 for the already overstrained nerves of the men, 
 and they fell into confusion. Only scattered 
 companies and groups of soldiers joining with 
 the regulars made the charge. The Seventy- 
 first is called a coward regiment. It is a vile 
 aspersion. With their black-powder Spring- 
 fields, worse than useless and their inefficient 
 officers, they were put to a test to which no other 
 soldiers even there submitted. They were not 
 cowards who scaled San Juan heights with 
 Rafferty — who kept step with their comrades 
 without firing a shot, for that was the only con- 
 dition upon which the separated companies and 
 groups were permitted to participate. Regulars 
 knew that black powder volleys would mean 
 swift and certain death for the advancing troops. 
 Hains' battery was put in position near the 
 stream and Parker's gatlings were placed well 
 
Roosevelt and the Republic 89 
 
 to the front. Emerging from the jungle the thin 
 lines reformed. What was left of the Sixth and 
 Sixteenth under Hawkins lined up at the wire 
 fence where the jungle joined the meadows. 
 Soldiers were ready' to do deeds praised by war- 
 lovers for all time, or to stampede in broken dis- 
 order back into the jungle whence they had come. 
 Nerves were tense to the breaking point, ready 
 for prodigies of valor, or utter failure. A yel- 
 low streak anywhere then might have meant 
 utter rout. 
 
 As Hawkins waited at the river ford to get 
 his men across and his strength in hand, there 
 "^^as a rush in the jungle ahead like a stampede 
 of wild elephants. One hundred and fifty men 
 in wild disorder broke through the bushes and 
 bore down upon the general and his staff. When 
 they met him there, standing like a granite 
 boulder, they slowed down, halted, stood abashed. 
 The panic died before his cold sternness. Per- 
 emptorily he ordered the men back to the front. 
 
 "I think I had better put them back in their 
 position in the line," remarked Lieutenant Ord 
 of the General's staff. "If I do not see you 
 again, good-bye!" 
 
 Ord swung ahead and the 150 men followed 
 resolutely to the death of heroes or to heroic 
 victory. Such is the narrow dividing line be- 
 tween valor and cowardice upon such a field. 
 One should be careful in applying epithets. 
 
 Up to this time each soldier had fought alone 
 in the dark jungle facing steadily death as best 
 he may, and the final forming for the charge 
 :was the most trying of all. Now they were to 
 
90 Roosevelt and the Republic 
 
 have the support of fighting comrades at their 
 elbows. There had been paltering. Now there 
 was to be action. The supreme test. 
 
 Parker's gatlings, well before the line began 
 to drum in a fiercer, higher note. Hains' bat- 
 tery stood the Mauser hail and the hell of Span- 
 ish shrapnel, returning death for death. Big 
 guns thundered from the invisible heights. 
 Mauser bullets wailed and hissed in shriller 
 tones. Machine guns barked and snarled like a 
 pack of fighting wolves. Forward march, guide 
 center ! had been passed along the line. "To 
 the charge!" rang out the bugle of the Six- 
 teenth. 
 
 On through the guinea grass swept the thin 
 blue line against a gale of screaming lead that 
 rolled over the meadow as a summer squall might 
 a wheat field. With mechanical regularity, as 
 from a machine, came the Mauser volleys from 
 the ridge. The Spaniards realize ,that the su- 
 preme test has come and the hail of bullet and 
 shrapnel is redoubled. On goes the thin line, 
 rising and falling, like the short waves in a 
 choppy sea. Each platoon stands, fires, drops 
 while another advances, then rushes on again. 
 Across the meadow zig-zags the blue wave leav- 
 ing in its wake writhing spots and masses of 
 blue, but still it advances. At length the dead 
 line is passed. The first blue wave has reached 
 the very foot of the hill, which itself becomes 
 a protection, for it masks the fire of the distant 
 Spanish artillery and can scarcely be reached 
 from the Mausers upon the hill's crest. For- 
 tunately the Spaniards have fortified the ab- 
 
Roosevelt and the Republic 91 
 
 solute crest of the hill instead of its military 
 crest. It means much for the assailants. Bul- 
 lets still sing dirges overhead, and shrapnel 
 shrieks, but the message just now is for the blue 
 lines in reserve. 
 
 To the right on the Kettles Hill the Spanish 
 outpost has given way, hurrying from its trenches 
 and retreating upon San Juan ridge. Hawkins' 
 advance threatens to cut it off. But we are 
 climbing the hill with Hawkins. Getting thinner 
 and thinner as it goes, the blue line surges up the 
 steep slope toward the blockhouse. Parker 
 stands by his red-hot guns, now silent. Hains 
 has been signalled to cease artillery fire. Now 
 the Spanish trenches are in sight and the blue 
 line again full in range. Spaniards leap from 
 their trenches as the blue line sweeps relent- 
 lessly forward. A Cuban soldier stands in the 
 open space before the trenches, hat in hand 
 waving onward his American comrades. Span- 
 ish fire becomes more erratic. Sullenly the de- 
 fenders withdraw. The red and yellow flag of 
 Spain falls upon the roof of the blockhouse, an 
 omen of defeat. Soldiers of the Sixth and Six- 
 teenth are already at the brink of the reeking 
 bloody Spanish trenches, piled full with Spanish 
 dead. 
 
 Down through the depression from Kettles 
 hill have swept the cavalry regiments pressing 
 the retreating Spanish skirmishers. They have 
 reached the foot of the great ridge even as the 
 Sixth and Sixteenth have attained its crest. Cap- 
 tain Bigelow of the Tenth cavalry with his dis- 
 mounted troopers has almost overtaken his in- 
 
92 Roosevelt and the Republic 
 
 fantry brothers. Lieutenant Short and his troop 
 of the Sixth cavalry is at his shoulder. All along 
 the ridge the Spanish line wavers and falls back. 
 The Thirteenth, Ninth and Twenty- fourth sweep 
 in from the left and scour the ridge as far as 
 the haciendo in front of the cavalry position. 
 It was the Thirteenth which captured the fallen 
 Spanish flag. Lieutenant Preston of the Six- 
 teenth whose trumpeter sounded the charge, 
 brings up the national and regimental colors, 
 and they wave over the fort as the crowning 
 signal of conquering success. Troopers have 
 climbed the ridge to the right in open order, up 
 to the haciendo, meeting a withering fire from the 
 second line of Spanish trenches. Now the whole 
 ridge is ours. 
 
 Dearly had we paid for it. More than i,ooo 
 American soldiers who the day before had 
 throbbed with vigorous, promising, useful life, 
 now mangled into masses of insensate flesh 
 awaited the awful repast of the low-circling vul- 
 tures ; or battered into moaning wrecks strewed 
 San Juan field from foot to crest. Moaning sol- 
 diers lay scattered through the jungles. Mangled 
 bodies were strewn bloodily in every thicket. 
 Many crawled away in the agony of their terror 
 and despair to die alone in the jungle fighting 
 solitary with the awful vultures and land crabs 
 to delay their feast until the merciful sleep of 
 lethe had prepared the board. Fords of the 
 stream were shambles ; road forks a slaughter 
 pen. Still the rain of death fell upon unhurt, 
 wounded and dying, upon tent and hospital 
 
Roosevelt and the Republic 93 
 
 ground. It seemed as though the trees, front 
 flank and rear rained Spanish bullets. 
 
 Scarcely more fortunate were the wretches who 
 had been picked up by the hospital corps to be 
 taken to the rear. Loaded in springless wagons, 
 jolted over well nigh impassable roads, thrown 
 into mangled, smothering heaps, left in the tropi- 
 cal dews and tropical suns to live again in fever 
 delirium the terrors of the march and the horrors 
 of the battle, probably a more merciful fate befell 
 those who perished at once. 
 
 San Juan had been taken and the disaster of 
 an impossible retreat under fire averted, but the 
 blue lines clung precariously to the ridge as a 
 dizzy man might cling to a narrow ledge over a 
 mountain precipice. Gen. Sumner was hard 
 pressed with his cavalry, and sent an urgent re- 
 quest for support. The Thirteenth infantry was 
 dispatched to their aid. 
 
 All the long afternoon, with but one slight in- 
 terval of rest, the Spaniards rained a withering 
 fire upon the lost ridge. A counter charge was 
 momentarily expected. All the long afternoon 
 the blue lines hung on desperately and prayed for 
 night. 
 
 Where all this time was Theodore Roosevelt? 
 Where were his Rough Riders of whom he was 
 now in command, for Col. Wood temporarily 
 headed a brigade? They were in the battle play- 
 ing their part as gallantly as the rest, but it was 
 a minor part. If Las Guasimas was exclusively 
 a cavalryman's fight, San Juan and its victory 
 belonged primarily to the infantry. But aside 
 from that the cavalry division was only one-sixth 
 
04 Roosevelt and the Republic 
 
 of the strength of the corps effectively engaged 
 before Santiago on this July i, and the Rough 
 Riders made up but one-fifth or less of the cav- 
 alry. Therefore, the whole organization counted 
 not more than one-thirtieth in the fight, for in 
 this fight it was not prominent, and its com- 
 mander could not have had a great influence 
 upon the result. Bringing out such facts is not 
 a grateful task, but Col. Roosevelt himself 
 raised the issue. 
 
 Gen. Wheeler, like other officers of the Span- 
 ish-American war whose pens were no less 
 mighty than their swords, wrote himself down 
 as the head and center of the whole fight at San 
 Juan. As he tells it, he reconnoitered the posi- 
 tion, suggested the plan of battle and gave the 
 order to attack. Non-military historians as well 
 as military men of less literary distinction, have 
 Wheeler ill on the day before San Juan and on 
 the day of the battle. He was not at the war 
 council the night before. Sumner had taken 
 command of his division. This is not intended 
 as a reflection upon Gen. Wheeler's veracity, but 
 merely as indicative of his viewpoint. Gen. 
 Wheeler, no doubt, sincerely felt that the whole 
 responsibility of the fight was upon him, and the 
 feeling was entirely pardonable. 
 
 Lieutenant Col. Roosevelt with a still more 
 mighty pen, little experience in actual warfare 
 and a robust imagination in this sense, finds him- 
 self doing most of the fighting and giving the 
 really important orders at San Juan. In his 
 "Rough Riders," which he evidently flung oflf 
 while the white heat of war enthusiasm was still 
 
Roosevelt and the Republic 95 
 
 upon him, Roosevelt finds a regular regiment 
 awaiting orders at the ford of San Juan, declares 
 himself the ranking officer, orders the charge, 
 leads the charge and, scaling the heights far in the 
 van, drove hence the Spanish hordes. Reading 
 this account, one feels that Roosevelt alone, like 
 Winkelried, had turned the tide of battle, but 
 unlike Winkelried he lived to write a book about 
 it. Winkelried's age was not that of the finest 
 bloom in literary warfare. It was only after 
 Roosevelt's men had cleared the trenches and had 
 seen their commander use his revolver upon a 
 retreating Spaniard, bagging him on the fly, 
 that the infantry appeared upon the ridge. 
 Then Roosevelt and his men were with diffi- 
 culty restrained from following the enemy 
 right into Santiago. 
 
 "Here I found myself at the front," says 
 Roosevelt, "in command of fragments of all six 
 regiments of the cavalry division." This in his 
 introduction to Parker's "Gatling Guns." What 
 had become of Wheeler, Sumner and Wood, not 
 to speak of the other brigade and regimental 
 officers, many of whom down to Lieutenant Col- 
 onel must have outranked Roosevelt? Did all 
 think themselves in command of all six regi- 
 ments? Disinterested civilians like Bonsai say 
 the infantry took the hill and the cavalry came 
 afterward. That seems to be the fact. 
 
 If one will follow his gatling story. Lieutenant 
 Parker and his battery won the battle. After his 
 four gatlings and his score of men had won 
 San Juan, they actually made Santiago quite un- 
 tenable for the Spaniards. Parker says many 
 
q6 Roosevelt and the Republic 
 
 other interesting things. He finds Shafter fight- 
 ing a superior force of Spaniards. At San Juan 
 Americans outnumbered the Spaniards at least 
 two to one, while at El Caney we have seen that 
 the Americans were still more overwhelming in 
 numbers. And these facts do not detract in the 
 least from the great valor of the American fight- 
 ing men. 
 
 We do not wish to insinuate that either Parker, 
 Wheeler or Roosevelt consciously prevaricate as 
 to San Juan. Each saw the fight from his own 
 standpoint. Each thought himself the center of 
 the fray, the hub about which the whole military 
 wheel revolved. Each thought this all the more 
 when he took up his mighty pen for the enlight- 
 enment of his countrymen. Abnormal battle 
 conditions when tense nerves make each man a 
 kind of maniac, are not conducive to cool his- 
 torical judgment. Accounts of participants in 
 battle always lack perspective and are very un- 
 safe as portrayals of what took place as a whole. 
 
 Had not political exigencies magnified out of 
 all proportions the services of Rough Riders, 
 and especially the services of Gen. Joseph 
 Wheeler and Colonel Theodore Roosevelt, such 
 a statement would not have been necessary. We 
 would in that case, not have been obliged to go so 
 fully into the details of the battle in order to 
 show in true proportion the services of Roose- 
 velt and his Rough Riders. Officers certainly 
 cannot claim an undue proportion of the credit 
 for San Juan. If ever a battle was bungled 
 through inefficiency or recklessness in high places, 
 it was San Juan. If ever desperate valor of 
 
Roosevelt and the Republic 97 
 
 company officers and fighting men snatched 
 victory out of defeat, it was still upon this gory 
 ridge. To be sure when the higher officers found 
 themselves enmeshed they struggled valiantly to 
 extricate themselves. Their shame was in ever 
 allowing themselves so to become enmeshed. 
 
 Only when the troops were found clinging pre- 
 cariously upon San Juan ridge, did_ the_ crime 
 of their unpreparedness appear in all its hideous- 
 ness. Soldiers themselves had thrown away 
 blankets that they would sadly need in the des- 
 perate struggle to the ridge and up the slope. 
 But in all else the officers must bear the blame. 
 Exhausted soldiers were without food, without 
 water, without medicines, without shelter from 
 the tropical rain and sun, without adequate means 
 of caring for dead or wounded. Without in- 
 trenching tools and without means of getting 
 any of these necessities. In heaps at Siboney 
 and on the transport were the things the absence 
 of which were to mean death to many of the 
 brave men who had passed unscathed through 
 the hell of Spanish fire. 
 
 As soon as merciful darkness closed upon the 
 American lines, the desperate struggle began for 
 intrenchment. Then, too, started the awful pro- 
 cession of wounded for the rear. 
 
98 Roosevelt and the Republic 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 SANTL\GO FALLS. 
 
 For two weeks after San Juan the siege of 
 Santiago continued. Cuba's deadly climate anji 
 the reckless exposure of the troops made the 
 American position each dav more precarious. 
 Fever proved more menacing than Spanish bul- 
 lets. Never again in all this time did the Ameri- 
 cans attempt to "rush" Spanish trenches. They 
 had learned by experience that the Spaniard, like 
 a hound at bay, would fight and fight hard, al- 
 though he does not delight in fighting. 
 
 Commenting upon this changed attitude, Lieu- 
 tenant Jose ]\Iiller y Tejeiro says> — 
 
 "They intrenched themselves and set up their 
 artillery as fast as they received it and did not 
 again come out from behind their fortifications. 
 Did they think on that first day that all they had 
 to do was to attack our soldiers en masse and put 
 them to flight? God knows!" 
 
 Shafter the ponderous, and the Spanish com- 
 mander now played a game of blufif. Spanish 
 blunders gave the American blunderer the win- 
 ning card. Fortune cared for her fool. Had 
 Cervera decided to perish in Santiago harbor as 
 gallantly as he did outside, or had Spain's mili- 
 tary idiots in high place permitted him to do so, 
 
Roosevelt and the Republic 99 
 
 official incompetency and the awful fever would 
 have destroyed Shafter's army before Santiago 
 could have been taken. Scarcely ten per cent, 
 of the American soldiers were able to fight when 
 Toral signed the capitulation. Col. Roosevelt 
 said that it would have weakened his command 
 to detach a detail of twenty- four men. It seemed 
 a trick of fate that the blunders of the Spaniards 
 should have been so deadly in their effect while 
 those of the Americans made little difference as 
 to the final result. The decrepit old sinner of 
 centuries withered away under Fortune's frown 
 while the blind fate which cares for children and 
 idiots brought through in triumph the lusty 
 western giant. 
 
 While sickening American soldiers clung to 
 the trenches before Santiago, starved, fever 
 wracked, politics were relegated to the back- 
 ground. Soon as the Spanish crimson and gold 
 disappeared from the Morro, politics broke out 
 afresh in the American army. Gen. Wheeler was 
 ready to reap in political preferment the meed 
 of his services against the troops of Spain. The 
 tireless energy and horse sense concealed under 
 Col. Roosevelt's brag and bluster had been of the 
 greatest service to his command. Only when 
 this work was done did he become again the 
 circus manager, seeking notoriety. 
 
 Opportunities came quickly. Miles' expedition 
 to Porto Rica was the occasion for a noisy pro- 
 nouncement as to the Rough Riders being worth 
 any three regiments of volunteers. With char- 
 acteristic caution our warrior explained that the 
 other volunteers had black powder and inferior 
 
loo Roosevelt and the Republic 
 
 arms. Just at this time a good strong wind 
 would have blown into the Caribbean sea all 
 that was left of the Rough Rider regiment in 
 Cuba. The great majority of the erratic fight- 
 ers were deathly sick. They needed a hospital 
 more than a fresh campaign. Mercifully the 
 military authorities recognized this and the sage 
 advice of the pugnacious colonel ended as it 
 began — in a display of printer's ink. 
 
 This did not by any means exhaust Roose- 
 velt's opportunities. He had often preached dis- 
 cipline and obedience to superiors. But now the 
 good Colonel found himself confronted by a con- 
 dition. He promoted an assault on his superiors 
 in the shape of a round robin, telling everybody 
 from division general to Secretary of War, what 
 must be done and done quickly. Many other 
 officers had attached their names, but the country 
 knew it only as Roosevelt's round robin. He 
 and his Rough Riders sailed north with flying 
 colors. It was time that they were back to their 
 native heath that their leader might answer the 
 curtain call. 
 
 Fortunately Roosevelt's wonderful constitu- 
 tion kept him in exceptional health and he proved 
 a good angel to the less fortunate one.-; of his 
 devoted command. There were pathetic scenes 
 at Montauk Point, but as time wore on this 
 great military hospital camp was turned into a 
 parade and reception ground. The eyes of the 
 country were upon it. Oceans of printers' ink 
 flowed over the broad land bringing tidings of 
 Montauk, and right in the center of the stage 
 were Col. Roosevelt and his Rough Riders. No 
 
!R00SEVELT AND THE REPUBLIC 101 
 
 smallest piece of stage business which might 
 impress the multitude was omitted. "Slouch" 
 hats and brown duck ran a close second in 
 popularity to ''old glory" itself. 
 
 By the time the Rough Riders were mustered 
 out, Roosevelt, commander of five hundred men 
 in an army of sixteen thousand, loomed big above 
 every living soldier of the Republic. It was a 
 miracle of skillful self-advertising on the part of 
 this gallant military man. Here we had the 
 dramatic instincts of youth exercised with all 
 the skill and purpose of resourceful and ambitious 
 manhood. 
 
 At length this most skillful of all politicians of 
 his day had secured the momentum which was 
 to carry him to the long sought for heights in the 
 "governing class." Before the Rough Riders 
 were mustered out on Long Island Roosevelt's 
 political fortune was made. We shall see. 
 
102 Roosevelt and the Republic 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 ROOSEVELT GETS THE NOMINATION. 
 
 Before the August moon had waned greatly, 
 Roosevelt and his friends were laying wires for 
 the gallant Rough Rider's march upon Albany. 
 Among the first of the men of mighty pen to 
 turn out an account of Las Guasimas and San 
 Juan written from the standpoint of the man in 
 the fray who feels sure that the whole battle re- 
 volved about his belt, he naturally made the first 
 great impression. Nursed and pampered while 
 at Montauk, carefully as the invalided soldiers, 
 this impression had become strong. Rough rid- 
 ing contests, statue presentations, sword fetes, 
 auction sales, all these kept the public eye fo- 
 cused upon Roosevelt. He was a national figure 
 as prominent in the newspapers, almost, as Sec- 
 retary Alger or President ^IcKinley. This put 
 him in fine fettle for the Albany campaign. 
 
 Other conditions were found no less ideal for 
 skillful manipulation. Governor Black had been 
 giving an especially rotten administration. From 
 civil service to canals he had gone the rounds 
 and the odor of his actions smelled to high 
 heaven. Withal the people of New York were 
 not enamored of Richard Croker with his little 
 Van Wyck puppet in the mayor's chair. Croker 
 
Roosevelt and the Republic 103 
 
 at that time came nearer having the Democracy 
 of New York in his vest pocket than has any 
 Tammany poUtical boss before or since. 
 
 This was an atmosphere in which the inde- 
 pendent plant thrived amazingly. R. Fulton 
 Cutting and a few kindred spirits had kept alive 
 an independent organization, the Citizens' Union. 
 John Jay Chapman acted as harbor pilot. Sage 
 friends of Theodore Roosevelt whispered in the 
 Cutting ear that if the Independents were look- 
 ing for a man who would banish into outer dark- 
 ness Black and his Payn, Aldrich and Piatt, and 
 Richard Croker with his little Van Wyck, Theo- 
 dore Roosevelt was their man. Politicians, es- 
 pecially independent politicians, are proverbially 
 short of memory. They had forgotten Blaine, 
 civil service, the tariff of 1884, with their dem- 
 onstration of the unswerving partisanship of 
 Theodore Roosevelt. 
 
 Roosevelt had acquired a new reputation as 
 civil service reformer. He had filled much news- 
 paper space as police reformer, who knew not 
 party. The Independents were de-lighted. To 
 be sure Roosevelt had been a bit cautious. His 
 friends in approaching the Independents had 
 come of their own accord. Roosevelt had had 
 the thing merely mentioned to him, they said. 
 But they felt convinced that Roosevelt, if prop- 
 erly approached, would consent to be the stand- 
 ard-bearer of the Independents. 
 
 "Very well," remarked Cutting, Chapman et 
 al., "we shall be de-lighted, but we do not care 
 to take too much for granted. Suppose you 
 friends see Roosevelt and tell him all about it. 
 
lo4 Roosevelt and the Republic 
 
 Then if he consents we shall confer with him 
 and start the ball a-rolling." You see the In- 
 dependents were a bit cautious, too. 
 
 The friends saw Roosevelt. ''Yes, it was really 
 true. Barkis was actually willin'." Cutting, 
 Chapman et al. conferred with the gallant col- 
 onel. All seemed of the same mind. Now had 
 the opportune time come for casting out Piatt, 
 Black, Payn, Croker and all the legion of ,poli- 
 tical devils who beset fair New York. The only 
 question was one of tactics. 
 
 Cutting and his Independents were willing to 
 make it a straight fight as Independents. They 
 had sounded New York sentiment and they felt 
 that non-partisanship would prove a strong card 
 with the voters in both city and state affairs. 
 Roosevelt more "practical" had his doubts. He 
 loved the Independents dearly but he had some 
 old sweethearts among the Republicans. How 
 would it do to accept the Independents' nomina- 
 tion, stand for their principles, and use the nomin- 
 ation as a club to compel the Republicans to cast 
 out in advance, Piatt, Black, Payn and the rest? 
 Then the Magdalen Republican maiden of New 
 York might wed the chaste Citizens' Union and 
 together they would make a pair for righteous- 
 ness such as had hardly ever before been seen. 
 
 That was the one way of looking at the thing, 
 the Independents admitted. They would nom- 
 inate Roosevelt and let him after the nomination 
 use the Independent backing as a club. If by 
 its use he could capture the Republican nomina- 
 tion also, so much the better. It would insure 
 his success, and he would then have the nomina- 
 
Roosevelt and the Republic i6$ 
 
 tJon in spite of Piatt, Black and all the other 
 powers of darkness. Such an administration as 
 he would have for independence and virtue would 
 be known even in Co hoes. If, however, the pious 
 sword of the Independents did not prevail 
 against the vile scimitar of Piatt — if Roosevelt 
 failed to capture the Republican nomination in 
 addition to the Independents' nomination, he 
 would reserve the right, then and in that event, 
 to reject also the independent nomination. In 
 other words, while the gallant colonel of Rough 
 Riders loved the Independents and was enthusi- 
 astic for reform, he did not care to commit him- 
 self irrevocably to lead such a cause should it 
 become a forlorn hope, as it might well become 
 should the independent following fail to force 
 the Republican machine to take its man. But if 
 he was to run for governor at all, he was irrevoc- 
 ably committed to the independent nomination. 
 The Republican nomination must be additional. 
 
 Cutting, Chapman et al. on their side, too, in- 
 sisted upon one condition. Independents were 
 to be free to select the other names which were 
 to appear with Roosevelt upon the ballot. 
 They were not to be all Republicans. It was 
 a bargain and all parted happy and content. 
 
 Far and wide over the state spread the Inde- 
 pendents seeking to interest other candidates, 
 with Democratic as well as Republican leanings. 
 A statement was issued which Roosevelt saw and 
 approved, and things were happy as marriage 
 bells. 
 
 Friends of Roosevelt, presumably not the same 
 friends who dealt with the Independents, for 
 
io6 Roosevelt and the Republic 
 
 Roosevelt has all sorts, went to Piatt, Odell et al. 
 and told them that Roosevelt had the Indepen- 
 dents behind him. Without the Independents, 
 the Republican party loaded with Black, Payn 
 and Aldrich, could not hope to win. The only 
 salvation was the nomination of Roosevelt by 
 the regular Republicans. 
 
 With surprising favor, Piatt, Odell et al. re- 
 ceived it. They were pretty tired of Black and 
 his crowd. Politicians are noted for discarding 
 dull and worn tools when better are at hand. 
 Black, Payn and Aldrich would make ex- 
 cellent scapegoats for Piatt and Odell. The time 
 was ripe for unloading machine burdens upon 
 somebody. 
 
 On Sunday, September eleventh came out what 
 appeared to be an inspired statement from Col. 
 Jerome. He said, speaking as one with author- 
 ity, that Roosevelt had declared to him that 
 Roosevelt was a Republican, always had been a 
 Republican, and if elected would be governor of 
 the ENTIRE PARTY. Mark ve of the EN- 
 TIRE PARTY, not the State of New York. 
 
 Like a douche of cold water this statement in 
 the Sunday papers fell upon the enthusiasm of 
 Cutting. Chapman et al. It looked like partisan- 
 ship, and it was too boldly spoken to be classed 
 as mere invention. Roosevelt was sought 
 out and asked how about this? He strenuously 
 denied the authenticity of Jerome's statement 
 and let the good work of the Independents go on. 
 While Piatt was respectful, still he had not been 
 "thrown and hog-tied," to use an expression from 
 ranch life, familiar to Col. Roosevelt. Roosevelt 
 
Roosevelt and the Republic 107 
 
 knew the political game well enough not to trust 
 too far this wily old wolf of politics. Roosevelt 
 soothed Cutting, Chapman and their followers 
 and stimulated them to circulate nominating peti- 
 tions, again inspecting personally the statement 
 sent out with the petitions. Soon Piatt would 
 be where Roosevelt wanted him. 
 
 This went on until September 18. On that 
 day Roosevelt met Piatt and Odell in New York 
 and a bargain was "signed and sealed." After 
 that fateful Sunday word was sent down the line 
 from the Piatt headquarters that it was to be 
 Roosevelt. Immediately the machine cohorts 
 began to shout, "Roosevelt!" Black was left 
 stranded high and dry with only Payn and 
 Aldrich to do him reverence. Roosevelt had won 
 the fight with Piatt. The sword of the Inde- 
 pendents in the holy cause had overmatched 
 the iniquitous scimitar of Piatt. 
 
 Then Roosevelt has a qualm of conscience. 
 After a decent hesitation of two days he wrote 
 Cutting, Chapman and their friends that he was 
 in an impossible position, and wanted an inter- 
 view. Just then Roosevelt was in the position 
 of a coquette who had engaged herself to two 
 suitors and found their joint attentions em- 
 barrassing. At the meeting, which took place 
 September 23rd, Roosevelt, rather in sorrow 
 than in anger, proffered back the ring to Cut- 
 ting, Chapman and their Independents. Love In 
 a cottage was all well enough as a means of 
 getting the princely suitor interested, but really 
 you know, — of course you understand, — as a 
 serious proposition, it was quite impossible. Some 
 
:o8 Roosevelt and the Republic 
 
 way out of it must be found. Before they parted 
 finally the ring was returned and Roosevelt took 
 up life with the more opulent prince, — Prince 
 Thomas C. Piatt of the political realm of New 
 York. The final rupture took place Septem- 
 ber 24. 
 
 Cutting", Chapman and their friends, retired 
 from their interviews with Roosevelt, sadder and 
 wiser than they had been before. They would 
 not compound this political bargain which they 
 considered a political crime. As they viewed it 
 the tempter had taken Roosevelt up into a high 
 mountain and had shown him the kingdoms of 
 the earth which would be his if he should fall 
 down and worship. From their standpoint 
 Roosevelt fell down. At least it was not re- 
 corded that he had said either to Piatt or to 
 Odell, "Get thee behind me Satan." 
 
 Independents resolved to put a ticket in the 
 field. They issued a statement setting forth the 
 facts merely, without recrimination. It was in 
 reply to Roosevelt's letter. But the Independents 
 had shot their bolt, and Roosevelt knew it. He 
 had thoroughly seen to that. The work which 
 they had done for him without reserve preclud- 
 ed effective work for any one else. Disgust- 
 edly the rank and file of the Independnts, prob- 
 ably some of their leaders also, dropped back 
 into their old partisan wallows, following their 
 gallant betrayer. The bolt was all-sufficient for 
 Roosevelt. It secured him the Republican nom- 
 ination and that was what he started out to get. 
 
 If a cleverer piece of political manipulation 
 can be found in the history of the United States, 
 
Roosevelt and the Republic 109 
 
 it has escaped our notice. Roosevelt demon- 
 strated himself a past master at the game of poli- 
 tics. Squeamish persons might object to the bad 
 faith involved, but they show their want of 
 appreciation of greatness by 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 desired. 
 Roosevelt in proud consciousness of his own rec- 
 titude wondered why his old friends among the 
 Independents felt aggrieved. Surely nothing 
 could be wrong that would promote so important 
 a thing as Theodore Roosevelt's progress to high 
 place in the "governing class." Clearly that was 
 the dominant issue. The little subterfuge was 
 nothing compared to the good to be accomplished. 
 As for the dicta of Roosevelt that he is the most 
 unsafe adviser who would suggest the doing of 
 evil that good may come of it, well, that applies 
 to persons other than Mr. Roosevelt. 
 
 Strangely enough the faithful Riis shakes his 
 head somewhat over this episode in Roosevelt's 
 career and Friend Francis E. Leupp attempts 
 to explain it. Usually Mr. Leupp is keen, but 
 for some occult reason he reproduces the follow- 
 ing personal letter written to him by Roosevelt 
 September 3, as a document going to prove 
 Roosevelt's good faith with the Independents. 
 We must keep in mind that this letter was written 
 after negotiations with the Independents had been 
 practically completed, and a week before the 
 statement of Col. Joyce which Roosevelt was 
 specifically questioned about and the authen- 
 
I lo Roosevelt and the Republic 
 
 ticity of which he denied. Here is the letter 
 which everybody will find worth reading: 
 
 Roosevelt remarks that he would rather have 
 led the Rough Riders in Cuba than to be gov- 
 ernor of New York "three times over." Then 
 he continues: — 
 
 "In the next place, while on the whole I should 
 like the office of governor and would not shirk 
 it, the position will be one of such extreme dif- 
 ficulty, and I shall have to offend so many good 
 friends of mine, that I should breathe a sigh of 
 relief were it not offered me. 
 
 "It is a party position. I should be one of the 
 big party leaders if I should take it. That means 
 that I should have to treat with and work with 
 the organization and I should see and consult the 
 leaders, not once, but continuously, and earnestly 
 try to come to an agreement on all iniporfa)it 
 questions with them; and, of course, the mere 
 fact of my doing so would alienate many of my 
 friends, whose friendship I value. 
 
 "On the other hand, when we come to the 
 Canal or Life insurance, or anything touching 
 the Eighth commandment, and general decency, 
 I could not allow any consideration of party to 
 come in. And this would alienate those who, if 
 not friends, were supporters. 
 
 "As for taking the honor without conditions 
 or not at all, I do not believe anybody would as 
 much as propose conditions to me. Certainly I 
 would not entertain any conditions save those 
 outlined in this very letter — that while a good 
 partisan, who would honestly strive to keep in 
 with the leaders of the party organization, and 
 
Roosevelt and the Republic lif 
 
 work with them and to bring the Republican 
 party into better shape for two years hence, yet 
 in the last resort, I would have to be my own 
 master, and when questions of honesty or dis- 
 honesty arose, I should have to pay no further 
 heed to party lines. 
 
 "Now, as I say, I haven't an idea about the 
 nomination. I know that some of the politicians, 
 some for good, and some doubtless for less good 
 or wholly bad reasons, are working for me, and 
 that there are some, I may add, / am glad to say, 
 the zvorst, are working against me. I should say 
 the odds are against my nomination^ but I can 
 also say with all sincerity that I do not care in 
 the least." 
 
 This letter, it must be remembered, was written 
 to a newspaper man, not, it is presumed, for pub- 
 lication, but to give the man a "line" on what to 
 say about the situation of his own accord. This 
 is one method by which skilled politicians com- 
 municate to the public in advance tentative posi- 
 tions upon this and that matter in order to get 
 a public expression of opinion before committing 
 themselves. To the public, he must continue yet 
 a while the St. George of the Independents slay- 
 ing the Piatt dragon. 
 
 It is safe to say that had this letter been 
 addressed to IMessrs. Cutting and Chapman and 
 their Independents, Roosevelt would not have 
 been asked to accept the Independent nomination. 
 Several perplexing questions arise in connection 
 with this letter when we remember that it was 
 written nearly three weeks before Roosevelt felt 
 that he could afford to break openly with the In- 
 
112 Roosevelt and the Republic 
 
 depcndmts. If it would be a relief to Roosevelt 
 not to be offered the governorship, why did he 
 scheme for it? If he regarded it September 3 
 as a party position why did he have anything to 
 do with the Independents whose excuse for exist- 
 ence was the view that it was not a party posi- 
 tion? If he intended from the first to be a 
 "good partisan" and to treat with the organisa- 
 tion leaders (Piatt and Odell) in everything, why 
 did he bargain with tltfe Independents the very 
 kernel of whose proposition was that he should 
 go in as a governor ivholly independent of Piatt 
 and Odell and pledged to overthrow them and 
 their policies? As to conditions, what conditions 
 could Piatt or any other boss want except those 
 named in the Leupp letter? 
 
 Roosevelt, it must be remembered, promised 
 to accept the Independent nomination, coupling 
 therewith but one condition — that unless he 
 should receive the Republican nomination also, 
 he should have the privilege of withdrawing en- 
 tirely from the race. If the regular nomination 
 came to Roosevelt, he was bound to accept it 
 upon the terms of the Independents, and to ac- 
 cept also the nouiination of the Independents. 
 
 Questions of good faith in this transaction 
 must be settled by each reader according to his 
 notion of what constitutes good faith in politics. 
 But nobody will question that the incident marked 
 Theodore Roosevelt again as a partisan before 
 all things, ready to sacrifice everything except 
 personal advancement, to the call of party 
 exigencies. The incident was reminiscent of 
 the Blaine incident of 1884, the railway rate 
 
Roosevelt and the Republic 113 
 
 incident of 1906, and scores of lesser like inci- 
 dents between them. When cornered, or pos- 
 sessed by a strong desire for mounting poli- 
 tically, a desire ever present, Roosevelt has 
 never proved choice in political methods or 
 political associates. Good Historian Lodge 
 might characterise the Rooseveltian political 
 methods as Jesuitical. Sometimes Roosevelt, 
 for purposes best known to himself, has used 
 the mask of independence, but the partisan is 
 not so deeply concealed as is the Tartar in the 
 Russian. 
 
 The letter, too, sets forth an interesting view 
 of public office, even the place of governor. ^ "It 
 is a partisan position." Should administer it as 
 "a good partisan." I shall be governor of the 
 Republican party, for the Republican party and 
 by the Republican party. If partisan interests 
 do not interfere, I shall look after the interests 
 of all the people of the State. 
 
 Thus joyfully did Roosevelt enroll himself 
 under the Piatt and Odell banner in preference to 
 the banner of independence, for he knew that 
 banner was far more likely to lead to the heights. 
 Now was Theodore Roosevelt on the high road 
 to eminent place among the "governing class," 
 and assiduously did he pursue his journey. 
 Rough Riders had disbanded, but they still had 
 the broad hats cocked with a rakish turn, and 
 their brown uniforms which wi^h their w^ar 
 thunder had made the very Cuban mountains 
 tremble. Roosevelt knew well how to use 
 them as political assets. 
 
 Immedi^itely was organized a flying squadron 
 
114 Roosevelt and the Republic 
 
 of Rough Riders mounted upon special trains. 
 The Cuban war was re fought upon many a glor- 
 ious, though bloodless field. Conditions were 
 far more favorable. Roosevelt and his command 
 struggled in the red jungle at Las Guasimas, 
 or scaled the bloody heiglits of San Juan for the 
 edification of multitudinous rural patriots at 
 country fairs. Again the bugle sounded "to the 
 charge." Drums crashed, guns thundered, and 
 the gallant fellows rushed the seething trenches. 
 There were deafening cheers for victory and the 
 hand-clappings were like the voice of the gatlings. 
 
 What had all this to do with canals, civil ser- 
 vice, taxation, tenements and numerous other 
 issues to confront the next governor of New 
 York? Bless your simplicity, nothing at all! 
 It was not supposed to have. In the light of 
 Black's administration, the less said about state 
 matters the better. These were dry, irksome 
 and dangerous things to talk about. War stories 
 never fail to interest, or war costumes to inspire. 
 Our hairy ancestor of the stone age is not far 
 concealed in the best of us. 
 
 Born showman, master of impressive stage 
 business in politics, Roosevelt knew well the 
 power of the campaign he was conducting. This 
 knowledge gave him the governorship of New 
 York, for with all his glitter, with the prestige of 
 San Juan still upon him, with the weakness of 
 his opponents promoting his campaign, Roose- 
 velt slipped in by but a few paltry thousands 
 in a vote of nearly a million and one-half. His 
 plurality amounted to about onji'-seventieth of 
 those voting at the election. 
 
Roosevelt and the Republic 115 
 
 In the serene recess of his private apartments, 
 away from critical eyes, Roosevelt must have had 
 some moments of delicious entertainment over 
 the grim humor of making a man governor be- 
 cause of his rakish hat and his war stories. Im- 
 possible ! Well, if Roosevelt did not smile over 
 it, the fact is proof positive that something akin 
 to egoism must have ruthlessly crushed out a 
 puny sense of humor. 
 
 Roosevelt had won. New York voters, like 
 their brothers elsewhere, careless of nice dis- 
 tinctions, thought he had won as an independent. 
 His partisan declarations were soon forgotten. 
 Governor Roosevelt could have the hearty sup- 
 port of the great voting and working masses of 
 his state, regardless of party. Never had gov- 
 ernor taken a popular commission under out- 
 wardly more favorable auspices. New York was 
 ready to believe in him. Of him it expected 
 much. 
 
 Keen newspaper thrusts perforated the tough 
 hide of the wily old political were-wolf, 
 Thomas C. Piatt. Now, at last, was he to suf- 
 fer a Greenland of cold isolation. 
 
 Roosevelt started out bravely, but clamorously. 
 A great noise had intervened between election 
 and the oath of ofifice. It was the thunderous 
 pronunciamentos of great events to come. Leg- 
 islative members assembled expectant. Roose- 
 velt transmitted his first state paper. New 
 Yorkers blinked, rubbed their eyes and blinked 
 again. Had they after all elected Roosevelt 
 president or had New York overnight become 
 an independent nation? 
 
ii6 Roosevelt and the Republic 
 
 The message congratulated the PEC)PLE OF 
 NEW YORK on carrying to a successful con- 
 clusion "one of the most righteous wars of mod- 
 ern times." Humanity and national honor de- 
 manded that we drive Spain from the Western 
 hemisphere. Preachment followed preachment, 
 with war as the moving text. Militia should be 
 kept for home duty and regulars sent out to con- 
 quer and garrison foreign lands. Arms should 
 be of the latest pattern. A regiment with Krag- 
 Jorgensens (Rough Riders) was worth three 
 with Springfields and black powder. Artillery 
 with black powder suffered in Cuba. Moral — 
 color your powder brown. Shotguns were best 
 in a riot. (Here the problem is to commit max- 
 imum slaughter among unarmed working men at 
 short range.) As for the naval militia, the pet 
 aversion of Roosevelt the naval historian, they 
 did their work in fine style in the Spanish war. 
 
 All this and more said the war-obsessed gov- 
 ernor in his message. In fact five pages in nine- 
 teen were devoted to war and military matters, 
 largely lugged in bodily by the ears. Possibly 
 in the light of this message, Roosevelt's rough 
 riding campaign for governor was sincere. 
 Roosevelt might have imagined himself running 
 for president on the issue of building up a great 
 war empire. At all events his first message as 
 governor was distressingly warlike. 
 
 Commonplace was the rule of the remaining 
 pages. A Delphic preachment such as Theodore 
 Roosevelt was famous for before the days of 
 his infallibility, told the legislature that too much 
 property should not be exempt from taxation. 
 
Roosevelt and the Republic 117 
 
 nor yet should it be taxed so high as to drive it 
 out of the state. Roosevelt worked in his per- 
 ennial favorite about' shackling force and 
 shackling cunning. After these brnaniental phi- 
 losophic declarations, he made some excellent 
 recommendations adopted from the labor unions, 
 as to factory, tenement and sweatshop regula- 
 tions. At the end he told about the evil of too 
 many laws and recommended biennial legisla- 
 tive sessions and rigid economy. Curiously 
 enough his administration proved the most ex- 
 pensive the state had had for years, with a 
 single exception, and the laws of it filled two fat 
 volumes each year, where up to that time one 
 had sufficed. 
 
 It was an interesting session. The civil ser- 
 vice law passed by the Democrats in 1883 and 
 scuttled by Black, was re-enacted and extended. 
 For some reasons not entirely clear, Roosevelt 
 refused to extend the law to election inspectors. 
 But the law itself was excellent. 
 
 As the session waned, Roosevelt barkened 
 more and more to the voice of Piatt. More and 
 more did the Plattite courage rise. Aldrich and 
 his friends had turned the canal into an asset of 
 the up-state machine. It smelled to heaven. 
 Every hungry political buzzard moistened his 
 beak in the carrion. Investigation had been going 
 on — aimless, pointless investigation. Piatt 
 smiled cynically. He did not see the use. It 
 was useless to try to keep the semblance of 
 cleanliness with fingers graft-reeking. Wiser 
 than Piatt, Roosevelt saw the need. He knew 
 better the force of public opinion and the means 
 
ii8 Roosevelt and the Republic 
 
 of directing it. For a whole year the legislature 
 had been preparing the whitewash. It must be 
 applied skillfully. If the legislature would not 
 appropriate money for completing the investiga- 
 tion, he would raise a fund himself. The legis- 
 lature appropriated. 
 
 In order to permit no questioning of good 
 faith, Roosevelt commissioned two Democratic 
 lawyers, Austin G. Fox and Wallace McFarlane, 
 to go through the testimony of the investigating 
 committee and find the Senagambian in the puzzle 
 picture. It was all done with proper trumpet 
 l3last and drum-beat. His feline majesty of the 
 United States Senate laughed again. 
 
 Through the long summer the Democratic 
 lawyers toiled through the mass of evidence col- 
 lected by the investigating committee. They re- 
 ported to Governor Roosevelt. Theirs was a 
 Scotch verdict. Rottenness had been found. 
 Canal affairs reeked with it, but Campbell W. 
 Adams, engineer, and Geo. W. Aldrich, superin- 
 tendent, had been given immunity in advance 
 by the absolute discretion vested in them by the 
 legislature. Motives might be difficult to prove. 
 For technical reasons well known to the legal 
 profession, the lawyers could not recommend a 
 prosecution. 
 
 Roosevelt interpreted the report as favorable 
 as possible to the canal looters. With deft touch 
 he applied the whitewash brush where it would 
 do the most good. There had been no fraud- 
 ulent collusion. A little mismanagement, but 
 nothing really wrong. 
 
 This whole episode is prophetic of the Judson- 
 
Roosevelt and the Republic 119 
 
 Harmon-Sante Fe episode of presidential years, 
 and of the Judge Calhoun-Venezuela episode. In 
 all three cases investigations noisily heralded and 
 bravely started, fizzled out. Roosevelt learned 
 something from the event of the canal. Here 
 he gave out the report of the lawyers, and news- 
 papers very awkwardly pointed out that Gov- 
 ernor Roosevelt's conclusions of no wrong were 
 not at all warranted by the lawyers' report. In 
 the Santa Fe and the Venezuela cases the report 
 was just forgotten. 
 
 Another very similar situation presented itself 
 a year later. We cannot present it better than 
 in extracts from a recent account of the incident 
 written by Charles Edward Russell. After de- 
 tailing how cleverly the State Trust Company 
 had been built up as a portly and plethoric finan- 
 cial institution, and how the state bank examiner 
 had found it good — in a wonderfully happy and 
 prosperous condition, Mr. Russell says: 
 
 "Suddenly in the midst of this fair day and 
 cloudless sky, a bolt fell. On January 11, 1900, 
 Mr. Kling presented to the Governor of New 
 York a long communication in which he made 
 specific and very grave charges against the 
 management of the State Trust Company, and 
 petitioned the appointment of a commission to 
 investigate the company's afifairs. . . . These 
 charges, if true, were enough to send the whole 
 board of directors to the penitentiary for long 
 terms. . . . 
 
 "The governor was much stirred by the 
 revelations it contained. He declared at once 
 that he must know the facts and all of them, and 
 
120 Roosevelt and the Republic 
 
 to that end he appointed as special commissioner 
 to investigate the company, former Adjutant 
 General Avery D. Andrews, of New York City. 
 General Andrews had been a member of the 
 Police Board under the Strong administration. 
 . . . In more recent times he became one of 
 the directing spirits of the Asphalt Trust. . . . 
 His instructions in the State Trust matter were 
 to 'go to the bottom of it no matter whom it 
 might affect.' 
 
 "Now the State Trust matter properly belonged 
 to the official care of H. P. Kilburn, who was 
 then superintendent of the State Banking De- 
 partment. For some reason not officially dis- 
 closed, the governor totally ignored Mr. Kil- 
 burn Whereupon Mr. Kilburn started 
 
 an investigation of his own. . . . New York 
 newspapers, taking the scent, conducted the third. 
 
 "General Andrews finished first. His appoint- 
 ment was telegraphed to him on the 12th, and 
 he began work on the I3tli. His investigation 
 lasted something less than five hours. Then he 
 ceased his labors and returned two documents. 
 One w^as a report on what he had found and 
 the other a personal letter asking to be relieved 
 from further research in the matter. . . . 
 . . . "Gen. Andrews was relieved according 
 to his request ; no one was appointed in his place ; 
 his report was locked up in Albany ; and Super- 
 intendent Kilburn's report coming in shortly af- 
 terward, that, too, was consigned to oblivion. 
 In spite of all demands, the government refused 
 to make either public, to give any idea of the 
 
Roosevelt and the Republic 121 
 
 contents of either, or to take any action on 
 either. . . . 
 
 "In New York City. the district attorney and 
 at Albany the attorney-general declined to act. 
 A committee of the State Assembly was induced 
 to demand a copy of the Kilburn report, but by 
 the time it was produced, the committee had 
 voted 6 to 5 to return it with seals un- 
 broken. . . . 
 
 On March 12 the New York World managed 
 to secure in some surreptitious way a copy of 
 the Kilburn report (so sedulously suppressed 
 at Albany), and published it practically in full. 
 The country gasped at the official confirmation 
 it contained of the worst charges made by Kling 
 or hinted by the newspapers. There seemed no 
 longer a chance to doubt that the official investi- 
 gation had been mvizzled because of the promin- 
 ence of the persons involved, who now stood 
 forth in the white light, painfully conspicuous. 
 They were: — 
 
 "Elihu Root, then Secretary of War, now Sec* 
 retary of State, a director in the State Trust 
 Company, long the personal and confidential ad- 
 viser of Mr. Whitney and Mr. Ryan. 
 
 "John W. Griggs, then Attorney General of 
 the United States. 
 
 "Thomas F. Ryan. 
 
 "William C. Whitney. 
 
 "P. A. B. Widener. 
 
 "R. A. 'C. Smith. 
 
 "Anthony N. Brady." 
 
 Mr. Russell goes on to give the details of the 
 rotten transaction, with its illegal loans to dum- 
 
122 Roosevelt and the Republic 
 
 mies, politicians and directors. Lou F. Payn, in- 
 surance commissioner, was one of the men to 
 profit by the crookedness to the extent of more 
 than $400,000. EHhu Root negotiated a loan to 
 the dummy office boy. 
 
 Roosevelt was learning. No awkward tales 
 of "indiscretions" should come from him officially 
 involving personal and political friends. It was 
 as important then to protect Elihu Root, the 
 Union League reformer and patriot, as it was 
 afterward to protect Paul Morton or Francis B. 
 Loomis. 
 
 Roosevelt, as soon as he started the canal in- 
 vestigation upon its way, plastered a counter- 
 irritant upon the devoted back of New York 
 City in the shape of a new investigation. Legis- 
 lator Mazet was placed in charge. Roosevelt 
 would give the city troubles of its own. It 
 would have less time to talk about canal affairs 
 or trust companies. 
 
 A tax crusade, too, was on the boards. Tax 
 sharps of New York City and their friends 
 suggested a franchise tax. It was embodied in 
 a measure offered by Senator Ford and taken 
 up by Roosevelt. At first Roosevelt wanted a 
 commission to report a measure for next year, 
 but he changed and became most urgent for 
 immediate action. There was much dramatic 
 business. At the eleventh hour a measure was 
 rushed through. It proved defective. Corpora- 
 tions considered it crude and unworkable. Pos- 
 sibly it was too drastic. At all events it re- 
 quired an extra session to get the law into form. 
 In the light of what it has accomplished, the 
 
Roosevelt and the Republic I23 
 
 measure was mild as a reform. Still it was a 
 real reform measure in the right direction. The 
 measure has added six per cent, or more to the 
 taxable valuation of New York State. It has 
 restored to the people a small portion of their 
 substance, taken from them through franchise 
 gifts. Without Roosevelt's advocacy such a 
 measure would not have passed at the time. Of 
 course, he did not originate the proposition, and 
 had he never become governor, it is likely the 
 agitation for franchise tax in New York would 
 have resulted in legislation. 
 
 As the session waned, a very torrent of special 
 messages was poured from the executive man- 
 sion into the legislative chambers. Canals, rapid 
 transit, Rochester schools and many other things 
 came in for such attention. Sixty millions were 
 wanted to finish the canals. Everything of con- 
 sequence before the legislature was declared an 
 emergency measure. The one thing desired 
 seemed getting more laws upon the statute books 
 although Roosevelt in his message declared 
 against this very thing. Dazed legislators de- 
 cided that nothing was pressing. So far was 
 the emergency plan followed that a purely local 
 school matter was made the subject of a special 
 message. 
 
 In one of these communications to the legisla- 
 ture, Roosevelt took occasion to work in a senti- 
 ment dear to his heart. "I have not the slightest 
 sympathy," he said, "with the outcry against 
 corporations as such or against prosperous busi- 
 ness men." The sentiment was unimpeachable, 
 but the solons were puzzled in applying it. Out- 
 
124 Roosevelt and tan Republic 
 
 cry had been directed against corporation crook- 
 edness and business greed, not against "corpor- 
 ations as such or prosperous business men." 
 Roosevelt had not told them how to manage 
 this particular outcry. 
 
 True to his programme outlined in the Leupp 
 letter, of being in the governor's chair "a good 
 partisan," Roosevelt consulted Piatt on all mat- 
 ters. Benjamin Odell, then Piatt's political 
 lieutenant, Mr. Roosevelt afterward characterized 
 as: "My trusted helper and adviser in every 
 crisis." One of New York's most notorious ma- 
 chine politicians, Lou Payn, as insurance com- 
 missioner, watched over the interests of widows 
 and orphans. His appointment and retention 
 was one of the most flagrant of the many scan- 
 dals of Governor Black's administration. Even 
 had Black been re-elected, he could not have 
 retained Payn. 
 
 Nobody knew this better than Senator Thomas 
 C. Piatt. But Piatt must make a brave bluff 
 at protecting his own. With noisy defiance 
 Roosevelt refused Piatt's request. Payn must 
 go. 
 
 Roosevelt went from Albany and Piatt from 
 Washington to a conference in New York City. 
 There way a tremendous battle with much news- 
 paper detonation and black smoke. Roosevelt 
 gained what everybody knew from the first he 
 must gain. After valiant combat Piatt yielded 
 what he knew from the first he must yield. 
 Payn went. Piatt dictated his successor. There 
 was no investigation of the Insurance Depart- 
 ment. Insurance grafting became less notorious 
 
Roosevelt and the Republic 125 
 
 but continued quite as extensive as before It 
 remained for Thomas W. Lawson and Charles E. 
 Hughes nearly to accomplish several years after- 
 ward what Roosevelt neglected to undertake. 
 
 One finds some difficulty in determining why 
 such a courageous man as Governor Roosevelt 
 should have permitted Lou Payn to leave the 
 Insurance Department red-handed and un- 
 scathed. Why was the way left open for addi- 
 tional years of insurance misdoing? At all 
 events, this was one of Roosevelt's great con- 
 spicuous failures as governor, for it left him 
 wallowing impotently in the Piatt mire for the 
 rest of his term. 
 
 Roosevelt had attempted the impossible. Poli- 
 tical cleanliness and the rule of a corrupt poli- 
 tical machine can no more be harmonized than 
 the rule of Michael and Satan. Roosevelt at- 
 tempted to compromise with evil. Faust-like he 
 made his bargain with the devil of politics on 
 that September Sunday when cheek-by-jowl with 
 Piatt he decided to jilt the Independents. With- 
 out Roosevelt realizing it, the unclean beast of 
 politics had placed its mark upon him. How- 
 ever cunningly it may thereafter be concealed, 
 Piatt knew where to find it. It marked Roose- 
 velt as Piatt's own ; made it certain that he must 
 somehow pay the price of the favors he had 
 received. Political bosses, like Goethe's devil, 
 are egoists. 
 
 Summer came and went. In the mellow au- 
 tumn Roosevelt talked much. His policies were 
 varied and multitudinous and the good governor 
 delighted to tell about them. When the time for 
 
126 Roosevelt and the Republic 
 
 the next legislative session arrived, Roosevelt was 
 in fine fettle for the fray. 
 
 There had been talk of Roosevelt for the 
 vice-presidency, but the good governor had em- 
 barked upon a scheme for making a paradise, 
 politically, of the Empire State. Roosevelt con- 
 sulted Piatt and Odell, each making a special trip 
 to New York City for the purpose. As a result 
 Roosevelt gave out a statement that : — 
 
 "Under no circumstances could I, or would I, 
 accept the nomination for the vice-presidency." 
 Roosevelt added : "I am happy to state that Sen- 
 ator Piatt cordially acquiesces in my views in the 
 matter." 
 
 This must have been highly flattering to his 
 feline majesty of the United States Senate. 
 Whether it was as flattering to Governor Roose- 
 velt's self-respect and independence of character 
 may be judged each one for himself. The dis- 
 gusted "Nation" explained later that Piatt had 
 discovered Roosevelt's secret ambition to be presi- 
 dent, and with that magic ring he could imme- 
 diately bring the Rough Riding genie to heel : — ■ 
 
 "Here am I, master; what will you." 
 
 Roosevelt went on to explain that great prob- 
 lems had been met and partially solved. He 
 wanted to complete his work. He must not be 
 interrupted in producing that political paradise. 
 Open avowal of Piatt domination did not augur 
 well for the solution of Empire State problems, 
 yet Roosevelt faced them in 1900 as clamorously 
 assertive as before. 
 
 Very moderate, indeed, is the roster of good 
 legislation accomplished during Roosevelt's sec- 
 
Roosevelt and the Republic 127 
 
 end year as governor. Some progress was made 
 in dealing with labor problems and with tene- 
 ment conditions. On the other side of the bal- 
 ance sheet were the rapid transit measure and 
 the measure dealing with the creation of a metro- 
 politan election district. Both amended earlier 
 laws and in both cases the laws were made more 
 rather than less dangerous. 
 
 Under the rapid transit act was carried to a 
 successful issue the absorption by the Ryans, 
 Whitneys, Bradys and the Elkins of franchises 
 of untold value belonging to the people of New 
 York. It meant literally loss to the Metropolis 
 of hundreds of millions of dollars. Roosevelt 
 advocated this law in an insistently importunate 
 special message. Corruptly? Not at all. Roose- 
 velt has irreproachable money integrity. The 
 special student of political science and the life- 
 time office-holder and politician, merely acted 
 ignorantly, not knowing what he did. Roosevejt 
 himself charitably says that an official fool is 
 as bad as or worse than an official knave. Pos- 
 sibly his actions confirm his words. 
 
 Roosevelt's connection with the Metropolitan 
 election district superintendent bill will not bear 
 the same explanation. This was a move on the 
 part of the up-state machine to capture New 
 York City. Since their opponents had the votes, 
 the only chance of success was by controlling 
 election machinery. It was a state "force" bill 
 applied to Greater New York. 
 
 One with democratic prejudices might imagine 
 this a peculiarly iniquitous measure, violating as 
 it did every principle of local self-government. 
 
128 Roosevelt and the Republic 
 
 But, of course, the high motive left this objection 
 not of the weight of a feather. New York 
 City's elections were to be taken out of the hands 
 of New York's voters and turned over to an 
 up-state partisan political dictator with an army 
 of "inspectors" to carry out his will. Governor 
 Roosevelt and his partisans extended the power 
 of this election superintendent so as to include 
 the New York police. No other portion of the 
 state was subjected to such a law, thus demon- 
 strating its partisan purpose. Why New York 
 did not rise in open revolt against such iniquity 
 is not so clear. It seems not to have accom- 
 plished the desired "up-state" domination. There 
 was, as in all cases of this sort, a pious excuse, 
 the preventing of election frauds. Curiously 
 enough the method adopted had it become ef- 
 fective in practice, would have weakened the re- 
 sponsibility of voters and made clean elections 
 finally impossible. 
 
 Roosevelt's success on the whole as governor 
 of New York was extremely moderate. The 
 New York Nation, which was almost enthusiastic 
 over Roosevelt's election to the governorship, 
 had some caustic things to say after the governor 
 had been elected vice-president. 
 
 "For six months," said the Nation, "he has 
 been out of the State most of the time, and the 
 State has been out of his mind all of the time." 
 When asked to co-operate in some work as gov- 
 ernor, Roosevelt remarked: "Don't come to me. 
 My work is done." 
 
 "An illusion about Roosevelt," said the Nation 
 January 3, 1901, "is that he is fond of work. 
 
Roosevelt and the Republic 129 
 
 Really he is fond of excitement. , , . It is 
 the clamorous life that appeals to him." The 
 Nation goes on to remark that Roosevelt would 
 be glad to do great things if he could have a 
 series of moving pictures to show him in the 
 act. 
 
 "It is notorious," continues the ill-tempered 
 journal, "that no governor of recent years has 
 been so ignorant of the actual business of the 
 State." As a result institutions suffered. The 
 Nation found that politicians regarded Roosevelt 
 as an "easy mark." He was impressed with 
 vociferated logic. "Boss Piatt found out Roose- 
 velt's secret and played upon it to the discom- 
 fiture of his hopes and plans. Ambition, with a 
 dread of breaking with his party machine was 
 the magic ring which Piatt discovered. New 
 York's good governor was irreverently referred 
 to as "Theodore the Sudden." He is further 
 pictured in this wise : 
 
 "A restlessness of temperament almost patho- 
 logical, love of excitement, a fatal fondness for 
 haranguing the public, brilliant and dashing 
 personal qualities, these characteristics are showy 
 and win for their possessor troops of friends; 
 but do they make the strong and efficient public 
 servant ? 
 
 "Bagehot said of Bolingbroke: 
 
 "We see in Bolingbroke's case that a life of 
 great excitement is incompatible with the calm 
 circumspection and sound estimate of probability 
 essential to great affairs, that though the excited 
 hero may perceive distant things, which others 
 overlook, he will overlook near things which 
 
130 Roosevelt and the Republic 
 
 others see ; that though he may be stimulated to 
 great speeches which others could not make, he 
 will also be irritated to petty speeches which 
 others would not ; that he will attract enmities 
 but not confidence ; that he will not observe how 
 true and plain are the alternatives of common 
 business and how little even genius can enlarge 
 them ; that his prosperity will be a wild dream 
 of unattainable possibilities, and his adversity a 
 long regret that those possibilities have departed." 
 
 Lincoln Steffens, who in McClure's for June, 
 1900, writes most flatteringly of Roosevelt, said : 
 
 "There were no great pieces of legislation up 
 to attract public enthusiasm and help the gov- 
 ernor carry his will over the machine's. Neither 
 was there any important executive act to give his 
 position the force of public feeling." SteflFens 
 considers Roosevelt up to that time an experi- 
 ment. Roosevelt says that at that time his work 
 as governor "was done." This is the fact. 
 
 The New York Tribune of February 13, 1900, 
 commenting upon Roosevelt's announcement of 
 the previous day that he would not accept the 
 vice-presidency, but would continue to give his 
 energies as governor to problems "which were 
 partly solved," remarks : 
 
 "It must be acknowledged that less has been 
 actually accomplished thus far under his admin- 
 istration than prevalent estimate of his char- 
 acter and talents had led the people to expect. 
 He would probably say that this was his misfor- 
 tune, but there are many good citizens who think 
 that it is partly his fault. He has never seemed 
 to them to take full advantage of the fact that 
 
Roosevelt and the Republic 131 
 
 the machine did not dare nominate anybody else, 
 and that he virtually elected himself. 
 
 "His position at the beginning of his term was 
 exceedingly strong, and he might have made it 
 impregnable. Doubtless he has meant to do so, 
 but he has not succeeded. He has rendered 
 himself liable to attacks which will not be the 
 easiest thing in the world to repel, and is now 
 forced to admit that he needs another term to 
 finish the work which his own indiscretions 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." 
 
 Certainly the Tribune was a friendly critic, 
 and nobody doubts the justice of its criticism. 
 Probably the vitriolic comment of the Nation 
 was fully warranted. Roosevelt as governor 
 was a disappointment to his most devoted ad- 
 mirers. To his opponents, he was a distinct 
 failure. Odell, Piatt's lieutenant, when finally 
 made governor, far outdid Roosevelt in per- 
 sonal independence of Piatt control. 
 
 Considering the way in which Roosevelt was 
 already enmeshed in the Piatt net, and the keen- 
 ness of his ambition for presidential honors, it is 
 probably fortunate for Roosevelt's fame that he 
 was not accorded an additional term as governor. 
 
132 Roosevelt and the Republic 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 MENACED BY THE VICE-PRESIDENCY. 
 
 Scarcely had Roosevelt disposed of the legisla- 
 ture of 1900 when he was confronted with the 
 menace of the vice-presidency. Roosevelt was 
 generally understood to have considered the 
 presidency as the ultimate goal of his ambition. 
 He had been mentioned here and there for first 
 honors. Even so, it was more than doubtful 
 whether his hour had struck. 
 
 William McKinley had been a popular presi- 
 dent, and the usual thing would be to give him a 
 re-nomination. But one danger confronted 
 President McKinley. As a rank outsider, Hanna 
 had plunged in four years before and had made 
 a president, before the men of Congress had 
 awakened to what was being done. Suave, 
 astute and winning as he was, McKinley did all 
 he could to soften the resentment which rankled 
 in congressional, especially senatorial bosoms. 
 He had succeeded to a degree. But the inner 
 Senate circle yet felt that Hanna should be dis- 
 ciplined. 
 
 Hanna did not want Roosevelt for vice-presi- 
 dent, yhat was a good reason why the senatorial 
 circle did. Hanna distrusted "the impetuous 
 young man who wanted to reform everything 
 
Roosevelt and the Republic 133 
 
 in a day." Senators Thomas C. Piatt and Mat- 
 thew Stanley Quay knew the young man better. 
 Hanna suspected Roosevelt of having his eye 
 on the presidency, and was not so certain about 
 Rooseveltian patience. Suppose Roosevelt should 
 get into the convention and decide that then was 
 the appointed time? Roosevelt's friends all over 
 the country were paying altogether too much at- 
 tention to this Rough Rider business. It worried 
 Hanna. He found no pleasure in keeping track 
 of an ambitious young politician who had as a 
 political asset a perennial circus parade. 
 
 Quay, Piatt and their friends knew Hanna's 
 fears and they demanded that Roosevelt should 
 be the nominee for the vice-presidency. They 
 had reasons beside Hanna hostility. Piatt had 
 done very well with Roosevelt thus far, but he 
 was too uncertain a quantity for a comfortable 
 executive in the domain of the "easy boss." It 
 would please his feline majesty well to maroon 
 Roosevelt for four years in the vice-presidential 
 chair. At the end of that time Roosevelt would 
 be pretty thoroughly tamed. 
 
 Consciously or unconsciously, Roosevelt 
 lent himself to the plans of Piatt and Quay. 
 He had himself made a delegate to the con- 
 vention. Coming there in Rough Rider hat 
 and the rakish dash and swagger of the regi- 
 ment, so well advertised a man as he, naturally 
 attracted attention. Roosevelt did not "shirk 
 it." Such dramatic situations are a trifle dan- 
 gerous to settled programmes when the hero 
 knows his metier and the audience is im- 
 pressionable. 
 
 % 
 
134 Roosevelt and the Republic 
 
 Secretary of the Navy John D. Long and 
 Jonathan P. Dolliver had been given free entry 
 by the machine for vice-presidential honors. 
 Either was acceptable to Hanna. Neither was 
 ready to yield to the other. Hanna was stub- 
 born ; Quay immovable. Hanna fumed and 
 fretted. Quay worked blithely confident. He 
 passed the wojd among his henchmen and 
 sprung a resolution upon the convention to 
 reduce Southern representation in future gath- 
 erings. There was clamor from Southern dele- 
 gates. 
 
 Quay let it be known that his position was 
 not irrevocably fixed in favor of the resolution 
 at that time. If the delegates would just see 
 the supreme merit of Col. Roosevelt, the gal- 
 lant Rough Rider, as a vice-presidential can- 
 didate. Quay would withdraw his resolution. 
 
 Hanna seethed, but the cool, cynical Quay 
 held his ground. He promoted gossip of a 
 movement for Roosevelt as a presidential can- 
 didate. This was taken up by Roosevelt's 
 more ardent friends. The situation was shap- 
 ing itself so that a long-continued deadlock 
 might prove dangerous to Hanna plans. 
 Pennsylvania had spoken. If necessary the 
 state of Quay might lead a revolt. 
 
 Up to this time Roosevelt had been coy. He 
 did not want the nomination. But he cir- 
 culated just the same keeping well toward the 
 center of the stage. Hanna surrendered. He 
 met with Piatt and Quay and the three sent for 
 Roosevelt. Roosevelt gracefully yielded to 
 their entreaties. It was an awful sacrifice. 
 
Roosevelt and the Republic 135 
 
 but — , He would second McKinley's nomin- 
 ation and while the ovation was still in prog- 
 ress, he would take his place upon the ticket. 
 
 The bargain was made overnight. Next 
 morning it was in the newspapers which kept 
 close touch with the situation. Roosevelt ap- 
 peared according to programme, striding to the 
 platform with Rough Rider mien, and the 
 ovation followed. His was the speech of the 
 day. He found himself on the ballot with Mc- 
 Kinley. Quay had won. 
 
 Possibly Roosevelt had also won, for he 
 expressed satisfaction as soon as it was settled 
 that he should stand for the vice-presidency. 
 There will always be room for doubt in the 
 minds of outsiders whether Roosevelt was 
 dragooned by Piatt and Quay into taking the 
 vice-presidential nomination in order to get 
 rid of him as governor of New York, or 
 whether he skillfully plotted to have it forced 
 upon him by circumstances. Either theory 
 will harmonize well with surrounding circum- 
 stances. Certainly, had Roosevelt remained 
 in Albany or at Oyster Bay, Piatt and Quay 
 would have had a much more difficult problem 
 upon their hands. Probably the fact is that 
 Roosevelt even then had in the back of his 
 head some budding hope that the presidential 
 lightning might strike him then and there, if 
 he made himself sufficiently conspicuous at the 
 convention. At least the worst that could hap- 
 pen, was becoming a vice-presidential candi- 
 date, and getting rid once for all of the per- 
 plexities of his position as governor, which to 
 
136 Roosevelt and the Republic 
 
 put it mildly, had up to that time proved many 
 and serious, as his accomplishment was dis- 
 appointing. 
 
 Such an attitude would have been quite con^ 
 sistent with Roosevelt's record as an office- 
 holder. He tired of legislative work, as soon 
 as he realized the real difficulties of the place. 
 No sooner had the civil service place ceased 
 to yield excitement than he looked for fields 
 less serene. Roosevelt's police commissioner's 
 seat got uncomfortably hot and he moved 
 on to the navy. Before he had fallen fairly 
 into the spirit of his position he was seeking 
 honors on the gory field. Soon the toys of 
 the soldier palled and he sought distinction as 
 governor. Now he was ready to make another 
 change. Roosevelt's history has proved him a 
 political climber. Position has been used as a 
 stepping stone to higher position, and he re- 
 mained upon each step only sufficiently long 
 to get a firm foothold for another move up- 
 ward. 
 
 To persons who appreciate Roosevelt's mar- 
 velous skill as a politician, it must always re- 
 main a question whether Piatt and Quay in 
 this matter of the vice-presidency made Roose- 
 velt their unwilling but lucky victim, or were 
 really his unconscious tools. 
 
 As never before in his career, Roosevelt 
 now had full opportunity to "harangue the 
 multitude" on every topic under the sun. Ac- 
 cording to the Nation this meant undiluted 
 happiness. President McKinley could not 
 make a speaking campaign. Roosevelt was 
 
Roosevelt and the Republic 137 
 
 made the mouthpiece of the administration. 
 Immediately his field of operation became na- 
 tion-wide. He dropped his work as governor. 
 There was no time for such prosaic business. 
 The presidential campaign was on at once. 
 First a Rough Riders' meeting in Texas as an 
 impressive prelude. Then speech-making tours 
 covering most of the country. Crowing over 
 the war; justifying our treachery to the Fili- 
 pinos; lauding high tariff; boasting of cur- 
 rency reform and prosperity — these were the 
 burdens of his political peans, varied a trifle 
 to suit conditions. President McKinley kept 
 a dignified silence. Roosevelt talked and 
 talked. 
 
 Campaign exigencies found Roosevelt doing 
 some interesting things. As an advertising 
 scheme certain New York newspapers viru- 
 lently assaulted the "Ice Trust." No doubt 
 the trust deserved it all, however mean and 
 sordid the motives of the attack. Charges 
 against Mayor Van Wyck and District Attor- 
 ney Gardiner developed in the course of the 
 fight. Roosevelt, who must finally pass in a 
 judicial capacity upon the cases of the mayor 
 and district attorney, prejudged both in a pub- 
 lic interview. It was prophetic of his "unde- 
 sirable citizens" declaration in the Idaho 
 assassination cases. 
 
 From far South Dakota, Roosevelt issued a 
 proclamation as governor of New York, over- 
 looking the fact that while in South Dakota 
 his gubernatorial powers were in suspense. He 
 
138 Roosevelt and the Republic 
 
 was never over nice about the legality of his 
 actions. 
 
 A conscientious civil service reformer, 
 Roosevelt had a good deal to condone in sup- 
 porting the McKinley administration. Roose- 
 velt ignored the issue. He contented himself 
 with making "Apaches and Boxers" of the Fili- 
 pinos, and in denouncing as "traitors" all those 
 who failed to take his view of imperialistic 
 expansion. Of the eighty tribes in the Philip- 
 pine Islands, he said, but two opposed their 
 subjugation by America. Air. Roosevelt ne- 
 glected to say that these two included prac- 
 tically all of the five millions of civilized na- 
 tives in the islands. There were good reasons 
 for respecting the prejudices of the polygam- 
 ous Sultan of Sulu, but the idea of Filipino 
 Christians setting up an independent republic 
 could in no wise be tolerated. 
 
 Mr. Roosevelt wanted President McKinley, 
 and incidentally, Governor Roosevelt, elected 
 as an expression of approval of the Philippine 
 war. By a lusty carnival of killing, this nation 
 must show to the world that it was not a nation 
 of hucksters. 
 
 Approval from the voters of the country in- 
 dicated that they agreed with him in his posi- 
 tion. McKinley and Roosevelt won easily. 
 Finally was Theodore Roosevelt to preside 
 over the deliberations of the grave and digni- 
 fied senators. 
 
Roosevelt and the Republic 139 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 TRAGEDY MAKES ROOSEVELT PRESIDENT. 
 
 Theodore Roosevelt enjoyed to the fullest 
 extent the elegant leisure which the vice- 
 presidency gave him. Again he turned to liter- 
 ature and hunting for outlets for his surplus 
 energy. Both gave him occasion for appear- 
 ing in print at intervals, lest the people should 
 forget. 
 
 So strong w^as the ardor of the chase upon 
 him, that Theodore Roosevelt, after the open- 
 ing of the final act in the tragedy which was 
 to place William McKinley among our presi- 
 dential martyrs, left his chief lingering be- 
 tween life and death in Buffalo, and plunged 
 into the Adirondack wilderness. There was 
 reason to believe that the nation might be left 
 without an executive. Informed persons knew 
 that the crisis of the wound had not passed. 
 Timid persons feared grave complications 
 should officers fail to locate the new president 
 and place the responsibility of affairs in his 
 hands. 
 
 With splendid recklessness, characteristic of 
 him in certain matters, Roosevelt did his ut- 
 most to cut off all communication between him 
 and the outside world. Fate, the thing which 
 
140 Roosevelt and the Republic 
 
 has fought long and mightily upon his side, 
 prevented him from losing himself as utterly 
 as he would wish. 
 
 The fact that he had tried, gave his entrance 
 upon the last and highest stage of his political 
 career, far more dramatic impressiveness than 
 it otherwise could have had. When the au- 
 dience asks itself: "Can the rescuer arrive in 
 time?" and awaits the answer breathlessly, 
 they are much more delighted to see him and 
 more likely to applaud his efifort, than they 
 would be had he hung about during the whole 
 previous act, awaiting an opportunity to take 
 part in the rescuing. President Roosevelt's 
 entrance upon the duties of the presidential 
 office lacked no element of dramatic force. 
 
 Tragic crime had cut down the man whom 
 the great bulk of Americans delighted to honor, 
 and whom many of them loved. For the time 
 the president was a demigod, the presidential 
 oflfice a fetish. Naturally the new incumbent 
 shared in the veneration. It was a most 
 auspicious beginning. With a wonderful sense 
 of what was expected of him. President Roose- 
 velt announced at the bier of his dead prede- 
 cessor, that it would be his ambition and his 
 study to carry out the policies of the distin- 
 guished public servant who had come to so 
 untimely an end. 
 
 This must have been a great sacrifice for 
 Theodore Roosevelt. It was not the first time 
 he had made such a sacrifice, and it came easier 
 to him than it would have come to most per- 
 sons with fixed convictions. President Mc- 
 
Roosevelt and the Rf:public 141 
 
 Kinley had been an extreme high-tariff man. 
 Roosevelt, once a free trader, had probably al- 
 ways leaned toward low tariff. It must have 
 irked President Roosevelt greatly to feel bound 
 to adopt a tariff policy even more extreme than 
 that of President McKinley. In his last 
 speech, President McKinley had declared for 
 reciprocity and broader foreign markets. 
 President Roosevelt has not found such a 
 policy necessary in practice. 
 
 President McKinley had dealt the merit sys- 
 tem of government appointment a staggering 
 blow. The New York Nation rightly credited 
 him with having given this particular fad the 
 worst setback it had encountered in twenty 
 years. President Roosevelt, regarded by 
 many as the only great and original civil ser- 
 vice reformer, possibly accepted this part of 
 his predecessor's policy with mental reserva- 
 tion. Mental reservation had met all of 
 Roosevelt's needs in the case of Blaine. 
 
 Ship subsidies were another legacy left to 
 Theodore Roosevelt by his predecessor. He 
 has striven faithfully, but thus far unsuccessfully 
 to execute this clause in the will of his tes- 
 tator. 
 
 Then there was "benevolent assimilation," 
 the "duty and destiny" business which the Mc- 
 Kinley administration was carrying out in the 
 Philippines through its p'ous and devoted 
 missionaries, Gen. "Hell-Roaring Jake" Smith 
 and Majors Glenn and Wilier, of watercure 
 and other fame. President Roosevelt took up 
 this work with praiseworthy enthusiasm and 
 
142 Roosevelt and the Republic 
 
 is still carrying it on. To be sure, most of 
 the pious mastication was done in the sunshine 
 of McKinley benevolence, and the assimilation 
 is always a pleasant task. 
 
 Roosevelt was called upon merely to demon- 
 strate by the might of many thousands of 
 American soldiers that unless a people is ready 
 for the most advanced type of Anglo-Saxon, 
 "democratic" Republican government, they are 
 not fit for self-government at all. Deluded 
 mortals have divided into scores of nations, 
 each is left alone, governing itself in the way 
 that suits it best. But these have missed the 
 pious masticators and "benevolent assimila- 
 tors" who speak English and rule everybody 
 they can overcome in battle — always for the 
 benefit of the person governed. To be thus 
 neglected in the divine scheme of Anglo-Saxon 
 imperialism is the misfortune of many nations. 
 Roosevelt, following McKinley, has done his 
 best to show these nations that they should 
 not try self-government at all until they are 
 rather better adapted to it than anybody else. 
 If only Roosevelt had a Taft of medicine to 
 teach the doctors before beginning practice to 
 practice as those other doctors of eminent tal- 
 ents and decades of practice; if Roosevelt 
 would only direct Elihu Root to have a law 
 that no lawyer should be admitted to the bar 
 until he was as efiicient in the law as Root 
 himself, what a wonderful bar and bench and 
 medical profession we would have! If! If! 
 There's the rul). These doctors and lawyers 
 would be no whit more wonderful than the 
 
Roosevelt and the Republic 143 
 
 nation which should become proficient in the 
 highest form of self-government through being 
 governed by an alien race. One doubts whether 
 all the rare wisdom and ability of President 
 Roosevelt will be equal to the task of accom- 
 plishing either miracle. 
 
 Having put down etlectively the "dangerous 
 elements" in 1896, and having placed the ban 
 of disapproval forever upon "dishonest money," 
 "free riot" and a number of other very wicked 
 but wholly fictitious bugbears, it was not ne- 
 cessary thereafter for the American public to 
 worry over any other sort of dishonesty in 
 business or government. A group of Wall 
 Street financial saints, with the strangest sort 
 of perversity, seemed to regard the victory of 
 1896 as their own victory. Possibly it was be- 
 cause, as the Reznezv of Reviews afterward an* 
 nounced, the campaign was financed in Wall 
 Street and conducted therefrom. The pious 
 honesty and the smug respectability secured by 
 the victory was all considered their own, just 
 as though they had purchased it with their 
 own money as they might have purchased a 
 franchise from New York, Chicago or St. 
 Louis aldermen. 
 
 The inauguration of the great and good 
 McKinley, this Wall Street group took as a 
 signal for raising the black flag of financial 
 and industrial piracy on every sea, foreign and 
 domestic, and such a carnival of loot, public 
 and private, as held sway for four or five years 
 thereafter, cannot be matched in American 
 politics. Grant's second administration would 
 
144 Roosevelt and the Republic 
 
 serve as a rival, except that the theatre was 
 much smaller and the stage setting less im- 
 pressive. 
 
 Euphonious and respectable names took the 
 ugly edge off these raids. They were "promo- 
 tions," "consolidations," "organizations," "ex- 
 pansions" of industry and a thousand and one 
 blessed things. Whether it was the looting 
 of the Postoffice Department, the purloining of 
 a franchise or a railway or the crucifying of 
 an island people fighting for their rights, a 
 sanctimonious countenance and a pious phrase 
 were always there to justify it by high and 
 holy motive. An unsympathetic foreigner 
 might have called it the apotheosis of hypoc- 
 risy, cant and villainy. But we good Ameri- 
 cans must regard it as the time of our deliv- 
 erance from uncouth, menacing and entirely 
 wicked doctrines. 
 
 Added to this, the Spanish war. like all other 
 wars, loosed restraint. Taut moral principles 
 snapped like threads. The net of conscientious 
 action hung flabbily. A twentieth century 
 community was plunged into the stone age of 
 elemental consciencelessness and ferocity. Its 
 centuries of softening civilization fell from it 
 like a cloak. 
 
 Policies which fostered such conditions were 
 the policies President Roosevelt pledged him- 
 self in Buffalo to carry out. It was not an 
 easy task he had set himself. Sorely did he 
 need to employ generously the saving mental 
 reservation. With Napoleonic stroke the 
 country had been divided into industrial prov- 
 
Roosevelt and the Republic 14^ 
 
 inces, principalities, and empires to be ruled 
 over by industrial potentates, who yearned to 
 be industrial dictators. The warring interests 
 of these must be harmonized. 
 
 President Roosevelt took hold with a vim. 
 His mental reservation as to the merit system 
 was the first to be put to use. Revenue officers 
 at Louisville and El Paso who had become too 
 thoroughly inoculated with the laxity of the 
 McKinley regime in civil service, were brought 
 up short. At the same time Roosevelt ap- 
 pointed a thoroughly disreputable Pennsyb 
 vania politician, too strong for the McKinley 
 stomach, to a responsible consulship in Can- 
 ada. As governor Roosevelt had been consid- 
 ered "easy" for the politicians. Here was like 
 weakness. Was he still to be Piatt and Quay 
 ruled? 
 
 McKinley's taking ofif and the insane burst 
 of vengeful sentiment which it engendered, 
 colored Roosevelt's first message. Because a 
 poor, deluded wretch had killed a president, 
 the spokesmen of our country were ready to 
 throw to the winds constitutional safeguards 
 fought and striven for since the time of King 
 John. President Roosevelt recommended that 
 Federal courts should be given power to deal 
 with crimes against the person of the Presi- 
 dent, or any man in the presidential succession. 
 The punishment of an attempt should be com- 
 mensurate with the "enormity" of the ofTense. 
 
 Out of the public clamor that gave rise to 
 this recommendation or at least made it op- 
 portune, he would fashion a law making crime 
 
146 Roosevelt and the Republic " 
 
 against a few Federal officers and foreign dip*' 
 lomats, different from crimes against American 
 citizens. Roosevelt may be given credit for 
 trying to embody in law the principle which 
 in Germany makes speaking disrespectful of 
 the Emperor a greater offense than killing a 
 mechanic — if the killing be done by a member 
 of the military caste. Our whole national life 
 until the administration of President McKinley 
 had been a protest against this very thing — • 
 this giving of greater rights and privileges to 
 persons in office than to persons out of office. 
 We were getting back to the precious prin- 
 ciples of Charles Stuart. 
 
 Our sapient historical statesman explained 
 the queer retrogression on the ground that the 
 attack upon the officer was an attack upon the 
 institution. They had assassins murdering the 
 presidency and the chief justiceship, rather 
 than merely killing the man who happened at 
 the time to fill the position ; although they 
 would hardly contend that the street-sweeping 
 service was murdered by the violent and 
 felonious taking off of Mike Clancy, the street- 
 sweeper. Theretofore, whether it was Mike 
 Clancy or William McKinley was killed, the 
 crime was just murder. Now one must be- 
 come regicide, a new crime in the American 
 calendar. But we would not call it by that 
 name. 
 
 Undesirable and wholly misguided citizens 
 contend that both the presidency and the su- 
 preme justiceship, as institutions of free people, 
 are murdered when their incumbents are made 
 
Roosevelt and the Republic 147 
 
 a class by themselves in the eye of the criminal 
 law. If murder of a president is different from 
 the murder of another man, they argue, then 
 the murder of any other officer of the govern- 
 ment is also different. We have a law for our 
 officers and another for ourselves. The thin 
 edge of the wedge of caste, class and privilege 
 has begun to cleave our constitution. 
 
 Our most useful citizen, it is pointed out, 
 may be given protection of the law not equal 
 to that given the proxy of a foreign potentate. 
 A queer corollary is found in the interesting 
 performance of the Joe Murrays of our public 
 service censoring the opinions of our distin- 
 guished foreigners to determine whether they 
 are not too strong for the digestion of the 
 feeble American intellect. We have freedom 
 of speech in our constitution and laws upon 
 the statute books of recent vintage which seek 
 to deny freedom of thought. It is the first 
 great triumph of the Roosevelt administration, 
 giving the government a luff toward respect- 
 ability — the respectability of king, czar and 
 emperor. 
 
 At this stage in his career, President Roose- 
 velt was a little skeptical about the "trust- 
 busting" business. He had not yet recovered 
 from the effect of the great victory. "Much 
 of the legislation directed at the trusts, he 
 said, would have been extremely mischievous 
 if it had not been entirely ineffective." Unfor- 
 tunately President Roosevelt has left us in the 
 dark as to whether this applies to the Sherman 
 anti-trust law or to the numerous state laws 
 
I48 Roosevelt and the Republic 
 
 incontinently bowled over by the Federal 
 courts. An awkward statute in Illinois, the 
 product of sinister Altgeld influences, was de- 
 clared unconstitutional because it playfully ex- 
 cluded agricultural trusts from the trusts to 
 be "busted," even though there were not then, 
 are not now and never shall be, any such com- 
 binations. 
 
 "In dealing with business interests," Mr. 
 Roosevelt very sagely remarked, "for the gov- 
 ernment to undertake by crude and ill-con- 
 sidered legislation to do what may turn out to 
 be bad, would be to incur the risk of such far- 
 reaching disaster that it would be better to do 
 nothing at all." 
 
 Still more unfortunately, Roosevelt neglected 
 to explain why crude and ill-considered legisla- 
 tion usually, as everybody knows, so 
 eminently helpful, would not do in this 
 case. Nor did he explain why it was neces- 
 sary to have the legislation crude and 
 ill-considered. But at least he has told us what 
 to avoid, a thing no legislator would for a 
 moment suspect. The strength of this prop- 
 osition is like the strength of so many of 
 Roosevelt's political propositions, in its speci- 
 ficness and helpfulness. 
 
 In this message, too, President Roosevelt 
 initiates as a policy of his administration the 
 thing which most sensible and respectable 
 people, in addition to all corporate interests, 
 have long been clamoring for: 
 
 "Therefore, in the interest of the whole 
 people, the nation should without interfering 
 
Roosevelt and the Republic 149 
 
 with the powers of the states in the matter 
 itself, also assume power of supervision and 
 regulation over all corporations doing an in- 
 terstate business." If the constitution had not 
 given power to the general government to 
 assume such supervision, Mr. Roosevelt 
 wanted the constitution amended to fit the 
 case. 
 
 Harassing doubts still perplex our statesmen 
 as to how the general government can assume 
 such regulation without interfering with the 
 power of the states. There are indications 
 that up to this time the principal business of 
 the general government, through its courts, 
 has been making ineffective the attempts of 
 states to meet this corporation problem. 
 President Roosevelt has not yet seen fit to 
 illuminate the dark places in this problem by 
 the white light of his statesmanship. There 
 are indications that his opinion has been modi- 
 fied as to the need of the general government 
 interfering with the activity of the states. 
 
 We could not expect, the President said, 
 to have the Filipinos learn in a few years what 
 required us thirty generations of practice. He 
 left us to draw our own conclusion that if we 
 were to prepare the Filipinos, we must hold 
 them in tutelage for thirty generations. That 
 may be putting it mildly, for there is a ques- 
 tion whether our leading strings will prove 
 as effective a preparation for self-government 
 as the hard knocks which a race encounters in 
 looking after its own affairs. If it should 
 prove as effective this would be the first 
 
150 Roosevelt and the Republic 
 
 instance where either an individual or a nation 
 has developed in any such way. 
 
 In fact in his first message President Roose- 
 velt ran the gamut of his policies, except as to 
 railway rate regulation. Philippines, Cuban 
 reciprocity, Chinese exclusion, big navy, im- 
 proved army and all the rest. 
 
 Tariff was treated gingerly, but the state- 
 ment in regard to it indicated that Roosevelt 
 had finally and for all time washed away the 
 taint of free trade heresy. Reciprocity must 
 be considered the handmaiden of protection; 
 duties must never fall below the difference be- 
 tween labor cost here and in Europe. 
 
 The handmaiden has been since left in lonely 
 isolation. Roosevelt evidently believes in a 
 generous margin for difference in labor cost. 
 Some of Roosevelt's former associates, the 
 foolish and impracticable free traders, boldly 
 contend that the American laborer does more 
 for the money he receives than does any 
 European laborer. If Roosevelt's rule was 
 put in practice, the tariff tax would be a 
 minus quantity upon all competing goods. No- 
 body is recorded as having seen President 
 Roosevelt wink when he wrote this recom- 
 mendation. 
 
Roosevelt and the Republic 151 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 RACE PROBLEMS CONFRONT ADMINISTRATION. 
 
 Race problems met President Roosevelt at 
 the threshold of his administration. Scarcely 
 had he warmed his White House seat when 
 Booker Washington, the negro educator, be- 
 came his dinner guest. Floodgates of race 
 prejudices were opened and torrents came 
 forth. 
 
 President Roosevelt's motives cannot be sus- 
 pected. Nobody will deny his right to choose 
 his guests. This incident helped in no way 
 the solution of the race problem. It hampered 
 Roosevelt mightily thereafter in dealing with 
 the South. 
 
 Democracy had no part in President Roose- 
 velt's decision to make Booker Washington his 
 guest. As a matter of fact the invitation was, 
 no doubt, extended without taking thought of 
 consequences. As President Roosevelt sees it, 
 neither negroes nor any other human beings 
 take part in government as a right. It is a 
 privilege handed down by their betters. This 
 creed has been reiterated so often that it is 
 unnecessary to refer to specific quotations. 
 
 Holding this notion in common, probably 
 drew Roosevelt and Booker Washington to- 
 
152 Roosevelt and the Republic 
 
 gether. Washington would make his people 
 free and self-respecting by "keeping them out 
 of politics" and teaching them trades. Roose- 
 velt likes that plan. At some future time we 
 may have a race of colored people satisfied 
 and prosperous as well fed oxen. 
 
 Since the Booker Washington incident, 
 President Roosevelt has managed to keep the 
 race problem pretty well stirred up, South and 
 North. The Indianola post-office incident was 
 quite as offensive to Southern people as the 
 Booker Washington incident. It also offended 
 other persons who believe that in America no 
 officer should be forced upon a community 
 against its will. As a corollary to the notion 
 that participation in politics is a privilege and 
 not a right of the citizen. President Roosevelt 
 holds that citizens have no right to say who 
 shall become their public servants. 
 
 Perversely enough, this Mississippi com- 
 munity had a choice as to its postmaster, and 
 expressed the choice in a way more forcible 
 than diplomatic. Such impudence in the gov- 
 erned class must not go unpunished. It was 
 the will of the President that these people 
 must be served in their postoffice by this par- 
 ticular colored woman, well, just because he 
 willed it that way. To punish them for setting 
 their own puny wishes against his royal will. 
 President Roosevelt closed up the postoffice 
 and obliged the community to send thirty miles 
 for its mail. The community thought that 
 action illegal, autocratic, tyrannical, but that 
 .was because of excited imagination. It was a 
 
Roosevelt and the Republic 153 
 
 salutary lesson for the recalcitrant governed 
 class. 
 
 Very similar was the Crum case in South 
 Carolina. President Roosevelt with nice dis- 
 crimination picked a negro for a place in a 
 community where he knew it would give a 
 maximum of offense. He chose a position 
 where negro officiousness would have a par- 
 ticularly irritating influence upon white men. 
 This negro was the only negro of importance 
 to whom President Roosevelt at that time had 
 given office in the South. It would have been 
 as well to have left the slate white from top to 
 bottom. But he wanted to make an instance. 
 
 With the infinite bulldog stubbornness which 
 President Roosevelt displays when he knows 
 he is wrong, he clung to this appointment. 
 Under the constitution, confirmation by the 
 Senate is as necessary to make a valid appoint- 
 ment, as the nomination by the President. It 
 is part of the constitutional process of ap- 
 pointment for places requiring Senate confirma- 
 tion. When the Senate rejects, a president 
 who obeys the constitution nominates another 
 man. When the appointee fails of nomination 
 and his appointment lapses, it is a violation of 
 the constitution and an insult to a co-ordinate 
 branch to renew the appointment. But con- 
 stitutional provisions do not apply to Presi- 
 dent Roosevelt. Any administration news- 
 paper will demonstrate that. Some way or 
 other this confirmation by the Senate is sup- 
 posed to be a mere formality, although the 
 constitution-makers looked upon it as a most 
 
154 Roosevelt and the Republic 
 
 important thing. Presidents are supposed to 
 know personally thirty or forty thousand ap- 
 plicants for seven or eight thousand places, or 
 to get information about them from politicians 
 coming from the locality of the applicant. 
 It would be a great crime to let a senator or 
 a congressman pass upon the qualification — a 
 violation of the president's "prerogative." 
 Roosevelt stuck to his "prerogative" and fritted 
 away much of the surplus executive force and 
 influence in a struggle of which he alone ap- 
 preciated the use or meaning. 
 
 On the other side of the account was the dis- 
 charge of Brownsville troops. Somebody 
 shot up a Texas town. The troops could 
 not or would not tell an army investigator the 
 details or give the names of the guilty ones. 
 Very well, they would talk ! President Roose- 
 velt summarily discharged the whole battalion. 
 There was no very convincing evidence that 
 any person in the battalion had taken part in 
 the "shooting up." There was no charge that 
 more than an insignificant number took part. 
 Peace reigned supreme throughout the land. 
 There were plenty of idle officers and any 
 amount of time to find the guilty ones. Mili- 
 tary procedure had provided orderly methods 
 for reaching such results. But President 
 Roosevelt decided that the innocent should 
 suffer with the guilty. If they could not con- 
 vict the real culprits, so much the worse for 
 those who had nothing to do with the case. 
 Men who had given their lives to the service 
 of their country in the ranks of the soldiery 
 
Roosevelt and the Republic 155 
 
 and had served faithfully and w^ell, were dis- 
 missed "v/ithout honor" and with a reprimand, 
 and their re-enlistment or civil employment by 
 the government forbidden. 
 
 When the storm came, President Roosevelt 
 found precedent, war precedent. Lincoln was 
 the offender. There are some clever military 
 lawyers on President Roosevelt's staff. 
 
 In a speech, we think it was at Springfield, 
 111., in 1903, President Roosevelt said : "A man 
 who is good enough to shed his blood for his 
 country is good enough to be given a square 
 deal afterwards. More than that no man is 
 entitled to, less than that no man shall have." 
 This was before the Brownsville affair. , 
 
 "In many cases of lynch law which have 
 come to my knowledge, the effect has been 
 healthy," etc. (Winning of the West, page 
 172.) Probably the President made up his 
 mind that this was a case for official -lynching. 
 This is one method of increasing respect for 
 law — '"orderly liberty," as Roosevelt is dis- 
 posed to designate it. ! 
 
 Democrats of the South applauded. The 
 bolt had fallen upon a despised race. Such 
 democrats make autocracy popular. Negroes, 
 however, seem quite unable to forgive Browns- 
 ville. They have been the victims of unof- 
 ficial lawlessness so long that it frightens them 
 to see official lawlessness added thereto. Even 
 negroes are capable of learning by experience. 
 
156 Roosevelt and the Republic 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 PRESIDENT TAKES UP REFORM. 
 
 In a half score of the states there was per- 
 nicious activity against industrial and trans- 
 portation combinations. Ohio, Texas, Illinois, 
 Washington, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, 
 Kansas, and other states, populist-tainted, were 
 determined to check the carnival of loot. Al- 
 ready the great public were showing signs of 
 revulsion. 
 
 Sensational papers had flayed the packing in- 
 terests, bringing out the same facts that came 
 to light years afterward in the Garfield report. 
 The investigator failed to ascertain, as Mr. 
 Garfield did, that the plethoric millions of the 
 Armours and other great packers had been 
 garnered from a modest two per cent, profit. 
 Their reports did not leave one in perplexing 
 doubt as to whether the packers were exploit- 
 ers or benefactors in disguise. 
 
 S. R. Van Sant, of Minnesota, then governor 
 of the state, inspired, it is said, by powerful 
 rival interests, had gone after the Northern 
 Securities merger. Washington State was 
 also hot upon the trail. After these two com- 
 monwealths had prepared public sentiment and 
 made absolutely unmistakable the popularity 
 
Roosevelt and the Republic 15^ 
 
 of such a move, Philander Knox, President 
 Roosevelt's attorney general, inherited from 
 President McKinley, took up the fight. Presi- 
 dent Roosevelt could not afford to embark in 
 any plan of this sort without in advance mak- 
 ing sure of public approval. 
 
 About the same time he began his assault 
 upon the unpopular packing interests. In both 
 cases the government v^on. Just w^hat it won 
 might be made plain to a technical lawyer. In 
 speaking to the public it is best to say that 
 the government won a victory. This victory 
 was not intrusive. It did not prevent the 
 merger, nor make less the price of beef. In 
 fact the merger has been a hard fact in the 
 Northwest since those days in 1901 when the 
 Hill-Morgan interests gained control of the 
 Northern Pacific and the Burlington railways. 
 It was as hard a fact after the government vic- 
 tory as before. Now it is as hard a fact as it 
 was before the government brought its suit. 
 
 Beef prices have been going up to the con- 
 sumer and down to the farmer for lo ! these 
 many years. They went on as steadily and un- 
 interruptedly after Mr. Knox had enjoined them 
 as before. Still Mr. Knox's victory was a great 
 triumph for the administration. The merger 
 decision established a recondite legal theory so 
 occult as to divide the experts of the Supreme 
 Court, that the holding company way of merg- 
 ing railways is an illegal way. Very well, the 
 railway people merged in a way not yet de- 
 cided illegal. There are more ways than one 
 of "skinning a cat." As to results, the rose is 
 
158 Roosevelt and the Republic 
 
 just as sweet by any other name, the merger 
 just as profitable by any other title or no title 
 at all as by the title of the "Northern Se- 
 curities Company," In the same way the 
 "Beef Trust" case established theoretically that 
 the labor-shackling injunction may be used to 
 threaten the manufacturer. This lesson, no 
 doubt, is worth the advanced price paid by the 
 public for its meats. 
 
 Postoffice affairs had grown odorously 
 rank. Tulloch made definite charges of wrong- 
 doing. Roosevelt's postmaster general sneered 
 at them. When they could no longer be sup- 
 pressed or blinked, their investigation was 
 taken up. A few men, mostly small men, suf- 
 fered, and suffered justly. One James N. 
 Tyner, bowed down by the infirmities of age, 
 acquitted by the courts, was pursued to his 
 grave by the implacable vengeance of the 
 President. 
 
 There were grave abuses in the Postoffice 
 Department, such as scandalous overpayment 
 for mail service, but these were not touched 
 at all. On the contrary, the activities of the 
 Postofifice Department were turned to the cen- 
 soring of literature and the suppression 
 through postal discrimination, of publications 
 not meeting the approval of Roosevelt's 
 bureaucrats. 
 
 The chief instrument of the postal dis- 
 closures. Assistant Postmaster General Bris- 
 tow, was shunted off to Panama as an easy 
 step in the descent to obscurity. 
 
Roosevelt and the Republic 159 
 
 CHAPTER XVIL 
 
 ROOSEVELT CAPTURES A CANAL SITE. 
 
 Isthmian canal was one of the interesting 
 legacies that came to President Roosevelt. 
 Secretary of State Hay, also a legacy, had dug 
 up, somewhere in the files of his department, 
 an obsolete and lapsed treaty manufactured for 
 some obscure reason a half-century before and 
 known as the Clayton-Bulwer treaty. This 
 treaty gave the good Mr. Hay an excuse for 
 asking his friend John Bull if he would 
 graciously give Uncle Sam permission to dig a 
 canal at Uncle Sam's expense in territory 
 with which John Bull had no earthly concern, 
 provided Uncle Sam would bear the cost of 
 maintenance and give John Bull more benefit 
 of the canal than Uncle Sam got himself. 
 
 It was really a daring thing for Mr. Hay 
 to ask his British friend for such self-sacrifice, 
 he who had been so clamorously our friend 
 in the Spanish-American war. True, we had 
 paid him by our moral support in snuffing out 
 the Boer republics. This moral support had 
 been extended under President Roosevelt to 
 making United States territory a, recruiting 
 ground for British military trains. The United 
 States was then in the same business of de- 
 
i6o Roosevelt and the Republic 
 
 stroying republics and acquiring territory by 
 sword might. By a "gentleman's" understand- 
 ing each was to look the other way so as not 
 to see things not intended for him. What 
 Kitchener was doing with Boer non-com- 
 batants might not look well to Americans who 
 had found so much that was monstrous in 
 Weyler's reconcentration camps. This gov- 
 ernment, as any polite gentleman would do, 
 engaged to see that its children did not look 
 through the cracks in the British fence and 
 see the demonstrations. On the other hand, 
 the British government was to keep British 
 subjects from prying into the actions of Gen. 
 Jacob Smith, with the Stygian appellation, or 
 of Major Waller or Major Glenn of water 
 cure fame. i 
 
 British tories and Mr. Hay had a perfect un- 
 derstanding, but it might be well that some 
 tangible evidence be given to the world of this 
 entente cordiale. What better opportunity? 
 Mr. Hay bowed politely to his friend : "Will 
 you permit me, my dear." 
 
 John Bull was never known to permit any- 
 thing unless there was something in it for 
 him. Nothing ever took place in this world 
 that this supreme meddler among peoples did 
 not consider especially his affair. The less he 
 has to do about it, the more, seemingly, he 
 wants to say about it. He could not think of 
 having his cousin Jonathan build that canal if 
 it were not for their great friendship. But 
 seeing it was a case of fast friends, if Jonathan 
 would only give some concessions about New 
 
Roosevelt and the Republic i6l 
 
 Foundland fisheries, give John a strip of the 
 Alaskan coast, make the canal neutral by sanc- 
 tion of the powers, and give foreigners more 
 rights than Americans, John might see his v^^ay 
 clear to do it. Always seeing it's you. 
 
 John Hay, the great diplomat, the wonder- 
 ful diplomat,* actually in his (Hay-Paunce- 
 fote) treaty got the permission of Great Britain 
 to do a thing Great Britain had not the slight- 
 est interest in, and which anybody less punctil- 
 lious about the feelings of friends, would not 
 have asked about at all. As the sequel shows, 
 there was not such tenderness about the rights 
 of Colombia, but in the language of Kipling, 
 "that is another story." 
 
 Some strange acrobatic feats have been per- 
 formed in connection with the canal. A mil- 
 lion-dollar commission was at first pretty cer- 
 tain that Nicaragua was the place to build it. 
 Under the persuasion of the highly eloquent 
 French owners of the Panama concession and 
 a collection of machinery rapidly being trans- 
 formed into Panama junk, it decided later that 
 Panama was really the only place. This Pan- 
 ama Canal Company had long since given up 
 all hope of building the Panama canal. Its 
 franchises had lapsed. Tropical rains and 
 tropical vegetation were rapidly destroying the 
 
 *We recognize fully the sterling worth 
 of John Hay as a man, but in our judgment, 
 with the exception of his insistance upon the 
 integrity of China, his diplomacy was a series 
 of embarrassing, if not humiliating blunders. 
 
i62 Roosevelt and the Republic 
 
 appearance of value in the machinery accum- 
 ulated and abandoned on the isthmus. When 
 America began to talk canal seriously, the 
 moribund Panama company showed new signs 
 of life. It got a sort of New York transit com- 
 pany extension of franchise from some claim- 
 ant to authority in Colombia who was willing 
 for a price to sell what did not belong to him. 
 Then the Panama company came to the United 
 States with its shady franchise and its worth- 
 less junk. 
 
 "Colombia can eliminate the French com- 
 pany at pleasure," said the Reviczv of Reviews 
 in April, 1902. "The alleged extension of fran- 
 chises under which the company claims its 
 present rights, seems not to have been granted 
 in a legal way." That was certainly putting it 
 mildly. 
 
 Congress was unanimous for the Nicaragua 
 route, and the House passed a measure author- 
 izing the President to build a canal through 
 Nicaragua. Panama lobbyists had more in- 
 fluence with the Senate. President Roosevelt 
 became convinced that Panama junk was 
 worth $40,000,000. As a football the thing 
 was tossed about Congress for a session. A 
 villainous lobby swarmed in Washington and 
 some of its minions got extremely close to 
 some of the departments. Finally that great 
 patriot. Senator John C. Spooner of Wiscon- 
 sin, found a way out. Congress abdicated and 
 left the whole matter in the hands of the presi- 
 dent. It was a way easy, as it was cowardly, 
 of dodging responsibility. Also an eminently 
 
Roosevelt and the Republic 163 
 
 effective way of betraying the interests of the 
 people of the United States, who commission 
 a Congress to look after the important affairs 
 of the country, instead of turning them over to 
 an executive dictator and his serviceable 
 bureaucrats. 
 
 To be sure, the Spooner act attempted to 
 limit within very broad bounds the discretion 
 of the executive. It provided for a commis- 
 sion of seven to look after the details of the 
 work. President Roosevelt in this as in other 
 cases, did not permit himself to be unduly 
 hampered by laws, constitutional or statutory. 
 That is one of his great qualities. While he is 
 president it is unnecessary for any other au- 
 thority to change in any manner the constitu- jV, 
 tion or the laws of the country. Executive 
 orders are more prompt, more effective and 
 more available for putting in force the supreme 
 will of the president. 
 
 By the Spooner act the President was 
 authorized to buy the assets of the New 
 French Panama Canal Company on the isth- 
 mus for $40,000,000, and to negotiate with the 
 Republic of Colombia for a canal strip at the 
 best obtainable terms. Should he fail to make 
 terms with Colombia or to get satisfactory 
 title from the French Company, he was to con- 
 struct the canal at Nicaragua. 
 
 There was opposition to this law in the Sen- 
 ate. Morgan of Alabama, stuck to Nicaragua, 
 Congress' first love. Panama interests saw to 
 it that Morgan left the head of the Senate 
 Committee having this business in charge. 
 
164 Roosevelt and the Republic 
 
 They wanted a clean man, a man fully conver- 
 sant with Wall street business ethics — this 
 without the least disparagement to the vener- 
 able Alabama senator. Senator Marcus A. 
 Hanna was selected for the place. Senator 
 Hanna gave the Senate the benefit of his dis- 
 covery. He had learned upon unimpeachable 
 evidence that should the canal be constructed 
 at Nicaragua, it would surely be destroyed by 
 earthquake. True, Panama made the distance 
 to the Pacific hundreds of miles further; its 
 belt of calms would make the canal useless 
 for all time for sailing vessels ; it had a climate 
 which meant liberal death toll and additional 
 millions for sanitation, — but we must dodge 
 those earthquakes. Mount Pelee and Mar- 
 tinique, argued for Hanna. 
 
 "It is natural," said the Review of Reviews 
 in February, 1903, "that there should be strong 
 pressure brought to bear on our government 
 to conclude any sort of arrangement with 
 Colombia by the various interests, legal, jour- 
 nalistic and otherwise, that are serving the 
 cause of the French Company that expects to 
 get $40,000,000 in cash out of the United States 
 Treasury to pay for assets of an abandoned 
 enterprise and for franchises which on their 
 face were non-transferable, and which had ex- 
 pired some time ago, although renewed for a 
 short term by means that would hardly bear 
 investigation. . . . It is a relief to turn 
 from the Panama scheme which suggests in- 
 finite confusion, if not infinite lobbying and 
 
Roosevelt and the Republic 165 
 
 corruption," etc. (Commenting on the Te- 
 huantepec railway of Mexico.) 
 
 At that time the Review of Reviews con- 
 tended that the President could afford to wait 
 until a correct solution of the problem could 
 be found. "A right solution is far more to be 
 desired than a prompt one." 
 
 With the casting out of Senator Morgan and 
 the installation of Senator Hanna at the head 
 of canal affairs in the Senate, everything began 
 to run smoothly for the Panama company. 
 Congress, as related above, turned a back- 
 somersault following the canal commission. 
 Roosevelt wanted to buy the Panama junk. 
 Only an arrangement with Colombia stood in 
 the way of giving the suave French gentle- 
 men and their American representatives of the 
 "Third House" $40,000,000, good American dol- 
 lars, for something of small value to anybody. 
 If the United States has realized $5,000,000 
 from its Panama purchase there is nothing on 
 record to indicate that fact. 
 
 There was a question as to title, and Mr. 
 Philander Knox, the astute attorney general, 
 decided that the Panama company could give 
 good title "to the property of that company" 
 upon the isthmus. In other words, it could 
 give title to any property to which it might 
 have had title. This was Mr. Knox's quaint 
 way of putting it. 
 
 Having been given permission by Great 
 Britain, Mr. Hay commenced negotiations with 
 Colombia for a final arrangement. No great 
 difficulty was found in dealing with Mr. Her- 
 
i66 Roosevelt and the Republic 
 
 ran. Things Panaman thrived like a green 
 bay tree, in the atmosphere of Washington. 
 Uncle Sam had lots of money. Colombia was 
 to get $10,000,000 for its right of way. The 
 Panama company was to get four times that 
 sum for its junk, and no embarrassing scrutiny 
 of title or values. 
 
 Just at that time, unfortunately for Colom- 
 bia, Panama interests were not so well repre- 
 sented in that little state. Finding everything 
 so highly satisfactory at Washington, Panama 
 interests seem to have neglected the South 
 American end. For ten millions of dollars, 
 Colombia, as the treaty provided, was to give 
 the United States control of a strip of land 
 six miles wide from ocean to ocean, except for 
 certain purposes. The United States agreed 
 to pay a perpetual rental of $250,000 a year. 
 There were those who thought the arrange- 
 ment over-favorable to Colombia. The Review 
 of Reviews, certainly not lacking in loyal sup- 
 port to the administration, complained in this 
 wise : 
 
 "When one protests against this sort of 
 thing" (permitting Colombia to have sover- 
 eignty over the canal strip) "at Washington, 
 one is told rather cynically that we do not 
 really mean it, but that this gives us a foot- 
 hold, and that once down there at work, we 
 shall gradually improve our advantages and 
 usurp what we may need." Thus at that time 
 we had the honorable intentions of making a 
 treaty with Colombia in order to break it. 
 
 Colombia upset all calculations. With crim- 
 
Roosevelt and the Republic 167 
 
 inal perversity the little state decided that since 
 the Panama Canal Company had permitted its 
 franchise to lapse, the company had no interest 
 in the canal except to dispose of its junk. 
 Colombia objected to the Panama Company 
 receiving pay for franchises which belonged 
 to the Colombian people. If any one was to 
 have the big end of the purse so recklessly 
 bestowed by the Yankees, Colombia ought to 
 have it. Herran's agreement was rejected, and 
 Colombia prepared to take steps formally to 
 annul the franchises, or rather formally to de- 
 clare that they had lapsed. 
 
 According to the Reviezv of Reviews, Francis 
 B. Loomis, assistant secretary of state, in a 
 "remarkable" address before the Quill Club of 
 New York, justifying Roosevelt's coup, de- 
 clared that Colombia's motive in rejecting the 
 Hay-Herran treaty was "to gain time in order 
 to nullify the French franchise, appropriate 
 the assets of the company, and sell the canal 
 on its own account to the United States." 
 
 Loud was the hungry voice of Panama in 
 protest. It was indistinguishable from the 
 voice of the administration in Washington. A 
 most iniquitous thing was it for Colombia to 
 try to save for its people the value of the canal 
 franchise. Indignation deep and righteous as 
 that of Wall street saints over political and 
 financial iniquity spread over official America. 
 Colombia wanted just a bribe. It had no gov- 
 ernment anyway. Great was the infamy of 
 the men who wanted for wicked Colombia 
 rather than for the pious Panama Company, 
 
i68 Roosevelt and the Republic 
 
 the plethoric Yankee millions. Colombia did 
 not know its opportunity. It had let it slip. 
 
 In its simplicity Congress suggested turning 
 to Nicaragua, as the President had been in- 
 structed to do should such a situation arise. 
 There was plenty of time. If terms could not 
 be made for the Nicaragua route, Colombia 
 and the Panama company might be left to fight 
 it out. When they had done, the United States 
 might make its bargain. It could not do worse 
 than it was doing at any rate. Panama junk 
 would be worth less next year or the next, 
 
 "The special opportunity," said the Review 
 of Reviews, "of the Panama movement lay in 
 the powerful support in the United States and 
 France of the Panama Canal Company, which 
 had already made a conditional sale of its 
 assets to the government." 
 
 With strange prevision, the Reznetv of Re- 
 views, notoriously close to the administration 
 and sharing administration secrets, told in its 
 issue for November, 1903, the story of the 
 Panama revolution, which took place after the 
 magazine had gone to subscribers. This story 
 was circumstantial, and missed no essential 
 detail. To be sure, it was forecast, but it 
 made the writer a prophet or a sharer of ad- 
 ministration secrets denied the general public, 
 Panama, it was hinted, might revolt. The 
 United States might support it. Panama 
 might give authority to dig the canal and take 
 the Yankee millions. More Yankee millions 
 might in that way find a lodging place in the 
 
IIooseve:lt and the Republic 169 
 
 hands of the good and patriotic Panama com- 
 pany. 
 
 Panama took advantage of the condition. A 
 handful of Panama company agents, said to 
 have been paid Hberally for their activity, 
 raised the standard of revolt. One of the num- 
 ber "confessed" at a later date and told of the 
 generous thousands of Panama cash that 
 served as the life-blood of this uprising. 
 Bunau Varilla, agent, promoter and lobbyist 
 of the Panama company, was made diplomatic 
 agent of the Panama Junta. Lawyer William 
 Cromwell, lobbyist, legal adviser and stock- 
 holder of the Panama company, became a con- 
 fidential adviser of the Washington adminis- 
 tration in Panama business. 
 
 November 3, 1903, the standard of revolt 
 was raised. American warships immediately 
 guarded the isthmus from both sides. Good 
 Mr. Hay, who had so politely asked England's 
 permission to build the canal, forgot that 
 Colombia had any interest at all. Panama 
 was recognized as a new nation November 6. 
 Immediately an insurrectionary Junta was on 
 its way to Washington to sign a treaty offen- 
 sive and defensive for the new republic, and 
 sell canal concessions. 
 
 Suddenly it became important to keep traffic 
 open on the isthmus. American warships con- 
 fronted Colombia when she talked of putting 
 down the insurrection. The old treaty, of 
 1846, made by Colombia with the undoubted 
 intention of insuring Colombia peaceful pos- 
 session of the isthmus, was with gravely judi- 
 
170 Roosevelt and the Republic 
 
 cious countenance twisted about to mean that 
 it gave the right to the United States to ex- 
 clude Colombia. That is, we said with a smile 
 and with a wink scarcely perceptible, that a 
 sovereign state had made a treaty with us by 
 implication abdicating its sovereignty. This 
 was not Great Britain with a big, ugly navy, 
 but poor little Colombia. The wolf licked his 
 chops and winked. "This lamb made a treaty 
 with me permitting me to bite off its left hind 
 leg. It became my duty to bite off the leg 
 for the benefit of the lamb, and I did it out of 
 consideration for her." 
 
 When Colombia got ready to whip the hand- 
 ful of Panama company employees and adven- 
 turers into subjection, she looked into Yankee 
 rifles. 
 
 "Sorry," said the polite Mr. Roosevelt, "but 
 Panama is a sovereign state under a treaty of 
 alliance with us, offensive and defensive. Its 
 patriots are now enjoying their reward in an- 
 ticipation of the ten milHons I am about to 
 give them for making my pathway smooth 
 across the isthmus. Monsieur Varilla, Mr. 
 Cromwell, and their high-minded friends, look 
 forward with serene confidence to the posses- 
 sion of forty millions of good Yankee dollars, 
 representing lapsed franchises, a pile of 
 selected junk, a personally conducted revolu- 
 tion, a Junta treaty, and an infinite amount of 
 skillful lobbying and greasing of ways. It is a 
 closed incident. Your property ! Receiving 
 stolen goods ! Abetting a robber and sharing 
 his plunder! Why, my dear Colombia. You 
 
Roosevelt and the Republic 171 
 
 talk as though the decalogue had a place in in- 
 ternational affairs. Don't you know, Miss 
 Colombia, that in this business we act in — 
 
 "The good old way and simple plan, 
 
 "That he shall take who has the power, 
 
 "And he shall keep who can." 
 
 In fact it was a closed incident. "The more 
 the matter was considered, the more plain be- 
 came the fact that everybody who wanted the 
 Isthmian Canal dug would have to support 
 the policy of the administration," said the Re- 
 view of Reviews. In a later issue it hurled 
 defiance in this wise: 
 
 "It is enough to say that the course was 
 one for which the government is ready to as- 
 sume responsibility in the face of all comers." 
 
 Mr. Roosevelt could hardly have phrased it 
 better. "What are you going to do about it?" 
 
 To be sure, the treaty was to be ratified. 
 An enlightened claque— the same that "had 
 brought strong pressure upon the government 
 to buy the assets of an abandoned enterprise 
 and the privilege of franchises on their face 
 non-transferable, and v/hich had long since 
 lapsed" — this enlightened claque vociferously 
 demanded the ratification of the treaty. 
 
 President Roosevelt is nothing if not prac- 
 tical. To the question is it right he gave 
 the convincing retort: "We have the power. 
 This canal will be a wonderful thing for the 
 country, especially the South." 
 
 Such pure unsullied patriots as Francis B. 
 Loomis, later of Venezuela asphalt fame, went 
 forth to demonstrate to the public the high 
 
iy2 Roosevelt and the Republic 
 
 ethical ground of the administration in this 
 business. With such a sponsor, there could 
 be no suspicion of wrong. 
 
 It was a ninety day sensation. Democratic 
 Congressional leaders, as usual, got their price, 
 a miserable mess of pottage, for their consti- 
 tuents in canal value, especially to the Gulf 
 states. This was far more important to the 
 country than law, manhood, conscience, right. 
 Territorial buccaneering was canonized as a 
 pious thing, and became a most righteous 
 piece of gentlemanly appropriation. Raffles 
 could have had no higher motive. 
 
 Every patriotic — and credulous — person 
 must accept the righteous good faith of our 
 government in this transaction. W'e must be- 
 lieve perforce that the programme told in ad- 
 vance by administration friends, carried out to 
 the letter by administration friends with the full 
 and active support of the administration, was 
 a movement springing spontaneously from a 
 different and an independent source. Follow- 
 ing the rejection of the treaty, the revolution 
 was only a coincidence. It was only a coinci- 
 dence that America's government was ready 
 to support it with ships and marines ; only a 
 coincidence that the ships and the marines 
 were there ready for the work ; only a 
 coincidence that Bunau Varilla, the agent for 
 the Panama company, was the representative 
 at Washington of the new Panama govern- 
 ment; only a coincidence that he and his new 
 nation were recognized immediately by our 
 State Department; only a coincidence that 
 
Roosevelt and the Republic 173 
 
 William Cromwell, attorney and promoter of 
 the Panama company, was adviser of our gov- 
 ernment. All these things get further integrity 
 as coincidences by later stories of those who 
 took part in the revolution, to the effect that 
 they had an assurance in advance of support 
 from this government, and were paid hand- 
 somely for their activity in the uprising. It 
 all just happened luckily for our government 
 by a sort of special providence, the special 
 providence which looks after the especially 
 righteous ones who could not on any account 
 have guilty knowledge or give guilty support 
 to any enterprise. Even though it may appear 
 piratical the thing was most proper and 
 righteous. 
 
 Unquestionably the thing looks probable — • 
 more probable than some of the tales of the 
 truthful Munchausen. A specially high- 
 minded government was not supposed to know 
 what influences were at work in Washington. 
 How could a man like Francis B. Loomis 
 recognize the spoor of the "unclean beast" 
 making smooth the path of Panama? 
 
 "This belligerent, or more properly speak- 
 ing, piratical way of looking at neighboring 
 territory, was very characteristic of the West, 
 and was the root of manifest destiny." 
 (Roosevelt's Life of Benton, page 16.) 
 
 In ■" '^ case, frontiersmen were encroaching 
 as settlers upon practically uninhabited con- 
 tiguous Spanish territory. Piracy to be sure ! 
 The rape of Panama was therefore "manifest 
 destiny." 
 
174 Roosevelt and the Republic 
 
 "The general feeling of the West afterward 
 crystalized into what became known as the 
 "manifest destiny" idea, which reduced to its 
 simplest terms was : That it was our manifest 
 destiny to swallow up the land of all adjoining 
 nations that were too weak to Avith stand us ; 
 a theory that forthwith obtained immense 
 popularity with all statesmen of easy inter- 
 national morality." (Roosevelt's Life of Ben- 
 ton, page 40.) 
 
 Statesmen of easy international morality 
 evidently were not confined to Benton's time, 
 nor to the West. 
 
 Colombia missed its pocketbook and its back 
 lot. If it had been an individual, it would 
 have been robbery. The offense was expiated 
 somewhat by passing the plunder over to the 
 good Panama company and its tools of the 
 isthmus. America showed that it was ready 
 to take its own medicine. The process of 
 retribution is still going on. Before the big 
 ditch is finished we will have spent as much 
 thereon as it would require to build and equip 
 two double-tracked lines of railway from the 
 Atlantic to the Pacific coast. But since this 
 might induce a rational solution of the railway 
 problem and develop millions of acres of 
 American land, and build millions of Ameri- 
 can homes, it would have been very wicked. 
 The government can only engage in water 
 transportation problems, where the benefit may 
 accrue to the whole world, but more par- 
 ticularly to nations like Great Britain, with 
 great merchant fleets. Then we could not 
 
Roosevelt and the Republic 175 
 
 transport our big battleships upon the railway, 
 and above all things we must remain armed 
 to the teeth. Probably half a century hence 
 the canal may have some important influence 
 upon American transportation problems. 
 
 Sapient engineers who showed such agility 
 in turning somersaults upon the proposition 
 of locating the canal, seem to have been quite 
 as accurate in its estimates. It was to cost 
 $134,000,000, and several dollars and several 
 cents. It was all figured down to 23-100 of a 
 dollar. Not a cent more, not a cent less. Now 
 we are told by equally good authority — the 
 engineers in charge, that it will cost $300,- 
 000,000. This time the cents have been neg- 
 lected. The estimate is not final. 
 
 Given carte blanc to construct the canal, 
 Roosevelt has plunged into the task with 
 characteristic modesty. This is the one enter- 
 prise on earth where no mistakes have been 
 made — by the administration. Critics who 
 have found defects are mendacious carpers. 
 Roosevelt's portly friend of the War Depart- 
 ment says so. 
 
 Roosevelt has refused to be hampered in this 
 afiair. When he got tired of the commission 
 provided by Congress, he just discharged the 
 commission, installed nominal successors — for 
 Roosevelt always wants to be within the law 
 — and placed the power in the hands of a com- 
 mission of his own under the attractive appella- 
 tion of an executive committee. This commit- 
 tee quit. In Theodore P. Shonts that was con- 
 sidered entirely within his discretion. He was 
 
176 Roosevelt and the Republic 
 
 treated pleasantly. J. F. Wallace, chief en- 
 gineer, quit the place a traitor. Roosevelt's 
 portly secretary told him plainly the enormity 
 of his offense. Wallace was obliged to listen. 
 So great was Wallace's offense that the admin- 
 istration would not touch the tainted informa- 
 tion which he was willing to give. Wallace 
 must be made an example for all time. There 
 are those who regard Wallace entirely within 
 his rights in quitting the canal, just as Roose- 
 velt was within his rights in quitting the Navy 
 Department when he did. As to the question 
 of patriotism, carping critics raise it in each 
 case. 
 
 When Chief Engineer Stevens got enough 
 of the big ditch, he was treated something like 
 a human being, with the right of directing his 
 own activities and his fortunes. By his 
 resignation, he probably brought so strongly 
 to light as to defeat the plan a proposition by 
 which such men as Thomas F. Ryan were to 
 get some millions out of the canal as nominal 
 contractors, whose duty it was to look on 
 while government employees superintended 
 and planned the work, and the government 
 financed it. 
 
 Changes in personnel and executive organ- 
 ization have followed one another with 
 kaleidoscopic rapidity — all in the interest of 
 efficient administration. No mistakes have 
 been made. After \\'allace had refused to 
 sacrifice his wife and family to the Roosevelt 
 canal god, and Stevens had become tired of 
 being meddled with, President Roosevelt or- 
 
Roosevelt and the Republic 177 
 
 dered army engineers to do the work. He has 
 them where he wants them as their com- 
 mander-in-chief. A government paper gives 
 the "facts." There is no danger anywhere 
 now of anything going astray. 
 
 The great ditch has already given Roosevelt 
 a background for all sorts of wonderful por- 
 traits, showing him literally digging the canal. 
 It has also been the occasion for thousands 
 of columns of presidential advertising, and a 
 sensational outing, leaving the country gov- 
 erned by wireless telegraphy. There are some 
 few imperfections which with another admin- 
 istration might have been magnified into scan- 
 dals, such as the meditated eating concessions 
 and the peculiar attempt to furnish feminine 
 society and domestic comfort to the workmen. 
 But these do not count. Roosevelt himself 
 hunted for misdoing on the Isthmus with a 
 megaphone and a brass band. His portly war 
 secretary made widely heralded visits, and 
 pronounced all well. It could not be other- 
 wise when we have infallible persons in 
 charge. 
 
 If any other person than Roosevelt had en- 
 gineered Panama, especially the raid upon 
 Colombia, and the payment of those millions 
 to the Panama company, we would at least 
 have had our suspicions. His being "easy" 
 for such men as Piatt and Quay, explains, no 
 doubt, his being "easy" for such other men 
 as Bunau Varilla and William Cromwell. 
 Seeing it is Roosevelt probably it is not worth 
 while regretting that we could not have begun 
 
178 Roosevelt and the Republic 
 
 this great canal enterprise without an act 
 which future historians may characterize as 
 piracy, just as Roosevelt, historian, has char- 
 acterized some of our earlier acquisitions of 
 territory. A few years delay in the opening of 
 the canal would not have made a great dif- 
 ference, but an act of piracy in the life of the 
 nation is an act of piracy throughout all his- 
 tory. 
 
Roosevelt and the Republic 179 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 ROOSEVELT REVISES MONROE DOCTRINE 
 
 VENEZUELA — SANTO DOMINGO. 
 
 Roosevelt's success with Panama made a 
 precedent for making over the whole South 
 American pudding to his taste. He announced 
 officially and unofficially that the nations of 
 South America which did well (according to 
 Anglo-Saxon standards) had nothing to fear, 
 but those which showed weakness in "orderly 
 liberty" were likely to have this government 
 point out the way in which affairs govern- 
 mental are properly conducted. 
 
 There was the Monroe doctrine, well enough 
 in its way, but not quite the doctrine it would 
 have been had President Roosevelt been there 
 to formulate it — a misfortune made quite un- 
 avoidable by the accident of his birth-time. 
 President Roosevelt did his best to remedy the 
 defect. He made an announcement which his 
 admirers heralded as the "New Monroe Doc- 
 trine," which might be summarized as a dec- 
 laration that the United States felt responsible 
 for the action of all other American states, and 
 it would not shirk its "duty." Do wrong and 
 your big brother of the North will get you ! 
 
 Punctillious honesty has always been dear 
 
'i8o Roosevelt and the Republic 
 
 to President Roosevelt. It has grown upon 
 him since in 1896 he witnessed the high- 
 minded Wall street financiers foil the plunder- 
 ing hordes of the West and South. Especially 
 does President Roosevelt sympathize with per- 
 sons who lend out money, through motives of 
 generous service to their fellow men. Their 
 security is Roosevelt's care. Bischoffscheim 
 and Goldschmidt, of the Netherlands, the 
 thrifty home of Roosevelt's ancestors, bought 
 for fifty cents upon the dollar a claim of about 
 three millions of dollars against Santo Do- 
 mingo. The original lender, with overwhelm- 
 ing generosity, had taken only 25 per cent, for 
 his commission. So generous were the money- 
 changers that somebody connected with Santo 
 Domingo actually got about $190,000 and 
 pledged for its payment about $300,000 a year 
 for twenty-five years. Mr. Isaacs of the three 
 gilded balls never drove so sharp a bargain. 
 
 The people of Santo Domingo were called 
 upon to pay only about $3,800,000, for the loan 
 on which their government realized $190,000. 
 This was a typical case. American, English, 
 French, German, Italian, and other European 
 promoters of adventurous and impecunious 
 temper, love the soil ^of South America. By 
 smooth wiles these adventurers get from some 
 officer or pretender of brief authority a "con- 
 cession" or license to rob the nation of public 
 property, either perpetually or for a period of 
 years. Possibly these adventurers are the 
 agents of money-lenders who finance some 
 revolution, giving the borrower the com mis- 
 
Roosevelt and the Republic i8i' 
 
 sion and retaining the principal. "Conces- 
 sions" are not unknown in North America, but 
 here they go to respectable and substantial na- 
 tives, as a reward for exceptional service in 
 financing country-saving campaigns. 
 
 But to return to our theme. Adventurous 
 foreigners had been especially active in the 
 more unsettled states of Central America and 
 of Northern South America. Everything 
 worth having seems to have been "conceded." 
 Forests, asphalt mines, navigation rights, all 
 had been bestowed upon impecunious foreign- 
 ers. As soon as the "concession" was given, 
 the foreigner went to a foreign country and 
 "capitalized" his concession. Millions in "capi- 
 talization" were put out on the strength of 
 these gifts of public plunder. After this 
 "capitalization" had reached the hands of "in- 
 nocent purchasers," — holy innocents, the con- 
 cessionaries or the money-lenders pressed their 
 claims against the state. European chancel- 
 leries were appealed to and force was forth- 
 coming to extract the blood-money. Now and 
 then the South American countries fell into 
 the hands of officers not sufficiently vile to 
 acknowledge these iniquitous claims. That 
 was repudiation and an occasion for the "big 
 stick." 
 
 This was the situation in Venezuela when 
 Great Britain and Germany, with their gal- 
 lant fleets so valorously engaged the dis- 
 mantled fleets of that country. Venezuela 
 had been through all this sort of exploitation. 
 It seems to h^y? been cursed with a perennial 
 
i82 Roosevelt and the Republic 
 
 crop of foreign adventurers and approachable 
 officers. 
 
 When Castro came into power he decided 
 that this business had gone far enough. Cas- 
 tro refused to recognize the vaHdity of these 
 claims. "Concessions," the terms of which 
 had not been kept by the beneficiaries — for 
 terms were sometimes attached to these "con- 
 cessions" — Castro decided to have cancelled. 
 It was something as though this country had 
 an administration sufficiently wicked to try to 
 reclaim the public patrimony of mine and for- 
 est given away to promoters without money 
 and without price. 
 
 Loud was the howl of "concessionaires." 
 That dishonest scoundrel of Venezuela 
 actually objected to having his people robbed 
 for the benefit of foreigners. He was opposed 
 to giving away the wealth of mine and forest 
 as a free gift. So also was he opposed to 
 saddling millions upon his people for the pay- 
 ment of bogus claims. 
 
 Monstrous ! That model of Anglo-Saxon 
 piety, Great Britain, joined hands with the 
 sturdy and upright Kaiser in sending warships 
 to Venezuela. Gallantly did the combined 
 fleet attack and sink defenseless vessels. Dis- 
 mantled hulks moored in the harbor felt the 
 weight of Anglo-German naval power. 
 Venezuelan lives were crushed out. Venezuelan 
 property was destroyed. They would teach 
 Castro morality if they had to shoot it into' 
 him. 
 
 Castro moved back from the shore. 
 
Roosevelt and the Republic 183 
 
 "Fire away, gentlemen." 
 
 Then the exponents of highly civilized gov- 
 ernment, in the support of their adventurers, 
 destroyed one of Castro's seaports. 
 
 Had Roosevelt wanted to announce a new 
 doctrine which might have taken an honored 
 place by the side of that of President Monroe, 
 he had the opportunity when the intention of 
 making this demonstration came to him 
 through the crooked mazes of the interested 
 chancelleries. "This nation recognizes no 
 such international right as the collection of 
 contractual debts by the might of warships. 
 It protests in the name of the American people 
 against making the refusal to pay contractual 
 claims a cause for war." 
 
 President Roosevelt might have said this. 
 He would have been in the company, in mak- 
 ing such a declaration, of Adams, Marcy, 
 Seward, Fish, Evarts and Blaine. And Roose- 
 velt could have pointed out that in civilized 
 countries claims for money are no longer en- 
 forced at the point of a revolver. If honest 
 claims are not enforced in this way, nations 
 can hardly claim the right to enforce by such 
 method iniquitous claims of adventurous pro- 
 moters who never did give value for the things 
 they claim as theirs. 
 
 Men of this kind go into these disturbed 
 countries knowing the condition in these coun- 
 tries of politics and laws. There are plenty 
 of orderly places on earth for their activities. 
 If they choose these unsettled conditions for 
 purposes neither high nor holy, let them abide 
 
184 Roosevelt and the Republic 
 
 the consequences. Let their claims be ad- 
 justed by the courts of the country with which 
 they dealt in getting privileges. If that coun- 
 try's laws were good enough to give "conces- 
 sions" they are good enough to interpret them. 
 
 With the might of America behind this doc- 
 trine, and the friendship of America depending 
 upon its being respected, European nations 
 would respect the doctrine. Then would we 
 have an end of the disgusting spectacle of see- 
 ing men killed and property destroyed to col- 
 lect blood-money — to enforce claims of adven- 
 turers and Shylocks. 
 
 There was plenty of opportunity for good 
 red-blooded action, such as President Cleve- 
 land took when Great Britain a few years be- 
 fore tried to hector Venezuela out of territory. 
 Our heroic president, however, has shown 
 aversion to wounding the feelings of great 
 powers. He begged the powers to desist and 
 urged Castro to pay. 
 
 "Send your claims to the Hague," said 
 Castro. "I shall abide the result." 
 
 Kaiser Wilhelm wanted his friend Theodore 
 Roosevelt as arbitrator. Roosevelt was not 
 looking for that sort of trouble. The gallant 
 fleets of Germany and England withdrew after 
 having committed a final act of murderous bad 
 faith and vandalism. To the Hague went the 
 dispute, where it had a true opera boufTe de- 
 nouement. It was fully demonstrated that 
 there was no basis whatever for nine-tenths of 
 the claims which Germany and England tried 
 to enforce by murderous brute might. Little 
 
Roosevelt and the Republic 185 
 
 Castro had taught a lesson to several big for- 
 eign bullies. 
 
 Americans had been in the same concession- 
 hunting business. Horatio R. Hamilton, of 
 New York, had in the eighties received asphalt, 
 timber and navigation concessions from some- 
 body in temporary control in Venezuela. In 
 turn he was to make certain rivers navigable, 
 and to colonize and develop a portion of the 
 country. 
 
 There was no pretense of carrying out the 
 portion of the concession requiring outlay by 
 Hamilton or his assigns. For Hamilton pur- 
 sued the usual course and "capitalized" his 
 concession. But the asphalt mine promised 
 more riches than a mine of gold. There were 
 miles of city streets to pave and aldermen 
 willing to give good prices for the work. 
 Asphalt flowed forth generously. The timber 
 stood for future years. Rivers remained un- 
 navigable. Acres remained in their pristine 
 wildness. 
 
 Barber Asphalt Company, General Asphalt 
 Company, New York and Bermudez Asphalt 
 Company, different names for associated 
 asphalt interests, the last named a mere sub- 
 sidiary company of the General Asphalt Com- 
 pany, had fastened their tentacles upon Ameri- 
 can city streets. There was but one danger 
 to this trust. The asphalt supply in Castro's 
 dominions might some day be turned loose in 
 other hands, and then the monopoly so pain- 
 fully built up through years of unremitting 
 toil in secret places and dark chambers, would 
 
1 86 Roosevelt and the Republic 
 
 have to be established all over again. Faith- 
 ful trust minions had the American title to 
 Venezuelan concessions, but the rascally Cas- 
 tro threatened to saw off the limb upon which 
 the leisurely concessionaire was sitting. He 
 had started suit for annulment of the fran- 
 chise. 
 
 Two dreadful things would follow the suc- 
 cess of Castro in such a suit : United States 
 cities might get cheap asphalt paving; Venez- 
 uelans might get some of the benefit of their 
 own natural resources. The problem for the 
 State Department at Washington was how to 
 prevent these dire calamities. 
 
 Those patriotic gentlemen of asphalt fame 
 who had been seeing to it that American 
 municipalities paid $3 a square yard for pa^'ing 
 worth $1.50, now invaded Washington to pre- 
 vent their labors from being undone. Lobbies 
 were organized about the State and other de- 
 partments. Newspapers scored Castro. States- 
 men denounced Castro. He was ambitious, 
 self-seeking, crooked, bent upon holding up 
 saintly foreigners and despoiling them. His 
 country was going to the dogs. He was about 
 to be overthrown. There was a terrible state 
 of affairs in Venezuela. 
 
 Filibusters had been sent into Venezuela by 
 the asphalt interests and by a French cable 
 company which had another concession. This 
 gave Castro another handle against the inter- 
 ests which wanted to get rid of him for a 
 more tractable patriot. Castro stuck to his 
 text. The suit for annulment went serenely 
 
Roosevelt and the Republic 187 
 
 forward. If the concessionaires had a claim, 
 let them press it in the courts of Venezuela. 
 The concession rested upon Venezuelan gov- 
 ernmental authority. Its interpretation should 
 certainly rest there also. Castro was at the 
 head of a sovereign nation, the same sovereign 
 nation which was recognized when the conces- 
 sion was accepted. No objection was then made 
 to the authority of Venezuela's government. 
 Then it was giving away the heritage of the 
 Venezuelan people. Now that the Venezuelan 
 government was trying to reclaim that heritage 
 for its people, it would hear no questioning 
 of its authority. 
 
 Castro's position was unimpeachable. He 
 had justice and law, too, upon his side. 
 
 Then came forward that pure and ingenuous 
 public servant, Assistant Secretary of State 
 Francis B. Loomis, one of the high-minded 
 men whom President Roosevelt delighted to 
 honor, and suggested that Castro arbitrate. 
 Castro was barely polite. The courts of 
 Venezuela were open. American concession- 
 aires would get all they were entitled to, no 
 more. There were veiled threats. As the case 
 against the concessionaires progressed in 
 Venezuela, the lobby inspired more drastic ful- 
 minations against Castro. Always Castro re- 
 mained immovable and always Castro won. 
 
 Faithfully did the State Department stand 
 by the Asphalt trust. Diligently, with Francis 
 B. Loomis as spokesman, did the administra- 
 tion at Washington labor to preserve to the 
 asphalt trust its monopoly of the paving ma- 
 
'188 Roosevelt and the Republic 
 
 terial most favored in American cities. This 
 phase of the case was critical, for Castro had 
 caused a receiver to be appointed for the New 
 York and Bermudez Asphalt Company in 
 Venezuela, and the receiver was mining 
 Venezuelan asphalt and placing it upon the 
 American markets in competition with the 
 trust. Such villainy greatly shocked the Wash- 
 ington administration. Strenuously did it strive 
 to rob the Venezuelan public of the wealth in 
 its asphalt mines, as strenuously as it strove 
 to protect the paving monopoly at home. 
 
 So insistent did the State Department urge 
 and threaten that its attitude brought out a 
 protest from the American minister in 
 Venezuela. He could not properly exert such 
 pressure for concessionaires. Their case 
 lacked righteousness. Besides he was em- 
 barrassed by the fact that the former American 
 minister to Venezuela, and the then Assistant 
 Secretary of State, his superior, had, when in 
 Venezuela, openly pressed against the Ven- 
 ezuelan government claims in which the min- 
 ister had a pecuniary interest. He had used 
 his position for ])rivate gain. Loans had been 
 made by asphalt interests to the American 
 minister while he was actually engaged in 
 looking after asphalt interests. All this had 
 injured the standing of America's representa- 
 tive. Venezuelans, probably not saints them- 
 selves, looked for a nicer sense of honor and 
 integrity in America's diplomats. 
 
 Protests from the American minister in 
 Venezuela found their way into the hands ot 
 
Roosevelt and the Republic i8q 
 
 the officer whom the minister criticized. It "^ 
 goes without saying that they were not made 
 pubHc. On the other hand, the things re- 
 quired of the minister grew more galHng. In 
 control at both ends, Mr. Loomis redoubled 
 his efforts to win the case of the threatened 
 asphalt company. 
 
 Minister Herbert W. Bowen stood this until 
 he could stand it no longer. If he could not 
 move the State Department, he would try 
 the American people. Getting its material 
 from Bowen, the New York Herald printed an 
 expose of the whole unsavory mess. 
 
 Angry was the storm that burst over the 
 devoted head of Minister Bowen. It might 
 have been true that Francis B. Loomis, now 
 practically Secretary of State, for John Hay 
 was a very sick man and much absent — it 
 might have been true that the real head of the 
 State Department had as a diplomat been 
 guilty of "indiscretions." Considering his con- 
 nections at that time, his borrowings from 
 claimants and his other queer capers, he might 
 now be overzealous in the interests of the 
 asphalt trust. But this was as nothing com- 
 pared with the heinousness of giving the pub- 
 lic an inkling of what was going on. It was 
 scandalizing the administration. Graft in the 
 Roosevelt State Department ! Perish the 
 thought ! 
 
 Minister Bowen was angrily recalled by the 
 man whom he had accused. Hot with indig- 
 nation, Bowen came. Secretary of War Taft, 
 the general utility rnan of the Roosevelt ad- 
 
190 Roose\'t:lt and the Republic 
 
 ministration, was assigned to apply the white- 
 wash. The big secretary gave the white coat 
 to Francis B. Loomis. It seemed as agree- 
 able to him as taking a dose of wormwood, but 
 it was done heroically. Mr. Taft has never 
 balked yet at a job set for him by the "Dutch 
 Uncle," whose heir expectant he is. Shades 
 were pretty dark for the thickest coat of white- 
 wash — but it sufficed. 
 
 Hot in the anger of an honest man, Minister 
 Bowen went before the President and offered 
 to prove his charges to the satisfaction of a 
 disinterested person who might go into them. 
 That was not the point. His charges might 
 or might not be true. He was undiplomatic. 
 State Department iniquity could do the admin- 
 istration no harm while it was unknown to 
 the public. Minister Bowen made it known 
 to the public. He was obviously a traitor to 
 the administration. No ! no ! there was no ex- 
 planation. He had violated diplomatic court- 
 esy. He had been insubordinate. Honesty 
 was all right in its place, but it was not in a 
 class with courtesy, and subordination in an 
 administration that was absolutely above sus- 
 picion. 
 
 Minister Bowen was officially branded as an 
 Ananias. Roosevelt himself gave the mud 
 bath, as he insists upon doing on such oc- 
 casions. Alinister Bowen. who mingled too 
 much blunt and straightforward honesty with 
 his diplomatic tact, retired from the service in 
 disgrace. Loomis was promoted to a min- 
 
Roosevelt and the Republic 191 
 
 istry and permitted later to drop silently out 
 of sight. 
 
 With a flourish of trumpets, Judge William 
 J. Calhoun, a man who had public confi- 
 dence, was sent to "investigate" asphalt and 
 Venezuela. His report sleeps with the Har- 
 mon and Judson report upon Paul Morton and 
 Sante Fe rebating. Like the report upon the 
 State Trust Company, it may be available to 
 the future historian.* 
 
 There were some of the same elements in 
 the Santo Domingo coup that we have found 
 in the Venezuela-asphalt episode. In this case 
 President Roosevelt decided to forestall the 
 foreigners by himself seizing the customs 
 houses of the island republic and proceeding 
 to collect the taxes imposed upon the natives 
 for the benefit of foreign creditors and conces- 
 sionaires. 
 
 As we saw above, the Monroe doctrine fur- 
 nished the general commission. As historians 
 know that doctrine and as other American 
 administrations had interpreted it, it expressed 
 determined opposition upon the part of the 
 United States of America to the subversion by 
 any European power of any independent gov- 
 ernment on the American continent. It did 
 not declare the right of the United States to 
 subvert such governments, or to declare a 
 
 ' *Castro-baiting in the interest of the asphah combii e 
 has recommenced as we go to press, and a dispatch sa\ s 
 Calhoun's report has been made public with curresponc- 
 ence sent to Congress. 
 
192 Roosevelt and the "Republic 
 
 protectorate over them, or to guarantee their 
 debts, or to become receiver for them. That 
 was the misfortune of the original Monroe doc- 
 trine. 
 
 This doctrine, at all events, and the right- 
 eous claim of Bischofifscheim and Goldschmidt, 
 which we have referred to above, made occa- 
 sion for President Roosevelt's action. Some 
 sort of native government was found to give 
 the proceedings verisimilitude. Morales, an 
 adventurer contending for the presidency, 
 made a bargain with the American State De- 
 partment. This b'argain was made by Naval 
 Officer Dillingham, as we now recall, by direc- 
 tion of Francis B. Loomis, our conscientious 
 statesman-friend of the Venezuela-asphalt epi- 
 sode. In sheer modesty, the administration 
 kept this agreement secret from the Senate of 
 the United States and from the public. It 
 provided practically that the United States 
 should become receiver for Santo Domingo, 
 seize its revenues, pay fifty-five per cent, to 
 foreign creditors and give over forty-five per 
 cent, to the Santo Domingoans to apply to 
 governmental expenses. 
 
 The constitution of the United States does 
 not provide for the President acting as re- 
 ceiver for bankrupt nations and using the 
 executive departments for carrying on the busi- 
 ness. So much the worse for the constitution. 
 When Congress had discovered the proceed- 
 ing, February, 1905, a protocol was presented 
 to the Senate, and it was asked to ratify the 
 seizure of an island nation for the benefit of 
 
Roosevelt and the Republic 193 
 
 alleged creditors. Shoulder to shoulder with 
 Bischoffscheim and Goldschmidt stood the 
 Santo Domingo Improvement Company, the 
 important American claimant. A whole shoal 
 of worthy fellows must be protected. 
 
 With laudable forethought, the administra- 
 tion had the claims "arbitrated," and Congress 
 had only to witness the levying of the execu- 
 tion, and attend the sheriff sale. Congress 
 thought the thing a trifle drastic and held back. 
 Then the newspaper claque, which is always 
 at the back of every administration, if the 
 fireworks are sufficiently brilliant, went to rais- 
 ing a great noise. 
 
 Encouraged by the din, the administration 
 decided to persist in its course, Congress or 
 no Congress. It had made an agreement, al- 
 though this, too, had been omitted from the 
 constitution as a thing which might be made 
 by the President against the will of Congress. 
 
 Pious motives more than made up for the 
 irregularity. Roosevelt and his noisy news- 
 papers friends demonstrated that in a republic 
 based upon government by the people, the 
 chief executive is given autocratic powers over 
 weak neighboring nations, as well as American 
 dependencies. It could not be denied. Fin- 
 land has far more to say in its own afifairs 
 governmental than the people of the Philip- 
 pines, Cuba, or Santo Domingo have to say 
 in theirs. It is a question if the Finlanders 
 are not more nearly free than the Porto Ricans. 
 Nicholas of Russia has less power over Fin- 
 
194 Roosevelt and the Republic 
 
 land than has Theodore Roosevelt over some 
 of America's wards. 
 
 This was all in the interest of "orderly free 
 government." 
 
 When the Senate refused to ratify a treaty 
 with Santo Domingo, carrying out the Presi- 
 dent's plan, the President carried it out any- 
 way. By a clever subterfuge, our conscientious 
 upholder of law got the nominal president of 
 Santo Domingo to appoint the same men 
 whom President Roosevelt had appointed to 
 carry out the receivership plan. American 
 warships were placed on duty, and American 
 soldiers guarded these agents in doing their 
 work. The agreement must be carried out. 
 
 When this high-minded plan of chasing the 
 devil about the stump was pointed out later 
 in Congress, Senator Spooner, then spokes- 
 man for the administration, showed triumph- 
 antly that the constitution of the United States 
 had not been violated — not technically. Aided, 
 by the "Democratic" Joseph Blackburn of 
 Kentucky, who is now reaping his reward in 
 Panama, the treaty was finally ratified. 
 
 This probably does not bring the plan at all 
 within the constitution. But let that pass. 
 One of the chief merits of a plan of this kind 
 is the exhibition of autocratic power which is 
 necessary to its carrying out. Some day the 
 precedent may be needed by a booted and 
 spurred man in the \Miite House. 
 
Roosevelt and the Republic 195 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 PIOUS MASTICATION AND "BENEVOLENT 
 ASSIMILATION." 
 
 Theodore Roosevelt, according to his biog- 
 raphers, felt it a merit that he had aided in 
 bringing about the Spanish war. Specifica- 
 tions have not been given. Possibly it was 
 he who sent the Maine on its precious Don- 
 baiting expedition to Havana Harbor, with its 
 more than tragic sequel. The man who gave 
 that order, whoever he may be, can claim full 
 credit for bringing about the war. Few men 
 other than Roosevelt would be capable of such 
 splendid recklessness. 
 
 President McKinley lagged back for a time, 
 but the war spirit finally got hold of him. 
 When Spain conceded everything, April 5, 
 1898, making conditions only which would 
 save her face, the administration brushed the 
 concessions aside. War was wanted, nothing 
 else. If there is merit in blood atonement, 
 this country has certainly paid the price in full. 
 But this war gave our heroes, Mark Tapley 
 like, a chance to come out strong. What mat- 
 ter though history may call the war iniquitous, 
 fraught with deadly consequences to the Re- 
 public. 
 
196 Roosevelt and the Republic 
 
 Once his hand was put to the reeking plow, 
 President McKinley insisted upon turning to 
 the very end the furrow of death and destruc- 
 tion. This was an important reason given by 
 Theodore Roosevelt in 1900 why the American 
 people should re-elect President McKinley, 
 and incidentally elect with him Vice-President 
 Roosevelt. Spain had been vanquished. We 
 had turned our guns against our former allies. 
 The administration had decided to push the 
 Philippine war to the bitter end. Filipinos 
 must be piously masticated and benevolently 
 assimilated, something as the tiger did the 
 Lady of Niger. 
 
 Come forward now good Historian Roose- 
 velt and tell us what we may expect from the 
 administration policy in the Philippines. 
 
 "At best the inhabitants of a colony are in 
 a cramped and unnatural state. At the worst, 
 the establishment of a colony prevents all 
 healthy popular growth." 
 
 "At present the only hope for a colony that 
 wishes to attain full moral and mental growth 
 is to become an independent state, or part of an 
 independent state." 
 
 "Under the best of circumstances, therefore, 
 the colony is in a false position. But if the 
 colony is in a position where the colonizing 
 nation has to do its work by means of other 
 inferior races, the condition is much worse. 
 From the standpoint of the race, little or noth- 
 ing has been gained by the English conquest 
 and colonization of Jamaica. Jamaica has 
 merely been turned into a negro island with a 
 
Roosevelt and the Republic 197 
 
 future much like Santo Domingo. British 
 Guiana, however wrell administered, it nothing 
 but a colony where a few hundred, or a few- 
 thousand white men hold the superior posi- 
 tions, while the bulk of the population is com- 
 posed of Indians, negroes and Asiatics. 
 
 "Looked at through the vista of centuries, 
 such a colony contains less promise of true 
 growth than does a state like Venezuela or 
 Ecuador. The history of most of the South 
 American republics has been both mean and 
 bloody, but there is at least a chance that they 
 may at last develop after infinite tribulation 
 and suffering into a civilization quite as high 
 and stable as that of such a European state 
 as Portugal. BUT THERE IS NO SUCH 
 CHANCE FOR ANY TROPICAL AMERI- 
 CAN COLONY OWNED BY A NORTH- 
 ERN EUROPEAN RACE. It is distinctly in 
 the interest of civilization that the present 
 states in the two Americas should develop 
 along their own lines, and however desirable it 
 may be that many of them should receive 
 European immigration, it is highly undesirable 
 that any should be under European control." 
 (Roosevelt's American Ideals, pages 235-7.) 
 
 "English rule in India, while it may last for 
 decades, or even for centuries, must eventually 
 come to an end and leave little trace of its 
 existence." (Roosevelt's Benton, page 261.) 
 
 "A man is not a good citizen, I care not 
 how lofty his thoughts are in the abstract, i^f 
 his actions do not square with his professions." 
 (Writings of Theodore Roosevelt.) 
 
198 Roosevelt and the Republic 
 
 "The most unsafe adviser is the man who 
 would advise us to do evil that good may come 
 of it." (Writings of Theodore Roosevelt.) 
 
 President Roosevelt fondly hopes that Amer- 
 ica may be an exception to the rule laid down 
 by Historian Roosevelt. If it should not be, 
 then let the wrong of it rest where it belongs, 
 upon the head of William Jennings Bryan. 
 According to ]\Ir. Roosevelt, Bryan's action in 
 aiding the McKinley administration to ratify 
 the Spanish treaty, despite the protest of such 
 men as Senator Money, was directly re- 
 sponsible for the whole devil's dance of colon- 
 ial and imperial policy. In schoolboy phrase : 
 "Now see what you made me do, Willie 
 Bryan !" 
 
 O rare and wonderful Mr. Bryan! How 
 could you be so cruel as to force the good 
 President McKinley to insist upon the cession 
 of the Philippines ! How is it that your sinister 
 shadow fell over the reluctant American treaty 
 commissioners and compelled them to hold out 
 for the Philippines as an American colony? 
 What evil genius prompted you to turn Amer- 
 ican guns upon our Filipino allies and shoot to 
 pieces that government which the venerable 
 Senator Hoar found capable of administering 
 Filipino afifairs and keeping excellent order? 
 What devil prompted you to hypnotize the 
 majority party in the Senate to approve the 
 Spanish treaty without having in it a distinct 
 pledge for immediate liberty and independence 
 for the Filipinos? 
 
 Don't tell me that you thought the Filipinos 
 
Roosevelt and the Republic 199 
 
 safer in American than in Spanish hands. You 
 ought to have known better. Away with your 
 excuse that the American traditions of liberty 
 and independence were your security that 
 America would not crush out the liberties of 
 another people and hold them in subjection. 
 Do not tell me that the American Declaration 
 of Independence was your bond. 
 
 You got a few minority senators to join 
 with the majority in ratifying this treaty with- 
 out pledging in the treaty itself the good faith 
 of the administration. Do not now try to 
 shirk your responsibility for General Jacob 
 Smith, he of the sulphurous nickname — and 
 record ; or Major Glenn, of water cure fame ; 
 or Major Waller ; or Lieutenant Arnold ; or 
 General "Reconcentrado" Bell. To your action 
 can be traced directly the villainous treachery 
 of Gen. Frederick Funston in claiming as a 
 mendicant the hospitality of Aguinaldo and 
 then betraying him. Let the consequences of 
 your acts to the third and fourth generation of 
 fallacious inference fall upon your devoted 
 head. O rare and wonderful Mr. Bryan ! Who 
 would have thought you capable of such dire 
 mischief? Who would have suspected your 
 responsibility for so much of the wickedness in 
 our colonial experiments. Who, except Theo- 
 dore Roosevelt, would have discovered your 
 more than hypnotic influence upon the Mc- 
 Kinley administration. Thrice rare and won- 
 derful Mr. Bryan ! 
 
 Carried away with the fire of righteous 
 wrath, Theodore Roosevelt, candidate for 
 
50O Roosevelt and the Republic 
 
 the vice-presidency, mercilessly applied the 
 scourge to the Democrats in this Philippine 
 business. They had approved the rescue of 
 the legation in China and the withdrawal of 
 soldiers as soon as it was done. How did that 
 dififer from the Filipino policy of the adminis- 
 tration? Everybody had to take their three 
 guesses. But it would have been quite as d'f- 
 ficult to tell how one resembled the oiV»er 
 That was the especial merit of the comparison 
 
 These Filipinos were worse than Boxers. 
 Giving them self-government would be like 
 setting up a republic under an Apache chief. 
 Here again it took rare insight to appreciate 
 fully the comparison. But two out of the 
 eighty tribes in the island opposed American 
 rule. These two tribes contained more than 
 five millions of the inhabitants of the island, 
 and included every civilized soul. In a brief 
 discussion, Mr. Roosevelt could not be ex- 
 pected to mention such irrelevant details. 
 
 Fortunately for Mr. Roosevelt, the lines of 
 the "duty and destiny" business had been laid 
 down before he succeeded President McKinley. 
 "This belligerent, or more properly speaking, 
 piratical way of looking at neighboring terri- 
 tory, was very characteristic of the West, and 
 was the root of 'manifest destiny.' " So had 
 Historian Roosevelt written. When he took 
 the helm of state the piracy was an accom- 
 plished fact. We had arrived at "manifest 
 destiny." President Roosevelt had only to re- 
 tain the plunder and divide the spoils. 
 
 For a presidential Mark Tapley, there was 
 
Roosevelt And the REPijBLiC ^ot 
 
 tnuch that was encouraging in the situation. 
 Roosevelt forgot his historian's view of colon- 
 ization, India and Egypt had trained up great 
 soldiers for England. The Philippines might 
 do the same for us. If there was anything the 
 Republic was pining for, it was great soldiers. 
 If America could only have a Caesar or a 
 Napoleon, its future would be obvious enough. 
 
 About this time our war for "humanity" to 
 rid the Western Hemisphere of "Weylerism" 
 had traveled the whole circle, and had returned 
 upon Weyler's old trail. If Filipinos objected 
 to being piously masticated as a preliminary 
 to "benevolent assimilation," why we must 
 teach them better. Gen. Jacob Smith, of the 
 sulphurous appellation, told his subordinates 
 to "kill everything over ten." They were to 
 burn everything in sight. Conquer the place 
 if it must first be made a howling wilderness. 
 Majors Waller and Glenn tried to carry out 
 the order literally. 
 
 Half crazed by the tropical climate and the 
 strange conditions of life, aroused by the sullen 
 resistance of an elusive foe, American soldiers 
 forgot their traditions of manly fighting. Even 
 women and children suffered. Torture and 
 murder went hand in hand with war. Major 
 Waller and Lieutenant Arnold were caught 
 red-handed. The discovery interfered some- 
 what with their promotion. Gen. Jacob Smith, 
 of the sulphurous appellation, was actually rep- 
 rimanded. We have the impression that he 
 was also fined. Even the gallant Chaflfee was 
 
202 Roosevelt and the Republic 
 
 not overnice in the methods he was willing to 
 use to overcome the "enemy." 
 
 Following one of Roosevelt's "investiga- 
 tions" an officer who shot a Filipino in the 
 back lost a number in his promotion order. 
 Sentinels found it easier to shoot Filipino 
 amigos than to try to understand them. These 
 sentinels were warned against carelessness, but 
 lost in no way by the practice. 
 
 American soldiers whose traditions were 
 theretofore the most manly on earth, engaged 
 in the valorous pastime of placing Filipino pris- 
 oners with hands tightly bound behind them on 
 a slippery plank, pushing their feet from under 
 them and watching them fall. Another mili- 
 tary sport was standing Filipinos on their 
 heads in a vessel of water and watching them 
 strangle. Some were triced up and others 
 poured full of water. 
 
 Strangely enough, these highly elevating 
 pastimes were concealed from the country. 
 Dispatches from the Philippines were cen- 
 sored to suit military tastes. Highly humorous 
 administration newspapers in the United States 
 said "real cute" things about the "aunties" who 
 saw no cause for pride in a twentieth century 
 Republic, in the van of civilization, reverting 
 to the practices of Medic-eval Spain. 
 
 All this, however, did not suffice to conquer 
 the island men, and Gen. Bell finally put 
 "Weylerism" in full force by establishing 
 "reconcentration" camps. For Spain there 
 must have been humor deliciously grim in 
 seeing the much-heralded "war for humanity" 
 
Roosevelt and the Republic 203 
 
 degenerate in four short years into just "Wey- 
 lerism." 
 
 Self-righteous Anglo-Saxons are not good in 
 seeing a joke when it is on themselves. The 
 blackest crimes for other peoples are actions 
 of great merit for Anglo-Saxons. They are 
 too self-centered to realize their own hypo- 
 crisy. President Roosevelt branded as "trait- 
 ors" those who doubted the wisdom and the 
 righteousness of the Gen. (Sulphurous) Jake 
 Smith and the Gen. (Reconcentrado) Bell pro- 
 gramme. Gen. Funston, with the glory of 
 Aguinaldo's capture still upon him, referred to 
 Senator Hoar as the man with a superheated 
 conscience. President Roosevelt could not 
 approve that. Roosevelt was the only man 
 with full privilege to say contemptuous things 
 and call ugly names. Funston "denied the 
 interview." 
 
 "The horrors and the treachery were the in- 
 evitable outcome of the policy on which they 
 (the British) had embarked. It can never be 
 otherwise when a civilized government en- 
 deavors to use as allies in war, savages whose 
 acts it cannot control and for whose welfare it 
 has no real concern." (Roosevelt's Winning 
 of the West, Vol. 4, page 99.) To be sure, 
 nothing like this could apply to our using 
 "scouts" from among the most savage tribes 
 of the Filipinos to run down the more civilized 
 natives. 
 
 The humane character of our warfare in the 
 Philippines is indicated by the more recent 
 incident at Mount Dajo. Only about six hun- 
 
204 RoOSfeVELT AND THE REPUBLIC 
 
 dred men, women and children, defending 
 themselves with antiquated weapons, were 
 penned upon the mountain top and wiped out 
 almost as completely as the tender-hearted 
 Sioux did Custer's devoted band. The differ- 
 ence was that the Sioux fought against sol- 
 diers with weapons as good as their own — not 
 against women and children. Fifteen Ameri- 
 cans were killed and sixty-five wounded in the 
 Dajo fight. This tells one whether it was a 
 battle or a massacre. 
 
 Gen. Miles, head of the army in the early 
 portion of Roosevelt's administration, sug- 
 gested that if he were permitted to go to the 
 islands he might secure peace without such 
 drastic measures. Miles talked too much. 
 Hadn't he helped to make public the "water 
 cure" scandal. He was not the sort of mili- 
 tary man to let loose in our island possessions. 
 The world might know what was going on, to 
 our shame and confusion. Gen. Miles re- 
 mained at home — for the present. 
 
 Finally there was "pacification." Mr. Taft 
 said so. The pacification of exhaustion, death, 
 starvation. (Mount Dajo massacre came long 
 afterward.) Up to this time the government 
 had been entirely autocratic, as autocratic as 
 the government of Siberia, far more autocratic 
 than the government of India, as autocratic as 
 the government of Egypt. 
 
 By presidential proclamation (imperial 
 ukase, his majesty wills it) an American com- 
 mission was appointed and given all power 
 over the Philippines, legislative, executive, 
 
Roosevelt and the Republic 205 
 
 judicial. These aliens, imposed by an alien 
 authority, assumed the power of life and 
 death over the people of the Philppines. They 
 assumed to give away their public resources, 
 to regulate their affairs with exactly the same 
 warrant that the Russians acted in Manchuria 
 or the British in Egypt. Not for nearly four 
 years did the American Congress temper in 
 any degree the power of the American autocrat. 
 With calm assurance of the Anglo-Saxon I- 
 am-holier-than-thou quality, American citizens 
 overlooked their own beam and grew excited 
 over what Russia might intend to do in Man- 
 churia. 
 
 Urged forward by the pressure of the Exec- 
 utive and the imperialistic newspaper claque, 
 the United States Supreme Court, always on 
 the side of what appears to it immediately the 
 stronger force, decided that American officers 
 deriving their power from the constitution 
 were superior to the constitution and not 
 bound by its limitations. In other words, they 
 were properly autocrats. They could govern 
 aliens, denying rights which Americans hold 
 as fundamental. Woolsey did meritorious ser- 
 vice in finding a way for Henry VIII. Riche- 
 lieu served Louis well, the Grand Dukes are 
 reasonably efficient in finding excuse and ave- 
 nues for the autocracy of the czar, but con- 
 sidering circumstances, the work of American 
 ministers and courts was far more meritorious 
 than the work of any of these. Neither Wool- 
 sey, nor Richelieu, nor the grand dukes can 
 compare with modest, unobtrusive Elihu Root. 
 
2o6 Roosevelt and the Republic 
 
 Thomas ,F. Ryan's friend, in finding a way. 
 In a country whose very sanction is a state- 
 ment that all men are created equal (with 
 equal civic rights, or equal rights before the 
 law), and are endowed naturally with inalien- 
 able rights among which are life, liberty and 
 the pursuit of happiness ; in a government with 
 this declaration as a sanction and with a con- 
 stitution adopted to secure the blessing of 
 equal liberty, the finding of a sanction for pure 
 autocracy one would suppose an awkward 
 problem. It was easy enough for Mr. Root. 
 By some hocus pocus which ordinary mortals 
 are not supposed to understand, a president 
 elected to carry out the will of a free people 
 as expressed in their laws, becomes by that 
 commission an autocrat over alien nations, gov- 
 erning them according to his will. Verily have 
 we progressed. 
 
 Later Congress sanctioned the plan autocrat- 
 ically installed. Why it needed such sanc- 
 tion, or how Congress got power to give it 
 sanction, or whence, under American institu- 
 tions, remains as deep a mystery as the sanc- 
 tion of the original ukase. Indeed that might 
 by a pretty fiction have been posited upon 
 military power, the right of the keenest sword, 
 but we search in vain for a theory of con- 
 gressional sanction. Congressmen will tell you 
 it is just territorial government. Perhaps ! 
 
 William A. Taft, who had gone to the Philip- 
 pines as a representative of President McKin- 
 ley, was later to become the first civil gov- 
 ernor of the islands. Schools were started. 
 
Roosevelt and the Republic 207 
 
 Railways were projected, to be built by gov- 
 ernment aid but owned by individuals for indi- 
 vidual profit, we Americans are so generous 
 with our promoters. 
 
 With true business foresight, Mr. Taft 
 stood for laws permitting individuals and cor- 
 porations to appropriate more generously the 
 land of the Filipinos. If we were to exploit 
 the natives and their islands, we should give 
 opportunity for exploitation on a scale that 
 was worth while. Sugar planters should be 
 permitted to own 20,000 acres at least. Since 
 Mr. Taft knows that prosperity comes from 
 above down instead of from the bottom up, 
 since it is founded upon the generosity of big 
 business men rather than upon the industry of 
 the masses, such an arrangement would do 
 wonders for island prosperity. At least it 
 would make these landowners prosperous, and 
 that was a point gained. Now he wants land 
 and mines opened indiscriminately to appro- 
 priation by corporations or individuals. 
 
 Under the benign American despotism the 
 Filipinos could get everything the}'' wanted ex- 
 cept freedom and independence. They could 
 enjoy all rights except the right of being men. 
 Their good father would provide for and pro- 
 tect them, if they would only continue good, 
 tractable children, and mind what was said to 
 them — just as the Czar provides for and pro- 
 tects his children. There was still disorder in 
 the islands, as Mount Dajo later demonstrated, 
 but the natives still in arms had become 
 ladrones (robbers). Many Americans, the 
 
2o8 Roosevelt and the Republic 
 
 English found, turned "robber" at the time of 
 the American revokition. 
 
 "We are often told that the best of all gov- 
 ernments is a benevolent despotism. Oliver's 
 failure is a sufficient commentary upon the dic- 
 tum of the parlor doctrinaires." (Roosevelt's 
 Cromwell, page 236.) 
 
 Recently the Filipinos have been GIVEN 
 an assembly. Filipino suffrage is about as 
 carefully guarded as the good Czar guards the 
 suffrage of the electors for the Russian Douma, 
 and for exactly the same reason, to prevent 
 a true expression of public sentiment toward 
 the rulers of the country. 
 
 "But it must be noted that the difficulty in 
 the Flawaiian Islands resulted not so much 
 from the establishment of a popular assembly 
 as from the undue extension of the electoral 
 franchise. In the Philippines the franchise has 
 been restricted and duly guarded. 
 
 "I am not blind to the troubles that the 
 legislative assembly would doubtless bring to 
 the executive and the commission, in rousing 
 public discussion over unimportant matters 
 that now pass without notice." (Civil Gov- 
 ernment in the Philippines, page 95.) 
 
 Notwithstanding the curtaining of the suf- 
 frage and the almost absolute lack of power 
 in the Filipino assembly, this assembly, like 
 the earlier Russian parliaments, is over- 
 whelmingly in favor of independence. 
 
 Good Mr. Taft, Roosevelt's portly war sec- 
 retary, has made several visits to the islands. 
 He says that the government is going to give 
 
Roosevelt and the Republic 209 
 
 Filipinos self-government when they are ready 
 for it. President Roosevelt says that we can- 
 not expect Filipinos to arrive immediately at 
 the condition in political evolution that the 
 men of America have attained after thirty gen- 
 erations of efifort. Are the Filipinos then to 
 wait for thirty generations before they are 
 given self-government? 
 
 Unless the Filipinos prove different from all 
 other peoples, unless laws of human progress 
 are revised for their especial benefit, neither 
 thirty nor three hundred generations of alien 
 rule will prepare the Filipinos for self-govern- 
 ment. If President Roosevelt would consult 
 Historian Roosevelt and harken to what he 
 says, the historian would tell the executive, as 
 he has told us in effect at the beginning of the 
 chapter, that self-government was never 
 GIVEN by any people to any other, except by 
 leaving them to their own devices. 
 
 Our historian would have pointed out how 
 the world has divided itself into scores of self- 
 governing nations, each, if left alone, with a 
 government suited approximately to its own 
 needs. xA.s with the American Indians, and 
 the Saxon tribes, the earliest and most primi- 
 tive, as well as the highest, is democratic self- 
 government. At least a score of brands of 
 self-government have appeared among men, 
 and a government of and by FilipinOs, while 
 it may in no sense mount to the perfection of a 
 government of and by Americans for Ameri- 
 cans, may be as truly self-government. A gov- 
 
210 Roosevelt and the Republic 
 
 ernment by Americans for the Filipinos can 
 never be self-government. 
 
 "The way to resume, is just to resume," said 
 an American statesman, referring to resump- 
 tion of specie payments. The way to have 
 self-government in the Philippines is just to 
 have it. Leave the Filipinos to their own de- 
 vices. They will do the rest. This can be 
 done in this year of our Lord, 1908, as well 
 as in 2208 or 2508. 
 
 All this Historian Roosevelt would tell 
 President Roosevelt, if President Roosevelt 
 would seek a serious interview. Within six 
 months this country could arrange a guaran- 
 teed neutrality for the Philippines and cut 
 loose without loss of prestige and with infinite 
 gain for this nation and for the Filipino peo- 
 ple. This would, it is true, leave less opportu- 
 nity for American statesmen "to come out 
 strong." 
 
 Bitter, as the natives view it. has been the 
 injustice of American rule in the Philippines, 
 bloody has been the American occupation. 
 These natives forget that the loss that has 
 come to the Philippines and the humiliation 
 they have undergone is as nothing to that 
 which the people of America have borne and 
 suffered. We do not refer to financial loss, 
 although this has been almost inconceivable 
 in extent. We may remember that immediately 
 before the Spanish war we were spending less 
 than fifty millions of dollars annually upon 
 the army and the navy, where we are now 
 spending over two hundred millions. Four- 
 
Roosevelt and the Republic 2it 
 
 fifths of the increase in naval expenditure is 
 directly traceable to the Philippines. Senator 
 Henry M. Teller, of Colorado, and George L. 
 Wellington, of Maryland, former senator, esti- 
 mate that the Philippines have already cost this 
 nation eight hundred millions of dollars. The 
 loss in life has been 20,000, with 50,000 addi- 
 tional men utterly corrupted. Our outlay is 
 not likely to decrease. Our national defenses, 
 like a chain, are no stronger than their weak- 
 est link. A possession six thousand miles away 
 must require ten times the regular military 
 force to defend it that is required by the nation 
 at home. This is accentuated when the enemy 
 is close to that possession. Military power is 
 required to keep the colony in subjection. The 
 subjecting force and the defending force must 
 be different from a home-defense army. It 
 must be an army of mercenaries, who make 
 fighting a profession, like the Roman legion- 
 aries. Alien dependencies are inseparable from 
 crushing military establishments. 
 
 Mere cost, as the Filipinos must readily see, 
 is but trifling as compared with the cost to 
 America of its colonies. If the money loss had 
 been eight billions, instead of one-tenth ot 
 that sum, it must still loom not as the largest 
 item. In destroying the Filipino Republic 
 and subjecting its people we have made ex- 
 cellent progress in undermining the founda- 
 tions of our own liberties. Already they are 
 crumbling away. Filipinos must not forget 
 that Americans suffer with them for the im- 
 perialism of their common rulers. 
 
212 Roosevelt and the Republic 
 
 Ten years ago America held aloft the bea- 
 con light of liberty. Like the pillar of fire to 
 the hosts of Israel, that light guided the foot- 
 steps of liberty-loving peoples over all the 
 earth. It inspired deeds of patriotism. Of 
 free government upon the earth, it was the 
 hope and promise. In the white radiance of 
 its chastening flame cowered tyrants every- 
 where, afraid to strike. 
 
 That light has gone out and great is the 
 darkness. Patriots in other lands grope pain- 
 fully, fearfully, searching for the guiding light 
 extinguished forever. 
 
 At home we see the ideals of a century 
 abandoned. Our immortal Declaration of In- 
 dependence has become to the greatest of 
 Americans but a string of meaningless plati- 
 tudes. If the bell be broken, it gives forth a 
 hollow sound. Unless we have the ideals of 
 liberty within us, not even a Declaration of 
 Independence can find within us a responsive 
 chord. We have lost our place among nations 
 as the government as high in ideals as it was 
 righteous in action. Instead we are just a 
 military power, piling ship on ship and gun 
 on gun in the weird devil's dance of imperial- 
 ism. Faint glimpses only have we of liberty 
 and righteousness as we struggle onward in 
 darkness with the military millstone about our 
 necks, the millstone that has been submerging 
 also, Germany, France, Russia, Italy, England 
 and the other military powers for half a cen- 
 tury. We have gone back to the ideal of force, 
 back to the ideal of our hairy paleolithic an- 
 
Roosevelt and the Republic 213 
 
 cestor as he snarled in his cave and drank the 
 hot blood of his victim. Ours is again the 
 ideal that knows no brother, that since the dim 
 twilight of civilization in the prehistoric cave 
 has filled the world with war, rapine and 
 strife. 
 
 Friend of the Philippines, we realize that 
 from Rome to England every nation that has 
 tried imperialism has gone down to death under 
 its weight. England, with its caste, its un- 
 employed, its paupers, its hooligans, seems to 
 be traveling the same road as Rome, bowed 
 down under the weight of imperialism. Yet 
 England's is an enlightened, a decentralized 
 imperialism. Ours is the imperialism of van- 
 ished Rome. Brothers of the Philippines wet 
 bow our heads with you in sorrow, shame and 
 humiliation, for we realiize that your loss is 
 our loss, your crucifixion our crucifixion. But 
 you know the meaning of false pride. Follow- 
 ing our heroic president we must march grimly 
 on, deviating not from the road that leads to 
 death. 
 
214 Roosevelt and the Republic 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 CUBA BECOMES FREE — ALMOST. 
 
 In dealing with Cuba the United States has 
 been far more fortunate than in dealing with 
 the Philippines. In the very beginning, before 
 it had fallen from grace, it put aside the temp- 
 tation. 
 
 "The United States hereby disclaims any dis- 
 position or intention to exercise sovereignty, 
 jurisdiction or control over said island, except 
 for the pacification thereof, and asserts its de- 
 termination when that is accomplished, to leave 
 the government and control of the island to its 
 people." 
 
 So ran the resolution of intervention. It 
 looks sufficiently specific. The meaning of it 
 seemed then sufficiently plain. This country 
 was to drive the Spaniards out of Cuba, see 
 that order was maintained while the Cubans 
 organized their government and then leave 
 them to work out their own salvation. 
 
 Bitter was the heartburning felt in the blase 
 America of 1900 over this sophomoric declara- 
 tion of 1898. But it was too plain and specific 
 to be ignored altogether. If it were not for 
 this declaration this country would undoubt- 
 edly have swallowed Cuba. 
 
Roosevelt and the Republic 215 
 
 As to the administration of the island, it was 
 easier, because the majority of the Cuban peo- 
 ple, at first, at least, trusted our good faith and 
 disinterestedness. Filipinos were deprived of 
 the possibility of such trust. But the admin- 
 istration was much the same — merely autocra- 
 tic. Being closer to our shores, we have known 
 more about it. Shameless attempts at exploit- 
 ation were made. To some extent they suc- 
 ceeded. Postal matters in Cuba took on a 
 rank odor. So high-minded a gentleman as 
 Bishop Canler, of Atlanta, made some ugly 
 accusations against Gen. Leonard Wood, the 
 Cuban governor. He had fastened upon the 
 Cuban people against their will a gambling 
 concession for ten years, accepting in appre- 
 ciation of his work a gift of silver service worth 
 several thousand dollars from men who would 
 benefit by the concession. This was just one 
 instance of exploitation. 
 
 Gen. Wood had a free hand. He spent 
 money lavishly without the necessity of ac- 
 counting for it. Public funds maintained at 
 Washington a Cuban lobby, directed and sup- 
 ported by the Governor General. Possibly 
 everything was all clean and pure. It had 
 every appearance of being just the opposite. 
 If entirely honorable, as we may hope they 
 were, Wood methods were unfortunate. Worse 
 than that, they were directed toward unworthy 
 ends. 
 
 After all this is not an important phase of 
 the Cuban regime. The wrong of it and the 
 shame of it was satrapy government. 
 
2i6 Roosevelt and the Republic 
 
 Reluctantly did the United States let go of 
 Cuba, even in the face of its unequivocal 
 pledge. Had President McKinley served out 
 his term there is doubt as to whether the 
 withdrawal of the American troops from Cuba 
 would ever have been accomplished. Presi- 
 dent McKinley's administration had a somno- 
 lent effect upon the American conscience not 
 enjoyed by the administration of President 
 Roosevelt. Worthy potentate Wood at length 
 left the island to pursue his course under his 
 lucky star. The Cubans got a president and 
 an assembly. But America could not quite live 
 up to its pledge. Deterioration in public char- 
 acter had become too drastic. An American 
 string was tied to Cuba as the Piatt amend- 
 ment. Cuba was left a nation largely free, but 
 still under tutelage. 
 
 Before Americans had withdrawn they had 
 aroused serious suspicion in Cuba. So serious 
 was this suspicion that Cuba leaned toward 
 Great Britain and other foreign friends, as was 
 shown in its treaty with England. Sugar Trust 
 influences prevented the island from getting 
 from America what the islanders considered 
 trade justice. It looked as though Cuba might 
 break entirely away and become really inde- 
 pendent. Pressure applied at the right spot 
 prevented such a denouement. Concessions by 
 Congress put the Cubans in a better mind. 
 
 American intrigue had not ceased, although 
 to the credit of the administration, be it said, 
 it was not official intrigue. Elections were 
 manipulated, a clique got control of the gov- 
 
Roosevelt and the Republic 2I/' 
 
 ernment, and the fires of insurrection were 
 kindled. President Palma, headstrong- enough 
 in clinging to conscienceless political advan- 
 tage, showed a broad and deep yellow streak, 
 if in fact he was not a traitor to his Cuba 
 scheming to destroy its independence and place 
 it under American control. At all events he 
 seems to have asked the President of the 
 United States for troops to support his rule. 
 
 American marines landed. They were pulled 
 back and pushed forward again. Secretary of 
 War Taft went to Cuba as representative of 
 President Roosevelt, autocrat of Cuba and the 
 Philippines. This nation had guaranteed 
 Cuban "independence," and, of course, govern- 
 ment by an alien autocrat was "maintaining 
 the independence of Cuba !" just as I might pre- 
 serve another's liberty by throwing him into 
 jail. 
 
 Thus has been started the delectable game 
 of football, with Cuba as the missile. It is 
 free and not free. Independent and not so in- 
 dependent after all. It may govern itself un- 
 less the President of the United States decides 
 that he can do the job better as an autocrat, 
 through a satrap supported by the military 
 power of the United States. Where anything 
 except might of arm gives sanction to this ar- 
 rangement, goodness only knows. 
 
 In the light of our experience, there seems 
 to be but one way of dealing with Cuba. Amer- 
 ica must cut it loose entirely without the Piatt 
 amendment or other string, tell the rest of the 
 world that Cuba is neutral territory, and there 
 
2i8 Roosevelt and the Republic 
 
 shall be no trespass, and leave the island and 
 its people to work out their own salvation. Or 
 we must take Cuba into our union of states 
 with full political rights. Governing by mili- 
 tary pro-consuls, personal representatives of 
 President of the United States, autocrat of 
 Cuba, is a very dangerous arrangement for the 
 people of the United States, and is a trifle dis- 
 concerting to the Cubans. Cuba can hardly 
 bear it. This country cannot permit it. But a 
 short step from Autocrat of Cuba may be Auto- 
 crat of the United States. Not necessarily in 
 name. Indeed that is a remote possibility. An 
 autocrat may be an autocrat just as much 
 while still called president. President Roose- 
 velt certainly can appreciate such a possibility. 
 
Roosevelt and the Republic 219 
 
 CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 BATTLING WITH THE RAILWAY "oCTOPUS." 
 
 Fortunately President Roosevelt does not 
 permit his innate modesty to interfere with his 
 taking up and solving public problems which 
 less efficient men have vainly struggled to dis- 
 pose of. A striking instance is his action with 
 regard to railway rates. His party in the cam- 
 paign of 1904 was silent as the grave upon rail- 
 way matters. Not a word upon the subject 
 appeared in the party platform. Roosevelt's 
 speech of acceptance did not refer to a railway 
 problem. 
 
 It has been intimated that he was asked by- 
 railway interests to take issue with the opposi- 
 tion platform upon that theme. He was ex- 
 pected to come out unequivocally against 
 meddling with the railways. But certain rail- 
 way interests did not meet expectations in 
 yielding him support, and President Roosevelt 
 remained silent, ominously so. 
 
 In the platform of the opposing party rail- 
 ways played an important part. There was a 
 distinct pledge that if Democracy had proved 
 successful the powers of the Interstate Com- 
 merce Commission would be increased so that 
 the wrongs of the shipping and the traveling 
 
220 Roosevelt and the Republic 
 
 public would be righted. This Democratic 
 declaration followed two other national Demo- 
 cratic platforms in that regard. 
 
 This platform and all its "vagaries" was re- 
 jected by a vote quite as decisive as had been 
 given in a national election in recent years. If 
 the verdict of the country meant anything, it 
 meant that the powers of the Interstate Com- 
 merce Commission ought not to be enlarged. 
 Yet in his message immediately after the elec- 
 tion President Roosevelt adopted the policy of 
 the defeated Democrats. The Interstate Com- 
 merce Commission must be given power to fix 
 a rate, and it must remain fixed until changed 
 by the courts. 
 
 President Roosevelt had a great joke upon 
 the people of the country. They had decided 
 against railway-rate legislation, but he knew 
 what they wanted better than they did and de- 
 cided for them that they should have it. They 
 thought they had cast aside the Democrats and 
 all their works and pomps, only to find a car- 
 dinal Democratic policy a cardinal Roosevelt 
 policy. The position was undoubtedly taken 
 deliberately, for President Roosevelt has re- 
 peatedly written down his contempt for the 
 people of the governing class who will heed 
 the will of a majority in deciding upon state 
 policies. 
 
 Sometimes this principle may be used with 
 awkward results. The next President may de- 
 cide that the thing which the public pines for 
 is a restoration of the old National Bank of 
 the last century, and even though the people 
 
Roosevelt and the Republic 22t 
 
 have declared against it, he may get up a news- 
 paper claque and dragoon Congress into pass- 
 ing the bill. Why not? President Roosevelt 
 has made the precedent. 
 
 President Roosevelt selected the issue cun- 
 ningly. A dozen states w^ere at that moment 
 pushing the reform. Shippers everywhere 
 were becoming indignant over rank discrimin- 
 ation and conscienceless gouging. They had 
 for years been fighting the iniquity in courts 
 before state legislatures and before the Inter- 
 state Commerce Commission. Even though 
 in the indeterminate voting upon blanket plat- 
 forms, the railway problem had been entirely 
 lost sight of, there was, no doubt, a strong 
 public sentiment in favor of having something 
 done. In addition, it would give several bad 
 half-hours to railroad people who had not in 
 the past campaign come to the support of 
 Roosevelt with sufficient heartiness. Tariff re- 
 form, too — that troublesome perennial issue — 
 might be sidetracked by making railways the 
 cardinal issue. 
 
 President Roosevelt was no more silent 
 about this new issue than about some of the 
 other things he had undertaken since and be- 
 fore. His journalistic claque joined vociferous- 
 ly in the clamor. Like his "original discovery 
 of the ten commandments," Roosevelt was the 
 only originator of the railway rate proposition. 
 That it had been a Democratic football for 
 years, did not count. 
 
 Railway rate reformers took the President 
 seriously. Private and quasi-public investiga- 
 
222 Roosevelt and the Republic 
 
 tion of rebating and discrimination had 
 aroused some of the American fighting blood 
 to the boihng point. State agitation had made 
 smooth the way to pubHc opinion. Many were 
 thinking railway rates. Agitators took advan- 
 tage of the Rooseveltian newspaper claque to 
 rip loose stories of railway wrongdoing. These 
 stories were sown broadcast. Soon the coun- 
 try was talking railway rates. 
 
 Congress was skeptical. It was not going to 
 he stampeded into railway rate legislation. No 
 mandate had come from the country through 
 the proper channels. Congress was not so sure 
 it had a right to tlout the will of the majority 
 expressed at the polls, or to accept executive 
 and newspaper vociferation as "public senti- 
 ment." 
 
 In fact Congress had done little in the pre- 
 ceding four years but create new executive bu- 
 reaus. These bureaus had done wonderful ser- 
 vice in creating work for the public printery 
 and creating week-end sensations for the news- 
 papers, but the business of the government 
 moved on no more swiftly. In fact each bu- 
 reau had its own hedge anchor, dropped out 
 to keep things stationary. 
 
 The session passed without railway rate leg- 
 islation. Measures had been presented to Con- 
 gress. There were hearings without end. 
 Conditions were disclosed which indicated 
 clearly enough that there was need of some 
 sort of solution for the railway problem. There 
 the thing ended — for the time. 
 . President Roosevelt was well pleased. He 
 
Roosevelt and the Republic 223 
 
 had not before in years hit upon a device equal- 
 ly capable of raising sustained clamor the 
 country over. Railway rate recommendations 
 were given first column, first page, in his new 
 annual treatise on universal knowledge, some- 
 times called a message. By this time the jour- 
 nalistic claque had forgotten that anybody be- 
 side Roosevelt had ever had an original 
 thought upon railway-rate legislation. It was 
 a Roosevelt policy, copyrighted and protected 
 by domestic and foreign patents. "No tres- 
 pass" signs were placed all over the new pro- 
 nunciamento. 
 
 Dr. Albert Shaw of the "Review of Re- 
 views," chief claquer, hit upon an ingenious de- 
 vice. The people of the country, he said, had 
 spoken unmistakably in favor of having Con- 
 gress carry out "President Roosevelt's poli- 
 cies," presumably past, present and to come. 
 To be sure, no voter at the last election knew 
 that railway rate legislation was a "Roosevelt 
 policy." But Roosevelt has since established 
 ownership to this railway rate problem. 
 
 Pious old Joseph Cannon, Speaker of the 
 house of Representatives, consumed as he al- 
 ways is with righteous ardor in battling for the 
 people's cause, dragooned the railway rate bill 
 through the House. That same House of Rep- 
 resentatives would just as quickly have passed 
 a bill for the canonization of bullfrogs, if the 
 journalistic claque had convinced the members 
 that "public sentiment" (ascertained through 
 vociferous iteration by the most noisy) de- 
 manded it, and it was wished for by President 
 
224 Roosevelt and the Republic 
 
 Roosevelt and "Uncle Joe." For be it known 
 that in these later days, the House of Repre- 
 sentatives has become in practice an aggrega- 
 tion of automatic mimes used in recording" the 
 will of a little self-perpetuating group of which 
 Joseph G. Cannon is the center. Journalistic 
 clamor, White House influence and the lash 
 of "Uncle Joe's" whips, are the three forces 
 now ruling the popular branch of the national 
 Congress. 
 
 For the stolid old Senate, however, there is 
 no god but Mammon, and Aldrich is prophet. 
 Consequently, through the Senate the railway 
 rate bill moved with painful slowness. One 
 of the grandest battles of forensic eloquence 
 witnessed in a generation raged for months. 
 Great lawyers, taking up the narrowest point 
 they could find in the whole controversy, 
 hurled hundreds of thousands of legal missiles 
 at one another. Senators Foraker, Spooner, 
 Knox, Bailey, Rayner, one after another ex- 
 pounded the law and the prophets in extenua- 
 tion or condemnation of the thing about to be 
 done. So the battle raged until the wind-bat- 
 teries had literally blown themselves out. 
 
 But the bill moved on. Aldrich was worried, 
 although still prophet. As a master stroke he 
 forced upon Senator Tillman, the dearest foe 
 of the President, the task of reporting to the 
 Senate what was supposed to be the Presi- 
 dent's pet measure. It was hardly less of an 
 affront from Aldrich to the President than 
 was the President's earlier insult to Senator 
 Tillman. Senator Tillman, hot-blooded as he 
 
Roosevelt and the Republic 225 
 
 was, forgot the gratuitous slap in the face that 
 the President had once given him, and reported 
 the bill with favorable recommendations. Al- 
 drich's trick proved very small politics. 
 
 Finding that Tillman's generous manhood 
 had destroyed the force of his strategy, Aldrich 
 tried a more subtle assault upon the measure. 
 There was still time to draw its teeth, and in 
 this sort of an attack, he could have the sup- 
 port of numerous senators who would not 
 openly defy "public sentiment." Senators 
 Spooner and Knox had raised a sufficient con- 
 stitutional dust to cover any sort of political 
 manipulation. President Roosevelt had con- 
 ferences with the friends of the bill and be- 
 came convinced that some of the Republican 
 senators were in a plot, by amendments, to de- 
 stroy its effectiveness. He could not count 
 upon sufficient votes within the party to pass 
 the bill in effective form. The President con- 
 sidered the cause well nigh lost. 
 
 So desperate did the situation look to him 
 that he sent Former Senator Chandler, Sena- 
 tor Tillman's close personal friend, as an emis- 
 sary to Senator Tillman, the President's 
 old enemy, and made overtures for an alliance 
 between Democratic and Rooseveltian forces 
 in the Senate to save the integrity of the meas- 
 ure. Spooner, Knox and Foraker, the Presi- 
 dent told Chandler, were making assaults upon 
 the measure through clever amendments based 
 upon "constitutional" points. Their manipula- 
 tions threatened to leave the bill a mere 
 shadow of itself. 
 
226 Roosevelt and the Republic 
 
 Senator Tillman remembered the Greeks 
 bearing gifts and fought warily of the propo- 
 sition. His old friend Chandler reassured him. 
 Tillman would see Senator Joseph Bailey of 
 Texas, who was then floor leader of the Demo- 
 crats, in the Senate. Senator Bailey was even 
 more suspicious than Tillman, but he, too, was 
 assured that the proposition was in good faith. 
 
 An interview was arranged between Attor- 
 ney-General Moody, representing the Presi- 
 dent, and Tillman and IJailey representing the 
 Democratic senators. The three men talked 
 and came to a virtual agreement upon the 
 scope of the amendments to be supported. 
 Democrats would support an efficient amend- 
 ment to the rate bill. President Roosevelt 
 would, on his part, hold out for an amendment 
 limiting court review to the question of ultra 
 vires (exceeding of power) by the commission, 
 and the violation of constitutional rights. 
 Bailey and Tillman also wanted an amendment 
 prohibiting interlocutory injunctions. The at- 
 torney-general was not prepared to say wheth- 
 er the latter amendment was within the power 
 of Congress. 
 
 Senator Tillman had begun to revise his esti- 
 mate of the President. The gratuitous slap 
 that Roosevelt had given him on the occasion 
 of Prince Henry's visit rankled. Tillman had 
 always felt that deep in their natures there was 
 a fundamental antagonism between him and 
 President Roosevelt, as fundamental as that 
 between the wolf and the sheep dog. Their 
 sentiments and ideals, he considered, were war- 
 
Roosevelt and the Republic 227 
 
 ring, irreconcilable. He had doubted from the 
 first whether any good could come of such an 
 alliance, but it seemed as though he had been 
 mistaken. 
 
 Several interviews had already taken place 
 between Tillman and Chandler and Chandler 
 and Roosevelt. Bailey had not seen Chandler, 
 nor had Tillman seen the President, but now 
 that they had met with a member of Roose- 
 velt's cabinet on the same subject, they felt 
 that there could be no longer any room for 
 error. The preliminary interviews had extend- 
 ed from March 31 to April 14. 
 
 A second interview took place between Till- 
 man and Bailey and Attorney-General Moody. 
 A written memorandum of the amendments 
 agreed upon was prepared by Moody and sub- 
 mitted to the Democrats. It was revised and 
 submitted to President Roosevelt. His ap- 
 proval was forthcoming. On that basis Bailey 
 and Tillman would furnish twenty-six Demo- 
 cratic votes. Roosevelt's party must furnish 
 twenty. I 
 
 All this is of record, placed there in open 
 session of the august Senate and printed in the 
 Congressional Record. What went on behind 
 the Repubhcan scenes is not a matter of writ- 
 ten history. Possibly President Roosevelt 
 rounded out in this case the tactics by which 
 he had captured Senator Piatt and the New 
 York gubernatorial nomination eight years be- 
 fore. Roosevelt's friends might have told Sen- 
 ator Aldrich that the bill could be passed with- 
 out him, and if it was, it would go upon the 
 
'22S Roosevelt and the Republic 
 
 statute books stronger than it had come from 
 the House of Representatives. 
 
 It was high time for Aldrich to act. He act- 
 ed. On the afternoon of May 4, while Senators 
 Tillman and Bailey were still dreaming dreams 
 of Rooseveltian alliances and rate amendments 
 limiting court reviews and interlocutory in- 
 junctions, President Roosevelt was bidding the 
 gentlemen of the press to come and listen to 
 what he had to say. 
 
 Roosevelt told the correspondents that he 
 was fully satisfied with the Allison amendment, 
 a mere declaration of the right of the courts to 
 review the work of the commission, giving the 
 broadest sort of authority — authority to try the 
 case de novo, if thought expedient. It was 
 silent upon interlocutory injunctions. The 
 things which Roosevelt told Chandler he would 
 stand for "unalterably," he now characterized 
 as of no consequence. 
 
 When newspaper correspondents told Bailey 
 and Tillman what had taken place, it almost 
 took away the breath of the good Democratic 
 senators. Tillman and Bailey, full of wrath, 
 sought out Chandler where he was dining at 
 the Portland. Question marks were written all 
 over their countenances. Would Chandler ex- 
 plain? Why was it that this "right about 
 face" on the part of the military President had 
 come stealthily and unheralded, like a thief in 
 the night? Was it not their due, since their aid 
 was sought, that when their aid was spurned, 
 they should be given some intimation of that 
 change? 
 
Roosevelt and the Republic 229' 
 
 Chandler had not been taken into the Presi- 
 dent's confidence, upon the new tack. All 
 three sought out Attorney-General Moody. 
 
 Was that the fact? No, he had heard noth- 
 ing of the change of front on the part of the 
 President. Moody was going South to rest — 
 just starting for a train at that moment. He 
 did not tarry to hear the whole story. 
 
 All over the broad land on the morrow the 
 story was sown broadcast. Aldrich smiled. 
 Bailey, Tillman and Chandler felt a sudden 
 tremendous slump in their market price. 
 
 For a whole week Tillman stewed in the 
 Senate in silent rage. Then his righteous 
 wrath broke forth. Tillman knew his weak- 
 ness and to save the day and his temper, he 
 came into the Senate with a written statement 
 detailing all that had happened from the time 
 that the President's private secretary, William 
 Loeb, had bidden Chandler to the White 
 House to the eventful evening when Roosevelt 
 had assembled the correspondents and said 
 something important to them. 
 
 In his story was the charge of the President 
 that Knox, Spooner and Foraker were bent 
 upon emasculating the rate measure by amend- 
 ments, and that a sufBcient number of Re- 
 publicans could not be marshalled to defeat 
 their plan. Tillman's statement, although dig- 
 nified and temperate in language, did not pic- 
 ture President Roosevelt in an enviable light. 
 
 Friend Henry Cabot Lodge, the same who 
 with Bellamy Storer was ready to vouch for 
 Tom Watson, got the White House telephone 
 
230 Roosevelt and the Republic 
 
 and told Roosevelt what was j::oing on up the 
 avenue. Chandler said : — Lodge repeated the 
 statement about Knox, Spooner and Foraker. 
 Did the President say it? 
 
 No; the thing was an unqualified and delib- 
 erate falsehood. 
 
 The Ambassador of the White House to Em- 
 peror Tillman of the Senate had in a few short 
 minutes been catalogued in the Ananias Club 
 with Thomas JefTerson and the whole line of 
 prevaricators from his time to that year of our 
 Lord 1906. 
 
 With only a two-days' interval, President 
 Roosevelt in a letter to Senator Allison gave 
 his version of the tale. Chandler, the busy- 
 body, had been sent by Tillman with syco- 
 phantic solicitation to beg the good President 
 to combine with the Democrats in order to 
 take the rate bill out of the hands of its Re- 
 publican foes. Graciously the President con- 
 sented to hear Chandler in Tillman's behalf. 
 He would, if necessary, have conferred with 
 Tillman personally, so liberal had he become. 
 But not for one moment did he take the Demo- 
 cratic view. The amendments under discus- 
 sion were of no consequence. Allison's de- 
 claration, colorless and unnecessary though it 
 may be, covered the whole case. The Presi- 
 dent was in full accord with Knox and 
 Spooner. In fact the statement of the Presi- 
 dent indicated that Chandler, Bailey and Till- 
 man had dreamed the same bad dream about 
 railway rates and the President. This dream 
 
R.OOSEVELT AND THE REPUBLIC 2^1 
 
 seems also to have infected Attorney-General 
 Moody. 
 
 There were but two things which seemed to 
 give positive proof that the episode was not 
 the stuff of which dreams are made — the 
 Moody memorandum, setting forth exactly 
 what Bailey and Tillman asserted it set forth, 
 and the letter of Secretary Loeb to Chandler 
 inviting him to conference in the White House, 
 showing upon its face that the President and 
 not Tillman had first brought Chandler into 
 the rate business and used him as an emissary. 
 
 Surrounded as the President's statement was 
 with an unmistakable air of coy improbability 
 — for everyone who knows Tillman knows that 
 he would take as great pleasure in opening ne- 
 gotiations with Roosevelt at that time as he 
 would in cutting off his good right arm — it 
 taxed the reputation for veracity which had 
 been built up by the President among those 
 who did not know him, to make his version at 
 all convincing. The dispassionate historian re- 
 viewing the documents several years hence will 
 find the record so baffling that he will probably 
 accord to the President the privilege claimed 
 for him by his admirers of making "facts" to 
 suit the interests of the administration. 
 
 Looking at this episode in the light of the 
 methods pursued by President Roosevelt in 
 getting the New York nomination for governor 
 and in altering and editing the correspondence 
 between Roosevelt and Harriman so as to de^ 
 ceive the public into the belief that Harriman 
 had initiated negotiations with Roosevelt in- 
 
22^2 Roosevelt and the Republic 
 
 stead of, as was the fact, that Roosevelt had 
 opened negotiations with Harriman, one is in- 
 cHned to be rather charitable toward Senator 
 Chandler for his lapses in truthfulness. 
 
 One glaring fact stands out boldly in all the 
 mass of controversy — Roosevelt again proved 
 himself a partisan. It was the third important 
 test with him where the interests of country 
 and party clashed. As in the other two cases, 
 the interests of the party were considered para- 
 mount. He would prefer a weaker rate meas- 
 ure to giving Democrats credit for strengthen- 
 ing it. There is still room for doubt whether 
 Roosevelt would choose the society of Hades 
 with a governor general who believed in the 
 tenets of Alexander Hamilton, rather than oc- 
 cupy a celestial throne among the democratic 
 followers of Thomas Jefiferson. We are in- 
 clined to give the President the benefit of the 
 doubt. 
 
 After the Allison letter the administration 
 quickly changed the subject. Senator Bailey, 
 said the Rooseveltian journalistic kitchen cab- 
 inet in an inspired article, was responsible for 
 the Chandler-Tillman episode. Neither Chand- 
 ler, nor Tillman, nor the President trusted 
 Bailey. They thought the man from Texas 
 was also trying to kill the bill with amend- 
 ments. Bailey used the same sort of compli- 
 mentary language toward the author of this 
 story as the President had used toward his 
 quondam friend Chandler. Tillman corrobor- 
 ated Bailey. 
 
 Republicans lined up again under their old 
 
Roosevelt and the Republic 233 
 
 leader, Aldrich, and voted for the Allison 
 amendment. Then they voted down every 
 amendment intended to strengthen the bill, in- 
 cluding the amendments curtailing court re- 
 view. Thus amended, the bill passed by an al- 
 most unanimous vote, the advocates of these 
 amendments considering the bill without them 
 better than no bill at all. Senators Pettus and 
 Morgan on the Democratic side, and Foraker 
 among the Republicans, voted against the bill. 
 
 Probably not in the recent history of the 
 government has the legislative mountain la- 
 bored so long and so painfully to bring forth 
 so small a legislative mouse. For eighteen 
 months the new law has been in effect, and it 
 has enabled the Interstate Commerce Commis- 
 sion to keep good its record of uninterrupted 
 uselessness proudly sustained over the score or 
 so of years that had gone before. True, the 
 new law has meant more commissioners, more 
 salary for each, and more agents and more 
 work for the government printer — some addi- 
 tional tons of "reports" which nobody reads. 
 The anti-pass amendment, an after thought, 
 the fruit of the agitation of the strenuous Con- 
 gressman Baker, has had some effect, regard- 
 less of the commission. But if any appreciable 
 body of railway rates has been made lower 
 through the workings of the new rate law, that 
 fact has wholly escaped an observing public. 
 Rebates were already doomed, but not through 
 Federal bureau activity. 
 
 The commission was not given power to do 
 the one thing it Is fitted to do, make a valuation 
 
234 Roosevelt and the Republic 
 
 of railway property as a basis for determining 
 the justness of rates. That was a plan of Sena- 
 tor La Follette, the insurgent, and just at that 
 stage Senator Spooner, an unselfish and loyal 
 popular champion and reformer, was the 
 mouthpiece of the Roosevelt administration. 
 Measures supported by La Follette had short 
 shrift. 
 
 Railway rates are to be changed only after 
 protest and hearing. Our hundreds of thou- 
 sands of rates would require commission sit- 
 tings of a half-century to have a perceptible 
 influence upon railway rates. If the sense of 
 American humor had not been lost, the whole 
 thing would appear deliciously absurd. 
 
 Its merit is said to be in establishing the 
 right of the government to regulate railway 
 rates through a commission. That right was 
 conceded for ten years, when the Supreme 
 Court put an end to the concession. What the 
 Supreme Court may do in future no man can 
 guess. Rebate prosecutions thus far have been 
 under the old law. 
 
 Some day this plethoric commission, with its 
 bureaucratic irresponsibility and its bales of 
 red tape, will prove an excellent barrier to the 
 solution of the railway problem by state or 
 nation. Then the people of the United States 
 may find far more trouble in getting rid of the 
 cumbersome bureau than they have found in 
 giving it power. If the commission idea had 
 in it anything of vital service in dealing with 
 the railway problem, this fact would probably 
 
Roosevelt and the Republic 235 
 
 have been at least hinted at by the results of 
 its twenty-one years of life. 
 
 America has lost the power of meeting new 
 problems in a new way, or of learning from 
 wiser nations how to meet them. Like a case 
 of small-pox, its railway problem must run its 
 course, through legislative ointment and com- 
 mission bandages. The country will finally 
 come out with the marks of the disease upon 
 it. We can afford to bear a little pitting if it 
 teaches something new. 
 
236 Roosevelt and the Republic 
 
 CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 CIVIL SERVICE REFORM AS PRESIDENT. 
 
 As President, Roosevelt's influence upon 
 civil service reform has been unique. With 
 technical knowledge, gained as commissioner, 
 of all the highways and by-ways, the back 
 doors, secret panels and side gateways of the 
 service, he was able to mold it to his will. 
 
 The back doors, the secret panels, the side 
 gateways, have all been closed and locked. 
 President Roosevelt alone carries a pass key. 
 
 President McKinley, the Spanish war, and 
 other subsequent imperialistic adventures, had 
 dealt the merit system blow after blow. Sus- 
 pensions, exceptions, transfers of unclassified 
 and temporary employees to the classified ser- 
 vice, had undermined its integrity. Hostile 
 commissioners tended to make the whole thing 
 a farce. Here came in Roosevelt's reservation. 
 He balked here at the policy of McKinley, al- 
 though he would not acknowledge to the coun- 
 try the decimation of the merit system which 
 had taken place preceding 1901. Roosevelt 
 stuck heroically to the declaration so dramati- 
 cally made in BufTalo that autumn day. Never- 
 theless, for the past six years, most of the en- 
 ergy exerted by Roosevelt in improving the 
 
Roosevelt and the Republic 237 
 
 civil service has been wasted in recovering the 
 ground lost by his immediate predecessor. For 
 practical purposes, Grover Cleveland had ap- 
 plied the merit system to the civil service al- 
 most as fully as it has yet been applied by 
 Theodore Roosevelt. 
 
 In 1903, seven years after Grover Cleveland 
 had made his svk^eeping order of May 6, 1896, 
 the executive service had grown to 271,169, and 
 but 134,000 places were classified. In other 
 words, practically one-half were unclassified. 
 This was almost exactly the unclassified per- 
 centage in 1896. There was a patronage of 
 134,000 places, which was far in excess of 1896 
 or any other previous time. 
 
 Since that time the executive civil service 
 has expanded as never before. Foreign posses- 
 sions mean executive satraps and their under- 
 lings. Canal construction, as the President 
 may direct, means other thousands. July i, 
 1906, the service included 326,850 places. Of 
 these, 184,178 were classified and 142,672 un- 
 classified. This represents the greatest num- 
 ber of unclassified executive Federal employees 
 ever recorded in the United States. Such 
 growth of the civil list is quite out of propor- 
 tion to the growth of the population. There was 
 a modest increase of about thirty thousand or 
 about twenty per cent, in executive places from 
 1886 to 1896, with an increase in population of 
 about fourteen millions or approximately twen- 
 ty-five per cent. From 1896 to 1906 there was 
 an increase of 148,000 or eighty per cent, in the 
 number of executive employees, with an in- 
 
238 Roosevelt and the Republic 
 
 crease in population of scarcely thirty per cent. 
 In other words the increase in the executive 
 civil list was fourfold greater with approxi- 
 mately the same increase in population. The 
 percentage of classified to unclassified places 
 has increased but eight per cent, since Cleve- 
 land. 
 
 Abuses, too, have crept in. Temporary ap- 
 pointment amounted to 14,256 in 1905. These 
 were of such nature as to admit of being used 
 as spoils. It is a clever way of beating the 
 civil service. Thousands of places in the new 
 forces and new services organized under 
 Roosevelt were spoils of office when the ap- 
 pointments were originally made, if they are 
 not, indeed, spoils of office still. 
 
 During the year 1905-6 the classified service 
 increased from 171,807 to 184,178. about seven 
 per cent., while the whole executive service in- 
 creased from 300,615 to 326,850, or about eight 
 per cent. The classified service did not hold its 
 own proportionately. This is said to be due to 
 the digging of the Panama canal "as the 
 President may direct." 
 
 New principles have been introduced into 
 the service by President Roosevelt. If intro- 
 duced by any other man they might be con- 
 sidered sinister. Men in the classified service 
 now may be dismissed without hearing, with- 
 out charges, and without a statement by the 
 department head as to the reasons for dismis- 
 sal. President Roosevelt has so ordered it. 
 Yet one of the most important advances made 
 in the civil service under Cleveland was doing 
 
Roosevelt and the Republic 239 
 
 away with just such irresponsible dismissal. 
 Postmaster General Bissell got commendation 
 from all civil service reformers for requiring 
 that all officers in making removals of subor- 
 dinates should file reasons therefor in writing 
 and the employee should be given opportunity 
 to answer. 
 
 Roosevelt found arbitary dismissal, when 
 practiced by political opponents, especially 
 mischievous, and is on record as having so de- 
 clared. Everybody who knows anything about 
 the civil service in Washington knows that 
 protection when in office is even more impor- 
 tant to efficient men than competitive oppor- 
 tunity for entering. That happy and contented 
 Roosevelt admiration society, the National 
 Civil Service Reform League, regrets that 
 "Jove nodded" in this respect. 
 
 Another pretty plan of beating the civil ser- 
 vice law is the presidential ukase, or "special 
 order," making individual exceptions. It can 
 be used artistically in placing a friend or a 
 henchman in the desired spot. There were 
 sixty-six of these special orders in one year, 
 sixty in another and forty in another, repre- 
 senting one hundred and sixty desirable berths 
 for persons who had done Roosevelt special 
 service. 
 
 It was under a ukase of this sort that "Joe" 
 Murray, Roosevelt's original discoverer, was 
 without examination placed in a classified posi- ^ 
 tion, assistant immigration commissioner of 
 New York City. One could not expect Roose- 
 velt to forget his original political discoverer 
 
 t^ 
 
240 Roosevelt and the Republic 
 
 after Roosevelt had arrived and the delectable 
 sweets of the pie counter were being distribut- 
 ed. It was Murray's misfortune, not his fault, 
 that he happened to be an illiterate ward heel- 
 er. What is a little matter like a civil service 
 law between friends? What matters any law 
 when Jove is on your side? 
 
 "There is a certain difference between being 
 paid with an ofifice and paid with money, exact- 
 ly as there is a certain difference between the 
 savagery of the Ashantee and that of the hot- 
 tentot, but it is small in amount." (Speech in 
 St. Louis, quoted in Leupp's "Life of Roose- 
 velt," page 44.) 
 
 "Where we allow the offices to form part of 
 an immense bribery chest, the effect upon po- 
 litical life is precisely the same as if we should 
 allow the open expenditure of immense sums 
 of money bribing voters." (Roosevelt in 
 "Public Opinion," April 4, 1895.) 
 
 Roosevelt computed that patronage in the 
 State of New York at that time amounted to 
 $25,000,000. This, when used for party pur- 
 poses, he regarded as a bribery fund. Much 
 of it was available for use by the governor. 
 
 "The man who is in politics for the offices," 
 says Roosevelt, "might just as well be in poli- 
 tics for the money he can get for his vote, so 
 far as the public good is concerned." 
 
 Vice-President Hendricks' statement about 
 taking the boys in to warm their toes caused 
 ]\Ir. Roosevelt to arise and remark that such 
 doctrine was "morally on the same plane as 
 giving the boys $5 each all round for their 
 
Roosevelt and the Republic 241 
 
 votes." Men who talked that way were 
 "champions of foul government and dishonest 
 practices." Anti-civil service reform men "had 
 a gift of office-mongering, just as other men 
 had a gift of picking pockets." 
 
 Mr. Roosevelt might have classed them with 
 cutthroats and murderers, but he showed the 
 conservative and generous spirit with which 
 he deals with those who disagree with him, 
 by classing them merely with pickpockets. 
 One may therefore realize the critical emerg- 
 ency which would induce a patriotic President, 
 knowing full well the quality of the offense, to 
 use the public patronage to control politics in 
 Ohio or NcAV York, to make the South solid for 
 a new Martin Van Buren, to dragoon legisla- 
 tion through Congress, to castigate such men 
 as Wadsworth for daring to disagree with the 
 views of the President as to the righteousness 
 of a piece of proposed legislation. Serious in- 
 deed must be the situation which would induce 
 a pure and high-minded patriot like Roosevelt 
 to resort to the bribery of voters, even with 
 offices. 
 
 Washington Dispatches of March 27, 1907, 
 gave in detail a story of the appointment of 
 thirty-two postmasters to help Secretary Taft 
 control Ohio. Washington newspaper friends 
 of Roosevelt told us a year ago that he had 
 proposed to place Federal patronage at Gov- 
 ernor Hughes' disposal in New York if 
 Hughes would in turn support the Roosevelt 
 administration. Hughes declined. For weeks 
 there have been general charges of Federal 
 patronage being used for political purposes. 
 
242 Roosevelt and the Republic 
 
 Whether as Governor or President, since 
 Roosevelt has had patronage at his disposal, 
 he has used it notoriously to strengthen his 
 party and promote his own fortunes. More 
 than that, in no campaign since Roosevelt has 
 been President has he failed to help with Fed- 
 eral patronage the regular machine organiza- 
 tions of his party in local contests. Cox's man 
 Herrick was helped in Ohio. Quayism was 
 tolerated if not supported in Pennsylvania. 
 Friends of decent government appealing to 
 Roosevelt for sympathy in an important fight 
 were told that they must not make trouble 
 between the senators of that state and the 
 President. Huldah Todd walked the plank in 
 Delaware because she was not to the liking of 
 Addick's man — Allee in Delaware. District- 
 Attorney Byrne became a constructive recess 
 man in his important office to bolster up the 
 fortunes of the delectable gas man. Piatt did 
 not suffer in New York, or Spooner in Wis- 
 consin. Strange to say, this "office-monger- 
 ing" which the President so picturesquely 
 characterizes as bribery, has always under 
 Roosevelt been for the benefit of the reaction- 
 ary machine. Only a tried and true civil ser- 
 vice reformer could so meritoriously and patri- 
 otically use public patronage as a "bribery 
 fund." 
 
 Private Secretary Cortelyou mounted rapid- 
 ly as the servitor of President Roosevelt. First 
 came the new cabinet position, Secretary of 
 Commerce and Labor. As chairman of the Re- 
 publican National Committee, in personal 
 
Roosevelt and the Republic 243 
 
 charge of Roosevelt's campaign for the presi- 
 dency, he was doing still more Patriotic ser- 
 vice Therefore the President was justified m 
 promising him the Post Office Departrnent if 
 he "made good." Mr. Hitchcock went with 
 CorteTyou Lm the classified service detailed 
 for he work, so to speak. Both did their work 
 so well that they landed higher ups Cortelyo i 
 a? the head of the Post Office Department, 
 wh ch had been promised him; Hitchcock as 
 his assistant later on. Cortelyou nianaged the 
 Republican party while m the pay oil^ncle 
 Sam. Private Secretary Cortelyou still 
 mounts. Now he has reached that ^^f^Y^^' 
 be-desired stage of progress where he may 
 g aduate as a high-salaried bank president^ 
 Hitchcock is to take a fresh start. Newspapers 
 fav that this member of Roosevelt's executive 
 ministry has been loaned to Secretary Tat. it 
 so he .might use the knowledge and influence 
 gained in the Post Office Departnient m he p- 
 fng his candidate, just as Cortelyou is sup- 
 posed to have used knowledge gained in the 
 government service to help Roosevelt. 
 
 In minor places, where the work is done un- 
 der the guidance of skilled chiefs, civil service 
 reformers insist that experience means effici- 
 ency. Strangely enough, experience is wholly 
 usefess in administering a gigantic department. 
 Roosevelt cabinet officers can master depart- 
 ment after department of the government in an 
 h.credibly short time. The more they are 
 shifted about, the better it seems for the de- 
 
244 Roosevelt and the Republic 
 
 partment — and the men. Postal problems? No 
 experience is necessary in meeting them ! 
 
 Shameful it was in Hendricks to talk of tak- 
 ing the boys in to warm their toes. But very 
 properly could President Roosevelt appoint 
 John S. Clarkson, the offensive spoilsman of 
 Harrison's administration to the surveyorship 
 in New York for services past and to come. 
 His giving places to Frantz, Curry, Mcllhenny, 
 Ben Daniels and the other host of Rough 
 Riders that he has remembered, was entirely 
 just and proper. Generals Wood, Bell, Grant, 
 personal friends, vaulted over the heads of 
 others through the most patriotic motives on 
 the part of ail concerned. We do not overlook 
 the fact that upon the face of the returns, 
 Roosevelt had nothing to do with the surpris- 
 ing advancement of the medical military men. 
 Therefore we cannot hold Roosevelt responsi- 
 ble for the effect upon discipline and efficiency. 
 Nor should we mention, except in passing the 
 effort of Roosevelt to have such promotion in 
 the army made the rule — leave it all to the dis- 
 cretion of the president and his staff advisers. 
 Such things would look very bad in Hendricks. 
 They were cause for praise of Roosevelt. 
 
 Roosevelt has labored assiduously, and not 
 without success, to confine violation of the 
 merit principle in civil service to the President 
 alone. If place is to be given for political ser- 
 vice, it must be service to the President. If 
 personal or political loyalty is to be rewarded 
 with Federal patronage, it must be loyalty to 
 the President. If partisan lines are to be 
 
Roosevelt and the Republic '245 
 
 crossed in appointments as in the South, it is 
 because the President has a loyal supporter on 
 the other side of the line. The more strictly- 
 civil service rules are enforced as to all other 
 persons the more useful is the presidential pre- 
 rogative of breaking" them. 
 
 Should spoils apply, even to the 143,000 un- 
 classified places indiscriminately, the President 
 must perforce permit congressmen and sena- 
 tors to distribute the plums. A President of 
 Roosevelt's industry in ofifice for a century 
 might intelligently pass upon such a mass of 
 appointees. If congressmen and senators were 
 permitted to choose, each lawmaker might be- 
 come the center of a little political machine. 
 Loyalty would be first to the lawmaker. When 
 it came to a test, the machine might be used 
 against the President. It might be made an 
 engine to defeat his policies. With civil ser- 
 vice rules enforced and place to be reached 
 when needed by "special order" only, or by 
 other executive device, all must come to the 
 President. Loyalty must run to him. In fact, 
 with the "special order" and the presidential 
 places, the President has all the patronage he 
 can keep sufficiently centralized, or useful. 
 Theodore Roosevelt has four times the spoils 
 to distribute enjoyed by such an unholy spoils- 
 man as Andrew Jackson. Eight thousand good 
 places, supplemented by the possibilities of the 
 "temporary appointment" and "special order," 
 are amply sufficient for all presidential pur- 
 poses. One's personal friends and supporters 
 
246 Roosevelt and the Republic 
 
 of tried loyalty are necessarily limited in num- 
 ber. 
 
 In another respect, Theodore Roosevelt has 
 made a clever use of Federal patronage. 
 Friends of Roosevelt's policies in Congress 
 have reaped reward. Opponents have suffered. 
 Of late, helped on by public patronage and the 
 Roosevelt newspaper claque, the notion has 
 been gaining ground that the Senate and 
 House of Representatives are political record- 
 ing machines intended to register in statutes 
 the presidential will. Any senator or repre- 
 sentative who questions this view comes dan- 
 gerously close to being a traitor. Monopoliz- 
 ing, as he does, the right to violate civil ser- 
 vice rules has strengthened Roosevelt mightily 
 in his heroic battles for his political policies. 
 High motives cover a multitude of spoils. 
 
 President Roosevelt has taught the nation 
 what quality of men should constitute the "gov- 
 erning class." Never since the time of Adams 
 has the service been made up so exclusive- 
 Iv of proper gentlemen. It was not Roosevelt's 
 fault that Harvard graduates were not availa- 
 ble for all positions at his disposal. Lacking 
 that ideal condition, he has invited other uni- 
 versities and colleges to the feast. This is em- 
 phatically the day of college men in govern- 
 ment. Since Jackson's "hoi polloi" followed 
 him to Washington, never has the "unwashed 
 mob" been so nearly excluded from important 
 government place as under Roosevelt. Excep- 
 tions like Clark, Sargeant and "Joe" Murray 
 prove the rule. Exceptional personal loyalty 
 
Roosevelt and the Republic 247 
 
 may overbalance lack of caste. Humble in- 
 terests must be recognized to some extent. 
 
 Hampered as he has been by confining him- 
 self in the main to personal considerations in 
 making appointments, President Roosevelt 
 may be excused for collecting about him 
 rather small men. Larger men are not so use- 
 ful in carrying out the policies of a mighty 
 chief. Moody, Metcalf, Bonaparte, Holmes, 
 Shaw, Day, Morton and Garfield may be cited 
 as examples. Then, too, it is not every cabinet 
 officer who will permit a President to use him 
 as a messenger boy; to go over his head and 
 under his feet as Roosevelt is constantly doing 
 with Metcalf, for instance. Gage would not 
 stand it. It disorganized his department and 
 destroyed his efficiency. His stay in the cabi- 
 net was short after the advent of Roosevelt. It 
 humiliated Hay beyond measure, but he bore 
 it to the end. The big men of the administra- 
 tion — Hay, Root, Taft, Hitchcock, and in his 
 way, Wilson — were inherited from McKinley, 
 who was an uncommonly keen judge of men. 
 If Roosevelt has used Root, the compliment 
 has certainly been returned. 
 
 It must be trying to the manhood of a big 
 man to have the gag tightly applied unless one 
 wishes to become an executive sounding board. 
 Of course we do not refer to the minor men 
 in the Federal service, those pathetic political 
 eunuchs denied all rights of citizenship except 
 sneaking home to vote. Our wise civil service 
 reformers have found civic activity incompati- 
 ble with Federal office-holding, and the Presi- 
 
248 Roosevelt and the Republic 
 
 dent has bound and gagged Federal employees 
 politically, by common consent. Some bedlam- 
 ite President may yet decide that a fourth class 
 postmaster, a postal, a patent, or a treasury 
 clerk who is an American citizen has as good 
 a right to speak his mind on politics as has a 
 cabinet officer. We are still happily spared 
 from such dangerous heresy. It seems, how- 
 ever, a compromise might be effected. 
 
 It has been found highly meritorious for 
 cabinet officers to leave their departmental 
 business in the hands of subordinates, and go 
 up and down the country justifying adminis- 
 tration policies, or helping to re-elect their 
 chief. This important phase of a cabinet min- 
 ister's official duty has never received proper 
 emphasis until a civil service reformer like 
 Roosevelt gave it point. Heretofore, it was 
 not deemed necessary for a colonial governor 
 to cable an official report for the purpose of 
 supporting a presidential candidate in a cam- 
 paign, as was done in 1904 from Manila. 
 
 Roosevelt has carried the matter still fur- 
 ther by loaning cabinet officers to political ma- 
 chines to help them out in close campaigns, as 
 in Pennsylvania and Ohio. 
 
 All in all, we have made progress under 
 Roosevelt. What the President has done in 
 the line of civil service extension, has been rec- 
 ognized as never before. He was applauded 
 for placing Panama under the classified service 
 and equally applauded for withdrawing it from 
 classification. It was praiseworthy to leave 
 4,000 pension examining doctors outside the 
 
Roosevelt and the Republic 249 
 
 bars. We shall have renewed applause when 
 the 65,000 fourth class postmasters all become 
 Roosevelt partisans and are made secure in 
 their places under the protection of the classi- 
 fied list, as were so many employees made se- 
 cure before Harrison left office. 
 
 The mill can never grind with the water that 
 is past. If those postoffices now become the 
 permanent reward of past political service, they 
 will not be available in future in paying for 
 like service. This is all we can expect until we 
 realize that the constituency capable of elect- 
 ing a congressman might successfully elect a 
 postmaster. 
 
 Future presidents can hardly use the per- 
 sonal machine built up by Roosevelt. His 
 work may therefore strengthen greatly our 
 civil service, although he has left for designing 
 successors many awkward precedents. 
 
250 Roosevelt and the Republic 
 
 CHAPTER XXIII. 
 
 ALEXANDER HAMILTON, ROOSEVELT's POLITICAL 
 IDEAL. 
 
 Alexander Hamilton, in Roosevelt's estima- 
 tion, stands head and shoulders above all other 
 American statesmen. It was he who originat- 
 ed nearly everything good, great and lasting in 
 our government. 
 
 "No American after Hamilton has done 
 greater service than Chief Justice Marshall in 
 making the nation." (Winning the West.) 
 
 Come forth, oh mighty Shade of the Revolu- 
 tion ! Teach us your political philosophy so 
 that we may understand the political philoso- 
 phy of your strenuous disciple, Theodore 
 Roosevelt. 
 
 Alexander Hamilton was a member of the 
 Constitutional Convention of 1787. His rec- 
 ognized intellectual force gave him a place. 
 But the perverted citizens of New York dis- 
 trusted his ideas of government. Hamilton 
 was a minority delegate. His light was hidden. 
 Hamilton's theories of government could not 
 find expression in votes. Delegates voted by 
 states — the unit rule of our later political con- 
 ventions. 
 
 For weeks the suppressed Hamilton smoked 
 
Roosevelt and the Republic 2$t 
 
 and fumed, a human Vesuvius. On a bright 
 June day, the seventeenth, the eruption came. 
 Then the red-hot lava of his pent-up political 
 w^isdom broke forth. 
 
 He doubted whether Republican govern- 
 ment could be established over so large a ter- 
 ritory, but he thought it unwise at that time 
 to propose any other sort because the people 
 would not listen to it. He had no scruple, how- 
 ever, in saying what sort of government he 
 favored. Supported as he was by the opinion 
 of so many wise and good men, he had no hesi- 
 tancy in declaring that the British government 
 was the best in the world and he doubted much 
 if anything short of it would do in America. 
 (Kings, lords, the established church, nobility, 
 caste, the whole mediaeval mess.) 
 
 The members most tenacious of republican- 
 ism were, he observed, loud as any in declar- 
 ing against the views of Democracy. The 
 progress of the public mind led him to antici- 
 pate the time when others as well as himselt 
 would join in the praise bestowed by Mr. 
 Necker on the British constitution, namely, 
 that it is the only government in the world 
 which united public strength with individual 
 security. 
 
 Their House of Lords is a most noble insti- 
 tution. They form a permanent barrier against 
 pernicious innovation. The Senate proposed 
 was not adequate to such a purpose. They 
 (some people) suppose seven years a sufficient 
 period to give the Senate adequate firmness, 
 because they fail to consider the amazing vio- 
 
252 Roosevelt and the Republicj 
 
 lence and turbulence of the democratic spirit. 
 
 Hamilton freely confessed that he was op- 
 posed to popular government, as his associates 
 well knew. 
 
 As to the executive, it seemed to be admitted 
 that no good one could be established upon 
 republican principles. Can there be a good 
 government without a good executive? The 
 English monarchy was the only good model 
 upon this subject. The hereditary interests of 
 the king were so interwoven with that of the 
 nation and his personal emolument so great 
 he was placed above the danger of being cor- 
 rupted from abroad. We ought to go as far 
 in order to attain stability and permanency as 
 republican principles admit. Let one branch 
 of the Legislature hold their office for life, or 
 at least during good behavior. Let the execu- 
 tive also be for life. He argued that we must 
 go as far at least as an elective monarch. 
 
 Hamilton did not expect immediate adoption 
 of his scheme, but he expected the confederacy 
 to fail and he saw evils operating in the states 
 that would cure the people of their fondness 
 for self-government. Firmly fixed in the belief 
 that the delusion of popular government would 
 pass, Hamilton went on to outline the govern- 
 ment which he would establish as a step to- 
 ward the more perfect English system : 
 
 Assembly with limited powers elected for 
 three years. 
 
 Senate for life elected by a few electors. 
 
 President for life elected by a few electors. 
 
 Absolute veto, treaty-making power, as well 
 
RoosEVfiLt At^i) tHE REi-UfiLid 253 
 
 as the appointment of officers, in the hands of 
 the executive. 
 
 Senate to declare war and approve treaties, 
 also approve appointments, except the cabinet. 
 
 Judges for life. 
 
 National executive to appoint all state gov- 
 ernors. These governors to have absolute 
 veto upon acts of state legislatures. 
 
 State militia was to be under the control of 
 the general government. 
 
 His idea was to destroy the states utterly 
 as autonomous entities in charge of local af- 
 fairs. They were to be mere departments of 
 the Federal government. 
 
 Popular government to Hamilton was "but 
 pork still with a change of sauce." 
 
 After Hamilton had outlined his plan for 
 a new constitutional monarchy for America, he 
 left the hall to return no more until mid-Au- 
 gust. But his plan has been preserved in Madi- 
 son's Journal, as outlined above. 
 
 Born in a British colony with little power in 
 the hands of the people, Hamilton naturally 
 turned to the kingly order. Narrow, intense, 
 autocratic to the weak, sycophantic to the 
 strong, without imagination, he could only 
 grope along the trail of mediaeval governmental 
 forms, still in a modified condition surviving 
 in Europe. 
 
 With the heads of the deluded people full of 
 Jefiferson's foolish Declaration of Independ- 
 ence, which, of course, sounded absurd to a 
 strong man like Hamilton, our monarch-loving 
 patriot knew that at that time his scheme could 
 
254 Roosevelt and the Republic 
 
 not be put in practice. The people of America 
 could not just then be cheated out of the 
 freedom they had fought for, Hamilton would 
 bide his time. Let the foolish weaklings with 
 democratic tendencies have their fling. Soon 
 they would call upon the strong man. then 
 there would be kinghood and respectability. 
 
 Hamilton came back in August, but he had 
 little to do with the making of the constitution. 
 A life judiciary was set up, but Hamilton's 
 ideas upon that point were not unique. Madi- 
 son really outlined the plan. Occasionally 
 Hamilton raised his voice in protest against 
 too much power for the people, but his influ- 
 ence in the making of the constitution was very 
 slight. 
 
 Hamilton had many sympathizers in the con- 
 stitutional convention, even though he had 
 little support. While made up of as able men, 
 perhaps, as any similar convention ever as- 
 sembled on earth, and as patriotic, the conven- 
 tion had little of the democratic taint. Frank- 
 lin was a thorough Democrat. Madison. Ran- 
 dolph, Mason, Ellsworth. Gorham, Sherman, 
 and a few others, showed at times some taint 
 of democracy. This was especially true of 
 Mason, who actually attacked black slavery, 
 although coming from slave-holding Virginia. 
 But not one had delusions as to the popular 
 temper. They well knew that unless large 
 concessions were made to those deluded with 
 the theories of popular self-government, the 
 constitution could never receive the ratification 
 of the states. Therefore they swallowed their 
 
Roosevelt and the Republic 255 
 
 disgust and made a constitution permitting of 
 remarkable democratic development. Hamil- 
 ton would have made the issue, let the states 
 separate and give the "strong man" opportu- 
 nity to assemble them on a better basis. 
 
 Naturally in making such a constitution as 
 was made, such men as Randolph, Mason, 
 Madison, Ellsworth and Franklin would be 
 given greater scope than their aristocratic col- 
 leagues. With few exceptions, among whom 
 were Hamilton and Morris, nobody seemed 
 willing to face the chaos which might have 
 followed failure to make a constitution which 
 could be adopted, and to count upon reaction 
 to secure a more autocratic and therefore a 
 better government. 
 
 In his Federalist papers Hamilton gave a 
 much milder exposition of his theories govern- 
 mental, sugar-coating his statement to the 
 taste of a weakling public. He wanted the con- 
 stitution adopted as the least evil possible of 
 attainment at that time. It might be interpret- 
 ed into shape by that life judiciary. 
 
 "Various reasons," says Hamilton, "have 
 been suggested in the course of these papers 
 to induce the probability that the general gov- 
 ernment will be better administered than the 
 particular governments, the principal of which 
 are that . . , through the medium of the 
 state legislatures, which are select bodies of 
 men and which are to appoint the members of 
 the National Senate, there is reason to expect 
 that this branch will usually be composed with 
 peculiar care." (Federalist, No. 2^.) 
 
256 Roosevelt and the Republic 
 
 Somehow this election of senators by the 
 legislatures, notwithstanding the sublime and 
 altogether infallible political wisdom of Ham- 
 ilton, has done as much as any other one thing 
 to corrupt our politics and make special inter- 
 ests secure in the control of the Federal gov- 
 ernment. 
 
 Electoral colleges have been made a farce 
 by the march of the Democratic spirit, but their 
 ghosts still have power for mischief. 
 
 "No man's ideas were more remote from the 
 plan than his own were known to be," said 
 Hamilton in finally deciding to support the 
 constitution, "but is it possible to deliberate 
 between anarchy (state governments?) on the 
 one side and the chance of good to be expected 
 from the plan on the other." (Madison's Jour- 
 nal, page 746.) 
 
 "A well constituted court for the trial of im- 
 peachments is an object not more to be de- 
 sired than diflficult to obtain in a government 
 wholly elective." (Ford's Federalist, 433.) 
 
 Probably the genesis of Roosevelt's notion 
 that officers should ignore the will of those who 
 elect them, is found in Hamilton's statement: 
 "When occasions present themselves in which 
 the interests of the people are at variance with 
 their inclinations, it is the duty of the persons 
 whom they have appointed to be guardians 
 over their interests, to withstand the temporary 
 delusions." (Ford's Federalist, 477.) 
 
 Hamilton had a keen appreciation, as Roose- 
 velt has, of the danger from states' rights: 
 "The danger which most threatens our political 
 
Roosevelt and the Republic 257 
 
 welfare is that the state governments will 
 finally sap the foundations of the Union." 
 (Ford's Federalist, 203.) 
 
 "It will always be more easy for the state 
 governments to encroach upon the national au- 
 thorities, than for the national government to 
 encroach upon the state authorities." (Fed- 
 eralist, 17.) 
 
 Hamilton's wonderful foresight in this re- 
 gard is indicated by the sequel. State en- 
 croachment on the Federal governmental au- 
 thorities has been a caution. Hamilton, Madi- 
 son and other good men seem to have over- 
 looked the power of party in politics to give 
 the Federal government overmastering domin- 
 ation over the states. The majority of states 
 are ruled usually by the majority party in the 
 nation. Party loyalty will require them to 
 stand by the Federal government in a contest 
 with any one state, especially in a state of the 
 minority. Thus the Federal government will 
 overmaster the states in detail. As Federal 
 power grows, the people of all other states, al- 
 most regardless of party, will take the side of 
 the Federal government against almost any 
 state but their own. Only when identical in- 
 terests draw contiguous states together in op- 
 position have we an exception to the rule. 
 
 Hostility to state government had a deeper 
 significance with Hamilton. He recognized 
 that local self-government was the only means 
 of maintaining popular institutions. Putting 
 responsibility upon citizens, it develops in 
 them resistance to interference from without. 
 
258 Roosevelt and the Republic 
 
 Legislative branches, Hamilton thought, 
 might encroach upon the executive, especially 
 might this be expected from the national House 
 of Representatives. In view of the present 
 suppineness of the body this prediction seems 
 almost grotesque, but Hamilton being w^ith- 
 out imagination, was wrong in almost every 
 prediction. English Commons were cited as 
 a parallel. Progress toward democracy could 
 not fail to strengthen the Commons, for the 
 Commons are its only means of expression. In 
 America all three branches get power from 
 the people, and all get similar support. The 
 executive is best organized to bid for such 
 support and does so most effectively. 
 
 "Government," says Hamilton, "is instituted 
 more for the protection of property than the 
 persons of individuals. The one as well as the 
 other may be considered represented by those 
 who are charged with the government." 
 
 Such was the meaning of property qualifica- 
 tions for voting in New York State. In the 
 United States government, "The RIGHTS OF 
 PROPERTY are committed to the same hands 
 as personal rights." The opulent citizen has 
 large influence because of his wealth, and 
 "through this imperceptible channel the 
 RIGHTS OF PROPERTY are conveyed into 
 the representation. (Federalist, No. 54.) 
 
 An individual's right to the possession and 
 enjoyment of property has been dinned into 
 the average citizen until he thinks he compre- 
 hends it. But to him the "RIGHTS OF 
 PROPERTY" has a bizarre sound. He may 
 
Roosevelt and the Republic 259 
 
 see clearly enough in his humorous moods that 
 a gold dollar should have the right of free 
 speech and immunity from cruel and unusual 
 punishments ; a diamond ring ought not to be 
 subjected to false imprisonment; false arrest 
 should not be inflicted upon a brick house. 
 When one takes concrete examples, like these, 
 the dullest mind can see the absurdity of deny- 
 ing property its "RIGHTS." But when it 
 comes to making a generalization, as Hamilton 
 did, as to the "RIGHTS OF PROPERTY," 
 and finding government protection for property 
 in these "RIGHTS," the Jeffersonian mind is 
 totally unable to follow him. 
 
 Some of the milder Jeffersonians contend 
 that Hamilton's "rights of property" was mere- 
 ly an inoffensive way of asserting that men 
 with dollars had greater political rights than 
 men without dollars, and were entitled to 
 greater privileges and better protection. Then 
 they howl "plutocracy !" 
 
 An irresponsible type of Jeffersonian has 
 paraphrased Hamilton's philosophical proposi- 
 tion in this way: "Government is instituted 
 more for the protection of household furniture 
 and live stock than the persons of individuals. 
 The one as well as the other may be considered 
 represented by those who are charged with the 
 government. The rights of flour mills are com- 
 mitted to the same hands as personal rights. 
 Rich men have great influence. Through this 
 imperceptible channel the rights of donkeys 
 (property) are conveyed into the representa- 
 tion." 
 
26o Roosevelt and the Republic 
 
 Absurd and foolish persons, of course, can 
 give a grotesque twist to the wisest philosophy. 
 Hamilton's discriminating doctrine has been 
 accepted by his followers from Adams to 
 Roosevelt. Roosevelt speaks repeatedly of the 
 "RIGHTS OF PROPERTY." In fiact, if prop- 
 erty had not "rights" as set forth by Hamilton, 
 there would be no foundation at all for laws 
 granting special privileges. The so-called plu- 
 tocratic strain in our institutions would be miss- 
 ing. We would guard property and contracts 
 less carefully and pay more attention to human 
 life. The rights of men without dollars might 
 count for as much as the rights of men with 
 dollars. One may readily imagine the chaos 
 to follow such a state. 
 
 Hamilton's advocacy of the constitution, de- 
 fective though he thought it to be, had some- 
 thing to do with its adoption in the State of 
 New York. Once adopted his energy was ex- 
 erted tow^ard interpreting it in a w'ay agreeing 
 with his own ideas of what a government 
 should be. But his opponents were sufficiently 
 strong to get the amendments embodying a bill 
 of rights. In fact, had that not been promised 
 the constitution would have failed of confirma- 
 tion. 
 
 His place in Washington's cabinet gave 
 Hamilton peculiar opportunity to secure the 
 thing he wished. Hamilton had gone into the 
 cabinet some time before Jefferson. Already 
 when Jefferson entered, Hamilton had given 
 the government the Hamiltonian trend. For 
 a little time Jefferson did not seem to realize 
 
IvOOSEVELT AND THE REPUBLIC 26l 
 
 just what Hamilton was doing. In some re- 
 spects Jefferson fell in with Hamilton's plans." 
 
 Washington trusted Hamilton. In matters 
 governmental their sympathies ran much more 
 nearly parallel than those of Washington and 
 Jefferson. Hamilton's great intellectual force 
 and his superior knowledge of law and of gov- 
 ernmental details, made Washington his 
 debtor. Washington accepted Hamilton's ad- 
 vice upon organization and policies. 
 
 England was the ideal in government Hain- 
 ilton labored to attain. His whole energy was 
 bent upon repeating, as nearly as may be, the 
 British government in the revolted colonies. 
 In his position at the head of the national 
 finances, he had opportunities to put English 
 policies into practice. Protection, following 
 the British policy of the time, was one of his 
 early cares. 
 
 Hamilton realized that the debates of the 
 constitutional convention were too fresh in the 
 public mind to admit of an interpretation of 
 the constitution radically different from that 
 indicated in these debates. Chartering of mis- 
 cellaneous corporations by the general govern- 
 ment was no part of the constitutional pro- 
 gramme. Neither was there to be any inter- 
 ference with subjects of local taxation. But 
 taxes were to be collected. This Hamilton 
 argued implied a fiscal agent for their collec- 
 tion. The fiscal agent might be a bank. Thus 
 was the thin edge of the wedge of implied 
 powers inserted in the constitution. Soon the 
 rent was sufficiently large for the national 
 
262 Roosevelt and the Republic 
 
 bank. Implied powers, and "general welfare," 
 judging by their application, seem to have 
 meant more than all the rest of the constitu- 
 tion, except possibly taking property without 
 just compensation or due process of law. 
 
 In our day we have gone beyond these feeble 
 Hamilton subterfuges. Theodore Roosevelt 
 knows that the constitution authorizes the in- 
 corporation of any body which Congress may 
 see fit to charter. To him the laws of inheri- 
 tance, the laws which Hamilton instanced as 
 peculiarly the province of the state, are the 
 subject of Federal modiacation. For more 
 than a century the Supreme Court has been ex- 
 panding the constitution to suit its own grow- 
 ing power. Debates in the constitutional con- 
 vention have been forgotten. 
 
 In our foreign relations, Hamilton believed 
 in courting the friendship of Great Britain and 
 turning a cold shoulder upon France. True, 
 Great Britain had wantonly violated the Treaty 
 of Paris. Posts which in this treaty it had 
 agreed to surrender were still held by British 
 garrisons. American merchantmen were still 
 being captured on the high seas. American 
 seamen were being impressed, American ves- 
 sels searched. Border Indians were being in- 
 cited to pillage and murder. In fact, Great 
 Britain w^as treating the revolted, but now in- 
 dependent colonies, with all the cruel, cold- 
 blooded, insulting arrogance that this most pi- 
 ratical of all nations w^as capable of imposing 
 upon a weaker victim. 
 
 This did not matter to Hamilton. Great 
 
Roosevelt and the Republic 263 
 
 Britain was his first love still, his ideal. He 
 must keep her toleration at any cost of cowar- 
 dice and humiliation. On the other hand, 
 France, which had helped us in our hour of 
 need, had become saturated with democracy. 
 It had overthrown kings and nobles and was 
 at bay before king-ridden Europe. Such a 
 friend was thoroughly disreputable — impossi- 
 ble to a man of Hamilton's sympathies. 
 
 Jefferson as ambassador of the young nation, 
 had been snubbed and insulted by the arrogant 
 swinish British king. He had no sympathy 
 with kingly government, but had learned to 
 love the French, even the more because they 
 were toppling over thrones. 
 
 Hamilton's ideas of governmental policies 
 could no more harmonize with those of Jeffer- 
 son than could oil mix with water. They be- 
 came disturbing elements in Washington's ad- 
 ministration. Drifting farther and farther 
 apart, each attracted to himself a group of fol- 
 lowers with ideas akin to his own. Soon there 
 were two distinct political parties, although 
 while Washington remained President they 
 were not clearly defined. On broad lines these 
 parties still persist, altiiough their names have 
 often changed. 
 
 Jay's treaty with England had been signed. 
 Genet had come and gone. Hamilton's policies 
 secured full ascendency in the administration. 
 He was all powerful. Jefferson retired. Still 
 he watched the course of events with eager 
 solicitation. Hamilton had not made friends. 
 Jay's treaty had caused him to be stoned in the 
 
264 Roosevelt and the Republic 
 
 streets. One can well imagine why. He had 
 intrigued against everybody associated with 
 him in Washington's government. A veritable 
 granny for sharp-tongued gossip, he had at- 
 tacked and destroyed reputations. Adams took 
 him as an inheritance, even though he had 
 tried to cheat Adams out of the presidency by 
 elevating to that position a candidate for the 
 vice-presidency. 
 
 While Washington remained at the head of 
 the government, his influence protected the un- 
 popular Hamilton. When Adams succeeded 
 the great chief after one of the bitterest cam- 
 paigns imaginable, there was no longer the 
 shadow of the great chief as a refuge. Then 
 Hamilton and his forces must meet in open 
 battle with Jefferson and his clans. Soon 
 Adams found in Hamilton an awkward inheri- 
 tance. The arrogant leader of the Federalists 
 wanted to dictate Adams' policies. He even 
 had spies in Adams' own household. 
 
 Hamilton had had a most picturesque ca- 
 reer. Coming to New York as a nameless ad- 
 venturer of doubtful parentage, he had mar- 
 ried into the rich and powerful Schuyler family. 
 This with his exceptional ability had made 
 him a power in New York politics. As a nat- 
 ural leader he insisted upon ruling with an 
 iron hand. 
 
 Aristocratic in sentiment, exclusive, vindic- 
 tive, tricky, he had made as many enemies in 
 his own state as in the Federal government. 
 These he pursued. Once in control, he suc- 
 ceeded in shutting out the Livingstons from 
 
Roosevelt and the Republic 265 
 
 political preferment. Rufus King and Gen- 
 eral Schuyler were made senators. It cost 
 Hamilton the Empire state, for the Livingstons 
 were men of power, and withal fond of battle. 
 
 This was in 1800. Always a bad loser, Ham- 
 ilton was beside himself, and actually proposed 
 to Jay to call together a legislature which had 
 adjourned sine die and whose successors had 
 been elected, nullify the election, and by put- 
 ting in force a new plan, turn the state over to 
 the Federalists. Jay, who walked straight in 
 his aristocratic boots, rejected the tricky 
 counsel. 
 
 In these numerous political contests, a man 
 as dififerent as possible from Hamilton had 
 crossed his path. This time was the clash 
 most irritating to both. Aaron Burr was one 
 of the best born of Americans. His military 
 reputation was as good as that of Hamilton. 
 He was Hamilton's rival in law and politics. 
 Neither was a political fighter choice of meth- 
 ods. Yet Burr was the more generous and less 
 vindictive of the two. Both were inordinately 
 ambitious ; both implacable haters. 
 
 While this rivalry had been in progress, 
 Hamilton had repeatedly attacked Burr bitterly 
 in speech and letter. He had reflected upon 
 Burr's character, attacked his integrity, made 
 him out a mean, despicable, conscienceless in- 
 triguer. With Washington, Hamilton had 
 ruined Burr's standing. He had injured Burr 
 with everybody who gave weight to Hamilton. 
 
 It is probable that during most of this time 
 Burr was ignorant of Hamilton's slanders. The 
 
266 Roosevelt and the Republic 
 
 men met socially and professionally. They 
 dined together. On the surface all was serene. 
 After Hamilton's defeat in 1800, these slanders 
 redoubled. Soon Hamilton had an opportu- 
 nity to retaliate by shutting Burr out of the 
 presidency, not that he hated Jefferson less, 
 but he hated Burr more. 
 
 With Jefferson's election to the presidency, 
 Hamilton's influence in national politics was 
 gone. The attempts to destroy freedom of 
 speech and of the press and to make the 
 President an autocrat in dealing with aliens 
 had destroyed utterly the Federalist party. But 
 still Hamilton had influence in New York. 
 Joining forces with the Livingstons and Clin- 
 tons, he defeated Burr for the governorship. 
 Burr at this time was becoming morose and 
 dangerous, embittered as was Hamilton by dis- 
 appointment and thwarted ambition. 
 
 As the swelling tide of democracy arose, 
 Hamilton became more bitter and implacable. 
 Both men in New York, the Burr-Hamilton 
 feud blazed forth afresh. Hamilton had writ- 
 ten new letters slanderously assailing Burr and 
 attacking his integrity. Burr at length dis- 
 covered Hamilton's treachery. Local news- 
 papers taunted Burr. Had the vice-president 
 of the United States fallen so low as to per- 
 mit himself to be insulted by Hamilton with- 
 out resenting it. This new indignity was more 
 than the fiery Burr could bear. He sent a copy 
 of the attacking epistle to Hamilton and asked 
 an explanation. It was the day of the code 
 duello. Both Burr and Hamilton had been 
 
Roosevelt and the Republic 267 
 
 mixed in other affairs of "honor" settled by 
 blood-wager. Hamilton's favorite son had 
 fallen on the "field of honor" without protest 
 from Hamilton. As second Hamilton had en- 
 gaged himself in the duel. Burr's communica- 
 tion therefore meant explain, apologize, or 
 
 Hamilton equivocated. The dashing soldier 
 seemed at last possessed of something like fear. 
 Burr coldly stuck to his text. At length the 
 great Federalist had seen into what a critical 
 place his slanderous attacks had brought him. 
 Appleton's cyclopedia of biography says : 
 
 "Hamilton was haunted with the belief that 
 democracy was going to culminate in the hor- 
 rors of the French revolution, that a strong 
 man would be needed and that society would 
 turn to him for salvation. In that case he 
 would be disqualified if he failed to fight Burr." 
 Possibly visions of that much-to-be-desired 
 monarchy with the crown upon Hamilton's 
 brow floated before him. At all events, Ham- 
 ilton went very reluctantly into this fight. He 
 feared the cold relentlessness of his antagonist. 
 
 That early morning meeting on the grassy 
 shelf at Weehauken is history. Hamilton fell 
 after having written a statement intended to 
 put upon Burr the stigma of murder and to 
 hold Hamilton up as a martyr. It was an act 
 almost infinite in its meanness. Impartial 
 judges, at this time, are inclined to think that 
 Burr did the only thing possible at that time 
 in his environment. The consequences were 
 guch as nobody could foresee. The bullet 
 
268 Roosevelt and the: Republic 
 
 which killed Hamilton made Burr an outlaw. 
 It cut off two brilliant careers and rang the 
 death knell of the duel in that section. 
 
 Possibly Burr's bullet saved the Republic 
 from the powerful trend toward monarchy 
 which Hamilton would undoubtedly have 
 given it had he ever become arbiter of its for- 
 tunes. At that time it looked as though Ham- 
 ilton had shot his bolt and had been hopeless- 
 ly and permanently eliminated from national 
 politics. Still, had Hamilton lived, it is hard 
 to say that his overpowering intellectual force, 
 driven forward by his restless ambition, might 
 not have elevated him again to a place of power 
 and authority. The lack of poise shown by 
 Hamilton in the Jay and other incidents, left 
 no criterion for forecasting the exact direction 
 which his activities might have taken. Possi- 
 bly had he lived our government would have 
 developed the "stability, the strength" and the 
 caste enjoyed by the English people. Or pos- 
 sibly Hamilton, failing in such a plan, might 
 have been branded with Burr one of the "trait- 
 ors" of the Republic. 
 
 Strange, indeed, it was that two such men 
 as Burr and Hamilton should have crossed each 
 other's pathways. Burr with his brilliant, rest- 
 less, reckless, passionate intensity, his generos- 
 ity, his strength, and his weaknesses. Hamil- 
 ton of intellect so powerful as to lift him from 
 the place of mere adventurer to the highest 
 station. Wedded with relentless ardor to that 
 aristocracy of which he was not and against 
 .which fate had compelled him to strike a tell^ 
 
Roosevelt and the Republic 269 
 
 Ing blow. Clashing ambition brought him and 
 Burr to the field of "honor." Burr's bullet 
 made Hamilton a victim and started Burr on 
 the downward road to destruction. The bullet 
 that made Hamilton a martyr insured genera- 
 tions of praise for the one man in all history 
 vv^ho has had the most sinister influence upon 
 the Republic. 
 
 To the democratic student of history the 
 high estimate which historians have placed 
 upon Hamilton is most perplexing. Every fear 
 he expresses as to the evil tendencies of dem- 
 ocracy, time has proved utterly groundless. 
 Few evils in our governmental system but can 
 be traced to the distrust which Hamilton had 
 in the people and the devices which his school 
 employed to prevent the masses from exerting 
 real power. Legislative election of senators 
 and electoral choosing of Presidents have been 
 the prolific parents of numberless carrion 
 broods. An irresponsible Federal judiciary has 
 bound us hand and foot and delivered us to 
 special interests. Executive power has grown 
 to unwieldy proportions. Federal usurpation 
 threatens to degrade states into provinces and 
 transfer our government into a bureaucracy. 
 Hamilton was a false prophet. His influence 
 upon the Republic was almost wholly sinister. 
 
 Born a Hamilton "Republican," a profound 
 believer in strong government, Theodore 
 Roosevelt naturally looks upon Hamilton as 
 his political patron saint. If we have reached 
 such an elevation in political philosophy that 
 .we can overcome our prejudices in favor of 
 
270 Roosevelt and the Republic 
 
 self-government and see the superior merits of 
 the forms of government which the older and 
 wiser nations approve, we shall agree with 
 Hamilton and Roosevelt. If our vision be nar- 
 row, if we are obsessed with the vagaries and 
 sophistries of the Declaration of Independence, 
 we shall still strive for the ideals of theorists 
 and doctrinaires like Jefiferson. 
 
 But whatever view we take, we must yield 
 the palm of merit to Theodore Roosevelt. 
 Hamilton had lived for years under the British 
 flag. Love of Britain had been bred in his 
 blood and bone. In Hamilton's time no con- 
 siderable experiment in applying democratic 
 republican principles to government on a large 
 scale had proved successful. It was most nat- 
 ural for the practical, unimaginative, efficient 
 Hamilton to prefer monarchy. He can claim 
 no great credit for it. But President Roose- 
 velt and his ancestors for generations have 
 prospered under what is by many considered 
 a successful experiment in democratic republi- 
 can government. Naturally he would be ex- 
 pected to favor the democratic republican form 
 through sheer predilection. That he realizes 
 its weaknesses, its shortcomings, its inade- 
 quacy, and favors the Hamilton ideal, shows 
 the broad liberality of his mind and his firm 
 grasp of the problems of practical government. 
 
Roosevelt and the Republic 271 
 
 CHAPTER XXIV. 
 
 THOMAS JEFFERSON, AND HIS SINISTER 
 DEMOCRACY. 
 
 In our introduction to this narrative we have 
 given some indication of how Roosevelt, his- 
 torian, regards Thomas Jefferson. This 
 touched the surface merely. Contempt hardly 
 expresses the feeling of the Spanish War hero 
 for the Revolutionary weakling doctrinaire. 
 There are scores of references, direct and in- 
 direct, in Roosevelt's writings to Thomas Jef- 
 ferson. With few exceptions they show that 
 Thomas Jefferson was utterly despicable in 
 Theodore Roosevelt's sight. In fact, Roosevelt 
 seems to harbor an intense and bitter hatred 
 for the man who foiled Hamilton's plans for a 
 centralized American government. 
 
 Just as Roosevelt agrees with Hamilton in 
 his theories of government and loved and ad- 
 mired him for them, he takes issue with every 
 tenet of Jefferson and despises the man who 
 gave voice to such folly. Roosevelt and de- 
 mocracy are not more irreconcilable than 
 Roosevelt and Jefferson, for to Roosevelt, Jef- 
 ferson means democracy. Here are some of 
 the references in Roosevelt's writings to this 
 
2/2 Roosevelt and the Republic 
 
 most despicable of our American statesmen as 
 Roosevelt views him : 
 
 "Though a man whose views and theories 
 had a profound influence upon the national life, 
 he was perhaps the most incapable executive 
 that ever filled the presidential chair ; being al- 
 most purely visionary, he was utterly unable 
 to grapple with the slightest actual danger, and 
 not even excepting his successor, IMadison, it 
 would be difficult to find a man less fit to guide 
 the state with honor and safety through the 
 stormy times that marked the opening of the 
 present century." (Roosevelt's writings.) 
 
 "Morris despised Jefferson for a tricky and 
 incapable theorist." (Roosevelt's Life of 
 Morris, pages 330 and 331.) 
 
 "JelTerson was President and Madison was 
 Secretary of State. The country never had two 
 statesmen less capable of upholding the dignity 
 of the nation. . . . Jefferson loved France 
 with a servile devotion." (4, Winning of the 
 West, 271.) 
 
 "It was these two timid, well-meaning 
 statesmen who now found themselves pitted 
 against Napoleon and Napoleon's minister, 
 Talleyrand ; against the greatest warrior and 
 law-giver and against one of the greatest diplo- 
 mats of modern times ; against two men, more- 
 over, whose sodden lack of conscience, was 
 but heightened by the contrast with their bril- 
 liant genius and their power of character." 
 (4, Winning of the West, 271.) 
 
 Strangest of all, the two "timid, well-mean- 
 ing statesmen" won in the contest with all this 
 
Roosevelt and the Republic 273 
 
 brilliancy and unscrupulousness. They got 
 Napoleon's American empire for fifteen mil- 
 lions of dollars and got it bloodlessly. 
 
 "Napoleon was quite as incapable as any 
 Spanish statesman or as Talleyrand himself, of 
 so much as considering the question of breach 
 of faith or loss of honor, if he could gain any 
 advantage by sacrificing either." (4, Winning 
 of the West, 271.) 
 
 Making Jefferson's victory all the more re- 
 markable. 
 
 'Tt" (acquiring Louisiana) "was at the cost 
 of violating every precept which they had pro- 
 fessed to hold most dear, and of showing that 
 their warfare on the Federalists had been 
 waged on behalf of principles which they were 
 obliged to confess were shams the moment 
 they were put to the test." (4, Winning of 
 the West, 282.) 
 
 "The real history of the acquisition must tell 
 of the great westward movement begun in 
 1769, and not merely of the feeble diplomacy 
 of Jefferson's administration." (Winning of 
 the West, Vol. 4, page 261.) 
 
 One may take that view of the matter if 
 one be looking into the causes of policies and 
 leadership, but if one does take that view, he 
 eliminates all heroes and weaklings,, all devils 
 and saints, for everything in history is due to 
 forces which no man can control or even di- 
 rect. If Washington deserves credit for leader- 
 ship in the Revolutionary war, or Hamilton m 
 statesmanship afterward, then we cannot deny 
 Tc:Terson the honors due his leadership. 
 
274 ROOSIIVELT AND THE REPUBLIC 
 
 It requires a historian, like Roosevelt, of 
 great discernment to see how acquiring prac- 
 tically uninhabited contiguous territory, in 
 which a young, vigorous, democratic nation 
 might grow and become strong, violated any 
 democratic principle. Others beside Roose- 
 velt see democracy in carrying out the will of 
 the people, and the people clamored for the 
 acquisition of Louisiana. Federalists opposed 
 this very thing, but Jefferson in doing it, justi- 
 fied the Federalists. It is really too bad that 
 some way cannot be found to discredit Jeffer- 
 son in the Louisiana purchase. This weakling 
 who overcame the strongest ; this man who 
 strangely surrendered to Federalistic principles 
 in doing what the Federalists fought tooth and 
 nail. Queer fellow this Jefferson. Shameful 
 that Hamilton could not have acquired Louisi- 
 ana instead of opposing it. Roosevelt found 
 much fault with Washington, and later with 
 Jefferson, for not going to war with Spain and 
 taking Louisiana. That might have been the 
 trouble. Sufficient blood was not shed in its 
 acquisition. 
 
 "In the year 1784 Jefferson put into his draft 
 of the ordinance of that year a clause prohibit- 
 ing slavery in all the western territory south 
 as well as north of the Ohio river." (3, Win- 
 ning of the West, 254.) 
 
 "Jefferson, who never understood anything 
 about warfare, being a timid man. and who be- 
 longed to the visionary school who always de- 
 nounced the army and navy, was given a legiti- 
 mate execuse to criticize the regulars." (For 
 
Roosevelt and the Republic 275 
 
 failure in the West.) (3, Winning of the 
 West, 278.) 
 
 "The absolute terror with which even mod- 
 erate Federalists had viewed the victory of the 
 democrats was in a sense justified for the lead- 
 ers who led the Democrats to triumph, were 
 the very men who had fought, tooth and nail, 
 against every measure necessary to make us 
 a free, orderly and powerful nation." (Cen- 
 tralized.) (Roosevelt's Life of Morris.) 
 
 "We have, indeed, a set of madmen in the 
 administration and they will do many foolish 
 things," said Morris, as Roosevelt quotes ap- 
 provingly. 
 
 "The indignation naturally excited by the 
 utter weakness and folly of Jefferson's second 
 term, and the pitiable incompetence shown by 
 him and his successor," justified Morris' opin- 
 ion. (Roosevelt's Life of Morris, page 345.) 
 
 "For the sin of burning a few public build- 
 ings was as nothing compared with the cow- 
 ardly infamy of which politicians of the stripe 
 of Jefferson and Madison and the people whom 
 they represented were guilty in not making 
 ready by sea and land to protect their capital 
 and in not exacting zrengeance for their destruc- 
 tion." (4, Winning of the West, 98.) | 
 
 "Jefferson had no gift for government. He 
 was singularly deficient in masterful states- 
 manship of the kind imperatively needed by 
 any nation which wishes to hold an honorable 
 place among the nations." (4, Winning of the 
 West, 196.) 
 
 "This war (1812) was in itself eminently 
 
276 Roosevelt and the Republic 
 
 necessary and proper, and was excellent in its 
 results, but it was attended with incidents of 
 shame and disgrace to America, for which Jef- 
 ferson and Madison and their political friends 
 and supporters among the politicians and the 
 people have never received a sufficiently severe 
 condemnation." (4, Winning of the West, 
 196.) 
 
 "They" (sympathizers with the French 
 Revolution) "were already looking to Jeffer- 
 son for their leader, and Jefferson, though at 
 the time Secretary of State under Washington, 
 was secretly encouraging them, and playing a 
 very discreditable part toward his chief." (4, 
 Winning of the West, 176.) 
 
 "Marchand was agent for the French min- 
 ister (Genet), though nominally his ^•isit was 
 undertaken on purely scientific grounds. Jef- 
 ferson's course in the matter was characteristic. 
 Openly he was endeavoring in a perfunctory 
 manner to carry out Washington's policy of 
 strict neutrality between France and England, 
 but secretly he was engaged in tortuous in- 
 trigues against Washington and was thwarting 
 his wishes as far as he dared in regard to 
 Genet. It is impossible that he could have 
 been really misled as to Marchand's charac- 
 ter," etc. (4 Winning of the West. 179.) 
 
 "Jefferson was the father of nullification and 
 therefore of secession. He used the word nul- 
 lification in the original draft which he sup- 
 plied to the Kentucky legislature, and though 
 that body struck it out of the resolutions which 
 they passed in 1798, they inserted it in those 
 
Roosevelt and the Republic 2^f 
 
 of the following year. This was done mainly 
 as an unscrupulous party move on Jeflferson'3 
 part, and when his side came into power he 
 became a firm upholder of the Union ; and be- 
 ing" constitutionally unable to put a proper 
 value on truthfulness, he even denied that his 
 resolutions could be construed to favor nullifi- 
 cation, though they could by no possibility be 
 construed to mean anything else." (Roose- 
 velt's Life of Benton, page 95.) 
 
 Students of the Constitutional Convention 
 know, and it is to be presumed that Historian 
 Roosevelt is such a student, that in every de- 
 bate where the proposed powers of the gov- 
 ernment were considered, action just such as 
 that taken by Kentucky and Virginia was con- 
 templated on the part of the states where there 
 was a question of the abuse of power by the 
 Federal government. Such action was consti- 
 tutional from the standpoint of the framers of 
 the document. The principle of it was ap- 
 pealed to in the Hartford convention as well as 
 in the Virginia and Kentucky resolutions. 
 Neither secession nor nullification in the sense 
 afterward urged in South Carolina was intend- 
 ed in Virginia and Kentucky at that time. It 
 was the only method then known by which the 
 abuse of Federal power could be protested 
 against and checked. Such at least is the ex- 
 planation of historians who are not especially 
 committed to finding unworthy motives for 
 every act of Jefferson. Historian Roosevelt 
 may know better. 
 
 If Roosevelt found in the Democratic leader 
 
278 Roosevelt and the Republic 
 
 a man "constitutionally unable to put a proper 
 value upon truthfulness," he found the motives 
 of the democratic masses who followed him 
 still meaner and more despicable. "Four-fifths 
 of the talent ability and good sense of the coun- 
 try," he said, "were to be found in the Federal- 
 ist ranks." "An assault upon what Benton 
 calls the money power is apt to be popular in 
 a democratic republic, partly on account of the 
 vague fear which the poorer and more ignorant 
 voters regard a powerful institution whose 
 workings they do not understand, and partly 
 on account of the jealousy they feel toward 
 those who are better off than themselves." 
 
 "Federalists passed the judiciary bill sup- 
 planting local courts, and Adams promptly 
 used his remaining days in filling the offices." 
 Roosevelt did not approve of this. It was an 
 outrage, but the effect was all right. In fact 
 Jefferson's secretary had to stop the appoint- 
 ment proceeding at midnight on the day of in- 
 auguration. 
 
 There were Federalists in every public place 
 in the government. It was most important 
 that the Federalists should grasp the judiciary 
 before they let go. Not a follower of Jeffer- 
 son was in office. 
 
 Yet John Adams, you know, was not a 
 spoilsman. As a patriot at the head of the 
 party containing four-fifths of the talent and 
 good sense of the country, it was his bounden 
 duty to place his partisans in office, and to ex- 
 clude Jefferson's followers rigidly. This was 
 
Roosevelt and the Republic 279 
 
 not spoils, it was patriotism. Jefferson, Roose- 
 velt says, introduced the spoils system. 
 
 As a matter of fact, it looks as though Jef- 
 ferson was sufficient of a wild-eyed reformer 
 to anticipate Roosevelt something more than 
 three-fourths of a century in advocating the 
 merit system. He laid down the principle that 
 office-holders who did well would not be dis- 
 turbed and he carried it out. He did remove 
 many of Adams' appointees for what was later 
 called "offensive partisanship." Jefferson put 
 his followers in place in sufficient number to 
 be sure of sympathetic co-operation in carry- 
 ing out his policies. 
 
 . Jefferson was meeting a critical situation for 
 Democrats. For nearly twelve years the young 
 Republic had been under influences hostile to 
 popular government. Hamilton had colored 
 all of Washington's policies, and had dominat • 
 ed the early years of Adams' administration. 
 Jefferson alone withstood this reactionary 
 wave. When he came into power, he took 
 steps to regain so far as possible the lost 
 ground, 
 
 ,To proper, gentlemanly, scholarly historians, 
 who share Hamilton's contempt for self-gov- 
 ernment, Jefferson must always appear as a 
 misguided mischief-maker. Theodore Roose- 
 velt, enlightened though he may be, can claim 
 no great merit, therefore, in seeing Jefferson's 
 smallness and meanness. That others should 
 take different views, however, is most difficult 
 for him to understand. Such misguided per- 
 sons hold that in his "Summary View of the 
 
^§0 Roosevelt and the Republic 
 
 Rights of British America," Jefferson blew the 
 first bugle blast for liberty and independence 
 when he said : "The British Parliament has 
 no right to exercise authority over us." This 
 was at a time when Otis, Henry, Lee and 
 Washington were talking compromise. 
 
 Many vulgar persons consider the "Declara- 
 tion of Independence," Jefferson's w^ork, the 
 greatest charter of human rights ever produced 
 by mind and pen. In the origmal draft of that 
 charter black slavery was denounced as Lin- 
 coln denounced it eighty years afterward. 
 
 Jefferson, they contend, disestablished the 
 church in Virginia, thus giving full effect to 
 religious liberty. The British, Hamilton's 
 ideals in government, have not yet reached that 
 happy state, although a century and a quarter 
 have gone by. It was he who did away with 
 primogeniture and entail, things which still 
 curse that perfect Britain. By such action Jef- 
 ferson opened to those who w^ork it the much 
 needed land. Thus did he destroy at a blow 
 the foundation of caste in one of the greatest of 
 American states. 
 
 Virginia's archaic laws were turned by Jef- 
 ferson into an enlightened code, his admirers 
 say. 
 
 Jeft'erson was an original abolitionist, as 
 even Roosevelt testifies. 
 
 George Rogers Clark, at the instance of Jef- 
 ferson, made his famous expedition which held 
 the northern Ohio valley for the United States. 
 Fort Jefferson, built by this pioneer at the in- 
 stance of Jefferson, was the first tangible cvi- 
 
RoOSfiVELt ANt) THE REPUBLIC 281 
 
 dence of title made good to the east bank of 
 the Mississippi. 
 
 If Jefferson while governor of Virginia per- 
 mitted the British to ravage the state, his ad- 
 mirers say, it was because Virginia's fighting 
 men were operating in other fields. There were 
 no troops available for Jefferson, who was not 
 a military genius. 
 
 Jefferson is credited with having written the 
 address of Congress to General Washington. 
 
 In collaboration with Gouverneur Morris, 
 Jefferson originated our present monetary sys- 
 tem. He it was who originally organized the 
 Treasury Department, or at least made the 
 plans. His ordinance of the northwest terri- 
 tory contained the germ of the plan for mak- 
 ing new states. 
 
 John Adams called Jefferson the father of 
 the American navy. It was Jefferson, the 
 timid, inefficient, who broke up the practice 
 then universal in the West, of paying tribute 
 to the "Barbary pirates," a practice submitted 
 to in his day by the strongest states in the 
 world. He put a period to the humiliation of 
 American naval officers becoming messengers 
 for Mohammedan potentates. 
 
 Jefferson's advice and sympathy was of 
 great value to the French patriots, struggling 
 for liberty. 
 
 He was among the leaders who insisted upon 
 a bill of rights in the constitution of the United 
 States. 
 
 In Washington's cabinet Jefferson fought, 
 practically alone, the battle for Democracy, 
 
282 Roosevelt and the Republic 
 
 It was he who opposed the Hamiltonian plan 
 of giving wealthy manufacturers the right to 
 tax the American people for the benefit of the 
 manufacturers. Hamilton's national bank, 
 which gave into private hands the finances 
 and the money of the country, was opposed by 
 Jefiferson. He fought against an irresponsible 
 judiciary. By sheer persistent force and de- 
 votion to principle he led the revolt against 
 centralization and in favor of popular liberty 
 which gave this nation a democratic trend pre- 
 served to this day. * 
 
 Admirers of Thomas Jefferson contend that 
 in his treatment of Genet, he merely tried to 
 pay a debt of gratitude which America owed 
 France, the republic struggling, as our repub- 
 lic had struggled against the kingly order of 
 the world. France asked only sympathy and 
 such financial aid as we could give her. Amer- 
 ica's people were willing. 
 
 Great Britain had broken its treaty with us 
 and in a thousand ways treated us with con- 
 tempt. Our border settlers, our seamen, our 
 merchantmen, were safe neither in person nor 
 property. American citizenship was no pro- 
 tection to the sailor whom England wished to 
 impress. Never in all our history has this na- 
 tion submitted to such contemptuous ar- 
 rogance as this nation submitted to from 
 Great Britain in the early years of our exist- 
 ence. 
 
 Hamilton's policy in swallowing these in- 
 sults was apparently as cowardly as it was un- 
 wise. Had we again taken sides with France 
 
Roosevelt and the Republic 283 
 
 we would have fought Britain supported by a 
 powerful ally. As it turned out, we fought 
 Great Britain alone. Hamilton's policy of 
 peace at any price with our barbarous step- 
 mother, permitted Great Britain to dispose of 
 France first and then bring its whole military 
 power against this country. Jefferson is cer- 
 tainly not responsible for this supineness. 
 
 Jefferson is responsible for the government 
 mints. 
 
 When the "Holy Alliance" (the most un- 
 holy ever conceived among nations) threat- 
 ened to conquer the colonies of Spain which 
 had gained their independence, President Mon- 
 roe wrote Jefferson for advice. Under date of 
 October 23, 1823, Jefferson replied to Monroe's 
 letter. He wrote : 
 
 "The question presented by the letter you 
 have sent me is the most momentous that has 
 been offered to my contemplation since the 
 Declaration of Independence. That made us 
 a nation ; this sets our compass and points the 
 course which we are to steer through the ocean 
 of time. Our first and fundamental maxim 
 should be never to entangle ourselves in the 
 broils of Europe. Our second, never to suffer 
 Europe to intermeddle with cis-Atlantic af- 
 fairs. America — North and South — has inter- 
 ests distinct from those of Europe. Sb.r should 
 therefore have a system of her own. While 
 Europe is laboring to become the domicile of 
 despotism, our endeavor should surely be to 
 make our hemisphere the domicile of free- 
 dom." He would join with England in guar- 
 
284 Roosevelt and the Republic 
 
 antecing South American independence. He 
 would have the United States acquire Cuba. 
 He held that a declaration should be issued 
 to the effect that "we would oppose with all 
 our means the forcible interposition of any 
 other power as auxiliary, stipendary, or under 
 any other form or pretext, and more espe- 
 cially their transfer to any other power by con- 
 quest, cession, or acquisition in any other 
 way." 
 
 This letter announces every essential ele- 
 ment of the Monroe doctrine, and is its first 
 recorded announcement. In December of 
 that year it appeared in President Monroe's 
 message. It did indeed mean more for demo- 
 cratic government than any declaration since 
 the Declaration of Independence. 
 
 Jefferson inaugurated public improvements 
 in 1808 in undertaking the construction of the 
 Cumberland road and the improvement of riv- 
 ers and canals. 
 
 Louisiana came to us through the far-seeing 
 statesmanship of Thomas Jefferson. Jefferson 
 saw that as against Spain Louisiana must in- 
 evitably be ours. He recognized that in the 
 hands of France it was a menace. If it should 
 go into the hands of England, it would prob- 
 ably have remained like Canada, a barrier to 
 the development of the great Republic. He 
 acted at exactly the proper moment, when the 
 empire could be secured without bloodshed 
 and at the smallest cost. 
 
 Jefferson was a pioneer in general state edu- 
 cation, the principle of our public school. He 
 
Roosevelt and the Republic 283 
 
 founded the University of Virginia, with its 
 ideal freedom of government. 
 
 It was Jefferson who sent Lewis and Clark 
 to explore the far Northwest, thus establish- 
 ing a precedent for scientific research by the 
 government and laying the foundation for our 
 claim to Oregon. 
 
 Jefferson was a pioneer in scientific farming 
 and other practical experimentation. 
 
 More important than all these, Jefferson 
 found the liberties for which the American 
 people fought and suffered slipping away from 
 them. Hamilton in full control, Washington 
 sympathetic. An aristocracy being built up. 
 America being placed in the hands of a "gov- 
 erning class." There were coaches and six, 
 levees, formality and flummery of the Euro- 
 pean courts. Directing it all was the man to 
 whom democracy was but "pork still, though 
 with a change of sauce." 
 
 Hamilton was frankly corrupt in politics. 
 He intrigued against everybody, kept faith 
 with few. An intelligent author makes Ham- 
 ilton the father of plutocracy, the lobby, and 
 the trust. Our government was frankly be- 
 coming a government of and for the rich. All 
 classes not associated with the narrow Fed- 
 eralist clique were, under Adams, denied a 
 place in the government. Implied powers 
 were being invoked to give autocratic author- 
 ity to the judiciary, and enlarge the scope of 
 Federal control. 
 
 Jefferson was one of the very few men of 
 Iiis time who saw the trend of the ruling forces 
 
286 Roosevelt and the Republic 
 
 in the Federal government. Immediately he 
 had satisfied himself that Hamilton was bent 
 upon destroying democratic government, he 
 took up the gage of battle. Almost alone 
 among the leaders of the time, he battled for 
 pure democratic ideals. With heroic tenacity, 
 with supreme intelligence, with splendid cour- 
 age, he fought the powers of aristocracy gath- 
 ered under the august shadow of Washington. 
 Jefferson won. It was one of the epochal vic- 
 tories of history. He won because the Ameri- 
 can people were essentially democratic despite 
 their Rulers. This victory is the one thing no 
 disciple of Hamilton can forgive. It is Jeffer- 
 son's unpardonable sin. This fully explains 
 the attitude of Theodore Roosevelt toward 
 Jefferson. 
 
 To Jefferson more than to any other one 
 man is it due that the Revolutionary war was 
 not fought in vain. By his acts, by his in- 
 fluence, but more than all, by his pure demo- 
 cratic ideals, he has exerted greater influence 
 than any other man in the history of the Re- 
 public. As a prophet statesman Jefferson 
 towers above even Washington and Lincoln. 
 No other name in the history of the Republic 
 is worthy of mention with his. 
 
 It does not matter so much that Jefferson 
 was not a great warrior, or that in mere execu- 
 tive routine there were others ^vho could claim 
 greater efficiency. Ideas are the real motive 
 force of civilization. The things which any 
 one man can do are insignificant indeed. The 
 things which he can inspire may be truly 
 
Roosevelt and the Republic 287 
 
 monumental, living through all the ages and 
 growing in power as the years go by. 
 
 But even on the score of actual achievement, 
 as has been amply shown in the foregoing, Jef- 
 ferson towers above other American states- 
 men. But the thing upon which his fame rests 
 is his democracy. He saw to it that monarchy, 
 aristocracy and social caste had to fight for 
 their foothold on American soil. He scotched 
 militarism almost as soon as it showed its 
 head. If any other public man in the history 
 of America can show such wealth of achieve- 
 ment, such tremendous influence, such undy- 
 ing ideals, it would be interesting to have 
 him pointed out. 
 
 Lincoln, next to Jefferson, probably the 
 greatest of all great men in our Republic, had 
 no such mean idea of Thomas Jefferson as has 
 Theodore Roosevelt. To be sure, Lincoln was 
 somewhat lacking in the aristocratic compre- 
 hension of our executive of to-day. He might 
 not have known real greatness. Lincoln said : 
 
 "But soberly, it is no child's play to save the 
 principles of Jefferson from total overthrow 
 in this nation. One would state with great 
 confidence that he could convince any sane 
 child that the simpler propositions of Euclid 
 are true ; but nevertheless he would fail utter- 
 ly with one who should deny the definitions 
 and the axioms. The principles of Jefferson 
 are the definitions and axioms of free society. 
 And yet they are denied and evaded with no 
 small show of success. One dashingly calls 
 them 'glittering generalities.' Another bluntly 
 
288 Roosevelt and the Republic 
 
 calls them 'self-evident lies.' Others insidi- 
 ously argue that they apply to 'superior rices.' 
 These expressions differing in form are identi- 
 cal in object, and effect, the supplanting the 
 principles of free government and restoring 
 those of classification, caste and legitimacy. 
 They would delight a convocation of crowned 
 heads, plotting against the people. They are 
 the vanguard, the miners and sappers of re- 
 turning despotism. We must repulse them or 
 they will subjugate us. This is a world of 
 compensation, and he who would be no slave 
 must consent to have no slave. Those who 
 deny freedom to others deserve it not for 
 themselves, and under a just God cannot long 
 retain it. All honor to Jefferson, the man who 
 in the concrete struggle for national inde- 
 pendence by a single people, had the coolness, 
 forecast and capacity to introduce into a mere- 
 ly revolutionary document, an abstract truth, 
 applicable to all men and all times, and so to 
 embalm it there, that to-day and in all coming 
 days it shall be a rebuke and a stumbling 
 block to the very harbingers of reappearing 
 tyranny and oppression." 
 
 Letter to N. L. Pierce and others, by 
 Abraham Lincoln, dated at Springfield, 111., 
 April 6, 1859. 
 
Roosevelt and the Republic 289 
 
 CHAPTER XXV. 
 
 OUR "ignorant" president, ANDREW JACKSON. 
 
 Jefferson, as Roosevelt saw him, was our 
 weakest President, and, taken all in all, our 
 most despicable President. Jackson was but a 
 trifle better. Ignorance rather than weakness 
 was his fault. The gang of dolts and clod- 
 hoppers making up his followers only excited 
 the pitying scorn of Theodore Roosevelt. Al- 
 together incomprehensible to him was it that 
 the American people should show such fatuous 
 idiocy as to turn their backs upon the aristo- 
 cratic propriety of the younger Adams and his 
 followers, and give themselves over to Jack- 
 son's Goths and Vandals. Mr. Roosevelt says : 
 
 "The classes in which were to be found al- 
 most all of the learning, the talent, the busi- 
 ness activity and the inherited wealth and re- 
 finement of the country, had hitherto contrib- 
 uted much to the body of its rulers." There 
 was one hiatus in this altogether proper ar- 
 rangement when Jefferson, and his "skillful po- 
 litical workers" carried the day by "marshall- 
 ing that unwieldy and hitherto disunited host 
 of voters who were inferior in intelligence to 
 their fellows." 
 
 "The Jacksonian Democracy stood for revolt 
 
290 Roosevelt and the Republic 
 
 against these rulers ; its leaders, as well as 
 their followers, all came from the mass of the 
 people. . . . There was nothing to be said 
 against the rulers of the day. . . . They 
 were dismissed, not because the voters could 
 truthfully allege any wrong-doing whatsoever 
 against them, but solely because in their pure- 
 ly private and personal feelings and habits of 
 life, they were supposed to differ from the 
 mass of the people. This was such an outrage- 
 ously absurd feeling that the very men who 
 were actuated by it . . . were ashamed of 
 it," etc. 
 
 Roosevelt saw with the shame, which every 
 cultured American must feel, the replacing of 
 aristocratic propriety by the mob rule of dem- 
 ocracy. It did not matter in the least that 
 the democratic masses were up in arms against 
 the special interests which were then for the 
 first time becoming an important factor in the 
 nation. They were embodied in the National 
 Bank and the protective tariff programme. 
 The fact that mass democracy noisily revolted 
 against what it looked upon as an insolent, 
 centralizing aristocracy of "inherited wealth" 
 and family, makes the uprising all the more 
 objectionable to those who appreciate, as 
 Roosevelt does, the importance of respectabil- 
 ity in the "governing class." To Roosevelt it 
 was all merely a question of personal wrong- 
 doing. No institutional problems can be con- 
 sidered for a moment. 
 
 Democrats of to-day profess to see in Jack- 
 son's victories a militant protest against the 
 
Roosevelt and the Republic 291 
 
 anti-democratic policies of Adams and Henry 
 Clay. It was then, as they view it, that the 
 masses gained full control at Washington. 
 Then for the first time they became part of 
 the government. A turbulent, swelling demo- 
 cratic deluge submerged the distinctive "gov- 
 erning class." Vitalizing was the sympathy 
 which with Jackson throbbed and swelled into 
 the very White House, for the masses and the 
 government were at length one, to remain one 
 until the days of Roosevelt's administration, 
 when the country was again to know a proper 
 "governing class" of rich, elegant, cultured 
 gentlemen. Jefferson, as democrats see him, 
 saved the democratic ideal; Jackson helped 
 realize it. 
 
 "The two great Democratic victories," said 
 Roosevelt, "had little in common, almost as 
 little as had the two great leaders under whose 
 auspices they were respectively won — and few 
 men were ever more unlike than the scholarly, 
 timid, shifty doctrinaire, who supplanted the 
 Elder Adams, and the ignorant, headstrong 
 and straight-forward soldier who was victor 
 over the younger. The change was the de- 
 liberate choice of the great mass of the people, 
 and that it was one for the worse was then 
 and ever since the opinion of most thinking 
 men," etc. (Who would not be thinking men 
 if they did not agree with Roosevelt.) 
 
 As a conscientious historian, Roosevelt felt 
 that he could not make too clear the inevitable 
 connection between ignorance and democracy. 
 In speaking of Jeflferson's followers he put 
 
292 Roosevelt and the Republic 
 
 strong emphasis upon this view. Again the 
 same rule holds as to the Jackson horde : 
 
 "The Jacksonian Democracy held in its 
 ranks the mass of ignorance of the country ; 
 besides, such an organization requires in order 
 to do its most effective work, to have as its 
 leader and figurehead a man who really has a 
 great hold on the people at large, and yet can 
 be managed by such politicians as possessed 
 the requisite adroitness ; and Jackson fulfilled 
 both of these conditions." (Roosevelt's Life 
 of Benton, page 95.) 
 
 That Andrew Jackson was a tool and a 
 figurehead will probably be news to other his- 
 torians. Roosevelt knew. 
 
 Jackson had glimpses of the light. Roose- 
 velt says: "Jackson promptly vetoed the bill 
 in a message to Congress which stated some 
 truths forcibly and fearlessly, which developed 
 some very queer constitutional and financial 
 theories, and contained a number of absurdi- 
 ties, evidently put in not for the benefit of 
 the Senate but to influence votes at the coming 
 presidential election." (Life of Benton, page 
 127.) 
 
 Roosevelt knew Jackson's motives were 
 mean. He had his doubts about the wisdom of 
 Jackson's attack upon the politico-financial 
 machine centered in the National Bank ; how- 
 ever, Roosevelt hastens to say: "But the 
 presidential power of veto is among the best 
 features of our government," 
 
 Roosevelt sees the drollery of Benton's dic- 
 tum that the President was the tribune of the 
 
Roosevelt and the Republic 293 
 
 people. Benton, unfortunately, was not pres- 
 ent to see Roosevelt, the President, turn the 
 tables upon Roosevelt the historian when he 
 appealed to "public opinion," whose delphic 
 voice newspaper-toned is heard as an echo of 
 the listener, to uphold him in riding rough- 
 shod over Congress. Such pleasantries are un- 
 avoidable in a President who "does things." 
 
 "If there ever was a wholly irrational state 
 of mind," says Roosevelt, historian, "it was 
 that in which the Jacksonians constantly kept 
 themselves. Every canvass on the part of 
 Jackson was full of sound, fury and excite- 
 ment, of appeals to the passions, prejudices 
 and feelings, but never to the reason of the 
 hearers. A speech for him was usually a fran- 
 tic denunciation of whoever or whatever op- 
 posed him, coupled with fulsome adulation of 
 the old hero. . . . The cool judgment of 
 the country was apt to be against them." 
 (Life of Benton, 135.) 
 
 To appreciate fully the distress which must 
 have been caused the modest, meek and retir- 
 ing Mr. Roosevelt, one should study his own 
 quiet political methods. His generosity to his 
 opponents as instanced in his Review of Re- 
 views article in September, 1896, and his 
 speeches in 1896 and 1900. The man who 
 toured New York with a band of Rough Riders 
 must have been mortally offended with this 
 "hero" business. Think of calling a tin soldier 
 like Andrew Jackson a hero when no stronger 
 compliment could be paid to a man with a 
 military record like Theodore Roosevelt. How 
 
294 Roosevelt and the Republic 
 
 excruciating must be sound, fury and excite- 
 ment to the ears of Mr. Roosevelt ! 
 
 "Van Buren faithfully served the mammon 
 of unrighteousness, both in his own state and 
 later at Washington ; and he had his reward, 
 for he advanced to the highest office in the 
 gift of the nation. He had no reason to blame 
 his own conduct for his final downfall ; he got 
 just as far along as he could possibly get; he 
 succeeded because of, not in spite of, his moral 
 shortcomings ; if he had always governed his 
 actions by a high moral standard he would 
 probably never have been heard of." 
 
 "Jackson liked Van Buren because the lat- 
 ter had served him both personally and politi- 
 cally. Indeed Jackson was incapable of dis- 
 tinguishing between a political and a personal 
 service." (Life of Benton, i8i and 187.) 
 
 President Roosevelt subjected himself to the 
 same unkind remark when, for personal ser- 
 vice, he gave a cabinet position to an excellent 
 gentleman of Tyler-like littleness. This little 
 man, they found out, Roosevelt advanced from 
 one important post to another of more impor- 
 tance with no regard, apparently, to the ef- 
 ficient management of the positions, but rather 
 with an eye to put the friend in line for lucra- 
 tive employment in the financial world. 
 
 Persons who make remarks of that kind 
 about President Roosevelt do not distinguish 
 rightly. Jackson was just an ignorant politician 
 with no high and holy ideals of civil service, 
 while Roosevelt with fine moral discrimination 
 has said repeatedly that public appointments 
 
Roosevelt and the Republic 295 
 
 for personal or political considerations is just 
 plain bribery. 
 
 Jackson might have loved Van Buren as 
 Roosevelt loved his Mortons, Littauers, Loom- 
 ises, Murrays. There is an interesting parallel 
 between the methods of Andrew Jackson, as 
 disclosed by historian Roosevelt, and the later 
 methods of President Roosevelt. This line of 
 resemblance between the ignorant democrat of 
 the thirties and the scholarly statesman of the 
 next century ran from methods of campaigning 
 and of using public popularity, even to the re- 
 warding of political and personal services with 
 public place. 
 
 "The charge of extravagance was one of the 
 least charges urged against the Jacksonian 
 Democrats during the last days of their rule. 
 While they had been in power, the character 
 of the public service deteriorated frightfully, 
 both as regards its efficiency and infinitel}^ 
 more as regards its honesty, and under Van 
 Buren the amount of money taken by the pub- 
 lic officers as compared with the amount hand- 
 ed into the treasury was greater than ever be- 
 fore or since. For this the Jacksonians were 
 solely and absolutely responsible ; they drove 
 out the merit system of making appointments 
 and introduced the spoils system in its place ; 
 and under the latter they chose a peculiarly 
 dishonest and incapable set of officers whose 
 sole recommendation was to be found in the 
 trickery and low cunning which enabled them 
 to manage ignorant voters who formed the 
 backbone of the Jackson party. The states^ 
 
296 Roosevelt and the Republic 
 
 men of Democracy in later years forgot the 
 good deeds of the Jacksonians ; they lost their 
 attachment to the Union, and abandoned their 
 championship of hard money; but they never 
 ceased to cling to the worst legacy their pre- 
 decessors had left them. The engrafting of 
 the spoils system upon our government was 
 of all the results of Jacksonian rule, the one 
 which was most permanent in its efifects." 
 (Life of Benton, page 231.) 
 
 We can appreciate better the extravagance 
 of Jackson and Van Buren when we consider 
 that Federal taxes during their administration 
 varied from about eighty cents to one dollar 
 and seventy-five cents per inhabitant during 
 their terms of office. The larger figure is 
 seven-eighths of the per-capita tax levied for 
 the support of President Roosevelt's army and 
 navy, and varied from about one-sixth to one- 
 fourth of the present Federal taxation. The 
 Federal government is doing now just about 
 what it did in Jackson's time, with compara- 
 tively unimportant exceptions. It still admin- 
 isters justice, provides for the common de- 
 fense and promotes the general welfare. To 
 be sure, Jackson did not in his day have all 
 the sapient bureaus making frantic cfiforts to 
 consume wood pulp and keep the public print- 
 er busy. Men versed in "trickery and low cun- 
 ning" do not seem to have had any such ef- 
 ficient method of making government expens- 
 ive as the high-minded scholarly gentlemen 
 of the present time who dote upon investiga- 
 tions, plethoric reports and red-tape. 
 
Roosevelt and the Republic 297 
 
 Spoils must have loomed big in Jackson's 
 time. Jackson had actually about one-half the 
 number of persons in the whole executive ser- 
 vices under him that Theodore Roosevelt has 
 now in the class of presidential appointees. 
 The salary fund of Jackson's executive de- 
 partment was something like three to four 
 millions against Roosevelt's one hundred and 
 twenty millions of dollars. Thirty men are 
 appointed under Roosevelt outside of the 
 classified service for one appointed under An- 
 drew Jackson. Roosevelt's "bribery chest" 
 has grown mightily in recent years. And the 
 public service — it has grown a hundred fold 
 since Jackson, while the population has in- 
 creased about six fold ! 
 
 Vulgar democrats, who have not the per- 
 spective of a scholar like Roosevelt, consider 
 the merit system a matter of very small mo- 
 ment in Jackson's day compared with the 
 problems he met and solved — compared with 
 the mighty impetus which Jackson and his 
 "ignorant and knavishly low followers" gave 
 toward democracy. They feel, too, that not 
 only were Jackson's tenets not forgotten by 
 democracy, if one spells it with a small "d," 
 but many of the men who rejoiced with the 
 iron Tennesseean followed the patient Ken- 
 tuckian through the struggle which saved the 
 Union. Historian Roosevelt knows better. 
 
298 Roosevelt and the Republic 
 
 CHAPTER XXVI. 
 
 ROOSEVELT DISTRUSTS DEMOCRACY. 
 
 Alexander Hamilton frankly sneered at 
 democratic republican government. To him it 
 vv^as "pork still, though w^ith a change of 
 sauce." 
 
 In this respect Roosevelt follows Hamilton. 
 Both have indicated their objections to a dem- 
 ocratic republic, and they are nearly identical. 
 Roosevelt has not spoken so frankly as Ham- 
 ilton, but from numerous references to its 
 foundation principles he undoubtedly holds 
 self-government to be a delusion. The masses 
 cannot be given real power. They must have 
 their government handed down to them by 
 their betters. 
 
 "We have," said Gouverneur Morris, speak- 
 ing of Jefferson's administration, "indeed a set 
 of madmen in the administration, and they will 
 do many foolish things." 
 
 Commenting upon this enlightened Morris 
 opinion Roosevelt remarks : 
 
 "He took an EQUALLY JUST view of our 
 political system, saying that in adopting a re- 
 publican form of government he not only took 
 it as a man does his wife, for better or for 
 worse, but what few men do with their wives, 
 
Roosevelt and the Republic 299 
 
 knowing all of its bad qualities." (Roosevelt's 
 Life of Morris, page 344.) 
 
 "In their state constitutions, the hard-w^ork- 
 inof backv^oods farmers showed a conservative 
 spirit which would seem strange to the radical 
 democracy of the western states to-day. 
 . . . Representation was proportioned, not 
 to the population at large, but to the citizens 
 who paid taxes, for persons with some little 
 property were still considered to be the right- 
 ful depositories of political power. . . . But 
 it (the constitution) contained some unwise 
 and unjust provisions." (Roosevelt's Win- 
 ning of the West, vol. 4, page 170.) 
 
 Unfortunate was it indeed that these farm- 
 ers did not hand down to posterity their meth- 
 od of identifying the persons who really did 
 pay the taxes. 
 
 "Her" (Kentucky's) "people were saturated 
 with the ideas of those doctrinaire politicians 
 of whom Jefiferson was the chief. . . . Their 
 influence in America was wholly and distinctly 
 evil ; save that by a series of accidents they 
 became the especial champions of the west- 
 ward extension of the nation and in conse- 
 quence were identified with a movement all 
 essential to the nation's well-being." (Win- 
 ning of the West, vol. 4, pages 176-177.) 
 
 "St. Clair's supporters struggled to keep the 
 territory (Ohio) from statehood, and proposed 
 to cut it down in size, nominally because they 
 deemed the extent of the territory too great 
 for governmental purposes, but really because 
 they distrusted the people and did not wish 
 
300 Roosevelt and the Republic 
 
 them to take the government into their own 
 hands. . . ." 
 
 "They" (St. Clair in Ohio and Sargeant in 
 Mississippi) "were both high-minded men, 
 with SOUND IDEAS on government and 
 policy" (their distrust of the people leaves no 
 doubt of this), "though Sargeant was the abler 
 of the two ; but they were out of touch with 
 the westerners," "They distrusted the frontier 
 folk, and were bitterly doubted in turn." 
 (Roosevelt's Winning of the West, vol. 4, 
 pages 215 and 216.) 
 
 "The Jeffersonian Republican party did 
 much that was evil, and it advocated govern- 
 mental principles of such utter folly" (man- 
 hood suffrage and self-government) "that the 
 party itself was obliged to abandon them." 
 . . . It "only clung to them long enough to 
 do lasting and serious damage to the country." 
 (Roosevelt's Winning of the West, vol. 4, 
 page 218.) 
 
 Jefferson and his followers believed that the 
 Westerners should be permitted to govern 
 themselves. Hamilton and his followers op- 
 posed it. The West followed Jefferson, much 
 to the scandalization of good Historian Roose- 
 velt. 
 
 "The essential point was that they" (the 
 Westerners) "had been GIVEN the right of 
 self government. . . . Whether wise or not, 
 it was inevitable. . . . ^^' hen Ohio became a 
 state it adopted a very foolish constitution." 
 (Roosevelt's Winning of the West, vol. 4, 
 pages 218 and 219,) 
 
Roosevelt and the Republic 301 
 
 Roosevelt regretted that the Federalists did 
 not accept the inevitable "GIVE" self-govern- 
 ment to the West, remain in power and modify 
 the whole government to suit themselves. 
 
 "A narrow, uneducated, honest countryman, 
 especially in the backwoods, then looked upon 
 a lawyer with smothered envy and admiration, 
 but always with jealousy, suspicion and dis- 
 like, much as does his successors to this day 
 look upon bankers and railroad men." 
 (Roosevelt's Winning of the West, vol. i, 
 page 167.) 
 
 Mr. Roosevelt was commenting on the con- 
 stitution drawn so awkwardly by the evil- 
 minded, envious, jealous farmers of "Frank- 
 land," in which they excluded lawyers from 
 office. It made an excellent occasion for a re- 
 buke to their vicious successors who did not 
 love with a sufficiently ardent passion the good 
 and disinterested bankers and railway owners 
 who so unselfishly look after the welfare of the 
 farmers with an especial care. 
 
 "But it must be noted that the difficulty in 
 the Hawaiian islands resulted not so much 
 from the establishment of a popular assembly, 
 as from an undue extension of the electoral 
 franchise. ... In the Philippines the fran- 
 chise has been restricted and duly guarded." 
 (Civil Government in the Philippines, page 
 
 95-) 
 
 Elective franchise in the Philippines has 
 been so restricted as to shut out the great mass 
 of the inhabitants. 
 
 "They" (the English of Cromwell's time) 
 
302 Roosevelt and the Republic 
 
 "were not fit to govern themselves unaided ; 
 such fitness is not a god-given natural right, 
 but comes to a race only through the slow 
 growth of centuries and then only to those 
 races which possess an immense reserve fund 
 of strength, common sense and morality.'' 
 (Roosevelt's Life of Cromwell, page lOO.) 
 
 It is an interesting fact that savage com- 
 munities, when not overgrown, have demo- 
 cratic self-government, as had the early Saxons 
 and later the American Indians. Probably the 
 principal reason why the English at that time 
 were not able to assert self-government was 
 Cromwell's army and Cromwell's ambition to 
 be dictator. 
 
 "Free government is only for those nations 
 that deserve it, and they lose all right to it by 
 licentiousness no less than servility. . . . 
 When people will not or cannot work to- 
 gether; when they permit groups of extremists 
 to decline to accept anything which does not 
 coincide with their own extreme views ; or 
 when they let power slip from their hands 
 through sheer supine indifference, then they 
 have themselves chiefly to blame if the power 
 is grasped by stronger hands." (Roosevelt's 
 Life of Cromwell, page 190.) 
 
 In other words, a licentious, corrupt, ex- 
 travagant, brutal aristocracy, if it have the 
 power, is fully justified in committing whole- 
 sale murder to sustain its glorious rule, but 
 democracy must be quite perfect to justify its 
 existence. Nicholas, because he could use 
 "stronger hands," was fully justified in quench- 
 
Roosevelt and the Republic 305 
 
 ing in blood the aspirations of the Russian 
 masses for greater liberty. One can easily see 
 the beauties of this doctrine. It is most com- 
 fortable — for tyrants. 
 
 "If a nation, whether free or unfree, loses 
 capacity for self-government, loses the spirit 
 of sober and orderly liberty, then it has no 
 cause to complain of tyranny." (Roosevelt s 
 Life of Cromwell, page 237.) 
 
 //.' And always the tyrant is to decide when 
 that capacity has been lost, and to enforce that 
 decision even by an alien sword. 
 
 "He" (Benton) "was an enthusiastic be- 
 liever in the extreme Jeffersonian doctrinaire 
 views, as to the will of the majority being al- 
 ways right, and as to the moral perfection of 
 the average voter. Like his fellow statesmen 
 he failed to see the curious absurdity of sup- 
 porting black slavery, and yet claiming uni- 
 versal suffrage for the whites as a divine right, 
 not as a mere matter of expediency, result- 
 ing on the whole, better than any other method. 
 He had not learned that a majority in a Dem- 
 ocracy has no more right to tyrannize over 
 a minority than under a different system, the 
 latter would have to oppress the former; and 
 that if there is a moral principle at stake, the 
 saying that the voice of the people is the voice 
 of God, may be quite as untrue and do quite 
 as much mischief as the old theory of the di- 
 vine right of kings." (Roosevelt's Life of 
 Benton, page 122.) . , ^ 
 
 "He" (Morris) "denounced with fierce 
 scorn, that they so richly merit, the despicable 
 
304 Roosevelt and the Republic 
 
 demagogues and witless fools who teach that 
 in all crises the voice of the majority must be 
 implicitly obeyed, and that public men have 
 only to carry out its will. Sounder and truer 
 doctrine was never uttered." (Roosevelt's 
 Life of Morris, page 344.) 
 
 "He" (Benton) "also speaks of Tyler hav- 
 ing, when the Legislature of Virginia disap- 
 proved of a course which he wished to follow, 
 resigned his seat in obedience to the demo- 
 cratic principle, which, according to his views, 
 thus completely nullified the constitution pro- 
 viding for a six years term service in the Sen- 
 ate. In truth, Benton, like most otlier Jack- 
 sonian and Jeffersonian leaders, became both 
 foolish and illogical when he began to talk of 
 the muddle of vague abstractions which he 
 knew collectively as the Democratic prin- 
 ciple." 
 
 "Although not so bad as many of his school 
 he had gradually worked himself up to the be- 
 lief that it was almost impious to pay any- 
 thing but servile heed to the will of the ma- 
 jority, and was quite unconscious that to sur- 
 render one's own manhood and judgment to 
 the belief in the divine right of kings was only 
 one degree more ignoble, and was not a 
 shadow more logical and little more defensible, 
 than it was blindly to deify the majority, not 
 of the whole people, but merely a small frac- 
 tion who happened to be a certain sex, to have 
 reached a certain age, to belong to a certain 
 race, and to fulfill some other conditions. In 
 fact, there is no natural nor divine law in the 
 
Roosevelt and the Republic 305 
 
 matter at all ; how large a proportion of the 
 population should be trusted with the control 
 of the government is a question of expediency 
 merely. . . . There is no more natural 
 right why a white man over twenty-one should 
 vote than there is why a negro woman under 
 eighteen should not. Civil rights and personal 
 freedom are not terms that necessarily imply 
 the right to vote." (Roosevelt's Life of Ben- 
 ton, page 243.) 
 
 Far be it from us to argue the case with 
 President Roosevelt, or to find fault with his 
 political notions. We simply want to under- 
 stand him so as to be able to place him. 
 
 If it were any other philosopher-historian, 
 we should suspect him to have a strange par- 
 tiality for the pastime of demolishing straw 
 figures. Wonderful is the summary way in 
 which he disposes of those mythical demo- 
 crats who hold to these extraordinary but 
 wholly fictitious doctrines. But several things 
 must be understood before we join in Histor- 
 ian Roosevelt's righteous denunciation. 
 
 Neither Jefiferson nor any intelligent fol- 
 lower has held that the will of the majority 
 is always right. 
 
 They have no delusions as to the moral 
 perfection of the average voter. 
 
 Jefiferson did not support black slavery. No 
 true follower of Jefiferson now supports or has 
 supported black slavery. Certainly, Benton 
 did not on principle. 
 
 Neither Jefiferson nor any follower contends 
 that the majority has a right to TYRANNIZE 
 
3p6 Roosevelt and the Republic 
 
 over anybody. They insisted upon a bill of 
 rights in the constitution (omitted by Hamil- 
 tonians) to prevent the possibility of such ty- 
 ranny. Jeffersonians merely contend that 
 under the American system the majorit}- has a 
 right to control the government. 
 
 In the same way it is necessary to fix with 
 some certainty Historian Roosevelt's meaning 
 before we can apply the wisdom of his words 
 upon the right of suffrage and the sanction of 
 government. Stripped of his skillful but baf- 
 fling qualifications, they seem to mean: 
 
 Human beings have no natural right to self- 
 government. 
 
 The suffrage is not a right, but a privilege. 
 
 A king has as much right to rule as a major- 
 ity of the free citizens of a country. 
 
 He is a witless fool who thinks the will of 
 the majority in America should be obeyed. 
 
 It is the duty of an officer in this republic to 
 ignore the wishes of those who elected him 
 and use his brief lease of authority to carry 
 out his own policies even contrary to the will 
 of the electors. 
 
 This makes the issue between Theodore 
 Roosevelt and Thomas Jefferson reasonably 
 clear. Each American can decide for himself 
 whether he takes the Hamilton-Roosevelt 
 view, justifying king and dictator, or that of 
 Jefferson, holding to popular sovereignty. 
 
 Historian Roosevelt leaves us perplexed 
 with a harassing doubt as to the extent which 
 persons not demagogues and witless fools 
 
Roosevelt and the Republic 307 
 
 may ignore mandates of majorities in our re- 
 public. 
 
 Laws and constitutions in the United States 
 and in every state and municipality provide 
 that the will of the majority shall determine 
 policies and fix laws. All officers are obliged 
 to take oaths faithfully to uphold and execute 
 laws as they find them. What officers, then, 
 are to be a law unto themselves and to what 
 extent? They, of course, are to judge whether 
 the law is binding in any given case, but is the 
 criterion to be their own sweet will? Or is 
 this superiority to the law to be exercised only 
 by certain grades of officers? Judges of the 
 supreme court, governors, senators, and the 
 President? Or is the President the only of- 
 ficer above the law? Unfortunately, Historian 
 Roosevelt has left this matter in a distressing 
 state of doubt and perplexity for persons with- 
 out his great insight. It is so difficult, too, 
 to apply his rule to the Republic. If one were 
 discussing Turkey and the Sultan's powers, 
 one could much more easily harmonize this 
 idea of placing the wills of rulers above the 
 law. 
 
 Historian Roosevelt makes the situation all 
 the more difficult by an occasional passage like 
 this smacking of the Jefferson taint: 
 
 "Cromwell's extreme admirers treat his im- 
 patience of delays and the shortcoming of 
 ordinary constitutional and legal proceedings 
 as signs of greatness. (Much as Roosevelt's 
 extreme admirers treat the same qualities in 
 him.) "It was just the reverse. In great 
 
3o8 Roosevelt and the Republic 
 
 crises it may be necessary to overturn con- 
 stitutions and disregard statutes, just as it 
 may be necessary to establish a vigilance com- 
 mittee, or to take refuge in lynch law ; but 
 such a remedy is always dangerous, even when 
 absolutely necessary, and the moment it be- 
 comes the habitual remedy, it is proof that 
 society is going backward. Of this retrogres- 
 sion, the deeds of the strong man who sets 
 himself above the law is partly the cause and 
 partly the consequence, but they are always 
 signs of decay." (Roosevelt's Life of Crom- 
 well, page 54.) 
 
 "With his death" (Cromwell's death) 
 "came the chaos he had foreseen, but he had 
 not foreseen that it could be averted only by 
 the substitution of some form of self-govern- 
 ment by the people for the arbitrary rule of 
 one man, however great and good that man 
 might be. . . . For some months there was 
 confusion worse confounded, and the whole 
 nation turned toward Charles II and the Stu- 
 art kingship. . . ." 
 
 "For twenty-eight shameful years the Res- 
 toration lasted ; years of misgovernment and 
 persecution at home and weakness abroad ; 
 oppression of the weak and obsequious ser- 
 vility to the strong." (Roosevelt's Life of 
 Cromwell, pages 232 and 233.) 
 
 In this case arbitrary government failed, it 
 seems, to bring "orderly liberty," and the 
 "strong hands" bettered it little. 
 
 "All men are created equal and endowed by 
 their Creator with certain inalienable rights, 
 
Roosevelt and the Republic 309 
 
 among which are hfe, liberty and the pursuit 
 of happiness." These are what the "shifty doc- 
 trinaire," Thomas Jefferson, mentioned as 
 self-evident truths — in that archaic document, 
 the "Declaration of Independence." 
 
 We could not expect Theodore Roosevelt to 
 accept such rubbish, but in deference to the 
 deluded ones who accept Jefferson, it was un- 
 fortunate that Historian Roosevelt did not 
 make plain baffling queries which naturally 
 arise : 
 
 If all men are created equal (with equal 
 civil rights) and endowed congenitally with 
 the right to liberty, by what authority are 
 some denied the civil right of suffrage which 
 others enjoy? Who gh'es it to those to whom 
 it is given f Who withholds it from those from 
 whom it is withheld? By what authority is it 
 given f By what authority is it withheld? 
 How comes it that a man with civil rights 
 equal only to my own can give me the suffrage 
 or withhold it? 
 
 If he can withhold from me the right to a 
 voice in making the laws which control, pre- 
 scribe or circumscribe my actions, does he not 
 control my liberty, my happiness, my life? Do 
 I not cease to be a free man? Am I not his 
 slave, subject to his will? If he has greater 
 rights than mine, whence come they? If I am 
 not a free man, who has authority to enslave 
 me and whence? By divine authority? Show 
 me the commission. By might? Ah, I may 
 learn to understand that ! That is the sanc- 
 tion of Nicholas' rule. Because of possession 
 
3IO Roosevelt and the Republic 
 
 of property. Then has property rights supe- 
 rior to the man, that it may endow a man 
 possessing it with rights denied the man who 
 has it not? 
 
 Children, it is true, cannot claim the suf- 
 frage under the Jeffersonian regime while 
 children. Neither can they build and manage 
 houses, rear other children, take husbands or 
 wives, enter business, as a rule, or do a hun- 
 dred other things which they do when grown. 
 Nature brings them to their full rights with 
 their full capabilities. But every child born 
 into a nation of manhood suffrage has an equal 
 right with every other human being born 
 therein. He comes to the suft'rage at the same 
 time in life. Nature regulates that just as it 
 does seed-time and harvest. 
 
 Kaisers and Emperors hold that one man is 
 divinely commissioned to rule millions — show 
 me the letters of authority from on high? No? 
 Cannot? Are Kaiser and Czar men? Are 
 they then if only men my equal? If born to 
 rule over me, why? 
 
 There is this difference to the ordinary mor- 
 tal between the rule of the majority and the 
 divine right of kings: Common consent of the 
 governed, deliberately given, has made ma- 
 jority rule the workable plan in democratic 
 government. Majorities shift. Each man has 
 a voice, though none a ruling voice. It has 
 Its sanction in applying the resultant of social 
 opinion, will and aspirations to government. 
 Neither majority nor king can have any sanc- 
 tion for wronging any man. 
 
Roosevelt and the Republic 311 
 
 Thomas B. Reed, late speaker of the House 
 of Representatives, said: "In the long run the 
 average sense of the many is better for the 
 many than the best sense of any one man." This 
 is what Jefifersonians mean when they say that 
 the voice of the people is the voice of God. 
 To their superficial minds, it seems that so far 
 as the Deity expresses himself in affairs of 
 government, the voice of the people is the 
 voice of God. In civilization advancing to- 
 ward righteousness, it would seem to those 
 less wise than Roosevelt that the will of the 
 people must be in harmony with the will of 
 God. Otherwise their trend would be down 
 to destruction instead of upward to God ; 
 otherwise they would be a dying nation, 
 headed for the abyss. So far as we can read 
 His % essage, God has so ordered it, that this 
 expr^^sion of the great aggregate intelligence 
 and conscience of mankind is always finally 
 more nearly right than that of any one man, 
 however wise or good — even more nearly right 
 than the will of a self-seeking, egotistical auto- 
 crat, claiming to rule by divine right. 
 
 The great human heart, thoueh often tem- 
 porarily deranged, finally beats true to the 
 anthem of humanity for its all-permeating 
 nerve strings are attuned to every impulse of 
 the living mass. No palsied autocratic brain, 
 insulated by the egoism of sycophantic lauda- 
 tion can take up the refrain. The collective 
 human intellect arrives at its proper goal 
 through trials and mistakes, perhaps ; along 
 by-ways, beckoned on by false prophets, past 
 
312 Roosevelt and the Republic 
 
 reactionaries with face to the setting sun, the 
 great world-intellect finally arrives — because 
 it is so ordained, because Supreme Wisdom 
 has so ordered it. And if any race is incapable 
 of this accomplishment en masse, if it is not 
 headed toward the right, no individual influ- 
 ence will avail to turn the torrent, leading to 
 the abyss, any more than the autumn leaf upon 
 its bosom can turn the mightv current of the 
 Mississippi. 
 
 No man, however great he may regard him- 
 self, would seem fit for one moment to a place 
 of power in a democratic republic, who has not 
 an abiding faith in the trend of this collective 
 conscience. It was this faith which enabled 
 Thomas Jefiferson to save for American gen- 
 erations to come the liberties Avon by the blood 
 of the Revolution ; that enabled Andrew Jack- 
 son to speed our free government on its way, 
 and enabled Abraham Lincoln to preserve the 
 heritage handed down to him. 
 
 They were not wise historians; just demo- 
 crats in high place. 
 
Roosevelt and the Republic 313 
 
 CHAPTER XXVII. 
 
 RICH AND POOR IN POLITICS AS ROOSEVELT SEES 
 THEM. 
 
 During most of his political career, Presi- 
 dent Roosevelt held the opinion that the rich 
 man has been a power for good in politics. 
 Envy, class-hatred, jealousy, are the motives 
 ascribed to the poorer classes who complain of 
 adverse political or industrial conditions. 
 
 "We are certain to fail if we adopt the 
 policy of the demagogue who raves against 
 wealth, which is simply a form of combined 
 thrift, foresight and intelligence ; who would 
 shut the door of opportunity against those 
 whose energy we should especially foster, by 
 penalizing the qualities which make for suc- 
 cess." (Addresses, 95.) 
 
 "It is inevitable in a period of business pros- 
 perity that some men thrive more than others, 
 and it is unfortunately also inevitable that 
 when this is the case, some unwise people are 
 sure to try to appeal to the envy and jealousy 
 of those who succeed least." (Address, April, 
 1902.) 
 
 "The worst foe to the poor man is the labor 
 leader, whether philanthropist or politician, 
 who tries to teach him that he is the victim 
 
314 Roosevelt and the Republic 
 
 of conspiracy and INJUSTICE." (American 
 Ideals, 220.) 
 
 "Probably every man of power by that very 
 fact is capable of doing damage to his neigh- 
 bors, but we cannot afford to discourage the 
 development of such men merely because it i.; 
 possible they may use the power for wrong 
 ends." (Addresses, 14.) 
 
 "It is probable the greatest wrong done by 
 vast wealth" (vast private fortune) "is the 
 harm that we of moderate means do ourselves 
 when we let the vices of envy and hatred enter 
 deep into our natures." (Addresses, 15.) 
 
 Roosevelt says some men fail to use their in- 
 tellects decently, just as other men fail to use 
 their wealth, "but such fact warrants us no 
 more in attacking wealth than in attacking 
 intellect." 
 
 "There is evil in these conditions, but you 
 cannot destroy it unless you destroy the civil- 
 ization they have brought about." 
 
 "It is a base and infamous thing for a man 
 of means to act in a spirit of arrogant, brutal 
 disregard toward his fellow who has less 
 means, and it is no less infamous and no less 
 base to act in a spirit of envy, rancor and 
 hatred against the man of greater means mere- 
 ly because of his great means." (Address at 
 Butte, May 27, 1903.) 
 
 "The line of demarcation we draw must al- 
 ways be on conduct, not on wealth." 
 
 "The outcome was equally fatal whether the 
 country fell into the hands of a wealthy oli- 
 garchy which exploited the poor, or whether 
 
Roosevelt and the Republic 315 
 
 it fell under the dominion of the turbulent mob 
 that plundered the rich." (Address, Syracuse, 
 Dec. 7, 1903.) 
 
 '*It is probably true that the large majority 
 of fortunes that now exist in this country have 
 been amassed, not by injuring our people, but 
 as an incident to conferring a great benefit 
 upon the community. There is but the scanti- 
 est of justification for the outcry against men 
 of wealth as such, and it ought to be unnec- 
 essary to state that any appeal which directly 
 or indirectly leads to suspicion or hatred 
 among ourselves . . . is an attack upOn 
 the fundamental properties of our citizenship. 
 Our interests are at the bottom common. In 
 the long run we go up or down together. Yet 
 more and more it is evident that the state, and 
 if necessary the nation, has to possess the right 
 of supervision and control over the great cor- 
 porations which are its creatures." (Address, 
 Minneapolis, September, 1901.) 
 
 "We wish to face the facts, declining to have 
 our vision blinded either by the folly of those 
 who say there are no evils, or the still more 
 dangerous folly of those who see, or make be- 
 lieve they see, nothing but evil in all the exist- 
 ing system, and who, if given their way, would 
 destroy the evil by the simple process of bring- 
 ing ruin and disaster to the entire country," 
 (Address, Cincinnati, September 20, 1903.) 
 
 "A big corporation may be doing excellent 
 work for the whole country, and you want, 
 above all things, not to interfere with well- 
 meaning corporations." (Addresses, 41.) 
 
3i6 Roosevelt and the Republic 
 
 "In dealing with business interests, for the 
 government to undertake by crude and ill-ad- 
 vised legislation to do what may turn out to 
 be bad would be to incur the risk of such far- 
 reaching disaster that it would be better to do 
 nothing at all." (Message, December, 1901.) 
 
 "Aluch of the legislation directed at trusts 
 would have been exceedingly mischievous, had 
 it not been entirely ineffective." (Message, 
 December, 1901.) 
 
 "There is a growing tendency to demand the 
 illegitimate and unwise transfer to the govern- 
 ment of much of the work that should be done 
 by private persons singly or associated to- 
 gether." (Chamber of Commerce, New York, 
 November, 1902.) 
 
 Panic, fear, envy, hatred, ignorance — "There 
 can exist in the Republic no man more wicked, 
 no man more dangerous to the people, thai', 
 he who would arouse these feelings in the 
 hope that they would redound to his political 
 advantage." (Addresses, 64.) 
 
 "If in a spirit of sullen envy they" (the com- 
 mon people) "insist upon pulling down those 
 who have profited most by years of fatness, 
 they will bury themselves in a crash of com- 
 mon disaster." (Address, Providence, August, 
 1902.) 
 
 "An assault upon what Benton calls the 
 money power is apt to be popular in a demo- 
 cratic republic, partly on account of the vague 
 fear with which the poorer and more ignorant 
 voters regard a powerful institution whose 
 ^vorkings they do not understand, and partly 
 
Roosevelt and the Republic 317 
 
 on account of the jealousy they feel toward 
 those who are better ofif than themselves." 
 
 These are but samples. They might be 
 multiplied indefinitely. One dominant note 
 rings through all of Roosevelt's statements 
 upon this theme. "There is but the scantie-^t 
 justification for the outcry against men of 
 wealth." "Corporations are more sinned 
 against than sinning." 
 
 Opposite is the tone of the minor key. Com- 
 plaining poor are actuated mostly by jealousy, 
 ignorance, envy, they have no cause for com- 
 plaint. If it were not for the wealthy the poor, 
 who are usually poor through incompetence, 
 would be ten times worse off. 
 
 The dominant note and minor chord were 
 both in full evidence right up to the time that 
 Roosevelt made his famous "muckrake" 
 speech at the laying of the corner stone of the 
 House of Representatives building about two 
 years ago. That speech sounded the dominant 
 note and the minor chord in higher keys th.an 
 ever before. True, there was the Delphic ut- 
 terance, the ambiguous statement, the cun- 
 ning qualification, the good Lord, good devil, 
 preachment. "Wealthy as such." "Crude and 
 ill-advised " legislation. "Well-meaning cor- 
 porations," etc. But we must assume that 
 Roosevelt really intended to say something. 
 
 In a speech in New York City in February, 
 1904, Elihu Root said of Roosevelt: He is 
 "the greatest conservative force for the pro- 
 tection of capital in the City of Washington in 
 the years which have elapsed since President 
 
3i8 Roosevelt and the Republic 
 
 AIcKinley's death. On more than one occasion 
 he threatened extremists of his own party with 
 the veto in protection of capital." 
 
 Roosevelt in turn complimented most highly 
 the services of Root. We all know where 
 Elihu Root stands. We know his relations 
 with William C. Whitney, Thomas F. Ryan, 
 and the rest. We know him as the most power- 
 ful and resourceful servant of "predatory 
 wealth" that this country has ever known. We 
 know, too, that Root knows Roosevelt and 
 that his estimate of Roosevelt was correct. 
 
 When Roosevelt made his "muckrake 
 speech" there was no doubt at all but the 
 people of America had been aroused to a dan- 
 gerous frame of mind by the indubitable evi- 
 dence of widespread and general inicjuity, po- 
 litical and industrial, on the part of wealthy 
 men and powerful corporations. That had 
 been made very plain by writers and state and 
 city officers throughout the land. Such acts 
 could no longer be apologized for. The man 
 who would persist longer in denying them 
 would find himself on the unpopular side — ■ 
 without popular support. 
 
 It was not necessary to change one's con- 
 victions, but it was necessary to seem by one's 
 acts to change, or to lose one's popularity. 
 One might plunge in, fight his way to the 
 front, and direct the hunt, he could not stop 
 it. In the face of these conditions wc find a 
 change coming over the spirit of Roosevelt's 
 dreams. Muckraking, of course, was infam- 
 ous, but there was a sort of high-minded criti- 
 
Roosevelt and the Republic 319 
 
 cism by high-minded men which was most 
 proper. Leave criticism to the President and 
 you are sure of having the right sort. Other 
 men cannot distinguish the genuine. I cannot 
 tell its distinctive marks. The genuine is 
 known by intuition, a sixth sense. The signa- 
 ture of Theodore Roosevelt upon the package 
 is your guarantee. 
 
 Attacks, too, upon wealth and the wealthy, 
 upon individuals and corporations, are most 
 unholy, especially when made as the ordinary 
 man makes them from motives of jealousy 
 and envy. Leave the attacks to me. Nobody 
 can question my motives. Presto and Roose- 
 velt is at the head of the "muckrake" squad 
 manipulating the slime and applying deodor- 
 izing agents, if not disinfectants. His plume 
 waves in the van of the attacking column. It 
 is his to choose the weapons and direct the 
 manner of the attack. He is to choose the bat- 
 tlefield. There are to be no other attacks, no 
 other commanders. 
 
 We are not of those who believe that Roose- 
 velt wishes to do intentional wrong, least of 
 all harm to his country. In but one emerg- 
 ency will Roosevelt stoop to evil deeds — when 
 his own interests are at stake. But Roosevelt 
 has no sympathy with the toiling masses. He 
 does not understand them. Ordinary farmers, 
 laborers, or artisans, have nothing in common 
 with Theodore Roosevelt. He has profound 
 contempt for the "trader," the "bourgeoisie." 
 Roosevelt has no comprehension of institu- 
 tional wrong. It is all a mere matter of holy 
 
320 Roosevelt and the Republic 
 
 or unholy individual action. Neither can he 
 realize that Theodore Roosevelt can possibly 
 do an unrighteous or an unwise act. No act 
 of Theodore Roosevelt can be unrighteous or 
 unwise. 
 
 Roosevelt has no idea of the fierce intensity 
 of the feelings beneath the jeans of the farmer 
 and the mechanic. To him the problems that 
 give vitality to populism, equity societies and 
 trades' unions are a sealed book. Tools of 
 demagogues consumed by jealousy is the way 
 he diagnosis the case. Envy to him is the 
 meanest of sentiments. It is a sort of spon- 
 taneous toadstool, growing out of the essential 
 wdckedness rank in human nature. 
 
 Insane would he pronounce the man who 
 saw in envy the thunder blackness of the toil- 
 ing, human mass which lives and suflFers si- 
 lently. Who recognized it as the gathering 
 cloud from which leaps the quick lightning of 
 retribution, whose bolts fall upon the robbers 
 and oppressors of toil. Clouds gathered in the 
 murk of wrong; lightnings stirring the whole 
 human mass into revolt against its oppressors. 
 Not beautiful; grim often; sometimes terrible; 
 never mean. Symptoming a dull pain in the 
 breasts of the inarticulate ones who feel rather 
 than think. Of obscured mental vision, they 
 cannot see except as a dread formless thing 
 the cruel iron thrust into their souls, nor the 
 force that makes the thrust. But they can feel 
 the dull torturing pain. Symptomatic agony 
 telegraphing to the brain the tragedy of the 
 crushed limb; like the red signal of disaster 
 
Roosevelt and the Republic 321 
 
 ahead, it means vital danger. Lurid and men- 
 acing are envy's clouds and from them flash 
 lightnings of outraged feeling. There are 
 those who see in all this a warning to political 
 mariners. Continue to disregard these black 
 lowerings, these low mutterings, these sullen 
 flashes ; interpret them as petty displays of 
 shallow meanness ; under the pressure of ex- 
 ploiting interest, steer the ship of state into 
 their gathering storm — but beware the thun- 
 derbolt ! 
 
 For a time even the miserable rabble will 
 bear the heel of the oppressor, but every bruise 
 leaves a rankling pain. Finally it grows into 
 agony quite unbearable. Then the dumb, suf- 
 fering thing will rise in its inarticulate wrath 
 and crush its tormentor. Believers in dem- 
 ocracy would give them freedom, voice, man- 
 hood. They would credit them with a heart 
 like their own hearts, with souls like their own 
 souls ; would let them see whose heel has 
 bruised them ; help them to ward off the blow. 
 Then they say, this sullen envy would burn 
 itself to ashes. It would no longer have need 
 of being. 
 
 Roosevelt takes a different method. He 
 would have wise and great "rulers" give them 
 what they ought to have, not what they aspire 
 for. He would direct the force into other 
 channels. That explains his putting himself 
 at the head of the discontented mass and try- 
 ing to control it to the safe harbor of cen- 
 tralization and bureaucracy. 
 
 Whether there are serious real wrongs or 
 
322 Roosevelt and the Republic 
 
 not Roosevelt knows that among the masses 
 just now there is an overmastering sense of 
 wrong. Opposed and challenged, it would be 
 irresistible. Guided, it may be used as an ir- 
 resistible instrument to attain ends dear to 
 President Roosevelt. 
 
 With supreme skill Roosevelt has put him- 
 self in control of this voiceless discontent. It 
 wants something, but knows not what. 
 Roosevelt will tell it. The masses will 
 hearken to his voice. Congress, the courts, 
 newspapers who disagree with Roosevelt, are 
 enemies of this mass, trying to shield its de- 
 spoilers. Hence the mass will overbear Con- 
 gress, courts, newspapers. A strong central 
 government, power by the President over 
 corporate and great individual wealth, this is 
 the one thing wanted. A bureau will be con- 
 structed, subject to the executive will, which 
 will make everybody do right, will correct 
 every abuse, solve every problem. Always 
 will the executive be a beneficent autocrat; 
 always will the bureau be his efficient instru- 
 ment of holiness. 
 
 There are defects in the plan. Fine a mon- 
 opolistic corporation and you fine its patrons. 
 Imprison its officers and it has others ready 
 to break the law, provided there is a motive 
 for breaking it. You cannot drive carpet tacks 
 with a pile-driver nor piles with a tack-ham- 
 mer. Power adequate to deal with the great 
 corporation is dangerous to the individual. 
 Criminal courts will not do. The process can 
 readily destroy democratic-republican govern- 
 
Roosevelt and the Republic 323 
 
 ment. It can easily get every regulated cor- 
 poration head-over-ears in politics, corrupting 
 and destroying nation and state. But if one 
 wants to solve the problem and save the Re- 
 public it must be done by throwing the re- 
 sponsibility back upon the people through 
 state governments so as to build up a citizen- 
 ship wise enough and strong enough to rec- 
 ognize the evil and destroy it. 
 
324 Roosevelt and the Republic 
 
 CHAPTER XXVIII. 
 
 ROOSEVELT IN LITERATURE. 
 
 Theodore Roosevelt entered literature even 
 before he became a law-maker and practical 
 politician. History was his favorite field. In 
 history Roosevelt found greatest interest in 
 chronicles of strife and bloodshed. For Roose- 
 velt is atavistic. His imagination harks back 
 to the battlefield and the chase. He loves the 
 blood-thrill of the prognathic, hairy, forest 
 man whose rude stone axe or strong blunt 
 spear laid lifeless wolf and bear. The hot 
 breath of the death struggle is new wine to his 
 spirit. Triumph comes to him with the ebb 
 of the red life-tide, the final sigh of dissolu- 
 tion. School, college, parlor glossed over these 
 traits. They were covered with an enamel of 
 civilization. But when manhood came, the 
 real Roosevelt shone through. 
 
 Choosing first a war theme, he wrote of the 
 "Naval War of 1812." This was Roosevelt's 
 initial literary efifort, and curiously enough, it 
 is thus far his best, although given to the 
 public in his twenty-fourth year. 
 
 Later Roosevelt wrote more entertainingly. 
 His style gained something in terseness and 
 power of expression. But for scholarly re- 
 
Roosevelt and the Republic 32^ 
 
 search and calm judgment, his first effort over- 
 shadows all others. Literary fledgling as he 
 then was, he recognized his own limitations. 
 Roosevelt knew he was not an "authority" 
 upon anything. He wanted to become an "au- 
 thority." The subject suited him. Roosevelt's 
 judgment of military matters is superior to his 
 judgment in any other field. His faults were 
 kept in the background, mere embryotic man- 
 nerisms, later to become so obtrusive, That 
 all-pervading ego denied itself. The dogma- 
 tism and intellectual arrogance of the later 
 man appeared only in glimpses here and there. 
 
 There was promise in the work, albeit it 
 was rambling and incoherent in plan. All the 
 facts were there, laboriously assembled if not 
 thoroughly digested. It showed industry and 
 some historical discrimination. 
 
 Roosevelt has a mania for winning a reputa- 
 tion for judicial fairness, yet from the first he 
 distrusted his own impartiality. Almost from 
 the first he fell into the trick of showing dis- 
 interestedness by abusing or condemning both 
 sides with apparent impartiality. British 
 naval historians, no doubt very justly, came in 
 for a share of his flagellation. Mr. James was 
 too clever an author not to know ; therefore 
 Roosevelt stamped him with the badge of 
 Ananias, which later was to become so popu- 
 lar among Roosevelt's friends. There was 
 danger of this James condemnation giving the 
 young historian a reputation for American 
 bias. Therefore our wise young man said 
 James was not a whit more blameworthy than 
 
^26 Roosevelt and the Republic 
 
 his American co-liars. His own inaccuracies 
 and misstatements, of which there were many, 
 were to be checked up later. 
 
 As the fledgling grew older his literary- 
 flight grew more deft and more erratic, but 
 neven stronger. There is a world of enlighten- 
 ment in his books as to the real Roosevelt. 
 The very subjects reflect the man. His auto- 
 biography thunders in every line. His bump- 
 tious individuality is written profusely on 
 every page. Such sublime subjectiveness is 
 rare, even in ego-obsessed mortals. 
 
 Before becoming civil service commissioner 
 he wrote his lives of Thomas H. Benton and 
 Gouverneur Morris, as well as two of his 
 essays on politics. All were written after 
 Roosevelt had almost reached thirty years. 
 Immaturity could have marred only the naval 
 history, and this is of Roosevelt's books the 
 most mature. Following close, in the civil 
 service commissioner period, come his "Ranch 
 Life and Hunting Trail," "Historv of New 
 York," "Winning of the West," "Essays on 
 Practical Politics," "Wilderness Hunter." 
 Only a little later came "American Political 
 Ideals, "Oliver Cromwell," "The Strenuous 
 Life." Then the deluge of state papers, mes- 
 sages, etc. 
 
 Without a knowledge of his writings, one 
 does not know Roosevelt nor appreciate his 
 public acts. In his books the Roosevelt sea is 
 sounded and charted. The longitude and lati- 
 tude of every rock and shoal is set down. With 
 these enlightening documents before one, one 
 
Roosevelt and the Republic 327 
 
 might prick out Roosevelt's course to a nicety 
 on the chart. His navigation code for the ship 
 of state is there set down. We can see 
 whither he would steer her. 
 
 "Winning of the West," like the Lives of 
 Benton and Morris, has much of the Roosevelt 
 political doctrine displayed. He writes himself 
 down in all three as a Hamiltonian, an aristo- 
 crat, a doubter of democracy, a partisan of 
 war, an advocate of conquest, a believer in 
 great military power, physical size and expan- 
 sion as elements of national greatness. Prob- 
 ably the most difficult of his books is his 
 "Winning of the West." Throughout its 
 pages is a dreary monotonous repetition of vio- 
 lent deeds, strung together in loose and chaotic 
 order. It is more like the notes for a book 
 than a book itself. But the style of the writ- 
 ing is attractive, and the stories not bad if one 
 enjoys the recounting of violent deeds. 
 
 Critics say that most authors exhaust them- 
 selves in a single volume. It is emphatically 
 true of Roosevelt. Each volume of his, so far 
 as it contains abstract ideas, is a repetition of 
 every other in scarcely different form. The 
 faces of his thoughts become as familiar as old 
 friends. 
 
 Roosevelt's state papers have become most 
 bulky. He has a mania for messa'ges to the 
 legislative branch, which are really appeals to 
 the country. Each delivery is longer than the 
 last. His annual messages to Congress have 
 become annual cyclopedias of universal knowl- 
 edge. Instead of sharp, clear recommenda- 
 
328 Roosevelt And the Republic 
 
 tions as to governmental needs and govern- 
 mental policies, they are series of essays upon 
 history, politics, science, theology, sociology, 
 political economy and government, put for- 
 ward in a spirit of aggressive boastfulness and 
 self-glorification. Here and there, too, is inter- 
 spersed a sermon. These state papers, like all 
 of the writing of Roosevelt since he became a 
 public figure, are colored throughout with the 
 necessity of defending his own course in this 
 and that situation. 
 
 Except in matters of denunciation, plain 
 statement is lacking. Coming from a less dis- 
 tinguished citizen, the matter would be char- 
 acterized as platitudinous or Delphic : good 
 Lord, good devil, preachments ; bolstered up 
 by vociferous fulminations. But in great men 
 such statements are things of supernal wisdom. 
 
 f 
 
Roosevelt and the Republic 32^ 
 
 CHAPTER XXIX. 
 
 ROOSEVELT, WAR AND PEACE. 
 
 No president in the history of the country 
 has so assiduously cultivated the war spirit as 
 Theodore Roosevelt. Roosevelt does not look 
 upon war as a necessary evil, but a thing to 
 be desired for itself as a promoter of human 
 virtue. The militant dominating man with 
 blood lust is to him the only true man. 
 
 "We must not forget that an ignoble peace 
 is worse than any war," said Roosevelt. Peace 
 must be "righteous" to justify itself. If "ig- 
 noble" it is worse than an ignoble war. 
 
 That was why Theodore Roosevelt wanted 
 war with Spain and boasted of having helped 
 to bring it about. For that reason the silent 
 service of the Naval bureau did not satisfy 
 him. He wanted the gory field because: "I 
 wanted to count for one in the fight for order 
 and for the republic; if the crisis should come, 
 -L wanted to take a man's stand, that was why." 
 
 Successfully to carry on the trade of war, 
 we must have a great army of regular soldiers 
 and a big navy : 
 
 "An efficient navy of adequate size is not 
 only the best guarantee of peace, but it is al- 
 ,ways the surest means of seeing that if war 
 
330 Roosevelt and the Republic 
 
 does come, the result will be honorable to our 
 ^ood name and favorable to our national in- 
 terests." 
 
 "Remember, the Monroe doctrine will be re- 
 spected as long as we have an efficient navy 
 and not much longer." (Speech at Proctor, 
 
 The Monroe doctrine was enunciated De- 
 cember, 1823. It has been respected since that 
 time. The United States has had a strong navy 
 at the time of the Civil War only. It had 
 scarcelv any navy when Cleveland gave his 
 famous ultimatum to England. But let that 
 pass. 
 
 Believing in a strong military establish- 
 ment, Roosevelt wants regular troops. He has 
 no patience with militia. They cannot bring 
 ''honor to the country on foreign fields." 
 
 "They" (colonists of revolutionary times) 
 "had the same illogical fear of the executive 
 that demagogues to-day profess to have of a 
 standing army." 
 
 "In accordance with their curiously foolish 
 theories, the democrats persisted in relying 
 upon the weakest of all reeds, the militia, who 
 promptly ran away every time they faced a 
 foe in the open. This applied to all, whether 
 Eastern or Western or Southern ; the men of 
 the Eastern states in 1812-13 did as badly as, 
 and no worse than, the Virginians in 1814. In- 
 deed, one of the good results of the war was 
 that it did away forever with all reliance on 
 the old-time militia, the most expensive and 
 inefficient species of soldiers that could be in-* 
 
Roosevelt and the Republic 331 
 
 vented." (Roosevelt's Life of Morris, page 
 
 349-) 
 
 Here is some history vi^ith which Roosevelt 
 supports his theory : 
 
 "On the Niagara frontier an honest and esti- 
 mable old gentleman and worthy citizen, who 
 knew nothing about military matters, General 
 Van Rensselaer, tried to cross over and at- 
 tack the British at Queenstown." (Roosevelt's 
 Naval War of 1812, page 13.) 
 
 This "old gentleman" was at that time 
 thirty-eight years of age, having entered mili- 
 tary life at eighteen, and having seen much 
 hard fighting in which he was twice severely 
 wounded. 
 
 "The small British army marched at will 
 through Virginia and Maryland, burned 
 Washington, and finally retreated from before 
 Baltimore and embarked to take part in the 
 expedition before New Orleans. Twice, at 
 Bladensburg and North Point, it came in con- 
 tact with superior numbers of militia in fairly 
 good position. In each case the result was the 
 same. After some preliminary skirmishing, 
 maneuvering and volley-firing the British 
 charged with bayonets. The rawest regiments 
 among the militia then broke at once. Others 
 kept pretty steady, pouring in a destructive 
 lire until the regulars came close up to them, 
 when they also fled. ... At North Point, 
 however, the militia — being more experienced 
 ■ — behaved better than at Bladensburg." 
 (Naval War of 1812, preface.) 
 
 At Bladensburg five thousand British mil- 
 
332 Roosevelt and the Republic 
 
 itia, utterly worn out by the heat, frightened 
 into panic double their number of American 
 militia, well posted." (Naval War.) 
 
 Lossing's encyclopedia has General Winder 
 with seven thousand American militia, only 
 nine hundred of whom were enlisted men, giv- 
 ing stubborn battle to five thousand or more 
 British regulars. The Americans fled from 
 their position finally. While they lost twenty- 
 six killed and fifty wounded, the British lost 
 five hundred men. 
 
 At North Point two thousand three hundred 
 American militiamen, battling with General 
 Ross and five thousand British regulars, beat 
 them off with a loss to the British of their 
 general and two hundred and ninety men. 
 
 Roosevelt has Lundy's Lane a battle be- 
 tween nearly equal forces of Americans and 
 British, in which the British were victorious. 
 Other historians have the Americans outnum- 
 bered nearly two to one and the British loss 
 the greater. 
 
 Plattsburg furnishes an instance where a 
 very inferior force of militia defeated an army 
 of regulars with great slaughter. New Or- 
 leans was a striking instance of the superiority 
 of militia fighting. Roosevelt knew of both. 
 Yet he wrote : 
 
 "I originally intended to write a companion 
 volume to this which should deal with the 
 operations on land. But a short examination 
 showed that these operations were hardly 
 worth serious study. . . . British regulars, 
 trained in many wars, thrashed the raw re- 
 
Roosevelt and the Republic 333 
 
 cruits opposed to them wherever they had any- 
 thing Hke a fair chance. It is not cheerful 
 reading for an American nor yet of interest 
 to the military ^ student." (Naval War of 
 1812, page 22.) 
 
 Roosevelt was fully conversant with Bunker 
 Hill, King's Mountain, New Orleans, and a 
 dozen smaller engagements of like result when 
 he made such an extraordinary statement as 
 the above. 
 
 Non-military persons hardly understand 
 Roosevelt's distinction between militia and the 
 volunteer soldiers who fought the Civil War. 
 Both are citizen soldiers of exactly the same 
 class. It takes experience to develop high ef- 
 ficiencv in either. Every American war has 
 been fought by citizen soldiers. None has 
 been lost. No nation can show a history of 
 more gallant fighting. If the cause is good, 
 no fault can be found with citizen soldiery. 
 
 Militia or other citizen soldiery, however, do 
 not readily become human engines of murder. 
 They are still men in sympathy with the rank 
 and file of their countrymen. Such men can- 
 not be relied upon by a hero on horseback to 
 obey like automatons any order which he may 
 give, even to turning their guns upon their 
 own brothers. They have not been brought 
 under the control of military hypnotism. They 
 cannot be made Hessians or Cossacks. Citi- 
 zen soldiers will not destroy their country's 
 liberties. They cannot be relied upon to de- 
 troy the liberties of other peoples. Your true 
 
334 Roosevelt and the Republic 
 
 imperialist loves not the militia, or the citizen 
 soldier. 
 
 Curiously enough, Theodore Roosevelt and 
 his Rough Riders, who were iwegular soldiers, 
 did most all of the fighting before Santiago, 
 according to Roosevelt's account. Switzer- 
 land, the strongest military power in the 
 world for its population, in defensive warfare, 
 relies entirely upon citizen soldiery. 
 
 Aside from the development of mechanical 
 accessories, which goes on outside of, as well 
 as within the army, the profession of fighting 
 is easilv learned. Six months in the field 
 makes a veteran. Each great war trains its 
 own fighting men. There is no other way. 
 
 Americans who love liberty will no more 
 give over their protection of their fundamental 
 rights to a hireling soldiery than they will sur- 
 render their salvation into the hands of a 
 priestly class or their government to a govern- 
 ing caste. Each man in the last analysis must 
 defend himself and his own, just as he must 
 look after his government or the salvation of 
 his soul. 
 
 But those who look forward to imperialism 
 must place their trust in regular soldiers. 
 "It is the great expanding peoples which be- 
 queath to future ages the great memories and 
 material results of their achievement." . . . 
 With this ideal Roosevelt realizes that trained 
 legions must be provided. The citizen will not 
 leave home to drown in blood the liberties of 
 other peoples. 
 
 "The troops and police were thoroughly 
 
Roosevelt and the Republic 335 
 
 armed and attacked the rioters with a whole- 
 some desire to do them harm. . . . Two 
 millions of property had been destroyed and 
 many valuable lives lost, but over 1,200 rioters 
 were slain, an admirable object lesson to the 
 remainder." 
 
 "So-called upper classes developed along the 
 lines of a wealthy and timid bourgeoisie type, 
 measuring everything by a mercantile stand- 
 ard (a peculiarly debasing one if taken wholly 
 by itself), and submitting to be ruled in local 
 affairs by low, foreign mobs, and in national 
 matters by their arrogant southern kinsmen. 
 The military spirit of these last certainly stood 
 them in good stead in the Civil War. The 
 world has never seen better soldiers than those 
 who followed Lee ; and their leader will un- 
 doubtedly rank as without any exception the 
 very greatest of the great captains that the 
 English-speaking peoples have brought forth, 
 and this, although the last and chief of his 
 antagonists, may himself claim to stand as the 
 full equal of Marlboro and Wellington." (Life 
 of Benton, page 38.) 
 
 Roosevelt shows clever judgment of soldier- 
 ly merit. But the fact remains that the South- 
 ern chivalry was overborne, and Lee's great 
 military genius was without avail. "Poor 
 whites" made up the bulk of Lee's fighting 
 men. Frequently Roosevelt speaks of nations 
 of great breeders and great fighters being the 
 ruling nations of the earth. 
 
 To those who have followed current events 
 it is unnecessary to multiply quotations indi- 
 
33^ Roosevelt and the Republic 
 
 eating that war spirit is a dominant note in 
 the character of Theodore Roosevelt. His first 
 book treated of war. War narrative makes up 
 a large part of all his other books. He fought 
 as eagerly as he had studied and written of 
 war. His policy as President has been punctu- 
 ated with military display. All the dramatic 
 arts of the most dramatic of presidents have 
 been exercised to arouse in the nation a spirit 
 of war. 
 
 Military appropriations in a few years have 
 increased fourfold. Exclusive of pensions, the 
 war budget approximates $200,000,000 a 3'ear, 
 more than the whole cost of government be- 
 fore the Civil War. Each inhabitant now 
 bears a military burden one-sixth greater than 
 all government burdens at the time of Van 
 Buren. 
 
 Programmes of navy-building the largest in 
 the history of the nation are going forward. 
 Historical celebrations are made military and 
 naval pageants. This country is now witness- 
 ing a naval pageant such as the world has 
 seldom seen, costing more than can be earned 
 in a year by the agricultural workers of such 
 a state as Nebraska. Already we have sunk 
 close to a billion dollars in a new navy, and it 
 is a question whether it would mean strength 
 and security or weakness and disgrace if war 
 were now to come. This great, costly, naval 
 pageant has been planned especially to stimu- 
 late the people to the expenditure of other hun- 
 dreds of millions in fighting ships. Armor 
 plate men are reaping a golden harvest, selling 
 
Roosevelt and the Republic 33/ 
 
 armor to the government at ten times its cost, 
 turning the sweat and blood of our productive 
 workers into profits for over-rich steel monop- 
 olists. 
 
 Yet no great continental power in history 
 has been saved from defeat in any war by the 
 prowess of its navy, nor has the prowess of 
 its navy given it victory. Certainly in a vital 
 military contest no foreign nation could de- 
 stroy us with its navy. Yet we are hanging 
 more ships like millstones around the nation's 
 neck. 
 
 Sufficient money has been spent in those use- 
 less ships which, please the Lord, will go to 
 the junk pile before they fire a hostile shot, to 
 gridiron the country north and south, east and 
 west, with trunk railway lines, and cover the 
 important seas with government mail and 
 commercial steamships. Governments may 
 claim the power to kill, never to engage in the 
 transportation business. The money sunk in 
 our fleet would have reclaimed the desert 
 places in our land, planted trees on the barren 
 rocky slopes. But that would be making 
 homes for the happiness of man, not preparing 
 to destroy him. We must necessarily sacrifice 
 our hundreds of millions to the Moloch of 
 war while the nation dances before him in 
 paleolithic devil worship. 
 
 Commercialism, President Roosevelt finds, 
 as we have seen, the alternative of war. As 
 history tells the story war and commercialism 
 in its most sinister sense go hand in hand. 
 Greatest war nations have finally sunk under 
 
338 Roosevelt and the Republic 
 
 plutocracy's load. In our country the fighting 
 spirit goes hand in hand with the spirit of 
 lawless wealth. The most primitive, violent 
 and militant communities have the lowest civic 
 spirit, the most offensively cruel displays of 
 greed and business unrighteousness. Com- 
 mercialism is the handmaiden of war. Follow- 
 ing every great contest of blood and iron since 
 the world began, there has been a loosening of 
 moral restraint. Men have committed deeds 
 that they would not think of committing be- 
 fore. Speculation, cruel exploitation, extrava- 
 gance, harlotry, corruption, have stalked bold- 
 ly in the track of every army since the world 
 began. 
 
 The "golden age" of commercialism coin- 
 cides with the age of maximum military 
 strength. Predatory instincts of the commer- 
 cialized man find their counterparts in the 
 savagery of military impulse. The rough 
 border where adventurous men fight their way 
 becomes soon the best soil for business greed 
 and political corruption. 
 
 And why not? War is the rolling back of 
 the scroll of civilization to the day of the can- 
 nibal forebear, who. with knashing teeth, fell 
 upon his fellow, butchered and devoured him 
 and carried away his female to slavery. Says 
 Gen. W. T. Sherman : 
 
 "When I had my headquarters in a house it 
 began to burn before I fairly got out of it. 
 The truth is, human nature is human nature. 
 You take the best lot of young men, all church 
 members, if you please, and put them into an 
 
Roosevelt and the Republic 339 
 
 army and let them invade the enemy's coun- 
 try and Hve on it for any length of time, and 
 they will gradually lose all self-restraint to a 
 degree beyond the control of discipline. It 
 always has been and always will be so." 
 
 Carl Schurz quotes Sherman and adds : 
 
 "The sayings of such a man as General 
 Sherman upon the effects of war upon the 
 morals of soldiers themselves may be com- 
 mended to the sober contemplation of those 
 who so glibly speak of war as a great moral 
 agency — how war kindles in the popular breast 
 the noblest instincts and emotions of human 
 nature ; how it lifts a people above the mean 
 selfishness of everyday life ; how it stops the 
 growth of groveling materialism which is too 
 apt to develop into a dominant tendency in a 
 long period of peace ; how it turns the am- 
 bitions of men into the channels of generous 
 enthusiasm and lofty aspirations ; how it is 
 such a fire bath from which human society- 
 emerges, cleaned of its dross, of low propensi- 
 ties, refined in its best energies and more 
 earnest than ever in devoted pursuit of its 
 higher ideals." 
 
 But such men as Sherman and Schurz can- 
 not be supposed to know war as Roosevelt 
 knows it. 
 
 As if to emphasize his war tendencies, 
 Roosevelt attacks peace advocates : 
 
 "A class of professional non-combatants is 
 as hurtful to the real healthy growth of a na- 
 tion as a class of fire-eaters, for a weakness or 
 folly nationally is as bad as a vice, or worse, 
 
340 Roosevelt and the Republic 
 
 and ill the long run a Quaker may be quite as 
 undesirable a citizen as a duelist. No man 
 not willing to bear arms and to fight for his 
 rights can give a good reason why he should 
 be entitled to the privilege of living in a free 
 community." (Life of Benton, page 37.) 
 
 "It is a bitter and unanswerable commentary 
 on the workings of a non-resistant creed when 
 reduced to practice, that such outrages and 
 massacres as these committed on these help- 
 less Indians, were more numerous and flagrant 
 in the colony the Quakers governed than in 
 any others ; the vaunted policy of peace which 
 forbade them to play a true man's part, and 
 put down wrong-doing, caused the utmost pos- 
 sible evil to fall on white men and red. An 
 avowed policy of force and fraud carried out 
 in the most cynical manner could hardly have 
 worked more terrible injustice. Their system 
 was a direct incentive to crime and wrong- 
 doing between the races. . . . No other 
 colony made such futile, contemptible efTorts 
 to deal with the Indians ; no other colony 
 showed such supine selfishness." (i, Winning 
 of the West, 98.) 
 
 It is a shame that some Roman fighting man 
 with real red blood did not rewrite the Ser- 
 mon on the Mount, so that the infamous creed 
 of non-resistance, of peace on earth, good will 
 to men, could not have reached the world and 
 caused such mischief as Roosevelt here por- 
 trays. Strange it is that the Preacher of this 
 very creed should be worshipped as divine by 
 all the nations of the west and that even 
 
Roosevelt and the Republic 341 
 
 Roosevelt should preach and pray in a temple 
 devoted to His worship. Strange it is that 
 this creed should grow in strength and spread 
 over the earth for two thousand years as .1 
 dominant civilizing force, while the men ready 
 to "play a man's part," the legions of imperial 
 Rome are but unsubstantial shades. Rome's 
 hosts have vanished like guilty shadows from 
 Britain, and Spain, and Gaul, from the land 
 of the Goth, the Frank, the Jew, the Moor. 
 Her valiant short sword, her thews and sinews 
 hardened as steel by lanista and arena have 
 passed like the snowflake before the breath 
 of spring. But the soft unmanly ideal of this 
 One of the non-resistant creed, has spread in 
 conquering power over afl these lands, claim- 
 ing them as its own. O arise, ye shades of 
 fighting, dominating, expanding Rome, and tell 
 us in your shame, how sucli a weakling with 
 such an unmanly creed could conquer you all. 
 Tell us why your Coliseum has crumbled in 
 spite of your strength ; why your walls are 
 overgrown, your palaces in ruin, your scholars, 
 vour heroes, your fighting men, are almost 
 forgotten, crowded out of men's memories by 
 the soft words of this weakling creed ! 
 
 Come forth ye hairy ape like forms of paleo- 
 lithic times and tell us how your fierce 
 strength, your readiness to "play a true man's 
 part" has not saved you from extinction! 
 
 "Sprawling, huge and hairy on the blood- 
 smeared reeking stones 
 
342 Roosevelt and the Republic 
 
 "Onkh, the paleolithic man, was gnawing a 
 
 foeman's bones, 
 "Snarling thus to the strangers — his mind in a 
 
 righteous maze : 
 " 'Ouff, ye smoothers of axes ! I bide by the 
 
 good old ways.' 
 "What, not eat my captives? Kill them and 
 
 let them lie? 
 "And waste the good meat I fought for ! Ye 
 
 weakling fools ! Not I. 
 "Besides, did not great Ingu, the Doer-of- 
 
 Deeds-in-the-Air, 
 "Show me their trail in the forest and guide 
 
 my feet to the lair? 
 "He made me fiercer than they were ; he 
 
 sharpened my flint for the kill ; 
 "And if I flay them and eat them, am I not 
 
 doing his will? 
 "Ouflf! Ye would scorn high Ingu? What 
 
 folly is this ye speak ! 
 "As long as the belly knows hunger, the strong 
 
 man will eat the weak." 
 "And loud snarled Onkh at his feasting on the 
 
 blood-red reeking stones, 
 "Lusty and huge and hairy, gnawing a foe- 
 man's bones." 
 ******** 
 
 "Gone are these tear-stained ages of ceaseless, 
 merciless strife ; 
 
 "Slow wakes the world from the night of blood 
 to the dawn of love and life ; 
 
 "But still some sodden sleeper from the prom- 
 ised morning turns; 
 
Roosevelt and the Republic 343 
 
 "Some fiend-bewildered, foolish heart for the 
 
 ghastly vision yearns. 
 "And lips that beg for His mercy, by martyr 
 
 pangs that He bore, 
 "Yet plead the will of the Prince of Peace for 
 
 the hell that men call war. 
 "Oh, thou divine Compassion — whose mercies 
 
 never cease — 
 "Spirit, however men name Thee, of Goodness 
 
 and Love and Peace — 
 "Through slow unwearied eons, Thy tender 
 
 unwearied art 
 "Has loosed the ape from Thy creature's form 
 
 and the tiger from his heart. 
 " 'Tis only Thy measureless Tenderness can 
 
 pardon that bloody dream. 
 "May the pity that led us from beasthood and 
 
 set our face to the light 
 "Still bide till the love of our brother man 
 
 shall teach us Thy will aright !" 
 (George Meason Whittier in the Independent.) 
 
344 Roosevelt and the Republic 
 
 CHAPTER XXX. 
 
 WHAT ROOSEVELT HAS DONE FOR WASHINGTON 
 
 SOCIETY. 
 
 Society writers tell us that individualism 
 characterizes the present regime in the 
 White House. Mrs. Roosevelt, young Archi- 
 bald, and little Quentin contribute to this 
 happy attribute. 
 
 Washington social ethics are pronounced 
 unique. In fuss and feathers the White House 
 cannot compare with the European court. But 
 its social life is tremendously important. 
 Through it a grave responsibility rests upon 
 the mistress of the mansion. She must be a 
 woman of rare dignity and tact. 
 
 Some of the Rooseveltian innovations have 
 stirred social Washington to its depths. The 
 abolition of the Saturday afternoon receptions 
 to the common people, otherwise the "hoi 
 polloi," or the "unwashed mob," aroused re- 
 bellious criticism. It was the one and only 
 time when any person of sound mind could 
 pay homage to Airs. President and go home 
 sublimely happy or critically severe. This was 
 woman's day at the White House. Mrs. 
 Cleveland, Mrs. Harrison and, even the inva- 
 lid, Mrs. McKinley, followed the precedent. 
 
Roosevelt and the Republic 345 
 
 It had become the unwritten but still the bind- 
 ing social law of all Washington. Mrs. Roose- 
 velt, as her worthy lord would have done, 
 smashed the precedent. Social touch with "un- 
 washed mobs" was not for her. Her subjects 
 were pleasanter companions outside the White 
 House fence, where they had the cat's priv- 
 ilege of looking at the King — and queen, too. 
 
 There have been other changes. Casual and 
 undistinguished guests go around the back 
 way when they visit the show rooms of the 
 White House. "Ye olden times," when every- 
 body except the butcher and the baker entered 
 at the main entrance, are forgotten as a dream 
 of social indiscriminateness. Mr. President 
 and his family were given more privacy. They 
 put themselves in position better to choose 
 their own social set. Yet there is much criti- 
 cism of this much-needed change. 
 
 The exclusion of the general public from the 
 main building has enabled the Roosevelts to 
 enjoy a great measure of privacy. Police clear 
 the driveways when the presidential carriage 
 approaches. "The King! the King!" No, it is 
 not announced in this way. Bated breathing 
 on the part of the officers, grave abjurations in 
 low tones of persons unhappilv on the walks, 
 solemn warnings and shaking of heads, an- 
 nounce the comings and goings of the great. 
 
 Where and when the presidential family is 
 going is kept a profound secret. Mrs. Roose- 
 velt rides frequently with the President. They 
 drive to the suburbs of the city, where an at- 
 tendant has their magnificent saddle horses 
 
346 Roosevelt and the Republic 
 
 awaiting them. They are off, secret service 
 men on bicycles following in their wake. A 
 merry chase these wheelmen have, for the 
 President rides like mad and Mrs. Roosevelt 
 sees to it that she is not left behind. Women 
 of the diplomatic set take up the fad, and are 
 seen in National Park in great numbers on 
 pleasant afternoons. 
 
 Roosevelt's family for many generations was 
 identified with McAllister's New York "Four 
 Hundred." With Roosevelt in the President's 
 chair, the "Four Hundred" came to Washing- 
 ton and the Capital assumed a gayety and pro- 
 priety unknown to it before. One after an- 
 other, members of the wealthy, leisure class 
 are coming to Washington to build their win- 
 ter homes and enjoy or ornament its high so- 
 ciety. Ground is being sold at fancy prices 
 and mansions worth hundreds of thousands, 
 or even millions, are being constructed. The 
 courtly set of Washington have again come to 
 their own. Inherited wealth and leisure hold 
 sway. 
 
 The trend of travel has been westward and 
 northwestward to historic old Georgetown and 
 the Rock Creek district. Sheridan circle will 
 be famous for millionaires' homes long after 
 once exclusive Dupont circle has been known 
 as the transfer spot from Georgetown to 
 Washington Heights. 
 
 Mrs. Sheridan, the widow of "Little Phil." 
 was the pioneer in this locality. Now she is 
 scheduled to have for neighbors the George 
 .W. Vanderbilts, Harry Lehrs, Frank O. Lowr- 
 
Roosevelt and the Republic 347 
 
 dens, Mrs. George M. Pullman, Mrs. Marshall 
 Field, Mrs. Hennen Jennings, diamond king of 
 South Africa; Frederick H. Keep, lumber 
 rich; Mme. Hauge, Mrs. Albert Barney, and 
 Representative Edgar Ellis of Kansas City. 
 
 John Hays Hammond, of New Jersey and 
 South Africa, has begun the construction of a 
 "palazzo" with spacious grounds, to eclipse 
 everything in that line of which Washington 
 can boast. 
 
 Mrs. Perry Belmont enthusiastically ap- 
 proves Washington society. Hers is to be a 
 million-dollar French chateau in the heart of 
 the residential district. Thomas Nelson Page, 
 the Huidekopers, Mrs. Sampson, widow of the 
 late rear admiral ; Dr. Duncan McKim and the 
 Glovers are to be neighbors. All these pleth- 
 oric millions and these oceans of elegant 
 leisure are giving Washington society a dif- 
 ferent atmosphere. The Roosevelts gave the 
 initial impulse. 
 
 What Washington society has lost in its 
 stately simplicity, it is said to have gained in 
 brilliancy — the brilliant display of millions. 
 But a few years ago but two ambassadors 
 (personal representatives of rulers) graced the 
 diplomatic corps — the British and the French. 
 Now there are nine, with prospects of more. 
 This gives a "brilliancy" (gold lace brilliancy) 
 to the social event in official life never dreamed 
 of under Madison, Lincoln, or Cleveland. Up 
 to Roosevelt's administration it was possible 
 for the humblest citizen, his wife and daugh- 
 ter, to shake the hand of the chief executive 
 
348 Roosevelt and the Republic 
 
 and be presented to his wife, now it is im- 
 possible unless the meeting is arranged by an 
 influential official or a personal friend of the 
 President. 
 
 "Social secretaries" have become a necessity 
 for persons who would shine in Washington 
 society. Relatives had attended to that for 
 Mrs. Grant, Mrs. Hayes, Mrs. Cleveland, Mrs. 
 Harrison and Mrs. McKinley. Mrs. Cleve- 
 land, a charming bride in the White House, 
 attracted much social attention. 
 
 Although her husband was no stranger to 
 Washington, Mrs. Roosevelt came to the 
 White House with but slight knowledge of 
 Washington official society. While her hus- 
 band had been climbing she was rearing a 
 large family. First a clerk from the War De- 
 partment was detailed. Then Congress em- 
 ployed for her a "social secretary." A dash- 
 ing and self-reliant young woman now ar- 
 ranges the details of Mrs. Roosevelt's social 
 activities. Boldness of spirit, tact, sophistica- 
 tion, are the desired attributes of this social 
 chamberlain. Socially, Washington is gov- 
 erned by social secretaries, just as Europe is 
 governed by prime ministers. 
 
 Airs. Roosevelt has encouraged a greater 
 variety of entertainments at the White House. 
 They have a different flavor from those of the 
 years gone by. Gold lace is more in evidence, 
 and medals, and epaulets. Brilliant young 
 subalterns, fresh from West Point or Annap- 
 olis, are more sought after than grave sena- 
 tors who have done life service for their coun- 
 
Roosevelt and the Republic 349 
 
 try. There is a strong military flavor to every 
 gathering. 
 
 Afternoon and evening musicales have been 
 made a feature at the White House. Eminent 
 and showy men and women, birds of brain, or 
 of guady plumage, listen. Garden parties are 
 given in the historic grounds south of the ex- 
 ecutive mansion — at least one such brilliant 
 gathering each summer. Following the prece- 
 dent of Mrs. James Robert McKee, daughter 
 of Benjamin Harrison, Mrs. Roosevelt has en- 
 tertained the young friends of Miss Alice 
 Roosevelt, now Mrs. Longworth, with dances 
 in the East Room of the White House. Her 
 own daughter. Miss Ethel, will next season be 
 a social belle with still younger, if not more, 
 brilliant friends. Thus far, informal little din- 
 ners have been the events in honor of Miss 
 Ethel, after which the young girls and boys 
 dance away the hours in the room which 
 looked so impossible in the early days to Abi- 
 gail Adams that it became useful for drying 
 clothes in the winter season. 
 
 Mrs. Roosevelt has made her social duties 
 less exacting than those of her immediate pre- 
 decessors. The social secretary serves as a 
 barrier against the miscellaneous throng. Mrs. 
 Roosevelt has shrunk into a charmed circle of 
 highest official people and social favorites, a 
 select elite among elite. Cabinet and legisla- 
 tive circles have followed her in making their 
 weekly receptions more exclusive. Before 
 they had learned propriety from her the host- 
 
350 Roosevelt and the Republic 
 
 ess of each particular circle had large public 
 levees on certain days of the week, when any- 
 one and everyone was received, the hostess 
 having a group of attractive and prominent 
 women to assist. A heavily-loaded table in the 
 dining room was done full justice to by hosts 
 of callers. It was costly, but considered an 
 excellent way of keeping in touch with a great 
 man's constituents. 
 
 The Roosevelts have changed all this. A 
 few days "at home" are announced in the 
 newspapers, but the viands and their hot cheer 
 are totally lacking. Sometimes there is a 
 dainty tea table. The circle of callers is 
 smaller and more select. 
 
 Cabinet women wished to retain their tea 
 tables, but this was vigorously opposed by 
 Mrs. Roosevelt and Mrs. Root, who took her 
 part. Mrs. Leslie M. Shaw refused to be dic- 
 tated to. Other wives of cabinet members 
 gracefully submitted. 
 
 President Roosevelt abolished the evening 
 reception to the general public, given since the 
 earliest history of the White House by the 
 President and his wife. This public reception 
 had always closed the series of evening levees. 
 There was a storm, but the Roosevelts de- 
 clined to meet the public indiscriminately. 
 Invitation lists for the four large evening func- 
 tions have been curtailed these last five years. 
 In consequence there is greater comfort for 
 those fortunate enough to be bidden. Only on 
 New Year's day has the general public an op- 
 
Roosevelt and the Republic 351 
 
 portunity to get a peep at the President and 
 his cabinet. After their betters have been re- 
 ceived, the President remains in the blue room 
 and receives a certain number of men and 
 women not expected. By the time the plain 
 people have reached the blue room, Mrs. 
 Roosevelt and the women of the cabinet have 
 escaped up stairs. Ordinary people can get 
 their comfort from Mrs. Roosevelt's photo- 
 graph. 
 
 In the White House, Roosevelt lives on a 
 scale more magnificent than most presidents. 
 He has an extraordinarily good stable. All 
 sorts of entertainment are open to him. Roose- 
 velt has a contingent travelling fund of $25,- 
 000. Before the railway agitation became 
 acute, and irresponsible critics called attention 
 to the fact, Roosevelt travelled on special 
 trains and fared sumptuously at the expense of 
 the railways. Anti-pass legislation made this 
 look queer and it was discontinued. 
 
 Uncle Sam's treasury provides lavishly for 
 the servants, fittings, furnishings, and inci- 
 dentals of the White House. Unsophisticated 
 persons wonder how the President can live in 
 splendor on even $50,000. He does not. His 
 expenses are more nearly $200,000 a year — or 
 at least the presidential menage costs the gov- 
 ernment that amount including" the President's 
 salary. President Roosevelt has greatly in- 
 creased these expenses. During both terms he 
 has disbursed for personal and White House 
 matters something like $2,000,000 in govern- 
 ment money. 
 
352 Roosevelt and the Republic 
 
 Social caste has been accentuated in the 
 White House. Not since Washington has the 
 presidential office, on its social side, resembled 
 so strongly the kingly court. 
 
Roosevelt and the Republic 353 
 
 CHAPTER XXXI. 
 
 A BIT OF AUTOBIOGRAPHY. 
 
 Roosevelt when a member of the legislature 
 of New York, about the end of his last session 
 of service, gave a sketch of himself. Here are 
 the things he thought worth mentioning: 
 
 "I was born in New York October 27, 1858; 
 my father of old Dutch Knickerbocker stock ; 
 my mother was a Georgian, descended from 
 the revolutionary Governor Bullock. I gradu- 
 ated at Harvard in 1880; in college I did fairly 
 in my studies, taking honors in natural his- 
 tory and political economy ;* and was very 
 fond of sparring, being champion light weight 
 at one time.t Have published sundry papers 
 on ornithology, either on my trips to the north 
 woods or around my summer home on the 
 wooded broken slope of northern Long Island. 
 I published also a 'History of the Naval War 
 of 1812,' with an account of the Battle of New 
 Orleans, which is a textbook in several col- 
 leges, and has gone through three editions. I 
 married Miss Alice Lee of Boston on leaving 
 
 *C. Guild, Jr., in Harvard Grad. Magazine, 
 10-177. 
 tC. Guild, Jr. Same. 
 
354 Roosevelt and the Republic 
 
 college in 1880. My wife and mother died in 
 February, 1884. I have a little daughter living. 
 
 "I am very fond of both horse and rifle, and 
 spend my summers cither on the great plains 
 after buffalo and antelope, or in the northern 
 woods after deer and caribou. Am connected 
 with several charitable organizations, such as 
 the Children's Aid Society, Orthopedic Hos- 
 pital, National Prison Association, and others, 
 in which my father took a leading part. 
 
 "I was elected to the assembly from the 21st 
 dist. of New York in the autumn of 1881 ; in 
 1882 I served on the committee on cities. My 
 chief work was endeavoring to get Judge 
 Westbrook impeached on the ground of mal- 
 feasance in office and collusion with Jay Gould 
 in connection with railroad litigation. 
 
 "Was re-elected, and in 1883, when the Re- 
 publicans were in a minority, was their candi- 
 date for speaker, thus becoming their titular 
 leader on the floor. My main speech was on 
 the report of the democratic committee giving 
 Sprague, Republican, the seat wrongly held by 
 Blair, Democrat, which report was reversed by 
 the action of the Democratic House. Was 
 again re-elected. The Republicans were in the 
 majority ; was a candidate for the speakership, 
 and in the caucus received thirty votes to the 
 forty-two received by the successful candidate, 
 Mr. Sheard, who was backed both by the half- 
 breeds who followed Senator Miller and the 
 Stalwarts of President Arthur's train. This 
 winter my main work has been pushing the 
 
Roosevelt and the Republic 355 
 
 municipal reform bills for New York City, in 
 connection with which I have conducted a ser- 
 ies of investigations into its various depart- 
 ments. Most of my bills have been passed and 
 signed. 
 
 "In the primaries before the Utica conven- 
 tion I led the independents in my district, who 
 for the first time in the history of New York 
 City politics won against the machine men, 
 though the latter were backed up by all the 
 Federal and municipal patronage. At Utica 
 I led the Edmunds men who held the balance 
 of power between the followers of Blaine and 
 of Arthur ; we used our position to such good 
 efifect as to procure the election of all four 
 delegates for Edmunds' men, though we were 
 numerically not over seventy strong, barely a 
 seventh of the total number of men at the con- 
 vention. Am fairly well off. My recreations 
 are: reading, riding (sailing?) and shooting." 
 
 This modest summary throws a flood of 
 light upon the Roosevelt character. He em- 
 phasizes his prowess with rifle and fist. Hunt- 
 ing, riding and sparring are some of his nota- 
 ble achievements. He was once light weight 
 champion, he says. 
 
 Upon two points he differs from his college 
 biographers. They give him credit for success 
 in but one branch in college and for honorable 
 mention in but one branch — natural history.* 
 It is distinctly stated that he failed to attain 
 the light weight championship of the school.* 
 
 *C. Guild, Jr. Same. 
 
356 Roosevelt and the Republic 
 
 In the legislature, the things which he calls 
 attention to are the spectacular things, the 
 abortive Westbrook impeachment ; the con- 
 test ; the investigation. In each case the sketch 
 is used to strike at his opponents upon these 
 occasions. Then there is the modest mention 
 of what he did in connection with the speaker- 
 ship against a strong combination. More re- 
 markable was his prowess in winning for Ed- 
 munds against overwhelming odds. No won- 
 der Roosevelt should "point with pride." 
 
Roosevelt and the Republic 357 
 
 CHAPTER XXXII. 
 
 SIDELIGHTS UPON ROOSEVELT'S PUBLIC ACTS AND 
 POLITICAL TENETS. 
 
 TARIFF. 
 
 For four years Theodore Roosevelt belonged 
 to a free trade club. He resigned only when 
 he finally decided to support Blaine upon an 
 anti-civil service and high tariff platform 
 against Grover Cleveland, then the best official 
 exponent of civil service reform and free trade. 
 
 Roosevelt sneered at the "American system" 
 in his Life of Benton. The Clay tariff was 
 discriminatory against the South and unwise 
 as a national policy, he said. In others of his 
 writings he doubts the wisdom of the protec- 
 tive system. 
 
 When Roosevelt became a candidate for the 
 vice-presidency, all this was changed. From 
 that hour he became a thick and thin advocate 
 of protection : 
 
 "The present phenomenal prosperity has 
 been won under a tariff that was made in ac- 
 cordance with certain fixed principles, the 
 most important of which is a determination to 
 protect the interests of the American producer, 
 business man, wage worker and farmer alike." 
 (Addresses, 142.) 
 
358 Roosevelt and the Republic 
 
 "The general tariff policy is fundamentally 
 based upon ample recognition of the difference 
 between the cost of production — that is, the 
 cost of labor, here and abroad." (The same.) 
 
 "The trusts can be damaged by depriving 
 them of the benefits of a protective tariff only 
 on consideration of damaging all their smaller 
 competitors and all the wage-workers whom 
 they employ." 
 
 It is safe to say that Roosevelt as member 
 of the free trade club often sneered at the shal- 
 low sophistry concealed but thinly in each of 
 the above propositions. In fact, he probably 
 thought them mere demagogic buncombe. 
 
 Roosevelt's friends, political and personal. 
 
 Roosevelt has a distinctly miscellaneous 
 collection of political friends. We pass over 
 "Joe" Murray, his discoverer. This friendship 
 is natural enough. One would expect Roose- 
 velt to be a friend of Senator Lodge. Prob- 
 ably their political opinions are more nearly 
 identical than those of any other two promi- 
 nent public men. This is still true, although 
 Lodge is a reactionary machine politician, not- 
 withstanding his blue Massachusetts blood. 
 No furious dust storm obscures Lodge's po- 
 litical faith. 
 
 Elihu Root, the defender of Boss Tweed, 
 the William C. Whitney and Thomas F. Ryan 
 strategist, is next to Lodge one of Roosevelt's 
 closest friends. Common aims and common 
 sentiments have drawn them together. Both 
 
Roosevelt and the Republic 359 
 
 are "practical men," and both aim at the Ham- 
 iltonian brand of government. Mr. Roose- 
 velt's friendship for these men is easily ex- 
 plained. 
 
 Lucius Nathan Littauer, of Gloversville, N. 
 Y,. is in the list of Roosevelt's close friends. 
 There was a time when Roosevelt doted upon 
 Francis B. Loomis, of Ohio. It is not record- 
 ed that Roosevelt ever refused to receive Quay, 
 of Pennsylvania, or withdrew from him a 
 White House invitation. J. Edward Addicks 
 at one time worked shoulder to shoulder with 
 Theodore Roosevelt in the vineyard of the 
 Lord. Thomas C. Piatt for a time was Roose- 
 velt's political father confessor. Roosevelt 
 himself announced that Piatt consented that 
 Roosevelt should not be a vice-presidential 
 candidate. Benjamin B. Odell, Roosevelt 
 said, "was my trusted friend and adviser in 
 every crisis." Senator Chauncey Depew was 
 beloved of Roosevelt, just as was Ben Daniels, 
 Gen. Leonard Wood and the rest. I 
 
 So far as history records Roosevelt pre- 
 ferred Spooner to La Follette in Wisconsin. 
 He loved Henry Payne. To Mark Hanna, of 
 Ohio, he had no objection, except that Hanna 
 was a possible presidential candidate. There 
 is no indication that Roosevelt ever made 
 strenuous objection to the political record of 
 any man who had anything to give Roosevelt 
 in the way of support or could further his po- 
 litical fortunes in any way. It might have been 
 different with Piatt and Odell when it was no 
 longer theirs to give. 
 
360 Roosevelt and the Republic 
 
 Roosevelt's "ananias club." 
 
 Disciples of Ananias have sorely beset the 
 path of Theodore Roosevelt. His first record- 
 ed meeting with the tribe was at twenty-three 
 years of age, when he was collecting material 
 for his naval history. 
 
 Napoleon fed fat upon mendacity; scarcely 
 better than Talleyrand. 
 
 Thomas Jefferson was "constitutionally un- 
 able to place a proper value upon truthful- 
 ness." 
 
 Just a plain liar was the late Senator A. P. 
 Gorman ; and Congressman Williams, of Mis- 
 sissippi, and several others were no better. 
 
 Judge Alton B. Parker made statements 
 "unqualifiedly and atrociously false." 
 
 Senator Chandler's statement was an "un- 
 qualified and deliberate falsehood." 
 
 Herbert W. Bowen, \V. M. Whitney, Bell- 
 amy Storer, Mrs. Storer, E. H. Harriman, and 
 several others, secured honorable mention by 
 the President as different types of prevarica- 
 tors or plain liars. In each case, except that 
 of Parker and Harriman, it was a question of 
 veracity between the President and his victim. 
 Sworn testimony in a collateral matter proved 
 that Judge Parker's statement was not false. 
 Harriman convicted Roosevelt of manufactur- 
 ing testimony to support the President's side 
 by altering the written record. 
 
 So utterly wicked and untrustworthy had 
 become the visitors to the White House that 
 the President for sheer self-protection was 
 
Roosevelt and the Republic 361 
 
 obliged to issue through Secretary William 
 Loeb a statement that the President would be 
 responsible for no statement made in conversa- 
 tion. To hold the President responsible the 
 statement must be made over his own signa- 
 ture, or it must appear in a public document. 
 
 In this connection the President has an in- 
 teresting time with Washington correspond- 
 ents. He talks freelv enough, takes them into 
 his confidence, asks their advice, flatters them, 
 gives them a notion of how to castigate the 
 enemies of the President to the President's 
 liking. But if they dare make a statement 
 upon the authority of the President, or take a 
 view of a public question different from that 
 of the administration, thereafter there shall be 
 one vacant chair. It is found in practice an 
 excellent way of "trying out" public sentiment 
 without committing one's self. It is also a 
 first-class method of making the press of the 
 country a department for the justification of 
 administration views and policies. Senator 
 Bailey, of Texas, probably realizes the force 
 of this method when directed against a mem- 
 ber of the national legislature. 
 
 So well recognized is the Roosevelt pecu- 
 liarity of remembering facts differently from 
 all others who confer with him, when a differ- 
 ent view of them becomes important, that Bi- 
 ographer Francis E. Leupp makes explana- 
 tion. It is all because of Roosevelt's rapidity 
 of speech, his failure to give heed to what 
 others say, and his trick of slyly qualifying 
 every statement. 
 
362 Roosrvp:lt and the RKPunr.ic 
 
 Senator Smith has looked over a list of ap- 
 plicants filed for the district attorneyship of 
 his district. "Jones is far and away the best 
 man for the place, Mr. President," the senator 
 remarks to Roosevelt. 
 
 "I fully agree with you, senator, Jones is al- 
 most the best qualified of all the candidates." 
 
 "Almost" has been slurred over and missed 
 by the senator. "I fully agree with you," tells 
 the whole story to him. He tells Jones the 
 place is his for sure. When the next day the 
 name of Robinson is sent to the Senate for the 
 place, a whole sheaf of affidavits would not 
 convince Senator Smith that the President had 
 not deliberately deceived him. 
 
 Roosevelt should have the benefit of Leupp's 
 explanation. Its force depends upon whether 
 we prefer being deceived by prevarication or 
 by direct statement. 
 
 ROOSEVELT AS A PIONEER REFORMER. 
 
 "I am responsible for turning on the light, 
 but I am not responsible for what the light 
 shows," said Theodore Roosevelt in a recent 
 address in Tennessee. 
 
 President Roosevelt forgets. The search- 
 light was in full glare when he came forward 
 with his rushlight in order not to miss the il- 
 lumination entirely. Henry D. Lloyd laid 
 bare Standard Oil history twenty years before 
 Roosevelt attacked the Standard Oil. Ida Tar- 
 bell had newly beaten the path in which Roose- 
 velt and his prosecutors walked. Thomas W, 
 
Roosevelt and the Republic 363 
 
 Lawson had exposed the "system" and the 
 Standard Oil while Roosevelt was still apolo- 
 gizing for men of great wealth. He had held 
 up to public scorn the crooks who had been ex- 
 ploiting life insurance while President Roose- 
 velt was freshly enjoying the office won partly 
 by funds misapplied by these life insurance 
 crooks from policy-holders' money and paid 
 into the Roosevelt campaign barrel. Governor 
 Hughes, as counsel for the Armstrong Com- 
 mittee, was laying bare the iniquities of life 
 insurance exploiters while President Roose- 
 velt was furnishing the companies with new 
 officers from his cabinet. 
 
 Charles Edward Russell told the country of 
 the railways and the packing house iniquities 
 before Roosevelt's man Garfield had ever 
 dreamed of them. It was an old story to the 
 *'muckrakers" when Knox got his wonderful 
 injunction. Ferguson, of Duluth, and shippers 
 all over the country were fairly besieging the 
 Interstate Commerce Commission before 
 Roosevelt noticed the railways. Governors of 
 half a dozen states were fighting rate battles 
 while Roosevelt was having Harriman furnish 
 him a campaign fund. Van Sant, governor of 
 Minnesota, started the Northern Securities 
 case. Lincoln Stefifens was exposing municipal 
 corruption while Roosevelt was using the cor- 
 ruptors as steps to political preferment. 
 Graham Philips read aloud in his "Treason of 
 the Senate" the records of the very men whom 
 Roosevelt most delighted to honor. Roosevelt 
 attacked "muckrakers" to put a stop to this 
 
364 Roosevelt and the Republic 
 
 carnival of "turning on the light." It was 
 after finding that the light would not go out 
 that he added his to the illumination. 
 
 LITERARY ALLUSIONS OF PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT. 
 
 Roosevelt's "muckrake" speech indicated 
 how liable to error even a literary man may 
 be in exploiting his knowledge by literary allu- 
 sion. Muckrakers with Bunyan were the over- 
 rich of whom America has numerous exam- 
 ples, who set their heart upon the piling up 
 of millions. He had no mind to find fault with 
 their critics. 
 
 Recently Roosevelt made an address at the 
 dedication of Pennsylvania's state house. He 
 took occasion to praise in that delectable 
 stronghold of Hamiltonian political theory, the 
 great work of the Hamiltonian school of poli- 
 ticians. As a striking example he brought 
 forth James Wilson, of the Constitutional Con- 
 vention and of the Supreme Court. The bur- 
 den of his song was the great services ren- 
 dered by Wilson. It was striking. None but 
 a ripe student of our history could have known 
 of the exceptional services of this once great 
 but now forgotten statesman. The newspaper 
 claque took it up. Wilson ought to have a 
 monument. But still riper scholars soon dis- 
 covered that W^ilson had earned deserved 
 ignominy and obscurity by dishonoring high 
 position and marked achievement. It was fit- 
 ting that he should become the patron saint of 
 the greatest monument of graft ever erected in 
 
Roosevelt and the Republic 365 
 
 the most corrupt state in the Union. But there 
 is no other evidence that Roosevelt intended 
 to be grimly ironical. 
 
 THIS WAS different. 
 
 "There are certain legislative actions which 
 must be taken in a purely Pickwickian sense. 
 Notable among these are the resolutions of 
 sympathy for the alleged oppressed patriots 
 and peoples of Europe. . . . During my 
 term in the legislature resolutions were intro- 
 duced demanding the recall of Minister Low- 
 ell, assailing the Czar for his conduct toward 
 the Russian Jews, sympathizing with the Land 
 League, the Dutch Boers, etc., etc., the pass- 
 age of which we usually strenuously and suc- 
 cessfully opposed. 
 
 "Recently the Board of Aldermen of one of 
 our great cities received a stinging rebuke, 
 which, it is to be feared, the aldermanic intel- 
 lect was too dense to fully appreciate." 
 (Practical Politics, 43-44.) 
 
 Roosevelt goes on to tell how an under sec- 
 retary of the Russian legation returned the 
 pro-Jew resolution, stating that so far as he 
 w^as advised Russia had no diplomatic relations 
 with the aldermen in question and saying that 
 the Czar's government was utterly indifferent 
 to what the aldermen thought upon the sub- 
 ject. 
 
 When Roosevelt was President, strangely 
 enough, he undertook to present to this Czar 
 a petition protesting, as the resolutions had 
 
366 Roosevelt and the Republic 
 
 protested, against the Czar's treatment of the 
 Jews. It was received more politely, but no 
 more hospitably than the aldermen's resolu- 
 tion. But Roosevelt succeeded by a sharp 
 "Yankee trick" in getting it before the Czar. 
 This was different. 
 
 Possibly Roosevelt had concluded that the 
 aldermen were not so dense after all, and that 
 the opinion of the people of a great American 
 city was of some importance to the Czar even, 
 as he found out later, to the dire disaster of his 
 empire. Public opinion of the world was 
 largely responsible for the Russian-Japanese 
 war and its serious results to Russia. 
 
 POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY MODIFIED. 
 
 "The men who object to government by 
 injunction are, as regards essential principles 
 of our government, in hearty sympathy with 
 their remote skin-clad ancestors, who lived in 
 caves, fought one another with stone-headed 
 axes and ate the mammoth and the woolly 
 rhinoceros. They are interesting as represent- 
 ing a geological survival. . . . They are not 
 in sympathy with men of good minds and 
 sound civic morality." 
 
 The fact that President Roosevelt is now 
 sending message after message to Congress 
 recommending the curtailing of this very 
 "government by injunction" does not indicate 
 that he is a "geological survival," or that he is 
 "not in sympathy Avith men of good minds or 
 sound civic morality." It means none of these 
 
Roosevelt and the Republic sS/ 
 
 disagreeable things. Simply that the labor 
 vote cannot now be securely caught by the 
 promise of the "full dinner pail," and that 
 Roosevelt's "Martin Van Buren" needs 
 strengthening with the labor vote if "my poli- 
 cies" are to escape imminent danger. 
 
 ROOSEVELT SQUEAMISH ABOUT HIS ASSOCIATES. 
 
 Thomas C. Piatt, Benjamin B. Odell, the 
 late Matthew Stanley Quay, have all been 
 welcomed at the White House. Prince Henry 
 was to be entertained. An invitation to the 
 President's hospitality had been issued to Sen- 
 ator Benjamin Tillman, of South Carolina. 
 Tillman is respected as one of the cleanest and 
 most honorable men in the United States Sen- 
 ate. He had a personal encounter with his 
 colleague. Roosevelt withdrew the invitation. 
 This punctillious gentleman who boasted in 
 his biography of being a light-weight pugilistic 
 champion ; this gentleman whose biographers 
 have him participating in a hotel-lobby brawl ; 
 this gentleman who entertained and associated 
 with prize fighters and wrestlers, as well as 
 with the impossible Quay and the unspeakable 
 Piatt, insulted Tillman by withdrawing the in- 
 vitation. A gentleman's view of social pro- 
 priety, properly takes no account of personal 
 character. 
 
 ROOSEVELT DISTRUSTS IDEALISTS. 
 
 "The disunion movement among the North- 
 
368 Roosevelt and the Republic 
 
 ern abolitionists was probably the most sense- 
 less of all, for its success meant the abandon- 
 ment of every hope of abolition." (Life of 
 Morris, 359.) 
 
 "After the war and until the day of his 
 death his (Wendell Phillips) position on al- 
 most every question was either mischievous or 
 ridiculous and usually both." (Life of Ben- 
 ton, 160.) 
 
 "The assembly of puritan nobles were no 
 more competent to institute self-government 
 than a congress of abolitionists in i860 would 
 have been competent to govern the United 
 States." 
 
 "If the constitution had made such a declara- 
 tion, the abolition of slavery in all the states, 
 it would never have been adopted, and the 
 English-speaking people of America would 
 have plunged into a condition of anarchy; 
 while if the Republican platform of i860 had 
 taken such a position, Lincoln would not have 
 been elected, no war for the Union would have 
 been waged, and instead of slavery being abol- 
 ished, it would have been perpetuated in at 
 least one of the confederacies into which this 
 country would have been split." (Life of 
 Cromwell, 193.) 
 
 "The cause of the abolitionists had such a 
 halo shed around it by the after course of 
 events which they themselves did very little 
 to shape, that it has been usual to speak of 
 them with absurdly exaggerated praise. . . . 
 Their share in abolishing slavery was far less 
 than had been represented. . . . During all 
 
Roosevelt and the Republic 369 
 
 of the terrible four years that the sad, strong, 
 patient Lincoln suffered for the people, he had 
 to dread the influence of the extreme abolition- 
 ists only less than that of the copperheads. 
 Many of the leaders possessed no ^ood quali- 
 ties beyond their fearlessness and truth — quali- 
 ties that were also possessed by the Southern 
 fire-eaters." (Life of Benton, 158, 159, 160.) 
 
 Probably few historians, turned prophets, 
 would have been so cocksure that material 
 causes alone figured in the great Civil war, and 
 that had they not figured in just that way slav- 
 ery would have continued indefinitely. There 
 is another view. If it were not for the anti- 
 slavery agitation, there would have been no 
 Republican party, no Abraham Lincoln, as a 
 public man of prominence, no emancipation. 
 
 Lloyd Garrison and Wendell Phillips 
 raised and held aloft the ideal-emblazoned 
 standard around which rallied the hosts that 
 followed Lincoln. They made straight and 
 smooth his path. Only when Lincoln took up 
 emancipation did he insure the success of the 
 great war. Few men would have fought for 
 "state's rights," or ag-ainst them, had they not 
 then meant slavery or no slavery to the con- 
 tending hosts. Moral devotion to human free- 
 dom, sympathy for human suflfering, were the 
 things which nerved the arms of the North in 
 the struggle for the destruction of slavery. All 
 honor to Abraham Lincoln, say the idealists. 
 But in honoring him we cannot fail to honor 
 also the Stowes, the Garrisons and the Phillips 
 who made possible Abraham Lincoln and 
 
370 Roosevelt and the Republic 
 
 Abraham Lincoln's success. In fact, Lincoln 
 himself probably did greater service in giving 
 to the world such prophetic utterances as the 
 speech at Gettysburg and the letter to Pierce 
 than he did in bringing the great Civil war to 
 a successful issue. The great war was neces- 
 sary in the sense in which it was inevitable, 
 considering the condition of our civilization. 
 But it really settled nothing, except relative 
 military strength, least of all, that there should 
 no longer be human slavery. It merely put a 
 period to a certain form of this wrong. It did 
 not settle or define the scope of "state's rights" 
 in the sense of local self-government — merely 
 that a state must not secede from the Union. 
 
 [Note — No moral issue was ever settled 
 nor will a great moral issue ever be settled by 
 taking human life, whether it be by individual 
 assassination or by the wholesale murder men 
 call war.] 
 
 ROOSEVELT AND SLAVERY. 
 
 "Black slavery in Hayti was characterized 
 by worse abuse than ever was the case in the 
 United States, yet looking at the condition of 
 the Republic now. it may well be questioned 
 whether it would not have been greatly to her 
 benefit in the end, to have slavery continue a 
 century or so longer, its ultimate extinction 
 being certain, than to have her obtain freedom, 
 as she actually did, with the results that have 
 flowed from her action." (Life of Benton, 
 
Roosevelt and the Republic 371 
 
 "The presence of the negro in the Southern 
 states is a legacy from the time when we were 
 ruled by a transoceanic aristocracy. The whole 
 civilization of the future owes a debt of grati- 
 tude greater than can be expressed in words, 
 to that Democratic policy which has kept the 
 temperate zones of the new and the newest 
 world as a heritage for the white people." 
 (American Ideals, 289.) 
 
 "A perfectly stupid race can never rise to 
 a very high plane — the negro, for instance, has 
 been kept down as much by lack of intellectual 
 development as by anything else." Roosevelt 
 sees misfortune in the ignorant negro elector- 
 ate. 
 
 Slavery could not have lived in any event. 
 Whites must rule. The great war after all did 
 not accomplish so much? 
 
 REVERENCE FOR THE LAW. 
 
 "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." 
 
 And, one might add, he practiced by the 
 chief executive of the nation and the executives 
 of the states. 
 
 WEALTHY YOUNG MEN AND POOR YOUNG MEN. 
 
 "I would teach the young man, that he who 
 has not wealth owes his first duty to his fam- 
 
372 Roosevelt and the Republic 
 
 ily, but he who has means owes his to the 
 state. It is ignoble to go on heaping money 
 on money. 1 would preach the doctrine of 
 work to all, and to the man of wealth un- 
 remunerative work." 
 
 Should government then be turned over to 
 the wealthy men of leisure? We have men 
 whose ideals are: "Let everybody earn his 
 way and then everybody will have leisure to 
 serve the state. Until that time let everybody 
 take time to do so." 
 
 PUNISHMENT FOR CRIMINALS. 
 
 In a letter to Governor Durbin, of Indiana, 
 Mr. Roosevelt says that lynching might be 
 prevented by proper administration of the law 
 to "secure swift vengeance upon the offender." 
 This is not the present day theory of modern 
 penologists. They doubt the "swift ven- 
 geance" idea. 
 
 "In many of the cases of lynch law which 
 have come to my knowledge, the effect has 
 been healthy for the community, but some- 
 times great injustice has been done. Gen- 
 erally, vigilantes, by a series of executions, do 
 really good work." (i, Winning of the West, 
 172.) 
 
 some wrong-doers in Roosevelt's calendar. 
 
 "It would be difficult to over-estimate the 
 damage done by the example and action of a 
 man like Governor Altgeld of Illinois. 
 
Roosevelt and the Republic 373 
 
 Whether he is honest or not in his beliefs is 
 not of the slightest consequence. He is as 
 implacable a foe of decent government as is 
 Tweed himself, and is capable of doing far 
 more harm than Tweed." (So would agree 
 William C. Whitney, Anthony Brady, Thomas 
 F. Ryan, John D. Rockefeller, E. H. Harriman,, 
 Elihu Root, and other very respectable friends 
 of Mr. Roosevelt.) 
 
 "The governor who began his career by par- 
 doning anarchists and whose most noteworthy 
 feat since was his bitter, undignified, but for- 
 tunately, futile campaign against an upright 
 judge, who sentenced the anarchists, is the foe 
 of every true American and the foe particu- 
 larly of every honest workman." Roosevelt 
 classes with Altgeld, Tom Watson, and several 
 Western governors. In the case of Altgeld 
 the very temperate and intelligent denuncia- 
 tion is almost as well founded as in the case 
 of Tom Watson. 
 
 Reckless labor agitators, Roosevelt says, are 
 a real peril. The man who denounces the 
 judiciary or military is just as bad. Stock 
 speculators exert an influence worse than the 
 average murderer or bandit. 
 
 GOUVERNEUR MORRIS. 
 
 Next to Alexander Hamilton, Roosevelt 
 found most to admire in the political philoso- 
 phy of the aristocratic but cynical Revolution- 
 ary patriot, Gouverneur Morris. A single in- 
 cident will place Morris and his political 
 
374 Roosevelt and the Republic 
 
 philosophy. He and some of his South Caro- 
 lina co-workers were contending strenuously 
 for life senators with large property qualifica- 
 tions, as well as for a radical curtailment of the 
 suffrage, when Dr. Benjamin Franklin, one of 
 the very few real democrats in the Constitu- 
 tional Convention arose and remarked that he 
 did not concede the elected the right to curtail 
 the rights of those who had elected them. 
 Some of the worst rogues he had ever known 
 were the richest rogues. It did not change 
 Morris' conviction, but the property qualifica- 
 tion went glimmering. 
 
 PENSION ORDER "nO. 78." 
 
 For some years old soldiers had been be- 
 sieging Congress for a law making a certain 
 age proof conclusive of disability in Pension 
 matters, or an old-age Pension for veterans. 
 Pension commissioners, pensioners, congress- 
 men and presidents all tacitly agreed that it 
 was strictly a matter for legislation. 
 
 Roosevelt's pension commissioner became a 
 strenuous advocate of the idea, but congress- 
 men were immovable. The commissioner 
 thought of an easier way than tliat to put his 
 ideas in effect. Promptly he laid his plan be- 
 fore President Roosevelt. President Roosevelt 
 might issue an order to that effect and the 
 thing was done. Without hesitation Roose- 
 velt cut the legislative knot by an executive 
 order, amending the pension laws so as to give 
 graduated old-age pensions to veterans above 
 
Roosevelt and the Republic 375 
 
 sixty-two years of age. There was a storm 
 of protest against fiscal legislation by the 
 President without the concurrence of Con- 
 gress. Roosevelt met the criticism by a tricky 
 and pettifogging interpretation of the pension 
 laws. Partisanship prevented Congress from 
 taking the President to task for illegal as- 
 sumption of powers. Finally the order was 
 sanctioned by legislation, thus admitting its 
 original illegality. 
 
 ADMIRAL WINFIELD SCOTT SCHLEY. 
 
 This is not the time nor the place to open 
 the unfortunate Schley-Sampson controversy. 
 Theodore Roosevelt had nothing to do with 
 its inception. 
 
 Schley, as everybody knows, was the rank- 
 ing naval officer in the Santiago naval battle. 
 It was the chief naval battle of the Spanish 
 war. With brother officers he had submitted 
 obediently to seeing a junior of slighter ex- 
 perience jumped over his head and thrust into 
 the place of promised glory. 
 
 Fate was with Schley. He fought the en- 
 gagement. His Brooklyn was longer under 
 fire, bore more directly the brunt of a concen- 
 trated Spanish attack, received greater punish- 
 ment, left more of her peculiar marks on the 
 foe than any other American vessel. Distinct- 
 ly did Schley lead the battle. 
 
 Yet the absent Sampson, with inconceivable 
 meanness, tried to rob Schley of the credit for 
 .what he did, and the naval clique, sharing in 
 
37^ Roosevelt and the Republic 
 
 his jealousy, took up the Sampson fight. Their 
 minion charged Schley with cowardice and 
 obliged him to defend himself by demanding 
 an inquiry. Of course the absurd charge was 
 not proved. Schley's bravery had been almost 
 reckless in the battle. But it gave his per- 
 secutors an opportunity to brand him with the 
 iniquitous charge of inefficiency, although he 
 located the Spaniards and took a leading part 
 in destroying them. He got results, the real 
 test of military efficiency. But Schley was not 
 sufficiently obsessed by the Eighteenth cen- 
 tury notion of "Gentleman." He would treat 
 his "bullies" like human beings. Schley was 
 civil even to the enlisted varlets. He must not 
 have the glory. 
 
 No naval officer in the history of the country 
 has been treated so outrageously by official 
 America as has Schley. Roosevelt distinctly 
 lost an opportunity for the display of moral 
 courage and a sense of justice when he refused 
 to award Schley the meed of praise and grati- 
 tude which Schley so richly merited. 
 
Roosevelt and the Republic 377 
 
 CHAPTER XXXIII. 
 
 SOME RECENT HISTORY. 
 
 President Roosevelt's power and popularity 
 had reached its zenith in 1907. 
 
 Thomas B. Reed, late speaker of the House 
 of Representatives, had recognized in Roose- 
 velt the "original discoverer of the ten com- 
 mandments." Newspaper claquers were sure 
 that he had originated all good government 
 policies. But the quizzical smile was absent 
 from the vociferous assertion of it. The fact 
 that it was a Roosevelt policy was proof con- 
 clusive that it was a good policy; the fact that 
 it was a good policy was equally conclusive 
 that it was a Roosevelt policy. 
 
 Naturally it followed that anybody who 
 doubted the supreme wisdom of Roosevelt or 
 the supreme holiness of his policies was an 
 enemy to the public, a fool, or a knavish cor- 
 ruptionist in the pay of the "interests." 
 
 Nobody knew exactly what the Roosevelt 
 policies really were. The millions of words, 
 spoken and written, in which these policies 
 were set forth, had been used in the diplomatic 
 sense — to conceal the ideas of the author. 
 Only one policy was absolutely unmistakable : 
 Trust the President; give all power to the 
 
378 Roosevelt and the Republic 
 
 President; he will see to it that his dear chil- 
 dren, the American people, do not suffer. 
 
 Through the persistent hammering of news- 
 paper claquers, and a skillful use of political 
 influence and the spoils of office, the majority 
 of congressmen and senators of both parties 
 had been dragooned into submission. In im- 
 portant things, the House was absolutely- 
 supine. It made a nasty, childish exhibition 
 of spite in connection with the characteristi- 
 cally egotistical and illegal order intended to 
 revolutionize by presidential ukase the spelling 
 of the American people. But that was merely 
 a national joke, a Rooseveltism. Cuba, Santo 
 Domingo, Panama, the Philippines, the cor- 
 porations, the trusts, the tariff, had all been 
 turned over to the tender mercies of the Presi- 
 dent, the good or the bad, each to receive the 
 deserved reward. 
 
 Some state governments had become per- 
 niciously active, especially in railway and trust 
 matters. He had told them solemnly some 
 time before : 
 
 "No advance whatever has been made by the 
 states, as a collective body, in dealing with these 
 corporations." 
 
 That was one of Roosevelt's jokes, for he 
 knew that the only representative of the states, 
 "as a collective body," was the Federal govern- 
 ment, and he did not want to say right out 
 that the Federal government had made no 
 progress. But individual states had made all 
 the progress thus far made. Roosevelt was 
 warning them oflf his preserves. 
 
Roosevelt and the Republic 379 
 
 Every small politician seeking preferment 
 had hitched his little cart to the Roosevelt 
 bandw^agon and had joined in the shouting. 
 Little politicians with enterprise and imagina- 
 tion began to proclaim loudly that the country 
 could in no way get along without Roosevelt. 
 Precedents set by Washington and followed 
 by Jefferson, Madison, Monroe, and Jackson 
 must be cast to the winds, for this "greater 
 President." "My policies" must be carried out 
 without halt, and but one man in all America 
 could be relied upon to do this. Four years 
 more of Roosevelt would mean the Ultima 
 Thule of governmental wisdom and righteous- 
 ness. No problems would ever again disturb 
 the serene and well-earned slumber of the Re- 
 public. Even the American people, heretofore 
 independent and self-reliant, seemed ready to 
 accept the estimate of the claquers and the 
 small politicians with the "little father" idea 
 of government which it implied. "Now it was 
 Rome indeed, and room enough when there is 
 in it but one only man." 
 
 Roosevelt had made his moving-picture trip 
 to Panama, in order to beat down with the 
 weight of presidential assertion, all carping 
 criticism. Bigelow and others of his kind had 
 been put to confusion. With the facility of a 
 "lightning change artist" Panama had again 
 shifted its management. "President Roosevelt 
 had secured two prominent western railway 
 attorneys and lobbyists, presumably of the re- 
 pentant class, to hunt down Harriman and the 
 Standard Oil crowd. Harriman had said un- 
 
380 Roosevelt and the Republic 
 
 kind things about Roosevelt and had refused 
 to contribute to a campaign the fall before, in 
 which Roosevelt was so much interested that 
 he sent a cabinet officer to New York to make 
 a public speech charging the anti-machine can- 
 didate with the murder of President McKinley 
 or responsibility therefor. But seeing it was 
 Roosevelt and his chief strategist, there could 
 be no suspicion that this at the time was dem- 
 ogogy, or that now President Roosevelt was 
 trying to get even with Harriman or to play 
 against one another the feuds of big business 
 interests. Curiously enough, however, the 
 newspaper friends of Roosevelt announced at 
 the time that Harriman made the unkind re- 
 marks, that Roosevelt was going after him. 
 
 The always interesting, though sometimes 
 cynical New York Sun, thirty years ago, in ad- 
 vising a western young man with oratorical 
 aspirations how to secure popularity leading 
 to political preferment, told him to denounce 
 the Mormons and fiay the Chinamen. Neither 
 had any friends. It was perfectly safe. Also 
 sure to be popular. Otherwise he must con- 
 fine himself to platitudes and boasting of the 
 greatness of the country. Roosevelt tried a 
 similar system with Harriman and the Stand- 
 ard Oil. He has, indeed, been most fortunate 
 in his enemies. In this case, as in many others, 
 the interests attacked richly deserved it on gen- 
 eral principles. As to whether these interests 
 or the Roosevelt methods are the greater men- 
 ace is a fit subject for meditation. 
 
 Other "interests" had been in a desperate 
 
Roosevelt and the Republic 381 
 
 fight in Chicago. Defeat stared at them. They 
 wanted the millions concealed in Chicago 
 franchises. Roosevelt was asked for aid. 
 Righteously he responded. This municipal 
 election was especially a Federal affair. Local 
 self-government — the divorcing of national 
 politics from municipal problems — was not to 
 be considered. Roosevelt's postmaster, a ma- 
 chine politician, became the candidate of the 
 "interests" with Roosevelt's consent. Roose- 
 velt in a statement appealed for support for 
 this candidate. The Federal machine did the 
 rest. Municipal problems were decided ac- 
 cording to the exigencies of national politics, 
 and to the everlasting benefit of the "inter- 
 ests." Franchises worth many millions, which 
 the people of Chicago were about to reclaim, 
 went to the enrichment of overwealthy pro- 
 moters. No doubt Roosevelt drew a fine dis- 
 tinction between this case, a similar action 
 which he had declared so wicked in New York 
 City. 
 
 Through the long hard winter, railroad 
 transportation had broken down so completely 
 as to show the trouble to be fundamental and 
 radical. Exploitation of the transportation 
 svstem for private gain was demonstrated as 
 the real cause of the trouble, making apparent 
 the ridiculous inadequacy of such measures as 
 the railway rate law.* 
 
 Private Secretary William Loeb, Jr., had 
 
 *See article by the author in Moody's Maga- 
 zine for March, 1907. 
 
382 Roosevelt and the Republic 
 
 discovered a conspiracy to defeat Roosevelt's 
 policies. Roosevelt's newspaper claquers ex- 
 ploited it and then denounced it. When 
 dragged in all its deformity to the light of day 
 this infamous conspiracy was found to be an 
 expressed preference on the part of certain 
 gentlemen of wealth for a presidential candi- 
 date other than Roosevelt or any person whom 
 he may name as his successor. An intimation 
 was given that these wealthy men might be 
 willing to spend some money to secure their 
 proferences. 
 
 It was just such a conspiracy as nominated 
 and elected President McKinley in 1896; 
 Roosevelt and McKinley in 1900 ; Roosevelt in 
 1904, and others before. In this case the "con- 
 spiracy" was contemplated merely. Then 
 Harriman and the insurance interests and 
 other wealthy men actually contributed hun- 
 dreds of thousands in support of Roosevelt's 
 campaign. The "conspiracy" was carried out. 
 
 But there was a difference. Most other men 
 would either have refused the Harriman and 
 insurance contributions, and the support of 
 such men as Piatt, Depew and Penrose, or he 
 would have refused to hold them up afterward 
 to public execration. But Roosevelt is practi- 
 cal. Accepting the benefit of tainted funds 
 puts Roosevelt under no obligations to anyone. 
 He can campaign with groups of political 
 friends upon a definite platform or agree with 
 them upon a programme of legislation, and 
 when he has been elected he can repudiate this 
 programme, adopt one of his own and de- 
 
Roosevelt and the Republic 383 
 
 nounce everybody who fails to follow him, in- 
 cluding his quondam friends. It is all perfectly 
 proper and highminded — seeing it is Roose- 
 velt. 
 
 Roosevelt had been awarded the Nobel prize 
 for the promotion of peace. By a paradox, if 
 not an irony of fate, the man who in this gen- 
 eration has done most to glorify and foster the 
 military spirit in America was crowned as a 
 prince of peace. That, too, for merely promot- 
 ing a meeting of parties in a settlement which 
 was inevitable, in a war which his diplomacy 
 had aided in precipitating. 
 
 As a result of the award, America and 
 Roosevelt loomed larger in The Hague con- 
 ference soon to open — a conference somewhat 
 disappointing in its accomplishment. 
 
 Japanese menace in San Francisco had been 
 handled skilfully by the administration, pro- 
 moting in a measure the plan of the general 
 government to regulate internal affairs at home 
 indirectly by treaties with foreign powers, 
 Elihu Root's justification clouded the issue. 
 States were undoubtedly bound by treaty 
 regulations covering matters properly subject 
 to regulation by treaty. Whether local public 
 schools is a proper subject for treaty regula- 
 tion, however, still remains a problem of some 
 importance. 
 
 John Temple Graves, speaking ostensibly for 
 Southerners, proposed in all seriousness that 
 the Republican and Democratic parties should 
 unite upon President Roosevelt as their next 
 candidate for the presidency, and that William 
 
384 Roosevelt and the Republic 
 
 J. Bryan should make the nomination. Roose- 
 velt had good reason to believe that the coun- 
 try would approve anything he might do or 
 say. 
 
 At the Jamestown Exposition, using the 
 modest "we," President Roosevelt told the 
 country with commendable frankness what his 
 intentions were as to the future of the Re- 
 public. Other chapters were added at Indian- 
 apolis and elsewhere He would be tolerant, 
 even generous, with everybody who behaved 
 to suit him, but those who did wrong, from 
 his standpoint, would do well to have a care. 
 The income tax which Roosevelt had de- 
 nounced ten years before, became in a twin- 
 kling a "Roosevelt policy," given a place of 
 honor with the good ship-subsidy scheme. In- 
 heritance tax, too, heretofore left to the states, 
 was to become a source of Federal revenue 
 and incidentally inheritances a subject of Fed- 
 eral regulation and control. 
 
 About this time Roosevelt had discovered 
 the peculiar infamy of his good friend and 
 former adviser, E. H. Harriman. So disreputa- 
 ble had this gentleman become that it was 
 necessary that Roosevelt should change the 
 text of correspondence before publication, in 
 order to demonstrate Harriman's untruthful- 
 ness. At this time three western labor leaders 
 were on trial for their lives. Roosevelt, in 
 order to show his fair-mindedness to all 
 classes, included them with Harriman in a 
 blanket denunciation as undesirable citizens. 
 If he had denounced Harriman alone men of 
 
Roosevelt and the Republic 385 
 
 Harriman's trend of thought might have 
 thought Roosevelt inspired with class preju- 
 dice. Denouncing labor leaders alone might 
 subject the President to the same charge. De- 
 nunciation of both at once would demonstrate 
 fairness and bring approval. 
 
 Unhappily this episode marked the begin- 
 ning of a decline in Roosevelt's popularity. 
 Despite the strenuous noise of the newspaper 
 claquers, the public murmured disapproval. 
 Presidential attacks upon men on trial for 
 their lives looked like interfering with the 
 course of orderly justice. It was worse than 
 the denunciation of judges in some of the 
 Federal prosecutions and of the jury in the 
 Tyner case. The thing hardly harmonized 
 with the "square deal" doctrine of the Presi- 
 dent, especially since land cases had been held 
 up to strengthen or at least to avoid weaken- 
 ing the prosecution. Roosevelt's justification 
 was distinctly pettifogging. The public was 
 growing weary. When the "nature fakir" ful- 
 minations came out there was almost a gufifaw. 
 Americans had not lost altogether their sense 
 of proportion. They could still recognize 
 palpable folly, even in a popular hero. 
 
 Roosevelt held serenely to his dramatic 
 methods. An attack by a Federal bureau upon 
 the Standard Oil Company, rehearsing ancient 
 history, to a great extent, was timed so as to 
 coincide with a sensational fine ($29,000,000) 
 and produce a maximum public thrill. 
 
 Financial clouds had been gathering. As 
 early as March, Secretary Cortelyou, of the 
 
386 Roosevelt axd the Republic 
 
 Treasury Department, came with government 
 monev ($25,000,000) to the aid of the Wall 
 Street fraternity. Stocks continued to decline. 
 F!y Au^c^ust the slump had reached three billion 
 dollars in shrinkage of securities. Financial 
 storm was clearly presaged. 
 
 Roosevelt at Provincetown took up the de- 
 fense of the administration. He conceded that 
 it needed a defense. "Not guilty," was the 
 verdict. He had not caused the slump. Ex- 
 tend Federal powers and all would be well. 
 He had the last generous word in the Moyer- 
 Haywood case. Well pleased, Roosevelt start- 
 ed for the West and South. Here he repeated 
 what he had said many times before upon 
 multitudinous subjects. He would not modify 
 or change his policies. Many speeches were 
 made in the Aliddle West and the Southern 
 Mississippi region. 
 
 A characteristic incident took place on 
 Roosevelt's trip down the river. The boat 
 upon w^hich the President travelled got into a 
 race with a rival packet, and the rival came out 
 ahead. Not sufficiently manly to take his de- 
 feat, the Roosevelt captain charged his rival 
 with having violated navigation regulations. 
 President Roosevelt had been placed in danger. 
 The President peremptorily and arbitrarily 
 ordered by telegraph that the rival skipper be 
 suspended. As it turned out the skipper was 
 acting properly within his rights. Roosevelt's 
 act was illegal and unwarranted. 
 
 President Roosevelt plunged into the Louisi- 
 ana wilderness for his favorite pastime, the 
 
Roosevelt and the Republic 387 
 
 chase, just as he had hunted in Texas and 
 Colorado in 1905. Shooting defenceless ani- 
 mals from ambush with repeating rifles, or 
 worrying them to death with dogs, is no doubt 
 a very manly form of sport. It indicates such 
 supreme courage. Considering the newspaper 
 exploitation given such an elevating pastime 
 when indulged in by the President of the 
 United States, it is especially fortunate that 
 Roosevelt was willing to experience the joy of 
 it while still in the lime-light as chief magis- 
 trate. 
 
 Politics, national, state and municipal, had 
 been President Roosevelt's especial care dur- 
 ing the years of his incumbency. Inspired 
 newspaper writers let it be known that Presi- 
 dent Roosevelt would dictate his successor. 
 Secretary of War Taft was the heir-apparent. 
 Small politicians, still seeking to ride into 
 place on the wave of Roosevelt popularity, 
 joined newspaper claquers in urging Roose- 
 velt as a third-term candidate. Roosevelt re- 
 mained silent. He let it be understood that 
 he wanted Taft. All other candidates were 
 under suspicion of not being sufficiently wed- 
 ded to "my policies." It was hinted darkly 
 that if Taft was not accepted Pv.oosevelt might 
 be forced into the nomination to save the 
 "policies." 
 
 Secretary Taft took a spectacular trip to the 
 Philippines. There he told the Filipinos, in 
 parliament assembled, how they would be 
 favored if they were good, but how unwise 
 action might put off indefinitely the day of 
 
^SS Roosevelt and the Republic 
 
 their independence^i It all kept the big secre- 
 tary in the public eye. 
 
 Federal influence and patronage, the news- 
 papers said, were used generously in promot- 
 ing Taft sentiment and securing Taft dele- 
 gates. Certain it is, the inner circles of poli- 
 tics knew that Taft was to be the man, if the 
 administration could so order it. Private Sec- 
 retary Cortelyou, so talented as to do equally 
 well in any cabinet position, was warned not 
 to trespass upon the Taft preserves. An as- 
 sistant of Mr. Cortelyou in the Post Office De- 
 partment, who had been using postal patron- 
 age in shaping political destiny, was obliged 
 to transfer his allegiance to Taft. 
 
 Beginning with the San Francisco school 
 episode, Japanese troubles loomed big as the 
 year advanced. Rumor came that President 
 Roosevelt feared developments and had order- 
 ed the battleship squadron to the Pacific coast. 
 This was denied at the White House, for some 
 obscure reason. Soon it proved correct. Many 
 Americans interpreted the move as a demon- 
 stration to overawe the Japanese by a show of 
 superior strength. This was the view gen- 
 erally taken in Europe. No doubt the admin- 
 istration had information of sinister activity 
 on the part of the tricky, treacherous. Oriental 
 Yankees. Since the demonstration of their 
 hypocrisy in Korea and Manchuria, Japanese 
 pleas of disinterested holiness are not so likely 
 to be taken at full face value. Admitting all 
 this, it is more likely that the cruise of the fleet 
 was quite as much a piece of stage business 
 
Roosevelt and the Republic 389 
 
 intended to arouse the American military spirit 
 and secure more generous naval appropria- 
 tions. This cruise served to demonstrate the 
 humiliating weakness of the navy in one re- 
 spect — its total lack of adequate colliers for ex- 
 tended cruises. But if the country is to have 
 three-fourths of a billion in useless warships, it 
 is difficult to see why anybody should object 
 to have the President use them as a bogey- 
 man to frighten the Japanese or as a circus 
 for the delectation of the American people. 
 
 A most important municipal election was in 
 progress in Cleveland. Ohio. The "best mayor 
 of the best governed city in the United States" 
 was on the eve of consummating a solution of 
 the traction problem of that city especially 
 advantageous to the people of Cleveland but 
 peculiarly distasteful to the men who had been 
 making millions out of traction franchises. In 
 fact, these franchise beneficiaries, pressed re- 
 lentlessly to the wall by Cleveland's efficient 
 mayor, were fighting for life. All other bene- 
 ficiaries of municipal franchises the country 
 over were interested in their menaced brethren. 
 Cleveland's mayor was standing for re-election 
 in order to complete the work in hand. 
 
 Menaced "interests" appealed to Roosevelt 
 as they had in the Chicago case. By a mass- 
 ing of forces against Cleveland, they hoped to 
 defeat the popular champion, save the rich 
 grazing ground, and discourage such attempts 
 on the part of other cities. Roosevelt's re- 
 sponse was quick and hearty. Congressman 
 Theodore Burton, of tried popularity in Cleve- 
 
390 Roosevelt and the Republic 
 
 land and of recognized value and ability in the 
 national legislature, but with no experience in 
 municipal government, was appealed to per- 
 sonally by President Roosevelt and Secretary 
 Taft to save the situation. Burton was to 
 enter the field as a partisan candidate, cloud 
 the issues, and save the municipal fleshpots 
 for the menaced "interests." Probably it was 
 not put in just that way, but that would have 
 been the only possible result of a Burton 
 victory. 
 
 Congressman Burton yielded to the skillful 
 blandishments of President Roosevelt and 
 Secretary Taft. It was said that he was of- 
 fered the Ohio senatorship in return. That 
 was certainly a paltry price for Burton's en- 
 viable record as a high-minded public servant. 
 
 Federal power wielded by so skillful a poli- 
 tician as the President failed to save the men- 
 aced interests. Cleveland's electorate was too 
 intelligent to be fooled by the false partisan 
 note, even from the White House. Roosevelt 
 lost. If any other President, politician, or 
 political boss, had attempted what Roosevelt 
 attempted in this case, the action would have 
 been recognized among all friends of decent 
 government as sinister to the last degree. In- 
 deed, in any other person the motives would 
 have been infinitely mean and unworthy, and 
 the whole scheme utterly indefensible. Said 
 Roosevelt in his American Ideals: 
 
 "The party man who blindly follows party, 
 rigflit or wrong, and who fails to make that 
 
Roosevelt and the Republic 391 
 
 party in any way better, commits a crime 
 against the country." 
 
 This was probably intended to apply to such 
 men as Congressman Burton. 
 
 Oklahoma's constitution offended President 
 Roosevelt. It was too hospitable to advanced 
 democratic ideas. At first Roosevelt an- 
 nounced unofficially through the inspired press 
 that he would refuse to approve this constitu- 
 tion and deny statehood to the populistic ter- 
 ritory, notwithstanding the mandate of Con- 
 gress. The "feeler" indicated that such action 
 would be dangerous to Roosevelt's popularity. 
 Roosevelt "hedged." He sent Secretary Taft 
 into the territory to try to defeat the constitu- 
 tion at the polls. Taft failed, and Roosevelt 
 accepted the constitution with some minor 
 changes. 
 
 Threatened financial trouble came in Octo- 
 ber. The last push to the tottering fabric of 
 Wall Street finances was given by a clique en- 
 gaged in the profitable pastime of "freezing 
 out," of desirable corporate enterprises, a 
 weaker group of rivals. Panic came. "Sound" 
 money, that thing which had called forth such 
 peans of worship for the past decade, was so 
 sound as to disappear promptly from the chan- 
 nels of business. Banks saved themselves by 
 abandoning other business enterprises to their 
 fate. They grabbed all the "honest" money 
 in sight and held it in their vaults. Most men, 
 not bankers or Wall Street gamblers, kept 
 their heads and saved the country from one 
 of the worst panics and industrial smashes in 
 
392 Roosevelt and the Republic 
 
 the country's history, but not from a serious 
 panic and subsequent depression. 
 
 Causes of the trouble are undoubtedly deep- 
 seated. This is not the place to discuss them. 
 Suffice it to say that our banking system was 
 demonstrated to be the weakest of weak reeds. 
 Metal money, as has always been the case in 
 crises, scurried out of sight. Despised paper 
 money, issued without the pretense of legality 
 in the form of clearing-house drafts or certifi- 
 cates, helped to tide over the difficulty. Until 
 we become sufficiently civilized to cease wor- 
 shiping certain heaps of yellow metal as our 
 financial saviors, such interesting little epi- 
 sodes are likely to recur. 
 
 Secretary Cortelyou, of the Treasury De- 
 partment, loaned bankers more than two hun- 
 dred millions of dollars without interest, which 
 they in turn promptly loaned out to the needy 
 at the usurious rates of interest which bank 
 hoarding had brought about. Bankers made 
 some fat "killings," and financial kings gath- 
 ered some very juicy plums which up to that 
 time had dangled out of their reach. 
 
 All of which demonstrated that our banking 
 and money systems recently held up as sacred 
 things are insecure from capstone to founda- 
 tion, not only in methods but in principle. In- 
 cidentally, it started a wave of distress at the 
 Atlantic which rolled quickly to the Pacific, 
 engulfing thousands in its path. A period of 
 commercial and industrial depression was 
 pretty clearly indicated. 
 
 Naturally, in the light of precedent, the ad- 
 
Roosevelt and the Republic 393 
 
 ministration was blamed for the panic. Finan- 
 ciers, politicians, even Supreme Court justices, 
 criticised Roosevelt sharply. His clamorously- 
 menacing methods had frightened timid capital 
 and caused the smash. Immediately the news- 
 paper claquers. White House inspired, started 
 the defense. Roosevelt was still a third term 
 possibility. His prestige must not suffer. Cab- 
 inet officers took up the defensive fight. Roose- 
 velt himself joined in the fray. Secretary Taft 
 made lengthy speeches intended to prove 
 Roosevelt entirely innocent. 
 
 Such a situation was not new to Roosevelt. 
 As a historian he had written : 
 
 "It being almost always the case that the 
 existing administration receives more credit if 
 the country is prosperous, and greater blame 
 if it is not, than in either case it is rightfully 
 entitled to." (Life of Benton, 196.) 
 
 Roosevelt had received his full meed of 
 credit for prosperity. The clamor of it had 
 been dinned into men's ears for ten long years, 
 and six of them had been written down to 
 Roosevelt's credit. But Roosevelt preferred 
 that others should bear the counterbalancing 
 blame. 
 
 "It is not possible to secure prosperity by 
 law, but it is possible to destroy it," said 
 Roosevelt years before in denouncing the dan- 
 gerous doctrines of his opponents. That was 
 before the Roosevelt regime. Now the propo- 
 sition of Roosevelt was to be reversed. Roose- 
 velt's policies had secured prosperity by law, 
 
394 Roosevelt and the Republic 
 
 Had not the claqners demonstrated it. But 
 to destroy it — perish the thought ! 
 
 Things were different in 18Q3, when the 
 wicked Cleveland had engulfed the country at 
 one fell swoop. 
 
 "The distress was a Godsend to the Whig 
 politicians. They fairly raved at the adminis- 
 tration and denounced all its acts, good and 
 bad alike, with fluent and incoherent impartial- 
 ity." (Life of Benton, 205.) 
 
 Roosevelt wrote this of the Whigs of 1837- 
 40. He might just as truthfully have written 
 it of his own partisans of 1893-6. And, extra- 
 ordinary as it may appear, the sophisticated 
 Roosevelt "raved" with the rest "with fluent 
 and incoherent impartiality." The platform 
 of 1896, which he so strenuously supported, 
 said: 
 
 "For the first time since the Civil war the 
 people have witnessed the calamitous conse- 
 quences of Democratic control of the govern- 
 ment. ... In the broad effect of its policy 
 it has precipitated panic, blighted industry and 
 trade with prolonged depression, closed fac- 
 tories, reduced work and wages, halted enter- 
 prise, crippled American production," etc. . . . 
 
 In 1900 the platform upon which Roosevelt 
 was elected asserted : 
 
 "After a term of Democratic legislation and 
 administration, business was dead, industry 
 paralyzed and national credit disastrously im- 
 paired. . . . Capital was hidden away; 
 . . . labor distressed and unemployed. . . . 
 The Republican party . . . promised to re- 
 
Roosevelt and the Republic 395 
 
 store prosperity by means of . . . the pro- 
 tective tariff and . . . the gold standard. 
 Prosperity more general and more 
 abundant than we have ever known has fol- 
 lowed these enactments. . . . Capital is 
 fully employed, labor profitably occu- 
 pied. . . ." 
 
 Roosevelt was re-elected in 1904 on a plat- 
 form containing this declaration : 
 
 "We found the country after four years of 
 Democratic rule in an evil plight. . . . Pub- 
 lic credit lowered, . . . revenues declining, 
 . . . debt growing, . . . labor unem- 
 ployed, . . . business sunk in depression, 
 . . . hope faint, . . . confidence gone. 
 . . . We met these unhappy conditions vig- 
 orously, effectively and at once. . . . In- 
 dustry stimulated by wise laws has expanded 
 to a degree never before known. . . . Under 
 the Dingley tariff labor was fully employed," 
 etc. 
 
 Evidently President Roosevelt had not read 
 his party platforms when he declared that "it 
 is not possible to secure prosperity by law." 
 He must have forgotten all about them now 
 that he is contending that legislation and ad- 
 ministration did not destroy it. 
 
 One of the most important campaign docu- 
 ments circulated for Roosevelt in 1904 was 
 entitled "Lest We Forget." It told how Cleve- 
 land and his policies killed prosperity. 
 
 That was patriotism. Now that the steel is 
 at Roosevelt's breast, to hint that Theodore 
 Roosevelt has done what Theodore Roosevelt 
 
396 Roosevelt and the Republic 
 
 in like circumstances accused Grover Cleve- 
 land of having done, is pure demagogy. It 
 was a king, too, who saw things so differenth' 
 when his own ox was gored. Possibly the 
 American people have lost their sense of 
 humor. 
 
 Roosevelt was not bowed down by the accu- 
 sation. It seemed to stimulate his rabbit-like 
 literary fecundity. Enemies were literally 
 overwhelmed by a deluge of annual message. 
 It discussed and settled off-hand every ques- 
 tion under the sun. Summed up it was a 
 hodgepodge of all of Roosevelt's former 
 speeches and messages, vitalized by an urgent 
 appeal for more power for the Federal govern- 
 ment in general and for the executive in par- 
 ticular. Newspapers failed to publish it in 
 full. Few read the text. 
 
 Despite Roosevelt's skillful maneuvering his 
 political antagonists in his own party pushed 
 him into a corner where in order to protect 
 the candidacy of Taft, he was obliged to re- 
 assert his own decision against a third term. 
 
 Immediately Congress became indifferent to 
 Roosevelt and his policies. Roosevelt was 
 eliminated from newspaper "scare heads." 
 Even the faithful claquers grew lanquid. 
 There were indications that Roosevelt would 
 be pushed to the side of the stage. Always 
 is Congress averse to a big legislative pro- 
 gramme before a presidential election. By 
 common consent it was merely to pass routine 
 acts this session. 
 
 An attack upon Admiral Brownson and 
 
RoOSEVfiLT AND THE RePUBLIC 397 
 
 naval critics brought Roosevelt again to the 
 front. Even former admirers shook their 
 heads over the violence of the assault upon 
 the conscientious, honorable and courageous 
 officer. Indeed it looked as though a medical 
 favorite had caused the President to ignore 
 orderly procedure and adopt a course which 
 persisted in would make "ducks and drakes" of 
 naval discipline. 
 
 President saw his critics gaining ground. 
 Public attention was turning toward others. 
 Roosevelt decided that he must keep up the 
 clamor if he would hold the center of the 
 stage to the end of his term. He would give 
 Congress a programme that would keep the 
 country looking his way at least until ad- 
 journment. 
 
 Heralded properly in inspired papers, the 
 fulmination came January 31. It was attached 
 to a court decision upon a labor law. In many 
 respects the special message coincides pecu- 
 liarly with the "rotten planks," "put together 
 with such perverted skill by the Chicago archi- 
 tects." (In 1896.) Several of the message 
 recommendations put Roosevelt in the same 
 class as the Chicago "geological survivals," 
 who are out of "sympathy with men of good 
 minds and sound civic morality." 
 
 But above all the din, sounds the Roosevelt 
 major note — "more power for the Federal 
 government ; more power for the President ; 
 the states have failed." 
 
 It is intimated that Roosevelt will prevent 
 the ebb of his popularity by hammering Con- 
 
398 Roosevelt and the Republic 
 
 gress for radical legislation and attacking the 
 now unpopular exponents of "predatory" 
 wealth. There are those who see in the mes- 
 sage a recrudescence of the third term idea. 
 We may be certain that Roosevelt will not 
 permit himself to drop out of sight before he 
 leaves the White House. Should Taft suc- 
 ceed him, Taft must play Martin Van Buren 
 to Roosevelt's Andrew Jackson. Otherwise 
 let Taft beware. 
 
 [Note. — Some real democrats have accepted 
 Roosevelt as sounding a true note of democ- 
 racy in his message of January 31, 1908. ^\'e 
 may be excused for remaining skeptical. The 
 man who when in prominent place at thirty- 
 eight years of age, with fully mature mind, de- 
 nounced as sympathizers with their remote 
 skin-clad ancestors men who wished to cur- 
 tail the injunction, may now wish sincerely to 
 curtail it in the interest of workingmen. 
 Elihu Root, Thomas F. Ryan, strategist and 
 life-long servant of "Predatory wealth," may, 
 by his great influence over Roosevelt inspire 
 him with undying hate for unholy rich men. 
 Roosevelt may have changed his mind since he 
 attributed attacks upon wealth to mere jeal- 
 ousy or envy on the part of the inefficient 
 poor. He may now accept ideas of men whom 
 he accused of hostility to certain court de- 
 cisions because they stand between these men 
 and plunder. A President who seized Panama 
 possibly has become conscientious. Roosevelt 
 may now harbor undyinc: hate for the special 
 privileges he so promptly defended in Chicago 
 
Roosevelt and the Republic 399 
 
 and Cleveland. If one be sufficiently credulous 
 he may believe that Roosevelt has suddenly 
 abandoned his dearest convictions, and adopt- 
 ed policies he has fought all his life with im- 
 placable bitterness. We prefer to regard 
 Roosevelt as the same skillful, cunning politi- 
 cal general that he was yesterday, last year, 
 ten years ago. Viewing him from that point 
 an all sufficient reason for his special message 
 is his knowledge that the people are aroused 
 against "predatory wealth" and will not be 
 denied. Opposition means destruction for 
 himself and his party. Advocacy will keep 
 his popularity untarnished, his power un- 
 diminished. It will enable him to humble his 
 enemies, dictate a successor, guide the current 
 into safe channels of increased Federal power, 
 and maintain in control the party for the pro- 
 motion of whose supremacy he has heretofore 
 sacrificed some of his dearest convictions. In 
 practice Roosevelt has placed the fortunes of 
 that party above all else — next to his own per- 
 sonal political advancement. Roosevelt, no 
 doubt, verily believes Hamiltonian centraliza- 
 tion and Roosevelt personal government neces- 
 sary to the Republic. Do a majority of Arneri- 
 cans agree with him?] 
 
400 Roosevelt and the Republic 
 
 CHAPTER XXXIV. 
 
 CRITICAL VIEW OF ROOSEVELT — HIS QUALITIES, 
 ACHIEVEMENTS, HIS IDEALS, AND HIS AIMS. 
 
 Roosevelt is popular — as popular as any 
 President in our history. America has a hys- 
 terical element. Official hysterics appeal to 
 them. With some of our people physical size 
 means greatness. In them Roosevelt touches 
 a responsive chord. Many of our people are 
 boastful and self-assertive. Roosevelt is their 
 ideal. Fulmination, bluster, clamorousness, 
 appeal to some of us. Roosevelt satisfies us. 
 Millions of us love Roosevelt for what he is 
 not, but what we think him ; for what we think 
 he has done, not for what he has actually done. 
 We adore a Roosevelt very largely mythical, 
 the heroic creation of newspaper imagination. 
 Curiously enough, Roosevelt is liked least by 
 those who know him best, and best by those 
 who know him least. From East to West his 
 popularity grows ; from West to East his popu- 
 larity wanes. Reactionaries who detest him, 
 detest him more because of his attitude and 
 his personality than because of his policies. 
 Radicals who love him, love him more because 
 of the enemies he has made than the work he 
 is doing:. 
 
Roosevelt and the Republic 4of 
 
 Roosevelt is ambitious, inordinately am- 
 bitious, probably more ambitious than any 
 other American President. He is narrow. No 
 man in high place has shown greater intel- 
 lectual arrogance and intolerance. He cannot 
 conceive how any honest and intelligent per- 
 son can differ with him upon any point. Dif- 
 fering with him is proof positive that one is 
 foolish, ignorant, or corrupt. His experience, 
 he is certain, covers all experience of all others, 
 and his impressions are right, while different 
 impressions must necessarily be wrong. 
 
 "There are more things in heaven and earth, 
 Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philos- 
 ophy." 
 
 Roosevelt is a partisan. Alexander Hamil- 
 ton being his political ideal, he distrusts popu- 
 lar government profoundly. The masses are 
 fools, the sport of rogues, inspired by envy and 
 jealousy. It is necessary that a righteous, 
 strong man should guard them against them- 
 selves as well as others. Government must be 
 left to the strong, the efificient, the righteous, 
 who are nearly all found among the classes 
 who for generations have been wealthy, cul- 
 tured and blessed with leisure. These men are 
 the best judges of their own strength, right- 
 eousness and efficiency. 
 
 Since Roosevelt takes this view, all those 
 who take any other view of government are 
 ignorant, vicious, visionary, demagogic, crook- 
 ed, dangerous. It is therefore the bounden 
 duty of every decent man, believing as Roose- 
 velt does, to be a partisan, to place partisan 
 
402 Roosevelt and the Republic 
 
 success above all other considerations, above 
 the interests of state or country. 
 
 Caution is strikingly developed in Theodore 
 Roosevelt. With a front of bluster, passion, 
 impulsiveness, his statements turn out pain- 
 fully timorous, except when, denouncing some 
 person whose tenets or whose actions disagree 
 with his own. Every statement he makes has 
 as many avenues of escape as the den of the 
 red fox. When analyzed, the statement is 
 found so qualified and hedged about that it 
 asserts a mere platitude, or is of such Delphic 
 ambiguity as to mean anything which its au- 
 thor may assert it to mean, or to mean noth- 
 ing at all. Clamorously audacious statements 
 turn out to be mere dust-storms, whirling 
 about a grain of sand. Jaggers was reckless 
 in committing himself as compared with Theo- 
 dore Roosevelt. 
 
 Roosevelt is cunning. Beneath his noise 
 and fury is the coldest calculation. He weighs 
 his moves most carefully and considers results. 
 No more skillful politician than Roosevelt has 
 ever sat in the presidential chair. He knows 
 politics from precinct club to National Com- 
 mittee. To him it is a game like football or 
 draw poker. A smashing scrimmage where he 
 "hits the line hard." Or a cunning matching 
 of wits, where he bluffs, draws or stands pat; 
 or has a "square deal." Big game hunters 
 have the best training for citizenship and civil- 
 ized life. It is a matter of stalking and killing. 
 
 Dramatic, almost melodramatic, is Theodore 
 Roosevelt. He is a born showman. Roose- 
 
ROf)SEVELT AND THE REPUBLIC 403 
 
 velt knows how to produce an effect upon the 
 crowd. With natural dramatic instincts of the 
 highest order, he has spent a lifetime in de- 
 veloping them. If Theodore Roosevelt cannot 
 get and hold public attention nobody else need 
 try. He would out-Hearst Hearst as a sensa- 
 tional journalist. 
 
 Besides, Roosevelt knows how important 
 is this talent in politics ; as important as well 
 rehearsed stage-business in the theatre. Roose- 
 velt is practical. When he wishes to attain 
 an object, he uses the means most likely to 
 bring results. In such cases Roosevelt has no 
 scruples. He would use Satan as his chaplain 
 if he knew Satan to have the keys of the King- 
 dom, although they had been stolen. Piatt, 
 Quay, Addicks, every puissant crook of poli- 
 tics, has served Roosevelt's purposes. 
 
 One of the folk-lore stories, the story upon 
 which the immortal Goethe founded his still 
 more immortal Faust, tells a tale of a certain 
 great and wise man selling himself to the Evil 
 one. In the grim pagan tale the wise man paid 
 the price in a tragic end and an eternity of 
 darkness. But good Christian narrators im- 
 proved upon that. At the last moment after 
 the rnortgaged wise man had enjoyed the king- 
 doms of the earth for which he had bargained 
 to fall down and worship the Evil one, and 
 when the Evil one had come to claim the bar- 
 tered soul, the good priest stepped upon the 
 scene and exorcised the evil spirit. This wise 
 man had had all the good things provided by 
 the Evil one and, in addition, still had entree 
 
404 Roosevelt and the Republic 
 
 into the Kingdom. He had actually cheated 
 the devil out of his due. Roosevelt, with his 
 unholy political alliances, and his tainted cam- 
 paign funds, is the only modern proving equal- 
 ly clever. 
 
 Roosevelt is selfish. He will tolerate any 
 method in support of his own plans, ambitions, 
 or schemes, but will denounce with the fiercest 
 invective the use of like methods for the bene- 
 fit of others. Furthering his fortunes is legiti- 
 mately everybody's care. 
 
 Imperiousness is one of the strong points of 
 Theodore Roosevelt. No man can continue 
 to differ with him on an important tenet or 
 policy and retain his good will. No newspaper 
 writer can criticise the administration and still 
 remain welcome at the White House executive 
 offices. Roosevelt cannot conceive that such 
 criticism could come from other than un- 
 worthy motives. If the writer were not a fool, 
 a dunce, or a knave, he would know Roosevelt 
 to be right. 
 
 Roosevelt is vindictive. He never forgets 
 real or fancied injury, and will wait years to 
 "get even." Wadsworth, Burton, Tyner, 
 Bowen, Storer. Mrs. Morris, a whole list of 
 unfortunates, have felt and are feeling the 
 weight of his implacable displeasure. Regard- 
 ing the government and the powers thereof as 
 a personal asset of the President, he does not 
 hesitate to use them to castigate his enemies 
 or reward his friends. Instance, Harriman and 
 Paul Morton ; Bowen and Francis B. Loomis. 
 
 Veracity is not a Roosevelt virtue. Were 
 
Roosevelt and the Republic 405 
 
 Washington correspondents in position to 
 speak their minds freely, many would tell one 
 that no statement made by Roosevelt verbally 
 can be relied upon if his own interests will be 
 advanced by denying it, or he is embarrassed 
 by affirming it. President Roosevelt's reputa- 
 tion in this regard with those who have fre- 
 quent contact with him is almost notorious. 
 In the Harriman, Chandler, Bowen, Parker, 
 Storer,and a dozen other episodes where verac- 
 ity was at stake, circumstances were against 
 Roosevelt. Parker and Harriman absolutely 
 proved the President's disingenuousness. Such 
 episodes led to an admission by the President 
 of the weakness in a statement declaring that 
 the President would be responsible for no ver- 
 bal assertion, none not appearing over his 
 name or in a public document. 
 
 After all, Roosevelt is very human in this 
 regard, and if he were not himself so quick to 
 hurl the contumelious stone, it might be left 
 out of consideration. 
 
 Roosevelt's vanity is colossal ; his egotism 
 monumental. They really possess him. Such 
 tremendous factors are they in his character 
 that they color all his acts. A keen judge of 
 the motives of men en masse, he is quite blind- 
 ed by flattery to the characters and motives of 
 men with whom he comes in close contact. 
 Men who say nice things to Roosevelt and 
 about Roosevelt can get anything Roosevelt 
 has to give. Their appreciation of him is proof 
 positive of their wisdom and virtue. These 
 qualities with his imperiousness, meddle- 
 
4o6 Roosevelt and the Republic 
 
 someness, and want of consideration, account 
 for the small men Roosevelt has collected 
 around him, except where larger men were an 
 inheritance, or are supported by interests 
 which Roosevelt dare not offend. Vanity and 
 egotism have caused Roosevelt to take 
 excursions into every field of activity, set- 
 tle every mooted question under the sun, 
 whether in government, war, science, or theol- 
 ogy, and to denounce everybody who differs 
 with him. These qualities were strikingly ex- 
 hibited in the undignified and childish "nature 
 fakir" controversy. 
 
 Moral courage is not characteristic of Roose- 
 velt. Once wrong he remains wrong. With 
 immovable stubbornness he sticks to a mis- 
 take once made, even though it forces him to 
 the most puerilely ridiculous pettifogging for 
 justification. The Moyer-Haywood incident, 
 and the Brownsville episode, may be cited as 
 instances in point. Vain egotism, making it 
 necessary that the President should be con- 
 sidered infallible, is the only explanation of 
 these queer actions. And it has made Roose- 
 velt unjust. Wounded vanity is largely re- 
 sponsible for the brutal treatment of General 
 Miles, Moyer and Haywood, the Brownsville 
 troops. James N. Tyner, Herbert W. Bowen 
 and others. 
 
 Roosevelt is cynical. He attributes mean 
 and sordid motives indiscriminately to all men. 
 No man of prominence has assailed so many 
 other men with such vindictive virulence as 
 he. Good motives are never attributed to an 
 
Roosevelt and the Republic 407 
 
 opponent where his actions can be explained 
 by mean and sordid ones. Roosevelt's political 
 methods are based upon this view of human 
 nature. Says a veteran Washington corre- 
 spondent : 
 
 "Mr. Roosevelt's system is based upon the 
 theory that people fool themselves if given the 
 initial suggestion, and that hatred is a stronger 
 impulse to human action than admiration or 
 gratitude. He is always ready to prove an 
 alibi, if a thing attributed to him in one quar- 
 ter promises to prove more injurious to him 
 in another, but however inconsistent may be 
 the sentiments and actions attributed to him 
 by the various classes of people and antagon- 
 istic communities, he accepts all praise, unless 
 the conflicting impressions of him come close 
 enough in contact to be injurious, and in that 
 case he repudiates that which meets favor with 
 the fewest persons. 
 
 "Any man, or set of men, desiring to fool 
 themselves, are welcome to do so to his bene- 
 fit." This correspondent goes on to say that 
 Roosevelt gets the support of opponents who 
 bitterly hate each other, by castigating each 
 so thoroughly as to make the other rejoice. 
 "Each praises Mr. Roosevelt for the punish- 
 ment which he inflicted upon the other, his 
 enemy, and praises the President in order to 
 make light of the punishment which he him- 
 self has received. By this method Mr. Roose- 
 velt wins two supporters if he does not make 
 two friends, and he smiles cynically over the 
 
4o8 Roosevelt and the Republic 
 
 accuracy of his own conception of the frailties 
 of human nature." 
 
 While this characterization is hostile, and a 
 trifle overdrawn, it is essentially true. This 
 method is used not only with individuals but 
 also with corporations, communities, factions, 
 parties. Some men resent it, resent it bitterly. 
 They object being exploited as horrible exam- 
 ples. Therefore, Roosevelt has some bitter 
 enemies. 
 
 Roosevelt is shallow. In his private career 
 he touched American life at the point of the 
 New York "Four Hundred," and the other 
 point of the lawless western frontier. Neither 
 gives any true idea of American character and 
 American aspirations. Neither is in tune with 
 the great heart-beat of the nation. Roosevelt 
 comprehends broadly human characteristics 
 common to all men, civilized or savage, but he 
 does not understand the distinctive character- 
 istics and aspirations that have made America 
 what it is. 
 
 He sees only the surface of things. Regula- 
 tion of trusts, combinations, corporations, 
 tariff, taxation, depend upon individuals doing 
 good or doing ill. "Good trusts" cannot do 
 harm ; "bad trusts" must be restrained. Roose- 
 velt has no comprehension of institutional 
 wrong; no idea that there is an institutional 
 and a democratic side to problems confronting 
 the Republic. 
 
 As he sees it, some beneficent political giant 
 must rule over men. as little children, and see 
 that they deport themselves seemingly. If 
 
Roosevelt and the Republic 409 
 
 they err, he must punish them individually. 
 Benign autocracy, the big stick, the criminal 
 courts, these are the only instruments of cor- 
 rection, or redress. Taking this view Roose- 
 velt threatens to make absolutely useless all 
 trust and corporation-restraining laws by mak- 
 ing it necessary to prove a combination a 
 "bad" combination before its acts can be de- 
 clared unlawful. The very gist of the North- 
 ern :3ecurities decision was that combination 
 restraining competition was illegal per se. 
 
 No hypocrite is Roosevelt. Armored in an 
 impenetrable shell of self-conceit, no action of 
 his own could appear to him other than praise- 
 worthy. He has done and received praise for 
 many things he has denounced most bitterly 
 in others, yet one who knows Roosevelt would 
 no more call him a hypocrite than he would 
 call Oliver Cromwell a hypocrite. He simply 
 can't see himself. 
 
 Roosevelt is inconstant. Necessarily he 
 must remain popular if he would carry out his 
 plans. With shifting winds of public opinion, 
 and changing public conviction, Roosevelt 
 must appear to veer. He must be found upon 
 the popular side. We find him denouncing 
 muckrakers as scarcely less bad than public 
 plunderers. Immediately afterward he is of- 
 ficially at the head of the pack in full cry after 
 the quarry. Soon he is the original "muck- 
 raker" — the man "who turned on the light." 
 Roosevelt referred evidently to "muck-raking" 
 by others. For years he consistently de- 
 jiounced attacks upon wealthy corporations or 
 
410 Roosevelt and the Republic 
 
 individuals, as promoted by ignorance, jeal- 
 ousy, envy. All at once he becomes generalis- 
 simo of the attacking party. One may imagine 
 the seriousness of the attack. 
 
 "The people who do harm in the end," says 
 Roosevelt, "are not the wrong-doers whom all 
 execrate ; but they are the men who do not do 
 quite as much wrong, but who are applauded 
 instead of being execrated." 
 , Demagogy is one of Roosevelt's striking 
 characteristics. He has played upon every 
 string of passion and prejudice to further his 
 own ends. Roosevelt knows, as few men in 
 history have known, how to play effectively 
 upon these passions and prejudices. A few 
 years ago those who objected to the abuse of 
 the injunction were "geological survivals," 
 "not in sympathy with men of good minds nor 
 of sound morality." Yet Roosevelt is sending 
 special messages to Congress urging legisla- 
 tion to meet this very abuse. Roosevelt 
 knows how necessary it is that one should lead 
 the chase if he would direct it. He therefore 
 becomes leader of the most popular public 
 movements in order to direct them into his 
 own safe harbor. 
 
 For Roosevelt is a reactionary. No promi- 
 nent American since Hamilton has set his face 
 with such determination toward the setting 
 sun for political inspiration. His ideals in 
 government are monarchical ideals. Central- 
 ization : unlimited power in the executive; 
 commingling of executive, legislative and ju- 
 dicial powers in the same hands — <"he bands of 
 
Roosevelt and the Republic 411 
 
 the executive ; imperialism, militarism, caste, 
 aristocracy. With Roosevelt the powers of the 
 President are "unqualified," plenary, unlimited. 
 As he views it, the "executive must possess 
 the executive and magisterial attributes of the 
 people and the people retain no undelegated 
 attributes nor passive sovereignties." At 
 least his practice has so assumed, although 
 possibly he would not make such definite 
 claim. 
 
 He would not change the constitution. Elihu 
 Root, the strategist of the administration, and 
 other interests, has pointed out a better way. 
 "Sooner or later constructions of the constitu- 
 tion will be found to place the power where 
 it will be exercised, in the hands of the national 
 government." With Roosevelt the govern- 
 ment is synonymous with the executive. 
 Roosevelt's problem has been to justify this 
 construction, to obtain acquiescence in exer- 
 tion by the executive of arbitrary power. 
 America's impatience, its love of short cuts to 
 results, have aided him mightily. 
 
 Do the people want railway rate regulation? 
 Place the power to regulate in the hands of 
 the President. Incorporate railways under 
 Federal law. Unused reserve power in the 
 hands of the state is the obstacle to solving 
 this problem. 
 
 People want tariff reduction? Certainly! 
 Support the President in making "agreements" 
 with foreign executives. It eliminates the ne- 
 cessity for legislative action ; eliminates Senate 
 confirmation of treaties. "Agreements" may 
 
412 Roosevelt and the Republic 
 
 not be known to the constitution, but they are 
 assumed to be within the sovereign impHed 
 powers of the President. 
 
 Do we want a canal? Support the President 
 in seizing the territory for a site and give him 
 authority to construct it according to his own 
 sweet will. 
 
 Would you regulate trusts? Incorporate 
 them under Federal law; give them into the 
 power of the President, 
 
 Do you want forests and mines conserved? 
 The President will look after them. His bu- 
 reau will take control. 
 
 Is freedom from spoils desirable? Eliminate 
 the Senate ; require it to approve as a matter of 
 course all the President's appointments. He 
 alone can be trusted to handle patronage hon- 
 orably. Let him enforce or suspend the civil 
 service laws at will. 
 
 Would you have Cuba orderly and happy? 
 The President will seize it and rule it through 
 an imperial pro-consul. 
 
 You would have Santo Domingo behave it- 
 self? Certainly. The President will take it 
 over through an "agreement" of his naval of- 
 ficer and will administer it through his per- 
 sonal representatives. 
 
 The Philippines? Why the President of the 
 United States, and the emperor of the Philip- 
 pines, is making of them a heaven on earth in 
 accordance with the imperial will. The 
 weightiest man in the administration says so. 
 Philippine subjects of His Majesty are con- 
 tented and happy. 
 
Roosevelt and the Republic 413 
 
 Currency? Finance? Banking? The Presi- 
 dent is looking after them. 
 
 Wrong-doing by corporation heads? Presi- 
 dent Roosevelt will see that they are punished. 
 
 There is but one answer to every inquiry ; 
 one solution for every problem — more power 
 for the Federal government — the President. 
 It is the same old tune with variations. What- 
 ever may be present or absent in President 
 Roosevelt's recommendations, one is sure this 
 thing is not overlooked — more power for the 
 President. 
 
 And the newspaper claque shout "amen!" 
 Citizens, feel happy. It is so nice to have all 
 of our burdens, troubles, problems and per- 
 plexities supported by such willing shoulders. 
 
 Already has been gathered by this method 
 colossal powers and prerogatives in the hands 
 of the President. He has made the House of 
 Representatives a mere tool, bargaining with 
 its dictator for legislation which the President 
 desires. Roosevelt overshadows Senate and 
 courts. No man nor institution can set bounds 
 to his activities. All this has been done on the 
 plea of protecting popular interests. Roose- 
 velt has so skilfully maneuvered in each case 
 as to impress the unthinking public with the 
 idea that anybody opposing the grant of addi- 
 tional executive powers is in league with 
 "predatory" interests to defeat reform and per- 
 mit the despoiling of the people. Roosevelt's 
 newspaper claque and cowardly self-seeking 
 politicians in and out of Coneress make such 
 a plan possible. Roosevelt believes that if the 
 
4t4 Roosevelt and the Republic 
 
 people think they are getting what they want, 
 they are indifferent as to the means employed 
 in getting it. 
 
 State integrity is the stronghold which must 
 be taken and destroyed before this invasion 
 of centralization can finally succeed. As long 
 as the reserved powers of the state remain un- 
 absorbed by the implied powers of the Federal 
 government the centralizing campaign will not 
 have reached the ambitious goal of its pro- 
 moters. 
 
 This government was grafted upon a founda- 
 tion of sovereign states. Colonial fathers knew 
 that these states as republics could best meet 
 and solve local and internal problems and dan- 
 gers. But they would be insecure against ex- 
 ternal attack by larger and stronger bodies. 
 This danger was more imminent then than it 
 is to-day. No republic on a large scale had 
 theretofore been successful. But one plan 
 promised permanence — small individual states 
 with power over local internal affairs ; a gen- 
 eral government looking after external inter- 
 ests and interstate relations. At all events, 
 with the states firmly determined to retain 
 their individuality, it was the onlv practicable 
 plan. This plan was tried. It has succeeded 
 for more than a century. Hamilton tried to 
 destroy it by centralization. He failed. Roose- 
 velt is repeating the assault. 
 
 Stealthily Chief Justice Marshall absorbed 
 power for the Federal government. Implied 
 powers and general welfare meant more than 
 all the rest of the constitution. The law 
 
Roosevelt and the Republic 41^ 
 
 against impairment of contracts by legislation 
 covered a multitude of grabs. But the process 
 was slow. The executive methods of Roose- 
 velt work more quickly. Since the Spanish 
 war this invasion has made more progress than 
 it had made in the previous one hundred 
 years. Carried to its logical conclusion it will 
 make the states as Hamilton would have made 
 them, mere administrative departments of the 
 Federal government. Then power will flow 
 from the center outward, rather than from the 
 members toward the center. Add to this 
 Roosevelt's assumed right of adopting policies 
 not passed upon, or disapproved, at the polls, 
 and the executive becomes supreme. 
 
 In the carrying out of this campaign, the 
 states must be discredited. Perplexing prob- 
 lems are to be met. Shackled by the power of 
 the Federal courts, the states have failed to 
 solve these problems. If a state strikes a 
 trust, the courts find such action unconstitu- 
 tional. "Grab" has been given other shields 
 in the prohibitions against taking property 
 without just compensation and without due 
 process of law. Strange uses are made of con- 
 stitutional clauses intended to guard individual 
 rights. Railway rates are lowered by state 
 laws. It is found that the legislatures have 
 exceeded their powers. 
 
 At every state line, in every state capital, 
 have Federal courts built forts in which preda- 
 tory interests, state-attacked, may find sanctu- 
 ary. 
 
 Shackle a man's feet and tie his hands, and 
 
4i6 Roosevelt and the Republic 
 
 nobody will expect from him a wonderful ex- 
 hibition of prowess in either fighting or run- 
 ning. States just as fully shackled fail to pro- 
 tect their citizens from the powers that prey. 
 Hamiltonian theorists, Roosevelt the loudest, 
 cry failure of state government. The public 
 sees the failure and is impressed. It overlooks 
 the shackles. 
 
 Corporation, trust, transportation problems 
 have not been solved by the states. Therefore 
 must Federal authorities take full control. 
 Clamorous campaigns are conducted ; impres- 
 sive Federal statutes signed ; respectable bu- 
 reaus installed ; dramatic prosecutions are be- 
 gun. Wonders have been done by the Fed- 
 eral government where the states have failed. 
 Certainly, the voters will give the President 
 power. 
 
 This is the crucial issue now in the Republic. 
 It overshadows all other issues, for it means 
 life or death. Only by giving citizens full and 
 intimate control of local governmental func- 
 tions can we build up or maintain a strong, 
 healthy, intelligent citizenship. Without a 
 strong, healthy, intelligent citizenship, no re- 
 public can endure. Power in the hands of the 
 central government in a country like this is 
 necessarily out of the control of the mass of 
 citizens. It is too remote. Roosevelt's policy 
 in this regard, if successful, means death to 
 the Republic. 
 
 Better all the force and violence of the petty 
 South American states than the orderly death 
 of a centralized empire. One means life, hope, 
 
Roosevelt and the Republic 4^7 
 
 progress ; the other, decay, retrogression, dis- 
 solution. Division into small communities 
 seems nature's way of keeping civilization suf- 
 ficiently fluid for progress. But one nation on 
 earth has defied death and time. It is a non- 
 military, decentralized nation. Its people are 
 no more intelligent, its officers no more virtu- 
 ous than those of other nations. 
 
 Friends of the Republic must save the states 
 for local control, for local self-government, if 
 to do so they shall destroy the Federal court 
 system below the Supreme Court and relegate 
 their jurisdiction to the courts of the several 
 states. They must save the states if to do so 
 the Supreme Court itself shall be restrained 
 upon vital issues by an overruling popular 
 vote giving laws constitutional sanction. They 
 must save the state if to do so the executive 
 must be denied all participation in legislation. 
 When local self-government of the most ample 
 sort is made impracticable, our democratic Re- 
 public will have become a thing of history. 
 Better to solve trust, railway and corporation 
 problems by confining corporations absolutely 
 to the states creating them, than to run the 
 risk of state destruction by centralization of 
 power over them. 
 
 Huge size is Roosevelt's idea of greatness. 
 If to huge size you add great physical prowess 
 you have reached his national ideal. He would 
 have an empire expanding over the earth by 
 the strength of good right arm. A nation of 
 great breeders and great fighting men is to 
 }iim the nation's truly great. With guns, 
 
4i8 Roosevelt and the Republic 
 
 ships, and fighting men, it must grimly, resist- 
 lessly, relentlessly, pursue its career, chastiz- 
 ing to its own standards of holiness weaker 
 nations which may come in its path, scattering 
 its spawn over the earth. It must be a dull, 
 beneficent, fecund giant who insists that even 
 pigmies shall be cast in the same mold. The 
 serene, self-contained service of such a country 
 as Switzerland fails to arouse Roosevelt en- 
 thusiasm. 
 
 Roosevelt would not have the overmastering 
 empire of his dreams regard in the least differ- 
 ent races, different environment, different con- 
 ditions. All must accept the same standards 
 and forms of government, or turn the business 
 of government over to the predominant giant 
 nation. 
 
 Since Roosevelt's idea is growth in size and 
 a conquering progress over the earth, he would 
 have such internal organization as best to 
 support such an ideal. Government must be 
 so planned as to be most efficient in aggression. 
 Centralization is necessary to aggressive mili- 
 tary efficiency. Roosevelt would have cen- 
 tralization. As instrument he would have 
 great armies of regular soldiers, carefully 
 trained as were the Roman legions. Great 
 navies must bear his flag. Patient toilers he 
 must have who murmur not against the weight 
 of this crushing load, for it is all for the na- 
 tion's glory. Subject nations must cheerfully 
 bend their necks for the yoke for as it is 
 righteous that the great should rule over them, 
 it is also righteous that they should submit. ^ 
 
Roosevelt and the Republic 4^9 
 
 As Roosevelt sees it government is a thing 
 handed down from a governing class to a gov- 
 erned class. The quality of the government 
 depends entirely upon the wisdom and good 
 intentions of the rulers. They are to say what 
 s best for the governed. Therefore the need 
 of centralization, the unhampered executive 
 will. His power must not be circumscribed 
 Especially must he be free to override laws so 
 as ?o meet properly what look like emergencies 
 
 ^"sTh a plan of government falls naturally 
 into the bureaucratic form. Commissioners re- 
 sponsible only to the executive become he 
 best means of carrying out his will. >* ^h^ 
 executive could attend to all details himself, 
 there would be no need of the commissions, 
 but even Roosevelt finds this trying. 
 
 Once launched, these bureaus naturally ex- 
 pand and absorb. Instead of being instru- 
 ments of administration, they become seats of 
 power. Growing like a tree, by concentric 
 outside rings, they tend, like the overgrown 
 Unden, to^rit at^he heart. Then they be- 
 come most important in protecting from the 
 mTsguided vagaries of citizens the institutions 
 Siey started out to control in the interests o 
 citizens. Leagues of red tape wound about 
 everv problem, protect like an armor from 
 outer pressure. Finally the executive on the 
 one side becomes as powerless as the people 
 on the other. Special interests, bureau pro- 
 tected, grow in rank luxuriance. Only the 
 man with a sword keen enough to rip away the 
 
420 Roosevelt and the Republic 
 
 husks of red tape can get to the heart of the 
 difficulty. It is a most excellent way of mum- 
 mifying government. How many thousands 
 of devoted men have sacrificed themselves 
 vainly beating against the immovable Russian 
 bureaucracy? 
 
 Roosevelt is doing much to realize this ideal. 
 He has made most wonderful progress in the 
 creation of commissions (bureaus). He has 
 the big navy of his dreams. The army may 
 easily come. Imperialistic expansion is well 
 under way. We have had a colonial empire 
 governed by the President as autocrat — 
 actually if not nominally. The personal gov- 
 ernment by executive will is now enjoyed. 
 Later will come the bureau power, the prin- 
 ciple of which we have accepted. Then will 
 come government by bureaus with the execu- 
 tive when weak a convenient figurehead, when 
 strong an irresponsible autocrat. 
 
 In his short lease of power President Roose- 
 velt cannot bring about the flowering of such 
 a system. He can only plant the seeds and 
 see that they take firm root. 
 
 President Roosevelt has emphasized the 
 need of strong citizenship. His bureaucratic 
 policies are the best possible instruments for 
 its destruction. Take away power from the 
 states and you necessarily remove political 
 problems from popular control. They lose in- 
 terest in the state for it cannot help them. It 
 means nothing to them. Soon they find that 
 they cannot control their general government, 
 and they lose interest in that. If cared for at 
 
Roosevelt and the Republic 421 
 
 all it is cared for as "the little father" which 
 will provide. 
 
 Removed from the life-giving touch of citi- 
 zen control, the bureaucratic central govern- 
 ment rots from within. Afterward comes gen- 
 eral decay and national death. When the citi- 
 zen's power of resistance was destroyed all 
 was lost. It remained only to ring the death 
 knell. 
 
 If denied participation in legislation, as the 
 President must be denied, if we are to set 
 bounds to expanding executive power, Roose- 
 velt would have made a good President. He 
 is an efficient executive. If kept within the 
 bounds of the constitution, permitted mere ad- 
 visory suggestion and passive disapproval of 
 legislation, Roosevelt would not have been a 
 bad executive. But his effort to control legis- 
 lation and court decision and make the execu- 
 tive the whole government, has produced in 
 him a most sinister and dangerous President. 
 Much legislation has been forced through by 
 Roosevelt. Hundreds of tons of bureau re- 
 ports have been turned out. But there has 
 been no great accomplishment and none is 
 promised. Achievement has been most 
 meagre. No striking progress has been made 
 in transportation, trust or taxation problems. 
 He has adopted but one vital policy of ben- 
 eficent promise — the conserving to the people 
 of their natural resources in mines, forests, and 
 streams. No more important policy could be 
 adopted. While Roosevelt did not originate 
 
422 Roosevelt and the Republic 
 
 this policy his adoption of it should be granted 
 full meed of praise. 
 
 As an agitator Roosevelt has done some 
 good work. Appealing to the popular imagina- 
 tion as he does, he has popularized the ideas 
 of bolder men of greater penetration and enter- 
 prise. The very hubbub he has raised has kept 
 these problems up for public discussion. Some 
 truth has been found in spite of Roosevelt. 
 Predatory wealth is less respectable than it 
 was ten years ago. But Roosevelt might have 
 done vastly greater service in this regard. His 
 pathological partiality for Delphic ambiguity 
 has served to cloud almost every issue he has 
 touched. Truth has been obscured in a cloud 
 of dust. The public mind is confused. Few 
 can now separate the vital from the ephemeral 
 the wheat from the chafif. Some of the most 
 uncompromising reactionaries and some of the 
 most pronounced radicals are shoulder to 
 shoulder with Roosevelt claiming him as their 
 champion. But Roosevelt's service as an agi- 
 tator is slight indeed as compared with the 
 harm he has done in perverting democratic 
 ideals and centralizing governmental power. 
 Through him the people of the United States 
 have not only tolerated but accepted and ap- 
 plauded a government as personal as that of 
 a Czar. 
 
 Roosevelt's place in history is difficult to 
 forecast. A scrub oak immediately in front of 
 us may overtop in our vision the lofty but dis- 
 tant moimtain peak. Roosevelt's size cannot 
 be determined finallv until he moves farther 
 
RoOSEVELt AND THE REPUBLIC 4^3 
 
 away. Certainly he will grow smaller with 
 the lapse of time. Whether he will shrink into 
 a mere scrub-oak of statesmanship is still an 
 open question. 
 
 As we view it, his future size will depend 
 upon the future course of the Republic. This 
 none but a prophet can foresee. Centuries are 
 but years in the nation's life. A presidential 
 term but the episode of a fortnight. What it 
 may have accomplished no man can say in 
 advance. But the seed for the future harvest 
 may be sown in a day. More than that — a 
 death germ may be planted in a moment. 
 What moment is beyond our ken. Seeds of 
 the white death lie dormant in many a robust 
 bosom, unsuspected for years. It took Rome 
 fourteen hundred years to disintegrate after 
 the beginning of the end. 
 
 If this nation should become a great imperi- 
 alistic military power, inspiring admiration by 
 its splendor and fear by its momentary 
 strength ; if after a hectic feverish course of 
 apparent brilliancy, should ensue the palsied 
 inefficiency of bureaucracy, with the inevitable 
 death and disintegration, some future Gibbon, 
 telling some future people, lusty in the 
 strength of young manhood, the story of its 
 rise and fall, would designate the time of the 
 Spanish war as the day upon which the seeds 
 of the white death had been sown. Theodore 
 Roosevelt would be written down as the Presi- 
 dent who had seen to it that these seeds had 
 taken root. And Roosevelt would be remem- 
 bered. 
 
424 Roosevelt and the Republic 
 
 "First freedom and then glory ; when that 
 fails, wealth, vice, corruption, barbarism at 
 last." 
 
 Roosevelt would come in the beginning of 
 the epoch of glory. 
 
 On the other hand, should the bright sun- 
 light and pure air of life-giving freedom 
 strengthen our Republic to throw off the men- 
 ace of this white death — destroy this cankering 
 germ which imperial ambition has planted in 
 its bosom ; if defying time, our Republic should 
 live a democratic sanctuary through the ages, 
 then the period of Roosevelt will be but a 
 feverish, unsubstantial dream. He shall then 
 be counted as one of the evanescent, inconse- 
 quent incidents of our national life. 
 
 But one enigma will stand through time and 
 eternity: — why democrats devoted to the Re- 
 public could have come to regard Roosevelt 
 as their champion. 
 
 THE END. 
 
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