The Everything Theodore Roosevelt Book (25 page)

TR had strict criteria for the game wardens he wanted hired. They had to be fit men who were hired and retained based on their “zeal, ability and efficiency with which they perform their duties.” They also had to be woodsmen whose only job was to work in the forests. They were to have no outside business.

Republican Party leaders had no quarrel with TR and his efforts to protect the state’s resources—as long as they did not impinge on their business interests. Yet, there was growing tension between Platt and TR regarding many of his activities as governor, which made the party leaders wonder if they wanted him in office for a second term, which TR wanted but they did not. They sensed a power struggle looming between themselves and TR that favored him.

Friction Grows

It did not appear to the party leaders that the governor was wearing himself out in office. He was administrating the state’s affairs so effortlessly that he had managed to complete two books while in Albany:
The Rough Riders
and
Oliver Cromwell
. But he was wearing them out. They simply were not seeing eye-to-eye.

Platt increased his efforts to get TR out of the governor’s chair—and New York state, if possible. TR continued to govern, despite opposition from his own party leaders in many areas of his administration. That set up a conflict between the two men that spilled over into the entire Republican Party as different factions sought to find the right position for him.

One of the things that kept TR going in New York was his ability to take a punch and keep on fighting. He said, “I no more expected special consideration in politics than I would have expected it in the boxing ring. I wished to act squarely to others, and I wished to be able to show that I could hold my own as against others.” He proved as governor that he could do both.

Some of TR’s opponents wanted to bury him in a job where he could not harm them. His supporters wanted just the opposite; they sought a position that would give him some exposure to the voting public as a steppingstone to the presidency. After a great deal of infighting, the two factions arrived at a compromise: the vice presidency of the United States.

Next Stop: Vice President of the United States

The perfect opportunity for Platt to move TR up—and out—of the state came quickly. Roosevelt had been in office for only a year and people were beginning to tout him as an ideal presidential candidate. TR did nothing to discourage such talk, even though he really did not want the job. Even Platt saw that TR had presidential potential.

One of TR’s most ardent supporters for vice president was his old Western buddy “Buffalo Bill” Cody. At one campaign stop in Kansas, Cody made an eloquent speech on his behalf. He ended it with a few quaint words: “A cyclone from the West had come; no wonder the rats hunted their cellars!” McKinley and TR won Kansas by a wide margin.

The party leader started making inquiries about TR’s chances for the 1900 presidential election. Platt had the same problem that had hindered his choice of candidates for governor of New York in 1898: there was a Republican incumbent in place. That had not deterred Platt in 1898; it didn’t in 1900, either.

Incumbent and highly popular U.S. President William McKinley was almost a lock for re-election in 1900. He had done well in his first term, and there was no reason to believe that he would not continue to retain his effectiveness. But he did not have a vice president as the election approached.

Vice President Garrett Hobart died of heart failure on November 21, 1889, and the party did not replace him. Platt suggested discreetly that Theodore Roosevelt would be an ideal vice president. He placed Roosevelt’s name into the mix. The idea captivated most high-ranking Republicans—including President McKinley.

Roosevelt raised strenuous objections to becoming vice president, claiming that he could not afford to pay his expenses in Washington, D.C., and that his supporters in New York state wanted him to remain as governor. Both arguments had merit.

The national clamor for him to be McKinley’s running mate won the day, however. He threw himself into the campaign.

On March 4, 1901, TR became the vice president of the United States. He did not hold the position long.

Governor Theodore Roosevelt after nomination as VP in 1900

Vice President Theodore Roosevelt

Even though TR got caught up in a political fight not of his own choosing at the 1900 Republican Convention, he benefited ultimately from the outcome. He had some doubts about his duties as vice president for the few months he was in office.

TR did not exactly set the Senate on fire with his March 4, 1901, inaugural speech. It was short at only 411 words. And it was tepid. He closed by saying,

But there is also every reason for facing [these duties] with highhearted resolution and eager and confident faith in our capacity to do them aright … Most deeply do I appreciate the privilege of my position; for high, indeed, is the honor of presiding over the American Senate at the outset of the twentieth century
.

His words outweighed his actions in the coming months.

One problem TR faced as vice president was his inability to shape and implement his own policies. He had to follow the party line, which had never been his preference. And his duties were limited. His primary role was to preside over the Senate, which did not enthrall him. Regardless, he threw himself into the role even though he found it boring at best.

The fact that he had a limited knowledge of parliamentary procedures did not help him carry out his role—or impress the senators over whom he was presiding. Somehow, as TR always did, he muddled through until the Senate adjourned.

Back to Oyster Bay

During the summer of 1901, TR returned to his retreat at Oyster Bay. He accepted speaking engagements and focused on foreign affairs. TR stuck to topics with which he was familiar: building the navy and alerting his audiences to the growing power of certain nations such as Germany and Japan. He and President McKinley were in agreement on many of TR’s ideas, but they did not work together to develop them.

TR also began developing a base of support for a possible presidential campaign in 1904. The Republican nomination would be open, since McKinley would have completed two terms already. And TR realized that the popularity he had enjoyed after the Spanish-American War was fading, so 1904 might represent his best chance for running for president.

As TR laid the groundwork for his presidential campaign and honed his foreign relations expertise and skills, fate stepped in. An assassin named Leon Czolgosz shot President McKinley on September 6, 1901. McKinley died several days later, in the early morning of September 14.

President of the United States

TR took the oath of office the same day President McKinley died. In his typical courageous manner, he did not give a second thought to the danger that the position involved.

The twenty-sixth president of the United States, Theodore Roosevelt, told Congress in his first annual message on December 3, 1901:

No man will ever be restrained from becoming President by any fear as to his personal safety. If the risk to the President’s life became great, it would mean that the office would more and more come to be filled by men of a spirit which would make them resolute and merciless in dealing with every friend of disorder
.

Strangely enough, even though three of the past seven presidents elected since 1860 had been assassinated, TR finished his first term without a vice president. And his vice president from 1905–1909, Charles W. Fairbanks, served in a capacity similar to the one TR had envisioned in his: one of relative anonymity.

TR proved to be as resolute as the man he described in his speech. The continuity in the office of the president of the United States stayed in place uninterrupted as Theodore Roosevelt stepped into the White House.

QUIZ

10-1 President William McKinley was assassinated in September 1901. How many other U.S. presidents had been assassinated up to that point?

A. Seven

B. Three

C. Two

D. None

10-2 “Buffalo Bill” Cody, one of TR’s old friends, got his nickname from:

A. his birthplace of Buffalo, Wyoming.

B. his ability to “buffalo” people.

C. his skills at shooting bison.

D. his experience as mayor of Buffalo, Wyoming.

10-3 Who told the
New York Tribune
in February 1900 that “under no circumstances could I, or would I, accept the nomination for the vice presidency?”

A. Roosevelt Grier

B. Franklin D. Roosevelt

C. Thomas C. Platt

D. Theodore Roosevelt

10-4 Edgar Lee Masters, who was not a fan of TR, was:

A. the man after whom a famous golf tournament in Augusta, Georgia, is named.

B. a poet who is best known for his
Spoon River Anthology
.

C. TR’s first vice president.

D. one of the Rough Riders wounded at the Battle of Santiago.

10-5 Leon Czolgosz was executed for assassinating President McKinley less than two months after his crime
.

A. True

B. False

ANSWERS

10-1. C: Abraham Lincoln (April 14, 1865) and James Garfield (July 2, 1881)

10-2. C: Cody earned a living by providing bison meat to Kansas Pacific Railroad workers. At one point, he killed 4,280 bison during an eight-month period in 1867–1868.