The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt (85 page)
Read The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt Online
Authors: Edmund Morris
Thanks to a prolonged examination of the charge against Commissioner Lyman, which Roosevelt listened to looking as if he had a bad smell under his nose,
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his own case did not come up for another week. Finally, on the afternoon of Friday, 28 February, Hamilton Shidy was sworn in.
The hapless clerk confirmed that Roosevelt had promised him protection in exchange for testimony against Postmaster Paul in June 1889. Subsequently “I obtained a position in the Census Office … Mr. Roosevelt being particularly friendly and kindly to me in that respect.”
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Sniggers were heard in various parts of the room. Hatton, cross-examining the witness, tricked him into admitting that if he was again asked by a corrupt superior to falsify government records, he would again do so. This was a blow to Roosevelt, who had hoped that Shidy’s moral character would stand up to scrutiny. “I do not care to talk to you any more,” he told him afterward. “You have cut your own throat.”
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Hatton made the most of Roosevelt’s discomfiture in huge, front-page headlines next morning:
SHIDY PROVES TO BE BOTH A SCOUNDREL
AND A FOOL
—
And Roosevelt, knowing his Infamous Character, Forced him into an Important Position
THE MOST SHAMEFUL TESTIMONY EVER OFFERED
Even Roosevelt Hung his Head in Shame
As the Disgraceful Story was Unfolded.
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When the hearings resumed on 1 March, Robert B. Porter, Superintendent of the Census, took the stand. In response to questioning
by Prosecutor Ewart, he testified that Roosevelt had once approached him on behalf of a Milwaukee man who had been “unjustly dismissed” for helping the Civil Service Commission with their work, “and he asked if I could find a place in my office for such a man.”
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But Roosevelt had not said a word about Shidy’s misdeeds.
| E WART | If Mr. Roosevelt had told you that this man had persistently violated the law, had stuffed the lists of eligibles, had mutilated the records and made false certifications, would you have appointed him in your bureau? |
| P ORTER | I certainly should not. |
| E WART | I know you would not! |
Aware that things were not going too well, Roosevelt jumped to his feet.
| R OOSEVELT | You knew I had made a report on the subject? |
| P ORTER | I knew that— |
| R OOSEVELT | And that Shidy and Paul were implicated in that report, and the report was public and that the Postmaster-General had in writing indicated to you his approval of Shidy’s transfer, he having known all about my report and having acted upon it? |
| P ORTER | That is true, I think. 131 |
There was a stir in the room. Roosevelt was clearly willing to drag John Wanamaker into the proceedings. Porter, thoroughly alarmed now, refused to say anything more that might offend the Civil Service Commissioner.
Roosevelt replaced him on the stand and launched into “a brief statement.” The next four pages of the printed transcript, hitherto well splotched with white space, are a solid gray mass of impassioned speech. Speaking with such explosive vigor his spectacles seemed in constant danger of falling off, the Commissioner declared that Shidy had been protected only “because he had done right in trying to atone for his wrongdoing.” Both Porter and Wanamaker
had agreed to the transfer, and both must have been aware of Shidy’s record, since the Milwaukee report “had been spread—broadcast—through the press.” As for himself, said Roosevelt, his conscience was clear. “The Government
must
protect its witnesses who are being persecuted for telling the truth.”
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In an openly hostile cross-examination, Ewart harped on the undeniable fact that Roosevelt had glossed over Shidy’s background when negotiating his transfer. The witness grew flustered.
| E WART | When a man commits perjury … and when he confesses he has made false certifications and has persistently and repeatedly violated the law, is it your belief as a Civil Service Reformer … that he should be reinstated in office? |
| R OOSEVELT | Do you mean in the same position? |
| E WART | The same position, or any position in Government. |
| R OOSEVELT | That would depend on the circumstances of the case. |
| E WART | Take the circumstances of the Shidy case. |
| R OOSEVELT | I mean to say my action was right in the Shidy case … (to the committee, gesticulating) Mr. Ewart is evidently wishing me to state that if these circumstances arose I would not act as I did then, giving the impression that I was sorry for what I had done. On the contrary, I think I was precisely right, and I am glad I took that stand. 133 |
This last declaration, with its rhythmic use of the personal pronoun, has a familiar ring to students of the later Roosevelt. Many times, as he grew older and more set in his ways, he would protest the moral rightness of his decisions; justice was justice “because I did it.”
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T
HE CROSS-EXAMINATION
continued. How did Roosevelt
know
the Postmaster General had been familiar with his report? “I did not read it aloud to him,” Roosevelt replied sarcastically, “but he had acted upon it, and the presumption is fair that he had read it.” Commissioner Thompson stood up to make a statement of full
support for Roosevelt’s actions. But before the old man could say much, the door of the hearing room flew open and in strode John Wanamaker.
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The Postmaster General was hurriedly sworn. Although wreathed in smiles as usual, he did not relish being implicated in Roosevelt’s testimony, and wished to make it clear that he had been an innocent party to the transfer. Roosevelt had spoken so glowingly of Shidy that he had been happy to agree. “I always express myself as pleased if employment is given to a person that Roosevelt might recommend.”
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If he had only known the
truth
about Shidy, of course …
Stung, Roosevelt leaped to the attack.
| R OOSEVELT | All these facts … are in a report that we made to the President of the United States on this matter. You had that report, and had acted upon it, had you not? |
| W ANAMAKER | We had the report. |
| R OOSEVELT | And you had acted upon it, had you not? |
| W ANAMAKER | How do you mean, “acted upon it”? |
| R OOSEVELT | You referred to it … in your letter notifying Mr. Paul that you had accepted his resignation. If there is any doubt in your mind, you can produce the letter, I presume? |
| W ANAMAKER | I cannot say how much influence the Civil Service report had upon me … |
| R OOSEVELT | Would you send a copy of the letter? … My memory is very clear that in that letter you referred to this report. |
| W ANAMAKER | I will furnish it with pleasure. 137 |
The letter was duly furnished, but with little pleasure, for it proved the accuracy of Roosevelt’s memory, as opposed to Wanamaker’s convenient amnesia.
Although the hearings dragged on for another week, neither Hatton nor Ewart was able to uncover any evidence of maladministration by the Civil Service Commission. There was a series of interminable examinations by Roosevelt of George H. Paul, who had
been brought in from Milwaukee especially for that purpose. The humiliated ex-postmaster sat for three days in his chair, helpless as a trussed turkey, while Roosevelt determinedly pulled out his feathers, one by one. Squawks of protest—that Paul had given all this testimony before and had already suffered amply for it—went unheeded. Roosevelt seemed determined to show the committee what an angry Civil Service Commissioner looked like in action. Not until late in the afternoon of Friday, 7 March, did the chairman tactfully suggest that enough was enough.
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E
VEN BEFORE
the committee filed its formal report, it was plain that Roosevelt had scored a personal triumph. He had dominated the hearings from the first day to the last, and had somehow managed to arouse sympathy for his patronage of “Shady Shidy,” as that gentleman was now known. His prestige as Civil Service Commissioner had been greatly enhanced, at the expense of the discredited Lyman and the reticent Thompson. The committee was rumored to be in favor of recommending the creation of a single-headed Commission, with himself the obvious choice as chief, but Roosevelt, surprisingly, opposed this idea, saying that it was attractive but premature. To put a Republican in sole control, he argued, would compromise the Commission’s non-partisan image and make it vulnerable to changing majorities in Congress.
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This was true enough, but sophisticated observers could detect signs of a larger, more long-term ambition in Roosevelt’s modesty. He already had all the power the inadequate Civil Service Law allowed him; killing two colleagues off would not increase it. At thirty-one, he could afford to wait a few more years for real power.
Roosevelt himself admitted, later in life, that it was about this time that he began to cast thoughtful eyes upon 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. “I used to walk by the White House, and my heart would beat a little faster as the thought came to me that possibly
—possibly—
I would some day occupy it as President.”
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Jeremiah Curtin, the translator of Sienkiewicz, happened to catch him in the act one day, during a visit to the White House with Representative Frederick T. Greenhalge of the House Civil Service Committee.
“That man,” said Curtin, “looks precisely as if he had examined the building and, finding it to his liking, had made up his mind to inhabit it.” “I must make you acquainted with him,” replied Green-halge. “But first listen to a prophecy: when he wants this house he will get it. He will yet live here as President.”
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M
ARCH MERGED INTO
A
PRIL
, April into May, but the committee, plagued by absenteeism, kept postponing its report. Roosevelt grew impatient and nervous. “It is very important that the present Commission be given an absolutely clean bill of health … a verdict against us is a verdict against the reform and against decency.”
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Frank Hatton, too, seemed bothered by the suspense; his editorial attacks on Roosevelt grew hysterical. “This scion of ‘better blood,’ ” he raged, “this pampered pink of inherited wealth … this seven months’ child of conceited imbecility [is] a sham, a pretender and a fraud as a reformer and a failure as a business man.” Eventually the flow of vituperation ceased. “The
Post …
having passed the pestiferous Roosevelt between its thumb-nails, drops him and awaits the report of the investigating committee.”
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