Theodore Rex (134 page)

15
Yet just when
See Corinne Roosevelt Robinson,
My Brother, Theodore Roosevelt
(New York,
1921), 198.
TR was “very depressed” as Vice President, his daughter Alice remembered. “He thought …[it] was the end of his career” (Michael Teague,
Mrs. L.: Conversations with Alice Roosevelt Longworth
[New York,
1981], 112).
Notwithstanding his plans for 1904, TR talked miserably of becoming a lawyer, or of writing further installments of his multivolume history,
The
Winning of the West
(George Haven Putnam,
Memories of a Publisher
[New York,
1915], 144;
TR,
Letters
, vol.
3, 31, 72).
The most comprehensive account of TR’s prepresidential career is Edmund Morris,
The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt
(New York, 1979), to which this volume is a sequel. For a detailed study of TR’s first twenty-eight years, see Carleton Putnam,
Theodore Roosevelt: The Formative Years
(New York, 1958). David McCullough,
Mornings on Horseback
(New York, 1981), covers the same period. TR’s family life and second marriage are fully described in Morris,
Edith Kermit Roosevelt
.

16
His path ran
Murphy,
Theodore Roosevelt’s Night Ride
, 25.

17
The final dash
The New York Times
, New York
Press
, and New York
Herald
, 15 Sept. 1901. Cronin’s time of 1:41 from Aiden Lair to North Creek beat his own previous record by a quarter of an hour. Later that month, a reporter attempted the same drive, at night and under similar conditions; it took him four hours (New York
World
, 29 Sept. 1901). The record still stands. Murphy,
Theodore Roosevelt’s Night Ride
, 29.

18
the president died
Facsimile telegram, 14 Sept. 1901 (TRB).

19
Looking suddenly worn
The New York Times
and New York
World
, 15 Sept. 1901; Murphy,
Theodore Roosevelt’s Night Ride
, 26–27.

20
roosevelt’s first words
New York
World
, 15 Sept., and New York
Herald
, 14 Sept. 1901; William Loeb, Jr., to author, 28 Feb. 1975 (AC).

21
Mount Marcy’s cloud banks
New York
Herald
and New York
World
, 15 Sept. 1901; Morris,
Edith Kermit Roosevelt
, 214–21.

22
At about seven o’clock
New York
Sun
, 15 Sept. 1901.

23
Roosevelt did not need
Ibid., 15 and 10 Sept. 1901. For an account of the anarchist phenomenon in Europe and America, 1890–1914, see Barbara Tuchman,
The Proud Tower
(New York,
1966), 63–113
.

24
Personally, Roosevelt
TR,
Letters
, vol. 3, 2. Later in the year, he dreamed of doing the same with even bigger game. “We could kill a big grizzly or silver tip with our knives, which would be great sport” (ibid., 91). See also Lloyd C. Griscom,
Diplomatically Speaking
(Boston,
1940), 221–22
.

25
His larger concern
TR specifically cited such social bacteria as William Randolph Hearst, John P. Altgeld, “and to an only less degree, Tolstoy and the feeble apostles of Tolstoy, like Ernest Howard Crosby and William Dean Howells.” TR,
Letters
, vol. 3, 142.

26
When, accepting
Ibid.; TR,
Works
, vol. 1, 43–45.

27
Youth, size
TR was forty-two years and nearly eleven months old on acceding to the Presidency. He remains the youngest President in U.S. history, John F. Kennedy being the youngest President elected. For a classic statement of his views on “the essential manliness of the American character,” as well as his attitudes toward some of the problems confronting the United States at the turn of the century, see “National Duties,” the speech he delivered at the Minnesota State Fair on 2 Sept. 1901, four days before the attack on McKinley. It is a source of the ideology set forth here. TR,
Works
, vol. 15, 328–41.

28
He refused to
Ibid., vol. 14, 235; vol. 15, 316.

29
Roosevelt, sucking
The following survey of press reportage on 14 Sept. 1901 is taken from newspaper clippings preserved in TR scrapbooks (TRP). These volumes, assembled by William Loeb, Jr., and often contributed to by the President himself, form a reliable guide to TR’s own perception of public opinion, 1901–1909.

30
A remarkable consensus
New York
Sun
, New York
World
, New York
Herald, The New York Times
, and New York
Press
, 14–15 Sept. 1901 (originals at TRB). A typical reaction of one Wall Street executive, on hearing that TR was about to become President: “When Teddy’s done with America it’ll require another Christopher
Columbus to find what’s left of it” (New York dispatch to
The Times
[London], 15 Sept. 1901). See White,
Masks in a Pageant
, 295, and Pringle,
Theodore Roosevelt
, 237ff., for the “terror” that gripped the financial community that weekend.

31
as the news
Morris,
Rise of Theodore Roosevelt
, 73, 337.

32
In Albany, an old
Frances Theodora (Smith) Parsons,
Perchance Some Day
(privately printed, New York, 1951; copy in TRC), 120, 135–36; also Mrs. Parsons to TR, 14 Sept. 1901 (TRB); Russell B. Harrison to TR, 8 Nov. 1901 (TRP); Arthur Lee, Viscount of Fareham,
A Good Innings
(privately printed, London, 1939), vol. 1, 254; Adams,
Letters
, vol. 5, 295.

33
Yet there was
All these achievements are described in Morris,
Rise of Theodore Roosevelt
. The best overall survey of TR’s superhuman variety remains Edward Wagenknecht,
The Seven Worlds of Theodore Roosevelt
(New York, 1958).

34
thousands of people
The following account of TR’s arrival and inauguration in Buffalo is based on an October 1902 memorandum by Ansley Wilcox, preserved in the Wilcox scrapbook, Buffalo and Erie County Historical Society, N.Y.; “Story of the Wilcox House,” recollections of Judge John R. Hazel in
Buffalo Evening News
, 15 Nov. 1963; and dozens of local and national news clips, 14–16 Sept. 1901, in the Wilcox scrapbook and TRB files. Incidental sources are cited below.

35
Roosevelt’s companion
Wilcox memorandum, Wilcox scrapbook.

36
The cavalcade moved
Photographs in ibid. Julia Bundy Foraker was in Buffalo that day. “A pall hung over life. The universe lowered its voice.”
I Would Live It Again: Memories of a Vivid Life
(New York, 1932), 267.

37
Over lunch, he said
Wilcox scrapbook;
The New York Times
and New York
Herald
, 15 Sept. 1901.

38
He would go there
Wilcox scrapbook; Mrs. Nathaniel K. B. Patch interviews, 19 Sept. 1935 and 30 Apr. 1969, t.s. in Wilcox Mansion. Mrs. Patch was the teenage girl outside the house (below).

39
Even now
Mrs. Patch interviews, Wilcox Mansion.
The New York Times
and New York
Herald
, 15 Sept. 1901, confirm TR’s burst of temper.

40
To swelling cries
Buffalo
Courier
and
Buffalo Express
, 15 Sept. 1901; Pittsburgh
Press
, n.d., Wilcox scrapbook. Many years later, Elihu Root recalled that Hanna had snarled to him: “Now, don’t you wish
you
had taken that Vice-Presidency?” (interview, 2 Sept. 1902, 1935 [PCJ]).

41
A voice called out
TR to John J. Leary, Leary Notebooks (TRC).

42
How often had
Philip C. Jessup,
Elihu Root
(New York, 1938), vol. 1, 423; Morris,
Rise of Theodore Roosevelt
, 677–79; Wallace G. Chessman, “Theodore Roosevelt’s Personal Tax Difficulty,”
New York History
34 (1953): 54–63. See also Jessup,
Elihu Root
, vol. 1, chap. 10.

43
Returning to his carriage
Buffalo
Courier
, 15 Sept. 1901; Wilcox scrapbook.

44
a strange hothouse
glow
This library is now the centerpiece of the restored Wilcox Mansion, officially known as the Theodore Roosevelt National Inaugural Site, a public museum.

45
The luminescence came
Wilcox scrapbook; TR,
Letters
, vol. 1, 582; Morris,
Rise of Theodore Roosevelt
, 376.

46
They proceeded to report
For a typical reminiscence of the ceremony, see Joseph I. C. Clarke,
My Life and Memories
(New York, 1925), 373.

47
The library clock
Buffalo
Courier, Buffalo Express
, and New York
Sun
, 15 Sept. 1901; Hazel, “Story.” The Secretary of War’s emotional struggle might have been more comprehensible to people in the room had they realized that exactly twenty years before, Root had organized another emergency inauguration—that of Chester Arthur, succeeding the assassinated James A. Garfield (Root interview, 23 Jan. 1934 [PCJ]).

48
Roosevelt bowed
Wilcox scrapbook;
The New York Times
and New York
Sun
, 15 Sept. 1901.

49
This speech
The New York Times
, 15 Sept. 1901; New York
World
, 17 Sept. 1901.

50
Roosevelt spoke with
Pittsburgh
Press
, n.d., Wilcox scrapbook. Milburn was a director of the American Express Company and Chase National Bank. Depew, in addition to being Senator, was chairman of the New York Central Railroad.

51
Elihu Root had
Root interview, 23 Jan. 1934 (PCJ); Jessup,
Elihu Root
, vol. 1, 238. In his
Autobiography
, TR failed to mention this debt to Root. Root’s advice had been preceded, earlier in the day, by similar instructions from TR’s brother-in-law, Douglas Robinson, in a letter hand-delivered to the Wilcox Mansion (13 Sept. 1901 [TRP]).

52
Judge Hazel clutched
Wilcox scrapbook; Depew in New York
Sun
, 16 Sept. 1901.

53
Two minutes ticked by
New York
World
and New York
Herald
, 15 Sept. 1901. During these mute moments, wrote William Allen White, “youth, which he has clung to so fondly, left him, and maturity came.” White, “Theodore Roosevelt,”
McClure’s
, Nov. 1901.

54
“Mr. President,”
Buffalo
Courier, The New York Times
, and
Chicago Tribune
, 15 Sept. 1901.

55
“I have witnessed”
New York
Sun
, 16 Sept. 1901.

56
ROOSEVELT REMAINED
Wilcox scrapbook.

57
A reporter was struck
Clarke,
My Life
, 373.

58
The Cabinet meeting
Buffalo
Courier
, 15 Sept. 1901.

59
Business completed
New York
Sun
, New York
Herald
, and Buffalo
Courier
, 15 Sept. 1901. For a detailed study of TR’s security from this day on, see Richard B. Sherman, “Presidential Protection During the Progressive Era: The Aftermath of the McKinley Assassination,”
Historian
, Nov. 1983.

60
Refuge was
The following passage refers to the manuscript of TR’s draft proclamation, preserved in the Wilcox scrapbook.

61
It had always been thus
Owen Wister,
Roosevelt: The Story of a Friendship
(New York, 1930), 68.

62
A
T FOUR O’CLOCK
Buffalo
Courier, The New York Times
, and New York
Herald
, 15 Sept. 1901; Elmer Dover, Hanna’s secretary, interviewed by J. B. Morrow, Sept. 1905 (MHM).

63
Seated inside
Years later, TR still marveled at Hanna’s toughness that afternoon. “Not a particle of subserviency … no worship of the rising sun!” TR interviewed by J. B. Morrow, 17 Apr. 1906 (MHM).

64
That evening, George
Wilcox scrapbook.

65
SOMETIME AFTER MIDNIGHT
The New York Times
, 15 Oct. 1912. See also Morris,
Rise of Theodore Roosevelt
, 505–6, 824n119.

66
Now, as he
Schrank memorandum, 15 Sept. 1912, qu. in Robert Donovan,
The Assassins
(New York, 1955), 137.

67
“This is my murderer”
See ibid., 137–45, for an account of what happened in 1912.

68
ROOSEVELT AWOKE REFRESHED
Chicago Tribune
and New York
World
, 16 Sept. 1901.

69
VIVE LE ROI
William Sturgis Bigelow and George Cabot Lodge to TR, 14 Sept. 1901 (TRP).

70
Kohlsaat followed him
Herman H. Kohlsaat,
From McKinley to Harding: Personal Recollections of Our Presidents
(New York, 1923), 96–97; Arthur Wallace Dunn,
From Harrison to Harding
(New York, 1922), vol. 1, 135. Wilson, Professor of Jurisprudence and Politics at Princeton, was on his way home from Rosseau Falls, Ont.