Theodore Rex (163 page)

50
They confirmed
TR,
Works
, vol. 18, 428ff.; this crossing occurred on 16 Sept. 1903; Obaldía’s party felt that the United States would “undoubtedly adopt the Nicaragua route.” Humphrey, “History of the Revolution.”

51
He and Murphy
Humphrey, “History of the Revolution.”

52
Casting aside his
Ibid.

53
Humphrey had declined
Ibid.

54
“There goes our”
Grayson M.-P. Murphy, interviewed by Henry Pringle, 2 Apr. 1930 (HP).

55
ROOSEVELT SPENT
White House appointment book, 17 Oct. 1903 (TRP); Putnam,
Memories of a Publisher
, 145–47.

56
On Monday, crisp cables
TR,
Presidential Addresses and State Papers
, vol. 2,
726; DuVal,
Cadiz to Cathay
, 312–13; John Nikol and Francis Holbrook, “Naval Operations in the Panama Revolution of 1903,”
American Neptune
38 (Oct. 1977);
Story of Panama
, 429.

57
In coincidental, yet
Story of Panama
, 664; Morris,
Rise of Theodore Roosevelt
, 629–31.

58
On 23 October
TR,
Letters to Kermit
, 45.

59
On 26 October
Story of Panama
, 380; DuVal,
Cadiz to Cathay
, 279; Miner,
Fight for the Panama Route
, 360–61.

60
On 27 October
Story of Panama
, 328–29; McCullough,
Path Between the Seas
, 361–62; Documents, 22 Oct. 1903, in PBV.

61
“The only dangerous”
Bunau-Varilla,
Panama
, 324.

62
Judging from his
Ibid., 323, 327.

63
FATE NEWS BAD
Manuel Amador to Philippe Bunau-Varilla, 29 Oct. 1903, original in PBV.

64
Some of it
Bunau-Varilla,
Panama
, 328.

65
He was being asked
Ibid., 329.

66
Francis B. Loomis
Bunau-Varilla, interviewed by Howard K. Beale, July 1936 (HKB); Fletcher, “Canal Site Diplomacy,” 165;
Story of Panama
, 331.

67
Riding back to New York
Story of Panama
, 381.

68
Newspapers aboard
The New York Times
, 29 Oct. 1903; DuVal,
Cadiz to Cathay
, 313–14. Although he does not say so, Bunau-Varilla might have been told by Loomis that the
Nashville
had just been given (or was about to be given) its secret order to proceed at full speed to Colón. The gunboat left Kingston the following morning, Saturday, 31 Oct. Chauncey B. Humphrey states that “about Oct. 31,” he heard that two Colombian battalions were on their way to relieve the garrison guard in Panama City. “I … informed President Roosevelt what would happen [a revolution]. He sent immediately the gunboat
Nashville
with 450 marines to Colon to prevent the landing of these two battalions.” In the event, only one battalion arrived.
The New York Times, 1
Nov. 1903; Humphrey, “History of the Revolution.” See also McCullough,
Path Between the Seas
, 360.

69
ALL RIGHT
Bunau-Varilla,
Panama
, 332; Fletcher, “Canal Site Diplomacy,” 165–66.

70
Ton and a half
On this day, Hay cabled Beaupré suggesting that he take “a leave of absence” from Bogotá.
Foreign Relations 1903
, 218.

71
ROOSEVELT SWATTED
James Garfield diary, 29 Oct. 1903 (JRG).

72
It was his habit
Lodge,
Selections
, vol. 2, 60–61;
Review of Reviews
, Dec. 1903.

73
In New York
Pringle,
Theodore Roosevelt
, 339–40; Leupp,
The Man Roosevelt
, 147–55; Mark Hanna to George Perkins, ca. early Oct. 1903 (GWP); TR,
Letters
, vol. 3, 640. There is much criticism in the correspondence of Charles Francis Adams and James Wilson of TR’s factional fence-straddling. Wilson, showing remarkable disloyalty for a Cabinet officer, complained on 14 Oct., “In New York he is a [Thomas] Platt man, in Pennsylvania a Quay man, and in Delaware [a John] Addicks man, and that is all there is of it” (JHW).

74
At least there was
The Washington Post
, 16 Oct. 1903; Tilchin,
Theodore Roosevelt
, 46–48. Ambrose Bierce’s
The Cynic’s Word Book
(New York, 1906), carried this definition of
boundary:
“In political geography, an imaginary line between two nations, separating the imaginary rights of one from the imaginary rights of the other.”

75
“I think you are”
Lodge,
Selections
, vol. 2, 60–61. Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., wrote to congratulate him on scoring “a personal triumph.” Holmes to TR, 21 Oct. 1903 (TRP).

76
Master of human
A Collection of the Writings of John James Ingalls
(Kansas City, Mo., 1902), 97. See also Hale,
Week in the White House
, 10.

77
Whatever happened
TR,
Autobiography
, 526. TR told Jules Jusserand around this time that he would force canal construction “even if war resulted.” Jules Jusserand to Théophile Delcassé, 17 Nov. 1903 (JJ). See also Friedlander, “Reassessment.”

78
ALL DAY LONG
Amador had been warned of the troopship’s probable arrival by Governor Obaldía. McCullough,
Path Between the Seas
, 362.

79
In a series
Story of Panama
, 382.

80
The coordinated grace
Nikol and Holbrook, “Naval Operations”; Bunau-Varilla,
Panama
, 334.

81
the
junta
had postponed
Story of Panama
, 382.

82
Now the plot was
The Governor’s acquiescence was taken for granted, since he lived in Amador’s house. Clapp,
Forgotten First Citizen
, 314;
Story of Panama
, 385; McCullough,
Path Between the Seas
, 369.

83
General Esteban Huertas
Huertas has been disparaged by historians because he accepted a bribe of sixty-five thousand dollars, wore a large number of feathers, and stood not much taller than his own sword. But he was strong-willed and principled enough to give the
junta
many anxious moments. See DuVal,
Cadiz to Cathay
, 321–22, 331.

84
Huertas’s battalion
Ibid., 337, 327, 307–8, 277–79;
Story of Panama
, 382–84.

85
PREVENT LANDING
Miner,
Fight for the Panama Route
, 361–62. The
Dixie
received an identical cable.

86
A similar order
Story of Panama
, 383;
Foreign Relations 1903
, 236; McCullough,
Path Between the Seas
, 364.

87
He was awakened
The following timings of TR’s day are taken from news items covering his trip in Presidential scrapbook (TRP).

88
Commander Hubbard sent
John Hubbard to William H. Moody, 8 Nov. 1903 (TRP);
Story of Panama
, 380, 387, 430

89
agreed that at all
Story of Panama
, 388; Shaler had already transferred most of his available passenger cars to the other end of the line. McCullough,
Path Between the Seas
, 363.

90
Hubbard’s problem was
John Hubbard to William H. Moody, 8 Nov. 1903 (TRP);
Story of Panama
, 430. The number of
tiradores
was underestimated in some official communications during the day.

91
Simultaneously, Roosevelt
Washington
Evening Star, 3
Nov. 1903.

92
Another, very short
Fletcher, “Canal Site Diplomacy,” 166;
Story of Panama
, 340–41. The author assumes that the Panamanian jungle was as luxuriant in Nov. 1903 as it was when he crossed the Isthmus on this same railroad in 1980.

93
THE PRESIDENT VOTED
New York
Sun
, 4 Nov. 1903; Kerr,
Bully Father
, 134.

94
After about a half
Kerr,
Bully Father
, 135. The “desolate emotions” referred to are conveyed not just between the lines of the letters TR wrote about this visit, but in his idiosyncratic use of the word
homesickness
. Since childhood, when a photograph of Edith Carow possessed him with “homesickness and longing for the past,” he tended to conflate both emotions into a general sense of
temps perdu
. Morris,
Rise of Theodore Roosevelt
, 54.

95
AS ROOSEVELT DID SO
Hubbard received his orders (misdirected to another boat in Colón harbor) at 10:30
A.M.
TR came down from Sagamore Hill around that time, and left Oyster Bay at 11:15
A.M.
John Hubbard to William H. Moody, 8 Nov. 1903 (TRP).

96
The
tiradores
did
The Washington Post
, 4 Nov. 1903; John Hubbard to William
H. Moody, 8 Nov. 1903 (TRP). Hubbard’s cable, described as “mutilated” in
Story of Panama
, 289, appears to have been garbled in transmission. See Nikol and Holbrook, “Naval Operations.”

97
A certain lack
Story of Panama
, 390; John Hubbard to William H. Moody, 8 Nov. 1903 (TRP). The
junta
had decided to advance the time of revolution to five o’clock that afternoon. Washington
Evening Star
, 4 Nov. 1903; DuVal,
Cadiz to Cathay
, 325.

98
He cast his mind
TR,
Letters
, vol. 3, 642. The catalog of TR’s reading in the following pages is taken from his letter to Butler, reproduced in
Letters
, vol. 3, 641–44.

99
Sophocles’
Seven Against
Actually Aeschylus.

100
REVOLUTION IMMINENT
Foreign Relations 1903
, 235. This telegram arrived at 2:35
P.M
.

101
Washington was ill
Ibid., 231;
Story of Panama
, 393.

102
Governor Obaldía had
Story of Panama
, 392–93.

103
Lady Gregory’s and
TR slightly misspelled some of his Irish citations (e.g.,
Turin
for
Tuirean)
. The Gregory and Hull titles are separate books, respectively
Cuchulain of Muirthemne
and
The Cuchullin Saga in Irish Literature
.

104
WHEN ELISEO TORRES
Story of Panama
, 440–41.

105
Torres waxed more
Ibid.

106
“I would be willing”
TR,
Letters
, vol. 3, 643.

107
FIVE O’CLOCK CAME
Story of Panama
, 395. Prescott had indeed been involved in revolutionary plotting since the birth of the
junta
. McCullough,
Path Between the Seas
, 342.

108
Subsequent calls
Story of Panama
, 394–95; John Hubbard to William H. Moody, 8 Nov. 1903 (TRP).

109
One of their first
Story of Panama
, 396.

110
“Of course I have”
TR,
Letters
, vol. 3, 643–44.

111
He dozed off
The Washington Post
, 4 Nov. 1903; Presidential scrapbook (TRP).

112
Refusing comment
Washington
Evening Star
, 3 Nov. 1903;
The Washington Post
, 4 Nov. 1903.

113
UPRISING OCCURRED
Foreign Relations 1903
, 231. The word
Barranquilla
refers to the troopship’s port of origin.

114
Roosevelt sent at once
Washington
Evening Star
and New York
Sun
, 4 Nov. 1903, clips in John Hay scrapbook (JH). There is hour-by-hour newspaper coverage of the revolution in this archive. The Panama dispatches to the New York
Herald
(written by the brother of a
junta
member) seem to have been especially valued by Hay, who annotated many of them.

115
All the more
Foreign Relations 1903
, 236.

116
But “reason” of
Washington
Evening Star, 4
Nov. 1903.

117
For
NASHVILLE
White House telegraph copy (unsigned), 3 Nov. 1903 (TRP). News of the instructions was leaked to the New York
Sun
.

118
By
10:30
P.M.
Story of Panama
, 440. A similar cable, almost directly quoting the White House draft, was sent out at 11:18 by Darling (399).

119
The
Atlanta
had
Nikol and Holbrook, “Naval Operations.”