Colonel Roosevelt (135 page)
Authors: Edmund Morris
36
“Quand on parle”
TR quoted in
Journal des Débats Politiques et Littéraires
, 24 Apr. 1910. Jusserand compared TR’s way of searching for the
mot juste
in French to that of someone grasping at “a slippery piece of soap” in the bath. Wister,
Roosevelt
, 166.
37
Shortly before three
Journal des Débats
, 24 Apr., and
The Times
, 25 Apr. 1910.
38
he proceeded to read
The following quotations from TR’s Sorbonne address are taken from the version in TR,
Works
, 15, 349–76.
39
This touched on
“To them [the French] the German menace is like a constant nightmare, which may perhaps be explained by the fact that most of the older men know what an invasion means.” British naval attaché report, 22 Jan. 1910, quoted in Kenneth Bourne, ed.,
British Documents on Foreign Affairs: Reports and Papers from the Foreign Office Confidential Print
, pt. 1, ser. F, 13.100. (Hereafter Bourne,
British Documents.)
40
Roosevelt bit off
The Times
, 25 Apr. 1910;
Le Gaulois
, quoted in
Literary Digest
, 21 May 1910.
41
It is not the critic
TR,
Works
, 15.354. According to
The Times
, 25 Apr. 1910, TR won further ovations when he repeated one of his own paragraphs, a declaration that “property belongs to man and not man to property” in French. He resorted to antique French for a closing quote from Froissart:
Le royaume de la France ne fut onques se déconfit qu’on n’y trouvât bien toujours á qui combattre
(“The realm of France was never so stricken that there were not left men who would valiantly fight for it.”) For a modern reprint of his speech, see John Allen Gable, ed.,
The Man in the Arena: Speeches and Essays by Theodore Roosevelt
(Oyster Bay, N.Y., 1991). It is available on many Internet websites, and remains one of TR’s most-quoted orations.
42
one of his greatest rhetorical triumphs
Journal des Débats
, 24 Apr. 1910; Jules Jusserand to TR, 10 May 1910 (TRP); TR,
Letters
, 7.379–80;
The New York Times
, 25 Apr. 1910. After TR’s departure, an American military officer in Paris reported that the Briand government had suppressed a “monster” May Day demonstration by socialist and revolutionary groups. For the first time in fifteen years, policemen were allowed to use firearms in their own self-defense. This policy was “freely attributed in intelligent quarters” to TR’s morale-boosting speech. Abbott,
Impressions of TR
, 166.
43
Only two
Literary Digest
, 18 June 1910; TR,
Works
, 15.645; Jules Jusserand to TR, 10 May 1910 (TRP); TR,
Letters
, 7.77. “Never since Napoleon dawned on Europe, has such an impression been produced there as has been made by Theodore Roosevelt,”
Le Temps
commented.
44
He wanted to
TR,
Letters
, 7.381. For an account of the Dreyfus case and its effect on French morale after 1906, see Tuchman,
The Proud Tower
, 171–226.
45
For two and a quarter hours
The Times
and
The New York Times
, 28 Apr. 1910. “The maneuver was necessarily too rapid,” TR told the military governor of Paris afterward. “You have made your men do in half an hour what should in reality take four hours.”
The Times
, 28 Apr. 1910.
46
two aides
O’Laughlin continued to act as the semi-official chronicler of TR’s travels, in charge of a press contingent that grew to six by the time his tour reached Paris. Harper to Arthur Beaupré, 25 Apr. 1910 (TRP).
47
They traveled east
ERD to Edwin Arlington Robinson, 28 Apr. 1910; TR,
Letters
, 7.382–83.
48
A sobering display
TR could see from the bridge of his own ship the German imperial yacht
Meteor
, and a small launch named
Alice Roosevelt
in honor of his daughter. ARL had launched the
Meteor
from a New Jersey shipyard in 1902. There was some speculation that TR had been snubbed at Kiel by the no-show of a local resident, Prince Heinrich of Prussia. But a letter of profound apology from the prince (Wilhelm II’s brother), indicates that it was caused by a staff failure.
Chicago Tribune
, 3 May 1910; Sylvia Morris,
Edith Kermit Roosevelt
, 234–35; Heinrich (“Henry”) to TR, May 1910 (TRP).
49
signs of ominous enlargement
The work of widening the Kaiser Wilhelm (now Kiel) Canal was completed by 1914.
50
King Frederick VIII
TR,
African and European Addresses
, 138. Crown Princess Alexandra of Denmark was the daughter of Edward VII.
51
“as funny a kingdom”
TR,
Letters
, 7.385–86. For an account of TR’s visit, and a discussion of the publicity his Nobel Prize brought to newly independent Norway, see Wayne Cole,
Norway and the United States, 1905–1955: Two Democracies in Peace and War
(Ames, Iowa, 1989).
52
The pesky little millionaire
Wall,
Andrew Carnegie
, 931; TR,
Letters
, 7.47–49. For TR’s initial efforts to make the appeal seem to come from Elihu Root, see TR,
Letters
, 7.42, 55. For the presidential involvement with arms control (at the time of the Second Hague Peace Conference) that TR refers to, see Frederick C. Leiner, “The Unknown Effort: Theodore Roosevelt’s Battleship Plan and International Arms Limitation Talks, 1906–1907,”
Military Affairs
, 48.3 (1984), and Morris,
Theodore Rex
, 485, 726. For an amusing, recently discovered letter in which TR dismisses Carnegie as “a perfect goose” in public affairs, see
Theodore Roosevelt Association Journal
, 30.3 (Summer 2009), 20–23.
53
Christiana was
Wall,
Andrew Carnegie
, 934; Tuchman,
The Proud Tower
, 278.
54
Roosevelt’s oration
Chicago Tribune
, 6 May 1910; TR,
Works
, 18.410.
55
He gave conditional
TR,
Works
, 18.414.
56
“international police power”
Ibid., 18.415.
57
“There’s a trace of the savage”
Wall,
Andrew Carnegie
, 935, 980. For the unexpectedly favorable reaction of an influential Norwegian commentator to TR’s speech, see
American Review of Reviews
, 42.3 (Aug. 1910).
58
Coughing and feverish
EKR to TR.Jr., 8 May 1910 (TRJP);
The New York Times
, 9 May 1910. “I don’t like living in these palaces because you can’t ring your bell and complain of your room!” TR quoted in Abbott,
Impressions of TR
, 296.
59
He sent a telegram
TR,
Letters
, 7.390; New York
Tribune
, 8 May 1910.
60
It had shone
Margot Asquith,
The Autobiography of Margot Asquith
(Boston, 1963), 269.
61
The first thing
TR,
Letters
, 7.390; Wellman, “The Homecoming of Roosevelt.”
62
the foremost nation
Tuchman,
The Proud Tower
, 291; Edward Grey,
Twenty-five Years: 1892–1916
(New York, 1925), 2.22; TR,
Letters
, 7.391. Between 1900 and 1910, Germany’s steel production increased 1,355 percent to Britain’s 154 percent. For other statistics, see Giles MacDonogh,
The Last Kaiser: The Life of Wilhelm II
(New York, 2000), 321.
63
Germany’s fields and forests
For a vivid picture of pre-war Germany, see Owen Wister,
The Pentecost of Calamity
(New York, 1917), 18–23. See also Modris Ecksteins,
Rites of Spring: The Great War and the Birth of the Modern Age
(Boston,1989), 77–82.
64
There was a frenzied scurrying
O’Laughlin,
From the Jungle Through Europe
, 148; EKR diary, 10 May 1910 (TRP).
65
Wilhelm II in 1910
TR,
Letters
, 7.393; John C. G. Röhl, ed.,
Kaiser Wilhelm II: New Interpretations—The Corfu Papers
(Cambridge, UK, 1982), 3–10, 14–19; Ragnhild Fiebig von Hase, “The Uses of ‘Friendship’: The ‘Personal Regime’ of
Wilhelm II and Theodore Roosevelt, 1901–1909,” in Annika Mombauer and Wilhelm Deist, eds.,
The Kaiser: New Research on Wilhelm II’s Role in Imperial Germany
(Cambridge, UK, 2004), 143–94.
66
Two years earlier
MacDonogh,
The Last Kaiser
, chap. 12; John C. G. Röhl,
The Kaiser and His Court: Wilhelm II and the Government of Germany
(Cambridge, UK, 1996).
67
a fantasist of Münchausian dimensions
Ecksteins,
Rites of Spring
, 87–88. TR had sensed the Kaiser’s reincarnation fantasy as long before as 1902. “He writes to me pretending that he is a [direct] descendant of Frederick the Great! I know better and feel inclined to tell him so.” See Morris,
Theodore Rex
, 185–86, and Michael Balfour,
The Kaiser and His Time
(New York, 1964, 1972), 85.
68
Were it not
O’Laughlin,
From the Jungle Through Europe
, 148;
Manchester Guardian
, 20, 21 May 1910; James W. Gerard,
Face to Face with Kaiserism
(New York, 1918), 20.
69
They stood face-to-face
Abbott,
Impressions of TR
, 252–53. Accounts vary as to how long this conversation lasted. TR remembered it as three hours, the New York
Tribune
reported “more than an hour,” and Stanley Shaw, in his
William of Germany
(London, 1913), wrote that “the shades of evening began to fall before it ended.” Abbott is precise in recalling that the party managed to catch its 4 p.m. train back to Berlin, but forgets that the Kaiser also escorted the Roosevelts on a tour of Sans Souci. Whatever the case, TR (who saw the Kaiser twice again) had plenty of time to take his measure, and write a perceptive portrait of him. TR,
Letters
, 7.394–99.
70
Reporting afterward
TR,
Letters
, 7.395. For the epistolary relationship of TR and Trevelyan, see Burton, “Theodore Roosevelt and His English Correspondents.”
71
At least we agreed
TR,
Letters
, 7.396.
72
Roosevelt asked
Ibid., 7.398. At a meeting of the Navy League in Berlin on 22 May 1910, Admiral Hans von Köster noted that every naval power was currently trying “to reach the highest possible degree of readiness for war.” Bourne,
British Documents
, pt. 1, ser. F, 21.77–78.
73
This sounded reasonable
TR,
Letters
, 7.399.
74
By the time
EKR diary, 10 May 1910 (TRC);
Chicago Tribune
, 12 May 1910.
75
He cabled
Chicago Tribune
, 12 May 1910; Henry F. Pringle,
The Life and Times of William Howard Taft
(New York, 1939), 542.
76
More vocal wear
KR diary, 11 May 1910 (KRP);
Chicago Tribune
, 12 May 1910; O’Laughlin,
From the Jungle Through Europe
, 150–51. TR’s “suite” was also accredited with naval and military aides-de-camp.
Foreign Relations of the United States
, 1910, 528.
77
“Roosevelt,
mein Freund
”
There are various versions of the Kaiser’s words, overheard by many listeners. This version was repeated by Henry White to Lawrence Abbott on the evening after the ceremony. The phrase
mein Freund
struck White as unusually intimate for Wilhelm II, on such a military occasion. Nevins,
Henry White
, 302.
78
Roosevelt knew this
Morris,
Theodore Rex
, 186; New York
Tribune
, 12 May 1910; O’Laughlin,
From the Jungle Through Europe
, 150.
79
Lifting his hat
Chicago Tribune
, 12 May 1910; Looker,
Colonel Roosevelt
, 122–23.
Biographical Note:
This paragraph represents the author’s interpretation of a curious passage that Looker wrote after interviewing EKR many years later. Since Looker had known all the Roosevelts intimately from his days as a member of the “White House Gang,” and since EKR endorsed his book with a personal
letter (facsimile, 116), the passage deserves attention. In its entirety, it reads as follows: “In talks with his family he [TR] indicated that ‘the Kaiser most evidently showed, in company with some lesser sovereigns, a sort of double-barreled perspective as he went through this show. He was sitting on his horse seeing two different divisions of things happening about himself. One included his own observations of my own impressions of the pageant, the Staff’s impressions and his own as the various battle units passed by us all. The other was as if his mental ghost had spurred away from us, halted, faced about, and was now scrutinizing himself and all of us through foreign eyes in order to understand what the rest of the world would think. As if the rest of the world at this particular moment was the slightest bit interested or even amused! It was just the same dual thought that made it possible for him to look upon his own human acts in one way and upon such Imperial acts, as he selected from the point of view of his “divine right,” in another. He was actually, as far as I could discover, one of the last of those curious creatures who sincerely believed himself to be a demi-god.’ ”
