Colonel Roosevelt (136 page)
Authors: Edmund Morris
80
When Edith saw
Looker,
Colonel Roosevelt
, 129–30. In 1912, TR told a reporter, “I tried him with everything I knew, but the only subject on which I could strike fire was war. He knows military history and technique. He knows armies, and that is all. I couldn’t get a spark from him on anything else.” Oscar King Davis,
Released for Publication: Some Inside Political History of Theodore Roosevelt and His Times, 1898–1918
(Boston, 1925), 92.
81
He recovered
Chicago Tribune
, 13 May 1910. The text of TR’s Berlin University address is in TR,
Works
, 14.258–83.
82
Wilhelm had never
Chicago Tribune
, 13 May 1910.
83
“the great house of Hohenzollern”
TR,
Works
, 14.259. TR was privately tickled to discover, in conversations with Wilhelm II, that “his own knowledge of Hohenzollern history was more detailed and accurate than that of the Emperor.” Albert Shaw, “Reminiscences of Theodore Roosevelt,” ts. in SHA.
84
The case of the Jew
TR,
Works
, 14.264.
85
He listed the main
“Practically all the theories of world-development and so forth which Mr. Roosevelt was expounding had been based on the works of the very men he was addressing.” An eyewitness, quoted in
The New Age
, 26 May 1910.
86
genus Americanus egotisticus
This phrase was applied to TR by the Kaiser’s good friend Poultney Bigelow in
Seventy Summers
(London, 1925), 273–74.
87
But it was a warm afternoon
Chicago Tribune
, 13 May 1910.
88
newspapers gave it scant attention
Admiral Köster stated on 22 May 1910 that representatives of the German Navy League had listened “with the greatest interest” to TR’s speech. A few words in particular (“Woe to the nation … whose citizens have lost their courage for battle and their martial spirit”) had “deeply implanted themselves in German hearts.” Bourne,
British Documents
, pt. 1, ser. F, 21.78.
89
substantive interviews
O’Laughlin,
From the Jungle Through Europe
, 151–52.
90
a set of photographs
For facsimiles, see Stefan Lorant,
The Life and Times of Theodore Roosevelt
(Garden City, N.Y., 1959), 526–27. The original photographs are still on display at Sagamore Hill National Historic Site.
91
“Oh, no”
TR,
Letters
, 7.83; John J. Leary,
Talks with T.R
. (Boston 1920), 41.
3:
H
ONORABILEM
T
HEODORUM
1
Epigraph
Robinson,
Collected Poems
, 3.
2
Roosevelt emerged
The New York Times
, 17 May 1910.
3
Reid had won
TR,
Letters
, 7.401–2; Viscount Lee of Fareham,
A Good Innings
(privately printed, London, 1939), 1.415–16. The relationship of TR and Arthur Lee is fully detailed in this two-volume work. For an abridged version, see “
A Good Innings”: The Private Papers of Viscount Lee of Fareham, P.C., G.C.B., G.C.S.I., G.B.E.
, Alan Clark, ed. (London, 1974). See also the section on Lee in Burton, “Theodore Roosevelt and His English Correspondents.” For TR and Reid, see David R. Contosa and Jessica R. Hawthorne, “Rise to World Power: Selected Letters of Whitelaw Reid, 1895–1912,”
Transactions of the American Philosophical Society
, 76.2 (1986).
4
His Majesty turned
TR,
Letters
, 7.402;
The New York Times
and New York
Tribune
, 17 May 1910.
5
Edward VII’s personal throat doctor
The New York Times
, 17 May 1910. One of Edward’s last acts had been to summon Ambassador Reid to Buckingham Palace, and, between spasms of coughing, plan the details of Roosevelt’s visit. Royal Cortissoz,
The Life of Whitelaw Reid
(New York, 1921), 2.411–12.
6
he was hard-pressed
TR also found time to view, with EKR, Edward VII’s coffin lying in state at Buckingham Palace. The next day it was transferred to Westminster Hall.
7
“Confound these kings”
Abbott,
Impressions of TR
, 294. Abbott left the king’s name blank, but he was identified in the press as Haakon of Norway.
8
She floated into
KR diary, 16 May 1910 (KRP); Alice Roosevelt Longworth,
Crowded Hours
(New York, 1933), 177. ARL’s butterfly brilliance is communicated in Michael Teague,
Mrs. L: Conversations with Alice Roosevelt Longworth
(London, 1981). The standard biography is Stacy Cordery,
Alice: Alice Roosevelt Longworth, From White House Princess to Washington Power Broker
(New York, 2007).
9
“a voodoo”
Teague,
Mrs. L.
, 140.
10
“one of the finest fellows”
Henry White to Mrs. White, 18 May 1910 (HW); TR,
Letters
, 7.402.
11
Emerging one morning
The New York Times
, 20 May 1910; Henry White to EKR, 27 Nov. 1922 (correcting the account in Robinson,
My Brother TR
, 261–62). TRC.
12
inside information
Wilhelm II to Theobald von Bethmann-Hollweg, misdated “5 May 1910,” in Edgar T. Dugdale, ed.,
German Diplomatic Documents 1871–1914
(London, 1930), 3.414.
13
It did not seem to cross his mind
Nor, apparently, did the Kaiser notice that Roosevelt, criticizing two out-of-power Tories, had said nothing about his interview with Grey, the key figure in British foreign relations.
14
“I’m going to a Wake”
Alice Hooper reporting to Frederick Jackson Turner in
Dear Lady: The Letters of Frederick Jackson Turner and Alice Forbes Perkins Hooper, 1910–1932
(San Marino, Calif., 1970), 303. The very proper Mrs. Hooper remained “quite honestly shocked” nine years later.
15
“I hardly know”
Unless otherwise identified, the following quotations by TR are taken from his narrative letter to David Gray (“For nobody’s eyes but yours”) in TR,
Letters
, 7.409–12. See also below, 625.
16
In contrast to
The New York Times
, 20 May 1910; Abbott,
Impressions of TR
, 296–97. According to Alice Hooper, Reid remained afraid until the final hour that TR would insist on wearing the uniform of an American colonel of cavalry. See above, 584, and Turner,
Dear Lady
, 303.
17
denying Achduke Franz
TR got this story direct from the Kaiser. Abbott,
Impressions of TR
, 298–99.
18
Monarch vied with monarch
TR’s stories were apparently well circulated in the
royal courts of Europe. Wilhelm II’s favorite was the one of Ben Daniels, marshal of Dodge City, who got his ear “bit off” in the pursuit of frontier justice. Sullivan,
Our Times
, 4.435; TR,
Letters
, 7.367.
19
three more kings
Nevins,
Henry White
, 304.
20
They knew
TR,
Letters
, 7.366–67.
21
“glass coaches”
Unless otherwise identified, the following quotations are taken from TR,
Letters
, 7.412–13.
22
Band music blared
The following account of Edward VII’s funeral is based on the reporting of
The Times, Pall Mall Gazette
, and
Manchester Guardian
, supplemented by
The New York Times
and New York
Tribune
, 20, 21 May 1910. Indented quotations by TR continue to derive from his letter to David Gray, cited above.
23
the strange reticence
For TR’s similar behavior in Buffalo after the death of President McKinley, see Morris,
Theodore Rex
, 11.
24
Pichon’s feelings overcame him
TR told Mark Sullivan afterward that at the climax of Pichon’s rage, his hair “stood out like a head of lettuce.” Sullivan,
Our Times
, 4.436.
25
“One remembers”
The New York Times
, 21 May 1910. Pichon complained afterward that TR “did not exchange half a dozen words within him during the journey.”
The New Age
, 2 June 1910.
26
“destined to make history”
New York
Tribune
, 21 May 1910.
27
The Tsar whom everybody
Later Nicholas II regretted not attending, and in the spring of 1911 pressingly invited TR to visit Russia. But by then TR had had his fill of star-encrusted monarchs. TR,
Letters
, 7.302.
28
The midday heat
Manchester Guardian
, 21 May 1910.
29
Roosevelt suffered
The New York Times
, 20 May 1910.
30
The cloister of St. George’s
Asquith,
Autobiography
, 271;
Chicago Tribune
and
Manchester Guardian
, 21 May 1910.
31
Not until
Chicago Tribune
and
The New York Times
, 20 May 1910; TR,
Letters
, 7413.
32
“Dear old Springy”
For the relationship of TR and Spring Rice, see Morris,
The Rise of TR
, 357–59; Stephen Gwynn, ed.,
The Letters and Friendships of Cecil Spring Rice: A Record
(Boston, 1929),
passim;
and Burton, “Theodore Roosevelt and His English Correspondents.” On 24 May, TR and EKR visited the scene of their wedding, St. George’s Church in Hanover Square, incognito. They asked to see the register for 1886. The verger, indicating a marked page, informed them that it bore the signature of “Mr. Roosevelt, the former President of the United States, who was married here 23 years ago.” He remained unaware of the identity of his visitors until after they left.
The New York Times
, 25 May 1910.
33
Winston Churchill, whom he considered
Lodge,
Selections
, 2.385.
Biographical Note:
While in British East Africa, TR had drawn a sharp distinction between Churchill and an American novelist of the same name—“Winston Churchill the gentleman.” (Lodge,
Selections
, 2.349.) His strange dislike for the Englishman is easier to document than explain. Before listing some instances, their many similarities should be considered. They were both politicians of privileged background who swung leftward in mid-career, soldiers of heroic courage, men of letters celebrating the life of action. Hyperactive, garrulous, egotistical, and family-minded, they worshipped their respective early dying fathers and needed enemies to function at maximum efficiency. Power did not corrupt them.
Their first recorded meeting took place in Dec. 1900. Churchill, just elected to Parliament at age 26, was then on a speaking tour of America, and TR, at 41,
was governor of New York and vice president–elect. He had read the younger man’s memoirs of military service in India and the Sudan, and regretted that he could not attend his Manhattan lecture. “I am really sorry as I am a great admirer of Mr. Churchill’s books, and should very much like to have a chance to meet him socially.” (TR,
Letters
, 2.1454.) The chance materialized later in the month, when Churchill dined with the Roosevelts in Albany and “incensed his hosts by slumping in his chair, puffing on a cigar, and refusing to get up when women came into the room.” (Sylvia Morris,
Edith Kermit Roosevelt
, 539; for another abrasive encounter, see Robinson,
My Brother TR
, 189.) TR thought Churchill was interesting, but “not an attractive fellow.” (TR,
Letters
, 3.116–17.) His disapproval deepened in 1904, when Churchill, in what looked to TR like opportunism, bolted Britain’s foundering Conservative Party and joined the new Liberal government. In 1906, TR read Churchill’s biography of Lord Randolph Churchill, found it “vulgar,” and concluded that the author had inherited “levity, lack of sobriety, lack of permanent principle, and inordinate thirst for that cheap form of admiration which is given to notoriety.” (Lodge,
Selections
, 2.231–32.) Exactly the same accusations would one day be leveled against TR himself. In 1908, when TR was planning his safari, he read a first-serial account by Churchill of killing a white rhinoceros in the Lado Enclave, and was overcome by competitive bloodlust. “I should consider my entire African trip a success if I could get to that country and find the game as Mr. Churchill describes it.… The white rhino is the animal I care most to get—even more than the elephant.” (TR,
Letters
, 6.1383.) Churchill subsequently sent him a presentation copy of
My African Journey
, which TR acknowledged with ill grace: “I do not like Winston Churchill but I suppose ought to write him.” (TR,
Letters
, 6.1465, 1467.) As recorded above (592), he went on to kill nine white rhinos to Churchill’s one.
Churchill’s booziness and lack of consideration for other people were bound to irritate TR, who set great store by probity and good manners. Subconsciously, however, he may have been more disturbed by the many parallels between them. In 1898, for example, both men almost simultaneously participated in historic cavalry charges. Of the two engagements, that at Omdurman was much more bloody, and of their respective published accounts, Churchill’s was incomparably superior. It might be added that Churchill was capable of empathy with, even admiration for, his enemies, whereas TR always demonized them.
