The Everything Theodore Roosevelt Book (15 page)

During a campaign stop, one of TR’s former Rough Riders made a speech on his behalf. He urged the crowd to “Vote for my Colonel! And he will lead you, as he led us, like sheep to the slaughter!” TR noted that it was neither a tribute to his military skill nor his leadership talent. It did amuse the crowd, though.

Another Lesson Learned

Perhaps the biggest lesson TR learned in his brief stay in the West was the need for conservation. He had experienced reservations about the overstocking of cattle and the resulting overgrazing in the Dakota Territory ever since his arrival—although that did not stop him from investing. His fears were realized in the winter of 1886–1887 when the lack of food for cattle and the harsh weather almost destroyed the ranching industry there.

TR realized that there had to be a balance between human and animal needs and nature’s ability to provide for them. The search for that balance became one of his focal issues later in the various political and government offices he filled.

There was a lot of pressure on TR to return to New York City for good. There was no point in staying in the Dakota Territory, since his cattle were all but gone and rebuilding his herds would be costly. Besides, with a new wife and a call from politicians to get him to run for mayor of New York, he did not see a future in the Badlands.

TR opted to return to the home of his birth. He had matured mentally and physically during his hiatus in the West. For him, leaving the land he had learned to love was simply closing another chapter in his book of life. The city and the state of New York—and ultimately the United States—would benefit from his return.

QUIZ

6-1 Owen Wister, TR’s classmate at Harvard, is best known for:

A. discovering wisteria on a nature expedition with TR.

B. writing novels about the West.

C. establishing a newspaper in Nevada called
The Virginian
.

D. his wisdom about the Italian bird named the
La teria
.

6-2 TR came close to participating in an old-fashioned duel with the founder of Medora, North Dakota
.

A. True

B. False

6-3 TR considered the Russian author Leo Tolstoy a degenerate, even though he was not averse to reading his books
.

A. True

B. False

6-4 The contract between William Sewall, Wilmot Dow, and TR regarding their work and payment on the Badlands ranch was never in writing
.

A. True

B. False

ANSWERS

6-1. B: Wister, who graduated from Harvard in 1882, is considered the “father” of Western fiction. His best known work is the 1902 novel, The Virginian, which he dedicated to TR.

6-2. True: The two men settled their differences before the shooting began.

6-3. True: In 1890, the United States Post Office Department banned anyone from mailing newspapers containing serialized installments of Tolstoy’s novella, The Kreutzer Sonata. Theodore Roosevelt called Tolstoy a “sexual moral pervert.”

6-4. True: Sewall believed it was one-sided in his [Sewall’s] favor, but it remained unwritten.

CHAPTER 7

TR Learns How to Gain from Losing

“But anyway, I had a bully time.”

One of the lessons TR had learned almost from birth was that losses were only temporary. Anyone with the right temperament and a resolve to succeed could—and should—use setbacks as lessons and persevere. A particular event that reinforced that lesson for TR was the death of Alice. But he recovered from it starting in 1885 and used the tragedy as one more steppingstone to a happy family life and successful personal career. As he learned, the two go hand in hand.

New Marriage

Not long after Alice’s death, TR met Edith (“Edie”) Kermit Carow at his sister’s house. It was not long before “Teedie” and “Edie” became romantically involved, as many people had suspected they would when they were younger.

Edith Carow Roosevelt

On November 17, 1885, TR proposed to Edith. She accepted. But he did not make their betrothal public at first. He was afraid that people would think he had not allowed enough time to get over his first marriage. But it was not like he was falling head over heels for someone he did not know. TR and Edith had a long history, which was destined to become longer after Alice died.

TR and Edith were not strangers. They had grown up together in New York City. She was his best friend by proxy and a schoolmate of sorts. His mother invited Edie to “enroll” in the home school taught by the younger Roosevelts’ aunt and governess, Anna. Besides, Edith and Conie, who were born only seven weeks and 109 miles apart (she was born in Norwich, Connecticut), were playmates, so Teedie tagged along with them.

Edie and Teedie shared some special moments in their early years. One in particular was poignant. They and Elliott Roosevelt watched President Lincoln’s funeral procession pass by from an upstairs window of the Roosevelt’s grandfather’s house on Union Square in New York City. The Carows lived nearby on Union Square.

President Lincoln’s body was carried by train through several cities en route to his final resting place in Springfield, Illinois. It was a 1,700 mile funeral procession. At ten stops, his casket was removed from the train for public viewings. New York City was one of them. The funeral procession passed by TR’s grandfather’s house.

Thirty-six years later, another presidential assassination would play a role in Teedie’s life. He would assume the presidency to replace the slain William McKinley, alongside “Spotless Edie.”

As a sign of how close TR and Edith were as children, he gave her a pet name based on her penchant for tidiness: “Spotless Edie.” Over the years, their friendship developed into a romance, although it took 25 years and a myriad of vicissitudes before they became husband and wife—and she became a future first lady.

Teedie and Edie Go Their Separate Ways

Into their early teens, the childhood friends spent a lot of time with one another. They were often together during summer events at Oyster Bay, Long Island, which was destined to become their home. They did not see one another exclusively, partly because she was three years younger than him. Edie was always on his mind, though.

Young Theodore painted the name Edith on his rowboat when he was sixteen. Their age difference came into play when he left for college.

TR was seventeen years old when he started classes at Harvard. She was fourteen. The age difference was beginning to show. He was in Massachusetts; she was in New York. He was at Harvard; she was a product of Miss Comstock’s Finishing School in New York City. Distance aside, they continued to share two traits in common: They were both serious students and loved books.

A Mystery of History

Teedie and Edie maintained their friendship while he was at Harvard. It changed after his father died in 1878. Exactly what happened is a mystery of history.

There is some speculation that TR proposed to Edith in the summer of 1878, but she said no. He never admitted to that and would not explain what happened to affect their relationship. He did say later, “we both of us had tempers … that were far from the best.” At any rate, they both moved on with their lives.

Edith attended TR’s October 27, 1880, marriage to Alice Hathaway Lee, but after that they drifted apart. They did not have many opportunities to socialize while he was married. They did see each other occasionally when he traveled from North Dakota to New York to visit. All in all, their get-togethers were few and far between until he returned from his North Dakota adventure in 1886—the same year she moved to London with her widowed mother.

TR caught a lot of people off guard, especially close family members, when he announced his engagement to Edith. As their relationship started growing into something serious, Edith showed her practical side when TR told her he was considering a run for mayor of New York City.

Edith’s Opposition

Theodore had no sooner returned from North Dakota when he got the political itch again and campaigned for mayor of New York City in 1886. He had some significant opposition: the Tammany Hall nominee Democrat Abram S. Hewitt; Henry George, economist and reformer, who had moved to New York City from California a few years earlier; and Edith.

She may not have been on the ticket, but Edith was against TR’s involvement based on two issues: They were planning a wedding in Europe less than a month after Election Day, and he would have to take office only a few weeks after that if he won, which would cut into their honeymoon. Despite her objections, TR ran—and lost. At least he did not lose Edith.

Henry George ran as the United Labor Party candidate in the 1886 New York City mayoral campaign. He was best known for his support of the land value tax, a.k.a. “single tax,” on land and the founder of “Georgism,” the philosophy that everyone owns what he or she creates, but that everything found in nature—primarily land—belongs equally to all humanity.

The race was an eye-opener for TR. His opponents overshadowed him and his supporters practically ignored him. He understood that, and he did not expect to win. He was scheduled to sail to Europe with Edith only four days after the election.

TR had purchased tickets under the name of Merrifield for a trans-Atlantic voyage aboard the
Eturia
, which was scheduled to leave New York on November 6. That morning, he and “Mrs. Merrifield,” actually his sister Bamie, boarded
Eturia
in disguise. They had spent the previous night writing engagement announcements and wedding invitations. He figured that by the time the announcements and invitations reached their destinations, he would be at sea.