The Everything Theodore Roosevelt Book (23 page)

TR’s Medal of Honor Controversy

Even though Alger had a soft spot in his heart for TR, he was not keen on authorizing the Medal of Honor for the Colonel. The bad publicity that resulted from the news in the press discouraged him and President McKinley from pursuing the matter.

After McKinley was assassinated in September 1901, TR took over as president. He did not feel that it was right for him to authorize his own Medal of Honor. (Alger had been dismissed for incompetence by that time.) After TR left office in 1909, the matter remained in limbo.

After Congress eliminated the statute of limitations on Medal of Honor awards, Roosevelt family members, congressional representatives, and other supporters pressed for the authorization of TR’s award. The army continued to resist their pleas.

Some army historians felt that he had not really earned the medal. They argued that other soldiers had done as many brave things at the Battle of San Juan Hill as the Colonel had, and they were equally deserving of Medals of Honor.

Until 1996, there was a statute of limitations for awarding a Medal of Honor. The recommendation had to be submitted within two years of the action. The subsequent review process could take eighteen to twenty-four months. In 1996, Congress repealed the statute of limitations on military decorations. That cleared the way for a reexamination of TR’s award.

TR Receives His Medal

Eventually, due to pressure from TR’s supporters, the army relented. In a White House ceremony on January 16, 2001, President Bill Clinton presented TR’s Medal of Honor to Tweed Roosevelt, TR’s great-grandson. The award was a long time coming, but it was welcome to the Roosevelt family.

The award of the Medal of Honor to TR closed a memorable chapter in his life. He returned to the United States with a trace of malaria, a lot of bittersweet memories, and renewed ambition to pursue his political career. His successes in previous government positions and the acclamations he received for his service in Cuba opened new possibilities for him—in New York.

QUIZ

9-1 Most of the navy’s ships were powered by coal in 1898 when the Spanish-American War began. They were refueled by ships known as colliers. How many colliers did the navy have in its fleet at the time?

A. 0

B. 20

C. 54

D. 113

9-2 The battleship
Maine
blew up in Havana Harbor on February 15, 1898. That was the incident that led to the Spanish-American War. Ultimately, investigators determined that the cause of the explosion was:

A. a faulty tailpipe.

B. Cuban dissidents.

C. Spanish sailors operating from a submarine.

D. unknown initially.

9-3 Leonard Wood is the only member of the U.S. Army to hold this distinction:

A. the only medical officer to ever hold the position of chief of staff of the army

B. the only medical officer to attain the rank of major general

C. the only major general in the army born in New Hampshire

D. the only medical officer in the army in 1910 named Leonard

9-4 The Rough Riders included a large number of American Indians
.

A. True

B. False

9-5 How many Spanish soldiers did TR take credit for killing during the Battle of San Juan Hill?

A. just enough to qualify for the Medal of Honor

B. none

C. so many he could not count them

D. one

9-6 Only two father-son teams have ever earned the Medal of Honor. One was Theodore Roosevelt and Theodore Roosevelt Jr. The other was:

A. Carl and Rob Reiner.

B. Arthur and Douglas MacArthur.

C. John Adams and John Quincy Adams.

D. Dwight and John Eisenhower.

ANSWERS

9-1. A: The navy purchased 20 colliers in March and April 1898 to supply the 86 ships it had in its fleet at the time. The only auxiliary ships available were 12 tugboats. The rest were warships, some of which were left over from the Civil War.

9-2. D

9-3. A: He was named chief of staff of the army in 1910; no other medical officer has been named to the post since.

9-4. True: The unit included Cherokees, Chickasaws, Choctaws, and Creeks. TR described them thusly:

“Only a few were of pure blood. The others shaded off until they were absolutely indistinguishable from

their white comrades; with whom, it may be mentioned, they all lived on terms of complete equality.”

9-5. D: One. He was running up the hill when two Spanish soldiers jumped up about ten yards away from TR. They ran away, but he fired twice at them. He missed one but shot the second soldier fatally.

9-6. B: Arthur MacArthur earned his for valor at the Battle of Missionary Ridge, Tennessee, November 25, 1863. It was awarded on June 30, 1890. Douglas received his on April 1, 1942, “For conspicuous leadership in preparing the Philippine Islands to resist conquest, for gallantry and intrepidity above and beyond the call of duty in action against invading Japanese forces, and for the heroic conduct of defensive and offensive operations on the Bataan Peninsula.”

CHAPTER 10

From Governor to Vice President to President

“The course I followed, of regarding the Executive as subject only to the people, and, under the Constitution, bound to serve the people affirmatively in cases where the Constitution does not explicitly forbid him to render the service, was substantially the course followed by both Andrew Jackson and Abraham Lincoln.”

After TR returned to New York in 1898, events in his life moved quickly. Within the space of three years he progressed from governor of New York to vice president of the United States to president of the United States. He achieved some remarkable successes as governor, but incurred a few enemies along the way. They connived to get him nominated to the vice president’s position, which he did not particularly covet. Fate took care of the rest in the form of a national tragedy: the assassination of President William McKinley.

Looking for New Fields to Conquer

After earning the public’s respect for his exploits in Cuba, TR looked for new fields to conquer. The next logical step from a political standpoint was the governorship of his home state of New York.

He had already made his mark at the state level as an assemblyman. TR knew that simply dropping his hat into the proverbial ring would not guarantee his election. He had finished second in the ring at Harvard during the intramural championships. He had no intention of finishing as a runner-up again.

TR continued his hobby of boxing at Harvard. He admitted that he was not good at the sport. But he entered one tournament at the school in which he did pretty well. He reached the semifinals or finals (he could not remember which). TR considered that a major achievement, even though he admitted that it was one of his rare athletic accomplishments.

New York state politics were rough-and-tumble in the late nineteenth century. The state government was rife with corruption, and political bosses ruled the roost. Some of those bosses were less than happy when they learned that TR was contemplating a run for governor. He had been anti-machine and anti-corruption as an assemblyman. There was no reason for them to believe that he would be any different as governor. Their fears that he would attempt radical reforms were justified.

TR was a bit of an enigma from a party standpoint in New York. The Democrats ruled the political landscape for the most part in New York City and at the state government level. TR, as a Republican, was pretty much an interloper. Even his own party members did not always trust him completely, since he was not their model of a “machine” Republican. After all, he showed anti-business tendencies at times and even worked with Democrats on occasion for what he perceived as the common good.

When the gubernatorial campaign began in 1898, neither party knew what to expect from TR. He gave them an idea in the way he wrangled the Republican nomination.

TR Finagles the Nomination

The Republicans believed that TR intended to attack corruption in their party if he won the governor’s office. The Democrats were sure that he was going to launch a statewide anti-corruption campaign against both parties. Republicans were a bit reluctant to nominate him, then.

TR did an end run around the party bosses to secure the nomination, even though he made it sound like a fait accompli in his autobiography: “In September, 1898, the First Volunteer Cavalry, in company with most of the Fifth Army Corps, was disbanded, and a few days later, I was nominated for Governor of New York by the Republican party.” Those words disguised the political chicanery to which he resorted to get the party’s nod—and at which he was adept.

TR took advantage of a new political group, the Citizens Union, to ensure Republican support. He approached Citizens Union leaders and suggested that they form a ticket to run against both major parties. The group’s executive committee thought that was a swell idea and assumed that TR was going to head the ticket. He didn’t do anything to dissuade them from the notion.

The committee launched a petition campaign to get the party on the ballot and collected 6,000 signatures. Naturally, the signers believed TR was heading the ticket. So did the Republicans, who feared that the new party might have a chance to win the election with TR as their candidate.

That created a quandary for them, since the incumbent governor, Frank S. Black, was a Republican. But his administration had been plagued by corruption and scandals. Their solution was simple. Dump Black and nominate Roosevelt—at their peril.

No “Platt”- itudes for TR

Republican Party boss U.S. Senator Thomas C. Platt was not particularly keen on Roosevelt as a candidate. He and his colleagues viewed TR as a maverick who was more than likely to do things his way, rather than the way the party machine wanted them done.

Platt needed assurances from TR that he would toe the party line—or at least make it appear that he was working with them. They set up a meeting at Platt’s hotel residence in New York City to hammer out an agreement.