The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt (170 page)

BOOK: The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt
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71.
Ib.

72.
Pri.138.

73.
AND.62. See
World
, Aug. 22, for an account of a daytime prowl.

74.
EKR to Emily Carow, n.d., TRB mss.; Mor.462; TR.Auto.205.

75.
Rii.145.

76.
Mor.463.

77.
Bernard McCann int. FRE.; James Burke, ex–Lyon’s waiter, ib.

78.
Mor.464; Brant, “TR, PC,” 33.

79.
Ib., 34.

80.
N.Y.T.
, Jan. 16, 1895.

81.
TR.Wks.XIV.27; Mor.466.

82.
Ib.; also 464.

83.
Evening Telegraph
, June 11, 1895.

84.
TR.Wks.XIV.181.

85.
Mor.463.

86.
Ib.

87.
TR.Auto.197–9;
Advertiser
, June 25, 1895; Ste.264; AND.113–8;
N.Y.T.
, June 24, 1895.

88.
N.Y.T.
, June 25, 1895; TR.Auto. 199;
P.D. Minutes
, 3; Ste.264.

89.
AND.115.

90.
Journal
, July 12, 1895.

91.
TR.Auto.197.

92.
TR.Auto.196; Richardson,
Police
, 251; John R. Voorhis, former Police Commissioner, int. FRE.

93.
Brant, “TR, PC,” 35; New York Police Department,
Annual Report
, Dec. 31, 1897, 38; TR.Wks.XII.129.

94.
TR.Auto.194; AND.105–7.

95.
N.Y.T.
, Jan. 15, 1895; TR.Auto. 194–6; see also AND.137.

96.
World
, July 1, 1895.

97.
N.Y.T.
, July 1, 1895;
Journal
, July 26. AND. 137 says that “fully half the force” was employed to administer the Sunday law.
Her.
, July 2.

98.
Ib.

99.
Comm. Adv.
, July 8, 1895.

100.
N.Y.T.
, July 18, 1895.

101.
Qu.
Journal
(ed.), July 26, 1895.

102.
N.Y.T.
, July 12, 1895;
Her.
, July 13; see also Mor.466.

103.
Her.
, July 13, 1895.

104.
AND.123.

105.
Un. clip, TRB;
Her.
, July 17, 1895.

106.
Chicago Times-Herald
, July 22, 1895.

107.
Her.
, July 17. Author’s italics.

108.
Ib.; un. clip, TRB.

109.
Her.
, July 17, 1895.

110.
Chicago Times-Herald
, July 22, 1895.

111.
Mor.469.

112.
Ib.

113.
Her.
, July 24, 1895.

114.
Comm. Adv.
, July 25, 1895.

115.
Sun
, July 25, 1895;
N.Y.T.
, July 27.

116.
World
, July 29, 1895.

117.
Ib.

118.
Ib.

119.
Spark, Muriel,
John Masefield
(London, 1953) 38; John Masefield to Hermann Hagedorn, Mar. 25, 1952 (TRB mss.); Igl.111-2. The man who attempted to kill TR in 1912 was a saloonkeeper from New York City. He testified that he first became aware of his future victim during this season of dry Sundays in 1895.
N.Y.T.
, Oct. 15, 1912.

120.
Journal
, Aug. 6, 1895.

121.
AND.137–8;
Boston Herald
, July 21, 1895 (“They do not seem to understand Theodore Roosevelt very well in his native city”); see also
Review of Reviews
clip, n.d., in TR.Scr.: “…      From San Francisco to New Orleans to Bangor and Minneapolis the daily newspapers are giving him the space that is allotted to the most important subject before the people.” London
Times
, Aug. 10, 1895; Mor. 472–3.

122.
Trib.
, Aug. 22, 1895.

123.
Pri.136, qu.
World
, July 23, 1895; Rii.29.

124.
N.Y.T.
, Aug. 6, 1895; AND.73.

125.
Her.
, Aug. 14, 1895. “It was a blemish due less to egotism,” Andrews comments mildly (p. 69), “than to the recognition that, in effect, he was actually the Board.” See also
Journal
, July 12.

126.
“Big Tim represented the morals
of another era,” TR wrote in his
Autobiography
. “That is, his principles and actions were very much those of a Norman noble in the years immediately succeeding the Battle of Hastings.” (192.)

127.
All from
World
, Aug. 8, 1895.

128.
Mor.475;
World
, Aug. 8, 1895.

129.
HCL to TR, Aug. 31, 1895.

130.
TR to B,
passim;
see also AND.34, Mor.486.

131.
Ib., 475;
Her.
, Sep. 6, 1895.

132.
N.Y.T.
, Aug. 24, 1895.

133.
TR to B, Sep. 8, 1895. Statistical and other documentary assessments of TR’s crusade in behalf of the Excise Law are given in Ber.105–16.

134.
Trib.
, Sep. 26, 1895. This was, of course, before the age of the press photograph.

135.
The following description based on
World
, Sep. 26, 1895, also
Trib., Her.
, same date.

136.
World
, Sep. 26, 1895.

137.
Ib.

138.
Her.
, Sep. 26, 1895. The warmly admiring tone of this article shows that the yellow press was not blind to TR’s merits.

139.
Ib.,
Trib.
, same date.

140.
N.Y.T.
, July 22, 1895.

141.
Ste.258–60.

142.
See, e.g., AND.172. Mor.484; AND.141 ff.; also
Trib.
, May 23, 1895; Har.85.

143.
See Mor.477; TR.Wks.XIV.184; TRB clips.

144.
Mor.490.

145.
Ib., 485–89. See also ib., 488, TR.Wks.XIV.212, and
Journal
, Jan. 31, 1896, for details of this quarrel, which was later patched up. (Mor.496).

146.
Ib., 483, 485;
Outlook
, Oct. 10, 1895; Mor.480, 490; see
Trib.
, Sep. 12,
World
, Oct. 29, and
Journal
, Jan. 31, 1896, for sample articles on TR’s election policies.
World
, Aug. 19, 1895; Mor.493.

147.
Ib., 481, 487, 489, 493; TR to B, Oct. 27, 1895.

148.
AND. 176 puts the German vote-loss alone at 30,000. Har.85.

149.
Unpublished letter, Nov. 5, 1895, in TRB mss. Specifically, it deals with the Venezuela border dispute between the U.S. and Great Britain, which was then approaching its crisis point.

150.
N.Y.T.
, Nov. 7, 1895; AND. 176–7.

151.
Journal
, Nov. 22, 1895;
Sun
, Dec. 14. Mor.500.

152.
TR to B, Dec. 1, 1895; Bigelow to HCL, Nov. 23, 1895, qu. in Murakata, Akiko, “Selected Letters of Dr. William Sturgis Bigelow,” Ph.D. diss., George Washington University, 1971, 84. Notwithstanding Bigelow’s fears, TR avoided collapse, and Volume IV of
WW
was finished by Dec. 23. See Mor.499–504.

153.
Ib., 503.

154.
Stoker, Bram,
Reminiscences of Sir Henry Irving
(NY, 1906) II, 236. Charles Eliot Norton used similar words, about this time, to the English journalist David Alec Wilson. “I’ll tell you what, if Roosevelt lives, he’ll be President of the United States … He is a strong and able man, who is not to be bought.” Wilson,
East and West
(Methuen, 1911) 262.

20: T
HE
S
NAKE IN THE
G
RASS

1.
Pla.295; Gos.48–59.

2.
Pla.8.

3.
Gos.1 says Platt and TR had political relations with each other since the mideos, but does not specify any actual meetings. Pla. 178, 193 says essentially the same, again without mentioning any personal contact. The unreliable Louis J. Lang in his appendix to ib. (522) says without documentation that TR, George F. Edmunds, and George W. Curtis met with Platt in New York “a few days before the Republican National Convention” in 1884. This is possible, but improbable, since TR and HCL made a special journey to Washington at that time to meet Edmunds
there;
no contemporary letters or newspapers
mention the New York meeting. TR’s letters to HCL in 1895 give the strong impression that Platt was a personal stranger to him. The best account of their early relationship remains Gos.29–72.

4.
Ib., 29–30, 32–3; see Chs. 10, 14.

5.
Gos.34.

6.
Ib. 230; Ber. 36; Lod.I.144.

7.
See Pla.178, 183; Gos.229–31; AND.18–19; Pla.527.

8.
See Mor.482, 476; Pla.300 ff.;
New York Times
, Jan. 24, 1896; AND.78.

9.
Mor.499;
N.Y.T.
, July 8, 1896. Murray was now Excise Commissioner of New York.

10.
Gos.57; TR.Auto.294; Pla.488.

11.
Description of Platt based on pors. in Pla.,
passim
, and Library of Congress; Sto.168; un. clip by EGR, Sep. 7, 1919, in TRB; White, William Allen, “Platt,” in
McLure’s
18.146 (Dec. 1901); Thompson, Charles Willis,
Party Leaders of the Time
(NY, 1906) 105; Chessman, G. Wallace,
Governor TR
(Harvard, 1965) 7 ff.

12.
See, e.g., his open letter to Governor Levi P. Morton, dated Jan. 3, 1896, in which he dresses the Governor down with the assurance of a headmaster punishing a schoolboy. (Pla.307–10.)

13.
N.Y.T.
, July 8, 1896; Mor.509. This legislation proposed to transfer from Mayor Strong to Governor Morton the power to hire and fire Police Commissioners. Morton was then in Platt’s debt, as the latter had undertaken to secure him the Presidential nomination in July. He could thus be relied on to dismiss TR promptly—and with a certain amount of satisfaction, for Morton was irked by the Commissioner’s support of Thomas B. Reed for the Presidency. See
N.Y.T.
, Jan. 23, 1896; Mor.499.

14.
Mor.509.

15.
N.Y.T.
, July 8, 1896.

16.
Ib., Jan. 23, 1895; text in TR.Wks.XIV.215–6.

17.
Igl.115–6;
Journal
, Jan. 21, 1896. See
Sun
, Jan. 23, 1896. Connable, Alfred, and Silverfarb, Edward,
Tigers of Tammany Hall
(NY, 1967) 215;
N.Y.T.
, Jan. 24, 1896.

18.
Herald
, Jan. 22, 1896. A letter from TR to Strong dated Jan. 21, 1896, confirms that their relations were “cordial” again. (Municipal Archives, Strong Mss.)

19.
AND. 186. Brant, Donald Birtley, “TR as New York City Police Commissioner” (unpublished dissertation, Princeton, 1964), reports it surfacing again in March.

20.
N.Y.T.
, Jan. 24, 1896; Mor.509.

21.
N.Y.T.
, Jan. 23, 1896.

22.
Bis.I.62.

23.
Sun
, June 27, 1896, quoting TR. John J. Milholland, a Republican yard worker, also warned TR that “Parker could not be trusted … that he was not loyal to him as head of the Commission.” “Not loyal to me?” TR exclaimed. “Impossible!” (Int. FRE.)

24.
N.Y.T.
, July 8, 1896; Mor.504–5; see
World
, Feb. 18, 1896.

25.
Sun
, Mar. 29, 1896. The account of the police promotions crisis of 1896, which begins here and occupies much of the chapter, is distilled from so many sources, and is itself so simplified (for the record was complicated by myriad questions of procedure and board-room politics) that documentation of every sentence will be fatal to the clarity of the whole. Major sources, however, are cited throughout. In general the story is based on New York City Police Department,
Minutes of the Board
, 1896 (TRB); the comprehensive reporting of
N.Y.T.;
AND.Scr; AND.92 ff; TR to B and HCL,
passim;
supplementary details from
Sun, World, Eve. Post
, and
Journal
.

26.
World
, Mar. 13, 1896.

27.
Herald
, Mar. 15, 1896.

28.
Ib.;
N.Y.T.
, Mar. 18, 1896.

29.
AND.66; on p. 93 he remarks that Conlin “was never a strong character.”

30.
World
, Mar. 13, 1896;
Journal
,
Mar. 28. For Conlin’s personal view of the matter, see Ste.280.

31.
See AND.202;
World
, Mar. 13, 1896; P.D.
Minutes
, 604.

32.
TR to B, Mar. 15, 1896. The following anecdote is undated in its source, Bis.I.62–3. However TR and Parker both confirm that the dinner took place in their testimony of July 8 and 9, 1896
(N.Y.T.
, July 9 and 10) and mention Bishop’s presence. Furthermore TR specifically states that Parker was invited on March 13 “to meet” Bishop. It follows that Parker and Bishop could not have met at any previous dinner in TR’s house; since TR was in no mood to invite Parker ever again after March 13, the anecdote may be conclusively inserted here.

33.
Parker, testimony July 8, 1896
(N.Y.T.
, July 9).

34.
TR to B, Mar. 15, 1896.

35.
Bis.I.63.

36.
Ib., 63–4.

37.
P.D.
Minutes
, 614;
N.Y.T.
, Mar. 19, 1896;
Journal
, Mar. 24.

38.
Her.
, Mar. 15, 1895.

39.
Journal
, Mar. 24, 1896.

40.
Her.
, Mar. 15, 1895.

41.
Evening Post
, Mar. 24, 1896.

42.
TR to B, Jan. 19, 1896.

43.
See Ch. 19, n. 149, and Mor.504 n. The Venezuela affair was not settled until November 1896. For Cleveland’s reply to TR’s letter (“It seems to me that you and I have both been a little misunderstood recently”) see Bis.I.69. Mor.522.

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