Theodore Rex (140 page)

42
Those other White
Walter Hines Page in
World’s Work
, Dec. 1901; Chauncey M. Depew,
My Memories of Eighty Years
(New York, 1922), 169.

43
There were days
Washington
Evening Star
, 23 Nov. 1901; Joseph Bucklin Bishop,
Theodore Roosevelt and His Time: Shown in His Own Letters
(New York, 1920), vol. 1, 156; James Morse diary, 24 Nov. 1901 (NYHS). See also L. T. Michener to Eugene Hay (copy in HKB).

44
“How many men”
William Dudley Foulke,
Fighting the Spoilsmen
(New York, 1919), 55–56;
The Cincinnati Enquirer
, 25 Dec. 1901.

45
“In El Paso”
Foulke,
Fighting
, 56.

46
ON 18 NOVEMBER
See John A. S. Grenville, “Great Britain and the Isthmian Canal, 1898–1901,”
American Historical Review
61 (Oct. 1955); New York
Journal
, 21–22 Nov. 1901; Miles P. DuVal,
Cadiz to Cathay: The Story of the Long Struggle for a Waterway across the American Isthmus
(Stanford, 1940), 154.

47
It was a big
McCullough,
Path Between the Seas
, 262. See ibid.,
passim
, for background to the Isthmian Canal situation in 1901.

48
“There are certain”
Report of the Isthmian Canal Commission, 1899–1901
, 58 Cong., 2 sess., 1904, S. Doc. 222, 174–75.

49
Minus that extra
Maurice Hutin to TR, 30 Nov. 1901, and John G. Walker to TR, 6 Dec. 1901 (TRP). On 4 Nov., John Hay, a Nicaragua partisan, wrote to Luis F. Corea, that country’s Washington minister, warning him that “very powerful influences are at work against the Nicaragua Canal” (TD).

50
ROOSEVELT FINISHED
John Hay to Joseph Bucklin Bishop, qu. in Bishop,
Theodore Roosevelt
, vol. 1, 160. Printing a Message to Congress was an innovation. TR saw no reason to perpetuate the laborious nineteenth-century custom of copying such documents in ornamental script. In a further break with tradition, he made galleys available to the press, under guarantees that the Message would be neither quoted nor summarized before it went to Congress. This gave editors plenty of time to typeset the text themselves, and TR’s Message was rewarded with five times as much comment as any had enjoyed before. TR also made sure that a summary of the Message was released to European journals. See First Annual Message box and Presidential scrapbook (TRP).

51
Twelve days still
Washington
Evening Star
and
New York Tribune
, 23 Nov. 1901.

52
back in minnesota
Hill qu. in Martin,
James J. Hill
, 510–11.

53
WHILE THE
SYLPH
Washington
Evening Star
, 25 Nov. 1901;
The New York Times
, 21 Nov. 1901. A copy of the latter article was sent to the White House. Presidential scrapbook (TRP).

54
The astrologist-author
The New York Times
, 21 Nov. 1901.

55
Although Roosevelt
Ibid.

56
The President need
Ibid.

57
The President, he
Adams,
Letters
, vol. 5, 326; Thayer,
Hay
, vol. 2, 266.

58
Although Hay was
John Hay to Mrs. Hay, 15 Nov. 1901 (WF).

  
1
On th’ wan
“Mr. Dooley” qu. in Sullivan,
Our Times
, vol. 2, 411.

  
2
shortly before noon
The Washington Post
, 4 Dec. 1901.

  
3
Octavius L. Pruden
Washington
Evening Times
, 3 Dec. 1901;
New York Tribune
, 4 Dec. 1901.

  
4
A Secret Service
The practice of presidential addresses to Congress, as opposed to messages, had ended with John Adams, and would not be revived until 1913 by Woodrow Wilson.

  
5
Actually, the content
Douglas,
Many-Sided Roosevelt
, 251.

  
6
Even so, Congress
Washington
Evening Times
, 3 Dec. 1901.

  
7
“The Congress assembles”
The following extracts from TR’s Message are taken from TR,
Works
, vol. 17, 93–160.

  
8
There was an
“The sentence fell upon the House like a pall.” Washington
Evening Times
, 3 Dec. 1901.

  
9
“The
wind is sowed”
TR,
Works
, vol. 17, 97. TR later confirmed that he was alluding to William Randolph Hearst, yellow-press lord and perennial political candidate.

10
The House sat
The word
rapt
is that of the New York
World
, 4 Dec. 1901. See also
The New York Times
, same date.

11
At this, the spell
New York
World
, 4 Dec. 1901.

12
THE SENATE
, in
Washington
Evening Times
, 3 Dec. 1901.

13
For a quarter
New York
Sun
and New York
Herald
, 4 Dec. 1901.

14
Mark Hanna sat
Washington
Evening Times
, 4 Dec. 1901. See John A. Garraty,
Henry Cabot Lodge: A Biography
(New York,
1953), 220–22
, for Lodge’s emotions during these early months of TR’s Presidency.

15
As Roosevelt swung
New York
World
, 4 Dec. 1901.

16
SPOONER, AT FIFTY-EIGHT
This profile is based on Walter Wellman, “Spooner of Wisconsin: A Sketch,”
Review of Reviews
, Aug. 1902; Thompson,
Party Leaders
, 47–51; Merrill,
Republican Command
, 32; O. O. Stealey,
130 Pen Pictures of Live Men
(Washington, D.C., 1910); Peck,
Twenty Years of the Republic
, 426–31; Dorothy C. Fowler,
John Coit Spooner, Defender of Presidents
(New York, 1961), passim; and photographs in various publications.

17
He was equally
See, e.g., Spooner versus Senator Benjamin R. Tillman in
The Washington Post
, 28 Jan. 1902.

18
But he had
Wellman, “Spooner”; Merrill,
Republican Command
, 33–34, notes the corruption of Wisconsin politics in 1901. It was difficult at that time even for honest senators to escape the taint of corruption at home, since they were not directly elected, and served at the pleasure of state legislatures.

19
His perambulation
New York
World
, 4 Dec. 1901.

20
“Allison could run”
TR,
Works
, vol. 17, 103.

21
This
legerdepied
Merrill,
Republican Command
, 30–31.

22
Poised in his
See, e.g., Leland L. Sage,
William Boyd Allison: A Study in Practical Politics
(Iowa City, 1956), 197, 250, 292, 294, 6; David J. Rothman,
Politics and Power: The Senate, 1869–1901
(Cambridge, Mass., 1966), 47.

23
“All this is true”
TR,
Works
, vol. 17, 104.

24
In the front
Nathaniel W. Stephenson,
Nelson W. Aldrich: A Leader in American Politics
(New York, 1930), 136; Coolidge,
Old-Fashioned Senator
, 61.

25
There was something
Coolidge,
Old-Fashioned Senator
, 65–67, 592; Thompson,
Party Leaders
, 34; George H. Mayer,
The Republican Party, 1854–1966
(New York, 1966), 277; Merrill,
Republican Command
, 27–28; Claude G. Bowers,
Beveridge and the Progressive Era
(Boston, 1932), 138–39.

26
“There is a widespread”
TR,
Works
, vol. 17, 104.

27
“It is no”
Ibid., 104–5.

28
If Nelson W
. Barry,
Forty Years
, 152; Stephenson,
Nelson W. Aldrich
, 9, 172. 73
“The first essential”
Ibid., 105.

29
Aldrich’s was a
Rothman,
Politics and Power
, 46; David S. Barry and Elihu Root in biographical file (NWA).

30
His power derived
Merrill,
Republican Command
, 24, 28; speech cards in NWA; Barry,
Forty Years
, 153. See, e.g., James Anthony Rosmond, “Nelson Aldrich, Theodore Roosevelt and the Tariff: A Study to 1905” (Ph.D. diss., University of North Carolina, 1974).

31
Roosevelt, in contrast
David S. Barry memo, biographical file (NWA).

32
As far as Aldrich
Merrill,
Republican Command
, 24–25.

33
“The nation should”
TR,
Works
, vol. 17, 106.

34
Aldrich believed that
Barry memo, biographical file (NWA).

35
Since this was
The term
Majority Leader
was not yet current. Neither was the convenient (and misleading) group term of “the Senate Four” for Aldrich, Spooner, Allison, and Platt. Although these men indeed worked closely together, they often differed on important issues—Aldrich and Allison on the tariff, e.g. Other Republican senators wielded great power in their personal fiefdoms: Henry Cabot Lodge on foreign policy, Eugene Hale on naval affairs, Hanna on labor, and so on. In a letter to his parents, written ca. Feb. 1903, the Chicago newspaper heir Medill McCormick defined the government of the United States as “an oligarchy tempered by the veto” (MHM).

36
“I believe that”
TR,
Works
, vol. 17, 106.

37
THE SENATE WAS
Profile of Aldrich based on biographical file (NWA); Steffens,
Autobiography
, 504;
Ainslee’s Magazine
, Dec. 1901; Bowers,
Beveridge
, 313–24; Merrill,
Republican Command
, 21–26; and photographs in various publications.

38
There were a few
Rothman,
Politics and Power
, 112, 136, 217, 112–15, 136, 183–86, 201.

39
Orville Platt was
Stephenson,
Nelson W. Aldrich
, 203.

40
What held them
Rothman,
Politics and Power
, 111, 117.

41
He granted
TR,
Works
, vol. 17, 107–10.

42
Clearly, neither subject
Gould,
Presidency of Theodore Roosevelt
, 12, 24–26; Merrill,
Republican Command
, 26.

43
“
The railway”
TR,
Works
, vol. 17, 116–17.

44
“The doctrine of”
Ibid., 124.

45
“
We are dealing”
Ibid., 125.

46
FOR ANOTHER HOUR
Washington
Evening Times
, 3 Dec. 1901; Paul Russell Cutright,
Theodore Roosevelt: The Making of a Conservationist
(Urbana, 1985), 93.

47
By two o’clock
Washington
Evening Times
, 3 Dec. 1901; New York
World
, 4 Dec. 1901.

48
“In the midst”
TR,
Works
, vol. 17, 160.

49
Each had an
New York
World
and New York
Herald
, 4 Dec. 1901.

50
Democratic leaders, too
The Washington Post
, 4 Dec. 1901.

51
Members of the
Literary Digest
, 14 Dec. 1901. “Never in our history,” commented the New York
Evening Post
, “have we had a more striking example of great responsibility upon an imperious nature.” Negative comment was concentrated in the South.

52
That night, Roosevelt
Pittsburgh Times
, 4 Dec. 1901;
Review of Reviews
, Jan. 1902; Bishop,
Theodore Roosevelt
, vol. 1, 160; Washington
Evening Times
, 3 Dec. 1901, and
New York Tribune
, 4 Dec. 1901.

53
“It is not”
Chicago
Record-Herald
, 5 Dec. 1901.

54
On 7 December
Washington
Evening Star, 7
Dec. 1901.

55
The quickest way
Review of Reviews
, Jan. 1902. On 9 Dec., TR received a letter from the black politician Ralph Waldo Tyler, forwarded by Booker T. Washington, warning him that “Senator Hanna will be candidate for President.” Negro officeholders all over the South were prepared “to go to the next National convention with a solid delegation” in support of their patron. No doubt this letter added a spur to TR’s own patronage plans. For his bemused reaction, see TR,
Letters
, vol. 3, 206.

56
A surprise choice
Gage privately admitted that the contrast between TR’s galvanic personality and that of McKinley had left him with a feeling of “chronic sadness.” Gage to Charles G. Dawes, 11 Dec. 1901 (LCG).