Theodore Roosevelt Abroad (30 page)

Kaiser Wilhelm II led Germany into World War I confident that his glorious army and modern navy would win great victories. However, during the four bloody years of total war, he was for the most part relegated to the role of figurehead by the generals, who wielded true power. Wilhelm was forced to abdicate in November 1918, clearing the way for the Armistice which ended the war. Despite postwar cries of “Hang the Kaiser,” he was allowed to live quietly in exile in Holland until his death in 1941. To his credit he refused to be used for propaganda purposes by Hitler and the Nazi regime. The Kaiser’s cousin, George V, was a dutiful king in war and peace for twenty-five years until his death in 1935, and was followed, briefly, by his son Edward VIII, who abdicated rather than abandon his American lover, Wallis Simpson. This left the throne to George VI, the father of the present monarch, Elizabeth II.

Finally, the energetic little Prince Olav of Norway, who so charmed TR in 1910, lived a long and strenuous life himself. He grew into a handsome youth, noted as a sportsman and Olympic yachtsman. Olav was educated at Balliol College, Oxford, a famous training ground of British statesmen. He stayed in Norway when it was invaded by Germany in 1940 and was very briefly head of the country’s overmatched armed forces. Olav escaped to England with his father and returned in 1945. He succeeded to the throne in 1957 as Olav V and reigned until his death in 1991, the last surviving grandchild of Edward VII. All in all a “bully” life of which TR would have been proud.

1. Many safari books were published at the time in an attempt to take advantage of the TR frenzy at home. Most were generic and made no mention of Roosevelt, but several sensational titles interspersed accounts of TR with general information on Africa.

2. For two notable exceptions, see Douglas Brinkley,
The Wilderness Warrior: Theodore Roosevelt and the Crusade for America
(New York: HarperCollins, 2009) and Paul Cutwright,
Theodore Roosevelt: The Making of a Conservationist
(Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1985).

1. Ziegfield to TR, June 19, 1910, Series 1, Reel 91, Theodore Roosevelt Papers, Library of Congress, hereafter TRP; Archibald Butt,
Taft and Roosevelt: The Intimate Letters of Archie Butt, Military Aide
, 2 vols. (New York: Doubleday, Doran & Company, 1930), 2: 400–401.

2. TR commented that the poem was, “Rather poor poetry,” but that it made “good sense from the expansionist standpoint.” David Gilmour,
The Long Recessional: The Imperial Life of Rudyard Kipling
(London: John Murray, 2002), 128.

1. For a list of the thirty-one men, see Lawrence Abbott, ed.,
The Letters of Archie Butt: Personal Aide to President Roosevelt
(New York: Doubleday, Page & Company, 1924), 366.

2. Undated “Notes From Tennis Cabinet Address,” Series 6, Reel 428, TRP. Archie Butt described the Frenchman as a “bearded little fellow, full of enthusiasm and vim and a great chum of the President, playing tennis with him and quite his equal in the walking contests.” October 10, 1908, in Abbott,
Letters of Archie Butt
, 118–19. For a recent comment on TR, Jusserand, and the Moroccan crisis, see Serge Ricard, “Foreign Policy Making in the White House: Rooseveltian-Style Personal Diplomacy.” In William N. Tilchin and Charles E. Neu, eds.,
Artists of Power: Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, and Their Enduring Impact on U.S. Foreign Policy
(London: Praeger, 2006), 17–22.

3. March 1, 1909, in Abbott,
Letters of Archie Butt
, 365–70.
4. July 27, 1908, in Abbott,
Letters of Archie Butt
, 84–85.
5. Carl Akeley, “Roosevelt in Africa,” in Theodore Roosevelt,
African Game Trails: An Account of the African Wanderings of an American Hunter-Naturalist
(New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1926), x–xi. Congressman Mann is probably best known as the author of the “antiwhite slavery” Mann Act of 1910, which prohibited the transportation of women across state lines for purposes of prostitution.
6. For Edith, see Sylvia Morris,
Edith Kermit Roosevelt: Portrait of a First Lady
(New York: Coward, McCann & Geoghegan, 1980) and Tom Lansford,
A “Bully” First Lady: Edith Kermit Roosevelt
(Huntington, NY: Nova History Publications, 2001).
7. Quoted in David H. Burton, “Theodore Roosevelt and His English Correspondents: A Special Relationship of Friends,”
Transactions of the American Philosophical Society
, New Series, Volume 63, Part 2
(Philadelphia, 1973), 9. For Spring Rice, see David H. Burton,
Cecil Spring Rice: A Diplomat’s Life
(Madison, NJ; Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 1990).
8. Kermit Roosevelt,
The Happy Hunting-Grounds
(New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1920), 14–15. Besides his interest in Africa, TR believed the safari would build up Kermit, who had been a frail child. The other children had various disqualifications. Theodore Jr. had embarked on a business career and Quentin and Archie were too young. Alice had married and the idea of the prim Ethel on safari was preposterous.
9. David Wallace, “Sagamore Hill: An Interior History.” In Natalie Naylor, Douglas Brinkley, John Allen Gable, eds.
Theodore Roosevelt; Many-Sided American
(Interlaken, NY: Heart of Lakes Publishing, 1992), 531. 10. Henry Fairfield Osborn,
Impressions of Great Naturalists
(New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1928), 260.
11. For Selous, see Stephen Taylor,
The Mighty Nimrod: A Life of Frederick Courteney Selous African Hunter and Adventurer 1851–1917
(London: Collins, 1989).

12. Gerald Monsman,
H. Rider Haggard and the Imperial Frontier
(Greensboro, NC: ELT Press, 2006), 233.
13. Theodore Roosevelt, “Foreword” to Frederick Courtenay Selous,
African Nature Notes and Reminiscences
(London: Macmillan, 1908), xi–xiii.
14. TR to Selous, March 20, 1908, Series 2, Reel 348, TRP.
15. TR to Kermit Roosevelt, April 11, 1908, Series 2, Reel 349, TRP.
16. For Roosevelt, hunting and conservation, see Douglas Brinkley,
The Wilderness Warrior: Theodore Roosevelt and the Crusade for America
(New York: HarperCollins, 2009); Daniel Justin Herman,
Hunting and the American Imagination
(Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, 2001); William Beinart and Peter Coates,
Environment and History: The Taming of Nature in the USA and South Africa
(London: Routledge, 1995); Paul Schullery, “Theodore Roosevelt: The Scandal of the Hunter as Nature Lover,” in Naylor et al.,
Theodore Roosevelt: Many-Sided American
; Cutwright,
Making of a Conservationist
; John F. Reiger,
American Sportsmen and the Origins of Conservation
(New York: Winchester Press, 1975); and Kate Stewart, “Theodore Roosevelt: Hunter-Naturalist on Safari,”
Quarterly Journal of the Library of Congress
27, 3 (July, 1970).
17. Cutwright,
Making of a Conservationist
, 171.
18. For Burroughs’ recollections of their friendship in nature, see
Camping and Tramping with Roosevelt
(New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1907). For Muir and Roosevelt, see Stephen Fox,
John Muir and His Legacy: The American Conservation Movement
(Boston: Little, Brown, 1981).
19. Many of these, and others collected over the years by TR, are still available for study at the National Museum of Natural History’s Bird Division.
20. For TR’s attack on Long, see his article “Nature Fakers” in the September 19, 1907
Everybody’s
magazine. For this subject also see Chapter 9, “The Nature Fakers & Roosevelt,” in Edward J. Renehan, Jr.
John Burroughs: An American Naturalist
(Post Mills, VT: Chelsea Green Publishing, 1992). For the charges of “game butchery” aimed at Roosevelt, see Gerald Carson, “TR and the ‘Nature Fakers,’ ”
American Heritage Magazine
22, 2 (February 1971).
21. TR to Kermit Roosevelt, May 10, 1908, Series 2, Reel 349, TRP. For Burroughs’s recollection of this episode, see “Theodore Roosevelt,”
Natural History
19, 1 (January 1919), 5.
22. Burroughs to TR, February 20, 1909, Series 1, Reel 88, TRP.
23. Cutwright,
Making of a Conservationist
, 229.
24. TR to Kermit Roosevelt, May 17, 1908, Series 2, Reel 349, TRP.
25. TR to Trevelyan, June 20, 1908, Box 113, Elihu Root Papers, Library of Congress.

26. For Pinchot, see Char Miller,
Gifford Pinchot and the Making of Modern Environmentalism
(Washington, DC: Island Press, 2001).
27. Char Miller, “Keeper of His Conscience? Pinchot, Roosevelt, and the Politics of Conservation,” in Naylor et al.,
Theodore Roosevelt: ManySided American
, 241.
28. Cutwright,
Making of a Conservationist
, 201.
29. Gifford Pinchot,
Breaking New Ground
(New York: Harcourt Brace, 1947), 382.
30. TR to Pinchot, March 1, 1909, Series 2, Reel 354, TRP.
31. TR to Buxton, June 25, 1908, Series 3A, Reel 363, TRP.
32. John M. Mackenzie,
The Empire of Nature: Hunting, Conservation and British Imperialism
(Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1982), 211. This organization, which later was instrumental in setting aside several national parks in Africa, continues today as Fauna and Flora International. For its origins, see David K. Prendergast, “Colonial Wildlife Conservation and the Origins of the Society for the Preservation of the Wild Fauna of the Empire (1903–1914),”
Oryx
37, 2 (April 2003). For a history to 1978, see Richard Fitter and Sir Peter Scott,
The Penitent Butchers: The Fauna Preservation Society 1903–1978
(London: Collins, 1978).
33. TR to Buxton, June 25, 1908, Series 3A, Reel 363, TRP.
34. TR to Walcott, June 20, 1908, RU 45, Box 48, Office of the Secretary Records, Smithsonian Archive. The present National Museum of Natural History was formally established only in 1968.
35. Walcott to TR, June 27, 1908, RU 45, Box 48, Office of the Secretary Records, Smithsonian Archive.
36. TR to Selous, June 25, 1908, Series 3A, Reel 363, TRP.
37. Walcott to TR, June 27, 1908, RU 45, Box 48, Office of the Secretary Records, Smithsonian Archive. For the subscribers, see Elting Morison, ed.,
The Letters of Theodore Roosevelt
, vol. VII (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press., 1954), n. 1, 13.
38. The only names TR knew at the time were Andrew Carnegie, Oscar Straus and Leigh Hunt. None were released to the public until 1913. In the end the total cost of the safari was close to $75,000, of which TR paid $20,000.
39. December 10, 1908, in Abbott,
Letters of Archie Butt
, 232.
40. David Patterson,
Towards a Warless World: The Travail of the American Peace Movement 1887–1914
(London: Routledge, 1976), 35, 146.
41. Carnegie to Morley, June 20, 1908, Volume 167, Carnegie Papers, Library of Congress.
42. TR to Strachey, November 28, 1908, STR/28/3/21, Strachey Papers, Parliamentary Archives.

43. For this see William Tilchin,
Theodore Roosevelt and the British Empire
(New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1997) and David H. Burton, “Theodore Roosevelt and the ‘Special Relationship’ with Britain,”
History Today
23, 8 (1973), 527–35. For a few other representative examples concerning the “Special Relationship,” which has attracted a considerable literature, see Bernard Porter,
Empire and Superempire: Britain, America and the World
(London: Yale University Press, 2006); Andrew Roberts,
A History of the English-Speaking Peoples Since 1900
(London: HarperCollins, 2006); Christopher Hitchens,
Blood, Class and Empire: The Enduring AngloAmerican Relationship
(New York: Nation Books, 2004); Max Beloff, “The Special Relationship: An Anglo-American Myth,” in Martin Gilbert, ed.,
A Century of Conflict 1850–1950: Essays for A. J. P. Taylor
(London: Collins, 1966), 151–71.

44. Only three years before that, during the 1895–96 Venezuela crisis with British Guiana, TR had called for war with Britain, despite the disparity in naval power. He confided to one of his imperialist brethren, Henry Cabot Lodge, “Let the fight come if it must; I don’t care whether our seacoast cities are bombarded or not; we would take Canada.” Tilchin,
Roosevelt and the British Empire
, 17.

45. Ibid., 17–19.
46. TR to Reid, July 20, 1908, Series 3A, Reel 363, TRP.
47. TR to Buxton, July 21, 1908, Series 3A, Reel 363, TRP.
48. TR to Churchill, January 6, 1909, Series 2, Reel 353, TRP. Churchill appears to have made a bad impression across the entire Roosevelt clan, even so far as TR’s young fifth cousin Franklin in the Democratic branch.
49. TR to Pease, July 25, 1908, Series 3A, Reel 363; September 5, 1908, Series 2, Reel 351; December 12, 1908, Series 2, Reel 353, TRP.
50. November 26, 1908, in Abbott,
Letters of Archie Butt
, 203.
51. TR to Stone, December 2, 1908, Series 2, Reel 352, TRP. For TR and the media, see George Juergens,
News from the White House: The Presidential-Press Relationship in the Progressive Era
(Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1981) and Stephen Ponder,
Managing the Press: Origins of the Media Presidency, 1897–1933
(New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1999).
52. November 26, 1908, in Abbott,
Letters of Archie Butt
, 203.
53. November 5, 1908, in Abbott,
Letters of Archie Butt
, 156.
54. TR to Sullivan, October 30, 1908, Series 2, Reel 352, TRP.
55. Corinne Robinson to TR, February 19, 1909, Series 1, Reel 88, TRP. For her recollections of the gift, see Corinne Roosevelt Robinson,
My Brother Theodore Roosevelt
(New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1921), 251–53.
56. July 27, 1908, in Abbott,
Letters of Archie Butt
, 86. For Roosevelt’s comments on the library, the remnants of which are in the Roosevelt Collection at Harvard, see “The Pigskin Library,” in Theodore Roosevelt,
Literary Essays
(New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1926), 337–46.
57. TR to Buxton, August 1, 1908, Series 3A, Reel 363, TRP.
58. TR to Spring Rice, August 1, 1908, Series 4A, Reel 416, TRP.
59. July 26, 1908, in Abbott,
Letters of Archie Butt
, 72–73.
60. June 19, 1908, in Abbott,
Letters of Archie Butt
, 42.
61. Edith Roosevelt to Spring Rice, August 9, 1908, CASR 9/1, Spring Rice Papers, Churchill College Archive, Cambridge.
62. TR to Mearns, January 12, 1909, RU 45, Box 48, Office of the Secretary, Records, Smithsonian Archive.
63. Quoted in Wilson,
Theodore Roosevelt Outdoorsman
, 177. Several books on the geography and the fauna of Africa by Sir Harry Johnston were on the long list TR consulted for the safari and the former British Commissioner in South Central Africa visited the White House at Roosevelt’s invitation for a more personal exchange of ideas. In 1901
Johnston had prepared a report on East Africa for the British government that became the first to draw attention to the possibility of the highlands as an area of settlement for white men on the lines of Australia and New Zealand. For Johnson, see Roland Oliver,
Sir Harry Johnston and the Scramble for Africa
(London: Chatto & Windus, 1957).
64. TR to Kermit Roosevelt, October 27, 1908, Series 2, Reel 352, TRP.
65. TR to Buxton, August 20, 1908, Series 3A, Reel 363, TRP.
66. TR to Lodge, August 8, 1908, in Elting Morison, ed.,
The Letters of Theodore Roosevelt
, vol. VI (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1952), 1161–62. Lodge had boosted TR’s career at several pivotal points, in particular promoting him for assistant secretary of the Navy and the vice-presidency.
67. Dr. Mearns brought along several cases of champagne, also for medicinal purposes, which proved effective in treating fevers during the expedition.
68. TR to Buxton, Series 3A, Reel 363, TRP.
69. October 21, 1908, in Abbott,
Letters of Archie Butt
, 143–44.
70. TR to Curzon, September 12, 1908, Series 2, Reel 351, TRP.
71. Osborn,
Impressions of Great Naturalists
, 263. For more recent comment on Osborn and Roosevelt, see Ronald Rainger,
An Agenda for Antiquity: Henry Fairfield Osborn & Vertebrate Paleontology at the American Museum of Natural History
(Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 1991).
72. TR to White, September 10, 1908, Box 28, White Papers, Library of Congress.
73. Wilhelm II to Roosevelt, November 12, 1908, Series 1B, Reel 309, TRP. For comment on the Willy-Teddy relationship see, Ragnhild Fiebig-von Hase, “The Uses of ‘Friendship’: The ‘Personal Regime’ of Wilhelm II and Theodore Roosevelt, 1901–1909.” In Annika Mombauer and Wilhelm Diest, eds.,
The Kaiser: New Research on Wilhelm II’s Role in Imperial Germany
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003), 143–75.
74. For example, in 1904 TR commented about the troubled Dominican Republic, over which he would promulgate his Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine, that he had “about the same desire to annex it as a gorged boa-constrictor might have to swallow a porcupine end-to.” Porter,
Empire and Superempire
, 71.
75. TR to Taft, November 3, 10, 1908, Series 2, Reel 352, TRP.
76. Taft to TR, November 7, 1908, quoted in Lewis Gould,
Four Hats in the Ring: The 1912 Election and the Birth of Modern American Politics
(Lawrence, Kansas: University of Kansas Press, 2008), 3.
77. Taft to TR, February 1, 1909, Series 1, Reel 88, TRP.
78. November 5, 1908, in Abbott,
Letters of Archie Butt
, 156.
79. Cutwright,
Making of a Conservationist
, 231.
80. For the voyage, see Kenneth Wimmel,
Theodore Roosevelt and the Great White Fleet: American Sea Power Comes of Age
(Washington, DC: Brassey’s, 1998); James R. Reckner,
Teddy Roosevelt’s Great White Fleet
(Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1988).
81. February 24, 1909, in Abbott,
Letters of Archie Butt
, 354–55.
82. TR to Lee, December 20, 1908, Series 2, Reel 353, TRP.
83. Butt,
Taft and Roosevelt
, I, 202.
84. TR to Reid, Series 3A, Reel 363, TRP.
85. TR to Taft, March 3, 1909, Series 2, Reel 354, TRP.
86. February 24, 1909, in Abbott,
Letters of Archie Butt
, 358.
87. March 22, 1909, in Butt,
Taft and Roosevelt
, 1: 27.
88. Muir to TR, March 11, 1909, Series 1, Reel 88, TRP.
89. Burroughs to TR, February 20, 1909, Series 1, Reel 88, TRP.
90. Morris,
Edith Kermit Roosevelt
, 347–48.
91. March 24, 1909, in Butt,
Taft and Roosevelt
, 1: 29.
92. February 1, 1909, in Abbott,
Letters of Archie Butt
, 323.