Theodore Roosevelt : the logic of his career

Contents

I. From the Time of his going to College in i 876

TO HIS Accession to the Presidency in 1901 . i

Roosevelt in College — Service in the Legislature — Interest in Literature, Hunting, Travel — Republican Candidate for Mayor of New York — Civil Service Commissioner — Police Commissioner — Assistant Secretary of the Navy — Lieutenant-Colonel of the Rough Riders — Governor of New York — Vice-President of the United States — President.

Chapter I

FROM THE TIME OF HIS GOING TO COLLEGE IN 1876 UNTIL HE BECAME PRESIDENT IN I90I

1HAVE known Theodore Roosevelt since we entered Harvard together in the autumn of 1876. I knew him intimately in college; and, while I have seen him only at irregular intervals since we graduated in 1880, I have always followed his career closely and with the most intense interest. Through all these years I have had very definite views of his character which I have never seen any occasion to change. These views differ radically from those held by many people. I purpose to express them here, and if no one shall find the recital either instructive or interesting, it will at least be a satisfaction to me to leave a record of my estimate of a man whom I have known and loved for nearly forty years. This is in no sense a history or even a finished sketch of his life. It is a record of my personal impressions, fortified by such facts as would seem to justify my conclusions, and with no attempt to secure a complete perspective, through the relative amount of detail with which Roosevelt's characteristics and the events of the time are discussed.

In order to make the trend of my discourse clear, I will say at the outset that my purpose is to give the reasons upon which I base my conclusion that Roosevelt has never been a "politician"; that his opinions, regarded by many as radical and by some as even revolutionary, were carefully considered for many years before they found expression; and that in the campaigns of 191 2 he was seeking to advance a cause and not any personal ambition. I shall discuss some of the great questions with which he dealt, and shall not even refer to others perhaps equally or more important. Incidentally I shall give my reasons for believing that Roosevelt is, and always has been, a person of great simplicity of character, of the highest ideals, and with a wider range of genuine human sympathies than any other man who ever occupied the Presidential office. I say wider range of genuine human sympathies, not deeper sympathies, for I have Lincoln in mind. I shall attempt to account for his great popularity and to state the reason why he deliberately and unselfishly, as I believe, chose a course which, for the time being at least, has cast a shadow upon his pathway.

I will say here, lest I forget to say it elsewhere, that the qualities I knew in the boy are the qualities most observed in the man, and that of all the men I have known for as long a time he has changed the least.

As a boy in college, he was a good student, but not a "grind"; he entered into and enjoyed every phase of college life — intellectual, physical, social; he was popular with all, loved by many; the natural sciences, history, and political economy were the studies that interested him most; he had honorable mention in natural history, had a Commencement part, and was a member of the Phi Beta Kappa. He was intense in everything he did; his occupation for the moment was to the exclusion of everything else; if he were reading, the house might fall about his head, he could not be diverted. This power of concentration, a great gift, is one which has contributed so largely to his ability to accomplish so much in so many fields of activity.

He was fond of athletics, but never greatly excelled; he never claimed to: he did the best he could. Boxing was his favorite sport, but he was greatly handicapped because he was nearsighted. Many people have said that Roosevelt wore glasses when he boxed. Referring to this, he once said: —

No human being could box with spectacles or glasses on. It would be absolutely certain that he would have them broken in the first minute or two, and in all human probability he would then be blinded permanently. The usual result when I boxed with any really first-class man . . . was that I got thoroughly well pounded, and with no one of those men would my glasses have lasted thirty seconds.

He had a lively sense of humor. I remember well with what glee he told us that he had gone to Boston to get a basket of live lobsters for laboratory purposes, and on the way back they escaped, much to the consternation of the women in the horse-car.

His love for the open was in constant evidence. During the intervals in the semi-annual examinations it frequently happened that a boy would have a little time at his disposal. "Teddy" would take advantage of the opportunity to go to the Maine woods to hunt and

THKODORE ROOSEVKLI'

At the time uf his Graduation in 1880 trap. He would come back with tales of exposure and hardship, as it seemed to us, which he had enjoyed. He was then, as a boy, in a class by himself, as he has been ever since.

"Teddy," as he was called in college, was always immune from the criticism which would be visited upon another under the same conditions.

He was far from being a ready speaker. I remember that at the "Pudding," we often incited a discussion for the purpose of rousing "Teddy." In his excitement he would sometimes lose altogether the power of articulation, much to our delight. He had then almost a defect in his speech which made his utterance at times deliberate and even halting. It became evident very early that Roosevelt was a person sui generis, and not to be judged by the ordinary standards, and very early in our college life I came to believe in his star of destiny. I once received a note from him, of no great consequence which I carefully preserved, thinking, as I said at the time, that some day it would possess a peculiar value.

Roosevelt was married in October, 1880; he spent the summer of 1881 in Europe, and while in Switzerland made the ascent of the Matterhorn and the Jungfrau — the initiatory experience of so many explorers.

His entrance into politics can best be recorded by the introduction here of his appeal to his constituents dated November i, 1881, and his endorsement by certain residents of the 21st Assembly District in New York: —

New York, November ist, 1881.

Dear Sir,

Having been nominated as a candidate for member of Assembly for this District, I would esteem it a compliment if you honor me with your vote and personal influence on Election day.

Very respectfully,

Theodore Roosevelt.

TWENTY-FIRST ASSEMBLY DISTRICT 40th to 86th Sts., Lexington to 7th Aves.

We cordially recommend the voters of the Twenty-first Assembly District to cast their ballots for

THEODORE ROOSEVELT for Member of Assembly,

and take much pleasure in testifying to our appreciation of his high character and standing in the community. He is conspicuous for his honesty and

Integrity, and eminently qualified to represent the District In the Assembly.

New York, November ist, 1881.

At about this time I wrote him a letter evidently containing some jocular charge that he had become a politician, for I received the following reply: —

New York,

Nov. 10, '81.

Too true, too true; I have become a "political hack." Finding It would not Interfere much with my law, I accepted the nomination to the Assembly and was elected by 1500 majority, leading the ticket by 800 votes. But don't think I am going to go into politics after this year, for I am not.

This letter is evidence that Roosevelt at that time had a serious purpose to become a lawyer and had no intention of remaining in politics. His chief interest in the Legislature is thus described in his own words : —

I paid attention chiefly while in the Legislature to laws for the reformation of Primaries and of the Civil Service and endeavored to have a certain Judge Westbrook impeached, on the ground of corrupt collusion with Jay Gould and the prostitution of his high judicial office to serve the purpose of wealthy and unscrupulous stock gamblers, but was voted down.

This has a familiar sound: the reform of what he regarded as abuses was Roosevelt's occupation thirty years ago and has been ever since.

Contrary to the purpose expressed in the letter I have quoted, Roosevelt was again a candidate in 1882 and ran 2000 ahead of his ticket. He was nominated as the Republican candidate for Speaker in 1883, but as his was the minority party, the nomination was a mere compliment.

"Harper's Weekly" for April 21, 1883, said

of him: —

With energy and ardor and with a directness and plainness of speech from which older legislators shrink, Mr. Roosevelt, in the last session, moved the Westbrook inquiry, and in the present session he has urged proceedings to vacate the charter of the Manhattan Elevated Railway Company. He has also introduced the Municipal Civil Service Reform Bill, and his voice and vote are sure for whatever is honest, wise and progressive. Like many of the younger Republicans, Mr. Roosevelt holds the soundest views upon public questions with the feeling . that the

FACSIMILE OF LETTER FROM THKCJDURE ROUSEVELT TO CHARLES G. WASHBURN

Republican party is the organization which, from its traditional principles and the character of its membership, is more likely wisely to secure the public welfare.

Meantime, in 1882, his first book was published, "The Naval War of 1812.'' Here is a striking instance of Roosevelt's versatility; the subject interested him, and he wrote the book. He was twenty-four years old at the time. I shall make the following quotation from the preface for future reference: — •

At present people are beginning to realize that it is folly for the great English-speaking Republic to rely for defense upon a navy composed partly of antiquated hulks, and partly of new vessels rather more worthless than the old.

He was reelected for a third term, and was made chairman of the Committee on Cities and of a legislative investigating committee which passed a series of laws which practically revolutionized the municipal government of the City of New York. The session of 1884 ended his service in the Assembly. He refused a renomination and two nominations for Congress. His purpose to abandon political life seems clear.

One of the early cartoons of Roosevelt, in February, 1884, represents him in the act of cutting the claws of the Tammany tiger, destroying the confirming power of the Board of Aldermen by an act of the Legislature; and again, a month later, the Tammany tiger is exhibited in a state of total collapse, teeth and claws scattered about, while Roosevelt and Governor Cleveland, arm in arm, survey the wreck, Roosevelt holding in one hand a pair of shears inscribed, "Roosevelt Bill."

I will refer here to an act in the passage of which Roosevelt was interested, entitled "An act to improve the public health by prohibiting the manufacture and preparations of tobacco in any form in tenement houses, in certain cases." The law was passed to remedy a very real evil which Roosevelt had appreciated through a personal investigation of conditions in tenement houses, where a family with a boarder or two might be found living in one or two rooms, while the manufacture of cigars was being carried on in close proximity to the stove or kitchen sink. The law was passed in 1884, and was declared unconstitutional by the Court of Appeals in January, 1885. The court held in general terms that this was not a proper exercise of the "police power," and that the law interfered with the

FROM 1876 TO 1901 II

profitable and free use of his property by the owner or his lessee and that a constitutional guaranty was violated. The court said, among other things: —

It cannot be perceived how the cigar-maker is to be improved in his health or his morals by forcing him from his home and its hallowed associations and beneficent influences to ply his trade elsewhere.

As applied to the kind of tenement I have referred to, this reference to the "home and its hallowed associations" seems grotesque or tragic, depending upon the point of view. It is not surprising that Roosevelt's wrath should have blazed up at such a narrow view of the police power. I have referred to this matter in some detail, because, as I shall point out later, I find here the beginning of Roosevelt's revolt against the disposition of some courts in this class of cases unduly to restrict the exercise of the police power in safeguarding the health and morals of the people. The recall of judicial decisions advocated in the Columbus speech of 191 2 is an attempt to remedy what Roosevelt recognized as an abuse in 1884. It was not, as some of his critics have suggested, the unreasoning appeal of the demagogue, but the result of years of reflection. Whether one agrees with his conclusion or not, — and I do not, — one must acquit Roosevelt of any other purpose than to right what he believed to be a wrong, and what In many cases Is a wrong.

His wife and mother died In February, 1884, and thereafter for several years, Roosevelt spent most of his summers on his cattle ranch on the Little Missouri In western Dakota and in making hunting trips from it after bear, elk, and buffalo. His time was pretty evenly divided, as he said, between ranching, literature, and politics.

In the campaign of 1884, Roosevelt was for Edmunds for President and against Blaine and Arthur. He headed the New York delegation to the National Convention. The Chairman of the National Committee nominated Powell Clayton, of Arkansas, for temporary chairman. Henry Cabot Lodge nominated John R. Lynch, a colored man, of Mississippi. In speaking to this nomination, Theodore Roosevelt said: —

I trust that the motion made by the gentleman from Massachusetts [Mr. Lodge] will be adopted, and that we will select as Chairman of this Convention that representative Republican, Mr. Lynch, of

Mississippi. Mr. Chairman, it has been said by the distinguished gentleman from Pennsylvania [Air. Stewart] that it is without precedent to reverse the action of the National Committee. Who has not known numerous instances where the action of a State Committee has been reversed by the State Convention.? Not one of us but has known such instances. Now, there are, as I understand it, but two delegates to this Convention who have seats on the National Committee; and I hold it to be derogatory to our honor, to our capacity for self-government, to say that we must accept the nomination of a presiding officer by another body; and that our hands are tied, and we dare not reverse its action.

Now, one word more. I trust that the vote will be taken by individual members, and not by States. Let each man stand accountable to those whom he represents for his vote. Let no man be able to shelter himself behind the shield of his State. What we say is, that one of the cardinal doctrines of the American political government is the accountability of each man to his people; and let each man stand up here and cast his vote, and then go home and abide by what he has done.

It is now, Mr. Chairman, less than a quarter of a century since, in this city, the great Republican party for the first time organized for victory, and nominated Abraham Lincoln, of Illinois, who broke the fetters of the slave and rent them asunder forever. It is a fitting thing for us to choose to preside over this Convention one of that race whose right to sit within these walls is due to the blood and the treasure so lavishly spent by the founders of the Republican party. And it is but a further vindication of the principles for which the Republican party so long struggled. I trust that the Hon. Mr. Lynch will be elected Temporary Chairman of this Convention,

Blaine was nominated, and a serious defection of Republicans led to the election of Cleveland. Roosevelt voted for Blaine. I met him in New York about this time, and he told me that while he was opposed to Blaine, he did not feel justified in bolting the ticket as he had participated in the deliberations of the Convention, but that in the course he had taken he had alienated many friends and the only kind of political support he valued. I always felt that Roosevelt did right in supporting the ticket, although I did not do so myself. In judging of a man's actions, his motive must be first considered. Roosevelt's action was governed in this case by what he regarded as his duty, which was opposed to his inclination as well as to what he believed to be for his interest.

At this point should be noted the fact that Roosevelt showed no desire to continue in politics. The usual course, if he had cared for a political career, would have been to go to Congress as he had opportunities to do, but he turned in another direction, and for the following five years devoted himself to literature, hunting, and travel. At this time he contributed a number of political essays and sketches of sport and adventure to the "Century Magazine," the "North American Review," the "New Princeton Review," and to "Harper's." He published an enlarged edition of the "Naval War of 181 2" and wrote in 1885, in two volumes, the "Hunting Trips of a Ranchman," in 1886, the "Life of Thomas H. Benton," and in 1889 published the "Winning of the West."

Roosevelt's love of nature and his exultation in physical life is well illustrated in the quotation from Browning with which "Ranch Life and the Hunting Trail" opens: —

**0h, our manhood's prime vigor! No spirit feels waste; Not a muscle is stopped in its playing nor sinew unbraced. Oh, the wild joys of living! the leaping from rock to

rock.

The strong rending of boughs from the fir tree, the cool

silver shock Of the plunge in a pool's living water, the hunt of the

bear, — And the sleep in the dried river channel where bulrushes

tell That the water was wont to go warbling so softly and well. How good is man's life, the mere living.'*

One can understand how such a spirit could enjoy a trip down the Little Missouri during the spring freshet. I happened to meet Roosevelt going West in February, 1886. Evidently I had sent him a newspaper clipping, for I find the following letter from him: —

Elkhorn Ranch,

Medora, Dakota,

The slip of paper was very amusing; I counted myself lucky to meet you as I did. I am now about starting off down the river, which is swollen and full of ice, to go to Mandan about three hundred miles off.

It was on this trip, I Imagine, that Roosevelt, acting as deputy sheriff, and his associates chased down the river three men who had stolen his boat. They overtook the men, and finally, after a journey of great hardship, delivered the thieves into the hands of the sheriff.

It was Roosevelt's experience with frontier life that led to his writing the "Winning of the West," In the preface of which he said: —

In conclusion, I would say that it has been to me emphatically a labor of love to write of the great deeds of the border people. I am not blind to their manifold shortcomings, nor yet am I Ignorant of their many strong and good qualities. For a number of years I spent most of my time on the frontier, and lived and worked like any other frontiersman. The wild country in which we dwelt and across which we wandered was in the Far West; and there were, of course, many features in which the life of a cattleman on the great plains and among the Rockies differed from that led by a backwoodsman in the Alleghany forests a century before. Yet the points of resemblance were far more numerous and striking. We guarded our herds of branded cattle and shaggy horses, hunted bear, bison, elk, and deer, establishing civil government, and put down evildoers, white and red, on the banks of the Little Missouri, and among the wooded, precipitous foothills of the Bighorn, exactly as did the pioneers who a hundred years previously built their log cabins beside the Kentucky or in the valleys of the Great Smokies. The men who have shared in the fast vanishing frontier life of the present feel a peculiar sympathy with the already long vanished frontier life of the past.

What lover of nature can fail to be thrilled by the introduction to "The Wilderness Hunter"?

In hunting, the finding and killing of the game is, after all, but a part of the whole. The free, selfreliant, adventurous life, with its rugged and stalwart democracy; the wild surroundings, the grand beauty of the scenery, the chance to study the ways and habits of the woodland creatures — all these unite to give to the career of the wilderness hunter its peculiar charm.

The chase is among the best of all national pastimes; it cultivates that vigorous manliness for the lack of which in a nation, as in an individual, the possession of no other qualities can possibly atone. No one but he who has partaken thereof can understand the keen delight of hunting in lonely lands. For him is the joy of the horse well ridden and the rifle well held; for him the long days of toil and hardship, resolutely endured and crowned at the end with triumph. In after years, there shall come forever to his mind the memory of endless prairies shimmering in the bright sun; of vast snow-clad wastes lying desolate under gray skies; of the melancholy marshes, of the rush of mighty rivers; of the breath of the evergreen forest in summer; of the crooning of ice-armored pines at the touch of the winds of winter; of cataracts roaring between hoary mountain masses; of all the innumerable sights and sounds of the wilderness; of its immensity and mystery and of the silences that brood in its still depths.

In the fall of 1886, he was the Republican candidate for Mayor of New York against Henry George, the Labor candidate, and Abram S. Hewitt, the nominee of the United Democracy, who was elected.

On May 10, 1889, Roosevelt was appointed

a member of the United States Civil Service

Commission, and, to quote his own words some

time later: —

Have been up to my ears In one unending fight to take and keep the Civil Service out of the hands of the politicians; and I may say without question that during this year the law has been observed in the classified service under our charge more rigidly and impartially than ever before.

President Harrison, who was not given to exuberance of expression, said of him: —

If he had no other record than his service as an employee of the Civil Service Commission, he would be deserving of the nation's gratitude and confidence.

Roosevelt continued as Civil Service Commissioner until April, 1895, a period of nearly six years. It was not a place that any one with any political ambition would have sought, and would, I think, be commonly regarded as a veritable graveyard for any political aspirations. I remember seeing In the New York "Tribune," about this time, an Interview with Roosevelt In which he said that he might like to go Into politics, but that he had no constituency, by which I understood him to mean that his prolonged absence from New York had put him completely out of touch with political affairs there. It Is reasonably clear that at this time and during his term as Civil Service Commissioner, Roosevelt had no expectation of entering politics. Meantime, In November, 1890, he had published a history of the City of New

York; in 1893, In two volumes, "The Wilderness Hunter"; and in April, 1895, in conjunction with Senator Henry Cabot Lodge, "Hero Tales from American History."

In April, 1895, Roosevelt was appointed Police Commissioner in the City of New York, and continued in that office until April, 1897. Again he filled a position which led nowhere in politics, however great the opportunities for service that it offered, evidence that opportunity for service without the slightest regard for political advancement was the controlling motive of Roosevelt's life.

His sense of humor, often light, sometimes grim, but always palpably present or lurking in the near background is well illustrated in an article on the Vice-Presidency, written in September, 1896; speaking of the Southern Populists, he said: —

They distrust anything they cannot understand; and as they understand but little, this opens a very wide field for distrust. They are apt to be emotionally religious. If not, they are then at least atheists of an archaic type. Refinement and comfort they are apt to consider quite as objectionable as immorality. That a man should change his clothes in the evening, that he should dine at any other hour than noon, impress these good people as being symptoms of depravity instead of merely trivial. A taste for learning and cultivated friends, and a tendency to bathe frequently, cause them the deepest suspicion. . . . Senator Tillman, the great Populist, or Democratic, orator from South Carolina, possesses an untrammeled tongue any middle-of-the-road man would envy; and, moreover, Mr. Tillman's brother has been frequently elected to Congress upon the issue that he never wore either an overcoat or an undershirt, an issue which any Populist statesman finds readily comprehensible, and which he would recognize at first glance as being strong before the people.

■ In April, 1897, he was appointed Assistant Secretary of the Navy by President IMcKinley, John D. Long, of Massachusetts, being Secretary. This was a most congenial place for Roosevelt, and he devoted himself with his customary energy to the duties of his office. He not only got the navy ready for war, but, to put it mildly, did not shrink from the then impending conflict with Spain. Against the urgent advice of most of his friends, he resigned his position May 6, 1898, and entered the military service as lieutenant-colonel,^ First United

^ He declined the Colonelcy. " Fortunately," said Roosevelt, " I was wise enough to tell the Secretary that while I believed I could learn to command the regiment in a month, yet that it was just this very month which I could not afford to spare, and

States Cavalry Volunteers, "The Rough Riders," organized by Colonel Leonard Wood and himself. Secretary Long said of him : —

He was heart and soul in his work. His typewriters had no rest. He, like most of us, lacks the rare knack of brevity. He was especially stimulating to the younger officers who gathered about him and made his office as busy as a hive. He was especially helpful in the purchasing of ships and in every line where he could push on the work of preparation for war. Almost as soon, however, as it was declared, he resigned the assistant-secretaryship of the navy to accept the lieutenant-colonelcy of the Rough Rider regiment in the army. Together with many of his friends, I urged him strenuously to remain in the navy, arguing that he would there make a signal reputation, and that to go into the army would be only to fight mosquitoes on the Florida sands or fret in camp at Chickamauga. How right he was in his prognosis and how wrong we were in ours, the result has shown. He took the straight course to fame, to the governorship of New York and to the presidency of the United States. He has the dash of Henry of Navarre without any of his vices. His room in the Navy Department after his decision to enter the army, which preceded for some time his resignation as Assistant Secretary, was an interesting scene. It bubbled over with enthusiasm, and was filled with bright young fellows from all over the country, college graduates and old associates

that, therefore, I would be quite content to go as Lieutenant- Colonel, if he would make Wood Colonel."

from the Western ranches, all eager to serve with Roosevelt. The Rough Rider uniform was in evidence; it climbed the steps of the Navy Department; it filled the corridors; guns, uniforms, all sorts of military traps, and piles of papers littered the Assistant Secretary's room, but it was all the very inspiration of young manhood.

This is the reason he gave for his action: — While my party was in opposition, I had preached with all the fervor and zeal I possessed our duty to intervene in Cuba and to take this opportunity of driving the Spaniard from the Western world. Now that my party had come to power, I felt it incumbent on me, by word and deed, to do all I could to secure the carrying-out of the policy in which I so heartily believed; and from the beginning, I had determined that, if a war came, somehow or other, I was going to the front.