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01 - Theodore Roosevelt; An Address To Congress by Henry Cabot Lodge · Theodore Roosevelt- an Autobiography

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  Speaker 1: Part one of Theodore Roosevelt, An Address Delivered before the
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  Speaker 1: Congress of the United States. This is a LibriVox recording.
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  Speaker 1: All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more
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  Speaker 1: information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org. Recording
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  Speaker 1: by David Wales. Theodore Roosevelt, An Address Delivered before the
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  Speaker 1: Congress of the United States by Henry Cabot Lodge, Part one.
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  Speaker 1: A tower is fallen, a star is set alas alas
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  Speaker 1: for celine. The words of lamentation from the old Moorish ballad,
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  Speaker 1: which in boyhood we used to recite, must, I think
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  Speaker 1: have risen to many lips when the world was told
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  Speaker 1: that Theodore Roosevelt was dead. But whatever the phrase, the
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  Speaker 1: thought was instant and everywhere, variously expressed. You heard it
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  Speaker 1: in the crowds, about the bulletin boards, from the man
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  Speaker 1: in the street and the man on the railroads, from
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  Speaker 1: the farmer in the fields, the women in the shops,
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  Speaker 1: in the factories, and in the homes. The pulpit found
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  Speaker 1: in his life a text for sermons. The judge on
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  Speaker 1: the bench, the child at school alike paused for a moment,
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  Speaker 1: conscious of a loss, the cry of sorrow came from
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  Speaker 1: men and women of all conditions, high and low, rich
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  Speaker 1: and poor, from the learned and the ignorant, from the
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  Speaker 1: multitude who had loved and followed him, and from those
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  Speaker 1: who had opposed and resisted him. The newspapers pushed aside
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  Speaker 1: the absorbing reports of the events of these fateful days
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  Speaker 1: and gave pages to the man who had died. Flashed
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  Speaker 1: beneath the ocean, and through the air went the announcement
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  Speaker 1: of his death, and back came a world wide response,
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  Speaker 1: from courts and cabinets, from press and people in other
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  Speaker 1: and far distant lands. Through it all ran a golden
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  Speaker 1: thread of personal feeling which gleams so rarely in the
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  Speaker 1: somber formalism of public grief. Everywhere the people felt in
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  Speaker 1: their hearts that a power was passing from the earth
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  Speaker 1: to breathless nature's dark abyss. It would seem that here
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  Speaker 1: was a man, a private citizen, conspicuous by no office,
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  Speaker 1: with no glitter of power about him, no ability to
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  Speaker 1: reward or punish, gone from the earthly life, who must
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  Speaker 1: have been unusual even among the leaders of men, and
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  Speaker 1: who thus demands our serious consideration. This is a thought
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  Speaker 1: to be born in mind. Today we meet to render
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  Speaker 1: honor to the dead, to the great American whom we mourn.
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  Speaker 1: But there is something more to be done. We must
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  Speaker 1: remember that when history, with steady hand and calm eyes,
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  Speaker 1: free from the passions of the past asked, comes to
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  Speaker 1: make up the final account, she will call as her
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  Speaker 1: principal witnesses the contemporaries of the man or the event
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  Speaker 1: awaiting her verdict. Here and elsewhere, the men and women
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  Speaker 1: who knew Theodore Roosevelt, or who belongs to his period
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  Speaker 1: will give public utterance to their emotions and to their
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  Speaker 1: judgments in regard to him. This will be part of
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  Speaker 1: the record to which the historian will turn when our
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  Speaker 1: living present has become the past of which it is
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  Speaker 1: his duty to write. Thus is there a responsibility placed
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  Speaker 1: upon each one of us, who will clearly realize that
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  Speaker 1: here too is a duty to posterity, whom we would
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  Speaker 1: fain guide to the truth as we see it, and
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  Speaker 1: to those hands we commit our share in the history
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  Speaker 1: of our beloved country, that history, so much of which
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  Speaker 1: was made under his leadership. We cannot approach Theodore Roosevelt
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  Speaker 1: along the beaten paths of eulogy or satisfy ourselves with
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  Speaker 1: the empty civilities of commonplace funeral tributes. For he did
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  Speaker 1: not make his life journey over main traveled roads, nor
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  Speaker 1: was he ever commonplace. Cold and pompous formalities would be
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  Speaker 1: unsuited to him, who was devoid of affectation, who was
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  Speaker 1: never self conscious, and to whom posturing to draw the
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  Speaker 1: public gaze seemed not only repellent but vulgar. He had
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  Speaker 1: the entire simplicity of manners and modes of life, which
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  Speaker 1: is the crowning result of the highest culture and the
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  Speaker 1: finest nature. Like Cromwell, he would always have said, paint
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  Speaker 1: me as I am in that spirit, in his spirit
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  Speaker 1: of devotion to truth's simplicity. I shall try to speak
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  Speaker 1: of him to day, in the presence of the representatives
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  Speaker 1: of the great government of which he was for seven years.
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  Speaker 1: The head. The of any man, from humble or still more,
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  Speaker 1: from sordid beginnings to the heights of success always and
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  Speaker 1: naturally appeal strongly to the imagination. It furnishes a ivid
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  Speaker 1: contrast which is as much admired as it is readily understood.
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  Speaker 1: It still retains the wonder which such success awakened in
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  Speaker 1: the days of hereditary law givers, and high privileges of birth, birth,
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  Speaker 1: and fortune, however, mean much less now than two centuries ago.
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  Speaker 1: To climb from the place of a printer's boy to
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  Speaker 1: the highest rank in science, politics, and diplomacy would be
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  Speaker 1: far easier to day than in the eighteenth century, given
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  Speaker 1: a genius like Franklin to do it. Moreover, the real
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  Speaker 1: marvel is in the soaring achievement itself, no matter what
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  Speaker 1: the origin of the man who comes by the people's
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  Speaker 1: unbought grace to rule his native land, and who, on
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  Speaker 1: descending from the official pinnacle, still leads and influences thousands
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  Speaker 1: upon thousands of his fellow men. Theodore Roosevelt had the
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  Speaker 1: good fortune to be born of a well known, long
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  Speaker 1: established family, with every facility for education, and with an
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  Speaker 1: atmosphere of patriotism and disinterested service both to country and
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  Speaker 1: humanity all about him. In his father, he had before
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  Speaker 1: him an example of lofty public spirit from which it
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  Speaker 1: would have been difficult to depart. But if the work
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  Speaker 1: of his ancestors relieved him from the hard struggle which
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  Speaker 1: meets an unaided man at the outset, he also lacked
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  Speaker 1: the spur of necessity to prick the sides of his intent,
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  Speaker 1: in itself no small loss as a balance to the
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  Speaker 1: opportunity which was his without labor. He had not only
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  Speaker 1: the later difficulties which come to him, to whom fate
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  Speaker 1: has been kind at the start. He had also spread
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  Speaker 1: before him the temptations inseparable from such inherited advantages as
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  Speaker 1: fell to his lot, Temptations to a life of sports
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  Speaker 1: and pleasure, to lettered ease, to an amateur's career in
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  Speaker 1: one of the fine arts, perhaps to a money making business,
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  Speaker 1: likewise an inheritance, none of them easily to be set aside.
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  Speaker 1: In obedience to the stern rule that the larger and
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  Speaker 1: more facile the opportunity, the greater and more insistent the responsibility.
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  Speaker 1: How he refused to tread the pleasant paths that opened
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  Speaker 1: to him on all sides, and took the instant way
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  Speaker 1: which led over the rough road of toil and action.
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  Speaker 1: His life discloses at the beginning. Moreover, he had physical difficulties,
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  Speaker 1: not lightly to be overcome. He was a delicate child,
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  Speaker 1: suffering acutely from attacks of asthma. He was not a
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  Speaker 1: strong boy, was retiring, fond of books, and with an
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  Speaker 1: intense but solitary devotion to natural history. As his health
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  Speaker 1: gradually improved, he became possessed by the belief. Although he
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  Speaker 1: perhaps did not then formulate it that in the fields
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  Speaker 1: of active life a man could do that which he
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  Speaker 1: willed to do. And this faith was with him to
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  Speaker 1: the end, it became very evident when he went to Harvard.
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  Speaker 1: He made himself an athlete. By sheer hard work, hampered
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  Speaker 1: by extreme near sightedness, he became none the less a
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  Speaker 1: formidable boxer and an excellent shot. He stood high in scholarship.
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  Speaker 1: But as he worked hard, so he played hard, and
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  Speaker 1: was popular in the university and beloved by his friends.
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  Speaker 1: For a shy and delicate boy, all this meant solid achievement,
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  Speaker 1: as well as unusual determination and force of will. Apparently
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  Speaker 1: he took early to heart and carried out to fulfillment
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  Speaker 1: the noble lines of Klauds Dipsycus. In light things prove
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  Speaker 1: thou the arms, thou long'st to glorify, nor fear to
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  Speaker 1: work up from the lowest ranks. Whence come great Nature's captains,
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  Speaker 1: and high deeds haunt not the fringy edges of the fight,
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  Speaker 1: but the pell mell of men. When a young man
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  Speaker 1: comes out of college. He descends suddenly from the highest
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  Speaker 1: place in a little world to a very obscure corner
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  Speaker 1: in a great one. It is something of a shock,
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  Speaker 1: and there is apt to be a chill in the air,
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  Speaker 1: unless the young man's life has been planned beforehand, and
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  Speaker 1: a place provided for him by others which is exceptional,
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  Speaker 1: or unless he is fortunate in a strong and dominating
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  Speaker 1: purpose or talent which drives him to science, or art,
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  Speaker 1: or some particular profession. He finds himself at this period
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  Speaker 1: pausing and wondering where he can get a grip upon
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  Speaker 1: the vast, confused world into which he has been plunged.
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  Speaker 1: It is a trying, and only too frequently a disheartening experience,
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  Speaker 1: this looking for a career, this effort to find employment
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  Speaker 1: in a huge and hurrying crowd, which appears to have
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  Speaker 1: no use for the newcomer. Roosevelt thus cast forth on
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  Speaker 1: his own resources. His father, so beloved by him, having
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  Speaker 1: died two years before, fell to work at once, turning
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  Speaker 1: to the study of the law, which he did not like,
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  Speaker 1: and to the completion of a history of the War
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  Speaker 1: of eighteen twelve, which he had begun while still in college,
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  Speaker 1: with few exceptions. Young beginners in the difficult art of
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  Speaker 1: writing are either too exuberant or too dry. Roosevelt said
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  Speaker 1: that his book was as dry as an encyclopedia, thus
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  Speaker 1: erring in precisely the direction one would not have expected
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  Speaker 1: the book be, it said, was by no means so
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  Speaker 1: dry as he thought it, and it had some other
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  Speaker 1: admirable qualities. It was clear and thorough. And the battles
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  Speaker 1: by sea and land, especially the former which involved the
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  Speaker 1: armaments and crews, The size and speed of the ships
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  Speaker 1: engaged in the famous frigate and sloop actions, of which
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  Speaker 1: we won eleven out of thirteen, were given with a
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  Speaker 1: minute accuracy never before attempted in the accounts of this war,
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  Speaker 1: and which made the book an authority, a position it
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  Speaker 1: holds to this day. This was a good deal of
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  Speaker 1: sound work for a boy's first year out of college,
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  Speaker 1: but it did not content Roosevelt. Inherited influences and inborn
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  Speaker 1: desires made him earnest and eager to render some public service.
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  Speaker 1: In pursuit of this aspiration, he joined the twenty first
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  Speaker 1: Assembly District Republican Association of the City of New York,
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  Speaker 1: for by such machinery all politics were carried on those days.
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  Speaker 1: It was not an association composed of his normal friends.
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  Speaker 1: In fact, the members were not only eminently practical persons,
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  Speaker 1: but they were inclined to be rough in their methods.
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  Speaker 1: They were not dreamers, nor were they laboring under many illusions.
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  Speaker 1: Roosevelt went among them a complete stranger. He differed from
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  Speaker 1: them with entire frankness concealed nothing, and by his strong
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  Speaker 1: and simple democratic ways, his intense Americanism and the magical
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  Speaker 1: personal attraction which went with him to the end, made
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  Speaker 1: some devoted friends. One of the younger leaders, Joe Murray,
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  Speaker 1: believed in him, became especially attached to him, and so
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  Speaker 1: continued until death separated them. Through Murray's efforts. He was
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  Speaker 1: elected to the New York Assembly in eighteen eighty one,
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  Speaker 1: and thus only one year after leaving college, his public
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  Speaker 1: career began. He was just twenty three. Very few men
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  Speaker 1: make an effective state reputation in their first year in
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  Speaker 1: the lower branch of the state legislature. I never happened
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  Speaker 1: to hear of one who made a national reputation in
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  Speaker 1: such a body. Roosevelt did both. When he left the
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  Speaker 1: Assembly after three year service, he was a national figure
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  Speaker 1: well known and of real importance, and also a delicate
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  Speaker 1: at large, from the great State of New York to
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  Speaker 1: the Republican National Convention of eighteen eighty four, where he
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  Speaker 1: played a leading part. Energy, ability and the most entire
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  Speaker 1: courage were the secret of his extraordinary success. It was
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  Speaker 1: a time of flagrant corporate influence in the New York
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  Speaker 1: legislature of the black Horse Cavalry, of a group of
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  Speaker 1: members who made money by sustaining corporation measures or by
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  Speaker 1: levying on corporations and capital through the familiar artifice of
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  Speaker 1: strike bills. Roosevelt attacked them all openly and aggressively, and
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  Speaker 1: never silently or quietly. He fought for the impeachment of
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  Speaker 1: a judge solely because he believed the judge corrupt, which
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  Speaker 1: surprised some of his political associates of both parties, there being,
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  Speaker 1: as one practical thinker observed no politics in politics. He
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  Speaker 1: failed to secure the impeachment, but the fight did not fail,
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  Speaker 1: nor did the people forget it, and despite perhaps because
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  Speaker 1: of the enemies he made, he was twice re elected.
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  Speaker 1: He became, at the same time a distinct, well defined
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  Speaker 1: figure to the American people. He had touched the popular imagination.
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  Speaker 1: In this way, he performed the unexampled feat of leaving
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  Speaker 1: the New York Assembly, which he had entered three years before.
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  Speaker 1: An unknown boy with a national reputation and with his
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  Speaker 1: name at least known throughout the United States. He was
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  Speaker 1: twenty six years old when he left Chicago at the
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  Speaker 1: close of the National Convention in June eighteen eighty four.
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  Speaker 1: He did not return to New York, but went west
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  Speaker 1: to the badlands of the Little Missouri Valley, where he
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  Speaker 1: had purchased a ranch in the previous year. The early
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  Speaker 1: love of natural history, which never abated, had developed into
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  Speaker 1: a passion for hunting and for life in the open.
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  Speaker 1: He had begun in the wiles of Maine, and then
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  Speaker 1: turned to the West and to a cattle ranch to
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  Speaker 1: gratify both tastes. The life appealed to him, and he
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  Speaker 1: came to love it. He heard it and rounded up
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  Speaker 1: his cattle. He worked as a cowpuncher, only rather harder
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  Speaker 1: than any of them, and in the intervals he hunted
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  Speaker 1: and shot big game. He also came in contact with
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  Speaker 1: men of a new type, rough, sometimes dangerous, but always
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  Speaker 1: vigorous and often picturesque. With them, he had the same
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  Speaker 1: success as with the practical politicians of the twenty first
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  Speaker 1: Assembly District, although they were widely different specimens of mankind,
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  Speaker 1: but all alike were human at bottom, and so was Roosevelt.
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  Speaker 1: He argued with them, rode with them, camped with them,
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  Speaker 1: played and joked with them, but was always master of
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  Speaker 1: his outfit. They respected him and also liked him because
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  Speaker 1: he was at all times simple, straightforward, outspoken, and sincere.
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  Speaker 1: He became a popular and well known figure in that
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  Speaker 1: western country, and was regarded as a good fellow, a
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  Speaker 1: white man entirely fearless, thoroughly good natured and kind, never quarrelsome,
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  Speaker 1: and never safe to trifle with, bully or threaten. The
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  Speaker 1: life and experiences of that time found their way into
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  Speaker 1: a book, The Hunting Trips of a Ranchman, interesting in
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  Speaker 1: description and adventure, and all also showing a marked literary quality.
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  Speaker 1: In eighteen eighty six, he ran as Republican candidate for
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  Speaker 1: mayor of New York, and might have been elected had
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  Speaker 1: his own party stood by him. But many excellent men
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  Speaker 1: of Republican faith, the timid good, as he called them,
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  Speaker 1: panic stricken by the formidable candidacy of Henry George, flocked
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  Speaker 1: to the support of mister Abram Hewitt, the Democratic candidate,
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  Speaker 1: as the man most certain to defeat the menacing champion
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  Speaker 1: of single taxation. Roosevelt was beaten, but his campaign, which
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  Speaker 1: was entirely his own and the precursor of many others,
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  Speaker 1: his speeches, with their striking quality, then visible to the
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  Speaker 1: country for the first time, all combined to fix the
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  Speaker 1: attention of the people upon the losing candidate. Roosevelt was
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  Speaker 1: the one of the candidates who was most interesting, and
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  Speaker 1: again he had touched the imagination of the people and
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  Speaker 1: cut a little deeper into the popular consciousness and memory.
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  Speaker 1: Two years more of private life devoted to his home,
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  Speaker 1: where his greatest happiness was always found, to his ranch,
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  Speaker 1: to reading and writing books, and then came an active
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  Speaker 1: part in the campaign of eighteen eighty eight, resulting in
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  Speaker 1: the election of President Harrison, who made him Civil Service
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  Speaker 1: Commissioner in the spring of eighteen eighty nine. He was
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  Speaker 1: in his thirty first year. Civil service reform as a
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  Speaker 1: practical question was then in its initial stages. The law
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  Speaker 1: establishing it, limited in extent and forced through by a
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  Speaker 1: few leaders of both parties in the Senate, was only
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  Speaker 1: six years old. The promoters of the reform, strong in
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  Speaker 1: quality but weakened numbers, had compelled a reluctant acceptance of
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  Speaker 1: the law by exercising a balance of power vote in
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  Speaker 1: certain states and districts. It had few earnest supporters in Congress,
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  Speaker 1: some lukewarm friends, and many strong opponents. All the active
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  Speaker 1: politicians were practically against it. Mister Conkling had said that
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  Speaker 1: when doctor Johnson told Boswell that patriotism was the last
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  Speaker 1: refuge of a scoundrel, he was ignorant of the possibilities
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  Speaker 1: of the word reform, and this witticism met with a
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  Speaker 1: large response. Civil service reform, meaning the establishment of a
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  Speaker 1: classified service and the removal of routine administrative offices from politics,
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  Speaker 1: had not reached the masses of the people at all.
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  Speaker 1: The average voter knew and cared nothing about it. When
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  Speaker 1: six years later Roosevelt resigned from the Commission, the great
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  Speaker 1: body of the people knew well what Civil service reform meant.
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  Speaker 1: Large bodies of voters cared a great deal about it,
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  Speaker 1: and it was established and spreading its control. We have
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  Speaker 1: had many excellent men who have done great work in
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  Speaker 1: the Civil Service Commission, though that work is neither adventurous
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  Speaker 1: nor exciting and rarely attracts public attention. But no one
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  Speaker 1: has ever forgotten that Theodore Roosevelt was once Civil Service commissioner.
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  Speaker 1: He found the law struggling for existence, laughed at, sneered at,
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  Speaker 1: surrounded by enemies and Congress, and with but few fighting friends,
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  Speaker 1: he threw himself into the fray. Congress investigated the commission
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  Speaker 1: about once a year, which was exactly what Roosevelt desired.
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  Speaker 1: Annually too, the opponents of the reform would try to
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  Speaker 1: defeat the appropriation for the commission, and this again was
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  Speaker 1: playing into Roosevelt's hands, for it led to debates, and
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  Speaker 1: the newspapers, as a rule, sustained the reform. Senator Gorman
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  Speaker 1: mourned in the Senate over the cruel fate of a
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  Speaker 1: bright young man who was unable to tell on examination
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  Speaker 1: the distance of Baltimore from China, and thus was deprived
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  Speaker 1: of his inaliable right to serve of his country in
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  Speaker 1: the post office. Roosevelt proved that no such question had
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  Speaker 1: ever been asked, and requested the name of the bright
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  Speaker 1: young man. The name was not forthcoming, and the victim
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  Speaker 1: of a question never asked goes down nameless to posterity.
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  Speaker 1: In the Congressional record as merely a bright young man.
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  Speaker 1: Then General Grogner, a leading Republican of the House, denounced
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  Speaker 1: the commissioner for crediting his district with an appointee named
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  Speaker 1: Rufus Putnam who was not a resident of the district,
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  Speaker 1: and Roosevelt produced a letter from the General recommending Rufus
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  Speaker 1: Putnam as a resident of his district and a constituent.
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  Speaker 1: All this was unusual. Hitherto it had been a safe
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  Speaker 1: amusement to ridicule and jeer at civil service reform. And
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  Speaker 1: here was a commissioner who dared to reply vigorously to
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  Speaker 1: attacks and even to prove Senators and congressmen to be
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  Speaker 1: wrong in their facts. The amusement of bating the Civil
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: Sarvis Servis Commission seemed to be less inviting than before,
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  Speaker 1: and worse still, the entertaining features seemed to have passed
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  Speaker 1: through the public, who enjoyed and approved the commissioner, who
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  Speaker 1: disregarded etiquette and fought hard for the law he was
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  Speaker 1: appointed to enforce. The law suddenly took on new meaning
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  Speaker 1: and became clearly visible in the public mind, a great
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: service to the cause of good government. After six year service,
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: and the Civil Service Commission. Roosevelt left Washington to accept
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: the position of President of the Board of Police Commissioners
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: of the City of New York, which had been offered
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: to him by Mayor Strong. It is speaking within bounds
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: to say that the history of the police force of
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: New York has been a checkered one in which the
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: black squares have tended to predominate. The task which Roosevelt
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: confronted was then, as always difficult, and the machinery of
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: four commissioners and a practically irremovable chief made action extremely
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: slow and uncertain. Roosevelt set himself to expel politics and
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: favoritism in appointments and promotions, and to crush corruption everywhere.
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: In some way, he drove through the obstacles and affected
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: great improvements, although permanent betterment was perhaps impossible. Good men
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: were appointed and meritorious men promoted as never before, while
• 23:28
  Speaker 1: the corrupt and dangerous officers were punished in a number
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: of instances sufficient at least to check and discourage evildoers.
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: Discipline was improved, and the force became very loyal to
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: the Chief Commissioner because they learned to realize that he
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: was fighting for right and justice without fear or favor.
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: The results were also shown in the marked decrease of crime,
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: which judges pointed out from the bench. Then, too, it
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: was to be observed that a New York Police commission
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: suddenly attracted the attention of the country the work which
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: was being done by Roosevelt in New York. His midnight
• 24:07
  Speaker 1: walks through the worst quarters of the great city to
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: see whether the guardians of the peace did their duty,
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: which made the newspapers compare him to Harun al raschid
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: all appealed to the popular imagination. A purely local office
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: became national in his hands, and his picture appeared in
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: the shops of European cities. There was something more than
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: vigor and picturesqueness necessary to explain these phenomena. The truth
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: is that Roosevelt was really laboring, through a welter of details,
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: to carry out certain general principles which went to the
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: very roots of society and government. He wished the municipal
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: administration to be something far greater than a business man's administration,
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: which was the demand that had triumphed in the polls.
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: He wanted to make it and administer stration of the
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: workingmen of the dwellers in the tenements of the poverty
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: and suffering which haunted the back streets and hidden purlieus
• 25:08
  Speaker 1: of the huge city. The people did not formulate these
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: purposes as they watched what he was doing, but they
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: felt them and understood them by that instinct which is
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: often so keen in vast bodies of men. The man
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: who was toiling in the seeming obscurity of the New
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: York Police Commission again became very distinct to his fellow countrymen,
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: and deepened their consciousness of his existence and their comprehension
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: of his purposes and aspirations. Striking as was the effect
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: of this police work, it only lasted for two years.
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: In eighteen ninety seven, he was offered by President mc kinley,
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: whom he had energetically supported in the preceding campaign, the
• 25:54
  Speaker 1: position of Assistant Secretary of the Navy. He accepted at once,
• 25:59
  Speaker 1: for the play and work both appealed to him most strongly.
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: The opportunity did not come without resistance. The President, an
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: old friend, liked him and believed in him. But the
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: Secretary of the Navy had doubts and also fears that
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: Roosevelt might be a disturbing and restless assistant. There were
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: many politicians, too, especially in his own state, whom his
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: activities as civil service and police commissioner did not delight,
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: and these men opposed him. But his friends were powerful
• 26:33
  Speaker 1: and devoted, and the President appointed him. His new place
• 26:37
  Speaker 1: had to him a peculiar attraction. He loved the navy.
• 26:42
  Speaker 1: He had written its brilliant history in the War of
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: eighteen twelve. He had done all in his power in
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: stimulating public opinion to support the new Navy. We were
• 26:52
  Speaker 1: just then beginning to build that war was coming with Spain.
• 26:57
  Speaker 1: He had no doubt. We were unprepared, of course, even
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: for such a war as this. But Roosevelt set himself
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: to do what could be done. The best and most
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: far seeing officers rallied round him, but the opportunities were limited.
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: There was much in detail accomplished which cannot be described here,
• 27:17
  Speaker 1: but two acts of his which had very distinct effect
• 27:20
  Speaker 1: upon the fortunes of the war, must be noted. He
• 27:24
  Speaker 1: saw very plainly, although most people never perceived it at all,
• 27:28
  Speaker 1: that the Philippines would be a vital point in any
• 27:31
  Speaker 1: war with Spain. For this reason, it was highly important
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: to have the right man in command of the Asiatic Squadron.
• 27:39
  Speaker 1: Roosevelt was satisfied that Dewey was the right man and
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: that his rival was not. He set to work to
• 27:46
  Speaker 1: secure the place for Dewey through the aid of the
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: senators from Dewey's native state and others. He succeeded. Dewey
• 27:54
  Speaker 1: was ordered to the Asiatic Squadron. Our relations with Spain
• 27:59
  Speaker 1: grew worse and worse. On February twenty five, eighteen ninety eight,
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: war was drawing very near, and that Saturday afternoon Roosevelt
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: happened to be Acting Secretary and sent out the following
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: cablegram Dewey Hong Kong. Order the squadron except the monicacy
• 28:19
  Speaker 1: to Hong Kong, keep full of coal. In the event
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: of declaration of war Spain, your duty will be to
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: see that the Spanish squadron does not leave the Asiatic coast,
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: and then offensive operations in the Philippine Islands keep Olympia
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: until further orders. Roosevelt I believe he was never again
• 28:40
  Speaker 1: permitted to be Acting Secretary, but the deed was done.
• 28:45
  Speaker 1: The wise word of readiness had been spoken and was
• 28:48
  Speaker 1: not recalled. War came, and as April closed, Dewey all prepared,
• 28:53
  Speaker 1: slipped out of Hong Kong, and on May first, fought
• 28:57
  Speaker 1: the Battle of Manila Bay. Roosevelt, however, did not continue
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: long in the Navy Department. Many of his friends felt
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: that he was doing such admirable work there that he
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: ought to remain, But as soon as war was declared,
• 29:11
  Speaker 1: he determined to go, and his resolution was not to
• 29:14
  Speaker 1: be shaken. Nothing could prevent his fighting for his country.
• 29:18
  Speaker 1: When the country was at war, Congress had authorized three
• 29:22
  Speaker 1: volunteer regiments of cavalry, and the President and Secretary of
• 29:26
  Speaker 1: War gave to Leonard Wood, then a surgeon in the
• 29:29
  Speaker 1: regular Army, as colonel, and to Theodore Roosevelt as lieutenant colonel,
• 29:35
  Speaker 1: authority to raise one of these regiments. Known officially as
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: the first United States Volunteer Cavalry and to all the
• 29:43
  Speaker 1: country as the Rough Riders, the regiment was raised chiefly
• 29:48
  Speaker 1: in the Southwest and West, where Roosevelt's popularity and reputation
• 29:52
  Speaker 1: among the cowboys and the ranchmen brought many eager recruits
• 29:56
  Speaker 1: to serve with him. After the regiment had been organized,
• 30:00
  Speaker 1: ed and equipped, they had some difficulty in getting to Cuba,
• 30:04
  Speaker 1: but Roosevelt, as usual, broke through all obstacles and finally
• 30:08
  Speaker 1: succeeded with Colonel Wood in getting away with two battalions,
• 30:13
  Speaker 1: leaving one battalion and the horses behind. The regiment got
• 30:18
  Speaker 1: into action immediately on landing and forced its way after
• 30:22
  Speaker 1: some sharp fighting in the jungle to the high ground
• 30:25
  Speaker 1: on which were placed the fortifications which defended the approach
• 30:29
  Speaker 1: to Santiago. Colonel Wood was almost immediately given command of
• 30:33
  Speaker 1: a brigade, and this left Roosevelt colonel of the regiment.
• 30:38
  Speaker 1: In the battle which ensued and which resulted in the
• 30:41
  Speaker 1: capture of the positions commanding Santiago and the bay. The
• 30:45
  Speaker 1: rough Riders took a leading part, storming one of the
• 30:48
  Speaker 1: San Juan heights, which they christened Kettle Hill, with Roosevelt
• 30:53
  Speaker 1: leading the men in person. It was a dashing, gallant assault,
• 30:57
  Speaker 1: well led and thoroughly successful. Santiago fell after the defeat
• 31:02
  Speaker 1: of the fleet, and then followed a period of sickness
• 31:05
  Speaker 1: and suffering, the latter due to unreadiness, where Roosevelt did
• 31:09
  Speaker 1: everything with his usual driving energy to save his men,
• 31:14
  Speaker 1: whose loyalty to their colonel went with them through life.
• 31:18
  Speaker 1: The war was soon over, but brief as it had been.
• 31:21
  Speaker 1: Roosevelt and his men had highly distinguished themselves, and he
• 31:25
  Speaker 1: stood out in the popular imagination as one of the
• 31:28
  Speaker 1: conspicuous figures of the conflict. He brought his regiment back
• 31:33
  Speaker 1: to the United States, where they were mustered out, and
• 31:36
  Speaker 1: almost immediately afterwards he was nominated by the Republicans as
• 31:40
  Speaker 1: their candidate for governor of the state of New York.
• 31:44
  Speaker 1: The situation in New York was unfavorable for the Republicans,
• 31:48
  Speaker 1: and the younger men told Senator Platt, who dominated the
• 31:51
  Speaker 1: organization and who had no desire for Roosevelt, that unless
• 31:56
  Speaker 1: he was nominated, they could not win. Thus forced the
• 32:00
  Speaker 1: organization accepted him, and it was well for the party
• 32:04
  Speaker 1: that they did so. The campaign was a sharp one
• 32:07
  Speaker 1: and very doubtful, but Roosevelt was elected by a narrow
• 32:10
  Speaker 1: margin and assumed office at the beginning of the new
• 32:13
  Speaker 1: year of eighteen ninety nine. He was then in his
• 32:17
  Speaker 1: forty first year. Many problems faced him, and none were evaded.
• 32:23
  Speaker 1: He was well aware that the organization under Senator Platt,
• 32:26
  Speaker 1: would not like many things he was sure to do,
• 32:30
  Speaker 1: but he determined that he would have neither personal quarrels
• 32:33
  Speaker 1: nor faction fights. He knew being blessed with strong common
• 32:37
  Speaker 1: sense that the Republican Party, his own party, was the
• 32:41
  Speaker 1: instrument by which alone he could attain his ends, and
• 32:44
  Speaker 1: he did not intend that it should be blunted and
• 32:47
  Speaker 1: made useless by internal strife. And yet he meant to
• 32:51
  Speaker 1: have his own way. It was a difficult role which
• 32:54
  Speaker 1: he undertook to play, but he succeeded. He had many
• 32:58
  Speaker 1: differences with the organization managers, but he declined to lose
• 33:02
  Speaker 1: his temper or to have a break, and he also
• 33:05
  Speaker 1: refused to yield when he felt he was standing for
• 33:07
  Speaker 1: the right and a principle was at stake. Thus he prevailed.
• 33:12
  Speaker 1: He won on the canal question, changed the insurance commissioner,
• 33:16
  Speaker 1: and carried the insurance legislation he desired. As in these
• 33:21
  Speaker 1: cases so it was in lesser things. In the police commission,
• 33:25
  Speaker 1: he had been strongly impressed by the dangers, as he
• 33:28
  Speaker 1: saw them, of the undue and often sinister influence of business, finance,
• 33:34
  Speaker 1: and great money interests upon government and politics. These feelings
• 33:39
  Speaker 1: were deepened and broadened by his experience and observation on
• 33:42
  Speaker 1: the larger stage of state administration. The belief that political
• 33:47
  Speaker 1: equality must be strengthened and sustained by industrial equality and
• 33:52
  Speaker 1: a larger economic opportunity, was constantly in his thoughts until
• 33:57
  Speaker 1: it became a governing and guiding principle. Meantime, he grew
• 34:02
  Speaker 1: steadily stronger among the people, not only of his own state,
• 34:05
  Speaker 1: but of the country, for he was well known throughout
• 34:08
  Speaker 1: the West, and there they were watching eagerly to see
• 34:12
  Speaker 1: how the ranchmen and colonel of rough Riders, who had
• 34:15
  Speaker 1: touched both their hearts and their imagination, was faring. As
• 34:19
  Speaker 1: governor of New York, the office he held is always
• 34:23
  Speaker 1: regarded as related to the presidency, and this, joined to
• 34:28
  Speaker 1: his striking success as governor, brought him into the presidential field,
• 34:32
  Speaker 1: wherever men speculated about the political future. It was universally
• 34:37
  Speaker 1: agreed that mc kinley was to be renominated, and so
• 34:41
  Speaker 1: the talk turned to making Roosevelt vice president. A friend
• 34:45
  Speaker 1: wrote to him in the summer of eighteen ninety nine
• 34:47
  Speaker 1: as to this drift of opinion, then, assuming serious proportions,
• 34:53
  Speaker 1: do not attempt, he said, to thwart the popular desire.
• 34:57
  Speaker 1: You are not a man, nor are your close friends
• 34:59
  Speaker 1: men who can plan, arrange, and manage you into office.
• 35:04
  Speaker 1: You must accept the popular wish, whatever it is, follow
• 35:08
  Speaker 1: your star, and let the future care for itself. It
• 35:12
  Speaker 1: is the tradition of our politics, and a very poor tradition,
• 35:15
  Speaker 1: that the vice presidency is a shelf. It ought to be,
• 35:19
  Speaker 1: and there is no reason why it should not be
• 35:22
  Speaker 1: a stepping stone put there by the popular desire. It
• 35:26
  Speaker 1: would be so to you. This view, quite naturally, did
• 35:30
  Speaker 1: not commend itself to Governor Roosevelt. At the moment, he
• 35:33
  Speaker 1: was doing valuable work in New York. He was deeply
• 35:36
  Speaker 1: engaged in important reforms which he had much at heart
• 35:41
  Speaker 1: and which he wished to carry through, and the vice
• 35:44
  Speaker 1: presidency did not attract him. A year later, he was
• 35:48
  Speaker 1: at Philadelphia, a delicate at large from his state, with
• 35:52
  Speaker 1: his mind unchanged as to the vice presidency. While his
• 35:56
  Speaker 1: New York friends, anxious to have him continue his work
• 35:59
  Speaker 1: at Alben, were urging him to refuse. Senator Platt, for
• 36:04
  Speaker 1: obvious reasons, wished to make him vice president, another obstacle
• 36:08
  Speaker 1: to his taking it. Roosevelt forced the New York delegation
• 36:12
  Speaker 1: to agree on some one else for vice president, but
• 36:15
  Speaker 1: he could not hold the convention, nor could Senator Hannah,
• 36:20
  Speaker 1: who wisely accepted the situation. Governor Roosevelt was nominated on
• 36:24
  Speaker 1: the first ballot, all other candidates withdrawing. He accepted the
• 36:29
  Speaker 1: nomination little as he liked it. Thus, when it came
• 36:33
  Speaker 1: to the point, he instinctively followed his star and grasped
• 36:37
  Speaker 1: the unvacillating hand of destiny. Little did he think that
• 36:41
  Speaker 1: destiny would lead him to the White House through a
• 36:44
  Speaker 1: tragedy which cut him to the heart. He was on
• 36:47
  Speaker 1: a mountain in the Adirondacks when a guide made his
• 36:50
  Speaker 1: way to him across the forest with a telegram telling
• 36:54
  Speaker 1: him that mc kinley, the wise, the kind, the gentle,
• 36:58
  Speaker 1: with nothing in his heart but good will to all men,
• 37:02
  Speaker 1: was dying from a wound inflicted by an anarchist murderer,
• 37:06
  Speaker 1: and that the vice President must come to Buffalo at once.
• 37:10
  Speaker 1: A rapid night drive through the woods and a special
• 37:13
  Speaker 1: train brought him to Buffalo. Mc kinley was dead before
• 37:17
  Speaker 1: he arrived, and that evening Governor Roosevelt was sworn in
• 37:21
  Speaker 1: as President of the United States. End of Part one