THE MAN WHO REFUSED TO BE SHELVED
Now Roosevelt came to the crisis of his career. The events of the next few years made him later President of the United States. Politicians conspired against him, but Fate fought with him. He was indeed a “Man of Destiny.”
In spite of his agreement with Senator Platt to consult him upon important matters of government—a pledge Roosevelt faithfully kept—he still became a thorn in the side of Platt and the machine politicians.
Immediately after his inauguration Governor Roosevelt cleaned house in whirlwind fashion at Albany. Superintendent of Insurance Lou F. Payn, who was thrown out of a job, ran to Senator Platt with this cry:
“I warned you that this fellow would soon have you dangling at his chariot wheel. You would not believe me. He has begun by scalping members of your ‘Old Guard.’ He’ll get you, too, soon.”
The big dispute between Roosevelt and Platt came when Roosevelt determined that corporations must pay a franchise tax. He had bills drawn up to this effect. His party leaders rebelled. Roosevelt gritted his teeth and drove through the Legislature this franchise tax law. Following this, Roosevelt let it be known that he would be the candidate for renomination as Governor.
Platt and his henchmen decided that they had had quite enough of him. To eliminate him from state politics they decided to shelve him in the office of Vice-President. Platt and his friends went to the Republican National Convention at Philadelphia determined to carry this plan through. Mark Hanna was opposed to nominating Roosevelt as a candidate for the Vice-Presidency. Platt joined forces with Senator Quay.
Roosevelt discovered the plan to get rid of him, and gave the newspapers an interview in which he stated positively that he would not accept the nomination; that his most valued friends had advised him against being a candidate, and that he would follow their advice.
Senator Platt went on with his plans. He conferred with Senator Hanna. Roosevelt came to Platt’s rooms.
“I shall go to the New York caucus and tell the delegates that I shall, if nominated for Vice-President, arise in the convention and decline.”
“But you cannot be renominated for Governor, and you are going to be nominated for Vice-President,” was the retort Platt claims to have made.
“I cannot be renominated?” queried Roosevelt.
“No. Your successor is in this room!” said Platt, pointing to Chairman Odell.
Facing this situation, Roosevelt let it be known that he would yield if the convention “took the bit in its teeth” and insisted upon nominating him.
The wisdom of the nomination of Roosevelt as McKinley’s running mate was vindicated at the polls. The McKinley-Roosevelt ticket smothered that of Bryan and his mate, and New York State remained in the Republican column. Senator Platt went down to Washington for the inauguration with the remark:
“I am going to see Roosevelt put on the veil.”
But Platt and the men who thought Roosevelt was safely out of the way were overlooking the fact that Roosevelt’s fortune was in the hand of a greater power than theirs.
Roosevelt’s term as Vice-President proved to be short. He took office on March 4, 1901, and presided over the Senate at the succeeding session. With McKinley and his Cabinet his relations were intimate and cordial.
In September Roosevelt went camping with his family in the Adirondacks. There he received the news of the shooting of President McKinley, who died before the Vice-President could reach his bedside. Roosevelt took the oath of office as President at Buffalo on the evening of September 14.
The new President fully appreciated the deplorable circumstances under which he became the head of the nation. He issued this proclamation:
“In this hour of deep and national bereavement I wish to state that it shall be my aim to continue absolutely and without variance the policy of President McKinley, for the peace, prosperity and honor of our beloved country.” Roosevelt kept this pledge to the letter.
Afterward Senator Platt, with true political sagacity, claimed credit for his insistence upon the nomination for the Vice-Presidency, since it had led to Roosevelt becoming President of the United States. Those, however, who knew of the anxiety of the New York politicians to get rid of Roosevelt as a factor in state politics looked the other way and winked.
XII
First Years in the Presidency
When Roosevelt was a member of the New York Legislature, Andrew D. White, President of Cornell College, who had been keenly watching his career, remarked to his class:
“Young gentlemen, some of you will enter public life. I call your attention to Theodore Roosevelt, now in our legislature. He is on the right road to success. It is dangerous to predict a future for a young man, but let me tell you that if any man of his age was ever pointed straight for the Presidency, that man is Theodore Roosevelt.”
Mr. White was not alone in his opinion. George W. Curtis, who was then editor of Harper’s “Easy Chair,” thus answered a man who sneered at the youth and obscurity of Roosevelt:
COPYRIGHT, HARRIS & EWING
ROOSEVELT’S CABINET IN 1908
“You will know more, sir, later; a good deal more, or I am much in error. Young? Why, he is just out of school almost, yet he is a force to be reckoned with in New York. Later the nation will be criticizing or praising him. While respectful to the gray hairs and experience of his elders, not one of them can move him an iota from convictions as to men and measures once formed and rooted. He will not truckle nor cringe; he seems to court opposition to the point of being somewhat pugnacious. His political life will probably be turbulent; but he will be a figure, not a figure-head, in future developments—or if not, it will be because he gives up politics altogether.”
These opinions from men who knew Roosevelt all his life go to show that his course to the Presidency was clearly marked for him from the time he entered New York politics.
Jeremiah Curtin, the historian and philosopher, was another person who early became impressed with the idea that Roosevelt was a dynamic force for the highest place in the land. Curtin, in his “History of the Mongols,” wrote thus of seeing Roosevelt as a Civil Service Commissioner:
“All at once, in the large room before us, I saw a young man, alert to his duties and perfectly confident. There was no one else in the apartment. I told (Congressman) Greenhalge to look at him.
“‘That man looks precisely as if he had examined the building and, finding it suitable, has made up his mind to inhabit it!’
“‘He is the living picture of that pose,’ replied Greenhalge; ‘but do you know him? That is Theodore Roosevelt!’”
The assassination of President McKinley, which led Roosevelt to the White House, simply hastened the goal which was already in sight.
From his early days in politics he took a high moral stand and formed the habit of going to the people over the heads of the politicians whenever he thought that the public interest required such drastic measures. He set for himself a high standard, yet, when he quitted the Presidency, that standard had been set even higher than when he made his first campaign for clean politics in the New York Legislature.
Roosevelt’s first notable act on entering the Presidency was to retain in office all of McKinley’s subordinates. It had been the habit on the three previous occasions when Vice-Presidents succeeded Presidents through the death of the President to change the personnel of the higher offices, especially in the Cabinet. Roosevelt did not think this a wise course. He asked all of the members of the Cabinet to stay and help him carry out McKinley’s policies.
Some of his friends told him this would make him only “a pale copy of McKinley.” He told them that he was not concerned in following or not following in McKinley’s footsteps. What he wanted to do was to face and solve the new problems that arose.