THE MONGOLS [[4]]
THE MONGOLS
A HISTORY
BY
JEREMIAH CURTIN
AUTHOR OF “MYTHS AND FOLK-LORE OF IRELAND,” “HERO-TALES OF IRELAND,” “MYTH AND FOLK-TALES OF THE RUSSIANS, WESTERN SLAVS, AND MAGYARS,” “CREATION MYTHS OF PRIMITIVE AMERICA,” ETC.
With a Foreword by
THEODORE ROOSEVELT
BOSTON
LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY
1908
[[6]]
Copyright, 1907,
By A. M. Curtin.
All rights reserved
Published December 1907
Printers
S. J. Parkhill & Co., Boston, U. S. A. [[v]]
Theodore Roosevelt, President of the United States of America, I dedicate to you the present volume entitled “The Mongols, a History.” I do this because on September 5th, 1901, in the city of Burlington where you addressed Vermont veterans, I asked permission to make the dedication and you gave it. You were Vice-President at that time.
I made this request because I have great respect and admiration for you as a man, as a leader of men, and a scholar; and because of the way in which I came first to know you.
In 1891 you, as Chairman of the Civil Service Commission, were in Washington. I had just returned to that city from a work of two years among Pacific Coast Indians. Of these, two tribes in California had asked me to intercede for them with the President, who in those days was Benjamin Harrison. These Indians were among the truly wretched and suffering. One tribe of them had been almost exterminated through a massacre inflicted by white men. The other reduced to a feeble remnant through various man-killing processes. Still they were worthy of earnest attention. Their myths have a beauty and a value which should preserve them till literature perishes. These two tribes were the Wintu and the Yana whose account of the world and its origin I published later on in “Creation Myths of Primitive America.”
On reaching Washington I went to Frederick T. Greenhalge, my classmate, who then represented a part of Massachusetts in Congress, but afterward was one of that Commonwealth’s renowned governors. Greenhalge tried to induce a strong man or two from the Senate or House to assist us to act on the President, but, though promises were made, no man came with support, and we went alone to the White House. The case had been stated clearly on two pages which I held ready for delivery. When I had given the reason [[vi]]of my coming the President answered: “I see no way to help you. What can I do in this matter?” “You can give,” replied I, “the executive impulse. Send this statement to the Secretary of the Interior, and direct him to act on it.” “That will suffice,” added Greenhalge. “I will do it,” said the President, after thinking a moment. He took my paper, jotted down the directions I had suggested, and sent them to the Secretary.
We came away greatly satisfied, and halted some moments at the head of the staircase. The President’s chamber was on the second story. All at once in the large room below us I saw a young man, alert in his bearing and perfectly confident. He gazed at the ceiling and walls of the room, and was thoroughly occupied. There was no one else in the apartment. I asked Greenhalge to look at him. “That man,” said I, “looks precisely as if he had examined this building, and finding it suitable has made up his mind to inhabit it.” “He is a living picture of that purpose,” replied Greenhalge. “But do you not know him? That is Theodore Roosevelt, Chairman of the Civil Service Commission, I must make you acquainted. But first listen to a prophecy: That man down there who wants this house will get it. He will live here as President.”
On reaching the foot of the staircase Greenhalge met you and made us acquainted. We conversed for some moments, and then you were called to the President. You and I did not meet for some years after that day at the White House. You were toiling at problems of government and service, looking ahead always, looking to things over which you are brooding and toiling this moment. Some of the problems have been solved, others still demand solution.
My work led me to various parts of the earth, and around it. But at home or abroad I watched your activity with care and deep interest. Not very long after that prophecy I read for the first time this statement concerning you: “We need just such a man to be President.” These words, uttered casually at that juncture, were like the still small voice, their might was in their quality.
When a few years of service, unique in many ways, had brought you to the Navy you accomplished your task in that place and went farther immediately. By this time your name and the office of President were associated in the minds of many people. Next came the Cuban war with experience and triumph. And then you [[vii]]were governor at Albany. While still in that office you were named for Vice-President, and elected. Later you were President. But only when elected by the people could you act as seemed best to you and not as antecedents commanded.
I have watched and studied your career with deeper interest than that of any man who has ever been President of the United States. There is no case in our history of such concordance between the judgment of a people and the acts of a man. “Thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many.”
Jeremiah Curtin.
St. Hyacinthe, P. Q., September 6, 1906. [[ix]]