“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:
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