Give the man room

by Robert J. Casey; Mary Montgomery Borglum

There was no doubt whatever that General Leonard Wood was the man Gutzon had in mind when he made this appeal. He had been on friendly terms with the general for years, and had boundless respect for the abilities he had shown as a soldier and as the chief administrator of Cuban affairs after the Spanish-American War. He had never been more cheered than when a newspaper reported that Colonel Roosevelt had himself proposed General Wood as a nominee to be considered by the Chicago convention. Promptly, in April 1916, he wrote to Roosevelt, “In naming Leonard Wood, your lifelong friend, you have given the conservatives and the irreconcilables the key to the threatened deadlock, or, as some have boasted, ‘deathlock.’ You have said the first thing that has been said to make impossible a bitter struggle.”

He had many friends who did not share his belief that Roosevelt would turn out to be altruistic at Chicago. It is interesting to see how he clung to his faith in his hero despite all indication that for once he might be wrong ... and it is also a little pathetic.

Meanwhile, he went about the country on artistic commissions, interviewing Progressive leaders on the way for the information of George W. Perkins. He was on his way home from Atlanta in May when he got a mysterious call to stop in Washington. There he learned that Progressives had made overtures to the Republicans asking that a representative acceptable to both sides be chosen to act as a confidential go-between for the inside leaders. An approach had been made to Colonel Roosevelt by Congressman William B. McKinley of Illinois, who asked if Borglum would be acceptable. The colonel had said that he would. Gutzon was notified. And that is not the least fantastic thing that happened at this fantastic convention.

Old Guard Republicans would not allow Roosevelt to be nominated, but they knew they couldn’t win without his aid. They were willing to accept Leonard Wood if Roosevelt wanted him, and they were glad to have Borglum to carry such important messages.

The sculptor called on McKinley, then interviewed Colonel Roosevelt and General Wood. Their agreement, plainly stated, was that if Roosevelt could not be nominated, he would throw his influence to Wood. Others aware of this agreement were John A. Stewart of New York, and E. B. Johns, correspondent of the Army and Navy Journal in Washington.

Gutzon went to Chicago early in June and registered at the Union League Club. There he met Speaker Joe Cannon, Representative McKinley and other high-ranking Republicans with whom he kept in constant touch. Also, he visited Perkins and Governor Hiram Johnson and other Progressive leaders at Progressive headquarters. He was as widely and officially informed of the situation, he thought, as any man could hope to be. Everybody was friendly and straightforward. His great advantage, he felt, was that, as a well-known artist who had no political ties or aspirations, he was to be trusted. Well, maybe....

Most of the lads he was meeting had never in all their lives trusted anybody. What Gutzon seems never to have realized is that he was squarely in the middle of what amounted to a species of civil war. The Republican party was definitely split—make no mistake about that—and its two factions, after giving the Presidency to the Democrats, had been doing well enough in other elections to survive. Neither side was as good as it said it was. Neither side could stand any losses. So the leaders of each side wore broad, confidential smiles in public, and in private they moved in the fashion of morose and wary conspirators. Each side feared the other with a real, practical fear, and each side looked on a messenger from the other as a self-seeking ferret who must be lulled by soft—and wrong—answers.

Excerpts from Gutzon’s detailed report to General Wood give one coherent account of the convention, many details of which are still the subject of controversy after more than thirty years. The sculptor shows himself to have been an able observer, though puzzled; and he seems to have overlooked one fairly evident feature—that Roosevelt in the midst of turmoil was serenely waiting for a miracle, well aware of his importance and convinced that in the failure of others he might well grow stronger. He certainly would have liked to be nominated ... and who can say that he overestimated his chances?

In the beginning of his report to Major General Wood the sculptor said:

I had been in Chicago hardly twenty-four hours when I found out that the Progressives would not have anything to do with Republicans. They were playing a foolish game of waiting to be called on. They had even turned down the proposition of entering the convention on equal terms for the first few ballots and adjourning at will. Apparently they were afraid to run the risk, although they were boasting that they had as high as 400 votes. Where they could get half that number nobody knew but themselves.