Theodore Rex (167 page)
Authors: Edmund Morris
54
Knox and Taft
John Hay diary, 15 Mar. 1904 (JH); A. B. Farquhar to TR, 8 Mar. 1904 (TRP); New York
World
(front page, lead article), 15 Mar. 1904; New York
Evening Post
, 15 and 16 Mar. 1904. See the vast selection of clips in Philander Knox scrapbook (PCK); also
Literary Digest
, 26 Mar. 1904. For a sample of critical opinion, see
The New York Times
, 15 Mar. 1904.
55
The New York
World
New York
World
, 15 and 20 Mar. 1904.
56
The three men
New York
World
, 15 Mar. 1904; Pyle,
Life of James J. Hill
, vol. 2, 377; Martin,
James J. Hill
, 519; New York
Herald
, 15 Mar. 1904; A. B. Farquhar to TR, 8 Mar. 1904 (TRP).
57
“As far as I”
Joseph Bucklin Bishop to TR, 15 Mar. 1904 (TRP).
58
BY 1 APRIL
John Hay diary, 19 Mar. 1904 (JH); EKR to Cecil Spring Rice, 7 Feb. 1904 (CSR); Mrs. J. Borden Harriman,
From Pinafores to Politics
(New York, 1923), 83; Gould,
Presidency of Theodore Roosevelt
, 134.
59
“He is a very”
William H. Taft to Mrs. Taft, 18 Mar. 1904 (WHT).
60
Even so, Roosevelt’s
Adams,
Letters
, vol. 5, 554;
Literary Digest
, 2 Apr. 1904; TR,
Letters
, vol. 4, 749.
61
It was virtually
Literary Digest
, 2 Jan. 1904.
Santo Domingo
and
Dominican Republic
were interchangeable terms in the Roosevelt Era.
62
“Your unlimited power”
Wilhelm II to TR, 1 Feb. 1904 (TRP).
63
The Kaiser could
Review of Reviews
, Mar. 1902; Julius W. Pratt,
Challenge and Rejection: The United States and World Leadership, 1900–1921
(New York, 1967), 29–30.
Historical Note:
The current situation was complicated by the fact that on 1 Feb. Santo Domingo insurgents fired upon the United States cruiser
Yankee
, killing one Marine. On 5 Feb., TR ordered Rear Admiral Wise to
proceed to Santo Domingo with cruisers of the Atlantic Squadron and protect United States citizens and property
(Review of Reviews
, Mar. 1904). There is no direct evidence that the United States feared European interference (Italy, Britain, and Belgium were owed money as well as Germany), but the circumstantial evidence, as with the Venezuelan crisis of 1902–1903, is suggestive. At the time of the German warship scare, the State Department was under intense pressure from the Navy Department to allow the Mediterranean Squadron to take part in “maneuvers” in the Caribbean (William N. Still,
American Sea Power in the Old World: The United States Navy in Europe and Near Eastern Waters, 1815–1917
[Westport, Conn., 1980], 163–64). Looking back on the crisis afterward, Elihu Root said, “We went into Santo Domingo for the sole purpose of keeping Germany from taking it” (interview, 10 Nov. 1930 [PCJ]). Ironically, Santo Domingo’s financial mess had been largely caused by an American investment firm, the Santo Domingo Investment Company, in 1903. See Douglas R. Gow, “How Did the Roosevelt Corollary Become Linked to the Dominican Republic?”
Mid-America
58 (1976).
64
“I have about”
TR,
Letters
, vol. 4, 734. TR was so pleased with this image he repeated it viva voce to his Cabinet—only then the boa constrictor was an anaconda. John Hay diary, 18 Mar. 1904 (JH).
65
TWO MONTHS AFTER
TR,
Letters
, vol. 4, 772; Jessup,
Elihu Root
, vol. 1, 419; Gould,
Reform and Regulation
, 44; TR,
Letters
, vol. 7, 615; James O. Wheaton, “The Genius and the Jurist: The Presidential Campaign of 1904” (Ph.D. diss., Stanford University, 1964), 583; TR,
Letters
, vol. 4, 785–86.
66
In the meantime
The Washington Post
, 3 Mar. 1904; TR, introduction to Francis Curtis,
History of the Republican Party
(New York, 1904); TR,
Letters
, vol. 4, 771, 773; TR,
Presidential Addresses and State Papers
, vol. 3, 5–8.
67
Cleveland fumed with
Allan Nevins,
Grover Cleveland
(New York, 1932), 750–51. The President, unabashed, was still circulating Cleveland’s letter in the fall. See, e.g., TR to C. Riggs, editor of the New York
Sun
, 2 Sept. 1904 (TRP).
68
“Theodore thinks of”
Adams,
Letters
, vol. 5, 570.
69
Old Guard Republicans
James S. Clarkson to William Loeb, 5 Apr. 1904.
70
Reluctantly, in view
Kerr,
Bully Father
, 149. Marguerite Cassini recalled that her father, Speck von Sternburg, and Jules Jusserand were “very much worried” by the comings and goings of mysterious Japanese visitors to the White House. Cassini,
Never a Dull Moment
, 198.
71
HIS SIGNATURE FINGERS
William A. Day and Charles W. Russell to Philander Knox, 26 and 28 Apr. 1904 (PCK). The extraordinary series of letters and telegrams in Knox’s papers concerning the canal-rights transfer counters the doubt expressed by revisionist historians (e.g., Henry Pringle) as to whether the Roosevelt Administration was conscientious in obtaining good title to the Canal Zone, and in ensuring that all payments were distributed properly.
72
the supreme adjective
Philippe Bunau-Varilla to Poultney Bigelow, 26 Feb. 1926 (PB).
73
“I HAVE TAKEN”
TR,
Letters
, vol. 4, 788.
74
By terms of treaty
Miles P. DuVal,
And the Mountains Will Move
(Stanford, 1947), 136–37; TR,
Letters
, vol. 4, 770.
75
He sent Taft
TR,
Letters
, vol. 4, 786–93; the other Commission members were William B. Parsons, Benjamin M. Harrod, William H. Burr, Carl E. Grunsky, and Frank J. Hecker. DuVal,
And the Mountains
, 130.
76
Roosevelt ordered Taft
TR,
Letters
, vol. 4, 790.
77
Sanitary reform
Ibid., 791–92.
78
ON 10
MAY
Wheaton, “Genius and the Jurist,” 583. The following account is based primarily on Moore,
Roosevelt and the Old Guard
, 114–17.
79
“You might as”
Ibid., 460.
80
Shadows stole
Ibid., 117.
81
Senator Matthew Quay
Quay’s final decline had begun on 8 May.
82
“The last consignment”
Review of Reviews
, June 1904; New York
Sun, 11
May 1904.
83
businesslike light
The names of these products are taken from contemporary magazines. The shadow-free lamp of 1903 caused a revolution in American lighting.
84
George Cortelyou
Wheaton, “Genius and the Jurist,” 267; Moore,
Roosevelt and the Old Guard
, 57–58, 70.
85
“Go see Cortelyou”
Moore,
Roosevelt and the Old Guard
, 117.
Historiographical
Note: The date of this interview cannot be established with certainty. But internal evidence proves Moore was wrong in remembering it as taking place after the death of Quay (28 May 1904). His mission on behalf of Senator Penrose must have come after Bliss’s rejection of the GOP chairmanship on 10 May, and before TR’s announcement of the appointment of Cortelyou on 17 May.
TR’s reverence for Quay, which has often embarrassed his apologists, was perfectly in character. He owed his Vice Presidency (hence, his Presidency) to him. He also admired very strong men, even if their morals were doubtful. Quay’s erudition (he introduced TR to Finnish literature) was another bond. TR was so impressed by the Senator’s deathbed speech that he devoted 1,500 words of his autobiography to it. See Kehl,
Boss Rule
, 226–29, TR,
Autobiography
, 158–61, and Steffens,
Autobiography
, 419–21. For more on the death of Quay and the controversy caused by TR’s description of him as “my staunch and loyal friend,” see
Contemporary Literature
, July 1904.
: T
HE
W
IRE
T
HAT
R
AN
A
ROUND THE
W
ORLD
1
“I hope ye’re”
Dunne,
Mr. Dooley’s Philosophy
, 87.
2
AT SIXTY-FOUR
Ion Perdicaris, “In Raisuli’s Hands: The Story of My Captivity and Deliverance, 18 May to 26 June 1904,”
Leslie’s Monthly Magazine
, Sept. 1904.
3
This did not
Bowen,
Recollections
, 34;
Leslie’s Weekly
, 23 June 1904;
Outlook
, 11 June 1904. For the diplomatic and strategic background to the story here beginning, see William J. Hourihan, “Roosevelt and the Sultans: The United States Navy in the Mediterranean, 1904” (Ph.D. diss., Northeastern University Press, 1975).
4
He sat there
New York
Sun
, 14 June 1904; Perdicaris, “In Raisuli’s Hands”; H. E. Davis, “The Citizenship of Ion Perdicaris,”
Journal of Modern History
8 (1941);
Outlook
, 11 June 1904. Ion Perdicaris was the son of a wealthy, naturalized Greek American who was appointed United States Consul General in Athens in 1837. In 1840, just after Ion’s birth in that city, Perdicaris Senior returned to the United States and made a fortune in natural-gas companies. Ion was raised and educated in Trenton, N.J. After a year at Harvard, he began his divided life on both sides of the Atlantic, writing, painting, and studying the occult. Hourihan, “Roosevelt and the Sultans,” 45–47.
5
The other male
Except where otherwise indicated, the sections of this chapter detailing the kidnapping of Ion Perdicaris are based on his own three narratives: a letter written while he was being held captive, reproduced in the New York
Sun
, 14
June 1904; “Morocco, ‘The Land of the Extreme West,’ and the Story of My Captivity,”
National Geographic
, March 1906; and “In Raisuli’s Hands.” Supplemental details come from Cromwell Varley, “Captured by Moorish Brigands,”
The Independent
, July 1904.
6
Just before eleven
Samuel Gummeré to Francis B. Loomis, 20 May 1904, “Dispatches-Tangier,” State Department files (NA). Gummeré was an old friend of Perdicaris from Trenton, and owed his appointment to him.
7
MR. PERDICARIS
Samuel Gummeré to John Hay, 19 May 1904 (NA).
8
Conveniently, Roosevelt
Still,
American Sea Power
, 164–65; Francis B. Loomis to Samuel Gummeré, 19 May 1904, “Instructions,” State Department files (NA).
9
The last seven
Charles H. Darling to Francis B. Loomis, 19 May 1904 (NA).
10
“It is not”
TR,
Letters
, vol. 4, 801 (italics added).
11
“If a nation”
Ibid.
12
“jingoism run mad”
New York
World
, 28 May 1904; John W. Blassingame, “The Press and American Intervention in Haiti and the Dominican Republic, 1904–1920,”
Caribbean Studies
9.2 (1969); Munro,
Intervention and Dollar Diplomacy
, 65; Marks,
Velvet on Iron
, 9–10, 146–47. Douglas R. Gow, “How Did the Roosevelt Corollary?” argues that Root’s first enunciation of the Corollary was a political, vote-getting gesture. But he errs in saying that it had no immediate diplomatic relevance. Walter Wellman noted in
Review of Reviews
(Dec. 1904) that “the [Cuba Society] letter was written wholly as a warning to Santo Domingo.” Havana also was being put on notice, as it discovered in 1906. TR enunciated the Corollary again in his Fourth Annual Message to Congress.
13
“I ASK NOTHING”
Perdicaris, “Morocco”; Samuel Gummeré to Francis B. Loomis, 20 May 1904 (NA).
14
A few days
Thomas H. Etzold, “Protection or Politics? ‘Perdicaris Alive or Raisuli Dead?’ ”
The Historian
, Feb. 1975.
15
“I had much”
TR,
Letters
, vol. 4, 821, 807. See the last-cited letter, to George Otto Trevelyan, for an expression of TR’s current frame of mind. For a further sense of TR’s executive maturity at this time, see his long directives on Far Eastern affairs, Panamanian cable concessions, and Philippines administration in TR,
Letters
, vol. 4, 834–43. The note of command is assured, deft, irresistible; the point of view omniscient.
16
The odds on
Washington
Evening Star
, 20 May 1904; Bishop,
Theodore Roosevelt
, vol. 1, 322. TR had sensed Parker as his probable Democratic rival for more than a year.
The Exeter
, N.H.,
News-Letter
, 6 Mar. 1903, in Presidential scrapbook (TRP).
17
Reticence and its
Washington
Evening Star
, 21 May 1904; New York
Sun
, 27 May 1904; Newark, N.J.,
Evening News, 1
June 1904. See also TR,
Letters
, vol. 4, 804.
18
A White House “source”
Washington
Evening Star
, 17 May 1904; TR,
Letters
, vol. 4, 797.