Theodore Rex (168 page)

19
“He wants us”
John Hay diary, 22 May 1904 (JH).

20
Like Taft
William H. Taft to Mrs. Taft, 12 Apr. 1904 (WHT).

21
In any case
John Hay diary, 22 May 1904 (JH); TR,
Letters
, vol. 4, 833.

22
With less than
New York
Evening Post
, 18 May 1904;
The New York Times
, 3 May 1904; TR,
Letters
, vol. 4, 823–24, 833; Philadelphia
Press
, 4 June 1904; New York
Sun
, 18 June 1904.

23
“Mr. President, I”
Butler,
Across the Busy Years
, vol. 1, 321. Another of TR’s favorite Beveridge stories had the young Senator visiting him at night and saying with solemn urgency: “It’s time now, sir, for you to govern by psychic suggestion.” Wister,
Roosevelt
, 112. In the event, the temporary chairman of the 1904 Republican convention was Henry Clay Payne. Elihu Root gave the keynote speech.

24
ROOSEVELT DID NOT
John Hay diary, 28 May 1904 (JH).

25
The President seemed
Qu. in Peter Larsen, “Theodore Roosevelt and the Moroccan Crisis, 1904–1905” (Ph.D. diss., Princeton University, 1984), 52.

26
AT 5:30
A.M.
Samuel Gummeré to Francis B. Loomis, 3 June 1904 (NA).

27
PRESIDENT WISHES
Samuel Gummeré to John Hay, 8 June 1904, and Hay to Gummeré, same date (NA).

28
Before nightfall
Samuel Gummeré to John Hay, 8 June 1904 (received 6:21
P.M.
, 9 June) (NA).

29
ON 10 JUNE
Philadelphia
Public Ledger
, 10 June 1904.

30
Roosevelt accepted
Eitler, “Philander Chase Knox,” 206; TR,
Letters
, vol. 4, 828–29.

31
“Many great and”
TR to Philander Knox, 23 June 1904 (PCK).

32
Roosevelt had grown
TR,
Letters
, vol. 5, 782; Eitler, “Philander Chase Knox,” 27, 203. Leslie Shaw once overheard Knox politely reprimanding the President that it was almost impossible to state a legal proposition to him. “Before I am halfway through stating it, you have grasped it all, and have rendered your decision before you know what my conclusions are.” Wood,
Roosevelt As We Knew Him
, 473–74.

33
And he was quick
Philadelphia
Public Record, The Washington Post
, and Utica, N.Y.,
Observer
, 19 June 1904; Philadelphia
American
, 10 June 1904. Thorelli,
Federal Antitrust Policy
, 407, and Eitler, “Philander Chase Knox,” 207–8, agree with Knox’s sober self-assessment. “Almost without exception,” Eitler remarks, “the record … was one of presidential leadership by Roosevelt and conservative legalistic support by Knox.” As an executive pair, they separately represented the promise and the restraints of the Constitution.

34
JOHN HAY FORWARDED
Foreign Relations 1904
, 500; John Hay diary, 14 June 1904 (JH); Hay to TR, 15 June 1904 (TD).

35
The Secretary’s desire
Dennett,
John Hay
, 402.

36
“Our position must”
TR to John Hay, 15 June 1904 (JH).

37
Hay unhappily
Still,
American Sea Power
, 167; Jules Jusserand to Théophile Delcassé,
Documents diplomatiques
, series 2, vol. 25, 234; Larsen, “Theodore Roosevelt and the Moroccan Crisis,” 42–44.

38
“The President’s will”
Jules Jusserand to Théophile Delcassé, 19 June 1904 (JJ). The French government did, however, put considerable diplomatic pressure on Morocco to settle with Raisuli. Since the Sultan was newly indebted to Foreign Minister Delcassé for a fifty-million-franc loan, he could hardly refuse. In “Perdicaris Alive or Raisuli Dead,”
American Heritage
, Aug. 1959, Barbara Tuchman remarks of the Roosevelt/Hay approach to Jusserand: “By recognizing France’s special status in Morocco, this step, consciously taken, was of international significance in the train of crises that was to lead through Algericas and Agadir to 1914.” It is also possible that TR, a punctilious diplomat, was simply honoring the month-old Anglo-French Entente.

39
Similar complaints
The New York Times
, 17 June 1904; Dawes,
Journal of the McKinley Years
, 374–76; Wheaton, “Genius and the Jurist,” 278–80; Howe,
George von Lengerke Meyer
, 92; TR,
Letters
, vol. 4, 838–39; Charles G. Dawes to TR, 18 June 1904 (TRP); New York
Sun
, 18 June 1904.

40
“Excitement is”
Henry Cabot Lodge to TR, 24 June 1904 (TRP).

41
Old-timers talked
The best account of TR’s role in the 1884 convention is Putnam,
Theodore Roosevelt
, chap. 23.

42
Now, two decades
The New York Times
, 20 June 1904; “The Republican National Convention,”
Review of Reviews
, Aug. 1904.

43
“From Panama on”
Kerr,
Bully Father
, 156–57. This letter of 20 June 1904 is misdated “June 21” in TR,
Letters
, vol. 4, 840.

44
LONG BEFORE PROCEEDINGS
The New York Times
, 21 and 19 June 1904; Bolles,
Tyrant from Illinois
, 45; New York
Sun
, 21 June 1904. “From beginning to end, [the convention] was ruled with an iron hand beneath a soft glove … the master was recognized, and loyalty to the party was simply servility to orders.”
Review of Reviews
, Aug. 1904.

45
One thing Roosevelt
New York
World
, 22 June 1904; New York
Sun
, 21–23 June 1904.

46
A question buzzed
Wheaton, “Genius and Jurist,” 283; New York
Sun
, 22 June 1904.

47
At 12:14
,
another
Payne, acting chairman of the convention, died on 4 Oct. 1904. Except where otherwise indicated, the following account (including speech quotations) is based on
Official Proceedings of the 13th Republican National Convention in the City of Chicago, June 21, 22, 23, 24, 1904
(Minneapolis, 1904).

48
Elihu Root rose
New York
Sun
, 22 June 1904.

49
“Louder!” a voice
The New York Times
, 22 June 1904.

50
IN WASHINGTON
,
it
Washington
Evening Star
, 22 June 1904; Elihu Root to TR, 14 June 1904 (TRP). TR had supplied the list of “achievements” himself. See TR,
Letters
, vol. 4, 810–13, and Jessup,
Elihu Root
, vol. 1, 421–23.

51
IN TANGIER
,
it
The exact time difference between Washington and Tangier was four hours and forty-five minutes.
World Almanac
, 1904.

52
Today, 21
June
Samuel Gummeré to John Hay, 19 and 20 June 1904 (NA); Hourihan, “Roosevelt and the Sultans,” 113; John Hay diary, 18 June 1904 (JH); Samuel Gummeré to Francis B. Loomis, 23 May 1904 (NA).

53
Aboard the
Brooklyn
Doris D. Maguire, ed.,
French Ensor Chadwick: Selected Letters and Papers
(Washington, D.C., 1981), 362; Samuel Gummeré to John Hay, 21 June 1904 (NA). Gummeré’s cable was received by the State Department at 1:40
P.M.—
i.e., 6:25
P.M.
Tangier time. Overnight, the Admiral changed his mind about sending Marines ashore, thus pre-empting an almost certain bloodbath. French E. Chadwick to John Hay, 24 June 1904 (JH); Hourihan, “Roosevelt and the Sultans,” 115.

54
BY NOW
,
Root’s
The New York Times
, 22 June 1904.

55
“All except the members”
Ibid.

56
Root did not enunciate
Ibid.

57
HAY PONDERED
Larsen, “Theodore Roosevelt and the Moroccan Crisis,” 65–66. 334
Unable to confront
Dennett,
John Hay
, 402.

58
Hunt came back
The last two sentences of this paragraph represent the author’s reading of TR’s attitude. Etzold, “Protection or Politics?” and Larsen, “Theodore Roosevelt and the Moroccan Crisis,” 69–70, feel similarly. Although some historians have doubted that TR authorized or even knew of Hay’s ultimatum in advance, TR himself was specific on 31 Dec. 1915: “I was able to secure the release of [Perdicaris] only by demanding immediate action, and making them understand that when I said action I meant it.” Qu. in Maguire,
French Ensor Chadwick
, 619.

59
Hay, drafting his
John Hay diary, 23 June 1904 (JH).

60
WE WANT PERDICARIS
John Hay to Samuel Gummeré, 22 June 1904 (NA).

61
“Then I will”
Memorandum by William D. Hassett in EMH, n.d. See also memos by Gretchen Hood and Dudley Haddock, 16 May 1943, in EMH. All three sources say Hood was the originator, in his conversation with Hay, of the phrase
Perdicaris alive or Raisuli dead
. However, Hay, never a boastful man, called the phrase his own “concise impropriety,” and in his diary for the day speaks simply of “my telegram.” Hood’s version of the phrase was less “concise,” with a superfluous
either
that Hay (a fastidious stylist) would not have permitted himself. At any rate, the journalist got the scoop.

62
But by the time
Foreign Relations 1904
, 503.

63
HOOD’S DISPATCH
Chicago
Record-Herald
, 23 June 1904.

64
“We declare our”
Merrill,
Republican Command
, 184–86. See Wheaton, “Genius and the Jurist,” 290, for Lodge’s nonauthorship of the GOP platform.

65
When Lodge finished
Chicago
Record-Herald
, 23 June 1904.

66
“Bulletin
,”
the clerk
Ibid.

67
After two days
New York Tribune
, 23 June 1904, used the phrase “like an electric thrill.”

68
Cannon quickly adjourned
TR’s reputation, Etzold remarks in “Protection or Politics?” has suffered from “unjust smudging” by historians who have sought to show that the Raisuli telegram was timed for political effect in Chicago, rather than diplomatic effect at Tangier. There is no evidence that TR was responsible for its timing. Hay, however, did not hesitate to share his “concise impropriety” with the press. In announcing the Scripps-McRae dispatch, Cannon said that it had been “verified,” presumably in a telephone call to the State Department. Etzold comments: “The fact that Roosevelt had resolved on such a position by 15 June, before the convention even opened … makes it clear that the politics of conventioneering had far less to do with the message than long exasperating delays.” See also Hourihan, “Roosevelt and the Sultans,” 123, and Larsen, “Theodore Roosevelt and the Moroccan Crisis,” 25–27.

69
“Events are numberless”
Official Proceedings
, 147.

70
It was just
The New York Times
, 24 June 1904.

71
An elemental din
Ibid.

72
THE REAL ROOSEVELT
Alice Roosevelt diary, 23 June 1904 (ARL).

73
With kisses on
The New York Times
, 24 June 1904.

74
“Thank Heaven”
See also Ion Perdicaris to Samuel Gummeré, 29 June 1904 (NA). Taxed by an indignant Gummeré about his lapsed citizenship (which was finally confirmed in a State Department cable to Loomis on 28 June), Perdicaris said that he had traded his passport in 1861 in order to prevent the Confederacy from attaching some property he owned in South Carolina. This formality aside, “I … continued to consider myself an American citizen … both my parents being, at the time of my birth, citizens of the United States.… I now realize only too keenly the false position in which I have been placed by this fatal hesitation and neglect.” Qu. in Larsen, “Theodore Roosevelt and the Moroccan Crisis,” 67–68. Larsen cites an important, and neglected, ruling by Secretary of State Root on 27 Oct. 1905 that Perdicaris “never effectively acquired Greek, or divested himself of American citizenship.” See also Etzold, “Protection or Politics?” on Perdicaris’s legal entitlement to United States protection in 1904. Perdicaris was presented with a new United States passport in 1905, and spent the rest of his life in Britain.
  Raisuli, enriched by the Sultan’s ransom, became a figure of legendary status in Morocco. His followers believed him to be immortal. He acquired a fleet of small ships and practiced Berber-style piracy on coastal traffic. In old age, he was captured by a younger rival, after a fierce fight. He died in April 1925, a few months after his ancient hostage.

  
1
I think a lot
Dunne,
Observations by Mr. Dooley
, 225.

  
2
THE DIFFICULTY OF
TR,
Letters
, vol. 4, 892.

  
3
So, by late June
The most complete account of this year’s campaign events is Wheaton, “Genius and the Jurist.” See also Merrill,
Republican Command
, chap. 8.