Authors: Edmund Morris
Sullivan, Mark.
Our Times
. New York, 1926–1935.
Teague, Michael.
Mrs. L.: Conversations with Alice Roosevelt Longworth
. New York, 1981.
Thayer, William Roscoe.
The Life and Letters of John Hay
. New York, 1915.
Thomas, Addison C.
Roosevelt among the People: Being an Account of the 14,000 Mile Journey from Ocean to Ocean of Theodore Roosevelt, 26th President of the United States
. Chicago, 1910.
Thompson, Charles Willis.
Party Leaders of the Time
. New York, 1906.
Thorelli, Hans B.
Federal Antitrust Policy
. Baltimore, 1955.
Tilchin, William N.
Theodore Roosevelt and the British Empire: A Study in Presidential Statecraft
. New York, 1997.
Trani, Eugene P.
The Treaty of Portsmouth: An Adventure in American Diplomacy
. Lexington, Ky., 1969.
Vagts, Alfred.
Deutschland und die vereinigten Staaten in der Weltpolitik
. New York, 1935.
Villard, Oswald Garrison.
Fighting Years: Memoirs of a Liberal Editor
. New York, 1939.
Wagenknecht, Edward.
The Seven Worlds of Theodore Roosevelt
. New York, 1958.
Washington, Booker T.
The Booker T. Washington Papers
. Ed. Louis R. Harlan. Urbana, 1972–1989.
Watson, James E.
As I Knew Them: Memoirs
. Indianapolis, 1936.
Weaver, John D.
The Brownsville Raid
. College Station, 1992.
———. The Senator and the Sharecropper’s Son: Exoneration of the Brownsville Soldiers
. College Station, 1997.
Welch, Jr., Richard E.
Response to Imperialism: The United States and the Philippine-American War, 1899–1902
. Chapel Hill, 1979.
White, William Allen.
Autobiography
. New York, 1946.
———. Masks in a Pageant
. New York, 1928.
Willets, Gibson.
Inside History of the White House
. New York, 1906.
Wilson, Woodrow.
The Papers of Woodrow Wilson
. Ed. Arthur S. Link. Princeton, N.J., 1966–1994.
Wimmel, Kenneth.
Theodore Roosevelt and the Great White Fleet: American Sea Power Comes of Age
. Dulles, Va., 1998.
Wister, Owen.
Roosevelt: The Story of a Friendship
. New York, 1930.
Wolf, Simon.
The Presidents I Have Known from 1860–1918
. Washington, D.C., 1918.
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Roosevelt As We Knew Him: The Personal Recollections of One Hundred and Fifty of His Friends and Associates
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. Philadelphia, 1946.
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The names of Theodore and Edith Kermit Roosevelt are abbreviated below as TR and EKR.
Citations of the Washington
Evening Star
often imply official, if “off-the-record” authority, because that newspaper’s daily “At the White House” column amounted to a court circular for the Roosevelt Administration.
Except where otherwise indicated, all French translations are by the author. Quotations from oral sources—i.e., stenographic transcripts—have on rare occasions been repunctuated for clarity.
1
THEODORE ROOSEVELT
became
For a day-by-day chronology of TR’s presidency, see the appendix of vols. 4 and 6 of TR,
The Letters of Theodore Roosevelt
, ed. Elting E. Morison (Cambridge, Mass., 1951–1954), 8 vols. (hereafter TR,
Letters)
.
2
He was bouncing
This account of TR’s descent from Mount Marcy is based on the following sources: TR to John J. Leary, Leary Notebooks (TRC); Orin Kellogg [driver] interview, unidentified news clip (TRB); Mike Cronin [driver] interview, New York
Herald
, 15 Sept., and New York
World
, 29 Sept. 1901. There are further reminiscences by these men and other contemporary witnesses in Eloise Cronin Murphy,
Theodore Roosevelt’s Night Ride to the Presidency
(Adirondack Museum, N.Y., 1977), and Christina Rainsford, “A Momentous Ride,”
Theodore Roosevelt Association Journal
, summer 1981. Richmond B. Williams explains the impromptu communications network that sprang up along the slope of the mountain in “TR Receives His Summons to the Presidency,”
Bell Telephone Magazine
, autumn 1951. Supplemental details come from
The New York Times
, New York
Press
, and New York
Sun
, 14 Sept. 1901, and from a reconnaissance made by the author in October 1979. Route 28N, resurfaced and renamed “Roosevelt-Marcy Memorial Highway,” now connects many of the places mentioned, so smoothly as to cast doubt on old accounts of the difficulties and dangers TR faced. However, a film of local wet-weather conditions, ca. 1910, preserved in the Adirondack Museum, proves these accounts were not exaggerated. (Rain had been falling continuously for three days preceding TR’s ride.)
3
Yesterday’s telegrams
Facsimile telegrams (TRB). There has been some confusion about the sequence of fifteen telegrams received by TR on Mount Marcy. A comparison of the originals with medical bulletins issued by McKinley’s secretary, George Cortelyou (in GBC), makes it clear that he read the most urgent message—Elihu Root’s—last. It was dispatched at 10:20 P.M. (William Loeb to Root, 13 Sept. 1901 [ER]). EKR, in her diary of 13 Sept. 1901, states that it came “between 11 and 12 when we were in bed [in the vacation cabin at Upper Tahawus].” See Sylvia Jukes Morris,
Edith Kermit Roosevelt: Portrait of a First Lady
(New York, 1980), 212–14. TR’s reply (in ER) is datelined Lower Tahawus, 14 Sept. 1:32
A.M.
This
helps explain TR’s curious delay in leaving for Buffalo after receiving the first message, from Cortelyou, near the summit at 1:25
P.M.
on 13 Sept. TR twice confirms in
An Autobiography
(New York, 1913), 364, and in the Leary Notebooks that he realized the President was dying when he saw the messenger approach. Yet the telegram stated only that McKinley’s condition caused “the gravest apprehension.” The next few telegrams, awaiting TR at Upper Tahawus at 5:15 or 5:30
P.M.
(Murphy,
Theodore Roosevelt’s Night Ride
, 18–19, indicated some improvement. Hence his remark, about 9:00
P.M.
, to EKR: “I’m not going unless I’m really needed” (Morris,
Edith Kermit Roosevelt
, 212). Then the telegrams became too urgent to resist.
Note on timings:
An analysis of available data works out thus: dept. Upper Tahawus 11:31
P.M.
, 13 Sept.; arr. Lower Tahawus (ten miles) 1:31
A.M.
, 14 Sept.; dept. 1:35
A.M.;
arr. Aiden Lair (nine miles) 3:36
A.M.;
dept. 3:41
A.M.;
arr. North Creek (sixteen miles) 5:22
A.M.
Total: thirty-five miles covered in five hours, fifty-one minutes.
4
the president appears
Facsimile telegram (TRB).
5
He was now
A bronze tablet on Route 28N, not far north of Aiden Lair, commemorates TR’s accession to the Presidency.
6
He sat alone
William Allen White,
Masks in a Pageant
(New York, 1928), 294; “How the President Wears His Hat,”
New York Tribune
, 29 Nov. 1901; Orin Kellogg in New York
World
, 29 Sept. 1901.
7
In his opinion
TR,
Letters
, vol. 3, 141–42;
The Works of Theodore Roosevelt
, memorial edition (New York, 1923–1926, vol. 17, 96; Orin Kellogg in Murphy,
Theodore Roosevelt’s Night Ride
, 21. Czolgosz did not “get away”; he was executed within weeks.
8
meanwhile, in washington
New York
Press
, 4 Sept.;
Harper’s Weekly
, 21 Sept. 1901; Charles Willis Thompson,
Party Leaders of the Time
(New York,
1906), 261–62, 281–82;
New York
World
, 17 Sept. 1901.
9
at about
3:30 A restored version of Aiden Lair Lodge may be seen beside Route 28N. Upper Tahawus is now a ghost town, but the Roosevelts’ cabin survives. Lower Tahawus is maintained by a hunting club. North Creek station has been restored as a state historic site.
10
“Any news?”
Mike Cronin interview, New York
Herald
, 15 Sept. 1901.
11
The new horses
Orin Kellogg interview, New York
World
, 19 Sept. 1901; Murphy,
Theodore Roosevelt’s Night Ride
, 23; Mike Cronin interview, New York
Herald
, 15 Sept. 1901.
12
since puberty
In the half-envious words of Henry Adams, “Theodore is one of the brainless cephalopods who is not afraid.”
The Letters of Henry Adams
, ed. J. C. Levenson, Ernest Samuels, et al. (Cambridge, Mass., 1982–1988, vol. 5, 349.
13
From that viewpoint
For TR’s presidential aspirations, see, e.g., TR,
Letters
, vol. 3, 104, 114–15, 120. According to William Allen White,
Autobiography
(New York, 1946), 327, “Even in 1899 we were planning for
1904.”
See also William Allen White,
Selected Letters, 1899–1943
, ed. Walter Johnson (New York,
1947), 126–27
, and Henry F. Pringle,
Theodore Roosevelt: A Biography
(New York,
1931), 229–30.
TR continued with his plans right through the final illness of McKinley. TR,
Letters
, vol.
3, 144 (10
Sept. 1901).
14
He had fought
TR,
Works
, vol. 5, 267.