PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT TAKES THE OATH OF OFFICE.
Theodore Roosevelt became President of the United States at 3:32 o’clock
Saturday afternoon, September 14, 1901. The oath of office was
administered by Judge John R. Hazel, of the United States District
Court, in the library of the residence of Mr. Ansley Wilcox, at Buffalo.
Mr. Wilcox was an old friend of the Vice-President, and the latter had
made Mr. Wilcox’s house his home during his stay in Buffalo, after the
shooting of the President.
The delay in taking the oath after the death of the President was the
result of the sanguine feeling among the people that President McKinley
would recover from his wounds. No one shared this feeling in a higher
degree than the Vice-President. When the news that the President had
been shot became public Vice-President Roosevelt was in the East. He
started immediately for Buffalo, and was at the President’s bedside as
soon as possible. He remained in Buffalo until the physicians announced
that there was no fear of the President’s death, and then left for the
Adirondacks.
When the President began to sink Thursday night messages were sent to
the Vice-President and those members of the Cabinet who, like himself,
had left Buffalo, deluded into the belief that the President would soon
be able to return to the Capital. The Vice-President, with his usual
promptitude, started on the return trip to Buffalo, greatly saddened by
the news which made such a step necessary. He made a hard night ride
from the North Woods to Albany, and by the use of a special train
reached Buffalo at 1:35 o’clock Saturday afternoon.
To avoid the crowd which had gathered at the Union Station to see him,
the Vice-President alighted at the Terrace Station of the New York
Central, where a police and military escort awaited him. He insisted
first of all on visiting Mrs. McKinley and offering condolences to her
in her hour of anguish. This step he desired to take simply as a private
citizen, and when it was accomplished the Vice-President announced
himself as ready to take the oath as President. A strong escort of
military and police had assembled at the Milburn house to escort him to
Mr. Wilcox’s, but its presence annoyed the Vice-President, and he halted
the guards with a quick, imperative military command, saying he would
have only two policemen to go along with him. Later he announced that he
did not want to establish the precedent of going about guarded.
The place selected for the administration of the oath was the library of
Mr. Wilcox’s house, a rather small room, but picturesque, the heavy oak
trimmings and the massive bookcases giving it somewhat the appearance of
a legal den. A pretty bay window with stained glass and heavy hangings
formed a background, and against this Colonel Roosevelt took his
position.
Judge Hazel stood near him in the bay window, and Colonel Roosevelt
showed his almost extreme nervousness by plucking at the lapel of his
long frock coat and nervously tapping the hardwood floor with his heel.
He stepped over once to Secretary Root and for about five minutes they
conversed earnestly. The question at issue was whether the President
should first sign an oath of office and then swear in or whether he
should swear in first and sign the document in the case after.
Secretary Root ceased his conversation with Colonel Roosevelt, and,
stepping back, while an absolute hush fell upon every one in the room,
said, in an almost inaudible voice:
“Mr. Vice-President, I——” Then his voice faltered, and for fully two
minutes, the tears came down his face and his lips quivered so that he
could not continue his utterances. There were sympathetic tears from
those about him, and two great drops ran down either cheek of the
successor of William McKinley.
Mr. Root’s chin was on his breast. Suddenly throwing back his head as if
with an effort, he continued in broken voice:
“I have been requested, on behalf of the Cabinet of the late President,
at least those who are present in Buffalo, all except two, to request
that for reasons of weight affecting the affairs of government, you
should proceed to take the constitutional oath of President of the
United States.”
Colonel Roosevelt stepped farther into the bay window, and Judge Hazel,
taking up the constitutional oath of office, which had been prepared on
parchment, asked him to raise his right hand and repeat it after him.
There was a hush like death in the room as the Judge read a few words at
a time, and Colonel Roosevelt, in a strong voice and without a tremor,
and with his raised hand steady, repeated it after him.
“And thus I swear,” he ended it. The hand dropped by the side, the chin
for an instant rested on the breast, and the silence remained unbroken
for a couple of minutes as though the new President of the United States
were offering silent prayer. Judge Hazel broke it, saying:
“Mr. President, please attach your signature,” and the President,
turning to a small table near by, wrote “Theodore Roosevelt” at the
bottom of the document in a firm hand.
The new President was visibly shaken, but he controlled himself
admirably, and with the deep solemnity of the occasion full upon him, he
announced to those present that his aim would be to be William
McKinley’s successor in deed as well as in name. Deliberately he
proclaimed it in these words:
“In this hour of deep and terrible bereavement, I wish to state that it
shall be my aim to continue absolutely unbroken the policy of President
McKinley for the peace and prosperity and honor of our beloved country.”
The great, far-reaching significance of this pledge to continue the
policy of the dead President, announced at the very threshold of a new
governmental regime, profoundly impressed his hearers, and President
Roosevelt’s first step after taking the oath was in line with its
redemption. His first act was to ask the members of the Cabinet to
retain their portfolios in order to aid him to conduct the government on
lines laid down by him whose policy he had declared he would uphold.
Such an appeal was not to be resisted, and every member of the Cabinet,
including Secretary of State Hay and Secretary of the Treasury Gage, who
were communicated with in Washington, have agreed for the present, at
least, to retain their several portfolios.
President Roosevelt remained in Buffalo until the funeral cortege
started for Washington, when he accompanied it.
Theodore Roosevelt was born October 20, 1858, at No. 28 East Twentieth
street, New York City. His father, also Theodore Roosevelt, was a member
of an old New York Dutch family, and Mr. Roosevelt is of the eighth
generation of the stock in the United States. Mingled with the Dutch in
Theodore Roosevelt’s veins are strains of English, Celtic, and French.
His mother was Miss Martha Bulloch, and came of a distinguished Georgia
family, which had given to that state a Governor, Archibald Bulloch, in
revolutionary times. In a later generation a member of the family built
the Confederate privateer Alabama.
The father of Theodore Roosevelt was a merchant and importer of
glassware. During the Civil War he was a noted figure in New York. He
had great strength of character and liking for practical benevolence,
which made him foremost in many such charities. Newsboys’
lodging-houses, the allotment system, which permitted soldiers during
the war to have portions of their pay sent to their families, and other
forms of direct help to the poorer classes found in him a champion. His
ancestors had been aldermen, judges of the supreme court of the city,
and representatives in the National Congress. In revolutionary times New
York chose a Roosevelt to act with Alexander Hamilton in the United
States Constitutional Convention. Roosevelt street was once a cowpath on
the Roosevelt farm, and the Roosevelt hospital is the gift of a wealthy
member of a recent generation of the family.
As a child Theodore Roosevelt was puny and backward. He could not keep
up with his fellows either in study or play, and on this account was
taught by a private tutor at home. The country residence of the
Roosevelts was at Oyster Bay, Long Island, and here the children were
brought up. They were compelled by their father to take plenty of
outdoor exercise, and young Theodore, soon realizing that he must have
strength of body if he was to do anything in life, entered into the
scheme for the improvement of his physical condition with the same
enthusiasm and determination which has characterized every act of his
life. He grew up an athlete, strong and active, and when he entered
Harvard in 1875 he soon became prominent in field sports. He became
noted as a boxer and wrestler, and was for a time captain of the college
polo team. He did not neglect his studies, and when he was graduated, in
1880, he took high honors. During his stay in the university he had been
editor of the Advocate, a college paper, and gave particular attention
to the study of history and natural history. He became a member of the
Phi Beta Kappa Greek letter fraternity.
At the conclusion of his college course he went abroad for a year,
spending part of the time in study in Dresden. His love for athletics
led him to successfully attempt the ascent of the Jung-Frau and the
Matterhorn, and won for him a membership in the Alpine Club of London.
He returned to New York in 1881, and in the same year married Miss Alice
Lee of Boston. Two years later he had the misfortune to lose his wife
and his mother within a week.
Theodore Roosevelt has been an ardent student of history from his
college days, and before he was twenty-three years old had entered the
field himself as a writer. He is an enthusiastic admirer of Washington,
Lincoln, and Grant. On his return from Europe, and while engaged on his
historical work, he entered the law office of his uncle, Robert B.
Roosevelt, with the design of fitting himself for the bar. He was of too
restless a disposition to find content in such a sober calling, and the
whole bent of his mind, as shown by his reading, his writing, and the
effort to do something extraordinary, something that would mark him
above his fellows, which had made him a bidder for college championships
and prompted him to tempt the dangers of the Swiss mountain peaks, sent
him hurrying into politics before he had settled down to anything like
deep study of the law.
He attended his first primary in 1881, in the Twenty-first assembly
district of New York. It was a gathering with little to charm the
ordinary young man of aristocratic lineage and wealth, but Theodore
Roosevelt had studied history with a purpose. He knew that through the
primary led the way to political preferment, and he at once entered into
the battle of politics, in which he was to prove a gladiator of
astonishing prowess, routing and terrifying his enemies, but often
startling his allies by the originality and recklessness of his methods.
The natural enthusiasm of young Roosevelt, his undeniable personal
charm, and the swirl of interest with which he descended into the arena
of local politics, made him friends on every side in a community where
leaders are at a high premium, and within a few months the young college
man was elected to the Assembly of the state from his home district.
His ability and his methods were in strong evidence at the following
session of the Legislature. He proved a rallying power for the
Republican minority, and actually succeeded in passing legislation which
the majority submitted to only through fear and which his own party in
the state would never have fathered had it been in power. Mr. Roosevelt
was the undisputed leader of the Republicans in the Assembly within two
months after his election, and he immediately turned his attention to
the purification of New York City. This would have appalled a man less
determined or more experienced. But the young aspirant for a place in
history reckoned neither with conditions nor precedents. His success,
considering the strength of the combination against which he was
arrayed, was extraordinary. He succeeded in securing the passage of the
bill which deprived the city council of New York of the power to veto
the appointments of the mayor, a prerogative which had nullified every
previous attempt at reform and had made the spoliation of the city’s
coffers an easy matter in the time of Tweed and other bosses.
Mr. Roosevelt’s methods, it was cheerfully predicted by his political
opponents, would certainly result in his retirement from participation
in the state councils of New York, but this proved far from the case.
Wherever Theodore Roosevelt has been thrown with any class of people,
wherever they have come to know him personally, he has attracted to
himself enthusiastic friendship and confidence. Theatrical though many
of his acts have appeared, his honesty, his personal fearlessness, and
the purity of his motives have not been questioned.
He became so popular that not only was he returned to three sessions of
the Assembly, but his party in the state soon realized that he was one
of its strongest men, and he was sent to the Republican National
Convention of 1884 as chairman of the New York delegation.
Meanwhile he had been hammering away at corruption in New York, and had
secured the passage of the act making the offices of the county clerk,
sheriff, and register salaried ones. He had been chairman of the
committee to investigate the work of county officials, and, as a result
of that investigation, offered the bill which cut off from the clerk of
the county of New York an income in fees which approximated $82,000 per
annum; from the sheriff, $100,000, and from the register also a very
high return in fees. From the county offices to the police was not far
and Roosevelt was agitating an investigation and reform in the
guardianship of the city when he left the Legislature. After the
convention, to which he went uninstructed, but in favor of the
nomination of Mr. Edmunds against James G. Blaine, his health failed.
The deaths of his wife and mother had been a severe shock, for Mr.
Roosevelt is a man of the strongest personal attachments. He turned
aside from public life for a time and went West.
He had been a lover of hunting from boyhood, and when he decided to
spend some time in the wilds of Montana, he took up the life as he found
it there. On the banks of the Little Missouri he built a log house,
working on it himself, and there turned ranchman, cowboy and hunter. He
engaged in one of the last of the big buffalo hunts, and saturated
himself with the life of the West. His trips in this and later years
were not alone confined to this section of the West, and his courage,
intelligence, and companionable nature made him a name which in later
years drew to his standard thousands of cowboys, among whom his name had
come to mean all that they admire, and all that appeals to their
natures. The love and admiration was not one-sided, for Mr. Roosevelt
came to regard these hardy, open-hearted, plain-spoken guardians of the
wilderness as the finest types of manhood.
In these years and between 1886 and 1888 Mr. Roosevelt was also busy on
much of his literary work. The most important of his works—“The Winning
of the West,” a history in four volumes of the acquisition of the
territory west of the Alleghenies—required an enormous amount of
research. On its publication it leaped at once into popularity, and soon
acquired a reputation as a most reliable text-book.
His hunting trips and his months of life among the men and the game of
the West have supplied the material for a number of Mr. Roosevelt’s
books, among them “The Wilderness Hunter,” “Hunting Trips of a
Ranchman,” and “Ranch Life and the Hunting Trail.” His most noted work
of recent years is “The Rough Riders,” being a history of the formation,
the battles, career, and disbandment of the remarkable body of soldiers
comprising the regiment which Mr. Roosevelt recruited largely himself,
and of which he was lieutenant-colonel and colonel in the brief campaign
in Cuba. His style is interesting and clear, and while the story is told
in the first person, there is a simplicity of narrative and a cordiality
of praise to all who seem to deserve.
Mr. Roosevelt’s more important works have been historical, but his
writings have not been confined to this subject. He has contributed many
articles to scientific magazines, particularly on discrimination of
species and sub-species of the larger animals of the West. A species of
elk is named after him, and he made known the enlarged Western species
of a little insectivora called the shrew.
This period of writing and hunting was broken by two important events.
He was defeated as candidate for mayor of New York and he married again.
The second wife of the Vice President elect was Miss Edith Kermit Carow,
daughter of an old New York family. They have five children—three sons
and two daughters. The marriage took place in 1886, and in the same year
Theodore Roosevelt was the Republican nominee for mayor of his native
city. Opposed to him were Abram S. Hewitt, the Democratic candidate, and
Henry George, the apostle of single tax. So great an enthusiasm had been
created by Mr. George’s book, “Progress and Poverty,” and so quickly did
he attach to himself all the floating element dissatisfied with the
regime of both the old parties and without the vested wealth threatened
by the theories of their leader that both of the old parties were
alarmed. It was said that fear that George would be elected sent
thousands of Republican votes to Hewitt, whose chances of success seemed
greatly better than those of his young Republican opponent. Hewitt was
elected, but Mr. Roosevelt received a larger proportion of the votes
cast than had any other Republican candidate for mayor up to that time.
For years after this Mr. Roosevelt was not prominent in politics. He
spent his time in writing and hunting trips to the West. Never an idle
man, he accomplished an immense amount of research in the preparation of
his historical works.
President Harrison appointed Theodore Roosevelt a member of the United
States Civil Service Commission May 13, 1889. While in the New York
Legislature much of his efforts had been directed to the improvement of
the public service. He was one of the most noted advocates in the
country of the merit system, and his enmity to the spoilsman had won him
objurgations of press and party on numberless occasions. To his new
duties he brought enthusiastic faith in the righteousness and the
expediency of a civil-service system, and he at once embarked on a
campaign for establishing its permanency and for its extension, which
again made him the butt of almost daily attacks. In Congress and in the
ranks of the leaders of his party hundreds of opponents sprang up to
attack him, but he held to his way and eventually won to his own way of
thinking many public men. Though always determined and aggressive, Mr.
Roosevelt is a man of great tact, and to this no less than to the
resolute assurance of his methods was due the success of his efforts for
the extension of the civil service in the national service.
He served for six years, two of them under President Harrison’s
successor, Mr. Cleveland. In that time the number of persons who were
made subject to the civil-service law was increased from 12,000 to
nearly 40,000, and the still further great increase made by the orders
of President Cleveland in the late years of his first administration was
largely due to Mr. Roosevelt’s efforts. He was not a member of the
commission when they were promulgated, but they had been considered by
the commission and were favorably regarded by the President almost a
year before they were made law by the President’s order.
In the years he then spent in Washington Mr. Roosevelt made many strong
friends. In the commission he was loved and respected by every one, from
his fellow commissioners to the laborers. He declined to be president of
the commission, though the place was offered him more than once, but he
was the acknowledged force and head of its work. When the great
extensions afterward made by the President were first proposed to Mr.
Cleveland he suggested that it would be better to codify the rules of
the commission before taking such action. This was done, though it took
some time, and shortly after it had been accomplished the chief examiner
of the commission, Mr. Webster, died, which again put affairs in such
shape that it was regarded as inexpedient to add greatly to the duties
of the commission at that time.
As a result, the order for the large extension of the operation of the
civil-service law, which had been in contemplation by the President and
the commission for more than a year, and with which Mr. Roosevelt had
much to do, was not promulgated until after he had resigned from the
commission to accept the appointment as police commissioner of the city
of New York under Mayor Strong. President Cleveland, who had reappointed
Mr. Roosevelt as civil-service commissioner, though he had been
originally named for the place as a Republican by President Harrison,
strongly advised Mr. Roosevelt not to leave the commission and not to
take the New York place. The President’s letter to Mr. Roosevelt on his
resignation is full of expressions of the highest esteem and
appreciation of his services.
In the wave of reform which swept over New York in 1894–95 the men,
including Mayor Strong, who were borne into power were something of the
same stamp as the civil-service commissioner. They were of the class
which fought political rings, and they turned to Mr. Roosevelt to take a
hand in purifying the police force of New York City, which was alleged
to be a sink of political rottenness and studied inefficiency. Mr.
Roosevelt resigned as civil-service commissioner May 5, 1895, and was
appointed police commissioner of New York City May 24 following.
The uproar that followed the introduction of Roosevelt methods in the
conduct of the New York police force has never been equaled as a police
sensation in that city. Within a month after his appointment the whole
force was in a state of fright. The new commissioner made night rounds
himself, and, being unknown to the men, he caught scores of them in
dereliction of duty. He dismissed and promoted and punished entirely on
a plane of his own. Politics ceased to save or help the men, and the
bosses were up in arms. In this emergency an attempt was made to have
Roosevelt’s appointment by Mayor Strong vetoed by the city council, and
it was discovered that an act of the Legislature, passed some twelve
years prior, had taken the power of veto from the city council. Theodore
Roosevelt was the author of this act, and its passage had been secured
after one of the strongest fights he had made when a member of the State
Legislature.
Commissioner Roosevelt announced that he would enforce the laws as he
found them. He gave special attention to the operations of the excise
law on Sunday, and after severe measures had been used on some of the
more hardy saloon-keepers, New York at last had, in June, 1895, for the
first time within the memory of living man, a “dry” Sunday. A great deal
of good was done by Commissioner Roosevelt in breaking up much of the
blackmail which had been levied by policemen; in transferring and
degrading officers who were notoriously responsible for the bad name the
force had, and in making promotions for merit, fidelity, and courage,
Mr. Roosevelt’s career as a police commissioner made him extremely
unpopular with the class at which his crusade was aimed.
The fierce crusade against the saloon-keepers was brief, and its effect
lasted but a few weeks. The new commissioner gave his attention to more
important matters, and really made the force cleaner than it had been
before. He undoubtedly gained the hearty devotion of the better class of
policemen. He was most careful of their comfort, and quick to see and
reward merit. He was also quick to punish, and this kept the worse half
of the men on their good behavior.
One important result Mr. Roosevelt obtained in this position was the
dissipation of much of the antagonism which had theretofore been
apparent on every occasion between labor unions and the force. Men on
strike had been accustomed to regard the policeman as a natural enemy,
but all this was changed. On one occasion, when a large number of
operatives were out of work, Mr. Roosevelt sent for their leaders, and,
after a discussion on the situation, suggested that the strikers should
organize pickets to keep their own men in order. He promised that the
police should support and respect the rights of these pickets and the
result was most satisfactory. The threat of a cordon of police was
removed from the strikers, and no collision such as had occurred on so
many similar occasions, took place with the guardians of the law.
The attacks of the enemies which Mr. Roosevelt’s methods raised up
against him were not confined to verbal denunciation nor expressions
through the press. Dynamite bombs were left in his office, a part of his
associates on the police board fought his every move, and all the skill
of New York politicians with whom he interfered was exercised to trap
him into a situation where he would become discredited in his work. In
this they were unsuccessful and the stormy career of the police force
continued. In the end the new commissioner conquered. He had the
necessary power and the personal courage and tenacity of purpose to
carry out his plans. He fought blackmail until he had practically
stopped it and he promoted and removed men without regard to color,
creed, or politics. He resigned in April, 1897, to become Assistant
Secretary of the Navy.
Theodore Roosevelt was appointed Assistant Secretary of the Navy April
19, 1897. The troubles of the Cubans with Spain, the long history of
oppression and outrage to which they had been subjected, and the years
of warfare they had known with the armies of Weyler and Campos, had
excited American sympathy, and many public men realized that
interference by the United States was almost assured. In this connection
it was realized by President McKinley and his advisers that the navy was
not in condition to make it an effective war instrument in the impending
conflict. In casting about for a man to fill the position of Assistant
Secretary of the Navy, which place carried with it much of the executive
work which would be required in putting fighting ships into shape, the
President and Secretary Long were favorably disposed toward Mr.
Roosevelt, who was one of the many candidates for the place. His work on
the naval war of 1812 had acquired fame for its accuracy and its
exhibition of wide knowledge of naval matters on the part of the author
and Mr. Roosevelt was asked to accept the appointment.
He brought to the duties of the office a great interest in the work, as
well as the tremendous energy and talent for closely studying and
mastering his work which had characterized him in other fields. He also
brought to the position some of his startling methods, and again proved
himself “a storm center,” a name he had already been given, and to which
he has earned better title in each succeeding year. In the fall of 1897
he was detailed to inspect the fleet gathered at Hampton Roads, and he
kept the commanders and their jackies in a ferment for a week. Whenever
he thought of a drill he would like to see, he ordered it. The crews
were called to night quarters and all sorts of emergency orders were
given at all sorts of hours. When the Assistant Secretary came back to
Washington to report, he had mastered some of the important details of
the situation, at least.
During his rather brief connection with the department Mr. Roosevelt was
a strong advocate of the naval personnel bill. He was also in charge of
the purchase of auxiliary vessels after war was actually declared.
He had brought about the purchase of many guns, much ammunition, and
large stores of provisions for the navy. He had secured a great increase
in the amount of gunnery practice. He had hurried the work on the new
ships and had the old ones repaired. He had caused every vessel to be
supplied with coal to her full capacity, and had the crew of every ship
recruited to its full strength. His services were fully recognized by
Secretary Long, who thanked him in a letter full of appreciation when he
left his place in the Navy Department. Mr. Roosevelt was urged to remain
in his place by many of the most prominent newspapers of the country,
who believed that his services there would be of great value in the
approaching struggle.
Mr. Roosevelt had determined to resign his position in order to take
active service in the field. His adventurous nature would not allow him
to remain in an office when there was a prospect of fighting for the
flag. He had determined to organize a regiment of Western men, whom, he
rightly believed, would strike terror to the hearts of the Spaniards.
Mr. Roosevelt’s resignation as Assistant Secretary of the Navy bears
date of May 6, 1898. His appointment as lieutenant-colonel, First
Regiment, United States Volunteer Cavalry, is dated May 5, 1898.
The First United States Volunteer Cavalry was one of the most remarkable
fighting aggregations ever enlisted in any country. It was chosen from
some 3,500 applicants and numbered about 900. The plains gave it its
largest membership, and the name under which it soon came to be known
was “Roosevelt’s Rough Riders.”
Dr. Leonard Wood, a United States Army officer, and a close friend of
Colonel Roosevelt, was made colonel of the regiment. Colonel Roosevelt
believed he was not sufficiently well informed concerning military
matters to handle the regiment during the preliminary work, and he
readily acquiesced in the appointment of his friend. The regiment
rendezvoused at San Antonio, Texas, and there was kept at work learning
the discipline of soldier life, until it was finally called to the
front. Among the recruits were hundreds of cowboys who were perfect
horsemen as well as dead shots. But such an outburst of popular interest
attended the recruiting of this regiment that Colonel Wood and
Lieutenant-Colonel Roosevelt were soon overwhelmed with applications for
enlistment from the college men, athletes, clubmen, sons of millionaire
parents, who loved the idea of adventure and battle in such company. As
a result several companies were recruited from the pick of the young men
of the country. Nearly every noted club of the country had its quota,
and scores of Wall street stockbrokers wore khaki in the ranks. When
finally the regiment was gathered at Tampa, Florida, it constituted a
body of men than whom it would be hard to find any more perfectly fitted
for such war as the conflict with Spain in the jungles of Cuba assured.
Old Indian fighters were there by the score, and there were even six
full-blooded Indians among the enlisted men.
The Rough Riders, it was originally intended, should be mounted, and as
cavalry they went to the rendezvous at Tampa. But when the time came to
go to Cuba there was no room on the transports for horses, and these
cavalrymen, like the rest of the men who had enlisted in all the
regiments assembled at the Florida port, were mad to get to the front.
Rather than not see some of the fighting, the commander of the Rough
Riders secured a place for his men among the troops sent to participate
in the siege of Santiago, and they went as dismounted cavalry. As such
they went to Cuba and fought through the brief but bloody campaign
before the besieged city. They never had an opportunity to display their
skill as horsemen after they left the training camps at San Antonio and
Tampa, but they won a reputation for courage and cheerful patience under
hardship, battle, and disease which is not surpassed in history.
This was not the first military service of Roosevelt. Soon after his
graduation from Harvard he had joined the Eighth Regiment, New York
National Guard, and had been in time promoted to the captaincy of a
company. He remained a militiaman for four years, leaving his command
only when he took up his permanent residence in Washington as a member
of the civil-service commission.
The transports carrying the army of invasion to Cuba sailed from Port
Tampa June 13, 1898. Thirty large vessels carried the troops and took
six days to reach Daiquiri, the little port to the east of the harbor of
Santiago, where the army was disembarked. The Rough Riders were in the
brigade commanded by General S. B. M. Young, together with the First
(white) and Tenth (colored) Regular Cavalry Regiments, and was a part of
the division commanded by General Joseph Wheeler.
The first fight of the Rough Riders took place in the advance from
Daiquiri toward Santiago. They were sent out on a hill trail to attack
the position of the Spaniards, who blocked the road to the town. The
Spanish occupied ridges opposite to those along which the trail used by
the Rough Riders led, and a fierce fight took place in the jungle. The
Spanish had smokeless powder, and it was almost impossible to locate
them in the underbrush. The Rough Riders behaved with great gallantry,
and took the position occupied by the enemy, but not without
considerable loss. For distinguished gallantry in this action,
Lieutenant-Colonel Roosevelt was promoted to be Colonel July 11, 1898.
The place of this engagement is called Las Guasimas, “the thorns,” from
the large number of trees of that species found there. The Rough Riders
in this action acted in concert with other attacking forces composing
the vanguard of the army. Several days after this General Young was
taken with fever, and Colonel Wood, taking command of the brigade,
Colonel Roosevelt became commanding officer of the regiment.
In this capacity he commanded the Rough Riders in the battle of San
Juan, where they withstood a heavy fire for a long time, and finally,
when ordered to advance, made a gallant charge, capturing two of the
hills occupied by the enemy. The fall of Santiago followed the American
success, and a period of inactivity began for the American troops.
Insufficient transportation had entailed improper and insufficient food,
and, together with the effects of the climate, began to have serious
effects on the troops. Fever decimated their ranks, and those who were
still able to attend to their duties were weakened by disease.
It soon became apparent to the officers in command of the Americans that
the only salvation for their men was removal to the North. It had been
reported that yellow fever was epidemic among the soldiers in camp about
Santiago, and while this was not at all true, most of the men were
suffering from malarial fever, and there was some fear of the
introduction of the tropic scourge into the United States if the troops
were brought home suffering from it.
Colonel Roosevelt was in command of the brigade at this time, owing to
General Wood having been made Governor-General of Santiago, and as such
the commander of the Rough Riders discussed with the other Generals an
appeal to the authorities to remove the troops back to the United
States. There was disinclination on the part of the regular officers to
take the initiative, as much correspondence had taken place between
General Shafter and the War Department, the latter stating the reasons
why it seemed inexpedient to cause the removal at that time. In this
emergency Colonel Roosevelt prepared a presentation of the situation,
and, after reading over the rough draft to the other commanders,
submitted it to General Shafter.
Directly afterward a circular letter was prepared and signed by all the
Generals and commanding officers and presented to General Shafter. This
came to be known as “the round robin,” and its result was instantaneous.
Both letters, Colonel Roosevelt’s and the round robin, were published
throughout the United States and created a profound sensation. Within
three days after they had been delivered to General Shafter the order
for the return of the army was issued.
The Rough Riders, with their Colonel, returned to Camp Wikoff, at the
northern extremity of Long Island, in late August, and on September 15,
1898, were mustered out of service with Colonel Roosevelt.
The campaign for the control of New York State in the approaching
election of a Governor had already begun when the Rough Riders returned
from Cuba. Colonel Roosevelt’s name had often been mentioned for the
Republican nomination and the popular enthusiasm for this selection was
supported by the leaders of the party in the state. Governor Frank S.
Black had been elected by an enormous plurality two years previously,
and according to all traditions should have been renominated. He was set
aside, however, for the new hero, and the convention at Saratoga
nominated Colonel Roosevelt with a hurrah. The friends of Governor Black
had fought bitterly so long as there seemed a chance of success, and
they started the rumor that Colonel Roosevelt was ineligible for the
nomination, as he had relinquished his residence in New York when he
went to Washington to enter the Navy Department.
The actual campaign was a most picturesque one. B. B. Odell, chairman of
the state committee and now Governor of New York, was opposed to Colonel
Roosevelt stumping the state in his own behalf, but it soon became
apparent that general apathy existed, and consent was reluctantly given
to the candidate to do so. There followed a series of speeches that woke
up the voters. Colonel Roosevelt, by nature forceful, direct, and
theatrical in his manner and method, went back and forward, up and down
New York, accompanied by a few of his Rough Riders in their uniforms.
These cowboys made speeches, telling, usually, how much they thought of
their Colonel, and the tour met with success. Colonel Roosevelt was
elected Governor over Augustus Van Wyck, the Democratic candidate, by a
plurality of about 17,000 votes.
Among the achievements of Governor Roosevelt as chief executive of the
Empire State were the enforcement of the law to tax corporations, which
had been passed at a special session of the Legislature called by the
Governor for that purpose; making the Erie Canal Commission
non-partisan; his aid to the tenement commission in their work for the
betterment of the poor in New York, and in breaking up the sweatshops
through rigid enforcement of the factory law.
As a writer Mr. Roosevelt has been a contributor to magazines of
innumerable articles on historical, political, and scientific subjects.
A list of his more extended and important works includes “The Winning of
the West,” “Life of Gouverneur Morris,” “Life of Thomas Hart Benton,”
“Naval War of 1812,” “History of New York,” “American Ideals and Other
Essays,” “The Wilderness Hunter,” “Hunting Trips of a Ranchman,” “Ranch
Life and the Hunting Trail,” “The Strenuous Life,” and “The Rough
Riders.”
[Illustration:
SCENE ON MARKET STREET, CANTON.]
[Illustration:
RECEIVING VAULT, WESTLAWN CEMETERY, CANTON, OHIO.]