Thus, with telegrams and cablegrams of sympathy flooding the little
Oyster Bay office by thousands, the father and mother of the boy
who had given his life above the lines--received the news that their
youngest born would never return.”
The only public statement Colonel Roosevelt made concerning Quentin’s
death was in every way typical of the man:
“Quentin’s mother and I are very glad that he got to the front and had
a chance to render some service to his country and show the stuff that
was in him before his fate befell him.”
Quentin lies buried in France. There his body will remain. No formal
treaty our country could make with France would be as eloquent of the
good will that exists and will continue to exist between these two
great republics as the fact that in French soil lie the bodies of
Americans who fought and died in the common cause of humanity. Thus
Quentin’s father thought; thus the world thinks. The following letter
from Colonel Roosevelt to General March, while respecting the wishes of
those parents who want the bodies of their boys brought home, carried
a message of comfort and agreement to those parents who desired their
dead soldier sons to remain in the resting places prepared for them
near the field of battle by their comrades:
My Dear General March:
The inclosed clipping states that all the American dead will be
taken home after the war, according to orders received by the army
chaplains. I do not know whom to write to in the matter, so I
merely ask that you turn this over to whomever has charge of it.
Mrs. Roosevelt and I wish to enter a most respectful but most
emphatic protest against the proposed course so far as our son
Quentin is concerned. We have always believed that
Where the tree falls,
There let it lie.
We know that many good persons feel entirely different, but to us
it is painful and harrowing long after death to move the poor body
from which the soul has fled. We greatly prefer that Quentin shall
continue to lie on the spot where he fell in battle and where the
foemen buried him.
After the war is over Mrs. Roosevelt and I intend to visit the
grave and then to have a small stone put up saying it is put up by
us, but not disturbing what has already been erected to his memory
by his friends and American comrades in arms.
With apologies for troubling you,
Very faithfully yours,