FDR - Jean Edward Smith [426]
82. FDR to the Navy League Convention, April 13, 1916, FDRL.
83. 1940 Public Papers and Address 606–615.
84. William Henry Harbaugh, Power and Responsibility: The Life and Times of Theodore Roosevelt 491 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1975).
85. FDR to ER, November 8, 1916, 2 Roosevelt Letters 273.
86. FDR to ER, November 9, 1916, ibid. 273–274.
87. The reference is to Theodore Roosevelt’s The Winning of the West in The Works of Theodore Roosevelt, Hermann Hagedorn, ed. (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1926). FDR to ER, November 9, 1916, 2 Roosevelt Letters 273–274.
88. Quoted in Marshall, History of World War I 204; also see Josephus Daniels, The Wilson Era and After 18 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1946). The Zimmermann telegram did not come entirely out of the blue. In 1913–14 the German government had supplied arms to the Huerta regime in Mexico, which the United States refused to recognize. The telegram was drafted by Dr. Klaus von Kemnitz, the Latin American specialist in the German Foreign Office. Whether it was approved beforehand by Chancellor Theobald von Bethmann-Hollweg and the Supreme Command is unclear, but both were in sympathy with its contents. Friedrich Katz, Deutschland, Dias, und die mexikanische Revolution: die deutsche Politik in Mexiko, 1870–1920 337–473 (Berlin: Deutscher Verlag des Wissenschaften, 1964).
89. Housatonic, sunk off the Scilly Islands, was carrying contraband and was a legitimate target. But the German U-boat fired without warning, which became the basis of the American complaint. All twenty-five members of the crew were rescued. The New York Times, February 4, 1917.
90. Daniels’s message, in a private code he and FDR used, stated, “Because of political situation please return to Washington at once. Am sending ship to meet you and party at Puerto Plata tomorrow morning.” FDR, “Trip to Haiti and Santa Domingo, 1917,” FDRL.
91. Ibid.
92. Harrison J. Thornton, “The Two Roosevelts at Chautauqua,” 28 New York History 55 (January 1947).
93. Daniels autobiography, Daniels Papers; also see Wilson Era: Years of War 23.
94. Washington Evening Star, March 10, 1917. The Chicago Post urged Daniels’s replacement by his “virile-minded, hard-fisted, civilian assistant. Uncuriously enough his name is Roosevelt.” Chicago Post, March 20, 1917.
95. FDR to Edwyn Johnstone, November 22, 1916, FDRL.
96. Daniels, Wilson Era: Years of War 23.
97. Wilson was the first president since John Adams to address Congress in person, and the Supreme Court, respecting the separation of powers, normally did not attend when the president’s State of the Union message was read. It departed from tradition in 1917 under Chief Justice White’s leadership to show its support for Wilson and war. Daniels, Wilson Era: Years of War 31–33.
98. For the text of Wilson’s speech, see The New York Times, April 3, 1917. Martin Luther’s words were “Ich kann nicht anders [I can do no other.],” refusing to recant in 1518.
99. Diary of Thomas W. Brahany, chief clerk, White House executive office, entry for April 2, 1917. Typescript at FDRL.
100. FDR, press statement, April 3, 1917, FDRL.
101. Eleanor Roosevelt, Autobiography 87 (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1961).
102. Daniels, Wilson Era: Years of War 34.
EIGHT | Lucy
The epigraph is from a letter FDR wrote to Eleanor from Washington in the summer of 1917. The emphasis is FDR’s. 2 The Roosevelt Letters 280, Elliott Roosevelt, ed. (London: George G. Harrap, 1950).
1. The vote for war was 82–6 in the Senate and 375–50 in the House. La Follette, Norris, and Vardaman were joined by Senators A. J. Gronna of North Dakota, William Stone of Missouri, and Harry Lane of Oregon in voting against the war. La Follette, Norris, and Gronna were Republicans; Vardaman, Stone, and Lane, Democrats. In the House, Representative Jeannette Rankin of Montana voted against war, as she would do again on December 8, 1941.
2. A key element of Elihu Root’s 1903 military reforms provided for the equipping and training of