The rise of Theodore Roosevelt - Edmund Morris [311]
Long, surprisingly, went even further than Roosevelt in suggesting to President McKinley that the Maine should be detached and sent to visit Havana as “an act of friendly courtesy.” McKinley sounded out the Spanish Minister, Enrique Depuy de Lôme, on this subject, and etiquette required His Excellency to express diplomatic delight.11 The President was, after all, his own accredited host. But de Lôme’s private attitude may be judged from a letter he had written to a Spanish friend a few weeks previously. “McKinley is … weak and a bidder for the admiration of the crowd, besides being a would-be politician [politicastro] who tries to leave a door open behind himself while keeping on good terms with the jingoes of his party.”12
Unknown to de Lôme, the letter did not reach its destination.13
THE MAINE DROPPED ANCHOR in Havana Harbor on the morning of 25 January 1898. Spanish officials went aboard in polite but chilly welcome. Captain Sigsbee, not wanting to exacerbate local feelings, announced that there would be no leave for his crew. Contrary to expectations, no demonstrations of welcome or protest broke out in the city, and a relieved Consul-General Lee cabled: “Peace and quiet reign.”14
ROOSEVELT MIGHT HAVE REACTED more gratefully to the Administration’s sudden decision to make a show of naval force had his domestic worries not intensified in the last days of January. Edith was running a constant fever, and could not sleep for the pangs of sciatica; Ted’s strange nervous condition was worse, and Kermit, too, was sick.15 The presence of a squalling two-month-old infant in the house was an added distraction. On top of all this, Roosevelt now discovered that he had personal tax problems in New York. Last summer he had filed an affidavit stating that he was a resident of Manhattan, in order to avoid a heavy assessment in Oyster Bay; in New York, however, his assessment turned out to be even heavier, making him wish he could cancel the original affidavit.16 Family physicians and accountants were pressed into service, while the Assistant Secretary waited restlessly for further news from Havana. On the last day of the month Henry Cabot Lodge made an eerie prediction: “There may be an explosion any day in Cuba which would settle many things.”17
For a week nothing happened, then, on 9 February, William Randolph Hearst’s sensational New York Journal published on its front page the text of Minister de Lôme’s undelivered letter, under the banner headline, “WORST INSULT TO THE UNITED STATES IN ITS HISTORY.” The paper announced that an agent of the Cuban insurrectos had intercepted the letter on the eve of its delivery and sent it to another agent in New York, who in turn gave it to the Journal for publication.18 All possible doubt as to the document’s authenticity was avoided by printing it in facsimile.
While ordinary Americans fumed over de Lôme’s characterization of their President, students of foreign policy boggled at the implications of his concluding paragraph:
It would be very advantageous to take up, if only for effect, the question of foreign relations, and to have a man of some prominence sent here in order that I may make use of him to carry on a propaganda among the Senators and others in opposition to the [rebel] junta.19
In other words, the Spanish Government appeared to be totally cynical in its relations with the United States, and its promises to help secure some sort of autonomous government in Cuba.
To add insult to injury, Minister de Lôme (who at once admitted that he had indeed written the letter) cabled his resignation to Madrid before the State Department had a chance to demand that he be recalled. Thus the United States had to be content with an inadequate Spanish apology, referring, in sarcastic tones, to mail-theft and sensation-mongering newspapers.20
That night a highly excited Theodore Roosevelt accosted Mark Hanna and two other