The rise of Theodore Roosevelt - Edmund Morris [404]
69. TR.Auto.57; TR.Pri.Di. Oct. 6, 1881.
70. Abbot, Impressions, 37–9; Put.241.
71. Hag.Boy. 67 ff.
72. Ib.; Put.241; TR.Auto.58–64; Thayer, TR, 29.
73. TR.Auto.61; Charles Dumas to Henry F. Pringle, Apr. 2, 1929, PRI.n.; Abbot, Impressions, 37–9.
74. Ib., 39; Hag.Boy.70; Abbot, Impressions, 40.
75. Abbot’s record of this conversation is actually a stenographic transcript of Joe Murray’s own account, told in the smoking-car of a train to Saratoga in 1910. It closely tallies with another version by Murray in TRB.
76. Abbot, Impressions, 39–41. Mitchell, who later became a U.S. District Attorney, liked to claim in old age that he, not Murray, “was the first person who recognized the practical politician in TR.” See N.Y. Sun, May 31, 1904. Barney Biglin, another of Hess’s lieutenants, also claimed kingmaking honors. TR himself, in his memoirs, settled these and other conflicting claims with a gracious tribute to Joe Murray. “It was not my fight [in 1881], it was Joe’s; and it was to him that I owe my entry into politics.” As President, TR issued his old patron a card: “Joseph Murray to see me at all times and in all places he may wish to see me.” (TR.Auto.61; PRI.n.)
77. TR.Pri.Di. Oct. 28, 1881; Put.244.
78. TR.Pri.Di. Oct. 28, 1881. “We somehow knew the boy was right,” a Roosevelt cousin admitted. “We early recognized that Theodore had a great dream in him … and that dream was a pure government.” Emlen Roosevelt int., FRE.
79. Thayer, TR, 30; Sul.385.
80. Facsimile of N.Y. T. quote in Lor. 190.
81. TR.Pri.Di. Nov. 1, 1881; TR.Har.Scr.
82. Lor.192 (facsimile).
83. Ib.; TR.Auto.61-2.
84. Put.248; un. clip in letter from B to C, 1881 (n.d.) TRC.
85. TR.Pri.Di. Dec. 3, 1881. Around this time TR bought a share of G. P. Putnam’s Sons, set up a desk there, and declared himself a “silent partner” in the firm. George Haven Putnam, the president, was doubtful. “Can we think of Roosevelt being silent in any association?” Predictably, TR was soon instructing Putnam in “how to run a publishing business,” and producing such a flood of unworkable editorial ideas that his departure for Albany caused sighs of relief. G. H. Putnam in Century Memorial to Theodore Roosevelt (New York, 1919), 37. See also Putnam in “Roosevelt, Historian and Statesman,” TR.Wks.IX.xvi.
86. Admiral W. M. Sims in TR.Wks.VI. xvii; Bea.4; N.Y. Tribune, Oct. 16, 1886. For sample reviews, see N.Y.T., June 5, 1882 (“The volume is an excellent one in every respect”); Army and Navy Journal, May 27 (“easy command of material … broad reasoning … excellent historical perspective … masterly manner”); Philadelphia Bulletin in TR.Scr. (“a rich contribution to our national history”); N.Y. Evening Post in ib. (“remarkable and worthy of high praise”); Saturday Review (GB), June 24, 1882 (“very little disposition to national self-laudation … none whatever to abuse or depreciate the enemy”). The Naval War of 1812 is still available (2001) as a Modern Library reprint.
87. Her.196; Gable, John A., TR as Historian and Man of Letters, intro. to TR’s Gouverneur Morris, Bicentennial Ed. (Oyster Bay, 1975), vii.
88. TR.Wks.VI.46–7.
89. Ib., 98.
90. Ib., 32.
91. Ib., 223, 226–8.
92. Ib., 372, 114; Preface.
93. Hag.Boy.61; Sims in TR.Wks. VI.xiv.
94. TR.Pri.Di. Dec. 6, 21, 1881; MBR to E, Dec. 10.
95. Mor.55.
6: THE CYCLONE ASSEMBLYMAN
1. TR.Pri.Di. Jan. 2, 1882.
2. Ib.; Albany Illustrated (H. R. Page Co., 1892); Phelps, H. P., ed., The Albany Handbook, 1881 and 1884; Put.249. The text’s assumption that TR stayed at the Delavan House is based on the following facts: it was the depot hotel; it functioned as Albany’s political headquarters; lastly, George F. Spinney recalled his presence there later that night. (See HUN. passim, and Put.250.)
3. TR.Pri.Di. Jan. 2, 1882.
4. Phelps, Handbook; Albany Argus, Jan. 3, 1882. Sunset on Jan. 2 was at 4:40 p.m., the exact time of arrival of the New York express. Other meteorological details from Albany Argus, Jan. 1 and 3.
5. Roseberry, Cecil R., Capitol Story (ill.),