The rise of Theodore Roosevelt - Edmund Morris [415]
48. Elsewhere TR noted that it was “impossible to combine the functions of a guerilla chief with those of a colonel in the regular army; one has the greater independence of action, the other is able to make what action he does take vastly more effective.” Boston Herald, July 20, 1884; Put.467.
49. Mor.75. The reactions of William Roscoe Thayer may be taken as typical. See his TR, 52.
50. Wis.26. TR was blackballed for membership of the Union League Club, which his father had helped found, on June 12, 1884. Not until October 9 did Charles Evarts manage to persuade the club committee to accept him. Irwin, Will et al., A History of the Union League Club of New York (Dodd Mead, 1953) 127–8.
51. Eve. Post qu. Har.41; Mor.75. John M. Dobson, in “George W. Curtis and the Election of 1884,” New York State Historical Quarterly 52 (1968) 3, argues that the GOP’s pro-Cleveland mugwumps represented no reformist trend, only anti-Blaine hysteria. Hence TR was justified in declining their embrace.
52. Sample headlines: “A TERRIBLE TALE—DARK CHAPTER IN A PUBLIC MAN’S HISTORY—The Pitiful Story of Maria Halpin and Governor Cleveland’s Son.” Sample editorial opinion: “We do not believe that the American people will knowingly elect to the Presidency a coarse debauchee who would bring his harlots with him to Washington and hire lodgings for them convenient to the White House.” Buffalo Telegraph and Charles Dana in the Sun, qu. Tugwell, Rexford G., Grover Cleveland (NY, 1968) 91–2. For sequel to scandal, see below, n. 86 and text.
53. Trib., July 28, 1884.
54. Hag.RBL.159; Put.471; see also Sew. 17.
55. Bad Lands Cowboy, July 31, 1884; Mor.73; Hag. 159.
56. Sewall qu. Put.471; Hag.RBL.161–2; HAG.Bln.
57. Sewall in ib.; Lincoln Lang on Merrifield in ib.; Lan.67; Put.423.
58. TR to B, Aug. 12 and 17, 1884.
59. Ib.; Put.472–3; TR.Wks.I.420, III.75.
60. Sewall in HAG.Bln.; Sew.19; Put.472–3; Sew.18.
61. TRB.
62. TR to B, Aug. 17, 1884; TR.Wks.I.311.
63. TR burned and bleached quickly and flatteringly. St. Paul Pioneer Press, July 2, 1884, described him as already “browned the color of maplewood bark.” TR to B, Aug. 12; 1885 newsclip in TRB; Mor.77. According to N.Y. Her., Sep. 22, 1885, TR’s equipment included a beautifully embossed, monogrammed, 45-lb. saddle, silver-inlaid bit and spurs, real angora chaps, a braided quirt, and an “exquisite pearl-handled, silver-mounted revolver.” Among his many rifles was one inlaid with solid gold plates delicately engraved with hunting scenes.
64. Now Wibaux, Montana. Mingusville was originally so named because its founders were a woman named Minnie and her husband, Gus. TR never specified the exact date of this encounter. Hag.RBL.151–3 places it impossibly in June of 1884; TR’s documented movements during that month prove that he would not have had the time to visit Mingusville. Put.251 fn. places the incident in April 1885, while conceding that the evidence is “circumstantial.” The author considers August 1884 a far more likely date, for these reasons: TR was at a loose end then; he mentions a shortage of horses in his letter to Bamie, which might explain his search for strays; also both W. Roy Hoffman and Pierre Wibaux, who were living near Mingusville at the time, agree the incident took place “shortly after July 1884.” (Hoffman, unpublished autobiography in TRB.) This could only have been between August 1 and 17. TR’s assertion that “it was a cold night” causes some problems, but falling temperatures are not unusual in late August, in windswept prairie towns.
65. TR.Auto.124–5. At this point the reader should be reassured that TR, for all his self-esteem, was no braggart. Episodes like the Mingusville story, which seem too “fictional” to be true, occur frequently in his writings. However any scholar who makes any prolonged study of TR discovers that he was almost infallibly truthful. Edward Wagenknecht remarks: “I believe that in general he came as close to telling the truth as any man can come in talking about himself.” Elihu Root wrote: