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telegram has been laid to rest by Gar.186. TR.Wks.XII. xviii. Modern historians tend to agree with Dewey as to TR’s seminal role in bringing about the Battle of Manila. “The Assistant Secretary,” writes Howard K. Beale, “had seized the opportunity given by Long’s absence to insure our grabbing the Philippines without a decision to do so by either Congress or the President, or at least of all the people. Thus was important history made not by economic forces or democratic decisions but through the grasping of chance authority by a man with daring and a program.” (Bea.63.)

52. Mor.786, 787.

53. Ib., 790.

54. May.149–150.

55. Ib., 148–9.

56. Tabouis, Jules Cambon, author’s translation.

57. Mil. 115, Morg.363–4.

58. May.149; Morg.364; Mil.117. Of course this is not to say there were not many absentees. The actual vote was 311–0 in the House, 76–0 in the Senate.

59. Morg.364; Her.223.

60. Mor.789.

61. Long, Journal, Mar. 8, 1898, LON.; see Her.223–4 for details of the naval expansion program. Morg. 364; May.149.

62. The following anecdote is taken from Flint, Charles R., “I Take a Hand in Combining Railroads and Industries,” System, Jan. 22, 1922.

63. The Nictheroy arrived ahead of schedule, was rechristened Buffalo, and did good service in the Philippines. Flint, “I Take a Hand,” 31.

64. Wood in TR.Wks.XI.xvi.

65. Hag.LW.I.141. Dun.266 describes Wood as McK’s “favorite.” Mor.792.

66. Elizabeth Cameron to Henry Adams, March 21, 1898, ADA.

67. TR.Auto.216; Mil.123; Her.225; Pra.246; Rho.51; Mil.123.

68. Proctor qu. Rho.51–2.

69. Rho.52; May.144–5; Morg.365; Pra.246 ff; Mil.124.

70. Rho.53.

71. Mor.798.

72. Herrick, Naval Revolution, 230.

73. Rho.53.

74. Bee.551; Evening Telegraph, Mar. 27, 1898; Chicago Chronicle, Mar. 29. Hanna’s personal opinion, which he never altered, was “War is just a damn nuisance.” Bee.554.

75. Mil.127; Her.214–216. For text of the report, see Senate Exec. Docs., 55th Cong., 2nd Session, No. 207. Herrick has a good analysis of the evidence, and reveals that there was considerable dissent among members of the court before the unanimous verdict was reached. In 1911 another U.S. Court of Inquiry, which obtained funds to raise the Maine, upheld the findings of the first. There remained, however, a considerable amount of doubt in the minds of many impartial analysts, due to the inconclusive nature of the evidence. As the Spanish-American War faded from memory into history, the U.S. grew increasingly embarrassed about its assumption of Spanish guilt in 1898. According to Weems, J. E., The Fate of the Maine (NY, 1941), TR’s fifth cousin Franklin D. Roosevelt made a lame attempt to atone for it in 1935 by sending Madrid a Navy Department statement absolving Spain of all suspicion. The Maine disaster remains an unexplained mystery to this day, although contemporary opinion is that the explosion was accidental. See Rick-over, Adm. Hyman, How the Battleship Maine Was Destroyed (Washington, 1976).

76. Kipling, Rudyard, Something of Myself (London, 1936); EKR to TR Jr., July 13, 1927, Library of Congress.

77. Mor.799; ib., 806; Levine, Isaac Don, Mitchell: Pioneer of Air Power (NY, 1943) 20. Samuel Pierrepont Langley was the head of the Smithsonian Institution, and had become friendly with TR during his Cosmos Club days. The Langley flying machine, or “aerodrome,” was demonstrably capable of powered, unmanned flight over distances of up to one mile. Kipling, in Something of Myself, recalls accompanying TR to one of Langley’s experimental launchings, which unfortunately ended with a nosedive into the Potomac. Gen. Greely, Chief of the U.S. Signal Corps, was another enthusiastic Langley backer, and worked with Assistant Secretary Roosevelt to set up the Davis Board. $50,000 was eventually appropriated by Congress for further Langley experiments, none of which were successful. TR and Greely were assisted in the Senate by John Mitchell of Wisconsin, father of Gen. Billy Mitchell, the air power visionary of the 1920s.

78. The best and most sympathetic account of McKinley’s pre-war agony is in