The rise of Theodore Roosevelt - Edmund Morris [458]
132. Mor.853; TR.War.Di. July 3; Mor.851. TR’s only known ailment in Cuba was a bout of dysentery. EKR to Emily Carow, Aug. 14, 1898 (Derby mss.).
133. RR.135.
134. See Mor.858–9; ib., 855; RR.133, 136. McClure’s, Nov. 1898, qu. an anonymous Rough Rider.
135. Mor.851. The lieutenant appears in the photograph at the beginning of this chapter, standing immediately behind TR’s right shoulder.
136. Greenaway qu. J. J. Leary in TRB mss.
137. Mor.861; ib., 860.
138. See Che.18–19.
139. RR.138, 142.
140. The authors of the document, TR included, were carefully vague about how it came into the hands of the Associated Press correspondent. Leonard Wood claimed that he handed the round-robin to Gen. Shafter, who affected a lack of interest in it. The document was ostentatiously left lying on the table between them, whereupon the A.P. man seized it and transmitted it to the U.S. by cable. TR wrote that he also handed his supplementary letter to Shafter, who waved it away in the same fashion. “I, however, insisted on handing it to him, whereupon he shoved it toward the correspondent … who took hold of it, and I released my hold.” TR.Auto.252; ib., fn.; Hag.LW.I.201; Wes.240; Mil.352.
141. Full text of both documents: Mor.864–66. See also TR’s letter to HCL on the subject, which is full of genuine passion. Mor. 862–3.
142. Mil.352; Morg.394. Cosmas, An Army, 294, 305 blames McK for the delay.
143. Mor.859. Secretary Alger also made public his sarcastic reply to TR’s letter: “I suggest that, unless you want to spoil the effects and glory of your victory, you make no invidious comparisons. The Rough Riders are no better than the other volunteers. They had an advantage in their arms, for which they ought to be grateful.” Mor.860 fn. Alger later apologized to TR. See TR.Auto. Ch. VII, Appendix A, “A Manly Letter.”
144. Clips, n.d., in TRB clips file. For sample sympathetic comment on TR, see Chicago Tribune, August 5, 1898.
145. RR. 145. It of course seemed, to the general public, that TR’s round-robin was responsible for the pull-out order. Actually Alger had issued the order on Aug. 3, the day before all the newspaper publicity. TR was not averse to the accidental glory thus gained. See Freidel, War, 296; Cosmas, An Army, 258.
146. Freidel, War, 298; Hag.LW.I.183; war picture book collection, TRC.
147. Mor.852.
148. Mor.861, 862. John D. Long, who had deplored TR’s decision to resign as Assistant Secretary of the Navy in his Journal, Apr. 25, 1898 (Ch. 23), turned back to that entry many years later and wrote a superscription; “P.S. Roosevelt was right and we his friends were all wrong. His going into the army led through to the Presidency.”
Historical Note: In 2000, President Clinton, responding to heavy pressure from the Roosevelt family and the Theodore Roosevelt Association, posthumously granted TR his Medal of Honor. TR’s own mature feeling about the medal was expressed in 1907, when he declined honorary membership in the United States Medal of Honor Club: “I was recommended for it by my superior officers in the Santiago campaign, but I was not awarded it; and frankly, looking back at it now, I feel that the board which declined to award it took exactly the right position.” Mor.5.865.
26: THE MOST FAMOUS MAN IN AMERICA
1. New York Times and Evening Post, Aug. 16, 1898.
2. New York Herald, Aug. 16, 1898.
3. Ib.
4. Ib.; also above-quoted sources.
5. Marshall, Edward, The Story of the Rough Riders (NY, 1899) 240.
6. Her., Aug. 16, 1898; N.Y.T., Eve. Post, same date.
7. Her., Aug. 16, 1898. According to Lovell H. Jerome, one of TR’s gubernatorial backers, he was cautioned not to say anything about politics even before he disembarked. Int. FRE.
8. N.Y.T., Aug. 16, 1898.
9. Eve. Post, Aug. 16, 1898; Marshall, Story, 240; Commercial Advertiser, Aug. 16; Her., same date.
10. World, Aug. 28: “Travelling men of all shades and classes declare him more talked about than any man in the country.”
11. The peace protocol was signed on Aug. 12, 1898. For gubernatorial rumors, see, e.g., Her., Aug. 17.
12.