The rise of Theodore Roosevelt - Edmund Morris [460]
72. Her., Sep. 24, 1898; see Sun, same date, for full statement of facts. Chessman, G. Wallace, “Theodore Roosevelt’s Personal Tax Difficulty,” New York History, 34.54–63 explores this complicated matter in great detail. See also Pri.203–4, and n. 75 below.
73. The date of TR’s Washington affidavit was Mar. 21, 1898. Sun, Sep. 26.
74. Che.46.
75. On Aug. 24, 1897. Mor.878. The facts of TR’s tax embarrassment are briefly these: From 1880 to 1894 inclusive he voted and paid taxes on personal and real property in Oyster Bay, except during his three terms as a New York City Assemblyman, 1882–84. After being made Police Commissioner in 1895 he rented Bamie Roosevelt’s house at 689 Madison Avenue, and declared it his legal residence. While thenceforth voting and paying taxes in New York City, he maintained Sagamore Hill as a country home, and for two years paid extra taxes in Oyster Bay, although there was no need for him to do so. In 1897, however, his personalty assessment in Oyster Bay was increased from $2,000 to $12,000, causing the first of his two affidavits in order to avoid that “perfectly absurd” liability. He was then, of course, already living in bachelor digs in Washington as Assistant Secretary. Not until October 1, 1897, did his lease on Bamie’s Manhattan house expire; and the following month, when his family at last joined him in Washington, he moved into the house opposite the German Embassy. It then became a question of deciding whether to declare yet another legal residence, or revert to his old status in Oyster Bay. There was not time between Oct. 1 and the November elections for him to qualify as a voter in Oyster Bay, and TR was so preoccupied with Navy matters during the next critical months that he seems to have forgotten about the whole residence question. Only in January 1898, when he was notified that he had been assessed a hefty $50,000 as an absentee resident of New York City, did he hastily issue his second affidavit, declaring himself a resident of Washington. All this was done on the advice of family advisers, notably Douglas Robinson, John E., and James Roosevelt. However the understanding was, when he left for Cuba, that steps would be taken to restore him permanently to the rolls of Oyster Bay—even if that meant paying taxes in two places at once. But the person responsible for this step, his uncle James, died before undertaking it, and TR again forgot about his residence problems in the excitement of the war. Here matters rested until Tammany Hall delivered the “bomb” affidavit of March 21 to Governor Black’s supporters. Sun, Sep. 26, 1898; TR to Root, Platt, and Nicholas M. Butler, Mor.878–9; Che.46–7.
76. Che.48.
77. Ib.; Gos.192.
78. Ib.
79. Ib.; Pla.370–3; Sun, Sep. 29, 1898; Trib., Sep. 28.
80. See Mor.878–9; Trib., Sep. 28, 1898. Che.46–8.
81. Pla.367; HUN.59. TR paid his taxes—$995.28—on Oct. 3, 1898. Trib., Oct. 4.
82. Sun, Sep. 26, 1898; Mor.880.
83. Trib., Sep. 28, 1898; Her., same date.
84. Sun, Sep. 28, 1898. See Trib., Sep. 28 for verbatim report of what Root did say. Her., Sep. 28. The nominating speech was made by Chauncey Depew. “I have done that a great many times in conventions,” he wrote in his Memories of Eighty Years, “but have never had such a response.” (162).
85. Trib., Sep. 28, 1898; Mor.881.
86. Her., Oct. 5, 1898.
87. Ib.; N.Y.T., same date. Author’s italics.
88. Her., Sep. 5, 1898. Van Wyck was the brother of Robert W. van Wyck, Mayor of New York.
89. Che.50–1.
90. Her., Sep. 6, 1898.
91. See Mor.882 for TR’s reply to McK. Her., Sep. 6, 1898.
92. TR.Wks.XIV.290–1. See Her., Sep. 6, 1898, for audience reaction.
93. Howe, Chapman, 470.
94. TR.Auto.280; Mor.883; Che.54; ib., 59–60; Odell int. FRE. See Gos.131–8 for an account of TCP’s manipulation of various periodicals.
95. TR on Oct. 7, 1898, qu. Hagedorn in TRB memo;