The rise of Theodore Roosevelt - Edmund Morris [462]
20. TR.Auto.285.
21. Ib., 289. The following three paragraphs are based on ib., 283–93.
22. Ib., 285.
23. Ib., 289.
24. The preceding four sentences closely follow Che. 158–9.
25. TR.Auto.292.
26. For TR’s handling of the Martha Place case, see Mor.938 ff., and n. 56, below.
27. See calendar in Mor. 1498 ff. for a list of TR’s day-to-day business as Governor. Mor.918.
28. Ada.208; Mor.902.
29. TR.Auto.297; Mor.1498 ff.; Wis.70.
30. TR.Auto.297–8. See also Che.76.
31. TR qu. Che.133.
32. Gos.196; Che.133–7. Ib., 132, says TR was not necessarily referring to the Ford Bill, but at any rate “favored some positive step toward franchise tax that year.” Since there was no other franchise-tax legislation on the books, and in view of TR’s own hurry to get such a law passed in 1899, it is difficult to see what other measures he could have had in mind. TR did, nevertheless, express grave doubts about at least one of the Ford Bill’s clauses. (See text below.) For the full story of TR’s works on the franchise bills, see Che. Ch. 6, “The Honest Broker.”
33. Gos.197; Che.135, 137, 133 TR’s pied-à-terre was 689 Madison Ave., where Bamie (now Mrs. Sheffield Cowles, and a mother) delighted to play hostess for him. COW. Occasionally TR took TCP to breakfast at Corinne’s house, 422 Madison Ave. Rob.185.
34. TR.Auto.308.
35. Gos.198; TCP qu. Che.138; for complete text of TCP’s views on the Ford Bill, see William Barnes v. Theodore Roosevelt: Case on Appeal (Walton, N.Y., 1917) 2368 ff.
36. TCP qu. Che.138.
37. Che.138; Gos.196; Public Papers, 54–7; Gos.197; Che.139.
38. New York Herald, qu. Che.139; Mor.982, 1006.
39. TR.Auto.312; Che.140; Mor.982. Three days after this, TR was in Chicago as guest of honor at the Appo-mattox Day meeting of the Hamilton Club. Mor.1499. Here he delivered his famous “Strenuous Life” speech, the definitive statement of his pre-presidential philosophy. It is reprinted in TR.Wks.XIII.
40. Che.140.
41. Ib.; New York Tribune, Apr. 15, 1899.
42. Che.141.
43. TR.Auto.311. Gos.197: “He kept talking to the newspaper men about its desirability.” See, e.g., Trib., Apr. 15, 1899.
44. See Che.75 on TR’s use of reporters as legislative contacts. Ib., 143.
45. TR.Auto.308.
46. Ib., 311–2; Che.143–4; Mor.1007; TR.Auto.312.
47. Ib; Mor.1008.
48. Public Papers, 1899, 89.
49. TR.Auto.312.
50. See his letter to HCL, Apr. 17, 1899, Mor.997–8.
51. For an excellent brief summary, see Har.114–121.
52. Mor.997; New York Times, Apr. 29, 1899; Che.79.
53. See Che.200–25 for a largely favorable review of TR’s labor policies as Governor; Hurwitz, Howard L., TR and Labor in New York State, 1880–1900 (Columbia U. Press, 1943) passim for a more negative assessment.
54. Mor.998; Har.120–121.
55. Ib. But see Che.215 ff. for TR’s subsequent difficulties with labor groups, and ib., 221 for his over-reaction to the Croton Dam riots in April 1900.
56. Martha Place, a resident of Brooklyn, was found guilty of killing her stepdaughter and attacking her husband with an axe. Although she claimed not to remember the murder, state medical examiners informed Roosevelt that she was sane. She was executed on March 20, 1899.
57. Mor.950: “As for Mrs. Place, you can rest assured that the last thing that will influence me will be any statement that no man can become President if he allows a woman to be executed. In the first place, being myself sane, I have no thought of becoming President. In the next place, I should heartily despise the public servant who failed to do his duty because it might jeopardize his own future.” (TR to Francis W. Jones, Feb. 21, 1899.)
58. Mor.938.
59. See Che. 177 ff. for an extended discussion of this subject.
60. Mor.998. For a compact modern assessment of the governorship of Theodore