The Wilderness Warrior - Douglas Brinkley [513]
Predictably, Roosevelt didn’t forget about his obligations to American ornithology on his way out of power. In 1908, Lucy Maynard, a member of the Audubon Society, had met with him at the White House for a nature lecture. She was updating a new edition of her work on birds in Washington, D.C., and wondered whether the president had any interesting recent sightings to report. “Why, yes,” Roosevelt answered gleefully. “But I’ll do better than that. I’ll make you a list of all the birds I can remember having seen since I have been here.”70
A few days later, Roosevelt sent Maynard a long list, which she published in 1909 as the introduction to her Birds of Washington and Vicinity. In all, ninety-three species were listed, some with brief commentary. For example:
Night Heron. Five spent winter of 1907 in swampy country about one-half mile west of Washington Monument.
Sparrow Hawk. A pair spent the last two winters on and around the White House grounds, feeding on the Sparrows—largely, thank Heaven, on the English Sparrows.
Screech Owl. Steady resident on White House grounds.71
Inauguration Day, March 4, brought a swirl of snow. Ten inches had fallen, and everything was shrouded in white that concealed rock-hard ice. Horse-drawn plows were working overtime to at least keep Pennsylvania Avenue passable for Washingtonians and other guests. Carpenters had worked until the last minute erecting a reviewing stand for the parade outside the North Gate of the White House. But the snow-removal efforts and the carpenters couldn’t keep up with the snowfall. For the first time in U.S. history the inauguration ceremonies were moved indoors, to the Senate chamber.72 The essence of Roosevelt as a phenomenon was evident in the way his departure was receiving more attention in the newspapers than Taft’s arrival. Even with the bad weather, Roosevelt was exuberant: “I knew there’d be a blizzard when I went out,” he had said on inauguration eve. Clapping his hands, he declared the storm the “Roosevelt Blizzard,” and said that’s what history would call it. Trying to hold his own, determined from the outset not to be Roosevelt’s “creature,” Taft remarked that he thought not.73 “You’re wrong,” Taft said. “It’s my storm. I always said it would be a cold day when I got to be President of the United States.”74
At ten o’clock on Inauguration morning, Roosevelt and Taft headed to the Capitol in a twelve-team carriage. Snow was swirling about, and many of the bleachers lining Pennsylvania Avenue were empty owing to the inclement weather. Both men usually had a hearty sense of humor, but it wasn’t on display that day, although T.R. waved to the shivering spectators. Nellie Taft broke all precedent by riding in a carriage with her husband.75 At the Capitol, Roosevelt signed some last-minute bills, hugged some close friends, and prepared to relinquish power. Vice President James S. Sherman of New York had already been sworn in. Just after noon, Roosevelt and Taft walked into the Senate Chamber, receiving enormous foot-stomping cheers. For a few minutes they looked like a united front. Then a century-old Bible was held out and Taft took the oath.76 “Observers were struck by Roosevelt’s immobile concentration as his successor was sworn in,” the historian Edmund Morris wrote in Theodore Rex. “Those who did not know him thought that the stony expression and balled-up fists signaled trouble ahead for Taft.” 77
Not since Lincoln had America had such a folk figure as Roosevelt for its president. He was beloved. Groups from all over America wanted to memorialize Roosevelt, chisel his face in granite, or cast a bronze of his likeness. But such gestures were hardly commensurate with his accomplishments, such as saving the Tongass and Mount Olympus. “For millions of contemporary Americans,