Theodore Rex - Edmund Morris [12]
Actually, Roosevelt had no intention of firing either Hay or Gage. On the contrary, he was worried by continued reports that they would resign as soon as he got to Washington. The presence in Buffalo of Kohlsaat, who knew both men well, came as a godsend. Roosevelt had long since perfected the art of manipulating newspapermen. Kohlsaat rose to his herring like a trained seal.
KOHLSAAT John Hay is an old friend of mine.… What have you against Lyman Gage?
ROOSEVELT (teeth snapping) He always gets his back up against the wall, and I can’t get around him.
KOHLSAAT Don’t you know I am responsible for Mr. Gage being in the Cabinet? … Yesterday, when you were sworn in, you issued a statement that you were going to carry on McKinley’s policies, and now you propose to fire his Secretary of State and Secretary of the Treasury!
ROOSEVELT (after a pause, falsetto) … Old man, I am going to pay you the highest compliment I ever paid any one in my life. I am going to keep both of them!
Compounding the flattery, he invited Kohlsaat to accompany him to Washington the next day. “The only other friend I have on the train is Elihu Root.” Then, casually: “Gage does not like me. I want you to wire him to meet you at your hotel on our arrival and tell him he must stay for a while, at least, and I want you to see the Associated Press man and ask him to send a dispatch that when we reach Washington tomorrow night I am going to ask Hay and Gage to remain in the Cabinet.”
Kohlsaat bustled off feeling he had managed to sway the rods of power. Had he understood the subtleties of Rooseveltian press relations, he might have seen that he had been tricked into making a personal appeal to Gage. The AP dispatch would also forestall any possible resignation statement by Hay. Neither man could then quit without appearing disloyal to Roosevelt, and to the unfinished agenda of William McKinley.
Roosevelt’s move was well-timed. Even now, in Washington, the Secretary of State was composing a letter that read like a valedictory.
SEPT. 15, 1901
My dear Roosevelt: If the Presidency had come to you in any other way, no one would have congratulated you with better heart than I. My sincere affection and esteem for you, my old-time love for your father—would he could have lived to see where you are!—would have been deeply gratified. And even from the depths of the sorrow where I sit, with my grief for the President mingled and confused with that for my boy, so that I scarcely know, from hour to hour, the true source of my tears—I do still congratulate you, not only on the opening of an official career which I know will be glorious, but upon the vast opportunity for useful work which lies before you. With your youth, your ability, your health and strength, the courage God has given you to do right, there are no bounds to the good you can accomplish for your country and the name you will leave in its annals. My official life is at an end—my natural life will not be long extended; and so, in the dawn of what I am sure will be a great and splendid future, I venture to give you the heartfelt benediction of the past.
God bless you.
Yours faithfully,
JOHN HAY
Monday
16 SEPTEMBER DAWNED so bright that Buffalo’s heavy black drapery looked inconsequential, even tawdry, against the overwhelming blueness of lake and sky. A stiff breeze snapped thousands of half-mast flags. At shortly after 8:15, Roosevelt, escorted by a small troop of mounted policemen, rolled down Delaware Avenue on his way to Exchange Street Station. Presently, windblown fragments of music heralded the approach of McKinley’s cortege from City Hall. Roosevelt ordered his procession to follow at a respectful distance. He stood watching at the station entrance as soldiers unloaded the coffin and carried it inside. “Nearer My God to Thee” sounded inevitably from the band. Mrs. McKinley was escorted onto the platform, a frail figure almost hidden by black-clad relatives. Then Roosevelt stepped forward. He seemed surprised