Theodore Rex - Edmund Morris [216]
The judge returned stunned to Esopus. He decided that if he could not win, he could at least speak out against the “menace” of corporate campaign funds.
As luck would have it, he was visited the next afternoon by a delegation of supporters. He managed to startle them with some semispecific allegations of “debasing and corrupt” payments to the GOP by “individuals of corporations … who would control the results of election contests.” His remarks made modest headlines on 24 October.
John Hay, whose memories went back to the hellfire days of American political oratory, was not impressed by Parker’s tepid outrage. “We are at the fag end of the most absurd political campaign of our time,” he wrote Henry Adams, “and it looks like Roosevelt to the gamblers and the Jews.”
ALICE LIKED TO TEASE her father about his habit of writing “posterity letters” whenever anything occurred that might affect his historical reputation. It was a habit that went back to the earliest days of his political career, when he would write solemn screeds to Bamie and portentously sign them “Theodore Roosevelt,” as if she were unaware of his surname.
Some instinct warned him, on the eve of his birthday, that the Democrats might return to the theme of corporate contributions in the closing days of the campaign. The instinct was triggered when a reporter from New York mentioned seeing a check made out to the Republican National Committee by an executive of Standard Oil—still the most hated trust in popular mythology. Another reporter confirmed this, and said the check had been written after Cornelius Bliss intimated that a failure to be generous would be to the “disadvantage” of the Rockefeller interests.
Roosevelt’s reaction was to dictate not only a posterity letter, but a posterity telegram and posterity memorandum as well. The letter went to Cortelyou:
I have just been informed that the Standard Oil people have contributed one hundred thousand dollars to our campaign fund. This may be entirely untrue. But if true I must ask you to direct that the money be returned to them forthwith.… It is entirely legitimate to accept contributions, no matter how large they are, from individuals and corporations on the terms on which I happen to know that you have accepted them: that is, with the explicit understanding that they were given and received with no thought of any more obligation … than is implied by the statement that every man shall receive a square deal, no more and no less, and this I shall guarantee him in any event to the best of my ability.
He did not explain why a check from John D. Archbold should be any less acceptable than one from E. H. Harriman, except to say that “in view of my past relations with the Standard Oil Company,” the transaction might be construed “as putting us under an improper obligation.”
By telegram, he demanded that Cortelyou confirm the refund, and by memo, he explained at length how he had heard about the check. Then, forsaking pomposity for his normal boyish good cheer, he celebrated his birthday.
Elihu Root, who over the years had developed an almost paternal tenderness for him, sent a note to the White House: “I congratulate you on attaining the respectable age of 46. You have made a very good start in life and your friends have great hopes for you when you grow up.”
IN THE LAST DAYS of October, Parker unexpectedly yielded to the pleas of the Democratic National Committee and undertook a speaking tour. He confined himself to a few pivotal counties in New York and New Jersey, but adopted an aggressive tone that kept him in the national headlines. His theme—“The trusts are furnishing the money with which they hope to control the election”—focused on the hapless Cortelyou, who was once again portrayed in yellow newspapers as a Wall Street toady.
Roosevelt was at first sympathetic, then nervous when the chairman failed to respond adequately to his letter about Standard Oil. He telegraphed again: “Has my request been complied with? I desire that there be no delay.