Theodore Rex - Edmund Morris [396]
49 ON 22 JANUARY The Washington Post, 23 Jan. 1903.
50 Under the Spooner Story of Panama, 271; DuVal, Cadiz to Cathay, 196. Cullom was for appropriating Panama outright, on grounds of “universal public utility.”
51 “I am commanded” Story of Panama, 322.
52 “everything might be lost” DuVal, Cadiz to Cathay, 203.
53 Late in the Story of Panama, 272.
54 Four or five New York Sun, 24 Jan. 1903.
55 “ ’Pears lak us” Georgia Social Sentry, 13 Feb. 1903, Presidential scrapbook (TRP).
56 White reactionaries “This is about the limit,” the Richmond News raged. Literary Digest, 14 Feb. 1903; Vardaman editorial in Greenwood, Miss., Commonwealth, 10 Jan. 1903, copy in TRP; Gatewood, Theodore Roosevelt and the Art of Controversy, 37.
57 This was not Senator Tillman duly appeared at the hearings, and patronized Crum so effectively (“If he were a white man he’d be all right”) that a majority of the Committee voted to disapprove the nomination. Roosevelt refused to withdraw it. The New York Times, 23 Jan. 1903.
58 He was lucky Gatewood, Theodore Roosevelt and the Art of Controversy, 80; The New York Times, 25 Jan. 1903; Congressional Record, 57 Cong., sess. 2, 1903, vol. 36, pt. 1, 1180–81.
59 “It is as idle” Congressional Record, 57 Cong., sess. 2, 1903, vol. 36, pt. 2, 1178. The complete text of Spooner’s remarks is printed in ibid., 1174–90. Even the violent Tillman praised him afterward for his “calm and dispassionate and very earnest and eloquent speech.” Ibid., 2571. N.b.: Spooner used the word duress in the sense of coercion or compulsion.
60 He cabled home DuVal, Cadiz to Cathay, 206. Later in the year, the Colombian Minister of Foreign Affairs reportedly confirmed that Herrán’s signature on the treaty was as good as his own. William Nelson Cromwell to Tomas Herrán, 5 July 1903 (TH).
61 “Gladly shall I” DuVal, Cadiz to Cathay, 206–7.
62 IN THE LAST DAYS The New York Times, 25 Jan. 1903.
Chronological Note: On 18 Jan., Germany’s half-forgotten gunboats suddenly bombarded Fort San Carlos, Venezuela. Twenty-five people were killed. There was no apparent provocation, although the Reich claimed Venezuela fired first. John Hay memorandum, 21 Jan. 1903 (JH). Livermore, “Theodore Roosevelt”; Jeffrey M. Dorwart, The Office of Naval Intelligence: The Birth of America’s First Intelligence Agency, 1865–1918 (Annapolis, 1979), 76.
From Caracas came news that the allied blockade, while starving Venezuelans of bread and salt, was permitting the importation of arms by antigovernment guerrillas; it appeared that the Kaiser was deliberately fomenting unrest as an excuse to land German marines. Dennis, Adventures in American Diplomacy, 294.
63 had secretly directed The New York Times, 25 Jan. 1903; Parsons, “German-American Crisis.” An even more secret memorandum, from the head of the Office of Naval Intelligence, noted that Germany might well be protracting the Venezuela crisis deliberately. With Dewey’s ships tied down in the Caribbean, “no other objective point in the United States is now so inviting for attack as the city of Washington.” Kennedy, War Plans, 55–56.
64 The arbitration Jules Jusserand to Théophile Delcassé, 7 Feb. 1903 (JJ); J. Fred Rippy, The Caribbean Danger Zone (New York, 1940), 189; Dennis, Adventures in American Diplomacy, 294.
65 That sounded There were additional rumors in early 1903 that the Kaiser wanted to establish a permanent Caribbean naval squadron, and bid for Panama Canal rights, should Colombia fail to ratify the Hay-Herrán Treaty.
66 “Are people in” Vagts, Deutschland, vol. 2, 1595. Public concern was also rising again in Britain. George Smalley in The Times (London), 24 Jan. 1903; Gelber, Rise of Anglo-American Friendship, 120–21. Perhaps significantly, TR’s luncheon guests on 29 Jan. included the Admiral of the Navy, the Chief of the Bureau of Navigation, the Secretary of the Navy, and the Secretary of War. White House diary (TRP).