Theodore Rex - Edmund Morris [444]
39 “The weather remains” John Hay diary, 1 Feb. 1905 (JH).
40 Heart pain Ibid., 28 Jan. 1905.
41 Cassini waved Ibid., 23 Feb. 1905.
42 “destined to be” Qu. in Edel, Henry James, 276.
43 “Roosevelt has the” Henry Watterson to Poultney Bigelow, 22 Feb. 1905 (PB).
CHAPTER 23: MANY BUDDING THINGS
1 Onaisy lies th’ “Mr. Dooley” in Collier’s, Feb. 1903.
2 THEODORE ROOSEVELT The following description is based on “TR’s Inaugural Ceremony, 1905” and “TR’s Inauguration, 1905,” newsreel films in TRAF; the diary-letter of Matthew Hale, 4 Mar. 1905, in TRP; Lorant, Life and Times, 422; Washington Evening Star, 4 Mar. 1905; The New York Times, 5 Mar. 1905. Additional touches from Robinson, My Brother, 223–24, and Longworth, Crowded Hours, 67.
3 “My fellow citizens” TR, Works, vol. 17, 311–12.
4 The wind snatched Sir Mortimer Durand diary, 4 Apr. 1905 (HMD).
5 Nobody, with the On or about 11 Dec. 1904, TR had been sparring in the White House with a Navy aide, Lieutenant Dan Tyler Moore, and took “a hot one” to the side of the head. It ruptured a blood vessel in the left eye, and his vision immediately began to blur, degenerating into spotted half-blindness. The disability remained a secret, even from Moore, throughout TR’s presidency. TR, Letters, vol. 4, 1065; Leary, Talks with TR, 20–21; Pringle, Theodore Roosevelt, 18–19.
6 Close observers The New York Times, 5 Mar. 1903; TR, Letters, vol. 4, 1133; Hay, Letters, vol. 3, 328. The ring is now in Sagamore Hill National Historic Site.
7 Hay could not Putnam, Theodore Roosevelt, 42. The Secretary had previously observed that TR “thought more and talked more” about Lincoln “than any one I ever met in public life” (John Hay to Norman Hapgood, 8 Aug. 1904 [TD]). TR himself admitted to “seeing” Lincoln often in the White House. “For some reason or other he is to me infinitely the most real of the dead Presidents.” See also TR, Letters, vol. 3, 392.
8 “a document which” TR, Autobiography, 400.
9 (which had expressed) TR, Letters, vol. 4, 1131.
10 “Much has been” TR, Works, vol. 17, 311.
11 He spoke for Ibid. Remarkably, aside from in his opening “My fellow Americans,” TR did not use the personal pronoun in his address. This remains a record in inaugural oratory.
12 with a new “The Senate is determined to be ‘ugly.’ Their openly expressed opinion is that ‘Teddy’ … wants taking down a peg.” Sir Mortimer Durand to Lord Lansdowne, 7 Mar. 1905 (HMD).
13 Afterward, Roosevelt Butt, Letters, 282. TR described Bacon privately as “a voluble, pinheaded creature … a horrid instance of the mischief that can be done by a man of very slender capacity, if only he possesses great loquacity, effrontery, and an entire indifference to the national welfare.” TR, Letters, vol. 4, 1133.
14 So impregnable John Hay diary, 25 Feb. 1905 (JH).
15 floated an enormous Fakirs and spielers along the avenue did brisk business selling miniature replicas of this new American icon. “Take home a Roosevelt ‘big stick.’ ” Washington Evening Star, 4 Mar. 1905.
16 Whatever tomorrow’s TR, Letters, vol. 4, 491; TR to Pierre de Coubertin, 21 Nov. 1904 (TRP); Jay G. Hayden to Hermann Hagedorn, 10 Dec. 1948 (TRB); Leary, Talks with TR, 20.
17 “The President will” John Hay diary, 22 Oct. 1904 (JH).
18 ON 10 MARCH Ibid., 10–11 Mar. 1905.
19 He cautioned Hay Ibid., 10 Mar. 1903; Griscom, Diplomatically Speaking, 253.
20 Even Count Cassini John Hay diary, 16 Mar. 1905 (JH).
21 “We are condemned” Ibid.
22 Hay left Washington The New York Times, 18 Mar. 1905; John Hay diary, 17 Mar. 1905 (JH).
23 Roosevelt was in “Well, Franklin,” TR said to the groom at the reception, “there’s nothing like keeping the name in the family.” Morris, Edith Kermit Roosevelt, 288–89. Some years before, as a Harvard undergraduate, Franklin had heard TR speak and “was so impressed … that he vowed he, too, would someday find a way to become active in the political affairs of his country.” Elliott Roosevelt to John A. Gable, 7 July 1989,