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Authors: Louis Auchincloss
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a caution always more visible in his acts than in his words, there should be added to the order the phrase âas recommended by the President and the Secretary of War,â to avoid giving some congressman who wished to hamper the construction the chance to yell about not having followed the instructions of the legislators.
Although no president had up until then left the continental limits of the United States while in office, TR could not resist his desire to see the great project actually under construction, and he and his wife sailed for Panama on the USS Louisiana escorted by two other battleships. It was heady business, and he wrote: âIt is a beautiful sight, these three great war vessels steaming southward in close column, and almost as beautiful at night when we see not only the lights but the loom through the darkness of the ships astern.⦠It seems a strange thing to think of my now being President, going to visit the work of the Panama Canal which I have made possible.â
There was to be no nonsense, however, in Panamanian politics, however much that nationâs independence had been recognized, that might interfere with the smooth working of the canal. In 1908, the last year of his second term, TR wrote sternly to Taft, then his secretary of war:
You are authorized to say to President Amador that the Government of the United States will consider any attempt at the election of a successor by fraudulent methods or methods which deny to a large part of the people opportunity to vote constitutes a disturbance of public order, which under Panamaâs constitution requires intervention, and this government will not permit the government of Panama to pass into the hands of anyone so elected.
Eight
John Morton Blumâs careful study of TRâs correspondence has made it clear how close a watch he kept on the appointments to state Republican committees and how deftly he constructed a personal organization within the party. As president he was always careful to consult the Republican senator of the state where any political appointment was to be made, but he also made sure it was understood that he was free to consult others as well. During his first term Senator Mark Hanna of Ohio, the old champion of McKinley, was still the dominant, or at least the rival, power in the party, and he had not only been opposed to Roosevelt but was known to be hankering for the next presidential nomination. TRâs own fierce ambition for the same goal was accentuated by his distaste for owing his present elevation to an assassinâs bullet; he yearned to be elected in his own right. After he had slowly but surely loosened Hannaâs grip on the party, he was able to say, with a sigh of relief: âHe has caused me a little worry but not much.â Hannaâs premature death suddenly eliminated this threat, and TR and his running mate, Senator Charles W. Fairbanks of Indiana, were easily nominated in the 1904 Republican convention and as easily elected the following fall. Running against a conservative Democratic candidate, Judge Alton B. Parker, Roosevelt polled 7.6 million votes, 56.4 percent of the popular vote to Parkerâs 37.6 percent, and swept the electoral college 336 to 140, carrying every state outside the South save the border state of Kentucky.
Industry and finance did not yet show the alarm about TR they were later to feel. Northern Securities had bothered them, but TR was still a Republican. Contributions to his campaign funds included $50,000 from Henry Clay Frick; $100,000 each from George J. Gould (son of Jay) and John Archbold (Standard Oil); and $150,000 from J. P. Morgan. The Republican treasurer, Cornelius Bliss, perhaps wisely, did not feel it necessary to inform the candidate of these.
TR, elated by his sweeping victory at the polls, felt at last that he had secured the confidence of the American people, and he became more open in the annunciation of his socially
Although no president had up until then left the continental limits of the United States while in office, TR could not resist his desire to see the great project actually under construction, and he and his wife sailed for Panama on the USS Louisiana escorted by two other battleships. It was heady business, and he wrote: âIt is a beautiful sight, these three great war vessels steaming southward in close column, and almost as beautiful at night when we see not only the lights but the loom through the darkness of the ships astern.⦠It seems a strange thing to think of my now being President, going to visit the work of the Panama Canal which I have made possible.â
There was to be no nonsense, however, in Panamanian politics, however much that nationâs independence had been recognized, that might interfere with the smooth working of the canal. In 1908, the last year of his second term, TR wrote sternly to Taft, then his secretary of war:
You are authorized to say to President Amador that the Government of the United States will consider any attempt at the election of a successor by fraudulent methods or methods which deny to a large part of the people opportunity to vote constitutes a disturbance of public order, which under Panamaâs constitution requires intervention, and this government will not permit the government of Panama to pass into the hands of anyone so elected.
Eight
John Morton Blumâs careful study of TRâs correspondence has made it clear how close a watch he kept on the appointments to state Republican committees and how deftly he constructed a personal organization within the party. As president he was always careful to consult the Republican senator of the state where any political appointment was to be made, but he also made sure it was understood that he was free to consult others as well. During his first term Senator Mark Hanna of Ohio, the old champion of McKinley, was still the dominant, or at least the rival, power in the party, and he had not only been opposed to Roosevelt but was known to be hankering for the next presidential nomination. TRâs own fierce ambition for the same goal was accentuated by his distaste for owing his present elevation to an assassinâs bullet; he yearned to be elected in his own right. After he had slowly but surely loosened Hannaâs grip on the party, he was able to say, with a sigh of relief: âHe has caused me a little worry but not much.â Hannaâs premature death suddenly eliminated this threat, and TR and his running mate, Senator Charles W. Fairbanks of Indiana, were easily nominated in the 1904 Republican convention and as easily elected the following fall. Running against a conservative Democratic candidate, Judge Alton B. Parker, Roosevelt polled 7.6 million votes, 56.4 percent of the popular vote to Parkerâs 37.6 percent, and swept the electoral college 336 to 140, carrying every state outside the South save the border state of Kentucky.
Industry and finance did not yet show the alarm about TR they were later to feel. Northern Securities had bothered them, but TR was still a Republican. Contributions to his campaign funds included $50,000 from Henry Clay Frick; $100,000 each from George J. Gould (son of Jay) and John Archbold (Standard Oil); and $150,000 from J. P. Morgan. The Republican treasurer, Cornelius Bliss, perhaps wisely, did not feel it necessary to inform the candidate of these.
TR, elated by his sweeping victory at the polls, felt at last that he had secured the confidence of the American people, and he became more open in the annunciation of his socially
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