him. As I came within about twenty feet of him, he yelled out in a voice that could have been heard a quarter of a block away, "I had to take it, old man! I had to take it! Just listen to me a minute and I will tell you the story of the Convention. It was really a Roosevelt Convention; everything was cut and dried for McKinley's nomination, everybody expected it and desired it, but there was no enthusiasm about it. All the enthusiasm of the Convention seemed to center around me. In season and out of season the boys cheered me. I protested against the nomination, sincerely and vehemently, and when they paid no attention to my protest and nominated me, I repeatedly refused to accept it. But, Doctor, I had to do so. If I had not, the people of this country would never have given me another office worth while, as long as I live. If I had refused so unanimous and enthusiastic a call of my countrymen to service, I should have deserved to be relegated to the rear forever. My heart was broken with the affection and confidence of my fellowmen, and when I came to believe that the voice of the people was really the voice of God to me I accepted the position with cheerfulness and gratitude." He was inaugurated Vice-president on the 4th of March, 1901. With his family he went into the Adirondaks for the summer. He was in the deep woods in camp and, being informed that President McKinley had been shot, he hastened to Buffalo, where he remained three days. Learning from the physicians that the President would likely recover, he went back to his camp again, and there was found by the messenger sent to carry to him the sad news that President McKinley had died September 13th. He rushed. to Buffalo and was there sworn into office as the President of the United States. CHAPTER XII THEODORE ROOSEVELT AS PRESIDENT BY DR. ALBERT SHAW [Dr. Albert Shaw, on whose matchless editorials in the Review of Reviews I have fed for twenty-five years, was one of Colonel Roosevelt's most intimate friends. The Colonel has talked with me, times without number, about his appreciation of Dr. Shaw and of the splendid help that he had always given him in his fight for righteousness in this country, and I asked Dr. Shaw to share this tribute of affection for our mutual friend by giving me for this volume an estimate of Theodore Roosevelt as President. He cheerfully complied with my request and gave me this ideal paper.] F OR one hundred and thirty years there has been in existence an office of growing prestige and authority in the world known as the American Presidency. This office has been filled by men of greatly varying qualities. All of them have been men of respectable attainments, and the list presents a high average of merit. It is not often, however, that in any country a statesman comes to the front who seems to embody in his own personality the best characteristics of his generation, so that he himself is a real epitome of his people and his times. Pericles, in the golden age of Athens, was a leader of this |