It Is an Agency That Serves to Make the People a Harmonious Nation-It Binds the Union to Make the Nation a Neighborhood of States - Roosevelt's Campaign- ing in New York and the West-Bryan's Competition - Roosevelt Fights to the From the Source of the Hudson to the Niagara River-How Roosevelt Came to be on Mount Marcy When McKinley Died - Delay of Information and Rush from the Adirondacks to Lake Erie-The Splendid Story of the Ride. The Twenty-Fifth President and His Predecessor's Policy - The Vice-President Suc- ceeds to the Presidency - Roosevelt's Tributes to McKinley-The Message to Auspicious Conditions at His Succession-Distinction from Vice-Presidents Gone Before Conservatism, Not Revolution-British Study of the Senate, with an Erroneous Theory-The Senate Has Ratified an Isthmian Treaty with England – Roosevelt Strong for Peace because His Word Stands - His Admirable Deport- It Is the Bequest of Slavery― Roosevelt a President without Prejudice — Phases of Racial Problem- The President's Oration on Frederick Douglass-Shall We His Rapid and Rugged Style-Goes Right at His Work-Makes Frontal Attacks- Precedents of Public Policy as Governor of New York Have Application to All the States - Secretary Long's Appreciation-Square Dealings with the People, Poor and Rich-There Is No Safety in Hiding or Running-The Final Respon- sibility for Reciprocity - Our Cuban Policy and the President's Ambition and A Paper That Would Alone Give Its Author a Foremost Place among Public Men- One That Has Seldom Been Equaled, and Never Surpassed, in the Information It Contains, and the Ability with Which It Is Stated-The Courage of Convic- tion-The Wealth of Suggestion and Recommendation, and the Brilliancy of Lit- Preservation and Restoration of Forests-Irrigation of Arid Lands, the Desert Can- cer Cure - More Good Land for the People at Home-The President's Books on the West - His Western Politics-Secretary of the Treasury Lives West of the Lieutenant-General Miles Imparts Information and Is Rebuked-What the Secre- taries of War and Navy Had to Say-Admiral Dewey Did Not Tell All He Meant-The President on Dangerous Obedience to Orders - His Two-Year-Old Opinion Was Sampson Was in Command-There Is a Shake Up-A "Histo- rian" Ordered Not to Labor Any More, Pleads He Is of the Civil Service Class, but Is Put out - Melancholy Illness of Admiral Sampson-The Origin of the The Senate and Cabinet as Factors-Is a Senator a Boss, or a Secretary a Clerk? — Anarchists Criticize Roosevelt - How to Make Them Harmless-Strength of Roosevelt's Position-His Denunciation of Dynamiters - His Methods of Politics Holds Friendship of the Disappointed - Some Sorrows of the Old Guard- Presidential Courtesies and International Affairs - This Influence in Other Days- Germany and England Our Friends-Prince Henry of Prussia-His Visit and PUBLISHERS' PREFACE. IT T is a pleasure to say the author of this book has found the material for it of extraordinary interest. The President's ancestors may be traced in events for many generations. Their records are of authenticity, and their reputations, honorable. There is ample information of the families of Theodore Roosevelt's father and mother. On both sides they appear in public affairs with distinction, with a spirit of adventure and of generosity, in works of charity, and enterprises of integrity and usefulness. The sources of information consulted and quoted, yield history at every step of investigation, and the first surprise is that with less than twenty-five years of manhood, the President has done so much, and that his good labors are so many and varied. His work as an Assemblymen in New York, was greater than that of any man of like years and opportunities. He earned his winnings in every field. It is but twenty-five years ago that his courage and ability gave him rare prominence in state legislation and national politics; and before he sought the Wild West as a new world, he was a man of reputation, broad as the country, and biographical material appears in public records— those of the Assembly and of Conventions-an attempt to grasp the municipal government of the City of New York, that failed because his competitors for the Mayoralty were Abram Hewitt and Henry George. He had hardly reached manhood, when he was a competent writer of history, and he is to-day the most reliable of the historians of our wars with England, of the early celebrities of the City of New York, and of the Winning of the West, a work that would make him famous if he had done nothing else conspicuous. He told the world how the Great West became the heart of our country. His education in public trusts was in the Civil Service Commission of the Nation and the Police Commission of New York. No more difficult tasks could have been selected, and while his success was imperfect, his impressions upon the situations were those of marked improvement, indelible and indestructible. He became an enthusiastic toiler in the Navy, and his works there were excellent and most apt. He put the fighting edge on the American warships. Then came his war service in the Army, with an element of power that he chiefly discovered or invented and exclusively applied. His reports, letters, testimony before boards, would crowd many volumes with matter of value, before the great office of Governor of New York was placed in his hands, and his personal record in that position is told in his volumes of public papers, one for each year he held the high office. The history of the country will not be written again without many references to those admirable books and liberal quotations from them. His speeches and orations as Vice President, and his twenty-two thousand mile journey through twenty-two States, appealing to the people wherever the combat thickened in 1900, closed with the vindication of New York through the courage and power of the Governor of the State, and her contribution to a national victory. Through this immensity of public care and political experience, Mr. Roosevelt was an unwearied workingman in literature. There are twenty volumes to his credit, all making known our country to our countrymen, not only the great game animals of America introduced to Americans, but appreciation of our resources made known to the world, and a higher intelligence of them familiar to the people at large. The light of the lamps that reveal the experiences of the past, will guide us aright in tracing the footsteps and following the example of the President in the future. THE PUBLISHERS. |