Page images
PDF
EPUB

expert opinion of the military nations of the earth, re-inforced our Regular army and doubled its strength, by their very existence and availability. There could be twenty-five regiments of such men put into the field, if we had a sudden call to arms. Some months ago the President of France had forty thousand French cavalry gallop before the Czar. There was a deep roar as if an earthquake thundered by, and it was indeed a stirring spectacle. Fancy twenty thousand Rough Riders from the plains at full speed on the stage of prairies. framed in mountains worthy the mighty pageantry of "war's magnificently stern array," men and horses that would surpass the Arabs and their chargers. The long range rifle has interfered with the tactics of the "shock" of cavalry; but this the Rough Rider would understand to be like the rush of a column of myriads of buffalo, whose onset was that of a cyclone, and given such a mass of fiery valor, rolling, monstrous-where is the foe that could stand before us?

Roosevelt's men in the advance, under the fire of invisible riflemen, knew that the way to do business was to go into the fire, and their Colonel was there where the Mauser bullets were chirruping like a swarm of crickets.

The battle won, the Spanish forces captured, two fleets and two armies of Spain sunk and surrendered, the next thing was that our braves should be saved from the pestilence; and Roosevelt appeared again as a leader, and the army was rescued from the fever and the awaiting hospitable graves.

The same energy that flung the troops into Cuba and won there, did not hold the army in the plague-stricken village and hideous jungles, or make the vain attempt to move them from place to place in Cuba, for each march would have been a procession of death. The return movement from Santiago to Montauk, was done by strategy, commendable as that which landed a force able to do the work cut out for it near Santiago. It was a picturesque country, into which the fortunes of war had thrown our troops. There is no brighter, better picture of Cuba than President Roosevelt has drawn in these glowing words:

"The surroundings of the city of Santiago are very grand. The circling mountains rise sheer and high. The plains are threaded by rapid winding brooks and are dotted here and there with quaint villages, curiously picturesque from their combining traces of an outworn old-world civilization with new and raw barbarism. The tall, graceful, feathery bamboos rise by the water's edge and elsewhere, even on the mountain-crests, where the soil is wet and rank enough; and the splendid royal palms and cocoanut palms tower high above the matted green jungle. Generally the thunder-storms came in the afternoon, but once I saw one at sunrise, driving from the high mountain valleys toward us. It was a very beautiful and almost terrible sight; for the sun rose behind the storm, and shone through the gusty rifts, lighting the mountain-crests here

and there, while the plain below lay shrouded in the lingering light. The angry, level rays edged the dark clouds with crimson, and turned the down-pour into sheets of golden rain; in the valleys the glimmering mists were tinted every wild hue; and the remotest heavens were lit with flaming glory. One day General Lawton, General Wood and I, with Ferguson and poor Tiffany, went down the bay to visit Morro Castle. The shores were beautiful, especially where there were groves of palms and of the scarlet-flower tree, and the castle itself, on a jutting headland overlooking the sea and guarding the deep, narrow entrance to the bay, showed just what it was, the splendid relic of a vanished power and a vanished age. We wandered all through it, among the castellated battlements, and in the dungeons, where we found hideous rusty implements of torture, and looked at the guns, some modern and some very old. It had been little hurt by the bombardment of the ships. Afterward I had a swim, not trusting much to the shark stories."

When Colonel Roosevelt returned home from the war, of course, the war was over. No one had been lost by the change of air, water, food and faces, and thousands saved. The people were warm in their welcome, and he was soon in great request for the office of Governor, and presently it was seen by those opposed that they must take the rising man or sink themselves. He made a striking campaign and was inaugurated Governor without being mortgaged. His administration of the Gubernatorial office was stirring, and he did not attempt the impossible task of pleasing everybody. He was himself at his best as Governor, and his record is one that will command respect in proportion as it is read. The best history of his public principles, and evidence of the vigor of his understanding and the processes of his mind, are in the volumes of his Public Papers. He left the office of Governor, as other positions which he occupied and outgrew in their turn, not because he had no more to do there, but because he was wanted to go up higher, where he could do more. He was nominated for the Vice-Presidency, and there was great interest in his part in the campaign. He made two wide, sweeping Western tours, having an earlyin-the-summer engagement to meet his old friends of the Southwest at Oklahoma. July 6th, he was at Canton, Ohio, and had a conference with President McKinley, having met Senator Hanna in Cleveland. He said to a reporter about his interview with Mr. Hanna: "I have been conferring with the Senator about the itinerary that we shall follow out this fall. It has been determined that, if possible, I shall visit all the Rocky Mountain States."

It was made known by the newspaper correspondents that on the Oklahoma excursion the Westerners received New York's Governor with open arms and vivid demonstrations of their admiration. The Western trip of Governor Roosevelt had many instructive aspects and nowhere was he more enthusiastically received and energetically applauded than in Oklahoma City. The

Governors of Kansas and of Oklahoma met him on the train some distance east of the city, and escorted him there. The centre of interest was reached just a few minutes before 12 o'clock Monday night, and the reception at the station was a rousing one. The Westerners shouted out their sentiments of welcome and good cheer in phrases in which they did not study to be polite so much as to be hearty and to the point, and the hero of the occasion was equal to it. After making a short speech at the station, the Governor was escorted to the Lee Hotel, headquarters of those who had his reception in charge. His body guard consisted of a big troop of Rough Riders and cow punchers, and they "whooped it up to beat the band," as they termed it. At the hotel another reception was held, where the Governor was introduced to many. On Tuesday morning he was up early and led the parade, astride a jet black stallion. All along the line of march he was cheered most heartily by the throngs which lined the streets. Returning to his car for luncheon, the Governor drove with his escort of Rough Riders to the fair grounds, where an exhibition of Wild West sports was given. The Governor took a keen interest in the sports, and the accurate technical knowledge of them all which he displayed, as well as the deep interest he evidently took in them, endeared him more than ever to the people, who, when he left them on Tuesday night by train for St. Joe, were exceedingly loath to lose him. They told him he was in many ways all right to be Vice-President. He returned home by way of Chicago and Indianapolis. This dispatch was sent from the capital of Indiana: "Indianapolis, July 7. It was as Chairman of the National Civil Service Commission that Theodore Roosevelt first became known to the people of this city. When Mr. Harrison was inducted into the Presidential office, he made Roosevelt a member of the Commission, and his colleagues selected him for Chairman."

July 12th it was announced President McKinley would not make speeches during the campaign, and there was increased interest in what the candidate ior Vice-President would do.

July 13 Governor Roosevelt was at home, and officially notified of his nomination for Vice-President. The Governor received the news on the porch of his house, while standing upon the spot where he stood two years before, when he learned that he had been nominated for the chief executive office of the State. Senator Wolcott was Chairman of the Committee of Notification. The formalities were few. The speech of the Chairman was relieved of perfunctory flavor by the wit and cleverness of the speaker, who maintained the conversationali tone. There was real business and a pleasant humor that brightened the few minutes he spoke, saying:

"Governor Roosevelt: The pleasant duty has devolved upon this committee, appointed by the National Republican Convention and representing every State in the Union, to make known to you officially the action of the Conven

tion, and to hand to you a copy of the platform it adopted, which embodies the principles of the party. The representatives of the Republican party, in convention assembled, unanimously and spontaneously selected you as the candidate of the party at the next election for the high and dignified office of VicePresident of the United States. You were so selected and named through no wish of your own, but because the Convention believed that you, among all the Republicans in the land, were best fitted and adapted to be the associate of our President in the important and stirring campaign upon which we were entering. The Convention realized that you were needed in the great Empire State, whose Executive you now are, and whose people would delight still further to honor you, but it believed that your path of duty lay for the future in the field of National usefulness. You are still a young man, as years are counted; but the country knows more of you than of the most of its citizens. You were identified, and will ever be associated, with those efforts toward reform in the Civil Service which command the approval of intelligent men of all political parties. Your stirring love of adventure has made you a more familiar figure in Western camps and on Western plains than on the avenues of your native city. Your sterling Americanism has led you to the mastery of our earlier history, and you have told us of the winning of the West with a charm and a spirit that have made us all better lovers of our country; while your tales of Western hunting and adventure have filled the breast of every lad in the land with envy and emulation; and whatever doubts may have existed in the past, now that you are our candidate, they will be true, or believed to be true, by every good Republican. There is no man whose privilege it was to know you and to associate with you while you were Assistant Secretary of the Navy under President McKinley's appointment, who is not eager to testify to the great ability and fidelity which characterized your incumbency of that office. Of your service to our country during the late war with Spain, it is not necessary for me to speak. Your name will be ever identified with the heroic achievements of our Army, and your warmest friends and most devoted admirers are the gallant band of Rough Riders whom you led to victory. This bright and glorious record, however, did not lead that great Convention at Philadelphia to insist upon you as its candidate, although it fills with pride the heart of every true American. The Republican party has chosen you because, from your earliest manhood until to-day, in whatever post you have been called upon to fill, and notably during your two years of splendid service as Chief Executive of the State of New York, you have everywhere and at all times stood for that which was clean and uplifting, and against everything that was sordid and base. You have shown the people of this country that a political career and good citizenship could go hand in hand, and that devotion to the public welfare was consistent with party membership

and party organization. There is not a young man in these United States who has not found in your life and influence an incentive to better things and higher ideals. With President McKinley you will lead our ticket to victory; for you have both been tested, and in your honor, your patriotism, and your civic virtues, the American people have pride and confidence."

Senator Wolcott's address and the candidate's reply of acceptance were of like brevity, and did not dwell upon party questions or matters political. The ceremony occupied less than fifteen minutes. In accepting the nomination, the Governor said:

"Mr. Chairman: I accept the honor conferred upon me, with the keenest and deepest appreciation of what it means, and above all, of the responsibility that goes with it. Everything that it is in my power to do will be done to secure the re-election of President McKinley, to whom it has been given in this crisis of the National history to stand for and embody the principles which lie closest to the heart of every American worthy of the name. This is much more than a mere party contest. We stand at the parting of the ways, and the people have now to decide whether they shall go forward along the path of prosperity and high honor abroad or whether they will turn their backs upon what has been done during the last three years and a quarter; whether they will plunge this country into an abyss of misery, or, what is worse than even misery and disaster, of shame."

As Governor Roosevelt ended his speech he was loudly applauded, and while bowing his acknowledgments, he recollected that he had something else to say. "Here, 'Ned!" he cried to Senator Wolcott, as he held up his hand for silence, "I want to say one word more. It is not to the National Committee, but to my friends-friends of my own State, who are here. I want to say to them how I appreciate seeing so many of them here to-day. I want to say I am more than honored and pleased at having been made a candidate for VicePresident on the National ticket, but you can not imagine how badly I feel at leaving the men with whom I have endeavored and worked for civic decency and righteousness and honesty in New York,"

The next appearance of Governor Roosevelt was at St. Paul, Minnesota, July 18th, 1900. The Governor was greeted with heartfelt enthusiasm by Republican clubs. His speech set forth the fallacies of the Democratic platform; anti-expansion a purely Chinese policy. We quote:

"St. Paul, Minn., July 17. Prominent Republican leaders from all over the country filled the spacious Auditorium to-day, and signaled the opening of the twelfth National Convention of the League of Republican Clubs by giving free vent to Republican sentiments and Republican enthusiasm. The fact that it is a Presidential year has served to attract large delegations from nearly every State and Territory of the Union, and the attendance is the largest in the his

« PreviousContinue »