Published online by Cambridge University Press: 08 November 2010
In 1884, a twenty-five-year-old Theodore Roosevelt attended the Republican National Convention in Chicago as a delegate-at-large from New York. There, he and his new friend, Massachusetts delegate Henry Cabot Lodge, backed George Edmunds of Vermont against their party's overwhelming choice, the “Plumed Knight,” James G. Blaine. Despite their energetic efforts, which received national attention, Blaine easily secured the nomination, and both Lodge and Roosevelt eventually backed the party's choice. For Lodge biographers, the Chicago convention represented Lodge's “personal Rubicon,” the “turning point” of his career, leading to “the greatest crisis of Lodge's political life.” Roosevelt historians also see the convention as “one of the crucial events of Theodore's life,” “the great and deciding moment of TR's life,” leading to “the most agonizing dilemma of his political career.” The usual story of the convention is that by backing Blaine against the wishes of other Independent Republicans, both Lodge and Roosevelt did great damage to their immediate careers by alienating their natural allies. This led to Lodge losing his race for Congress that same fall and to Roosevelt fleeing west to his Dakota ranch with his political future uncertain. Moreover, Roosevelt's decision is often depicted as the moment he became a professional politician. David McCullough writes that the convention “marked the point at which he chose—had to choose—whether to cross the line and become a party man, a professional politician,” while John Morton Blum asserts that by campaigning for Blaine, “Roosevelt declared not only for Blaine but also for professionalism.”
1 Garraty, John A., Henry Cabot Lodge: A Biography (New York, 1953), 78Google Scholar; Schriftgiesser, Karl, The Gentleman from Massachusetts: Henry Cabot Lodge (Boston, 1944), 78Google Scholar; , Garraty, Henry Cabot Lodge, 75Google Scholar.
2 McCullough, David, Mornings on Horseback: The Story of an Extraordinary Family, A Vanished Way of Life, and the Unique Child Who Became Theodore Roosevelt (New York, 1981), 310Google Scholar; Auchincloss, Louis, Theodore Roosevelt (New York, 2002), 19Google Scholar ; and Miller, Nathan, Theodore Roosevelt: A Life (New York, 1992), 160Google Scholar.
3 , McCullough, Mornings on Horseback, 313Google Scholar; and Blum, John Morton, The Republican Roosevelt (Cambridge, Mass., 1954), 11Google Scholar. John Milton Cooper believes that the criticism of the Mugwumps “hardened” both Lodge and Roosevelt “in their choice of party regularity and political professionalism.” Moreover, the events of the year “helped wean Roosevelt from any remaining tendencies toward lighthearted dilettantism.” Cooper, John Milton, The Warrior and the Priest (Cambridge, Mass., 1983), 30Google Scholar. See also Chessman, G. Wallace, Theodore Roosevelt and the Politics of Power (1969Google Scholar; Prospect Heights, III., 1994), 42; , Auchincloss, Theodore Roosevelt, 19Google Scholar; , Miller, Theodore Roosevelt, 160Google Scholar.
4 Theodore Roosevelt (TR) to Henry Cabot Lodge, May 5, 1884, Morison, Elting E., The Letters of Theodore Roosevelt, Volume I: The Years of Preparation, 1868-98 (Cambridge, Mass., 1951), 68Google Scholar.
5 In his three pages on the convention, Miller uses neither the Lodge Papers nor the biographies. Chessman uses Garraty but neither the Lodge Papers nor Schriftgiesser. Edmund Morris cites the Lodge Papers in his bibliography but not in his notes as a source used for his chapter on the convention, “The Delegate-At-Large.” , Morris, The Rise of Theodore Rooserelt (New York, 1979)Google Scholar. McCullough uses the Lodge Papers and Garraty. Blum dedicates only two pages to 1884, apparently relying solely on the Roosevelt correspondence. As for Lodge himself, Blum cites him only three times in his book. David Burton dedicates only a page to the convention, citing none of the Lodge sources. , Burton, Theodore Roosevelt (New York, 1972), 53–54Google Scholar. Kathleen Dalton uses the Lodge Papers well and asserts that Lodge acted as , Roosevelt's “father confessor.” , Dalton, Theodore Roosevelt: A Strenuous Life (New York, 2002), 92Google Scholar. For books written by acquaintances of Lodge upon his death in 1925 see Washburn, Charles G., Henry Cabot Lodge (Boston, 1925)Google Scholar; Groves, Charles S., Henry Cabot Lodge, The Statesman (Boston, 1925)Google Scholar; and Lawrence, William, Henry Cabot Lodge: A Biographical Sketch (Boston, 1925)Google Scholar.
6 On the factional divisions at the 1880 Chicago Republican Convention see Peskin, Allan, “Who Were the Stalwarts? Who Were Their Rivals? Republican Factions in the Gilded Age,” Political Science Quarterly 99 (Winter 1984-1985): 703–16CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Dobson, John M., Politics in the Gilded Age: A New Perspective on Reform (New York, 1972), 64–67Google Scholar.
7 Summers, Mark Wahlgren, Rum, Romanism, and Rebellion: The Making of a President, 1884 (Chapel Hill, 2000), 125Google Scholar.
8 As Dobson notes, Vermont was so completely loyal to the Republican party that a state machine was unnecessary. , Dobson, Politics in the Gilded Age, 96Google Scholar.
9 Lodge to George T. Newhall, March 22, 1880, quoted in , Garraty, Henry Cabot Lodge, 63Google Scholar.
10 , Garraty, Henry Cabot Lodge, 64Google Scholar.
11 Comment by Michigan congressman Stoughton, William T., quoted in Boston Herald, [June] 1880, Scrapbooks, Henry Cabot Lodge Papers, Massachusetts Historical SocietyGoogle Scholar; also in , Garraty, Henry Cabot Lodge, 66Google Scholar.
12 Samuel Brooks of the Springfield Republican wrote Lodge to wish him “success in managing the party machine and grace to bear the criticisms that the position inevitably involves. And I trust your service of the party may lead, in the near future, to a more important service of the people.” Brooks to Lodge, February 3, 1883, Lodge PapersGoogle Scholar.
13 , Garraty, Henry Cabot Lodge, 72–74Google Scholar.
14 , Garraty, Henry Cabot Lodge, 74Google Scholar.
15 Bright's disease featured prominently in 1884. Blaine was accused by his opponents of suffering from the disease, when in reality it was President Arthur who was dying from it, a fact not publicly known. , Summers, Rum, Romanism, and Rebellion, 4Google Scholar.
16 New York Times, March 26, 1883Google Scholar.
17 TR to William Thomas O'Neil, Novembe r 12, 1882, , Morison, The Letters of Theodore Roosevelt, 58Google Scholar.
18 TR to Jonas S. Van Duzer, November 20, 1883, ibid., 63.
19 Carleton Putnam speculates that Miller likely knew Roosevelt's position regarding Blaine and Arthur before Roosevelt made it public a month later. , Putnam, Theodore Roosevelt, Volume I: The Formative Years, 1858-86 (New York, 1958), 370Google Scholar.
20 Ibid., 373. In his Autobiography, Roosevelt noted that he was defeated for the speakership by “the bosses,” both , Stalwart and , Half-Breed: “Neither side cared for me.” Theodore Roosevelt: An Autobiography (1913; New York, 1985), 87Google Scholar.
21 The reputation of the incumbent Republican president, Chester A. Arthur, as a New York spoilsman and Conkling man hardly made him a possible choice for Independent Republicans. Moreover, in 1877 Arthur had featured prominently in an intra-party conflict involving Roosevelt's father. Theodore Roosevelt, Sr., had become a pawn in a power struggle between President Rutherford Hayes and Conkling's New York machine when Hayes named the elder Roosevelt to replace Arthur as Collector of the Customshouse for the Port of New York. Conkling attacked the nomination and used his position as chair of the Senate's Commerce Committee to have the Senate reject Roosevelt. This was seen as a victory for Conkling's machine over the forces of reform, and the elder Roosevelt died only two months later at age 46. Reeves, Thomas C., Gentleman Boss: The Life of Chester Alan Arthur (Newtown, Conn., 1975), 125–31Google Scholar; Hoogenboom, Ari, Rutherford ft. Hayes: Warrior and President (Lawrence, Kan., 1995), 352–55Google Scholar.
22 , Summers, Rum, Romanism, and Rebellion, 132Google Scholar.
23 , Morris, The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt, 255Google Scholar.
24 Hermann Hagedorn's interview with Isaac Hunt, Theodore Roosevelt Collection, Houghton Library, Harvard University (TRC). The other three Independent delegates-at-large were Andrew White, president of Cornell University, state senator John J. Gilbert, and millionaire Edwin Packard, a Brooklvn merchant.
25 TR to Simon Newton Dexter North, April 30, 1884, , Morison, The Letters of Theodore Roosevelt, 66Google Scholar.
26 New York Times, June 3, 1884Google Scholar.
27 In 1876 Roosevelt entered Harvard as an undergraduate while Lodge, almost eight years Roosevelt's senior, taught United States history, having received one of the first Harvard Ph.D.s. While Roosevelt never took Lodge's classes, they apparendy met on a couple of occasions at their common club, the Porcellian. Lodge, Henry Cabot, ed., Selections from the Correspondence of Theodore Roosevelt and Henry Cabot Lodge, 1884-1918, Vol. I (Boston, 1925), 25Google Scholar.
28 See TR to Lodge, November 7 and November 11, 1884, , Morison, The Letters of Theodore Roosevelt, 87, 88Google Scholar.
29 TR to Lodge, May 5, 1884, , Morison, The Letters of Theodore Roosevelt, 68Google Scholar.
30 Roosevelt corresponded with Louis Theodore Michener, who was secretary of the Indiana Republican State Committee, as well a political manager for Benjamin Harrison, a possible dark horse for 1884. In his comments to Michener Roosevelt implied he was in contact with delegates from Minnesota, Michigan and Wisconsin. He also told Lodge he had “written to the western Edmunds men.” TR to Michener, May 23, 1884, and TR to Lodge, May 25, 1884, , Morison, The Letters of Theodore Roosevelt, 69–70Google Scholar.
31 Lodge Diaries, March 20, 1885, Lodge Papers.
32 See , Garraty, Henry Cabot Lodge, 16–21Google Scholar. In 1876 Lodge had written to his mother, “I have decided to make my fight inside the party because I can do more there than by going outside.” Compare this with Roosevelt's statement of 1884, “A man cannot act both without and within the party; he can do either, but he cannot possibly do both.” Boston Herald, July 19, 1884Google Scholar , quoted in , McCullough, Mornings on Horseback, 314–15Google Scholar. In 1892 Lodge addressed Harvard students on “Party Allegiance,” saying, “By combination and organization with other men with whom, in a general way, you are in agreement, you can at least obtain some results, when by yourself you would be simply beating your head against the wall and not getting any results.” , Lodge, Historical and Political Essays (Boston, 1892), 207Google Scholar.
33 Although Roosevelt told the Chicago Tribune that he would support the eventual nominee of the party, this statement was overshadowed by Lodge and Roosevelt's actions at the convention. , McCullough, Mornings on Horseback, 294Google Scholar. This is evidenced by the feeling of extreme betrayal by Lodge's Massachusetts Mugwump friends. Lodge would later assert that he and Roosevelt had told E. L. Godkin, Mugwump editor of New York Evening Post, the same thing before the convention, although this story is disputed. See , Lodge, Selections, 11–12Google Scholar.
34 New York Times, June 3, 1884Google Scholar.
35 By 1884 Platt had split with Conkling after their joint “senatorial suicide” in 1881Google Scholar , when Platt and Conkling resigned their seats to protest President Garfield's failure to consult with Conkling on the choice for the New York Customs Collectorship. See Alexander, DeAlva Stanwood, Four Famous New Yorkers: The Political Careers of Cleveland, Platt, Hill, and Roosevelt (New York, 1923)Google Scholar; and Gosnell, Harold F., Boss Platt and His New York Machine: A Study of the Political Leadership of Thomas C. Platt, Theodore Roosevelt and Others (Chicago, 1924)Google Scholar.
36 , McCullough, Mornings on Horseback, 295Google Scholar.
37 For accounts of the convention see Report of the National Executive Committee of Republicans and Independents. Presidential Campaign of 1884 (New York, 1885)Google Scholar; Boyd, T.B., The Blaine and Logan Campaign of 1884 (Chicago, 1884)Google Scholar; Ramsdell, H. J., Life and Public Service of Hon. James Blaine (Philadelphia, 1884)Google Scholar; and esp. Republican National Committee, Proceedings of the Eighth Republican National Convention (Chicago, 1884)Google Scholar. Matlin, James C., “Roosevelt and the Elections of 1884 and 1888,” Mississippi Valley Historical Review 4 (June 1927): 25–38CrossRefGoogle Scholar, does not address the convention itself.
38 Protesting Lodge's nominating of Lynch, a California delegate called the tradition of the National Committee naming the temporary , chairman “common law.” Proceedings of the Eighth Republican National Convention, 7Google Scholar.
39 TR to Anna Roosevelt, June 8, 1884, TRC.
40 Lodge Diaries, March 20, 1885, Lodge Papers.
41 While one can speculate as to the significance of Roosevelt supporting a black man for this position, given his later invitation of Booker T. Washington t o the White House and his concern over securing die black Republican vote in the South, the backing of Lynch for temporary chair was probably a mere political expedient. See Dyer, Thomas, Theodore Roosevelt and the Idea of Race (Baton Rouge, La., 1980), 96–97Google Scholar.
42 New York Times, June 4, 1884Google Scholar. For accounts of the speech see , Morris, The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt, 264Google Scholar, and , McCullough, Mornings on Horseback, 300Google Scholar. Fellow New York delegate and Cornell University president Andrew D. White later called the speech “very courageous” and remembered that the galleries attempted to “howl down” Roosevelt: “As he stood upon a bench and addressed the president, there came from the galleries on all sides a howl and yell, ‘Sit down! Sit down!’ with whisding and cat-calls.” , White, The Autobiography of Andrew Dickson White, Vol. I (New York, 1905), 205Google Scholar.
43 Putnam, 435.
44 New York Times, June 4, 1884Google Scholar.
45 New York World and Daily Tribune, June 4, 1884Google Scholar, quoted in , Putnam, Theodore Roosevelt, 435Google Scholar. Summers actually refers to Whitelaw Reid, the Tribune's editor, as the Blaine campaign's “most conspicuous cheerleader.” , Summers, Rum, Romanism, and Rebellion, 130Google Scholar.
46 Neiv York Times, June 4, 1884Google Scholar.
47 Proceedings of the Eighth Republican National Convention, 7.
48 New York Times, June 5, 1884Google Scholar. See also , McCullough, Mornings on Horseback, 301Google Scholar.
49 New York Times, June 5, 1884Google Scholar.
50 Just before the convention Massachusetts Senator George Hoar wrote Lodge expressing his hope that the delegates would not be “stampeded or forced to choose between two evils,” in order that a dark horse might be nominated. Hoar to Lodge, May 13, 1884, Lodge Papers.
51 TR to Anna Roosevelt, June 8, 1884, TRC; also in , Morison, The Letters of Theodore Roosevelt, 71Google Scholar.
52 For Independents like Lodge and Roosevelt, backing Conkling's one-time lieutenant Arthur was hardly considered as a means of defeating Blaine. In May Roosevelt had written Lodge to make sure the Massachusetts men did not back Arthur out of fear of Blaine. “Arthur is the very weakest candidate we could nominate,” Roosevelt wrote, noting that Arthur could not carry New York, Ohio, or Indiana. “He would be beaten out of sight Now, in trying to avoid the Blaine devil, don't take a premature leap into the Arthur deep sea; I think we can keep clear of both; if we go to either we are lost.” TR to Lodge, 26 May 1884, , Morison, The Letters of Theodore Roosevelt, 70Google Scholar. The Arthur men sought a last-minute alliance to defeat Blaine, but the “stubbornly idealistic Independents” refused. As John Dobson notes, “The essential weakness of a moralistic group in politics is that it cannot compromise its principles even when doomed to defeat.” , Dobson, Politics in the Glided Age, 106Google Scholar.
53 Hunt to Hagedorn, Harvard Club Transcripts, TRC.
54 Proceedings of the Eighth Republican National Convention, 1884, 151–56Google Scholar; and Putnam, Theodore Roosevelt, 443.
55 Washington Post, June 8, 1884Google Scholar.
56 New York Daily Tribune, June 7, 1884Google Scholar, Roosevelt Scrapbooks, TRC.
57 New York Daily Tribune, June 9, 1884Google Scholar, Roosevelt Scrapbooks, TRC.
58 , McCullough, Mornings on Horseback, 307Google Scholar.
59 , Morison, The Letters of Theodore Roosevelt, 72–73, footnote 2Google Scholar.
60 While packing to leave Chicago Lodge had told a Boston Advertiser reporter, “Blaine is obnoxious t o our people, but I shall give him my support.” , Schriftgiesser, The Gentlemanfrom Massachusetts, 83–84Google Scholar.
61 TR to Lodge, June 17, 1884, , Morison, The Letters of Theodore Roosevelt, 72–73Google Scholar; TR to Anna Roosevelt, Jun e 17, 1884, TRC; also in , Morison, The Letters of Theodore Roosevelt, 73–74Google Scholar.
62 New York Evening Post, June 12, 1884Google Scholar, Roosevelt Scrapbooks, TRC.
63 TR to Lodge, June 17, 1884, The Letters of Theodore Roosevelt, 73.
64 TR to Lodge, August 12, 1884, The Letters of Theodore Roosevelt, 11.
65 , Dobson, Politics in the Gilded Age, 108–09Google Scholar.
66 , Dobson, Politics in the Gilded Age, 116–17Google Scholar. See also Gerald W McFarland, “The New York Mugwumps of 1884: A Profile,” and Gordon Wood, S., “The Massachusetts Mugwumps” in Moralists or Pragmatists? The Mugwumps, 1884-1900, ed. McFarland, Gerald W. (New York, 1975), 62–80 and 82-99Google Scholar; and McFarland, Gerald W., Mugwumps, Morals, and Politics, 1884-1920 (Amherst, 1975), esp. chapter 2Google Scholar, “Two Gilded Age Portraits: Bolters and Blaine Men,” 11-34, and chapter 3, “The Mugwump Ethic and the 1884 Election,” 35-54.
67 , Dobson, Politics in the Gilded Age, 111Google Scholar. Owen Wister overheard old Henry Lee remark to Roosevelt's former father-in-law George Cabot Lee, “As for Cabot Lodge, nobody's surprised at him; but you can tell that young whippersnapper in New York from me that his independence was the only thing in him we cared for, and if he has gone back on that, we don't care to hear anything more about him.” Wister, Owen, Roosevelt: The Story of a Friendship (New York, 1930), 26Google Scholar.
68 , Garraty, Henry Cahot Lodge, 79Google Scholar.
69 , Dobson, Politics in the Gilded Age, 110, 119Google Scholar.
70 Schurz to Lodge, July 12, 1884; Lodge to Schurz, July 14, 1884; and Schurz to Lodge, July 16, 1884, Lodge Papers. Also in Bancroft, Frederic, ed., Speeches, Correspondence and Political Papers of Carl Schurz Vol. IV (New York, 1913), 215–22Google Scholar. See also Fuess, Claude Moore, “Carl Schurz, Henry Cabot Lodge, and the Campaign of 1884: A Study in Temperament and Political Philosophy,” The New EnglandQuarterly 5 (1932): 453–82CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
71 TR to [?] Scott, June 27, 1884, copy made by Anna Roosevelt, TRC. In his Autobiography, Roosevelt said, “Mr. Blaine was clearly the choice of the rank and file of the party; his nomination was won in a fair and aboveboard fashion, because the rank and file of the party stood back of him; and I supported him to the best of my ability in the ensuing campaign.” , Roosevelt, Autobiography, 88Google Scholar.
72 Lodge to Carl Schurz, July 14, 1884, Lodge Papers.
73 Lodge Diary, March 20, 1885, Lodge Papers.
74 Hunt to Hagedorn, Harvard Club Transcripts, TRC.
75 While Roosevelt was never the object of scorn in New York as Lodge was in Massachusetts, he nevertheless broke with friends over his backing of Blaine. William Roscoe Thayer would later write that he was “dumbfounded” by Roosevelt's declaration for Blaine. , Thayer, Theodore Roosevelt: An Intimate Biography (Boston, 1919), 52Google Scholar. See also TR to [?] Scott, June 27, 1884, TRC: “I was well aware that I would lose the confidence and friendship of many of those for whose confidence and friendship I cared.”
76 TR to Lodge, Jun e 18, 1884, , Morison, The Letters of Theodore Roosevelt, 74–75Google Scholar.
77 See , Garraty, Henry Cabot Lodge, 79–84Google Scholar.
78 TR t o Lodge, August 12,1884, , Morison, The Letters of Theodore Roosevelt, 76Google Scholar.
79 , Wister, Roosevelt, 27Google Scholar.
80 See Harmond, Richard Peter, “Tradition and Change in the Gilded Age: A Political History of Massachusetts, 1878-1893” (Ph.D. diss., Columbia University, 1966)Google Scholar. Harmond writes that Lodge was targeted by Mugwumps for his “political apostasy” and that even in 1890 the Mugwumps arranged for Lodge to be defeated for re-election as an Overseer for Harvard College. , Harmond, “Tradition and Change in the Gilded Age,” 149Google Scholar.
81 , Garraty, Henry Cabot Lodge, 85Google Scholar.
82 TR to Lodge, August 24, 1884, , Morison, The Utters of Theodore Roosevelt, 80Google Scholar.
83 TR to William Warland Clapp, editor of the Boston journal, October 20, 1884Google Scholar , Morison, The Letters of Theodore Roosevelt, 83Google Scholar. Horace White wrote a letter to the New York Times relatthe Independents should support any decent Democrat over Blaine. Roosevelt did not deny his words but only said they were made in “private conversation” while he was still “savagely indignant at our defeat, and heated and excited with the sharpness of the struggle.” Indeed, this seems much like his explanation for the St. Paul interview.
84 See Roosevelt's Massachusetts speeches reprinted in , Lodge, Selections, 12–25Google Scholar. In an interesting footnote, Morris quotes historian John Gable who recognizes that Roosevelt campaigned for the party rather for the nominee. , Morris, The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt, 791, 88nGoogle Scholar.
85 Boston Daily Advertiser, October 21, 1884Google Scholar , in , Lodge, Selections, 15Google Scholar.
86 When Roosevelt was quoted as saying that Blaine was nominated “against the wishes of all wise and honorable men,” he told a crowd at Winchester that he had said “just the reverse; so that the statement is lacking in the important detail of being true.” Boston Daily Advertiser, October 29, 1884Google Scholar , in , Lodge, Selections, 21Google Scholar.
87 Roosevelt's August 14, 1884, letter to Walter S. Hubbell, concerning Cleveland's reforming shortcomings as governor of New York while Roosevelt was in the Assembly, became “Campaign of 1884, Tract No. 14: Grover Cleveland's Reform Record,” Harvard College Library, TRC.
88 , Dobson, Politics in the Gilded Age, 161–62Google Scholar.
89 “If the Independents had not revolted, Cleveland would not have won.” , Dobson, Politics in the Gilded Age, 162Google Scholar.
90 In a recount, 231 of the pre-printed Republican ballots were cast for someone other than Lodge, or left blank. Cox, Alfred E. to , Lodge, November 13, 1884, Lodge PapersGoogle Scholar.
91 “Mr. Theodore Roosevelt is fast getting rid of the remarkable reputation—remarkable for so young a man—which he acquired by two years of hard and useful work in Albany. In fact, we have rarely known any one to get rid of so much in so short a time, for he only began to unload in July last….Those who defeated his friend and prototype, Mr. Cabot Lodge, he distincdy pronounces not ‘conscientious.’ This is all very sad as well as ludicrous…” Evening Post, November 18, 1884Google Scholar, Scrapbook: June 3, 1884-May 12, 1891, TRC.
92 , Garraty, Henry Cabot Lodge, 83Google Scholar. Garraty also notes that few professional Republican politicians bolted in 1884. See also , Dobson, Politics in the Gilded Age, 110–11Google Scholar.
93 TR to Anna Roosevelt, June 8, 1884, , Morison, The Letters of Theodore Roosevelt, 71Google Scholar.
94 New York Times, June 5, 1884Google Scholar.
95 , Morris, The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt, 292Google Scholar.
96 TR to Lodge, November 11, 1884, , Morison, The Letters of Theodore Roosevelt, 132Google Scholar.
97 TR to Lodge, March 8 and May 15,1885, , Morison, The Letters of Theodore Roosevelt, 89–91Google Scholar.
98 TR to Walter Sage Hubbell, June 8, 1885, , Morison, The Utters of Theodore Roosevelt, 91Google Scholar.
99 TR to Lodge, October 7, 1885, , Morison, The Letters of Theodore Roosevelt, 92Google Scholar.
100 After Lodge's loss in November 1884, Roosevelt had written to him that the Republican party in Massachusetts “will feel thoroughly that it owes its success in the immediate past more to you than to any other one man, and that you have sacrificed yourself to save it.” During his doomed mayoral bid in 1886, Roosevelt compared himself to Curtius, the Roman youth who, according to myth, sacrificed himself to save Rome. “The simple fact is that I had to play Curtius and leap into the gulf that was yawning before the Republican party; had the chances been better I would probably not have been asked.” TR to Lodge, November 11, 1884, and TR to Frances Theodora Smith Dana, October 21, 1886, , Morison, The Letters of Theodore Roosevelt, 88 and 113Google Scholar.
101 TR to Lodge, November 1, 1886, , Morison, The Letters of Theodore Roosevelt, 115Google Scholar.
102 Blaine wrote: “Do you happen to know a young gentleman—gentleman strongly accented—not over forty—five, well-educated, speaking French well, preferably German also (with an accomplished wife thoroughly accustomed to society) and able to spend ten to fifteen thousand-twenty1 still better, beyond the salary he might receive?” This seemed an apt description of the wealthy, multilingual Roosevelt, who had married Edith Carow in 1886. , Garraty, Henry Cabot Lodge, 103–04Google Scholar.
103 White, Richard D. Jr, Reosevelt the Reformer: Theodore Roosevelt as Civil Service Commissioner, 1889-1895 (Tuscaloosa, Ala, 2003), 10Google Scholar.
104 TR to Lodge, March 25, 1889, , Morison, The Letters of Theodore Roosevelt, 154Google Scholar; , Garraty, Henry Cabot Lodge, 104Google Scholar.
105 , White, Roosevelt the Reformer, 11Google Scholar. See also Socolofsky, Homer E. and Spetter, Allan B., The Presidency of Benjamin Harrison (Lawrence, Kan, 1987), 40Google Scholar.
106 , Dobson, Politics in the Gilded Age, 186Google Scholar. Actually this is a point Dobson makes repeatedly; see also his 184-85, 188, and 190.
107 , Chessman, Theodore Roosevelt and the Politics of Power, 42Google Scholar.