At a meeting to discuss the Panama Canal, Roosevelt asked the Cabinet about the legality of his actions, which were under attack in Congress. “No, Mr. President, if I were you I would not have any taint of legality about it,” replied Attorney General Knox. Roosevelt exclaimed, “Have I answered the charges? Have I defended myself?” Secretary of War Elihu Root settled the matter with, “You certainly have, Mr. President. You have shown that you were accused of seduction and you have conclusively proved that you were guilty of rape”I don’t recall offhand the source, but a quick check finds it described in “T. R.: The Last Romantic,” by H. W. Brands, pg. 488. I think Henry Pringle first dug it up, but I’m not sure.
Oh, I mispoke with this: many of Debs' closest advisers helped prepare the Bull Moose platform.
That’s called typing before thinking. The socialist who helped TR was Bruere (can’t remember first name), and he helped edit Roosevelt’s Bull Moose nomination acceptance speech, not the platform. In public, Debs credited himself for the Progressive plank. Word of the Bruere assistance to Roosevelt upset not the Progressives but the socialists who called Bruere a traitor.
Yep, Taft took only a few thousand votes in CA, and Debs some 80,000. That says more about California than Taft (he, he). Hiram Johnson had that state wrapped up. Interestingly, Debs scored 50,000 votes in Oklahoma, almost as many as Taft. I don’t know OK politics, although it was Democratic then (home of the “blind Senator” Gore – who was also corrupt; maybe he figured he couldn’t be accused of things he couldn’t see...). Btw, my list has Taft taking almost 5,000 in AZ, which had a far lower vote total than CA. They hated Taft in AZ because he vetoed the first constitution which had judicial recall in it. Taft said he wrote his heart into that veto.
1912 was a wild year. My next work will be a closer study of it. Can’t wait to start, which means finishing this other one first.
Again, thanks, and I hope I’ve at least got you thinking about TR and the judiciary.
PS Indeed, Roosevelt's "strenuosity" paid off in Oct/1912. His doctor said his huge chest muscles saved his life and that he'd never seen such a strong man.
There was a Robert Bruere who wrote for the New York Post and Harpers back then, covering the I.W.W. and labour movement, and, in particular, the forced relocation of immigrant and Wobbly-inclined miners from the Phelps Dodge copper mines around Bisbee, Arizona to Columbus, New Mexico during WWI. It might have been the same literary light, or perhaps a relative. But possibly that osometime New Yorker could have had connections to T.R. dating back to Roosevelt's time in New York as Police Commissioner.
Afraid I'm better acquainted with the material from the New York Sun in those and later days...
1912 was a wild year...
I'm sure those sailing from Liverpool aboard the Titanic would agree, and Wilbur wright certainly found at least one event that year to be a personal milestone....
Thanks and I hope I've got you thinking about T.R. and the judiciary.
I took the canal zone and let congress debate, and while the debate goes on, the canal does also.
--T.R., at Berkeley, California, 23 March,1911.
Be honest, and remember that honesty counts for nothing unless back of it lie courage and efficiency.
--T.R., The Groton School; 24 May 1904>
A vote is like a rifle; its usefulness depends upon the character of its user.
--T.R.; autobiography