A REPUBLICAN STILL

vantages separately. I went in with my eyes open to do what I could within the party; I did my best and got beaten, and I propose to stand by the result. It is impossible to combine the functions of a guerrilla chief with those of a colonel in the regular army; one has greater independence of action, the other is able to make what action he does take vastly more effective. In certain contingencies the one can do most good, in certain contingencies the other; but there is no use in accepting a commission and then trying to play the game out on a lone hand. During the entire canvass for the nomination Mr. Blaine received but two checks. had a hand in both, and I could have had a hand in neither had not those Republicans who elected me the head of the New York State delegation supposed that I would in good faith support the man who was fairly made the Republican nominee. I am by inheritance and by education a Republican; whatever good I have been able to accomplish in public life has been accomplished through the Republican party; I have acted with it in the past, and wish to act with it in the future."

I

After his summer's recreation he was called upon for a few speeches. He had little to say,

and nothing that was not kindly in purport, of his former associates who had parted company with him at Chicago, but one of his utterances should be quoted as throwing further light upon his attitude: "It has always been my luck in politics, and I suppose always will be, to offend some wing of the party-generally the machine, but sometimes the independents. I should think little of myself should I permit the independents to dictate to me any more than the machine."

On his return from Cuba, after the Spanish War, a second crisis occurred in the career of Mr. Roosevelt. Politics in New York were in a state of upheaval. It was plain that Governor Black's administration would be followed by a Democratic sweep at the polls unless the Republicans could find a candidate so popular on his own account as to pull the whole ticket through. There must be a stirring campaign, with plenty of cannon, cheers, flag-waving and red fire, but above all there must be some one to shout for. Apathetic quiet, or even halfhearted noise, meant sure defeat. This was a contingency too serious to be calmly contemplated, for the party was split, and was only holding itself together by main force to con

ANOTHER PARTY CRISIS

ceal the rift from the public. Defeat at this juncture would compel the abdication of the old management and assure the installation of a new one, which had been waiting for some time for such a chance. There was a general settlement of the shrewder party lieutenants upon Roosevelt as their man, and they made no secret of it. Platt, Roosevelt's opposite pole in sentiment and methods, agreed with the lieutenants, but was too old a campaigner to advertise his opinion prematurely. On the other hand, the fact that this was a critical year for the Republicans had stimulated the independents to put up a candidate. If they could nominate an ideal man-one of the right character as well as the right running qualities-they could drive Platt out of business as a boss, and this was the end toward which they had been working as long as most of them had been interested in politics at all. Roosevelt seemed to be the very man they were seeking. With him as a candidate, backed by evidence of a large uprising of independent voters in his support throughout the State, they reasoned that the Platt machine would be forced into accepting him also as the Republican candidate, without pledges of any sort such as candidates are ex