AN UNPUBLISHED LETTER

measured the strength of the independent movement for independence's sole sake. The other 6,000 signers of the independent petition had probably been attracted to it by the hope it offered of a chance to vote for Roosevelt whether the Republicans should nominate him or not; there is always a contingent of these whether-ornoes in the following of every party leader. When he accepted the Republican nomination and declined the independent, they went with him and swelled his plurality. They would have stuck to him just the same if he had suddenly blossomed out as a Prohibitionist or a Labor candidate. It was the man, not the politician, they were supporting.

Right here I am going to trench on halfforbidden ground far enough to add my own particular mite to the literature of this incident. On September 3, 1898, Mr. Roosevelt wrote me from Montauk, Long Island, where the Rough Riders were in camp, about sundry matters in which we felt a joint interest. His letter bore evidences of hasty composition and bristled with interlineations, which are indicated in the copy here given. Referring to some comments of mine on the talk of making him Governor, he said:

I haven't bothered myself a particle about the nomination, and have no idea whether it will be made or not. In the first place, I would rather have led this regiment than be Governor of New York three times over. In the next place, while on the whole I should like the office of Governor and would not shirk it, the position will be one of such extreme difficulty, and I shall have to offend so many good friends of mine, that I should breathe a sigh of relief were it not offered to me.

It is a party position. I should be one of the big party leaders if I should take it. This means that I should

with
Л

earnestly
Л

have to treat and work with the organization, and I should see and consult the leaders—not once, but continuon all important questions ously and try to come to an agreement with them; and of course the mere fact of my doing so would alienate many of my friends whose friendship I value. On the other hand, when we come to a matter like the Canal, or Life Insurance, or anything touching the Eighth Commandment and general decency, I could not allow any consideration of party to come in. And this would alienate those

who, if not friends, were supporters.

As for taking the honor without conditions or not at all, I do not believe anybody would so much as propose to mention conditions to me. Certainly I would not entertain any conditions save those outlined in this very letterthat, while a good party man who would honestly strive to to work with them, Λ

keep in with the leaders of the party organization, and to bring the Republican party into a better shape for two

yet

years hence, but in the last resort I should have to be my

Λ

VALUE AS PROOF

own master, and when a question of honesty or dishonesty

have to

arose I should

Ʌ pay no further heed to party lines. Now, as I say, I haven't an idea about the nomination. I know that certain of the politicians-some for or wholly bad

good and doubtless some for less good Λ reasons

some

-are work

the

I am glad

to say, I should say

ing for me, and that there are Λ (I may add, worst) some who are working against me. that the odds are against my nomination; but I can also say, with all sincerity, that I don't care in the least.

When the date of this letter is noted in connection with its contents, and when we read it literally between the lines, using the autographic amendments as an index to the working of the writer's mind, its importance will appear. For it was written spontaneously in the confidence of friendship, at a time when nothing was further from the thought of either its author or its recipient than that it would ever be valuable as a means of refuting unjust insinuations.

CHAPTER III

KNIGHT ERRANT OF CIVIL-SERVICE REFORM

How Mr. Roosevelt became Commissioner-Publicity for the merit system-Bringing up the Southern quotas-Tilts with Congress Competitive examinations and the police.

MR. ROOSEVELT'S decision to remain a Republican after Blaine's nomination for the presidency brought about, as we have seen, a temporary estrangement between him and a number of well-known men with whom he had worked in the past for civil-service reform. They lost no opportunity of making plain to the public the fact of the separation, and of the critical distance at which they should thenceforward scrutinize his conduct in public affairs. An insincere man might have seized such a state of armed truce as an excuse for dropping aggressive tactics in the reform propaganda, and leaving his old associates to carry this on alone as best they could; but, so far from that, he became a more determined fighter than ever, and took especial pains to show his

CIVIL SERVICE COMMISSIONER

contempt for party lines when it came to administering the purely business branches of the governmental machine.

His appointment in 1889 as Civil-Service Commissioner, though fraught with consequences of such importance to his future, was more a happy accident than anything else. When the Harrison administration began he was taking great interest in foreign affairs, and aspired to be Assistant Secretary of State. Secretary Blaine, however, had recognized in him a certain impatience of restraint which boded danger for their relations as chief and subordinate. So the assistant secretaryship was given to William F. Wharton of Massachusetts, a more discreet young man, and to Mr. Roosevelt was tendered instead a position on the Civil-Service Commission. Many of his friends were surprised at his acceptance of the place, which seemed too narrow for his powers. Up to that time the commission had been regarded as a rather insignificant wheel in the administrative machine. Dorman B. Eaton of New York, its president, was the only man of national reputation who had had any connection with it during the six years of its history, and his interest was wholly patriotic and