and labor to which he was willing to devote his business experience and political standing. Unquestionably he as leading Senator and Roosevelt as President might have accomplished much; both loved their country and would make personal sacrifices for it; both had personal morals above reproach; both had a high idea of service; but the two could not work sympathetically together. Shakespeare told why, "An two men ride of a horse, one must ride behind." 1

Now entered upon the scene the King of Terrors. Hanna died on February 15, 1904. While lying upon his death-bed in the Arlington Hotel, the President called to inquire after his condition and on February 5 received this pencilled note: "My dear Mr. President: You touched a tender spot, old man, when you called personally to inquire after [me] this A.M. I may be worse, before I can be better, but all the same such 'drops of kindness' are good for a fellow." To this Roosevelt replied: "Dear Senator: Indeed it is your letter from your sick bed which is touching, not my visit. May you soon be with us again, old fellow, as strong in body and as vigorous in your leadership as ever.” 2

His death was regarded as a calamity in Cleveland; and in his State of Ohio, it seemed as if a prop to the nation had been taken away. Roosevelt wrote to Root on the next day: "No man had larger traits than Hanna. He was a big man in every way and as forceful a personality as we have seen in public life in our generation." 3 The Chaplain of the Senate, Reverend Edward Everett Hale, spoke thus over his dead body: "This man had at

once as no other man had, the confidence of capital and labor. He could mediate between the men who provide the tools and the workmen who handle them." Later his senatorial associates paid him high tributes. Foraker said: "He was one of the really great men of his day and generation. . . . He had before him seven years of service." His personal friend, Senator Platt of Connecticut, declared, "that when Marcus A. Hanna died all the people mourned with a grief that was deep and unfeigned." Senator Fairbanks said truthfully, "He possessed in full degree the power of great initiative." Senator Beveridge said that, "He was the man of affairs in statesmanship. . .; he was the personification of our commercial age." 1 "The New York Evening Post crowd," as Roosevelt called them, could not join in these tributes. They may have taken their cue from their great progenitor who wrote, "I do not like the Western type of man." In that they differed from Roosevelt who broke out, "I do like these Westerners."

Between these eulogists and detractors of Hanna it is pleasant to hear from a moderator, Edward D. White, who as Justice of the Supreme Court was well acquainted with Hanna, admired and loved him, who one night in December, 1920, long after, he had been Chief Justice, could talk of naught else, testifying his high regard for the ability, honor and unselfishness of Hanna.

Hanna was now out of the way. No man in public life took his place in partial antagonism to Roosevelt. The coast was clear. He was nominated by acclamation at the Republican National Convention that assembled

1 Memorial Addresses, pp. 15, 31, 49, 77, 110.
Life of Godkin, Ogden, ii.

in Chicago, June 21, 1904. Charles G. Washburn, later Congressman from the Worcester district, a keen judge of men, wrote in his book adding to what I have already cited: "Of course Hanna would not have been nominated. The old order which was incarnated in Hanna had not then passed away but it was passing.

...

...

When McKinley and Hanna died, the old dynasty fell." 1

1 Roosevelt, 54.

CHAPTER XII

IN accepting the nomination for the presidency Roosevelt showed that he was a true partisan Republican as, in his speech of acceptance, he dilated on the "Record of the Republican party," on the currency and the tariff. "We have placed the finances of the Nation upon a sound gold basis," he said. "We have enacted a tariff law under which during the past few years the country has attained a height of material well-being never before reached." In his letter he elaborated his position on the tariff taking the ground of the educated man who had been led to believe in the virtue of protection. "The question of what tariff is best for our people is primarily one of expediency, to be determined not on abstract academic grounds but in the light of experience. It is a matter of business"; and he repeated the Republican stock argument against the Democratic tariff of 1894.1

The Democrats had nominated Alton B. Parker, Chief Justice of the Court of Appeals of the State of New York, who, declining to run on a platform squinting in the direction of free silver, had eliminated from the contest the money question. Nor was the tariff an issue to be decided. The issue of the campaign was Roosevelt. "Your personality has been the Administration," wrote Elihu Root. This meant largely what Roosevelt had done in attacking the great financial interests of the coun

1 The speech was July 27; the letter, September 12. Current Lit. Pub. Co., 198, 200, 213. Bishop, i. 323.

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try which, after much consideration, had selected Parker as their candidate. They had coquetted with Grover Cleveland. "It is evident," wrote Roosevelt to Senator Lodge on May 4, 1903, "Cleveland has the presidential bee in his bonnet, and it is equally evident that a large number of people are desirous of running him again.”1 Nevertheless his decision not to accept another nomination became "unalterable."

Toward its end Parker brought personalities into the campaign which must be considered. Roosevelt had selected as chairman of the Republican National Committee George B. Cortelyou, after having vainly endeavored to secure Elihu Root, W. Murray Crane and Cornelius N. Bliss. Cortelyou had been Cleveland's executive clerk, private secretary of McKinley and Roosevelt, and was then Secretary of Commerce and Labor, appointed by Roosevelt. A fair inference from Judge Parker's speeches was that President Roosevelt and Cortelyou had used their official positions to induce corporations to contribute funds. Roosevelt, having a high regard for the dignity of his office, had held aloof from a public participation in the campaign but these speeches of Parker gave him a long-sought-for opportunity of taking a hand in the contest as a fighter, and on November 4 2 he made this statement: "The assertion that Mr. Cortelyou had any knowledge gained while in an official position, whereby he was enabled to secure and did secure any contributions from any corporation is a falsehood. . . . The assertion that there has been made in my behalf and by my authority, by

1 Bishop, i. 241.

The election was on November 8. Charles W. Fairbanks of Indiana was chosen Vice-President.