thing but a device contrived by Senator Platt and the machine to end his career as Governor, and announced that he would not accept the nomination. He went to the Convention primarily for the purpose of preventing it.

Both Mr. McKinley and Mr. Hanna were as much opposed to Mr. Roosevelt's candidacy as was the candidate himself. When the latter arrived in Philadelphia, he had no definite plans, except to nominate Mr. Bliss (if possible), and to prevent the nomination of Mr. Roosevelt. The Colonel of Rough Riders, after his return from Cuba, had been free in his private criticism of the conduct of the war, and his whole attitude towards the war had been different from that of the administration. Although he had always behaved as a loyal Republican, he was regarded as erratic and "unsafe,"— as, indeed, he undoubtedly was from the point of view of an administration of the affairs of the country chiefly in the interest of business. The VicePresidency might have seemed to be one of the safest offices in the government in which to confine an unsafe political leader; but Mr. Hanna had gone to Philadelphia with the intention of engineering the nomination of a Vice-Presidential candidate who would make from his point of view a thoroughly good President. It was characteristic of him to provide, if possible, in advance against the inconvenient contingency of having his Harrison succeeded by a Tyler.

There is a story to the effect that when Mr. Timothy Woodruff was urging upon Mr. Hanna his personal advantages as a Vice-Presidential candidate, the latter asked him :

"Do you think that the Convention would nominate you for the Presidency?" Mr. Woodruff allowed that the Convention would not. "Then," said Mr. Hanna, "don't you know that there is only one life between the Presidency and the Vice-Presidency and that it would be foolhardy to nominate a man for Vice-President who would not be big enough to be President?" What Mr. Woodruff replied, the chronicle sayeth not; but he might have retorted that the nomination of politicians for the Vice-Presidency who were not fit to be President was one of the most ancient and best established of American political traditions, and that from any such point of view his qualifications were unimpeachable. He might have urged, also, that his own re

moval to Washington, unlike that of Mr. Roosevelt, would have been a benefit to the cause of good government in New York. Although Mr. Hanna was emphatically opposed to Mr. Roosevelt's nomination, neither he nor, of course, the President had given any public expression to his opposition. Nor had he taken any precautions to prevent it. He did not think such precautions necessary. Inasmuch as Mr. Roosevelt himself did not want it, and as the New York delegation was divided between Mr. Woodruff and the Governor, the prospects of such a nomination did not look serious. Mr. Roosevelt arrived in Philadelphia on Saturday, June 16, and in an interview shortly thereafter with Mr. Hanna, he repudiated so decisively the idea of becoming a candidate that Mr. Hanna gave out a statement in reference to the matter. He declared himself opposed to Mr. Roosevelt's nomination on the ground that the candidacy should not be forced on any man. He undoubtedly expected that this declaration would settle this matter. The Convention had shown no disposition to question his leadership, and preferences for Vice-Presidential candidates never had much vitality. With Mr. Roosevelt out of the way the nomination seemed to lie between Jonathan Dolliver and John D. Long, with the chances in the former's favor.

What followed can best be narrated in Mr. Roosevelt's own words:

"Immediately on reaching Philadelphia, I was made aware that there was a very strong movement outside of the State of New York in favor of my nomination, the motive of these men outside of New York being the exact reverse of the motives of the politicians from New York; for the men outside New York wished me nominated because they believed in me and wished me to continue in public life. However, it was some little time before I attached full weight to this outside movement, my attention being absorbed by the effort within the New York delegation to force me as a candidate. Senator Platt had come on, and personally and through his lieutenants was assuming control of the delegation, and they were insisting that I would have to be nominated, and that New York would insist upon presenting my name. I insisted that I would not be nominated, and that I would not permit New York to present my name.

Finally a caucus of the New York delegates was called, and it was while this caucus was being held that I had my interview with Senator Platt. As soon as the caucus came together it became evident that a concerted effort would be made to force me into the acceptance of the nomination, without regard to my wishes. I taxed the leaders of the movement with desiring merely to get me out of the Governorship-for my term as Governor would end the following January, and the Convention to nominate a Governor would be held some three months after the Presidential Convention which we were then attending. Some of those I thus taxed with wishing to eliminate me from the Governorship acknowledged the fact with a laugh; others denied it. I told them that I would not permit them to nominate me for Vice-President, that I would not only make the fight in the caucus, but also if necessary in the Convention, and explain fully what I believed their purpose was; and that most assuredly after such public explanation by me, it would be impossible for them to nominate me.

"This caused a good deal of commotion, and in a short while one of Mr. Platt's lieutenants came to me and stated that the Senator wished to see me in his room, to which he was confined because of an accident with which he had met. I accordingly went upstairs and saw him. He told me that it had been decided that I was to be nominated for Vice-President, and that they could not accept any refusal, and that I would have to yield. I answered that I was sorry to be disagreeable, but that I regarded the movement as one to get me out of the Governorship for reasons which were not of a personal but of a public character; that is, for reasons connected with the principles in which I so heartily believed, and that I would not and could not consent to go back on those principles, and so I would refuse to accept the nomination for Vice-President. Senator Platt again said that I would have to accept. I again told him that I would not. He then said to me that if I did not accept, I would be beaten for the nomination for Governor, and some one else nominated for Governor in my place. I answered in effect that this was a threat, which simply rendered it impossible for me to accept, that if there was to be war there would be war, and that that was all there was to it; and I bowed and left the room.

"As I went downstairs to the room in which the New York delegates were gathered, I made up my mind that the wise course was to take the aggressive at once, and with all possible force. Accordingly as soon as I entered the room, I announced to half a dozen men that I had just had a conversation with Senator Platt; that Senator Platt had informed me that I must take the nomination for the Vice-Presidency and that if I did not I would not be nominated for Governor; that this threat rendered it impossible for me to consider accepting the VicePresidency; that I intended to announce immediately that I was a candidate for Governor and would fight for the nomination, and that every man who voted for my nomination for VicePresident must do so with the understanding that I would see that the people in their turn understood that he was thus voting at the direction of Mr. Platt, in order to remove me from the Governorship; that I should make this statement instantly in the full meeting, that I would make it to the newspapers afterwards, and that I would fight for the nomination on this issue. The minute that I took this position the whole effort to bring pressure upon me collapsed. There was great confusion, and one of Senator Platt's lieutenants came to me and begged me not to say anything for a minute or two until he could communicate with the Senator, whom he was certain must have been misunderstood by me. I laughed and said that I had very clearly understood him, but that of course I would wait for a few minutes until he could be communicated with. In three or four minutes this gentleman came downstairs, saying that the Senator wished to see me again, that he was very sorry he had spoken in a way that caused me to misunderstand him, that he was under the influence of opiate to reduce the pain caused by the injuries he had received, and that he supposed he had expressed himself badly in consequence. Accordingly I went upstairs, and Mr. Platt substantially repeated this explanation to me, saying that he was sorry if he had shown temper or expressed himself badly, and that of course in view of my feeling the effort to nominate me for Vice-President would be abandoned, and that he wished me to be assured that he and all his friends would favor my renomination as Governor. I thanked him, bowed, and went downstairs. The delegates took their

cue at once. No further effort was made to nominate me for the Vice-Presidency at this New York caucus and they voted to present the name of Mr. Woodruff."

The caucus of the New Yorkers had been held on Tuesday night, June 19. In the papers on Wednesday morning, every attempt was again made to create the impression that the Roosevelt candidacy was dead. An account of the decision of the New York delegation was telegraphed all over the country. The fact was flourished that Mr. Roosevelt was advising his friends to vote for ex-Secretary John D. Long; and the persistent efforts to nominate the Governor against his will were ascribed to the desire of the "Bosses" of New York and Pennsylvania to "run" the Convention and embarrass the administration. Mr. Hanna himself was at the bottom of these renewed efforts to get Mr. Roosevelt out of the way; but this time they had the appearance of being forced. The correspondents pointed out that the matter could not be considered settled, until Mr. Roosevelt had declared definitely that he would refuse absolutely to accept the nomination. No such declaration had been made. In a statement published in the press on Tuesday morning, he had said merely that in his opinion he could help the national ticket most in case he were renominated for Governor; and he begged his friends to respect his wishes.

If the only forces working in favor of Mr. Roosevelt's nomination had been Senator Platt's wish to transplant such an "erratic" but thrifty political plant out of the green valley of New York state politics and the purpose of the Quay machine, which had formally indorsed the Roosevelt candidacy, to embarrass the administration, Mr. Roosevelt would never have received the nomination, and the administration, represented by Mr. Hanna, would not have been in the least embarrassed. But the difficulty was that the Roosevelt candidacy had developed a spontaneous strength which astounded the candidate himself and really did embarrass Mr. Hanna. Before the meeting of the Convention no one had suspected either the extent or vigor of the demand for Mr. Roosevelt's nomination. A large proportion of the Republican voters had willed that his name should be on the ticket; and no amount of discouragement