The Attempted Assassination of ex-President Theodore RooseveltRemey, Oliver E.
History
The Attempted Assassination of ex-President Theodore Roosevelt
Remey, Oliver E.
Roosevelt, Theodore, 1858-1919
Col. Roosevelt came and I knew nothing whatever of what had occurred;
while I noticed the party accompanying him seemed excited. The Colonel
showed no excitement at all, and I said to him:
"Wait a few minutes back of the stage while Mr. Miles takes up the
collection. Mr. Donald Ferguson desires to have it."
The Colonel said:
"Mr. Bloodgood, I have been shot and there is a bullet somewhere in my
body; the important thing is that nothing should be said or done to
cause a panic in the audience. I intend to deliver my address, or at
least a part of it."
Col. Roosevelt then went back of the stage and requested us to go to
the front and prevent any one saying anything. He said:
"It will only be a minute before I will be out."
I also heard the Colonel tell Mr. Cochems to say or do nothing that
would frighten the people.
The appearance of the Colonel on the platform and the circumstances
connected with it have been fully described. Col. Lyon, just before the
address of Col. Roosevelt was made, suggested to me that it was very
important that the crowd should not press around Col. Roosevelt and to
make arrangements to prevent that. I went back and found three men who
said they were detectives, and I asked them to come on the stage and to
make arrangements so as to prevent the crowd from pressing around Col.
Roosevelt. Mr. Cochems, in the mean time, had gone in front of Col.
Roosevelt so as to catch him if he should fall, and had made all
arrangements to prevent the crowd from rushing on the platform after
the address was finished.
Col. Roosevelt, after the address, walked through the aisle, which was
kept open from the stage door, to the automobile; as he got into the
automobile he shook my hand and said that he wanted it made emphatic
that he blamed no one; that the city authorities were not to blame, nor
was any blame to be attached to any one that had charge of this
meeting; that it was an accident and could not have been prevented;
that it might have happened anywhere; and repeated the importance of
making that clear, and that that was his feeling.
That was just before he left in the auto for the Emergency hospital.
* * * * *
The following statement was made by Capt. A. O. Girard, who was in the
automobile when Col. Roosevelt was shot. The statement was made in the
office of the district attorney on Oct. 16, 1912.
I was asked by the secretary of the Progressive State Central committee
to go to Racine and meet the Colonel, having been with him in his
department and been his body guard before, and take some papers down.
The Colonel requested that I stay with him for the evening and after we
got at the hotel I stood in front of the door so he wouldn't be
disturbed, and also at the dining room door.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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