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
Gentlemen of the jury, now comes the time when the third termer
committed his second crime against friends, party, nation and republic.
With his innermost conviction that his successor would be incompetent,
incapable and that he would commit so many blunders while in office
that at the expiration of his term the people would unanimously demand
the renomination of the third termer, he thought to remove that
obstacle of the third termer and to make it appear that he was not
ambitious and that a renomination would have to be forced upon him, he
solemnly declared, "Never again will I run for president," but again
ambition had blindfolded him and robbed him of his judgment of men in
selecting William H. Taft as his successor although his most intimate
friend Mr. Taft was aware of his oath of office and his duties toward
the nation, there never was a whiter man in the white house and no one
ever more deserved a re-election as an honor for his services to the
country against the revolutionary machine of the third termer in the
house and senate than William H. Taft.
Gentlemen of the jury, the third term, "never again will I run for
president," has a parallel in the history of Rome. Whoever read the
history of Julius Caesar, knows that this smart politician, while
elected dictator, managed to become so popular with the people that
they offered him the kingly crown, but Julius Caesar knew that he had
to bide his time, that the rest of senators knew of his ambition, and
after refusing three times, he knew they would offer it to him a fourth
time, and when then he accepted it, he was murdered for ambition sake.
Never again will I run for president and under no circumstances, said
this man, and four years later we find him eagerly seeking renomination
at Chicago, to his friends, who advise him to run, he didn't have the
heart to tell that if he were not a man of word he could never be a man
of honor, but what shame lies in between his never again and his
profane declaration that the crooks, thieves, scoundrels and liars had
stolen the nomination from him, although he knew that the party could
not give him what they had a third term not to give for the great
Republican party determined to sooner go down to defeat than to violate
the third term yet.
Gentlemen of the jury, the third termer had license to create a new
party and be the power behind the throne and perhaps lead his party to
victory. But having been deceived by the selection of his successor and
having removed the mask he determined to insist on a third term. Had we
lived in a time of panic, general disorder, strikes with armies of
unemployed, most likely the third termer would have an easy walkin. He
was anxious waiting for the government at Washington to start military
intervention in Mexico, but the leaders of the Republican party feared
that the third termer would muster an army of volunteer rough riders
and return at election as the conquering hero.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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