Theodore Roosevelt: An Intimate BiographyThayer, William Roscoe
History
Theodore Roosevelt: An Intimate Biography
Thayer, William Roscoe
Presidents -- United States -- Biography; Roosevelt, Theodore, 1858-1919
Roosevelt watched impatiently while these strange phases passed
before him. He listened angrily at the contradictory utterances.
He felt the ignominy of our country's being at such a depth. He
knew Germany too well to suppose that she could be deterred by
President Wilson's messages. He saw something comic in shaking a
long fore-finger and saying, "Tut, tut! I shall consider being
very harsh, if you commit these outrages three more times.." To
shake your fist at all, and then to shake your finger, seemed to
Roosevelt almost imbecile. Cut off from serving the cause of
American patriotism in any public capacity, Roosevelt struggled
to take his part by writing. Every month in the Outlook, and
subsequently in the Metropolitan Magazine, he gave vent to his
pent-up indignation. The very titles of some of his papers reveal
his animus: "Fear God and Take Your Own Part"; "A Sword for
Defense"; "America First: A Phrase or a Fact?"; "Uncle Sam's Only
Friend is Uncle Sam"; "Dual Nationality"; "Preparedness." In each
of these he poured forth with unflagging vehemence the
fundamental verities on which our American society should rest.
He showed that it was not a mere competition in letter-writing
between the honey-worded Mr. Wilson and the sophisticated
Bernstorff or the Caliban-sly Bethmann Hollweg, but that God was
in the crisis, and that no adroitness of phrase or trick of
diplomacy could get rid of Him. He showed that there could not be
two kinds of Americans: one genuine, which believed wholly and
singly in the United States, and the other cunning and mongrel,
which swore allegiance to the United States--lip service--and
kept its allegiance to Germany--heart service. He lost no
opportunity to make his illustrations clear. On resigning as
Secretary of State after the sinking of the Lusitania, because
President Wilson insisted on mildly calling Germany's attention
to that crime, Mr. Bryan addressed a large audience of Germans.
Then Roosevelt held him up to the gaze of the American people as
a man who had no true Americanism. Lest I should be suspected of
misinterpreting or exaggerating Roosevelt's opinion of President
Wilson, during the first two years of the war, I quote two or
three passages, taken at random, which will prove, I hope, that I
have summarized him truly. He says, for instance:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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