*I am a liberal man,' and said no more.
Shaw told a good story about poor Senator .
He and some more grafters had agreed to press a
certain bill through the Legislature, and had
been paid for it. As the session drew near its close
the lobbyist grew alarmed and went to see ,
who demanded a supplement. The man said : ' What
can I say to my principals, who thought this matter
settled?' 'Tell them,' said thoughtfully,
'that I'm acting dam strange.'
354 JOHN HAY
"April 10. The President came In and talked
mostly about the situation in New York, which an-
noys him greatly and somewhat alarms him. He sees
a good many lions in the path — but I told him of
the far greater beasts that appeared to some people
as in Lincoln's way, which turned out to be only bob-
cats after all.
''April 26. At the Cabinet this morning the Presi-
dent talked of his Japanese wrestler, who is giving
him lessons in Jiu Jitsu. He says the muscles of his
throat are so powerfully developed by training that
it is impossible for any ordinary man to strangle him.
If the President succeeds, once in a while, in getting
the better of him, he says, 'Good! lovely!'
''May 8. The President was reading Emerson's
'Days' and came to the wonderful closing line: 'I,
too late. Under her solemn fillet saw the scorn.' I
said, ' I fancy you do not know what that means.'
'O, do I not? Perhaps the greatest men do not, but
I in my soul know I am but the average man, and
that only marvelous good fortune has brought me
where I am.'
" May 12. Bade the President good-bye. He said,
with jeering good nature, he hoped I would enjoy
my well-earned rest. [Mr. Hay was going to make
an address at the World's Fair in St. Louis.]
"June 5. [The President] spoke of his own
THEODORE ROOSEVELT 355
speeches, saying he knew there was not much in them
except a certain sincerity and kind of commonplace
morahty which put him en rapport with the people
he talked with. He told me with singular humor and
recklessness of the way X and the late lamented
Holls tried to put him on his guard against me.
"June 21. The President returned from Valley
Forge yesterday and we all congratulated him at the
Cabinet meeting to-day on his sermon on Sunday.
It seems it was entirely impromptu, Knox having
asked him to speak only just before church time.
K. says the question what is to become of Roosevelt
after 1908 is easily answered. He should be made a
Bishop.
"August II. I dined with the President last night.
. . . After dinner we adjourned to the library and the
President read his letter of acceptance. I was struck
with the readiness with which he accepted every
suggestion which was made.
' ' A ugust I J . I went to the White House this morn-
ing and found the President screaming with delight
over a proposition in the [New York] Eventing Post
that Wayne MacVeagh should be Secretary of State
in Parker's Cabinet. So the dear Wayne has wearied
of waiting for my envied shoes at the hands of Roose-
velt.
"October 17. I lunched at the White House —
356 JOHN HAY
nobody else but Yves Guyot and Theodore Stanton.
The President talked with great energy and perfect
ease the most curious French I ever listened to. It
was absolutely lawless as to grammar and occasion-
ally bankrupt in substantives; but he had not the
least difficulty in making himself understood, and
one subject did not worry him more than another.
''October 23. The President came in this morning
badly bunged about the head and face. His horse
fell with him yesterday and gave him a bad fall. It
did not occur to me till after he had gone that I had
come so near a fatal elevation to a short term of the
Presidency. ^ Dei avertite omen!
"He was in high spirits, though he always speaks
of the election as uncertain. I showed him Lincoln's
Pledge of August, 1864, written when he thought
McClellan might be elected. He was much impressed,
and went on as he often does to compare Lincoln's
great trials with what he calls his little ones. He
asked me to read Stannard Baker's article about him
in McClure's — which he likes.
''October 30. The President came in for an hour.
We talked awhile about the campaign and at last he
said: 'It seems a cheap sort of thing to say, and I
would not say [it] to other people, but laying aside
^ There being no Vice-President, Mr. Hay, as Secretary of State,
stood next in line of succession to the Presidency.
THEODORE ROOSEVELT 357
my own great personal interests and hopes, — for of
course I desire intensely to succeed, — I have the
greatest pride that in this fight we are not only mak-
ing it on clearly avowed principles, but we have the
principles and the record to avow. How can I help
being a little proud when I contrast the men and the
considerations by which I am attacked, and those
by which I am defended?'
^^ November s. The President's fall from his horse,
ten days ago, might have been very serious. He
landed fairly on his head, and his neck and shoulders
were severely wrenched. For a few days there seemed
a possibility of meningitis. But he is strong and well-
knit, and the spine escaped injury. I am thankful
to have escaped a four months' troubled term of the
Presidency. Strange that twice I have come so hid-
eously near it — once at Lenox and now with a hole-
in-a-bridge. The President will of course outlive
me, but he will not live to be old.
^^ November 5. This morning, the President pub-
lished his answer to Parker's stupid slanders.^ I was
sorry for the necessity of it, but of course he could
not let these blatant falsehoods go uncorrected,
and nobody but he could give a satisfactory answer.
I wrote a letter about it myself, but did not print
^ At the close of the campaign Judge Alton B. Parker, the Demo-
cratic candidate, accused President Roosevelt of employing a large
corruption fund.
358 JOHN HAY
it, as I felt sure that Parker would continue to say
Roosevelt admitted his guilt by silence. So the only
way was to give him the lie direct — and I think the
President did it very effectively. . . .
"I went to see the President. He said: ' I did not
show you my statement because I thought you might
not approve and I did not want to be persuaded out
of it.' He said further that he had to do it now or
never — as whatever might be the result of the elec-
tion, he could not refer to it afterwards.
''November 6. The President came in this morn-
ing radiant over the effect of his statement and
Parker's speech, which seemed to him, as it did to me,
a complete collapse of his accusations. He has evi-
dently thought, for a week past, that the President
would not answer him, and he was exulting in his
immunity when all at once he was struck silly by
this unexpected bolt from the blue. He has 'softly
and silently vanished away in the midst of his bois-
terous glee.' The Snark was a Boojum.
"The President said he felt a repose of mind to-
day he had never felt before. He supposed, from
what his friends said, he should probably be elected;
but whether successful or not, he should feel that
he had gone through the campaign with no stain on
his character, and that this, the only attack upon his
honor, had been met and refuted. He was particu-
THEODORE ROOSEVELT 359
larly gratified at the way in which he had been sup-
ported : the other side had nothing to compare with
the speeches of Root, and Taft, and Knox, and he
was good enough to include me — ' though I had
trouble enough to get you on the platform.'
^^ November 8. I went over to the White House at
a quarter after nine, thinking that the returns must
have begun to come in by that time. I found the Red
Parlor full of people, the President in the midst of
them with his hands full of telegrams. I asked him if
he had anything decisive as yet. He said : ' Yes, Judge
Parker has sent his congratulations.' . . . Every-
where the majorities are overwhelming. ... 'I am
glad,' said Roosevelt, 'to be President in my own
right.'
^^ November 12. The papers this morning announce
on the authority of the President that I am to remain
Secretary of State for the next four years. He did it
in a moment of emotion, — I cannot exactly see
why, — for he has never discussed the matter seri-
ously with me and I have never said I would stay.
I have always deprecated the idea, saying there was
not four years' work in me; now I shall have to go
along awhile longer, as it would be a scandal to con-
tradict him. . . .
"J. B. Bishop told me to-day of the tumultuous
dinner last night at the White House and the speech-
360 JOHN HAY
less amazement of John Morley at the fagonde of the
President. He said afterwards to Bishop: 'The two
things in America which seem to me most extra-
ordinary are Niagara Falls and President Roosevelt.*
"November 20. I read the President's message in
the afternoon. . . . Made several suggestions as to
changes and omissions. The President came in just
as I had finished, and we went over the matters to-
gether. He accepted my ideas with that singular
amiability and open-mindedness which form so strik-
ing a contrast with the general idea of his brusque
and arbitrary character.
** December 4. The President talked about re-
vision. He has omitted the passage about the tariff
from his message and rather doubts whether he can
find enough support in Congress for attempting any
revision at present. . . .
"He told me to say to [Henry] White that he
would expect the resignations of all the Ambassadors
in the spring, as well as those of the Cabinet. . . .
He is trying to harden his heart, in several direc-
tions, but I doubt very much if he succeeds.
*' December 25. The President came in out of the
snow-storm looking as breezy as the weather. He
had just got Choate's resignation [as Ambassador
to Great Britain] and was charmed by the tone of
his letter. He will leave to him the time and manner
THEODORE ROOSEVELT 361
of his recall. He was a little annoyed at being told
by that McKinley had promised [Whitelaw]
Reid the place. I assured him there was nothing in
it. People like instinctively to diminish their appa-
rent obligations by assigning part of the load to the
dead. . . .
" I sent him a MS. Norse Saga of William Morris.
He replied in a charming letter.
"7^05. January i. The President came in at
12.15 saying it seemed more like Easter than New
Year's. We talked of the Bureau of American Re-
publics without coming to any conclusion. . . . He is
quite firm in the view that we cannot permit Japan
to be robbed a second time of the fruits of her vic-
tory — if victory should finally be hers.
January 3 . Little of importance at Cabinet meet-
ing. The President was talking of an erring chaplain,
which reminded Morton of a Methodist who, on
giving an account of himself on the witness stand,
said he had been an exhorter for twenty years, but
for only six a regular licentious preacher."
Secretary Hay's records during the months of
January and February are largely taken up with
memoranda on the arbitration treaties, which the
Senate ruined, as he and the President thought, by
amendments; on negotiations for protecting China;
362 JOHN HAY
and on the closing phase of the Russo-Japanese War.
Here is a vivid description of Mr. Roosevelt dic-
tating : —
' ' February 27. The President asked me to dine
at the White House, as Root was to be there and he
wanted to talk over Santo Domingo. After dinner
we went to the study up-stairs and for two hours went
over the whole business. The President sent for his
stenographer and dictated a brief message he pro-
poses to send to the Senate next week. It was a curi-
ous sight. I have often seen it, and it never ceases
to surprise me. He storms up and down the room,
dictating in a loud and oratorical tone, often stop-
ping, recasting a sentence, striking out and filling in,
hospitable to every suggestion, not in the least dis-
turbed by interruption, holding on stoutly to his
purpose, and producing finally, out of these most
unpromising conditions, a clear and logical state-
ment, which he could not improve with solitude
and leisure at his command."
Meanwhile, Secretary Hay's health, which had
been visibly declining for several months, showed
such alarming symptoms that his physicians pre-
scribed for him a complete rest from official duties,
and treatment at Nauheim. On March 3, he sent
the President a ring, with this note.
THEODORE ROOSEVELT 363
Hay to Roosevelt
Washington, March 3, 1905.
Dear Theodore —
The hair in this ring is from the head of Abra-
ham Lincoln. Dr. Taft cut it off the night of the
assassination, and I got it from his son — a brief
pedigree.
Please wear it to-morrow ; you are one of the men
who most thoroughly understand and appreciate
Lincoln.
I have had your monogram and Lincoln's engraved
on the ring.
Longas, O utinam, bone dux, ferlas
Prsestes Hesperiae.^
Yours affectionately.
^'Saturday, March 4. The President wrote me last
night a charming letter of thanks for the Lincoln
ring I gave him. He wore it to-day at his inaugura-
tion and seemed greatly pleased to have it.
"The weather seemed very doubtful, but after
a slight rain in the morning it cleared off and was
very fine at ten o'clock when we started for the Capi-
tol. The procession was well arranged and we got
^ Horace, Odes, iv, v: " Mayest thou. Good Captain, give long
holiday to Hesperia!" The correct quotation is:
Longas, O utinam, dux bone, ferias, etc.
364 JOHN HAY
there in about half an hour. There was very little to
do, Congress having completed its work, and taken
a recess for an hour, to kill time. At eleven o'clock
there was a threatening cloud came up in the North,
but it blew away, and when, after the inauguration
of the Vice-President, we went out to the East
Front, the skies were clear, though a bitter wind was
sweeping the plaza. The President took the oath
in a clear, resonant voice and then delivered his In-
augural. The high wind made speaking difficult, but
his voice lasted well — the address was short and in
excellent temper and manner. . . .
"The Ball was a success in numbers if nothing
else. The President appeared once or twice in the
Reserved Gallery — the crowd of say 10,000 stood
patiently on the floor of the vast hall staring all the
evening at his tribune, a pathetic and strange spec-
tacle.
" March 5. The President sent me a note this morn-
ing saying he wished to see me, but that he would
prefer I should come to him this morning, instead
of expecting him here as usual. I went over to the
White House and saw the reason of his action. Every
approach was filled with a curious crowd. They
swarmed over the porch and stood staring in the win-
dows. As I came into his study, the President
started up with a jar of lilies in his hand and came to
DEPARTMENTOr STATE,
WAS *â–
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LETTER TO THEODORE ROOSEVELT ON THE EVE OF HIS
INAUGURATION AS PRESIDENT
THEODORE ROOSEVELT 365
the door to greet me — recalling Bunthorne 'Walk-
ing down Piccadilly with a poppy or a lily in his
medieval hand.' He said: 'You will see why I asked
you to come over. If I had come, I should have ar-
rived at your door with a tail like a Highland chief.'
*' March 12. The President came this morning,
wearing an overcoat, a garment which his hardy
habit generally rejects. . . .
"I tried to walk this afternoon, but it was tough
work. By going very slowly and stopping often I
was able to cover about a mile — but the pain does
not pass away as it used. It continued all the way
home."
That last item indicates the seriousness of Mr.
Hay's condition. The following Saturday he em-
barked, in an almost desperate condition, on the
Cretic for Genoa. After resting in Italy, he went to
take the cure at Nauheim. His improvement there
was very slow. On May 20 he wrote the President: —
Hay to Roosevelt
[Nauheim, May 20, 1905.]
I hate to be in this condition of Mahomet's coffin.
If I were fit for work, I would gladly go back to my
desk. If I were ready for the Knacker, I would at
once get out of the way. But when all the doctors
366 JOHN HAY
tell me I am going to get well, but that it will be a
matter of some months yet, I feel that I ought not to
be a dead weight in the boat for an indefinite time.
... I need not say that when you think a change
would be, for any reason, advisable, I shall go. I
don't say willingly, but as Browning says, ''Go dis-
piritedly, glad to finish."
My association with you has been altogether de-
lightful, and if there is to be any space left me for
memory, I shall always remember it with pleasure
and gratitude.
Hay lived to reach home; went to Washington,
conferred several times with the President, and on
June 22 bade him good-bye. This proved to be
their final parting.
The quotations I have given serve to outline John
Hay's portrait of Theodore Roosevelt and to record
their memorable friendship.
CHAPTER XXXI
hay's last labors
FOR convenience we group a statesman's work
according to topics; in real life, however, there
is no such grouping. We cannot isolate tasks which
overlap, or go forward simultaneously. So it was
with Secretary Hay. Long before he signed the
treaty with the new Republic of Panama, he had
many other issues on his hands. I pass over Hay's
eager support of the first Hague Tribunal and of
subsequent appeals to It, and his efforts In behalf of
International copyright. The chief business which
absorbed him at the end of 1903 concerned the Far
East.
Although constantly professing her Intention of
evacuating Manchuria, Russia not only stayed on
there, but menaced Korea. Japan formed, in 1902,
a league with England which wonderfully strength-
ened the self-reliance of the little men of Nippon.
Early In 1903 Secretary Hay pressed upon the
Russian Government, the need of respecting the
Integrity of China.
On May 12 he writes: —
368 JOHN HAY
To President Roosevelt
We have the positive and categorical assurance of
the Russian Government that the so-called "con-
vention of seven points"^ has not been proposed by
Russia to China. We have this assurance from Count
Cassini here, from Mr. McCormick [American Am-
bassador to Russia] directly from Count Lamsdorff
in Petersburg, and through Sir Michael Herbert
[British Ambassador at Washington] from the Rus-
sian Ambassador in London. . . . Per co?itra, we have
from Conger in Peking, from our Commissioners in
Shanghai, from the Japanese Legation here, and
from the British Embassy, substantially identical
copies of the "convention of seven points," which
there is no shadow of doubt the Russians have been,
and perhaps still are, forcing upon the Government
of China. . . .
I have intimated to Cassini that the inevitable
result of their present course of aggression would be
the seizure by different Powers of different provinces
in China, and the accomplishment of the dismember-
ment of the empire. He shouts in reply: "This
is already done. China is dismembered and we are
entitled to our share."
^ See Foreign Relations of the United States, 1903, page 54. De-
spatch, Conger to Hay, April 29,1903.
HAY'S LAST LABORS 369
The next confidential letter, addressed to Mr.
White, in London, reveals the difficulties against
which Hay was working : —
To Henry White
May 22, 1903.
The Manchurian matter is far more delicate and
more troublesome. Russia, as you know, has given
us the most positive assurances that the famous
"convention of seven points" never existed. We
have a verbatim copy of it as it was presented, with
preamble and appendix, by Monsieur Plangon, to
the Chinese Government. If they choose to disavow
Plangon, and to discontinue their attempts to vio-
late their agreements, we shall be all right; but, if
the lie they have told was intended to serve only for
a week or two, the situation will become a serious one.
The Chinese, as well as the Russians, seem to know
that the strength of our position is entirely moral,
and if the Russians are convinced that we will not
fight for Manchuria — as I suppose we will not — â–
and the Chinese are convinced that they have noth-
ing but good to expect from us and nothing but a
beating from Russia, the open hand will not be so
convincing to the poor devils of Chinks as the raised
club. Still, we must do the best we can with the
means at our disposition.
370 JOHN HAY
"Our strength in Russia is, of course, not with the
miHtary or diplomatic sections of the Government
[Mr. Hay writes to Minister Conger in Peking], but
with Mr. Witte and the whole financial world of
Russia." (June 13, 1903-)
In spite of warnings and dissuasions Russia pur-
sued her policy, and at the beginning of 1904 she
forced the Japanese to conclude that they must either
accept Russian domination down to the shores of
the Japan Sea — a domination which would soon over-
shadow themselves — or attack the Russians before
they had assembled their full strength. To the surprise
of the Powers, the Japanese chose the latter course.
Mr. Hay's Diary gives us the clue to the swiftly
maturing events.
''January 5, IQ04. From dispatches received
from Tokio and from the Japanese Legation here it
is evident that no attempt at mediation will do any
good. Russia is clearly determined to make no con-
cessions to Japan. They think — that is Alexieff
and Bezobrazoff, who seem to have complete control
of affairs — that now is the time to strike, to crush
Japan and to eliminate her from her position of in-
fluence in the Far East. They evidently think there
is nothing to be feared from us — and they have
of course secured pledges from Germany and
France, which make them feel secure in Europe."
HAY'S LAST LABORS 371
" January 6. The President notices a decided change
of opinion against Russia. Herman Ridder has told
him he can get up a big dinner in New York of Ger-
mans and Irish to express sympathy with Japan.
''January g. Takahira [the Japanese Minister at
Washington] saw, for the first time in some weeks, a
possible gleam of light. He asked me whether it
would seem ungracious on the part of Japan to
desist from claiming ' foreign settlements ' in Man-
churia — showing that this is one of the points
Russia is insisting on. I told him that we reserved
our treaty right to discuss the matter, but that we
were not at present insisting on it.
''January 11. I saw Takahira who read me sev-
eral long dispatches from his Government. One say-
ing they had asked strict neutrality from China, in
the interest of China and the civilized world — and
another giving excellent reasons why they did not
desire the mediation of other Powers ; as they would
inure to the advantage of Russia through endless
delays."
America's good offices had as little effect as had
the counsels of European bankers and diplomats in
averting the war. On February 8, Admiral Togo,
commanding the Japanese fleet, made a dash on
Port Arthur and attacked the Russians. The day
372 JOHN HAY
before, Secretary Hay, just returned from a trip to
Georgia, was shown a memorandum which the Ger-
man Ambassador, Speck von Sternburg, had pre-
sented to the President. Read now, it proves to be
the clue to a puzzle which mystified diplomacy then.
It suggested that the German Emperor desired
"that we take the initiative in calling upon the
Powers to use good offices to induce Russia and
Japan to respect the neutrality of China outside the
sphere of military operations." I said I thought we
ought to eliminate the last clause and include "the
administrative entity of China." The President
agreed.
On February 8, Mr. Hay had the draft ready to
show to the President and other persons, who
approved of it. Among them were the German and
Chinese envoys. The latter "was greatly pleased
to know what we had done. So was Takahira, who
came in and talked of the situation with profound
emotion, which expressed itself in a moment of tears
and sobs as he left me. Cassini [the Russian Am-
bassador] came to my house at 2.30 and stayed an
hour. He spent most of tlje time in accusing Japan
of lightness and vanity ; he seemed little affected by
the imminence of war, expecting a speedy victory,
but admitting that the war, however it resulted,
would profit nobody."
HAY'S LAST LABORS 373
From this time forward Mr. Hay received almost