VIII: The New York Governorship explained

What happens

Themes in this chapter

• Political Reform and Anti-Corruption

  Roosevelt's fight against the boss system and corporate influence in politics, exemplified by his push for the franchise tax bill and his refusal to let Platt dictate appointments.

• Balance of Idealism and Practicality

  Roosevelt's moderate stance, opposing both corporate privilege and populist extremism, as articulated in his letter to Platt.

• Courage and Vigor

  Roosevelt's determination to send emergency messages and confront the machine despite threats to his political future.

Characters to notice

• Theodore Roosevelt

  Governor of New York, reflecting on his battles with the political machine and his push for reform.

• Senator Platt

  Republican boss who controlled the state machine; initially friendly but opposed Roosevelt's reform agenda.

• Mr. Woodruff

  Lieutenant-Governor elect, present during Platt's attempt to dictate the Superintendent of Public Works appointment.

• Abraham Lincoln

  Referenced as a figure whose term 'silk stockings' describes the aesthetic reformers opposing Platt.

• Mr. Hughes

  Mentioned as later Governor who, like Roosevelt, was nominated by bosses out of necessity.

• Mr. Stimson

  Referenced as the nominee at the Saratoga Convention in 1910, when bosses were finally overcome.

Key passages

• “I had always been instinctively and by nature a democrat, but if I had needed conversion to the democratic ideal here in America the stimulus would have been supplied by what I saw of the attitude, not merely of the bulk of the men of greatest wealth, but of the bulk of the men who most prided themselves upon their education and culture, when we began in good faith to grapple with the wrong and injustice of our social and industrial system, and to hit at the men responsible for the wrong, no matter how high they stood in business or in politics, at the bar or on the bench.”

  Roosevelt was naturally democratic, but his commitment was reinforced by observing how wealthy and educated elites opposed genuine reform against social and industrial injustice.

  Roosevelt explains how opposition from the rich and cultured solidified his democratic convictions.

• “I do not believe that it is wise or safe for us as a party to take refuge in mere negation and to say that there are no evils to be corrected. It seems to me that our attitude should be one of correcting the evils and thereby showing that, whereas the Populists, Socialists, and others really do not correct the evils at all, or else only do so at the expense of producing others in aggravated form; on the contrary we Republicans hold the just balance and set ourselves as resolutely against improper corporate influence on the one hand as against demagogy and mob rule on the other.”

  Roosevelt argues that the Republican Party must actively address societal evils rather than deny them, opposing both corporate corruption and populist extremism.

  From Roosevelt's letter to Platt, outlining his moderate reform philosophy.

• “The machine leaders were bitterly angry, and the Speaker actually tore up the message without reading it to the Assembly. That night they were busy trying to arrange some device for the defeat of the bill—which was not difficult, as the session was about to close. At seven the next morning I was informed of what had occurred. At eight I was in the Capitol at the Executive chamber, and sent in another special message.”

  After the Speaker tore up his first emergency message, Roosevelt promptly sent a second one the next morning to push the franchise tax bill.

  Illustrates Roosevelt's persistence against machine obstruction.