Doc. No. 5. (X. O.)

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What 1i,ooseVelt Says!

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THE KEYNOTE OF HIS POLICY:

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In great crises it may
be necessary to overturn
Constitutions, to disre
gard statutes," etc.
Roosevelt's " Oliver Cromwell," p. 52.

COMMENT OF THE NEW YORK HERALD.
[July 29, 1904.]
" His [Roosevelt's] conduct in the ' floating ' of the Panama
Republic, his ruthless disregard of public sentiment in the South,
his dictatorial assumption of authority in every department of the
public service have sufficed to show the people that his ideal of
government is imperialism, that he regards brute force as the equiv
alent of right, and his will as the equivalent of legality. Are these
qualities desirable in a President of the United States? "

ABUSE OF FORMER PRESIDENTS.
President Roosevelt in the course of his writings has taken
occasion to excoriate each of our Chief Executives from Jefferson
to Lincoln, with the sole exception of John Quincy Adams. His
apparent disregard of our national precedents and traditions may
possibly be explained by his opinions of those who created those pre
cedents. The following quotations are from the latest editions of
the President's books, and may be easily verified by referring to
the pages cited:
JEFFERSON: " Timid and shifty doctrinaire," (Life of Benton,
p. 73) ; " The most incapable Executive who ever filled the Presi
dent's chair," (Naval War of 1812, p. 455).
MADISON : " Incapable " (Naval War, p. 455) ; results of his
administration brought " shame and disgrace to America " in the
War of 1812 (The Winning of the West, vol. 4, p. 196).
MONROE: With "no special ability," (Benton, p. 47); as
Secretary of War under Madison, a ' ' triumph of imbecility to the
last," (Naval War, p. 456).
JACKSON: "Ignorant," (Benton, p. 73).
VAN BUREN : ' ' Faithfully served the mammon of unrighteous
ness. He succeeded because of, and not in spite of, his moral short
comings. " (Benton, p. 187.)
HARRISON : ]
TAYLOR: I " Small Presidents," (Benton, p. 292).
FILLMORE: j
TYLER : "He has been called a mediocre man ; but this is un
warranted flattery. He was a politician of monumental littleness.
His chief mental and moral attributes were peevishness, fretful
obstinacy, inconsistency," etc. (Benton, p. 239).
POLK : ' ' Excepting Tyler, the very smallest of the line of small
Presidents who came in between Jackson and Lincoln," (Benton,
p. 292).
PIERCE: " Small politician, of low capacity and mean sur
roundings," (Benton, p. 345).
BUCHANAN : One of the " Small Presidents," (Benton, p. 292).

CONTEMPT FOR MANY OTHERS.
CONGRESS :
" Just at this moment Congress, in Washington, seems
to have made up its mind that having provided for the fact
that we must take care of the Philippines and of Cuba, there is not
to be any army with which to take care of it, and that the armed
resistance is to be made by proclamation. Well, it is a little soul-
harrowing to have to deal with cattle who take that view of the
responsibility of the nation."
— Speech as Governor of New York before Syracuse Chamber
of Commerce, 1899.
NEW YORK:
"New York has always had a low political standard, one or the
other of its great parties and factional organizations, and often
both or all of them, being at all times most unlovely bodies of ex
cessively unwholesome moral tone." — Life of Benton, p. 81.
THE QUAKERS:
" A class of professional noncombatants is as hurtful to the
real healthy growth of a nation as is a class of fire eaters, for a
weakness or folly is nationally as bad as a vice or worse, and in the
long run A QUAKER MAY BE QUITE AS UNDESIRABLE A
CITIZEN AS IS A DUELIST." — Life of Benton, p. 37.
LABORING MEN :
' ' They [the cowboys] are much better fellows and pleasanter
companions than small farmers or agricultural laborers; nor are
the mechanics and workmen of a great city to be mentioned in the
same breath." — Ranch Life and Hunting Trail, p. 10.
THE " TIMID GOOD :'*
"Now, however refined and virtuous a man may be, he is yet en
tirely out of place in the American body-politic unless he is himself
of sufficiently coarse fiber and virile character to be more angered
than hurt by an insult or injury; THE TIMID GOOD FORM
A MOST USELESS AS WELL AS A MOST DESPICABLE
PORTION OF THE COMMUNITY."
— American Ideals, p. 188 (Sagamore Edition.)

YALE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY

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MORE TERSE THOUGHTS.
" GOOD " LYNCH LAW :
" In many of the cases of lynch law which have come to my
knowledge the, effect has been healthy for the community  "
—The Winning of the West, vol. 1, p. 132.
ALL SELFISH :
" A merchant or manufacturer works his business, as a rule,
purely for his own benefit, without any regard whatever for the
community at large. ' '
— Essay on ' ' Machine Politics ' ' in American Ideals, p. 100.
OPPOSES PROTECTION:
" Political economists have pretty generally agreed that pro
tection is vicious in theory and harmful in practice."
— Thomas H. Benton, p. 67.
AMERICA AN INTERNATIONAL CONSTABLE :
' ' Any country whose people conduct themselves well can count
upon our hearty friendliness. If a nation shows that it knows how
to act with decency in industrial and political matters, if it keeps
order and pays its obligations, then it need fear no interference
from the United States. ' '
—Letter to the Cuban Dinner, May 20, 1904.
"SOUND POLICY" FOR A NATION:
' ' In old days, when I first came to Little Missouri, there was a
motto on the range : ' Never draw unless you mean to shoot. ' That
is a pretty sound policy for a nation in foreign affairs. ' '
—Speech at Tacoma, Wash., May 22, 1903.
CARRY A "BIG STICK":
' ' There is a homely old adage which runs : ' Speak softly and
carry a BIG STICK ; you will go far. ' If the American nation will
speak softly and yet build and keep at a pitch of the highest training
a thoroughly efficient navy, the Monroe doctrine will go far."
— Speech at Chicago, April 2, 1902.
NO PERMANENT PEACE WANTED :
" If we ever grow to regard peace as a permanent condition,
and feel that we can afford to let the keen, fearless, virile qualities
of heart and mind and body sink into disuse, we will prepare the
way for inevitable and shameful disaster in the future. * * *
The peace which breeds timidity and sloth is a curse and not a
lessing." —Speech before Republican Club, New York City, February
899.