The Emergence of the Bull Moose

I. Sagamore Hill


A. Family life

1. Being a father--although his children were largely grown up by this time (the two youngest were of high school age), "retiring" from politics allowed Roosevelt to become reacquainted with this family.

a. In comparison with his own father, Roosevelt seems to have been less involved with the upbringing of his children. Whether this was because of the demands politics made on his time, the fact that his wife Edith was much more involved in the day-to-day management of her family than his mother had been, or a combination of these reasons, his children did not have the same self-confidence that he and his siblings shared.

b. Archie--like Roosevelt himself, Archie was a very sickly child. But Archie lacked the intellectual rigor that defined his father's childhood. Archie believed that his father thought him to be stupid--and Roosevelt did nothing to dispel that belief.

c. Alice--Alice was on her own at this stage, well into her unhappy marriage to Nicholas Longworth. Alice always felt shut off from her father, whose attention she craved. Despite this belief, Alice was fiercely loyal to Roosevelt--even to the defiance of her husband.

2. Edith's riding accident--while riding her horse Pine Knob with Roosevelt, the horse was frightened by a passing car, reared, and threw Edith, who landed heavily on the pavement, knocking her unconscious.

a. Coma--Edith remained unconscious for more than two days. and for weeks afterward she remained bed-ridden

b. Extended recovery period--for months afterward it was not clear how much of a recovery Edith would be able to make. After several set-backs, she was able to regain much of her function--although she did  suffer short-term memory loss afterward.

3. Roosevelt's reaction--during the most serious phase after Edith's accident, Roosevelt never left her side, staying up with her through the night, holding her hand. As she moved into recovery mode, however, his thoughts turned to his own mortality, and how he would be perceived by posterity--and he began to contemplate running for the Presidency again

B. Planning the campaign--the decision to seek the Republican nomination was not made overnight, but in several monumental steps.

1. The "People's Candidate"--Roosevelt was a much more popular candidate than William Howard Taft, who never really connected with people as a  populist candidate.

2. Outmaneuvered by Taft--Roosevelt was outmaneuvered at the 1912 Republican  convention by Taft and his supporters. Taft was able to use the powers of incumbency to place party member loyal to him on the credentials committee, who in turn decided which delegates would be seated, and which would not. In this way, Taft was able to get his supporters into the convention,  while excluding many of Roosevelt's supporters.

3. Taking over the Progressive Party--Roosevelt's popular appeal made him a more attractive candidate for the disaffected Republicans who had founded the Progressive Party.

a. Robert LaFollette--LaFollete had explored making a challenge from the Progressive wing of the Republican Party, and because he made this an open challenge (as opposed to Roosevelt, who vacillated on this issue), LaFollette gained the support of a number of like-minded people who were disappointed with Taft--including a number of Roosevelt supporters. LaFollette was hugely popular in his native Wisconsin, somewhat popular throughout the rest of the Midwest--and practically unknown in much  of  the rest of the country.

b. Soft support--LaFollette was leery of the strength of his support among the formers Roosevelt supporters--rightly, it turns out, since  they were among the first to call for LaFollette to drop out of the race when Roosevelt decided to "throw his hat into the ring" (another phrase that he coined).

c.LaFollette drops out--after meeting with Roosevelt, and finding him simpatico on a number of issues,  LaFollette agreed to end his  nomination campaign, and endorsed Roosevelt.