Secretary of State, to Mr. Henry White, at the American Embassy
in London, reveals the attitude towards Roosevelt of the
Administration itself. Allowance must be made, of course, for
Hay's well-known habit of persiflage:

HAY TO HENRY WHITE

Teddy has been here: have you heard of it? It was more fun than a
goat. He came down with a sombre resolution thrown on his
strenuous brow to let McKinley and Hanna know once for all that
he would not be Vice-President, and found to his stupefaction
that nobody in Washington, except Platt, had ever dreamed of such
a thing. He did not even have a chance to launch his nolo
episcopari at the Major. That statesman said he did not want him
on the ticket--that he would be far more valuable in New York--
and Root said, with his frank and murderous smile, "Of course
not--you're not fit for it." And so he went back quite eased in
his mind, but considerably bruised in his amour propre.

In February, Roosevelt issued a public notice that he would not
consent to run for the Vice-Presidency, and throughout the
spring, until the meeting of the Republican Convention in
Philadelphia, on June 21st, he clung to that determination.
Platt, anxious lest Roosevelt should be reelected Governor
against the plans of the Machine, quietly--worked up a "boom" for
Roosevelt's nomination as Vice-President; and he connived with
Quay to steer the Pennsylvania delegation in the same direction.
The delegates met and renominated McKinley as a matter of course.
Then, with irresistible pressure, they insisted on nominating
Roosevelt. Swept off his feet, and convinced that the demand came