behind that was worth our losing him to get. This past winter,
for the first time, I heard the question spring up spontaneously,
as it seemed, when a measure was up in the Legislature 'Is it
right?' Not 'Is it expedient?' not 'How is it going to help me?'
not 'What is it worth to the party?' Not any of these, but 'Is it
right?' That is Roosevelt's legacy to Albany. And it was worth
his coming and his going to have that."



CHAPTER VI. ROOSEVELT BECOMES PRESIDENT

There was chance in Theodore Roosevelt's coming into the
Presidency as he did, but there was irony as well. An evil chance
dropped William McKinley before an assassin's bullet; but there
was a fitting irony in the fact that the man who must step into
his place had been put where he was in large measure by the very
men who would least like to see him become President.

The Republican convention of 1900 was a singularly unanimous
body. President McKinley was renominated without a murmur of
dissent. But there was no Vice-President to renominate, as Mr.
Hobart had died in office. There was no logical candidate for the
second place on the ticket. Senator Platt, however, had a man
whom he wanted to get rid of, since Governor Roosevelt had made
himself persona non grata alike to the machine politicians of his
State and to the corporations allied with them. The Governor,
however, did not propose to be disposed of so easily. His reasons
were characteristic. He wrote thus to Senator Platt about the
matter: