"I can't help feeling more and more that the VicePresidency is
not an office in which I could do anything and not an office in
which a man who is still vigorous and not past middle life has
much chance of doing anything . . . . Now, I should like to be
Governor for another term, especially if we are able to take hold
of the canals in serious shape. But, as Vice-President, I don't
see there is anything I can do. I would be simply a presiding
officer, and that I should find a bore."

Now Mr. Platt knew that nothing but "sidetracking" could stop
another nomination of Roosevelt for the Governorship, and this
Rough Rider was a thorn in his flesh. So he went on his
subterranean way to have him nominated for the most innocuous
political berth in the gift of the American people. He secured
the cooperation of Senator Quay of Pennsylvania and another boss
or two of the same indelible stripe; but all their political
strength would not have accomplished the desired result without
assistance from quite a different source. Roosevelt had already
achieved great popularity in the Middle and the Far West for the
very reasons which made Mr. Platt want him out of the way. So,
while the New York boss and his acquiescent delegates were
stopped from presenting his name to the convention by
Roosevelt's assurance that he would fight a l'outrance any
movement from his own State to nominate him, other delegates took
matters into their own hands and the nomination was finally made
unanimously.

Roosevelt gave great strength to the Republican ticket in the
campaign which followed. William Jennings Bryan was again the