The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1918-08-01
Roosevelt |: M an Of Destiny.

bounds which have punctured Mr..
Roosevelt's political career at crucial
moments mo he is again at the front, the
l1ndisputed leader Of the Republican
party and the idol of the aggressive,
red -blooded Americanism of the coun-
try. And that, too, at a time when
this same spirit which he ever has
typifed is dominant and stirred to It's
depths as it never has been before
since the days when the existence Of
the nation hung in the balance on the
battlefields of the civil war.
When Mr.. Roosevelt stepped on the
platform of the Saratoga convention
under the pail Of that tragedy which
had just darkened his home, not only
his own party but the people Of the.
entire state, and Of the entire country
for that matter, we're fairly swept off
their feet in the great wave Of sympa-
thy and admiration that went out to.
him. The very character Of the trag-
edy itself threw calcium light blaze
upon those qualities of virile Ameri-
canism and lion-hearted courage with
which throughout all the United States
he has so long been identified in the
public mind, and for which the Ameri-
can people have been drawn to him in
an enthusiasm of hero worship hardly
matched in our political history. Not
q 1o% 10 Il III o~>t
know that if Quentin Roosevelt must
die there was no way in which his
father would rather have him die than
the way he did die his fighting face
turned to the last towards the enemy;
laying down his young life in defense
of his country's honor; not person
who did not know that however bitter
Mr.. Roosevelt's grief might be, it
found consolation in the noble death
of the son who was so dear to him.
And knowing all this, as those in that
convention did know it, as the people
of the whole country knew it, Mr..
Roosevelt at that moment stood at the
supreme dramatic climax Of his
astoundingly spectacular career. All
the prejudices, all the antagonisms,
all the bitter enmities which he had
left in such profusion in the wake of
his masterful, aggressive political life
vanished as, by magic in the sweep Of
that moments overpowering emotion.
And it was all an accident; series
of accidents. The convention itself,
which was not convention, was an
accident, the curious product of coun-
ter currents and internal contentious.
And the gallant death of as gallant a
young soldier as ever wore the Ameri-
can uniform, that sad occurrence, too,
coming as it did at precisely the
psychological moment to make Mr..
Roosevelt's grip on the hearts of his
countrymen stronger than ever before
that, also, was an accident.
In this instance as in the tragedy
at Buffalo, as in the attempt to assas-
sinate Mr.. Roosevelt himself at
critical moment in one Of his political
campaigns, the overwhelming drama
of some tragic event has ever appeared
as by the decree Of destiny itself, to
come at just the moment to lift him
up as Fortunes own child and to rivet
his hold on the hearts Of Americans
everywhere.
Barring death, or disability, what is
there and who is there to block his way
to any honor and high responsibility
within the gift Of the American peo
pie? And to whom else, in this hour
in our history calling for all that is
most courageous and inflexibly un-
wavering in purpose, are the eyes Of
the American people turning as their
logical, inevitable leader as they
are turning at this moment to-
wards Theodore Roosevelt? We do
not say this is as it should be.
We do not comment upon it either one
way or the other. We simply record
a fact-one more Of the many annaZ-
ling facts in this extraordinary mans
public career. Beloved by his party;
hated by his party. His party's idol;
his party's anathema. One wing Of
his party adoring him, and another
wing sworn to have his political life.
The wrecker Of his party and now,
forsooth, the one man apparently on
whom the reuniting Of his party and
the breathing into it Of a new vitality
and new career Of victory seems to
depend! Surely nothing in all the in.
tricate complexities Of political adj
venture in the United States has any
thing to match so paradoxical a career
as this. North American Reviews
War Weekly.