lic interest. In short, he wanted a frank definition of
Roosevelt's attitude towards existing party conditions. He got precisely
that. Here it is, in Roosevelt's own words:

"I replied that I should like to be nominated, and if nominated would
promise to throw myself into the campaign with all possible energy.
I said that I should not make war on Mr. Platt or anybody else if
war could be avoided; that what I wanted was to be Governor and not a
faction leader; that I certainly would confer with the organization
men, as with everybody else who seemed to me to have knowledge of
and interest in public affairs, and that as to Mr. Platt and the
organization leaders, I would do so in the sincere hope that there might
always result harmony of opinion and purpose; but that while I would try
to get on well with the organization, the organization must with equal
sincerity strive to do what I regarded as essential for the public good;
and that in every case, after full consideration of what everybody had
to say who might possess real knowledge of the matter, I should have to
act finally as my own judgment and conscience dictated and administer
the State government as I thought it ought to be administered.... I told
him to tell the Senator that while I would talk freely with him, and
had no intention of becoming a factional leader with a personal
organization, yet I must have direct personal relations with everybody,
and get their views at first hand whenever I so desired, because I could
not have one man speaking for all." *

*Autobiography (Scribner), pp. 271-72.

This was straight Roosevelt talk. It was probably the first time that
the "easy boss" had received such a response to his overtures. History
does not record how he liked it; but at least he accepted it. Subsequent
events suggest that he was either unwilling to believe or incapable of
understanding that the Colonel of the Rough Riders meant precisely what
he said. But Platt found out his mistake. He was not the first or the
last politician to have that experience.

So Roosevelt was nominated, made a gruelling campaign, was elected by
a small but sufficient majority, in a year when any other Republican
candidate would probably have been "snowed under," and became Governor
seventeen years after he entered public life. He was now forty years
old.

The governorship of Theodore Roosevelt was marked by a deal of fine
constructive legislation and administration. But it