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Authors: James MacGregor Burns
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I do know that he hasn’t represented you.” In general, however, his speeches were earnest and plain spoken rather than eloquent.
Actually, not platform oratory but talking with people face to face was the main job in a local campaign. Talk Roosevelt did—to teamsters passing on the road, to men idling in stores, to farmers picking apples and husking corn. Roosevelt was on the road long hours every day. “I think I worked harder with him than I ever have in my life,” said a companion many years later. As he campaigned the quick smile and handshake became automatic. “Call me Franklin—I’m going to call you Tom,” he said to an astonished house painter. Touring with experienced Democratic politicians who knew voters by name in every locality helped Rooseveltconsiderably; despite his nonpartisanship he leaned heavily on his Democratic fellow candidates, who knew hundreds of voters in the district. It was no one-man campaign.
The opposition at the beginning made the fatal mistake of discounting the twenty-eight-year-old candidate’s chances. A Republican newspaper doubted that Schlosser would be “greatly disturbed.” Too late the Republicans sensed the drift of affairs. At the last minute an opposition newspaper played up Roosevelt’s connection with a New York firm of lawyers “for some of the great trusts which are being prosecuted by President Taft’s administration.…” This was a clumsy move, for it simply strengthened Roosevelt’s position with Republicans as a Democrat not tainted with Bryanism.
Roosevelt gave his final talk in Hyde Park. After paying tribute to his home town, he expressed his wish to follow in his father’s footsteps by keeping in close touch with Hyde Park affairs. He denounced Schlosser once more for being “a member of that little ring of Republican politicians who have done so much to prevent progress and good government.” The issues remained the same—honesty and economy in the state government.
Election Day in November 1910 was cold and wet. The returns came in slowly, but the trend soon became clear. Roosevelt defeated Schlosser 15,708 to 14,568, a plurality of 1,140. He won Hyde Park by 406 to 258, Dutchess County by a margin of 850, Columbia County by 469, and lost Putnam County by 179. His victory was part of a national trend. Democrats won almost three-fifths of the seats in the national House of Representatives, the governorship and both houses of the legislature in New York. Woodrow Wilson won in New Jersey. Tally sheets across the nation showed the results of a decade of protest: a tidal wave against Taft, a trend toward the Democrats.
Was Roosevelt merely a chip on this wave? Certainly to some extent. But his victory cannot be explained simply in terms of a lucky year. He ran in his district nearly 700 votes ahead of John A. Dix, the Democratic candidate for governor. To be sure, Dix’s opponent, Henry L. Stimson, was more formidable than Schlosser, but Roosevelt also ran generally ahead of the Democratic candidates for assembly in his district. An important reason for this margin was his nonpartisan strategy, which had clearly paid off. It seems likely that Roosevelt would have won by a thin majority in any “average” year.
But the senator-elect probably spent little time on such speculation. It was enough that he had won. He rented a large, expensive house in Albany, conveniently near the capitol. At the end of the year 1910 he moved there with his wife and family. For a youngman not yet twenty-nine, he had a large establishment. Following his first child, Anna, two sons had been born: James in December 1907 and Elliott in September 1910. There was the usual retinue of nurses and servants. Eleanor was still weighted down with family worries: James had a heart murmur and had to be carried up steps; she had a wet nurse for the infant Elliott, and she went through agonies of fear that the wet nurse’s own baby would suffer when the mother went with the
Actually, not platform oratory but talking with people face to face was the main job in a local campaign. Talk Roosevelt did—to teamsters passing on the road, to men idling in stores, to farmers picking apples and husking corn. Roosevelt was on the road long hours every day. “I think I worked harder with him than I ever have in my life,” said a companion many years later. As he campaigned the quick smile and handshake became automatic. “Call me Franklin—I’m going to call you Tom,” he said to an astonished house painter. Touring with experienced Democratic politicians who knew voters by name in every locality helped Rooseveltconsiderably; despite his nonpartisanship he leaned heavily on his Democratic fellow candidates, who knew hundreds of voters in the district. It was no one-man campaign.
The opposition at the beginning made the fatal mistake of discounting the twenty-eight-year-old candidate’s chances. A Republican newspaper doubted that Schlosser would be “greatly disturbed.” Too late the Republicans sensed the drift of affairs. At the last minute an opposition newspaper played up Roosevelt’s connection with a New York firm of lawyers “for some of the great trusts which are being prosecuted by President Taft’s administration.…” This was a clumsy move, for it simply strengthened Roosevelt’s position with Republicans as a Democrat not tainted with Bryanism.
Roosevelt gave his final talk in Hyde Park. After paying tribute to his home town, he expressed his wish to follow in his father’s footsteps by keeping in close touch with Hyde Park affairs. He denounced Schlosser once more for being “a member of that little ring of Republican politicians who have done so much to prevent progress and good government.” The issues remained the same—honesty and economy in the state government.
Election Day in November 1910 was cold and wet. The returns came in slowly, but the trend soon became clear. Roosevelt defeated Schlosser 15,708 to 14,568, a plurality of 1,140. He won Hyde Park by 406 to 258, Dutchess County by a margin of 850, Columbia County by 469, and lost Putnam County by 179. His victory was part of a national trend. Democrats won almost three-fifths of the seats in the national House of Representatives, the governorship and both houses of the legislature in New York. Woodrow Wilson won in New Jersey. Tally sheets across the nation showed the results of a decade of protest: a tidal wave against Taft, a trend toward the Democrats.
Was Roosevelt merely a chip on this wave? Certainly to some extent. But his victory cannot be explained simply in terms of a lucky year. He ran in his district nearly 700 votes ahead of John A. Dix, the Democratic candidate for governor. To be sure, Dix’s opponent, Henry L. Stimson, was more formidable than Schlosser, but Roosevelt also ran generally ahead of the Democratic candidates for assembly in his district. An important reason for this margin was his nonpartisan strategy, which had clearly paid off. It seems likely that Roosevelt would have won by a thin majority in any “average” year.
But the senator-elect probably spent little time on such speculation. It was enough that he had won. He rented a large, expensive house in Albany, conveniently near the capitol. At the end of the year 1910 he moved there with his wife and family. For a youngman not yet twenty-nine, he had a large establishment. Following his first child, Anna, two sons had been born: James in December 1907 and Elliott in September 1910. There was the usual retinue of nurses and servants. Eleanor was still weighted down with family worries: James had a heart murmur and had to be carried up steps; she had a wet nurse for the infant Elliott, and she went through agonies of fear that the wet nurse’s own baby would suffer when the mother went with the
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