“. . . the whole nation recognizes it as the good providence of God that such a man should take the chair and assume the duties of the man who was a martyr in that cause.”

“Thus while the people of the United States have lost one highly esteemed public servant they see him replaced by another whose character and experience justify the belief that he will in every way be a worthy successor to President McKinley. President Roosevelt’s courage has never been questioned; good administration is with him a passion; he has preached it and enforced it throughout his public life.”

“. . . it is certain that under Mr. Roosevelt we shall all lead the “strenuous life” that lifts nations from higher to higher spheres of influence and success.”

“He has written history and has helped to make history, and his honesty, patriotism, admirable abilities, earnestness and singleness of purpose seem to justify the high hopes held by his fellow countrymen, of all shades of opinion, that President Roosevelt’s Administration will enroll his name with the strong, serious statesmen who deserve the gratitude of the nation.”

“A gentleman in the best sense of a much-abused word; a man of honor upon whose reputation, in spite of the bitterest criticism, not a shadow rests; a man of proven courage, Mr. Roosevelt will continue in the Presidency the very highest traditions of integrity and independence which are associated with the place.”

“. . . like President McKinley, he recognises the will of the people, and undertakes to carry it out thoroughly. He may, perhaps, bring somewhat more zeal to the task. That is the only difference that is likely to be apparent.”

“In truth, however, there are no real grounds for believing that President Roosevelt is Imperialist in the sense that he would adopt an aggressive policy. That he will maintain the honour and the interests of the United States very firmly, if anybody is so ill-advised as to challenge them, is beyond all question. But that he will refuse to respect the honour and the interests of other States there is nothing in his past life to suggest.”

“Our first duty in this crisis is to give to [McKinley’s] successor under the Constitution our loyal support, in the hope and belief that power will impress him, as it has many great characters known to history, and keep him in the path of his good and great predecessor.”

“We need not fear but that the government of the country will be wisely administered under his leadership.”

“Whether Mr. Roosevelt, who has a reputation for enjoying personal encounters with bears and mountain lions as well as with Spaniards, will have the moral courage and appreciation of his public duty to protect the lives of himself and his successors by refusing, while holding the office of President, to submit to close and intimate personal contact with hordes of unvouched-for strangers, even if presumably friendly, is a matter of vital importance to all admirers of republican institutions.”

“President Roosevelt, promptly anticipating the resignation of the members of the McKinley Cabinet, has induced them to remain in office throughout his term. This is Mr. Roosevelt’s way of confirming the promise he made at Buffalo that he would carry out the policy of his predecessor. In no other way could he have emphasized it so fully and satisfactorily. In no other way could he so happily have met the public desires, or have conveyed to the world the assurance that the assassin’s bullet had produced no change in public aims and administration. It cannot be assumed that President Roosevelt has no initiative of his own, since his whole career has bristled with it. Indeed, the apprehension which assailed the public mind momentarily, when Mr. McKinley was struck down, was that the Vice-President had too much initiative, and that he would probably hasten to substitute new policies in place of those already in operation. All such fears are wisely dispelled. The business world and the thinking world are alike convinced that, although all hearts are wounded, no wound has befallen the republic.”

“President Roosevelt has often been charged, in the course of his remarkable public career, with a tendency to immoderation in speech and impulsiveness in conduct. But his severest critics can have no fault to find with him in the trying and delicate situation in which he has recently been placed. From the moment that he was first apprised of the foul deed at Buffalo, Mr. Roosevelt has conducted himself in a manly, dignified, and characteristically straightforward way. His discretion has been equaled only by his kindness and sympathy.”

“The business world as well as the political has the highest confidence in the ability, the integrity and the patriotism of President Roosevelt.”

“Out in the open of Western life, of service as Civil Service Commissioner, as Police Commissioner of the city and Governor of the State of New York, as soldier and as fighter, he has lived his brief and brilliant life, transparent as a crystal in its honesty and energy, before the eyes of all our people. Eager, impetuous, impulsive, intense, untiring, unguarded, it would be strange if there were not faults and flaws that men could find which are the defects of his virtues. But, be he what he may and think of him what you will, he has been called of God to be the ruler of this people, only indirectly by the popular vote, and in no Christian sense at all by accident, but with the most intense solemnity of circumstance.”

“In spite of what his enemies have said of him, it cannot be denied that Theodore Roosevelt possesses many conspicuous qualifications for the exalted place to which he has now been so unexpectedly called. His absolute integrity and fearlessness, his keen, clear judgment of men and measures, his implacable hatred of chicanery and dishonesty, and his remarkable literary attainments—surely these are worth something in a man called to exercise the powers of chief executive of the nation.”

“. . . it would be absurd to try to offer any comfort to those persons who have professed to feel some anxiety lest Mr. Roosevelt’s well-known diligence and energy in doing his duty might somehow prove disadvantageous to the country. It is simply enough to say that President Roosevelt is a man who acts with great vigor and courage, but not with what is called impulsiveness.”

“No man since George Washington has come into the Presidential chair so absolutely free from personal claims of any kind upon him as has Mr. Roosevelt.”

“His career has been picturesquely American.”

“There can be no denying . . . that the man who now occupies the presidential chair possesses in many ways the strongest individuality of any man who has occupied that chair since the time of Lincoln.”

“We who have lived to witness the third [presidential assassination] have especial reason to be grateful that a man so stamped with every quality of fitness for his high office, so tried and faithful, and withal so young and abounding in the vigor of robust manhood, has succeeded William McKinley.”

“The Republic has no citizen of a more courageous patriotism than Theodore Roosevelt.”

“. . . he is the most interesting figure in our public life.”

“The young President gives every sign of being old for his years, discreet, conservative and sound of heart. The Presidency in time past has sometimes wonderfully rounded out and perfected character. Its burdens have strengthened and purified most good men who have borne them. They are consecrating burdens to any man who has possibilities of consecration in him, and Roosevelt has such possibilities in abundance. Every one’s hopes for him are high. Every one’s wishes are for his success. The prayers of the prayerful are going up for him everywhere.”

“‘The atrocious crime of being a young man’ is one which must be imputed to President McKinley’s successor.”

“The office of President Roosevelt is to him doubly a trust—a trust from the people and a trust from the man whose political executor, in a sense, he has becomingly recognized himself to be.”

Not in the flush of triumph, the pride of victory won,
Not ’mid applauding millions that claim thee for their own,
Not with pomp and glory, dost thou come to the crownless throne,
                 Roosevelt, Roosevelt.

                                           For him we pray:
Give him such wisdom swift and keen
     He shall restore us Yesterday!

“It is apparent to the least observant that the personality of our new President is widely different from that of his predecessor. His habits of mind and of speech, his method of reasoning and of forming conclusions, and above all the temper in which he deals with opposition are quite foreign to our conceptions of William McKinley.”

“The accession of President Roosevelt to the chief seat in our nation, as the sequel of the terrible tragedy that placed the responsibility of this high place, with all its solemnities, upon him, seems to have united our people, with one mind to rally to his support. . . .”

“In the Vice-Presidential office he was a veritable Pegasus hitched to a plow.”

“Roosevelt’s speeches strongly remind one of Teddy bears: they all look alike. Of course, the Strenuous One is always sure of an audience: man’s love of the circus is proverbial.”

“No one doubted the purity of his intentions, the honesty of his convictions, or his conscientious purpose to make good the loss sustained by the country, and to carry forward the policies advocated by his predecessor.”

“He expressed his own judgment of his success as a public man by saying that it was not due to any special gifts or genius, but to the fact that by patience and laborious persistence he had developed ordinary qualities to a more than ordinary degree.”

“. . . a young fellow of infinite dash and originality.”

“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.”