Teddy Roosevelt

By President Roosevelt's last year in the White House, he had long grown tired of requests to sit to photographers and portrait painters. Only as a favor to an old friend from England, Arthur Lee, did he agree to sit for a portrait by the accomplished Hungarian born artist, Philip A. de Laszlo.

The sittings took place in the spring of 1908, about which Roosevelt reported enthusiastically to Lee. "I took a great fancy to Laszlo himself," he wrote, "and it is the only picture which I really enjoyed having painted." Laszlo encouraged the President to invite guests to the sittings to keep Roosevelt entertained. "And if there weren't any visitors," said

Roosevelt, "I would get Mrs. Laszlo, who is a trump, to play the violin on the other side of the screen." When the painting was finished, Roosevelt said that he liked it "better than any other."

Ten years later, however, Roosevelt expressed a preference for Sargent's portrait, done in 1903, which he thought had "a singular quality, a blend of both the spiritual and the heroic." Still he thought that Mrs. Roosevelt favored Laszlo's more relaxed image, a trademark of the artist's ingratiating style.

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Three weeks after Theodore Roosevelt left the White House in March 1909, he embarked with his son, Kermit, upon an African safari, lasting nearly a year. He had always wanted to hunt the big game of Africa, but he also wanted his expedition to be as scientific as possible. With this in mind, he invited the Smithsonian Institution to take part, and promised to give the Institution significant animal trophies, representing dozens of new species for its collections. Roosevelt himself made extensive scientific notes about his African expedition. For instance, he was keenly interested in the flora of Africa, and recorded the dietary habits of the animals he killed after examining the contents of their stomachs.

While on safari, Roosevelt wrote extensively about his African adventure.

Scribner's magazine was paying him $50,000 for a series of articles, that appeared in 1910 as a book, African Game Trails. This photograph of

Roosevelt with a bull elephant was used as an illustration.

In March 1910, Roosevelt ended his eleven month African safari and, reunited with his wife, embarked on an extended tour of Europe. He accepted many invitations from national sovereigns and gave much anticipated lectures at the Sorbonne in Paris and at Oxford University in England. In

Norway, he delivered finally his formal acceptance speech for having won the Nobel Peace Prize four years earlier. "I am received everywhere," he wrote, "with as much wild enthusiasm as if I were on a Presidential tour at home."

This cover of Harper's Weekly, June 18, 1910, was one of numerous graphic commentaries celebrating Roosevelt's return to the United States.

Supreme Court Justice David J. Brewer used to jest that William Howard Taft was the politest man in Washington, because he was perfectly capable of giving up his seat on a streetcar to three ladies. Taft's amicable disposition it was said that his laugh was one of the "great American institutions" was the foremost quality that won Roosevelt's admiration. "I think he has the most lovable personality I have ever come in contact with," said Roosevelt. As governor general of the Philippines and then as secretary of war, Taft proved to be a troubleshooter in Roosevelt's cabinet. His longtime ambition had been to someday sit with Justice Brewer on the bench of the Supreme Court. Taft would ultimately succeed to the

Court, but not before Roosevelt pegged him to be his successor. "Taft will carry on the work substantially as I have carried it on," predictedRoosevelt. "His policies, principles, purposes and ideals are the same as mine." Yet when Taft later proved to be his own person, Roosevelt was distraught. Taft failed to convey the spirit of progressivism to which

Roosevelt was ever leaning. "There is no use trying to be William Howard

Taft with Roosevelt's ways," he bemoaned, "our ways are different."

Coaxed by his political admirers, and personally dissatisfied with what he considered to be President Taft's lack of leadership, Roosevelt announced early in 1912 that he would run for a historic third presidential term, if the GOP nomination were tendered to him. This was a monumental decision on his part, one he made contrary to his own established beliefs in the tradition of party loyalty, and without the full backing of party leaders.

Roosevelt was counting on winning the support of the people, and was successful in those states that had direct primaries. But in June, at the

Republican convention in Chicago, the party machine wrested control of the proceedings and nominated President Taft easily after the Roosevelt delegates had walked out. This was the start of the Progressive Party, in which Roosevelt proudly accepted the nomination. The press was especially happy to have him back in the running. From the moment he declared, "My hat is in the ring," he became the most visible, if not viable, candidate.

Ultimately, Roosevelt would beat Taft in the election, but he would lose to the Democratic candidate, Woodrow Wilson. This cover of Judge, August 6,