Platt, anxious lest Roosevelt should be reelected Governor
against the plans of the Machine, quietly--worked up a "boom" for
Roosevelt's nomination as Vice-President; and he connived with
Quay to steer the Pennsylvania delegation in the same direction.
The delegates met and renominated McKinley as a matter of course.
Then, with irresistible pressure, they insisted on nominating
Roosevelt. Swept off his feet, and convinced that the demand came
genuinely from representatives from all over the country, he
accepted, and was chosen by acclamation. The Boss-led delegations
from New York and Pennsylvania added their votes to those of the
real Roosevelt enthusiasts.
Happy, pious Tom Platt, relieved from the nightmare of having to
struggle for two years more with a Reform Governor at Albany!
Some of Roosevelt's critics construed his yielding, at the last
moment, as evidence of his being ruled by Platt after all. But
this insinuation collapsed as soon as the facts were known. As an
episode in the annals of political sport, I should like to have
had Roosevelt run for Governor a second time, defy Platt and all
his imps, and be reelected.
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