When Cavour was
assembling all the elements in Italy to undertake the great
struggle for Italian liberty and independence, he adroitly
secured the cooperation of Garibaldi and his followers, although
Garibaldi had declared himself the personal enemy of Cavour.
Personal enemy or not, Cavour would have him as a symbol, and
Garibaldi's concurrence proved of immense value to Italy. So
would that of Roosevelt have proved to the Allies if he had been
officially accredited by President Wilson. But Cavour was a
statesman, who looked far ahead, a patriot uninfluenced by
personal likes and dislikes. Roosevelt felt his own deprivation
mightily, but the shutting-out of General Leonard Wood roused his
anger--all injustice roused his anger. As the motive for General
Wood's exclusion was not frankly avowed, the public naturally
drew its own inferences. To him, more than to any other American,
we owed what little preparation for war existed when we entered
the war. He founded the Plattsburg Camp; he preached very
solemnly our needs and our dangers; and he did these things at
the very period when President Wilson was assuring the country
that we ought not to think of preparing.
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