Page:The autobiography of a Pennsylvanian.djvu/495

 throw the weight of the Civil Service Reform Association on the side of Cleveland, I answered him in a letter circulated over the country. Roosevelt was also in favor of Blaine and we had some correspondence which are still among my letters.

We touched again later in a more important way, though he probably never knew of the fact.

In the Philadelphia National Convention of 1900 there was a struggle for the mastery between Mr. Hanna, supported by the national administration, upon the one hand, and Mr. Quay and Mr. Platt, on the other. Hanna had selected a candidate for the vice presidency. It is a fact well-known in Pennsylvania public life that Mr. Quay not only had a fondness for me, but he had confidence in my judgment. I told him at that time that the man for the occasion was Roosevelt, and I have ever felt since that I was a factor in this fateful turn in the fortunes of the President. At all events, Quay and Platt had him nominated and balked Hanna. When McKinley died and Roosevelt became the President, my feeling toward him was one of enthusiastic and hopeful approval, due, no doubt, largely to a sense of some personal association and to the fact that I was pleased to see a man of Dutch descent reach a station so exalted. I gave expression to this feeling to Mr. Quay. The only comment of that wise observer of men was:

“I hope he will be discreet.”

In the fall of 1903 the provost of the University of Pennsylvania came to me to ask me to secure the presence of Mr. Roosevelt at the Academy of Music on the following 22d of February to deliver the annual address before that institution of learning. At the time I was very much occupied with the affairs of the commonwealth, but the welfare of the University ever appealed to me and I promised to make the effort. Mr. Quay, upon whom Mr. Roosevelt then much depended, arranged for an interview. On the day appointed, I went to Washington and Mr. Quay took Rh