When Teddy Roosevelt Gave a Speech After Being Shot In Chest By Would Be Assassin October 15, 2010

If Not For The Case For The Spectacles of Teddy Roosevelt (like this set auctioned in 2005) the Name of John F. Schrank Might Be As Well Known as that of John Wilkes Booth

On This Date in History: Lost to much of the pages of history are attempted assassinations. (Here is a list of failed presidential assassinations) President Theodore Roosevelt in 1912 was a former President who was running to get his old job back. He had filled the term of the assassinated President McKinley and finished his own term in 1908. In deference to the precedent set by President Washington, Teddy Roosevelt decided against running in 1908, instead promoting his Vice-President William Howard Taft who won handily. Teddy was not happy with the way in which Taft ran things and decided to challenge him for the Republican nomination for the 1912 election but power interests in the party which had fared better with Taft than Roosevelt, backed Taft and Roosevelt did not get the Republican nomination at the 1912 Republican Convention. So, he formed his own party, the Progressive Party, which came to be known as the “Bull Moose Party” after TR’s tough-guy bull-moose image. Roosevelt ended up getting more votes than Taft but the pair split the Republican vote which led to the election of Woodrow Wilson as President.

While on the campaign trail prior to the election, on October 14, 1912, Theodore Roosevelt got into a car after dining at a hotel in Milwaukee. He was headed to give a speech. When he turned to wave to the crowd, a shot rang out from the .38 caliber revolver in the hand of John F. Schrank. Schrank, a Bavarian-born immigrant, had been stalking Roosevelt since at least September 1912 when he left New York in pursuit of his prey .  It was reported that the assailant felt that no one should get more than two terms as president and had also been having dreams of William McKinley.  His dream supposedly occured on the September 6 anniversary of the assassination of President William McKinley which vaulted the then young Vice-President Roosevelt into office.  His dream was said to have involved McKinley in a coffin.  McKinley suddenly sat up straight and pointed to Roosevelt who was dressed like a monk.  The dead president floating around Schrank’s head then said, “This is my murderer. Avenge my death!”  So. Schrank did his best to follow the orders of the ghost in his dream.  When Roosevelt turned to the crowd from his car, it opened up an opportunity for Schrank to shoot the candidate at close range.

Chest X-Ray of Teddy Roosevelt Shows Location of Bullet That Was Never Removed

The shot struck Roosevelt squarely in the chest. But, in his breast pocket, Teddy had the thick,  folded up 50-page text of his planned 90 minute speech.  It must have been some pocket because, in addition to the 4-dozen sheets of paper the pocket also contained a metal spectacle case.  The bullet was slowed by the eye-glasses case and the thick manuscript.  The bullet, however, entered his body but it did not penetrate his heart. Initially, Roosevelt did not realize that he had been shot.  Once he had discovered that he was indeed the victim of a gunshot wound he still insisted on giving his speech. Using his experience as an avid hunter as a guide, he reasoned that since he was not coughing up blood, then no major organs were damaged.  Roosevelt survived an assassination attempt and had not been assassinated so, when he arrived on the podium. Teddy proudly showed the crowd the hole in his speech and thundered, “ it would take more than that to kill a Bull Moose!”   While the speech (text of speech) was abbreviated, most accounts report that Mr. Roosevelt still spoke before the crowd for 80-90 minutes and rebuffed attempts to get him to conclude the speech so he could go to the hospital for attention.  

Mrs. Medill McCormick and TR daughter Alice Roosevelt Longwell Leaving Mercy Hospital Oct 15, 1912 After Visting the Original Bull Moose

Only after he concluded his speech did Roosevelt finally go to the hospital in Milwaukee and reluctantly allowed for a tetnus injection.  On This Date in 1912, the former president was in Chicago’s Mercy Hospital where he stayed for observation for 8 days. the bullet was found lodged in tissue such that it would be more dangerous to attempt its removal.  The slug remained in Roosevelt’s body for the rest of his life.  After making the determination that the bullet would stay where it was,  Teddy was  released  from Mercy Hospital on October 23.  Both Woodrow Wilson and William Howard Taft suspended their campaigns until Roosevelt was released but they were back on the campaign trail with  just a little more than a week before the election.  While his opponents were back on the stump, TR was prevented from making important campaign stops.  Some speculate that his absence from the campaign trail in the critical final days may have influenced the election results.  In any event, Roosevelt was unable to convince enough Republicans to swing his way and the GOP vote was split between he and Taft.  While he received 88 electoral votes to the sitting president’s 8, Wilson skated to victory with 435 votes from the Electoral College.  However, Wilson’s popular vote total was about 6.3 million while, collectively, Taft and Roosevelt collected 7.6 million votes.  

Schrank Lived His Lonely Final 31 Years in a Mental Hospital Only To See the 2 Term Tradition Broken By Teddy's Cousin

Wilson went on to be re-elected in 1916, again with less than a majority of the popular vote.  He took in 49.2% of the vote and became a two term president never to receive a majority of the popular vote by a narrow 277-254 electoral victory over his Republican opponent, Charles E. Hughes.  18 times in US presidential elections has the winner not received a majority of popular votes since the popular vote was first reliably recorded in 1824.  So, it’s not that unusual.  However, only Woodrow Wilson, Grover Cleveland and Bill Clinton served two terms and never received a majority of the popular vote.  For his part, Schrank was whisked away to a mental institution where he remained for the rest of his life.  Apparently, no one came to visit him. His health began to fail in 1940 shortly after he learned that Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the 5th cousin of Theodore Roosevelt, was going to run for a 3rd term as President of the United States. Schrank died at the Central State Mental Hospital in Waupun, Wisconson on September 16, 1943; about a year before FDR was elected to a 4th term.

When A President Secretly Had Part of His Jaw Removed July 1, 2010

Who Dares Do Battle with Grover?

On This date in History:  President Grover Cleveland was an interesting fellow.  He is the only person in history to have been elected president and serve two non-consecutive terms.  He is also the second heaviest president in history.  During one of his presidential campaigns, Cleveland was charged with having fathered a child out of wedlock.   While he wasn’t certain if the child was his, he took what was  perceived as the honest approach, acknowledged his paternal responsibility and was rewarded by being elected.  It makes one wonder what would happen if today’s candidates for office accepted the charges against them and continued their campaigns instead of denying charges or dropping out of the campaign.   His real first name was Stephen but discontinued its use   in a “search for something more sonorous and distinctive.”  As sheriff of Erie County, NY Grover Cleveland had Susan B. Anthony arrested for voting.   He was the first Democrat to be elected after the Civil War and served as both the 22nd and 24th president, having been defeated in between by Benjamin Harrison.  Curiously though, when he was considering a run to recapture the White House in 1892, he wrote: “Why should I have any desire or purpose to return to the Presidency? I do not want the office. It involves a responsibility beyond human strength to a man who brings conscience to the discharge of his duties.”  I suppose he must have answered his own question because he did run and did win.  During his second term, Cleveland attempted to root out any immigrants serving in the government. 

Cleveland Often Portrayed as Rotund

Throughout his life, Grover Cleveland battled against a number of challenges.  He had always been considered a chubby child so it must have been difficult when at age 18 he was treated for typhoid with starvation and bed rest.  He did recover from his near-death experience but he must have quickly returned to the dinner table because by the time he was in his 30′s his nieces and nephews called him “Uncle Jumbo.”   He apparently loved beer and developed a large “beer belly” to supplement his natural rotundness.  When he was a candidate for the position of District Attorney of Erie County, NY he was friends with his opponent.  They would meet each day to chat over beer.   They limited themselves to 4 glasses but it got pretty hot that summer so they decided to “anticipate” their future supply.  After a few days, his friend and opponent Lyman K. Bass said, “Grover, do you know we have anticipated the whole campaign?”  Dejectedly, Cleveland agreed.  So, the next night they remedied the problem for good when they each brought large tankards into the saloon, said that they were glasses and then presumably resumed the 4 glass limit.

"Uncle Jumbo" Can Be Found on the $1000 bill

In relation to the issue of his health, President Grover Cleveland pulled off one of the biggest cover-ups in Presidential History. The cigar chomping President was found to have cancer of the jaw in June 1893.   So, he created a cover story that he was going on a summer vacation at his summer home.   But really, he was on board his friend’s yacht, the Oneida, anchored in the East River in New York.  On this date in 1893, the 24th President of the United States had  part of his jaw removed and almost no one knew about it.   So secret was the surgery, not even his pregnant wife was told.  This was the woman whom he had agreed to care for as a child when his friend died.  After little Frances came of age, Cleveland married her!   I wondered in a previous post if his wife called him “Uncle Grover” but now I wonder if she called her husband “Uncle Jumbo.” Anyway, members of the cabinet and even the Vice-President were not told of the risky surgery. The public did not know that their President had been treated for cancer until 1917…Nine years following his death. Not only could Grover woo the little girl whom he was charged with caring for by his dead friend, he also knew how to keep a secret.  It seems to me that the foibles of Grover Cleveland make today’s politicians look tame in comparison.

Real Issue with Alex will be Inland Flooding

Weather Bottom Line:  It looks like I missed the landfall of Hurricane Alex by 10 miles.  Well, truth in advertising, I had surmised 5 days before landfall that it would get to Tampico and my revised notion was just 24 hours before landfall.  Anyway, it wasn’t too exciting though it did blossom late into a very impressive hurricane and I bet if it had lasted over water another 24 hours then it probably would have pushed 150 mph given its pressure at landfall of about 947 mb.  Anway, my point yesterday was that it was going to hit a very sparsely populated area and thus not be much of an effect.  However, it did provide a glimpse of what a tropical cyclone might do to the oil spill. I had thought that it would spread the oil around as we keep on hearing trumpted in the media.  But it also did what I thought was possible which is break up the oil…kinda nature’s dispersent.  I’m sure there will probably be at least another tropical cyclone of some intensity this season and they aren’t going to stop the oil flow anytime soon, so we’ll see what happens.

High to East By Saturday AM Will Bring Back Heat and Humidity

Alex got driven westward in the end as a big fat high settled down from the plains.  That high also brought us the nice break from the heat and humidity.   But, as the high drifts to our east, we will get on the backside and just as quickly as we got the drier cooler air in our area, it will draw back up the heat and humidity from the South.  So, enjoy the end of this week because this weekend will be a return to 90′s and dewpoints in the 70′s.