Elihu Root Quotes
…this duty lies in your path and that you ought to undertake it. If defeated, so much the better for you personally; if victorious, the greatest opportunity in the American struggle for self-government except that afforded by the Presidency will lie at your hands.
Stimson had been asked by party leaders to run for Governor of New York. He sought advice from his old colleagues of the Theodore Roosevelt Administration. This quotation illustrates two interesting things. First, that the governor of the State of New York was considered by most as the second most powerful public position in the nation. Second, like Roosevelt himself, Stimson was from a very wealthy family and was also an accomplished attorney. Prior to Roosevelt, men of this class had not entered politics for many generations. When route told him that if he were defeated “ so much the better for you personally” he was not referring to the fact that Stimson could make much more money which he could but to the fact that he would not have the hard work, hassle and aggravation of public life.
Elihu Root, 1845-1937, U. S. Secretary of War & U. S. Secretary of State, U. S. Senator (Republican, NY), Nobel Laureate in Peace, Letter to Henry L. Stimson, September 18, 1909
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Later, Eisenhower changed his mind and ran for the Republican Presidential Nomination. Truman, who had always been a strong Eisenhower enthusiast, felt that Eisenhower had lied to him and was distrustful of the General ever after.
Stimson had been a key member of the Theodore Roosevelt national administration, and Roosevelt, before he became Vice President and then President had been a very popular governor of NY. Stimson, although a brilliant administrator, and statesman was a bit stuffy and aloof and was a terrible campaigner. He thought it immodest to refer to himself in public or to talk about his record. See {589269}. So the Republicans tried to tie him to Roosevelt who was still very popular. See {589268}. It was not enough. Stimson lost.
See Charles James Fox, John Milton, Jeremy Bentham, George Mason, Henry Clay, Benjamin Disraeli and Woodrow Wilson for similar expressions of this idea.
Elihu Root was an American lawyer and statesman who served as Secretary of State under President Theodore Roosevelt and as Secretary of War under Roosevelt and President William McKinley. He moved frequently between high-level appointed government positions in Washington, D.C. and private-sector legal practice in New York City. For that reason, he is sometimes considered to be the prototype of the 20th century political "wise man", advising presidents on a range of foreign and domestic issues. He was elected by the state legislature as a U.S. Senator from New York and served one term, 1909–1915. Root was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1912.
