The Days of a Man 



1908 



weakness 



Roosevelt's which his friends most praised, and that which his 

 critics most decried were strangely mixed. In 

 my judgment strength and weakness sprang from 

 the same root, for he thought with his heart rather 

 than with his head. Though peculiarly fitted by 

 nature and training to form opinions, these were 

 always subordinated to feelings. Where emotion 

 ran contrary to reason, so much the worse for reason! 

 But when, as in most cases, reason and emotion 

 went hand in hand, he was an immense force for 

 good. 



That the precepts of righteousness are largely 

 self-evident was the basis of the common criticism 

 that Roosevelt dealt in platitudes. That he put 

 energy behind the demand for right in politics 

 explains the remark made to me by Thomas Brackett 

 Reed, "Roosevelt has discovered the Ten Command- 

 ments." He had, in fact, come to see that those 

 precepts apply to political life as well as to Sunday 

 School, and he emphasized his discovery with all 

 the strength of a powerful, elemental nature. 



The prey 



of 

 spoilsmen 



As already indicated, my first meeting with Roose- 

 velt arose out of our mutual interest in Civil Service 

 Reform, which seemed to us both the most pressing 

 issue then before the American people. For be- 

 ginning with the time of Andrew Jackson, down 

 through the Civil War and on to the administration 

 of Mr. Cleveland, the United States Civil Service 

 was the prey of spoilsmen, the different positions 

 being divided up among members of Congress who 

 assigned them to various henchmen without con- 



