McKINLEY AND ROOSEVELT -1891-1904 231 



for the nomination at Chicago. Our discussion now took 

 a form which somewhat surprised me. The general be- 

 lief throughout the State was, I think, that Mr. Platt 's 

 first question, or, at any rate, his main question, in any such 

 discussion, would be, necessarily, as to the attitude of the 

 candidate toward Mr. Platt 's own interests and aspira- 

 tions. But I feel bound to say that in the discussions be- 

 tween us no such questions were ever asked, approached, 

 or even hinted at. Mr. Platt never asked me a question 

 regarding my attitude toward him or toward his friends ; 

 he never even hinted at my making any pledge or promise 

 to do anything or not to do anything with reference to 

 his own interests or to those of any other person; his 

 whole effort was directed to finding what strength my 

 nomination would attract to the party and what it would 

 repel. He had been informed regarding one or two un- 

 popular votes of mine when I was in the State Senate as, 

 for example, that I had opposed the efforts of a powerful 

 sectarian organization to secure the gift of certain valu- 

 able landed property from the city of New York; he had 

 also been informed regarding certain review and maga- 

 zine articles in which I had spoken my mind somewhat 

 freely against certain influences in the State which were 

 still powerful, and it had been hinted to him that my 

 " Warfare of Science'' chapters might have alienated a 

 considerable number of the more narrow-minded clergy- 

 men and their flocks. 



I told Mr. Platt frankly that these fears seemed quite 

 likely to be well founded, and that there were some other 

 difficulties which I could myself suggest to him : that I had, 

 in the course of my life, made many opponents in sup- 

 porting Cornell University, and in expressing my mind 

 on various questions, political and religious, and that 

 these seemed to me likely to cost the party very many 

 votes. I therefore suggested that he consult certain per- 

 sons in various parts of the State who were entitled to 

 have an opinion, and especially two men of the highest 

 judgment in such matters Chief Justice Andrews of 



