CHAPTER VII 
Governor and Vice-President 
T HE end of the brief but effective Cuban war left Colonel Roose¬ 
velt the popular hero of that event. Every war has its popular 
hero, and the dramatic picturesqueness of the cowboy regi¬ 
ment, with its telling title, the “Rough Riders/' was sure to strike the 
public fancy. The newspaper stories of their spectacled colonel dash¬ 
ing at their head up San Juan Hill, yelling with the loudest and as 
fearless as the best, added to the completeness of the picture in the 
public mind, and Roosevelt was lifted upon a pedestal of public appre¬ 
ciation on which he dwarfed every other soldier who took part in the 
affair, as Dewey similarly figured as the chief naval hero. 
That a man of such sudden and great popularity would be allowed 
to sink back into insignificance was very unlikely to follow. The 
American people likes to reward its heroes, the canvass for a new 
governor of New York was in the air, and Theodore Roosevelt was 
the man of the moment. His services in the war had scarcely ended 
before the nomination came. 
The Citizens' Union was the first to nominate him, but he declined 
the compliment, saying that he was a Republican. He proposed to 
stand by his colors. The Democrats, who dreaded him as a popular 
candidate, hoped to prevent his nomination by trying to prove that he 
had lost his legal residence in the State. Their plan failed, and the 
Republican Convention chose him as its candidate by a vote of 752 to 
218 for Governor Black. Van Wyck was the Democratic nominee. 
Their candidate, Parker, had been elected Judge of the Court of 
Appeals the year before by 61,000 majority and on this the party based 
its hopes, though feeling that the personal popularity of Colonel Roose¬ 
velt was an element in the situation that might override all party lines 
and claims. It did so, for he carried the election by a majority of 
18,000 over Van Wyck. 
(57) 
