GOVERN UK AND VICE-PRESIDENT 
61 
dency and Vice-Presidency. In regard to the former there was no 
doubt William McKinley was the man; no other was thought of. For 
Vice-President Theodore Roosevelt's name was early set afloat, much 
to his discomfort. He had proposed to be a candidate again for Gov¬ 
ernor of New York. There was live work to be done. To sit as the 
voiceless Chairman of the Senate was very distasteful to a man of his 
temperament. 
There was opposition to him. Senator Hanna was strongly 
opposed. The man who most wanted to make him Vice-President was 
Senator Depew, of New York—not from any desire to do him honor, 
but to get rid of him in state affairs. 
The nomination was made somewhat in this way. When Presi¬ 
dent McKinley was nominated and the thunder of the cheering had 
died away, Governor Roosevelt rose to second the nomination. His 
speech was a strong one. He had a speech in his hand, type-written, 
but this he did not once look at, and probably did not follow, speaking 
the thoughts that rose in his mind and speaking them powerfully 
and well. 
What he had to say evidently hit the mark, for the members of 
the convention at once hailed him as Vice-President, shouting for 
McKinley and Roosevelt. At this Senator Depew, seeing his oppor¬ 
tunity, drawled out, “In the East we call him Teddy." At this the 
shouting grew roof-lifting; “Teddy Roosevelt! Teddy Roosevelt!" 
Depew was achieving his scheme to “shelve" Roosevelt. When 
the latter's name was formally presented to the convention calls for a 
vote rose on every side, and the taking of it quickly began. It ended 
as it only could end under such circumstances. McKinley and Roose¬ 
velt were the men of 1900. 
Never had a man been nominated for the Vice-Presidency more 
against his will. He did not want the office, and he fully understood 
the purpose of those who were pressing him into it. For a time he 
strongly resisted persuasions to get him to accept, and when he did 
yield it was sorely against his will. Neither he nor those who sought 
to shelve him dreamed for a moment of the coming result, that Vice- 
President Roosevelt would never preside over a session of the Senate, 
but before the year ended would fill the President’s chair. 
