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Theodore Roosevelt Returns to Albany, Bounds up Capitol Steps

"What if we had him nominated for vice president? That would get him out of the state, and we'll never hear of him again"

New York State Capitol in Albany
President Theodore Roosevelt -- portrayed by scholar Clay Jenkinson -- arrived in Albany yesterday to keynote GTC, looked at the standing room audience in the Egg Theater, and chided the desk-bound public servants he saw, as having "shoulders like champagne bottles," urging them to get out from behind their desks and "build something, climb something, shoot something."

"I was the first governor to have a working office in the Capitol," he said. "I bounded up the steps each day, eager to get to my desk." But Roosevelt was a reformer, and at the time, the state of New York was under a political machine, rife with corruption, bribery and waste.

"Senator Thomas Platt," said Roosevelt, "found me obnoxious. He wanted me to go along with them, and I refused to do so. After my second year, a caucus was held to decide my fate. They knew I would win if I were to run again, so they came up with a solution. 'What if we had him nominated for vice president? That would get him out of the state, and we'll never hear of him again.'" Roosevelt resisted the offer, finding it "undignified to wait around and see if the president lives from day to day." But Henry Cabot Lodge, his best friend, thought it an opportunity. Then, after President McKinley was shot down, Roosevelt became "president by accident."

Above all, Roosevelt urged the audience to get into the arena, to know "the great enthusiasms, the great devotions." Be someone, he said, who "knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who, at worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly; so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory or defeat."

The audience gave President Roosevelt, or Clay Jenkinson -- one could not be certain -- a standing ovation, clearly moved by a lesson in history that hit very close to home.
Wayne E. Hanson served as a writer and editor with e.Republic from 1989 to 2013, having worked for several business units including Government Technology magazine, the Center for Digital Government, Governing, and Digital Communities. Hanson was a juror from 1999 to 2004 with the Stockholm Challenge and Global Junior Challenge competitions in information technology and education.