In Theodore Roosevelt’s Last Hurrah, His Post-Mortem on the 1914 Elections, He Quotes the Wisdom of Abraham Lincoln
“[Lincoln] explicitly admitted that you could fool all of the people part of the time - and this is a portion of that part of the time!".
Theodore Roosevelt saw his presidency as a progressive one, and when in 1908 he selected William H. Taft to serve as his successor in the White House, he expected Taft to follow in his footsteps. However, TR became increasingly disillusioned with Taft, and came to see him as a betrayer and tool...
Theodore Roosevelt saw his presidency as a progressive one, and when in 1908 he selected William H. Taft to serve as his successor in the White House, he expected Taft to follow in his footsteps. However, TR became increasingly disillusioned with Taft, and came to see him as a betrayer and tool of the corrupt bosses that Roosevelt so hated. Eventually TR decided to challenge Taft for the 1912 Republican nomination, declaring in February 1912: “My hat is in the ring,” and “The fight is on and I am stripped to the buff.” With few exceptions, candidates in prior elections had largely refrained from overt campaigning. Roosevelt changed this by giving speeches around the country, especially in the dozen states with direct primaries. He called Taft a “fathead” with “the brains of a guinea pig,” and Taft responded in kind, saying Roosevelt’s followers were “radicals” and “neurotics.”
Roosevelt won most of the primaries, and therefore expected that he had earned the nomination. But at the tumultuous Republican National Convention in Chicago, those who controlled the party machine saw to it that Taft was given the slot. This prompted TR and his supporters to storm out. They then reconvened across town and formed the Progressive Party, nicknamed the Bull Moose Party because Roosevelt said he felt as fit as a bull moose. TR and the Progressives ran a strong campaign, received over 27% of the vote, and carried six states, a better performance than Taft. However, it was a losing effort nonetheless, as Woodrow Wilson was elected though having only 41% of the votes.
Afterwards Roosevelt went on a South American trip, which instead of being a fine adventure turned into a too-strenuous disaster that greatly weakened his health. Despite this, TR campaigned vigorously for Progressive Party candidates in the 1914 election. The party ran 138 candidates (including women) for the U.S. House, but just 5 were elected, with almost half the candidates failing to get more than 10% of the vote. It got no senators, and though Hiram Johnson was elected Governor of California, the seven other Progressives candidates for governor got less than 16% of the vote. The Progressive Party, in which TR and so many had placed all of their hopes, was hobbled as a political force and would never again be able to mount a major campaign. And whether he fully realized it or not, this would be TR’s last political hurrah. He held no office, would not be a factor in the 1916 election, though having plenty to say would play a minimal role in World War I, and would die before the 1920 election.
"But don't forget that Lincoln's statement was merely that you could not fool all of the people all of the time. He explicitly admitted that you could fool all of the people part of the time – and this is a portion of that part of the time!"
One of the most familiar quotations attributed to Abraham Lincoln is: "You may fool all the people some of the time; you can even fool some of the people all the time; but you can't fool all of the people all the time." Though the quote is not in Lincoln’s writings, Roy Basler gives it a qualified certification in The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln by saying that tradition attributes it to a speech Lincoln made at Clinton, Illinois, during the Lincoln/Douglas senatorial campaign. TR liked this quote, and employed it in this letter.
Typed letter signed, on his personal letterhead, New York, N.Y., November 14, 1914, just eleven days after the 1914 election, to Oscar King Davis, Press Secretary of the Progressive Party, revealing his disgust with the results, and saying that the American people had been taken in. “There is nothing that you can say about the voters at this particular election that is not justified. There is no conceivable iniquity they did not joyfully support. But don't forget that Lincoln's statement was merely that you could not fool all of the people all of the time. He explicitly admitted that you could fool all of the people part of the time – and this is a portion of that part of the time!"
This is an extraordinary letter, showing TR’s admiration of Lincoln and his use of Lincoln’s very terminology, as well as his feelings as his time as a political leader came to its close.

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