Page:The Presidents of the United States, 1789-1914, v. IV.djvu/179

THEODORE ROOSEVELT 143 may be said to have stepped out of the White House amid lightnings and thunders. There was a day when George Washington swore furiously at a cabinet meeting that he would rather be in his grave than endure the malignity of the press and the politicians. Upon another day Lincoln wondered if it were worth while to give oneself to the service of this country. A similar disgust once darkened the spirit of General Grant. They were all anticipated by two Frenchmen, one of whom remarked: "I begin to see things as they are; it is time I should die," and the other: "The better I know men the better I like dogs." Vindictiveness on the part of those politicians and magnates whose intentions both as to legislation and the presidency had been partly or wholly thwarted by Mr. Roose velt, was pursuing him by any means that could discredit or harass him. The Brownsville trouble had served them well, so in a petty way had the matter of the sentence "In God we trust" he had ordered to be left off the new coins. Congress had ordered this restored amid verbiage that dripped with scandalized piety. A new chance, most fruit ful for many a long day, had turned up during the panic of 1907. Mr. Roosevelt had then replied to inquiries made by two representatives of the United States Steel Corporation that, while he could not advise its purchase of the Tennessee Coal and Iron Company (to save a serious impending