TR had scarce support from the Old Guard
Nelson Aldrich (Rhode Island) - Known as “General Manager of the Nation.” He was a pivotal member of the Sen. Finance Committee dominating tariff and monetary policy.
Orville H. Platt (Connecticut) voted against the Sherman Antitrust Act, Eight-Hour Labor Act and the Anti-Injunction Bill banning injunctions by both the Supreme Court and the lower Federal courts.
William B. Allison (Iowa) – Known as “The Sage Old Pilot of the Senate” He sat on the Senate Finance Committee for 30 years. He was also chairman of the powerful Senate Appropriations Committee.
John Coit Spooner (Wisconsin) - Credited with the Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890 and the “Spooner Act” that gave Roosevelt the authority to buy the Panama Canal Zone.
The Cannon in Congress
Roosevelt was also at odds with Speaker of the House Joe Cannon whose nickname was “Not One Cent for Scenery” Cannon. Canon had clashed with Roosevelt as far back as when TR was a Civil Service Commissioner. In 1912 Cannon was one of four Republicans to support an Anti-third Term resolution aimed at stopping Roosevelt run.
The Lion in the White House
Facing an unsympathetic Senate and Congress Roosevelt remarkably answers the call by expanding his political celebrity, building the Bully Pulpit and in the process becomes the country’s first Rhetorical President.
