WEBVTT - TR and the Perdicaris Affair 0:00:00.440 --> 0:00:05.800 History Versus is a production of I Heart Radio and 0:00:06.160 --> 0:00:12.200 Mental Floss. The villa on the hill of Jabul Kabir, 0:00:12.480 --> 0:00:15.640 to the west of Tangier in Morocco looks more like 0:00:15.680 --> 0:00:19.480 a palace than a home. Built in the Spanish style. 0:00:19.600 --> 0:00:23.240 It has white clad stone walls and turrets and looks 0:00:23.320 --> 0:00:29.240 over the Strait of Gibraltar. The inside is resplendent. Rooms 0:00:29.320 --> 0:00:34.320 overflow with fine art, pristine porcelains, damasks, and oriental rugs. 0:00:35.159 --> 0:00:38.640 There are many many servants and a menagerie of animals 0:00:38.720 --> 0:00:43.479 roam the grounds and the halls, among them dogs, cranes, pheasants, 0:00:43.520 --> 0:00:46.519 and two monkeys that jump into the owner's laps and 0:00:46.600 --> 0:00:51.320 eat orange blossoms from their hands. The villa is known 0:00:51.360 --> 0:00:57.040 as Adonia, or the place of Nightingales. It's May eighteenth, 0:00:57.160 --> 0:01:00.760 nine four and inside the villa, sixty year old globetrotter 0:01:00.880 --> 0:01:04.959 Ion Perdicaris, along with his wife Ellen Varley, and her 0:01:05.000 --> 0:01:08.640 son Cromwell, are sitting down to dinner, attended to by 0:01:08.640 --> 0:01:12.000 a servant in knee length scarlet pants and a jacket 0:01:12.040 --> 0:01:17.080 embroidered with gold. Ion is the son of Gregory Perdicaris, 0:01:17.480 --> 0:01:20.520 a Greek American who made his fortune in the gas industry, 0:01:20.880 --> 0:01:23.360 and he has reaped the benefits of his family's immense 0:01:23.400 --> 0:01:26.600 wealth by buying residences all around the world before he 0:01:26.640 --> 0:01:31.240 built the Place of Nightingales in eight seventy Tonight, as 0:01:31.280 --> 0:01:34.880 every night, they dine lavishly, then retreat to the drawing 0:01:34.959 --> 0:01:38.440 room to relax, at least until the piece is shattered 0:01:38.680 --> 0:01:41.560 by the sound of screams coming from the servants quarters. 0:01:43.400 --> 0:01:46.880 What happens next will soon become an international incident that 0:01:46.959 --> 0:01:50.880 garners the intervention of none other than President Theodore Roosevelt. 0:01:53.800 --> 0:01:56.480 From Mental Flaws and I Heart Radio, This is History Versus, 0:01:56.480 --> 0:01:59.160 a podcast about how your favorite historical figures faced off 0:01:59.200 --> 0:02:02.600 against their greatest foes. In this bonus episode, we'll take 0:02:02.640 --> 0:02:04.360 a look at how t R used his big stick 0:02:04.400 --> 0:02:07.480 diplomacy to make the most of an international incident in 0:02:07.520 --> 0:02:10.720 an election year. This episode is t R and the 0:02:10.720 --> 0:02:21.919 Pertacaris Affair. When Ion and Cromwell sprint to the source 0:02:21.960 --> 0:02:25.120 of the commotion, they come upon armed men standing in 0:02:25.160 --> 0:02:29.200 their home. The villa is under siege. The bandits have 0:02:29.240 --> 0:02:31.880 given the butler is swift clubbing with their rifle butts, 0:02:32.200 --> 0:02:34.919 and Ion and Cromwell are bound and brought to meet 0:02:34.960 --> 0:02:39.040 the man in charge of this operation. He introduces himself simply, 0:02:39.720 --> 0:02:45.120 I am the Rasuli, alternately described as a bandit, murderer 0:02:45.160 --> 0:02:48.560 and folk hero, depending on who's asking. The man known 0:02:48.560 --> 0:02:51.959 in English as Razuli is a charismatic, political idealist and 0:02:52.080 --> 0:02:56.240 insurgent ruling over groups of bandits, dedicated to disrupting the 0:02:56.280 --> 0:03:00.000 European influence in Morocco and waging war against the sultans 0:03:00.000 --> 0:03:04.160 who allowed it. And if you know Morocco as Perdicaris, 0:03:04.280 --> 0:03:09.600 does you know his handiwork. But bloodshed isn't the motivator tonight. 0:03:10.639 --> 0:03:15.520 Razuli has political demands he'll soon reveal. Ion his stepson 0:03:15.880 --> 0:03:19.280 and an attendant are whisked away on their horses, leaving 0:03:19.280 --> 0:03:22.760 the staff and Mrs Perdicaris to absorb what had just happened. 0:03:24.200 --> 0:03:26.760 Word of the incident got out as it was happening. 0:03:27.520 --> 0:03:29.720 The phone lines to the villa had not been cut, 0:03:30.200 --> 0:03:33.280 and as Rasuli's men tore through the Perdicaris home, one 0:03:33.320 --> 0:03:35.280 of the women of the house placed a call to 0:03:35.360 --> 0:03:38.240 the central office in Tangier, alerting them to the attack 0:03:38.320 --> 0:03:42.320 and kidnapping. It wasn't long before Samuel Gamier, the Consul 0:03:42.400 --> 0:03:45.720 General at Tangier got involved. He became the point of 0:03:45.800 --> 0:03:50.440 contact between Mrs Perdicaris and Washington. The first cable from 0:03:50.440 --> 0:03:53.000 Morocco went straight to the State Department on May nine. 0:03:53.920 --> 0:03:58.000 Gamer described the situation as most serious and requested a 0:03:58.040 --> 0:04:02.840 man of war, basically the biggest battleship available. The cable 0:04:02.920 --> 0:04:06.400 was received by Assistant Secretary of State Francis B. Loomis, 0:04:06.480 --> 0:04:10.600 who informed President Roosevelt. This was the era of big 0:04:10.640 --> 0:04:14.800 stick diplomacy, and Roosevelt ordered that seven warships had immediately 0:04:14.840 --> 0:04:18.680 to Tangier. But it wasn't an act of war. It 0:04:18.760 --> 0:04:22.520 was more like an aggressive flex. Days after the kidnapping, 0:04:22.600 --> 0:04:26.359 Razuli contacted Sultan Abdelazis of Morocco with his demands to 0:04:26.440 --> 0:04:30.280 let her Decarus and Varley free. He wanted political immunity 0:04:30.320 --> 0:04:33.640 for himself and his followers, the release of all political 0:04:33.680 --> 0:04:37.080 prisoners connected with his movement, the firing of a local 0:04:37.080 --> 0:04:41.200 official who had chained him years earlier, seventy thousand Spanish 0:04:41.200 --> 0:04:45.200 silver dollars, and he wanted tax free control over two 0:04:45.279 --> 0:04:50.480 of Morocco's wealthiest districts. The sheer extravagance of the demands, 0:04:50.600 --> 0:04:53.039 especially in exchange for the release of a foreigner like 0:04:53.400 --> 0:04:57.120 Carris was a non starter for the Sultan. When a 0:04:57.160 --> 0:04:59.600 messenger from the Sultan informed Rasuli there would be no 0:04:59.800 --> 0:05:02.880 d all, Rasuli had one of his men slit the 0:05:02.920 --> 0:05:08.920 messenger's throat. By ma Roosevelt had finally read Rasuli's demands, 0:05:09.360 --> 0:05:13.720 which Secretary of State John Hay described as preposterous, and 0:05:13.720 --> 0:05:16.000 while ships were on their way to speed up the talks, 0:05:16.320 --> 0:05:19.880 in reality, the men knew their hands were tied. The 0:05:19.920 --> 0:05:23.040 President couldn't really force the Sultan to accede to Rasuli's 0:05:23.040 --> 0:05:27.560 outlandish list. He could only make strong suggestions, and he 0:05:27.560 --> 0:05:31.440 couldn't just send troops into Morocco to retrieve Predicarus by force. 0:05:32.160 --> 0:05:34.840 The mere knew Rasuli would kill Ion and Varley long 0:05:34.880 --> 0:05:37.919 before they could reach him. I hope they may not 0:05:38.000 --> 0:05:41.640 murder Mr. Prodcarus, but a nation cannot degrade itself to 0:05:41.720 --> 0:05:46.800 prevent ill treatment of a citizen, Hey said. Still, Tira's 0:05:46.839 --> 0:05:50.200 brand of pressure could be very persuasive, and early on 0:05:50.240 --> 0:05:54.080 the morning in May, the imposing USS Brooklyn was first 0:05:54.160 --> 0:05:57.920 seen near Tangier Harbor. It would soon be joined by 0:05:58.000 --> 0:06:02.479 six other ships. Roosevelt biographer Edmund Morris wrote that some 0:06:02.600 --> 0:06:06.360 thirty thousand tons of American gun medal should soon persuade 0:06:06.360 --> 0:06:10.880 the Sultan to start negotiating. Upon hearing the news of 0:06:10.920 --> 0:06:15.440 the arrival of American warships, Razuli actually showed relief. With 0:06:15.520 --> 0:06:18.839 this type of pressure on the Sultan, those preposterous demands 0:06:18.880 --> 0:06:22.800 were more likely to become a reality once the fleet 0:06:22.800 --> 0:06:26.640 was settled in the harbor. Hey cabled, gamer President wishes 0:06:26.680 --> 0:06:30.279 everything possible done to secure the release of Predcarus. He 0:06:30.360 --> 0:06:33.599 wishes it clearly understood that if Predicarus is murdered, this 0:06:33.720 --> 0:06:38.200 government will demand the life of the murderer. In America, 0:06:38.320 --> 0:06:41.000 the press and public were outraged at the situation and 0:06:41.080 --> 0:06:44.960 wanted action. Any crime against an American on foreign soil 0:06:45.040 --> 0:06:47.200 was seen as a crime against the country as a whole. 0:06:48.240 --> 0:06:51.960 For Roosevelt, a president both adored and criticized for his 0:06:52.040 --> 0:06:56.479 overt imperialist intentions, this was a prime opportunity to show 0:06:56.520 --> 0:06:59.599 the world with this so called American Century was all about. 0:07:00.760 --> 0:07:04.440 As Barbara W. Tuchman wrote an American Heritage, the President's 0:07:04.480 --> 0:07:07.479 instant and energetic action on behalf of a single citizen 0:07:07.520 --> 0:07:11.120 fallen among thieves in a foreign land made Perdicarius, symbol 0:07:11.160 --> 0:07:15.680 of America's new role on the world stage. The situation 0:07:15.720 --> 0:07:18.920 stretched into early June, and the number of countries involved 0:07:19.040 --> 0:07:22.720 kept growing. Now a British worship the Prince of Wales 0:07:22.960 --> 0:07:26.000 had come to Tangier, and Hay had contacted the French 0:07:26.040 --> 0:07:30.040 foreign minister, Theophil del Casse to put more pressure on 0:07:30.080 --> 0:07:33.600 the sultan. France had been increasing its presence in Morocco, 0:07:33.760 --> 0:07:38.400 so this tactic carried plenty of weight. Soon after, there 0:07:38.440 --> 0:07:42.120 seemed to be a breakthrough. The Moroccan government had apparently 0:07:42.160 --> 0:07:46.200 accepted all of Razzuli's demands outside of the ransom, which 0:07:46.240 --> 0:07:50.680 still needed to be reasonably negotiated, according to Marris, But 0:07:50.840 --> 0:07:53.240 once Razzuli was close to getting what he asked for, 0:07:53.640 --> 0:07:57.200 he simply came back with more demands. He now wanted 0:07:57.200 --> 0:08:02.520 additional districts to control. Secretary of State John Hay, clearly 0:08:02.560 --> 0:08:06.360 frustrated with Rasuli's games, wrote to Roosevelt, I feel that 0:08:06.400 --> 0:08:09.760 it would be most inexpedient to surrender to him. We 0:08:09.840 --> 0:08:14.120 have done what we can for Perdiccaus, and something else 0:08:14.240 --> 0:08:16.200 was emerging at this time that may have weakened he 0:08:16.400 --> 0:08:21.080 is already questionable enthusiasm for the whole episode. Evidence was 0:08:21.160 --> 0:08:24.440 mounting that Perdicaris might not actually be a U. S. Citizen. 0:08:25.960 --> 0:08:39.319 We'll be right back in June. With Ion, Perdiccarus and 0:08:39.360 --> 0:08:43.440 his stepson still being held hostage by Razulian Morocco, President 0:08:43.440 --> 0:08:46.640 Theodore Roosevelt was putting pressure on the Sultan to acquiesce 0:08:46.679 --> 0:08:49.920 to the ransom demands to bring them back home. But 0:08:49.960 --> 0:08:51.920 the president was about to learn that the man at 0:08:51.960 --> 0:08:55.280 the center of a potential international incident might not be 0:08:55.360 --> 0:09:01.240 a U. S. Citizen at all. This information first came 0:09:01.280 --> 0:09:03.800 to light on June one, when he received a letter 0:09:03.800 --> 0:09:06.440 from a cotton broker named A. H. Slocum who had 0:09:06.440 --> 0:09:09.760 read about the Moroccan crisis in the news. He claimed 0:09:09.760 --> 0:09:12.040 he had met Perdicaris in Greece as the Civil war 0:09:12.160 --> 0:09:16.000 raged in America. Ion had apparently told Slocum that he 0:09:16.000 --> 0:09:18.959 had renounced his U. S. Citizenship for Greek citizenship during 0:09:19.000 --> 0:09:21.960 the war, likely in an effort to avoid being drafted 0:09:21.960 --> 0:09:25.520 by the Confederacy and have his property confiscated by the government. 0:09:27.360 --> 0:09:31.240 Within days of the initial claims, Slocum's information was confirmed 0:09:31.240 --> 0:09:34.760 by Greek officials. According to Marris Hay sent the news 0:09:34.800 --> 0:09:38.080 to Roosevelt, who was apparently unaware of the initial whispers 0:09:38.080 --> 0:09:44.080 about Predcarus's citizenship or lack thereof. Right away, everyone knew 0:09:44.120 --> 0:09:48.280 that the information simply couldn't get out. The President had 0:09:48.360 --> 0:09:52.000 ordered American warships to Tangier. News of the kidnapping was 0:09:52.040 --> 0:09:55.720 filling newspapers, and even the French and British were involved 0:09:55.720 --> 0:09:57.840 in exerting pressure on the Sultan to make a deal. 0:09:58.679 --> 0:10:01.400 Tier couldn't just turn is back on the whole affair now. 0:10:02.040 --> 0:10:05.679 The political embarrassment would be terrible. It was also an 0:10:05.679 --> 0:10:09.640 election year, and quite frankly, backing down wasn't an option. 0:10:11.320 --> 0:10:13.760 As this crisis was unfolding, Tire was dealing with the 0:10:13.800 --> 0:10:18.080 start of the Republican National Convention in Chicago. While tr 0:10:18.200 --> 0:10:20.920 was a no brainer to secure the nomination, he still 0:10:20.960 --> 0:10:23.680 had plenty of enemies in his own party, and the 0:10:23.760 --> 0:10:27.280 last thing he needed was Predicaris's citizenship controversy coming out. 0:10:28.240 --> 0:10:32.680 As Mars explains in Theodore Rex, Roosevelt chose to rationalize things. 0:10:33.720 --> 0:10:37.080 Since Zuli had believed Predicaris to be a US citizen, 0:10:37.600 --> 0:10:41.600 he had, in Roosevelt's mind, taken action against an American, 0:10:42.120 --> 0:10:46.640 Whether it was technically true or not. Hey recommended that 0:10:46.679 --> 0:10:49.240 the United States give Rasuli and the Sultan one last 0:10:49.320 --> 0:10:52.480 warning before any real military action needed to be taken. 0:10:53.200 --> 0:10:57.280 Roosevelt agreed. Despite these new findings, Roosevelt knew this was 0:10:57.320 --> 0:10:59.920 an issue of both pride and politics. At this point. 0:11:00.000 --> 0:11:03.200 It was up to Hay to write the ultimatum to 0:11:03.200 --> 0:11:05.679 the Sultan, and it needed to be an aggressive one. 0:11:06.760 --> 0:11:10.319 The results was seven words that hit the exact right note, 0:11:11.720 --> 0:11:17.200 we want pert to carris alive or Rasuli dead. Of course, 0:11:17.360 --> 0:11:19.400 there was more to the cable than just that one 0:11:19.600 --> 0:11:23.520 chilling warning, but that single sentence so perfectly captured the 0:11:23.559 --> 0:11:25.720 mood of the message that no one needed to read 0:11:25.720 --> 0:11:29.280 any further than that. Tr through the words of Hay, 0:11:29.720 --> 0:11:33.240 was dispatching a concise warning to the Sultan, to Rasuli, 0:11:33.600 --> 0:11:36.120 and to anyone else who dared bring harm to an 0:11:36.160 --> 0:11:40.319 American citizen, even if they were only American in spirit. 0:11:41.360 --> 0:11:43.960 As he prepared to send the wire to Gamir and Tangier, 0:11:44.240 --> 0:11:47.239 Hay read the draft to Edwin Hood, a news correspondent 0:11:47.280 --> 0:11:49.840 at the State Department, who loved it so much that 0:11:49.880 --> 0:11:52.439 he took a copy and send it over the news wires. 0:11:52.559 --> 0:11:55.720 Right as hey send it to Morocco. The warning soon 0:11:55.760 --> 0:11:58.040 made its way into the public, and it didn't take 0:11:58.080 --> 0:12:00.959 long for Republican National Convention Chair arm In Joseph Cannon 0:12:01.040 --> 0:12:04.679 to get a copy. At approximately three pm on June, 0:12:05.679 --> 0:12:08.680 he made his way near the convention stage, where Henry 0:12:08.679 --> 0:12:11.080 Cabot Lodge had just finished a vague spiel on the 0:12:11.120 --> 0:12:14.679 party stances on riveting topics like tariffs and the civil service. 0:12:15.640 --> 0:12:17.600 Cannon took his copy of the cable and gave it 0:12:17.640 --> 0:12:20.400 to a clerk to read to the crowd. At the 0:12:20.400 --> 0:12:23.640 words we went either to Carris alive or Rasuli dead, 0:12:24.080 --> 0:12:29.320 the crowd went nuts. Supporters stood on their chairs, the 0:12:29.440 --> 0:12:34.280 cheers were deafening. One Republican from Kansas exclaimed, are people 0:12:34.640 --> 0:12:38.040 like courage will stand for anything those two men do? 0:12:38.679 --> 0:12:43.320 While another described it as good hot stuff. The message 0:12:43.360 --> 0:12:46.760 showed action, It showed excitement. It showed that the American 0:12:46.800 --> 0:12:51.000 people had a president that meant business. If it wasn't 0:12:51.000 --> 0:12:53.800 already set in stone, it was now clear that Roosevelt's 0:12:53.840 --> 0:12:57.920 nomination was secure. But over in Morocco, the cable was 0:12:57.960 --> 0:13:01.280 a moot point. The soul sin of Morocco had already 0:13:01.320 --> 0:13:04.880 agreed to Razuli's demands, paying a seventy thousand dollar ransom 0:13:04.960 --> 0:13:08.120 for the release of Perdicaris and his stepson. On top 0:13:08.160 --> 0:13:10.280 of that, an extra four thousand was sent to the 0:13:10.400 --> 0:13:14.920 US for its expenses. Predicaris later wrote that the memory 0:13:15.000 --> 0:13:19.880 of that evening is associated with an ineffaceable sense of horror. Still, 0:13:19.960 --> 0:13:24.160 he wasn't terribly traumatized by the ordeal. In fact, he 0:13:24.280 --> 0:13:28.120 and Rasuli had struck up a friendship. Perdicaris would recall 0:13:28.200 --> 0:13:30.600 that he was treated more like an honored guest rather 0:13:30.640 --> 0:13:34.160 than a prisoner, and upon parting, Razuli told Ion that 0:13:34.240 --> 0:13:36.679 if anyone tried to harm him in the future, I 0:13:36.720 --> 0:13:40.720 will come with all of my men to your rescue. Later, 0:13:40.880 --> 0:13:43.160 the incident would serve as the basis for a movie 0:13:43.360 --> 0:13:46.360 starring Sean Connery and Candice Bergen called The Wind and 0:13:46.400 --> 0:13:49.520 the Lion. Brian Keith, who you may know as the 0:13:49.640 --> 0:13:53.320 Dad in The Parent Trap, played tr as for the 0:13:53.360 --> 0:13:57.559 truth behind Perdicaris's Greek citizenship. It would remain a secret 0:13:57.840 --> 0:14:09.480 for another thirty years. History Versus is hosted by me 0:14:09.600 --> 0:14:12.880 Aeron McCarthy. This episode was written by Jay Serafino, with 0:14:12.920 --> 0:14:17.520 fact checking by Austin Thompson. The executive producers are Aaron McCarthy, 0:14:17.640 --> 0:14:22.200 Julie Douglas, and Tyler Clang. The supervising producer is Dylan Fagan. 0:14:22.960 --> 0:14:25.800 The show was edited by Dylan Fagan and Loll Brolante. 0:14:26.920 --> 0:14:29.800 To learn more about this episode and Theodore Roosevelt, check 0:14:29.800 --> 0:14:32.280 out our website and Mental flaws dot com. Slash History 0:14:32.440 --> 0:14:35.720 Versus History Versus is the production of I Heart Radio 0:14:35.960 --> 0:14:55.880 and Mental Flaws. For more podcasts from my heart Radio, 0:14:56.040 --> 0:14:58.880 visit the i heart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever 0:14:59.080 --> 0:15:00.480 you listen to your favor rit shows.