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What Lincoln’s Pockets Held When he Died and Other Presidential Oddities

Khalid Elhassan July 15, 2021 36 min

Secret Service agents bust counterfeiters in 1879. United States Secret Service

Former president Teddy Roosevelt in 1912 — Former president Theodore Roosevelt on the campaign trail in 1912. Library of Congress

16. The Speech That Saved Teddy Roosevelt’s Life

A stunned Milwaukee audience processed what Teddy Roosevelt had just told them about his having been shot, and gaped at the sight of the bloodstained shirt beneath his unbuttoned vest. The former president then topped his previous statement with an even more memorable one: “it takes more than that to kill a bull moose!” Teddy Roosevelt then demonstrated what had saved his life that day, when he pulled out a hefty fifty-page speech from his coat pocket, that was pierced through with a bullet.

He continued: “Fortunately I had my manuscript, so you see I was going to make a long speech, and there is a bullet—there is where the bullet went through—and it probably saved me from it going into my heart. The bullet is in me now, so that I cannot make a very long speech, but I will try my best“. Just about any other candidate – except maybe Andrew Jackson – would have keeled over in shock or at least bid the audience adieu before rushing to seek medical care. Not Teddy Roosevelt.

Written by

Khalid Elhassan

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.