Moses buried a devastating insult in an allusion no one decoded

Evidence

There was, of course, one somewhat unusual note in Moses’ introduction of Ickes. “There have been times,” Moses said, “when in contemplating our Washington partner, I have been tempted to go back for inspiration to the letter which Dr. Samuel Johnson wrote to Lord Chesterfield about the famous dictionary which the great scholar announced that he had finished with comparatively little assistance. I have always considered this letter to be one of the finest pieces of polite vituperation in the annals of English literature.” But no reporter thought to analyze the letter and see its application to Roosevelt and Ickes. Ickes even wrote in his diary that he was quite pleased by the introduction. … Professor Tinker had delighted in telling his students—including Robert Moses, president of Yale’s version of Samuel Johnson’s Kit Cat Club—the story behind the scholar’s letter. Setting out on the task of compiling his great dictionary, the scholar had appealed for the financial assistance he desperately needed to Lord Chesterfield, who had encouraged him to expect it, but had then rudely rebuffed him. When, however, after seven years of privation and hardship, the work was completed and acclaimed, Chesterfield had attempted to represent himself as Dr. Johnson’s “patron” and thus take some of the credit for it. It was then that Dr. Johnson wrote to him: “Is not a Patron, my Lord, one who looks with unconcern on a man struggling for life in the water, and when he has reached ground, encumbers him with help?” He added: “I hope it is no very cynical asperity to be unwilling that the Publick should consider me as owing that to a Patron, which Providence has enabled me to do for myself.” — Robert A. Caro, The Power Broker, 1935

Categorization

• SEED: The idea of a public insult so perfectly placed that the target thanks you for it — polite vituperation as high art — is a wonderful essay or story seed about the pleasure of covert mastery.
• XREF: Moses’ Johnson allusion deployed against Roosevelt is a masterclass in oblique attack, resonating with the chapter’s broader theme of reframing as power. — connects to: Leaking a secret that embarrasses one’s enemies can win a power struggle — Robert A. Caro, The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the…, 1887; Contemptuous mockery masked Moses’ demolition plans as popular sentiment — Robert A. Caro, The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the…, 2886; Moses held subordinates to exacting analytical standards through brutal written criticism. — Robert A. Caro, The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the…, 439

Broader Connections

• Contemptuous mockery masked Moses’ demolition plans as popular sentiment #corroborates (0.85) — Robert A. Caro, The Power Broker, 2886