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THEODORE ROOSEVELT (1858— )
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See also:THEODORE See also:ROOSEVELT (1858— )
, twenty-See also:sixth presi-
dent of the See also:United States, was See also:born in New See also:York See also:City on
the 27th of See also:October 1858
.
The See also:Roosevelt See also:family' has been
prominent in the See also:life of New York for many generations, and is of Dutch origin
.
Mr Roosevelt's See also:mother, Martha See also:Bullock, came from a family of Scotch-Irish and Huguenot origin equally prominent in See also:Georgia
.
Each family may See also:lay just claims to a See also:history of more than See also:ordinary social and See also:political distinction
.
Although born in New York, Mr Roosevelt spent much of his boyhood at See also:Oyster See also:Bay, the See also:country See also:home of his See also:father, on See also:Long See also:Island See also:Sound, where he began with a distinct purpose, unusual among boys of his See also:age, to build up a naturally frail physique by See also:rowing and See also:swimming in the See also:waters of Long Island Sound, and by See also:riding over the hills and tramping through the See also:woods of Long Island
.
That his See also:early outdoor life furnished a definite training for his after career is indicated by the fact that when he was about fourteen years of age he went with his father on a tour up the See also:Nile as far as See also:Luxor, and on this See also:journey he made a collection of See also:Egyptian birds found in the Nile valley, which is now in the Smithsonian Museum in See also:Washington, D.C
.
Mr Roosevelt was educated at Harvard University, where he graduated in the class of 188o;2 his See also:record for scholarship was creditable, and his See also:interest in See also:sports and athletics was especially See also:manifest in his skill as a boxer
.
On leaving See also:college he made a See also:short visit to See also:Europe, was elected to the See also:London Alpine See also:Club for climbing the See also:Jungfrau and the See also:Matterhorn, and returning to New York studied See also:law for a brief See also:period in the Law School of See also:Columbia University and in the See also:office of his See also:uncle See also:Robert B
.
Roosevelt
.
Determining to enter active politics, he gave up his legal studies without qualifying for the See also:bar, and in 1881 was elected to the New York legislature as a See also:regular Republican, although in opposition to the " See also:boss" of the See also:assembly See also:district for which he was a See also:candidate
.
He was elected again in 1882 and in 1883, and at the age of twenty-four was his party's candidate for See also:Speaker of the Assembly
.
In 1884 he was a delegate of the Republican party to the See also:convention in See also:Chicago which nominated See also:
See also:Blaine for See also:president
.
In the convention he opposed the nomination of Mr Blaine, and in a speech which attracted considerable
'Claas Martenszen See also:van Roosevelt (or Rosenvelt) settled in New See also:Amsterdam in 1649; his son Claas (or See also:Nicholas) in 1700–1 was a New York See also:alderman of the Leislerian party; in the next three generations, Johannes, See also:Cornelius and Jacobus (James) were merchants and (in 1748–67, 1785–1801 and 1797-99 and 1809, respectively) aldermen of New York; in the third See also:generation the family became allied with the Schuylers
.
See also:Isaac Roosevelt was a member of the Provincial See also:Congress in 1775–77 and of the See also:state See also:Senate in 1777–86 and in 1788-92; in the state Assembly were James Roosevelt (1796-97), Cornelius C
.
Roosevelt (1803), James I
.
Roosevelt, jun
.
(1835–40), and See also:Clinton Roosevelt (1837–40)
.
James I
.
Roosevelt, jun
.
(1795–1875), was a Democratic member of the See also:national See also:House of Representatives in 1841–43, and a See also:justice of the state Supreme See also:Court in 1851–59
.
Nicholas J
.
Roosevelt (1767–1854), with See also:
His See also:brother, Cornelius van Schaik Roosevelt (1794–1871), was a founder of the Chemical National See also:Bank of New York, and the grandfather of the president
.
The president's uncle, Robert Barnwell Roosevelt (1829–1906), was a New York lawyer, New York state See also:fish See also:commissioner in 1866–68, a member of the See also:Committee of Seventy which exposed the corruption of Tammany in New York City, a Democratic member of the national House of Representatives in 1871–73, U.S. See also:minister to the See also:Netherlands in 1888, and author of See also:works on See also:American See also:game birds and fish
.
R
.
B
.
Roosevelt's brother, the president's father, See also:Theodore Roosevelt (1831–1878), was a See also:glass importer, prominent in city charities, an organizer of the See also:Union See also:League Club, and the founder of the Orthopaedic See also:Hospital
.
A See also:cousin, James See also: In 1886 he was the Republican candidate for See also:mayor of New York City, but was defeated by Abram F . See also:Hewitt, the Tammany candidate, and received a smaller See also:vote than Henry George, the candidate of the United Labor party . Mr Roosevelt, however, received a larger proportion of the See also:total vote See also:cast than any mayoralty candidate of the Republican party had previously received in New York City . In See also:April 1889, on the See also:accession to the See also:presidency of See also:Benjamin See also:Harrison, Mr Roosevelt, then closely identified with the See also:work of See also:Civil Service reform, was appointed a member of the United States Civil Service See also:Commission . In this office, until then one of See also:minor importance, he served for six years . He made it not only nationally prominent, but instrumental in shaping the course of legislative and executive See also:action by introducing into the work of the Commission an entirely new spirit and new methods . The See also:annual reports, of which he was the See also:chief author, became controversial See also:pamphlets; he published bold replies to criticisms upon the work of the Commission; he explained its purposes to newspaper correspondents; when Congress refused to appropriate the amount which he believed essential for the work, he made the, necessary economies by abandoning See also:examinations of candidates for the Civil Service in those districts whose representatives in Congress had voted to reduce the See also:appropriation, thus very shrewdly bringing their adverse vote into disfavour among their own constituents; and during the six years of his commissionership more than twenty thousand positions for See also:government employes were taken out of the See also:realm of merely political See also:appointment and added to the classified service to be obtained and retained for merit only . In 1895 he resigned from the Civil Service Commission and became President of the See also:Board of See also:Police Commissioners for the City of New York . After a strenuous two years in this office, he was appointed by President See also:McKinley in 1897 assistant-secretary of the navy . He was certain that See also:war with See also:Spain was inevitable, and he did much to prepare the navy for hostilities, framing an important personnel See also:bill, See also:collecting See also:ammunition, getting large appropriations for See also:powder and ammunition used in improving the marksmanship of the navy by gunnery practice, buying transports and securing the See also:distribution of See also:ships and supplies (especially in the Pacific) in such a way that, when hostilities were declared, American See also:naval victories would be assured . He urged upon the See also:administration the bold policy of protesting against the sailing of See also:Cervera's See also:fleet, on the ground that it would be regarded as a warlike measure not against the Cuban revolutionaries, who had no navy, but against the United States; and he advised that, if Cervera sailed, an American See also:squadron be sent to meet him and to prevent his approach to See also:America . At the outbreak of the war with Spain he resigned from the Navy See also:Department and raised the first volunteer See also:regiment of See also:cavalry, popularly known as the " Rough Riders," because many of its members were Western cowboys and ranchmen See also:expert in the handling of the rough and often unbroken horses of the Western frontier .
The regiment also included college athletes, city clubmen and members of the New York police force, every See also:man possessing some See also:special qualification for the work in view
.
Mr Roosevelt declined the colonelcy of the regiment, preferring to take the See also:post of See also:lieutenant-colonel under his intimate friend Dr Leonard See also:Wood, who, while a surgeon in the United States See also:army, had served
in action with gallantry and skill against the See also:Indians
.
On the promotion of Colonel Wood to the command of the See also:brigade, Mr Roosevelt became colonel of the regiment, which took an especially prominent See also:part in the storming of See also:San Juan See also:
It was very commonly believed at the See also:time that this nomination for the vice-presidency was participated in and heartily approved of by the See also:machine politicians or " bosses " of the State of New York in their belief that it would result in his elimination from active political life
.
The office of vice-president of the United States had so far in the history of the country been almost purely a perfunctory one, and has rarely, if ever, led to political promotion
.
The vice-president is ex officio president of the Senate, but has little See also:voice or part in shaping either legislation or the affairs of the party
.
Mr Roosevelt never, however, presided over the deliberations of the Senate, because before the session following his inauguration convened he had ceased to be vice-president
.
Upon the assassination of McKinley, on the 14th of September 1901, he succeeded to the presidency
.
No previous president had entered the office at so early an age as See also:forty-three
.
It was his frankly expressed wish to be nominated and elected president in 1904, and he was nominated unanimously by the Republican National Convention at Chicago, and was elected in November of that year by the largest popular See also:majority ever given to any candidate in any presidential See also:election
.
He received 7,623,486 popular votes and 336 electoral votes to 5,077,971 popular votes and 140 electoral votes cast for See also:Judge See also:Alton B
.
See also:Parker, the nominee of the Democratic party
.
Immediately after his election he publicly declared that he would not accept the nomination for the presidency in 1908, and he adhered to that See also:pledge in spite of See also:great popular pressure brought to See also:bear upon him to accept the nomination of the party for another term
.
The nomination and election of President See also:Taft, who had been a member of Mr Roosevelt's See also:cabinet, was very largely due to the latter's great See also:influence in the party
.
On See also: Expert naturalists accompanied the party, which did not emerge from the See also:wilderness until the See also:middle of the following March, bringing with it a collection which scientistspronounce of unusual value for students of natural history . Most of the specimens were sent to the National Museum of the Smithsonian Institution at Washington . The experiences of his See also:African journey were recorded by Mr Roosevelt in a See also:volume entitled African Game Trails: The Wanderings of an American See also:Hunter Naturalist . The See also:spring and early summer of 1910 were spent by Mr Roosevelt in travelling through See also:Egypt, the continent of Europe, and England, in See also:acceptance of invitations which he had received to make various public speeches in these countries . Honorary See also:academic degrees were conferred upon him by the See also:universities of See also:Cairo, See also:Christiania, See also:Berlin, See also:Cambridge and See also:Oxford, and he was given both popular and See also:official ovations of almost royal distinction—ovations which were repeated by his own countrymen on his return to America . It may be said without exaggeration that no American public man in the history of the country has achieved such extraordinary popularity during his lifetime as Mr Roosevelt had attained at fifty years of age, both at home and abroad . Great popularity necessarily brings with it See also:bitter enmity and genuine See also:criticism . To understand dearly his career as a public man, and to appreciate the forces at work which caused both the popularity and the enmity, two facts must be kept distinctly in mind: first, that at twenty-two years of age he deliberately decided to make politics his life-work at a time when in the United States the word " politics " had a sinister sound in the ears of almost all of the so-called cultivated classes; and secondly, that in making this deliberate choice he recognized that the government of the United States is .primarily a party government . He therefore allied himself with the Republican party, to which by tradition, by family association, and by political principles he was naturally See also:drawn . In the history of the United States the politician has been too often the man who, in connexion with some other See also:trade or profession, has taken up politics as a See also:tool to carve out some See also:personal ambition or manufacture a See also:financial profit . Mr Roosevelt from the beginning apparently believed with the lexicographers that politics is the See also:science and practice of government . He has himself told the See also:story of an early experience that illustrates his point of view . When in 1881 he decided to join the Republican Association of his assembly district in New York City, members of his family were shocked . " You will find at the meetings, they said, " nobody but grooms, liquor dealers and See also:low politicians." " Well, " said Mr Roosevelt in reply, " if that is so, they belong to the governing class, and you do not . I mean if I can to be one of the governing class . " He forthwith became an active member of the political organization of his district . He also early determined to work with his party as being the only way in which a legislator can work . A See also:free See also:lance, an independent, a journalist, or a preacher, without definite political affiliations, may create public opinion, but a legislator or an See also:administrator must belong to a party . Mr Roosevelt was severely criticized by many " independent Republicans " for having supported the presidential candidacy of James G . Blaine in 1884, when he had vigorously opposed his nomination in the convention on moral grounds . The reply to this criticism is that Mr Blaine was the choice of the majority of the party, and that while Mr Roosevelt See also:felt free to fight within the party vigorously for reform, he did not feel that the nomination justified a See also:schism like that which occurred in the 'Democratic party over the free See also:silver issue in 1896—a schism which remained after-wards a hopeless weakness in that party . His position in the Blaine campaign, his attitude in See also:tariff discussions and legislation, his relations with United States senators, congressional representatives, and other party leaders, his methods in making official appointments, were entirely consistent with his constantly reiterated conviction that in politics permanent See also:good is achieved not by guerilla warfare, but by working through and within the party . He was so often accused by political purists for associating politically with men of discredited reputation that his own picturesque statement of his con-version to a belief that in legislative or administrative politics one must work with all sorts and conditions of men is See also:illuminating . This statement is related by his intimate friend See also:Jacob A . Riis,' to whom Mr Roosevelt made it in commenting upon his first political success in the New York legislature . " I suppose that my head was swelled . It would not be See also:strange if it was . I stood out for my own opinion alone . I took the best ` See also:mugwump' stand—my own See also:conscience, my own See also:judgment were to decide in all things . I would listen to no See also:argument, no See also:advice . I took the isolated See also:peak on every issue, and my associates See also:left me . When I looked around, before the session was well under way, I found myself alone . I was absolutely deserted . The See also:people didn't understand . The men from See also:Erie, from See also:Suffolk, from any-where, would not work with me . ` He won't listen to anybody,' they said, and I would not . My isolated peak had become a valley; every See also:bit of influence I had was gone . The things I wanted to do I was powerless to accomplish . I looked the ground over, and made up my mind that there were several other excellent people there, with honest opinions of the right, even though they differed from me . I turned in to help them, and they turned to and gave me a See also:hand . And so we were able to get things done . We did not agree in all things; but we did in some, and those we pulled at together . That was my first See also:lesson in real politics . It is just this: if you are cast on a See also:desert island with only a See also:screw-See also:driver, a See also:hatchet and a See also:chisel to make a See also:boat with, why, go make the best one you can . It would be better if you had a saw, but you haven't . So with men . Here is my friend in Congress who is a good man, a strong man, but cannot be made to believe in some things in which I See also:trust . It is too had that he doesn't look at it as I do, but he does not, and we have to work together as we can . 
There is a point, of course, where a man must take the isolated peak and break with all his associates for clear principle: but until that time comes he must work, if he would be of use, with men as they are . As long as the good in them overbalances the evil, let him work with them for the best that can be obtained." In his successive offices Mr Roosevelt not merely exerted a strong influence upon the immediate community, whose official representative he was at the time being, but by See also:reason both of his forceful See also:personality and of the often unconventional, although always effective, methods of work which he employed he achieved a national prominence out of ordinary proportion to the importance of his official position . His record in the Assembly was such that his party nominated him for the mayoralty of the city of New York when he was absent on his See also:ranch in Dakota . Although defeated in the mayoralty election, his work on behalf of the merit system, as opposed to the spoils system of politics, was such that he was made a Civil Service commissioner—probably the last office a politician would wish to hold who desired further promotion, for the conflict which a Civil Service commissioner must have with members of Congress and other party leaders on questions of patronage is usually, or, at any See also:rate, has been in the past history of American politics, inevitably detrimental to further official See also:advancement . He was taken from the Federal service in Washington to New York City by a reform mayor and put in charge of the police, because he had shown both See also:physical and moral courage in fighting corruption of all sorts; and the New York police force at that time was thoroughly tainted with corruption, not in its See also:rank and See also:file, but among its See also:superior See also:officers, who used the See also:power in their hands to extort See also:money bribes chiefly from See also:saloon-keepers, liquor-dealers, gamblers and prostitutes . As police commissioner Mr Roosevelt brought to his See also:side every honest man on the force . By personal detective work, that is, by visiting police stations at unexpected times and by making the rounds at See also:night of disorderly places which were suspected of violating the law, he not only displayed personal courage in positions of some danger, but aroused public opinion . The very sensation created by the novelty of his methods set See also:standards and started reforms which have greatly improved the morale of the entire force . The hopelessly vicious policemen hated him, but no man ever had a stronger personal hold upon the great See also:body of the honest officers—a hold which existed long after he left the police department, and was frequently expressed by members of the force as he passed through the city streets . When he became assistant-secretary of the navy, his work was not so publicly conspicuous, ' In a volume entitled Roosevelt the See also:Citizen, which, while it is frankly written as the enthusiastic See also: |