Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 09.djvu/177

 ROOSEVELT

ROOSEVELT

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was then placed under private instructors at his home. He was tutored for college by Mr. Cutler, subsequently the founder of the Cutler school, and was graduated from Harvard in 1880. He was married Sept. 23, 1880, to Alice, daughter of George Cabot and Caroline (Haskell) Lee of Boston, Mass. She died in 1883, leav- ing one daughter, Alice Lee. He be- came a student in the New York Law school; was a Repub- lican member of the New York assembly, 1883, 1883 and 1884; was candidate of his party for speaker of the assembly in 1884; chairman of the committee on cities and of a special committee known as the Roose- velt investigating committee. As a supporter of the civil service reform, he introduced bills which became laws affecting the government of New York city and especially the patron- age exercised by the sheriff, county clerk and register, which greatly reformed the conduct of their respective oflSces. He was a delegate to the Republican state convention of 1884; dele- gate-at-large from New York and chairman of the New York delegation to the Republican national convention that met at Chicago, June 3, 1884; purchased the Elk Horn and the Chimney Butte ranches at Medora on the Little Missouri river in North Dakota, where he lived, 1884-86. He was a member of the New York state militia, 1884-88, serving in the 8th regiment, N.G.S.N.Y., as lieutenant, and for three years as captain. He was married secondly, Dec. 3, 1886, to Edith Kermit, daughter of Charles and Gertrude Eliza- beth (Tyler) Carow of New York city. He was the unsuccessful Republican candidate for mayor of New York city in 1886, when Abram S. Hewitt was elected; was in May, 1889, appointed on the U.S. civil service commission in Washington, D.C., by President Harrison and served as presi- dent of the commission. He was continued in office by President Cleveland, but resigned in May, 1895, to accept the position of police com- missioner of New York city in the administration of Mayor Strong, and he was president of the bi-partisan board, 1895-97. He was appointed assistant secretary of the U.S. navy in April, 1897, by President McKinley, and on the declara tion of the war with Spain in April, 1898, he re- signed to recruit the 1st U.S.V. cavalry, a regi- ment of " Rough Riders " made up mostly of his

acquaintances on the "Western Plains, including cowboys and miners, with some members of the college athletic clubs of New York and Boston — men who could ride, shoot and live in the open. He was commissioned lieutenant-colonel. May 6, 1898, and was promoted to the rank of colonel after the battle of La Quassina, San Juan, when Col. Leonard Wood was promoted brigadier- general and assigned to the governorship of Santiago. When the war closed, the Republican party of his native state nominated him their candidate for governor and he was elected over Van Wyck, Democrat, Kline, Prohibitionist, Han- ford, Social Labor, and Bacon, Citizen's ticket, by a plurality of 17,786 votes in a total vote of 1,343.968. He served as governor of New York, 1899-1900. His administration as governor was conspicuous in his thorough work in reforming the canal boards; instituting an improved system of civil service, including the adoption of the merit system in county offi«es, and in calling an extra session of the legislature to secure the passage of a bill he had recommended at the general session, taking as real estate the value of railroads and other franchises to use public streets, in spite of the protests of corporations and Re- publican leaders. He was nominated Vice- President ef the United States by the Republican national convention that met at Philadelphia, June, 1900, where he was forced by the demands of the western delegates to accept the nomina- tion with William McKinley for President, and he was elected Nov. 6, 1900. He was sworn into office as the twenty -sixth President of the United States, Sept. 14, 1901, by reason of the assassina- tion of President McKinley, Roosevelt being at the time less than forty-three years old, the youngest man in the history of the United States to have attained the chief magistracy of the gov- ernment. In assuming the presidency, he re- appointed the entire cabinet of President Mc- Kinley as it existed at the time of his death, and he announced that it should be his purpose to carry out absolutely unbroken the political policy worked out by his predecessor. The cabinet with the changes during his administration, was as follows; John Hay of the District of Columbia, secretary of state; Lyman J. Gage of Illinois, secretary of the treasury, who resigned in 1903, and was succeeded by Leslie M. Shaw of Iowa; Elihu Root of New York, secretary of war; Ethan A. Hitchcock of Missouri, secretary of the interior; John D. Long of Massachusetts, secre- tary of the navy, who resigned in 1903 and was succeeded by William H. Moody of Massachu- setts; James Wilson of Iowa, secretary of agri- culture; Charles Emory Smith of Pennsylvania, postmaster-general, who resigned in 1903 and was succeeded by Henry C. Payne of Wisconsin;