The New Student's Reference Work/Root, Elihu

Root, Elihu, an eminent American lawyer and statesman, was born at Clinton, New York, Feb. 15, 1845. Soon afterwards his father removed to Seneca Falls where he was principal of the academy of that place, returning to Clinton in 1850 to accept the professorship of mathematics and astronomy in Hamilton College. Root entered Hamilton College, and graduated in 1864. Entering New York University Law-School in the autumn of 1865, he graduated two years later and immediately began practice in New York City. In 1882 he was appointed United States District Attorney in New York City and was delegate-at-large to the state constitutional convention and chairman of the judiciary committee in 1894. He was appointed Secretary of War by President McKinley on Aug. 1, 1899, and on March 5, 1901, he was re-appointed. He was retained by President Roosevelt until Feb. 1, 1904, when he resigned to resume the practice of law in New York City. As Secretary of War he planned the new War-College at Washington; a modification of the rules of promotion of officers by which seniority ceased to be the sole requisite; and the institution of the general staff in the United States Army. He prepared the documents for the government of the Philippine Islands, Porto Rico and Cuba, and so satisfactory were they that little was left for Congress to do but to give them legislative enactment. He was acting president as well as Secretary of State pro tempore during much of the Boxer troubles, and ordered General Chaffee to the rescue of the American legation at Peking. He also was one of the American members of the Alaskan boundary-commission in 1903. When, in 1905, the Secretaryship of State was made vacant by the death of John Hay, he was again called into public service. Mr. Root accepted as finished the most of the work of his eminent predecessor and struck out into a line until then much neglected. He at once began a serious study of our commercial relations with foreign nations and especially with the nations of the American continents. He prepared a measure for the reform of the consular service, and succeeded in securing its passage by Congress. He organized the first Pan-American Congress and gave it a program so carefully edited as practically to insure the meeting against discord. Having done this and gotten together leading representatives from 19 of the 21 American republics in Rio Janeiro, he traveled 5,000 miles to deliver through them the message of the United States to every American republic, a message which has done more to dispel misunderstandings and allay suspicions than all other means that have been employed. No man of his official rank had ever before sought the men who rule these nations and shown them the real attitude of the American government towards them. In 1909 he was elected U. S. Senator from New York.