the White House; the preparation of the addresses, messages and other of the state papers for transmission, and later their preparation for the public printer and the press. He also had charge of the correspondence and management of the receptions of the president's wife; and received many of the callers at the executive mansion, making appointments to meet the president. During the first year of President McKinley's administration 400,000 communications were received at the executive mansion and acted upon through the direction of executive clerk Cortelyou, and at the close of the year there was no record of the loss of a single document, and every document filed was indorsed with shorthand notes, which preserved a complete history of each case.
On the occasion of the assassination of President McKinley, Secretary Cortelyou was with him and at once assumed general direction of the arrangements attending the illness, death and burial of the president. He had not only the duty to the dead to perform, but a much more delicate one in looking after the invalid wife and widow, and helping her to bear the great sorrow in which she had been so suddenly plunged. His management of all these matters was a marvel to all who knew of the extent of his responsibility; and it is safe to say that perhaps no man will ever be called upon to assume responsibilities of greater magnitude in one week of terrible anxiety.
Mr. Roosevelt on taking the oath as president of the United States insisted upon Mr. Cortelyou remaining in the position he had so worthily filled and he reappointed him secretary to the president, September 16, 1901. When congress provided a Department of Commerce and Labor and made its chief a cabinet officer, the president on February 16, 1903, placed Secretary Cortelyou at the head of the new department. On the same day the appointment was confirmed by the senate. Secretary Cortelyou while in Washington pursued a course in law at the Georgetown university and was graduated LL.B. in 1895, and the following year on completing a post-graduate course in law at the Columbian university law school he received the degrees of LL.M. and LL.D. He was married September 15, 1888, to Lily Morris Hinds, the youngest daughter of Dr. Ephriam and Catharine (Shephard) Hinds. Dr. Hinds was principal of the Hempstead institute. The record made by Secretary Cortelyou up to his forty-second year is one that carries its
