ROOSEVELT
ROOSEVELT
jfi^jt4^i{c^t ncmcf€0r
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;
