ROOSEVELT
ROOSEVELT
Philander C. Knox of Pennsylvania as attorney-
general, and George Bruce Cortelyou of New
York (former secretary to the President) secre-
tary of commerce and agriculture, an executive
department newly created by congress in Feb-
ruary, rJ03, Mr. Cortelyou taking the oatli of
office on February 18. The diplomatic represen-
tatives continued from McKinley's administra-
tion were: Josepli H. Choate of New York, U.S.
ambassador to Great Britain; Horace Porter of
New York, U.S. ambassador to France; Robert
S. McCormick of Illinois. U.S. minister to
Austria until Jan. 8, l(t03. when he was trans-
ferred as U.S. ambassador to Russia; Charle-
magne Tower of Philadelphia. U.S.. ambassador
to Russia, transferred Jan. 8. 1903, to Germany;
Andrew D. White of New York, U.S. ambassador
to Germany, who resigned December, 1902;
George von L. Meyer of Massachusetts, U.S.
ambassador to Italy, and Bellamy Storer of Ohio,
U.S. minister to Spain, transferred December,
1902 to Austria as U.S. ambassador and being
succeeded at Madrid, Spain, by Arthur Sherburne
Hardy, late U.S. envoy to Switzerland. A
vacancy occurred on the bench of the U.S.
supreme court by the resignation of Associate
Justice Horace Gray, and on Aug. 11, 1902,
President Roosevelt appointed Oliver Wendell
Holmes of Massachusetts, associate justice, and
on the resignation of Associate Justice George
Shiras, Jr., in 1903, he appointed Judge William
R. Day of the U.S. circuit court, associate justice.
His first message to congress followed the line of
pf)licy foreshadowed in McKinley's last speecli at
Buffalo, and as President, he made extended
journeys through the various states, the welcome
extended to him being alike generous and uni-
versal in New England and in the Southern
states. It is safe to say that no President who
had reached the office through the Vice-Presi-
dency began his administration under better
auspices or with less of partisan opposition and
criticism. His recommendations were acknow-
ledged to be wise and conservative and while
congress did not adopt them all, it gave to each
careful corLsideration. His action in reference to
the coal strike of 1902 restored order and secured
a return of the miners to their work, and at the
same time made the working men feel that their
cause had not suffered from his counsel. In the
complications arising from the Venezuela diffi-
culties in 1902-03, he maintained tiie Monroe
doctrine in all negotiations with the European
powers interested, and was honored by the gov-
ernment of Venezuela in b^ing named as an ac-
ceptable arbitrator, which duty he gracefully
avoided by proi>osing the Higne tribunal as the
proi>er means for arriving at a peaceful solution.
Later when the European powers involved ob-
jected to appearing before the Hague court, they
unanimously suggested the President of the
United States as a more satisfactory arbitrator,
a position which he declined, and U.S. Consul
Bowen arranged tiie term of settlement. When
the Uziited States senate failed to act upon the
treaties providing for an Isthmian canal and for
reciprocity with Cuba, President Roosevelt called
an extra session of the senate, and the treaties
were ratified, March 5, 1903. In November,
1903. he recognized the new Republic of Panama
immediately on its secession from Colombia.
He was a member of the Columbia Historical
societj- to which he contributed papers on the
Dutch colonies of New Amsterdam; the National
Geographic society; the Union League club
and the Century association of New York city;
the Anthropological society of Washington, the
American Museum of Natural History of which
he was a trustee, as he was of the State Charities
Association, and of the Newsboys' Lodging House
of which his father was the organizer and a
liberal patron. He organized in 1887 and was the
first president of the Boone and Crockett club,
whose objects are the hunting of big game, ex-
ploration, and preservation of game and forests,
holding the office until 1896. He instituted, Feb.
2, 1899. and was the first commander, of the Naval
and Military Order of the Spanish-American
War; and became a member of the Rough Riders'
association, organized in Cuba before the dis-
bandment of the 1st Regiment, U.S. Volunteers
Cavalry, and of the National Association of Span-
ish-American War Veterans, incorporated Dec.
14, 1899. He was made an honorary member of
the Union League club of Chicago in 1902, and of
the Alpine club of London. He received the
honorary degree of LL.D. from Columbia in 1899,
from Yale in October, 1901, and from Harvard in
1902, having been elected a member of tiie Har-
vard Universit}^ board of overseers in 1895. He
is the author of: History of the Naval ]Var of
1S13 (1882); Hunting Trips of a Ranchman
(1885) -yLife of Tliomas H. Benton (1880) and
Life of Gouverneur Morris (1887) in the " Amer-
ican Statesmen Series "; Ranch Life and the
Hunting Trail (1888); Essays on Practical
Politics (1888); The Winyiing of the West— The
Fotindiug of the Alleghany Commontcealtlis,
17S4-fiO (Vol. I. and II., 1889); History of Xew
York City (1890); The Wilderness Hunter (1893);
Tlie Boone and Crockett Club Series" edited
by Mr. Roosevelt and George Bird Grinnell:
American Big Game Hunting (1893); Hunting i7i
Many Lands (1895) and The Trail and Camp Fire
(1896): Hero Tal^s from American History. 14
tales by Theodore Roosevelt and 12 by Henry
Cabot Lodge (1S95): The Winning of the West
—Louisiana and the Xorth West (Vols. III. and
