Theodore Roosevelt

Life in Badlands and second marriage

Theodore Roosevelt as Badlands hunter in 1885. New York studio photo. Note the engraved knife and rifle courtesy of Tiffany and Co.Living near the boomtown of Medora, North Dakota, Roosevelt learned to ride and rope, occasionally getting involved in fistfights, and spent his time in the rough-and-tumble world of the final days of the American Old West. On one occasion, as a deputy sheriff, he hunted down three outlaws taking a stolen boat down the Little Missouri River, successfully taking them back overland for trial.

While working on a tough project aimed at hunting down a group of relentless horse thieves, Roosevelt came across the famous Deadwood Sheriff Seth Bullock. The two would remain friends for life. (Morris, Rise of, 241-245, 247-250)

After the 1886-1887 winter wiped out his herd of cattle and his $60,000 investment (together with those of his competitors), he returned to the East, where in 1885, he had purchased Sagamore Hill in Oyster Bay, New York. It would be his home and estate until his death. Roosevelt ran as the Republican candidate for mayor of New York City in 1886, coming in a distant third.

Following the election, he went to London in 1886 and married his childhood sweetheart, Edith Kermit Carow. [13] They honeymooned in Europe, and Roosevelt climbed Mont Blanc, leading only the third expedition of record to reach the summit, a feat which resulted in his induction into the British Royal Society. <Encyclopedia Britannica, 1910 Edition, Topic: Theodore Roosevelt> They had five children: Theodore Jr., Kermit, Ethel Carow, Archibald Bulloch "Archie", and Quentin. Although Roosevelt's father was also named Theodore Roosevelt, he died while the future president was still childless and unmarried, so the future President Roosevelt took the suffix of Sr. and subsequently named his son Theodore Roosevelt, Jr. Because Roosevelt was still alive when his grandson and namesake was born, his grandson was named Theodore Roosevelt III, and the president's son retained the Jr. after his father's death. "Uncle Ted" was the godfather and favorite uncle of Eleanor Roosevelt, whom he gave away in marriage to their cousin Franklin D. Roosevelt on St. Patrick's Day (March 17) 1905.

Roosevelt is the only President to have become a widower and remarry before becoming President.

In the 1880s, he gained recognition as a serious historian. His The Naval War of 1812 (1882) was the standard history for two generations, but his hasty biographies of Thomas Hart Benton (1887) and Gouverneur Morris (1888) were potboilers. His major achievement was a four-volume history of the frontier, The Winning of the West (1889-1896), which had a notable impact on historiography as it presented a highly original version of the frontier thesis elaborated upon in 1893 by his friend Frederick Jackson Turner. His many articles in upscale magazines provided a much-needed income, as well as cementing a reputation as a major national intellectual. He was later chosen president of the American Historical Association.


Return to public life

New York City Police Commissioner 1896In the 1888 presidential election, Roosevelt campaigned for Benjamin Harrison in the Midwest. President Harrison appointed Roosevelt to the United States Civil Service Commission, where he served until 1895. [14] In his term, he vigorously fought the spoilsmen and demanded the enforcement of civil service laws. In spite of Roosevelt's support for Harrison's reelection bid in the presidential election of 1892, the eventual winner, Grover Cleveland (a Bourbon Democrat), reappointed him to the same post.

In 1895, he became president of the New York City Board of Police Commissioners. During the two years that he held this post, Roosevelt radically changed the way a police department was run. The police force was reputed as one of the most corrupt forces in America. NYPD's history division records that Roosevelt was, "an iron-willed leader of unimpeachable honesty, (who) brought a reforming zeal to the New York City Police Commission in 1895." [15] Roosevelt and his fellow commissioners established new disciplinary rules, created a bicycle squad to police New York's traffic problems and implemented standardized 32 calibre pistol practice. [16] Roosevelt implemented regular inspections of firearms, annual physical exams, appointed 1,600 new recruits appointed not on the basis of political affiliation but solely for their physical and mental qualifications, opened admission to the department to ethnic minorities and women, established the first police meritorious service medals, shut down the corrupt police hostelries, and a Municipal Lodging House was established by the Board of Charities." Roosevelt required his officers to be registered with the Board. He also had telephones installed in station houses. Always an energetic man, he made a habit of walking officers' beats late at night and early in the morning to make sure that they were on duty. [17]


Assistant Secretary of the Navy

Assistant Secretary of the Navy Roosevelt (front center) at the Naval War College, c. 1897Roosevelt had always been fascinated by navies and their history. Urged by Roosevelt's close friend, Congressman Henry Cabot Lodge, President William McKinley appointed a delighted Roosevelt to the post of Assistant Secretary of the Navy in 1897. (Because of the poor health and inactivity of Secretary of the Navy John D. Long at the time, this basically gave Roosevelt reign over the department.)

Roosevelt had grown up fascinated with stories of naval battles by his mother and his uncles in Liverpool. Roosevelt had persistently encouraged his uncle James Dunwoody Bulloch to tell his unique story of Confederate operations in Britain during the Civil War and the secret fitting-out of such ships as the CSS Alabama on which Bulloch's brother Irvine had served as its youngest officer. His uncle in turn had helped him develop his ideas that led to his War of 1812 naval history. In that book, Roosevelt explained how near criminal neglect of Naval issues and apathy toward British seapower had almost led to the destruction of the new country. It was only the nautical skills of the commanders and the training and ship handling skills of the crews that had saved the Navy and the country. The overwhelming seapower of Britain had shaped every aspect of the war and made the events on land, to Roosevelt, seem almost secondary until the Battle of New Orleans. The book was but the first link in the chain of Roosevelt's developing views of the importance of a strong Navy to the security of the United States.

Concurrently with Roosevelt's arrival in Washington, D.C., a contemporary and friend, Alfred Thayer Mahan, who had met Roosevelt in 1887, had organized his earlier Naval War College lectures into his seminal book, The Influence of Sea Power upon History, 1660-1783. Roosevelt read it in a single weekend during the summer of 1890 and immediately appreciated its importance. But the book, while revolutionary to many Americans, simply reinforced Roosevelt's own understanding of the role that Navies would play on the world stage. His view was that only a dramatic expansion of the Navy into a service with a global reach would put the United States on par with the growing naval might of European nations and Japan. When asked to speak to the Naval War College, the scope and force of Roosevelt arguments stunned both the Secretary of the Navy as well as the President, as they had not been approved by either man. But so persuasive was Roosevelt's speech, that neither man publicly repudiated him. Within days of becoming assistant secretary, Roosevelt was pushing for the modernization of the Navy and the reorganization of both the Department and its officer corps. He also fought for an increase in ship-building capability, warning that building modern steel ships would take years instead of the mere weeks of construction in the age of sail.

Roosevelt was instrumental in consciously preparing the Navy for what he saw as an unavoidable conflict with Spain. Events would prove him right. During the Spanish-American War, the U.S. Navy searched the world for ships to support world-wide operations.


War in Cuba

Roosevelt left his civilian Navy post to form the famous "Rough Riders" Regiment
Colonel Roosevelt and his "Rough Riders" after capturing San Juan Hill during the Spanish-American WarUpon the declaration of war in 1898 that would be known as the Spanish-American War, Roosevelt resigned from the Navy Department and, with the aid of U.S. Army Colonel Leonard Wood, organized the First U.S. Volunteer Cavalry Regiment out of a diverse crew that ranged from cowboys from the Western territories to Ivy League friends from New York. The newspapers called them the "Rough Riders." Originally Roosevelt held the rank of Lieutenant Colonel and served under Colonel Wood, but after Wood was promoted to Brigadier General of Volunteer Forces, Roosevelt was promoted to Colonel and given command of the Regiment. Under his leadership, the Rough Riders became famous for their dual charges up Kettle Hill and San Juan Hill in July 1898 (the battle was named after the latter hill). [18] Roosevelt was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor in 2001 for his actions.

Upon his return from Cuba, Roosevelt re-entered New York state politics and was elected governor of New York in 1898. [19] He made such a concerted effort to root out corruption and "machine politics" that Republican boss Thomas Collier Platt forced him on McKinley as a running mate in the 1900 election to simplify their control of the state. [20]


Chicago newspaper sees cowboy-TR campaigning for governor[edit]
Vice presidency
Order: 25th Vice President
Term of Office: March 4, 1901 – September 14, 1901
Preceded by: Garret Hobart
Succeeded by: Charles Fairbanks
President: William McKinley
Political party: Republican
McKinley and Roosevelt won the presidential election of 1900, defeating William Jennings Bryan and Adlai E. Stevenson I. Roosevelt found his six months in the vice-presidency unfulfilling. One story that sums up his feelings on the Vice-Presidency was that as President, Roosevelt ordered a noisy chandelier removed from the White House, suggesting that it be put in the Vice President's office, as he had nothing to do and the chandelier would keep him awake.

Thinking that he had little future in politics, he considered returning to law school after leaving office. [21] On September 2, 1901, Roosevelt first uttered a sentence that would become strongly associated with his presidency, urging Americans to "speak softly and carry a big stick" during a speech at the Minnesota State Fair. It has been claimed that the famous phrase was actually inspired by a discussion Roosevelt had with French diplomat Comte Édouard Sébastien de Malo when the latter visited the US in 1900. As France was just coming out of the traumatic Dreyfus affair, Roosevelt asked Comte de Malo what lesson could be learned from the episode. De Malo replied: "France may have been humbled by this event, but we still stand strong and proud. Although we speak softly, we are still carrying a big stick."


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