ROOSEVELT 



in place of the Jacobus, Johannas and Nicholas 

 which were borne by the earlier members. 

 The Roosevelts prospered. One owned real 

 *e, others went into business, and before 

 long they were numbered among the old aris- 

 tocracy of New York. 



Theodore Roosevelt, the President's father, 

 was a successful business man who gave largely 

 of his time and money to philanthropic enter- 

 prises of many kinds. His many generous ac- 

 tivities were recognized by his appointment to 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT 



The millions who believed in him called him 

 opponents called him many things. 

 Hi.- intense activity made a neutral viewpoint 

 almost impossible. Almost every _person was 

 either an enthusiastic supporter of Roosevelt or 

 violently opposed to him. 



York State Board of Charities. Presi- 

 dent Hayes nominated him for collector of the 

 port of New York, but the elder Roosev' 

 independence in politics led the local bosses to 

 bring influences to bear which secured his re- 

 jection by the Senate. President Roosevelt's 

 father, and his uncle Robert (1829-1906) were 

 both active in politics, and their lives were "a 

 stirring summons to men of wealth, of culture 

 and of leisure, to a more active participation in 

 public affairs." The President's mother, who 

 was Miss Martha Bulloch, belonged to a family 

 as distinguished in Georgia as the Roosevelts 

 were in New York. Mrs. Roosevelt's elder 

 brother was a Confederate naval officer who 

 was responsible for setting afloat the Alabama 

 and other privateers and blockade runners, and 



uinger brother was navigating officer 01 

 Alabama. Her great-grandfather was the first 

 governor of Georgia after th. Declaration of 

 Independence was signed. 



His Boyhood and Youth. Of a distinguished, 

 aristocratic and wealthy family, young Roose- 



ROOSEVELT 



velt had many advantages in life. He had, 

 however, the serious handicap of poor health, 

 against which he had to fight until he reached 

 manhood. As a boy he took all manner of 

 gymnastic exercises, some of which seem to 

 have carried him out on window ledges, to the 

 alarm of the neighbors. But his mother used 

 to say that "If the Lord hadn't taken care of 

 Theodore he would have been killed long ago," 

 and Theodore himself said in after years that 

 he had made up his mind that, come what 

 might, he would make himself strong. His 

 schooling was occasionally interrupted by his 

 weakness or by illness, but he made excellent 

 progress, nevertheless, and entered Harvard in 

 1876. 



At Harvard he was neither a "sport" nor a 

 "grind." He belonged to exclusive societies, 

 but also had many friends outside these small, 

 select groups. He stood fairly well in his stud- 

 ies, but had ample time for boxing, wrestling, 

 tennis and other sports. He was especially in- 

 terested in natural history. 



His Choice of a Career. After graduation 

 from Harvard, young Roosevelt studied law at 

 Columbia University and in the office of his 

 uncle, but it seems that he had no serious in- 

 tention of becoming a lawyer. The law was 

 merely one kind of preparation for wider activi- 

 ties. At one time he wanted to be a professor 

 of natural history, but he had no thought of be- 

 coming a professional writer. The year after he 

 left college he wrote one book, The Naval His- 

 tory of the War of 1812, but he had done this 

 rather to correct a number of errors which he 

 had found in the histories dealing with that war. 

 He made his entrance into politics in 1881, much 

 to the amusement of his Fifth Avenue friends, 

 who told him he would meet only the grooms 

 and saloonkeepers in politics, to which Roose- 

 velt replied that as "they are the governing class 

 in this city, then, they must be better men than 

 you are." He attended the meetings of the 

 Republican ward club, and found that "the boys 

 there were a jolly enough lot." 



In the New York Legislature. In the au- 

 tumn of 1881 Roosevelt was elected to the New 

 York assembly. He was only twenty-three 

 years old and the youngest man in the legisla- 

 ture, but he was soon one of the best known, 

 both inside and outside of that body. T 

 was a scandal concerning a certain judge. The 

 political bosses ordered silence, but Roosevelt 

 pressed the issue, and after a week of talking 

 secured the impeachment of the judge. Roose- 

 \. It \v:i< reflected for three more terms. In 



