Introduction ix 



their institutions. Almost at once he threw him 

 self into the politics of the great State of New York, 

 served several terms in the Legislature, and made 

 himself known throughout the country by the vigor 

 and courage with which he applied himself to current 

 problems of State and municipal reform. At a time 

 when the so-called "spoils system" was powerfully 

 rooted in the practical government of nation, State, 

 and city, he became a civil service reformer. 



Everything that was worth while was of interest 

 to him and everything that he undertook to do was 

 done whole-heartedly and thus made its contribution 

 to his own development. He was an officer in the 

 militia, and learned lessons which became, years 

 afterward, valuable to him as a colonel in the Span 

 ish-American war and later as commander-in-chief 

 of the army by virtue of the Presidential office. 



Meanwhile his first literary undertaking was the 

 history of the naval war of 1812, which appeared 

 in 1882, and which will always remain a vital and a 

 standard account of our last war with Great Britain, 

 especially from the standpoint of naval strategy and 

 actual operations. Whether taking part himself in 

 the current life of his country and in the making of 

 its history, or whether studying or writing about the 

 part that others have taken in the development of the 

 nation, there has been on Mr. Roosevelt's part al 

 ways a singleness of purpose and a harmony of ef 

 fort. Thus, when he wrote about the War of 1812, 



