Introduction xi 



Mr. Roosevelt's Western life supplied that needful 

 element of understanding, while it gave him physical 

 hardihood and a continental breadth of view. It 

 gave him, furthermore, that traditional American 

 readiness with a horse and a gun, and that adapta 

 bility to the free life of field and of woods which is 

 the heritage of the average young American, and 

 which made the greater part of the Northern and 

 Southern armies in the Civil War so unequaled, for 

 effectiveness, in all military history. 



Through these years of practical life in the West 

 Mr. Roosevelt never lost the studious and literary 

 habit, nor did he lose any of his zest for the public 

 affairs of the country. In due time he returned to 

 the East, took an active part in New York politics 

 again, and was nominated for Mayor. Then he 

 went to Washington, where for a number of years 

 he served as Chairman of the Board of Civil Service 

 Commissioners and became an expert in the field of 

 national administration. After that came his two 

 years as President of the Police Commissioners of 

 New York City a truly strenuous period that tested 

 every quality of his mind and character. The navy 

 had been at low ebb when Mr. Roosevelt in 1882 

 wrote his Naval War of 1812, and that book fairly 

 contributed toward the revival of interest which 

 soon set on foot the movement for the creation of 

 our modern fleet. The author of that book had 

 ever afterward been regarded both at home and 



