EXPOSING GRAFT IN NEW YORK STATE 
35 
In his third legislative year Roosevelt was made chairman of the 
Committee on Cities, an appointment due to the thorough knowledge 
he had attained of affairs in New York and other cities. As such he 
introduced much reform legislation, one of his most important bills 
being that which abolished fees in the offices of the Register and the 
County Clerk. 
In 1884 he was a member of the Republican State Convention and 
was elected by it one of New York's four delegates-at-large to the 
National Republican Convention to nominate a candidate for the Presi¬ 
dency. George F. Edmunds was his choice for this office. James G. 
Blaine proved the favorite candidate of the convention. Roosevelt was 
one of the strong members in opposition and fought hard to prevent 
Blaine's nomination. The result was a sore thrust to him. Some of 
Blaine's bitter opponents went over to Cleveland, but in this defection 
Roosevelt would not take part. “Whatever good I have accomplished 
has been through the Republican party," he said, and held that no 
results of importance could be gained except through the regular party 
organization. 
As to how he impressed his party at this time we have evidence 
in the words of George William Curtis, a fellow-delegate. He had his 
first meeting with Roosevelt during the heat of the strife and was 
surprised at his youthful appearance. This he said of him to a 
reporter: 
“You'll know more, sir, later; a deal more, or I am much in error. 
Young? Why, he is just out of school almost, and yet he is a force to 
be reckoned with in New York. Later the nation will be criticising 
or praising him. While respectful to the gray hairs and experience 
of his elders, none of them can move him an iota from convictions as 
to men and measures once formed and rooted. He will not truckle nor 
cringe, he seems to court opposition to the point of being somewhat 
pugnacious. His political life will probably be a turbulent one, but he 
will be a figure, not a figurehead, in future development." 
This year (1884) ended Roosevelt’s legislative life. He left it 
for a long holiday in the West, the scene of his boyhood dreams and 
aspirations. The story of this outing must wait till our next chapter. 
It must suffice here to say that it ended in 1886, when, sitting by a 
