34 
EXPOSING GRAFT IN NEW YORK STATE 
only remedy lay in taking from the Aldermen their power. This 
Roosevelt fought for and achieved. His bill gave the control over 
appointments to the Mayor himself, and in this way did much to 
strengthen the hands of honest government in New York. 
As for the prevailing system of appointment to office—the “spoils 
system,” as it had long been called—it did not appeal to him as the 
way to get good service. The best men could be obtained only by a 
public inquiry into their attainments and fitness, and he was from the 
start a supporter of the merit system which was then in the air. Civil 
Service Reform, alike in nation and State was being demanded, and 
Roosevelt had the honor of introducing the first intelligently drawn 
civil service bill ever presented to the New York Legislature. Passed 
in 1883, by an odd coincidence it was signed by Governor Cleveland 
at nearly the same time as the civil service bill passed by Congress was 
signed by President Arthur. 
By this time the young Assemblyman was looked upon by all 
parties as a rising man. The pot-house politicians could not see why 
“Teddy with the kid gloves” and a fat bank account wanted to meddle 
with things which had gone on well enough for a century. But he 
knew why; the air was tainted and he wished to make it fit for an 
honest man to breathe. Therefore, when any odor of corruption arose, 
he dashed in regardless of anything except the warm desire to clear 
the air of its malodorous taint. 
Meanwhile he kept up a degree of interest in New York social 
life, and spent some of his leisure time in the management of the con¬ 
siderable estate which the death of his father had left to his care. His 
sporting proclivities were manifested in the dogs and horses which he 
kept around him and an occasional dash away with his gun for a 
sporting trip of a month or two. Active outdoor life was a panacea 
which he could not long live without. 
Mr. Roosevelt married during this legislative period, his wife 
being Miss Alice Lee, of Boston, a young lady who deeply admired 
the young Hotspur of the Assembly. This first married life was a brief 
one, his young wife dying in little over a year. She left him a daughter, 
Alice, who was very dear to him. By a sad contingency, fiis mother 
died in the same week with his wife, leaving him doubly alone. His 
second marriage, to Miss Edith K. Carow, took place in 1886. 
