Theodore Roosevelt | Page 5

Hart; to Hon. Charles S. Bird; to Mrs. George von. L. Meyer and Mrs. Curtis Guild; to Mr. Hermann Hagedorn; to Mr. James G. King, Jr.; to Dean William D. Lewis; to Hon. Regis H. Post; to Hon. William Phillips, Assistant Secretary of State; to Mr. Richard Trimble; to Mr. John Woodbury; to Gov. Charles E. Hughes; to Mr. Louis A. Coolidge; to Hon. F. D. Roosevelt, Assistant Secretary of the Navy; to Judge Robert Grant; to Mr. James Ford Rhodes; to Hon. W. Cameron Forbes.
I am under especial obligation to Hon. Charles G. Washburn, ex-Congressman, whose book, "Theodore Roosevelt: The Logic of his Career," I have consulted freely and commend as the best analysis I have seen of Roosevelt's political character. I wish also to thank the publishers and authors of books by or about Roosevelt for permission to use their works. These are Houghton Mifflin Co.; G. P. Putnam's Sons; The Outlook Co.; The Macmillan Co.
To Mr. Ferris Greenslet, whose fine critical taste I have often drawn upon; and Mr. George B. Ives, who has prepared the Index; and to Miss Alice Wyman, my secretary, my obligation is profound.
W. R. T. August 10, 1919
CONTENTS
I. ORIGINS AND YOUTH II. BREAKING INTO POLITICS III. AT THE FIRST CROSSROADS IV. NATURE THE HEALER V. BACK TO THE EAST AND LITERATURE VI. APPLYING MORALS TO POLITICS VII. THE ROUGH RIDER VIII. GOVERNOR OF NEW YORK--VICE-PRESIDENT IX. PRESIDENT X. THE WORLD WHICH ROOSEVELT CONFRONTED XI. ROOSEVELT'S FOREIGN POLICY XII. THE GREAT CRUSADE AT HOME XIII. THE TWO ROOSEVELTS XIV. THE PRESIDENT AND THE KAISER XV. ROOSEVELT AND CONGRESS XVI. THE SQUARE DEAL IN ACTION XVII. ROOSEVELT AT HOME XVIII. HITS AND MISSES XIX. CHOOSING HIS SUCCESSOR XX. WORLD HONORS XXI. WHICH WAS THE REPUBLICAN PARTY? XXII. THE TWO CONVENTIONS XXIII. THE BRAZILIAN ORDEAL XXIV. PROMETHEUS BOUND XXV. PROMETHEUS UNBOUND
ABBREVIATIONS
Autobiography = "Theodore Roosevelt: An Autobiography." Macmillan Co.; New York, 1914.
*** The titles of other books by Mr. Roosevelt are given without his name as they occur in the footnotes.
Leupp = Francis E. Leupp: "The Man Roosevelt." D. Appleton & Co.; New York, 1904.
Lewis = Wm. Draper Lewis: "The Life of Theodore Roosevelt." John C. Winston Co.; Philadelphia, 1919.
Morgan = James Morgan: "Theodore Roosevelt; The Boy and the Man." Macmillan Co., new ed., 1919.
Ogg = Frederic A.Ogg: "National Progress, 1907-1917." American Nation Series. Harper& Bros.; New York, 1918.
Riis = Jacob A. Riis: "Theodore Roosevelt; the Citizen." Outlook Co.; New York, 1904.
Washburn = Charles G. Washburn: "Theodore Roosevelt; The Logic of His Career." Houghton Mifflin Co., 1916.

THEODORE ROOSEVELT
CHAPTER I.
ORIGINS AND YOUTH
Nothing better illustrates the elasticity of American democratic life than the fact that within a span of forty years Abraham Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt were Presidents of the United States. Two men more unlike in origin, in training, and in opportunity, could hardly be found.
Lincoln came from an incompetent Kentuckian father, a pioneer without the pioneer's spirit of enterprise and push; he lacked schooling; he had barely the necessaries of life measured even by the standards of the Border; his companions were rough frontier wastrels, many of whom had either been, or might easily become, ruffians. The books on which he fed his young mind were very few, not more than five or six, but they were the best. And yet in spite of these handicaps, Abraham Lincoln rose to be the leader and example of the American Nation during its most perilous crisis, and the ideal Democrat of the nineteenth century.
Theodore Roosevelt, on the contrary, was born in New York City, enjoyed every advantage in education and training; his family had been for many generations respected in the city; his father was cultivated and had distinction as a citizen, who devoted his wealth and his energies to serving his fellow men. But, just as incredible adversity could not crush Abraham Lincoln, so lavish prosperity could not keep down or spoil Theodore Roosevelt.
In his "Autobiography" he tells us that "about 1644 his ancestor, Claes Martensen van Roosevelt, came to New Amsterdam as a 'settler'--the euphemistic name for an immigrant who came over in the steerage of a sailing ship in the seventeenth century. From that time for the next seven generations from father to son every one of us was born on Manhattan Island." * For over a hundred years the Roosevelts continued to be typical Dutch burghers in a hard-working, God-fearing, stolid Dutch way, each leaving to his son a little more than he had inherited. During the Revolution, some of the family were in the Continental Army, but they won no high honors, and some of them sat in the Congresses of that generation--sat, and were honest, but did not shine. Theodore's great-grandfather seems to have amassed what was regarded in those days as a large fortune.
* Autobiography, 1.
His grandfather, Cornelius Van Schaack Roosevelt,