Theodore Roosevelt - Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents

Theodore Roosevelt, the twenty-seventh President of the United States, was born in the city of New York, October 27, 1858. His ancestors on the paternal side were of an old Knickerbocker family, and on the maternal side of Scotch-Irish descent. He was educated at home under private tuition and prepared for matriculation into Harvard, where he was graduated in 1880. He spent the year of 1881 in study and travel. During the years 1882-1884 he was an assemblyman in the legislature of New York. During this term of service he introduced the first civil service bill in the legislature in 1883, and its passage was almost simultaneous with the passage of the Civil Service Bill through Congress. In 1884 he was the Chairman of the delegation from New York to the National Republican Convention. He received the nomination for mayor of the city of New York in 1886 as an Independent, but was defeated. He was made Civil Service Commissioner by President Harrison in 1889 and served as president of the board until May, 1895. He resigned to become President of the New York Board of Police Commissioners in May, 1895. This position, in which the arduous duties were discharged with remarkable vigor and fearlessness, he resigned in 1897 to become Assistant Secretary of the Navy. On the breaking out of the Spanish-American War in 1898, he resigned on May 6, and, entering the army, organized the First United States Volunteer ("Rough Rider") Regiment of Cavalry, recommending Col. L.G. Wood to the command, and taking for himself the second-in-command as lieutenant-colonel. He had gained his military experience as a member of the Eighth Regiment of N.Y.N.G. from 1884-1888, during which time he rose to the rank of captain. The Rough Riders were embarked at Tampa, Fla., with the advance of Shafter's invading army, and sailed for Cuba on June 15, 1898. They participated in every engagement preceding the fall of Santiago. Theodore Roosevelt led the desperate charge of the Ninth Cavalry and the Rough Riders at the Battle of San Juan Hill on July 1. He was made a colonel on July 11. He received the nomination on September 27, 1898, for Governor of the State of New York, obtaining 753 votes, against 218 for Gov. Frank S. Black. At the election Theodore Roosevelt was supported by a majority of the Independent Republicans and many Democrats, and defeated the Democratic candidate, Judge Augustus Van Wyck, by a plurality of 18,079. At the Republican Convention, held at Philadelphia in June, 1900, he was nominated for Vice-President, upon which he resigned the governorship of New York. Was elected Vice-President in November, 1900, and took the oath of office March 4, 1901. President McKinley was shot September 6, 1901, and died September 14. His Cabinet announced his death to the Vice-President, who took the oath of President at the residence of Mr. Ansley Wilcox in Buffalo, before Judge John R. Hazel, of the United States District Court, on September 14.

The history of free government is in large part the history of those representative legislative bodies in which, from the earliest times, free government has found its loftiest expression. They must ever hold a peculiar and exalted position in the record which tells how the great nations of the world have endeavored to achieve and preserve orderly freedom. No man can render to his fellows greater service than is rendered by him who, with fearlessness and honesty, with sanity and disinterestedness, does his life work as a member of such a body. Especially is this the case when the legislature in which the service is rendered is a vital part in the governmental machinery of one of those world powers to whose hands, in the course of the ages, is intrusted a leading part in shaping the destinies of mankind. For weal or for woe, for good or for evil, this is true of our own mighty nation. Great privileges and great powers are ours, and heavy are the responsibilities that go with these privileges and these powers. Accordingly as we do well or ill, so shall mankind in the future be raised or cast down. We belong to a young nation, already of giant strength, yet whose political strength is but a forecast of the power that is to come. We stand supreme in a continent, in a hemisphere. East and west we look across the two great oceans toward the larger world life in which, whether we will or not, we must take an ever-increasing share. And as, keen-eyed, we gaze into the coming years, duties, new and old, rise thick and fast to confront us from within and from without. There is every reason why we should face these duties with a sober appreciation alike of their importance and of their difficulty. But there is also every reason for facing them with highhearted resolution and eager and confident faith in our capacity to do them aright. A great work lies already to the hand of this generation; it should count itself happy, indeed, that to it is given the privilege of doing such a work. A leading part therein must be taken by this the august and powerful legislative body over which I have been called upon to preside. Most deeply do I appreciate the privilege of my position; for high, indeed, is the honor of presiding over the American Senate at the outset of the twentieth century.

MARCH 4, 1901.

To the Senate and House of Representatives:

The Congress assembles this year under the shadow of a great calamity. On the sixth of September, President McKinley was shot by an anarchist while attending the Pan-American Exposition at Buffalo, and died in that city on the fourteenth of that month.

Of the last seven elected Presidents, he is the third who has been murdered, and the bare recital of this fact is sufficient to justify grave alarm among all loyal American citizens. Moreover, the circumstances of this, the third assassination of an American President, have a peculiarly sinister significance. Both President Lincoln and President Garfield were killed by assassins of types unfortunately not uncommon in history; President Lincoln falling a victim to the terrible passions aroused by four years of civil war, and President Garfield to the revengeful vanity of a disappointed office-seeker. President McKinley was killed by an utterly depraved criminal belonging to that body of criminals who object to all governments, good and bad alike, who are against any form of popular liberty if it is guaranteed by even the most just and liberal laws, and who are as hostile to the upright exponent of a free people's sober will as to the tyrannical and irresponsible despot.

It is not too much to say that at the time of President McKinley's death he was the most widely loved man in all the United States; while we have never had any public man of his position who has been so wholly free from the bitter animosities incident to public life. His political opponents were the first to bear the heartiest and most generous tribute to the broad kindliness of nature, the sweetness and gentleness of character which so endeared him to his close associates. To a standard of lofty integrity in public life he united the tender affections and home virtues which are all-important in the make-up of national character. A gallant soldier in the great war for the Union, he also shone as an example to all our people because of his conduct in the most sacred and intimate of home relations. There could be no personal hatred of him, for he never acted with aught but consideration for the welfare of others. No one could fail to respect him who knew him in public or private life. The defenders of those murderous criminals who seek to excuse their criminality by asserting that it is exercised for political ends, inveigh against wealth and irresponsible power. But for this assassination even this base apology cannot be urged.