The Early Years of Teddy Roosevelt
The Rise of a New York Politician and Badlands Cowboy
Theodore Roosevelt, prior to becoming America's 26th President, lived an exciting life of politics, civil service, academics, and frontiersman.
Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919) today is remembered most often for his progressive policies as the 26th President of the Unitd States. Prior to his time in office, however, Roosevelt's first forty years had already made him one of the most interesting men ever to achieve national office in America.
Early Luxury and Entry into Politics
Unlike the vast majority of Presidents who had preceded him, Theodore Roosevelt was not born into conditions which could be in any way viewed as "humble." Coming from a long line of American patriots and successful businessmen from both the north and the south, Roosevelt was born into very comfortable conditions in Manhattan, 1858.
His earliest life was dominated by health problems (he suffered from severe athesma as a youth) and academics. Roosevelt was intensely devoted to learning everything he could about history and the natural world (eventually becoming the author of more than thirty books on various subjects, many of which are very well remembered scholarly works).
His academic success as a youth allowed young Roosevelt to graduate Magna Cum Laude from Harvard and then begin at Columbia Law School - though he dropped out of the latter upon realizing a new career path: Public service.
It was this year, 1882, that Roosevelt was elected to the New York Assembly, where he served with distinction as a fiercely Republican partisan, proposing a great deal of legislation in his two years in office, attending the 1884 Republican National Convention in hopes that a "reformer" would be nominated (though his faction lost to the "stalwart" James G. Blaine, who went on to lose to Grover Cleveland in the general election.
Roosevelt left the assembly in 1884 in the midst of personal tragedy - the death of his first wife, Alice, and his mother on the very same day.
Cowboy Years and Civil Service Career
Leaving his daughter to stay with his sister in New York City, Roosevelt's grief led him out of the city and away from the east coast entirely, to the badlands of the Dakota territory, where he for two years became a cowboy, hunter, rancher, and local sheriff (where he became the source of many legendary stories of catching outlaws and enforcing the law).
In 1886, 28 year old Theodore Roosevelt returned to New York, promptly marrying his second wife, Edith, and resuming a career in politics and writing.
Roosevelt attempted to win election to the Mayorship of New York City in 1886, but lost. Nevertheless, two years later, as a result of campaigning for Benjamin Harrison's Presidendial attempt, the newly elected Republican appointed Roosevelt to the civil service commission - a fitting position for a man who had always dispised patronage and political spoils systems.
This position continued through Grover Cleveland's return to the Presidency, despite their political disagreements.
Leaving this position in 1895, Roosevelt accepted appointment to become the President of the New York City police department, where he helped to successfully root out corruption and hire new police officers based solely on merit, rather than as a result of political affiliations.
War Hero, Governor and Vice President
Newly elected President William McKinley appointed Roosevelt - a notable student and writer of history - to the position of Assistant Secretary of the Navy, where he helped to ready the naval forces for war. And that war did indeed come in the form of the conflict with Spain which broke out in 1858 (America's first declared foreign war since the War of 1812).
Resigning his position in the Navy, Roosevelt organized a calvary regiment known as the "Rough Riders" and headed down to Cuba - the chief front of the short (109 day long) war. While there, Roosevelt's heroics are legendary, exemplified in his charge up San Juan Hill (for which he posthumously won a Congressional Medal of Honor in 2001).
As a new war hero and known opposer to political machines and corruption, Roosevelt was a perfect candidate for the New York Gubernatorial race in 1898 (immediately after the end of the war). With such great distinction did he serve to root out corruption in this position (as had become his political "calling card"), that he became a prime candidate for the Vice Presidency as William McKinley approached his second term.
Thus did Theodore Roosevelt rise quickly in this world, to a point where he was only a heartbeat away from the Presidency. And so it happened that, six months later, William McKinley was assassinated, and Roosevelt, at 43 years old, became the youngest person ever to achieve the position.
For more information:
The Presidency of Teddy Roosevelt
The Post-Presidencey of Roosevelt
References:
"Theodore Roosevelt." American Presidents: An Online Reference Resource."
The Theodore Roosevelt Association.
