The Everything Theodore Roosevelt Book (9 page)

A. four

B. two

C. three

D. one

3-4 Theodore Roosevelt’s son Theodore chose to attend the U.S. Military Academy in West Point, New York, based on his father’s advice
.

A. True

B. False

3-5 John Muir founded which well-known conservation association?

A. Audubon Society

B. Kit Carson Group

C. Sierra Club

D. YWCA

ANSWERS

3-1. B

3-2. C

3-3. A: He was serving his fourth term when he died on April 12, 1945.

3-4. False: Young Theodore graduated from Harvard, as did his three brothers.

3-5. C

CHAPTER 4

Serving in the New York State Legislature

“I put myself in the way of things happening; and they happened … During the three years’ service in the Legislature I worked on a very simple philosophy of government. It was that personal character and initiative are the prime requisites in political and social life.”

Republican Party leaders gave TR a chance to enter politics in 1881, a job for which he was untested. The three years he served as a New York state assemblyman alerted him to the corruption that ran rife in the state and taught him that fighting it could lead to political suicide. On the positive side, he learned the value of bipartisan politics. Overall, the three terms he served in Albany curbed his idealism and prepared him for his later political offices at the city, state, and federal levels.

First Run for Office

New York City Republican leaders saw something special in TR when he entered politics after graduating from Harvard. They gave him the opportunity to run for office as an assemblyman from Manhattan’s Twenty-First District. (The Assembly was the lower house of the New York State Legislature.) TR had no sooner entered the race than the bosses began wondering if they had created a monster.

The young candidate got off on the wrong foot with his future constituents in the early days of his first campaign. Hess and Murray accompanied TR on his campaign stops along Sixth Avenue. They thought it would be helpful for him to visit some of the tavern owners in the area, since they wielded considerable influence. The bosses quickly wished they had started somewhere else.

At the time TR began dabbling in politics, saloon-keepers in New York City wielded a considerable amount of political power. They had cozy relationships with politicians and police officers, and bribes changed hands among them in return for licenses, special favors, and good deals with brewers, the types of relationships TR wanted to end.

They introduced TR to saloon-keeper Valentine Young in the first tavern they entered. Mr. Young seemed a bit belligerent to TR, which he thought was strange. TR believed that as an assemblyman he would be in a position to help tavern owners. Young apparently felt that he would be telling TR what to do. That was political lesson number one for TR.

Working at Cross Purposes

Young opined that the fees for tavern licenses were too high and that he expected TR to lower them and treat the liquor business fairly. TR informed Young that he would treat the liquor business as fairly as he treated everyone else. He was, after all, a believer in a “fair deal” for everyone. And, TR announced, he thought that liquor license fees were too low, and he would try to raise them.

The idea of a “fair” or “square” deal was a cornerstone of TR’s politics. He worked to ensure that all competing interests affected by his programs and policies received some benefits. He tried hard not to favor labor over and management, consumers over businesses, developers over conservationists, or vice versa.

Hess and Murray were aghast. They had not gotten beyond their first campaign stop and TR had already made an enemy. They hustled TR out of the tavern, escorted him over to Fifth Avenue, and advised him that they would campaign for him on Sixth Avenue. Their plan worked. TR won the election and moved to Albany.

The Youngest Legislator

When TR started his career as an assemblyman at age twenty-three, he was the youngest legislator in the state of New York’s history. He began his first term like a whirlwind, which was a harbinger of the future. Before TR ended his three years in the Assembly, he set a record for having introduced more bills into the Assembly than anyone else.

The four bills he introduced within the first forty-eight hours of his initial legislative session demonstrated his primary interests and sincerity for reform. They focused on water purification, aldermanic election reform, finance reform for New York City, and judicial reform. He learned quickly that the number of bills introduced was not important. The true measure of a legislator’s effectiveness lay in the number that passed.

Theodore Roosevelt in the New York Legislature

Only one of TR’s first four bills received any attention. The Legislature passed a modified version of the aldermanic election reform bill. The numbers accomplished one thing, though. He earned some respect from a group of similar-minded independent young Republicans bent on reform and notice from a prominent
New York Times
legislative reporter, George Spinney, who decided that Roosevelt made good copy. Other journalists followed his lead.

George Spinney joined the
New York Times
staff as a legislative reporter in 1879 when it was a politically independent newspaper. In 1893, when the
Times
announced it would officially become a Democratic newspaper, an editorial writer for the
Memphis Commercial
said, “The
Times
was originally the bitterest Republican paper in the country.” That was helpful for TR in 1882.

The unofficial Republican reform group elected TR its de facto leader. With their encouragement and Spinney’s news coverage, the dynamic TR began his quest to produce reform. It did not take long before TR justified their faith in finding a good story.

First Attack on Corruption

TR learned about a group of high-level New York state politicians who were involved in a ring of corruption with railroad magnate Jay Gould. The politicians included the state’s Attorney General and Supreme Court Judge Theodore Westbrook.

In the late 1860s, railroad developer Jay Gould named Tammany Hall boss William Tweed a director of the Erie Railroad. In return, Tweed arranged favorable legislation for him. That irritated the citizens of New York, but the state Legislature did not address the resulting corruption. Gould also had a controlling interest in the New York City elevated railroads after 1881.

He approached Republican Party leaders and asked them if they planned to address the corruption. They said they did not, and they would be happy if he did not either. Rather naively, TR vowed to do it himself.

On April 6, 1882, TR delivered a speech in the Assembly that made members of both parties cringe. He demanded that the Assembly investigate the dealings between Gould and Westbrook—and impeach the judge. The Assembly failed to act.

TR Versus Westbrook

Undaunted, Roosevelt continued to convince the Assembly that it was in its best interests to end the corruption and impeach Westbrook. Veteran legislators countered that it was in his best interests to let the matter drop.

TR alleged that Judge Westbrook’s rulings in a recent railroad scandal had cost legitimate investors so much money that his decisions threatened their livelihoods. He accused the judge of being a co-conspirator. The Legislature was outraged. Newspapers picked up the story and made the legislators so uncomfortable that they were almost forced to investigate Westbrook.

TR would not back down. Day after day he spoke in the chamber about the need for an investigation. Eventually, the Legislature, spurred by the growing number of newspapers carrying stories about TR’s persistence and the resulting negative publicity, voted 104 to 6 to begin an investigation.

The investigation came to nothing. There were no charges brought against Judge Westbrook. The committee that conducted the investigation delivered its findings to the Legislature, which voted 77 to 35 against impeachment.

The results disappointed TR and the citizens of New York state, but they magnified his reputation as a brash young legislator seeking reform in their best interest. He did not let up in his reform efforts.

Although TR did not accomplish all he set out to do in his first year in the Assembly, he did earn a reputation as a young politician who would not back down from anyone—including his own party leaders—in his quest for reform. Even though he had been sent to Albany to represent his district in Manhattan, he was there to fight for all New Yorkers.

From Legislator to Leader