The next obstruction that confronted young Roosevelt was the attitude
of his party associates in the Legislature. Many of these men were
in politics for purely commercial reasons. They frowned on crusaders
and tried to squelch any tendency in Roosevelt toward independence of
thought and action. His part, as they saw it, was to be merely the
smallest cog in the political machine, moving only when a man higher up
applied the power.
Though none of these men realized it at the time, the appearance of
this ardent young man in the Legislature marked an epoch. The sun was
beginning to set for the spoilsmen. The better elements of the state
needed a force behind which they could rally. Roosevelt was that man.
An elevated railroad company had been exposed in a scandal that
involved the Attorney General of the state and a judge of the Supreme
Court. The public conscience was aroused. The people grew indignant
when the legislators shelved their petitions. Roosevelt stood waiting
for his elders to act. He could not believe that, when such charges had
been preferred against one of the judiciary, his associates would seek
to dodge the issue. Convinced at last that nothing would be done unless
he acted, on April 6, 1882, he demanded from the floor that Judge
Westbrook, of Newburgh, be impeached by the Assembly. He was a David
going up against a Goliath of graft and obstruction, yet he attacked
fearlessly.
It took splendid moral courage for Roosevelt to take this step. Young,
idealistic and untrained in politics as he was, he could not have been
blind to the fact that he was facing consequences that would probably
be the ruin of his political career.
His speech was distinguished by its boldness and candor. Before he
finished, men with millions had been branded as thieves and bribers. A
judge and an attorney general were denounced in terms that startled the
public--terms that nevertheless were potent with truth.
The Republican leader, with huge contempt for the raw young legislator,
answered the charge patronizingly and with sneers. “I have seen,” he
said, “many reputations in the state broken down by loose charges made
in the Legislature.” He recommended to the Assembly that this reckless
young man be given time to think, by voting to refuse to act on his
loose charges. The legislators obeyed the whip. Mainly through his own
party Roosevelt went down to defeat.
The Roosevelt teeth came into evidence then. Roosevelt’s associates
actually heard him gritting them. In spite of the ridicule and sneers
of the previous day Roosevelt returned the next day to the charge.
The press interviewed him. Moved half by admiration of the courage of
this puny young chap, half by a desire to furnish amusement for their
readers, they told the public of his fight. Then, all of a sudden the
young David found himself vigorously supported. Public opinion came
to his help in no uncertain way. The state was aroused. Roosevelt
kept up the fight with renewed vigor. Assemblymen began to hear from
the folks back home. The party leaders trembled before the man they
could not “gum shoe.” The Legislature yielded. By a vote of 104 to 6
Roosevelt carried the day. The committee whitewashed the accused, but
the testimony had more than vindicated Roosevelt’s position. Debauchery
in politics had received a setback. What was worse for the corrupt
politicians, they were now at war against an adversary who was not to
stop fighting until the whole nation had been won to his ideals of
clean politics.
Back to Albany Roosevelt was sent as an Assemblyman in 1882 and again
in 1883. In the latter year he became minority leader of the Assembly,
which had now become Democratic. With the coming into power of Grover
Cleveland the Republicans had gone into retirement as a state force
until they could put their house in order.
In Roosevelt’s last two terms in the Assembly he came into close touch
with Grover Cleveland, then Governor. Representing opposite political
faiths, there was nevertheless a bond of sympathy between the two
men in their independence of thought. Cleveland grew to rely on his
young opponent even more than he did on some of the leaders of his own
party. The two fought shoulder to shoulder in behalf of civil service.
Roosevelt, after recommendations for civil service improvements had
appeared in the Governor’s message, pushed through the Legislature a
state civil service act which was almost parallel to the Federal act
which went into effect about that time.
Roosevelt’s next political fight came in 1884. Roosevelt was made
chairman of the state delegation to the Republican convention at
Chicago which nominated Blaine, “The Plumed Knight,” as opponent
to Cleveland in the Presidential campaign. Roosevelt, with typical
independence of thought, opposed the nomination of Blaine and placed in
nomination United States Senator George F. Edmunds.
Then came a crucial point in Roosevelt’s career. He had been classed as
a reformer in politics and as one that would not work with the party
organization. Henry Cabot Lodge, of Massachusetts, a great personal
friend, conferred with him as to what they should do. They decided that
their proper course was to stay with their party; to endeavor by fair
means to influence its decision, but when its nominations were made to
stand by the candidates.
When the Blaine campaign was over Roosevelt retired to his Dakota
ranch, where he spent the next two years. He was called from his ranch
to become a candidate for Mayor of New York City. Opposed to him was
Abraham S. Hewitt. Roosevelt, because of conditions apart from his own
popularity and standing, met one of his few defeats.
Next followed Roosevelt’s membership in the National Civil Service
Commission under Presidents Harrison and Cleveland. Roosevelt’s six
years in Washington as Civil Service Commissioner opened up for him a
broader field than he had up to that time entered. Here he began that
friendship with public men that later was to encircle the nation.
Little did he expect, however, that there were coming events that would
make him an occupant of the White House. It would be wrong to say
that he never thought of such a possibility. Every American is born a
potential resident of the Executive Mansion, and Roosevelt admitted to
Henry L. Stoddard that when he was Civil Service Commissioner his heart
would beat a little faster as he walked by the White House and thought
that possibly--with emphasis on the “possibly”--he would some day
occupy it as President.
Then came his appointment in 1895 as president of the New York Police
Board. In 1897 he received his appointment as Assistant Secretary of
the Navy. The stirring episodes that came to him during these periods
are related elsewhere in this narrative. Out of them he emerged
Governor of the State of New York.