THEODORE ROOSEVELT

THEODORE ROOSEVELT, the twenty-sixth 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 Dutch family, and on the maternal side, of Scotch-Irish descent. His early education was received under private tuition. He was graduated from Harvard College in 1880, and spent the following year in study and travel. From 1882 to 1884 he was a member of the Assembly of the State of New York as an independent Republican, and gained a wide reputation for his work for political reform, particularly in the field of the civil service. In 1884 he was chairman of the New York delegation to the National Republican Convention, and two years later was an unsuccessful candidate as an independent Republican for the office of Mayor of New York. He was made a member of the National Civil Service Commission by President Harrison in 1889, and served as president of the board until May, 1895, when he resigned to become president of the board of Police Commissioners of the city of New York. In 1897 he was made Assistant Secretary of the Navy by President McKinley, but on the breaking out of the Spanish-American War, in 1898, he resigned and organized the First United States Volunteer Regiment of Cavalry, popularly known as the "Rough Riders," of which he was made lieutenant-colonel. He was attached to the army of General Shafter, for the invasion of Cuba, and participated in every engagement preceding the fall of Santiago. He won distinction at the Battle of San Juan Hill, on July 1, 1898, and was promoted to the rank of colonel on July 11, for conspicuous bravery in action. He received the nomination for governor of New York on the Republican ticket, September 27, 1898, and was elected by a large plurality. At the Republican National Convention held in Philadelphia, in June, 1900, he was nominated for Vice-President of the United States, William McKinley being the candidate for President, and was elected. The shooting of President McKinley on September 6, 1901, proved fatal on September 14 following, and the Vice-President took the oath of President before Judge John R. Hazel, at Buffalo, N. Y., on that day. He was nominated for President of the United States by the Republican National Convention which met at Chicago, June 21, 1904, and was elected. Some of the important achievements of President Roosevelt during his adminis trations have been: the settlement by arbitration of the Anthracite Coal Strike, in 1902; the reorganization of the Army and the National Guard; the recognition of the Republic of Panama; the negotia.

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tion of a treaty with the Republic of Panama for the building of the Panama Canal; and the restoration of peace between Russia and Japan, consummated by the Treaty of Portsmouth. During his administrations President Roosevelt has made speaking tours which have included every State and Territory in the Union, and in his speeches he has been an earnest advocate of an adequate navy; the protection of the forests of the country; the extension of irrigation; and the enlargement of the powers of the Federal Government in controlling interstate commerce.

VICE-PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT'S INAUGURAL ADDRESS AS VICE-PRESIDENT.

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 everincreasing 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