“My friend Roosevelt, I am glad to welcome you, a most distinguished American. You are the first civilian who has ever reviewed German soldiers.”
COPYRIGHT, UNDERWOOD & UNDERWOOD
FAMILY GROUP, TAKEN WHILE ROOSEVELT WAS GOVERNOR OF NEW YORK. THEODORE, JR. APPEARS IN THE BACKGROUND. BESIDE HIM IS ALICE (NOW MRS. NICHOLAS LONGWORTH). WITH MRS. ROOSEVELT ARE KERMIT AND ETHEL (NOW MRS. RICHARD DERBY). THE GOVERNOR HOLDS ARCHIE IN HIS ARMS. QUENTIN WAS BORN A FEW YEARS LATER
XI
Roosevelt’s Political Victories
There is a phrase, attributed to Napoleon, to the effect that God fights on the side of the big battalions. There is a truth in the saying that applies to big men, just as well as to big armies.
Fate seemed to battle on the side of Theodore Roosevelt through every step of his political career, though a study of the man shows that by his superhuman energy he himself was almost always the creator and molder of the circumstances that seemed to advance him.
When Roosevelt, at twenty-three, determined to enter politics, the political cards were stacked against him.