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Jacob A. Riis describes Governor Roosevelt’s work as governor of New York leading up to his nomination as Vice President. Riis laments losing Roosevelt as a governor but gives his full endorsement.
Sagamore Hill National Historic Site
1900-09
Hans A. Koenig questions President Roosevelt about his actions while serving as Governor of New York, as described in Charles Edward Russell’s book Lawless Wealth. Koenig asks for an explanation regarding the allegedly suppressed reports on investigations into the State Trust Company and into illegal bank deposits made by “prominent men.” Specifically, Koenig states that if the charges made in the book against Secretary of State Elihu Root are true, then he is not fit for his position.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1908-10-06
G. Wallace Chessman looks at the evolving historiography of the study of Theodore Roosevelt and places his own work on Roosevelt’s time as Governor of New York within that framework. He asserts that Roosevelt’s reputation suffered in the 1930s with the publication of Henry Pringle’s biography (Theodore Roosevelt: A Biography), but the work of historians such as George Mowry and John Blum served as a correction to Pringle’s work. Chessman argues that the 1930s, with its isolationism in foreign affairs and its hostility to big business, further undermined Roosevelt’s standing.
Chessman argues that as Governor of New York, Roosevelt mostly took stands that should be viewed as “progressive,” and that he successfully navigated a course between obedience to the New York political machine led by Thomas Platt and his own reform agenda. He says that Roosevelt’s time as governor prepared him for the presidency, and he concludes his essay by contending that Roosevelt, however much he loved the American West, should primarily be seen as a man of New York City: “T.R. was surely an urban man.”