Table of Contents Introduction 6 Chapter One Roosevelt’s Early Years 10 Chapter Two Taking the Presidency 26 Chapter Three Roosevelt the Regulator 38 Chapter Four Foreign Policy 50 Chapter Five Civil Rights 60 Chapter Six Conservation 72 Chapter Seven A Lasting Legacy 82 Timeline 94 Source Notes 95 Glossary 98 Selected Bibliography 99 Further Information 100 Index 101
Introduction Theodore Roosevelt had been vice president of the United States for only six months when he received shocking news On September 6 1901 while at a luncheon in Vermont he learned an assassin had shot President William McKinley in the stomach and chest during a visit to western New York As second in command Roosevelt needed to travel to Buffalo New York as quickly as possible President William McKinley was shot by Leon Czolgosz holding cloth-covered gun near center on September 6 1901 66
Once there however Roosevelt found the president appeared to be doing well Doctors expected McKinley to make a full recovery To keep the country from panicking Roosevelt’s advisers urged him to leave He headed to New York’s Adirondack Mountains more than 200 miles 320 kilometers away for a vacation His wife Edith and their children joined him there But during a hike he received a telegram about McKinley’s condition The president was dying The telegram asked Roosevelt to return to Buffalo immediately At first Roosevelt wasn’t sure if he should rush The news was difficult to believe Roosevelt had so recently visited and found the president recovering Then a second telegram stated that McKinley’s situation was dire Roosevelt was convinced there was no time to waste A Harrowing Journey By the time Roosevelt started out for Buffalo it was close to midnight on September 13 The mountainous roads were dark and slippery For the first leg of his journey he traveled for hours by wagon to the nearest train station 35 miles 56 km away The distance was too far for a single set of horses In fact the strain was so great that Roosevelt switched wagons three times Each time a new driver and horses continued the trip It was early morning when Roosevelt finally reached the train station in North Creek New York His secretary William Loeb Jr met him there with a telegram Roosevelt learned that the president had died at a quarter past two in the morning The news meant Roosevelt would soon become the next president The trials of his trip were not behind him yet Boarding a train Roosevelt set off through dense fog There was a crash and a short delay when the train hit a handcar In Albany New York’s capital 77
