The Roosevelt Family
Although the idea of the political dynasty conjures up an image of the political torch being passed from father to son to grandson, the Roosevelt’s history of governance cuts a more meandering path through the landscape of American politics.
The progeny of a mid-17th century Dutch immigrant to New Amsterdam, the seed from which all others would grow would truly begin in 1900 when Theodore ‘Teddy’ Roosevelt was appointed William McKinley’s vice president.
Theodore had already made a name for himself on the political scene, first becoming the leader of the reform faction of Republicans in New York’s state legislature before being appointed as the Assistant Secretary of the Navy under President William McKinley.
He would resign his position just a year later and take up the reigns as the leader of 1st United States Volunteer Cavalry, otherwise known as the Rough Riders, it would be on the battlefields of Spanish–American War where his name would be cemented as a war hero and his return to politics as governor of New York in 1898 would see him on his path to standing atop the political mountain, however, it wouldn’t be the blood on the field that saw him get there, but his predecessors.
When then vice president Garret Hobart died due to a serious heart condition in 1899, Roosevelt would replace him as VP. Little did he know that just over one year later, McKinley would also die, but this time at the barrel of an assassin’s gun, the anarchist Leon Czolgosz, regarding McKinley symbol of oppression.
Roosevelt would ascend to the office of the president aged just 42, he still remains the youngest man to hold the office.
After completing his second term he would be succeeded by his close friend William Howard Taft but would soon become frustrated with his brand of conservatism and tried to step back into the political arena once more by trying to run for president again in 1912, but would fail.
