T R Roosevelt

As a republican Assemblyman he backed the democratic governor of New York, Grover Cleveland. When Cleveland ran for presidency, Roosevelt chose not to back him causing him to lose support and receive criticism from the press. He left office after this and became a rancher out west. He returned to the political scene in 1888 to back President Harrison in the Midwest. Because of his support he was named commissioner of the U.S Civil Service. As commissioner he was told to not enforce the civil service laws, however, to the chagrin of party leaders he used his power to double the amount of jobs that fell under his control and strictly enforced civil service laws. This is one of the first times we see him change the trends of politics in the Gilded Age. He remained at the job through the terms of both Harrison and Cleveland. He then came back to New York to become the president of the police board and tried to lower the amount of corruption among New York Policemen. He cracked down on the "de-moralized" practices of the police which earned him positive press in the United States as well as in Europe. He was one of the first men to stop all of the corruption in New York. He said in 1895, "Very many friends of the reform movement, and very many politicians of the party to which I belong, have become frightened at the issue thus raised and the great bulk of the machine leaders of the Democracy profess to be exultant as it, and to see in it a chance for securing their own return to power. Senator Hill and Tammany in particular have loudly welcomed the contest." (Published in The Essential Teddy Roosevelt (26) edited by John Gabriel Hunt.) In his speech he goes on to talk about how he was willing to violate his party's ideals if it meant him helping the city. He said of corrupt republicans in the same speech, " I have small sympathy with those people who are always destroying good man and good causes because they are not the best of all possible men- He said he would recognize no party in trying to attain a better New York City.