The Everything Theodore Roosevelt Book (7 page)

Hart hastened to add that it was not because TR was editor. Rather, he said, “The entire board was a fighting organization, with definite ideas of needed reforms and a positive manner in urging them.”

Social Climber

TR also joined the Hasty Pudding Club; the oldest collegiate social club in the United States; the “Dickey,” the nickname for the Institute of 1770, the oldest club at Harvard; and the prestigious Porcellian Club (The “Pork”). The Porcellian, a men’s-only group, was the last club a student could join prior to graduation. For that reason, it was called a “final club.”

Membership in such clubs, particularly the “Dickey,” drew charges of snobbery from some of TR’s classmates. “Dickey” members often ate off campus in small groups, away from school activities. TR did the same thing. He was not particularly concerned at that point about what other students thought of him or his eating habits. He was simply doing the right things to establish his place in the Harvard caste system and his college legacy.

Some of the clubs to which he belonged were offshoots of his interests, e.g., the Natural History Club, the Harvard Rifle Corps, and the athletic association. He was in the Glee Club as an associate member, which indicated that it was not one of his primary interests. He did prioritize his club activities.

A Cluttered Room

The clues to what clubs TR was mostly interested lay in the paraphernalia in his room. Among the items he had there were a rifle, a hunting kit, and trophies from his hunting expeditions. He also had live turtles and insects in the room.

One of TR’s classmates, Mark Sullivan, remembered when “a particularly large turtle, sent by a friend from the southern seas, got out of its box one night and started toward the bathroom in search of water.” TR did know how to create excitement in his college living quarters.

Even though TR belonged to many clubs, he was never overextended. He rarely attended meetings of some of them. TR needed some time to study. He was an unorthodox student, but he still did well when it came to grades—sometimes.

Graduating with Honors

Somehow, TR completed his studies in the allotted four years at Harvard and graduated Phi Beta Kappa, which recognizes and encourages scholarship, friendship, and cultural interests at the undergraduate level. That was not easy, considering that he had failed a couple of courses along the way and did not write an honors thesis.

Not surprisingly, TR’s best grades were in natural history, where he averaged in the high eighties and nineties. He failed two courses, Greek and French. His grade averages for the four years were 75, 87, 82, and 78, for an overall average of 80.5. There is no telling what he could have done if he had applied himself.

There is some discrepancy about TR’s overall average at Harvard. Estimates range from 80.5 to 87. Regardless, he graduated magna cum laude (with great honor) and finished in the top tenth of his 174-member class, although he was not sure if it was the tenth of the whole number who entered or of those who graduated. Either way, TR had a college degree—and an achievement to be proud of.

Theodore Roosevelt, Harvard graduate, circa 1881

TR’s Most Remarkable Friend

TR developed a few friendships at Harvard. The most cherished friend, however, was a young lady named Alice Hathaway Lee, whom he met on October 18, 1878. She changed his life forever. Soon, she became his primary interest. He found himself chasing two goals at a time: his degree and a wife.

QUIZ

2-1 When did the first YMCA in New York City open?

A. 1748

B. 1812

C. 1852

D. 1865

2-2 U.S. President Rutherford B. Hayes’s wife Lucy was nicknamed “Lemonade Lucy” because she:

A. ran a lemonade stand to earn extra money as a child.

B. refused to serve alcohol in the White House.

C. invented lemonade.

D. grew lemons in the West Wing.

2-3 Thee Roosevelt established a Newsboys’ Lodging House in New York City because he:

A. was not satisfied with the delivery of his daily newspaper, so he wanted the newsboys to live closer to his house.

B. wanted a place available for newsboys who had no other place to sleep.

C. needed a place for TR to stay after he completed his paper route every day.

D. thought newsboys were all living under terrible conditions at their own homes.

2-4 Who or what was Thucydides?

A. a form of thistle found in the western Badlands

B. a bird discovered by TR on a trip to Egypt

C. a Latin word for suburban road

D. a Greek historian best known for writing
The History of the Peloponnesian War

2-5 The Hasty Pudding Club at Harvard is named for:

A. the first meal club members ate at a meeting.

B. the need for staff members to serve food quickly at a club meeting.

C. Harold H. Hasty, the founder of the club.

D. Haste Tea, the beverage of choice at early club meetings.

2-6 Richard Saltonstall played a major role in TR’s life. He:

A. beat TR for the intramural boxing championship at Harvard in 1877.

B. commanded the SS
Oyster Park
during the Spanish-American War.

C. introduced TR to Alice Hathaway Lee.

D. developed the “Saltonstall” diet that was popular in the 1890s.

ANSWERS

2-1. C: The first YMCA in New York City opened in September 1852 at the Stuyvesant Institute on Broadway.

2-2. B

2-3. B: Many of the newsboys in New York City in the late 1800s were homeless orphans who lived on the streets when they were not hawking newspapers.

2-4. D: He wrote The History of the Peloponnesian War, which documented the fifth-century b.c. war between Sparta and Athens.

2-5. A: Hasty pudding, mentioned in the song “Yankee Doodle,” is a traditional American dish made from grains or corn and cooked in milk or water.

2-6. C

CHAPTER 3

Law School at Columbia

“Far better is it to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much, because they live in a gray twilight that knows not victory nor defeat.”

When TR graduated from Harvard, he faced a dilemma common to his peers: what to do with the rest of his life. Even though Thee had left him a comfortable inheritance, TR did not want to live off it. He returned to New York City to study law at Columbia University. For one of the few times in his life, he started something he did not finish. What seemed to be a bad choice at first led to a promising career in politics.

Learning to Recognize Opportunity

Perhaps the most glossed over period of TR’s life is his brief stop at Columbia Law School. He accomplished some wonderful things in the short time he was there, but they were not connected to his presence in any classrooms. Yet the lessons he learned at Columbia contributed to his success as he became more accomplished later in life.

TR’s choice of law school was based more on a need to find a profession than on a passion. He admitted freely that he did not have to go to law school, or any other type of school, after completing his studies at Harvard.

Money was not an issue for TR. As he put it, “I had enough to get bread. What I had to do, if I wanted butter and jam, was to provide the butter and jam, but to count their cost as compared with other things. In other words, I made up my mind that, while I must earn money, I could afford to make earning money the secondary instead of the primary object of my career.”

The money Thee had left TR provided him with a cushion to fall back on. He could have idled away his time in leisurely pursuits if that had been his preference. But TR was a Roosevelt. That was not what Roosevelts did.

The family tradition was to meet social responsibilities. TR honored that charge. But his decision to pursue a profession was not easy. He looked at the future, as well as the present, when deciding what to do. That helped steer him toward Columbia Law School, which turned out to be a secondary pursuit.

A career in law would satisfy his desire to work in a field that allowed him to treat the work as more important than the money he earned performing it. So he entered Columbia Law School in 1880, filled with enthusiasm and idealism. Both faded quickly.

Avoiding the Law

Once TR began his studies at Columbia, he realized his heart was not in the program. The most significant thing he learned there was that the law was too often on the wrong side of the business and political spectrums, at least as far as his youthful idealism perceived it. That was an eye-opener for TR, and the realization changed his life goals—and ultimately many other people’s lives.

TR noted, “When I left Harvard, I took up the study of law. If I had been sufficiently fortunate to come under Professor [James Bradley] Thayer, of the Harvard Law School, it may well be that I would have realized that the lawyer can do a great work for justice and against legalism.” He labeled Thayer “the greatest Professor of Law Harvard ever had.”

The young, idealistic TR believed that the
caveat emptor
side of both the law and business seemed repellent. It did not, in his view, make for social fair dealing. The words “fair deal” had been—and continued to be—important to TR throughout his life.