All In The Family
Here in America our founding fathers decided against being ruled by a hereditary monarchy or "a family on the throne." Despite that we have seen the emergence of political dynasties from the Adamses to the Bushes and we should not overlook the Roosevelts. True, Teddy and FDR were not a father/son relationship but they were related. PBS had a documentary about the Roosevelt dynasty that was aired a few years ago.
Not surprising as our Presidents can make for some very interesting reading. For example, few would ever guess that John Adams loved to go skinny dipping in the Potomac. Of course he wasn’t alone in that because so did Teddy Roosevelt, only he did it both summer and winter.
Teddy Roosevelt was a rugged individual, leading the “Rough Riders” during the Spanish-American war and once served as a Deputy Sheriff in the West. Few know that he survived an assassin’s bullet in October of 1912. He was preparing to make a speech in Milwaukee, Wisconsin when a saloon keeper shot at him with the bullet lodging in his chest. It had passed through his steel eyeglass case and his folded fifty-page speech. He decided, since he was not spitting up blood, that the bullet had not penetrated his lung so he proceeded to give an hour and a half speech with blood seeping through his shirt. At the conclusion of his speech he said: “Ladies and gentlemen, I don’t know if you fully understand that I have just been shot, but it takes more than that to kill a Bull Moose.”
Two years earlier, in October of 1910, he had taken a four minute flight in a plane built by the Wright brothers, making him the first President to fly in a plane. He did lots of firsts during his Presidency. He is the youngest President to ever hold the office. He is the first American to ever receive the Nobel peace prize. He is the first president to travel outside the United States while in office. He is the first president to be known by his initials T.R.
As fearless as he always appeared he was terrified of one thing. He lived in dread of losing his eyeglasses as he was blind in one eye and had very poor vision out of the other. He was known to carry as many as five pairs of eyeglasses with him, two of them actually sewn into his clothing so he couldn’t lose them.
His brother’s daughter, his niece, Eleanor Roosevelt, would become famous in her own right even with out marrying his fifth cousin, Franklin Delano Roosevelt. When Eleanor and FDR were married in 1905 she was given in marriage by her Uncle Teddy, the President. The couple had known each other since she was two years old and were best friends before they married.
Teddy Roosevelt and Franklin Delano shared the same great-great-great-great grandfather, Nicholas Roosevelt. Nearly all the Roosevelts were Republicans but FDR decided to enter politics as a Democrat and served two terms as Governor of New York and ran as Vice-President in 1920. He was successful in his bid for President in 1932 and was the only person to run for and win four terms in the office. He would become one of eight Presidents that died in office.
In college he only carried a “C” average in his grades but managed to pass the bar exam without completing his law degree at Columbia University.
He had several “firsts” during his time as president. He was the first to speak on television and the first to have a presidential plane. He was the first to have a Mother who was allowed to vote for him. During World War II his wheel chair was equipped with a gas mask in case of sudden enemy attack.
To address the issue of our founding fathers not wanting “a family on the throne,” None could have for seen the development of FDR in office and who he was related to. Few have ever realized that he was directly related either by marriage or by blood to John Adams and his son John Quincy Adams. Also included on his family tree was George Washington, James Madison, Martin Van Buren, William Henry Harrison, Benjamin Harrison, Zachary Taylor, Ulysses S. Grant, William Howard Taft and of course Teddy Roosevelt. So despite those early day efforts in forming our Democracy, often the highest office in the land has been kept “all in the family.”
