CHAPTER II. IN THE NEW YORK ASSEMBLY

Roosevelt was twice reelected to the Assembly, the second time in
1883, a year when a Republican success was an outstanding
exception to the general course of events in the State. His
career at Albany was marked by a series of fights for decency and
honesty. Each new contest showed him a fearless antagonist, a
hard hitter, and a man of practical common sense and growing
political wisdom. Those were the days of the famous "black horse
cavalry" in the New York Legislature--a group of men whose votes
could always be counted on by the special interests and those
corporations whose managers proceeded on the theory that the way
to get the legislation they wanted, or to block the legislation
they did not want, was to buy the necessary votes. Perhaps
one-third of the members of the Legislature, according to
Roosevelt's estimate, were purchasable. Others were timid. Others
again were either stupid or honestly so convinced of the
importance of "business" to the general welfare that they were
blind to corporate faults. But Theodore Roosevelt was neither
purchasable, nor timid, nor unable to distinguish between the
legitimate requirements of business and its unjustifiable
demands. He developed as a natural leader of the honest
opposition to the "black horse cavalry."

The situation was complicated by what were known as "strike
bills." These were bills which, if passed, might or might not
have been in the public interest, but would certainly have been
highly embarrassing to the private interests involved. The
purpose of their introduction was, of course, to compel the
corporations to pay bribes to ensure their defeat. Roosevelt had