CHAPTER V

TWO DEFEATS


Although he was still under twenty-five when he left the New York
Assembly, Roosevelt was favorably known throughout the State. He
had been heard of, by those who keep up with politics, all over
the country. In 1884, the year of a Presidential election, he was
one of the four delegates-at-large from New York to the Republican
convention at Chicago. The leader for the Presidential nomination
was James G. Blaine, a brilliant man who had many warm admirers.
Also, there were many in his own party, who distrusted him, who
thought that in the past he had not been strictly honest. Good men
differed on this question and differ still.

Roosevelt favored Senator Edmunds of Vermont, but he had agreed
beforehand, with other young Republican delegates, that they would
support for the election the man named by the convention. Since,
in later years, Roosevelt refused to abide by the decision of a
party convention, and led one of the most extraordinary "bolts" in
the history of American politics, it is important to consider for
a moment the question of political parties and the attitude a man
may take toward them.

Because parties are responsible for a good many small, mean, and
sometimes dishonorable acts, we often hear parties and