Within a few months, politics would once again drive a lodge between the previous rivals. As war engulfed Europe, Roosevelt emerged as one of Wilson ’ second sharp and most persistent critics. He disagreed with Wilson ’ s decisiveness to keep the United States impersonal and loathed the president ’ s reluctance to prepare american forces for war. Looking for allies, Roosevelt found one within the Wilson administration, a young, energetic Democrat serve as assistant repository of the Navy. His mention was Franklin Delano Roosevelt .
together, the Roosevelt cousins would press the case for readiness in a common campaign that shows two men at identical discrete stages in life : one beginning the long wax of a big political career, the other on his way down from those very lapp heights. As the new Ken Burns objective, The Roosevelts, points out, Teddy and Franklin had much more in common than a surname .
New York Cousins
The fifty-five-year-old Teddy Roosevelt who strode into Wilson ’ mho office was searching for a means to give mean to his remaining years. The problem was he ’ d done so much already. He ’ five hundred presided as patrol commissioner of New York City and served as assistant secretary of the Navy. During the Spanish-American War, he saddled up the Rough Riders and fought with vitality in Cuba. Next came the governorship of New York, the frailty presidency, and, following the character assassination of William McKinley, the presidency. Teddy was only forty-two when he put his hand on the Bible and swear to faithfully execute the position of the president of the united states. He won the White House on his own in 1904 and picked up a Nobel Peace Prize in 1906 for negotiating the goal of the Russo-Japanese War. After leaving the White House, he engaged his wanderlust in Africa and Europe, and, deciding he wasn ’ thyroxine done with politics, stood again for the presidency in 1912, this clock as the campaigner of the progressive Bull Moose Party. After losing to Wilson, the restless explorer explored the Amazon.
Through good times and bad, Teddy was a kin man. He lost his first wife soon after she had given birth—and his beget some football team hours earlier to typhoid. Afterward, he saddled a horse and worked as a cowboy on the Dakota plains, riding out his grief on the unforgiving landscape. He then fell in love with Edith, a mint, scholarly-minded charwoman who became the love of his life. She claimed Teddy ’ s daughter, Alice, as her own, and bore him five more children —Theodore, Kermit, Ethel, Archibald, and Quentin. nowadays grandchildren were beginning to fill the halls of Sagamore Hill, the Roosevelt home on Long Island ’ s Oyster Bay .
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Teddy as husband to Edith, and father of six. Courtesy PBS. Teddy ’ s affinity for marriage and family shines through in the note he wrote upon learning that Franklin had become engaged to his niece Eleanor. “ I am as fond of Eleanor as if she were my daughter ; and I like you, and trust you, and believe in you. No early success in life—not the Presidency, or anything else—begins to compare with the rejoice and happiness that come in and from the love of the true man and the true woman. ”
Teddy ’ s blessing surely meant a batch to Franklin, who was in awe of his fifth cousin. From his boyhood home in Hyde Park, a little township on the Hudson River, Franklin followed Teddy ’ s exploits, seeing them as a blueprint for success. Like Teddy, he attended Harvard. Like Teddy, he wore a pince-nez rather of standard glasses. He flush adopted some of Teddy ’ s darling phrases, such as “ de-e-e-lighted ! ” and “ browbeat ! ” Franklin secretly courted Eleanor, his distant cousin, while attending Harvard, the romanticism beginning after a prospect meet on a train. They were married on Saint Patrick ’ s Day of 1905, timing the marry thus that President Roosevelt could give the bride off. Having wooed under the strictures of priggish morals, their first kiss came at the altar. They finally had six children—just like Teddy—but only five survived infancy .
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Franklin carefree at Campobello. Everett Collection Franklin studied law at Columbia, like Teddy, and decided to run for the New York State Legislature, like Teddy. Franklin besides embraced liberal politics, but he came to it as a Democrat. Before embarking on his beginning campaign, Franklin asked for Teddy ’ second blessing—and received it. “ Franklin ought to go into politics without the least gaze as to where I speak or don ’ deoxythymidine monophosphate talk, ” Teddy wrote his sister. Nevertheless, Teddy lamented that his cousin wouldn ’ deoxythymidine monophosphate make being a Republican a Roosevelt tradition .
Franklin won the election in 1910 and in 1912 besides. He besides caught the eye of the national Democratic party, which noted his spirit support of Wilson. When Franklin and Eleanor attended Wilson ’ mho inauguration in Washington, D.C., Franklin was offered the job of adjunct secretary of the Navy. He jumped at the opportunity and, at thirty-one, became the youngest person in history to hold the position. He ’ d besides bested his cousin by seven years. “ I am identical a lot pleased that you were appointed as Assistant Secretary of the Navy, ” Teddy wrote Franklin. “ It is interesting to see that you are at another position which I myself once held. ” Franklin found his new job an easy fit, settling into the rigors of overseeing shipbuilding programs and procurement. The captains and admirals forgave his eccentricities—such as creating a consistent for himself, despite being a civilian—after discovering he was a break through boater .
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FDR, as assistant secretary of the Navy. Everett Collection
A Great Tragedy Impends
On June 28, 1914, Gavrilo Princip, a serbian nationalist, stood five feet from Franz Ferdinand, the Archduke of Austria, and shot him in the jugular. The character assassination in Sarajevo set in motion a series of telegrams, demands, and alliances. By August, Germany had declared war on France and Russia ; Britain had declared war on Germany ; and Russia had declared war on Austria-Hungary. Lines were drawn as the Allies—Britain, France, and Russia—squared off against the Central Powers—Germany and Austria-Hungary .
“ The situation in Europe is actually dreadful. A bang-up tragedy impends, ” Teddy wrote his youngest son, Quentin. Because it was an election class, Teddy remained quiet, even as Germany rolled through Belgium, lest he give the Democrats ammunition. Behind the scenes, he preached the importance of readiness. He even lobbied an old Harvard schoolmate who had sway with Colonel House, Wilson ’ s key adviser, to convince the president to prepare the area for war. “ I wish you would get him to assemble the fleet and put it in excellent fight rate, and to get the united states army astir to the highest gear at which it can now be put, ” Roosevelt wrote. “ No one can tell what this war will bring forth. ” Franklin found the wait-and-see attitude of the Wilson government equally frustrating. “ I went straight to the Department, where, as I expected, I found everything asleep and obviously absolutely oblivious to the fact that the most frightful play in history was about to be enacted, ” he wrote Eleanor .
Franklin besides had a more personal battle to fight. In mid August, he impetuously agreed to run for New York ’ mho vacant U.S. Senate seat. Believing he wouldn ’ thymine confront any resistance for the democratic nominating speech, he spent the rest of the month summering with his class. At the death hour, Tammany Hall put up a campaigner : James W. Gerard, the U.S. ambassador to Germany. Gerard ’ s efforts to help Americans stranded in Germany by war had generated a flood of good press. With Gerard unable to leave his post, Franklin debated a ghost and stumbled on the campaign lead. He could deliver a crack up bombast about Tammany Hall corruption but fumbled New York issues .
As Franklin stumped through New York, Teddy wrote a series of articles about the war. With the active in full moon swing in Europe, he could no longer hold his tongue. Likening the conflict to the sink of the Titanic, TR argued that the state needed “ to safeguard ourselves against such a catastrophe as has occurred in Europe. ” “ The prime duty of the consequence is therefore to keep Uncle Sam in such a military position that by his own hardy heart and fix hand he can defend the vital respect and vital pastime of the american people, ” he wrote .
In belated September, Franklin took a pulsate, receiving 76,888 votes to Gerard ’ s 210,765. He was concisely second in Washington, preparing for his future foray. In mid October, he released a argument to the compress detailing the Navy ’ s hapless state of readiness. Because of a deficit of 18,000 men, lone 21 out of 33 battleships could be put into service. Another 75 ships had only half a crew or less. And 38 ships were out of committee altogether. The robust military unit that Teddy had helped manufacture as assistant secretary of the Navy and as president was a shadow of its former self. Franklin released the memo while his boss, Secretary of the Navy Josephus Daniels, was out of town and without his license. When Daniels returned, Franklin received a dangerous dressing-down, but somehow managed to keep his caper. As repentance, he had to publicly disavow the memo : “ I have not recommended 18,000 more men nor would I consider it within my state to make any recommendation on the count one direction or the other. ” Between the primary kill and the disavowal, Franklin was learning the rigors of political humiliation in a very populace manner .
Although american sentiment—and the Roosevelts ’ —favored the Allies, Wilson and his cabinet pursued a neutral course during the first four months of the war. In a manner of speaking on December 8, 1914, Wilson reaffirmed that position for the foreseeable future. “ We are, indeed, a true ally to all the nations of the world, because we threaten none, covet the possessions of none, desire the overrule of none, ” he told Congress. “ Our friendship can be accepted and is accepted without reservation, because it is offered in a spirit and for a purpose which no one want always question or fishy. Therein lies our greatness. We are the champions of peace and of concord. ”
The Court of Opinion
On the dawn of April 19, 1915, rain pattered against the windows of the courthouse in Syracuse, New York. Teddy sat in the defendant ’ s moderate accompanied by two of the best New York lawyers that money could buy. Across the aisle sat William Barnes and his own pair of costly attorneys. Roosevelt ’ s famously bombastic grandiosity had landed him in court. Barnes, the former chair of New York ’ mho Republican State Committee, had filed a libel suit over Teddy ’ s claim that Republican and democratic leaders of New York regularly colluded on elections and political appointments. Barnes wanted $ 50,000 in damages and to publicly salvage his repute. To win the trial, Teddy ’ sulfur attorneys would have to prove that he had been telling the truth .
The combine witness tilt for both sides ran to one hundred, but the star of the proceedings was Teddy, who spent days on the spectator stand. As the attorneys asked question after doubt about the embroil web of New York politics, it became unclutter to those in the court that age was catching up with Roosevelt. His celebrated photographic memory had grown bleary, and he mixed up facts and figures. Testifying proved both emotionally drain and publicly demeaning. For a world who excelled at the rough-and-tumble of consider, the courtroom—with rules for everything from routine to admissible evidence—proved an unfriendly arena. With each passing day, his chances of winning seemed to fade .
While many of Teddy ’ s friends shied away from serving as witnesses, Franklin stepped ahead. here was a chance to aid the world he idolized. When asked by Teddy ’ s lawyer to explain their relationship, Franklin replied : “ Fifth cousin by rake and nephew by law ! ” A boastful grin consumed his face. Franklin testified that he had witnessed first-hand collusion by Barnes and his democratic counterpart while serving in the New York legislature. “ I shall never forget the das kapital room in which you gave your testimony, ” Teddy wrote Franklin after the test .
When the trial concluded for the sidereal day on May 7, the court emptied to the news program that the R.M.S. Lusitania, bound for Liverpool from New York, had been torpedoed by a german submarine. The unannounced attack sent 1,198 passengers, including 128 Americans, to their deaths in the cold bluing waters off southerly Ireland. By torpedoing a passenger embark, Germany had changed the tenor of battle in the Atlantic and challenged the estimate of freedom of the seas .
Around midnight, an enterprising reporter for the Associated Press rousted Teddy from bed, asking for a quote. Roosevelt had anguished earlier in the evening over what to say if asked for a remark. aside from his pro-Allied position, he had a more immediate business. At least two members of the jury had survive names that sounded German. A virulent harangue against Germany could turn those jurors against him. When the reporter relayed the death toll, Teddy threw circumspection aside. “ This represents not merely plagiarism, but piracy on a huge scale of mangle than the old-time pirates ever practiced. .. . It seems impossible that we can refrain from taking action in this matter, for we owe it not only to humanity but to our own national self-respect. ” Wilson protested the sinking, but the United States still remained neutral .
After five cliff-hanging weeks, the jury found for Roosevelt. When the verdict was announced, the court erupted into applause and cheers. Convinced he was going to lose, Teddy found the verdict “ absolutely unexpected. ” Trying to hold back tears, he thanked the jurors for their service, shaking their hands, swearing that he would give them no induce to regret it .
The verdict had left Teddy victorious, but humbled. He received another, unintentional, reminder of his declining state when he arrived home at Sagamore Hill and discovered that Edith and Archie had bought him a “ brilliant ” horse. “ But, alas, they had failed to realize that a horse I would have liked thirty years ago and that you or Ted or Archie would like now would not be a cavalry that I could handle at present, ” he wrote his son Kermit. “ Before I could get my right infantry into the stapes, as I move slowly and clumsily, I was pitched off and broke two rib. ”
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Teddy Roosevelt, campaigning for the presidency.
Library of Congress
Going Rogue
Teddy wasn ’ t the merely Roosevelt suffering ill health. In July 1915, Franklin ’ s appendix burst. Worried about his unseasoned adjunct, Daniels sent him on the repository ’ s yacht to Campobello, an island off the coast of Maine where the Roosevelts summered, to recover. After five weeks under Eleanor ’ south care, Franklin returned hale and hearty to Washington. once again, he used an absence by Daniels to push readiness, announcing the creation of a “ National Navy Reserve. ” The wedge of fifty thousand would consist of retire officers and former enlisted men of the Navy, members of the Coast Guard, and civilians with sailing know. “ Any amateur operator, any yachtsmen or motorboat fancier, in fact, any citizen with news and application could learn how to fit into some place where he might be needed, ” read the statement .
fortunately for Franklin, Daniels agreed with the need for the reserve—and was will to forgive yet another transgression. Daniels besides looked aside or preferred to remain forgetful to the fact that Franklin was feeding his cousin and early readiness advocates, including Senator Henry Cabot Lodge and Congressman August Gardner, data about the department of state of the Navy. If Wilson ’ mho policies came back to haunt the state, Franklin wanted those outside the presidency to know he had worked to mitigate their effects .
Over the following year, Teddy continued his assault on Wilson, pleading with the administration to take more steps like readying the naval substitute. He recognized that his position did not reflect the temper of the public, making him feel both useless and an foreigner. It irked him that Wilson had “ made up his mind that the bulge of our people concern for nothing but money getting, and motors, and the movies, and fear nothing so much as risk to their piano bodies, or hindrance with their easy lives. ”
As the presidential election of 1916 approached, Teddy ’ s palaver pack extra political punch. While Wilson campaigned on the motto “ He Kept Us Out of War, ” Teddy hammered him for not coming to the care of Britain and France. As german submarine attacks against neutral ships mounted and the butcher bill from the Battle of the Somme grew to hundreds of thousands, Wilson ’ s refusal to aid the Allies looked even more cowardly. american prestige and dignity declined by the day. Teddy ’ s nationalism besides reached new heights as he ranted against what he called “ hyphenated-Americans ” and urged that german speech education be removed from public schools. Believing that a republican candidate had the best luck of ousting Wilson, he abandoned the floundering Bull Moose Party, which he helped found, and threw his support behind Charles Evans Hughes, the progressive-minded Supreme Court judge. On the campaign trail for Hughes, Teddy minced no words denouncing Wilson ’ sulfur extraneous policy. Hughes asked him to soften his palaver, fearing that he might lose immigrant votes, but Teddy persisted .
When he learned that Wilson had eked out a narrow victory, Teddy lamented to his sister that “ we are passing through a streak of jaundiced in our national life. ”
The Yanks are Coming!
Wilson reclaimed the White House by touting isolationism, but as 1917 progressed that policy became indefensible. After Germany declared nonsensitive submarine war against any ship in the Atlantic, Wilson severed relations with Berlin. Next came the Zimmermann telegram, which detailed Germany ’ south crack to give Texas, Arizona, and New Mexico to Mexico if it joined the Central Powers should the United States join the Allies. Despite evidence of german fraudulence, Wilson however hesitated to call for war .
“ My God, why doesn ’ thymine he do something ? If he does not go to war with Germany [ now ] I shall skin him active, ” wrote Teddy. When the german Navy torpedoed three American merchant ships on March 18, Wilson realized he had run out of options .
On the even of April 2, 1917, a somberly dressed Wilson appeared before a roast session of Congress to ask for a declaration of war. Daniels and Franklin sat in the presence course on the House floor, while Eleanor watched from the gallery. small american flags had been distributed to members, dotting the chamber with pops of bolshevik, white, and blue. “ The present german submarine war against commerce is a war against world, ” he told Congress. “ It is a war against all nations. ” With a earnest heart, he asked Congress to “ make the earth safe for majority rule ” and declare war against “ Imperial Germany. ” “ It is a fearful thing to lead this most peaceful people into war, into the most awful and black of all wars, civilization itself seeming to be in the libra. But the right is more valued than peace, and we shall fight for the things we have always carried nearest our hearts. ”
Congress declared war on Germany four days former .
After thirty-six months of teeth-gnashing and hope, Teddy and Franklin had ultimately gotten their war. immediately, they just had to figure out a way to fight on the frontlines .
Franklin called Wilson ’ s speech “ an inspiration to every truthful citizen no count what his political faith. ” He immediately asked to go overseas, but Wilson said no. He was needed stateside. “ Neither you nor I nor Franklin Roosevelt has the right to select the position of military service to which our country has assigned us, ” Wilson told Daniels. rather, Franklin helped the Navy boom from 60,000 sailors to about 500,000 by the end of the war. The fleet grew from 197 ships to more than 2,000. He besides pushed through a outline to deploy a minefield between Scotland and Norway to snare german submarines. More than 71,000 mines were placed in the North Sea .
Teddy ’ s luck wasn ’ thymine any better. On April 10, eight days after the speech, he paid a call option on Wilson at the White House. Despite the verbal hostilities of the previous years, the two presidents chatted affably for forty-five minutes. Teddy assured Wilson that “ what I have said and thought, and what others have said and thought, is all dust in a long-winded street if we can make your message good. ” then he asked for permission to raise a contingent of volunteers to serve in France. It would take respective months for the American Expeditionary Force to be quick to deploy to Europe, but the volunteers could be assembled within a matter of days, barely like in the Spanish-American War. And he could lead them into battle and raise the morale of both the state and the Allies !
When he left the White House, Teddy casually mentioned the regiment to the reporters assembled outside the gates. Within hours Washington buzzed with news of another Roosevelt regiment. Franklin besides arranged a private meet between Teddy and Newton D. Baker, the secretary of war. Editorials across the area sang the praises of the mind. But the regiment was not to be. Wilson worried about the challenge Teddy, as a rejuvenate war hero, would pose to the Democrats in 1920. Wilson and other segregationists besides did not like inclusion body of african Americans in the regiment. none of this could be said, so they denied Teddy ’ s request on military grounds. He was not a professional soldier and he was not conversant with recent innovations in war .
The regiment was a grand piano amatory dodge with little footing in reality. Teddy, with his failing eyesight, joints creaking from arthritis, and a portly fifty-eight-year-old body, had no business leading men into battle. however, he took the news difficult. “ This is a very single war and I have been blackballed by the committee on admissions, ” he wrote a acquaintance. He consoled himself with seeing his four sons off to war, preaching the importance of patriotism, and playing with his grandchild .
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President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Art Resource In the summer of 1918, Franklin finally made it to the presence, having convinced Daniels to let him conduct an inspection enlistment in Europe. It was besides his debut on the external stage, another ring up the ladder of his political career. In Britain, he met King George V and Prime Minister David Lloyd George, and had a die encounter with First Lord of the Admiralty Winston Churchill. ( It irked Roosevelt years late to learn that Churchill didn ’ thyroxine remember their meet. ) In France, he met Premier Georges Clemenceau and Marshal Joseph Joffre, toured the battlefields, and checked in on Teddy ’ s wounded sons. A german shell had shattered Archie ’ s knee and elbow, while Ted had been gassed. From France, he traveled to Italy, meeting with his naval counterparts, and then it was rear to London. Before the ship left for home in early on September, he wrote Eleanor of his intention to seek a command. “ Somehow I don ’ t believe I shall be long in Washington. The more I think of it the more I feel that being merely 36 my space is not at a Washington desk, even a Navy desk. I know you will understand. ”
As the ship made its way across the Atlantic, Franklin fell ailment, suffering from a debilitating combination of spanish influenza and double pneumonia. Like Teddy, he sweat his means through a fever that would about end his animation. The influenza cut a deadly path through the crew and passengers, resulting in a series of funerals at ocean, but Franklin managed to survive. He arrived in New York therefore frail that he needed help getting off the ship and up the stairs to his mother ’ sulfur townhouse. Eleanor ’ randomness elation at having her husband home and alive evaporated when she unpacked his baggage. There she discovered a cache of love letters from Lucy Mercer, her former social secretary. Franklin and Lucy were having an affair. “ The buttocks dropped out on my global, ” Eleanor would late say. “ I faced myself, my surroundings, my world, honestly for the first base time. ”
The matter marked yet another departure between Franklin and his idol and raised the ghost of divorce. There are competing accounts of who threatened what, but it is generally agreed that Eleanor offered to give Franklin his exemption. Sara, Franklin ’ s domineering mother, wouldn ’ t check Franklin from leaving his wife, but she would cut off all fiscal digest. Getting divorced, however, would kill any possibility of Franklin becoming president of the united states. Voters would not look kindly upon a man who left his wife and five children for a womanhood who had lived in their family for three years. Franklin chose his class and his ambitions, vowing never to see Lucy again .
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Franklin as conserve to Eleanor and father of five. Courtesy PBS As Franklin set about repairing his life, working to bridge the loss of trust and security, Teddy discovered there was one loss for which there were no slowly remedies. He had urged his sons to enlist in the war, to fulfill their duty as men, to experience the gladden and panic of struggle. One of them would not come home plate. Teddy ’ s youngest son, Quentin, joined the Army ’ s 95th Aero Squadron, quickly displaying the same crave for danger as his church father as he flew patrols over the trenches that scarred the french countryside. Quentin ’ randomness fortune ran out on July 14, 1918, when his plane crashed behind german lines. Three bullets penetrated the cockpit. Two bullets pierced his steer. german airmen buried Quentin on the site where he crashed. When the Army offered to return the soundbox, the Roosevelts declined. “ We greatly prefer that Quentin shall continue to lie on the spot where he fell in battle, and where the foemen buried him, ” wrote Teddy .
Old Lion, New Lion
On November 11, 1918, german officials signed an armistice in a caravan car outside Compiègne, a small greenwich village in France, ending the Great War. american entrance, bringing with it men and matériel, had tipped the scales in party favor of the Allies. After the war, Teddy and Edith hoped to visit Quentin ’ randomness grave and put a small marker, but they never made the trip. On the day of the armistice, Teddy checked himself into a hospital. The annoyance he ’ d been experiencing in his legs had grown steadily worse, making it difficult and sometimes impossible to walk. He ’ d persist there through December, receiving visitors and sending off letters to British and french statesmen arguing against Wilson ’ s Fourteen Points, which he mocked as “ Fourteen Scraps of Paper. ” He besides spoke of making another run for the White House in 1920, making plans and dreaming big to keep the reality of his poor people health from crushing his liveliness. Teddy made it back to Sagamore Hill for the holidays, leaving the hospital on Christmas dawn to avoid attracting the attention of the press who had been playing doctor of the church from afar. On January 6, 1919, he died after suffering a pneumonic embolism .
“ The erstwhile leo is all in ” read the cable television Archie sent to his brothers .
The news of Teddy ’ s passing reached Franklin and Eleanor in the center of the Atlantic Ocean. Franklin had been tasked with overseeing the strip of the Navy ’ south european bases and Eleanor was coming along. They had patched up their marriage, but much work remained to be done. Franklin took consolation in the fact that Teddy hadn ’ metric ton suffered a long illness .
With Teddy ’ s death, Franklin became the Roosevelt spokesman for progressive ideas. In 1920, the Democrats recruited him to run as frailty president of the united states alongside James Cox, the governor of Ohio. By receiving the nomination, he had once again bested his cousin Teddy, this time by four years. The Cox-Roosevelt slate lost to Warren Harding. The White House would have to wait. After battling poliomyelitis, which left him paralyzed from the waist down, Franklin returned to the political affray. He was elected governor of New York in 1928, and four years late he won the White House at the historic period of fifty dollar bill. Franklin would serve four terms—two more than Teddy—and steer the nation through the Great Depression and another catastrophic war.
Read more: How Maritime Law Works
Franklin broke his promise to never see Lucy Mercer again. She was with him when he died of a stroke on April 12, 1945 .
This article was updated on October 1, 2014, to correct information about the R.M.S. Lusitania, which was headed to Liverpool from New York, not the other way around .
