Roosevelts Religion

made him a notable illustration of a distinctive Christian doctrine?namely, the common brotherhood of all humanity. And he never forgot that suggestive fact. His paternal ancestor came to America as a steerage passenger in 1644 from Holland. He found in the environs of New York four hundred or five hundred people who spoke eighteen different languages: already the land was cosmopolitan. After that for seven generations every son was born on Manhattan Island. Mr. Roosevelt frequently recalled the fact that many nationalities were merged in him. He once said: I myself represent an instance of fusion of several different stocks, my blood most largely Lowland Scotch, next to that Dutch, with a strain of French Huguenot and of Gaelic, my ancestors having been here for the most part of two centuries. My Dutch forebears kept their blood practically unmixed until the days of my grandfather, and his father was the first in the line to use English as the invariable home tongue. His ancestors set him an example of public service. A great-uncle of Roosevelt, Nicholas J., shared with Fulton the honor of developing the steamboat. Two ancestors were aldermen in the New York Dutch Village of early days and legislated to open the street which bears their name. Another, Isaac Roosevelt, sat in the constitutional convention with Alexander Hamilton. A Roosevelt started one of the first banks in New York and was its president. From his mother's side he had Welsh, Irish, ...