In 1905 , a group of American political leader set off for the Far East . The diplomatic delegation include seven senators , more than20 congressmen , and Secretary of War William Howard Taft , but there was one member in particular who bewitch the press .
The 21 - yr - one-time womanhood had been move up the whole trip , setting offfirecrackersand shooting her revolver from the back of the wagon train before they had even left the country . But her biggest malicious gossip occur aboard the steamshipManchuria . The unseasoned fair sex plunged into the ship ’s swim storage tank fully clothed in awhite silk skirtand blouse . She had reportedly jumped on a dare — one that she ’d proposed herself .
It would have been scandalous behavior for any cleaning woman at that clock time , but this prankster was n’t just any woman . This was Alice Roosevelt — the oldest child of President Theodore Roosevelt .
From Mental Floss and iHeartRadio , this isHistory Vs . , a podcast about how your favorite historical bod face off against their slap-up foes . I ’m your horde , Erin McCarthy , and for this stave , we ’re pitting TR against his girl Alice — a never-ending source of tension for the 26th President of the United States . Rooseveltonce said : “ I can be chair of the United States , or I can attend to Alice . ” So howdidTR juggle running the nation with provoke his oldest daughter ? We ’re about to line up out .
The Roosevelt kinsfolk had all the elements of a happy , established household . Theodore Roosevelt married his second married woman — and puerility stunner — Edith Kermit Carow in 1886 . Together they had five tiddler : Theodore III ( or Ted Jr. ) , Kermit , Ethel , Archibald , and Quentin . Growing up , the boys enjoyedboxingwith their sire , while Ethel nonplus to more ladylike activities like needlework .
And then there was Alice .
That ’s Holly Frey , from Stuff You miss in History Class , and as she explain , Alice ’s family relationship with Edith was n’t any smoother .
Before starting his life with Edith , Teddy Roosevelt had married Alice Hathaway Lee in 1880 . The girl of a banker , Alice Sr . was known in Massachusetts social circle for her good luck charm and sweetheart . Onmeeting her , TR wrote , “ As long as I hold up , I shall never forget how sweet she looked and how prettily she greeted me . ”
Alice became fraught in 1883 and gave birth to ahealthybaby girl named Alice Lee Roosevelt on February 12 , 1884 . With a lovely Boston socialite for a mother and an challenging New York politician for a father , sister Alice should have had it all .
And then the unthinkable chance .
curtly after the delivery , Alice Sr . strike down ill . Teddy , who had been in Albany work on a law the day of his girl ’s birth , hasten home to New York City after receiving news of her experimental condition . He held her in his arms as she pass in and out of consciousness . She had what was then fuck as Bright ’s disease . Alice Hathaway Roosevelt pass on February 14 at the historic period of 22 .
It was the second release TR had have that day . Just hours originally , his mother Mittie Roosevelt had succumbed totyphoid fever . Barely two days former , Alice ’s life was already embroiled in tragedy .
Just afew monthsafter his girl was born , TR left her with his sister Anna , who went by the nicknames “ Bamie ” and “ Bye , ” and retreated to the Dakota Badlands . He seldom inquired about Alice in the letters he mailed home . He returned briefly to New York for line when she was about 5 months old , and even in soul , he had trouble acknowledging her . He promise her “ Baby Lee , ” because he could n’t suffer to say her female parent ’s name .
But though it was n’t always apparent , Alice was loved . One of the first touch of fatherly tenderness from TR comes from a varsity letter datedSeptember 1884 . He write : “ I hope Mousiekins will be very slick ; I shall dearly love her . ”
But the most unchanging origin of love in sister Alice ’s aliveness was Aunt Bamie .
Bamie ’s influence on Teddy hold out throughout his career . As president , he often come to to hissister ’s homeas the “ other White House , ” and allot to their niece Eleanor Roosevelt , he made few serious political determination without speak with her first . Alicelater remarked , " If Auntie Bye had been a human beings , she would have been chairwoman . "
But she was n’t the only woman who matter to TR . Almost two years after Alice Sr . died , Edith Kermit Carow embark his sprightliness — or re - entered it , rather . The duet likely had a teenage Latinian language , and Edith run in the same social circles as Theodore .
allot to historiographer Edmund Morris , TR , Edith , and Bamie came up with a plan to last together for a clock time at Sagamore Hill , the Roosevelts ’ famous Long Island estate , to ease Alice ’s transition to a new family . That family got even bigger with the birth of Theodore , Jr. in 1887 .
Edith desire to be a well parent to her stepdaughter , but raising a headstrong kid like Alice was n’t always easy . When Alice was a teenager , Edith , along with Teddy , propose sending her to a conservative boarding school in New York City . According to historians Peter Collier and David Horowitz , Alice protest , saying : “ If you send me I will chagrin you . I will do something that will shame you . I recite you I will . ”
When she was one-time , Alice often spent time with Bamie , and as Kathleen Dalton writes in her bookTheodore Eleanor Roosevelt : A Strenuous Life , she and Edith had very different manner of get by Alice . Bamie was generous , seldom hesitating to give her niece whatever she want , while Edith believed children neededdiscipline .
As Alice grow into a young woman , her resemblance to her mother became unmistakable , which made parenting her even harder for Edith .
TR also saw his late married woman in his girl . The space that existed between them when Alice was a infant , along with his refusal to talk about her female parent , lingered throughout her puerility . She wouldlater say : " I think it is true to say that my father did n’t want me to be a guilty burden . He obviously feel guilty about it , otherwise he would have said at least once that I had another parent . The odd thing is that he never seemed to realize that I was perfectly aware of it and developing a rancor . ”
TR ’s aloofness was n’t the only ground Alice did n’t see more of her father . He was also knockout at workplace pursuing a political vocation . He served as both regulator of New York and vice president of the United States while Alice was a stripling . Then in 1901 , following William McKinley ’s assassination , Theodore Roosevelt was sworn in as chairperson .
The Roosevelts were get going to the White House .
We ’ll be right back .
At the showtime of his presidency , TR was a father to six kids browse in age from 3 to 17 . The country had n’t see a presidential family quite like the Roosevelt clan before . The children treated their young home as their personal resort area , roller - skatingdown the hardwood storey , guess intocrawl blank space , and throwing spitballs at a painting of Andrew Jackson — a crime TR put them on trial run for . ( He chance them guilty . )
Roosevelt ’s boy , Quentin and Archie , were members of what wascalledthe “ White House Gang , ” which run into in the construction ’s Ionic dialect . TR was an honorary appendage .
In sheath the kids were n’t enough of a smattering on their own , Teddy and Edith also had amenagerie of petsto occupy about . The family animals include , at one full point or another , a lizard , a bear , a Wisconsinite , a hyaena , a one - legged cock , a crib , and guinea pigs .
Here ’s a funny write up about the pony , whose name was Algonquin : One day , when Archie was feel ill , someone — some sources say it was Quentin and TR ’s other son , Kermit , while others say it was footman Charles Reeder — decided to bring the animate being up to his room to cheer him up . Reportedly , the horse was so fascinated by his reflection in the lift mirror that they had fuss produce him out .
Even though she was the old , Alice got into the most trouble of them all .
The Hydra was named after Alice ’s auntie Emily because it was as thin as she was . It was also , in Alice ’s words , “ green as spinach . ”
Alice Roosevelt was the original White House Wild Child . Newspapers never escape an opportunity to impress her name , whether in relation to a real event , like the 100 of parties she advert , or a piece of unsubstantiated chit-chat . Even the humans who claimed to have advise to her were considerednewsworthy . The insistence could n’t get enough of Princess Alice , and they were n’t the only ace : Musicianswrotewaltzes inspired by her ; her likeness was put on postcards . ( Right now we ’re listening to the 1919 song “ Alice Blue Gown . ” )
Her father , on the other hired man , was less enamored of her behavior .
TR often wrote “ posterity letters ” for historians to study , and his girl , who frequently did matter that threatened his repute , was often on the receiving end .
Inone letter , he said : " Do you know how much talk there has been recently in the newspapers about your betting and court ill fame with that unfortunate snake [ … ] Do try out to remember that to courtyard notoriety by bizarre actions is underbred and unladylike . "
She spent lots of money — so much that , accord to Dalton , Edith once asked her , “ How would you like to have Archie give up college to give your debts?”The New York Timesdeclaredwhen she see a sawbuck race , “ she is as much an attraction as the thoroughbred . ”
Before the 1904 election , Alice said she beget “ a dreadful lecture from Father & Mother on the family and my prodigality , [ and ] deficiency of morality . ”
But Alice did make some attempts to please her family . She became engaged in politics , reading book aboutchild laborand going with her father to play of import official . At home she test getting along with Edith and helped her with chores . But these streak of good behavior never live long . No matter how she dissemble , Alice felt like an castaway among the Roosevelts , and that became a self - fulfill prophecy .
“ Father does n’t care for me . That is to say , one - eighth as much as he does the other children , ” she wrote inher diaryin 1903 . “ We are not in the least congenial … Why should he pay up any attention to me or the thing that I live for , except to look upon them with disfavour ? ”
Still , when a congresswoman ’s married woman criticise Alice for her “ bumptious , clumsy manners , ” TR , Dalton writes , “ personally confront his daughter ’s critic . ”
But Alice was more standardized to her father than she may have felt at time . They both shared inviolable conviction , sharp intelligence , and a rage for learning . TR had a special fondness for his like - minded daughter , but with such full-grown personality sharing the White House and the headlines , they were spring to clash . It ’s been said that TR always need to be “ the corpse at every funeral , the bride at every wedding , and the baby at every christening . ”
After unsuccessful endeavor to reign Alice in , TR could see that she needed an outlet . Sending her as his illustration to important upshot had the added fillip of granting him peace and still at home .
Her vainglorious job yet come up in 1905 when she was 21 . The U.S. was devise a goodwill trip to Asia , and she was to serve as a good will ambassador . Withstops plannedfor Hawaii , Japan , China , and the Philippines , it was to be the largest political delegation from the United States to ever inspect the sphere . The trip turn over out to be historical in another path : Never before had a first girl been given a role of such importance . And Alice certainly made the most of it .
The partying culminated with Alice ’s ill-famed plunge into the steamship ’s puddle .
To make matter even more scandalous , outlets reported that it was Washington playboy Nicholas Longworth she had coerced to jump in the pool with her . Though Alice and Longworth did expend a lot of time together on that trip , she later admitted it had been a different congresswoman who accept her dare .
At this detail , next president William Howard Taft was the state ’s secretary of war . Japan and Russia were in anexpensive difference , and part of Taft ’s deputation was to have a confluence with the Japanese prime curate . baby sitting should have been the least of his concerns .
Even when she appeared to be having too much of a dependable metre , Alice never wasted an opportunity to gain political acumen . Her gaga world tour , along with her adventures in the White House , shaped her into a woman that did n’t just hobnob with political wakeless hitters , but could hold her own against them .
Political lesson were n’t the only things Alice gained on her trip to Asia . She would go on to marry the man who newspapers falsely describe her skip into the puddle with — Ohio state Senator Nicholas Longworth , who was responsible for for the Longworth Act of 1902 , which regulate municipal bonds in Ohio .
Though Longworth ’s personality is n’t discuss as much as Alice ’s , he was n’t afraid to indulge in bawdy behavior . For case : According to one story , when a member of the House ran his hand over Longworth ’s bald-pated heading and said “ nice and smooth , experience just like my wife ’s bottom , ” Longworth touched his head and reply , “ Yes , so it does . ”
He was also reasonably opened about the fact that he was a ladies ' man .
In 1906 , Alice married Nicholas Longworth in a lavish ceremonial suitable of America ’s princess . She walked down the gangway on herfather ’s armwearing lacing from the frock her birth mother had break to her wedding 26 class earlier . She chose to have no bridesmaid look for her at the altar : Instead , she commanded the undivided tending of the 1000 guests in attendance . She skip the cake with a military aide ’s blade .
After the ceremonial , Edith reportedlytold her stepdaughter : “ I need you to know that I ’m beaming to see you go . You ’ve never been anything but trouble . ” golden for her , Alice did n’t take the comment personally and blamed it on thestress of the nuptials .
The first girl was formally Mrs. Alice Longworth , the wife of an of import politician . But if anyone think married life would change Alice ’s rambunctious means , they did n’t know her well enough .
She carry on getting into trouble well into adulthood . One Clarence Day in 1908 , when she was feeling bored in the Capitol ’s picture gallery at the House of Representatives , she slippeda tackon the chairperson of an unnamed gentleman . The New York Timesreported that when he sat down , “ like the burst of a bubble on the fountain , like the deadbolt from the drear , like the clod from the shank , he sprang into the ambient atmosphere , distressingly conscious he had get along into closelipped liaison with something sharp . He seemed raging . He glared around . But the President of the United States ’s daughter was look the other means . ” There ’s alsothe storyof how she welcome her founding father ’s successor by inter a juju skirt on the White House grounds before moving out . She was purportedly banned from the Taft White House after that . Later in life , shewas quotedas saying : “ I ’m amused and , I hope , comic . I ’ve always believed in the byword that the secret to unending young is arrested maturation . ”
Even if Alice was able to find ways to keep her inside child live , she could n’t escape adulthood completely . That meant deal out with the reality of her marriage .
Alice and Nicholas had the same trouble that afflict many disruptive marriages . Her husband ’s playboy lifestyle did n’t end on his wedding day , and he carried out legion affairs . But there was a with child outlet brood over their union : political science .
In 1912 , Theodore Roosevelt vie to take the Republican presidential nominating speech off from incumbent president William Howard Taft , and tension in the Longworth household reach their peak .
Longworth lost that election , and as the political rift between her and Nicholas widened , Alice put less exertion into maintaining their union . It was n’t long before she start quest for adulterous affairs of her own .
In many ways , Alice was ahead of her meter . There was no blueprint for free - bouncing women navigating public biography in early twentieth - century America . But there was another outspoken , strong - willed womanhood in government deliver the same yr as Alice who arguably win where Alice fight : her cousin Eleanor .
Eleanor Roosevelt was the girl of Elliott Bulloch Roosevelt , Theodore Roosevelt ’s younger brother . She lost both of her parents at a youthful age . Her mother died ofdiphtheriawhen [ Eleanor ] was just 8 years old . Two years after , her father , an alcoholic , jumped from a window while suffering from alcohol withdrawal - cause hysteria , then had a capture and died . She ended up spend a lot of fourth dimension atSagamore Hillwith her Uncle TR , and it was there that she develop a lifelong rivalry with Alice . In 1905 , Eleanor would we d her uncle ’s 5th cousin , Franklin Delano Roosevelt , of the Hyde Park Roosevelts .
Theodore and Bamie ’s esteem for their niece likely fueled Alice ’s jealousy . Dalton explains that , in Bamie ’s centre , personable , politically given Eleanor was more “ Rooseveltian ” than graceless Alice . TR would direct to Eleanor ’s tidy conduct as an representative for his daughter to aspire to . But Alice had no interest in being more like her cousin , and when FDR entered the White House , she made those feelings specially clear .
Alice lost her father in 1919 and her husband in 1931 . In 1957 , her daughter Paulina overdosed from sleeping pill at age 31 , leaving behind a 10 - year - erstwhile girl named Joanna . Alice fight for detention of her grandchild and won .
Even without the men in her life connecting her to that world , Alice lived the respite of her life in Washington , D.C. and stayed involve in government .
Alice ’s late year were only more or less less exciting than her youth had been . She made friends with people across the political spectrum . Nixon would often call her up from the White House , andaccording to some friend , Alice and Robert Kennedy had a “ thing ” for each other , despite their 40 - year geezerhood gap . But she did n’t stretch out her affections to just anyone . She notably refused to fill with Jimmy Carter , the last sitting president in her life-time . In his eulogy for Alice , Carter write : " She had stylus , she had free grace , and she had a sense of humor that prevent generations of political fledgling to Washington wondering which was bad — to be skewered by her wit or to be ignored by her . "
Alice Roosevelt Longworth croak on February 20 , 1980 at years 96 . decade after her death and more than a century since she last take the White House , her legacy as first daughter is more relevant than ever .
She also played a major part in shaping her father ’s bequest . Even if he did n’t always show her the affection she craved , and did n’t always approve of the way she acted , TR could always count on having Alice in his nook .
CREDITS
story Vs.is hosted by me , Erin McCarthy . This sequence was written by Michele Debczak with research by me and extra inquiry by Michael Salgarolo . Fact checking by Austin Thompson . Joe Weigand voiced Theodore Roosevelt in this instalment .
The executive producers are Erin McCarthy , Julie Douglas , and Tyler Klang . The supervising producer is Dylan Fagan . The show is edited by Dylan Fagan and Lowell Brillante .
Special thanks to Holly Frey .
To learn more about this episode , and Theodore Roosevelt , check out our internet site atmentalfloss.com/historyvs .
History Vs . Is a product of iHeart Radio and Mental Floss .
