Elihu Root Biography Quotes 29 Report mistakes

Early Life and Education
Elihu Root was born in 1845 in Clinton, New York, a small college town whose rhythms were set by Hamilton College. His father taught there, and the academic environment shaped Root's discipline and ambition. He entered Hamilton, excelled in classical studies and debate, and graduated near the top of his class in 1864. Choosing the law at a moment when the United States was emerging from civil war, he pursued formal legal study in New York City and earned his law degree from New York University. Admitted to the bar in 1867, he began practice in the city that would define his professional life. In 1878 he married Clara Frances Wales, whose steadiness and sociability anchored a household that withstood the demands of a public career spanning six decades.

New York Lawyer and Counselor
Root's early years at the bar coincided with the rapid growth of American commerce and finance. He became known for rigorous preparation, clarity of argument, and an instinct for administrative order. His clients included major railroads and financial houses, and he argued significant questions of corporate organization and public regulation. Judges, journalists, and political leaders began to seek his counsel beyond individual cases. Henry Cabot Lodge and other national figures came to regard him as a lawyer whose practical sense could bridge law, policy, and administration. This reputation made him a natural choice for tasks that required both legal craft and institutional reform.

Secretary of War and Army Reform
The Spanish-American War of 1898 exposed serious defects in the War Department. In 1899 President William McKinley asked Root to serve as Secretary of War to reorganize the Army and to guide the transition from war to colonial administration. Root found allies among reform-minded officers but also faced resistance from the old command structure, including the veteran General Nelson A. Miles. With McKinley's backing, and later with the energetic support of Theodore Roosevelt, he pushed through measures that professionalized the service: the creation of a General Staff, the establishment of the Army War College, improved staff schools at Leavenworth, and a modernized system of promotion and training. Working with Congress, he supported legislation that clarified the status and training of the state militias, integrating them more closely into the national defense.

Administering new territories required diplomacy as well as organization. In Cuba, Root relied on the capable General Leonard Wood to stabilize public health and build civil institutions prior to independence. In the Philippines, he worked closely with William Howard Taft, then head of the Philippine Commission and later Civil Governor, to shift from military to civil government. Root did not author the strategic principles of American policy alone, but he supplied the legal and administrative architecture that implemented them and defended those choices before Congress and the public.

Secretary of State and Hemispheric Diplomacy
After John Hay's death in 1905, President Roosevelt turned again to Root, this time for the State Department. Root brought method to a sprawling agenda. He championed the Open Door in China, managed delicate relations with Japan, and helped shape the 1907 Gentlemen's Agreement addressing immigration tensions. In 1908 he concluded the Root-Takahira Agreement with Ambassador Kogoro Takahira, affirming a Pacific status quo and respect for China's territorial integrity. He also negotiated arbitration treaties to reduce the risk of great-power conflict, including an agreement with the British government represented by Ambassador James Bryce, though the Senate's reservations limited the treaties' reach.

Perhaps his most influential innovation was hemispheric diplomacy. In 1906 he toured Latin America, meeting leaders including Brazil's Baron do Rio Branco. Rather than rely on threats, Root emphasized mutual respect, legal equality among states, and regular consultation. He strengthened the Pan American Union and framed U.S. policy in the Americas as a partnership grounded in law. His tenure ended in 1909, when he was succeeded by Philander C. Knox, but his methods and personnel reforms left a durable imprint on the department.

Senator and Party Elder
Chosen by the New York legislature in 1909, Root served in the United States Senate until 1915. He brought a lawyer's precision to foreign relations, finance, and administrative reform, often working with colleagues across factional lines. The Republican rupture of 1912 tested these ties. Root had long been close to Theodore Roosevelt, but in the clash between Roosevelt and President William Howard Taft he aligned with Taft, and as temporary chairman of the Republican National Convention he presided over contentious proceedings that deepened the party's split. Even so, Root retained stature as a principled advocate of constitutional processes, limited government, and civil service reform.

Champion of International Law
Root received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1912, recognition not for a single treaty but for sustained work to strengthen international law and arbitration. He supported the Hague institutions and encouraged governments to accept impartial settlement of disputes. After leaving the Senate, he continued this work as the first president of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace at Andrew Carnegie's invitation, promoting scholarship and quiet diplomacy.

In 1920 the League of Nations invited a small group of jurists to draft the statute of a permanent international court at The Hague. Root served on that Advisory Committee of Jurists and helped craft compromises that balanced judicial independence with state consent. He later worked with Secretary of State Charles Evans Hughes to shape terms by which the United States might adhere to the World Court while preserving constitutional controls. Through speeches, articles, and behind-the-scenes advice, he argued that law and habit, not force alone, sustain peace.

Public Service at Home and the Russia Mission
Root never confined his civic work to foreign affairs. He presided over the 1915 New York State Constitutional Convention, seeking to streamline state administration and strengthen responsible government. Voters rejected the package amid partisan crosscurrents, but many proposals anticipated reforms later adopted.

During World War I, President Woodrow Wilson asked Root to lead a mission to revolutionary Russia in 1917, following the fall of the tsar. Root and his colleagues met leaders of the Provisional Government, including Alexander Kerensky, to encourage constitutional order and continued resistance to German arms. The mission could not overcome Russia's internal turmoil, and the Bolshevik seizure of power later that year rendered its aims moot, but Root's effort reflected the consistent thread of his career: a belief that institutions, law, and disciplined administration matter even in crisis.

Later Years, Mentorship, and Legacy
In the 1920s and 1930s Root remained an elder statesman. He helped found the Council on Foreign Relations, mentoring younger public servants and scholars. Among those he influenced was Henry L. Stimson, who would, in different eras, serve as both Secretary of War and Secretary of State, carrying forward Root's blend of legalism and practical organization. Root continued to write and to advise presidents of both parties, lending experience without seeking office.

Elihu Root died in 1937, closing a life that connected the Civil War's aftermath to the anxious peace between two world wars. He was not a visionary in the romantic sense; his gift was to translate ideas into institutions and to steady those institutions under pressure. Working with McKinley, Roosevelt, Taft, Wilson, Lodge, Bryce, Takahira, Rio Branco, Hughes, and many others, he shaped the Army, professionalized the State Department, strengthened ties with the Americas, and laid foundations of modern international adjudication. In law, in administration, and in diplomacy, he left an architecture sturdy enough to be tested by history.

Our collection contains 29 quotes who is written by Elihu, under the main topics: Ethics & Morality - Justice - Never Give Up - Peace - Reason & Logic.