George B. Cortelyou
George Cortelyou | |
---|---|
Harry New | |
1st United States Secretary of Commerce and Labor | |
In office February 18, 1903 – June 30, 1904 | |
President | Theodore Roosevelt |
Preceded by | Position established |
Succeeded by | Victor H. Metcalf |
Secretary to the President | |
In office May 1, 1900 – February 18, 1903 | |
President | William McKinley Theodore Roosevelt |
Preceded by | John Addison Porter |
Succeeded by | William Loeb Jr. |
Personal details | |
Born | George Bruce Cortelyou July 26, 1862 New York City, New York, U.S. |
Died | October 23, 1940 New York City, New York, U.S. | (aged 78)
Political party | Republican |
Spouse | Lilly Morris Hinds |
Education | Westfield State University (BA) Georgetown University (LLB) George Washington University (LLM) |
George Bruce Cortelyou (July 26, 1862 – October 23, 1940) was an American cabinet secretary of the early twentieth century. He served in various capacities in the presidential administrations of Grover Cleveland, William McKinley, and Theodore Roosevelt.
Born in New York City, Cortelyou worked for the United States Post Office Department and came to the attention of Postmaster General Wilson S. Bissell. On Bissell's recommendation, President Cleveland hired Cortelyou as his chief clerk. On Cleveland's recommendation, McKinley hired Cortelyou as his personal secretary. After the assassination of William McKinley, Roosevelt asked Cortelyou to lead an effort to reorganize the White House.
Impressed with Cortelyou's performance, Roosevelt appointed him
Early life
Cortelyou was born in New York City to Rose (née Seary) and Peter Crolius Cortelyou Jr. He was a member of an old New Netherlandish family whose immigrant ancestor, Jacques Cortelyou, arrived in 1652. He was educated in the public schools of Brooklyn, at Nazareth Hall Military Academy in Pennsylvania, and at Hempstead Institute on Long Island.
At the age of 20, Cortelyou received a
Early career
In 1891 he obtained a position as secretary to the chief postal inspector of New York. The following year, a promotion led to a position as secretary to the Fourth Assistant Postmaster General in Washington, D.C. In 1895, President Grover Cleveland hired Cortelyou as his chief clerk on the recommendation of Postmaster General Wilson S. Bissell. Cleveland recommended him as personal secretary to his successor, William McKinley. Cortelyou was working to improve the efficiency of the office when President McKinley was assassinated in 1901. He was the third president to be assassinated.
McKinley was greeting visitors at the Temple of Music at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York, on September 6, 1901, when he was shot twice at close range by lone assassin Leon Czolgosz, a twenty-eight-year-old anarchist. As McKinley collapsed, he was caught and supported by his aides, including Cortelyou. As he was held in their arms, he whispered, "My wife... be careful, Cortelyou, how you tell her. Oh, be careful." He died eight days later at the age of fifty-eight.
After succeeding McKinley as president, Theodore Roosevelt charged Cortelyou with transforming the White House into a more professional organization. Cortelyou developed procedures and rules that guided White House protocol and established processes for which there had been only personal prerogative. Cortelyou is also credited with establishing an improved line of communication between the President's office and the press; he provided reporters with their own work space, briefed journalists on major news events, and distributed press releases. Cortelyou is credited with establishing the first systematic collection of press clippings for a sitting president to review. The "Current Clippings" were the first attempt by a president to gauge public opinion through the media. Cortelyou selected the articles objectively, a practice not consistently followed by his successors.
Roosevelt's administration
Cortelyou served as the first
On April 9, 1903, he was made an honorary member of the Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia fraternity. He had attended the New England Conservatory of Music, where the fraternity was founded.
Cortelyou served as Secretary of the Treasury from March 4, 1907, to March 7, 1909. This was during the devastating Panic of 1907. Like his predecessor, Leslie M. Shaw, Cortelyou believed it was the duty of the Treasury to protect the banking system, but he realized that the Treasury was not equipped to maintain economic stability. He mitigated the crisis by depositing large amounts of government funds in national banks and buying government bonds. To prevent future crises, Cortelyou advocated a more flexible currency and recommended the creation of a central banking system.
In 1908, the Aldrich–Vreeland Act was passed, providing for a special currency to be issued in times of panic and creating a commission that led to the creation of the Federal Reserve in 1913.
Later life, death, and legacy
He returned to the private sector as president of the Consolidated Gas Company, later known as
See also
- Jacques Cortelyou
- Cortelyou Road (BMT Brighton Line), thus derives its name from Jacques Cortelyou
- Cortelyou Library
References
- ^ Earl F. Schoening, ed. (January 1941). "Chapter Invisible". The Signet, A Magazine for Members of Phi Sigma Kappa Fraternity: Vol XXXIII, No. 1, pg 51.
- ISBN 0-8173-0410-X.