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Roosevelt owed his political career to a fortuitous circumstance. As 

Assistant Secretary of the Navy during World War I, because of old 

school ties, he had intervened to prevent prosecution of a large ring of 

homosexuals in the Navy which included several Groton and Harvard 

chums. This brought him to the favorable appreciation of a wealthy 

international homosexual set which travelled back and forth between 

New York and Paris, and which was presided over by Bessie Marbury, 

of a very old and prominent New York family. Bessie’s "wife", who lived 

with her for a number of years, was Elsie de Wolfe, later Lady Mendl in 

a "mariage de convenance", the arbiter of the international set. They 

recruited J.P. Morgan’s youngest daughter, Anne Morgan, into their 

circle, and used her fortune to restore the Villa Trianon in Paris, which 

became their headquarters. During World War I, it was used as a 

hospital. Bessie Marbury expected to be awarded the Legion of Honor 

by the French Government as a reward, but J.P. Morgan, Jr., who 

despised her for corrupting his youngest sister, requested the French 

Government to withhold the award, which they did. Smarting from this 

rebuff, Bessie Marbury threw herself into politics, and became a power 

in the Democratic National Party. She had also recruited Eleanor 

Roosevelt into her circle, and, during a visit to Hyde Park, Eleanor 

confided that she was desperate to find something for "poor Franklin" 

to do, as he was confined to a wheelchair, and was very depressed.

"I know what we’ll do," exclaimed Bessie, "We’ll run him for Governor of 

New York!" Because of her power, she succeeded in this goal, and 

Roosevelt later became President.

One of the men Roosevelt brought down from New York with him as a 

Special Advisor to the Treasury was Earl Bailie of J & W Seligman