Thomas Collier Platt

Thomas Collier Platt (born July 15, 1833, Owego, N.Y., U.S.—died March 6, 1910, New York City) was a U.S. representative and senator from New York, who unwittingly furthered the rise to the U.S. presidency of Theodore Roosevelt (whom he called “a perfect bull in a china shop”). Educated at Owego Academy and at Yale (1849–50), Platt entered banking and lumbering, served in the U.S. House of Representatives (1873–77), and became president (1880) of the United...