Roosevelt's political alliance with Henry Cabot Lodge of Massachusetts began in 1884, when the two were delegates to the Republican National Convention in Chicago. In time, both men would become leaders of the Republican Party. Their extensive mutual correspondence is an insightful record of shared interests and American idealism at the turn of the twentieth century. After serving in the United States House of Representatives for six years, Lodge became a senator in 1893 and retained his seat for the rest of his life. Like Roosevelt, Lodge was an advocate of civil service reform (he recommended Roosevelt to be a commissioner in 1889), a strong navy, the Panama Canal, and pure food and drug legislation. A specialist in foreign affairs, Lodge acted as one of Roosevelt's principal advisers during his presidency. Yet Lodge did not support many of Roosevelt's progressive reforms—women's suffrage, for instance—and he refused to endorse his friend in the Bull Moose campaign of 1912. Henry Cabot Lodge (1850-1924) John Singer Sargent (1856–1925) oil on canvas, 1890 National Portrait Gallery Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. Gift of the Honorable Henry Cabot Lodge