Theodore Roosevelt Biography
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Theodore Roosevelt, Jr. (October 27, 1858 –
January 6, 1919), also known as T.R. or Teddy, was the 26th President of
the United States (1901–1909). He was the 25th Vice President before
becoming President upon the assassination of President William McKinley.
On taking the executive oath at the age of 42, Roosevelt became the
youngest President in U.S. history. Within the Republican Party he was a
reformer who sought to bring his party's conservative ideals into the
20th century. He later broke with his friend and appointed successor
William Howard Taft and ran as a third-party candidate in 1912 on the
Progressive Party ticket.
Before 1901, Roosevelt served as a New York
State assemblyman, Police Commissioner of New York City, U.S. Civil
Service Commissioner, and Assistant Secretary of the U.S. Navy. As a
colonel, he commanded his famous all-volunteer First U.S. Volunteer
Cavalry Regiment, the "Rough Riders", during the Spanish-American War.
He also served a successful term as Governor of New York. He was a
widely respected historian, naturalist and explorer of the Amazon Basin;
his 35 books, listed online, include works on outdoor life, natural
history, U.S. Western and political history, an autobiography and a host
of other topics. In his lifetime, he was considered a foremost authority
on North American big game animals and Eastern birds. His niece, Eleanor
Roosevelt, married his fifth cousin, Franklin D. Roosevelt, in the White
House.
Roosevelt took particular pride in leading
what he called the "strenuous life". He inspired and led the United
States to understand the strategic significance of the Panama Canal,
which led to its construction from 1904 to its completion in 1914, after
he left office. He felt that the Canal's completion was his most
important and historically significant international achievement. He was
the first American to be awarded the Nobel Prize, winning its Peace
Prize in 1906 for his successful mediation of the Russo-Japanese War. He
was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor on January 16, 2001 by
President Bill Clinton, after almost a century of controversy.
****
Childhood and education
Roosevelt was born Theodore Roosevelt, Jr.,
at 28 East 20th Street in the modern-day Gramercy section of New York
City on October 27, 1858, the second of four children of Theodore
Roosevelt, Sr. (1831–1878) and Martha Bulloch (1834–1884). Theodore was
younger than his sister Anna, nicknamed "Bamie," but older than his
brother Elliott (father of future First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt), and his
sister Corinne. His father was a New York City philanthropist, merchant,
and partner in the glass-importing firm Roosevelt and Son. Martha
Bulloch was a Southern belle from a slave-owning family in Georgia and
had Confederate sympathies. On his mother's side, Theodore's uncle,
Admiral James Dunwoody Bulloch, was a famous Confederate naval officer.
During the Civil War, Martha supported her southern relatives' struggles
and quietly mailed packages south.
Sickly and asthmatic as a youngster,
Roosevelt had to sleep propped up in bed or slouching in a chair during
much of his early childhood, and had frequent ailments. Despite his
illnesses, he was a hyperactive and often mischievous young man. His
lifelong interest in zoology was formed at age seven upon seeing a dead
seal at a local market. After obtaining the seal's head, the young
Roosevelt and two of his cousins formed what they called the "Roosevelt
Museum of Natural History". Learning the rudiments of taxidermy, he
filled his makeshift museum with many animals that he caught, studied,
and prepared for display. At age nine, he codified his observation of
insects with a paper titled "The Natural History of Insects." [1]
To combat his poor physical condition, his
father compelled the young Roosevelt to take up exercise. To deal with
bullies, Roosevelt started boxing lessons.
Two trips abroad had a permanent impact:
family tours of Europe in 1869 and 1870, and of the Middle East 1872 to
1873.
The "pater familias" of the Roosevelts,
Theodore Sr., who was also known to friends and family as "Great Heart,"
was more than an ordinary father to Roosevelt. He had a tremendous
influence on young Theodore and was a life-long source of inspiration.
Of him Roosevelt would write, "My father, Theodore Roosevelt, was the
best man I ever knew. He combined strength and courage with gentleness,
tenderness, and great unselfishness. He would not tolerate in us
children selfishness or cruelty, idleness, cowardice, or
untruthfulness." [2] Some Roosevelt biographers have argued that the
senior Roosevelt's influence served as a check on negative aspects of
his son's adult personality. From childhood on, Roosevelt wanted to live
up to the ideals instilled in him by his father. Roosevelt's sister
later wrote, "He told me frequently that he never took any serious step
or made any vital decision for his country without thinking first what
position his father would have taken."[3]
Young Teddie,as he was nicknamed as a
child, was mostly homeschooled by tutors. He matriculated at Harvard
College in 1876. His father's death in 1878 was a tremendous blow, but
Roosevelt redoubled his activities. He did well in science, philosophy
and rhetoric courses but fared poorly in classical languages, which is
noteworthy because he was in the last Roosevelt generation to be fluent
in Dutch. He studied biology with great interest, and indeed was already
an accomplished naturalist and published ornithologist. He had a
photographic memory and developed a life-long habit of devouring books,
memorizing every detail. He was an unusually eloquent conversationalist
who, throughout his life, sought out the company of the smartest men and
women. He could multitask in extraordinary fashion, dictating letters to
one secretary and memoranda to another, while browsing through a new
book.
While at Harvard, Roosevelt was active in
numerous clubs and edited a student magazine. He was runner-up in the
Harvard boxing championship, losing to C.S. Hanks. The sportsmanship
Roosevelt showed in that fight was long remembered. [4]
He graduated Phi Beta Kappa and magna cum
laude (22nd of 177) from Harvard in 1880 [5], and entered Columbia Law
School. Finding law boring, however, he researched and wrote his first
major book, "The Naval War of 1812", in 1882, which still is considered
the only comprehensive history on the subject. [6] Presented with an
opportunity to run for New York Assemblyman in 1881, he dropped out of
law school to pursue his new goal of entering public life. [7]
Early life
Early Public Life
Roosevelt was a Republican activist during
his years in the Assembly, writing more bills than any other New York
state legislator. Already a major player in state politics, he attended
the Republican National Convention in 1884, and fought alongside the
Mugwump reformers who opposed the Stalwarts; they lost to the
conservative faction that nominated James G. Blaine. Refusing to join
other Mugwumps in supporting Grover Cleveland, the Democratic nominee,
he stayed loyal to the party and supported Blaine.[8] During this
Convention Roosevelt also received attention for seconding an
African-American for the position of Chairman. [9]
Deaths of first wife and mother
Theodore's first wife, Alice, and his
mother, Martha, both died on Valentine's Day 1884 in the same house,
only two days after his wife gave birth to their only daughter, Alice.
[10] Roosevelt was beyond consolation. After drawing a large "X" in his
diary (right photo), he wrote, "The light has gone out of my life."
Although he noted her loss in his diary and
made several references to her in the subsequent months, from the next
year on Roosevelt refused to speak his first wife's name again (even
omitting her name from his autobiography) and did not allow others to
speak of her in his presence. This decision and practice would always
strain relations with his daughter Alice by that marriage.
Later that year, Roosevelt left the General
Assembly and his infant daughter Alice, whom he left to the care of his
older sister, Bamie, and moved to his ranch in the Badlands of the
Dakota Territory for the life of a rancher and lawman.
Life in the Badlands
Living near the boomtown of Medora, North
Dakota, Roosevelt learned to ride and rope, occasionally getting
involved in fistfights, and spent his time in the rough-and-tumble world
of the final days of the American Old West. On one occasion, as a Deputy
Sheriff, he hunted down three outlaws taking a stolen boat down the
Little Missouri River, successfully taking them back overland for trial.
[11]
After the 1886-1887 winter wiped out his
herd of cattle and his $60,000 investment (together with those of his
competitors), he returned to the Eastern United States, where in 1885,
he had purchased Sagamore Hill in Oyster Bay, New York. It would be his
home and estate until his death. Roosevelt ran as the Republican
candidate for mayor of New York City in 1886, coming in a distant third.
Following the election he went to London, there marrying his childhood
sweetheart, Edith Kermit Carow. [12] They honeymooned in Europe, and
Roosevelt took the time to climb Mont Blanc, leading only the third
expedition of record to reach the summit.
Roosevelt is the only President to have
become a widower and remarry before becoming President.
In the 1880s, he gained recognition as a
serious historian. His The Naval War of 1812 (1882) was the standard
history for two generations, but his hasty biographies of Thomas Hart
Benton (1887) and Gouverneur Morris (1888) were potboilers. His major
achievement was a four-volume history of the frontier, The Winning of
the West (1889-1896), which had a notable impact on historiography as it
presented a highly original version of the frontier thesis originally
developed in 1893 by his friend Frederick Jackson Turner. [13] His many
articles in upscale magazines provided a much-needed income, as well as
cementing a reputation as a major national intellectual. He was later
elected president of the American Historical Association.
Return to public life
In the 1888 presidential election,
Roosevelt campaigned for Benjamin Harrison in the Midwest. President
Harrison appointed Roosevelt to the United States Civil Service
Commission where he served until 1895. [14] In his term, he vigorously
fought the spoilsmen and demanded the enforcement of civil service laws.
[15] In spite of Roosevelt's support for Harrison's reelection bid in
the presidential election of 1892, the eventual winner, Grover Cleveland
(a Democrat), reappointed him to the same post. [16]
In 1895, he became president of the New
York Board of Police Commissioners. During the two years that he held
this post, Roosevelt radically changed the way a police department was
run. He required his officers to be registered with the Board and to
pass a physical fitness test. He also saw that telephones were installed
in station houses. Always an energetic man, he made a habit of walking
officers' beats late at night and early in the morning to make sure that
they were on duty. He also engaged a pistol expert to teach officers how
to shoot their firearms. While serving on the Board, he also opened up
job opportunities in the department to women and Jews for the first
time. [17]
Urged by Roosevelt's close friend
Congressman Henry Cabot Lodge, President William McKinley appointed
Roosevelt as Assistant Secretary of the Navy in 1897. Roosevelt shared
the views of his contemporary and friend, Alfred Thayer Mahan, who had
organized his earlier War College lectures into his most influential
book, The Influence of Sea Power upon History, 1660-1783. Roosevelt
advocated expanding the Navy into a service with a global reach. He
campaigned for the modernization of the Navy and the reorganization of
both the Department and its officer corps. He also fought for an
increase in ship-building capability, warning that building modern ships
would take years instead of the mere weeks of construction in the age of
sail. Roosevelt was instrumental in consciously preparing the Navy for
what he saw as an unavoidable conflict with Spain. Events would prove
him right. During the Spanish-American War, the US Navy would scour the
globe in search of ships to support world-wide operations. [18]
Service in the Spanish-American War
Upon the declaration of war in 1898,
Roosevelt resigned from the Navy Department and, with the aid of U.S.
Army Colonel Leonard Wood, organized the First U.S. Volunteer Cavalry
Regiment out of a diverse crew that ranged from cowboys from the Western
territories to Ivy League chums from New York. The newspapers called
them the "Rough Riders." Originally Roosevelt held the rank of
Lieutenant Colonel and served under Colonel Wood, but after Wood was
promoted to Brigadier General of Volunteer Forces, Roosevelt was
promoted to Colonel and given command of the Regiment. Under his
leadership, the Rough Riders became famous for their dual charges up
Kettle Hill and San Juan Hill in July 1898, the battle being named after
the latter hill. [19] Roosevelt was eventually awarded the Medal of
Honor in 2001 for his actions.
Upon his return from Cuba, Roosevelt
re-entered New York State politics and was elected governor of New York
in 1898. [20] He made such a concerted effort to root out corruption and
"machine politics" that Republican boss Thomas Collier Platt forced him
on McKinley as a running mate in the 1900 election to simplify their
control of the state. [21]
Vice Presidency
McKinley and Roosevelt won the presidential
election of 1900, defeating William Jennings Bryan and Adlai E.
Stevenson Sr.. At his inauguration, on March 4, 1901, Roosevelt became
the second-youngest U.S. vice president (John C. Breckinridge, at 36,
was the youngest) at the time of his inauguration. Roosevelt found the
vice-presidency unfulfilling, and thinking that he had little future in
politics, considered returning to law school after leaving office. [22]
On September 2, 1901, Roosevelt first uttered a sentence that would
become strongly associated with his presidency, urging Americans to
"speak softly and carry a big stick" during a speech at the Minnesota
State Fair.
Presidency 1901-1909
President McKinley was shot by an anarchist
on September 6, 1901, and died on September 14, vaulting Roosevelt into
the presidency. Roosevelt took the oath of office on September 14 in the
Ansley Wilcox House at Buffalo, New York. He was the youngest president
to assume office.
Square Deal
Roosevelt promised to continue McKinley's
program, and at first he worked closely with McKinley's men, eventually
winning them to his team or breaking with them. One of his first notable
acts as President was to deliver a 20,000-word address to the House of
Representatives in December 1901, asking Congress to curb the power of
trusts "within reasonable limits." For this, and especially for his 44
lawsuits against major corporations, he was called a "trust-buster."
Roosevelt relished the Presidency and
seemed to be everywhere at once. He took Cabinet members and friends on
long, fast-paced hikes, boxed in the state rooms of the White House,
romped with his children, and read voraciously. [23] In 1908, he was
permanently blinded in one eye during one of his boxing bouts, but this
injury was kept from the public at the time. [24]
Mark Hanna was the rival power in the
Republican party, but Roosevelt artfully pushed him aside and lined up
enough delegates to assure himself of the 1904 nomination. Hanna died,
and Roosevelt had an easy renomination and reelection in 1904. He won
336 of 476 Electoral votes, and 56.4% of the total popular vote.
Building on McKinley's effective use of the
press, Roosevelt made the White House the center of news every day,
providing interviews and photo opportunities. His children were almost
as popular as he was, and their pranks and hijinks in the White House
made headlines. His daughter, Alice Lee Roosevelt, became the toast of
Washington. When friends asked if he could rein in his elder daughter,
Roosevelt said, "I can be President of the United States, or I can
control Alice. I cannot possibly do both." [23] In turn, Alice said of
him that he always wanted to be "the bride at every wedding and the
corpse at every funeral." (Some sources attribute this quote to one of
Roosevelt's sons instead.) [25] His many enthusiastic interests and
limitless energy led one ambassador to wryly explain, "You must always
remember that the President is about six." [26]
Conservationism
Roosevelt was a prominent conservationist,
putting the issue high on the national agenda. He worked with all the
major figures of the movement, especially his chief advisor on the
matter Gifford Pinchot. Roosevelt set aside more land for national parks
and nature preserves than all of his predecessors combined. The Theodore
Roosevelt National Park in the Badlands commemorates his conservationist
philosophy.
Gifford Pinchot had been appointed by
McKinley as chief of Division of Forestry in the Department of
Agriculture. In 1905, his department gained control of the national
forest reserves. Pinchot promoted private use (for a fee) under federal
supervision. In 1907, Roosevelt designated 16 million acres (65,000 km²)
of new national forests just minutes before a deadline. In May 1908,
Roosevelt sponsored the Conference of Governors held in the White House,
with a focus on natural resources and their most efficient use.
Roosevelt delivered the opening address: "Conservation as a National
Duty." In 1903 Roosevelt toured the Yosemite Valley with John Muir, who
had a very different view of conservation, and tried to minimize
commercial use of water resources and forests. Working through the
Sierra Club he founded, Muir succeeded in 1905 in having Congress
transfer the Mariposa Grove and Yosemite Valley to the National Park
Service. [1] While Muir wanted nature preserved for the sake of pure
beauty, Roosevelt subscribed to Pinchot's formulation, "to make the
forest produce the largest amount of whatever crop or service will be
most useful, and keep on producing it for generation after generation of
men and trees." [27]
Foreign Policy
Roosevelt's administration was marked by an
active approach to foreign policy. Roosevelt saw it as the duty of more
developed ("civilized") nations to help the underdeveloped
("uncivilized") world move forward. In Cuba, the Philippines, Puerto
Rico, and the Canal Zone he used the Army's medical service, under
Walter Reed and William C. Gorgas to eliminate the yellow fever menace
and install a new regime of public health. He used the army as well to
build up the infrastructure of the new possessions, building railways,
telegraph and telephone lines, and upgrading roads and port facilities.
Roosevelt dramatically increased the size
of the navy, forming the Great White Fleet, which toured the world in
1907. Roosevelt also added the Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe
Doctrine, which stated that the United States could intervene in
Caribbean affairs when corruption of governments made it necessary. His
most famous foreign policy initiative, following the Hay-Pauncefote
Treaty, was the construction of the Panama Canal, which upon its
completion shortened the route of freighters between San Francisco and
New York by 8,000 miles. Roosevelt gained international praise for
helping negotiate the end of the Russo-Japanese War, for which he was
awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Roosevelt later arbitrated a dispute
between France and Germany over the division of Morocco. Some historians
have argued these latter two actions helped in a small way to avert a
world war. [28]
Presidential firsts
Roosevelt's presidency saw numerous firsts.
He was the first president to make an official trip outside the United
States, visiting Panama to inspect the construction progress of the
Panama Canal, on November 9, 1906.
In 1901, Booker T. Washington became the
first black man to dine at the White House. Oscar S. Straus was the
first Jew appointed as a Cabinet Secretary.
In 1906, Roosevelt became the first
President and first American to be awarded a Nobel Prize, when he
received the Nobel Peace Prize for his work towards ending the
Russo-Japanese War.
Although four Vice Presidents before
Roosevelt had ascended to the presidency upon the death of their
predecessor, Roosevelt was the first to be elected in his own right, or
win his party’s nomination for re-election.
Roosevelt was also the first President to
wear a necktie for his official portrait, a tradition which has since
been observed by each of his successors.
Post-Presidency
Growing split inside Republican Party
Roosevelt certified William Howard Taft to
be a genuine "progressive" in 1908, when Roosevelt pushed through the
nomination of his Secretary of War for the Presidency. Taft easily
defeated three-time candidate William Jennings Bryan. Taft had a
different progressivism, one that stressed the rule of law and preferred
judges rather than administrators or politicians make the basic
decisions about fairness. Taft usually proved a less adroit politician
than Roosevelt, and lacked the energy and personal magnetism, not to
mention the publicity devices, the dedicated supporters, and the broad
base of public support that made Roosevelt so formidable. When Roosevelt
realized that lowering the tariff would risk severe tensions inside the
GOP, pitting producers (manufacturers and farmers) against merchants and
consumers, he stopped talking about the issue. Taft ignored the risks
and tackled the tariff boldly, on the one hand encouraging reformers to
fight for lower rates, then cutting deals with conservative leaders that
kept overall rates high. The resulting Payne-Aldrich tariff of 1909 was
too high for most reformers, but instead of blaming this on Senator
Nelson Aldrich and big business, Taft took credit, calling it the best
tariff ever. Again he had managed to alienate all sides. While the
crisis was building inside the GOP, Roosevelt was touring Africa and
Europe, so as to allow Taft to be his own man. [29]
Unlike Roosevelt, Taft never attacked
business or businessmen in his rhetoric. However, he was attentive to
the law, so he launched 90 antitrust suits, including one against the
largest corporation, U.S. Steel, for an acquisition that Roosevelt had
personally approved. The upshot was that Taft lost the support of
antitrust reformers (who disliked his conservative rhetoric), of big
business (which disliked his actions), and of Roosevelt, who felt
humiliated by his protégé. The left wing of the GOP began agitating
against Taft. Senator Robert LaFollette of Wisconsin created the
National Progressive Republican League to defeat the power of political
bossism at the state level, and to replace Taft at the national level.
More trouble came when Taft fired Gifford Pinchot, a leading
conservationist and close ally of Roosevelt. Pinchot alleged that Taft's
Secretary of Interior Richard Ballinger was in league with big timber
interests. Conservationists sided with Pinchot, as Taft alienated yet
another vocal constituency.
Roosevelt, back from Europe, unexpectedly
launched an attack on the federal courts, which deeply upset Taft. Not
only had Roosevelt alienated big business, he was also attacking both
the judiciary and the deep faith Republicans had in their judges (most
of whom had been appointed by McKinley, Roosevelt or Taft.) In the 1910
Congressional elections, Democrats swept to power and Taft's reelection
in 1912 was increasingly in doubt. In 1911 Taft responded with a
vigorous stumping tour that allowed him to sign up most of the party
leaders long before Roosevelt announced. Taft thereby demonstrated that
he was a better political operator than Roosevelt.
Progressive Party candidate in 1912
Late in 1911, Roosevelt finally broke with
Taft and LaFollette and announced himself as a candidate for the
Republican nomination. Roosevelt had delayed too long, and Taft had
already won the support of most party leaders in the country. Most of
LaFollette's supporters went over to Roosevelt, leaving the Wisconsin
Senator embittered. Roosevelt, stepping up his attack on judges, carried
9 of the states with preferential primaries, LaFollette took two, and
Taft only one. Most professional Republican politicians were supporting
Taft, and they proved difficult to upset in non-primary states. In a
decisive move, Taft's people purchased support of the corrupt
politicians who represented the shadow Republican party in southern
states. (These states always voted Democratic in presidential elections,
but their delegates had over 300 votes at the Republican National
convention.) Taft's managers, led by Elihu Root--once Roosevelt's top
ally--beat back challenges to their southern delegations; Taft now had
more delegates than Roosevelt. Roosevelt's people had made similar
purchases in the South in 1904, but this time the Rough Rider called
foul. Not since 1872 had there been a major schism in the Republican
party; Roosevelt himself, in the 1884, had refused to bolt the ticket
even though he distrusted candidate James G. Blaine. Now, with the
Democrats holding about 45% of the national vote, any schism would be
fatal. Roosevelt's only hope at the convention was to form a "stop-Taft"
alliance with LaFollette, but LaFollette hated Roosevelt too much to
allow that. Unable to tolerate the personal humiliation he suffered at
the hands of Taft and the Old Guard, and refusing to entertain the
possibility of a compromise candidate, Roosevelt struck back hard.
Outvoted, Roosevelt pulled his delegates off the convention floor and
decided to form a third party.
Roosevelt, along with key allies such as
Pinchot and Albert Beveridge created the Progressive Party structuring
it as a permanent organization that would field complete tickets at the
presidential and state level. It was popularly known as the "Bull Moose
Party." At his Chicago convention Roosevelt cried out, "We stand at
Armageddon and we battle for the Lord." The crusading rhetoric resonated
well with the delegates, many of them long-time reformers, crusaders,
activists and opponents of politics as usual. Included in the ranks were
Jane Addams and many other feminists and peace activists. The platform
echoed Roosevelt's 1907-08 proposals, calling for vigorous government
intervention to protect the people from the selfish interests. [30]
The great majority of Republican governors,
congressmen, editors and local leaders refused to join the new party,
even if they had supported Roosevelt before. Only five of the 15 most
prominent progressive Republicans in the Senate endorsed the new party;
three came out for Wilson. Many of Roosevelt's closest political allies
supported Taft, including his son-in-law, Nicholas Longworth.
Roosevelt's daughter Alice Roosevelt Longworth stuck with her father,
causing a permanent chill in her marriage. For men like Longworth,
expecting a future in politics, bolting the Republican party ticket was
simply too radical a step; for others, it was safer to go with Woodrow
Wilson, and quite a few supporters of progressivism had doubts about the
reliability of Roosevelt's beliefs.
Historians speculate that if The Bull Moose
had only run a presidential ticket, it might have attracted many more
Republicans willing to split their ballot. But the progressive movement
was strongest at the state level, and, therefore, the new party had to
field candidates for governor and state legislature. In Pittsburgh, the
local Republican boss, at odds with state party leaders, joined
Roosevelt's cause. In California, Governor Hiram Johnson and the Bull
Moosers took control of the regular Republicans party; Taft was not even
listed on the California ballot. Johnson became Roosevelt's
running-mate. In most states, there were full Republican and Progressive
tickets in the field, thus splitting the Republican vote. Roosevelt
campaigned vigorously on the ("Bull Moose") ticket. While campaigning in
Milwaukee, Wisconsin, he was shot by saloonkeeper John Schrank in a
failed assassination attempt on October 14, 1912. With the bullet lodged
in his chest, Roosevelt delivered his scheduled speech. He was not
seriously wounded, although his doctors thought it too dangerous to
attempt to remove the bullet, and he carried it with him until he died.
The central problem faced by Progressive
Party was that the Democrats were more united and optimistic than they
had been in decades. The Bull Moosers fancied they had a chance to elect
Roosevelt by drawing out progressive elements from both the Republican
and Democratic parties. That dream evaporated in July, when the
Democrats unexpectedly rejected party hacks and instead nominated their
most articulate and prominent progressive, Woodrow Wilson. As a leading
educator and political scientist, he qualified as the ideal "expert" to
handle affairs of state. At least half the nation's independent
progressives flocked to Wilson's camp, both because of Wilson's policies
and the expectation of victory. This left the Bull Moose party high and
dry. Roosevelt haters, such as LaFollette, also voted for Wilson instead
of wasting their vote on Taft who could never win. [31] The most serious
problem faced by Roosevelt's third party was money. The business
interests who usually funded Republican campaigns distrusted Roosevelt
and either sat the election out, or supported Taft. Lacking a strong
party press, the Bull Moosers had to spend most of their money on
publicity.
Roosevelt nonetheless conducted a vigorous
national campaign, denouncing the way the Republican nomination had been
"stolen." He bundled together his reforms under the rubric of "The New
Nationalism" and stumped the country for a strong federal role in
regulating the economy, and, especially, watching and chastising bad
corporations and overruling federal and state judges who made
unprogressive decisions. Wilson called for "The New Freedom", which
emphasized individualism rather than the powerful national government
that Roosevelt was promoting. Taft, knowing he had no chance to win,
campaigned quietly, emphasizing the superior role of judges over the
demagogy of elected officials. The departure of the more extreme
progressives left the conservatives even more firmly in control of the
GOP, and many of the Old Guard leaders even distrusted Taft as a bit too
progressive for their taste, especially on matters of antitrust and
tariffs. Much of the Republican effort was designed to discredit
Roosevelt as a dangerous radical, but people knew Roosevelt too well to
buy that argument. The result was the weakest Republican effort in
history. [31]
Roosevelt failed to move the political
system in his direction. He did win 4.1 million votes (27%), compared to
Taft's 3.5 million (23%). However, Wilson's 6.3 million votes (42%) were
enough to garner 435 electoral votes. Roosevelt had only 88 electoral
votes; Pennsylvania was his only Eastern state; in the Midwest he
carried Michigan, Minnesota and South Dakota; in the West, California
and Washington; in the South, nothing. The Democrats gained ten seats in
the Senate, just enough to form a majority, and 63 new House seats to
solidify their control there. Progressive statewide candidates trailed
about 20% behind Roosevelt's vote. Almost all, including Albert
Beveridge of Indiana, went down to defeat; the only governor elected was
Hiram Johnson of California, who ran on the regular GOP ticket. A mere
seventeen Bull Moosers were elected to Congress, and perhaps 250 to
local office. Outside California, there was no real base to the party
beyond the personality of Roosevelt himself. Roosevelt had scored a
second-place finish, but he trailed so far behind Wilson that everyone
realized his party would never win the White House. With the poor
performance at state and local levels in 1912, the steady defection of
top supporters, the failure to attract any new support, and a pathetic
showing in 1914, the Bull Moose party disintegrated. Some leaders, such
as Harold Ickes of Chicago, supported Wilson in 1916. Most followed
Roosevelt back into the GOP, which in 1916 nominated Charles Evans
Hughes. The ironies were many: Taft had been Roosevelt's hand-picked
successor in 1908 and the split between the two men was ideological. No
compromise was possible on issues like the independence of the
judiciary. Roosevelt's schism allowed the conservatives to gain control
of the Republican party and left Roosevelt and his followers drifting in
the wilderness for decades.
Roosevelt and the First World War
Roosevelt angrily complained about the
foreign policy of President Woodrow Wilson, calling it "weak". When
World War I began in 1914, Roosevelt strongly supported Britain, France
and the Allies of World War I because he admired their fight for
civilization; he demanded a harsher policy against Germany, especially
regarding submarine warfare. In 1916 he campaigned energetically for
Hughes and repeatedly denounced those Irish-Americans and
German-Americans whose pleas for neutrality Roosevelt said were
unpatriotic because they put the interest of Ireland and Germany ahead
of America's. He insisted that one had to be 100% American, not a
"hyphenated-American" who juggled multiple loyalties. When the U.S.
entered the war in 1917, Roosevelt sought to raise a volunteer division,
but Wilson refused, perhaps because his famed publicity machine would
upstage the White House. [32] Roosevelt's attacks on Wilson helped the
Republicans win control of Congress in the elections of 1918. Had
Roosevelt remained alive and healthy, he might have contested the 1920
GOP nomination, but his health was broken by 1918 due to tropical
disease.
Later life
In March 1910 shortly after the end of his
second term (but only full term) as President, Roosevelt left New York
for a post-presidency safari in Africa. The trip was sponsored by the
Smithsonian Institution and the National Geographic Society and received
worldwide media attention. Despite his commitment to conservation, his
party killed over 6,000 animals, including some white rhinos. [1]
South American expedition
One of Roosevelt's more popular books,
Through the Brazilian Wilderness, was about his expedition into the
Brazilian jungle. in 1913 Roosevelt went on the Roosevelt-Rondon
Scientific Expedition, exploring the Brazilian jungle with Brazilian
explorer Cândido Rondon. This expedition discovered the Rio of Doubt,
later renamed Rio Roosevelt in honor of the President. While the
expedition started well, the difficulties of the harsh climate with its
torrential downpours, incredibly rough terrain, unseaworthy low-running
dugout canoes, a seemingly endless series of difficult rapids and
waterfalls, diminishing food supplies, the drowning of one expedition
member and the murder of another and a host of other problems turned
what began as a scientific expedition into a race against time to save
the Roosevelt's life from a severe infection and tropical diseases.
Malaria and a serious infection resulting from a minor leg wound had
developed into a life-threatening situation. These illnesses so weakened
Roosevelt, that by six weeks into the expedition, he had to be attended
day and night by the expedition's physician and Kermit. By this time,
Roosevelt considered his own condition a threat to the survival of the
others. At one point, his son, Kermit had to talk him out his wish to be
left behind so as not to slow down the expedition, now with only a few
weeks rations left. TR was having chest pains when he tried to walk, his
temperature soared to 103 and, at times he was delirious. He was, by
now, so weakened that he could not even sit up in his dugout but had to
lie almost on his back. When the expedition reached civilization,
Roosevelt had to be carried by off by stretcher. He had lost over fifty
pounds. Kermit and all the expedition's members' physical conditions had
suffered as well. In the final analysis, without Kermit's rope and
canoe-handling skills that preserved the dugouts from destruction, (the
one thing that would have fatally ended the expedition), his unflinching
courage, dogged determination, - in short, the devotion and loving
support of a dedicated son, Kermit Roosevelt, it is unlikely that TR
would have survived the expedition.
Upon his return by ship to New York,
friends and family were startled by Roosevelt's physical appearance, for
he was no longer the vibrant man with a seemigly endless supply of
energy that they had always known. Roosevelt would write a friend that
the trip had cut his life short by ten years. He might not have really
known just how accurate that analysis would prove to be for the effects
of the South America expedition had so greatly weakened TR that they
significantly contributed to his declining health. For the rest of his
life, he would be plagued by flareups of malaria and inflamation so
severe that they would require hospitalization. [23][33]
When Roosevelt had recovered enough of his
strength, he found that he had a new battle on his hands. In
professional circles, there was doubt about his claims of having having
discovered and navigated a completly uncharted river over 625 miles
(1,000 km) long. TR would have to defend himself and win international
recognition of the expedition's newly-named Rio Roosevelt. Toward this
end, Roosevelt went to Washington, DC, and spoke at a standing-room-only
convention to defend his discovery. His official report and its defense
silenced the critics and TR was able to triumphantly return to his home
in Oyster Bay.
Despite his weakened condition and slow
recovery from his South America expedition, Roosevelt continued to write
with great passion on subjects ranging from foreign policy to the
importance of the national park system. In all, Roosevelt wrote about 18
books (each in several editions), including his Autobiography, Rough
Riders and histories of the Naval Academy, ranching and wildlife, which
are still in use today.
Roosevelt was an enthusiastic proponent of
the Scouting movement; one early Scout leader said, "The two things that
gave Scouting great impetus and made it very popular were the uniform
and Teddy Roosevelt's jingoism." [34]
On January 6, 1919, at the age of 60,
Roosevelt died in his sleep of a coronary embolism at Oyster Bay, and
was buried in Young's Memorial Cemetery. Upon receiving word of his
death, his son, Archie, cabled his siblings simply, "The old lion is
dead."
Personal life
Roosevelt was baptized in the family's
church, part of the Reformed Church in America; he attended the Madison
Square Presbyterian Church until the age of 16. Later in life, when
Roosevelt lived at Oyster Bay he attended an Episcopal church with his
wife. While in Washington he attended services at Grace Reformed Church.
[35] As President he firmly believed in the separation of church and
state and thought it unwise to have In God We Trust on currency, because
he thought it sacrilegious to put the name of the Deity on something so
common as money. [36] He was also a Freemason, and regularly attended
the Matinecock Lodge's meetings. He once said that "One of the things
that so greatly attracted me to Masonry that I hailed the chance of
becoming a Mason was that it really did act up to what we, as a
government, are pledged to — namely to treat each man on his merit as a
man." [37]
Roosevelt had a lifelong interest in
pursuing what he called "the strenuous life." To this end, he exercised
regularly and took up boxing, tennis, hiking, rowing, polo, and
horseback riding. As Governor of New York, he boxed with sparring
partners several times a week, a practice he regularly continued as
President until one blow detached his left retina, leaving him blind in
that eye. Thereafter, he practiced jujitsu and continued as well his
habit of skinny-dipping in the Potomac River during winter. [38] [39]
At the age of 22, Roosevelt married his
first wife, 19-year-old Alice Hathaway Lee. Their marriage ceremony was
held on October 27, 1880, at the Unitarian Church in Brookline,
Massachusetts. Alice was the daughter of the prominent banker George
Cabot Lee and Caroline Haskell Lee. The couple first met in 1878; he
finally proposed in June 1879, though Alice waited another six months
before accepting the proposal; their engagement was announced on
Valentine's Day 1880. Alice Roosevelt died shortly after the birth of
their first child, whom they also named Alice. In a tragic coincidence,
his mother died on the same day as his wife at the Roosevelt family home
in Manhattan - ironically - on Valentine's Day 1884.
In 1886, he married Edith Carow. They had
five children: Theodore Jr., Kermit, Ethel, Archibald "Archie", and
Quentin. Although Roosevelt's father was also named Theodore Roosevelt,
he died while the future president was still childless and unmarried,
and the future President Roosevelt took the suffix of Sr. and
subsequently named his son Theodore Roosevelt, Jr. Because Roosevelt was
still alive when his grandson and namesake was born, said grandson was
named Theodore Roosevelt III, and consequently the president's son
retained the Jr. after his father's death.
Legacy
For his gallantry at San Juan Hill,
Roosevelt was recommended for the Medal of Honor, but his subsequent
telegrams to the War Department about the delays in returning American
troops from Cuba doomed his chances. In the late 1990s, supporters of
Roosevelt again took up the flag on behalf of his getting the MOH. This
was not without controversy as the elements within the US Army as well
as the National Archives were opposed. Nevertheless, on January 16,
2001, President Bill Clinton posthumously awarded Theodore Roosevelt the
Medal of Honor, for his charge up San Juan Hill, in Cuba, during the
Spanish-American War. The Roosevelts thus became one of only two
father-son pairs to receive this honor. Roosevelt's eldest son,
Brigadier General Theodore Roosevelt, Jr., was awarded the Medal of
Honor for his heroism at Normandy in 1944.
Roosevelt, together with George Washington,
Thomas Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln, was chosen by President Calvin
Coolidge to be depicted in stone at the Mount Rushmore Memorial. In
honor of his service to his nation and in particular to the United
States Navy, two ships have been named for Roosevelt. The first was a
George Washington class submarine in commission from 1961 to 1982; the
second is a Nimitz class aircraft carrier on active duty in the Atlantic
Fleet since 1986.
Overall, historians credit Roosevelt for
his accomplishments in changing the nation's political system by putting
the presidency at the center and making personality as important as the
issues. In terms of issues his accomplishments were modest, and
concentrated in the areas of trust-busting and conservationism. However,
he has also been criticized for his interventionist and imperialist
approach to nations he considered "uncivilized". His charisma and
heroism, which made him a larger than life figure in his day, have also
endured. His friend historian Henry Adams proclaimed, "Roosevelt, more
than any other living man ....showed the singular primitive quality that
belongs to ultimate matter — the quality that mediaeval theology
assigned to God — he was pure act." Historians typically rank Roosevelt
just below the top five presidents.
Popular culture
As a charismatic President often considered
larger than life, Roosevelt (or characters using his name loosely based
on him) has appeared in numerous fiction books, television shows, films,
and other media of popular culture. In the Scrooge McDuck comics by Keno
Don Rosa, Roosevelt appears several times, often as the mentor of an
adolescent Scrooge, teaching him the values of self-confidence and
self-reliance. He is also a major character in Harry Turtledove's
fictional Timeline-191 alternate history, and is the protagonist of
Benito Cereno's Tales From the Bully Pulpit comic book.
Roosevelt's lasting popular legacy is the
stuffed toy bears (teddy bears), named after him following an incident
on a hunting trip in in 1902. Roosevelt famously refused to kill a black
bear simply for the sake of making a kill. Bears and later bear cubs
became closely associated with Roosevelt in political cartoons
thereafter.
His patronage of The Wind in the Willows
enabled its English author Kenneth Grahame to break into the American
market.
President firsts
He was a man who would try new things.
Theodore Roosevelt was the first president to ride in a submarine and
automobile. For a few minutes in 1910 he rode in an airplane.
****
References
Notes
-
↑ a b c "TR's Legacy -
The Environment". Retrieved March 6, 2006.
-
↑ Roosevelt, Theodore
(1913). Theodore Roosevelt: An Autobiography, Chapter I, p. 13.
Macmillan. ISBN 1-58734-045-3.
-
↑ "The Film & More:
Program Transcript Part One". Retrieved March 9, 2006.
-
↑ Thayer, Chapter I, pp.
30, 36.
-
↑ Thayer, Chapter I, p.
37.
-
↑ "The Naval War of 1812
by Theodore Roosevelt".
-
↑ "Theodore Roosevelt".
Retrieved March 6, 2006.
-
↑ Thayer, Chapter III,
pp. 6, 8, 10.
-
↑ Thayer, Chapter III, p.
6.
-
↑ Thayer, Chapter II, p.
29.
-
↑ Thayer, Chapter IV, p.
7.
-
↑ Thayer, Chapter V, pp.
4, 6.
-
↑ Thayer, Chapter V, p.
8.
-
↑ Thayer, Chapter VI, pp.
1–2.
-
↑ Thayer, Chapter VI, p.
10.
-
↑ Thayer, Chapter VI, p.
17.
-
↑ Thayer, Chapter VI, pp.
18–24.
-
↑ Thayer, chapter VII,
pp. 5–10.
-
↑ Thayer, Chapter VII,
pp. 20–26.
-
↑ Thayer, Chapter VIII,
p. 7.
-
↑ Thayer, Chapter VIII,
p. 19.
-
↑ Thayer, Chapter VIII,
pp. 27–28.
-
↑ a b c Hanson, David C.
(2005). "Theodore Roosevelt: Lion in the White House". Retrieved
March 6, 2006.
-
↑ Smith, Ira R. T.;
Morris, Joe Alex (1949). "Dear Mr. President": The Story of Fifty
Years in the White House Mail Room, p. 52. Julian Messner.
-
↑ Thayer, Chapter XIII,
p. 7.
-
↑ Kennedy, Robert C.
(2005). "'I hear there are some kids in the White House this year'".
Retrieved March 6, 2006.
-
↑ Pinchot, Gifford
(1947). Breaking New Ground, p. 32. Island Press. ISBN
1-55963-670-X.
-
↑ The Rector and Visitors
of the University of Virginia (2005). "Theodore Roosevelt
(1901-1909)". Retrieved March 6, 2006.
-
↑ Thayer, Chapter XXI, p.
10.
-
↑ Thayer, Chapter XXII,
pp. 25–31.
-
↑ a b Thayer, Chapter
XXII, pp. 36–41.
-
↑ The Rector and Visitors
of the University of Virginia (2005). "Biography: Life After the
Presidency". Retrieved March 7, 2006.
-
↑ Thayer, Chapter XXIII,
pp. 4–7.
-
↑ Larson, Keith (2006).
"Theodore Roosevelt". Retrieved March 6, 2006.
-
↑ "The Religious
Affiliation of Theodore Roosevelt U.S. President". Retrieved March
7, 2006.
-
↑ Reynolds, Ralph C.
(1999). "In God We Trust: All Others Pay Cash". Retrieved March 7,
2006.
-
↑ Matinecock Masonic
Historical Society. "History". Retrieved March 12, 2006.
-
↑ Thayer, Chapter XVII,
pp. 22–24.
-
↑ Shaw, K.B. & Maiden,
David (2006). "Theodore Roosevelt". Retrieved March 7, 2006.
Other references
Primary sources
Brands, H.W. ed. The Selected Letters of
Theodore Roosevelt. (2001)
Harbaugh, William ed. The Writings Of
Theodore Roosevelt (1967). A one-volume selection of Roosevelt's
speeches and essays.
Hart, Albert Bushnell and Herbert Ronald
Ferleger, eds. Theodore Roosevelt Cyclopedia (1941), Roosevelt's
opinions on many issues.
Morison, Elting E., John Morton Blum, and
Alfred D. Chandler, Jr., eds., The Letters of Theodore Roosevelt, 8
vols. (1951-1954). Very large, annotated edition of letters from TR.
Roosevelt, Theodore (1999). Theodore
Roosevelt: An Autobiography. online at Bartleby.com.
Roosevelt, Theodore. The Works of Theodore
Roosevelt (National edition, 20 vol. 1926; 18,000 pages containing most
of TR's speeches, books and essays, but not his letters; a CD-ROM
edition is available; some of TR's books are available online through
Project Bartleby
Theodore Roosevelt books and speeches on
Project Gutenberg
Secondary Sources
Beale Howard K. Theodore Roosevelt and the
Rise of America to World Power. (1956).
Blum, John Morton The Republican Roosevelt.
(1954). Series of essays that examine how TR did politics
Brands, H.W. Theodore Roosevelt (2001)
Cooper, John Milton The Warrior and the
Priest: Woodrow Wilson and Theodore Roosevelt. (1983) a dual biography
Dalton, Kathleen. Theodore Roosevelt: A
Strenuous Life. (2002)
Gould, Lewis L. The Presidency of Theodore
Roosevelt. (1991)
Harbaugh, William Henry. The Life and Times
of Theodore Roosevelt. (1963)
Keller, Morton, ed., Theodore Roosevelt: A
Profile (1967) excerpts from TR and from historians.
McCullough, David. Mornings on Horseback,
The Story of an Extraordinary Family. a Vanished Way of Life, and the
Unique Child Who Became Theodore Roosevelt. (2001)
Morris, Edmund The Rise of Theodore
Roosevelt. (1979); vol 2: Theodore Rex. (2001)
Mowry, George. The Era of Theodore
Roosevelt and the Birth of Modern America, 1900-1912. (1954)
Mowry, George E. Theodore Roosevelt and the
Progressive Movement. (2001)
O'Toole, Patricia. When Trumpets Call:
Theodore Roosevelt After the White House (2005)
Pringle, Henry F. Theodore Roosevelt (1932;
2nd ed. 1956)
Putnam, Carleton Theodore Roosevelt: A
Biography, Volume I: The Formative Years (1958), only volume published,
to age 28.
Rhodes, James Ford Rhodes. The McKinley and
Roosevelt Administrations, 1897-1909 (1922)
****
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