26. THEODORE ROOSEVELT (Won't you be my Teddy Bear)
Born: October 27, 1858, New York, New York
Died: January 6, 1919, Oyster Bay, New York
Term: September 14, 1901- March 4, 1909
Political Party: Republican
Vice President: Charles Fairbanks
First Lady: Edith Carow Roosevelt
Before the Presidency: Theodore Roosevelt grew up in a fairly affluent family in New York City. He suffered from asthma as a young child but was surrounded by love from his parents and three siblings.
Young Theodore was a determined young man, and he took it upon himself to get out from under his bad health. He took up gymnastics and weight lifting and built up a fairly rugged physique. He became an advocate of exercise and the adventurous life as a result. It also instilled quite a bit of confidence in the young man. He also spent his childhood traveling extensively overseas with his family and no doubt gained a perspective on other nations, particularly in Europe.
In 1876, Roosevelt entered Harvard College where he studied a variety of subjects. It was there where he met his first wife, Alice Hathaway Lee, who he would marry in 1880. He dropped out of Columbia Law School a year later to begin a life of public service.
Roosevelt was elected to the New York Assembly in 1882 where he served for two years. Unfortunately, tragedy would strike in 1884 when both his mother and wife died on the same day. Distraught, Roosevelt left for the first of his many adventures, hanging out in the Dakota Badlands where he hunted Grizzly bears, herded cows, and chasing outlaws as a frontier sheriff. Roosevelt was quite happy living the rugged life.
But he would return to the East after a devastating winter all but wiped out his cattle. He had rekindled a love with his childhood sweetheart, Edith Kermit Carow, and they would marry in England in 1886, settling at Oyster Bay, New York.
Back in New York, Roosevelt resumed his writing career, writing about the Naval War of 1812. Several more books followed, and it is possible Roosevelt could have been a successful non-fiction author.
But public service was his first calling, and he ran for Mayor of New York in 1886. He lost but, after campaigning for Benjamin Harrison in 1888, he was appointed to the US Civil Service Commission. And indeed, he was a reformer, being re-nominated by Grover Cleveland in 1893. As Commissioner, he enforced the Civil Service laws and clashed with both parties who wanted him to look the other way when it came to patronage.
In 1895, Roosevelt left the Commission to accept the job of Police Commissioner in New York City. There he developed a reputation for honesty as he cleaned up the corrupt Police Board and enforced the city’s blue laws (no liquor to be sold on Sundays). Needless to say, Roosevelt wasn’t popular with the party bosses.
Lucky for them, Roosevelt was off to accept a new job as President McKinley appointed him as Assistant Secretary of the Navy, an interesting position, since, up to then, he hadn’t served in the military.
Of course, that would change a year later when the Spanish-American War broke out. Roosevelt left the Administration to join the Rough Riders as a Lieutenant Colonel. The Rough Riders were essentially a rag tag bunch of Ivy Leaguers like himself, Western cowboys, sheriffs, police officers, even Native Americans. Roosevelt was a popular leader and he led them up San Juan Hill. His contingent suffered heavy casualties, but they emerged victorious; Roosevelt becoming perhaps the biggest military hero since Ulysses Grant.
Roosevelt came home a war hero, and the Republicans tagged him for New York Governor against the Tammany Hall backed Democrat, Judge Augustus Van Wyck. Roosevelt too benefitted from party bosses, in his case Boss Thomas Platt. Roosevelt, though, was not a big fan of patronage and he let it be clear he would be his own man. He narrowly won the election.
And, indeed, he wouldn’t be a favorite of party bosses as he refused to appoint party regulars to the most powerful positions in the state. He really went against Platt when he supported a bill for taxes on the public services, who had been in Platt’s pocket before.
So, Platt had a pow wow with Senator Mark Hanna to devise a way to get rid of Roosevelt. Their solution was to kick him upstairs as the Vice Presidential candidate in 1900.
And, as they say, don’t ask for something too hard- you might just get it.
Summary of offices held:
1882-1886: New York National Guard
1882-1884: New York State Assembly
1883: Minority Leader, New York State Assembly
1889-1895: Commissioner, United States Civil Service Commission
1895-1897: New York City Police Commissioner
1897-1898: Assistant Secretary of the Navy
1898: United States Army, Colonel (Spanish-American War)
1899-1900: Governor of New York
1901: Vice President of the United States
What was going on: Trust busting, the Panama Canal, the Great White Fleet, Russo- Japanese War
Scandals within the administration: none that we know of
Why he was a good President: Where should I start? He broke up the monopolies, or at least some of them anyway (it was the one Roosevelt legacy Taft would continue), he ensured the US would stay a World power, he broke tradition when he guested an African American, and he passed laws to make sure the Grand Canyon wouldn’t become a landfill among other things. Did I miss anything? Probably.
Why he was a bad President: Well, as history shows, he wasn’t, but I wish he could have been more forceful with his beliefs on civil rights.
What could have saved his Presidency: Not a thing. It wasn’t perfect (what Presidency is?) and he made his mistakes, but you can’t accuse this Presidency of needing any saving.
What could have destroyed his Presidency: Roosevelt took a lot of chances, especially in his second term, and anything could have destroyed it at any given time. If the economy had tanked (and there was the Panic of 1907), could he have saved it? What if he had turned his back on labor to appease the Republican majority? It is to his great credit that he didn’t.
How he became Vice President: Indeed, Mark Hanna pushed Roosevelt for the Vice-Presidency in 1900. Roosevelt was nominated by acclamation. Roosevelt proved to be the perfect pit bull for McKinley as he furiously campaigned for the President. He traveled 21,000 miles and seemed like an endless bundle of energy, putting opponents Bryan and Stevenson, also actively campaigning, to shame. In the end, McKinley won by a larger margin than he had in 1896. Mark Hanna got what he wished for.
But then he had to pay the piper, though not in the way anyone would wish for. For in September 1901, President McKinley was assassinated, and that damned cowboy, as Hanna put it, was now President.
And, to Hanna’s consternation, the United States would never be the same again and, even more frustrating for Hanna, for the better.
First term: Theodore Roosevelt took the oath of office in Buffalo moments after President McKinley died. At 43, he was the youngest President ever.
And the Republicans were none too happy, for Roosevelt absolutely represented the Liberal wing of the Republican Party. Yes, he was pro-business, but he was also pro-labor as well. And he wasn’t in office much more than a month when he invited Booker T. Washington, a prominent black educator, to the White House. You can imagine the outrage in the South right now.
President Roosevelt would also go to war with the trusts. He began to enforce the Sherman-Anti Trust Act and won an important victory in the Supreme Court. While the court case was going on, Roosevelt also went after the railroads, signing the Elkins act in 1903. This prohibited railroads from granting rebates to larger companies, thus leaving the smaller companies out. Railroads unfortunately found a way around this, but TR would have a response to that in his second term.
The beginnings of what would be the Panama Canal began in Roosevelt’s abbreviated term. He signed the amended Hay- Pauncefote treaty opening the way for a canal at the isthmus of Panama. Unfortunately, Colombia controlled Panama. Colombia did not want to give the US permission to build a canal.
So, there was a rebellion for Panamanian independence, backed by the US. Roosevelt sent the Navy to deter Colombia from crushing the revolt. They succeeded, Panama gained their independence, and the United States was getting their canal.
The other major event was the Anthracite Coal Strike of 1902. Coal miners walked off the job in Pennsylvania in 1902. It went on all summer and Roosevelt thought executive action was needed to get the miners back to work.
But he didn’t send the army to quell the strike. Instead, he called for the mine operators and Union leaders to the White House where he was able to arbitrate an agreement, an agreement that probably favored the coal miners. It was the precursor to what would be called the Square Deal later.
President Roosevelt, much to the consternation of the more conservative Republicans, I’m sure, would come into 1904 a very popular President indeed. And, with Mark Hanna dying, early in 1904, they would be hard pressed to find a candidate that could wrestle the party’s nomination from him.
Election of 1904: Theodore Roosevelt had to walk a thin line if he wanted to win the nomination in his own right. At first, he used the White House as a “bully pulpit”, to advocate how government should regulate big business but would tone down the rhetoric come election time. He also was able to place his people in key positions within the party and managed to win the endorsement of Mark Hanna, now the RNC Chairman. Roosevelt also appealed to the public at a time when there wasn’t primary voting.
Things eased up a bit when Mark Hanna died suddenly. TR’s nomination was more or less etched in stone after Hanna’s death. As for the Vice-Presidency, he nabbed conservative Charles Fairbanks as his running mate. His ties to the railroad industry were no doubt attractive to the big business wing of the party.
The Democrats too went conservative, picking Judge Alton P. Parker from New York, and Henry Davis, at 81, the oldest man ever to run for the Vice-Presidency. They had wanted Bryan to run again but he agreed with much of Roosevelt’s policies and, besides, if he couldn’t beat McKinley, he sure wasn’t going to defeat Roosevelt.
As for the campaign itself, the Democrats painted Parker as the sane and safe choice while the Republicans touted Roosevelt’s foreign policy. Neither candidate campaigned actively.
In the end though, it was a matter of personalities as Parker’s affable but staid personality couldn’t match up with Roosevelt’s extroverted optimism. As a result, Roosevelt won in a landslide for the most part, particularly in the North and, well, everywhere but the South. Guess they hadn’t forgiven him for Booker T. Washington.
Second Term: After the election of 1904, President Roosevelt introduced the Roosevelt Corollary as a companion to the Monroe Doctrine, essentially giving the US police power in the Western Hemisphere or the Americas anyway. It was a controversial doctrine and would later cause resentment in South America.
But even as Roosevelt carried his big stick which ended with the Great White Fleet Tour at the end of his Presidency, Roosevelt was also a man of peace. He mediated negotiations between the warring factions in the Russo- Japanese War, winning the Nobel Peace Prize as a result. He also mediated an agreement with France and Germany over Morocco. Many historians believe it may have averted, or at least postponed a major European War (Alas, he couldn’t save Europe in 1914). It certainly strengthened ties between the US and France.
There was a racial incident in Brownsville, Texas that tainted Roosevelt’s record a bit. White civilians taunted a group of Black soldiers. Violence erupted and three whites were killed. The public (it was still a racist time in the United States) assumed that it was all the Blacks’ fault and President Roosevelt would discharge 160 black soldiers as a result. Probably not a proud moment given his own more enlightened opinions on race.
But, as before, his biggest peeve was against the monopolies, and he signed the Hepburn Act which gave the Interstate Commerce Commission more power to regulate railroad rates. Roosevelt was in his second term, and he wasn’t going to run for a third, so he had free reign whether the conservatives liked it or not.
And he used that knowledge to improve the environment. He started by establishing the National Forest Service in 1905 followed by the National Monuments Act a year later. His big act, however, would be the Antiquities Act which gave the President the power to create national monuments from Federal lands. The landscape of the Unites States would certainly have been different if not for this law in particular.
And Roosevelt wasn’t done. After Upton Sinclair published the Jungle, an indictment against the meat packing industry, President Roosevelt pushed more laws to make food safer with the Meat Inspection Act and the Food and Drug Act in particular.
Things quieted down a bit by 1908 as Roosevelt was now a lame duck President but he launched the Great White Fleet which toured the world both as a sign of American strength and of goodwill. They were received with warm welcomes in most of the ports they visited.
He also engineered a compromise with Japan over immigration. Japan agreed not to issue any more visas with the understanding that the US would allow laborers to come to the States
President Roosevelt was indeed a very popular man, but he declined another run for the Presidency honoring the two-term tradition. Still, he didn’t feel like he fulfilled everything he needed to (and as history would prove just six years later, he hadn’t), and he would return to the political stage four years later.
Election of 1912: Roosevelt had handpicked President Taft to succeed him in 1908, but he would be disappointed, even angry, at Taft’s more conservative policies overall.
So, equipped with an ego the size of Montana, Roosevelt decided to make another run. It would cause a split within the GOP. Roosevelt had won a series of preferential primaries and had the lead in delegates. Taft, as the sitting President, controlled the floor and his backers refused to accept the credentials of the Roosevelt delegates. Roosevelt was infuriated and withdrew, thus, giving Taft the nomination.
But it wasn’t over yet, for TR formed the Progressive Party, otherwise known as the Bull Moose Party. He was drafted as their candidate. Roosevelt described the new party platform as a “New Nationalism”, seeking social justice, an eight-hour workday, and a minimum wage for women. He also campaigned on a social security program (That his distant cousin, Franklin D, would push through two decades later), a National Health Service (TR was a Communist? Just kidding), and direct elections of US Senators (which was right around the corner, actually). It was very forward thinking to say the least.
It was an interesting campaign to be sure and it nearly cost TR his life. On October 12, 1912, while making a speech, Roosevelt was shot in the chest by a would-be assassin. He was lucky, though. He had a book in his jacket where the bullet hit. It slowed down the bullet and, while it penetrated the former President’s chest, the damage was minimal; so minimal, in fact, that Roosevelt continued on with his speech.
With Woodrow Wilson, a progressive (sort of, more on that later) within the Democratic Party, Roosevelt didn’t expect to win, but he did overtake Taft to become Wilson’s toughest opponent. Still, in the end, Wilson would win election easily and Roosevelt would finally retire for good… maybe.
Post Presidency: Of course, Theodore Roosevelt may have retired but he wasn’t finished living. He explored the jungles of Brazil with his son, Kermit, and developed malaria in the process. Of course, as usual, he survived. After his return to the United States, he went back to writing again.
World War I broke out in 1914 and Roosevelt led the cause for military preparedness. He supported US involvement in the war effort and was disappointed in President Wilson’s neutrality stance. When the US did enter the war, Roosevelt wanted to join and form his own volunteer division, but President Wilson turned him down. Roosevelt was 58 by then. He mellowed a little after his youngest son, Quentin, died in the war.
Down, but not out, Roosevelt was being touted as the frontrunner for the 1920 Republican nomination, but death took the gallant man by surprise on January 6, 1919. It was said that it was a good thing he died in his sleep, otherwise death would have had a fight on its hands.
Odd notes: TR kept a virtual zoo at the White House
He was blind in one eye as the result of a boxing mishap
He hated the nickname Teddy
https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/...eddy-roosevelt
Final Summary: I think I mentioned that I didn’t quite think Abraham Lincoln was the greatest President (though he came close). Theodore Roosevelt is the reason why. No, he wasn’t perfect. I could have done without his Cowboy interventions in Latin America for example and I do wish he had taken a stand on the Brownsville riots instead of firing 160 Black servicemen.
But look at all the accomplishments. No, he didn’t make it okay to mix races in the White House but at least inviting Booker T. Washington was a start. More importantly, he broke several monopolies, he made sure that the most beautiful areas of the United States would be preserved, he was a friend of labor, and he negotiated peace between several countries and ended one major war in the process. Plus, he established the Presidency as a position of inspiration as future Presidents such as FDR, Kennedy, Reagan (yes, Batlord, Reagan too), and Obama would use the bully pulpit for their own agendas, mostly in the name of good, as Theodore Roosevelt had.
And he foresaw the need of the safety nets that his distant cousin, FDR, would implement as well as would Lyndon Johnson with Medicare.
So, is Theodore Roosevelt the greatest American President ever?
You’re damned right he is!
Overall rating: A
https://millercenter.org/president/roosevelt