Theodore Roosevelt

Roosevelt, Theodore,

1858–1919, 26th President of the United States (1901–9), b. New York City.

Early Life and Political Posts

Of a prosperous and distinguished family, Theodore Roosevelt was educated by private tutors and traveled widely. He was a delicate youth, and his determined efforts to overcome this had a marked effect on his character. After graduating (1880) from Harvard, he studied law at Columbia.

Roosevelt's interest was drawn to politics, and while serving (1882–84) in the New York state legislature as a Republican, he strongly opposed the nomination of James G. BlaineBlaine, James Gillespie,
1830–93, American politician, b. West Brownsville, Pa. Early Career

Blaine taught school and studied law before moving (1854) to Maine, where he became an influential newspaper editor.
..... Click the link for more information. for the U.S. presidency. After Blaine's nomination, however, Roosevelt supported him, and that lost him much of his political backing. Discouraged by this turn of events, and bereaved by the deaths (1884) of his mother and his wife, Alice Hathaway Lee, Roosevelt retired to his ranch in the Dakota Territory.

He returned (1886) to New York City and ran as the Republican candidate for mayor against Henry GeorgeGeorge, Henry,
1839–97, American economist, founder of the single tax movement, b. Philadelphia. Of a poor family, his formal education was cut short at 14, and in 1857 he emigrated to California; there he worked at various occupations before turning to newspaper writing
..... Click the link for more information. and Abram S. HewittHewitt, Abram Stevens
, 1822–1903, American industrialist and political leader, b. Haverstraw, N.Y. He became a lawyer, and friendship with a son and marriage to a daughter of Peter Cooper shaped his career.
..... Click the link for more information. ; he came in third. Nonetheless, he became increasingly important in Republican party politics. Appointed (1889) by President Benjamin HarrisonHarrison, Benjamin,
1833–1901, 23d President of the United States (1889–93), b. North Bend, Ohio, grad. Miami Univ. (Ohio), 1852; grandson of William Henry Harrison.
..... Click the link for more information. as a member of the Civil Service Commission, he was noted for his reformist vigor in the post until he resigned in 1895. As head (1895–97) of the New York City police board, he attempted to clean up the notoriously vice-ridden city, accomplishing little but nevertheless gaining public notice by his advocacy of reform.

In 1897 he returned to federal office as Assistant Secretary of the Navy under President McKinleyMcKinley, William,
1843–1901, 25th president of the United States (1897–1901), b. Niles, Ohio. He was educated at Poland (Ohio) Seminary and Allegheny College. After service in the Union army in the Civil War, he returned to Ohio and became a lawyer at Canton.
..... Click the link for more information. . An ardent supporter of U.S. expansion, he worked toward putting the U.S. navy on a war basis for the coming war with Spain. After the outbreak of the Spanish-American war, he resigned to organize, with Leonard WoodWood, Leonard,
1860–1927, American general and administrator, b. Winchester, N.H. After practicing medicine briefly in Boston, he entered the army in 1885 and was made an assistant surgeon; in 1891 he was promoted to captain.
..... Click the link for more information. , the volunteer regiment that won fame as the Rough RidersRough Riders,
popular name for the 1st Regiment of U.S. Cavalry Volunteers, organized largely by Theodore Roosevelt in the Spanish-American War (1898). Its members were mostly ranchers and cowboys from the West, with a sprinkling of adventurous blue bloods from the Eastern
..... Click the link for more information. . Returning from Cuba a popular hero, Roosevelt ran (1898) for the governorship of New York state, winning by a small margin. Republican "boss" Thomas C. PlattPlatt, Thomas Collier,
1833–1910, American legislator and political boss, b. Owego, N.Y. He was president of the Tioga County National Bank and had acquired considerable commercial interests by the time he served in the U.S.
..... Click the link for more information. had supported him in his candidacy, but after Roosevelt's inauguration the two differed when Roosevelt imposed taxes on corporation franchises. It was at least partially to shelve Roosevelt that Platt backed his nomination as Vice President in 1900. The McKinley-Roosevelt slate was elected, but Roosevelt served as Vice President only a few months. McKinley was assassinated, and Roosevelt became (Sept. 14, 1901) President shortly before his 43d birthday, making him the youngest person to hold that office. (John F. KennedyKennedy, John Fitzgerald,
1917–63, 35th President of the United States (1961–63), b. Brookline, Mass.; son of Joseph P. Kennedy. Early Life

While an undergraduate at Harvard (1936–40) he served briefly in London as secretary to his father, who was
..... Click the link for more information. was the youngest person to be elected President.)

Presidency

Domestic Policy

Roosevelt's inexhaustible vitality and enthusiasm, aided by his ability to dramatize himself and to coin vivid phrases, made him a popular president. His intellectual interests did much to elevate the tone of American politics. On the other hand, he drew considerable criticism for his glorification of military strength and his patriotic fervor.

He recognized, from the outset of his first administration, the growing demand for reform that was expressed in the writings of the muckrakersmuckrakers,
name applied to American journalists, novelists, and critics who in the first decade of the 20th cent. attempted to expose the abuses of business and the corruption in politics.
..... Click the link for more information. . From 1902 he set about "trust busting" under terms of the moribund Sherman Antitrust ActSherman Antitrust Act,
1890, first measure passed by the U.S. Congress to prohibit trusts; it was named for Senator John Sherman. Prior to its enactment, various states had passed similar laws, but they were limited to intrastate businesses.
..... Click the link for more information. , ordered the successful antitrust suit against the Northern Securities Company, and led the attack on a number of other large trusts. Altogether, his administration began some 40 suits against trusts. Roosevelt's threat to intervene in the anthracite coal strike of 1902 induced the operators to accept arbitration.

In his first term he also fathered important legislation, including the Reclamation Act of 1902 (the Newlands Act), which made possible federal irrigation projects; the bill (1903) establishing the U.S. Department of Commerce and Labor; and the Elkins Act of 1903, which put an end to freight rebates by railroads. Roosevelt's vigorous championship of the rights of the "little man" captured the American imagination, and when he ran for reelection in 1904 he defeated Alton B. Parker, the Democratic presidential candidate, by 196 electoral votes.

In his second administration Roosevelt directed the passage (1906) of the Hepburn Act, which revitalized the Interstate Commerce CommissionInterstate Commerce Commission
(ICC), former independent agency of the U.S. government, established in 1887; it was charged with regulating the economics and services of specified carriers engaged in transportation between states.
..... Click the link for more information. and authorized greater governmental authority over railroads. In 1906 he backed the passage of the Meat Inspection Act and the Pure Food and Drug Act. A firm believer in conservation of national resources, he sought to halt exhaustion of timber and mineral supplies by private interests and added many millions of acres of land to public ownership. His progressive reforms were directed not at the abolition of big business but at its regulation—an attitude shown by his tacit approval of the absorption of the Tennessee Coal and Iron Company by United States Steel in the panic of 1907. By his aggressive domestic policy, Roosevelt decisively increased the power of the President.

Foreign Policy

Roosevelt's forcefulness was equally manifest in his foreign policy. Ably backed by John HayHay, John Milton,
1838–1905, American author and statesman who was an important political figure from the mid-19th cent. into the early 20th cent.; b. Salem, Ind., grad. Brown. He practiced law at Springfield, Ill., where he met Abraham Lincoln.
..... Click the link for more information. and Elihu RootRoot, Elihu,
1845–1937, American cabinet member and diplomat, b. Clinton, N.Y. Admitted to the bar in 1867, he practiced law in New York City, became prominent in Republican politics, and was appointed (1883) U.S. attorney of the southern district of New York.
..... Click the link for more information. , he set out to solidify the world position won by the United States in the Spanish-American War. His efforts to enhance U.S. prestige and influence won him the hatred of anti-imperialist groups. Most notable, perhaps, was his Caribbean policy. In the Venezuela ClaimsVenezuela Claims.
In 1902, due to civil strife and to gross mismanagement during the administration of Cipriano Castro, Venezuelan finances were chaotic. Great Britain, Germany, and Italy were determined to seek redress for unpaid loans and sent a joint naval expedition to the
..... Click the link for more information. dispute, Roosevelt, fearing German intervention in Venezuela, worked for a peaceful settlement that would maintain Venezuela's territorial integrity.

Later (1904), when the Dominican Republic—which was deeply in debt to European bond holders—was threatened with intervention by European powers, the President enunciated a new U.S. policy that would forestall such action. In what came to be known as the Roosevelt corollary to the Monroe Doctrine, the President claimed that the United States had direct interest and the obligation to impose order in the affairs of Latin American countries. The Dominican Republic was forced to accept the appointment of a U.S. customs receiver. This policy aroused great indignation in Latin America.

Even more drastic was Roosevelt's action regarding the Panama CanalPanama Canal,
waterway across the Isthmus of Panama, connecting the Atlantic (by way of the Caribbean Sea) and Pacific oceans, built by the United States (1904–14, on territory leased from the republic of Panama) and expanded by Pamana (2007–16).
..... Click the link for more information. . After the Colombian senate refused to ratify the proposed Hay-Herrán TreatyHay-Herrán Treaty
, 1903, aborted agreement between the United States and Colombia providing for U.S. control of the prospective Panama Canal and for U.S. acquisition of a canal zone. It was signed by U.S.
..... Click the link for more information. , a U.S. navy warship, the Nashville, prevented the landing of additional Colombian troops in Panama, thus contributing to the success of the Panamanian revolution (1903). Roosevelt immediately recognized the new republic of Panama, and the Panama Canal was begun. Roosevelt's policy in Latin America prepared the way for "dollar diplomacy" in that area.

Roosevelt was also active generally in world affairs. With Hay, he endeavored to maintain the Open DoorOpen Door,
maintenance in a certain territory of equal commercial and industrial rights for the nationals of all countries. As a specific policy, it was first advanced by the United States, but it was rooted in the typical most-favored-nation clause of the treaties concluded
..... Click the link for more information. in China. In 1904, as mediator, he brought about the peace conference at Portsmouth, N.H., to end the Russo-Japanese War; and he was awarded the 1906 Nobel Peace Prize. He was an ardent advocate of the Hague Tribunal, and it was through his offices that the Algeciras Conference was called in 1906 to settle the MoroccoMorocco
, officially Kingdom of Morocco, kingdom (2015 est. pop. 34,803,000), 171,834 sq mi (445,050 sq km), NW Africa. Morocco is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea (N), the Atlantic Ocean (W), Western Sahara (S), and Algeria (S and E).
..... Click the link for more information. question. In 1907 his gentleman's agreement with Japan to discourage emigration of Japanese laborers to the United States eased the tensions caused by California's anti-Japanese legislation.

The 1912 Election and After

Roosevelt virtually dictated the nomination of his presidential successor, William Howard TaftTaft, William Howard,
1857–1930, 27th President of the United States (1909–13) and 10th chief justice of the United States (1921–30), b. Cincinnati. Early Career

After graduating (1878) from Yale, he attended Cincinnati Law School.
..... Click the link for more information. ; after an African big-game expedition and a triumphal tour of European cities, Roosevelt returned (1910) to the United States and joined the campaign for the direct primary in New York. President Taft alienated the progressive Republicans headed by Robert M. La FolletteLa Follette, Robert Marion
, 1855–1925, American political leader, U.S. Senator from Wisconsin (1906–25), b. Primrose, Wis. Early Career

Admitted (1880) to the Wisconsin bar, he practiced in Madison, Wis.
..... Click the link for more information. , and the Republican party in 1912 was threatened with a split over the presidential nomination. The conservatives, however, controlled the Republican convention of 1912, and Taft was nominated for reelection.

Roosevelt led his followers out of the convention, organized the Progressive partyProgressive party,
in U.S. history, the name of three political organizations, active, respectively, in the presidential elections of 1912, 1924, and 1948. Election of 1912
..... Click the link for more information. —also called the Bull Moose party—and was nominated for President on this third-party slate. In the resulting three-cornered election he ran second to the Democratic candidate, Woodrow WilsonWilson, Woodrow
(Thomas Woodrow Wilson), 1856–1924, 28th President of the United States (1913–21), b. Staunton, Va. Educator

He graduated from Princeton in 1879 and studied law at the Univ. of Virginia.
..... Click the link for more information. . Forced into retirement, Roosevelt denounced the policies of Wilson—whose attempt to secure a treaty awarding Colombia damages for the loss of Panama particularly enraged him. After the outbreak of World War I he attacked Wilson's neutrality policy; and when the United States entered the war he pleaded vainly to be allowed to raise and command a volunteer force. He died soon after the end of World War I.

Writings

During his busy career he had found time not only for hunting and exploring expeditions—including exploration (1913) of the River of Doubt (now called the Roosevelt River or Rio Teodoro) in the Amazon jungle—but also for writing a great number of books. They deal with history, hunting, wildlife, and politics. Among them are The Naval War of 1812 (1882), biographies of Thomas H. Benton (1887) and Gouverneur Morris (1888), The Winning of the West (4 vol., 1889–96), African Game Trails (1910), The New Nationalism (1910), Progressive Principles (1913), Through the Brazilian Wilderness (1914), and his important autobiography (1913).

Children

Alice, his daughter by his first wife, married Nicholas LongworthLongworth, Nicholas,
1869–1931, American legislator, b. Cincinnati. A lawyer, he practiced in Cincinnati, where his family had long been prominent. He served (1899–1903) in the Ohio legislature and, with the support of George B. Cox, was elected (1903) to the U.S.
..... Click the link for more information. in the White House; "Princess Alice" attracted much notice by her forthright personality, unconventional ways, and able tongue (see Longworth, Alice Lee RooseveltLongworth, Alice Lee Roosevelt,
1884–1980, American socialite, b. New York City. The only child of Theodore Roosevelt and his first wife, Alice Hathaway Lee, she was a teenager when her father assumed the presidency, and she enlivened the White House with her charm,
..... Click the link for more information. ). There were five children of his second marriage (1886) to Edith Kermit Carow—Theodore, Jr., Kermit, Archibald Bullock, Ethel Carow (Mrs. Richard Derby), and Quentin. Quentin was killed in World War I; Theodore, Jr., and Kermit both died in active service in World War II.

Bibliography

See The Letters of Theodore Roosevelt (8 vol., 1951–54), ed. by J. M. Blum; The Selected Letters of Theodore Roosevelt (2006), ed. by H. W. Brands; biographies by H. F. Pringle (rev. ed. 1956, repr. several times), N. F. Busch (1963), D. W. Grantham, ed. (1971), H. W. Brands (1997), S. A. Cordery (2002), K. Dalton (2002), and E. Morris (The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt, 1979; Theodore Rex, 2001; and Colonel Roosevelt, 2010); G. E. Mowry, Theodore Roosevelt and the Progressive Movement (1946, repr. 1960); J. M. Blum, The Republican Roosevelt (1954, repr. 1962); H. K. Beale, Theodore Roosevelt and the Rise of America to World Power (1956, repr. 1989); W. H. Harbaugh, The Life and Times of Theodore Roosevelt (1963); G. W. Chessman, Theodore Roosevelt and the Politics of Power (1969); D. McCullough, Mornings on Horseback (1980); M. L. Collins, That Damned Cowboy (1989); C. Millard, The River of Doubt: Theodore Roosevelt's Darkest Journey (2005); P. O'Toole, When Trumpets Call: Theodore Roosevelt after the White House (2005); D. Brinkley, The Wilderness Warrior (2009); J. Bradley, The Imperial Cruise: A Secret History of Empire and War (2009); E. Thomas, The War Lovers: Roosevelt, Lodge, Hearst, and the Rush to Empire, 1898 (2010); G. Jones, Honor in the Dust: Theodore Roosevelt, War in the Philippines, and the Rise and Fall of America's Imperial Dream (2012); R. Zacks, Island of Vice: Theodore Roosevelt's Doomed Quest to Clean Up Sin-loving New York (2012); J. M. Yarbrough, Theodore Roosevelt and the American Political Tradition (2012); D. K. Goodwin, The Bully Pulpit (2013); E. P. Kohn, Heir to the Empire City (2013).

Roosevelt, Theodore

Born Oct. 27, 1858, in New York City; died Jan. 6, 1919, at Sagamore Hill, Oyster Bay, N. Y. US statesman. Member of the Republican Party.

Roosevelt served as president of the New York City Board of Police Commissioners from 1895 to 1897, as assistant secretary of the navy from 1897 to 1898, and as governor of New York from 1899 to 1900. A propagandist of geopolitical ideas, he demanded the construction of a large navy. He promoted the outbreak of the Spanish-American War of 1898. In January 1901, Roosevelt became vice-president of the USA, and in September 1901, after President W. McKinley was assassinated, he became president. Elected to another term in 1904, he served from 1905 to 1909. Reacting to an upsurge in the labor movement, the spread of socialist ideas, and the growth of the democratic antimonopoly movement, Roosevelt proposed a bourgeois reformist program calling for government regulation of monopolies and the broadening of social legislation. The antitrust laws passed under his administration were demagogic and lacking in practical significance.

Roosevelt pursued an actively imperialist foreign policy, proclaiming a “big stick” policy in Latin America and in 1904 issuing a new interpretation of the Monroe Doctrine, under which the USA assumed the role of “policeman of the western hemisphere.” The policy of the Roosevelt administration was one of the main factors contributing to the Venezuelan crisis of 1902–03. In 1901 the Roosevelt administration imposed the Platt Amendment and other oppressive agreements on Cuba, which was occupied by US troops, and suppressed an anti-imperialist revolt there. Cuba was occupied by American troops from 1906 to 1909. After Panama’s secession from Colombia and the formation of the Republic of Panama (Nov. 3, 1903), the USA seized the Panama Canal Zone from Panama.

The Roosevelt administration provided Japan with financial and diplomatic support during the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–05. During the presidential election of 1912, Roosevelt was one of the founders of the Progressive Party, an outgrowth of a group that left the Republican Party. The Progressive Party, which advocated an expanded program of bourgeois reformism, fell apart after Roosevelt’s defeat in 1912.

REFERENCES

Lenin, V. I. “Itogi i znachenie prezidentskikh vyborov ν Amerike.” Poln. sobr. soch., 5th ed., vol. 22.
Zubok, L. I. Ekspansionistskaia politika SShA ν nachale XX veka. Moscow, 1969.
Beliavskaia, I. A. Burzhuaznyi reformizm ν SShA (1900–1914). Moscow, 1968.
Dement’ev, I. P. Ideinaia bor’ba ν SShA po voprosam ekspansii. (Na ru-bezhe XIX–XX vv.) Moscow, 1973.

I. P. DEMENTEV

Roosevelt, Theodore

(1858–1919) twenty-sixth U.S. president; born in New York City (fifth cousin of Franklin Delano Roosevelt). Born into a patrician family, he was sickly as a boy but he built up his body and physical abilities. He graduated from Harvard in 1880, and the next year gained election to the New York legislature (Rep., 1882–84). During the 1880s he also began his extensive historical writings, including such works as The Naval War of 1812 (1882), Essays on Practical Politics (1888), and the four-volume The Winning of the West (1889–96). In 1884–86 he ran a ranch in Dakota Territory. He went to Washington, D.C., to serve as a U.S. Civil Service commissioner (1889–95). Named president of the New York police board in 1895, his vigorous reformist efforts—and his tendency to get himself into the headlines—gained him a national reputation, which led to his being appointed assistant navy secretary by President William McKinley (1897). When war with Spain broke out in 1898, Roosevelt resigned to lead the "Rough Riders," a volunteer cavalry unit whose celebrated charge up Kettle Hill in the battle outside Santiago, Cuba, made him a national hero; this helped take him to the governorship of New York (1889–1901) and then to the 1900 Republican ticket as McKinley's vice-president. Roosevelt succeeded to the presidency on the assassination of McKinley in 1901, and proved a powerful and effective leader in a time of national expansion, easily gaining reelection in 1904. Citing as his motto, "Speak softly and carry a big stick," he demonstrated American power on the world stage—including machinations that led to the creation of the Panama Canal—and built up the navy. In the "Roosevelt corollary" to the Monroe Doctrine he proclaimed the U.S.A. the policeman of the Western Hemisphere. Equally active on the domestic front, he pioneered in government regulation of big business with his prosecution of corporations for trust violations; he also created national parks, oversaw passage of the Pure Food and Drug Act, and signed the Hepburn Act regulating railroads. During his campaign in 1904, he declared that he would not run again; in 1908, reluctantly, he promoted his protégé William Howard Taft in a successful presidential campaign. He moved on to a life of traveling, hunting, and writing but by 1911 he was clearly unsatisfied with the conservative direction of the government. He made an unsuccessful bid for the presidency in 1912 with the Progressive ("Bull Moose") Party. As World War I proceeded, he began to denounce President Wilson's cautious policy and he was considering another run for the presidency when he died suddenly. Theodore Roosevelt can be claimed as a hero or villain by proponents of many ideologies or causes, but all would agree that he was defiantly one of a kind as both man and president.

Theodore Roosevelt

Theodore Roosevelt

Roosevelt, Theodore,

Early Life and Political Posts

Presidency

Domestic Policy

Foreign Policy

The 1912 Election and After

Writings

Children

Bibliography

Roosevelt, Theodore

REFERENCES

Roosevelt, Theodore

Theodore Roosevelt

Synonyms for Theodore Roosevelt

noun 26th President of the United States

Synonyms