TR: FIRST MODERN PRESIDENT
DYNAMIC CHARACTER TR personified America at the turn of the century with his youthful exuberance and strenuous life. He embodied modern American nationalism, militarism, and imperialism. Although the nation s youngest president at the age of 42, he possessed a wider range of professional experience and personal interests than perhaps any president. His boundless energy and unbridled exercise of the powers of the office define his presidency. TR used the bully pulpit to hold powerful corporations, belligerent unions, disrespectful foreign governments, and other politicians accountable.
CYCLONE IN THE WHITE HOUSE Biographer Edmund Morris provides this snapshot of TR s character: The man s personality was cyclonic, in that he intended to become unstable in times of low pressure. The slightest rise in the barometer outside, and his turbulence smoothed into a whirl of coordinated activity, while a stillness developed within. Under maximum pressure, Roosevelt was sunny, calm and unnaturally clear. Morris identifies four governing impulses aggression, righteousness, pride, and militarism.
Rancher, scholar, author, historian, naturalist, state legislator, civil service commissioner, police commissioner, assistant secretary of the navy, army colonel and rough rider, war hero, governor, vice president, president, big game hunter, etc. CAREER
CONSERVATIVE PROGRESSIVE Largely a conservative, TR viewed himself as an impartial arbiter between big business and the mob as well as a stabilizer of the status quo. TR sought to save industrial and finance capitalism from what he considered radicalism. He skillfully convinced the people that he was a reformer and big business he was a conservative by channeling popular clamor into moderate action. TR viewed himself as a moralist and conservative nationalist. TR feared both great corporations and organized farmers and workers. Roosevelt used moderate antitrust action to satisfy the public clamor and to compel big business to accept regulation. Contrary to popular belief, TR was not a trustbuster or radical reformer. TR never tried to reject capitalism. He mainly wanted to wished to curb capitalism s excesses and thus protect big business from its own abuses so that socialism would not obtain a foothold in America. TR possessed an genuine, aristocratic concern for the people as well as a disdain for the vulgarity of unregulated wealth.
STEWARD OF THE PEOPLE TR believed in strong executive leadership and founded the modern American presidency. TR wrote to a friend in July of 1908 that he had a very definite philosophy about the presidency. I think it should be a very powerful office, and I think the President should be a very strong man who uses without hesitation every power that the position yields; but he should be sharply watched by the people [and] held to a strict accountability by them. TR vastly expanded the powers of the presidency, turning the office into both an effective public forum and the center of legislative initiative.
ACCIDENTAL PRESIDENT Anarchist Leon Czolgosz assassinated President McKinley. Political strategist and leader of the Republican party complained that a wild man had now assumed the highest office in the land: Now look, that damned cowboy is president of the United States. TR commented: It is a dreadful thing to come into the presidency this way; but it would be a far worse thing to be morbid about it.
PERSONALITY AND PHILOSOPHY Energetic, impulsive, ebullient; needed to be in the limelight. A Roosevelt relative once said, When Theodore attends a wedding, he wants to be the bride, and when he attends a funeral, he wants to be the corpse. TR viewed government as an impartial regulatory agency with the president at the center. TR did not oppose economic concentration of power and wealth, but he did acknowledge that consolidation produced dangerous abuses of power. Roosevelt urged regulation, not destruction of trusts.
REGULATOR TR tried to balance the interests of farmers, workers, and businessmen. Although he used publicity to cultivate the image of a trustbuster, he preferred continuous regulation of giant corporations to dissolution under antitrust legislation. In 1905 TR asserted: The great development of industrialism means that there must be an increase in the supervision exercised by the Government over business enterprise. TR also stated: Corporations and combinations have become indispensable in the business world, it is folly to try to prohibit them, but it is also folly to leave them without thorough-going control. Northern Securities case (1902) was largely a publicity stunt, for it did not restore competition. TR wanted to avoid socialist revolution. TR avoided prosecuting Standard Oil and American Tobacco. The most rapid growth of trusts took place under TR. TR: 54 antitrust proceeding in 7 years; Taft 90 in 4 years.
DARING MEDIATOR TR asserted federal power over corporations in labor relations, especially during the anthracite coal strike (1902). The president threatened to nationalize the mines, forcing a settlement more favorable to labor than management. Although his main concern was to limit the ill effects of an impending coal shortage, he forced coal operators to make small concessions to employees because he feared socialist action.
SQUARE DEAL TR drove through Congress legislation that creating the Bureau of Corporations and strengthening the regulation of railroads. Further, he supported regulation of the food and drug industries. Hepburn Railroad Regulation Act (1906): restored some regulatory authority to the government by giving the ICC authority to inspect the books of railroad companies. Pure Food and Drug Act (1906): restricted sale of dangerous or ineffective medicines. But modest enforcement mechanisms limited the impact of the Meat Inspection and Pure Food and Drug Acts. Despite this progress, government still had little control over the industrial economy.
CONSERVATION TR s most significant contribution was probably the transfer of 125 million acres of public lands into forest reserves, the doubling of national parks, the creation of sixteen national monuments, and the establishment of 51 wildlife refuges.
BIG STICK DIPLOMACY In foreign affairs, TR vigorously assumed the responsibility of a world power. Close to home, he dealt swiftly and vigorously with Colombia when it obstructed U.S. plans for a transoceanic canal across Panama a province of Colombia. In 1903, when the Colombian Senate rejected a treaty granting the U.S. a 100-year lease on a canal zone, TR backed a revolutionary movement in Panama. When an uprising occurred in November, TR recognized Panamanian independence and sent a warship to prevent Colombian troops from reclaiming the province. Two weeks later a new regime signed virtually the same lease rejected by Colombia, and construction of the Panama Canal began in earnest. In a speech of 1911, TR boasted: I took the Canal Zone, and while the debate goes on, the canal does also. TR faced down the kaiser over German involvement in Venezuela. Helped to organize the Algeciras Conference Protecting the Open Door policy: TR negotiated a secret agreement with Japan to ensure that the U.S. could trade freely in Asia. TR won the Nobel Peace Prize (1906) for helping to end the Russo-Japanese War. Japan later excluded U.S. from the territories it controlled Gentleman s Agreement (1907): stop flow of Japanese immigrants
ROOSEVELT COROLLARY Disputes between European powers and Latin American nations, led TR to assume the right to intervene in the affairs of Latin American countries as an international police power in the Western Hemisphere. Speak softly and carry a big stick should read: Speak softly OR carry a big stick. TR speaks softly to world powers and wields the big stick toward weaker nations.
BULLY
GREAT WHITE FLEET TR sent the Great White fleet on a goodwill tour of the world to demonstrate American military might.
NEW NATIONALISM After Taft s troubled succession,tr s progressive views continued to evolve. TR viewed government as the steward of public welfare. He advocated an expanded regulatory and welfare program, leading to his insurgency against the Republican party and the formation of the Progressive party. The New Nationalism continued to influence the government for the next 60 years.
FLAWS AND INCONSISTENCIES
LEGACY TR was the first president of the modern era to react broadly to the challenges raised by the industrial and technological revolutions. In so doing, he contributed substantially to the enlargement of federal power. TR sought to restrain the trusts and to correct the worst abuses in the system. Further, he demanded world recognition of U.S. leadership. In essence, he transformed the role of the president in the process. While President I have been President emphatically; I have used every ounch of power there was in the office, and I have not cared a rap for the criticisms of those who spoke of my usurpation of power; for I knew that the talk was all nonsense and that there was no usurpation.
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