Theodore Roosevelt

BORN: October 27, 1858 • New York, New York

DIED: January 6, 1919 • Oyster Bay, New York

U.S. president; conservationist

Theodore Roosevelt came into his American presidency as the result of a tragedy. He endeared himself to Americans with his love of controversy and enthusiasm for life. Roosevelt was a man with a firm commitment to his beliefs. He believed he knew what was best for everyone else and made no secret of his opinions. The era's most popular president, historians generally rank him as one of the most effective presidents in American history.

"A vote is like a rifle: Its usefulness depends upon the character of the user."

Sickly childhood

Theodore Roosevelt, also known as Teddy, was born on October 27, 1858, into a wealthy family in New York City. The second of four children, Roosevelt belonged to the seventh generation of his family to be born in Manhattan. His father, also named Theodore, was a successful glassware merchant. Roosevelt's mother Martha came from a traditional Southern plantation (a large farm, usually with a focus on growing one particular crop). The Roosevelts adored their son, who suffered from a serious case of asthma throughout his childhood. Underweight and of poor eyesight, Roosevelt was determined from an early age to overcome his poor health. He lifted weights, exercised, and took boxing lessons. By early adulthood, his asthma symptoms had largely disappeared. He would spend the rest of his life an enthusiastic outdoorsman.

As much as he enjoyed physical activity, Roosevelt was also an avid reader and writer. An eager learner, Roosevelt excelled in his college studies at Harvard University. After college, he married nineteen-year old Alice Hathaway Lee, a friend of his roommate, on his twenty-second birthday in 1880. Roosevelt's happiness with his beloved wife did not last long. She died at home of Bright's disease (a kidney disorder) in 1884, days after giving birth to their only child, Alice Lee. To add to his grief, Roosevelt's mother died that same day—in the same house—of typhoid fever (an infectious bacterial disease).

Heartbroken, Roosevelt left his infant daughter behind to be cared for by relatives. He headed west for two years of cattle ranching and a stint as a frontier sheriff. For young Alice, this separation from her father would be the first of many. She grew up with very little interaction with, and guidance from, her father, and as a young woman was known for her willful, unconventional (not in keeping with society's norms and expectations) behavior. According to the Web site American President, Roosevelt once told a friend, "I can be president of the United States, or I can control Alice. I cannot possibly do both."

Enters politics

Roosevelt's stay in the West left him with a renewed sense of energy and enthusiasm. He returned to New York and ran unsuccessfully for mayor of the city. At that point, he also wrote three books on his experiences in the Wild West. The books were full of descriptive characters and adventure. Roosevelt's writing had an easy style that many American readers came to enjoy.

Roosevelt was elected to the state assembly in 1881. In 1886, he married longtime-friend Edith Kermit Carow. Together with young Alice, the couple moved into a house Roosevelt had built for his first wife in Oyster Bay, New York. The house was called Sagamore Hill. By 1897, four boys and another girl would round out the Roosevelt family.

In 1888, Roosevelt campaigned for the Republican presidential nominee, Benjamin Harrison (1833–1901; served 1889–93; see entry). Harrison was victorious, and after he took office in 1889, he appointed Roosevelt to the U.S. Civil Service Commission. He would keep the position until 1895, when he accepted a job as the president of the New York City Police Board. During his tenure with the Civil Service and his two years on the Police Board, Roosevelt proved himself a rarity in the world of Gilded Age politics. (The Gilded Age was the period in history following the Civil War and Reconstruction [roughly the final twenty-three years of the nineteenth century], characterized by a ruthless pursuit of profit, an exterior of showiness and grandeur, and immeasurable political corruption.) He was honest, unwilling to ignore the law in order to give powerful positions to wealthy businessmen and politicians who asked for favors. He cleaned up the city's police force by getting rid of corrupt officers and officials.

In 1897, fellow Republican and president William McKinley (1843–1901; served 1897–1901; see entry) made Roosevelt the assistant secretary of the U.S. Navy.

The Spanish-American War

Spanish rule in Cuba was based on repression (the act of dominating and controlling people with force), and the Cubans revolted in 1895. Spain's response was to round up three hundred thousand Cubans and put them in camps where they could not help the rebels. Spain's behavior angered many Americans, who believed Cuba should be independent of Spain's rule.

Throughout 1897, McKinley tried to convince Spain to give Cuba its independence. In November of that year, Spain gave Cuba limited independence and closed the camps. (Limited independence meant that regarding political matters within Cuba, it could govern itself; international matters would still be governed by Spain.) The peace was short lived, when in January 1898, pro-Spanish demonstrators rioted on the streets of Havana, Cuba. McKinley sent the U.S. battleship Maine to the Havana harbor to protect American citizens who had arrived to help Cuba, as well as to let Spain know that America still valued its relationship with Cuba.

Spanish minister to the United States Enrique Dupuy de Lôme (1851–1904) wrote a private letter to a friend back in Spain that was intercepted by the Cubans. The Cubans, in turn, leaked the letter to the U.S. media. The letter described McKinley as weak and indicated that the Spanish were not negotiating in good faith with the United States. Published in the New York Journal, the letter infuriated Americans, who saw it as an attack on the honor of both their president and their nation.

The situation worsened when the Maine exploded and sank on February 15, 1898. The explosion killed 266 crew members. A Navy investigation concluded that the explosion had been caused by an outside source, presumably a Spanish mine. (More recent scholarship has speculated, however, that the explosion more likely occurred because of internal problems with the ship itself.) McKinley did not want to go to war, but he saw no alternative at this point. He ordered U.S. ships to block Cuba's ports; America and its president wanted an end to the Cuban crisis. On April 23, 1898, Spain declared war on the United States. Two days later, America declared war on Spain. The war lasted just over three months. Fewer than four hundred American soldiers died in battle; many more died from disease.

Rough Riders to the rescue

When the Spanish-American War broke out in Cuba, thirty-nine-year-old Roosevelt served as commander of the First U.S. Volunteer Cavalry, a unit better known as the Rough Riders. Roosevelt had left his job with the Navy to join the cavalry, which included more than twelve hundred men of all backgrounds from New Mexico, Arizona, Oklahoma, and other western states.

Roosevelt and Colonel Leonard Wood (1860–1927) trained their volunteers so well that the unit was allowed to engage in battle, even though volunteer units were generally not allowed to see action. They formed in Texas and shipped out to Cuba on June 14, 1898. Although they were called Rough Riders, they fought mainly on foot because there was no room for their horses on the ship to Cuba.

The Rough Riders landed in Cuba on June 22 and saw their first battle two days later. Their next assignment was to join trained military forces in the attack on the Spanish city of Santiago on July 1. Roosevelt's unit, along with regular regiments and the Buffalo Soldiers (African American infantrymen), captured Kettle Hill and moved on to San Juan Heights. With the Buffalo Soldiers reaching the crest of the hill first, the Rough Riders joined in the battle, and the hill was captured. Santiago surrendered soon after, and the war was over in just three months. According to historian Virgil Harrington Jones, no American unit in the Spanish-American War suffered as many deaths as the Rough Riders, which lost 37 percent of its men before leaving Cuba.

The hero returns

Roosevelt returned to New York a war hero and used his popularity and status to get elected as his state's governor in November 1898. He immediately set to work reforming the corrupt political system. In 1900, the Republicans chose Roosevelt as the running mate for President McKinley, who was seeking his second term. (McKinley's first-term vice president, Garret A. Hobart [1844–1899], had died in November 1899.) As a campaigner, Roosevelt covered more than 21,000 miles (33,789 kilometers), and made hundreds of speeches in 567 cities and 24 states. McKinley, in contrast, gave speeches from the front porch of his home in Canton, Ohio. Many historians believe Roosevelt's popularity helped McKinley win the election. When McKinley died from an assassin's bullet on September 14, 1901, the forty-two-year-old Roosevelt became the youngest president of the United States.

A president for the people

Never before had America seen a family in the White House (the name Roosevelt gave the Executive Mansion) quite like the Roosevelt clan. Alice quickly became known as "Princess Alice" and "The Other Washington Monument," because she was so outspoken and wild. The younger children were free to roam through the White House, and Roosevelt allowed the press and media to write about his family. In doing so, he increased his popularity by letting the American public see that his values—as a family man—were no different from their own. Roosevelt's favorite child was his youngest, Quentin. The two were most alike in personality, and Roosevelt was amused when his boy carved a makeshift baseball diamond into the White House lawn. In America's eyes, the president's home might be bigger than most, but for the first time in history, the children inside acted much like those in any other home in any other neighborhood, on any other street.

Like his children, Roosevelt enjoyed the spotlight, and he never hesitated to speak his mind on any given issue. An animated speaker, the president used great sweeping hand and arm gestures to reinforce his points. For him, the presidency was a "bully pulpit," a public position to be used to announce his personal viewpoint. Coming from someone else, the public may have found such directness offensive. Coming from Roosevelt, they found it amusing.

The beginning of the twentieth century was a time of major change, and not all for the better. As it never had before, big businesses (and the men who ran them) influenced almost every aspect of American society. A huge proportion of the country's wealth was in the hands of a few select men, and that kind of power tended to lead to corruption. From the start, Roosevelt recognized America's need for a committed government. He led his administration with the idea that government should work for not just the wealthy citizens but for all people.

A selective trustbuster

The president recognized the need for the kinds of reforms expressed in the writings of new journalists called muckrakers. It was Roosevelt who gave these journalists their nickname in a 1906 speech; the writers who exposed scandalous and unethical practices among established institutions in America "raked" through "muck," digging through the dirt and filth of corruption to expose the truth. Some of the more famous muckrakers were Ida Tarbell (1857–1954), for her series on the Standard Oil Company; Upton Sinclair (1878–1968; see entry), for exposing the dangers and poor working conditions of the meatpacking industry in Chicago; and Lincoln Steffens (1866–1936), for his investigation of the scandals among city and state politicians. Although the president disliked the negative focus of muckraking, he believed in what the writers did because they were committed to uncovering the truth.

Like much of the American voting public, Roosevelt did not approve of the majority of economic power resting in the hands of a wealthy few. His primary mission was the regulation of big business so that healthy competition could take place. He became known as a "trustbuster" because of his determination to break up trusts. (A trust was formed when several companies banded together to limit competition by controlling the production and distribution of a product or service.) Trusts were illegal under the 1890 Sherman Anti-Trust Act, and Roosevelt began to enforce the act more vigorously than it had been in the past decade. Roosevelt's administration began more than forty lawsuits against companies. Curiously, the president was more in favor of regulating trusts than he was of dissolving them; he called the Sherman Anti-Trust Act "foolish." Congress refused to enact his suggestions for the federal licensing and regulation of interstate companies, which would have limited their power. The only choice Roosevelt had, then, was to enforce the Sherman Anti-Trust Act. Still, he made it clear that in his eyes, some trusts were good, while others were bad.

Roosevelt took action in 1902 against both the beef trust and the Northern Securities Company, a railroad monopoly. (In a monopoly, one company dominates a sector of business, leaving the consumer no choices and other businesses no possibility of success.) Northern Securities had been established by some of the country's wealthiest businessmen: John D. Rockefeller (1839–1937), J. P. Morgan (1837–1913), James Hill (1838–1916), and Edward Harriman (1848–1909; see entry). Roosevelt ordered the Justice Department to file a suit to dissolve the company. Within a few months, the president filed suit against a Chicago meatpacking company called Swift & Company. America cheered as it watched the unethical companies struggle against the law. Roosevelt had made his point: Big business would have to deal with the federal government if it broke the law.

Roosevelt's "Square Deal"

In May 1902, coal miners in Pennsylvania went on strike (refused to work). They had tried for months to meet with management and mine owners to negotiate better pay, shorter hours, and safer working conditions. When negotiations failed, the workers refused to enter the mines.

Anthracite (hard) coal was used to fuel trains and to heat houses and businesses. In 1902, as spring passed into summer and then into fall, Americans became concerned that the continued strike would result in a coal shortage. Businesses would close and citizens would freeze. President Roosevelt also felt concerned, and in October he invited representatives from the miners and the coal operators to the White House. In doing so, he became the first president in history to mediate (act as a go-between in) a labor strike. The meeting was called the Coal Strike Conference of 1902. During the conference, Roosevelt expressed his concerns. The miners agreed to go back to work if they could get a small, immediate pay increase and a promise that negotiations would continue. The coal operators refused, despite the president's involvement.

When Roosevelt realized the strike would continue, he took direct action. He threatened to send military troops to take over operation of the mines. If this were to happen, miners and owners alike would lose money. Both sides entered into negotiations with a committee appointed by Roosevelt, and miners returned to work on October 23. They had received a 10-percent increase in wages as well as a guarantee of shorter work days.

Roosevelt's involvement in the mining dispute set a precedent (an established example) of what could happen in future labor-management conflicts. The working class realized it had the support of an intelligent, influential president. Big business was all too aware that its authority was no longer limitless. Roosevelt called his program the "square deal," meaning both sides got fair treatment and consideration.

The president showed his support of business regulation again in 1903 when he passed a bill to establish the U.S. Department of Commerce and Labor, and again when he passed the Elkins Act. This law prohibited railroads from giving rebates (refunds) to those shippers whoused their services most. Those refunds were discriminatory because they favored only the big companies; smaller companies did not do enough shipping to qualify for these refunds.

Big Stick diplomacy

Days before President McKinley was shot in 1901, Roosevelt spoke at the Minnesota State Fair. During his speech, he explained his stance on foreign policy by reciting an African proverb, "Speak softly and carry a big stick." By quoting this saying, Roosevelt expressed his belief that to be effective, one did not have to be the mightiest, but just needed the power to fight back if necessary. His ideas about foreign policy became known as Big Stick diplomacy. The president embraced this policy throughout his two terms in office.

Roosevelt proved the effectiveness of his philosophy in 1902. During that year, the Venezuelan government found itself heavily in debt to other countries. Germany, Italy, and Great Britain wanted to invade Venezuela to claim some of its territory as repayment. Roosevelt stepped in to help the countries reach an acceptable agreement, thereby avoiding war.

"Conservationist President"

Roosevelt carried his love of the outdoors into adulthood. He was an avid big-game hunter. When he realized America's bison herds were being hunted to near extinction, it concerned him. As the years passed, that concern was extended to wilderness lands and their wildlife.

Working closely with conservationists such as John Muir (1838–1914; see entry) and Gifford Pinchot (1865–1946), Roosevelt used his power of office to pass protective legislation to guarantee the preservation of America's natural resources. In 1902, Congress passed the New-lands Act, also known as the Reclamation Act. Reclamation is the process of altering or restoring a region or land to a healthy ecosystem. The new law used money from the sale of public lands in sixteen western states to build irrigation systems to maintain the country's arid (dry) regions. Settlers who benefited from these systems would repay the costs so that a revolving fund was available. Roosevelt eventually approved twenty-one reclamation projects.

Roosevelt has a national park named after him in North Dakota. He is also represented on Mt. Rushmore in South Dakota. Arizona is home to the Theodore Roosevelt Dam, which forms Theodore Roosevelt Lake. Both of these projects were completed under the Newlands Act in 1911.

Campaign and election of 1904

Roosevelt knew he had not earned his first years in the White House; no one elected him. But when it came time for another presidential election, he had proved himself a highly capable leader in the political and business worlds. His own Republican Party trusted him without reservation. The southern African American population supported him; this was an impressive feat, given that Roosevelt did not truly believe African Americans were equal to whites. He thought that African Americans were not able to govern themselves and that white Christians had the responsibility to look after the race.

Roosevelt broke the race barrier in 1901 when he invited African American reformer Booker T. Washington (1856–1915; see entry) to lunch at the White House. Washington was an advisor and consultant to many powerful white politicians of the day. He embraced the idea of the time that African Americans should be satisfied with whatever rights were given them by white society and work hard to prove themselves. He believed that only through hard work and determination would African Americans gain equal rights.

The Republican Party nominated Roosevelt for president unanimously. Roosevelt was fairly certain he would win the presidency. The Republican Party (also known since 1880 as the Grand Old Party, or GOP) was the majority party in national politics. The Democratic Party continued to be split from within, which weakened whatever political power it had.

The Making of the Teddy Bear

While visiting the South to settle a border dispute between Mississippi and Louisiana in 1902, Roosevelt went bear hunting in Mississippi. In order to guarantee the president would go home with a trophy, some men had a pack of hounds chase a bear cub. After wounding the creature, they then roped the cub to a tree. Roosevelt found the situation appalling and refused to kill the bear (although he ordered a companion to shoot it and put it out of its misery). The press caught wind of the story and printed it in newspapers across the country.

Newspaper cartoonist Clifford K. Berryman (1869–1949) of the Washington Post ensured a place in history for the story with a November 16, 1902, front-page cartoon entitled "Drawing the Line in Mississippi."

Berryman's original drawing made the bear look fierce. He redrew the animal, however, to look more cuddly, less dangerous. The story became so popular that within a year, a stuffed "Teddy Bear" appeared on the market. Several stories circulated about how the bear was invented, but this is the most widely accepted version:

Morris Michtom was a New York City candy store owner. After seeing Berryman's cartoon, he came up with the idea to memorialize the popular incident. His wife created a stuffed bear, for which Michtom asked permission from the president to name Teddy. Released in 1903, the Teddy Bear became such a hit that the Michtoms quit the candy-store business and opened the Ideal Novelty and Toy Company in 1906. Their bear remained the president's mascot for the rest of his life. One of the original teddy bears is housed at the National Museum of American History.

The Ideal Company went on to produce some of the most popular toys in American history. Ideal toys include dozens of inventive dolls (the company was the first to make dolls whose eyes closed when laid down); the Evel Knievel toys popular in the 1970s; and the award-winning Rubik's Cube of 1980s fame.

Although William Jennings Bryan (1860–1925) had been the Democratic candidate in the presidential elections in 1896 and 1900 (and would be again in 1908), Democrats did not nominate him for the 1904 race. Instead, they selected Alton B. Parker (1852–1926), chief judge of the New York Court of Appeals. Roosevelt and his running mate, U.S. senator Charles W. Fairbanks (1852–1918) of Indiana, did not travel extensively during the campaign. Roosevelt instead directed the campaign from the front porch of his home in Oyster Bay, New York. In addition, he turned to some of the nation's wealthiest businessmen for funding. Edward Harriman, Henry Frick (1849–1919), and J. P. Morgan (1837–1913) donated 70 percent of the more than $2 million raised by the Republican Party. The size of these donations raised the ethical issue of campaign contributions by large corporations, a practice that logically gave one political party an advantage over the other (in this case, the Republican Party over the Democratic Party). Within three years, Congress would prohibit contributions by national banks and corporations, but not by their officers as individuals.

Roosevelt beat Parker, 336 electoral votes to 140. Electoral votes are the votes a presidential candidate receives for having won a majority of a state's popular vote (citizens' votes). The candidate who receives the most popular votes in a particular state wins all of that state's electoral votes. Each state receives two electoral votes for its two U.S. senators and an amount for the number of U.S. representatives it has (which is determined by a state's population). A candidate must win a majority of electoral votes (over 50 percent) in order to win the presidency. Roosevelt also won the popular vote by a majority never before seen in the country's history: 57.4 percent. Roosevelt was the first man to be elected president on his own after serving out his deceased predecessor's term. In addition, he was viewed by many as the most popular president in history at that point.

Four more years

Roosevelt became more aggressive in his domestic policy during his second term as president, mostly because the changing times required it. Two major reforms were established, both in June 1906. On June 29, Roosevelt directed the passage of the Hepburn Act (named after U.S. representative William P. Hepburn [1833–1916] of Iowa, chairman of the Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce). The act strengthened the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) by adding two more members and allowing the committee to determine fair rates after complaints surfaced of a railroad shipper charging unfair rates. The ICC had been established as a result of the Interstate Commerce Act, which had passed in 1887. This act demanded that all railroad shipping rates be fair and reasonable. The Commission's job was to enforce the new laws.

The other major reform applied to the food industry. One day after signing the Hepburn Act into law, Roosevelt passed the Pure Food and Drug Act. This act was designed to protect consumers from fraudulent (untrue) food labeling and unsafe food. Although individual states had enacted food laws, they were difficult to enforce. Harvey Wiley (1844–1930), head of the Bureau of Chemistry in the U.S. Department of Agriculture, lobbied for stricter laws regarding food handling. Wiley enlisted the support of the more ethical food producers and drug manufacturers. Even so, his concerns were largely drowned out by the powerful Beef Trust (the five biggest meatpacking companies) as well as by large pharmaceutical companies and small producers of patent medicines.

During the Spanish-American War, America experienced a beef scandal. Meat was being sent overseas to U.S. troops. Soon reports were printed claiming the beef was tainted (made less wholesome) with embalming fluid to preserve it. (Embalming fluid is what corpses are injected with to delay the decaying process.) Shortly after the war ended, muckraker Charles Edward Russell (1860–1941) wrote a serial documentary exposing the greed and corruption of the Beef Trust. In 1906, journalist Upton Sinclair wrote the groundbreaking novel The Jungle, which detailed horrifying accounts of how meat was handled and processed in Chicago's meatpacking industry. With the public in an uproar over this health issue, Roosevelt signed the Pure Food and Drug Act as well as its accompanying Meat Inspection Act. The Meat Inspection Act required the U.S. Department of Agriculture to inspect all slaughtered animals to insure safety in the handling and processing of the meat. Lawbreakers could be jailed, fined, or both. These two food-related pieces of legislation were considered major efforts in progressive reform. Although the president did not introduce them, he is often given credit for doing so.

Panic of 1907

Roosevelt's views on trusts did not change. He spent his second term committed to ridding society of what he felt were "evil" trusts. He filed suits against DuPont, Standard Oil, American Tobacco, and New Haven Railroad. These lawsuits did nothing to improve the president's relations with the business community. The situation was only made worse with the Panic of 1907.

In the summer of 1907, several businesses and financial firms went bankrupt (declared themselves unable to pay their debts; often, this means the business closes). In October of that year, the Knickerbocker Trust in New York and the Westinghouse Electric Company closed their doors to business, setting off what became known as the Panic of 1907. Stock market prices decreased, and people and businesses began pulling their money out of banks for fear they would lose it. Banks began closing rapidly.

Just as President Grover Cleveland (1837–1908; served 1885–89 and 1893–97; see entry) had done when he was in office, Roosevelt called upon J. P. Morgan to restore order to the American economy. Morgan was a financier, an investment banker who works on a grand scale with large amounts of money. Morgan called upon the best bankers and financial experts, and together the men gathered in Morgan's home. From there, they channeled money to the weaker businesses and institutions in an effort to keep them from going bankrupt. Economic conditions improved within weeks, and the crisis passed.

The Panic of 1907 led reformers from both political parties to call for change in the banking business and its procedures. Various banking reforms and legislation were passed throughout the ensuing years. In 1913, the Federal Reserve System was established and became the banking headquarters of the United States.

Through it all, a conservationist

Roosevelt continued passing conservation and environmental legislation throughout his second term. In 1905, with the help and advice of his good friend Pinchot, Roosevelt moved the Division of Forestry from the Department of the Interior to the Department of Agriculture and renamed it the U.S. Forest Service. That department would eventually come to be known as the National Forest Service. Under Pinchot's leadership for the first five years, America's national forests grew from 56 million acres (226,624 square kilometers) to 172 million acres (696,059 square kilometers).

In 1906, Roosevelt signed into law the American Antiquities Act, which gave him the authority to proclaim historic landmarks and structures as well as other areas of historic interest, such as national monuments. Although the law specifically stated that the president should include in the monument the smallest amount of land needed, Roosevelt interpreted the guidelines loosely. His first dedication was Devil's Tower in Wyoming. In 1906, he proclaimed a very generous amount of land, 800,000 acres (3,237 square kilometers) of the Grand Canyon, to be a national monument.

Throughout his years as president, Roosevelt used his power and authority to establish 150 national forests, 5 national parks, 18 national monuments, 51 bird reserves, and 4 game preserves. Altogether, he set aside for preservation 230 million acres (930,777 square kilometers) of land.

Meanwhile, overseas…

Winning the Spanish-American War made America a world power. The victory gave the United States the territories of Guam and Puerto Rico and allowed America to purchase the Philippine Islands. Taking over foreign countries and controlling their political and economic systems is known as imperialism, and Roosevelt firmly believed in it. Many Americans disagreed with him. Called anti-imperialists, they felt that imperialism was too costly and would eventually attract too many non-whites into the country. They also believed that the United States did not have the right to impose its values on another country and that it should not govern countries so far outside its own boundaries.

Roosevelt approached foreign policy using the doctrine of "New Imperialism." Nations he personally believed were uncivilized would gain independence only once they conformed to the American model of government and democracy. The president believed in the superiority of his own country's morals and history and thought that his belief justified America's involvement in countries with which it normally had little interaction. Under this direction, the United States became a sort of watchdog throughout the western half of the world. Under Roosevelt's leadership, America's empire grew to include the Philippines, Cuba, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, and Puerto Rico. In 1906, Cuba revolted against the United States's authority. According to the Platt Amendment, which had been passed in 1903, Cuba was forbidden to make independent treaties with other nations. The amendment also gave the United States the right to intervene in Cuban affairs in order to maintain order and the island's independence. Finally, the amendment required Cuba to lease a naval base (Guantanamo Bay) to the United States for an unstated length of time. Cuban nationalists (people who put the good of the country above all else, including individual rights) were deeply grieved by the power given to the United States; they wanted complete freedom and were willing to fight and die for it. Roosevelt sent in Marine Corps troops, beginning an occupation that would last until 1909.

The Panama Canal

Perhaps the most famous of Roosevelt's foreign policy initiatives involved the creation of the Panama Canal (a man-made waterway). For years, American naval leaders wanted to build a passage between the Atlantic and the Pacific oceans through Central America. The United States now owned territory on both sides, so a canal took on even greater importance, as it would drastically reduce the amount of shipping and travel time.

Building of the canal across the Isthmus of Panama (then a territory of Colombia) had officially begun in 1878 by Ferdinand de Lesseps (1805–1894), the French engineer who had built the Suez Canal in Egypt. Construction came to a halt when laborers contracted tropical diseases and engineering problems arose. Even so, a French company retained rights to the project, so no one else could continue the construction. Roosevelt tried to buy those rights for $40 million. He also offered to pay $10 million for a 50-mile (80.47-kilometer) stretch across the isthmus, but Colombia refused. Roosevelt correctly predicted a revolution in Panama against Colombian rule. He then sent a naval ship and military troops to support Panama's rebellion. When Roosevelt presented the rebels with the $10-million offer, they happily accepted, and America had total control of a 10-mile (16.1-kilometer) canal zone.

Thousands of workers began digging the canal. For ten years, thirty thousand workers, most from the West Indies, were paid 10 cents an hour for ten-hour shifts. Many died of yellow fever, a disease carried by mosquitoes. Despite the disapproval of many Americans who felt Roosevelt had acted in an unconstitutional manner in obtaining the canal zone, work continued. On August 15, 1914, the Panama Canal opened for business. In addition to building the canal, workers also constructed three railroads and created a man-made lake.

The project cost $400 million and was considered one of the world's greatest engineering projects. By 1925, more than five thousand merchant ships had traveled the Panama Canal. The waterway shortened the trip from San Francisco, California, to New York City by nearly 8,000 miles (12,872 kilometers). Equally as important, the canal became a major military asset that made the United States the dominant power in Central America.

The Panama Canal remained an American asset until December 31, 1999, at which time it (and its surrounding land) was handed over to Panamanian authorities. During his presidency, Jimmy Carter (1924–; served 1977–81) had signed a transfer agreement. During the twenty years between the signing of the agreement and the actual transfer, a transitional committee ran the Canal. An American leader led the committee during the first decade, followed by a Panamanian leader for the second. Along with the canal, Carter offered Panama his apologies and acknowledged that although Roosevelt's vision was to be praised, the feelings of American colonialism in Panama created controversy. The agreement holds that the United States can interfere if the Canal loses its neutrality or threatens American interests in any way.

Russo-Japanese War

War erupted between Russia and Japan in 1904. Both countries had plans for Korea and Manchuria, a large region in northeast Asia. At the time, China had control of a port in Manchuria that Russia wanted to take over. It convinced China to lease the port, which gave Russia occupation within southern Manchuria. Japan was angered over this move because Russia had forced Japan to give up its own right to be in Manchuria when Japan beat China in the Sino-Japanese War (1894–95). Then in 1896, Russia ended an alliance with China against Japan and won the rights to extend the Trans-Siberian Railroad across parts of China-controlled Manchuria. This gave Russia control of an important territory in Manchuria. Roosevelt had been expecting the conflict, and his sympathies lay with Japan. America had long wanted to put an end to Russia's plan to take over Manchuria. Now that Japan was fighting the battle, America would not have to.

The war ended in 1905 with Japan defeating Russia's navy and overrunning Manchuria's neighbor, Korea. This defeat prohibited Russia from expanding its power in the Far East. At the same time, Japan became the first Asian power to defeat a European power. This victory suddenly made Japan a much stronger nation than it had been in the past, which concerned Roosevelt. To add further worry, Japan had already established an alliance (a partnership with another country or countries) with the powerful Great Britain in 1902. This alliance threatened the United States's ability to be the dominant superpower.

Roosevelt also kept in mind the Open-Door policy the United States had with China. This policy stated that all trading nations of the world would have access to China's market. In order to keep the policy in action, the president invited leaders from Japan and Russia to New Hampshire to work out an agreement that would become known as the Treaty of Portsmouth (named after the city in which negotiations were held). Japan, though victorious in its war against Russia, was in trouble financially, and both countries agreed to negotiate. Roosevelt would later be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his peacekeeping efforts. Although Roosevelt's mediation brought peace, the conference did not go quite as he had hoped. The president had to give Japan a similar position and influence in China that America demanded for itself in the Western Hemisphere. This was power he had not intended to share.

In keeping with his belief that the world could be made up of great superpowers that maintained stability even as they competed, Roosevelt negotiated a secret deal with Japan in 1905 called the Taft-Katsura Agreement. This deal assured the United States that Japan had no interest in the Philippines, which had remained an important interest for America; in return, America pledged not to interfere in Japan's relations in Korea. Soon after, Korea became a Japanese protectorate (a region under the protection and partial control of a country).

The personal becomes the public

Roosevelt was a prolific (productive) writer. In his lifetime, he authored twenty-seven books and countless articles. His writing and many speeches covered a wide range of topics, and included everything from football to birth control, morals to women's equality. Roosevelt knew his beliefs and did not miss an opportunity to share them with anyone who would listen.

On the subject of women's rights, he was uncharacteristically silent, though he did support woman's suffrage (right to vote) and educational equality. In keeping with the traditional, conservative views of his times, however, the president believed that the education of females should include an awareness of what was going on in the world but no encouragement to participate in it, whereas the education of males should encourage them to make use of their fighting instincts. Roosevelt had no patience for cowardice.

Roosevelt was popular and he knew it. But in keeping with his 1904 campaign promise not to seek reelection in 1908, Roosevelt hand-picked Secretary of War William Howard Taft (1857–1930) to run as the Republican candidate in the presidential race. He easily won nomination. Taft's opponent was William Jennings Bryan, and Taft won with 51.6 percent of the popular vote.

Goes on safari

Needing some relaxation, fifty-year-old Roosevelt and his son Kermit spent a year in Africa on safari, where he hunted and killed thousands of animals. Among these were five elephants, nine lions, thirteen rhinos, and seven hippos.

News reports of political trouble back in the United States reached Roosevelt while on safari, but when he and Kermit reached Egypt, Roosevelt's wife Edith joined them for a grand tour of Europe. The family returned to New York City, where they were met with the largest reception in the city up to that time. By then, Roosevelt was angry at Taft over some of the anticonservation measures Taft signed into law. He was also upset that Taft was not running the presidency as he himself had. Roosevelt considered his old friend's behavior an act of betrayal.

Back in the running

By 1912, Roosevelt was disgruntled enough with Taft's job as president that he decided to run for the top office again. The year 1912 was the first year in which there were presidential primaries (elections to pare down the candidates so that there is just one per political party). At that early stage of primary elections, only twelve states held Republican primaries. That left thirty-six states without a primary election. Of the twelve Republican primaries, Roosevelt beat Taft in landslide victories. In those other thirty-six states, delegates were chosen by state convention. To get to the state convention, a delegate had to be nominated by the local convention. At that level, professional politicians easily dominated the proceedings.

In the 1912 campaign, 254 delegate seats were up for grabs. The Republican National Committee was in a position to decide the outcome. In 1912, Taft supporters dominated that committee; they were not about to let Roosevelt disgrace their candidate. They awarded Roosevelt 19 seats, while Taft was given 254. Taft was renominated. The stubborn Roosevelt then decided his only option was to run for president as a third-party candidate on the Progressive, or Bull Moose, Party (see box) ticket.

With the Republican Party now split in two, it was highly unlikely either Roosevelt or Taft would win the election. New Jersey governorWoodrow Wilson (1856–1924) claimed victory, the first Democrat to serve in the White House in sixteen years. Wilson won 435 electoral votes, compared with Roosevelt's 88 and Taft's 8. Wilson received 41.9 percent of the popular vote, leaving 27.4 percent to Roosevelt and 23.1 percent to Taft. The remaining votes were divided between Socialist Eugene V. Debs (1855–1926) and Prohibition Party leader Eugene W. Chafin (1852–1920).

Life goes on

After his defeat, Roosevelt once more headed for the jungle with his son Kermit, this time in Brazil. While away, he continued to write. He churned out history books as well as essays for publication in magazines. Most of those essays were scientific in nature, but he also published some in which he tried to persuade America that its participation in World War I (1914–18) was inevitable.

Roosevelt lost his beloved son Quentin in the war. With his son's passing went the former president's enthusiasm. A sadness he had never known before came over Roosevelt. German propagandists (those who publish one-sided information to rally support for a specific cause) published photos of Quentin's disfigured body alongside his plane for all the world to see.

Roosevelt died in his home on Oyster Bay on January 6, 1919. His physically and mentally stressful life had taken its toll on his sixty-one-year-old body, and he died from a blood clot in his heart. Five hundred invited guests attended his funeral, while thousands of respectful mourners waited outside the church. His service was simple, without music or eulogy, and his oak coffin was covered by a wreath from the Rough Riders. He was buried in a cemetery on Oyster Bay.

Who Was the Progressive Party?

No professional politicians ran the Progressive Party. The membership of the party was well educated and respectable, including in its numbers many professional and civic-minded women. As a result of this mix, it was the only major political party of the election to support women's rights. Aside from women's rights, the central idea of the party was to redistribute the nation's wealth so that more Americans could enjoy a better quality of life. Despite this concern for the nation's workforce, the Progressives were not a labor party. They wanted to help but not engage the participation of the workers themselves. Progressives were cultured, middle-class Americans, and that is how they intended the party to stay.

For More Information

BOOKS

Chambers, John Whiteclay II. The Tyranny of Change: America in the Progressive Era, 1890–1920. 2nd ed. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2000.

Ingram, Scott. The Panama Canal (Building World Landmarks). San Diego: Blackbirch Press, 2003.

Kraft, Betsy Harvey. Theodore Roosevelt: Champion of the American Spirit. New York: Clarion Books, 2003.

Lansford, Tom, and Robert P. Watson, eds. Theodore Roosevelt (Presidents & Their Decisions). San Diego: Greenhaven Press, 2003.

McPherson, Stephanie Sammartino. Theodore Roosevelt (Presidential Leaders). Minneapolis: Lerner Publications, 2005.

Painter, Nell Irvin. Standing at Armageddon: The United States, 1877–1919. New York: W. W. Norton, 1987.

Wiebe, Robert H. The Search for Order, 1877–1920. New York: Hill and Wang, 1967. Reprint, Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1980.

WEB SITES

"The Funeral of Theodore Roosevelt." Theodore Roosevelt Association.http://www.theodoreroosevelt.org/life/Religion.htm#FUNERAL (accessed on September 4, 2006).

"In His Own Words." Theodore Roosevelt Association.http://www.theodoreroosevelt.org/life/quotes.htm (accessed on September 4, 2006).

"Life of Theodore Roosevelt." Theodore Roosevelt Association.http://www.theodoreroosevelt.org/life/lifeoftr.htm (accessed on September 4, 2006).

National Park Service. "Theodore Roosevelt." Theodore Roosevelt National Park.http://www.nps.gov/thro/tr_cons.htm (accessed on September 4, 2006).

"Teddy Bear." National Museum of American History. http://americanhistory.si.edu/news/factsheet.cfm?key=30&newskey=6 (accessed on September 4, 2006).

"Theodore Roosevelt and Big Stick Diplomacy." Mt. Holyoke College.http://www.mtholyoke.edu/~jlgarner/classweb/worldpolitics/bigstick.html (accessed on September 4, 2006).

"Theodore Roosevelt: Icon of the American Century." National Portrait Gallery.http://www.npg.si.edu/exh/roosevelt/ (accessed on September 4, 2006).

"Theodore Roosevelt (1901–1909)." American President.http://www.americanpresident.org/history/theodoreroosevelt/ (accessed on September 4, 2006).

"Theodore Roosevelt: The Nobel Peace Prize 1906: Biography." Nobelprize.org.http://nobelprize.virtual.museum/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/1906/roosevelt-bio.html (accessed on September 4, 2006).