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“Mr. Roosevelt likens himself to Abraham Lincoln more and resembles him less than any man in the history of this country . . . I hold that the man is a demagogue and a flatterer who comes out and tells the people that they know it all. I hate a flatterer. I like a man to tell the truth straight out, and I hate to see a man try to honeyfugle the people . . .” (President William Howard Taft, Speech in Steubenville, Ohio, May 13, 1912. The Democratic Text-Book, 1912. Issued by the DNC and the Democratic Congressional Committee. New York: Isaac Goldmann Co., 1912.) “Of course, Mr. Roosevelt takes very frequent vacations, but frequent vacations are not enough; he should take a permanent vacation. He should realize by now that the ship of state . . . requires not only a sturdy and steady hand to steer it, but a man of authority to control the crew, and with brains enough to read the charts, not one who doesn’t know whether he is in the Atlantic or the Pacific." (The House of Roosevelt. Paul Haber. New York: The Author’s Publishing Company, 1936.) “He hates Jackson as a Southerner, claiming to be one himself in part. I have not heard of any Southerner claiming kinship with him. It was condescension for Booker Washington to eat with a Jew Mongrel who has no more Aryan blood than he himself has and who in character is his inferior. That Roosevelt is going to make him Secretary of Agriculture has no terrors for me after enduring a Jew President, nor has his purpose of having a Negro Vice President with him in his third term.” (TR invited Booker T. Washington to dine at the White House in October, 1901. This act was widely criticized in the North and South. Quotation taken from Roosevelt’s Insult to the Memory of Jackson and LaFayette. George Wilson. Washington D.C.: 1903. [n.p.]) “The American people can not afford to further jeapordize their blood-bought rights by placing them in the deposit vaults of such a band of political burglars. In other words, men who have already violated their oaths of office, trailed the Judicial Ermine in the dust, and prostituted the functions of the highest office in the world, they cannot be further trusted, whether he be a Jug-handled Judge or a Posthumous President.” (Our Corrupt Courts and President Roosevelt. Peter M. Sullivan. Oklahoma City: Published by Author, 1904.) “His motto is to do things quickly—not correctly—but do something. He is many-sided, but does not balance up right—there are screws loose. He is destructive, not constructive, a disturbing element. He is the stormy petrel of American politics. He must have been born in a thunderstorm, for discord is his harmony. He is utterly unfit for the Presidency of the United States. He should be in Timbuctoo.” (The Real Roosevelt. Edward Garstin Smith. Chicago: The States Publishing Co., 1910.) “Roosevelt is afflicted with the spectacular madness of Nero, the atrocity of Peter the Great, and the instinct of Atilla . . . He is a cross between a feudal baron and a western bully . . . He lacks only a barbarian age and opportunity to make his name lurid with fire and his country saturated with blood.” (The Real Roosevelt. Edward Garstin Smith. Chicago: The States Publishing Co., 1910.) “No citizen of the United States ever heard a President brag about wielding the 'big stick' over Congress and the courts until the present cracked egoist came into power by the bullet of an assassin. The impudent presumption and tyrant boast of whirling a 'big stick' over the legislative Department of this great Republic is the most outrageous insult that has ever been given to Congress.” (“Tyranny of Theodore Roosevelt.” George Washington Cook, Representative-At-Large; Colorado. Speech in the House of Representatives, February 25, 1909. Washington D.C.: Judge and Detweiler, Inc., 1909.) “Like the brazen fraud who dashes down Broadway, yelling “Stop thief!” he plays the part of calling people liars” when in fact he has been and is now one of the most fantastic and impudent political liars in America and will say or do anything for his personal and private gain! He is as selfish as a sponge!” (“Tyranny of Theodore Roosevelt.” George Washington Cook, Representative-At-Large; Colorado. Speech in the House of Representatives, February 25, 1909. Washington D.C.: Judge and Detweiler, Inc., 1909.) Quotes compiled by Sushila Nayak. Thanks to Andy Plenge for his transcription help. |
THEODORE ROOSEVELT
Whether by accident or analysis, Theodore Roosevelt at the dawn of the 20th century had an important insight about governing that served well those who cared to play-act as stewards of the modern American state. He believed that a president acting for the nation had to be aggressive and expansionist abroad, while at home the federal government had to act as the mediator and tamer of capital and labor. Like a later Roosevelt, he saw himself as stopping socialism in the United States through a doctrine of expansive presidential power and fairness. When Colombia refused to sign an agreement with the United States about building the Panama canal, President Roosevelt put together a revolt against Colombia and a new state was born, Panama, which then was immediately recognized by the United States. The Panama Canal was then built on the terms that Roosevelt had originally demanded of Colombian leaders. He was not averse to the use of the American naval fleet to make the point that the United States had to be taken seriously as a world power. He made clear that he would be all over the map in the name of the United States, whether in an imperial raid in Santo Domingo or as the mediator to end the Russo-Japanese war. It was taken for granted under the so called Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine that the United States could intervene anywhere in Latin America if the U.S. noted "wrong-doing" by a suspect government or unruly nation. In his domestic policy, Roosevelt developed a principle of early progressivism, a cardinal principle of which was the need for collaboration between capital and labor. At the beginning of the 20th century this often meant siding with that part of the labor movement which had roots in the working class but had no interest in tearing down the capitalist system. For Roosevelt, there was legitimate and illegitimate labor organization, just as he believed there were good and bad trusts. In his mind, these had to be distinguished. He knew that the leaders of corporations had no interest in making such distinctions, so he figured that he would have to make such distinctions for them. Roosevelt went further in his purposes as president. He took on the task of championing the muckrakers calls for aiding the consumer on such matters as meat inspection, and food and drug monitoring. Because of his life-long interest in nature and the outdoors, he championed conservation of resources and forests. To him and others, these were simple moral issues which did not involve the messy problems of taxation and class conflict. No one wanted to be poisoned by bad meat or drugs and so the role of the government as steward for the people, a Roosevelt concept, became obvious to everyone. As a Republican, he took his biggest political risks in challenging the leaders of large corporations. He knew that business had captains who, in their own way, were ferocious warriors. Furthermore, they were the backbone of the Republican party. They had little regard for politicians since they bought and sold, or disposed of them, like so much waste paper. The real movers and shakers were Rockefeller in oil, Harriman in railroads, Carnegie in steel and Morgan in banking. And there were others as tough and as ruthless like Hanna of Ohio. Roosevelt believed that for their own good these men had to be tamed, and what better person to do it than Teddy Roosevelt the big game hunter? He used various means to undertake the taming process. Two outstanding examples were the Anthracite mining situation and the Northern Securities Company case, in which the owners of the large corporations sought to end competition in favor of monopoly control over vast segments of American industry. While he was only partially successful in tamping down the merger mania by threatening the trusts with regulatory agencies and price fixing by the government, it slowed down Wall Street and made clear that power was moving to Washington. Roosevelt saw this direction as perfectly sensible, and one which would hold back the radicals who were making headway in the unions and in his own political party as well as the Democratic party. He would save capitalism from itself. Some thought of Roosevelt as a force of nature who operated with gale-force energy, guided by great intellectual gifts and insight. He used his body as a battering ram to discover the world, whether it was through wrestling and boxing, which he did as a youth, in explorations of nature from Brazil to Africa, or in war. He seemed fearless and indomitable, having survived all manner of diseases and injuries, including gunshot wounds. In 1912, he was making another run for the presidency and an assassin almost killed him with a bullet which lodged near his heart. He was a man of action who loved adventure, discovery and books, but loved the exercise of power more. He believed that the passive aspects of the president's office could be changed by acting in it. And here "acting" should be taken in both senses. He saw himself playing a role. And while the word "celebrity" had yet to be invented, he conducted himself as an actor, a celebrity to whom attention had to be paid. He was both the New American and the new type of president. He was not the stately Jefferson nor the unlettered, depressive Lincoln, nor the dour John Quincy Adams, nor a man who had doubts about the power of the office of the presidency like William Henry Harrison. He was boisterous, bombastic, a carnival barker in a high pitched voice, chaotic, quick to action, seeing in himself the character of a nation which had grown to 75 million by the turn of the century from only 35 million at the time of the civil war. He was the man who both dreamt and made things happen. There was an infectious certitude about him which both scared people and drew them to his orbit. Those who disliked him saw him as a poseur, a fake cowboy from the wealthy sections of Manhattan, or a slightly comical barrel-chested asthmatic national guard lieutenant colonel puffing up San Juan Hill to fight in a war with Spain (which allowed Roosevelt to advertise himself as a war hero.) In his Inaugural address he talked of justice in the world, claiming the United States must be the friend of all nations. But, he said, it must be prepared to make war. As an unabashed imperialist, Roosevelt believed that the closing of the natural frontier required engagement abroad. His talks were often laced with macho phrases such as being manly (phrases often used in the 19th century by politicians) and fear of being or appearing impotent in public actions. He held his greatest scorn for what he called the "malefactors of wealth" who dared to think that the president was just another politician to be bought and toyed with. In his Autobiography he said "Of all forms of tyranny the least attractive and the most vulgar is the tyranny of mere wealth, the tyranny of plutocracy." But by the end of his term in office the "malefactors" had grown more powerful and the trusts had found new techniques that Roosevelt and his administration seemed unable to stop. His major confrontation with the leadership of the corporations -- which he won -- concerned the coal mining industry. Because a possible paralysis could occur in the Northeast in winter, Roosevelt had threatened to send troops to execute a federal seizure of the anthracite coal mines unless the mine owners would agree to negotiation with the union. This forced the owners to back down. He had hoped to get support for his actions from the Supreme Court and turned to his major Supreme Court appointment, Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, for sustenance, but not very much was forthcoming. Holmes voted against Roosevelt's views in the Northern Securities case. Roosevelt was not able to do anything about the Panic of 1907, but his term of office was soon to end. He chose as his successor William Howard Taft, a gifted traditional Republican lawyer whom he later came to despise because of Taft's betrayal of progressivism. In Roosevelt's eyes, it did not help that Taft weighed over 300 pounds and was sedentary. Roosevelt was born in New York to modest wealth and a great number of social and political connections. His mother was a Bullock from Georgia, which did not mean much in New York although it meant a great deal in Georgia, where two of her brothers fought on the side of the Confederacy. On the other hand, Roosevelt's father, Theodore Roosevelt Sr., supported the union cause and Republicanism. He bought his way out of the war and practiced his business as a merchant. Because Teddy Jr. was in very frail health, he had special tutors, an educational situation which allowed him to thrive. His formal education was spotty, although apparently quite thorough for he was able to enter Harvard in 1876, where he pursued his studies in nature and history with considerable distinction. Compensating for his height, high pitched voice and physical condition, Roosevelt became a great advocate of the strenuous life. With the death of his father, Teddy Roosevelt was left a large enough inheritance so that he did not have to earn a salary or enter business. He entered politics, and at 23 he was elected to the New York state assembly. New York city politics was not seen as a profession for a person of means; it was a working class and machine politician vocation. As Thayer put it in his fawning portrait of Roosevelt, " For a young man of Roosevelt's position to desire to take up politics seemed to his friends almost comic. Politics were low and corrupt; politics were not for "gentlemen"; they were the business and pastime of liquor-dealers, and of the degenerates and loafers who frequented the saloons, of horse-car conductors and of many others whose tie with 'respectability' was slight." Roosevelt immediately identified himself with the reform elements of the Assembly, meaning that he often supported the Democratic Governor, Grover Cleveland, on anticorruption and civil service reforms. He had already developed a reputation among his colleagues bordering on hatred, love and contempt. February 12 and February 13, 1884, were days of trauma in Roosevelt's life. The young legislator lost his mother and young wife, leaving him with a daughter to raise. In 1886, after losing the New York mayoral race, he married Edith Kermit Carow, a childhood friend of his sister, whose family also had roots in 17th century New York. At 30, he became a member of the Civil Service Commission under President Benjamin Harrison, and then was reappointed under President Grover Cleveland. Roosevelt's view that the day to day practice of government should be removed from politics and corruption had the support of the good government crowd. However, it did not have support from the professional politicians, the rich, or for that matter the poor who thought that civil service reforms left them without a step up into a measure of security. Roosevelt's next pass at governing was as the President of the Board of Police Commissioners of New York. The New York police department at the turn of the century was a cesspool of crime and payoffs which Roosevelt set about to correct. He enforced the law and closed the saloons on Sunday. But his overall success was limited. On the other hand, he learned about how "the other half lived." With the aid of the muckraker journalist Jacob Riis, Roosevelt learned first-hand the shocking living and economic conditions of New York immigrants and poor. From Police Commissioner to assistant secretary of the Navy at 38 was quite a leap. However, to Roosevelt, it was not only the streets of New York which were an unruly place, it was the world. According to Roosevelt, policing the world required a strong navy. Roosevelt used two events to pressure his easy going boss, John Long, to support a larger Navy. One was a dispute between Venezuela and Great Britain about boundaries, in which the United States told the British that they had better settle it without force of arms, since the Monroe Doctrine claimed Latin America as the American sphere of influence. Roosevelt claimed that the President could not support his strong words and next time an American president would be caught without any military cards to play. The second issue which Roosevelt used to push the case for a world class Navy was the triangle of Cuban, Spanish and American relations which finally erupted into war, to the personal benefit of Roosevelt. On February 15,1898, the battleship Maine was blown up. Two officers were killed and 264 enlisted men were wounded. Who blew up the Maine, whether the Spanish, or the Americans, the Cuban insurgents, or a faulty boiler remains a topic of investigation. It became, however, the immediate cause of war with the Spanish. Roosevelt wanted in and before the war began he ordered on his own authority an American flotilla under Commodore George Dewey to harass and destroy the Spanish fleet in Manila bay. Once the war was declared over the objection of big business and the more pacific minded like Mark Twain and the philosopher William James, but with the support of newspaper owners and the tepid acquiescence of McKinley, Roosevelt the adventurer raised the Rough Rider regiment and went off to fight in Cuba "up San Juan Hill". Though the soldiers suffered terribly from every manner of illness and were finally withdrawn, from this exercise in military action and self promotion Roosevelt returned to New York to find that he was a hero who was called upon by the Republican bosses to run for Governor of New York. They knew they were taking a big chance with the irrepressible Roosevelt, but they needed to win the race and Roosevelt had become a popular national figure at a relatively young age. As governor Roosevelt angered the boss of the party, Senator Tom Platt, who favored no governmental restrictions on corporations. This was not Roosevelt's view. He pressed for regulation over sweatshops and a tax on corporations that held public franchises. Senator Platt wanted Roosevelt out of New York because of his irritating ways to business and the machine. There seemed no better way than getting him on the ticket as William McKinley's vice presidential candidate. They accomplished this feat never thinking that McKinley would die in office or be assassinated. As the vice presidential candidate Roosevelt campaigned throughout the nation while McKinley sat at home. Roosevelt's voice was distinctly a different one from the bosses or McKinley, but no one seemed to care, for the brash young man was sure to be shelved among the unremembered, like Hannibal Hamlin or Garret Hobart. McKinley was elected and on September 6, 1901 he was shot. On September 14,1901, McKinley died and Roosevelt was sworn in as president, the youngest man to hold the office without being elected to it. For a time Roosevelt held to the idea that he would follow the policies that were conceived by the conservative William McKinley and Mark Hanna of Ohio, who was the national boss of the Republican party. But there were too many cross-cutting forces which demanded action even from the most passive of presidents, let alone someone of Roosevelt's temperament. The entire issue of race never left the table of American concern. Roosevelt invited the excessively moderate Black leader Booker T. Washington to the White House. This caused a furor among the press and "high society." More importantly, the Southern white politicians feared that Roosevelt's symbolic move meant that their power would be under attack from Roosevelt who would return to the days of Reconstruction when some Blacks held political office. They had nothing to fear in this regard, for Roosevelt had no intention of changing the status quo of the South. Indeed, he needed their political support for military adventures. And when he ran as a Progressive party candidate he stated that Black delegates from Black districts in the South could only run with the agreement of the Whites. He had no intention of upsetting the applecart of white race domination in the South through his Progressive party candidacy, although he was prepared to be part of symbolic events such as honoring a black hospital unit as he did at the end of the first world war. In 1904, Senator Mark Hanna mounted a campaign for the Republican nomination against Roosevelt. It failed and Roosevelt was elected in his own right against Alton Parker, an uninspiring candidate who lost the election by a margin of 56% to 38%, with 3% for Eugene Debs. When Roosevelt left the presidency he returned to writing, riding and exploring. He looked with increasing horror at his friend Taft who followed his own course and without Roosevelt's aid. In 1912, Roosevelt ran against Wilson and Taft for the presidency on a Progressive Party ticket, costing Taft his re-election. His vice presidential candidate was Hiram Johnson of California. Roosevelt's other antagonist for leadership of the Progressive Party, Robert LaFollette of Wisconson, concluded that Roosevelt betrayed the Progressive cause by his imperial and bellicose stance. Roosevelt maintained his imperial and progressive stance throughout his post-presidential period. He wanted a declaration of war against the Germans in 1915 after the sinking of the Lusitania. He concluded that Wilson was a weakling unworthy of being president, with both men hating each other with white heat passion. After war finally came he asked to outfit a force of 300,000 troops in the hopes of fighting in France. Wilson thought the idea was another flamboyant attempt on the part of Roosevelt to keep his name in the headlines, and rejected the idea. Elihu Root, who had been Roosevelt's Secretary of State, said to Roosevelt upon hearing of his request, "Theodore, if you will promise to die there, Wilson will give you any commission you want." As it happened, Roosevelt did not die until after the war, on January 6,1919. The death came as a result of an accumulation of maladies, including fever and infection contracted in a Brazilian exploration. On July 14,1918, he was informed about the death of his son Quentin, an army lieutenant, in France. What role this played in his quick decline can only be guessed at. Four of his other children had war experience, Theodore Roosevelt jr., Kermit Roosevelt, Ethel Carow Roosevelt, and Archibald Roosevelt. His oldest child, Alice Longworth Roosevelt, married the Speaker of the House, Nicholas Longworth. She reigned over official Washington for two generations as its diva, without benefit of music. |
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