Theodore Roosevelt
Theodore Roosevelt was small and weak when he was
a boy. His eyesight was bad, and he suffered from
asthma. With the help of his father, he was able to
overcome his weakness. He lifted weights and practiced
gymnastics every day. He also rode horseback, swam,
hiked, and studied wrestling, boxing and judo.
The hard work paid off. He overcame his asthma and
became well and strong. During the time when he was
ill, he had to spend a lot of time in bed. He loved to
read, and continued to love reading all his life.
Roosevelt liked a challenge. He left his home in New
York and went to North Dakota to become a rancher. He read everything he could about
ranching, and hired people who could teach him about cattle.
He didn't let anything stand in the way of duty. Once when he was running for president,
someone shot him in the chest. He insisted on giving his speech before he had his wound
treated. He said, "I have a message to deliver, and I will deliver it as long as there is life in
my body."
He only slept 4 or 5 hours a night. He would sit up and read or work while his family slept.
He was a military man. His motto was, "Speak softly and carry a big stick." Once in a battle
in the Spanish-American war, he led his cavalry soldiers * (called Rough Riders) straight up
San Juan Hill, even though he feared that he or his soldiers might be wounded.
He was also very concerned about America's natural resources; the land, forests, and rivers.
He agreed to protect 150 million acres of wilderness land.
During cattle drives, he worked right along beside the cowboys.
He went into politics because he decided he needed to serve the public. He was honest, and
expected others to be honest, also.
He served as the 26th president of the United States from 1901 to 1909. He helped to bring
about the construction of the Panama Canal.
Alfred Thayer Mahan
Alfred Thayer Mahan was born in West Point,
New York, in 1840, educated at the U.S. Naval
Academy and served as a Union naval officer
during the Civil War. He was a lecturer at the
Newport War College, where he prepared ideas
that would later appear in his highly influential
writings. Mahan served twice as president of
the college, 1886 to 1889 and 1892 to 1893.
The Influence of Sea Power upon History
appeared in 1890 and The Influence of Sea
Power upon the French Revolution and Empire in 1892. These works made
Alfred Thayer Mahan one of the leading spokesmen for the age of
imperialism. He downplayed the philanthropic side of overseas involvement
and concentrated on harsh political realities. According to his analysis of
history, the great powers were those that maintained strong navies and
merchant marines. He urged the United States forward in its naval building
programs.
Alfred Thayer Mahan also argued that modern navies needed repair and
coaling stations. Those facilities would not be dependable if controlled by
other nations. This reasoning inferred a rationale for American acquisition
of port facilities throughout the world.
Alfred Thayer Mahan wrote at the time of a great international arms race.
He exerted a major impact on Theodore Roosevelt, as well as upon leaders
in Britain, Japan and Germany.
Josiah Strong
Josiah Strong (1847-1916) was an American Protestant
clergyman, missionary leader and author. He was a leader
of the Third Great Awakening and a founder of the Social
Gospel movement that sought to apply Protestant
religious principles to solve the social ills brought on by
industrialization, urbanization and immigration. He served
as General Secretary (1886-1898) of the Evangelical
Alliance for the United States, a coalition of Protestant
missionary groups. After being forced out he set up his
own group, the League for Social Service (1898-1916),
and edited its magazine The Gospel of the Kingdom.
His most well-known and influential work was Our Country: Its Possible Future and Its
Present Crisis (1885), intended to promote domestic missionary activity in the American
West. Historians suggest it may have encouraged support for imperialistic American
foreign policies among American Protestants. He pleaded as well for more missionary
work in the nation's cities, and for reconciliation to end racial conflict. He was one of the
first to warn that Protestants (most of whom lived in rural areas or small towns) were
ignoring the problems of the cities and the working classes.
He believed that all races could be improved and uplifted and thereby brought to Christ.
In the "Possible Future" portion of Our Country, Strong argued that the superior AngloSaxon race (that is, the British and American peoples) had a responsibility to "civilize and
Christianize" the world. The "Crisis" portion of the text described the grave "perils" that
America faced – Mormonism, Socialism, intemperance, excessive wealth, Popery (the
Roman Catholic Church), boss-ridden large cities, and unassimilated immigrants.
Conservative Protestants rejected his Social Gospel and argued that missionaries should
spend their time preaching the Gospel; they allowed for charitable activity, but argued it
did not actually save souls.
William McKinley
McKinley served from 1861 until 1865 in the Twenty-third Ohio
Volunteer Infantry. He saw action at Antietam where he was
promoted to second lieutenant for valor. He eventually rose the level
of brevet major. After the war he began practicing law. In 1887 he
was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives. He served until
1883 and again from 1885-91. In 1892, he was elected to be
Governor of Ohio where he served until he became president.
During McKinley's time in office, Hawaii was annexed. This would be
the first step towards statehood for the island territory. In 1898, the Spanish-American War began with
the Maine incident. On February 15, the U.S. battleship Maine which was stationed in Havana harbor in
Cuba exploded and sank. 266 of the crew were killed. The cause of the explosion is not known to this day.
However, the press led by newspapers such as that published by William Randolph Hearst wrote as
though Spanish mines had destroyed the ship. "Remember the Maine!" became the rallying cry.
On April 25, 1898, war was declared against Spain. Commodore George Dewey destroyed Spains' Pacific
fleet while Admiral William Sampson destroyed the Atlantic fleet. U.S. troops then captured Manila and
took possession of the Philippines. In Cuba, Santiago was captured. The U.S. also captured Puerto Rico
before Spain asked for peace. On December 10, 1898, the Paris Peace Treaty was created which had
Spain give up its claim to Cuba and give Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippine Islands in exchange for
$20 million.
In 1899, Secretary of State John Hay created the Open Door policy where the U.S. asked for China to
make it so that all nations would be able to trade equally in China. However, in June 1900 the Boxer
Rebellion occurred in China which targetted Western missionaries and foreign communities. The
Americans joined forces with Great Britain, France, Germany, Russia, and Japan to stop the rebellion.
One final important act during McKinley's time in office was the Godl Standard Act where by the U.S. was
officially placed on the gold standard.
McKinley was shot two times by anarchist Leon Czolgosz while the president was visiting the Pan-American
Exhibit in Buffalo, New York on September 6, 1901. He died on September 14, 1901. Czolgosz stated that
he shot McKinley because he was an enemy of working people. He was convicted of the murder and
electrocuted on October 29, 1901.
Mark Twain
Samuel Langhorn Clemens, otherwise known as Mark Twain, was born in
Florida, Missouri in 1835. He spent most of his boyhood years in Hannibal,
Missouri, a port on the Mississippi River which later became the setting for
some of his most famous stories.
In 1862 Clemens became a reporter on the Territorial Enterprise in Virginia
City, Nevada after giving up on silver mining. The following year, he began
using the pen name, "Mark Twain" which was a phrase that he picked up off the Mississippi River meaning
“two fathoms deep.” Twain’s books were often influenced by his own personal travels and experiences.
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer delivers us to his childhood town on the Mississippi. Readers travel with
him on the Mississippi River in Life on the Mississippi (1883) as Clemens relives his life as a pilot when he
returns to the river ten years later and discovers the changes that occurred while he was away. The
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, written in 1884, displayed the cruelty and hypocrisy of people and their
ideas from the eyes of a young boy helping a runaway slave get to freedom.
At beginning of the Spanish-American War, Twain was residing in Europe and for the most part was in
support of the conflict with Spain and the Philippines. The Treaty of Paris, which gave control of Cuba,
Guam, Puerto Rico, and the Philippines to the U.S. quickly changed his opinion on the matter. Twain was
disgusted by the fact that a war which had been meant to give freedom was really only a pretext for
further expansion for the U.S.
Twain’s return to the United States in 1900 was widely publicized, as were his strong views on
imperialism. Soon after he joined the Anti-Imperialist League. After sending his condemnation of
imperialism, “A Salutation Speech From the Nineteenth Century to the Twentieth” to both the League and
the New York Herald, Twain was asked to take the position as vice-president of the League. Although he
declined to work on customary tasks he would continue to write and speak in support of anti-imperialism.
Mark Twain strongly believed that the U.S. could not be an empire and a republic at the same time. He
condemned the racism against the Filipinos and argued that the Filipinos were perfectly able to govern
themselves. Because the Spanish concentration camps in Cuba had given the U.S. extra incentive to
support Cuban freedom, Twain especially spoke out against similar U.S. camps in the Philippines.
In 1901, Twain published “To the Person Sitting in Darkness” which criticized war in the Philippines and
the missionary activities in China following the Boxer Rebellion. This was to become the League’s most
popular publication.