Theodore Roosevelt:
A Life and Presidency
The many faces of Teddy
Roosevelt…
T.R. was the first president to…
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Fly in an airplane.
Submerge in a submarine.
Own a car.
Have a telephone.
Travel outside the U.S. as president.
Invite an African-American to the White
House.
• Win a Nobel Prize.
"Speak softly and carry a big
stick; you will go far"
"It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points
out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer
of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs
to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face
is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives
valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and
again, because there is no effort without error or
shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms,
the great devotions, who spends himself for a
worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end,
the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the
worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly,
so that his place shall never be with those cold and
timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat."
Early life:
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New York, wealthy, republican.
Suffered from terrible asthma.
Average boxer.
Harvard. (lawyer)
Badlands, South Dakota.
NY state rep, NY Police commissioner, NY
state Governor.
Theodore Roosevelt Sr.
Greatheart”
Teddy, 18
Brother Elliot
Sister Corinne
Future 2nd wife,
Edith Carow
Martha “Mittie” Roosevelt
Teddy at Harvard; member of rowing team
Teddy in the Badlands, SD
T.R.’s Animals:
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Black Bear cub, Jonathan Edwards.
A badger, Josiah
Dogs Jack and Skip
Blue Macaw, Eli
Ponies, Algonquin and General Grant
Kitten, Tom Quartz
Garden snake, Emily Spinach
Horses, Little Texas, Rain in the Face, and
Bliestein.
Presidency:
• McKinley assassinated in Buffalo, NY
1901.
Progressive policies…
• “Square Deal”
-set out to reform many of America’s
business practices.
-“trustbusting”
broke up unfair company trusts
ex: Northern Securities Company
The “Trustbuster”
Progressive policies cont’d…
• Elkins Act (1903)
-railroads no longer give refunds to
favored customers
• Meat Inspection Act (1906)
-government inspection of meat shipped
cross-state.
• Pure Food and Drug Act
-outlawed manufacture, sale, or transportation of
food and drugs containing harmful ingredients.
-also, required ingredients to be listed on labels.
The miracle drug!
Progressive policies cont’d…
• Conservation measures…
-Gifford Pinchot
-150 million acres of forest reserves.
-Newlands Reclamation Act (1902)
-irrigation used to make damaged lands
usable.
-National Conservation commission.
The Teddy Bear
Progressivism in action:
Consumer
Labor
Conservation
Pure Food & Drug Act
Arbitrating labor strikes:
reclamation
Meat Inspection Act
coal miner’s strike
protecting forests
SQUARE
DEAL
Big Business
trustbusting
Elkins Act
Sherman Anti-Trust Act
Spanish American War:
• Volunteered to fight in Cuba.
• Brought along his “Rough Riders.”
-frat boys, cowboys, athletes,
etc…
• Helped win the Battles of Kettle Hill and
San Juan Hill.
• “War hero status”
T.R.’s Foreign Policy:
• The U.SA. Needs to be an imperial power.
• The position of American President should
be more powerful.
• The Western Hemisphere belongs to the
U.S.A.
1.Roosevelt Corollary:
• Extension of Monroe Doctrine.
• “police power” to U.S.A. in W.
Hemisphere.
• Aimed to protect Latin American countries’
independence.
(Cuba, Haiti, Dom. Rep, Nicaragua)
Chronic wrongdoing…may in America, as
elsewhere, ultimately require intervention
by some civilized nation, and in the W.
Hemisphere the adherence of the United
States to the Monroe Doctrine may force
the U.S.A., however reluctantly…to the
exercise of an international police power.
“international police power”
2. The Great White Fleet
• T.R. exercised American military power
with a naval world tour.
• 4 Naval squadrons.
• 14 months.
• 43,000 sailors.
Onward, Christian soldiers, marching as to war,
With the cross of Jesus going on before.
Christ, the royal Master, leads against the foe;
Forward into battle see His banners go!
Onward then, ye people, join our happy throng,
Blend with ours your voices in the triumph song.
Glory, laud, and honor unto Christ the King,
This through countless ages men and angels sing.
Onward Christian Soldiers!
Great white fleet’s tour…
3. Panama Canal
• T.R. wants to unite lands of foreign
interest.
• Offers to but Canal Zone from Columbia
-rejected; proceeds to assist
Panamanian rebellion against
Columbia.
• Hay-Bunau Varilla Treaty: gives U.S. 10
mi. wide Canal Zone.
“Bullying” Columbia
Problems w/ the canal:
1. Mosquitos = yellow fever
and malaria.
2. Landslides
3. Humidity
4. Impoverished/polluted
Panama
You are going to have the fever,
Yellow Eyes!
In about ten days from now
Iron bands will clamp your brow;
Your tongue resembles curdled cream,
A rusty streak the center seam;
Your mouth will taste of untold things,
With claws and horns and fins and wings
Your head will weigh a ton or more,
And forty gales within it roar!
-James Stanley Gilbert
Making the dirt fly!
The big stick in the Caribbean Sea
Facts about the Panama Canal:
• Aug. 15, 1914 first passage.
• 43,000 workers and 10 years.
• A boat traveling from NY to San Francisco saves 7,872
miles by using the canal.
• Highest toll ever paid: 1995- $141,349.97 (cruise ship)
• Lowest toll ever paid: 1928- $0.36 (swimmer)
• Crossing the canal takes avg. 8-10 hrs.
• Fastest transit through the canal: 2 hrs 41 min.
(Hydrofoil)
• 2/3 of ships using the canal are header to the U.S.
Other interesting side notes:
• Independent Order of Panamanian Kangaroos.
• Dirt from canal could build a Great Wall like
China’s from San Fran. to NY.
• Canal dirt could build 63 Pyramids.
• 1 city block-sized tower of canal dirt would go up
19 miles (100,000 ft.).
• Modern tech. and advancements would not have
made the process any easier or shorter.
• 1 lock upright would be among the top 5 tallest
buildings in the world.
4. Treaty of Portsmouth:
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Portsmouth New Hampshire.
Teddy wins Nobel Peace Prize.
Settles Russo-Japanese War
1905.
U.S. had assisted Japan in modernization
(Matthew Perry)