Tate Houff
Professor Harris
Hist. 298
1/27/15
Peace is Second to Righteousness
On October 4, 1914, Theodore Roosevelt wrote a newspaper article advising America on
making and keeping peace treaties, and what America should do while staying neutral. The
article is “Theodore Roosevelt on the Danger of Making Unwise Peace Treaties”, written right
after World War One had begun. In his article, Theodore Roosevelt is giving advice to the
American government and people on how to remain at peace during this time of war, and still
keep the country’s righteousness. He starts out by saying that a country should not enter into a
peace treaty that cannot be kept. He says that breaking peace treaties shines a bad light on a
country, but entering into a peace treaty without the intention of keeping it is even worse.
Roosevelt goes onto his main point, which is that countries that are neutral should not rely on the
goodness of other countries and not build up a military. “Great Britain owes its immunity from
invasion purely to its navy and to the fact that that navy has been sedulously exercised in time of
peace so as to prepare it for war.”1. Roosevelt advises America that it is important for countries
to build up a military presence to keep itself neutral. Belgium had very little military presence,
and therefore Germany invaded them without any fear of retaliation. Roosevelt expands upon
this thought by saying the Hague Treaty ,all of the major countries signed, did not work due to it
not having a police body to enforce the laws it laid down. Roosevelt states that peace is
1.Theodore Roosevelt, “Theodore Roosevelt
Treaties,” New York Times, October 4, 1914.
on the Danger of Making Unwise Peace
important, but without a military presence a neutral country cannot protect itself against
aggressive nations.
Roosevelt is writing this article right after the Hague treaty, and all other peace treaties
fail due to World War One beginning. Him advising America to not make dangerous peace
treaties and to build up an army, even though America was neutral at the time, makes sense in
the historical context. The countries of Europe, and many other countries around the world, were
drawn into war because of broken and kept peace treaties. One country went to war with another,
and because of peace treaties, other countries were obligated to join in. The Spanish American
had ended 16 years earlier and Roosevelt, like many Americans, did not want to become
involved in this war. Roosevelt is speaking for Isolationists in this article laying out a plan to
keep America peaceful, without sacrificing righteousness. In my opinion, Roosevelt realized that
Woodrow Wilson was leaning towards making a treaty with Great Britain and he wrote this
article to advise him and the rest of America to think before going in on treaties with other
countries. He saw that a treaty was inevitable for America’s future, so he tried to make it clear
that America should avoid unwise treaties and should build up their military so they are
protected in case they are dragged into War World One.
Theodore Roosevelt, being the extremely important man he is, makes this document
significant to American history. It shows the isolationist sentiment that was in America at the
time, and it logically gives answers to many questions Americans had on how to react to this
World War. This primary source represents and extremely intelligent and important political
figure advising a nation on what is best during a controversial time. Theodore Roosevelt is trying
to keep his nation out of this terrible war, but to remain a strong nation, America must build up a
military and be ready for war in response to aggressive nations. All Roosevelt wants is peace, but
peace comes second to standing up for what is right and taking action.
Bibliography
Roosevelt, Theodore. “Theodore Roosevelt on the Danger of Making Unwise Peace Treaties.”
New York Times, October 4, 1914.