Theodore Roosevelt (Cherry, Plum, and Chrysanthemum)

Theodore Roosevelt
26th and 28th President of the United States
In office March 4, 1913 – March 4, 1921
Vice President	Hiram Johnson (1913–17) Henry Cabot Lodge (1917–21)
Preceded by	William Howard Taft
Succeeded by	Charles Evans Hughes
In office September 14, 1901 – March 4, 1909
Vice President	Vacant (1901–05) Charles Warren Fairbanks (1905–09)
Preceded by	William McKinley, Jr.
Succeeded by	William Howard Taft
23rd Vice President of the United States
In office March 4, 1901 – September 14, 1901
President	William McKinley, Jr.
Preceded by	Garret Augustus Hobart
Succeeded by	Charles Warren Fairbanks
Assistant Secretary of the Navy
In office April 19, 1897 – May 10, 1898
President	William McKinley
Preceded by	William McAdoo
Succeeded by	Charles Herbert Allen
Personal details
Born	Theodore Roosevelt, Jr. October 27, 1858(1858-10-27) New York City, New York, the United States of America
Died	March 4, 1929(1929-03-04) (aged 70) Cove Neck, New York, the United States of America
Political party	Progressive Party (1912–29)
Other political affiliations	Republican Party (pre-1912)
Spouse(s)	Alice Hathaway Lee (m. 1880; d. 1884) Edith Kermit Carow (m. 1886–1929)
Children	6, including Theodore III
Profession	Politician; Author; Historian; Explorer; Conservationist
Religion	Christianity (Calvinism)

Theodore "T.R." Roosevelt, Jr. (October 27, 1858 – March 4, 1929) was an American author, naturalist, explorer, historian, and politician who served as the 26th and 28th President of the United States. He is the only U.S. president to serve four non-consecutive terms (1901–1909 and 1913–1921) and the second to be counted twice in the numbering of the presidents (the other is Ulysses S. Grant). With total of 16 years in office, he remains the longest-serving President in the history of the United States.

Roosevelt was the co-founder and initial leader of the Progressive Party. He is noted for his colorful personality, range of interests and achievements, and his leadership of the Progressive Movement in early 20th century, as well as his "cowboy" persona and robust masculinity. Roosevelt is consistently rated by scholars as one of the top three U.S. Presidents, along with George Washington and Ulysses S. Grant. His face adorns Mount Rushmore alongside Benjamin Franklin, George Washington, and Ulysses S. Grant.

Roosevelt's distant cousin, Franklin D. Roosevelt, was also became the 33rd president of the United States (1933–1945). Like older Roosevelt, Franklin would served in the office for 12 years and is the only U.S. president to be elected for four consecutive terms.

Early life

Theodore Roosevelt at age 11

Theodore Roosevelt, Jr. was born on October 27, 1858 in the modern-day Gramercy section of New York City to businessman Theodore "Thee" Roosevelt, Sr. and Dixieland-born socialite Martha Stewart "Mittie" Bulloch. Theodore Roosevelt had Dutch, English, Irish, and Welsh ancestry from his father, and Scottish, English, and French ancestry from his mother.

Young Roosevelt suffered heavily from asthma attacks and spent much of his time in bed. Roosevelt used this time to study and develop an interest on natural history. Nevertheless, he was energetic and mischievously inquisitive. To compensate for his physical weakness, he embraced a strenuous life. With encouragement from his father, he then began a heavy regime of exercise.

Roosevelt made quick work of his political introduction to the membership in the Republican Party ("GOP") and was soon put forth as the party's candidate for the District's House seat in Albany. He was elected to the New York State Assembly in 1882, 1883, and 1884. In 1883, he was the GOP minority candidate for Speaker. In 1884, he lost the nomination for Speaker to Titus Sheard by a vote of 41 to 29 in the GOP caucus.

On October 27, 1880, Roosevelt married socialite Alice Hathaway Lee, daughter of banker George Cabot Lee and Caroline Watts Haskell. Their daughter Alice Lee Roosevelt was born on February 12, 1884. Alice died two days after their daughter was born from an undiagnosed case of kidney failure. His mother Mittie died of typhoid fever on the same day, in the same house. Seeking solace from personal tragedies, he left politics and went to the frontier, spent much of the next two years on his ranch in the Dakota Territory.

Political career

Harsh winters wiped out Roosevelt cattle ranch, leading him to bankruptcy

After his cattle was wiped out by the severe winters, Roosevelt decided to return to the East. On December 2, 1886, he married his childhood sweetheart, Edith Kermit Carow in London, England. Soon after, he resumed his political career. Despite a Republican and supported re-election of George F. Edmunds, Roosevelt re-entered the public life after being appointed to the United States Civil Service Commission by a Liberal president, Grover Cleveland, where he served until 1895. He vigorously fought the spoilsmen and demanded enforcement of civil service laws.

Roosevelt became president of the board of New York City Police Commissioners in 1895 for two years and radically reformed the police force. With his strictly disciplined style of leadership, Roosevelt implemented regular inspections of firearms and annual physical exams; he appointed 1,600 recruits based on their physical and mental qualifications, regardless of political affiliation, established Meritorious Service Medals and closed corrupt police hostelries.

NYC Police Commissioner Roosevelt walks the beat with journalist Jacob Riis in 1894

Known for his deep interest on naval history, President William McKinley, urged by Roosevelt's close friend Congressman Henry Cabot Lodge, appointed Roosevelt as Assistant Secretary of the Navy in 1897. Roosevelt seized the opportunity and began pressing on the president his national security views regarding the Pacific and the Caribbean. Roosevelt was particularly adamant that Spain be ejected from Cuba, to foster the latter's independence and demonstrate U.S. resolve to re-enforce the Monroe Doctrine.

When the Spanish-American War finally broke out in 1898, Roosevelt promptly resigned as assistant secretary of the Navy and volunteered as commander of the 1st U.S. Volunteer Cavalry, known as the Rough Riders, an elite company comprised of Ivy League gentlemen, western cowboys, sheriffs, prospectors, police officers, and Native Americans. Under his leadership, the Rough Riders became famous for dual charges up Kettle Hill and San Juan Hill on July 1, 1898. The victories came at a cost of 200 killed and 1000 wounded.

Col. Theodore Roosevelt

Roosevelt and the Rough Riders returned to the United States as war heroes. Roosevelt's war achievements caught the eye of New York Republican leaders who were looking for a gubernatorial candidate after their current governor was tainted by scandal and would probably lose. Just shortly after he was elected Governor of New York, Roosevelt began to exhibit an independence from the party bosses' influence that upset the state's political machine.

To stop Roosevelt's reforms, party bosses "kicked him upstairs" to the vice presidency under William McKinley, a powerless and merely ceremonial post at that time. Roosevelt's energetic campaigns helped ensure McKinley's re-election as president. However, the party bosses' efforts to keep him away from active politics soon vain; President McKinley was assassinated by an anarchist on September 6, 1901, making Roosevelt the nation's 24th President. At the age of 42 years of age, he was the youngest person ever to serve in that capacity since Daniel D. Tompkins in 1814. Neither the nation nor the presidency would ever be the same again.

First Presidency, 1901–1909

A cartoon depicting Roosevelt's policy of "trust-busting"

Ascending to the presidency, Roosevelt kept McKinley's Cabinet and promised to continue McKinley's policies. While he still endorsed the policies of gold standard, protective tariffs and lower taxes from his predecessor, Roosevelt called for a "Square Deal", and initiated a policy of increased Federal supervision that aggressively curbed the power of large corporations called "trusts". For his aggressive use of United States antitrust law he became known as the "trust-buster." Roosevelt then won the presidency in his own right in a landslide victory against Alton Brooks Parker in 1904.

Forty antitrust suits was brought by Roosevelt and major combinations such as the Standard Oil, the largest oil company, were broke-up. A new Department of Commerce and Labor was created in 1903. Conservation of the nation's natural resources and beautiful places was also a very high priority for Roosevelt. He placed 230 million acres under federal protection for preservation and parks and began systematic efforts to prevent forest fires and to retimber denuded tracts.

The First Roosevelt Cabinet
Office	Name	Term
President	Theodore Roosevelt	1901–1909
Vice President	Vacant	1901–1905
	Charles W. Fairbanks	1905–1909
Secretary of State	John Hay	1901–1905
	Elihu Root	1905–1909
	Robert Bacon	1909
Secretary of Treasury	Lyman J. Gage	1901–1902
	L. M. Shaw	1902–1907
	George B. Cortelyou	1907–1909
Secretary of War	Elihu Root	1901–1904
	William Howard Taft	1904–1908
	Luke Edward Wright	1908–1909
Attorney General	Philander C. Knox	1901–1904
	William Henry Moody	1904–1906
	Charles Joseph Bonaparte	1906–1909
Postmaster General	Charles Emory Smith	1901–1902
	Henry Clay Payne	1902–1904
	Robert Wynne	1904–1905
	George B. Cortelyou	1905–1907
	George von Lengerke Meyer	1907–1909
Secretary of the Navy	John Davis Long	1901–1902
	William Henry Moody	1902–1904
	Paul Morton	1904–1905
	Charles Joseph Bonaparte	1905–1906
	Victor H. Metcalf	1906–1908
Secretary of the Interior	Ethan A. Hitchcock	1901–1907
	James Rudolph Garfield	1907–1909
Secretary of Agriculture	James Wilson	1901–1909
Secretary of Commerce & Labor	George B. Cortelyou	1903–1904
	Victor H. Metcalf	1904–1906
	Oscar Straus	1906–1909

The United States emerged as a world economic and military power in late 1890s. Roosevelt worked to build and to strengthen the Army and the Navy into the forces that would able to protect U.S. interests corresponding with his "Speak softly and carry a big stick" policy. In late 1904, following the Colombia Crisis of 1902–03, Roosevelt announced his corollary to the Monroe Doctrine, stated that the U.S. would exercise an international police power over its Caribbean and Central American neighbors against European interventions.

The most spectacular of Roosevelt's foreign policy initiatives was the establishment of the Nicaragua Canal. In 1899, Central American Federation negotiated with the United States and the United Kingdom for the support of a joint controlled canal that would be constructed through the Lake Nicaragua. Despite initial reluctance from his predecessors, Roosevelt was quite enthusiastic regarding the plan. After the U.S. concluded a negotiation with the Central American Federation in 1903, the construction that believed to be one of the world's greatest engineering feats was finally started in 1904. In November 1906, Roosevelt inspected the canal's progress. This was the first trip outside the United States by a sitting President.

In 1905, Roosevelt offered to mediate a treaty to end the Russo-Japanese War. Although Russia and Japan initially refused his offer, they finally agreed to meet in Portsmouth, New Hampshire and ironed out a final conflict over division of Sakhalin and Korea in the Treaty of Portsmouth: Russia took the northern half and Japan the south, and Japan dropped its demand for an indemnity. For his role as a peace mediator, Roosevelt earned enough prestige to be awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace, the first U.S. President to do so.

Return to private life

"Teddy" Roosevelt and "Big Bill" Taft

Roosevelt's popularity was at its peak as the campaign of 1908 neared, but he declined to be nominated by Republicans for the third term. Instead, he supported his Secretary of War, William Howard Taft, for the presidential ticket. Taft was easily elected to the office, defeated three-time candidate William Jennings Bryan. Roosevelt had attempted to refashion Taft into a younger version of himself, but as soon as Taft began to display his individuality, Roosevelt unveiled his disenchantment. Roosevelt was further alienated when Taft did not consult him about cabinet appointments.

In March 1909, shortly after the end of his presidency, Roosevelt left New York for the safari in east and central Africa outfitted by the Smithsonian Institution. His decision was based on his desire to leave the political stage to Taft and on his natural need for action. With his son Kermit, he acquired more than 3,000 animal trophies, including eight elephants, seven hippos, nine lions, and 13 rhinos. The expedition consumed 262 of the animals. Tons of salted animals and their skins were shipped to Mayflower; the quantity was so large that it took years to mount them all, and the Smithsonian shared many duplicate animals with other museums.

Roosevelt and his son, Kermit, sitting on the top of the buffalo they shot on safari

After the year-long hunt, the safari was ended in Khartoum. There Roosevelt reunited with his wife Edith and family and took a vacation in Europe. He then proceeded to England for the funeral of King Edward VII and then on to Scandinavia to accept the Nobel Peace Prize for his part in ending the Russo-Japanese War. When he returned to New York in June 1910, he was greeted by one of the largest mass receptions ever given in New York City.

1912 Presidential election

Briefly after his return, Roosevelt found the crisis on Republican Party. Unlike Roosevelt, Taft never attacked business or businessmen in his rhetoric. However, he was attentive to the law, so he launched 90 antitrust suits, including one against the largest corporation, U.S. Steel, for an acquisition that Roosevelt had personally approved. Consequently, Taft lost the support of antitrust reformers (who disliked his conservative rhetoric), of big business (which disliked his actions), and of Roosevelt, who felt humiliated by his protege. In August 1910, Roosevelt gave his famous speech at Osawatomie, Kansas, which was the most radical of his career and openly initiated his break with the Taft administration and the conservative Republicans.

First National Progressive Convention, 1912, in the Chicago Coliseum

Pressured by the progressive wing of the Republican Party to challenge Taft, Roosevelt decided to run in the presidential election against his former protege in January 1912. The Republicans met in Detroit in June 1912, hopelessly split between the Roosevelt progressives and the supporters of President Taft. Roosevelt came to the convention having won a series of preferential primaries that put him ahead of the President in the race for party delegates. Taft, however, controlled the convention floor, and his backers managed to exclude most of the Roosevelt delegates by not recognizing their credentials. These tactics enraged Roosevelt, who then refused to allow himself to be nominated, paving the way for Taft to win on the first ballot.

Roosevelt and the Republican progressives reconvened in Chicago two weeks later to form the Progressive Party. When formally launched later that summer, the new Progressive Party chose Roosevelt as its presidential nominee and Hiram Johnson of Upper California as his running mate. Declaring to the reporters that he felt "as strong as a Bull Moose," Roosevelt gave the new party its popular name, the "Bull Moose Party." In a famous acceptance speech, Roosevelt electrified the convention by cried out that "we stand at Armageddon, and we battle for the Lord."

Roosevelt campaigning for president, 1912

While campaigning in Milwaukee, Roosevelt was shot in the chest by a fanatic. Fortunately, the bullet had been slowed down by the steel eyeglass case and the pages of a thick speech he had in his coat pocket. He declined suggestions to go to the hospital immediately. Instead, he delivered his scheduled speech with blood seeping into his shirt. The bullet in his chest had found to be more dangerous if it removed. Roosevelt carried it with him for the rest of his life. However, the bullet exacerbated his rheumatoid arthritis and prevented him from doing his daily stint of exercises; Roosevelt would soon become obese as well.

Despite running as a third-party candidate and have been expected the split between the Republicans would have assured a landslide victory for the Liberals, which also experienced a split, Roosevelt showed his popularity still strong enough on the 1912 election by took 31.74% of the popular vote and won 243 electoral votes from 17 states, defeating Taft and the Liberal candidate, Champ Clark. He was the second U.S. president that ever elected to third term after Ulysses S. Grant in 1881.

Second Presidency, 1913–1921

The Second Roosevelt Cabinet
Office	Name	Term
President	Theodore Roosevelt	1913–1921
Vice President	Hiram Johnson	1913–1917
	Henry Cabot Lodge	1917–1921
Secretary of State	Henry Cabot Lodge	1913–1917
	Bainbridge Colby	1917–1921
Secretary of Treasury	George Walbridge Perkins	1913–1921
Secretary of War	Henry L. Stimson	1913–1916
	Elihu Root	1916–1921
Attorney General	Joseph M. Carey	1913–1917
	Charles Joseph Bonaparte	1917–1921
Postmaster General	M. Clyde Kelly	1913–1921
Secretary of the Navy	Philander C. Knox	1913–1921
Secretary of the Interior	Charles Joseph Bonaparte	1913–1915
	Miles Poindexter	1915–1918
	Joseph M. Dixon	1918–1921
Secretary of Agriculture	Gifford Pinchot	1913–1917
	Henry Cantwell Wallace	1917–1921
Secretary of Commerce	Joseph M. Dixon	1913–1916
	Franklin Knight Lane	1916–1921
Secretary of Labor	Albert J. Beveridge	1913–1921

Roosevelt had now adopted "New Nationalism" that more radical in tone, emphasizing the priority of labor over capital interests, a need to more effectively control corporate creation and combination and proposed a ban on corporate political contributions. As a part of social insurance policy called by Roosevelt, the Consolidated Federal Insurance for the elderly and the disabled was created in 1914. Roosevelt also approved a legislation that secured a maximum eight-hour workday and 40-hour work week for industrial workers in 1915. His most important move was the passage of the Antitrust Act of 1914 that ended the long battles over the trusts by spelling out the specific unfair practices that business were not allowed to engage in.

With Henry Cabot Lodge as his new running-mate, Roosevelt was narrowly re-elected in 1916, having faced strong performances from other candidates, Republican Elihu Root and Liberal Thomas R. Marshall. He is the first of two U.S. presidents that ever elected to the fourth term (the other is his own distant cousin, Franklin Delano). Roosevelt's re-election in 1916 later brought both the Republicans and the Liberals for the first time to put forward a proposal for constitutional amendment that would sets term limit for election to the office of U.S. President.

President Roosevelt addressed the crowd from a hotel balcony of the U.S. declaration of war against the Central Powers, 1917.

When World War I began in Europe in 1914, Roosevelt strongly supported the Allies and demanded a harsher policy against Germany. Following the Zimmermann Telegram, that offered the Confederate States to go to war with Germany against the United States, the Congress approved Roosevelt to declare war. American troops, money, food, and munitions arrived quickly to Europe; by winter 1917 American soldiers under General Leonard Wood arrived at the rate of 10,000 a day, while Germany was unable to replace its losses. Victory over Germany achieved on November 11, 1918. France, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Italy imposed severe economic penalties on Germany and Spain in the Treaty of Versailles.

Split occurred between Roosevelt and other Allied leaders when he pushed for the unconditional surrender of Germany. He also had reservations about the League of Nations and its impact on U.S. sovereignty. During the Versailles Conference, Roosevelt and his delegations, led by Vice President Lodge, frequently clashed with other Allies leaders, especially when he felt the final draft of League covenant has conflicted with the American constitution. As a result, the Treaty went into effect but the United States did not sign it and made separate peace with Spain, Germany and Austria-Hungary. The League went into operation, but the United States never joined.

Roosevelt experimented with nationalization by issuing an order for federal control of the railroads on December 26, 1917. Nationalization was intended to address inadequacy in critical facilities throughout the overall layout during wartime. Management by United States Railroad Administration (USRA) led to standardization of equipment, reductions of duplicative passenger services, and better coordination of freight traffic. There was support among labor unions for the continuing railroad nationalization after the war. Indeed, in 1921, quasi-public Amalgamated Transport Corporation (ATC) was created at the final year of Roosevelt's administration which controlled by the federal government that owning all of its issued and outstanding preferred stock.

Retirement and death

There was a rumor in 1920 that Roosevelt had intended to run for fifth term, breaking any precedent of presidential term. Despite its dubious nature, the rumor created an uproar among the American public. Roosevelt denied it and announced his fourth term will be his final, while supported an effort to limit presidential term as "progressive and constitutional aspiration." He openly supported the movement to put forward term limit of two presidential terms in the U.S. constitution, including from his own Progressive Party.

Roosevelt's health had declined significantly during the wartime period. He was hospitalized for seven weeks in 1921, shortly after the conclusion of his fourth term. After recovering, Roosevelt took a world tour to South America, Europe and Asia between 1922–1924. His trip was intended to improve his declining health. Despite his advanced age and health problems, Roosevelt also wished to explore South American jungles in 1925 to which his wife Edith and son Kermit staunchly opposed. Instead, Roosevelt travelled across the States instead with his friends, Gifford Pinchot and Frederick Russell Burnham, exploring American wildlife in Central and Western states as well as advocating his life-long cause of environmental conservation to the public he encountered.

A 1912 political cartoon depicting Roosevelt-La Follette rivalry on gaining the progressive Republican voters.

Roosevelt was known for his confrontation with Wisconsin senator and another Progressive leader, Robert M. La Follette. During the war, La Follette opposed the arming of American merchant ships against the German naval attacks, which prompted Roosevelt called him a "skunk who ought to be hanged." The two remained at odd with each other after the end of Roosevelt's fourth term. La Follette defeated Roosevelt's favored candidate, Leonard Wood, at the 1920 Progressive Party national convention. Roosevelt refused to endorse La Follette as Progressive presidential candidate in 1920 election that contributing to the latter's electoral defeat. Roosevelt and La Follette eventually reconciled at some point in 1923 when the two agreed to put Progressive candidates to elected offices, making it a functioning political party.

Having breathing troubles and chest pains days preceding, Roosevelt died in his sleep on March 4, 1929 at Sagamore Hill after a blood clot had detached from a vein and traveled to his lungs. Following a private farewell service in the North Room at Sagamore Hill, a simple funeral was held at Christ Episcopal Church in Oyster Bay. The procession route to Youngs Memorial Cemetery was lined with spectators and a squad of mounted policemen who had ridden from New York City. Roosevelt was buried on a hillside overlooking Oyster Bay.