Theodore Roosevelt Essay, Research Paper
Outline
Thesis: Theodore Roosevelt’s political presence altered the course of the
United States,
transforming it into a superpower fully ready to handle the challenges of
any opposition,
and changed the role of the president and executive branch of US
government, making it a
force to be reckoned with.
I. Introduction
II. Before Roosevelt
A. Post-Reconstructionist Views
B. The Industrial Revolution
C. The Gilded Age
1. Railroads
2. Robber Barons
3. Immigration
4. Standard Question
D. McKinley
III. The Roosevelt Era
A. Early Life
1. Influence of Parents
2. Invalidism
B. Early Political Career
1. Ending Corruption/Enforcing Laws
2. Political Bosses
3. Governorship
C. Presidential Era
1. Vice Presidential Race
2. Manipulation of the Press
3. Federal Regulatory Laws
4. Foreign Policy
5. Strong Executive Branch
D. Post-Presidential Era
1. Taft
2. The Progressive Party
IV. Post-Rooseveltian America
A. Wilson
1. Continued Progressivism
2. World War I
a. Inactivity
b. Activity
B. Life After Wilson
1. Implementation of Roosevelt’s Reforms
2. Roosevelt’s Influence Today
3. Influences in the Future
V. Conclusion
Theodore Roosevelt:
The Founder of an Era
The turn of the century has always been a big deal for modern
civilizations. One hundred
years of life is quite large compared with the average 70 or so given to
most. Because of
that, people tend to look in trends of decades, rather than centuries or
millennia. When it
does come time for a new century, when that second digit rotates, as it
does so seldom,
people tend to look for change. Events tend to fall before or after the
century, not on top
of it, and United States history, particularly, has had a tendency for
sudden change at the
century marks. Columbus’ accidental discovery of the West Indies in 1492
brought on the
exploration age in the 1500s. Jamestown colony, founded in 1607, was
England’s first
foothold on the New World. A massive population surge, brought on in part
by the import of
Africans, marks entry into the 18th century. Thomas Jefferson’s
presidency, beginning in
1800, changed the face of American politics. 1900 was a ripe year for
change, but needed
someone to help the change arrive. That someone was Theodore Roosevelt.
Roosevelt’s
political presence altered the course of the United States, transforming
it into a
superpower fully ready to handle the challenges of any opposition, and
changed the role of
the president and executive branch of US government, making it a force
with which to be
reckoned. As the first president with progressive views, Roosevelt enacted
the first
regulatory laws and prosecuted big businesses who had been violating them
and others for
years. Roosevelt also initiated the United States’ active interests in
other countries, and
began to spread the benefits of democracy throughout the world. Before
Roosevelt, the
United States was an inward-looking country, largely xenophobic to the
calls of the rest of
the world, and chiefly concerned with bettering itself. As one critic put
it, “Roosevelt
was the first modern president”(Knoll). After Roosevelt, the United States
would remain a
superpower, chiefly interested in all the world’s affairs for at least a
century (Barck 1).
It would be foolish to assume that Roosevelt was a fantastically powerful
individual who
was able to change the course of the United States as easily as Superman
might change the
course of a river. It would be more accurate to say Roosevelt was the
right person in the
right place at the right time. It is necessary, though, to show how the
United States was
progressing, and how Roosevelt’s presence merely helped to catalyze the
progression. It
has been said that when John Wilkes Booth murdered Abraham Lincoln, he
“extinguished the
light of the republic” (Cashman 1). While this is a small hyperbole, it
serves as an
example of the general mood that pervaded the period from 1865 to 1901.
The early
dominating factor was, of course, Reconstruction. Reconstruction was a
dirty game, and
nobody liked it. Johnson fought with congress and the end result proved
very little had
changed. The South was still largely agrarian, and the North was
commercial. Most
importantly, the Southerners and the Northerners still felt they had as
little to do with
each other as a fish does with a bicycle. To the young “Teedie” Roosevelt,
this must have
made itself apparent. He was born in a mixed household, where “Theodore
Roosevelt (Sr.) was
as profoundly…for the North as Martha Roosevelt was for the south”
(Hagedorn 10). The
fact that the family was able to live, from all accounts, very
harmoniously, is quite
astonishing and gives credit to the fine parents who raised young
Theodore.
Reconstruction’s greatest (and perhaps only) accomplishment was the
establishment of a
basis for industrialization. The basic destruction of the southern
agrarian process
combined with the greater need for items in the North caused the economy
of the post-war
United States to shift toward the cities (Nash 576). The general aim of
the Untied States
had turned toward the big cities, but was still focused on building the
nation’s power from
within. And along with the improvement of industry in the United States
came the spark of
ingenuity that found itself in the minds of great inventors like Edison
and Bell. Once
again maintaining the goal of “hasten[ing] and secur[ing] settlement,”
both men
concentrated on improvements in communications, improving the transmission
of light and
sound (Cashman 14). The presence of these two, who are representative of
so many others,
shows the interest the citizens of the United States had at this time in
improving their
infrastructure. It is interesting to note here that Roosevelt, as the
first president to
make use of the popular press to his advantage, grew up at the same time
as these men,
eleven years their junior. The period of the United States directly before
Roosevelt’s was
known as the Gilded Age, due to a book of the same name by Mark Twain that
made use of
references to “gild[ing] refined gold,” and “guilt” from Shakespeare
combined with the
“guilty, gilden guilds” that had sprung up in the forms of interest
groups, labor unions,
and monopolies (Cashman 3-4). Indeed, the most dominant figures in this
age (for the
presidents were certainly beneath mention) were the robber barons. These
individuals came
to power in two generations. The first, peppered by those such as Jay
Gould, Jim Fisk, and
Daniel Drew, rose to the top quickly by acquiring the nation’s railroads
through not always
legitimate means (Cashman 34). The railroads were power, as can be seen by
the significant
rise in miles of rail, nearly a 500% increase from 1865 to 1900. Those who
controlled the
railroads controlled the country, and were able to maintain a lock on the
industry. Later
robber barons, such as Rockefeller, Carnegie, and, of course, J. P.
Morgan, operated much
the same way, eliminating the competition by one way or another until they
could control
their industry (Cashman 38). As the three or four thousand tycoons made
their fortunes,
defying government, and basically creating a plutocracy of businessmen,
another large group
was entering the American melting pot in larger numbers than before. Ten
million people
came to the United States between 1860 and 1890, and the great majority of
them had little
more worth to their name save the clothes on their back and the boat
ticket that had
brought them to America (Cashman 86). Having nowhere to turn, the large
majority settled in
the port cities into which they came. These immigrations were largely
unrestricted; the
United States not yet having installed a quota system. The
Chinese-Exclusion act and the
subsequent “gentlemen’s agreement” with Japan slowed the influx of Asian
immigration after
1880, but these did not impact the numbers of immigrants as much as one
would think.
Americans could not flee, as there was no frontier left to speak of, and
assimilation
increasingly failed to be effective. The result was nativism, “a defensive
type of
nationalism” (Cashman 106). The need to impose the will of the American
civilization onto
other nations can be seen here, in its early stages. The main difference
between this era
and the next, in that respect, is that the jingoism had not yet left the
country. The
Gilded Age’s strongest presidential race would end up to be its last, and
the resulting
president, McKinley, can not be classified as a Gilded Age president.
However, the issue of
the Gold and Silver standards shows the United States for the last time as
a totally
inward-looking nation. Although a metal standard would not disappear from
United States
currency until well into the mid-twentieth century, and the question of
the purchase of
silver would again be raised by President Franklin Roosevelt, the Free
Silver campaign of
William Jennings Bryan versus the Gold Standard enforced by McKinley shows
the last
internal economic agitation until the great depression. The National
Grange died upon
McKinley’s election, and “after the excitement of Bryan’s Free Silver
campaign died down,
the agrarian ferment largely subsided” (Barck 21). The end of the old era
could now begin.
It is ironic that McKinley’s presidency ended in assassination, for
without the sudden
change of leadership in the White House in 1901, the transformation
undergone by the United
States may have appeared as gradual as it was intended to be. McKinley was
president over
the “closing years of the nineteenth century, mark[ing] the end of
comparative isolation
and the beginning of an epoch during which the United States emerged as a
world power”
(Barck 77). Indeed, McKinley fits this description of the end of the
nineteenth century
well. He was a very transitionary character; not as bland or powerless as
the three who had
come before him, yet still figurehead enough to be led by Mark Hanna, the
national
republican boss. McKinley’s stare typifies his character: “His stare was
intimidating in
its blackness and steadiness…Only very perceptive observers were aware
that there was no
real power behind the gaze: McKinley stared in order to concentrate a
sluggish, wandering
mind” (Morris 586). McKinley was president when the United States’ first
modern military
interventions began. However it is clear McKinley was not an expansionist
at heart. He
declared in his inaugural address, “We want no wars of conquest; we must
avoid the
temptation of territorial aggression”(Cashman 315). However, much of
America did want war
with Spain, and after the American ship Maine blew up in Havana, killing
266 soldiers,
Assistant Secretary of the Navy Theodore Roosevelt called for war with
Spain to free Cuba.
The subsequent defeat of the Spanish in 100 days and the capture of the
Philippines
demonstrates the expansionist nature of the United States increasing.
During the election
of 1900, Bryan ran against McKinley again. This time, both men campaigned
on the same side
of the same issue, advocating annexation of overseas territories (Cashman
329). This
confused Democrats and allowed McKinley’s re-election for the last year of
the nineteenth
century. The progress of the United States from the death of Lincoln to
the Assassination
of McKinley has shown the trend away from Jeffersonian views of a loose
government,
allowing the people to be independent, and into one more pro-government,
like that of
Hamilton. Coupled to this was a tendency to look outside United States
borders into the
global community. The pendulum of history had passed its middle mark and
was sweeping
upward. It needed, however, an individual to carry it to its apex.
Theodore Roosevelt was
in the right place at the right time. Whether he was the right person for
the job remains a
matter that must be dealt with. His foundations and his career demonstrate
that he was the
perfect person to succeed McKinley and take the United States into its
modern era.
Roosevelt was born on October 27, 1858, one week before Buchanan was
elected president, and
two and a half years before the outbreak of the Civil war. Not having much
in the way of
genuine learning skills at such an early age, Roosevelt, in a sense,
“slept through [the
war]” (Hagedorn 11). In another sense, he did not. Theodore Roosevelt was
born into a house
of strikingly opposite leaders. His father was a large, cheerful, powerful
man, who tended
to be joyful and move quickly. It is safe to say Theodore Roosevelt,
junior, received his
stature from the man bearing his name (Morris 34). If Roosevelt’s father
was a “northern
burgher,” his mother was an archetypal Southern belle, refined and
elegant. By all accounts
she was absolutely lovely, and had a wonderful taste for the beautiful
things in life
(Morris 36). From her, young Theodore inherited his love of the natural,
his sense of
decorum, and his strong wit. The even balance that existed in the
Roosevelt home fell into
a disarray of sorts as war broke out. TR, Senior was a Lincoln Republican
and desired
strongly a chance to fight, however his wife, her sister, and her mother,
all staunch
confederates, resided in the same house. To compromise, TR, Senior hired
someone to fight
for him and served the army in a civilian sense. TR, Junior has always
been known as a
staunch militaristic man. Although his father was, in his own words, “the
best man I ever
knew” (Miller 32), in his failure to fight for his government, Roosevelt
felt ashamed, and
never mentioned this blemish on his father’s great reputation in his
Autobiography. It is
speculated that it was this lack of military display that encouraged
Roosevelt to be so
military and almost hysterically desire warfare (Morris 40). Theodore
Roosevelt, Senior,
was always a strong individual in body and soul. Consequently, he felt
sympathy towards
those about him, and strove to help them by teaching mission schools,
providing care for
poor children, and finding jobs out west for those upon whom hard times
had fallen. He was
even known to take in invalid kittens, placing them in his coat-pockets
(Morris 34). The
powerful mind and will of Theodore Roosevelt, Junior, however, was born
into a sickly body.
Teedie suffered from bronchial asthma, and incurred, along with it, a host
of associated
diseases such as frequent colds, nervous diarrhea, and other problems
(Miller 31). He was
left very weak as a young child, and was often subject to taunting. His
father spoke to
him, saying:
Theodore, you have the mind but not the body, and without the help of the
body the mind
cannot go as far as it should. You must make your body. It is hard
drudgery to make
one’s body, but I know you will do it (Miller 46).
Accordingly, Teedie replied with fervor, “I’ll make my body!” Indeed he
did. The young
Roosevelt spent hours in the gym, working on weights to make himself
better. It was this
indomitable spirit that pushed Roosevelt forward, and urged him into his
form of powerful
politics. Theodore Roosevelt, Senior, had always hated politics. He had
received a
particularly nasty dose when caught up in the Rutherford B. Hayes
campaign. Roosevelt, a
Hayes supporter, had drawn the particular ire of Hayes’ opponent for the
Republican
nomination, Roscoe Conkling. Hayes attempted to put Roosevelt in as