Theodore Roosevelt

Theodore Roosevelt

Order: 26th President

Term of Office: September 14, 1901 - March 4, 1909

Followed: William McKinley

Succeeded by: William Howard Taft

Date of Birth Wednesday, October 27, 1858

Place of Birth: New York City

Date of Death: Monday, January 6, 1919

Place of Death: Oyster Bay, New York

First Lady: Edith Kermit Carow

Occupation: author, lawyer

Political Party: Republican

Vice President: Charles Warren Fairbanks (1905-1909)

Nicknames: Teddy, TR, Trust-Buster

Theodore Roosevelt (October 27, 1858 - January 6, 1919) was the twenty-fifth (1901) Vice President and the twenty-sixth (1901-1909) President of the United States, succeeding to the office upon the assassination of William McKinley.

Biography

Sickly as a young man, he took to physical exercise and became a sporting and outdoor enthusiast, frequenting such areas of natural beauty as the Grand Canyon. His energetic example influenced many to take up physical exercise during the urban sports boom in the early part of the century.

Roosevelt was born in New York City, October 27, 1858. He graduated from Harvard University in 1880. He was a member of New York State Assembly from 1882-1884. He moved to North Dakota and lived on his ranch, then returned to New York City in 1886, where he was appointed by President Benjamin Harrison as a member of the United States Civil Service Commission 1889-1895, when he resigned to become president of the New York Board of Police Commissioners. He resigned this position upon his appointment by President William McKinley as Assistant Secretary of the Navy. He held that post from 1897 to 1898, when he resigned to fight in the Spanish-American War.

Roosevelt rose to national prominence during the Spanish-American War as commander of the "Rough Riders". Before and after the war, he distinguished himself in New York City and State politics, as police commissioner and state governor. He made such a concerted effort to root out corruption and "machine" politics that, it is said, Republican leaders in New York advanced him as a running mate for William McKinley in the 1900 election simply to get rid of him.

Roosevelt assumed the presidency after the assassination of McKinley, and then in 1904 ran for office in his own right. Vice presidents had assumed the presidency due to the death of a president in the past, but Roosevelt became the first to win election to a second term on his own. One of his first notable acts as President was to deliver a 20,000-word speech to the House of Representatives on December 3, 1901 asking Congress to curb the power of trusts "within reasonable limits". For this and subsequent actions he has been called a "trust buster". Later in his presidency he gave tacit support to rebels in Panama to form a nation independent from Colombia in order to ensure that the United States could build the Panama Canal. Roosevelt felt that a passage through the Isthmus of Panama was vital to create a strong and cohesive United States Navy. He also worked on conserving environmental wonders and resources, even visiting famed preservationist John Muir in Yosemite Valley in 1903. Showing his interest in foreign policy, he helped mediate an end to the Russo-Japanese War which, in 1906, earned him the Nobel Peace Prize, the first American to win the prize in any of the categories. Then on November 9, 1906 he made history by becoming the first sitting US President to make an official trip outside of the United States when he left for a trip to Panama to inspect the construction progress of the canal there. He was noted for other presidential "firsts", such as: first president to fly in an airplane (together with Arch Hoxsey on October 11, 1910), first to submerge in a submarine (aboard the USS Plunger in 1905), etc.

In spite of his popularity, he decided not to run for reelection in 1908 (a move that he would later regret for the rest of his life). Instead he backed longtime friend William Howard Taft who he thought would carry on his policies. After Taft won, however, Roosevelt became increasingly annoyed as Taft proved to be his own man with his own policy agenda (which often ran counter to what Roosevelt would have liked).

As a result in 1912, Roosevelt ran for president on the United States Progressive Party ("Bull Moose") ticket, thus undermining popular support for Taft. While campaigning in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, he was shot by saloonkeeper John Schrank in a failed assassination attempt on October 14, 1912. With a fresh flesh wound and the bullet still in him, Roosevelt still delivered his scheduled speech. He was not seriously wounded although his doctors thought it too dangerous to attempt to remove the bullet lodged in his chest and he carried it with him until he died. The gun used was a Colt Police Positive revolver in .38 S&W caliber, serial number 58714. In spite of this he not only lost the race but split the Republican vote, thus ensuring a win by Democrat Woodrow Wilson. Roosevelt disliked Wilson even more than his former friend Taft and ran again in 1916 in an effort to prevent Wilson from being reelected. He lost that election as well.

He died at Oyster Bay, Nassau County, New York on January 6, 1919, and was buried in Young's Memorial Cemetery.

Theodore Roosevelt is depicted fictionally in Gore Vidal's novel "Empire" and Harry Turtledove's How Few Remain.

The conservationist president

Theodore Roosevelt is considered by many to be the nation's first Conservation President. "There can be nothing in the world more beautiful than the Yosemite, the groves of the giant sequoias and redwoods, the Canyon of the Colorado, the Canyon of the Yellowstone, the Three Tetons; and our people should see to it that they are preserved for their children and their children's children forever, with their majestic beauty all unmarred," he said.

During his presidency, Roosevelt established the United States Forest Service, signed into law the creation of five National Parks, and signed the 1906 Antiquities Act under which he proclaimed 18 national monuments. He also established the first 51 Bird Reserves, 4 Game Preserves, and 150 National Forests. The area of the United States placed under public protection by Theodore Roosevelt totals approximately 230,000,000 acres.

Roosevelt's concern for conservation grew out of his experiences in North Dakota. Roosevelt first came to the badlands in September 1883 on a hunting trip. The 24-year-old Roosevelt was bursting with anticipation about shooting a bison. This feat took him 10 days to accomplish since by the time he arrived the last large herds of bison were gone, having been decimated by hide hunters and disease.

Before returning to New York, just two weeks after he arrived, Roosevelt became interested in the cattle business and entered into a partnership to raise cattle on the Maltese Cross Ranch. Five months later his wife, a Boston heiress named Alice Hathaway Lee, and his mother, Minnie Bulloch Roosevelt, died on the same day. Grief-stricken, Roosevelt decided to leave the East and increase his interests in the cattle business. He returned to North Dakota in 1884 and established the Elkhorn Ranch. (Years later, Roosevelt's childhood friend and second wife, Edith Carow, reportedly told her stepdaughter, Alice Lee Roosevelt, that it was probably a blessing that Roosevelt's first wife had died young, because she would have "bored him to death.")

During his years in North Dakota, Roosevelt thrived on the vigorous outdoor lifestyle and actively participated in the life of a working cowboy. Of this time he said, "I do not believe there ever was any life more attractive to a vigorous young fellow than life on a cattle ranch in those days. It was a fine, healthy life, too; it taught a man self-reliance, hardihood, and the value of instant decision...I enjoyed the life to the full." This was an important time in his development, and in fact, he once remarked that, "I never would have been President if it had not been for my experiences in North Dakota." Roosevelt actively ranched in the badlands until 1887 but maintained ranching interest in the area until 1898.

Whenever he managed to spend time in North Dakota, Roosevelt became more and more alarmed by the damage that was being done to the land and its wildlife. He witnessed the virtual destruction of some big game species, such as bison and bighorn sheep. Overgrazing destroyed the grasslands and with them the habitats for small mammals and songbirds. Conservation increasingly became one of his major concerns. "We have fallen heirs to the most glorious heritage a people ever received, and each one must do his part if we wish to show that the nation is worthy of its good fortune."

Today, Roosevelt's dedication to conservation is remembered with a national park that bears his name in the colorful North Dakota badlands. Theodore Roosevelt National Park is home to a variety of plants and animals, including bison, prairie dogs, and elk.

Teddy bears are named after him. His nickname was Teddy, and toy bear manufactures took to naming them after him because once on a hunting trip he refused to kill a bear cub.

On March 23, 1909, shortly after the end of his second term as President, Roosevelt left New York for a post-presidency safari in Africa. The trip was sponsored by the Smithsonian Institution and National Geographic Society and received world-wide media attention.

Supreme Court appointments

Oliver Wendell Holmes - 1902
William Rufus Day - 1903
William Henry Moody - 1906

U.S. presidential election, 1900
U.S. presidential election, 1904
U.S. presidential election, 1908
U.S. presidential election, 1912
U.S. presidential election, 1916

External link

Preceded by:
William McKinley

Presidents of the United States

Succeeded by:
William Howard Taft

Modern Usage: Theodore Roosevelt

Domain	Usage
Clever	The American people abhor a vacuum. (references; author: Theodore Roosevelt) All the resources we need are in the mind. (references; author: Theodore Roosevelt) Don't foul, don't flinch. Hit the line hard. (references; author: Theodore Roosevelt) Do what you can, with what you have, where you are. (references; author: Theodore Roosevelt) Speak softly and carry a big stick; you will go far. (references; author: Theodore Roosevelt)
Movie/TV Titles	Col. Theodore Roosevelt and Officers of His Staff (1898) Theodore Roosevelt (1898)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Commercial Usage: Theodore Roosevelt

Domain	Title
Books	Mornings on Horseback: The Story of an Extraordinary Family, a Vanished Way of Life and the Unique Child Who Became Theodore Roosevelt (reference) The Essential Theodore Roosevelt (Library of Freedom) (reference) The Lion's Pride: Theodore Roosevelt and His Family in Peace and War (reference) Theodore Roosevelt (reference) Theodore Roosevelt Jr.: The Life of a War Hero (reference) (more book examples)

Music	Halvorsen: Fossegrimen; Norway's Greeting to Theodore Roosevelt (reference) (more classical music examples; more popular music examples)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Image Slideshow: Theodore Roosevelt

Photo Album: Theodore Roosevelt

Thumbnail	Description & Credit	Thumbnail	Description & Credit
	Theodore Roosevelt National Park.Credit: NPS.		Firing a salute to President Theodore Roosevelt, during the Naval Review at Oyster Bay, New York, 2-4 September 1906. The ship is dressed with flags, and her crew is manning the rails in the President's honor. Photo mounted on a stereograph card, published by the H.C. White Company.Credit: NAVY.
	President Theodore Roosevelt tips his hat in salute as he comes aboard the battleship, upon her return from the cruise around the World, circa 22 February 1909. In return, he is receiving a salute from the ship's officers. There are two Turkish Navy officers (wearing Fez hats) present, in the center of the image.Credit: NAVY.		Theodore Roosevelt as cowboy rounding up steers labeled as states.Credit: Library of Congress.
	Cartoon showing Theodore Roosevelt looking at bull moose propped up with boards] / McKee Barclay.Credit: Library of Congress.		Mrs. Theodore Roosevelt, three-quarter length portrait, standing, facing slightly left.Credit: Library of Congress.
	Kermit and Theodore Roosevelt, Jr. (with gun) posed, full-length portrait, on 1926 hunting expedition, in Afghanistan or India.Credit: Library of Congress.		Theodore Roosevelt.Credit: Library of Congress.
	Theodore Roosevelt, three-quarter length portrait.Credit: Library of Congress.		Graduation Day at Annapolis - Cadet receiving his diploma from President Theodore Roosevelt.Credit: Library of Congress.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Familiar Quotations: Theodore Roosevelt

Author	Quotation
Theodore Roosevelt	The American people abhor a vacuum.
	All the resources we need are in the mind.
	Don't foul, don't flinch. Hit the line hard.
	Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.
	Speak softly and carry a big stick; you will go far.
	Obedience of the law is demanded; not asked as a favor.
	Conservation means development as much as it does protection.
	Ours is a government of liberty by, through, and under the law.
Vice President Theodore Roosevelt	The most practical kind of politics is the politics of decency.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

Non-Fiction Usage: Theodore Roosevelt

Spoken Usage: Theodore Roosevelt

Speeches: Theodore Roosevelt

Speaker	Term	Phrase(s)
Theodore Roosevelt	1901-1909	We are the heirs of the ages, and yet we have had to pay few of the penalties which in old countries are exacted by the dead hand of a bygone civilization.
		But justice and generosity in a nation, as in an individual, count most when shown not by the weak but by the strong.
		Such growth in wealth, in population, and in power as this nation has seen during the century and a quarter of its national life is inevitably accompanied by a like growth in the problems which are ever before every nation that rises to greatness.
		Modern life is both complex and intense, and the tremendous changes wrought by the extraordinary industrial development of the last half century are felt in every fiber of our social and political being.
		Never before have men tried so vast and formidable an experiment as that of administering the affairs of a continent under the forms of a Democratic republic.
		Upon the success of our experiment much depends, not only as regards our own welfare, but as regards the welfare of mankind.
		If we fail, the cause of free self-government throughout the world will rock to its foundations, and therefore our responsibility is heavy, to ourselves, to the world as it is to-day, and to the generations yet unborn.
Bill Clinton	1993-2001	To Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson, to restrain the abuses and excesses of the Industrial Revolution, and to assert our leadership in the world.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

Expressions: Theodore Roosevelt

Frequency of Internet Keywords: Theodore Roosevelt

Misspellings: Theodore Roosevelt

Alternative Orthography: Theodore Roosevelt

Hexadecimal (or equivalents, 770AD-1900s) (references)

54 68 65 6F 64 6F 72 65 52 6F 6F 73 65 76 65 6C 74

Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519; backwards) (references)

Binary Code (1918-1938, probably earlier) (references)

01010100 01101000 01100101 01101111 01100100 01101111 01110010 01100101 00100000 01010010 01101111 01101111 01110011 01100101 01110110 01100101 01101100 01110100

HTML Code (1990) (references)

&#84 &#104 &#101 &#111 &#100 &#111 &#114 &#101 &#32 &#82 &#111 &#111 &#115 &#101 &#118 &#101 &#108 &#116

ISO 10646 (1991-1993) (references)

0054 0068 0065 006F 0064 006F 0072 0065 0052 006F 006F 0073 0065 0076 0065 006C 0074

Encryption (beginner's substitution cypher): (references)

Subject	Topic	Quote
Lexicography	Devil's Dictionary	REDUNDANT, adj. Superfluous; needless; de trop. The Sultan said: "There's evidence abundant To prove this unbelieving dog redundant." To whom the Grand Vizier, with mien impressive, Replied: "His head, at least, appears excessive." Habeeb Suleiman Mr. Debs is a redundant citizen. Theodore Roosevelt
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits.

Expression	Frequency per Day
theodore roosevelt	619
uss theodore roosevelt	81
theodore roosevelt national park	58
theodore roosevelt picture	45
president theodore roosevelt	41
theodore roosevelt biography	26
theodore roosevelt high school	26
theodore roosevelt island	6
uss theodore roosevelt cvn 71	4
theodore roosevelt dam	4
theodore roosevelt photo	4
theodore roosevelt book	4
theodore roosevelt fact	3
theodore roosevelt poster	3
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Speaker	Phrase(s)
John McCain	Well, I believe that all of the individuals I talk about in my book, including Theodore Roosevelt, are people who basically were committed to causes greater than their self-interest.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Expressions using "Theodore Roosevelt": president Theodore Roosevelt ♦ Theodore Roosevelt Memorial National Park. Additional references.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Misspellings
	"Theodore Roosevelt" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: theodore rosevelt. (additional references)
Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references).

Theodore Roosevelt

Definition: Theodore Roosevelt