Theodire Roosevelt. February 15, 2018

Copyright © 2018                                                         John F. Oyler

February 15, 2018

Theodore Roosevelt

The Bridgeville Area Historical Society traditionally schedules its January and February meetings on Sunday afternoons rather than their customary Tuesday evenings, in deference to the winter weather. Last month’s meeting featured an old friend, Dr. Jack Aupperle, with his fourth appearance. This time he discussed Theodore Roosevelt and did his usual fine job of mixing information with entertainment.

Teddy Roosevelt was born in Manhattan in 1858, the second of four children in a wealthy family. He was home schooled by his mother and a succession of tutors. His lifelong fascination with natural science was demonstrated by his compiling an impressive collection of stuffed birds when he was only ten years old.

Concerned about his son’s poor health, primarily asthma, and frail body, his father installed a state-of-the-art gymnasium in their home and started Teddy on a body-building regimen that converted the spindly fourteen-year-old into a muscular he-man four years later. The body building was accompanied by an equally impressive growth intellectually. He enrolled at Harvard where he was an outstanding student, earning a Phi Beta Kappa key.

Following graduation from Harvard Roosevelt married Alice Longworth Lee and entered Columbia Law School. He soon concluded that he was more interested in entering politics and in writing a history of the War of 1812 than studying law. He was elected to the New York State Assembly the same year his impressive “The Naval War of 1812” was published. His success was soon shattered by the death of his wife, giving birth to their first child.

Despite his grief he continued to be a major factor in the New York Republican party. He led the state delegation at the Republican National Convention in Chicago in 1884. Disillusioned by the nomination of James G. Blaine he decided to take a hiatus from politics and become a cowboy. He purchased a ranch in Elkhorn, North Dakota, where he became interested in raising beef cattle, in hunting, and in conservation. He authored three books dealing with this experience.

Following a severe winter that destroyed most of his herd, he returned to New York. In 1886 he married Edith Carow; a union that produced five children. He ran for Mayor of New York and was disappointed by a third-place result. His reaction to this disappointment was the writing of another highly successful book “The Winning of the West”.

Roosevelt supported Benjamin Harrison’s successful campaign for the Presidency in 1888 and was rewarded with the job of Civil Service Commissioner in Washington. He promptly reformed the whole process of hiring civil servants, replacing patronage with a merit system. In 1894 a reform candidate, William Lafayette Strong, was elected Mayor of New York and persuaded Roosevelt to return to his home town and clean up the Police Commission. His reputation as a reformer continued to grow in this assignment.

In 1897 newly elected President William McKinley appointed Roosevelt Assistant Secretary of the Navy, a post he exploited to expand the fleet and to promote the expulsion of Spain from the New World. The explosion of the battleship Maine in Havana harbor provided the excuse for the Spanish-American War. Roosevelt immediately resigned and organized the First US Volunteer Cavalry Regiment. Nicknamed the Rough Riders, they were assigned to a cavalry division commanded by former Joseph Wheeler.

The Rough Riders’ heroics in Cuba made a national hero of Roosevelt, a reputation he exploited by being elected governor of the state of New York. In his short term in Albany his progressive ideas so alienated the Republican party bosses that they decided to railroad him into a dead-end job; he was selected as President McKinley’s running mate in the 1900 election. For six months he suffered through the boredom of a meaningless life.

McKinley was shot by an assassin on September 6, 1901, and died eight days later, initiating a presidency that was filled with accomplishments and controversy. Trust busting, the establishment of the Department of Commerce and Labor, the Pure Food and Drug Act, massive expansion of the national park system, the Panama Canal – hardly a day went by without some significant issue being addressed. Prior to the 1908 election Roosevelt announced that his endorsement of term limits would prevent him from running for a third term. He enthusiastically endorsed his friend William Howard Taft as his successor.

Things had changed by 1912. Taft had retrogressed on many of Roosevelt’s reforms while the former president had grown even more progressive. Roosevelt elected to run against the incumbent. When he failed to earn the Republican nomination, he formed a new party, the Progressive Party (nicknamed the Bull Moose Party). While campaigning as its candidate he was shot by a disgruntled saloon keeper. The bullet penetrated his spectacles case, then the very thick folded speech in his pocket, before being lodged in his chest muscle. Despite the blood spreading over his shirt, he completed the speech before being treated. The bullet was never removed.

His efforts in the 1912 election succeeded only in splitting the Republican vote, allowing the Democratic candidate, Woodrow Wilson, to win with 42% of the popular vote. Roosevelt then retired from public life, concentrating on exploring and big game hunting in Africa and South America. He died at the age of sixty in 1919. His accomplishments earned him a place on Mount Rushmore with Washington, Jefferson, and Lincoln.

The next program in this series is scheduled for 1:30 pm, Sunday, February 25, 2018, in the Chartiers Room at the Bridgeville Volunteer Fire Department. Gary Augustine will discuss “Hollywood, World War II, and the Movies”. As always, the public is welcome.