Teddy Roosevelt. Speak Softly and Carry a Big Stick
Teddy Roosevelt was 42 when he became President of the United States of America. And thus became the youngest President ever to hold office “by political accident” (his words), the assassination of William McKinley. JFK, for reference, was and is the youngest president elected. He pushed through and advocated progressive reforms and pursued strong foreign policy.
The most outstanding facts:
Teddy Roosevelt was born on 27 October, 1858 in New York, New York in a well-to-do family; despite this fact his life was turbulent and never easy. From his early childhood he suffered from asthma and during his teenage years he decided to start exercising to strengthen his health and body. Throughout his life, he enjoyed weight-lifting, hiking, swimming, boxing and wrestling.
Roosevelt's birthplace at 28 East 20th Street in Manhattan, New York City
When his mother and his first wife died the same day to cope with grief he set out to lead the frontier lifestyle, he moved to Dakota Badlands and there experienced the hardships of a farmer as well as served as a frontier sheriff to chase outlaws.
His well-known quote helps to explain his character:
When you're at the end of your rope, tie a knot and hold on.
Teddy was the assistant secretary of the Navy in 1898 when he resigned to organize the “Rough Riders”, the first voluntary cavalry regiment in the Spanish-American war. The “Rough Riders” comprised of Ivy League gentlemen, western cowboys, Native Americans, sheriffs, prosecutors and police officers. Many people romanticize western-type shows with a strong, silent type of main character. Teddy Roosevelt in many ways embodied that persona, coining the term “Speak softly and carry a big stick”. With this phrase, he was specifically referring to his attitude towards foreign policy. He is the only President to have earned the Medal of Honor which he was awarded for heroism during the Spanish-American war in Cuba. He was ultimately and cumulatively instrumental in the expansion of America on the international stage.
Teddy was a prolific hunter and an avid conservationist and naturalist. These days, we say someone is an avid conservationist when they donate their annual $20 to the Audubon Society and devote a week’s vacation to observing birds on some tropical island. Teddy Roosevelt took this definition to a new level when he assisted in the collection of over 11,400 specimens for the Smithsonian Institution during an African expedition in 1909. He served as head photographer on the expedition and brought his son Kermit along with him. Bearing in mind the standards of medical care and the availability of said medical care wherever he was traipsing along in the African bush however far from civilization…not only him, but his son also…it gives a perspective as to how the man viewed life, how it was to be lived, and how his children should be raised to do the same. During his presidency, Roosevelt put aside over 200 million acres of land to be used as natural preserves and wildlife refuges.
Theodore Roosevelt (left) and nature preservationist John Muir, on Glacier Point in Yosemite National Park.
Here is your country. Cherish these natural wonders, cherish the natural resources, cherish the history and romance as a sacred heritage, for your children and your children's children. Do not let selfish men or greedy interests skin your country of its beauty, its riches or its romance.
Though Roosevelt didn’t have fantasies of any “Green New Deal”, he did in fact implement the first vision encompassing holistic domestic reform through corporation control, consumer protection and natural resource conservation.
Roosevelt earned a Nobel Peace Prize for brokering peace in the Russo-Japanese war in Portsmouth, New Hampshire.
In 1912, while serving the Presidency, Roosevelt was shot; he was scheduled to make a speech that day, and went on to deliver that speech in spite of the fact he was indeed hit by a would-be assassin’s bullet. Hit with a .38 caliber bullet, Teddy delivered his 55 – 90 minute speech and said in retrospect that he was glad that he had read his manuscript beforehand and that it took more than such a bullet to kill a “Bull Moose”, a double entendre referring both to the animal and also the name of his political party affiliation. He was in fact once photographed riding a bull moose…see links below.
X-Ray of a bullet in Roosevelt's chest
Teddy Roosevelt enacted basic reforms within the “consent of the governed” principle. Roosevelt respected peoples’ rights and acted within the principles of liberty while affecting changes he felt necessary to affect societal reform. He was widely loved, as this video made after his homecoming from abroad shows, with a million people in attendance.
Teddy Roosevelt was a man’s man. He was a writer, an honored military veteran, a conservationist, president of a city’s police commission, state governor and president of the United States.
Official White House portrait by John Singer Sargent
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Nicholas Chudolij is graduate student within American Public University's Space Studies faculty, Astronomy track. Nicholas loves traveling, fishing, competitive marksmanship and playing the flute.