Who was Theodore Roosevelt?
Theodore Roosevelt was a New York Republican who became president in 1901 after an assassin killed William McKinley. Voters gave him a full term of his own in 1904. His idea was that the federal government should judge fairly between business, workers and consumers. He named this the Square Deal. He left office in 1909 and later broke with his successor, William Howard Taft. In 1912 he ran again, now as the Progressive Party nominee. That party was nicknamed the Bull Moose Party, and its platform was the New Nationalism. He lost the election and died in 1919.
Political views
- Brought antitrust cases against giant corporations. The first was the 1902 case against the Northern Securities Company.Source: millercenter.org
- Got the Meat Inspection Act, the Pure Food and Drug Act and the Hepburn Act, which strengthened the regulation of railroad rates.Source: millercenter.org
- Designated 150 national forests and enlarged protected land from 42 to 172 million acres, adding national parks and wildlife refuges.Source: millercenter.org
- Claimed a right for the US to intervene in Latin America, the Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine, and started work on the Panama Canal.Source: millercenter.org
- Helped end the Russo-Japanese War in 1905 and earned the first Nobel Peace Prize given to an American president.Source: millercenter.org
- Stood in 1912 on a platform calling for an eight-hour day, a women's minimum wage and firmer federal oversight of business.Source: millercenter.org
Legacy
Admirers say Roosevelt made the presidency modern, started federal consumer protection and built the conservation system we know. Scholars often rank him among the most important presidents. Conservatives at the time, and critics since, said his wide view of presidential power and federal regulation went beyond constitutional limits. Historians fault his handling of the Brownsville affair in 1906, when he dismissed Black soldiers despite conflicting evidence. Many in Latin America saw his interventions as imperial. Progressives and conservatives both claim a share of what he left behind.
In their own words
“The true friend of property, the true conservative, is he who insists that property shall be the servant and not the master of the commonwealth.”