Theodore Roosevelt Essay Research Paper OutlineThesis Theodore

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

position of Collector,

but failed to receive senate nomination due to Conkling’s ire (Miller

76-8). Theodore

Roosevelt, Junior, “inspired by his father’s humiliation at the hands of

the

politicians…was determined to become part of…the governing class”

(Miller 110). This

inspiration was coupled in Roosevelt with a strong desire for power.

Unlike many men who

had gotten into the political game, Roosevelt boldly admitted that he

desired power, and

his desire served him well, allowing him to become a genuine career

politician (Miller

111). The political game had not changed so much since Theodore, Senior

had tried to run

it, and Theodore, Junior had an uphill battle. He had to fight from the

beginning, but

fortunately was adequate in that respect. At first plagued by strict-line

party voting,

Roosevelt managed to finally secure political office, but it was there

that his true

troubles would begin. An important and revealing part of TR’s early

political career occurs

during his stint as a civil service commissioner in Washington. One

memorable incident

occurred in 1889 when Roosevelt faced some difficult political

maneuvering. In Milwaukee,

Postmaster George Paul was accused of making appointments to friends and

altering records

to hide it. Hamilton Shidy, a Post Office superintendent, provided most of

the damaging

evidence. The commission was to recommend Paul’s firing, when Paul

announced his term of

office was up regardless. The commission returned to Washington, where

they learned Paul

had lied about his length of service. Roosevelt immediately drafted a call

for Paul’s

removal to the White House and the Associated Press. This publicity irked

numerous

republicans who were no strangers to corruption themselves. Postmaster

General Wanamaker,

who was not particularly fond of Roosevelt to begin with, was quite angry.

He allowed Paul,

who had not been removed, to dismiss Shidy, who had been promised

protection by Roosevelt,

for insubordination. Now Roosevelt was stuck between a rock and a hard

place. He was bound

both to Shidy as a protector and to uphold his post, which would warrant

Shidy’s removal.

Wanamaker was trying to force Roosevelt to resign. Luckily, president

Harrison intervened

and agreed to find a place for Shidy, but the battle was not over. As he

waited for Paul’s

removal orders from the White House, which were not forthcoming, Frank

Hatton, the editor

of the Washington Post decided to launch an attack, lying blatantly about

Roosevelt’s

misappropriation of funds or other egregious acts. The Post fired back

with more attacks,

causing Roosevelt to angrily point to Wanamaker’s misdeeds. Rather than

continue the

battle, Harrison managed to have Paul resign, and Roosevelt accepted half

of a victory. He

had successfully stopped the wheels of the political machine once. It was

not to be the

last time (Morris 403-8). Roosevelt spent several years as a commissioner

of police in New

York City, eventually rising to become president of the board of

commissioners. In these

years, the true signs of the presidency that was to come shone through.

Two of Roosevelt’s

closest acquaintances were Lincoln Steffens, and Jacob Riis (Morris 482),

both reporters of

New York newspapers. It was through them that Roosevelt communicated to

the people, and he

found it good practice to have the relayers of his messages be his

friends. Through Riis’

book How The Other Half Lives, Roosevelt had learned of the plight of the

poor. Roosevelt

saw the awful living conditions present in police lodging houses, and had

them done away

with (Cashman 123). He battled police corruption, trying hundreds of

officers and finding

corruption and graft in every corner of the department (Morris 491). When

McKinley’s first

vice-president, Hobart, died, Roosevelt found himself in the capacity of

Governor of New

York. He had already fought in a war and been Assistant Secretary of the

Navy, where he

helped to orchestrate the United States’ roles in Cuba and Panama.

Roosevelt’s expansionist

views were here seen. As governor, he continued to defy the old political

tactics,

including bossism. Platt, the political boss of New York, had gotten

Roosevelt elected

governor, yet constantly ran up against Roosevelt, who would not follow

any of his orders.

Roosevelt spent a good time of his governorship attempting to outmaneuver

Platt and his

agents who were heavily present in the state legislature (Morris 708).

Hobart’s death, in

1899, forced the search for a new vice-presidential candidate, especially

due to the

upcoming election. Roosevelt emerged as the leading candidate, to the

dismay of the

Republican National Party’s boss, Senator Mark Hanna. Hanna considered

Roosevelt quite

dangerous; in the previous term Hanna had done a great deal of controlling

the president,

and he feared what would happen if Roosevelt became vice-president.

McKinley did not show

any special preference. Hanna chose his own candidate, John D. Long, but

was convinced

through some slightly shady political maneuvering to vote for Roosevelt

against his own

better judgment (Morris 727). Hanna’s personal dislike of Roosevelt did

not diminish in the

slightest, however. Shortly after the 1900 elections, Hanna sent McKinley

a note saying

“Your duty to the Country is to live for four years from next March

(Miller 342). McKinley

was re-nominated unanimously, receiving all 926 votes. Roosevelt received

925, the single

vote against him cast by himself (Morris 729). Roosevelt served four days

as Vice President

before Congress adjourned until December. And when the news of McKinley’s

sudden death on

September 14 came to him he said, in a very un-Roosevelt-like manner, that

he would

“continue, absolutely unbroken, the policy of President McKinley for the

peace, the

prosperity, and the honor of our beloved country” (Barck 45). This was

tradition for

replacement presidents, although it certainly seemed odd coming from such

a strong-willed

man as Roosevelt. Roosevelt had already made himself extremely well known

in the public

eye, so his transition to president was not as awkward as it might have

been. Roosevelt

campaigned furiously during 1900, traveling a total of 21,209 miles and

making 673 speeches

in 567 towns in 24 states (Morris 730). Only Bryan had campaigned more in

the 19th century.

For this reason, Roosevelt was able to manipulate, to a certain degree,

the popular press.

Although he disliked those “Muckrakers,” as he called them, who looked for

wrongdoing

everywhere and served mostly to stir sensationalistic ideas, Roosevelt had

a certain

penchant for those like Steffens and Riis, who wrote copiously on the need

for social

reform. To do his part, Roosevelt attempted reforms that would benefit the

working class.

Unlike previous presidents, Roosevelt refused to use national force to

break strikes. He

also instituted the Interstate Commerce Act, which, with the Hepburn Act,

allowed

government regulation of transportation systems, preventing the railroad

monopolies from

instituting unfairly high prices (Barck 52). Taking a cue from Upton

Sinclair’s The Jungle,

which detailed in vivid description the atrocious handling of meat at

sausage factories,

Roosevelt had the Pure Foods and Drugs Act and the Meat Inspection Act

passed, preventing

the manufacture of harmful foods and requiring inspection of meat

facilities. A unique

aspect of Roosevelt’s presidency was his foreign policy. Although McKinley

had been

involved in Cuba and the Philippines, he had never expressed a wish to

dominate as a world

power. Roosevelt had, indeed, operated a large part of the United States’

aggressive role

towards Cuba, and in his presidency went even further to secure the United

States as a

dominating power. In 1904 he declared what would become the Roosevelt

Corollary to the

Monroe Doctrine in a letter to Secretary of War Elihu Root (Miller 394).

Roosevelt argued

that it was a civilized nation’s right to intervene if its neighbors are

engaged in

wrongdoing. To that end, Roosevelt began to use force to preserve peace

and order in the

Western Hemisphere. The Dominican Republic needed Roosevelt’s help first,

as it was being

harassed by Italy and France, to whom it owed large sums of money. To

alleviate the

problem, a loan was set up from the United States. Although the Dominicans

eventually

settled on the loan, anti-imperialists felt the United States was

preparing to annex the

Dominican Republic. It has been said that “The Roosevelt

Corollary['s]…promulgation was

proof that the United States realized its position as a world power”

(Barck 100). Of

course, this was all contingent on Roosevelt’s enforcement of his

doctrine. Roosevelt

confirmed the role of the U. S. further by providing a strong military

presence to wrest

the boundary line of Alaska from Canada in 1902 and most importantly, by

determination and

perhaps a little impropriety in the annexation of the Panama Canal zone.

Colombia had been

a friendly country to the U. S., and when Panama revolted it seemed

suspect that the United

States should allow such an operation. But, as tends to be the case,

Roosevelt wanted

Panama free for other means. In his words, he wanted to “take Panama,” for

a canal and he

did, demanding independence from a contract with England and grumbling

when the deal ended

up to be a 100 year lease of the canal zone, rather than an outright

purchase. The Panama

canal was, in Roosevelt’s mind, to be as great a feat as the Louisiana

purchase or Texas

annexation. It was a controversial measure, and showed Roosevelt’s beliefs

in the

superiority and rights of civilization (Miller 399). In 1907 Roosevelt

finally decided he

had had enough and, rather than run for a third term, which he could have

easily done,

virtually appointed William Howard Taft as his successor and went off to

enjoy retirement.

Taft was a good friend of Roosevelt and shared many of his views. Under

Taft, Congress

expanded the Conservation Laws, keeping alive TR’s national parks service.

In addition, 80

suits were initiated by Taft’s attorney general on companies violating the

Sherman

Anti-Trust act. Unfortunately, Taft’s presidency was not nearly as

successful as

Roosevelt’s, for while the country became more and more progressive, Taft

stood pat,

remaining mostly conservative (Barck 68). In response to Taft’s

conservative stance,

progressives united to form the National Progressive League. Meanwhile,

Roosevelt returned

to politics. Bored with the quiet life, he desired the presidency once

again, and naturally

went for the Republican ticket. However, Taft decided to give Roosevelt a

little taste of

his own medicine, and refused to accede to Roosevelt, who was now playing

the political

boss. The friendship that had existed between these two was splintered,

and Roosevelt, in a

rage, formed the Progressive party and ran as a third candidate. Although

he feared he

would be defeated if the Democrats nominated a progressive candidate

(which they found in

Wilson), Roosevelt ran with his soul, as he did everything in life. At the

Progressive

party convention, Roosevelt read aloud his “Confession of Faith,” a

sweeping charter for

reform that outlined the agenda for the twentieth century (Miller 528).

The confession

advocated direct senate elections, preferential primaries, women’s

suffrage, corruption

laws, referendum and recall, a federal securities commission, trust

regulation, reduced

tariffs, unemployment insurance, old-age pensions, anti-child-labor laws,

and food purity

laws (Miller 528). Roosevelt lost the 1912 election, but he certainly did

not lose power.

Over the next century, he would have every single part of his agenda made

national law. The

turn towards progressivism was only beginning, and continued with Wilson.

Although a

democrat, his views were remarkably progressive. They were also remarkably

Rooseveltian.

Like Roosevelt, Wilson had a strong will and did not take kindly to

dissent, as can be seen

by his appointment of Louis Brandeis to the supreme court over the

objections of at least

six former presidents of the American Bar Association (Barck 110). Wilson

also formally

reinvented the role of a strong executive demonstrated so heartily by

Roosevelt by

delivering speeches directly before Congress, rather than having them read

by a clerk.

Wilson kept alive Roosevelt’s ideals with tariff reductions, the Federal

Reserve System.

Wilson even advocated the democratization of the Philippines, even though

he was strongly

anti-imperialist (Barck 121). Until the war in Europe distracted America

long enough to

lead it eventually back into a post-war depression, Wilson carried on the

traditions of his

political opponent, in the redefined presidency of the newly powerful

United States.

Although the United States was moving ever forward in its effort to

“policing the world” it

was not as progressive as all that in 1914. Even TR himself did not

advocate joining in on

World War I, seeing no reason to take part in an affair that did not

concern the United

States in the slightest. However, once German U-boats began sinking ships

carrying American

passengers, Roosevelt changed his tune, along with a percentage of the

American people.

Eventually, enough popular sentiment urged Congress to declare war, and it

was done. It

seems here as if Wilson was dragging his feet, but in another generation,

the mere

consideration of war in Europe would have been ludicrous. Having gotten

its feet wet, the

United States became a first-class country with first-class

responsibilities. The United

States advocated by TR continued after the war and beyond. After a brief

interlude in which

everything seemed to revert back to the old ways and Americans looked

again toward the

individual, another Roosevelt, Franklin Delano, used the ideas of his

cousin to

reinvigorate the economy and rebuild the nation. Today, the reforms

advocated by TR exist

and are in full use, while other more progressive reforms, like national

health care, are

being considered. Although our civilization may not end abruptly in 1999,

as predicted by

numerous psychics and fortune-tellers, it is probable that some large

revolutionary act

will change the way our country works in four years or so, just as it has

before. While our

Roosevelt may not have the immense popularity or wonderful charm as the

original, it is not

doubtful that whoever it is will have to have will, strength, brains, and

fortitude equal

to or above that of the original.

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to the Rise of

Theodore Roosevelt. New York: New York University Press, 1984.

Hagedorn, Hermann. The Boys’ Life of Theodore Roosevelt. New York: Harper

and Brothers,

1918.

Knoll, Erwin. Review of Theodore Roosevelt: A Life, by Nathan Miller. New

York Times Book

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1992.

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& Geoghegan,

1979.

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