Teddy Roosevelt
Twenty Sixth President 1901-1909
Theodore Roosevelt (October 27, 1858–January
6, 1919) was born in New York into one of the old Dutch families which had
settled in America in the seventeenth century. At eighteen he entered Harvard
College and spent four years there, dividing his time between books and sport
and excelling at both. After leaving Harvard he studied in Germany for almost a
year and then immediately entered politics. He was elected to the Assembly of
New York State, holding office for three years and distinguishing himself as an
ardent reformer.
In 1884, because of ill health and the death of his wife, Roosevelt abandoned
his political work for some time. He invested part of the fortune he had
inherited from his father in a cattle ranch in the Badlands of Dakota Territory,
expecting to remain in the West for many years. He became a passionate hunter,
especially of big game, and an ardent believer in the wild outdoor life which
brought him health and strength. In 1886 Roosevelt returned to New York, married
again, and once more plunged into politics.
President Harrison, after his election in 1889, appointed Roosevelt as a member
of the Civil Service Commission of which he later became president. This office
he retained until 1895 when he undertook the direction of the Police Department
of New York City. In 1897 he joined President McKinley's administration as
assistant secretary of the Navy. While in this office he actively prepared for
the Cuban War, which he saw was coming, and when it broke out in 1898, went to
Cuba as lieutenant colonel of a regiment of volunteer cavalry, which he himself
had raised among the hunters and cowboys of the West. He won great fame as
leader of these «Rough-Riders», whose story he told in one of his most popular
books.
Elected governor of the state of New York in 1898, he invested his two-year
administration with the vigorous and businesslike characteristics which were his
hallmark. He would have sought reelection in 1900, since much of his work was
only half done, had the Republicans not chosen him as their candidate for the
second office of the Union. He held the vice-presidency for less than a year,
succeeding to the presidency after the assassination of President McKinley on
September 14, 1901. In 1904 Roosevelt was elected to a full term as president.
In 1902 President Roosevelt took the initiative in opening the international
Court of Arbitration at The Hague, which, though founded in 1899, had not been
called upon by any power in its first three years of existence. The United
States and Mexico agreed to lay an old difference of theirs, concerning the
Pious Foundations of California, before the Hague Tribunal. When this example
was followed by other powers, the arbitration machinery created in 1899 was
finally called into operation. Roosevelt also played a prominent part in
extending the use of arbitration to international problems in the Western
Hemisphere, concluding several arbitration treaties with European powers too,
although the Senate refused to ratify them.
In 1904 the Interparliamentary Union, meeting in St. Louis, Missouri, requested
Roosevelt to call another international conference to continue the work begun at
The Hague in 1899. Roosevelt responded immediately, and in the autumn of 1904
Secretary of State John Hay invited the powers to meet at The Hague. Russia,
however, refused to participate in a conference while engaged in hostilities
with Japan. After the peace of 1905, the matter was placed in the hands of the
Russian government, which had taken the initiative in convening the first Hague
Conference.
In June, 1905, President Roosevelt offered his good offices as mediator between
Russia and Japan, asking the belligerents to nominate plenipotentiaries to
negotiate on the conditions of peace. In August they met at Portsmouth, New
Hampshire, and after some weeks of difficult negotiations concluded a peace
treaty in September, 1905.
Roosevelt's candidate for president, William Howard Taft, took office in 1909.
Dissatisfied with Taft's performance, Roosevelt bolted the regular Republican
Party in 1912 and accepted the presidential nomination by the Progressive Party.
He outpolled Taft, but
Woodrow Wilson
outpolled each of them. In 1917 Wilson refused his offer to raise and command a
division to fight in World War I.
Roosevelt was an historian, a biographer, a statesman, a hunter, a naturalist,
an orator. His prodigious literary output includes twenty-six books, over a
thousand magazine articles, thousands of speeches and letters.
In 1919, at the age of sixty, he died in his sleep.
Click on the Photo of the President Below to go to his page.
