Theodore Roosevelt
Oct. 27, 1858 – Jan. 6, 1919
POTUS: 1901-1909
One Big Thing:
Civilization versus Modernity
We are all peering into the future, to forecast the action of the great
dumb forces set in motion by the stupendous industrial revolution
which has taken place in this century.
-- Theodore Roosevelt, 1895
“The world will break its damned neck within five and twenty
years; and a good riddance. This country cannot possibly run it”
-- Henry Adams, 1901
“Our people are neither cravens nor weaklings, and we face
the future high of heart and confident of soul eager to do
the great work of a great power.”
--Theodore Roosevelt, 1901
T.R.
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Basics
Born to great wealth and privilege
A sickly child
Father issues:
– "My father, Theodore Roosevelt, was the best man I
ever knew. He combined strength and courage with
gentleness, tenderness, and great unselfishness. He
would not tolerate in us children selfishness or cruelty,
idleness, cowardice, or untruthfulness.
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Entered Harvard 1876
Father died 1878
Advised to be sedate
Married Alice Hathaway Lee on 22nd
Birthday
• Life was good…until.
Out West
• United States Civil Service Commission 1888-1895
• Police Commissioner 1895
But why Cuba?
“We have fallen heirs to the most glorious
heritage a people ever received, and each one
must do his part if we wish to show that the
nation is worthy of its good fortune….Here we
are not ruled by others, as is the case of Europe;
we rule ourselves…When we thus rule ourselves,
we have the responsibilities of sovereigns, not of
subjects.”
-- Theodore Roosevelt, 1886
“The peoples of the
world have advanced
unequally along the road
that leads to justice and
fair dealing. [Some]
languish in the childhood
state of race
development. Others in
the stage of military
barbarism or military
despotism.”
-- Theodore Roosevelt, 1907
“It is our duty toward the people living in
barbarism to see that they are freedom from
their chains, and we can free them only by
destroying barbarism itself. --1904
“We hope to do for them what has never been
done for any people of the tropics—to make
them fit for self-government after the fashion of
the really free nations.”
-- Theodore Roosevelt, 1900
“In dealing with the Philippines I have first the
jack fools who seriously think that any group of
pirates and headhunters needs nothing but
independence in order that it may be turned
forthwith into a dark-hued New England town
meeting.”
--Theodore Roosevelt, 1904
Panama
But how, precisely, did the US
acquire the Canal Zone….
Two Ideas Converge
1. The United States (and those like it) resided
at the pinnacle of civilization.
2. “Law and order enforced with justice lie at the
foundation of civilization”
Therefore….
• Any nation which demonstrated lawlessness
or unrest was uncivilized by definition, and
required oversight by a civilized power.
• Key idea: It was not just an opportunity for
the civilized power, but their duty and
obligation.
“It is not a matter to be determined by reading
Rousseau in the closet, but by studying the
needs of each individual case. There are
nationalities and tribes wholly unfit for selfgovernment; there are others singularly fitted
for it; there are many between the two
extremes.”
-- Theodore Roosevelt, 1904
In Panama he saw opportunity, AND need.
“It seems to me that the great bulk of the best
engineers are agreed that that route is best. I
do not think that the Bogota lot of jack rabbits
should be allowed permanently to bar one of
the future highways of civilization.”
-- TR to John Hay, August 18, 1903
• “The analogy is with a group of Sicilian or
Calbrian bandits…you could no more make an
agreement with the Colombian rulers than
you could nail currant jelly to the wall.”
• “The Canal was for the benefit of the entire
world. Should the blackmailing greed of the
Bogota ring stand in the way of civilization”
-- Theodore Roosevelt, 1913
“Any interference I undertake now will be in the
interest of the United States and of the people
of the Panama Isthmus themselves.”
“Brutal wrongdoing, or an impotence which
results in an general loosening of the ties of
civilized society, may finally require intervention
by some civilized nation, and in the Western
Hemisphere the United States cannot ignore this
duty.”
--TR to Elihu Root, May 1904
Roosevelt Corollary
December 6, 1905
• It is not true that the United States feels any
land hunger or entertains any projects as
regards the other nations of the Western
Hemisphere save such as are for their welfare.
• All that this country desires is to see the
neighboring countries stable, orderly, and
prosperous. Any country whose people
conduct themselves well can count upon our
hearty friendship.
Roosevelt Corollary
• If a nation shows that it knows how to act with reasonable
efficiency and decency in social and political matters, if it
keeps order and pays its obligations, it need fear no
interference from the United States.
• Chronic wrongdoing, or an impotence which results in a
general loosening of the ties of civilized society, may in
America, as elsewhere, ultimately require intervention by
some civilized nation, and in the Western Hemisphere the
adherence of the United States to the Monroe Doctrine
may force the United States, however reluctantly, in
flagrant cases of such wrongdoing or impotence, to the
exercise of an international police power.
Roosevelt Corollary
If every country washed by the Caribbean Sea
would show the progress in stable and just
civilization which with the aid of the Platt
Amendment Cuba has shown since our troops
left the island, and which so many of the
republics in both Americas are constantly and
brilliantly showing, all question of interference
by this Nation with their affairs would be at an
end.
On to Germany….
“We are fighting because Germany under its
present government, a government of ruthless
and despotic militarism…Germany has become
the arch foe of international right and of
ordered freedom throughout the world.”
-- Theodore Roosevelt, 1918