The Everything Theodore Roosevelt Book (49 page)

Letters

Ten days after Quentin died, TR wrote two letters, one to French statesman and scholar Gabriel Hanatoux, the other to his son Archie. He said essentially the same thing to both men. To Hanatoux he wrote, “It is very hard for the old to stay … whereas the young die in their glorious golden morning. It is bitter for me to sit at home in ease and comfort and have my four sons and my son-in-law and all the young kinsmen I have at the front facing death and enduring hardship.”

He said to Archie, “It is very dreadful; it is the old who ought to die, and not fine and gallant youth with the golden morning of life still ahead; but after all he died as the heroes of old died.” But, he concluded with the same convictions he had about the family’s participation in World War I, “If our country did not contain such men it would not be our country.”

The fact that the Germans, although they were fighting the Americans at the time, buried Quentin with honors was a grand measure of respect for TR. He did not have long to appreciate it. TR died six months later, leaving behind a legacy filled with respect.

QUIZ

19-1 The French celebrate Bastille Day every July 14th. Why is the day so significant in French history?

A. It was the day King Louis XVII was born.

B. It is the anniversary of the storming of the Bastille on July 14, 1789, which marked the birth of the modern French nation.

C. It was the day Marie Antoinette opened the Bastille on July 14, 1858.

D. July 14 is the day the French bottle the year’s crop of champagne.

19-2 When TR was at Harvard he lived in the dormitories with other students
.

A. True

B. False

19-3 The National Zoo was established in what year?

A. 1776

B. 1861

C. 1889

D. 1919

19-4 TR’s daughter Alice married U.S. Congressman Nicholas Longworth in 1907. The father of her first child was:

A. Nicholas Longworth

?. Hiram Johnson

C. William Borah

D. Uncle Remus

ANSWERS

19-1. B

19-2. False: He lived in an apartment in a private house–and he even had a “manservant.”

19-3. C: The official name is the Smithsonian National Zoological Park.

19-4. C: The real father was U.S. Senator William Borah of Idaho. Their daughter, Paulina, was born on February 14, 1925. It was the forty-first anniversary of Alice Hathaway Lee Roosevelt’s death.

CHAPTER 20

TR’s Legacy

“I have never in my life envied a human being who led an easy life; I have envied a great many people who led difficult lives and led them well.”

Theodore Roosevelt created a legacy that is manifested in a variety of ways for a range of accomplishments. He is noted for his deeds as a politician, natural history expert, writer, father, and family man. Contemporary people who know him only by reputation continue to honor his memory by naming parks, ships, and assorted memorials after him. TR may be dead, but reminders of his accomplishments are not. He left a large footprint on the earth in his sixty years of life—and mighty big shoes to fill.

Face on a Mountain

As long as Mount Rushmore and old movies exist, so will the memories of Theodore Roosevelt. Memories, in the form of a legacy, are the true gauge of how significant an impact a person has had on the world he has left behind. Few people in history have left as large a footprint as did Theodore Roosevelt.

Sculptor Gutzon Borglum advocated for TR’s inclusion on Mount Rushmore when he got involved in the project to carve the profiles of four former U.S. presidents on the mountainside. Borglum had campaigned for TR and exhibited a statue of Abraham Lincoln in the White House after he was elected. The publicity and his acquaintance with TR served as his entry into the Mount Rushmore project. Consequently, TR was perpetuated in stone.

One of the most recognizable reminders of TR is his profile carved on Mount Rushmore, in Keystone, South Dakota. His face is there alongside Thomas Jefferson’s, George Washington’s, and Abraham Lincoln’s. Every time Mount Rushmore appears in a television ad or his image or persona is featured in movies, such as the
Night at the Museum
films, people are reminded of TR.

But sculptures on mountainsides and portrayals in movies do not tell the real story of historical figures. That is true where the legacy of Theodore Roosevelt is concerned.

An Unparalleled Legacy

One movie that prominently featured Mount Rushmore was
North by Northwest
, starring Cary Grant as Roger Thornhill. During a chase around the profiles, Thornhill said, “I don’t like the way Teddy Roosevelt is looking at me.” That may have been a throwaway line in a movie, but it explains in part why TR is so well-remembered. He made a lot of people uncomfortable over his lifetime as he built his legacy—but many more pleased.

TR is remembered for his determined campaigns to eliminate greed and corruption in his political positions such as New York state assemblyman, New York state governor, New York City police commissioner, and president of the United States. He fought for social justice and righteousness incessantly, in and out of office—and he did it all from a standpoint of character and righteousness.

“Character” and “righteousness” epitomize TR’s life; they steered every action he undertook. Those traits may not have seemed evident to everybody with whom he was involved, but they were the basis of his personal ethos.

Character Counts

One of TR’s most significant legacies was the impact he had on the office of U.S. president. He altered the U.S. political system by drawing attention to the role of the president in the government structure and making character as important as the issues. That was due in part to his personality—and changing technology.

TR recognized that the “bully pulpit” he had inherited as the result of President McKinley’s assassination provided him with an opportunity to influence the people of the United States and the role the country played in the world. He applied his “big stick” philosophy across the globe and let the world know the United States was going to flex its muscles whenever it was required to do so.

TR wrote to John Hay in 1897, “Is America a weakling, to shrink from the work of the great world powers? No! The young giant of the West stands on a continent and clasps the crest of an ocean in either hand. Our nation, glorious in youth and strength, looks into the future with eager eyes and rejoices as a strong man to run a race.”

Modern technology, as it was evolving in the early 1900s, helped him in the process. His work to get the Panama Canal completed facilitated the deployment of military troops and equipment to “hot spots” around the world. Improved communication devices made it easier for commanders and politicians to make decisions faster. TR was acute enough to recognize the value of communications and “big sticks.”

Using Technology

TR applied the benefits of modern technology to facilitate his communications with Americans. He recognized the value of mass media before most politicians did and used it to his advantage. Film and recording devices made it possible for him to reach wider audiences wherever he went. Voters and constituents got to see and hear TR more often and gauge his character for themselves. That helped him immensely as he built a legacy based on deeds and character.

TR wrote in his autobiography, “No man can lead a public career really worth leading, no man can act with rugged independence in serious crises, nor strike at great abuses, nor afford to make powerful and unscrupulous foes, if he is himself vulnerable in his private character.”

In the long run, the label “First Modern President” applies to TR. That would be just one more “first” he accomplished in his lifetime.

Pushing Reform

TR and reform were synonymous. He instituted reform in whatever political or appointed office he assumed, starting with his three terms as New York state assemblyman.

Readers of his autobiography will notice that the word “reform” appears in ten of the fifteen chapters. That fact highlights the importance TR placed in reform in every chapter of his life—and of the need for change in every aspect of American society.

The reforms TR started in New York state and across the country are still in place today. He was among the first politicians in the nation’s history to see the connections among efficiency, individual character, merit, and corruption. His goal was simple: separate politics and corruption from individuals’ opportunities to acquire government jobs based on merit, rather than political party affiliation.

Significantly, TR did not see reform as a one-party issue. He worked with Democrats and Republicans alike to implement reforms in every aspect of life for the benefit of society. His ability to work across party lines when it was expedient was one of his many talents and caused people to wonder at times whether he was truly a Republican or a Democrat.

In one case, TR worked closely in the New York State Assembly with a Democrat named Pete Kelly. He explained how that benefited both men: “We began to vote together and act together, and by the end of the session found that in all practical matters that were up for action we thought together. Indeed, each of us was beginning to change his theories, so that even in theory we were coming closer together.”

TR carried his willingness to work with people of all political “isms” into every campaign and position. The fact that he formed his own political party in 1912 was evidence that he did not always agree with the Republicans with whom he was affiliated. And, he learned from Democrats as well as Republicans.

Working Across Party Lines

His ability to work across party lines manifested his willingness to learn and apply the lessons to the betterment of society—all society. His zeal for reform was an offshoot of his bipartisan nature. He worked well with people of different political beliefs whenever he found it necessary to do so. The civil reforms he enacted were—and still are—proof of that.

The civil reform changes TR initiated in New York state in the 1880s and continued in his tenure in Washington, D.C., set the tone for government merit programs across the country. They are still in place. That is one more tribute to his forward-thinking ways.

Conservation

Visitors to national parks get a firsthand glimpse of TR’s legacy. He accelerated the conservation movement in the United States, which led to the formation of national game preserves, bird reservations, and national forests. He would have done more if Congress had not stopped him.