|
Theodore Roosevelt, Jr. (October 27 1858 – January 6 1919), also known as T.R. and to the public as Teddy, (hence, the teddy bear was named after him) was the 26th President of the United States. Roosevelt is most famous for his personality — he dominated a generation by his energy, his vast range of interests and achievements, and his model of masculinity — the famous “cowboy” persona. In 1901, he became President after the assassination of President William McKinley. Roosevelt was a Progressive reformer who sought to move the Republican Party into the Progressive camp. He distrusted wealthy businessmen and as a "trust buster" broke up numerous large corporations. His "Square Deal" promised a fair shake for the average citizen, including regulation of railroad rates and pure foods and drugs. As an outdoorsman he promoted the conservation movement, emphasizing efficient use of natural resources. After he started attacking the courts as biased against labor unions, he broke with his friend and anointed successor William Howard Taft and ran unsuccessfully as a third-party candidate in 1912 on the Bull Moose ticket. As Assistant Secretary of the U.S. Navy he prepared for and advocated war with Spain in 1898. He organized and helped command the First U.S. Volunteer Cavalry Regiment, the "Rough Riders", during the Spanish-American War. Returning to New York as a war hero he was elected Republican governor in 1898. He was a professional historian, naturalist and explorer of the Amazon Basin; his 35 books, listed online *, include works on outdoor life, natural history, U.S. Western and political history, Naval Battles of the War of 1812 , and his autobiography. Roosevelt understood the strategic significance of the Panama Canal, and negotiated for the U.S. to take control of its construction in 1904. It was completed in 1914, after he left office. He felt that the Canal's completion was his most important and historically significant international achievement. He was the first American to be awarded the Nobel Prize, winning its Peace Prize in 1906, for negotiating the peace in the Russo-Japanese War. The dominant personality of the era, he helped redefine masculinity. He preached and lived the "strenuous life," ridiculing the sedentary life of luxury and attempting the most strenuous and dangerous feats--which finally cost his life. Historian Thomas Bailey, who disagreed with Roosevelt's policies, nevertheless concluded, "Roosevelt was a great personality, a great activist, a great preacher of the moralities, a great controversialist, a great showman. He dominated his era as he dominated conversations....the masses loved him; he proved to be a great popular idol and a great vote getter." His image stands alongside Washington, Jefferson and Lincoln on Mount Rushmore. Surveys of scholars have consistently ranked him from
Childhood and education Roosevelt was born at 28 East 20th Street in the modern-day Gramercy section of New York City on October 27 1858, the second of four children of Theodore Roosevelt, Sr. (1831–1878) and Martha Bulloch (1834–1884). He had an elder sister Anna, nicknamed "Bamie" as a child and "Bye," as an adult for being always on the go; and two younger siblings—his brother Elliott (the father of Eleanor Roosevelt), and his sister Corinne. The Roosevelts had been in New York since the mid 17th century and had grown with the emerging New York commerce class after the American Revolution. Until the birth of the Republican Party, just before the Civil War, the family was strongly Democratic in its political outlook. By the 18th Century, the family had grown in wealth, power and influence from the profits of several businesses including hardware and plate-glass importing. Theodore's father, known in the family as "Thee," was a New York City philanthropist, merchant, and partner in the family glass-importing firm Roosevelt and Son. Martha Bulloch was a Southern belle from a slave-owning family in Savannah, Georgia and had Confederate sympathies. On his mother's side, Theodore's uncle, James Dunwoody Bulloch, "Uncle Jimmy," was a 14 year U.S. Navy officer turned secret Confederate naval procurement agent in England. James' brother Irvine Bulloch was the youngest officer on the Confederate raider, CSS Alabama and both had been exiled to Liverpool, England after the war. During the Civil War, Martha supported her southern relatives' struggles and quietly mailed packages south. Sickly and asthmatic as a youngster, Roosevelt had to sleep propped up in bed or slouching in a chair during much of his early childhood, and had frequent ailments. Despite his illnesses, he was a hyperactive and often mischievous young man. His lifelong interest in zoology was formed at age seven upon seeing a dead seal at a local market. After obtaining the seal's head, the young Roosevelt and two of his cousins formed what they called the "Roosevelt Museum of Natural History". Learning the rudiments of taxidermy, he filled his makeshift museum with many animals that he caught, studied, and prepared for display. At age nine, he codified his observation of insects with a paper titled "The Natural History of Insects." To combat his poor physical condition, his father compelled the young Roosevelt to take up exercise. To deal with bullies, Roosevelt started boxing lessons. Two trips abroad had a permanent impact: family tours of Europe in 1869 and 1870, and of the Middle East 1872 to 1873. Theodore Sr. had a tremendous influence on young Theodore and was a life-long source of inspiration. Of him Roosevelt wrote, "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." Roosevelt's sister later wrote, "He told me frequently that he never took any serious step or made any vital decision for his country without thinking first what position his father would have taken." Young "Teedie," as he was nicknamed as a child was mostly home schooled by tutors and his parents, which was a common practice at the time. A leading biographer says: "The most obvious drawback to the home schooling Roosevelt received was uneven coverage of the various areas of human knowledge." He was solid in geography (thanks to his careful observations on all his travels) and very well read in history, strong in biology, French and German, but deficient in mathematics, Latin and Greek. He matriculated at Harvard College in 1876, graduating magna cum laude. His father's death in 1878 was a tremendous blow, but Roosevelt redoubled his activities. He did well in science, philosophy and rhetoric courses but faired poorly in Latin and Greek. He studied biology with great interest and indeed was already an accomplished naturalist and published ornithologist. He had a photographic memory and developed a life-long habit of devouring books, memorizing every detail. He was an unusually eloquent conversationalist who, throughout his life, sought out the company of the smartest men and women. He could multitask in extraordinary fashion, dictating letters to one secretary and memoranda to another, while browsing through a new book. As an adult, a visitor would get a not so subtle hint that Roosevelt was losing interest in the conversation when he would pick up a book and begin looking at it now and then as the conversation continued. While at Harvard, Roosevelt was active in numerous clubs, including Delta Kappa Epsilon and Alpha Delta Phi fraternities. He also edited a student magazine. He was runner-up in the Harvard boxing championship, losing to C.S. Hanks. The sportsmanship Roosevelt showed in that fight was long remembered. Upon graduating from Harvard, Roosevelt underwent a physical examination and his doctor advised him that due to serious heart problems, he should find a desk job and avoid strenuous activity. Roosevelt disregarded the advice and chose to embrace the strenuous life instead. He graduated Phi Beta Kappa and magna cum laude (22nd of 177) from Harvard in 1880 , and entered Columbia Law School. At Columbia, Roosevelt researched and wrote his first major book, "The Naval War of 1812", in 1882, which still is considered the only comprehensive history on the subject. When offered a chance to run for New York Assemblyman in 1881, he dropped out of law school to pursue his new goal of entering public life. Early public life Roosevelt was a Republican activist during his years in the Assembly, writing more bills than any other New York state legislator. Already a major player in state politics, he attended the Republican National Convention in 1884 and fought alongside the Mugwump reformers; they lost to the Stalwart faction that nominated James G. Blaine. Refusing to join other Mugwumps in supporting Democrat Grover Cleveland, the Democratic nominee, he stayed loyal to the party and supported Blaine. First marriage At the age of 22, Roosevelt married his first wife, 19-year-old Alice Hathaway Lee, on October 27, 1880, at the Unitarian Church in Brookline, Massachusetts. Alice was the daughter of the prominent banker George Cabot Lee and Caroline Haskell Lee. The couple first met in 1878. He proposed in June 1879. However, Alice waited another six months before accepting the proposal. They announced their engagement on Valentine's Day 1880. Alice Roosevelt died exactly four years later, only two days after the birth of their first child, also named Alice. In a tragic coincidence, Roosevelt's mother died of typhoid fever on the same day at the Roosevelt family home in Manhattan. Although he noted her loss in his diary and made several references to her in the subsequent months, from the next year on Roosevelt refused to speak his first wife's name again (even omitting her name from his autobiography) and did not allow others to speak of her in his presence. He came to despise his popular nickname "Teddy", both because he thought it undignified and because it was the lover's name used by his first wife. Later that year, Roosevelt left the General Assembly and his infant daughter Alice, whom he had left in the long-term care of his older sister, Bamie. He moved to his Maltese Cross ranch seven miles from Medora in the Badlands of the Dakota Territory to live a more simple life as a rancher and lawman. This practice put an early strain on his relationship with his daughter who was given his late wife's name. However, as she grew into adulthood and better understood her father's deep moral convictions, the bond between them became strong. Alice continued to support her father's ideas after his death in 1919. Life in Badlands and second marriage Roosevelt built a second ranch he named Elk Horn thirty five miles north of the boomtown, Medora, North Dakota. On the banks of the "Little Missouri," Roosevelt learned to ride and rope, hunted as far north as "Coeur d'Alene," Idaho, and even got involved in saloon fight with a drunken cowboy who was shooting up the place and demanded that "Four Eyes," as he called Roosevelt, buy everyone a round of drinks. There, in the waning days of the American Old West, he rebuilt his life and began writing about frontier life for Eastern magazines. As a deputy sheriff, Roosevelt hunted down three outlaws who stole his boat and were escaping north with it up the Little Missouri River. Capturing them, he decided against hanging them and sending his foreman back by boat, he took the thieves back overland for trial in Dickinson, guarding them forty hours without sleep and reading Tolstoy to keep himself awake. When he ran out of his own books he read a dime store western that one of the thieves was carrying. While working on a tough project aimed at hunting down a group of relentless horse thieves, Roosevelt came across the famous Deadwood Sheriff Seth Bullock. The two would remain friends for life. (Morris, Rise of, 241-245, 247-250) After the 1886-1887 winter wiped out his herd of cattle and his $60,000 investment (together with those of his competitors), he returned to the East, where in 1885, he had purchased Sagamore Hill in Oyster Bay, New York. It would be his home and estate until his death. Roosevelt ran as the Republican candidate for mayor of New York City in 1886, coming in a distant third. Following the election, he went to London in 1886 and married his childhood sweetheart, Edith Kermit Carow. They honeymooned in Europe, and Roosevelt climbed Mont Blanc, leading only the third expedition of record to reach the summit, a feat which resulted in his induction into the British Royal Society. Roosevelt is the only President to have become a widower and remarry before becoming President. In the 1880s, he gained recognition as a serious historian. His The Naval War of 1812 (1882) was the standard history for two generations, but his hasty biographies of Thomas Hart Benton (1887) and Gouverneur Morris (1888) were potboilers. His major achievement was a four-volume history of the frontier, The Winning of the West (1889-1896), which had a notable impact on historiography as it presented a highly original version of the frontier thesis elaborated upon in 1893 by his friend Frederick Jackson Turner. His many articles in upscale magazines provided a much-needed income, as well as cementing a reputation as a major national intellectual. He was later chosen president of the American Historical Association. Return to public life In the 1888 presidential election, Roosevelt campaigned for Benjamin Harrison in the Midwest. President Harrison appointed Roosevelt to the United States Civil Service Commission, where he served until 1895. In his term, he vigorously fought the spoilsmen and demanded the enforcement of civil service laws. In spite of Roosevelt's support for Harrison's reelection bid in the presidential election of 1892, the eventual winner, Grover Cleveland (a Bourbon Democrat), reappointed him to the same post. In 1895, he became president of the New York City Board of Police Commissioners. During the two years that he held this post, Roosevelt radically changed the way a police department was run. The police force was reputed as one of the most corrupt forces in America. NYPD's history division records that Roosevelt was, "an iron-willed leader of unimpeachable honesty, (who) brought a reforming zeal to the New York City Police Commission in 1895." Roosevelt and his fellow commissioners established new disciplinary rules, created a bicycle squad to police New York's traffic problems and implemented standardized 32 calibre pistol practice. Roosevelt implemented regular inspections of firearms, annual physical exams, appointed 1,600 new recruits appointed not on the basis of political affiliation but solely for their physical and mental qualifications, opened admission to the department to ethnic minorities and women, established the first police meritorious service medals, shut down the corrupt police hostelries, and a Municipal Lodging House was established by the Board of Charities." Roosevelt required his officers to be registered with the Board. He also had telephones installed in station houses. Always an energetic man, he made a habit of walking officers' beats late at night and early in the morning to make sure that they were on duty. Assistant Secretary of the Navy
War in Cuba
Vice presidency McKinley and Roosevelt won the presidential election of 1900, defeating William Jennings Bryan and Adlai E. Stevenson I. Roosevelt found his six months in the vice-presidency unfulfilling. One story that sums up his feelings on the Vice-Presidency was that as President, Roosevelt ordered a noisy chandelier removed from the White House, suggesting that it be put in the Vice President's office, as he had nothing to do and the chandelier would keep him awake. Thinking that he had little future in politics, he considered returning to law school after leaving office. On September 2, 1901, Roosevelt first uttered a sentence that would become strongly associated with his presidency, urging Americans to "speak softly and carry a big stick" during a speech at the Minnesota State Fair. It has been claimed that the famous phrase was actually inspired by a discussion Roosevelt had with French diplomat Comte Édouard Sébastien de Malo when the latter visited the US in 1900. As France was just coming out of the traumatic Dreyfus affair, Roosevelt asked Comte de Malo what lesson could be learned from the episode. De Malo replied: "France may have been humbled by this event, but we still stand strong and proud. Although we speak softly, we are still carrying a big stick." Presidency 1901-1909
Anthracite coal strike of 1902 A national emergency was averted in 1902 when Roosevelt found a compromise to the anthracite coal strike by the United Mine Workers of America that threatened the heating supplies of most urban homes. Roosevelt called the mine owners and the labor leaders to the White House and negotiated a compromise. Miners were on strike for 163 days before it ended; they were granted a 10% pay increase and a 9-hour day (from the previous 10 hours), but the union was not officially recognized and the price of coal went up. Square Deal
Regulation of industry Roosevelt firmly believed, "The Government must in increasing degree supervise and regulate the workings of the railways engaged in interstate commerce." Inaction was a danger, he argued, "Such increased supervision is the only alternative to an increase of the present evils on the one hand or a still more radical policy on the other." (Annual Message Dec 1904) His biggest success was passage of the Hepburn Act of 1906, giving the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) the power to set maximum railroad rates; it also stopped free passes given to friends of the railroad. Everyone at the time assumed railroads would always be a vast and powerful force; no one dreamed they would be challenged by trucks and automobiles and struggle to survive under the provisions of the Hepburn Act designed to help merchants and consumers. In response to public clamor, Roosevelt pushed Congress to pass the Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906, as well as the Meat Inspection Act of 1906. These laws provided for labeling of foods and drugs, inspection of livestock and mandated sanitary conditions at meatpacking plants. Congress replaced Roosevelt's proposals with a version supported by the major meatpackers who worried about the overseas markets, and did not want small unsanitary plants undercutting their domestic market. Conservationist Roosevelt was the first American president to consider the long-term needs for efficience conservation of national resources, winning the support of fellow hunters and fishermen to bolster his political base. Roosevelt was the last trained observer to ever see a passenger pigeon. Assuming the conservationist role was a natural step for him, and he decided that it was overdue to put the issue high on the national agenda. He worked with all the major figures of the movement, especially his chief advisor on the matter Gifford Pinchot. Roosevelt urged congress to establish the United States Forest Service (1905), to manage government forest lands, and he appointed Gifford Pinchot to head the service. Roosevelt set aside more land for national parks and nature preserves than all of his predecessors combined, 194 million acres. The Theodore Roosevelt National Park in the Badlands commemorates his conservationist philosophy. In 1903, Roosevelt toured the Yosemite Valley with John Muir, founder of the Sierra Club, but he rejected Muir's philosophy that privileged nature, and emphasized instead the more efficient use of nature. In 1907, with Congress about to block him, Roosevelt hurried to designate 16 million acres (65,000 km²) of new national forests. In May 1908, he sponsored the Conference of Governors held in the White House, with a focus on the most efficient planning, analysis and use of water, forests and other natural resources. Roosevelt explained, "There is an intimate relation between our streams and the development and conservation of all the other great permanent sources of wealth." During his presidency, Roosevelt promoted the nascent conservation movement in essays for Outdoor Life magazine. Roosevelt, like Pinchot (but unlike Muir), believed in the more efficient use of natural resources by corporations like lumber companies. To Roosevelt, conservation meant more and better usage and less waste, and a long-term perspective. In 2006, a group of American high school students developed a 10 minute video on Roosevelt's conservation legacy with the help of Roosevelt scholar, Ed Renehan and Roosevelt descendant, Tweed Roosevelt. See• Foreign policy
Panama Canal Roosevelt's most famous foreign policy initiative, following the Hay-Pauncefote Treaty, was the construction of the Panama Canal, which upon its completion shortened the route of freighters between San Francisco, California and New York City by 8,000 miles (13,000 km). Colombia first proposed the canal in their country as opposed to rival Nicaragua, and Colombia signed a treaty for an agreed-upon sum. At that time, Panama was a province of Colombia. According to the treaty, in 1902, the U.S. was to buy out the equipment and excavations from France, which had been attempting to build a canal since 1881. While the Colombian negotiating team had signed the treaty, ratification by the Colombian Senate became problematic. The Colombian Senate balked at the price and asked for 10 million dollars over the original agreed upon price. When the U.S. refused to re-negotiate the price, the Colombian politicians proposed cutting the original French company that started the project out of the deal and giving that difference to Colombia. The original deal stipulated that the French company was to be reasonably compensated. Realizing that the Colombian Senate was no longer bargaining in good faith, Roosevelt tired of these last-minute attempts by the Colombians to cheat the French out of their entire investment. Roosevelt ultimately decided, with the encouragement of Panamanian business interests, to help Panama declare independence from Colombia in 1903. A brief revolution, of only a few hours, followed the declaration, and Colombian soldiers were bribed $50 each to lay down their arms. On November 3, 1903, the Republic of Panama was created, with its constitution written in advance by the United States. Shortly thereafter, a treaty was signed with Panama. The U.S. paid $10 million to secure rights to build on and control the Canal Zone. Construction began in 1904 and was completed in 1914. The Great White Fleet As Roosevelt's administration drew to a close, the president dispatched a fleet consisting of four US Navy battleship squadrons and their escorts, on a world-wide voyage of circumnavigation from December 16, 1907, to February 22, 1909. With their hulls painted white except for the beautiful gilded scrollwork with a red, white, and blue banner on their bows, these ships would come to be known as The Great White Fleet. Roosevelt wanted to demonstrate to his country and the world that the US Navy was capable of operating in a global theater, particularly in the Pacific. This was extraordinarily important at a time when tensions were slowly growing between the United States and Japan. The latter had recently shown its navy's competence in defeating the Russians in the Russo-Japanese War and the US Navy fleet to the west was relatively small. The Atlantic Fleet battleships only later came to be known as the "Great White Fleet." When the fleet sailed into Yokahama, Japan, the Japanese went to extraordinary lengths to show that their country desired peace with the US. Thousands of Japanese school children waving American flags greeted the Navy brass as they came ashore. In February 1909, Roosevelt was in Hampton Roads, Virginia to witness the triumphant return of the fleet and indicating that he saw the fleet's long voyage as a fitting finish for his administration. To the officers and men of the Fleet Roosevelt said, "Other nations may do what you have done, but they'll have to follow you." This parting act of grand strategy by Roosevelt greatly expanded the respect for as well as the role of the United States in the international arena. Life in White House Roosevelt relished the presidency and seemed to be everywhere at once. He took Cabinet members and friends on long, fast-paced hikes, boxed in the state rooms of the White House, romped with his children, and read voraciously. In turn, Alice said of him that he always wanted to be "the bride at every wedding and the corpse at every funeral." Roosevelt's contribution to the White House was the construction of the original West Wing, which he had built to free up the second floor rooms in the residence that formerly housed the president's staff. He and Edith also had the entire house renovated and restored to the federal style, tearing out the Victorian furnishings and details (including Tiffany windows) that had been installed over the previous three decades. Presidential firsts Roosevelt's presidency saw a number of firsts. In the sphere of race relations, Booker T. Washington became the first black man to dine at the White House in 1901. Oscar S. Straus became the first Jew appointed as a Cabinet Secretary, under Roosevelt. In 1902, in response to the assassination of President William McKinley on September 6, 1901, Theodore Roosevelt became the first president to be under constant Secret Service protection. Roosevelt was the first President to wear a necktie for his official portrait, a tradition which all of his successors followed. Although four Vice Presidents before Roosevelt had succeeded to the presidency upon the death of their predecessor, Roosevelt, in 1904, became the first to be elected in his own right or even win his party’s nomination for reelection. After Roosevelt, three more Vice Presidents who succeeded to the Presidency would be elected to full terms (Calvin Coolidge, Harry Truman, and Lyndon Johnson). In 1906, Roosevelt became the first American to be awarded a Nobel Prize, when he received the Nobel Peace Prize for his work towards ending the Russo-Japanese War. That same year, he made the first official trip by a President outside the United States, visiting Panama to inspect the construction progress of the Panama Canal on November 9. Roosevelt was also the first president to appreciate the power and influence of the press and formally invited the press into the White House on a permanent basis. He was also first to be submerged in a submarine, to own a car, and to have a telephone in his home. Administration and Cabinet
Supreme Court appointments Roosevelt appointed three Justices to the Supreme Court of the United States: Although Moody was a close associate of Roosevelt, Holmes, who would serve on the Supreme Court until 1932, gained his appointment by virtue of sharing a mutual acquaintance with Roosevelt, Henry Cabot Lodge. Moody was forced to resign due to ill health four years after his appointment, and after retiring, Roosevelt would clash with both Holmes and Day for not supporting reforms he backed. States admitted to the Union During Roosevelt's Presidency, one state, Oklahoma, was admitted to the Union. This new state included the former Indian Territory, which had attempted to gain admission on its own into the Union as the State of Sequoyah. (Formerly, the state of Oklahoma had been divided into the Oklahoma Territory and Indian Territory.) In 1906, a bill was introduced in Congress providing for the admission of the Oklahoma and Indian Territories as one state, and Arizona and New Mexico as another state. Although the bill passed on June 14 and was signed into law by Roosevelt, the people of Arizona and New Mexico rejected the offer of statehood. African safari In March 1909, shortly after the end of his second term, Roosevelt left New York for a safari in Africa. The trip was sponsored by the Smithsonian Institution and the National Geographic Society and received worldwide media attention. His party, which included scientists from the Smithsonian, killed or trapped over 11,397 animals, from insects and moles to hippopotamuses and elephants. 512 of the animals were big game animals, of which 262 were consumed by the expedition. This included six white rhinos. Tons of salted animals and their skins were shipped to Washington; the number of animals was so large, it took years to mount them. The Smithsonian was able to share many duplicate animals with other museums. Of the large number of animals taken, Roosevelt said, "I can be condemned only if the existence of the National Museum, the American Museum of Natural History, and all similar zoological institutions are to be condemned." Although based in the name of science, there was a large social element to the safari. Interactment with many native peoples, local leaders, renowned professional hunters, and land owning families made the safari much more than a hunting excursion. Roosevelt wrote a detailed account of this adventure; "African Game Trails" describes the excitement of the chase, the people he met, and flora and fauna he collected in the name of science. Republican Party rift
Election of 1912
1913-1914 South American Expedition
Writer Despite his weakened condition and slow recovery from his South America expedition, Roosevelt continued to write with passion on subjects ranging from foreign policy to the importance of the national park system. As an editor of Outlook magazine, he had weekly access to a large, educated national audience. In all, Roosevelt wrote about 18 books (each in several editions), including his Autobiography, Rough Riders and History of the Naval War of 1812, ranching, explorations, and wildlife. His most important book was the 4 volume narrative The Winning of the West, which traced the origin of a new "race" of Americans to frontier conditions in the 18th century. World War I Roosevelt angrily complained about the foreign policy of President Wilson, calling it "weak". When World War I began in 1914, Roosevelt strongly supported Britain, France and the Allies of World War I because he admired their fight for civilization; he demanded a harsher policy against Germany, especially regarding submarine warfare. In 1916, he campaigned energetically for Charles Evans Hughes and repeatedly denounced those Irish-Americans and German-Americans whose pleas for neutrality Roosevelt said were unpatriotic because they put the interest of Ireland and Germany ahead of America's. He insisted that one had to be 100% American, not a "hyphenated-American" who juggled multiple loyalties. When the U.S. entered the war in 1917, Roosevelt sought to raise a volunteer infantry division, but Wilson refused Roosevelt's attacks on Wilson helped the Republicans win control of Congress in the off-year elections of 1918. Roosevelt was popular enough to seriously contest the 1920 Republican nomination, but his health was broken by 1918 because of the lingering malaria. His son Quentin, a daring pilot with the American forces in France, was shot down behind German lines in 1918. Quentin was his youngest son and probably the most like him. It is said that the death of his son distressed him so much that Roosevelt never recovered from his loss.• Last years
Personal life
Legacy
Popular culture
Trivia Media Theodore Roosevelt's voice can be heard in several speeches from the Vincent Voice Library at Michigan State University: http://www.lib.msu.edu/vincent/presidents/index.htm See also Notes Primary sources Secondary sources | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
|
| |