The Lincoln Group has existed since the 1930s to honor the life and legacy of Abraham Lincoln. And this year we have a special opportunity to hear from an extraordinary speaker. And in introducing him i would like to repeat something that he said at the First NationalRepublican Convention that he attended as a young man in 1884. He was part of a reform wing of the Republican Party, and they had an insurgent candidate to be temporary chair of the convention, taking on the candidacy of the Republican National committee. That candidate happened to be the africanamerican congressman from mississippi, john r. Lynch. Here is some of what our speaker said. It is now less than a quarter of a century since in this city, chicago, the Great Republican Party organized for victory and nominated Abraham Lincoln of illinois who broke the fetors of the slaves and rant them asunder forever. It is a fitting thing for us to choose to preside over this convention one of that race whose right to sit within these walls is due to the blood and the treasures so lavishly spent by the founders of the Republican Party. So, it is a great honor and pleasure to introduce the 26th president of the United States no. He asked me to introduce him differently. It is a tremendous honor to introduce to introduce colonel Theodore Roosevelt. Bully, bully ha, ha, ha, ha bully, president elliff, thank you very much, sir. Thank you ladies and gentlemen, i am Theodore Roosevelt, and i am delighted to be here this evening with the Lincoln Group of the District Of Columbia and northern virginia. Oh, how its done my heart good to share fellowship with you this evening. So many of you recognized me upon my arrival and greeted me accordingly. Hello, teddy. Good evening, mr. President. I asked president elliff. My friends in my Retirement Call me colonel. For my brief time in the volunteer cavalry. History remembers us as the rough riders in the fight against the spanish monarchy for the freedom of the cuban people. All of the greetings tonight historically accurate stand in stark contrast to the young man yesterday, he saw me with my top hat and pointed at me and said, look, there is the monopoly dude. [ laughter ] ha, ha quite humbling for an old politician, i assure you. If he knew his history as well as mr. Obrien and the historians here, he would have known i was the antimonopoly dude. The great trust buster. Well, i am here to salute Abraham Lincoln. Of course, i was a little boy born in 1858. We just did celebrate my 159th birthday. I am here to make each and every one of you, even those with a bit of snow atop the peak, im here to make you feel young. As a little boy, what a hero Abraham Lincoln was to me. Even with some caution from your chief executive here, i wanted to share with you, of course, what you already know. I am a famous nicker balker through and through. I am half georgen. My great grandfather was the revolutionary governor of georgia. Bully. You might know mrs. Rose as a daughter of georgia. Now the bull oks. Some historians say, if not for the stories i heard as a young boy, an uncle to crossed the river to fight a duel to the demise of his opponent, of those who marched off to florida to fight in the seminole war. Were it not for the stories that i would have never been your president. I might have just grown up to be another boring dutch reform businessman in new york city as generations of roosevelts had been before. I can indeed prove my southern stock. My grandfather and my grandmother were sweethearts as children. My grandfather, James Stevens bullock. And my grandmother, Martha Stewart, now Martha Stewart was the i thought you might catch on there. Martha stewart was the youngest daughter of general daniel stewart. A hero of the revolutionary war and the war of 1812. It was he who marched off to seminole, the seminole wars in florida with his six sons, all of whom were 6 feet tall or taller leaving young Martha Stewart behind. He didnt want to leave her unmarried. In this regard my grandfather had proposed to my grandmother but, as a lady of the day did, she refused the first proposal. My grandfather apparently didnt have much patience in these issues of matrimony so he , married a young and eligible lady lady in savannah, esther eltiot. A week lady my grandmother married john elliott who would go on to be a oneterm United States senator from South Carolina. And my grandmother, Martha Stewart elliott at that time was a wonderful hostess here in washington, d. C. After the term in congress and the term in Senate Senator elliott returned for retirement in South Carolina but did not prevail long. Two years after his retirement he died. Shortly thereafter, Esther Elliott bullock died. At which point my grandfather successfully proposed to my grandmother. At which point when they married my grandfather was marrying his stepmother in law. If that doesnt make me a southerner, nothing will. [ laughter ] indeed my parents were married at bullock hall in roswell, georgia, nearby to atlanta, in 1953. If your travels take you nearby to atlanta i hope youll visit bullock hall and see some of the wonderful history kept alive there. I myself would visit bullock hall in 1905 during my trip through the south. When i toured the south i bragged about my southern heritage. Of course, i had two uncles that were prominent amongst the confederacy. My mothers halfbrother, uncle jimmy bullock, was the head of the Confederate Secret Service in europe. He built the css shenandoah and the css alabama in liverpool. My uncle irvine was said to be the man who fired the last cannon off the alabama in its fateful fight off the coast of france. Both men refused to sign a loyalty oath to the union and are buried with symbols of the confederacy on their graves in england. I grew up nearby grammarcy park. My father found no way to fight against my mothers family. My father. Yes, its true, he said for two substitutes to fight in his place during the war. But my father wanted to fight wanted to serve the union cause. He was a founder of the Union League Club of new york city. And along with mr. Choate and others of new york, they had an idea which sent my father to the Nations Capital. And through the offices of john hay, president lincolns private secretary, my father was seen in to visit with the president. Their idea was for the allotment commission. You, of course, here know the allotment commission. This was the first time in our history when, through legislation, the soldier was allowed to sign up to have a portion of his pay sent home for the support of spouse and children. In previous wars when the man went to fight the war, very often the family was left at home destitute, reliant upon local charity and the church for support. My father was successful in seeing congress adopt the legislation creating the allotment commission. It took a while. Congress in the early years of the war, they werent familiar with a man coming to Lobby Congress for an idea in which there wasnt a motive of selfprofit. But my father wanted to serve, so much so that he became an allotment commissioner for the state of new york. During the war years my father travelled wherever there were troops from new york, in the south, the north, in the west. My father travelled by train and horseback, very often to his own peril to get the soldiers to sign up to send a portion of their pay home for support of spouse and children. When my father was away from our home, our home at 28 east 20th street was a bevy of proconfederate activity. Not only was my mother a southern woman but my aunt anna and grandmother lived with us. Three southern women beneath the roof. When my father was away the women of the family would have the children in the basement kitchen preparing packages of bandages, medicine, clothing and cash to make its way to the wharf and via blockade runner bring aid to family and friends in the south. There was great relief in the roosevelt household when the terrible war came to utesits conclusion. You perhaps more than others know that when i was a little boy i witnessed the sad funeral parade that came through new york city bearing the body of our martyred president on the way back to springfield. A historian brought a photo of the parade to the attention of my widow. The picture was a picture of the parade as it passed by my grandfathers house at union square. In the second floor window of my grandfathers house you see the silhouettes of two small boys. Thats me. And my brother elliott. Eleanor roosevelts father, later in history, watching the parade below. What you do not see is that my future bride, edith carow is locked in the closet. She had been crying at the sad sights of the Wounded Soldiers and the music. It was annoying me and elliott greatly. We picked her up and locked her in the closet. A sin for which she apparently forgave me. I began my career as a young republican as a young student at harvard college. Today harvard university, cambridge, massachusetts. You good common sense people of the Nations Capital must understand me when i tell you, i did not learn much of practical value at harvard. Most of my classmates majored in the issue of night life across the Charles River in boston. It was my own father who had sent me from new york city to cambridge my freshman year with these words. He said, first take care of your morals. Second, your health. And third, your studies. I graduated four years later, phi beta kappa. Magna cum laude. When i was away my father died of stomach cancer. At a young man of 45. I was in a terribly foul mood. I wrote in my diary and to my family i thought i might go insane with sadness. I sought revfuge in the forests of maine. We climbed to the highest point in maine famous today as the northern terminus of the great appalachian trail. We visited the lumber camps where my vocabulary was greatly expanded. Each and every morning before our adventures i took my canoe where the west branch of the river is joined by first brook. In the Early Morning lights by the sound of the waters joining gently i began each and every day as my late father would have me do, with bible devotion. In the years hence the people in the state of maine have seen to name that little point of land a state Historic Site called bible point. Named for the man that i as a young man sought and found the wisdom and comfort and solace of the good book there. I would later in life say a thorough knowledge of the bible was worth more than a college education. And when i said so, i had in mind that great scholar of the good book, Abraham Lincoln. I hope that i have left my camp ground cleaner than i found it. That at some point during my 7 1 2 years as your president that i might have done some good for which you still might be appreciative today. The nation gives me credit fort the National Parks. Perhaps erroneously so. Yellowstone, 1872. President grant and a republican congress. It took an act of congress to name a National Park. Therefore, i was only able to double the number of National Parks from five to ten. I on this issue of the conservation of our natural resources, i was a progressive. And i discovered that very often the opposite of progress was congress. But i hope that you enjoy the National Parks and, of course, when we think about the National Parks, we must think of president Abraham Lincoln, who made a condition of california statehood in 1864 the maintenance and preservation of yosemite as a National Park by the state. And during my administration, when we discovered that the California Parks Commission was not living up to the responsibility of maintaining that National Park, we refedderalized much of the park and expanded the park. A park i visited with john muir during my administration in 1903. There is a great deal of my administration, of course, that has its origin during the lincoln administration. The railroad act, settling of the west, and my own adventures to the dakota territory would not have occurred without the great progressive legislation and, of course, many are the north Dakota Farmers still to this day come tell me that theyve got on their homestead deed my signature. But that would not have occurred without the homestead act passed during the lincoln administration. When i was your president , there wasnt a major controversy, a major issue which i wouldnt look up at the picture that i had in my office of Abraham Lincoln, a photograph of an unbearded lincoln, dating to the time of the lincoln and douglas debate. I sort of wish that the president would not have grown his chin whiskers myself. I would look up at that picture and think, what would president lincoln do in this circumstance. Well, as fantastic as it may sound, it gave me great comfort to put myself in the mind of Abraham Lincoln during the small controversies compared to the great controversies which the rail splitter dealt. I was proud to be a member of the Republican Party, and for any of the republicans in the audience, i know you may blame me for eight years of wilson. But when the nomination i had won eight of the 12 primaries in 1912 when i sought the republican nomination against my old friend, my handchosen successor, William Howard taft. The reason i ran against taft was in great part for the fact that he had divorced himself from the grass roots of lincolns Republican Party, the common man, the shop keeper, the mechanic, the farmer, but he was doing quite while by the special interests of wall street, the men that i call the malfactors of great wealth and land robbers. The Republican Party stole the nomination for taft. Not the first nor the last time that something politically was stolen in chicago. We returned weeks later, and i accepted the nomination of the progressive party. My nomination seconded by jane adams. The great social reformer of chicagos whole house, a future Nobel Peace Prize winner. How delighted i was to know that her father, mr. Adams of northwestern illinois, was a dear friend of Abraham Lincolns and known as his double d adams, for the spelling of the family name. The lincoln administrationi, how we wish it had lasted longer than it had, but it wasnt to be. We are inspired still by that greatest of men. We were weakened as you heard at Theodore Roosevelt island. During the civil war the island was occupied by United States colored troops. And it was a freemans village, in the later years of the war and in the years right after the war. The island was known then as mason island, the revolutionary pay trot george mason, his family owning the island through those years. There is a wonderful bit of connection through history. I love the way that we find that history has these wonderful webs that are woven to remind us that we are all indeed connected. On that island, a mason owned the island during the war of 1812, and mason served the descendant of the original mason. Mason served as the commissioner in charge of exchange of prisoners with the british. So he was sought after by Francis Scott key. It was mason that gave Francis Scott key his permission papers to go negotiate for the release of prisoners out side of ft. Mchenry during the fateful battle and we have our national anthem, the star spangled banner, written as a result of he taking that commission. I first served the American People in federal office as your United StatesCivil Service commissioner. Appointed by president benjamin harrison. I fought against corruption in his own republican regime. I did so well in fighting against republican corruption that i was appointed by the democrat grover cleveland. Then i fought corruption in his democratic regime just as well. You may know that the author of the United StatesCivil Service act, known as the pendleton act. George pendleton of ohio, the president ial nominee with general mcclellan in 1864. George pendletons wife, alice key, the daughter of Francis Scott key. I have been told so much history that i didnt know by your members, i thought i might share a little bit that i knew with you today. I hope that i lived up to the aspirations of the American People for my presidency. I sadly came to the presidency through the graveyard. On the assassination of president mckinley occurring, september 6th he was shot. 1901, in buffalo, new york, i raced from a fish and game dinner to be by his side. And after some days, his physicians assured me and the members of the cabinet who had assembled there that the president would recuperate from his wounds. The cabinet felt it would do the nations anxiety and wall streets anxiety some good if i was seen to go on a planned vacation with my family in my beloved add ronirondack adirondack mountains. The Cloud Splitter as the locals called it, lived up to its name. When i reached the apex the clouds split and my guide showed me the bodies of water and the mountains for 360 degrees around. When we came down and had lunch at the lake, a hunting guide known to me was coming up the path, rushing with what appeared to be a telegram in his hand. I knew it would be bad news. The telegram was from john hay. He who in his youth had been private secretary to lincoln, now mckinleys secretary of state. It informed me indeed the president was dying in buffalo and i was needed there. Terribly sad news to come to the presidency through the graveyard. Unfortunately for president mckinley the two physicians treating his wounds were both obstetricians, neither of whom had ever treated a gunshot wound in his practice. When i reached the north creek depot along the hudson river that morning early on the 14th. Another telegram given to me again this from john hay, stating that at 2 15 that morning president mckinley had died. I was now your 26th president. I raced to buffalo by train, there paid condolences to mrs. Mckinley and then in a private residence now a national Historic Site, the wilcox mansion. For one of only four times the american president took the oath of office not in the nations capitol, in a borrowed suit of clothes i took the oath of Office Without a bible at hand, stating briefly beforehand that it would be my aim that the policies of the Mckinley Administration for the peace, prosperity and honor of the American People would remain entirely unbroken. I wrote to a friend that while we were in a period of National Mourning it would be worse if we were morbid about the duties before us. I took great inspiration from president lincoln as i set about the duties that i had. So much so that, within weeks of becoming your president and after allowing mrs. Mckinley time to move out of the white house, in the month of october, i spent a day working on issues of education and southern improvement with the gentlemen. Then that mightnight when i invited booker t. Washington, the president of tuskegee university, he who in his youth had been enslaved when i invited him to have dinner with me at the white house, do you realize it was the first time a man of color had been a dinner guest of the american president. How far weve come. Not all change is progress, however. Some change is retrogression. Out of all things done by the most recent of administrations, the thing that i lament most is that the name of president mckinley, the last president to have fought in the great civil war was taken off of officially the highest point in north america. The president by executive order said the mountain should be referred to as denali. The park is named denali. Would it have really been that much of a cost to keep the name of mckinley atop the mountain . Might some children in a schoolhouse wonder why it was named mckinley and then look up the name of the great Public Servant whose record is perhaps overshadowed by my own. But it was during his administration that we pursued the opendoor policy with secretary of state in china. It was during that time that we annexed hawaii. Mt. Rainier National Park given to people during the Mckinley Administration and so much more. History is a tenuous thing. Its important to keep the names of history alive. I support the work that youre doing to keep the name and legacy of Abraham Lincoln alive. Believe it or not, that man who is amongst the greatest men who ever lived but of course there is revisionism in history. Some would have us believe that president lincoln wasnt the great man that he was, that he harbored opinions and attitudes that just dont go anymore in the 21st century. I applaud your work and ask you to redouble it to keep alive the spirits of Abraham Lincoln. I saluted lincoln in 1903. I toured the country. Congress had recessed in the spring. I toured 22 states and two territories. As your president when i went on vacation i did not go golfing. I went hunting and camping. Very often in the National Parks of the country. During that trip i visited yellowstone National Park and after camping for two weeks with john burrows, i laid the cornerstone in montana in what is known today as roosevelt arc. Creating that first park in 1872 and from the act in 1916 creating the National Parks service. About the only thing that president wilson got right, by the way. Those words, for the benefit and enjoyment of the people. The parks belong to each of us. Hence, to all of us. Hence, to each and all the responsibility to pass them on to future generations in better condition and not in worse. During that trip around the country, for the first time, i saw the grand canyon, of the great Colorado River in arizona territory. And how it took my breath away. And for the first time i visited california and climbed and camped and tramped in yosemite with john muir, the founder of the sierra club, the great bearded botanist and saw the legacy of Abraham Lincoln in the maintenance of that great gem as a park. In the trip around the country i also spoke at lincolns tomb in springfield. Of all the things i said that day, i think the most important was to acknowledge the troops, the regular army troops that were there that were colored gentlemen like those that had camped at mason island those years before. I saluted them and stated any man who was willing to fight for his country was deserving of the equal protection of the laws of this country and all the rights thereto. In 1904 you might know that i was elected by the largest electoral vote and popular vote plurality up to that date. And thats not fake news. When i took the oath of office in march of 1905, you may know that the night before secretary of state john hay had given to me a ring, a locket ring. In that locket a clipping of hair taken from president lincolns deathbed. I held that right hand aloft. And unlike the oath in 1901, this time i wore my own suit and had the family bible at hand. Opened to and my left happened upon james 1 22. Be thou not only hearers of the word but doers of the word also. I hope that during my administration i did some of the good work that were called to do by the gospel. I promised on Election Night in 1904 that i would maintain the tradition of george washington, not only in its letter but in its spirit, that i would not be a candidate for the presidency in 1908. I shared with one of your members tonight i have only found one record of a regret in all my writings and diaries. That was the regret of making that statement on Election Night in 1904. I wrote my friend Henry Cabot Lodge i would have bitten off my left hand if i could have taken that pledge back. In my day a mans word was indeed his honor and i had to keep the pledge. To give president taft room to grow into the office i went hunting in africa with my son kermit for over a year. And then i returned to the United States and saw that president taft had made a mess of everything. Returning my and Abraham Lincolns Republican Party back over to the special interests on wall street, so i famously told the press that i was stripped to the waist, healthy as a bull moose and that my hat was in the ring. The first time that phrase from pugilism was used to declare a candidacy. Out across the country i campaigned. I do hope that i received the votes of every lincoln republican that was. I was not successful. I only won six states. 27 of the electoral vote. The most successful Third Party Candidacy in our history unless you count the Republican Party of 1860, which an argument can be made for that. I visited with the ripen society today. There they acknowledged the creation of the republican part in 1884 in wisconsin where the founders said they entered that schoolhouse as democrats and wigs and free soilers and came out as republicans. I still have hope for my Republican Party and Abraham Lincolns Republican Party. When i finished my Administration Today we inaugurate the new president in january. In my day, before the constitutional revision, we did so in march. Of all things, i took great delight that that allowed me to salute both president lincoln and president washington during their birth month of february, during the last year of my administration in 1909. And as i considered with your president , mr. Elliff, what i might share with you, i thought, i cannot improve upon the original. With your forbearance, remarks that i made at the president s birthplace on the occasion of the centennial of his birth, in kentucky. And you will bear with me, i wrote the speech as i wrote tens of thousands of letters, i wrote 30 books. I did not write well. I simply took well to writing. But if you will bear with me what i wrote in 1909 bears repeating. And i would like to get the words correctly read. We have met here to celebrate the hundredth anniversary of the birth of one of the two greatest americans, of one of the two or three greatest men of the 19th century, of one of the greatest men in the worlds history, the rail splitter, this boy who passed his ungainly youth in the dire poverty in the poorest of the frontier folk. Whose rise was by weary and painful labor and lived to bring his people through a struggle from which the nation emerged purified, as by fire. Born anew to a loftier life. After long years of ire and effort and of failure that came more often than victory, he at last rose to the leadership of the republic, at the moment when that leadership had become the stupendous world task of the time. He grew to no greatness. But never ease. Success came to him. But never happiness. Save that which springs from doing well, a painful and a vital task. Power was his. But not pleasure. The furrows deepened on his brow, but his eyes were undimmed by either hate or fear. His gaunt shoulders were bowed, but his steel hues never flattened as he bore the destiny people. The task allotted him was to pour out like water the life blood of the young men and to feel in his every fiber the sorrow of the women. Disaster saddened but never dismayed him. As the red years of war went by, they found him ever doing his duty in the present, ever facing the future with fearless front, high of heart, and dauntless of soul. Unbroken by hatred, unshaken by scorn. He worked and suffered for the people. Triumph was his at the last, and barely had he tasted it before murder found him. And the kindly, patient, fearless eyes were closed forever. As a people, we are indeed beyond measure fortunate in the character of the two greatest of our public men, washington and lincoln. Widely though they differed in externals, the virginia landed gentlemen and the kentucky backwoodsman, they were alike in essentials. They were alike in the great qualities which made each able to Render Service to his nation and to all mankind such as no other man of his generation could or did render. Each had lofty ideals. But each in striving to attain these lofty ideals was guided by the soundest common sense. Each possessed inflexible courage in adversity and a soul wholly unspoiled by prosperity. Each possessed all the gentler virtues commonly exhibited by good men who lack rugged strength of character. Each possessed also all the strong qualities which commonly exhibited by those towering masters of mankind. We sig nye there have been other men as great and other men as good, but in all the history of mankind, there are no other two great men as good as these. No other two good men as great. Widely, though, the problems of today differ from the problems set for solution to washington when he founded this nation, to lincoln when he saved it, and freed the widely, though, the problems of today differ from the problems set for solution to washington when he founded this nation, to lincoln when he saved it and freed the slave, yet the qualities they showed in meeting these problems are exactly the same as those we should show in doing our work today. Lincoln saw into the future, with the prophetic imagination usually vouch safed only to the poet and the seer. He had in him all the lift towards greatness of the visionary, without any of the visionarys fanaticism or egotism. Without any of the visionarys narrow jealousy of the practical man and inability to strive in practical fashion for the realization of an ideal. He had the practical mans hard common sense and willingness to adapt means to ends. But there was in him none of that more bid growth of mind and soul which binds many practical men to the higher things of life. No more practical man ever lived than this homely backwoods idealist. He had nothing in common with the practical men whose consciouses are shrinked. In the world of business or in politics, only serve to make their possessor a more noxious and evil member of the community if they are not guided and controlled by a fine and moral sense. We of this day must try to solve many social and industrial problems, requiring to a special degree a combination of indom table resolution with coolheaded sanity. And failed to understand that strength, ability, whether in the world of business or politics, only serve to make their possessor more noxious, a more evil member of the community that they are not guided and controlled by a fine and moral sense. We can profit by the way in which lincoln use both these trait for reform. We can learn much of value from the various acts going that course brought upon his head attacks alike by extremists of revolution and the extremists of reaction. He never wavered in devotion to his principles. And his love for the union and in his abhorrence of slavery. Timid and lukemwarm people were always denouncing him because he was too extreme. But as a matter of fact, he never went to extremes. He worked step by step. Because of this, the extremists hated and denounced him with a fervor which seems to us fantastic in his dayie fication of the unreal and impossible at one time when one side held him up as the apostle of social revolution because he was against slavery the leading app ligsist denounced him as the slave hound of illinois. When he was the second time candidate for president the majority of opponents attacked him for what they termed his extreme radicalism. While a minority threatened to bolt his nomination because he was not radical enough. He had continually to check those who wished to go forward too fast. At the very time he overrode the opposition of those who wished not to go forward at all. The goal was never dim before his vision, but he picked his way cautiously, without either halt or hurry, as he strode toward it, through such a morass of difficulty that no man of less courage would have attempted it, while it would surely have overwhelmed any man of judgment less serene. Perhaps the most wonderful thing of all, and from the standpoint of the america of today and of the future, the most vitally important was the extraordinary way in which lincoln could fight valiantly against what he deemed wrong and yet preserve undiminished his love and respect for the brother from whom he differed. In the hour of a triumph that would have turned any weaker could fight valiantly against what he deemed wrong and yet preserve undiminished his love and respect for the brother from whom he differed. In the hour of a triumph that would have turned any weaker mans head, in the heat of a struggle which spurred many a good man to dreadful vin vindictiveness. He said that as long as he had been in his office he had never planted a thorn in any mans bosom and sought to see through the trial they were following through wisdom. Ending with the solemn exhortation that, as the strife was over, all should reunite in an effort to save their common country. He lived in the days that were great and terrible. When brother fought against brother, for what each sincerely believed to be the right. In a contest so grim, the strong men who alone can carry it through are rarely able to do justice to the deep convictions of those with whom very grapple in mortal strife. At such times, men see through a glass darkly. To only the rarest and loftiest peters spirits is vouch safed the clear vision that gradually comes to all, even the lesser as the struggle fades into the distance, wounds are forgotten and peace creeps back to the hearts that were hurt. But to lincoln was given this supreme vision. He did not hate the man from whom he differed. Weakness was as foreign as wickedness in his strong, gentle nature. His courage was of a quality so high that it needed no bolstering of dark passion. He saw clearly that the same high qualities, the same courage and willingness for which selfsackself selfsacrifice belonged to both the men of the north and men of the south. As the years rolled by and as all of us, wherever we dwell, grow to feel an equal pride in the valor and selfdevotion alike of the men who wore the blue and the men who wore the gray, so this whole nation will grow to feel a peculiar sense of pride in the man whose blood was shed for the union of his people and for the freedom of a race, the lover of his country and of all mankind. The mightiest of the mighty men who mastered the mighty days. Abraham lincoln. [ applause ] careful. Careful. Careful now. Careful. Thats an encouragement for a politician to go on speaking. [ laughter ] i was the first president to make Permanent OfficeSpace Available for members of the press at the white house. Something i am sure many of my successors deeply regret. I would be negligent of my duties if i didnt open up the floor to questions and perhaps your president might do so first. I defer to each and every one of you. Any question or comment that you might have or lacking questions we could do a bit of a boxing exhibition. Please, sir. Given the strife between our Political Parties in the last decade, would you support a third party, and do you think it would be possible to bring a third party into being . As you know, currently the election laws, the Ballot Access laws of this country are written to the detriment of any thirdparty candidate. But there has been a great deal of dine aimism amongst the electorate. The internet, of course, has brought great change to the way that we campaign. So that i could imagine, by some circumstance, if these two major parties are not attendant to the needs of the American People, that the American People may seek out some sort of tremendous change, just as the Republican Party was born of the need of the inability of the major parties of the time and, of course, born from the fact that the kansas nebraska bill had upset the previous compromises upon which the nation had been set. Well, again, if the American People choose to put their faith in a thirdparty effort, maybe they wont be looking to the example of the Bull Moose Party but instead to the Republican Party of 1860 as the model for success. Colonel. I was raised with stories. I would like you to expand upon when you and the french ambassador going out to rock creek and whats called skinny dipping in rock creek. There is a monument there. What can you tell us about these outings . The game, of course, was called point to point. Its an outdoor hiking game, a game we played in oyster bay, long island with the roosevelt boys and their children. I believe the roosevelt children captured the attention of the American People with their lives in the white house. The way we played point to point with the children in oyster bay was to spin a small child around at point a. Wherever the dizzy child came to rest and pointed bond the horizon was an imagery point b to which we raced in single file. The rule being, whenever you came to an obstacle. Downed tree, cliff, barn, hay stack, you never went around it. But always and only over it, under or through it. Its great fun. We should play it here in arlington. I imported the game to washington, d. C. , and played with members of congress and diplomats, army and Navy Officers who showed themselves too unfit to keep up with a fat, asthmatic president racing through the woods. And with the french ambassador who came to the white house disregarding the part of the invitation that said wear your dirty clothes. He arrived wearing the finest of french silks. We rode our horses to Rock Creek Park and raced through the woods to the potomac river. He had sweat through his clothes and being a fast, deep and wide running portion of the river he thought certainly it was our terminus and that we would to the white house for refreshments. I turned to the gentleman and said lets take off our clothes, swim across the river and put our cloetsthes on. I think today cnn would go live. The french ambassador had kept on his lavender kid gloves. I said, mr. Ambassador, why have you kept on your gloves . He said, monsieur, president , in case we meet any ladies. [ laughter ] i see fashions have changed greatly along the riverfront, have they not. I dont believe any president ever enjoyed himself as president in the white house as much as i did. Certainly no family enjoyed themselves more than the roosevelt family. Six children, most of them small. My daughter alice was 17 when we entered the white house. And her behavior was scandalous. Alice smoked cigarettes in public. She flirted with army and Navy Officers. And when the white house punch was discovered spiked we knew who the culprit was. Alice kept a snake in her purse and introduced the snake as emily spinach at diplomatic dinners and receptions. Sometimes wearing the snake around her wrist or neck. I said, alice, no daughter of mine will smoke beneath my roof. Alice was sometimes seen smoking on the white house roof. Once she interrupted and i was told, cant you control your daughter, alice. I said, sir, i can can either run the country or control alice. I cannot possibly do both. She was married at the white house in 1906 to congressman Nicholas Longworth of cincinnati, ohio. The wedding was a great success. Your grandparents may have played the wedding waltz, alices blue gown. She outlived all her younger siblings. Living to the age of 96. Well into the administration of president james earl carter. And all those years living in her Dupont Circle apartment in the Nations Capital. My daughter was known as the second washington monument. And i do believe her personality delightfully summed up by a needlepoint message on a pillow in her setee. The message said. If you dont have anything nice to say about someone, come sit next to me. Please. There are two president s that were born in the state of new and york. You were the first. What do you think of the second occupant . Seems weve run out of time tonight ha, ha, ha well, i am sometimes asked by audiences. There has been a bit of an editorial opinion. Someone wrote a column, oh, President Trump is so much like president roosevelt. Him its true we were both born in new york city. We both came from a bit of wealth. And i think early on what i lost most of my fathers inheritance in a cattle ranch gone bad along the little missouri river. I think President Trump eventually showed a bit more finesse with his investments. If i were to find a for me, something that might be similar in my time period, you might remember that the publisher William Randolph hurst, sought the democratic nomination in 1904. You might be familiar with the film citizen kane. Its based on William Randolph hearst. In that regard, hearst was a selfpromoter. He had little public service. His claim was that he was a wealthy man who had been quite successful at promoting his own business interests. So i would say, sir, that i think there is probably a closer relationship and historical relationship between William Randolph hearst and the president than myself. By the way, we are on cspan, so i am on the record here. I am delighted to see cspan. I want you to know i am delighted to the wonderful work that cspan does, bringing hearings and seminars to the people of the country without editorial comment or commercial. It was during one of the programs hosted by brian lamb, book tv. I imagine amongst your favorite as well. You may know he interviewed my biographer, edwin morris, he who wrote many years ago the rise of Theodore Roosevelt and most recently the colonel. During that interview he told brian lamb that all in all he was glad i died at 60 because if i had lived longer it would have cost him another decade as my biographer. Believe for cspan. Ly for cspan. Any other questions . President elliff. There is a real president in the room. You have board meetings coming up in may. Never miss a meeting when theyre electing officers. There was a coal strike in 1902. And you had to intervene. And how did president lincolns example influence you as you dealt with that crisis . Of course, i asserted the power of the executive in this case. Its known in history as the anthracite coal strike of 1902. That was the coal we burned in fireplaces in places like new york, philadelphia and boston. The workers had gone on strike for increased wages and rational, reasonable working hours. When they had gone on strike, the mine operators locked the union out. We were producing no anthracite coal. The idea of a winter spent with riots and the idea that people might be tearing apart their own wooden buildings to provide heat for their families, well, i threatened the mine owners that, unless they negotiated with the Union Members that i would send federal troops in to operate the mines. This is similar to what president truman would later do during the steel strike during his administration. We at the blareir house, the white house was being renovated at the time. I had had surgery on my leg. At the blair house i met in a wheelchair with my leg up upon another chair. And the union the mine owners would not even met with mr. Lewis, the head of the mine workers union. We decided to go about an arbitration. I put together an arbitration commission. And the mine owners were adamant that no union man should be represented on that commission. So i discovered that they didnt mind that a union man might be appointed as long as he werent called a union man. They didnt so mind tweedal dumb or tweedal dee as long as the phrase would be used properly. So a union man was included on the commission and we called him an eminent sociologist rather than a representative of the unions. President wilson, during his time as a professor of princeton, as a political scientist he wrote a tome called congressional government. There are two president s during the period before and after that period when the federal government was dominated by the speaker of the house, the president pro tem of the senate. There were two times when the executive was ascendant and when the executive asserted power. Perhaps power beyond the constitutionally authorized. That was president lincoln and myself. There was no Constitutional Authority for me to build the panama canal, to recognize the breakaway republic of panama, just as there had been no Constitutional Authority for president jefferson to purchase the louisiana purchase. But lincoln did much to raise the power of the executive and i think i followed in his footsteps, to make sure that the president just wasnt a rubber stamp for the acts of questions but congress but might emanate leadership. I believe i took leadership from president lincoln in that undertaking to do what was necessary to do for the welfare and benefit for the Common People of this country. Its said i am atop Mount Rushmore with the other three because of the square deal. And this was the idea that the federal government existed not only to enrich the people of wall street as some of the previous administrations to main had done but instead that the federal government was, in the words of lincoln, a government of, by and for the people. And i couldnt imagine sitting by the sidelines and watching a terrible freezing winter decimate the people of new england if i didnt do what i could do to help bring them heat and comfort in their homes that particular winter of 1902. I helped to settle the russo japanese war with the treaty of portsmouth, new hampshire. The major powers of europe, well, they were all either allied with the japanese or with the russians. We were able, at the invitation of the french and the english who stood behind those major powers, to help negotiate a peace that eventually i think was proven to save hundreds of thousands of lives, both the czar and emperor both wanting to fight for honor and willing to grind up hundreds of thousands of the young men of their country as they battled in manchuria. And so, it wasnt only to my credit but the credit of the people of portsmouth, new hampshire, who entertained the russian and japanese delegates, wentworth by the sea. A wonderful inn nearby portsmouth where the history of that time of 1905 kept alive and remembered. I felt fortunate to do the work of bringing peace to asia in such a way that was eventually acknowledged, the following year, with the awarding of my Nobel Peace Prize. I accepted that peace prize in 1910 when i toured europe. Of course. There is a great deal of money that came along with the Nobel Peace Prize, i explained to my children that since i was president of the United States, conducting my public duties when that peace was negotiated, that there was no way i felt i could retain the money. I delegated the money to congress, asking congress to fund an institute for industrial peace. But congress wasnt interested in doing such a thing. So when the First World War came about, i asked for my money to be returned. It was returned with interest. And that money was then parcelled out for the relief of famine in belgium, for the support of our troops in france, and i hope it came to some effective good especially for the dough boys who carried on that duty in world war i. Thank you. Yes, sir. Doctor, please. As you look back, do you have regrets in your relationship with taft . I won ohio in the primary. Ohio was the first republican primary held. It was in part because he promised to continue the Administration Policies for the progress of the American People and, for example, he agreed with me on who should be appointed to be the secretary of war, but did not appoint them. He broke several personal promises to me. It was under the influence of his brothers. He returned my Republican Party back over to wall street and i returned to the United States in 20 country and was speaking in kansas about my program of new nationalism and how we needed a federal government that would advocate for the American People conservation of resources. I held the first governor conference on conservation and natural resources. Before the end of my administration, we held a conference on the conservation of National Resources and we had begun to implement plans for the First International conference on the conservation of natural resources. One of the earliest actions of the Taft Administration was to cancel those plants. Between his lethargy and lack of energy and under the influence of old powers, taft was a great disappointment to me