tis of history william b. Crowley who just completed 50 years on the faculty of the university of mary washington. During that half century, dr. Crowley contributed in innumerable ways and significant ways, certainly not least of all, the creation of our renowned Historic Preservation program and the creation of this amazing great lives series. It is for his excellence in teaching that he is perhaps best known and certainly to literally thousands of our students, he received our institutions highest honors in teaching both from his colleagues and from his students. Many of whom through the years have voted him as the faculty member who made the greatest impact on their lives. Dr. Youly has become a true icon of this community. And so it is with great pleasure that i introduce Professor William b. Crowley. Who droug upawing upon his 50 yf political history has truly shared so much of his knowledge and will be sharing it again with us to day and he looks at some interesting and controversial president s. And like many modern day president s, none so straight forward as the story may recall or the history may have told us. Welcome to the lecture today. He is certainly the most colorful and dynamic figures ever to occupy that office. To understand roosevelts contribution as the first great president ial leader of reform, we need to examine the culture in which he lived. Born in new york, he grew up in an era of rapid and vast growth in america as the nation expanded dramatically in terms of geography, population and wealth. The booming economy of that age was aided by the advent of inventions. And by the development of huge corporations often growing to monopolistic proportions. And all underwritten philosophically by the prevailing popularity of social dom inism. And add heres to that philosophy that, is applying tar wins tenants of Natural Selection that is survive afl the fittest to the world of economics, business, and society in general, supported the government and supported a government philosophy of laissez faire whereby businesses were allowed to develop unfedered by government regulations. One consequence was the accumulation of enormous wealth by some. With names like morgan, rockefeller, vanderbilt and others, socalled rival barons, but at the same time, the wealth was distributed creating vast inequalities. Such a situation that moved mark twain to term the era the guilded age, absolutely implying a society that was bright and shiny on the surface but increasingly built on a substrat yum of poverty. It was within this situation that in the late 19th century demands for reform began to arise. Movement promoted by the revelations of a group of activists known somewhat divisively at that time as the buck raiders and it included such prominent writers as the expose of the Standard Oil Trust and even more widely known, sinclair whose book the jungle folk you had on the unsavory and literally unsavory practices of the meat packing industry. But that largely Movement Never gained sufficient support from the middle and upper class voters or from urban voters. So it was superseded around the turn of century by a broadly based movement known as progressivism. And the success of that movement in bringing about reform was largely oeg to the energetic efforts of Theodore Roosevelts often simply referred to as tiara or tenny. Roosevelt, it should be noted, was not a very likely candidate originally to become a reform leader. He was born into one of the wealthiest, most aristocratic of new york owned families. It did not seem likely that one born will have been reform and expected to be a firm. But that was not to be the case. Why was it . As a child, roosevelt had been weak, sickly, troubled by asthma, terribly troubled by asthma and weak eyesight. So he undertook to correct the short comings and worked hard to improve his health. He became a boxer and outdoorsman. Spent a period of time working on a ranch in the west and his zest for physical activity particularly the belligerent kind became legendary. It has become customary to explain roosevelts personality as being compensation for his inferiority. Whatever that case may be, Teddy Roosevelt took pleasure in the physical, adventurous and dangerous. Surely few men have ever been able to gratify desires to such an extent. His life was indeed a full one so lets just hit the highlights of it here at the beginning. He graduated from harvard in 1880, studied law afterwards at colombia and did not receive the degree. He served one time in the new york legislature. He served six years on the u. S. Civil service commission. He served one yir as assistant secretary of the navy. That may not seem like an exciting job. He made it exciting. It was he who ordered admiral dewey to the philippines and the spanish american war and cataclysmic and well, most important battle of that war, battle of the bay took place. He was a well known author. He wrote a four volume study of the war of 1812. He wrote a book called the winning of the west. He wrote a couple of popular biographies. Will he worked out in the dakota territories as a rancher and is pretty well known, he served the spanish american war where he gloried in his role as the colonel who was the head of the volunteer outfit known as the rough riders. So many people learned about his roosevelts activities in cuba. One said at the time he was so self centered he should have titled it alone in cuba. He was a genuine scholar and genuine int genuine intellectual. There he is as colonel roosevelt, rough rider. His life was certainly not without sorrow. He suffered one of the most grievous tragedies of any public figure that im aware of and that is his wife to whom he was exceedingly devoted died shortly after giving birth to their first child, alice. And within 24 hours of that, his mother died. So his wife and mother were buried on the same day. Well, theodore voroosevelt was r from dull. People called him lots of names and called him everything can you think of but nobody ever accused him of being dull. That he was not. In fact, it was his robust lifestyle, enthusiastic approach to life that makes it somewhat surprising that he ever became president. Because to get there, he took the office of Vice President. Wasnt all that excited about it. Thats the reason the nomination to run with mckinley in 1900 as the Vice President s running mate s he is the previous Vice President had died in office. Roosevelt was offered that job and was because there were people within the Republican Party who wanted to get him out of new york. He was making a nuisance of himself in the eyes of conservatives and they said how can we get rid of him in new york . Well, someone had the great idea of kicking him upstairs so to speak and after all, the Vice President was harmless. Most people in the Republican Party werent bothered by that. One is mark han yashgs the person behind william mckinley, a firm strong conservative supporter of the business community. He said in discussing roosevelts possible nomination, he said, dont any of you realize that there will only be one life between this mad man and the white house . For a young man, there is not much to do. But anyway, he ran for Vice President. Mckinley and he were lekted aeld he became the Vice President of the United States. There was so much for him to do. William mckinley was assassinated and Theodore Roosevelt at the age of 42 became the youngest president in american history. And still is. I know there are some that say what about jack kennedy . Watch this. It could be a trick question. And i would never try to trick students. But its a bit tricky. Could be a jeopardy question, i guess. If you ask who is the youngest person ever to be president , it is still Theodore Roosevelt. The question is the only person ever elected to president that, is jack kennedy. So i thought you might want to keep that in mind. In any case, when he came for mark hannah, he was furious. I said i told him it was a mistake to nominate that wild man. I asked him if he should realize what he would die. Now that damn cowboy is president of the United States. He waited to see what t. R. Would do. One hiss atorian wrote, they di not overlook an agitator that bore the most aristocratic names that can charm a sunday school class and turn out his essays or lasso a steer and who in addition happened to be president of the United States. He sent a message. You made a very good start in life and your friends have great hopes for you when you grow up. He was 46. Well, surely he sought attention. He always wanted to be the center of attention. Its been said that roosevelt is the kind of person that always wanted to be the bride in every wedding and the corpse in every funeral. My favorite story to illustrate this is maybe powerful. But heres the story anyway. Story is that one occasion roosevelt came up to a friend of his and he said, i had the most wonderful dream last night. I dreamed that i died and went to heaven. And on the first night, the celestial choir sang. It was magnificent. There were 1,000 sopranos, 1,000 altos, 1,000 basses. And the friend said, what about the tenors . To which roosevelt replied, i sang tenor. So you get the idea. What is this movement about. Lets look at the domestic accomplishments and well go through these rather briefly. The this inning to remember as i talk about these different elements of his domestic program, the important thing to bear in mind is that they were path breaking. They constituted a dramatic break particularly in terms of government regulations. I used to ask my students at this point, how big a role did the United States government play in lives, daily lives of americans at that time . What did the federal government do . They were stumped by the most frequent answer this is true. That didnt affect people on every day basis, most people. The answer is, government delivered the mail. Mostal service. Postal service. Aside from that, there wasnt much involved with interference from the federal government and the members. The point is, that is why roosevelts proscy marked such an interesting and pivotal break. Laissez faire theories, government didnt get involved with any company run business. But there were calls for reform and change and to try to correct some of the inequalities. The much of it dealt with railroads. They had to use railroads. And so there is a lot of focus on trying to bring some regulation to the railroads. The first major thing that did that was the elkins act passed in 1803. No need to get into the specifics. This particular act prohibits the giving of rebates railroads. That is refunds to large schippers which meant that large shippers got kick backs. Small people had to pay for a freight. The point is different concept to have the government to step in and say, you know, these private businesses can be regulated that way. More by that sort of thing. In the realm of conservation, here too, this is what he always juan one of his main interests, he was able to secure passage and which provided for the proceeds from the sale of Government Land should be used for federal irrigation projects. There are giant monopolies that you dont need to, you know, think too much to figure out why the existing monopolies could be detrimental to the consumer. So there was one of the big Progressive Movements is to a restriction of the trusts. And, indeed, one of the picks, i remember this from a high school textbook. That is a good while og. I remember a car teen showing roosevelt carrying a big stick. And the cartoon showed roosevelt with a big stick bashing the trusts. Well, his idea really was not so much to break up the trust, that would come later with wilson. The idea is to regulate them. To do something to restrict some of the more damaging monday o n monopolistic practices. It is unlikely he could get the kind of law passed that he wanted. So what he did what was available at the time is the sherman antitrust act. That was passed in 1890 but had rarely been used because big business generally controlled the government during those years. By and large, it had not been use very much, certainly since the mid 1890s. Well, roosevelt instructed his attorney general to bring suit and the Northern Securities which north securities cooperation which controlled all of the rail traffic into the west, particularly northwest. And so brought us through the gates of Northern Securities, calling for the breakup. On account of the monopolistic practices. And sure enough, the courts agreed and security was indeed broken up. Setting as i say, that precedent. And subsequently, other monopolies were broken up as well. Standard oil trust. The American Tobacco company and others. Well, as a result of these activities, vigorous pursuit of trusts and conservation work and so on, roosevelt was acquiring a very large following, great popularity. So that is not to say that everybody, the can tallists, the monopolists themselves were not on his side. But the American Public really was entranced by roosevelt. He did. He did one thing. Probably wished he hadnt done probably. That is he promised that if elected, he would not seek another term. I bet very few people in this audience could tell me who he ran against. I to remember myself every time i talk about this, his name was alton b. Parker. What he promised, he said, was a square deal for the American People. And one of the things he did to get this square deal was to address again the railroad problem. Now this may seem, i think it always seemed to my students kind of a petty sort of thing. It turned out that the because what happened was that in order to get a change, in order to address or to redress had some of the grievances of the elki in. S act, cases had to go through the court system. They were notoriously conservative and in favor of business as opposed to the consumer. And so what roosevelt wanted was the ability for the government to have the ability to set the rates that railroads could charge which was a tremendous departure from previous practice. That was imbedded in the hepburn act. And this was a far cry from laissez faire government. I mean, here you had the government with the right through the icc, through the interstate Commerce Mission to fix the rates that railroads could charge without going through the court system. Now by implications, the government might be able to control that maybe too strong a word to affect other businesses by setting regulations and so forth without going first to the court system. Bringing us to another of roosevelts major contributions. Did i say this . I dont know if i said, anyway, i should have said this was embodied the hepburn bill. Im not sure i said that. Fwhut a but in any case, the hepburn bill. But another significant roosevelt achievement was the passage of what today we call Consumer Protection laws. Im not sure they were called that then. But there were a couple of these that are particularly important. One was the federal Meat Inspection act. You might assume if you know what the jungle is about, you might assume correctly that this was probably influenced by the popularity of that novel. But what it did was to provide for federal inspection of all Meat Products involved in interstate commerce. And a second similar act was the pure food and drug act. Which prohibited the selling of products, particularly canned and bottled goods under false and misleading labels. Medicines were widely used and very popular. And they did oftentimes bottled ones did relieve pain and did help. But the problem was it didnt say it on the label, but the alcohol almost hundred proof. So, you know, people were drank it and did indeed feel better but only briefly and it was certainly not a cure or anything. So this said, you have to bottle things and label things truthfully as to what is in the product. These were very important protection laws. Now with regard to the major social issues of the day, roosevelts performance was mixed. Concerning womans sunffrage, fr example n the senior thesis at har vord, he said, i think there could be no question that women should have equal rights with men. Thats a pretty direct statement. Is it not . And while president , he contended to support womens suffrage and even included in his 1912 platform, good et to that briefly in a minute, he once said i believe in womens suffrage. But im not an enthusiastic at voluntary cat of it because i do not regard it as a very important matter. We hear much about womens rights. Men should be thinking about womens rights all the time. While the men are doing that, the women should be attending to their duties. Well, in any case, he did not live to see the passage of the 19th amendment. The one on suffrage amendment dying some six months before it was passed by congress in june of 1919. Now his views on racial matters were even more problematic. On the one hand, he earned the praise of progressives and the hatred of southern segregationists to invite booker t. Washington to the white house for dinner and this was regarded as an audacious act at that time. On very flimsy evidence he issued dishonorable discharges to an entire company of black soldiers, segregated, of course, who were alleged to have been involved in a disturbance in that texas town. Well, they were exonerated decades later, not that it did those individuals any good at the time. They were exonerated in the 1970s. So his record, as i said, i think, was mixed. Now to a large extent, t. R. s domestic actions were overshadowed by more dramatic events and foreign affairs. Notably his aggressiveness, his impetuousness and bullying and least lovely of all, arrogant attitude toward latin american countries. Well to examine the complex machinations of the panama fair would take more time than we have for this whole lecture. So i must drastically summarize this convoluted story of politics, diplomacy and International Intrigue which included mainly the u. S. And colombia of which panama was a part at that time. After much negotiation, a treaty was written by the u. S. And colombia by terms chf the u. S. Would be permitted to build a canal across panama in exchange for 10 million and annual rental of 250,000. But before it could be finalized by the respective governments, cl colombia said it would be a violation of sovereignty which was true. Well, even though that country had every right to reject the treaty, roosevelt was furious. He was appalled they would impede one of the greatest projects in the history of civilization. He referred to thei colombian government as foolish and homicidal corruptionists. He asserted that we may have to give a lesson to these jack rabbits. Political my correct he was not. If anyone dared to mention they had every legal right to do what they please, roosevelt would become furious, damn the law, he said, i want that canal built. Raging at one point, get this, to talk of colombia as responsible power to be dealt with as we would deal on belgium or switzerland or denmark is absurd. The analogy is more with a group of sicilian bandits. You cannot make an agreement with the colombian rulers any more can you nail jelly to the wall. I did my best to get them to act straight. Then i dernldtermined i would d what ought to be done without regard to them. What that turned out to be was in essence a devious involvement in a ranging for panama to declare the independence from colombia which it succeeded in doing with what appears to have been roosevelts surreptitious support. Well, it details of the whole episode remain mercury. The consensus that roosevelt did have a hand in conniving for and the achievement of panamanian independence. Once panama declared independence, the u. S. Moved to recognize the newly independent nation and more over signed a treaty that gave the u. S. The tri right to a canal zone across that new country. Work soon began on this enormous project and was completed in 1914 just on the eve of world war i. Not surprisely, roosevelt defended his actions with regard to panama as confirming in every respect to what he called the highest, finest, and nicest standards of public and governmental ethics. But on another occasion, later on, 1911, he became closely to the truth when he boldly declared, quote, i took the canal zone and let congress debate. While the debate goes on, the canal does also. In any event, this was not roosevelts finest hour and certainly not his most admirable one. And then there is the matter, another problematic one, of the socalled roosevelt corollary, a source of further contention with latin america. It had largely gone unchallenged in the intervening decades. Near the end of the century when some european nations threatened to intervene in certain latin american countries to collect debts, roosevelt became long to the point of measuring the corollary to the effect that if latin american nations were in financial trouble, the u. S. Woint veen, take over the customs houses and pay off the debts and thereby keeping european nations out of the western hemisphere in accordance with the monroe doctrine. Despite latin america opposition to such actions, the u. S. Did actually intervene in several instances, notably in the dominican republic. Cuba was especially resistant to americans intervention and attitude which predictably sent the volatile t. R. Into a tirade saying this. Im so angry with that cuban republic i would like to wipe the people off the face of the earth. All we wanted from them is they behave themselves and be prosperous and happy so they would not have to intervene. And now lo and behold, they started an utterly unjustifiable and pointless resolution that may get things into such a snarl that we have no alternative except to intervene. Well, latin america nations tended to be skeptical and down right opposed to such intervention regarding it as infringement on the southern ti and fearful the u. S. Would use it as an opportunity for outright annexation. In actual operation, the corollary did not result in prolonged american involvement and certainly not in annexation. But it did, more than anything else, lead to distrust and hatred which many south american republics had toward the United States for many years until the corollary was officially reversed by franklin d. Roosevelts Good Neighbor policy. Now a more positive example of roosevelts expansive outlook and Foreign Policy concerns his efforts to bring an end to the long running japanese war. In 1905, he invited delegates from both those countries to meet in New Hampshire which resulted in a treaty to bring the war to an end. And for those efforts that roosevelt was awarded the nobel peace prize. I can say you to that he was undoubtedly the most unlikely recipient ever to receive a peace prize. Given his naturally bella koes nature and aggressive tendencies. It was, however, an early example of americas increasing internation International Involvement and the u. S. Began to establish itself as a world power. Roosevelt attempted to illustrate that emergence through a symbolic and controversial episode known as the voyage of the great white fleet. His idea was to send the entire u. S. Naval fleet on an around the world tour. Congress caughted its refusal to fund such a venture, roosevelt came up with a typically audacious strategy. He let it be known that he already had enough money in his current budget to send the fleet half way around the world which he fully intended to do and if congress wished their rern, ttu they would have to appropriate the necessary funds to do it. Well, the ploy worked. Off went the ships. All painted white. Over their usual gun metal gray. The fleet was warmly welcomed on the voyage, even to japan. While it was of no particular strategic importance, the voyage was significant in illustrating americas increasing world prominence which would soon be even more evident in world war i. The term neared the end, it is clear that roosevelt could have been relekt reelected in a third term, he did not run. Instead, he opted for an African Safari which prompted one of the proponents to say every line would do the duty. Before he left, roosevelt was careful to hand pick his successor, a man he thought would carry on his progressive programs. The man he chose is William Howard tast. It was a choice he would live to regret. Shortly before leaving office, he provided insight into his future plans. In which he wrote, every now and then people come to me, tell me our country must face the problem of of what it will do with its expresident president s, and i always answer them, that there will be one expresident about whom they need not give themselves the slightest concern for he will do for himself without any outside assistance. They waste no sympathy on me. Ive had the best time of any man of my age in all the world. I am going to enjoy myself thoroughly when i leave the white house and continue just as lon as i possibly can to do some kind of work that will count. As it turned out, roosevelt didnt accomplish any particularly great achievements. After all, though not for lack of effort, it soom became apparent that t. R. Was restless in retirement. After all, they were only so many elephants to kill. And he was becoming increasingly disappointed in what he perceived as a lack of progressive commitment by his successor and soon to be former friend president tast. The pent up zeile was evident in what was probably the best known speech of his entire career. He often quoted, man in the arena speech that he delivered in paris in 1910 two years after leaving the white house. Now you probably hart it before. Let me quote part of it. I think its i willinois eloquey reveals his basic character. And i think youll agree that it is a powerful speech and that it is eloquently expressed. It is not the critic who counts, he said, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or whether the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man e them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood. Who strives valiantly. Who airs, who comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming. But who doesnt actually strive to do the deed. Who knows great enthusiasms and devotions. Who spends himself to a worthy cause. Who, at the best, knows the trump of high achievement and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither no victory or defeat. Fearing that progressivism was withering under taft, and no doubt missing the excitement of the presidency and its opportunities for using its bully pulpit, roosevelt decided to run again in 1912 as the candidate of the Progressive Party that he established, popularly known as the Bull Moose Party after roosevelt himself declared himself to be strong as a bull moose. But in that election, a split of republican votes between him and the combat, taft, permitted the election of the democrat woodrow wilson. It was during this campaign that t. R. Was a victim of an attempted assassination. While giving a speech, he was hit by an assassins bullet that resulted in only a so professional wound. Typical of roosevelt bravado, he actually continued with the speech. I think most people have not been shot wouldve called it a day. But not the inevitable t. R. After 1914, as the great war in europe raged, roosevelt was an ardent advocate of american intervention. No surprise there. And in fact, he petitioned then president wilson to raise a volunteer regiment, like the rough riders, to head off to fight in europe. Roosevelt declined, probably wisely so, for which he earned roosevelts lasting contempt. And incidentally, roosevelts youngest son, clinton, was killed in the war. Some observers believe drastically commission diminished roosevelts belligerent attitudes. In any case, by the time he died in early 1919, he was in his late fifties i believe, roosevelt had already done a lot by that time to secure his legacy as one of americas greatest president s. So what was that legacy . Theodore roosevelt made many contributions to the Progressive Movement. Its quite likely that it would never have flourished without his energetic leadership. The laws that he passed, demonstrated ability to bring through reform through the legislative process. Certainly roosevelts greatest service to the Progressive Movement is not to be seen in any one law or set of laws that were passed, but rather to be seen in the impetus that he gave to reforming in general. He served most effectively as a popular popularize or, a spark plug, a cheerleader for reform. Roosevelt was the greatest publicity man progressivism ever had. I would suggest that Roosevelt Service to the nation, but even beyond that, would include a whole new concept of what the office of the president should be. In t. R. s view, the president should be a true leader, not just a passive follower of the American People. In that sense, i think that roosevelt may be considered the true first truly modern per president. And carrying out his conception of the active presidency, roosevelt was uniquely well equipped by his personality. His flamboyant robust and spirited attitude one for him in admiration seldom granted to any political leader before or since. He wasnt short he wasnt the sort of man that the American Public could identify. In a popular pawn at that time, it describes the National Feeling in the following rhyme. T. R. Spanking a senator, chasing a bear, blasting an awful trust and dragging it from its layer. They are calling t. R. A lot of things. But the day coach likes exciting folks. The coach likes t. R. As one observer put it, he was just a great big boy. I was trained by his personality. You cannot resist the man. Historians have generally agreed with the popular feeling of his contemporaries that Teddy Roosevelt was unique in modern american history. As one of them put it, the rough rider was not the greatest of president s, he was undoubtedly the noisiest. He carried a big stick all right, with a soft speaking resembled the following of a bull moose during mating season. He became an iconic figure partly no doubt as a result of the teddy bear. That story began with in alabama bear hunt. Great hunter that he was, he went outdoorsman that he was great outdoorsman that he was, he expressed a desire to hunt a bear in alabama. So he went. To his disappointment, i guess the first effort found no bear. So his host, not wanting him to be disappointed, found a beer somehow and tethered the bear. He tethered the bear to a treat so that when roosevelt came back and saw this, that he could shoot the bear. He did come back, he did see the bear, but as you can imagine, with any sense of sportsmanship, he did not shoot it. He ordered the bear be released. Well, this story made the rounds and it was heard by, among others, a brooklyn candy store owner who also sold toys handmade by him and his wife. They were inspired to make a brown plush there with button eyes to put in his store window. He labeled it teddy bear. Now, to redo the description of the unfolding legend from the prominent roosevelt historian wrote, quote, from that modest start, the most beloved and famous toy in the country was launched. No nursery could be without one. It became the security blanket or literally millions of children, including of course, the ones whose father had inspired it. Republicans took the symbol of the teddy bear to their hearts and overtime it became the standard declaration for all of the rallies. At the dinner in the white house were all of t. R. s closest friends and associates gathered to bid him farewell as he prepared to leave the presidency, teddy bears were arranged at each place. At his death, a little pump appeared called the teddies weep. Beneath the fading christmas tree, their long, long vigil keeping, they heard the little teddy bears in the stillness softly weeping. We joined them in their sad lament, traditions in their keeping, for he who meant so much to us, their patron saint, is sleeping. In his book, president ial greatness, a historian summed it up. He wrote, roosevelt was a great personality, a great activist, a great preacher of the moralities, great showman, a great activist. He dominated the era just as he dominated conversations. Sometimes, people wondered whether they had an administration or circus. He was a great egoist, a great self glorify or. A great exhibitionist and a great headline catcher. So much so that some critics felt he had degraded the dignity of the office. The masses loved him. He proved to be a great popular idol and a great vote getter. A consummate politician, he was all so a great opportunist, at the same time a great leader. I would say in conclusion, that Theodore Roosevelt had been better balanced if he had been less the perpetual adolescent that some called him. He would have been a greater man, perhaps a greater president , but he would not have been Theodore Roosevelt. One of his friends summed up best the feeling of the American People toward t. R. When he said roosevelt, shortly after the rough riders death, you have to hate him an awful lot not to love him. Thank you. Author and former jigsaw ceo, jared cohen, talks about his book accidental president s. Eight men who changed america. It looks at the eighth Vice President s who ascended to the presidency after the death of the president in office. Politics and prose in watcheding d. C. Hosted this event in april of 2019