Theodore Roosevelt

How did Theodore Roosevelt become president?

McKinley assassinated; a Republican unlike any before or since

What was Roosevelts relationship with the media?

Connects with people; lots of interviews and photographs, especially outside of the White House and Washington; always smiling

Who were the Roosevelts? What was TR upbringing?

• Old New York family dating back to New Amsterdam

• High society, with TR liking publicity, fame, power, and being president

• Attended Harvard, but had lung problems and was sent out West where he became a cowboy

What are the key points of Roosevelt’s presidency, his “Square Deal”?

• Executive centered government

• Bully Pulpit

• Press

• Constitution

• Trust Busting

What was the “Bully Pulpit”?

Roosevelt traveled through the country and “bullied” legislators to get senators to vote a specific way he wants; Seen in the Hepburn act (1906, regulated railroads)

What was the Hepburn Act?

TR was at odds with the senate and wanted new legislation that would give more power to the railroad inspector/commissioner to regulate railroads; senate is voted in by state legislatures who are taking kickbacks from the railroad and dragging their feet

How did Roosevelt view the Constitution?

Had a more expansive view than any of his predecessors; claimed the president can do anythign it is not expressly forbidden in the Constitution

What was Roosevelt’s “Trust Busting”?

Vast majority of power held in big business industrialists, but TR wanted to balance out the power by putting more power in the Federal Government—believed it would put more power in the hands of the people and even out societal influence; breaking up trusts that HE deems need to be, not all of them

What was the 1890 Sherman Antitrust act?

a law designed to prevent monopolies and other anti-competitive practices

What happened in the Coal Strike of 1902?

• First big clash between TR and big business (JP Morgan)

• Coal workers go on strike and TR decided to facilitate between the workers and mine owners

  • Offers to bring them to the White House

  • Serious stakes for the period

    • owners refuse and want to break up the union

• TR threatens to send the US military and take the mines from the owners

  • First president to threaten/mention government intervention

• Forces them into a compromise

  • “Square Deal”

  • Example of how TR views the job of the president

Who were Muckrakers?

Investigative journalists, such as Upton Sinclair, Jacob Riis, and Lewis Hine, digging into the negatives of American society (health and safety, corruption, etc) ; departure from partisan to more social newspapers

How did TR respond to muckrakers?

• Meat Inspection Act, 1906

• Hepburn Act, 1906

• Pure Food and Drug Act, 1906

• Conservation

How did TR feel about Conservation?

Close to TR;s heart; used more executive orders than any previous president; largely sets aside land for conservation/national parks

What were the three main aspects of TR’s foreign policy?

• Panama Canal

• Roosevelt’s Corollary

• Russo-Japanese War

Explain TR and the Panama Canal.

TR wanted a canal to revolutionize US and world trade, connecting Pacific and the Atlantic; Rejected by the Colombian president, so TR ends negotiations and encourages Panamanian independence; Panama gains independence and strike a deal with the US for the canal

What was “Roosevelt's Corollary”?

Edit to the Monroe Doctrine; Worries as that European nations giving loans to Central/South America will lead to increased European influence in the Western hemisphere; Corollary states that if there is is consistent “bad behavior” on the world stage, specifically in the Western hemisphere, then the US can get involved in their domestic affairs

What was TR and the US’s involvement in the Russo-Japanese War?

Invited Russians and Japanese to New England for negotiations (Treaty of Portsmouth); negotiates peace and wins the Nobel Peace Prize