Expert answer:Theodore Roosevelt and the federal government, his
Answer & Explanation:I NEED HELP !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!OBJECTIVE: Answer the following question. 1. Explain two ways that Theodore Roosevelt transformed the role and responsibility of the federal government. PLEASE KEEP IT SIMPLE AND EASY TO FOLLOW!Requirements.3 PAGE LENGTH! 2. Cite your sources. These do not have to complete citations but must indicate where you obtained the information.3. This is not a research essay. You should only use THE sources BELOW.DOC.9 NEW NATIONALISM T ROOSEVELTVIEWPOINT ARTICLE: IS T ROOSEVELT A GOOD PRESIDENTRubric.Thesis (5 points) 5 Position is clearly stated, insightful, and accurate. 4 Identifiable position, but lacks a degree of insight or understanding. 3 Vague position, lacking a degree of both insight and understanding. 2 Unclear position, lacking any insight or understanding. 1 No identifiable position.Writing Mechanics (5 points) 5 Excellent sentence structure, grammar, spelling, and use of punctuation, with few or no mistakes.4 Good sentence structure, grammar, spelling, and use of punctuation, with a limited number of mistakes.3 Average sentence structure, grammar, spelling, and use of punctuation, with frequent mistakes 2 Flawed sentence structure, grammar, spelling, and use of punctuation, with numerous mistakes 1 Unacceptable number of spelling, grammar, and other mechanical errors.Knowledge (10 points) 10 Demonstrates superior knowledge and understanding of the topics addressed in the question. 9 Demonstrates good knowledge and understanding of the topics addressed in the question. 7 Demonstrates average knowledge and understanding of the topics addressed in the question. 6 Demonstrates superficial knowledge and understanding of the topics addressed in the question. 5 Demonstrates no knowledge and understanding of the topics addressed in the question.Evidence (15 points) Make sure to use different kinds of evidence. 15 Specific facts are used to support every point addressed in the student answer.14 Specific facts are provided in the student answer, however not every point made by the student is supported.11 Specific facts are provided, however most points made by the student are not supported and/or some of the evidence is used inappropriately.10 Specific facts are rarely used in the student answer, and when used, is often inappropriate. 9 No facts is provided in support of student answer.Analysis (15 points) 15 Facts and evidence are clearly and consistently related to the student position in a highly effective manner.14 Facts and evidence are often related to the student position in an appropriate manner.11 An attempt is made to relate facts and evidence to student position in an inconsistent manner.10 Little attempt is made to relate facts and evidence to the student position.9 No attempt is made to relate evidence to the student position. viewpoint_article_istheodore_roosevelt_a_good_pres.docxdoc_9_._nn.docx
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Theodore Roosevelt: Was Theodore Roosevelt a Great
President?
History in Dispute
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Balance of power
Business-government relations
Executive power
Foreign policy
Government regulations
Hepburn Act of 1906
Roosevelt, Theodore
United States history, 1901-1921
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Title: Theodore Roosevelt: Was Theodore Roosevelt a Great President?
Publication Information
Source: History in Dispute. Ed. Robert J. Allison. Vol. 3: American Social and Political
Movements, 1900-1945: Pursuit of Progress. Detroit: St. James Press, 2000. p240-249.
Document Type: Viewpoint essay
Bookmark: Bookmark this Document
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2000 St. James Press, COPYRIGHT 2007 Gale
Full Text:
Page 240
Theodore Roosevelt: Was Theodore
Roosevelt a Great President?
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Viewpoint: Yes, Theodore Roosevelt was one of America’s greatest presidents because
he enhanced the power and prestige of the position and broadened the role of the United
States in the world
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Viewpoint: No, although Theodore Roosevelt presented himself as an energetic reformer,
he was in fact bent on transforming the presidency into an engine of personal power
References
Theodore Roosevelt created the presidential office we know today. He expanded the power of
the presidency, making the president the central player in the American political system, by
using the media to bring him into direct contact with the American people. In addition to
figuratively creating the modern presidency, Roosevelt literally created the presidential office—
the Oval Office was built during the White House expansion he oversaw, and he was the first
man to occupy it.
Across from the Oval Office, in the Roosevelt Room, the president today meets with his staff
under the watchful eyes of the two Roosevelts who led the nation. Franklin D. Roosevelt’s
portrait hangs above one of his prized model ships; Theodore Roosevelt’s portrait, with the
president astride a charging bronco, hangs above the Nobel Peace Prize he received in 1906.
Theodore Roosevelt, the man of boundless energy, made the United States a leader in world
affairs.
Yet, how much of Roosevelt’s leadership was genuine, and how much was simple egotism? In
these two essays, scholars Elizabeth D. Schafer and Thomas E. Woods appraise Roosevelt in
different ways. Schafer is more inclined to see Roosevelt as the genuine article, a true reformer
who has left his positive and progressive mark on American society. Woods is more critical of
Roosevelt’s expansion of presidential power, and his use of American military power in other
nations, in the Philippines and Latin America, set dangerous precedents for future American
policy.
Which is the more accurate picture of this complicated man? No doubt Roosevelt, like any
successful leader in our complicated society, had many contradictions; how else is there to
explain a cowboy on a charging bronco, educated at Harvard University, pursuing a career in
New York City politics at the same time as he works a South Dakota ranch, who wins the Nobel
Peace Prize while advising his nation to increase its military spending? Roosevelt, beneath the
image of an energetic reformer, contained a mass of contradictions, which makes him one of the
most compelling figures ever to strut across the political stage.
Page 241 | Top of Article
Viewpoint: Yes, Theodore Roosevelt was one of America’s
greatest presidents because he enhanced the power and
prestige of the position and broadened the role of the United
States in the world
Theodore Roosevelt, the twenty-sixth president of the United States, is revered by many
historians as one of the world’s greatest leaders. An American icon, Roosevelt was a national
hero defined by a mixture of truth, myth, and legend. Like a folklore character, he was assigned
traits and accomplishments greater than realistically possible. Although most Roosevelt
biographers, including William Henry Harbough and Edmund Morris, admit his temperamental
flaws and political shortcomings, they also agree that Roosevelt was one of the most prominent
presidents, suggesting that he even surpassed his heroes George Washington and Abraham
Lincoln. Chosen with those men and Thomas Jefferson to be memorialized on Mount Rushmore,
Roosevelt assumed an historic role of similar grand proportions. Beloved by most citizens when
he was president, Roosevelt retained popularity after he left office and was glorified in many
accounts written during his lifetime or within a decade of his death. Since then, most historians
who have analyzed Roosevelt’s political career have reinforced his stature as a charismatic man
of the people who transformed the U.S. government domestically and internationally in ways not
envisioned or implemented by any previous president. Considered the United States’s first
modern president, Roosevelt created a foundation that many of his successors utilized in the
twentieth century.
Roosevelt’s biographers emphasize aspects of his personality and life that captured the American
imagination. Although he was born into privilege, Roosevelt expressed kindredness with the
common citizen, cultivating his image as a rugged cowboy and individualist. He stressed the
need for reforms to improve life for all Americans, while curbing abuses perpetuated by wealthy
politicians and corporations. Roosevelt enjoyed a fortunate sense of timing, serendipitously
holding positions and knowing people who could help him achieve personal and public goals at
crucial moments in his career. Above all, Roosevelt was an idealist who believed in moral and
civic responsibility at a period in American history when most of the population craved such a
leader. Biographer H. W. Brands, in T R: The Last Romantic (1997), stresses that Roosevelt’s
“greatest good luck was to come of age at a time when America had a particular weakness for
romantic heroes.” As Civil War memories disappeared with the death of its veterans and the
untamed West vanished through development by the turn of the twentieth century, Roosevelt
gave Americans something to focus on. “The more rapidly the past slipped away, the more
anxious Americans grew to hold onto what was left. Roosevelt gave them something to grasp,”
Brands explains. “By his experience of war and of the West, he symbolized those two essential
characteristics of the nation’s identity” and “by his public rectitude and eagerness to take on the
bosses, he represented an era remembered for being cleaner and more straightforward than the
muddy present.”
Scholars stress that Roosevelt’s public and military service established the foundation for his
popularity and appeal to the masses. They note that Roosevelt was aware of how he could utilize
his image to secure support and astutely sought opportunities that would cast him as an attractive
and irresistible persona. Roosevelt’s biographers credit his carefully cultivated image as a war
hero for his political triumphs. Holding public offices after he graduated from Harvard,
Roosevelt quickly gained public admiration in his native state of New York for his willingness to
voice criticism of corruption and seek social justice. Roosevelt won national acclaim and hero
status for his service in the Spanish-American War as lieutenant colonel of the fabled Rough
Riders, officially known as the First U.S. Volunteer Cavalry Regiment. Leading a charge up
Kettle Hill during the battle for San Juan, Roosevelt campaigned unsuccessfully for a Medal of
Honor for his action the rest of his life. Despite being denied this award, Roosevelt accrued
public support as Americans learned of his bravery, and he was easily elected governor of New
York soon after his return from Cuba in 1898.
Aware of Roosevelt’s popularity, President William McKinley asked Roosevelt to be his vice
president when he ran for reelection in 1900. When McKinley was assassinated in September
1901, Roosevelt, who had entertained presidential aspirations since his days as a New York
assemblyman and police commissioner, suddenly found himself thrust into the most powerful
position in the country. A month shy of his forty-third birthday, Roosevelt was the youngest
American president. His youthful sense of adventure and interesting experiences were attractive
to Americans stunned by the loss of McKinley. Many Americans felt a familiarity with
Roosevelt because of the books and magazine articles he published about military history, heroic
figures, politics, the West, nature, and his travels and explorations. His four-volume set, The
Winning of the West (1889–1896), was an especially Page 242 | Top of Articleadmired series.
Roosevelt’s works were permeated with patriotic themes, and his writing portrayed him as a
virtuous and honorable man loyal to his nation.
Biographers also note that Roosevelt’s role as a family man secured public support. Americans
felt empathy for Roosevelt’s tragic loss of his mother and first wife, who both died on
Valentine’s Day 1884. They also admired Roosevelt for persevering despite health problems,
including chronic asthma and defective eyesight, and for exercising to become physically fit.
American children participated in sports and outdoor activities to be healthy like Roosevelt. The
president’s children with his second wife, Edith Kermit Carow Roosevelt, joined his daughter
Alice, who had been born shortly before her mother died. Americans adored the First Children,
especially when they accompanied their father on excursions around Washington, D.C. The
Roosevelt sons also supplemented their father’s military aura by enlisting and serving in World
War I. Roosevelt’s interest in sports, such as boxing and shooting, and his playful frolicking with
his children made him seem more approachable and human to the public than previous
presidents.
His biographers emphasize that Roosevelt was well aware of the image he portrayed to the
public and was one of the first presidents to use the press to introduce and then reinforce how he
wanted to be perceived by the public. He used mass communications to outline his political
goals, both domestic and foreign, and then proceeded to achieve those objectives. His publicity
strategy worked well. As the most popular man in the country, Roosevelt became the national
role model for American youth. Roosevelt recognized the value of being in the limelight. He
seized chances to make public appearances and receive press coverage. For example, he opened
the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair. He also was the first president to ride in a car, travel to a foreign
country while still in office, and dive beneath the ocean’s surface in a submarine. He had a sense
of showmanship, pomp, and pageantry, as exhibited when he sat on a lavishly decorated platform
at Tuskegee Institute in Alabama while African American students and farmers paraded in front
of him to show their produce, crafts, and classroom experiments.
Primary accounts described Roosevelt’s speaking style as more preaching to than addressing his
audiences—he pounded podiums while thoughtfully enunciating his opinions. He wanted to
awaken the populace’s conscience to consider the welfare of all the American people, promote
democracy and opportunities, and avoid injustices. Roosevelt hoped Americans would benefit
from his attempts to make government more responsive to the people. Roosevelt’s rhetoric often
incorporated literary references or provas the phrase “Speak softly and carry a big stick,” which
became part of political jargon. Roosevelt’s reactions to adversity further buttressed his
legendary stature as being invincible. For instance, after he was shot by a would be assassin,
Roosevelt appeared before a crowd in his bloodied shirt and spoke for fifty minutes, beginning
with the promise “I will deliver this speech or die, one or the other.”
The American public adored Roosevelt, giving him hams carved to resemble his profile, caged
raccoons, big sticks, sideshow snakes, and other presents. His never-changing appearance was so
recognizable that letters addressed only with sketches of his eyeglasses or teeth arrived at the
White House. Millions of Teddy bears became America’s favorite toy when Roosevelt refused to
shoot a restrained bear. These stuffed animals remain part of American popular culture.
Individuals brought recommendation letters to Roosevelt, hoping for the honor of shining his
shoes or performing some other task. Laudatory accounts frequently repeat the words
“charming,” “humorous,” and “magnetic character” to explain Roosevelt’s persuasive sway of
his constituents and resulting romanticized image as a magnificent man and president.
Scholars credit Roosevelt’s policies during his two terms as president for strengthening his
reputation as a great leader. Considering his political decisions to have effectively transformed
the United States into a world power, pro-Roosevelt historians emphasize how deeply his ideas
affected later generations of Americans. At the time of his inauguration, Roosevelt was seen as a
dynamic and vigorous leader who had the ability to achieve progressive reforms at home and
enrich American influence globally. Believing that the president was accountable for securing
the public good, Roosevelt increased executive power to achieve his aims to reform society and
government. He knew that conservative congressmen might pose obstacles, so he asserted
executive privilege as needed, warning that he would act independently if necessary.
Aware of how post-Civil War technological developments affected society, Roosevelt regulated
businesses and industries that accompanied modern improvements. He wanted both corporations
and laborers to be fairly treated; in an endeavor to encourage free enterprise he pursued antitrust
legislation, such as restoring the Sherman Anti-Trust Act of 1890, to prevent monopolies from
dominating markets and limiting competition. Roosevelt believed that all Americans should have
an opportunity to thrive economically and did not want to shut down corporations. Instead, he
convinced Congress to establish the Bureau of Corporations, as a Page 243 | Top of
Articlebranch of the recently created Department of Commerce and Labor, to monitor
corporations. Roosevelt also intervened in labor disputes, primarily the 1902 coal-miner strike,
by appointing arbitrators to resolve issues in what many historians consider the first pro-labor
involvement by a president.
Roosevelt’s conservation efforts to establish national forests increased protected public lands by
nearly 160 million acres. Establishing the U.S. Forestry Service, Roosevelt supported the
scientific management of timber safeguarded from harvesters. The 1902 National Reclamation
Act initiated the Reclamation Service, which oversaw dam and irrigation projects. Roosevelt
applied the Antiquities Act of 1906 to create the 800,000-acre Grand Canyon National
Monument in Arizona, in addition to other national parks and wildlife refuges that bolstered
tourism and alerted Americans to the values of natural resources.
Roosevelt’s foreign policy propelled the United States as an active participant in world politics,
instead of retaining isolationist tendencies. He approved plans to construct the Panama Canal to
facilitate travel between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, including sparking a revolution of
Panamanians against Colombia to secure the territory where the canal would be built. He also
expanded American naval capabilities; Roosevelt’s navy, known as the Great White Fleet, sailed
around the world on a goodwill tour. Roosevelt added a corollary to the Monroe Doctrine to stop
foreign bases from being built in the Caribbean. He secured for the United States the exclusive
right to intervene in Latin American financial concerns to ensure those nations paid their debts to
influential European powers. Roosevelt also wanted to cultivate American involvement in Asia
to establish trade. In 1905 he secured friendly relations with both Japan and China. Roosevelt
helped achieve peace between Japan and Russia, and won the Nobel Peace Prize, which added to
his legendary allure to Americans. He also resolved conflicts concerning discrimination against
Japanese and Chinese residents of the United States, particularly schoolchildren and laborers, by
compromising with those nations concerning immigration. Biographers also cite Roosevelt’s
acceptance of The Hague, an international court, and American involvement at the 1906
Algeciras Conference, transferring imperial control of Morocco from Germany to France and
Spain, as proof of his world leadership.
Enamored by his successes, American voters overwhelmingly elected Roosevelt to a second term
as president. He received 7,628,831 popular votes (336 votes in the electoral college), the most
ever received by a president up to that time. Although congressional enemies blocked some of
his legislation or demanded that he alter it to assure passage, Roosevelt pursued programs that he
considered
A circa 1904 political cartoon of Theodore Roosevelt’s foreign policy. In his right hand he
balances a globe; in his left he carries a big stick.
best for the American people. Known as the Square Deal, these progressive reforms regulated
railroad rates through the 1906 Hepburn Act and set standards for the quality of meat, produce,
and pharmaceuticals consumed by Americans in the Pure Food and Drug Act. Although he
promoted reforms, Roosevelt discouraged muckrakers, the moreintense reform advocates,
because he needed the support of conservative politicians and did not want to alienate the public.
Roosevelt was admired for his humanitarian work, including naming the first Jewish cabinet
member. He supported legal rights for African Americans and women, which appealed to many
Americans during the Progressive Era, but was ineffective in achieving any improvements for
those groups of citizens; in fact, he inadvertently reinforced racism in the Deep South when
people reacted to his well-intentioned proposals. Pro-Roosevelt scholars downplay these
incidents with evidence that Roosevelt’s leadership bolstered the nation’s prosperity, citing such
sources as the Washington Evening Star (1 January 1907), which estimated that the national
wealth increased by $1,474 every second—for a total of $4.6 billion annually—while Roosevelt
was president.
After his term ended in 1909 and a short interlude that included safaris to Africa, Roosevelt ran
again in 1912 as a Progressive Republican, better known as the Bull Moose Party, because of a
comment Roosevelt made to reporters that he was as strong as a bull moose. Public sentiment
favored Page 244 | Top of ArticleRoosevelt, and his demands for more reforms, over his 1909
successor William Howard Taft, and Roosevelt’s supporters formed a third party when Taft was
nominated as the Republican candidate. The split in the Republican Party enabled Democrat
Woodrow Wilson to win the election. Roosevelt publicly criticized Wilson’s policies during
World War I as being too weak, unavailingly asked for an appointment to lead troops in Europe,
and unsuccessfully sought nomination as a presidential candidate in 1916. He died before the
1920 contest.
Biographers such as Brands admit that Roosevelt’s public luster might have dulled had he been
elected again after World War I, because that war was the dividing line between romanticism and
realism in the United States. The war effectively ended Americans’ focus on Victorian-era
conduct, such as being noble, and Roosevelt probably would not have coped well with
reactionary forces that emerged in the postwar period. Roosevelt’s demise in 1919 assured that
his heralded status as one of the nation’s greatest presidents and citizens remained intact. His
image as a charismatic crusader for reform and expansion of the Un …
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