'Speak softly and carry a big stick' (1901)
Proverb he quoted in a 1901 speech, shorthand for diplomacy backed by the threat of force
US Presidents · 20th century
Theodore Roosevelt
1858–1919 · American
Republican (later Progressive 'Bull Moose' Party)
In office: 1901–1909
Theodore Roosevelt, hero of the Rough Riders in the Spanish–American War, became the youngest president at 42 when William McKinley was assassinated in 1901. The 26th president broke up trusts, promised a "Square Deal", protected vast areas of wilderness and pushed through the Panama Canal, and in 1906 became the first American to win a Nobel Prize. He later split the Republicans by running for the Progressive "Bull Moose" Party in 1912.
How to spot them
- ▸The teddy bear, named after him when he refused to shoot a tethered bear in 1902
- ▸'Speak softly and carry a big stick'; the Square Deal; trust-busting
- ▸Rough Riders and the charge up San Juan Hill (Kettle Hill), 1898
- ▸Nobel Peace Prize 1906 for mediating the end of the Russo-Japanese War
- ▸Shot in 1912 but gave his speech anyway: 'It takes more than that to kill a Bull Moose'
In office
The Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine (1904)
Asserted a US right to intervene in Latin American countries
Securing the Panama Canal Zone (1903)
Backed Panama's independence from Colombia and won US control of the canal zone; construction began in 1904
Treaty of Portsmouth ending the Russo-Japanese War (1905)
His mediation earned the 1906 Nobel Peace Prize
Pure Food and Drug Act and Meat Inspection Act (1906)
Prompted partly by Upton Sinclair's novel The Jungle
The Antiquities Act and Devils Tower, the first national monument (1906)
Used the act to protect landmarks including the Grand Canyon
The Great White Fleet's world cruise (1907–1909)
Sixteen white-painted battleships circled the globe to display US naval power
The 'Bull Moose' Progressive campaign (1912)
Split the Republican vote, handing victory to Woodrow Wilson
Key ideas
- The Square Deal: fairness for consumers, control of corporations and conservation of natural resources
- The presidency as a 'bully pulpit' for rallying public opinion
- Popularised the term 'muckraker' for investigative journalists
Quick-fire facts
- •The 26th President of the United States; at 42, the youngest person to become president
- •Born in New York City; lived at Sagamore Hill, Oyster Bay
- •His mother and his first wife Alice died on the same day, 14 February 1884
- •The first American to win a Nobel Prize (Peace, 1906)
- •The first sitting president to travel abroad, visiting the Panama Canal works in 1906
- •Shot by John Schrank in Milwaukee in 1912; the folded speech and glasses case in his pocket slowed the bullet
- •Explored Brazil's River of Doubt in 1913–14, later renamed the Rio Roosevelt
- •Awarded the Medal of Honor posthumously in 2001; one of the four faces on Mount Rushmore
- •Fifth cousin of Franklin D. Roosevelt and uncle of Eleanor Roosevelt
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Sources
- Miller Center, University of Virginia — Theodore Roosevelt
- Edmund Morris — The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt