Theodore Roosevelt

Theodore Roosevelt was the 26th president. He grew up in New York. Theodore Roosevelt (Teddy) was one of 4 children. When teddy went off to college, he went to Harvard. His father died while attending Harvard, he also met his first wife Alice Lee. Pres. Roosevelt helped get America out of the great depression. Theodore Roosevelt died in his sleep.

Portrait of Theodore Roosevelt

Early Life

Theodore Roosevelt was born in New York City in 1858. He was born into a very wealthy family. Teddy was sick very often. His family took him to the country often to help relieve him of his extreme asthma. The dad wanted Theodore to be physically fit, so he was taken to the gym a lot. He was very interested in natural sciences so when is was time for Harvard college that was naturally his main focus, but during his college time Teddy found a love of politics. After graduation he decided to go to Columbia Law School. Roosevelt was not very popular with his fellow students and made only a few friends. In 1880, he was elected to the New York State Assembly. Unfortunately his mother and sister died 4 days apart. He was very sad and to deal with the pain focused on work 24/7. In 1884, he was a delegate at the Republican National Convention. His party did lose to Grover Cleveland but he made friends with everyone especially Henry Lodge. In 1888, Roosevelt published 2 books Life of Governor Morris and Ranch Life and The Hunting Trail.

President

Theodore Roosevelt was the 26th president of the United States of America. He became president after McKinley was assassinated because he was V.P. When Theodore became president he was the youngest the U. S. had ever had. Pres. Roosevelt was mainly concerned with making sure power was evenly divided after the Civil War and the start of the industrial revolution. He was also very supportive of national parks and set up many. For example he made 51 national bird sanctuaries. Roosevelt overall established over 230 million acres of federally preserved land. He was very good at negotiating peace, like when he ended the Russo- Japanese War and won a Nobel Peace prize. He also kept peace with Venezuela and Morocco. Pres. Theodore Roosevelt was a very good president and is one of the more memorable presidents we have had.

Spanish American War

While McKinley was trying to solve the problem with Spain peacefully Theodore Roosevelt was wanting war. He believed it was part of our national honor and he wanted to be at the front line. When McKinley finally gave in to war Roosevelt was given his only group called the " Rough Riders". It was a very diverse group. It had cowboys, athletes, and well to-do citizens. Mr. Roosevelt was a very good trainer but was a little obsessed with his people liking him. One day he allowed them to stop at a hotel and get a drink, which was quickly reprimanded by Colonel Wood. When it was finally time for them to leave for Cuba, they couldn't find a ship in the Tampa Bay docks. They eventually had to board with 3 other troops and it was very uncomfortable. To top it all off there was a false alarm about Spanish vessels being near the dock so they had to wait for a couple hours. That really infuriated Theodore Roosevelt. The next day the troops were on their way to the Las Guasimas. In this battle Roosevelt was promoted to Colonel. The next most important battle they fought in was San Juan Hill. Roosevelt was leading the march up the hill, which everyone thought was hopeless because we didn't have enough men and the Spanish were entrenched into their spots. The first time Roosevelt said to charge San Juan hill only five followed and 3 were killed in like 2 seconds. He went back to his troops and told them to follow. This time it worked and the Spanish surrendered on June 17,1898. The war was over and the troops were needed to be shipped home but many were sick with Yellow fever and Malaria. No one wanted to say anything official because it might ruin their reputation except for Roosevelt. He wrote a report and it was sent to the Secretary of War. They were already planning to send the troops home but the public thought it was the report that made them send the troops home. The Secretary of War was upset about that so when Roosevelt was up for an award he was immediately shot down.

Conservation

Theodore Roosevelt was a big conservationist. He created 5 National Parks, 4 Game refuges, and 51 National Bird Sanctuaries. Many people thought that the U.S. had everything and was never going to run out. Pres. Roosevelt realized this was not true when the buffalo's became almost extinct. He believed we shouldn't use all our national resources now but save some for future generations. He thought that was the democratic thing to do. One reason Roosevelt thought for bad citizenship was how many people were removed from the wilderness. He started many dam projects to protect the Southwest. The act was called The National Reclamation Act of 1902. He also used the Antiquities Act to preserve historical landmarks. The Act was first created to preserve Indian artifacts which were being taken from digging sites. In 1908 he saved 800,000 acres in Arizona as the Grand Canyon National Monument. 12 years later it became a national park. Mr. Roosevelt was a very good conservationist. Without him we probably wouldn't have some of our most beautiful natural wilderness such as Yellowstone.

Teddy at Yellowstone

Children

Theodore Roosevelt's children's names were Alice, Theodore Jr., Kermit, Ethel, Archibald, and Quentin. Alice was the only child from his first wife and the rest were from his second marriage. Alice was a teenager when Roosevelt was president. She could be very sarcastic and loved gossip. She married a Congressman and lived into her 90's. Teddy Jr. went to Harvard and was a major in WWI. He wanted to become president but when he was running for New York Governor against Al Smith Eleanor Roosevelt was helping Al. This didn't make much sense since Teddy liked Eleanor. He died of a heart attack and wrote a couple of books. Kermit also went to Harvard and fought in both world war. He got married to Belle Willard and had 4 children. Ethel was a very active child and the American population loved her. She was a red cross nurse and ambulance driver in the World War. She was married to a surgeon and had 4 children. Archibald was also a very active child and was wounded in both World Wars. His dad described him as "loving". He got married and had 4 children. Quentin was the youngest and Pres. Roosevelt's favorite. Unfortunately he was killed as a fighter pilot in France. This made Theodore Roosevelt very sad and made him not like war as much.

Death

Theodore Roosevelt died in his home at Sagamore Hill in Jan. 6, 1919. He was a much loved man and died unexpectedly. Lots of people were sad but he said he had the most wonderful life and will die happy. Pres. Roosevelt was an amazing president and had amazing children. He will be forever remembered as a great man.

References

David McCullough, Colonel Theodore Roosevelt, spanamwar.com, Oct. 26, 2008 http://www.spanamwar.com/tr.htm
Daniel Filler, Conservation as the Guardian of Democracy, pantheon.cis.yale.edu., Oct. 26,2008 http://pantheon.cis.yale.edu/~thomast/essays/filler/filler.html
HPC, Theodore Roosevelt: The children, histclo.com, March 30, 2006, Oct. 26, 2008 http://histclo.com/pres/ind20/tr/tr-children.html
Garraty, John A., The Story of America, Austin, TX: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1994