OK, fine: a second look at TR
26 reasons why Theodore Roosevelt was more than just a mustachioed manchild
I standby my assessment that he was a mustachioed manchild. But after reading The Loves of Theodore Roosevelt: The Women Who Created a President by Edward F. O’Keefe and learning more about him at an annual Theodore Roosevelt Association meeting, it’s time to revisit this. For the past three years, this post has been stuck in my drafts folder with a handful of semi-thought-out reasons why maybe Theodore wasn’t so bad.
It’s not lost on me that there are 26 things on this list and only 8 on my other list. Maybe I’m coming around…
Here we go (in no particular order)…
1
When he was mad at his [Confederate-sympathizing] mom, he’d pray that the Union soldiers would “grind the southern troops to powder.”
2
He was the product of extraordinary women
Edward O’Keefe writes that “the most masculine president in the American memory was, in fact, the product of largely unsung and certainly extraordinary women.”
Learn more about the women (what they actually looked like) on O’Keefe’s website.
3
Overcame severe childhood illness
He was determined to get stronger. As a child, he endured a treatment regimen that included black coffee and cigars.
4
Was brave and determined
Perhaps reckless, but who can say for sure.
While campaigning for Colonel Roosevelt, Sergeant Buck Taylor declared that Roosevelt “lead us up San Juan Hill like sheep to slaughter, and so will lead you.”
… which perhaps isn’t quite as inspiring as he intended.
5
Dedicated to science
Sometimes that meant he carried little carcasses around in his pocket. You never know when you’re going to have a few minutes for impromptu taxidermy, amiright?
6
Endured unimaginable heartbreak
He proposed to his first wife, Alice, on Valentine’s Day. On their anniversary, she went into labor. His mom died. In the same house and later that day, his wife died as well.
7
Was an early believer in equal rights for women
Then not as much.
And then he was again!
8
“So thoroughly” believed in reform
Child labor laws, public education, urban housing codes, food and drug laws, child support enforcement, fair and safe workplaces, etc.
I was completely floored that Bamie and Conie didn’t support women’s suffrage. Apparently, it was a popular idea at the time that women would just say how they felt within their family and the patriarch was supposed to vote on behalf of them all… Huh?
9
Unshakable class traitor
Despite growing up wealthy, he busted the crap out of some trusts. Author and definitely-not-vampire Bram Stoker believed Theodore was “a man you can’t cajole, can’t frighten, can’t buy.”
Here’s a bunch of rich guys. I haven’t looked into his relationship with all of them, but I do know that he and Harriman weren’t besties!
J.P. Morgan declared he was “afraid of Mr. Roosevelt” because he didn’t know what he’ll do. TR knew he was afraid of him “because he does know what I’ll do.”
He was very alarmed by the “rush toward industrial monopoly.” Wonder what he’d think about tech monopolies?
10
Unleashed ICE on NYC … but, like, in a good way
New York City endured a deadly heat wave in 1896. 1,300 were killed. Charles Morse, an ice baron (and all-around terrible human being), consolidated a bunch of small ice businesses into a monstrous ice company... then jacked up the price of ice (the ice price, if you will) so only the well-to-do could afford it.
He even charged the poor more than the rich.
In steps none other than Theodore Roosevelt, police commissioner, who gave away free ice to the poorest.
You’re just going to have to read the two articles I linked to yourself because: A. I’m oversimplifying everything and B. they are jam-packed with “holy crap” doozies. Like the fact that when Morse went to prison, he met and gave business advice to Charles Ponzi. Yeah. That Charles Ponzi, who was serving time for smuggling Italian immigrants into the country. (Side side tangent: Governor Calvin Coolidge ordered Ponzi investigated for his… Ponzi schemes.)
11
Super-smart and well-read. Wrote some books, too!
Adirondack Birds! Gouverneur Morris! The War of 1812!
Ignore Bram Stoker. He really has nothing to do with this particular proof point.
12
Stood on one leg while reading
Like a stork.
I felt a little connected to him after learning this because I often work while standing on one leg. Like a flamingo.
Due to his chronic congenital diarrhea, his physique and skin tone also kinda matched with the stork.
13
P.O.R.E. founding member
Part of a literary group with his sisters and “bonus sister” Edith — originally, the acronym stood for “Paradise of Ravenous Eaters” and that very much sounds like a group I’d like to be a part of.
Three years later, they changed it to “Party of Renowned Eligibles.”
15
Reformed the NYPD
Before he was police commissioner, cops slept on the job. After, the cops were bigger, younger, smarter, awake, and oh yeah — less corrupt.
17
Fun dad
He abandoned his first baby but still! Super fun for the others!
According to a friend, for him “life was the unpacking of an endless Christmas stocking.”
18
Kept right on giving a speech after being shot
Like one does.
19
Made football safer
Later in life, he was instrumental in changing the rule changes that made the game less dangerous.
Earlier in life, he said privately of his sons “I would rather one of them should die than have them grow up as weaklings.” Publicly, he said he would just disinherit his sons if they wouldn’t play college sports. Yikes. But still — his views evolved and matured over time!
20
Said these things:
“Americans faced a war ‘between the men who possess more then they earned and the men who have earned more than they possess.’”
“This country will never really demonstrate that it is a democracy in the full reach and range of that conception until we have had both a Negro and a Jewish president of the United States.”
Why stop there! Let’s add a few women to the mix!
21
Teddy-Roosevelted hard
Nobody Teddy-Roosevelted like Teddy Roosevelt.
In North Dakota, he carried a Tiffany bowie knife and said non-frontiersy things like “hasten forward quickly there.”
22
Fun to draw
No matter how crude the drawing (or the drawing implements — like Oreos and chocolate sauce), you can almost always tell it’s Theodore Roosevelt. Can’t say that about John Tyler or Andrew Johnson!
23
Youngest president
Sometimes people think it was John F. Kennedy and it’s a treat to be able to say “nuh-uh!”
It’s possible the article clarified that JFK was the youngest elected president, but I wasn’t going to let that detail spoil my knee-jerk doodle.
24
Without Theodore, we wouldn’t have FDR!
Edward O’Keefe pointed out that “we wouldn’t have Franklin if we didn’t have Theodore” and that got my wheels turning.
TR once said of Franklin Roosevelt “I’m so fond of that boy, I’d be shot for him.”
FDR voted for TR in 1904, saying “I felt he was a better Democrat than the Democratic candidates.”
25
Endlessly fascinating
No matter how much I learn about him, there are still surprises.
For years, I thought John Quincy Adams was the only president married abroad. Nope! I just learned that Theodore and Edith also married in London! (Louisa Adams was British; TR’s was American.)
26
I wouldn’t have voted for him in 1912
But only because I wouldn’t have been allowed to vote. He would have had my vote otherwise, which was a shocking thing for me to realize.
SOURCES
Most of these doodles were from reading:
The Loves of Theodore Roosevelt: The Women Who Created a President, by Edward F. O’Keefe
The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt, by Edmund Morris
But there were also doodles from:
An Unfinished Love Story: A Personal History of the 1960s, by Doris Kearns Goodwin
When Harry Met Pablo: Truman, Picasso, and the Cold War Politics of Modern Art by Matthew Algeo
1920: The Year of the Six Presidents, by David Pietrusza
The Daughters of Yalta: The Churchills, Roosevelts, and Harrimans: A Story of Love and War, by Catherine Grace Katz
The Age of Acquiescence: The Life and Death of American Resistance to Organized Wealth and Power, by Steve Fraser
The River of Doubt: Theodore Roosevelt’s Darkest Journey, by Candice Millard
For more about Theodore, check out these posts:
![History’s Most [Whatever] Eyebrows</span>](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60d6f51392e1dd1aae638593/1742494403439-K0DX8KWQG0O5W6VEPA7C/Eyebrows_blog+header.gif)
Mustachioed manchild? Yes. But also…