Theodore Roosevelt Junior (27 October 1858 – 6 January 1919) was a politician, writer and naturalist. He was most notably known for serving as the 26th president of the United States from 1901 to 1909.
Roosevelt took the presidency in September 1901 at the age of 42. He remains the youngest American President to assume office.
Roosevelt was one of the four presidents chosen by Gutzon Borglum to be depicted on Mount Rushmore. From Gutzon’s perspective, these four presidents represented the most important events in the history of the USA.
Roosevelt often appears in surveys in the top 5 favourite US presidents.
The Strenuous life
Roosevelt gave a speech called ‘The Strenuous Life’ in Chicago, Illinois on 10 April 1899.
The opening gave the objective of the speech.
“I wish to preach, not the doctrine of ignoble ease, but the doctrine of the strenuous life, the life of toil and effort, of labor and strife; to preach that highest form of success which comes, not to the man who desires mere easy peace, but to the man who does not shrink from danger, from hardship, or from bitter toil, and who out of these wins the splendid ultimate triumph.”
Roosevelt talks about how those individuals who apply effort in their lives, rather than being lazy, will be a success. Also, those individuals who do not apply effort, will not have any meaning in their lives.
He talks about how this mindset can benefit the individual as well as the entire country. The country is built upon individuals. To have a strong and powerful nation, willing to fight for what it believes in, it needs the same from its citizens.
The speech reflected Roosevelt’s own approach to life. As a child, Roosevelt suffered from asthma. He experienced night-time asthma attack’s where he felt like he was being smothered. His sickness was so bad, he wasn’t expected to live past his fourth birthday.
After one attack, he took a stagecoach ride to Moosehead Lake. On the journey, he came across a couple of bullies who were able to handle him with ease. On his return, he asked his dad for boxing lessons. His dad set him up with an ex-prizefighter John Long.
After a few months, John Long entered Roosevelt into a boxing tournament. As a lightweight. And surprisingly he won. It wasn’t for the world title, but, the experience stayed with him.
He continued to box through this life and career. Even during his presidency. One session he sparred with a young artillery captain. Roosevelt was in his forties and the captain was almost half his age. After holding his own for several rounds, Roosevelt missed landing a left hook and was cross countered. The blow caused haemorrhaging, a detached retina and eventually blindness in the eye. That was the end of Roosevelt’s boxing career.
Roosevelt wasn’t only interested in boxing. His dad built him a gym to help overcome his weak health. He lifted weights and hit the punch bag.
In 1874, at the age of 16, he moved to the country. Roosevelt and his cousin Elliott became interested in wrestling. They would box together, then swap promptly into wrestling. Whilst Roosevelt served as governor of New York, he invited Mike J. Dwyer, a middleweight wrestling champion, to train with him. They would train 3 to 4 times a week. Roosevelt even bought a wrestling mat and set it up in the billiard room of the executive mansion.
Roosevelt also became interested in the Far East martial arts. He took Jiu-Jitsu lessons from a John J. O’Brien. O’Brien learnt Jiu-Jitsu whilst serving as a police inspector for 10 years in Japan. Roosevelt also took lessons in Jiu-Jitsu/Judo from Yamashita Yoshitsugu. Yamashita was the 19th student of Kanō Jigoro, the founder of Judo. He took Jiu-Jitsu lessons even whilst serving as president in the White House. Roosevelt was so impressed with Jiu-Jitsu he wrote letters to his sons about how much progress he was making and the mottling bruising he sported.
Roosevelt didn’t believe in living an easy life, he believed in building strength to endure a difficult one. To be honest, it sounds like he had little choice about this. With his asthma as a child, he would have been bed-bound if he had done nothing about it.
Speak softly and carry a big stick
Theodore Roosevelt had an ideology around foreign policy “Speak softly and carry a big stick, you will go far”.
Roosevelt described this ideology as “the exercise of intelligent forethought and of decisive action sufficiently far in advance of any likely crisis.”
The idea is to encourage peace, but be willing to use force if things get out of hand.
Roosevelt stated the following in his biography:
“When I left the Presidency I finished seven and a half years of administration, during which not one shot had been fired against a foreign foe. We were at absolute peace, and there was no nation in the world with whom a war cloud threatened, no nation in the world whom we had wronged, or from whom we had anything to fear. The cruise of the battle fleet was not the least of the causes which ensured so peaceful an outlook.”
During Roosevelt’s duration in office, he dealt with many foreign conflicts.
Venezuela has borrowed money from Europe and was unwilling to repay the debt. Germany and Britain sent ships to blockade the Venezuelan coastline. America stepped in and made a rule called the ‘Roosevelt Corollary’ where America would administrate any debts on the behalf of Latin America.
In 1904 fighting broke out between Japan and Russia, after Japan attacked Russia’s fleet in Port Arthur. Roosevelt stepped in as a mediator to prevent escalation.
Roosevelt believed having a strong military might that would act as a deterrent to war. During his term, he built a large naval fleet. In 1907 he sent sixteen battleships called the ‘great white fleet’ on a 14-month world tour to display America’s naval might and act as a deterrent to any countries considering conflict.
Whilst Roosevelt was considered aggressive in his foreign policy, ultimately he was a peacemaker. The president dreamed of a world where countries would turn to arbitration instead of war to settle disputes. He offered his services in achieving this.
For his role as mediator in the Russo-Japanese War, he earned the Nobel peace prize.
Roosevelt also believed a ‘league of peace’ should be created. Where the league could ensure peace between its members, and by force if necessary, of others.
At the acceptance for his Nobel Prize, Roosevelt said: “it would be a masterstroke if those great powers honestly bent on peace would form a League of Peace.”
Roosevelt was the first American President to call for an international league.
Eventually a league was formed. The League of Nations was an intergovernmental organisation founded on 10 January 1920 following the Paris Peace Conference that ended the First World War. It was the first worldwide intergovernmental organisation whose principal mission was to maintain world peace.
The man in the arena
Apparently, Roosevelt lost his fortune in the Dakota Territory in 1886, and he turned to writing to support his family and did so for the rest of his life.
Roosevelt was a prolific author, he wrote at least 18 books. He wrote on wide-ranging topics such as foreign policy, history, wildlife and more. In addition to books, it is estimated he wrote more than 150,000 letters. He also wrote many articles for journals and magazines. Roosevelt even became an associate editor of The Outlook magazine (1870-1935), which was a weekly magazine in New York.
Roosevelt was also a fan of poetry. He kept a manuscript copy in the White House of John J. Ingall’s poem ‘opportunity’.
His skill and passion for poetry and writing fed through to his speaking. He made a speech called ‘citizenship in a republic’ in Sorbonne in 1910, he spoke of his vision for an ideal citizen in the world. This speech was delivered one year after his presidency and contains one of his most quoted passages ‘the man in the arena’.
“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, and comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds, who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.”
This speech was translated and printed all across Europe. It was quoted in Nixon’s resignation speech, has been paraphrased in TED talks, and is even tattooed on the arms of Miley Cyrus and Liam Hemsworth.
Takeaways
Do you wish for an easy life or the strength to endure a difficult one? Roosevelt was such a warrior that at the age of 53 he even took a gunshot to the chest and still proceeded to carry on and deliver an 84 min speech in Milwaukee.
Do you wish for peace and for everyone to get along? Roosevelt used military might as a deterrent but ultimately sought peace. The US shed no blood during his presidency and help resolved other conflict in the world.
Do you believe in the power of words and the way they can affect people? Roosevelt wrote and spoke most of his life. Some of his writings and speeches are still motivating, inspiring and empowering people around the world.
Even during his presidency, Theodore Roosevelt managed to achieve all 3. He trained in fighting to become a warrior. He practised arbitration and mediation to keep the peace like a saint. He wrote and spoke with passion and for the betterment of mankind like a poet.
Do you want to be a warrior, a saint or a poet? Or all 3?
Footnotes
Here is a list of articles written by Theodore Roosevelt:
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