Liberty Lives Here #21: Theodore Roosevelt

Theodore Roosevelt

Theodore Roosevelt did not look like a future president when he was a little boy.Born in New York City in 1858, Theodore was often sick. He suffered from severe asthma that could leave him struggling to breathe. He was small and physically weak, and his worried parents sometimes stayed beside him through frightening attacks.

After graduating from Harvard, he entered politics and became a member of the New York State Assembly. He gained a reputation as a reformer who was willing to challenge corruption, even when doing so made powerful people angry.

Then tragedy struck. In February 1884, Roosevelt’s mother and his young wife, Alice, died in the same house on the same day. His wife had given birth to their daughter only two days earlier. The loss devastated him.

For a time, Roosevelt left politics and traveled west to the Dakota Territory, where he worked as a rancher. Life in the West demanded physical endurance and gave him time away from the world he had known.

Eventually, he returned to public life. When the Spanish-American War began in 1898, Roosevelt resigned from his position as assistant secretary of the Navy and helped organize a volunteer cavalry regiment that became famous as the Rough Riders.

Roosevelt went to Cuba with the regiment and participated in the fighting near Santiago, including the famous charge associated with San Juan Hill. His wartime service made him nationally famous.

Soon afterward, he became governor of New York and then vice president of the United States. In September 1901, President William McKinley was assassinated. At only 42 years old, Theodore Roosevelt became president of the United States. He remains the youngest person ever to become president.

Roosevelt brought tremendous energy to the presidency. He believed the federal government had a responsibility to protect the public interest when powerful businesses or individuals abused their influence. His administration challenged some large corporate trusts, supported stronger regulation of industries, and worked to improve conditions for ordinary Americans.

Roosevelt called his domestic program the “Square Deal.” The name reflected his belief that Americans deserved fairness rather than special treatment for the powerful. He did not believe that everyone would have exactly the same outcome. He believed the rules should be fair and that powerful interests should not be allowed to ignore them.

Roosevelt also believed strongly in conserving America’s natural resources. He loved the outdoors and understood that forests, wildlife, and remarkable natural places could disappear if no one took responsibility for protecting them. In 1906, Congress passed the Antiquities Act, giving the president authority to protect certain historic landmarks and places of historic or scientific interest located on federally controlled land.

Roosevelt quickly put that new authority to use.

In northeastern Wyoming, an enormous rock formation rises dramatically above the surrounding landscape. Known as Devils Tower, it had long been an important place to Native peoples of the region. On September 24, 1906, President Theodore Roosevelt proclaimed Devils Tower the first national monument in the United States. And he did not stop there.

During his presidency, Roosevelt proclaimed eighteen national monuments. His conservation efforts also helped protect millions of acres through national forests, federal bird reservations, wildlife refuges, and other protected lands. Roosevelt understood that America’s natural treasures belonged not only to the people living during his lifetime, but also to generations who would come after them. For Roosevelt, conservation was another kind of responsibility.

The country had been entrusted with extraordinary natural resources, and those resources should not simply be used up without considering the future. Sometimes responsibility means protecting something valuable so someone else can enjoy it someday.

One of the most important ideas running through Theodore Roosevelt’s life was his belief that citizenship was active. Being an American was not simply about enjoying the freedoms of the country. Citizens had responsibilities too.

Roosevelt expected Americans to educate themselves, participate in their communities, work hard, defend what was right, and contribute something worthwhile. He believed character mattered. Courage, self-control, and service mattered.

Roosevelt was certainly not perfect. Like every historical figure, he was shaped by his own time and made decisions that deserve careful examination. Some of his ideas and policies remain debated by historians today.

Perhaps that makes one of the lessons from his life even more valuable. Good citizenship does not require perfect people. It requires people willing to take responsibility. Theodore Roosevelt began life as a boy who sometimes struggled simply to breathe. He could have allowed physical weakness to define what he believed he could accomplish.

Instead, he spent his life choosing challenge over comfort. He became a rancher, soldier, reformer, governor, conservationist, and president.

And throughout his public life, he returned again and again to a simple idea: A strong nation depends upon citizens who are willing to do their part. Liberty gives us tremendous freedom. But liberty also places in our hands, the responsibility to use that freedom well.

That responsibility belonged to Theodore Roosevelt’s generation, and now, it belongs to us.