Theodore Roosevelt

Theodore Roosevelt

Republican Party

Prior offices

President of the United States

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Theodore Roosevelt (b. on October 27, 1858, in New York, New York) was the 26th president of the United States, succeeding President William McKinley (R) upon McKinley's assassination in 1901. He became the nation's youngest president. A member of the Republican Party for most of his career, he later ran unsuccessfully for president in 1912 under the banner of the Progressive Party. He and President Franklin Delano Roosevelt (D) were distant cousins.

Biography

Theodore Roosevelt was born into a wealthy family in 1858 in New York, New York. In 1884, his fortunes changed when his wife, Alice Lee Roosevelt, and mother died on the same day. For two years, Roosevelt left New York for solitude in the Dakota Territory. He eventually remarried to Edith Carow, while visiting England.

In 1886, he lost an election bid to become the mayor of New York. He was, however, appointed by President Benjamin Harrison (R) to the U.S. Civil Service Commission, and reappointed by President Grover Cleveland (D). He continued in civil service as the president of the New York City Board of Police Commissioners, and later as the assistant secretary of the U.S. Navy, appointed by President William McKinley (R).

After the Spanish-American War began in 1898, Roosevelt served as a Lieutenant Colonel in the Rough Rider Regiment and fought in the battle of San Juan Hill in Cuba. After the war, Roosevelt became the Republican Party nominee for governor of New York. He won the general election.

In 1900, uncertain about whether to begin strategizing for a 1904 presidential election run or to serve another term as governor, Roosevelt joined President William McKinley's campaign ticket as the Republican vice presidential nominee. McKinley's first vice president had passed away, leaving an opening. In 1901, however, after a successful reelection, McKinley was killed by an assassin's bullet, making Roosevelt president, the nation's youngest at age 42.

As president, he initiated what was called the Square Deal, encouraging his administration's use of the Sherman Antitrust Act against industrial trusts including the Northern Securities Company, a railroad trust that controlled several major railways in the country, and promoting conservation by reserving 200 million acres as national forests. In foreign policy, he is known for his statement "speak softly and carry a big stick." His administration intervened in Panama's independence from Colombia, which initiated construction of the Panama Canal, and Roosevelt encouraged the build-up of the U.S. Navy. He received the Nobel Prize for Peace for helping to negotiate the end of the Russo-Japanese War.

Though he upheld a 1904 campaign promise to not run for reelection in 1908, he split with the Republican Party in 1912 to run as the candidate for the newly assembled Progressive Party, sometimes known as the Bull Moose Party. The bid for reelection was unsuccessful, and he lost to Woodrow Wilson. He remained in the public eye, becoming an early proponent of American entry into the First World War. He died in his home in New York on January 6, 1919.

Elections

1912 presidential election

U.S. presidential election, 1912
Party		Candidate	Vote %	Votes	Electoral votes
	Republican	William Taft/Nicholas Butler Incumbent	23.2%	3,487,939	8
	Democratic	Woodrow Wilson/Thomas Marshall	41.8%	6,294,384	435
	Progressive	Theodore Roosevelt/Hiram Johnson	27.4%	4,121,609	88
	Socialist	Eugene Debs/Emil Seidel	6%	900,743	0
	N/A	Other	1.6%	241,865	0
Total Votes				15,046,540	531
Election results via: David Leip's Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections

1904 presidential election

U.S. presidential election, 1904
Party		Candidate	Vote %	Votes	Electoral votes
	Republican	Theodore Roosevelt/Charles W. Fairbanks Incumbent	56.4%	7,623,486	336
	Democratic	Alton B. Parker/Henry G. Davis	37.6%	5,077,911	140
	Socialist	Eugene V. Debs/Benjamin Hanford	3%	402,489	0
	Prohibition	Silas C. Swallow/George Washington Carroll	1.9%	258,596	0
	People's (Populist)	Thomas E. Watson	0.8%	114,051	0
	Socialist Labor	Charles H. Corregan	0.2%	33,156	0
Total Votes				13,509,689	476
Election results via: 1904 official election results

State of the Union addresses

Every year in office, the president of the United States addresses Congress on the present state of affairs as well as the administration's goals for the coming year. The following are transcripts from Hoover's State of the Union addresses.

• December 3, 1901
• December 2, 1902
• December 7, 1903
• December 6, 1904
• December 5, 1905
• December 3, 1906
• December 3, 1907
• December 8, 1908

See also

• Franklin Delano Roosevelt
• William McKinley
• New York
• Federal judges nominated by Theodore Roosevelt

External links

• Presidential Library website
• Official White House biography
• C-Span video on the Theodore Roosevelt

Footnotes

Political offices
Preceded by William McKinley (R)	President of the United States 1901-1909	Succeeded by William Howard Taft (R)