PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT & THE MODERN PRESIDENCY BY TIM GILMORE & WESLEY THOMAS

ROOSEVELT

• When Theodore Roosevelt became President of the United States in 1901, he was only 43 years old.

• Throughout his years, he had already made a reputation for himself of being smart, energetic, and opinionated.

• He was so energetic that observers said if you had met him that you would leave with bits of his personality.

• Roosevelt graduated with honors from Harvard University in 1880.

• He spent a few months studying law at the University of Columbia & was later elected to the New York State Assembly.

• He serviced there for three years, until he went into retirement in the West due to the death of his mother & wife.

• It was in the West that he developed a love for the wilderness.

President Roosevelt at Yosemite

• In 1889 he returned to politics.

• At this time, he was the president of New York City’s Board of Police Commissioners, where he gained fame by fighting corruption.

• He was soon noticed by President Mckinley & named him Assistant Secretary of the Navy.

“ROUGH RIDER”

• Theodore resigned in 1898 to organize the Rough Riders, the first voluntary cavalry in the Spanish-American War.

• The diverse group of Rough Riders that Roosevelt rectuited consisted of cowboys, miners, law enforcement officials, & Native Americans.

• The U.S. was fighting against Spain over Spain's colonial policies with Cuba.

SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR

• On July, 1898 the Rough Riders charged up San Juan Hill.

• Though the beginning of the battle did not necessarily go the way the Riders wanted it to go, just after a few days, the Spanish Fleet fled to Cuba.

• It was just weeks from July 4, 1898 that the war had ended.

• Though soldiers and cavalry units fought and died in the war on behalf of the United States, they left the war victorious.

• This battle gave the Rough Riders more publicity than any other unit it the army.

SHAPING NEW PRESIDENCY• When President Mckinley was assassinated in

September of 1901, Roosevelt was Vice President under him.

• On September 14, 1901, Roosevelt had became president.

• By nature he was very outgoing, energetic, and acitve.

• As a politician he was a President who stood for a new era in the history of American Presidency.

• His new approach to old points of view held sacred by former presidents, was astonishing.

WORK CITED Werner, Emma J.. United States history: modern America. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson/Prentice Hall, 2008.

Edison Manufacturing Co. “U.S. Infantry supported by Rough Riders at El Caney / Thomas A. Edison, Inc. ; producer, James H. White,” 1899. Motion Picture, Broadcasting, and Recorded Sound Division, Library of Congress. Call Number FEC 2939.

Boyer,Clark,Kett,Salisbury,Sitkoff,Woloc... Enduring Vision.A history of the American people. ed.:D.C.Heath and Company,Lexington;Massachusetts /Toronto,1996

FOCUS QUESTION

How did Roosevelt’s personality relate to his drive for a new presidency?