Saturday, January 5, 2019

Teddy Roosevelt Died 100 Years Ago

Theodore Roosevelt died 100 years ago on January 6th, 1919.

Big News: January 6th, 1919
You might remember he visited Salem once, on May 21st, 1903.

President Theodore Roosevelt at the Capitol, May 21st, 1903
detail of Salem Library Historic Photo


Hoopla the day before
Earlier in 1918 his son Quentin had been killed in combat, and grief was likely an ingredient in the cause of Theodore's death.

July 17th, 1918
A couple days after his death, the Oregonian published a small piece of his on "patriotism."

Oregonian, January 8th, 1919
On Patriotism:
Patriotism means to stand by the country. It does not mean to stand by the President or any other public official save exactly to the degree in which he himself stands by the country. It is patriotic to support him in so far as he efficiently serves the country.

It is unpatriotic not to oppose him to the exact extent that by inefficiency or otherwise he fails in his duty to stand by the country. In either event it unpatriotic not to tell the truth whether about the President or about anyone else save in the rare cases....
TR was a war-monger, a loud-mouth and blustering fellow, but he also was disciplined and relentless in work, wrote many books, was intellectually curious and serious, could administer large organizations and make good decisions, and was the perfection of a kind of uniquely American type and exemplar for a kind of masculinity.

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