artist for the Washington Post, made it memorable on November 16 with a
small front-page cartoon titled "Drawing the Line in Mississippi."
Roosevelt is shown holding a rifle, but refusing to shoot the bedraggled
bear. The bear, however, received no executive clemency; Roosevelt ordered
someone else to put the creature out of its misery. Clifford Berryman
elected to keep the bear alive in his cartoons, and it evolved, ever more
cuddly, as a companion to Roosevelt, ultimately spawning the Teddy Bear
craze.
The Restless Hunter , 1909 - 1919
Only once in American history had a President vacated the White House and
then returned to it again as President. This had been Grover Cleveland's
unique destiny in 1893. That this had occurred within recent memory, and to
a politician in whose footsteps Roosevelt had followed as governor of New
York and finally as President, must have given Roosevelt reason to pause as
he himself became a private citizen again in March 1909. He was only fifty
years old, the youngest man to leave the executive office. Cleveland had
been just eighteen months older when he temporarily yielded power to
Benjamin Harrison in 1889. For the record, Roosevelt claimed that he was
through with politics. This was the only thing he could have said as
William Howard Taft, his successor, waited in the wings. Theodore Roosevelt
had enjoyed being President as much as any person possibly could. Filling
the post-White House vacuum would require something big and grand, and with
that in mind, Roosevelt planned his immediate future. The prospect of a
yearlong safari in Africa brightened for him what otherwise would have been
the dreary prospect of retirement. It "will let me down to private life
without that dull thud of which we hear so much," he wrote.
Aided by several British experts, Roosevelt oversaw every preparation:
itinerary, gear and clothing, food and provisions, weapons, personnel, and
expenses. He had been an avid naturalist and hunter since the days of his
youth. Because he was genuinely interested in the African fauna, he
arranged for his safari to be as scientific as possible, and enticed the
Smithsonian Institution to join the expedition by offering to contribute
extensively to its fledgling collection of wildlife specimens. Roosevelt
invited his son, Kermit, along for companionship, if the lad would be
willing to interrupt his first year of studies at Harvard. Kermit needed no
persuading.
By President Roosevelt's last year in the White House, he had long grown
tired of requests to sit to photographers and portrait painters. Only as a
favor to an old friend from England, Arthur Lee, did he agree to sit for a
portrait by the accomplished Hungarian born artist, Philip A. de Laszlo.
The sittings took place in the spring of 1908, about which Roosevelt
reported enthusiastically to Lee. "I took a great fancy to Laszlo himself,"
he wrote, "and it is the only picture which I really enjoyed having
painted." Laszlo encouraged the President to invite guests to the sittings
to keep Roosevelt entertained. "And if there weren't any visitors," said
Roosevelt, "I would get Mrs. Laszlo, who is a trump, to play the violin on
the other side of the screen." When the painting was finished, Roosevelt
said that he liked it "better than any other."
Ten years later, however, Roosevelt expressed a preference for Sargent's
portrait, done in 1903, which he thought had "a singular quality, a blend
of both the spiritual and the heroic." Still he thought that Mrs. Roosevelt
favored Laszlo's more relaxed image, a trademark of the artist's
ingratiating style.
[pic]
Three weeks after Theodore Roosevelt left the White House in March 1909, he
embarked with his son, Kermit, upon an African safari, lasting nearly a
year. He had always wanted to hunt the big game of Africa, but he also
wanted his expedition to be as scientific as possible. With this in mind,
he invited the Smithsonian Institution to take part, and promised to give
the Institution significant animal trophies, representing dozens of new
species for its collections. Roosevelt himself made extensive scientific
notes about his African expedition. For instance, he was keenly interested
in the flora of Africa, and recorded the dietary habits of the animals he
killed after examining the contents of their stomachs.
While on safari, Roosevelt wrote extensively about his African adventure.
Scribner's magazine was paying him $50,000 for a series of articles, that
appeared in 1910 as a book, African Game Trails. This photograph of
Roosevelt with a bull elephant was used as an illustration.
In March 1910, Roosevelt ended his eleven month African safari and,
reunited with his wife, embarked on an extended tour of Europe. He accepted
many invitations from national sovereigns and gave much anticipated
lectures at the Sorbonne in Paris and at Oxford University in England. In
Norway, he delivered finally his formal acceptance speech for having won
the Nobel Peace Prize four years earlier. "I am received everywhere," he
wrote, "with as much wild enthusiasm as if I were on a Presidential tour at
home."
This cover of Harper's Weekly, June 18, 1910, was one of numerous graphic
commentaries celebrating Roosevelt's return to the United States.
Supreme Court Justice David J. Brewer used to jest that William Howard Taft
was the politest man in Washington, because he was perfectly capable of
giving up his seat on a streetcar to three ladies. Taft's amicable
disposition it was said that his laugh was one of the "great American
institutions" was the foremost quality that won Roosevelt's admiration. "I
think he has the most lovable personality I have ever come in contact
with," said Roosevelt. As governor general of the Philippines and then as
secretary of war, Taft proved to be a troubleshooter in Roosevelt's
cabinet. His longtime ambition had been to someday sit with Justice Brewer
on the bench of the Supreme Court. Taft would ultimately succeed to the
Court, but not before Roosevelt pegged him to be his successor. "Taft will
carry on the work substantially as I have carried it on," predicted
Roosevelt. "His policies, principles, purposes and ideals are the same as
mine." Yet when Taft later proved to be his own person, Roosevelt was
distraught. Taft failed to convey the spirit of progressivism to which
Roosevelt was ever leaning. "There is no use trying to be William Howard
Taft with Roosevelt's ways," he bemoaned, "our ways are different."
Coaxed by his political admirers, and personally dissatisfied with what he
considered to be President Taft's lack of leadership, Roosevelt announced
early in 1912 that he would run for a historic third presidential term, if
the GOP nomination were tendered to him. This was a monumental decision on
his part, one he made contrary to his own established beliefs in the
tradition of party loyalty, and without the full backing of party leaders.
Roosevelt was counting on winning the support of the people, and was
successful in those states that had direct primaries. But in June, at the
Republican convention in Chicago, the party machine wrested control of the
proceedings and nominated President Taft easily after the Roosevelt
delegates had walked out. This was the start of the Progressive Party, in
which Roosevelt proudly accepted the nomination. The press was especially
happy to have him back in the running. From the moment he declared, "My hat
is in the ring," he became the most visible, if not viable, candidate.
Ultimately, Roosevelt would beat Taft in the election, but he would lose to
the Democratic candidate, Woodrow Wilson. This cover of Judge, August 6,
1910, raised "the question" from early on--"Can a champion come back?"
Theodore Roosevelt once declared himself to be "as strong as a bull moose."
The appellation stuck and the moose became the popular symbol for the
Progressive Party under Roosevelt. This cartoon depicting the mascots of
the major parties appeared in Harper's Weekly, July 20, 1912, just before
the "Bull Moose" convention opened in Chicago.
Chronology of the Public Career of Theodore Roosevelt
1882-1884 - New York State Assemblyman
1889-1895 - United States Civil Service Commissioner
1895-1897 - New York City Police Commissioner
1897-1898 - Assistant Secretary of the Navy
1898 - Rough Rider
1899-1900 - Governor of New York
1901- Vice President of the United States
1901-1909 - President of the United States
Source
1. www.yahoo.com
2. http://www.npg.si.edu/exh/roosevelt/index.htm
