Events[link]

1066 – Harold Godwinson is crowned King of England.

1118 – Reconquista: Alfonso the Battler conquers Zaragoza.

1205 – Philip of Swabia becomes King of the Romans.

1322 – Stephen Uroš III is crowned King of Serbia.

1355 – Charles I of Bohemia is crowned with the Iron Crown of Lombardy as King of Italy in Milan.

1449 – Constantine XI is crowned Byzantine-Roman Emperor at Mystras.

1492 – Ferdinand and Isabella The Catholic Monarchs enter Granada, completing the Reconquista.

1540 – King Henry VIII of England marries Anne of Cleves.

1579 – The Union of Arras is signed.

1661 – English Restoration: The Fifth Monarchists unsuccessfully attempt to seize control of London, England.

1690 – Joseph, son of Emperor Leopold I, becomes King of the Romans.

1721 – The Committee of Inquiry on the South Sea Bubble publishes its findings.

1781 – In the Battle of Jersey, the British defeat the last attempt by France to invade Jersey.

1839 – The most damaging storm in 300 years sweeps across Ireland, damaging or destroying more than 20% of the houses in Dublin.

1853 – President-elect of the United States Franklin Pierce and his family are involved in a train wreck near Andover, Massachusetts.

1870 – The inauguration of the Musikverein in Vienna, Austria.

1893 – The Washington National Cathedral is chartered by Congress. The charter is signed by President Benjamin Harrison.

1900 – Second Boer War: Having already sieged the fortress at Ladysmith, Boer forces attack it, but are driven back by British defenders.

1907 – Maria Montessori opens her first school and daycare center for working class children in Rome, Italy.

1912 – New Mexico is admitted as the 47th U.S. state.

1912 – German geophysicist Alfred Wegener first presents his theory of continental drift.

1921 – Formation of the Iraqi Army.

1929 – King Alexander of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes suspends his country's constitution (the January 6th Dictatorship).

1929 – Mother Teresa arrives in Calcutta, India to begin her work among India's poorest and sick people.

1930 – The first diesel-engined automobile trip is completed, from Indianapolis, Indiana, to New York, New York.

1931 – Thomas Edison submits his last patent application.

1941 – President Franklin D. Roosevelt delivers his Four Freedoms speech in the State of the Union address.

1947 – Pan American Airlines becomes the first commercial airline to schedule a flight around the world.

1950 – The United Kingdom recognizes the People's Republic of China. The Republic of China severs diplomatic relations with the UK in response.

1951 – Ganghwa massacre: Korean War.

1953 – The first Asian Socialist Conference opens in Rangoon, Burma.

1960 – National Airlines Flight 2511 is destroyed in mid-air by a bomb, while en route from New York City to Miami, Florida.

1967 – Vietnam War: United States Marine Corps and ARVN troops launch "Operation Deckhouse Five" in the Mekong River delta.

1974 – In response to the 1973 oil crisis, daylight saving time commences nearly four months early in the United States.

1978 – The Crown of St. Stephen (also known as the Holy Crown of Hungary) is returned to Hungary from the United States, where it was held after World War II.

1992 – President of Georgia Zviad Gamsakhurdia flees the country as a result of the military coup.

1993 – Indian Border Security Force units kill 55 Kashmiri civilians in Sopore, Jammu and Kashmir, in revenge after militants ambushed a BSF patrol.

1994 – Nancy Kerrigan is clubbed on the knee at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships in Detroit, Michigan.

1995 – A chemical fire in an apartment complex in Manila, Philippines, leads to the discovery of plans for Project Bojinka, a mass-terrorist attack.

2005 – American Civil Rights Movement: Edgar Ray Killen is arrested as a suspect in the 1964 murders of three civil rights workers.

2005 – A train collision in Graniteville, South Carolina, releases about 60 tons of chlorine gas.

Births[link]

1367 – King Richard II of England (d. 1400)

1412 – Joan of Arc, French military figure and Roman Catholic Saint (legendary date) (d. 1431)

1486 – Martin Agricola, German composer (d. 1556)

1488 – Helius Eobanus Hessus, German poet (d. 1540)

1525 – Caspar Peucer, German reformer (d. 1602)

1561 – Thomas Fincke, Danish mathematician (d. 1656)

1580 – (baptised) John Smith of Jamestown (d. 1631)

1587 – Gaspar de Guzmán, Count-Duke of Olivares, Spanish statesman (d. 1645)

1595 – Claude Favre de Vaugelas, French man of letters (d. 1650)

1617 – Kristoffer Gabel, Danish statesman (d. 1673)

1655 – Empress Eleonore-Magdalena of Neuburg of the Holy Roman Empire (d. 1720)

1673 – James Brydges, 1st Duke of Chandos, English noble (d. 1744)

1695 – Giuseppe Sammartini, Italian composer and an oboist (d. 1750)

1702 – José de Nebra, Spanish composer (d. 1768)

1714 – Percivall Pott, English physician (d. 1788)

1745 – Jacques-Étienne Montgolfier, French inventor (d. 1799)

1766 – Mihály Fazekas, Hungarian author (d. 1828)

1785 – Andreas Mustoxydis, Greek historian and philologist (d. 1860)

1793 – James Madison Porter, American politician, 18th United States Secretary of War and a founder of Lafayette College (d. 1862)

1795 – Anselme Payen, French chemist (d. 1871)

1799 – Jedediah Strong Smith, American hunter and explorer (d. 1831)

1803 – Henri Herz, Austrian pianist, composer (d. 1888)

1807 – Jozef Maximilián Petzval, Slovak inventor (d. 1891)

1808 – Joseph Pitty Couthouy, American naval officer (d. 1864)

1811 – Charles Sumner, American politician (d. 1874)

1812 – Melchora Aquino, Filipino revolutionary figure (d. 1919)

1819 – Baldassare Verazzi, Italian painter (d. 1886)

1822 – Heinrich Schliemann, German archaeologist (d. 1890)

1832 – Gustave Doré, French painter and sculptor (d. 1883)

1836 – Ludwig Schüler, German politician (d. 1930)

1838 – Max Bruch, German composer (d. 1920)

1848 – Hristo Botev, Bulgarian poet and revolutionary figure (d. 1876)

1850 – Franz Xaver Scharwenka, Polish-German pianist and composer (d. 1924)

1856 – Giuseppe Martucci, Italian composer (d. 1909)

1857 – Hugh Mahon, Irish-born Australian politician (d. 1931)

1857 – William E. Russell, American politician (d. 1896)

1859 – Samuel Alexander, Australian-born British philosopher (d. 1938)

1861 – George Lloyd (bishop of Saskatchewan), Anglican bishop and theologian (d. 1940)

1861 – János Zsupánek, Slovene (Prekmurian) poet and writer (d. 1951)

1868 – Vittorio Monti, Italian composer (d. 1922)

1870 – Gustav Bauer, Chancellor of Germany (d. 1944)

1872 – Alexander Scriabin, Russian composer (d. 1915)

1874 – Fred Niblo, American film actor, director, producer (d. 1948)

1878 – Dame Adeline Genée, Danish-born British ballerina (d. 1970)

1878 – Carl Sandburg, American poet and historian (d. 1967)

1880 – Tom Mix, American actor (d. 1940)

1882 – Aleksandra Ekster, Russian painter (d. 1949)

1882 – Fan S. Noli, Albanian bishop (d. 1965)

1882 – Sam Rayburn, American politician (d. 1961)

1883 – Khalil Gibran, Lebanese writer (d. 1931)

1896 – Péter Veres, Hungarian writer and politician (d. 1970)

1898 – James Fitzmaurice, Irish aviation pioneer (d. 1965)

1898 – Charles E. Pont, American artist (d. 1971)

1899 – Phyllis Haver, American actress (d. 1960)

1899 – Heinrich Nordhoff, German automobile engineer (d. 1968)

1900 – Kathryn Hulme, American novelist (d. 1981)

1902 – Helmut Poppendick, German physician (d. 1994)

1903 – Maurice Abravanel, Greek-born conductor (d. 1993)

1903 – Francis L. Sullivan, English actor (d. 1956)

1905 – Idris Davies, Welsh poet (d. 1953)

1907 – David Fleay, Australian naturalist (d. 1993)

1908 – Menachem Avidom, Austro-Hungarian born Israeli composer (d. 1995)

1910 – G. N. Balasubramaniam, Indian Carnatic musician (d. 1960)

1910 – Wright Morris, American writer (d. 1998)

1912 – Danny Thomas, American actor (d. 1991)

1913 – Edward Gierek, Polish politician (d. 2001)

1913 – Loretta Young, American actress (d. 2000)

1914 – Godfrey Edward Arnold, Austrian-born American otolaryngologist (d. 1989)

1915 – Don Edwards, American politician

1915 – John C. Lilly, American psychoanalyst (d. 2001)

1915 – Alan Watts, English writer/philosopher (d. 1973)

1916 – Eugene T. Maleska, American crossword puzzle creator and editor (d. 1993)

1916 – Vincent Serventy, Australian writer and conservationist (d. 2007)

1917 – Koo Chen-fu, Chinese negotiator (d. 2005)

1920 – John Maynard Smith, English biologist (d. 2004)

1920 – Sun Myung Moon, Korean evangelist

1920 – Doris Stokes, British psychic medium (d. 1987)

1920 – Early Wynn, American baseball player (d. 1999)

1921 – Cary Middlecoff, American golfer (d. 1998)

1923 – Norman Kirk, New Zealander politician (d. 1974)

1923 – Jacobo Timerman, Argentine writer (d. 1999)

1924 – Earl Scruggs, American musician (Flatt and Scruggs) (d. 2012)

1925 – John DeLorean, American auto maker (d. 2005)

1926 – Ralph Branca, American baseball player

1926 – Pat Flaherty, American racecar driver (d. 2002)

1926 – Kid Gavilan, Cuban boxer (d. 2003)

1926 – Mickey Hargitay, Hungarian-born American actor and bodybuilder (d. 2006)

1928 – Capucine, French actress (d. 1990)

1928 – George H. Ross, American businessman

1929 – Anne Rogers Clark, American dog breeder and trainer (d. 2006)

1929 – Babrak Karmal, Afghan politician (d. 1996)

1930 – Vic Tayback, American actor (d. 1990)

1931 – E. L. Doctorow, American author

1931 – Juan Goytisolo, Spanish poet, essayist, and novelist

1931 – Dickie Moore, Canadian ice hockey player

1932 – Stuart A. Rice, American chemist

1933 – Oleg Makarov, Soviet cosmonaut (d. 2003)

1933 – Emil Steinberger, Swiss comedian

1933 – Fred L. Turner, American restaurant industry executive

1934 – Harry M. Miller, Australian entrepreneur

1934 – Sylvia Syms, English actress

1934 – John Wieners, American lyric poet (d. 2002)

1935 – Margarita Gomez-Acebo y Cejuela, Spainsh wife of Simeon Saxe-Coburg-Gotha

1935 – Nino Tempo, American singer and actor

1936 – Rubén Amaro, Sr., Mexican baseball player

1936 – Darlene Hard, American tennis player

1936 – Julio María Sanguinetti Coirolo, Uruguayan politician

1937 – Paolo Conte, Italian singer

1937 – Lou Holtz, American football coach

1937 – Doris Troy, American singer (d. 2004)

1938 – Adriano Celentano, Italian singer and actor

1938 – Adrienne Clarke, Australian botanist and politician

1938 – Mario Rodríguez Cobos, Argentine writer and spiritual figure

1939 – Murray Rose, Australian swimmer

1940 – Penny Lernoux, American journalist (d. 1989)

1940 – Van McCoy, American musician (d. 1979)

1942 – Yiannis Boutaris, Greek businessman, mayor of Thessaloniki

1943 – Hak Ja Han, Korean church leader

1943 – Terry Venables, English football manager

1944 – Bonnie Franklin, American actress

1944 – Rolf M. Zinkernagel, Swiss immunologist, Nobel laureate

1945 – Allen Appel, American novelist

1946 – Syd Barrett, English guitarist, singer and songwriter (Pink Floyd and Stars) (d. 2006)

1947 – Sandy Denny, English singer and songwriter (Fairport Convention and Fotheringay) (d. 1978)

1947 – Ian Millar, Canadian equestrian

1948 – Guy Gardner, American astronaut

1950 – Louis Freeh, American jurist, and 10th Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation

1951 – Don Gullett, American baseball player

1951 – Kim Wilson, American musician (The Fabulous Thunderbirds)

1952 – Moondog Spot, American professional wrestler (d. 2003)

1952 – Frank Sivero, Italian-born American actor

1953 – Malcolm Young, Scottish-born Australian guitarist (AC/DC and Marcus Hook Roll Band)

1954 – Hans Robert Hiegel, German architect

1954 – Yuji Horii, Japanese video game designer

1954 – Anthony Minghella, British film director (d. 2008)

1954 – Karen Moras, Australian swimmer

1954 – Trudie Styler, English actress

1955 – Rowan Atkinson, English comedian and actor

1955 – Richard Corbett, British politician

1956 – Angus Deayton, English comedian, actor and television presenter

1957 – Michael Foale, American astronaut

1957 – Nancy Lopez, American golfer

1958 – Themos Anastasiadis, Greek journalist and newspaper editor

1958 – Scott Bryce, American actor

1959 – Kapil Dev, Indian cricketer

1959 – Kathy Sledge, American singer

1960 – Paul Azinger, American golfer

1960 – Kari Jalonen, Finnish ice hockey player

1960 – Nigella Lawson, English chef and writer

1960 – Howie Long, American football player and analyst

1960 – Andrea Thompson, American actress

1962 – Michael Houser, American guitarist (Widespread Panic) (d. 2002)

1963 – Norm Charlton, American baseball player

1963 – Tony Halme, Finnish boxer and politician (d. 2010)

1964 – Denise Borino, American actress (d. 2010)

1964 – Charles Haley, American football player

1964 – Henry Maske, German boxer

1964 – Jacqueline Moore, American wrestler

1964 – Mark O'Toole, English musician (Frankie Goes to Hollywood)

1964 – Rafael Vidal, Venezuelan athlete (d. 2005)

1964 – Yuri, Mexican actress and singer

1965 – Muhammed al-Ahari, American Muslim writer

1965 – Konnan, Cuban-born professional wrestler

1965 – Bjørn Lomborg, Danish political scientist

1966 – Fernando Carrillo, Venezuelan actor

1966 – Sharon Cuneta, Filipina singer and actress

1966 – A. R. Rahman, Indian composer

1966 – Ipče Ahmedovski, Serbo-Macedonian folk singer

1968 – John Singleton, American film director

1969 – Norman Reedus, American model and actor

1970 – José Carabalí, Venezuelan track and field athlete

1970 – Julie Chen, American television presenter

1970 – Gabrielle Reece, American volleyball player

1971 – Irwin Thomas, Australian singer (Southern Sons, Electric Mary and She Said Yes)

1971 – Gary Wiseman, American musician (Bowling for Soup)

1972 – Nek, Italian singer

1973 – Scott Ferguson, Canadian ice hockey player

1973 – Vasso Karantasiou, Greek beach volleyball player

1974 – Paul Grant, American basketball player

1974 – Daniel Cordone, Argentine footballer

1975 – Nick Clarke, Pro Bull Rider

1975 – Nicole DeHuff, American actress (d. 2005)

1975 – James Farrior, American football player

1975 – Jason King, English radio DJ

1975 – Yukana, Japanese seiyū

1976 – Johnny Yong Bosch, American actor, and musician

1976 – Danny Pintauro, American actor

1976 – Daniel Tynell, Swedish cross-country skiier

1976 – Lu Yi, Chinese actor

1976 – Richard Zedník, Slovak ice hockey player

1977 – Marc Johnson, American skateboarder

1978 – Nikki Einfeld, Canadian opera singer

1978 – Bubba Franks, American football player

1978 – Casey Fossum, American baseball player

1978 – Tara Spencer-Nairn, Canadian actress

1979 – Camila Grey, American musician (Mellowdrone and Uh Huh Her)

1980 – Steed Malbranque, French footballer

1981 – Mike Jones, American rapper

1981 – Rinko Kikuchi, Japanese actress

1981 – Jérémie Renier, Belgian actor

1981 – Asante Samuel, American football player

1982 – Gilbert Arenas, American basketball player

1982 – Brian Bass, American baseball player

1982 – Tiffany Pollard, American reality television personality

1983 – Adam Burish, American ice hockey player

1983 – Mithra Jin, South-Korean hip hop musician (Epik High)

1986 – Paul McShane, Irish footballer

1986 – Petter Northug, Norwegian skier

1986 – Irina Shayk, Russian-born American model

1986 – Benjamin Simm, German rugby player

1986 – Mike Teel, American football player

1986 – Alex Turner, English musician (Arctic Monkeys and The Last Shadow Puppets)

1987 – Zhang Lin, Chinese swimmer

1987 – Bongani Khumalo, South African footballer

1989 – Andy Carroll, English footballer

1992 – Aline Sokar, German actress

1996 – Kishan Shrikanth, Indian film director, actor

Deaths[link]

429 – Honoratus, French archbishop (b. c.350)

664 – Amr ibn al-A'as, Arab general (b. c.583)

1088 – Berengar of Tours, French theologian (b. c.999)

1275 – St. Raymond of Peñafort (b. c.1175)

1448 – Christopher of Bavaria, King of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden (b. 1418)

1481 – Akhmat Khan, Khan of the Golden Horde

1537 – Alessandro de' Medici, Duke of Florence (b. 1510)

1537 – Baldassare Peruzzi, Italian architect and painter (b. 1481)

1592 – Johann Casimir of Simmern, Elector Palatine (b. 1543)

1616 – Philip Henslowe, English theatrical entrepreneur (b. c.1550)

1646 – Elias Holl, German Architect (b. 1573)

1689 – Seth Ward, English mathematician and astronomer (b. 1617)

1693 – Mehmed IV, ex-Ottoman Sultan (b. 1642)

1711 – Philipp van Almonde, Dutch admiral (b. 1646)

1718 – Richard Hoare, English goldsmith and banker (b. 1648)

1718 – Giovanni Vincenzo Gravina, Italian writer and jurist (b. 1664)

1725 – Chikamatsu Monzaemon, Japanese dramatist (b. 1653)

1731 – Étienne François Geoffroy, French chemist (b. 1672)

1734 – John Dennis, English dramatist (b. 1657)

1813 – Louis Baraguey d'Hilliers, French general (b. 1764)

1829 – Josef Dobrovský, Czech philologist (b. 1753)

1831 – Rodolphe Kreutzer, French violinist, composer and conductor (b. 1766)

1840 – Fanny Burney, English novelist and diarist (b. 1752)

1847 – Tyāgarāja, Carnatic Classic Music Composer,Indian(b. 1767)

1852 – Louis Braille, French teacher of the blind and inventor of braille (b. 1809)

1855 – Giacomo Beltrami, Italian explorer (b. 1779)

1872 – James "Big Jim" Fisk, American entrepreneur (b. 1834)

1882 – Richard Henry Dana, Jr., U.S. author (''Two Years Before the Mast'') (b. 1815)

1884 – Gregor Johann Mendel, Austrian geneticist (b. 1822)

1885 – Peter Christen Asbjørnsen, Norwegian writer and scientist (b. 1812)

1896 – Thomas W. Knox, American writer and journalist (b. 1835)

1913 – Frederick Hitch, English Victoria Cross Winner (b. 1856)

1918 – Georg Cantor, German mathematician (b. 1845)

1919 – Max Heindel, Danish astrologer and mystic (b. 1865)

1919 – Theodore Roosevelt, 26th President of the United States (b. 1858)

1921 – Devil Anse Hatfield, Patriarch of the Hatfield clan of the Hatfield/McCoy feud (b. 1839)

1922 – Jakob Rosanes, German mathematician (b. 1842)

1928 – Alvin Kraenzlein, American athlete (b. 1876)

1933 – Vladimir de Pachmann, Russian-German pianist (b. 1848)

1934 – Herbert Chapman, English football player and manager (b. 1878)

1937 – André Bessette, Canadian religious figure (b. 1845)

1941 – Charley O'Leary, American baseball player (b. 1882)

1942 – Emma Calvé, French soprano (b. 1858)

1942 – Henri de Baillet-Latour, Belgian International Olympic Committee president (b. 1876)

1944 – Ida Tarbell, American journalist (b. 1857)

1945 – Edith Frank, mother of Anne Frank (b. 1900)

1945 – Vladimir Vernadsky, Russian mineralogist (b. 1863)

1949 – Victor Fleming, American director (b. 1883)

1952 – Sofoklis Dousmanis, Greek naval officer (b. 1868)

1966 – Jean Lurçat, French painter and tapestry designer (b. 1892)

1972 – Chen Yi, Chinese military commander and politician (b. 1901)

1974 – David Alfaro Siqueiros, Mexican painter (b. 1896)

1978 – Burt Munro, New Zealand motorcycle racer (b. 1899)

1980 – Georgeanna Tillman, Member of The Marvelettes (b. 1944)

1981 – A. J. Cronin, Scottish writer (b. 1896)

1984 – Ernest Laszlo, Hungarian-U.S. cinematographer (b. 1898)

1990 – Pavel Alekseyevich Čerenkov, Russian physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1904)

1990 – Ian Charleson, Scottish actor (b. 1949)

1993 – Dizzy Gillespie, acclaimed jazz trumpet player (b. 1917)

1993 – Richard Mortensen, Danish painter (b. 1910)

1993 – Rudolf Nureyev, Russian ballet dancer (b. 1938)

1994 – Virginia Dell Cassidy, Bill Clinton's mother (b. 1923)

1995 – Joe Slovo, South African politician (b. 1926)

1997 – Catherine Scorsese, Italian-American actress (b. 1912)

1999 – Michel Petrucciani, French jazz pianist (b. 1962)

2000 – Don Martin, American cartoonist (b. 1931)

2003 – Hirini Melbourne, New Zealand musician and composer (b. 1949)

2004 – Pierre Charles, Prime Minister of Dominica (b. 1954)

2004 – Charles Dumas, American athlete (b. 1937)

2004 – Francesco Scavullo, American photographer (b. 1921)

2005 – Lois Hole, Lt. Governor of Alberta (b. 1933)

2005 – Louis Robichaud, Premier of New Brunswick (b. 1925)

2006 – Lou Rawls, American singer (b. 1933)

2006 – Hugh Thompson, Jr., decorated Vietnam War helicopter pilot (b. 1943)

2007 – Mario Danelo, American football player (b. 1985)

2007 – Sneaky Pete Kleinow, American musician and special-effects artist (b. 1934)

2007 – Roberta Wohlstetter, military historian and strategist (b. 1912)

2009 – Ron Asheton, American guitarist (The Stooges) (b. 1948)

2009 – John Scott Martin, English actor (b. 1926)

2010 – James von Brunn, perpetrator of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum shooting (b. 1920)

2011 – Uche Okafor, Nigerian footballer (b. 1967)

2012 – Clive Shell, Welsh international rugby player (b. 1947)

Holidays and observances[link]

Armed Forces Day (Iraq)

Christian Feast Day:

*André Bessette (Roman Catholic Church)

*January 6 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)

Epiphany (Western Christianity) or Theophany (Eastern Christianity), and its related observances:

*Befana Day (Italy)

*Christmas (Armenian Apostolic Church)

*Little Christmas (Ireland)

Pathet Lao Day (Laos)

The beginning of the Carnival period, from Epiphany until Shrove Tuesday. (Roman Catholicism)

External links[link]

BBC: On This Day

On This Day in Canada

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Category:Days of the year Category:January

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Name	Theodore Roosevelt
Office	26th President of the United States
Vicepresident	''None'' (1901–1905)Charles W. Fairbanks (1905–1909)
Term start	September 14, 1901
Term end	March 4, 1909
Predecessor	William McKinley
Successor	William Howard Taft
Office2	25th Vice President of the United States
President2	William McKinley
Term start2	March 4, 1901
Term end2	September 14, 1901
Predecessor2	Garret Hobart
Successor2	Charles Fairbanks
Order3	33rd Governor of New York
Lieutenant3	Timothy Woodruff
Term start3	January 1, 1899
Term end3	December 31, 1900
Predecessor3	Frank Black
Successor3	Benjamin Odell
Office4	Assistant Secretary of the Navy
President4	William McKinley
Term start4	April 19, 1897
Term end4	May 10, 1898
Predecessor4	William McAdoo
Successor4	Charles Allen
Birth date	October 27, 1858
Birth place	New York City, New York, United States of America
Death date	January 06, 1919
Death place	Oyster Bay, New York, United States of America
Party	Republican
Otherparty	Progressive (1912–1916)
Spouse	Alice Lee (1880–1884)Edith Carrow (1886–1919)
Children	AliceTheodoreKermitEthelArchieQuentin
Alma mater	Harvard UniversityColumbia University
Profession	AuthorHistorianExplorer
Religion	Dutch Reformed
Signature	Theodore Roosevelt Signature-2.svg
Signature alt	Cursive signature in ink
Branch	United States Army
Serviceyears	1898
Rank
Commands	1st United States Volunteer Cavalry
Battles	Spanish-American WarBattle of Las GuasimasBattle of San Juan Hill
Awards	Nobel Peace Prize (1906)Medal of Honor (Posthumously; 2001) }}

Theodore "Teddy" Roosevelt ( ; October 27, 1858 – January 6, 1919) was the 26th President of the United States of America (1901–1909). He is noted for his exuberant personality, range of interests and achievements, and his leadership of the Progressive Movement, as well as his "cowboy" persona and robust masculinity. He was a leader of the Republican Party and founder of the short-lived Progressive ("Bull Moose") Party of 1912. Before becoming President, he held offices at the city, state, and federal levels. Roosevelt's achievements as a naturalist, explorer, hunter, author, and soldier are as much a part of his fame as any office he held as a politician. Roosevelt was 42 years old when sworn in as President of the United States in 1901, making him the youngest president ever; he beat out the youngest elected president, John F. Kennedy, by only one year. Roosevelt was also one of only three sitting presidents to have won the Nobel Peace Prize, the other two being Woodrow Wilson and Barack Obama.

Born into a wealthy family in New York City, Roosevelt was a sickly child who suffered from asthma and stayed at home studying natural history. To compensate for his physical weakness, he embraced a strenuous life. Home-schooled, he became an eager student of nature. He attended Harvard University, where he studied biology, boxed and developed an interest in naval affairs. In 1881, one year out of Harvard, he was elected to the New York State Assembly, where he became a leader of the reform faction of his Republican party (the "GOP"). His ''The Naval War of 1812'' (1882) established his professional reputation as a serious historian; he wrote numerous books on hunting, the outdoors, and current political issues, as well as frontier history. In 1884, his wife and his mother died on the same day. He left politics and went to the frontier, becoming a rancher in the "Badlands" in the Dakotas. Returning home, he ran for mayor in 1886, finishing third with 60,000 votes. He later gained fame by taking vigorous charge of the city police. At the national level, he was a leader in civil service reform. The Spanish–American War broke out in 1898 while Roosevelt was, effectively, running the Department of the Navy. He promptly resigned and formed the Rough Riders – a volunteer cavalry regiment that fought in Cuba. The war hero was elected governor in 1898 and in 1900 was nominated for vice president. He successfully energized the GOP base as a highly visible campaigner to reelect President William McKinley on a platform of high tariffs, the gold standard, imperialism, prosperity at home and victory abroad.

In 1901, President William McKinley was assassinated and Roosevelt became President at the age of 42; he remains the youngest president. Roosevelt attempted to move the Republican Party (GOP) toward Progressivism, including trust busting and increased regulation of businesses. Roosevelt coined the phrase "Square Deal" to describe his domestic agenda, emphasizing that the average citizen would get a fair share under his policies. As an outdoorsman and naturalist, he promoted the conservation movement. On the world stage, Roosevelt's policies were characterized by his slogan, "Speak softly and carry a big stick". Roosevelt was the force behind the completion of the Panama Canal; sent the Great White Fleet on a world tour to demonstrate American power; and negotiated an end to the Russo-Japanese War, for which he won the Nobel Peace Prize.

At the end of his second term, Roosevelt promoted his friend William Howard Taft for the 1908 Republican nomination. He toured Africa and Europe. On his return in 1910 he broke bitterly with President Taft on issues of progressivism and personalities. In the 1912 election Roosevelt tried and failed to block Taft's renomination. He launched the Bull Moose Party that called for far-reaching progressive reforms. He lost to Democrat Woodrow Wilson, as the Taft conservatives gained control of the Republican party for decades to come. Roosevelt led a major expedition to the Amazon jungles but contracted diseases which ruined his health. He died relatively young at the age of 60. Roosevelt has consistently been ranked by scholars as one of the greatest U.S. Presidents.

Family[link]

Genealogy[link]

Roosevelt often described his ancestry as "half Irish and half Dutch." His patrilineal Roosevelt family, colonists of Dutch origin, had been in New York since the mid-17th century. Roosevelt was born into considerable wealth, for the family by the 19th century had grown in wealth, power, and influence from the profits of several businesses, including hardware and plate-glass importing. The family was strongly Democratic in its political affiliation until the mid-1850s, and then joined the new Republican Party. Theodore's father, known in the family as "Thee", was a New York City philanthropist, merchant, and partner in the family glass-importing firm Roosevelt and Son. "Father," as the children called him, was an ardent Unionist, a prominent supporter of Abraham Lincoln and the Union effort during the American Civil War. His mother Martha "Mittie" Bulloch was a Southern belle from a slave-owning family in Roswell, Georgia, and she maintained Confederate sympathies. Mittie's brother, Theodore's uncle, James Dunwoody Bulloch, was a United States Navy officer who became a Confederate Navy commander and secret agent in Britain who was most responsible for the destruction of the United States merchant fleet and procuring ships and supplies to run through the Union blockade. Another uncle, Irvine Bulloch, was a midshipman on the Confederate raider ; both remained in England after the war.

Theodore Roosevelt was distantly related by birth to the 32nd president of the United States, Franklin Delano Roosevelt (they were fifth cousins), and he was the uncle of Franklin D. Roosevelt's wife, Eleanor Roosevelt.

Childhood[link]

Theodore Roosevelt was born on October 27, 1858, in a four-story brownstone at 28 East 20th Street, in the modern-day Gramercy section of New York City, the second of four children of Theodore Roosevelt, Sr. (1831–1878) and Martha "Mittie" Bulloch (1835–1884). He had an older sister, Anna, and two younger siblings: his brother Elliott (the father of future First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt) and his sister Corinne.

Sickly and asthmatic as a child, Roosevelt had to sleep propped up in bed or slouching in a chair during much of his early years, and had frequent ailments. Despite his illnesses, he was hyperactive and often mischievous. His lifelong interest in zoology was formed at age seven upon seeing a dead seal at a local market. After obtaining the seal's head, the young Roosevelt and two of his cousins formed what they called the "Roosevelt Museum of Natural History". Learning the rudiments of taxidermy, he filled his makeshift museum with animals that he killed or caught, studied, and prepared for display. At age nine, he codified his observation of insects with a paper titled "The Natural History of Insects".

Encouraged by his father, the boy began exercising and boxing to combat his poor physical condition. Two trips abroad had a lasting impact: family tours of Europe in 1869 and 1870, and Egypt 1872 to 1873.

Theodore, Sr., had a tremendous influence on his son, who wrote of him, "My father, Theodore Roosevelt, was the best man I ever knew. He combined strength and courage with gentleness, tenderness, and great unselfishness. He would not tolerate in us children selfishness or cruelty, idleness, cowardice, or untruthfulness."

Education[link]

Young "Teedie", as he was nicknamed as a child, was mostly home schooled by tutors and his parents. A leading biographer says: "The most obvious drawback to the home schooling Roosevelt received was uneven coverage of the various areas of human knowledge." He was solid in geography (thanks to his careful observations on all his travels) and well read in history, strong in biology, French, and German, but deficient in mathematics, Latin and Greek.

He matriculated at Harvard College in 1876. His father's death in 1878 was a tremendous blow, but Roosevelt redoubled his activities. He did well in science, philosophy and rhetoric courses but fared poorly in Latin and Greek. He studied biology with considerable interest and was already an accomplished naturalist and published ornithologist. He had a photographic memory and developed a lifelong habit of devouring books, memorizing every detail. He was an eloquent conversationalist who, throughout his life, sought out the company of the smartest people. He could multitask in impressive fashion, dictating letters to one secretary and memoranda to another, while browsing through a new book. While at Harvard, Roosevelt was active in rowing, boxing, the Alpha Delta Phi literary society, the Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity, and was a member of the Porcellian Club. He also edited ''The Harvard Advocate''. He was runner-up in the Harvard boxing championship.

Upon graduating, Roosevelt underwent a physical examination, and his doctor advised him that because of serious heart problems, he should find a desk job and avoid strenuous activity. He chose to embrace strenuous life instead. He graduated Phi Beta Kappa (22nd of 177) from Harvard with an A.B. ''magna cum laude'' in 1880 and entered Columbia Law School. When offered a chance to run for New York Assemblyman in 1881, he dropped out of law school to pursue his new goal of entering public life.

First marriage[link]

In 1880, Roosevelt married Alice Hathaway Lee (July 29, 1861 – February 14, 1884) of Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts. She died young of an undiagnosed case of kidney failure (in those days called Bright's disease) two days after their infant Alice was born. Her pregnancy had masked the illness. Theodore Roosevelt's mother Mittie died of typhoid fever on the same day, at 3 am, some eleven hours earlier, in the same house. After the nearly simultaneous deaths of his mother and wife, Roosevelt left his daughter in the care of his sister, Anna "Bamie/Bye" in New York City. In his diary, he wrote a large 'X' on the page and then, "The light has gone out of my life." (See diary photo).

For the rest of his life, Roosevelt never spoke of his wife Alice publicly or privately and did not write about her in his autobiography. As late as 1919, when Roosevelt was working with Joseph Bucklin Bishop on a biography that included a collection of his letters, Roosevelt did not mention either his first or second marriage, which took place in London.

Early political career[link]

''The Naval War of 1812''[link]

While at Harvard, Roosevelt began a systematic study of the role played by the nascent US Navy in the War of 1812, largely completing two chapters of a book he would publish after graduation. Helped in part by his two uncles, he did his own research using original source materials and official US Navy records. Roosevelt's carefully researched book was comparable to modern doctoral dissertations, complete with drawings of individual and combined ship maneuvers, charts depicting the differences in iron throw weights of cannon shot between American and British forces, and analyses of the differences between British and American leadership down to the ship-to-ship level. Published after Roosevelt's graduation from college, ''The Naval War of 1812'' was praised for its scholarship and style. This book established Roosevelt's reputation as a serious historian. One modern naval historian wrote: "Roosevelt’s study of the War of 1812 influenced all subsequent scholarship on the naval aspects of the War of 1812 and continues to be reprinted. More than a classic, it remains, after 120 years, a standard study of the war."

State Assemblyman[link]

Roosevelt was a Republican activist during his years in the Assembly, writing more bills than any other New York state legislator did. Already a leading player in state politics, he attended the Republican National Convention in 1884 and fought alongside the Mugwump reformers; they lost to the Stalwart faction that nominated James G. Blaine. Refusing to join other Mugwumps in supporting Grover Cleveland, the Democratic nominee, he debated with his friend Henry Cabot Lodge the pros and cons of staying loyal. When asked by a reporter whether he would support Blaine, he replied, "That question I decline to answer. It is a subject I do not care to talk about." Upon leaving the convention, he complained "off the record" to a reporter about Blaine's nomination. In a crucial moment of his budding political career, he resisted the instinct to bolt from the Party that would overwhelm his political sense in 1912. In an account of the convention, another reporter quoted Roosevelt as saying that he would give "hearty support to any decent Democrat." He would later take great (and to some historical critics such as Henry Pringle, disingenuous) pains to distance himself from his earlier comment, indicating that while he made it, it had not been made "for publication." Leaving the convention with his idealism disillusioned by party politics, Roosevelt said he had no further aspiration but to retire to his ranch in the Badlands of the Dakota Territory, which he had purchased the previous year while on a buffalo hunting expedition.

Cowboy in Dakota[link]

Roosevelt built a second ranch, which he named Elk Horn, thirty-five miles (56 km) north of the boomtown of Medora, North Dakota. On the banks of the Little Missouri, Roosevelt learned to ride western style, rope, and hunt. He rebuilt his life and began writing about frontier life for Eastern magazines, as well publishing three books:

''Hunting Trips of a Ranchman'', New York and London: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1885 ISBN 1-58734-042-9

''Ranch Life and the Hunting-Trail'', New York: The Century Co., 1888 ISBN 1-58734-044-5

''The Wilderness Hunter'', New York and London: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1893 ISBN 0-8398-1765-7

As a deputy sheriff, Roosevelt hunted down three outlaws who stole his riverboat and were escaping north with it up the Little Missouri. Capturing them, he decided against hanging them (apparently yielding to established law procedures in place of vigilante justice), and sending his foreman back by boat, he took the thieves back overland for trial in Dickinson, guarding them forty hours without sleep and reading Tolstoy to keep himself awake. When he ran out of his own books, he read a dime store western that one of the thieves was carrying." While searching for a group of relentless horse thieves, Roosevelt met Seth Bullock, the famous sheriff of Deadwood, South Dakota. The two would remain friends for life.

Return to New York[link]

After the uniquely severe U.S. winter of 1886-1887 wiped out his herd of cattle (together with those of his competitors) and his $60,000 investment, Roosevelt returned to the East. In 1885, he had built Sagamore Hill in Oyster Bay, New York on Long Island, which was his home and estate until his death. In 1886, Roosevelt ran as the Republican candidate for mayor of New York City, portraying himself as "The Cowboy of the Dakotas"; he came in third.

Second marriage[link]

Following the election, he went to London in 1886 and married his childhood sweetheart, Edith Kermit Carow. They honeymooned in Europe, and Roosevelt led a group to the summit of Mont Blanc, an achievement that resulted in his induction into the British Royal Society. They had five children: Theodore Jr., Kermit, Ethel Carow, Archibald Bulloch "Archie", and Quentin.

Reentering public life[link]

Civil Service Commission[link]

In the 1888 presidential election, Roosevelt campaigned in the Midwest for Benjamin Harrison. President Harrison appointed Roosevelt to the United States Civil Service Commission, where he served until 1895. In his term, Roosevelt vigorously fought the spoilsmen and demanded enforcement of civil service laws. His close associate, friend and biographer, Joseph Bucklin Bishop, described Roosevelt's assault on the spoils system:

The very citadel of spoils politics, the hitherto impregnable fortress that had existed unshaken since it was erected on the foundation laid by Andrew Jackson, was tottering to its fall under the assaults of this audacious and irrepressible young man.... Whatever may have been the feelings of the (fellow Republican party) President (Harrison) — and there is little doubt that he had no idea when he appointed Roosevelt that he would prove to be so veritable a bull in a china shop—he refused to remove him and stood by him firmly till the end of his term.

During this time, the ''New York Sun'' described Roosevelt as "irrepressible, belligerent, and enthusiastic"

Despite Roosevelt's support for Harrison's reelection bid in the presidential election of 1892, the eventual winner, Grover Cleveland (a Bourbon Democrat), reappointed him to the same post.

New York City Police Commissioner[link]

Roosevelt became president of the board of New York City Police Commissioners in 1895. During his two years in this post, Roosevelt radically reformed the police department. The police force was reputed as one of the most corrupt in America. The NYPD's history division records that Roosevelt was "an iron-willed leader of unimpeachable honesty, (who) brought a reforming zeal to the New York City Police Commission in 1895." Roosevelt and his fellow commissioners established new disciplinary rules, created a bicycle squad to enforce New York's traffic laws, and standardized the use of pistols by officers. He selected the Colt New Police Revolver in .32 Colt Caliber as the first standard issue pistol for the NYPD. Roosevelt implemented regular inspections of firearms and annual physical exams, appointed 1,600 recruits based on their physical and mental qualifications and not on political affiliation, established meritorious service medals, and closed corrupt police hostelries. During his tenure, a Municipal Lodging House was established by the Board of Charities, and Roosevelt required officers to register with the Board. He also had telephones installed in station houses.

In 1894, Roosevelt met Jacob Riis, the muckraking ''Evening Sun'' newspaper journalist who was opening the eyes of New York's rich to the terrible conditions of the city's millions of poor immigrants with such books as, ''How the Other Half Lives.'' In Riis' autobiography, he described the effect of his book on the new police commissioner:

Roosevelt made a habit of walking officers' beats late at night and early in the morning to make sure they were on duty. As Governor of New York State before becoming Vice President in March 1901, Roosevelt signed an act replacing the Police Commissioners with a single Police Commissioner.

Emergence as a national figure[link]

Assistant Secretary of the Navy[link]

Roosevelt had always been fascinated by naval history. Urged by Roosevelt's close friend, Congressman Henry Cabot Lodge, President William McKinley appointed Roosevelt to the post of Assistant Secretary of the Navy in 1897. Because of the inactivity of Secretary of the Navy John D. Long, this gave Roosevelt control over the department. Ten days after the battleship ''Maine'' exploded in the harbor of Havana, Cuba, the Secretary left for a massage, and Roosevelt became Acting Secretary for four hours. Roosevelt told the Navy worldwide to prepare for war, ordered ammunition and supplies, brought in experts, and went to Congress asking for authority to recruit as many sailors as he wanted, thus moving the nation toward war. Roosevelt was instrumental in preparing the Navy for the Spanish-American War and was an enthusiastic supporter of testing the U.S. military in combat, at one point saying, "I should welcome almost any war, for I think this country needs one".

War in Cuba[link]

Upon the 1898 Declaration of War launching the Spanish-American War, Roosevelt resigned from the Navy Department. With the aid of U.S. Army Colonel Leonard Wood, Roosevelt found volunteers from cowboys from the Western territories to Ivy League friends from New York, forming the First U.S. Volunteer Cavalry Regiment. The newspapers called them the "Rough Riders."

Originally, Roosevelt held the rank of Lieutenant Colonel and served under Colonel Wood. In Roosevelt's own account, ''The Rough Riders'', "after General Young was struck down with the fever, Wood took charge of the brigade. This left me in command of the regiment, of which I was very glad, for such experience as we had had is a quick teacher." Accordingly, Wood was promoted to Brigadier General of Volunteer Forces, and Roosevelt was promoted to Colonel and given command of the Regiment.

Under his leadership, the Rough Riders became famous for dual charges up Kettle Hill and San Juan Hill on July 1, 1898 (the battle was named after the latter "hill," which was the shoulder of a ridge known as San Juan Heights). Out of all the Rough Riders, Roosevelt was the only one with a horse, as the troopers' horses had been left behind because transport ships were scarce. He rode back and forth between rifle pits at the forefront of the advance up Kettle Hill, an advance that he urged in absence of any orders from superiors. He was forced to walk up the last part of Kettle Hill on foot, because of barbed wire entanglement and after his horse, Little Texas, tired.

For his actions, Roosevelt was nominated for the Medal of Honor, which was later disapproved. As historian John Gable wrote, "In later years Roosevelt would describe the Battle of San Juan Hill on July 1, 1898, as 'the great day of my life' and 'my crowded hour.'.... (but) Malaria and other diseases now killed more troops than had died in battle. In August, Roosevelt and other officers demanded that the soldiers be returned home. In 2001, Roosevelt was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions. He was the first and, to date, is the only President of the United States to be awarded America's highest military honor, and the only person in history to receive both his nation's highest honor for military valor and the world's foremost prize for peace.

After return to civilian life, Roosevelt preferred to be known as "Colonel Roosevelt" or "The Colonel." As a moniker, "Teddy" remained much more popular with the public, despite the fact he found it vulgar and called it "an outrageous impertinence." Political friends and others working closely with Roosevelt customarily addressed him by his rank.

Governor and Vice-President[link]

On leaving the Army, Roosevelt was elected governor of New York in 1898 as a Republican. He made such an effort to root out corruption and "machine politics" that Republican boss Thomas Collier Platt forced him on McKinley as a running mate in the 1900 election, against the wishes of McKinley's manager, Senator Mark Hanna. Roosevelt was a powerful campaign asset for the Republican ticket, which defeated William Jennings Bryan in a landslide based on restoration of prosperity at home and a successful war and new prestige abroad. Bryan stumped for Free Silver again, but McKinley's promise of prosperity through the gold standard, high tariffs, and the restoration of business confidence enlarged his margin of victory. Bryan had strongly supported the war against Spain, but denounced the annexation of the Philippines as imperialism that would spoil America's innocence. Roosevelt countered with many speeches that argued it was best for the Filipinos to have stability, and the Americans to have a proud place in the world. Roosevelt's six months as Vice President (March to September 1901) were uneventful. On September 2, 1901, at the Minnesota State Fair, Roosevelt first used in a public speech a saying that would later be universally associated with him: "Speak softly and carry a big stick, and you will go far."

Presidency 1901–1909[link]

On September 6, President McKinley was shot while at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York. Initial reports in the succeeding days suggested his condition was improving, so Roosevelt embarked on a vacation at Mount Marcy in northeastern New York. He was returning from a climb to the summit on September 13 when a park ranger brought him a telegram informing him that McKinley's condition had deteriorated, and he was near death.

Roosevelt and his family immediately departed for Buffalo. When they reached the nearest train station at North Creek, at 5:22 am on September 14, he received another telegram informing him that McKinley had died a few hours earlier. Roosevelt arrived in Buffalo that afternoon, and was sworn in there as President at 3:30 pm by U.S. District Judge John R. Hazel at the Ansley Wilcox House.

Roosevelt kept McKinley's Cabinet and promised to continue McKinley's policies. One of his first notable acts as president was to deliver a 20,000-word address to Congress asking it to curb the power of large corporations (called "trusts"). For his aggressive attacks on trusts over his two terms, he has been called a "trust-buster."

In the 1904 presidential election, Roosevelt won the presidency in his own right in a landslide victory. His vice president was Charles Fairbanks.

Roosevelt also dealt with union workers. In May 1902, United Mine Workers went on strike to get higher pay wages and shorter workdays. He set up a fact-finding commission that stopped the strike, and resulted in the workers getting more pay for fewer hours.

In August 1902, Roosevelt was the first president to be seen riding in an automobile in public. This took place in Hartford, CT. The car was a Columbia Electric Victoria Phaeton, manufactured in Hartford. The police squad rode bicycles alongside the car. (The reference includes a photo of the event.)

In 1905, he issued a corollary to the Monroe Doctrine, which allows the United States to "exercise international policy power" so they can intervene and keep smaller countries on their feet.

Roosevelt helped the wellbeing of people by passing laws such as The Meat Inspection Act of 1906 and The Pure Food and Drug Act. The Meat Inspection Act of 1906 banned misleading labels and preservatives that contained harmful chemicals. The Pure Food and Drug Act banned food and drugs that are impure or falsely labeled from being made, sold, and shipped. Roosevelt was also served as honorary president of the school health organization American School Hygiene Association from 1907 to 1908, and in 1909 he convened the first White House Conference on the Care of Dependent Children.

The Gentlemen's Agreement with Japan came into play in 1907, banning all school segregation of Japanese, yet controlling Japanese immigration in California. That year, Roosevelt signed the proclamation establishing Oklahoma as the 46th state of the Union.

Building on McKinley's effective use of the press, Roosevelt made the White House the center of news every day, providing interviews and photo opportunities. After noticing the White House reporters huddled outside in the rain one day, he gave them their own room inside, effectively inventing the presidential press briefing. The grateful press, with unprecedented access to the White House, rewarded Roosevelt with ample coverage.

He chose not to run for another term in 1908, and supported William Taft for the presidency, instead of Fairbanks. Fairbanks withdrew from the race, and would later support Taft for re-election against Roosevelt in the 1912 election.

Roosevelt appointed a record 75 federal judges. Roosevelt appointed three Justices to the Supreme Court of the United States: Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. (1902), William Rufus Day (1903), William Henry Moody (1906). In addition to these three, Roosevelt appointed 19 judges to the United States Courts of Appeals, and 53 judges to the United States district courts.

Post-presidency[link]

African safari[link]

In March 1909, shortly after the end of his presidency, Roosevelt left New York for a safari in east and central Africa. Roosevelt's party landed in Mombasa, British East Africa (now Kenya), traveled to the Belgian Congo (now Democratic Republic of the Congo) before following the Nile to Khartoum in modern Sudan. Financed by Andrew Carnegie and by his own proposed writings, Roosevelt's party hunted for specimens for the Smithsonian Institution and for the American Museum of Natural History in New York. The group, led by the legendary hunter-tracker R. J. Cunninghame, included scientists from the Smithsonian and was joined from time to time by Frederick Selous, the famous big game hunter and explorer. Among other items, Roosevelt brought with him four tons of salt for preserving animal hides, a lucky rabbit's foot given to him by boxer John L. Sullivan, a Holland and Holland double rifle in .500/450 donated by a group of 56 admiring Britons, a Winchester 1895 rifle in .405 Winchester, an Army (M1903) Springfield in .30-06 caliber stocked and sighted for him, a Fox No. 12 shotgun, and the famous Pigskin Library, a collection of classics bound in pig leather and transported in a single reinforced trunk.

Roosevelt and his companions killed or trapped approximately 11,400 animals, from insects and moles to hippopotamuses and elephants. These included 512 big game animals, including six rare white rhinos. The expedition consumed 262 of the animals. Tons of salted animals and their skins were shipped to Washington; the quantity was so large that it took years to mount them all, and the Smithsonian shared many duplicate animals with other museums. Regarding the large number of animals taken, Roosevelt said, "I can be condemned only if the existence of the National Museum, the American Museum of Natural History, and all similar zoological institutions are to be condemned."

Although the safari was ostensibly conducted in the name of science, it was as much a political and social event as it was a hunting excursion; Roosevelt interacted with renowned professional hunters and land-owning families, and met many native peoples and local leaders. Roosevelt became a Life Member of the National Rifle Association, while President, in 1907 after paying a $25 fee. He later wrote a detailed account in the book ''African Game Trails'', where he describes the excitement of the chase, the people he met, and the flora and fauna he collected in the name of science.

Republican Party schism[link]

Roosevelt certified William Howard Taft to be a genuine "progressive" in 1908, when Roosevelt pushed through the nomination of his Secretary of War for the Presidency. Taft easily defeated three-time candidate William Jennings Bryan. Taft promoted a different progressivism, one that stressed the rule of law and preferred that judges rather than administrators or politicians make the basic decisions about fairness. Taft usually proved a less adroit politician than Roosevelt and lacked the energy and personal magnetism, not to mention the publicity devices, the dedicated supporters, and the broad base of public support that made Roosevelt so formidable. When Roosevelt realized that lowering the tariff would risk severe tensions inside the Republican Party—pitting producers (manufacturers and farmers) against merchants and consumers—he stopped talking about the issue. Taft ignored the risks and tackled the tariff boldly, on the one hand encouraging reformers to fight for lower rates, and then cutting deals with conservative leaders that kept overall rates high. The resulting Payne-Aldrich tariff of 1909 was too high for most reformers, but instead of blaming this on Senator Nelson Aldrich and big business, Taft took credit, calling it the best tariff ever. He again had managed to alienate all sides. While the crisis was building inside the Party, Roosevelt was touring Africa and Europe, to allow Taft to be his own man.

Unlike Roosevelt, Taft never attacked business or businessmen in his rhetoric. However, he was attentive to the law, so he launched 90 antitrust suits, including one against the largest corporation, U.S. Steel, for an acquisition that Roosevelt had personally approved. Consequently, Taft lost the support of antitrust reformers (who disliked his conservative rhetoric), of big business (which disliked his actions), and of Roosevelt, who felt humiliated by his protégé. The left wing of the Republican Party began agitating against Taft. Senator Robert LaFollette of Wisconsin created the National Progressive Republican League (precursor to the Progressive Party (United States, 1924)) to defeat the power of political bossism at the state level and to replace Taft at the national level. More trouble came when Taft fired Gifford Pinchot, a leading conservationist and close ally of Roosevelt. Pinchot alleged that Taft's Secretary of Interior Richard Ballinger was in league with big timber interests. Conservationists sided with Pinchot, and Taft alienated yet another vocal constituency.

Roosevelt, back from Europe, unexpectedly launched an attack on the courts. His famous speech at Osawatomie, Kansas, in August 1910 was the most radical of his career and openly marked his break with the Taft administration and the conservative Republicans. Osawatomie was well known as the base used by John Brown when he launched his bloody attacks on slavery. Taft was deeply upset. Roosevelt was attacking both the judiciary and the deep faith Republicans had in their judges (most of whom had been appointed by McKinley, Roosevelt or Taft). In the 1910 Congressional elections, Democrats swept to power, and Taft's reelection in 1912 was increasingly in doubt. In 1911, Taft responded with a vigorous stumping tour that allowed him to sign up most of the party leaders long before Roosevelt announced.

Election of 1912[link]

Republican primaries[link]

Despite his new doubts about Taft's leadership abilities, Roosevelt still was friendly towards him and was in favor of his re-election. On October 27, 1911, however, Roosevelt and Taft's deteriorating friendship officially came to an end when Taft's administration filed an antitrust suit against US Steel, which Roosevelt labeled as a "good trust". After he finally broke with Taft, Roosevelt saw himself as the only person who could save the Republican party from defeat in the upcoming Presidential election and announced himself as a candidate for the Republican nomination. Roosevelt, however, had delayed too long, and Taft had already won the support of most party leaders in the country. Because of LaFollette's nervous breakdown on the campaign trail before Roosevelt's entry, most of LaFollette's supporters went over to Roosevelt, the new progressive Republican candidate.

Roosevelt, stepping up his attack on judges, carried nine of the states that held preferential primaries, LaFollette took two, and Taft only one. The 1912 primaries represented the first extensive use of the presidential primary, a reform achievement of the progressive movement. However, these primary elections, while demonstrating Roosevelt's continuing popularity with the electorate, were not nearly as pivotal as primaries became later in the century. There were fewer states where a common voter had an opportunity to express a recorded preference. Many more states selected convention delegates at state party conventions, or in caucuses, which were not as open as they later became. While Roosevelt was popular with the public, most Republican politicians and party leaders supported Taft, and their support proved difficult to counter in states without primaries.

Formation of the Bull Moose Party[link]

At the Republican Convention in Chicago, despite being the incumbent, Taft's victory was not immediately assured. After two weeks, Roosevelt, realizing he would not win the nomination outright, asked his followers to leave the convention hall. They moved to the Auditorium Theatre, and then Roosevelt, along with key allies such as Pinchot and Albert Beveridge created the Progressive Party, structuring it as a permanent organization that would field complete tickets at the presidential and state level. It was popularly known as the "Bull Moose Party", which got its name after Roosevelt told reporters, "I'm as fit as a bull moose." At the convention Roosevelt cried out, "We stand at Armageddon and we battle for the Lord." Roosevelt's platform echoed his 1907–08 proposals, calling for vigorous government intervention to protect the people from the selfish interests.

{{bquote|To destroy this invisible Government, to dissolve the unholy alliance between corrupt business and corrupt politics is the first task of the statesmanship of the day." – 1912 Progressive Party Platform, attributed to him and quoted again in his autobiography where he continues "'This country belongs to the people. Its resources, its business, its laws, its institutions, should be utilized, maintained, or altered in whatever manner will best promote the general interest.' This assertion is explicit. ... Mr. Wilson must know that every monopoly in the United States opposes the Progressive party. ... I challenge him ... to name the monopoly that did support the Progressive party, whether ... the Sugar Trust, the Steel Trust, the Harvester Trust, the Standard Oil Trust, the Tobacco Trust, or any other. ... Ours was the only programme to which they objected, and they supported either Mr. Wilson or Mr. Taft...}}

Assassination attempt[link]

While Roosevelt was campaigning in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on October 14, 1912, a saloonkeeper named John Schrank shot him, but the bullet lodged in his chest only after penetrating his steel eyeglass case and passing through a thick (50 pages) single-folded copy of the speech he was carrying in his jacket. Roosevelt, as an experienced hunter and anatomist, correctly concluded that since he was not coughing blood, the bullet had not completely penetrated the chest wall to his lung, and so declined suggestions he go to the hospital immediately. Instead, he delivered his scheduled speech with blood seeping into his shirt. He spoke for 90 minutes. His opening comments to the gathered crowd were, "Ladies and gentlemen, I don't know whether you fully understand that I have just been shot; but it takes more than that to kill a Bull Moose." Afterwards, probes and x-ray showed that the bullet had traversed three inches (76 mm) of tissue and lodged in Roosevelt's chest muscle but did not penetrate the pleura, and it would be more dangerous to attempt to remove the bullet than to leave it in place. Roosevelt carried it with him for the rest of his life.

Because of the bullet wound, Roosevelt was taken off the campaign trail in the final weeks of the race (which ended election day, November 5). Though the other two campaigners stopped their own campaigns in the week Roosevelt was in the hospital, they resumed it once he was released. The bullet lodged in his chest caused his chronic rheumatoid arthritis – which he had suffered from for years – to get worse and it soon prevented him from doing his daily stint of exercises; Roosevelt would soon become obese as well. Roosevelt, for many reasons, failed to move enough Republicans in his direction. He did win 4.1 million votes (27%), compared to Taft's 3.5 million (23%). However, Wilson's 6.3 million votes (42%) were enough to garner 435 electoral votes. Roosevelt had 88 electoral votes to Taft's 8 electoral votes. This meant that Taft became the only incumbent president to place third in a re-election bid. But Pennsylvania was Roosevelt's only eastern state; in the Midwest, he carried Michigan, Minnesota and South Dakota; in the West, California and Washington; he did not win any southern states.

1913–1914 South American Expedition[link]

Roosevelt's popular book ''Through the Brazilian Wilderness'' describes his expedition into the Brazilian jungle in 1913 as a member of the Roosevelt-Rondon Scientific Expedition, co-named after its leader, Brazilian explorer Cândido Rondon. The book describes the scientific discovery, scenic tropical vistas, and exotic flora and fauna experienced during the adventure. A friend, Father John Augustine Zahm, had searched for new adventures and found them in the forests of South America. After a briefing of several of his own expeditions, he persuaded Roosevelt to commit to such an expedition in 1912. To finance the expedition Roosevelt received support from the American Museum of Natural History, promising to bring back many new animal specimens.

Once in South America, a new far more ambitious goal was added: to find the headwaters of the Rio da Duvida, the River of Doubt, and trace it north to the Madeira and thence to the Amazon River. It was later renamed Roosevelt River in honor of the former President. Roosevelt's crew consisted of his 24-year-old son Kermit, Colonel Rondon, a naturalist, George K. Cherrie, sent by the American Museum of Natural History, Brazilian Lieutenant Joao Lyra, team physician Dr. José Antonio Cajazeira, and 16 skilled paddlers and porters (called camaradas in Portuguese). The initial expedition started, probably unwisely, on December 9, 1913, at the height of the rainy season. The trip down the River of Doubt started on February 27, 1914.

During the trip down the river, Roosevelt suffered a minor leg wound after he jumped into the river to try to prevent two of his crew's canoes from smashing against the rocks. The flesh wound he absorbed, however, soon gave him tropical fever that resembled the malaria he contracted while in Cuba fifteen years before. Because the bullet he absorbed in his chest during his failed assassination attempt in 1912 was never removed, his health worsened from the infection. This weakened Roosevelt so greatly that six weeks into the adventure, he had to be attended day and night by the expedition's physician and his son, Kermit. By then he could not walk because of both the infection in his injured leg and an infirmity in his other from a traffic accident a decade earlier. Roosevelt was riddled with chest pains, fighting a fever that soared to 103 °F (39 °C), and at times so delirious that he would repeat endlessly the opening line from Coleridge's poem Kubla Khan. Regarding his condition as a threat to the survival of the others, Roosevelt insisted he be left behind to allow the by then poorly provisioned expedition to proceed as rapidly as it could. Only an appeal by his son persuaded him to continue.

Despite Roosevelt's continued decline and loss of over 50 pounds (20 kg) of his original 220, Commander Rondon had been repeatedly slowing down the pace of the expedition in dedication to his commission's mapmaking and other geographical goals that demanded regular stops to fix the expedition's position by sun-based survey.

Upon Roosevelt's return to New York, friends and family were startled by his physical appearance and fatigue. Roosevelt wrote to a friend that the trip had cut his life short by ten years. He might not have known just how accurate that analysis would prove. For the rest of his few remaining years he would be plagued by flare-ups of malaria and leg inflammations so severe that they would require surgery.

Before Roosevelt had even completed his sea voyage home, doubts were raised over his claims of exploring and navigating a completely uncharted river over 625 miles (1,000 km) long. When he had recovered sufficiently he addressed a standing-room-only convention organized in Washington, D.C. by the National Geographic Society and satisfactorily defended his claims. The River of Doubt later was named the Rio Roosevelt.

World War I[link]

When World War I began in 1914, Roosevelt strongly supported the Allies and demanded a harsher policy against Germany, especially regarding submarine warfare. Roosevelt angrily denounced the foreign policy of President Wilson, calling it a failure regarding the atrocities in Belgium and the violations of American rights. In 1916, he campaigned energetically for Charles Evans Hughes and repeatedly denounced Irish-Americans and German-Americans who Roosevelt said were unpatriotic because they put the interest of Ireland and Germany ahead of America's by supporting neutrality. He insisted one had to be 100% American, not a "hyphenated American" who juggled multiple loyalties. When the U.S. entered the war in 1917, Roosevelt sought to raise a volunteer infantry division, but Wilson refused.

Roosevelt's attacks on Wilson helped the Republicans win control of Congress in the off-year elections of 1918. Roosevelt was popular enough to seriously contest the 1920 Republican nomination, but his health was broken by 1918, because of the lingering malaria. His family and supporters threw their support to Roosevelt's old military companion, General Leonard Wood, who was ultimately defeated by Taft supporter Warren G. Harding.

His son Quentin, a daring pilot with the American forces in France, was shot down behind German lines in 1918. Quentin was his youngest son and probably his favorite. It is said the death of his son distressed him so much that Roosevelt never recovered from his loss.

Death[link]

Despite his rapidly declining health, Roosevelt remained active to the end of his life. He was an enthusiastic proponent of the Scouting movement. The Boy Scouts of America gave him the title of Chief Scout Citizen, the only person to hold such title. One early Scout leader said, "The two things that gave Scouting great impetus and made it very popular were the uniform and Teddy Roosevelt's jingoism."

On January 6, 1919, Roosevelt died in his sleep at Oyster Bay of a coronary thrombosis (heart attack), preceded by a 2½-month illness described as inflammatory rheumatism, and was buried in nearby Youngs Memorial Cemetery. Upon receiving word of his death, his son Archie telegraphed his siblings simply, "The old lion is dead."

Political positions and speeches[link]

Theodore Roosevelt introduced the phrase "Square Deal" to describe his progressive views in a speech delivered after leaving the office of the Presidency in August 1910. In his broad outline, he stressed equality of opportunity for all citizens and emphasized the importance of fair government regulations of corporate 'special interests'.

Roosevelt was one of the first Presidents to make conservation a national issue. In a speech that Roosevelt gave at Osawatomie, Kansas, on August 31, 1910, he outlined his views on conservation of the lands of the United States. He favored using America's natural resources, but opposed wasteful consumption. One of his most lasting legacies was his significant role in the creation of 5 national parks, 18 national monuments, and 150 National Forests, among other works of conservation. Roosevelt was instrumental in conserving about of American soil among various parks and other federal projects.

In the Eighth Annual Message to Congress (1908), Roosevelt mentioned the need for federal government to regulate interstate corporations using the Interstate Commerce Clause, also mentioning how these corporations fought federal control by appealing to states' rights.

Positions on immigration, minorities, and civil rights[link]

In an 1894 article on immigration, Roosevelt said, "We must Americanize in every way, in speech, in political ideas and principles, and in their way of looking at relations between church and state. We welcome the German and the Irishman who becomes an American. We have no use for the German or Irishman who remains such... He must revere only our flag, not only must it come first, but no other flag should even come second."

Roosevelt was the first president to appoint a representative of the Jewish minority to a cabinet position – Secretary of Commerce and Labor, Oscar S. Straus, 1906–09.

In 1886 he said: "I don't go so far as to think that the only good Indians are dead Indians, but I believe nine out of ten are, and I shouldn't like to inquire too closely into the case of the tenth." He later became much more favorable.

About African Americans, Roosevelt said, "I have not been able to think out any solution of the terrible problem offered by the presence of the Negro on this continent, but of one thing I am sure, and that is that inasmuch as he is here and can neither be killed nor driven away, the only wise and honorable and Christian thing to do is to treat each black man and each white man strictly on his merits as a man, giving him no more and no less than he shows himself worthy to have."

Roosevelt appointed numerous African Americans to federal office, such as Walter L. Cohen of New Orleans, Louisiana, a leader of the Black and Tan Republican faction whom he named register of the federal land office.

Starting in 1907 eugenicists in many States started the forced sterilization of the sick, unemployed, poor, criminals, prostitutes, and the disabled. Roosevelt said in 1914: "I wish very much that the wrong people could be prevented entirely from breeding; and when the evil nature of these people is sufficiently flagrant, this should be done. Criminals should be sterilized and feeble-minded persons forbidden to leave offspring behind them."

Writer[link]

Roosevelt was a prolific author, writing with passion on subjects ranging from foreign policy to the importance of the national park system. Roosevelt was also an avid reader of poetry. American poet, Robert Frost said of TR, "He was our kind. He quoted poetry to me. He knew poetry."

As an editor of ''Outlook'' magazine, he had weekly access to a large, educated national audience. In all, Roosevelt wrote about 18 books (each in several editions), including his ''Autobiography'', ''The Rough Riders'' ''History of the Naval War of 1812'', and others on subjects such as ranching, explorations, and wildlife. His most ambitious book was the four volume narrative ''The Winning of the West'', which connected the origin of a new "race" of Americans (i.e. what he considered the present population of the United States to be) to the frontier conditions their ancestors endured throughout the 17th, 18th, and early 19th centuries.

In 1907, Roosevelt became embroiled in a widely publicized literary debate known as the nature fakers controversy. A few years earlier, naturalist John Burroughs had published an article entitled "Real and Sham Natural History" in the ''Atlantic Monthly'', attacking popular writers of the day such as Ernest Thompson Seton, Charles G. D. Roberts and William J. Long for their fantastical representations of wildlife. Roosevelt agreed with Burroughs' criticisms, and published several essays of his own denouncing the booming genre of "naturalistic" animal stories as "yellow journalism of the woods". It was the President himself who popularized the negative term "nature faker" to describe writers who depicted their animal characters with excessive anthropomorphism.

Character and beliefs[link]

Roosevelt intensely disliked being called "Teddy," and was quick to point out this fact to those who used the nickname, though it would become widely used by newspapers during his political career. He attended church regularly. Of including the motto "In God We Trust" on money, in 1907 he wrote, "It seems to me eminently unwise to cheapen such a motto by use on coins, just as it would be to cheapen it by use on postage stamps, or in advertisements." He was also a member of the Freemasons and Sons of the American Revolution.

Roosevelt had a lifelong interest in pursuing what he called, in an 1899 speech, "the strenuous life". To this end, he exercised regularly and took up boxing, tennis, hiking, rowing, polo, and horseback riding. As governor of New York, he boxed with sparring partners several times a week, a practice he regularly continued as President until one blow detached his left retina, leaving him blind in that eye (a fact not made public until many years later). Thereafter, he practiced judo attaining a third degree brown belt and continued his habit of skinny-dipping in the Potomac River during winter.

He was an enthusiastic singlestick player and, according to ''Harper's Weekly'', in 1905 showed up at a White House reception with his arm bandaged after a bout with General Leonard Wood. Roosevelt was also an avid reader, reading tens of thousands of books, at a rate of several a day in multiple languages. Along with Thomas Jefferson, Roosevelt is often considered the most well read of any American politician.

Legacy[link]

Historians credit Roosevelt for changing the nation's political system by permanently placing the presidency at center stage and making character as important as the issues. His notable accomplishments include trust busting and conservationism. However, he has been criticized for his interventionist and imperialist approach to nations he considered "uncivilized". His friend, historian Henry Adams, proclaimed, "Roosevelt, more than any other living man ....showed the singular primitive quality that belongs to ultimate matterthe quality that mediaeval theology assigned to Godhe was pure act." Historians typically rank Roosevelt among the top five presidents.

Memorials[link]

Roosevelt was included with George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln at the Mount Rushmore Memorial, designed in 1927 with the approval of Republican President Calvin Coolidge.

For his gallantry at San Juan Hill, Roosevelt's commanders recommended him for the Medal of Honor. In the late 1990s, Roosevelt's supporters again took up the flag for him. On January 16, 2001, President Bill Clinton awarded Theodore Roosevelt the Medal of Honor posthumously for his charge up San Juan Hill, Cuba, during the Spanish-American War. Roosevelt's eldest son, Brigadier General Theodore Roosevelt, Jr., received the Medal of Honor for heroism at the Battle of Normandy in 1944. The Roosevelts thus became one of only two father-son pairs to receive this honor (the other pair being Arthur and Douglas MacArthur).

Roosevelt's legacy includes several other important commemorations. The United States Navy named two ships for Roosevelt: the , a submarine that was in commission from 1961 to 1982; and the , an aircraft carrier that has been on active duty in the Atlantic Fleet since 1986.

On November 18, 1956, the United States Postal Service released a 6¢ Liberty Issue postage stamp honoring Roosevelt.

The Roosevelt Memorial Association (now the Theodore Roosevelt Association) or "TRA", was founded in 1920 to preserve Roosevelt's legacy. The Association preserved Roosevelt's birthplace, "Sagamore Hill" home, papers, and video film. In 1941, it published the ''Theodore Roosevelt Cyclopedia'', a compendium of Roosevelt's key writings, sayings and conversations, which is available online.

Among the hundreds of schools and streets named in Roosevelt's honor are Roosevelt High School in Seattle, Washington, the surrounding Roosevelt neighborhood, the district's main arterial, Roosevelt Way N.E., and Roosevelt Middle School in Eugene, Oregon.

The Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel in Los Angeles is named after him, as is the Roosevelt Hotel in New York City.

In Chicago, the city renamed 12th Street to Roosevelt Road. In Philadelphia, Roosevelt Boulevard, also known as U.S. 1, was named in his honor in 1918.

In popular culture[link]

Roosevelt's 1901 saying "Speak Softly and Carry a Big Stick" is still quoted by politicians and columnists in different countries—not only in English but also in translation to various other languages.

A quote from Roosevelt's 1912 Progressive Party platform was cited as an epigram by Julian Assange, founder of WikiLeaks, in his 2006 manifesto: "Behind the ostensible government sits enthroned an invisible government, owing no allegiance and acknowledging no responsibility to the people. To destroy this invisible government, to dissolve the unholy alliance between corrupt business and corrupt politics is the first task of the statesmanship of the day."

Roosevelt's lasting popular legacy, however, is the stuffed toy bears—teddy bears—named after him following an incident on a hunting trip in Mississippi in 1902. Roosevelt famously ordered the mercy killing of a wounded black bear. After the cartoonist Clifford K. Berryman illustrated the President with a bear, a toy maker heard the story and asked Roosevelt if he could use his name on a toy bear. Roosevelt approved, and the teddy bear was born. Bears and later bear cubs became closely associated with Roosevelt in political cartoons thereafter.

On June 26, 2006, Roosevelt, again, made the cover of ''TIME'' magazine with the lead story, "The Making of America—Theodore Roosevelt—The 20th Century Express": "At home and abroad, Theodore Roosevelt was the locomotive President, the man who drew his flourishing nation into the future."

In 1905, Roosevelt, an admirer of various western figures, named Captain Bill McDonald of the Texas Rangers, as his bodyguard and entertained the legendary Texan in the White House. Ironically, in the 1912 campaign, McDonald was Woodrow Wilson's bodyguard. Wilson thereafter named the Democrat McDonald as U.S. Marshal for the Northern district of Texas.

Roosevelt has been portrayed many times in film and on television. The actor Karl Swenson played him in the 1967 western picture ''Brighty of the Grand Canyon'', the story of a real-life burro who guided Roosevelt on a hunting trip to find mountain lions.

Brian Keith portrayed Roosevelt in the 1975 film ''The Wind and the Lion'', a dramatization of the Perdicaris incident of 1904.

In the play Arsenic and Old Lace, and the 1944 film of the same name, the character Teddy Brewster is convinced he's Roosevelt, and is enlisted in this role by his aunts to bury their victims' bodies in the cellar by building "another lock for the canal". When he runs up the stairs brandishing an imaginary sword and yelling "Charge!", his aunt Abby Brewster explains to Officer Brophy, "The stairs are always San Juan Hill".

He was also portrayed by actor Tom Berenger in 1997 for the TNT movie ''Rough Riders'', a made-for-cable film about his exploits during the Spanish-American War in Cuba.

Frank Albertson played Roosevelt in the episode "Rough and Ready" of the CBS series ''My Friend Flicka."

Peter Breck played Roosevelt in 1961 episode "Yankee Tornado" of the ABC series ''Bronco''.

Robin Williams portrayed Roosevelt in the form of a wax mannequin that comes to life in ''Night at the Museum'' and its sequel ''Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian''.

Roosevelt was portrayed in several episodes of the comic book story ''The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck'': the young Scrooge McDuck first meets Roosevelt in his Badlands years, later in a fictional siege of Fort Duckburg and finally in Panama during the construction of the Panama Canal.

George Burroughs Torrey painted a portrait of him.

Famed fictional gunslinger Morgan Kane was Roosevelt's bodyguard when Roosevelt was a general, and Kane worked as a Pinkerton special agent.

Since 2000, Roosevelt has been portrayed by a number of reprisers including historian and Rhodes Scholar, Clay Jenkinson of North Dakota and Joe Wiegand of Tennessee. Wiegand has portrayed Roosevelt in all 50 US states. In 2008, Wiegand portrayed TR in the White House at TR's 150th Birthday.

Theodore Roosevelt is an important character in the Southern Victory Series (also known as Timeline-191), an alternate history series by Harry Turtledove. He was a New Yorker who moved to Montana to become a rancher after Alice Hathaway Lee Roosevelt rejects his marriage proposal. He raises and leads his own volunteer cavalry regiment (nicknamed the Unauthorized Regiment) in the Second Mexican War, fighting alongside George Armstrong Custer to repulse the Anglo-Canadian army led by Charles George Gordon. He later becomes the Democratic 28th president of the United States and leads the United States to victory in the Great War on the side of the Central Powers. He runs for a third term as President, but is defeated by Socialist candidate, Upton Sinclair and dies of a brain hemorrhage in 1924. He is buried in Arlington National Cemetery as a final insult to the Confederate States of America and is regarded as one of the most esteemed Presidents in United States (alternate) history.

During every Washington Nationals home game at Nationals Park, the Theodore Roosevelt mascot (a.k.a. Teddy) earned a reputation of not being able to win the Presidents Race, a promotional event held in the middle of the fourth inning, due to various incidents.

Media[link]

Theodore Roosevelt was one of the first presidents whose voice was recorded for posterity. Several of his recorded speeches survive. A 4.6-minute voice recording, which preserves Roosevelt's lower timbre ranges particularly well for its time, is among those available from the Michigan State University libraries. (This is the 1912 recording of ''The Right of the People to Rule'', recorded by Edison at Carnegie Hall). In what some consider the best example of Roosevelt's animated oratorical style, an audio clip sponsored by the Authentic History Center includes his defense of the Progressive Party in 1912 wherein he proclaims it the "party of the people" in contrast with the other major parties.

Roosevelt goes for a ride in Arch Hoxsey's plane in October 1910

Ancestry[link]

{{ahnentafel-compact5 |style=font-size: 90%; line-height: 110%; |border=1 |boxstyle=padding-top: 0; padding-bottom: 0; |boxstyle_1=background-color: #fcc; |boxstyle_2=background-color: #fb9; |boxstyle_3=background-color: #ffc; |boxstyle_4=background-color: #bfc; |boxstyle_5=background-color: #9fe; | 1 = 1. Theodore Roosevelt | 2 = 2. Theodore Roosevelt, Sr. | 3 = 3. Martha Bulloch | 4 = 4. Cornelius Van Schaack Roosevelt | 5 = 5. Margaret Barnhill | 6 = 6. Major James Stephens Bulloch | 7 = 7. Martha Stewart | 8 = 8. James Jacobus Roosevelt | 9 = 9. Maria Helen Van Schaack |10 = 10. Robert Barnhill |11 = 11. Elizabeth Potts |12 = 12. Captain James Bulloch |13 = 13. Ann Irvine |14 = 14. General Daniel Stewart |15 = 15. Susannah Oswald |16 = 16. Jacobus Roosevelt |17 = 17. Annatje Bogart |18 = 18. Cornelius Van Schaack |19 = 19. Angeltje Yates |20 = |21 = |22 = |23 = |24 = 24. Archibald Bulloch |25 = 25. Mary De Veaux |26 = 26. John Irvine |27 = 27. Ann Elizabeth Baillie |28 = |29 = |30 = 30. Joseph Oswald Jr. |31 = 31. Anne Carter }}

See also[link]

Electoral history of Theodore Roosevelt

First inauguration of Theodore Roosevelt

Second inauguration of Theodore Roosevelt

Indian Head eagle, coin designed by Roosevelt

List of United States political appointments across party lines

Theodore Roosevelt Birthplace National Historic Site

Theodore Roosevelt Inaugural National Historic Site

US Presidents on US postage stamps

William Allen White

References[link]

Bibliography[link]

Biographical[link]

Blum, John Morton. (1954). ''The Republican Roosevelt.'' Cambridge: Harvard University Press. Series of essays that examine how TR did politics OCLC 310975

Brands, Henry William. (1997). ''T.R.: The Last Romantic.'' New York: Basic Books. Reprinted 2001, full biography OCLC 36954615

Chace, James. ''1912: Wilson, Roosevelt, Taft, and Debs – The Election That Changed the Country.'' (2004). 323 pp.

Cooper, John Milton ''The Warrior and the Priest: Woodrow Wilson and Theodore Roosevelt.'' (1983) a dual scholarly biography

Dalton, Kathleen. ''Theodore Roosevelt: A Strenuous Life.'' (2002), full scholarly biography

DiSilvestro, Roger, ''Theodore Roosevelt in the Badlands: A Young Politician's Quest in the American West'', Walker & Co, 2011.

Dorsey, Leroy G. "The Frontier Myth and Teddy Roosevelt's Fight for Conservation". in ''Myth America: A Historical Anthology, Volume II''. 1997. Gerster, Patrick, and Cords, Nicholas. (editors.) Brandywine Press, St. James, NY. ISBN 1-881089-97-5

Fehn, Bruce. "Theodore Roosevelt and American Masculinity." ''Magazine of History'' (2005) 19(2): 52–59. Full text online at Ebsco. Provides a lesson plan on TR as the historical figure who most exemplifies the quality of masculinity.

Gluck, Sherwin. "T.R.'s Summer White House, Oyster Bay." (1999) Chronicles the events of TR's presidency during the summers of his two terms.

Gould, Lewis L. ''Theodore Roosevelt'' (2012) 105pp, very short biography by leading scholar

Gould, Lewis L. ''The Presidency of Theodore Roosevelt.'' (1991), standard history of his domestic and foreign policy as president

Harbaugh, William Henry. ''The Life and Times of Theodore Roosevelt.'' (1963), full scholarly biography

Keller, Morton, ed., ''Theodore Roosevelt: A Profile'' (1967) excerpts from TR and from historians.

Kohn, Edward. "Crossing the Rubicon: Theodore Roosevelt, Henry Cabot Lodge, and the 1884 Republican National Convention." ''Journal of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era'' 2006 5(1): 18–45. Issn: 1537-7814 Fulltext: in History Cooperative

Millard, Candice. ''River of Doubt: Theodore Roosevelt's Darkest Journey''. (2005)

McCullough, David. ''Mornings on Horseback, The Story of an Extraordinary Family. a Vanished Way of Life, and the Unique Child Who Became Theodore Roosevelt.'' (2001) popular biography to 1884

Morris, Edmund ''The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt'', to 1901 (1979); vol 2: ''Theodore Rex'' 1901–1909. (2001); vol 3: ''Colonel Roosevelt'' (2010); Pulitzer prize for Volume 1.

Mowry, George E. ''Theodore Roosevelt and the Progressive Movement''. (2001) focus on 1912

O'Toole, Patricia. ''When Trumpets Call: Theodore Roosevelt after the White House.'' (2005). 494 pp.

Powell, Jim. ''Bully Boy: The Truth About Theodore Roosevelt's Legacy'' (Crown Forum, 2006). Examines TR policies from conservative/libertarian perspective. ISBN 0-307-23722-2

Pringle, Henry F. ''Theodore Roosevelt'' (1932; 2nd ed. 1956), full scholarly biography

Putnam, Carleton ''Theodore Roosevelt: A Biography, Volume I: The Formative Years'' (1958), only volume published, to age 28.

Renehan, Edward J. ''The Lion's Pride: Theodore Roosevelt and His Family in Peace and War''. (Oxford University Press, 1998), examines TR and his family during the World War I period

Testi, Arnaldo (1995). "The Gender of Reform Politics: Theodore Roosevelt and the Culture of Masculinity," ''Journal of American History'', Vol. 81, No. 4, pp. 1509–1533. in JSTOR

Watts, Sarah. ''Rough Rider in the White House: Theodore Roosevelt and the Politics of Desire.'' 2003. 289 pp.

Zacks, Richard. ''Island of Vice: Theodore Roosevelt's Doomed Quest to Clean Up Sin-Loving New York '' (2012)

Foreign policy[link]

Beale Howard K. ''Theodore Roosevelt and the Rise of America to World Power.'' (1956). standard history of his foreign policy

Holmes, James R. ''Theodore Roosevelt and World Order: Police Power in International Relations.'' 2006. 328 pp.

Jones, Gregg. ''Honor in the Dust: Theodore Roosevelt, War in the Philippines, and the Rise and Fall of America's Imperial Dream'' (2012) excerpt and text search

Marks III, Frederick W. ''Velvet on Iron: The Diplomacy of Theodore Roosevelt'' (1979)

McCullough, David. ''The Path between the Seas: The Creation of the Panama Canal, 1870–1914'' (1977).

Ricard, Serge. "The Roosevelt Corollary." ''Presidential Studies Quarterly'' 2006 36(1): 17–26. Issn: 0360-4918 Fulltext: in Swetswise and Ingenta

Ricard, Serge. "Theodore Roosevelt: Imperialist or Global Strategist in the New Expansionist Age?" ''Diplomacy and Statecraft,'' Dec 2008, Vol. 19 Issue 4, pp 639–657

Rofe, J. Simon. "'Under the Influence of Mahan': Theodore and Franklin Roosevelt and their Understanding of American National Interest," ''Diplomacy and Statecraft,'' Dec 2008, Vol. 19 Issue 4, pp 732–745

Tilchin, William N. and Neu, Charles E., ed. ''Artists of Power: Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, and Their Enduring Impact on U.S. Foreign Policy.'' (Praeger, 2006). 196 pp.

Tilchin, William N. ''Theodore Roosevelt and the British Empire: A Study in Presidential Statecraft'' (1997)

Primary sources[link]

Auchincloss, Louis, ed. ''Theodore Roosevelt, The Rough Riders and an Autobiography'' (Library of America, 2004) ISBN 978-1-931082-65-5

Auchincloss, Louis, ed. ''Theodore Roosevelt, Letters and Speeches'' (Library of America, 2004) ISBN 978-1-931082-66-2

Brands, H.W. ed. ''The Selected Letters of Theodore Roosevelt.'' (2001)

Harbaugh, William ed. ''The Writings of Theodore Roosevelt'' (1967). A one-volume selection of Roosevelt's speeches and essays.

Hart, Albert Bushnell and Herbert Ronald Ferleger, eds. ''Theodore Roosevelt Cyclopedia'' (1941), Roosevelt's opinions on many issues; online version at TheodoreRoosevelt.org

Morison, Elting E., John Morton Blum, and Alfred D. Chandler, Jr., eds., ''The Letters of Theodore Roosevelt'', 8 vols. (1951–1954). Very large, annotated edition of letters from TR.

Roosevelt, Theodore (1999). ''Theodore Roosevelt: An Autobiography''. online at Bartleby.com.

Roosevelt, Theodore. ''The Works of Theodore Roosevelt'' (National edition, 20 vol. 1926); 18,000 pages containing most of TR's speeches, books and essays, but not his letters; a CD-ROM edition is available; some of TR's books are available online through Project Bartleby

Roosevelt, Theodore. Original Handwritten and Typed Letters, Notes, and Documents by Theodore Roosevelt. Shapell Manuscript Foundation.

Roosevelt, Theodore, ''The Naval War of 1812 Or the History of the United States Navy during the Last War with Great Britain to Which Is Appended an Account of the Battle of New Orleans'' (1882) (New York: The Modern Library, 1999). ISBN 0-375-75419-9.

External links[link]

"Theodore Roosevelt Dies Suddenly at Oyster Bay Home; Nation Shocked, Pays Tribute to Former President; Our Flag on All Seas and in All Lands at Half Mast". ''The New York Times'' January 6, 1919

Detailed biography from the ''Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition'' (1911)

Julian L. Street Papers on Theodore Roosevelt at the Seeley G. Mudd Manuscript Library, Princeton University

Almanac of Theodore Roosevelt

Theodore Roosevelt Collection at Houghton Library, Harvard University

Hunting in Many Lands: The Book of the Boone and Crockett Club (1895), Roosevelt, Theodore (Editor). Project Gutenberg. (Also contains a chapter written by Theodore Roosevelt.)

Theodore Roosevelt at C-SPAN's ''American Presidents: Life Portraits''

Theodore Roosevelt at C-SPAN's ''American Writers: A Journey Through History''

''Booknotes'' interview with Nathan Miller on ''Theodore Roosevelt: A Life'', February 14, 1993.

View works on Natural History by Theodore Roosevelt online at the Biodiversity Heritage Library.

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Birth name	Huey Pierce Long, Jr.
Alt	Huey Long Memorial Picture
Order2	40th
Office2	Governor of Louisiana
Term start2	May 27, 1928
Term end2	January 25, 1932
Lieutenant2	Paul Narcisse Cyr
Predecessor2	Oramel H. Simpson
Successor2	Alvin Olin King
Birth date	August 30, 1893
Birth place	Winnfield, Louisiana
Death date	September 10, 1935
Death place	Baton Rouge, Louisiana
Resting place	Louisiana State Capitol Grounds Baton Rouge, Louisiana
Spouse	Rose McConnell Long
Children	Rose McConnell Long McFarland (1917–2006) Russell B. Long (1918–2003) Palmer Reid Long (1921–2010)
Alma mater	Tulane University
Profession	Lawyer, U.S. Senator, Governor
Party	Democratic
Order	United States Senatorfrom Louisiana
Term start	January 25, 1932
Term end	September 10, 1935
Predecessor	Joseph E. Ransdell
Successor	Rose Long
Religion	Baptist
Signature	Huey Long Signature.svg }}

Huey Pierce Long, Jr. (August 30, 1893 September 10, 1935), nicknamed The Kingfish, served as the 40th Governor of Louisiana from 1928–1932 and as a U.S. Senator from 1932 to 1935. A Democrat, he was noted for his radical populist policies. Though a backer of Franklin D. Roosevelt in the 1932 presidential election, Long split with Roosevelt in June 1933 and planned to mount his own presidential bid for 1936.

Long created the Share Our Wealth program in 1934 with the motto "Every Man a King", proposing new wealth redistribution measures in the form of a net asset tax on corporations and individuals to curb the poverty and homelessness endemic nationwide during the Great Depression. To stimulate the economy, Long advocated federal spending on public works, schools and colleges, and old age pensions. He was an ardent critic of the Federal Reserve System's policies. Charismatic and immensely popular for his programs and willingness to take forceful action, Long was accused by his opponents of dictatorial tendencies for his near-total control of the state government.

A leftist populist, he was preparing to challenge FDR's reelection in 1936 in alliance with radio's influential Catholic priest Charles Coughlin, or run for president in 1940 when Franklin Roosevelt was expected to retire. However, Long was assassinated in 1935; his national movement faded, while his state organization continued in Louisiana.

Long expanded state highways, hospitals and educational institutions. His governance has had critics and supporters, debating whether he was a dictator, demagogue or populist.

Early life and legal career[link]

Long was born on August 30, 1893, in Winnfield, the seat of Winn Parish, a small town in the north-central part of the state. He was the son of Huey Pierce Long, Sr. (1852–1937) and the former Caledonia Palestine Tison (1860–1913). Long was a descendant of William Tison and Sarah Vince Tison, daughter of American Revolutionary War soldier Richard Vince. He was the seventh of nine surviving children in a farm-owning middle-class family. He was home-schooled as a young child and later attended local schools, where he was an excellent student and was said to have a photographic memory. In 1908, upon completing the eleventh grade, Long circulated a petition protesting the addition of a 12th-grade graduation requirement, which resulted in his expulsion.

Long won a debating scholarship to Louisiana State University, but he was unable to afford the textbooks required for attendance. Instead, he spent the next four years as a traveling salesman, selling books, canned goods and patent medicines, as well as working as an auctioneer.

In 1913, Long married Rose McConnell. She was a stenographer who had won a baking contest which he promoted to sell "Cottolene", one of the most popular of the early vegetable shortenings to come on the market. The Longs had a daughter, also named Rose, and two sons, Russell (1918–2003) (later a seven-term U.S. Senator) and Palmer (1921–2010) (a Shreveport oilman).

When sales jobs grew scarce during World War I, Long attended seminary classes at Oklahoma Baptist University at the urging of his mother, a devout Baptist. However, he concluded he was not suited to preaching.

Long briefly attended the University of Oklahoma College of Law in Norman, Oklahoma, and later Tulane University Law School in New Orleans. In 1915 after only a year at Tulane, he convinced a board to let him take the state bar exam. He passed and began private practice in Winnfield. Later, in Shreveport, he spent ten years representing small plaintiffs against large businesses, including workers' compensation cases. He often said proudly that he never took a case against a poor man.

Long won fame by taking on the powerful Standard Oil Company, which he sued for unfair business practices. Over the course of his career, Long continued to challenge Standard Oil's influence in state politics and charged the company with exploiting the state's vast oil and gas resources.

Political career and rise to power[link]

In 1918 Long was elected to the Louisiana Railroad Commission at the age of 25 on an anti-Standard Oil platform. (The commission was renamed the Louisiana Public Service Commission in 1921.) His campaign for the Railroad Commission used techniques he would perfect later in his political career: heavy use of printed circulars and posters, an exhausting schedule of personal campaign stops throughout rural Louisiana, and vehement attacks on his opponents. He used his position on the commission to enhance his populist reputation as an opponent of large oil and utility companies, fighting against rate increases and pipeline monopolies. In the gubernatorial election of 1920, he campaigned prominently for John M. Parker, but later became his vocal opponent after the new governor proved to be insufficiently committed to reform; Long called Parker the "chattel" of the corporations.

As chairman of the Public Service Commission in 1922, Long won a lawsuit against the Cumberland Telephone & Telegraph Company for unfair rate increases, resulting in cash refunds of $440,000 to 80,000 overcharged customers. Long successfully argued the case on appeal before the U.S. Supreme Court (''Cumberland Tel & Tel Co. v. Louisiana Public Service Commission'', 260 U.S. 212 (1922), prompting Chief Justice William Howard Taft to describe Long as one of the best legal minds he had ever encountered.

Election of 1924[link]

Long ran for governor of Louisiana in the election of 1924, attacking Parker, Standard Oil and the established political hierarchy both local and state-wide. In that campaign, he became one of the first Southern politicians to use radio addresses and sound trucks. Long also began wearing a distinctive white linen suit. He came in third; although he and another candidate had privately opposed the powerful Ku Klux Klan, a third candidate had openly supported it. The Klan's prominence in Louisiana was the primary issue of the campaign. Long cited rain on election day as suppressing voter turnout among his base in rural north Louisiana, where voters were unable to reach the polls on dirt roads that had turned to mud. Instead, he was reelected to the Public Service Commission.

Election of 1928[link]

Long spent the intervening four years building his reputation and his political organization, including supporting Catholic candidates to build support in south Louisiana, which was heavily Catholic due to its French and Spanish heritage. In 1928 he again ran for governor, campaigning with the slogan, "Every man a king, but no one wears a crown," a phrase adopted from Democratic presidential candidate William Jennings Bryan. Long's attacks on the utilities industry and corporate privileges were enormously popular, as was his depiction of the wealthy as "parasites" who grabbed more than their fair share of the public wealth while marginalizing the poor.

Long criss-crossed the state, campaigning in rural areas disenfranchised by the New Orleans-based political establishment, known as the "Old Regulars" or "the Ring." They controlled the state through alliances with sheriffs and other local officials. At the time, the rural poor comprised 60 percent of the state's population. The entire state had roughly 300 miles of paved roads and only three major bridges. The literacy rate was the lowest in the nation (75 percent), as most families could not afford to purchase the textbooks required for their children to attend school. A poll tax kept many poor whites from voting. (Of the 2 million residents, only 300,000 could afford to register to vote.) Together with selective application of literacy and understanding tests, however, blacks had been effectively completely disenfranchised since soon after the state legislature passed the new constitution in 1898.

Long won in 1928 by tapping into the class resentment of rural Louisianans. He proposed government services far more expansive than anything in Louisiana history. Long won the Democratic Primary election on January 17, 1928, with less than a majority of the vote, 43.9 percent (126,842 votes), as his opponents split the anti-Long vote with Riley J. Wilson earning 28.3 percent (81,747) and Oramel H. Simpson garnering 27.8 percent (80,326). At the time, Long's margin was the largest in state history, and neither opponent chose to face him in a run-off election. He won the General Election on April 17, 1928, with 96.1 percent (92,941) of the vote.

Three LSU scholars contend that before his governorship "political power in Louisiana had been nearly a monopoly of the coalition of businessmen and planters, reinforced by the oil and other industrial interests. This situation was changed when Huey P. Long won the hearts and votes of the farmers and other 'small people' and created a countervailing power combination."

At least one statewide official bucked the Long trend. Percy Saint of St. Mary Parish was reelected to a second term as attorney general independent of Long and several times ruled against Long during the gubernatorial term.

Long as Governor, 1928–1932[link]

Once in office as governor on May 21, 1928, Long moved quickly to consolidate his power, firing hundreds of opponents in the state bureaucracy, at all ranks from cabinet-level heads of departments and board members to rank-and-file civil servants and state road workers. Like previous governors, he filled the vacancies with patronage appointments from his own network of political supporters. Every state employee who depended on Long for a job was expected to pay a portion of his or her salary at election time directly into Long's political war-chest, which raised $50,000 to $75,000 each election cycle. These funds were kept in a famous locked "deduct box" to be used at Long's discretion for political purposes.

Once his control over the state's political apparatus was strengthened, Long pushed a number of bills through the 1929 session of the Louisiana State Legislature to fulfill campaign promises. These included a free textbook program for schoolchildren, an idea advanced by John Sparks Patton, the Claiborne Parish school superintendent. Long also supported night courses for adult literacy (which taught 100,000 adults to read by the end of his term), and a supply of cheap natural gas for the city of New Orleans.

Long began an unprecedented public works program, building roads, bridges, hospitals, and educational institutions. His bills met opposition from many legislators, wealthy citizens, and the corporate-controlled media, but Long used aggressive tactics to ensure passage of the legislation he favored. He would show up unannounced on the floor of both the House and Senate or in House committees, corralling reluctant representatives and state senators and bullying opponents. These tactics were unprecedented, but they resulted in the passage of most of Long's legislative agenda. By delivering on his campaign promises, Long achieved hero status among the state's rural poor population.

When Long secured passage of his free textbook program, the school board of Caddo Parish, home of conservative Shreveport, sued to prevent the books from being distributed, saying it would not accept "charity" from the state. Long responded by withholding authorization for locating an Army Air Corps base nearby until the parish accepted the books.

Impeachment attempt[link]

In 1929, Long called a special session of both houses of the legislature to enact a new five-cent per barrel "occupational license tax" on production of refined oil, to help fund his social programs. The bill met with fierce opposition from the state's oil interests. Opponents in the legislature, led by freshman Cecil Morgan of Shreveport, moved to impeach Long on charges ranging from blasphemy to corruption, bribery, and misuse of state funds. Long tried to cut the session short, but after an infamous brawl that spilled across the State Legislature on what was known as "Bloody Monday", the Legislature voted to remain in session and proceed with the impeachment.

Long took his case to the people using his characteristic speaking tours. He inundated the state with his trademark circulars. He argued that Standard Oil, corporate interests and the conservative political opposition were conspiring to stop him from providing roads, books and other programs to develop the state and help the poor. The House referred many charges to the Senate. Impeachment required a two-thirds majority, but Long produced a "Round Robin" statement signed by 15 senators pledging to vote "not guilty" no matter what the evidence. They said the trial was illegal, and even if proved, the charges did not warrant impeachment. The impeachment process, now futile, was suspended. It has been alleged that both sides used bribes to buy votes, and that Long later rewarded the Round Robin signers with state jobs or other favors.

Following the failed impeachment attempt in the Senate, Long became ruthless when dealing with his enemies. He fired their relatives from state jobs and supported candidates to defeat them in elections. "I used to try to get things done by saying 'please'," said Long. "Now...I dynamite 'em out of my path." Since the state's newspapers were financed by the opposition, in March 1930 Long founded his own paper, the ''Louisiana Progress'', which he used to broadcast achievements and denounce his enemies. To receive lucrative state contracts, companies were first expected to buy advertisements in Long's newspaper. Long attempted to pass laws placing a surtax on newspapers and forbidding the publishing of "slanderous material," but these efforts were defeated. After the impeachment attempt, Long received death threats. Fearing for his personal safety, he surrounded himself with armed bodyguards at all times.

1930: Bills rejected in Legislature but winning campaign for Senate[link]

In the 1930 legislative session, Long proposed another major road-building initiative as well as the construction of a new capitol building in Baton Rouge. The State Legislature defeated the bond issue necessary to build the roads, and his other initiatives failed as well.

Long responded by suddenly announcing his intention to run for the U.S. Senate in the Democratic primary of September 9, 1930. He portrayed his campaign as a referendum on his programs: if he won he would take it as a sign that the public supported his programs over the opposition of the legislature, and if he lost he promised to resign. Long defeated incumbent Senator Joseph E. Ransdell, an Alexandria native from Lake Providence in East Carroll Parish, by 149,640 (57.3 percent) to 111,451 (42.7 percent).

Although his Senate term began on March 4, 1931, Long completed the remainder of his four-year term as governor. Leaving the seat vacant for so long, he said, would not hurt Louisiana; "with Ransdell as Senator, the seat was vacant anyway." By not leaving the governor's mansion until January 25, 1932, Long prevented Lieutenant Governor Paul N. Cyr, a former ally, from succeeding to the office. A dentist from Jeanerette in Iberia Parish, Cyr had subsequently broken with Long and been threatening to roll back his reforms if he succeeded to the governorship.

1930–1932: Renewed strength[link]

Having won the overwhelming support of the Louisiana electorate, Long returned to pushing his legislative program with renewed strength. Bargaining from an advantageous position, Long entered an agreement with his longtime New Orleans rivals, the Regular Democratic Organization and their leader, New Orleans mayor T. Semmes Walmsley. They would support his legislation and candidates in future elections in return for his support of the building of a bridge over the Mississippi River, an airport for New Orleans, and infrastructure improvements in the city. Support from the Old Regulars enabled Long to pass an increase in the gasoline tax to finance road construction projects, new school spending, a construction of a new Louisiana State Capitol, and a $75 million bond for road construction. Including the Airline Highway between New Orleans and Baton Rouge, Long's road network gave Louisiana some of the most modern roads in the country and formed the state's highway system. Long's opponents charged that he had become virtual dictator of the state.

Long retained New Orleans architect Leon C. Weiss to design the state capitol, a new governor's mansion, the Charity Hospital in New Orleans, and many Louisiana State University and other college buildings throughout the state.

As governor, Long was not popular among the "old families" of Baton Rouge society. He instead held gatherings of his leaders and friends from across the state. At these gatherings, Long and his group liked to listen to the popular radio show "Amos 'n' Andy". One of Long's followers dubbed him "the Kingfish" after the master of the Mystic Knights of the Sea lodge to which the fictional Amos and Andy belonged. The nickname stuck—with Long's encouragement.

As governor, Long became an ardent supporter of the state's primary public university, Louisiana State University (LSU) in Baton Rouge. He greatly increased LSU's state funding and expanded its enrollment from study programs that enabled poor students to attend LSU and he established the LSU Medical School in New Orleans. He also intervened in the university's affairs, choosing its president. To generate excitement for the university, he quadrupled the size of the LSU band and co-wrote some of the music that is still played during football games, including "Touchdown for LSU". Once, he had the football team run a play he created. He also chartered trains to take LSU students to out-of-state football games.

In October 1931, Lieutenant Governor Cyr, by then Long's avowed enemy, argued that the Senator-elect could no longer remain governor. Cyr declared himself the state's legitimate governor. In response, Long ordered state National Guard troops to surround the State Capitol and fended off Cyr's proposed "coup d'état".

Long then went to the Louisiana Supreme Court to have Cyr ousted as lieutenant governor. He argued that the office of lieutenant-governor was vacant because Cyr had resigned when he attempted to assume the governorship. His suit was successful. Under the state constitution, Senate president and Long ally Alvin Olin King became lieutenant-governor.

Long chose his childhood friend, Oscar Kelly Allen, to succeed him in the election of 1932 on a "Complete the Work" ticket. With the support of Long's voter base and the Old Regular machine, Allen won easily, permitting Long to resign as governor and take his seat in the U.S. Senate in January 1932 with his chosen successor already ensconced in the state house.

Long in the Senate (1932–1935)[link]

Long's three-year term in the Senate overlapped an important time in American history as Herbert Hoover and then FDR attempted to deal with the Great Depression. Long often attempted to upstage FDR and the congressional leadership by mounting populist appeals of his own, most notably his "Share Our Wealth" program.

Long arrived in Washington, D.C., to take his seat in the United States Senate in January 1932, although he was absent for more than half the days in the 1932 session. With the backdrop of the Great Depression, he made characteristically fiery speeches which denounced the concentration of wealth in the hands of a few. He also criticized the leaders of both parties for failing to address the crisis adequately, most notably attacking conservative Senate Democratic Leader Joseph Robinson of Arkansas for his apparent closeness with President Herbert Hoover and ties to big business. Robinson had been the vice-presidential candidate in 1928 on the Democratic ticket opposite Hoover.

Long had now earned a reputation, as Williams reports, as "a leading member of the progressive bloc in the Senate." In the presidential election of 1932, Long became a vocal supporter of the candidacy of Franklin Delano Roosevelt. He believed Roosevelt to be the only candidate willing and able to carry out the drastic redistribution of wealth that Long believed was necessary to end the Great Depression. At the Democratic National Convention, Long was instrumental in keeping the delegations of several wavering states in the Roosevelt camp. Long expected to be featured prominently in Roosevelt's campaign, but he was disappointed with a speaking tour limited to four Midwestern states.

Long managed to find other venues for his populist message. He campaigned to elect Senator Hattie Caraway of Arkansas, the underdog candidate in a crowded field, to her first full term in the Senate by conducting a whirlwind, seven-day tour of that state. (Caraway had been appointed to the seat after her husband's death.) He raised his national prominence and defeated by a landslide the candidate backed by Senator Robinson. With Long's help, Caraway became the first woman elected to the U.S. Senate. Caraway told Long, however, that she would continue to use independent judgment and not allow him to dictate how she would vote on Senate bills. She also insisted that he stop attacking Robinson while he was in Arkansas.

In the critical 100 days in spring 1933 Long was generally a strong supporter of the New Deal, but differed with the president on patronage. Roosevelt wanted control of the patronage and the two men broke in late 1933. Aware that Roosevelt had no intention to radically redistribute the country's wealth, Long became one of the few national politicians to oppose Roosevelt's New Deal policies from the left. He considered them inadequate in the face of the escalating economic crisis. Long sometimes supported Roosevelt's programs in the Senate, saying that "[W]henever this administration has gone to the left I have voted with it, and whenever it has gone to the right I have voted against it." He opposed the National Recovery Act, calling it a sellout to big business. In 1933, he was a leader of a three-week Senate filibuster against the Glass banking bill for favoring the interests of national banks over state banks. He later supported the Glass–Steagall Act after provisions were made to extend government deposit insurance to state banks as well as national banks.

Roosevelt considered Long a radical demagogue. The president privately said of Long that along with General Douglas MacArthur, "[H]e was one of the two most dangerous men in America."

Roosevelt later compared Long's meteoric rise in popularity to that of Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini. In June 1933, in an effort to undermine Long's political dominance, Roosevelt cut Long out of consultation on the distribution of federal funds or patronage in Louisiana and placed Long's opponents in charge of federal programs in the state. Roosevelt also supported a Senate inquiry into the election of Long ally John H. Overton to the Senate in 1932. The Long machine was charged with election fraud and voter intimidation; however, the inquiry came up empty, and Overton was seated.

To discredit Long and damage his support base, in 1934 Roosevelt had Long's finances investigated by the Internal Revenue Service. Though they failed to link Long to any illegality, some of Long's lieutenants were charged with income tax evasion, but only one had been convicted by the time of Long's death.

Long's radical populist rhetoric and his aggressive tactics did little to endear him to his fellow senators. Not one of his proposed bills, resolutions or motions was passed during his three years in the Senate despite an overwhelming Democratic majority. During one debate, another senator told Long, "I do not believe you could get the Lord's Prayer endorsed in this body."

In terms of foreign policy, Long was a firm isolationist. He argued that America's involvement in the Spanish-American War and the First World War had been deadly mistakes conducted on behalf of Wall Street. He also opposed American entry into the World Court.

Share Our Wealth[link]

Long was a staunch opponent of the Federal Reserve Bank. Together with a group of Congressmen and Senators, Long believed the Federal Reserve's policies to be the true cause of the Great Depression. Long made speeches denouncing the large banking houses of Morgan and Rockefeller centered in New York which owned stock in the Federal Reserve System. He believed that they manipulated the monetary system to their own benefit, instead of the general public's benefit.

As an alternative, Long proposed federal legislation capping personal fortunes, income and inheritances. He used radio broadcasts and founded a national newspaper, the ''American Progress'', to promote his ideas and accomplishments before a national audience. In 1934, he unveiled an economic plan he called Share Our Wealth. Long argued there was enough wealth in the country for every individual to enjoy a comfortable standard of living, but that it was unfairly concentrated in the hands of a few millionaire bankers, businessmen and industrialists.

In March 1933, Long offered a series of bills collectively known as "the Long plan" for the redistribution of wealth. The first bill proposed a new progressive tax code designed to cap personal fortunes at $100 million. Fortunes above $1 million would be taxed at 1 percent; fortunes above $2 million would be taxed at 2 percent, and so forth, up to a 100 percent tax on fortunes greater than $100 million. The second bill limited annual income to $1 million, and the third bill capped individual inheritances at $5 million.

In February 1934, Long introduced his Share Our Wealth plan over a nationwide radio broadcast. He proposed capping personal fortunes at $50 million and repeated his call to limit annual income to $1 million and inheritances to $5 million. (He also suggested reducing the cap on personal fortunes to $10 million–$15 million per individual, if necessary, and later lowered the cap to $5 million–$8 million in printed materials.) The resulting funds would be used to guarantee every family a basic household grant of $5,000 and a minimum annual income of $2,000–3,000, or one-third of the average family homestead value and income. Long supplemented his plan with proposals for free college education and vocational training for all able students, old-age pensions, veterans' benefits, federal assistance to farmers, public works projects, greater federal regulation of economic activity, a month's vacation for every worker and limiting the work week to thirty hours to boost employment.

Denying that his program was socialist, Long stated that his ideological inspiration for the plan came not from Karl Marx but from the Bible and the Declaration of Independence. "Communism? Hell no!" he said, "This plan is the only defense this country's got against communism." In 1934, Long held a public debate with Norman Thomas, the leader of the Socialist Party of America, on the merits of Share Our Wealth versus socialism.

Long believed that ending the Great Depression and staving off violent revolution required a radical restructuring of the national economy and elimination of disparities of wealth, retaining the essential features of the capitalist system. After the Senate rejected one of his wealth redistribution bills, Long told them, "[A] mob is coming to hang the other ninety-five of you damn scoundrels and I'm undecided whether to stick here with you or go out and lead them."

With the Senate unwilling to support his proposals, in February 1934 Long formed a national political organization, the Share Our Wealth Society. A network of local clubs led by national organizer Reverend Gerald L. K. Smith, the Share Our Wealth Society was intended to operate outside of and in opposition to the Democratic Party and the Roosevelt administration. By 1935, the society had over 7.5 million members in 27,000 clubs across the country. Long's Senate office received an average of 60,000 letters a week. Some historians believe that pressure from Long and his organization contributed to Roosevelt's "turn to the left" in 1935. He enacted the Second New Deal, including the Social Security Act, the Works Progress Administration, the National Labor Relations Board, Aid to Dependent Children, the National Youth Administration, and the Wealth Tax Act of 1935. In private, Roosevelt candidly admitted to trying to "steal Long's thunder."

Continued control over Louisiana (1932–1935)[link]

Long continued to maintain effective control of Louisiana while he was a senator, blurring the boundary between federal and state politics. Though he had no constitutional authority to do so, Long continued to draft and press bills through the Louisiana State Legislature, which remained in the hands of his allies. He made frequent trips to Baton Rouge to pressure the Legislature into enacting his legislation. The program included new consumer taxes, elimination of the poll tax, a homestead tax exemption, and increases in the number of state employees. While physically in Louisiana, Long customarily stayed at the Roosevelt Hotel in New Orleans, where he was fond of the Sazerac Bar (see Peychaud's Bitters). According to Thomas M. Mahne in the ''Times-Picayune'', Long had a personal interest in seeing to the quick construction of Airline Highway (US 61) between Baton Rouge and New Orleans as the new road cut 40 miles from the trip.

Long's loyal lieutenant, Governor Oscar K. Allen, dutifully enacted Long's policies. Long berated the governor in public and took over the governor's office in the State Capitol when visiting Baton Rouge. On occasion, he even entered the legislative chambers, going so far as to sit on representatives' and senators' desks and sternly lecture them on his positions. He also retaliated against those who voted against him and used patronage and state funding (especially highways) to maneuver Louisiana toward what opponents called a Long "dictatorship". Having broken with the Old Regulars and T. Semmes Walmsley in the fall of 1933, Long inserted himself into the New Orleans mayoral election of 1934 and began a dramatic public feud with the city's government that lasted for two years.

In 1934, Long and James A. Noe, an independent oilman and member of the Louisiana Senate, formed the controversial Win or Lose Oil Company. The firm was established to obtain leases on state-owned lands so that its directors might collect bonuses and sublease the mineral rights to the major oil companies. Although ruled legal, these activities were done in secret and the stockholders were unknown to the public. Long made a profit on the bonuses and the resale of those state leases, using the funds primarily for political purposes.

By 1934, Long began a reorganization of the state government that reduced the authority of local governments in anti-Long strongholds New Orleans, Baton Rouge, and Alexandria. It further gave the governor the power to appoint all state employees. Long passed what he called "a tax on lying" and a 2 percent tax on newspaper advertising revenue. He created the Bureau of Criminal Identification, a special force of plainclothes police answerable only to the governor. He also had the legislature enact the same tax on refined oil that in 1929 had nearly led to his impeachment, which he used as a bargaining chip to promote oil drilling in Louisiana. After Standard Oil agreed that 80 percent of the oil sent to its refineries would be drilled in Louisiana, Long's government refunded most of these tax revenues.

1935: Long's final year[link]

In his final year, Long was preoccupied with his presidential ambitions and attempted to limit the influence of his Louisiana opponents. After his assassination, his political machine broke up into factions, although it has remained a strong force in the state's politics into the 21st century.

Presidential ambitions[link]

Even during his days as a traveling salesman, Long had confided to his wife that his planned career trajectory would begin with election to a minor state office, then governor, then senator, and ultimately election as President of the United States. In his final months, Long followed up his earlier autobiography, "Every Man a King", with a second book entitled ''My First Days in the White House'', laying out his plans for the presidency after the election of 1936. The book was published posthumously.

Long biographers T. Harry Williams and William Ivy Hair speculated that the senator never intended to run for the presidency in 1936. Long instead planned to challenge Roosevelt for the Democratic nomination in 1936, knowing he would lose the nomination but gain valuable publicity in the process. Then he would break from the Democrats and form a third party using the Share Our Wealth plan as its basis. He also hoped to have the public support of Father Charles Coughlin, a Catholic priest and populist talk radio personality from Royal Oak, Michigan; Iowa agrarian radical Milo Reno; and other dissidents. The new party would run someone else as its 1936 candidate, but Long would be the primary campaigner. This candidate would split the progressive vote with Roosevelt, causing the election of a Republican but proving the electoral appeal of Share Our Wealth. Long would then run for president as a Democrat in 1940. In the spring of 1935, Long undertook a national speaking tour and regular radio appearances, attracting large crowds and increasing his stature.

Increased tensions in Louisiana[link]

By 1935, Long's most recent consolidation of personal power led to talk of armed opposition from his enemies. Opponents increasingly invoked the memory of the Battle of Liberty Place of 1874, in which the white supremacist White League staged an uprising against Louisiana's Reconstruction-era government. In January 1935, an anti-Long paramilitary organization called the Square Deal Association was formed. Its members included former governors John M. Parker and Ruffin G. Pleasant and New Orleans Mayor T. Semmes Walmsley. On January 25, 200 armed Square Dealers took over the courthouse of East Baton Rouge Parish. Long had Governor Allen call out the National Guard, declare martial law, ban public gatherings of two or more persons, and forbid the publication of criticism of state officials. The Square Dealers left the courthouse, but there was a brief armed skirmish at the Baton Rouge Airport. Tear gas and live ammunition were fired; one person was wounded but there were no fatalities.

In the summer of 1935, Long called for two more special sessions of the legislature; bills were passed in rapid-fire succession without being read or discussed. The new laws further centralized Long's control over the state by creating several new Long-appointed state agencies: a state bond and tax board holding sole authority to approve all loans to parish and municipal governments, a new state printing board which could withhold "official printer" status from uncooperative newspapers, a new board of election supervisors which would appoint all poll watchers, and a State Board of Censors. They also stripped away the remaining lucrative powers of the mayor of New Orleans to cripple the entrenched opposition. Long boasted that he had "taken over every board and commission in New Orleans except the Community Chest and the Red Cross."

Long quarreled with former State Senator Henry E. Hardtner of La Salle Parish. While proceeding to Baton Rouge in August 1935 to confront the state government over a tax matter relating to his Urania Lumber Company, based in Urania, Hardtner, known as "the father of forestry in the South," was killed in a car-train accident.

Assassination[link]

On the day of his assassination, September 8, 1935, Long was at the State Capitol attempting to oust a long-time opponent, Judge Benjamin Henry Pavy. "House Bill Number One", a re-districting plan, was Long's top priority. If it passed, Judge Pavy would be removed from the bench. At 9 p.m., the session was still going strong. Judge Pavy's son-in-law, Dr. Carl Weiss, had been at the State Capitol waiting to speak to Long. He tried to see him three times to talk to him but was brushed off each time in the hallway by Long and his bodyguards. At 9:20 p.m., Dr. Weiss approached Long for the third time and, according to the generally accepted version of events, fired a handgun at Long from four feet away, striking him in the abdomen. Long's bodyguards returned fire, hitting Weiss 62 times and killing him. Long was rushed to the hospital but died two days later.

Edgar Hull, a founding faculty member of the Medical Center of Louisiana at New Orleans, was among those called upon to treat Long for his wounds. In 1983, after nearly a half-century, Hull published his memoirs, ''This I Remember: An Informal History of the Louisiana State University Medical Center in New Orleans.'' Unlike LSU historian T. Harry Williams, who claimed Long's death was preventable, Hull said that Long could not have survived the shooting. He denied that Long had died from medical or surgical incompetence. Hull also criticized his own conduct; though he had called for an autopsy, Hull had not been persistent enough and allowed himself to be overruled in the swarm of events.

Funeral[link]

Long's body was dressed in a tuxedo and his open copper-lined casket was placed in the State Capitol rotunda. An estimated 200,000 people flooded Baton Rouge to witness the event. Tens of thousands of Louisianans crowded in front of the Capitol on September 10, 1935, for the 4 p.m. funeral handled by Merle Welsh of Rabenhorst Funeral Home. Welsh was later a member of the Louisiana State Board of Education. Welsh remembered that flowers came from all over the world and extended from the House of Representatives to the Senate chamber. Airline Highway between New Orleans and Baton Rouge was jammed bumper-to-bumper. The minister at the funeral service was Gerald L. K. Smith, co-founder of Share Our Wealth and subsequently of the America First Party, and the founder of the "Christ of the Ozarks" passion play in Eureka Springs, Arkansas. Newsreel cameras clicked while airplanes circled overhead to record the service for posterity. Long was buried on the grounds of the new State Capitol, which he championed as governor, where a statue at his gravesite now depicts his achievements. Within the Capitol, a plaque still marks the site of the assassination in the hallway near what is now the Speaker's office and what was then the Governor's office. Also, a bronze statue of Long is located in Statuary Hall of the U.S. Capitol.

Legacy[link]

Long made important innovations in campaign technique, including sound trucks and radio commercials. But his most enduring contributions were to the state of Louisiana rather than to the nation.

Infrastructure[link]

Long created a public works program for Louisiana that was unprecedented in the South, with a plethora of roads, bridges, hospitals, schools and state buildings that have endured into the 21st century. During his four years as governor, Long increased paved highways in Louisiana from 331 miles to 2,301, plus an additional of gravel roads. By 1936, the infrastructure program begun by Long had completed some of new roads, doubling the size of the state's road system. He built 111 bridges and started construction on the first bridge over the Mississippi entirely in Louisiana, the Huey P. Long Bridge in Jefferson Parish, near New Orleans. He built a new Governor's Mansion and the new Louisiana State Capitol, at the time the tallest building in the South. All of these projects provided thousands of much-needed jobs during the Great Depression, including 22,000 – or 10 percent – of the nation's highway workers.

Long's free textbooks, school-building program, and school busing improved and expanded the public education system. His night schools taught 100,000 adults to read. He expanded funding for LSU, tripled enrollment, lowered tuition, and established scholarships for low-income students. He sometimes befriended persons in need. In 1932 a young Pap Dean, later political cartoonist with the ''Shreveport Times'', wrote to Long after hearing him speak in Dean's native Colfax to explain that Dean's college funds had been lost in a bank closing. Long helped Dean procure financial aid to attend LSU, from which he graduated in 1937.

Long founded the LSU School of Medicine in New Orleans. He also doubled funding for the public Charity Hospital System, built a new Charity Hospital building for New Orleans, and reformed and increased funding for the state's mental institutions. Long's statewide public health programs dramatically reduced the death rate in Louisiana and provided free immunizations to nearly 70 percent of the population. He also reformed the prison system by providing medical and dental care for inmates. His administration funded the piping of natural gas to New Orleans and other cities. It built the 11-kilometer (seven-mile) Lake Pontchartrain seawall and New Orleans airport.

Long slashed personal property taxes and reduced utility rates. His repeal of the poll tax in 1935 increased voter registration by 76 percent in one year. Long's popular homestead exemption eliminated personal property taxes for the majority of citizens by exempting properties valued at less than $2,000. His "Debt Moratorium Act" prevented foreclosures by giving people extra time to pay creditors and reclaim property without being forced to pay back-taxes. His personal intervention and strict regulation of the Louisiana banking system prevented bank closures and kept the system solvent—while 4,800 banks nationwide collapsed, only seven failed in Louisiana.

Politics[link]

He set in motion two durable factions within the dominant Louisiana Democratic party--"pro-Long" and "anti-Long," each diverging meaningfully in terms of policies and voter support. A family dynasty emerged: his brother Earl Long was elected lieutenant-governor in 1936, governor in 1948 and 1956. Typically anti-Longite candidates would promise to continue popular social services delivered in Long's administration and criticized Longite corruption without directly attacking Long himself. Long's son, Russell Long, was a U.S. senator from 1948 to 1987. As chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, Russell Long shaped the nation's tax laws. He was an advocate of low business taxes, but also passed the Earned Income Credit and other tax legislation beneficial to the poor and working people.

The political machine Long established was weakened by his death, but it remained a powerful force in state politics until the election of 1960. Pockets of it persisted into the 21st century. The Long platform of social programs and populist rhetoric created the state's main political division. In every state election until 1960, the main factions were organized along pro-Long and anti-Long lines. For several decades after his death, Long's personal political style inspired imitation among Louisiana politicians who borrowed his colorful speaking style, vicious verbal attacks on opponents, and promises of social programs. His brother Earl Kemp Long later inherited Long's political machine. Using his platform and rhetorical style, Earl Long became governor in 1939 following the resignation of Richard Leche and was elected to subsequent terms in 1948 and 1956.

After Earl Long's death, John McKeithen and Edwin Edwards appeared as heirs to the Long tradition. Most recently, Claude "Buddy" Leach ran a populist campaign in the Louisiana gubernatorial election of 2003 that some observers compared to Huey Long's. Louisiana Public Service Commissioner Foster Campbell tried the same approach without success in the 2007 jungle primary.

Long's death did not end the political strength of the Long family. His widow, Rose McConnell Long, was appointed to replace him in the Senate, and his son Russell B. Long was elected to the Senate in 1948, and re-elected until 1987. In addition to Long's brother Earl K. Long becoming governor, brother Julius Long was a Winn Parish District Attorney and brother George S. Long was elected to Congress in 1952. Long's younger sister, Lucille Long Hunt (1898–1985) of Ruston, was the mother of future Public Service Commissioner John S. Hunt, III (1928–2001), of Monroe.

Other more distant relatives, including Gillis William Long and Speedy O. Long (both now deceased) were elected to Congress. Jimmy D. Long of Natchitoches Parish served for 32 years in the Louisiana House. , Jimmy Long's younger brother Gerald Long holds the distinction of being the only current Long in public office and the first Republican among the Long Democratic dynasty. Twelve members of the Long family have held elected office.

Memory[link]

Two bridges crossing the Mississippi River have been named for Long: Huey P. Long Bridge (Baton Rouge) and Huey P. Long Bridge (Jefferson Parish). Another bridge, the Long-Allen Bridge over the Atchafalaya River between Morgan City and Berwick, honors both Long and his successor and supporter, O.K. Allen. There is also a Huey P. Long Hospital in Pineville across the Red River from Alexandria.

Long's first autobiography, ''Every Man a King,'' was published in 1933 and priced to be affordable by poor Americans. Long laid out his plan to redistribute the nation's wealth. His second book, ''My First Days in the White House,'' was published posthumously. In it he laid out his presidential ambitions for the election of 1936.

In 1993, Long, along with his brother Earl, was inducted posthumously into the Louisiana Political Museum and Hall of Fame in Winnfield. In the same ceremony, his son Russell, then still living, was also among the 13 original inductees.

American literature[link]

Leading novelists have explored the regime Long created. According to Boulard (1998), "the most chilling and uncanny treatment of Huey by a writer came with Sinclair Lewis's ''It Can't Happen Here''." Lewis, a liberal who in 1930 had won the Nobel Prize in literature, portrayed a genuine American dictator on the Hitler model. Starting in 1936 the WPA, a New Deal agency, performed the theatre version across the country. thumb|Poster for the WPA stage adaptation of ''It Can't Happen Here'', October 27, 1936 Written with the goal of hurting Long's chances in the 1936 election, Lewis's novel outfits President Berzelius Windrip with a private militia, concentration camps, and a chief of staff who sounds like Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels. Lewis also outfits Windrip with a racist ideology completely alien to Long and a ''Main Street'' conservatism he also never embraced. Ultimately, Windrip is a venal and cynical showman who plays to the conformist resentments Lewis diagnosed in ''Main Street'' and ''Babbitt.'' Perry (2004) argues that the key weakness of the novel is not that he decks out American politicians with sinister European touches, but that he finally conceives of fascism and totalitarianism in terms of traditional American political models rather than seeing them as introducing a new kind of society and a new kind of regime. Windrip is less a Nazi than a con-man-plus-Rotarian, a manipulator who knows how to appeal to people's desperation, but neither he nor his followers are in the grip of the kind of world-transforming ideology like Hitler's National Socialism.

Hamilton Basso wrote two novels looking at Long, ''Cinnamon Seed'' (1934) and ''Sun in Capricorn'' (1942). Perry (2004) says Basso was a slashingly witty critic of the moonlight and magnolia romanticism of the Old South that dominated the Southern mind before 1920. Like many proponents of a New South, he wanted modernizers to take over. ''Cinnamon Seed''s Harry Brand incorporates more details from the historical Long than any other fictional portrayal does, and much of the novel is so lightly fictionalized that only a single letter separates the names of characters and places from their real-life counterparts. Brand is a representative of the grasping and vulgar kind of new leadership which has rightly understood that the values of the Old South are played out but has replaced them with nothing but ambition and cunning. He is a greedy climber, not a demonic leader of the masses, and in fact he is ultimately not much more than an obnoxious and sticky-fingered lout, the kind who spits tobacco juice on the marble floors of his predecessors and pockets the ashtrays. In portraying his Long figure this way, Basso finds himself between the stools, critical of the spent aristocrats who cannot imagine a modern South, but disgusted also by the figures who represent the wrong kind of newness, the kind of modern South that comes to be if its development is left to default.

John Dos Passos’s ''Number One'' (1943) looks not at the politics of mass brutality whipped up by manipulative demagogues, but at the gradual ebbing away of Long's idealist convictions under the pressure of a thousand expedient compromises and betrayals in the name of institutional necessity.

Robert Penn Warren’s Pulitzer prize-winning novel ''All the King’s Men'' (1946) is the centerpiece of American political fiction. Warren charted the corruption of an idealistic politician Willie Stark, almost as much philosopher as politician. Warren did not encourage association of his character with Long and told Charles Bohner in a 1964 interview, "Willie Stark was not Huey Long. Willie was only himself, whatever that self turned out to be." Nevertheless, Warren’s spellbinding Willie Stark has been for almost six decades Long’s well-known fictional embodiment, based on the novel and well-received 1949 movie.

Long inspired numerous other novelists. Bruce Sterling's ''Distraction'' features a colorful and dictatorial Louisiana governor named "Green Huey". Harry Turtledove's ''American Empire'' trilogy drew parallels between Confederate President Jake Featherston's populist, dictatorial style of rule and Long's governorship of Louisiana. In this trilogy, Long was assassinated on orders from Featherston when he refused to side with the Confederate ruling party (though several years later than in reality). In Barry N. Malzberg's short story "Kingfish", published in the ''Alternate Presidents'' anthology, Long survives his assassination, to be elected President in 1936 with the help of John Nance Garner, and both men conspire to assassinate Hitler prior to the start of World War II. In Donald Jeffries' 2007 novel ''The Unreals'', there is a scene featuring an imaginary meeting where FDR and other important Depression era figures are plotting the assassination of Senator Long.

In general, the novelists have portrayed Long's rise to power as a justifiable popular reaction against the selfish policies pursued by the dominant economic interests prior to 1928. They speculate the degree his extremism reflected an overreaction to his enemies, or sprang inevitably from class conflict in the state. They all try to explain why Long enjoyed majority support in Louisiana, both during and after his lifetime.

Films[link]

Warren's novel was the basis of two motion pictures, a 1949 film and a more recent 2006 film, and the 1981 opera ''Willie Stark'' by American composer Carlisle Floyd. The 1949 film won three Oscars, including best picture, and best actor for Broderick Crawford, playing the Long role.

There is a prominent mention of Long in Tennessee Williams' play ''A Streetcar Named Desire'' and other film versions.

Biography[link]

The life of Long has held continuing fascination. In 1970, the biography ''Huey Long'' by T. Harry Williams won both the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award in category History and Biography. Alan Brinkley won the latter award in 1983 for ''Voices of Protest: Huey Long, Father Coughlin and the Great Depression'', which describes Long's brief but vast popularity early in the 1930s.

Television[link]

In 1985, Ken Burns made a documentary about Long. Two made-for-TV docudramas about him have also been produced: ''The Life and Assassination of the Kingfish'' (1977) starring Ed Asner and the fictionalized ''Kingfish'' (1995, TNT) starring John Goodman.

Music[link]

In popular music, chronicler of American culture Randy Newman featured Long prominently, with two songs on the 1974 album ''Good Old Boys'' (Reprise). On Newman's album, the song "Every Man a King", originally written and recorded by Long and Castro Carazo, is followed by "Kingfish" (a reference to Long's famous nickname). The song, being explicitly about Long, is sung from the point of view of a blue-collar southerner (as is the rest of the album), and discusses Long's popularity in his prime, the building of the Airline Highway, and refers to "The Kingfish" as "friend of the working man" - an allusion to Long's unwavering popularity amongst the working classes, and attributes the reason for this by referring to his populist ideologies:

:''Who took on the Standard Oil men :''And whipped their ass, :''Just like he promised he'd do? :''Ain't no Standard Oil men gonna run this state, :''Gonna be run by little folks like me and you.''

See also[link]

Huey Long (documentary)

Cat Doucet

List of assassinated American politicians

James Monroe Smith

Long family

Notes[link]

References[link]

Further reading[link]

Boulard, Garry. ''Huey Long Invades New Orleans: the Siege of a City, 1934–36.'' Gretna, LA: Pelican Publishing Co., 1998. 277pp

Brinkley, Alan. ''Voices of Protest: Huey Long, Father Coughlin, and the Great Depression.'' New York, NY: Knopf, 1982. ISBN 0-394-52241-9

Burt, John. "Thirteen Ways of Kooking at a Kingfish." ''The Mississippi Quarterly'' 58#3–4 (2005) pp 795+. online edition

Cortner, Richard C. ''The Kingfish and the Constitution: Huey Long, the First Amendment, and the Emergence of Modern Press Freedom in America.'' Greenwood, 1996. 196 pp. online edition

Dodd, William J. "Bill." "Peapatch Politics: The Earl Long Era in Louisiana Politics." Baton Rouge: Claitor's Publishing Co., 1991.

Gunn, Joshua. "Hystericizing Huey: Emotional Appeals, Desire, and the Psychodynamics of Demagoguery." ''Western Journal of Communication'' 21#1 (2007) pp. 1+. online edition

Haas, Edward F., ed. ''The Age of the Longs: Louisiana, 1928–1960.'' (Louisiana Purchase Bicentennial Series, vol. 8.) Lafayette: Center for Louisiana Studies, 2001. 527 pp.

Hair, William Ivy. ''The Kingfish and His Realm: The Life and Times of Huey P. Long'' (1991) 406pp, standard scholarly biography; less favorable than Williams

Heppen, John. "The Electoral Geography of Class, Race, and Religion in Huey Long's Louisiana," ''Southern Studies: An Interdisciplinary Journal of the South,'' Spring/Summer2010, Vol. 17 Issue 1, pp 1–23

Howard, Perry H. ''Political Tendencies in Louisiana'' (1971), by political scientist online edition

Jeansonne, Glen. ''Messiah of the Masses: Huey P. Long and the Great Depression.'' 1993. 204 pp. short, scholarly and very hostile

Jeansonne, Glen (ed.). ''Huey at 100: Centennial Essays on Huey P. Long.'' Ruston, LA: McGinty Publications (for Dept. of History, Louisiana Tech University), 1995.

Kane, Thomas Harnett. ''Louisiana Hayride: the American Rehearsal for Dictatorship, 1928–1940.'' William Morrow, 1941.

Pavy, Donald A. ''Accident and Deception: the Huey Long Shooting.'' New Iberia: Cajun Publications, 1999.

Potter, David M. "Long, Huey Pierce, (Aug. 30, 1893 – Sept. 10, 1935),' ''Dictionary of American Biography'' Supp 1 (1964)

Sanson, Jerry P., "'What he did and what he promised to do': Huey Long and the Horizons of Louisiana Politics," ''Louisiana History,'' 47 (Summer 2006), 261–76.

Schlesinger, Arthur M. Jr., ''The Age of Roosevelt'', vol 3: ''The Politics of Upheaval'' (1960), chapter on Long

White, Richard D., Jr. ''Kingfish: the Reign of Huey P. Long.'' Random House, 2006.

Williams, T. Harry. ''Huey Long.'' Knopf, 1969. (Winner of the 1970 Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award)

Primary sources [link]

Long, Huey P. ''Every Man a King: the Autobiography of Huey P. Long.'' New Orleans: National Book Co., 1933.

"Unsolved Mysteries" television program (Assassination of Huey Long)

Image and memory [link]

Bloom, Harold. ''Robert Penn Warren's All the King's Men'' (1987) online edition

Boulard, Garry. ''Huey Long: His Life in Photos, Drawings, and Cartoons.'' Gretna, La.: Pelican, 2003. 127 pp.

Perry, Keith Ronald. ''The Kingfish in Fiction: Huey P. Long and the Modern American Novel'' (2004) 224pp

External links[link]

Huey Long official Web site—Learn about his life and times, with photos, stories, and campaign memorabilia

State of Louisiana — Biography

Listen to, and read the text of one of his Share the Wealth speeches

Text, Audio, Video of Long's Share the Wealth Address to Senate Staffers

Text of Long's Every Man King Radio Address

Social Security Administration Bio of Huey Long

Biography with quotations

Huey Long's Gravesite

''Greg Palast'', ''Bush Strafes New Orleans Where is our Huey Long?'', Sept. 2 2005.

Cemetery Memorial by La-Cemeteries

Donald E. Wilkes Jr, Who Killed the Kingfish? (1985).

Category:1893 births Category:1935 deaths Category:People from Winnfield, Louisiana Category:Baptists from the United States Category:Louisiana Democrats Category:United States Senators from Louisiana Category:Governors of Louisiana Category:American political bosses from Louisiana Category:Long family Category:Impeached United States officials Category:Members of the Louisiana Public Service Commission Category:Anti-poverty advocates Category:Assassinated American politicians Category:People murdered in Louisiana Category:Deaths by firearm in Louisiana Category:Oklahoma Baptist University alumni Category:University of Oklahoma alumni Category:Tulane University alumni Category:Tulane University Law School alumni Category:Louisiana lawyers Category:Democratic Party United States Senators Category:Progressive Era in the United States

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Name	Woodrow Wilson
Office	28th President of the United States
Vicepresident	Thomas R. Marshall
Term start	March 4, 1913
Term end	March 4, 1921
Predecessor	William Taft
Successor	Warren Harding
Office2	34th Governor of New Jersey
Term start2	January 17, 1911
Term end2	March 1, 1913
Predecessor2	John Fort
Successor2	James Fielder as Acting Governor
Office3	13th President of Princeton University
Term start3	1902
Term end3	1910
Predecessor3	Francis Patton
Successor3	John Stewart (Acting)
Birth date	December 28, 1856
Birth place	Staunton, Virginia, U.S.
Death date	February 03, 1924
Death place	Washington, D.C., U.S.
Party	Democratic
Spouse	Ellen Axson (1885–1914)Edith Bolling (1915–1924)
Children	MargaretJessieEleanor
Alma mater	Davidson CollegePrinceton UniversityUniversity of VirginiaJohns Hopkins University
Profession	AcademicHistorianPolitical scientist
Religion	Presbyterianism
Signature	Woodrow Wilson Signature 2.svg
Signature alt	Cursive signature in ink }}

Thomas Woodrow Wilson (December 28, 1856 – February 3, 1924) was the 28th President of the United States, from 1913 to 1921. A leader of the Progressive Movement, he served as President of Princeton University from 1902 to 1910, and then as the Governor of New Jersey from 1911 to 1913. Running against Progressive ("Bull Moose") Party candidate Theodore Roosevelt and Republican candidate William Howard Taft, Wilson was elected President as a Democrat in 1912.

In his first term as President, Wilson persuaded a Democratic Congress to pass major progressive reforms. Historian John M. Cooper argues that, in his first term, Wilson successfully pushed a legislative agenda that few presidents have equaled, and remained unmatched up until the New Deal. This agenda included the Federal Reserve Act, Federal Trade Commission Act, the Clayton Antitrust Act, the Federal Farm Loan Act and an income tax. Child labor was curtailed by the Keating–Owen Act of 1916, but the U.S. Supreme Court declared it unconstitutional in 1918. He also had Congress pass the Adamson Act, which imposed an 8-hour workday for railroads. Wilson, after first sidestepping the issue, became a major advocate for the women's suffrage.

Narrowly re-elected in 1916, he had full control of American entry into World War I, and his second term centered on World War I and the subsequent peace treaty negotiations in Paris. He based his re-election campaign around the slogan, "He kept us out of war", but U.S. neutrality was challenged in early 1917 when the German government began unrestricted submarine warfare despite repeated strong warnings, and tried to enlist Mexico as an ally. In April 1917, Wilson asked Congress to declare war. During the war, Wilson focused on diplomacy and financial considerations, leaving the waging of the war itself primarily in the hands of the Army. On the home front in 1917, he began the United States' first draft since the American Civil War, raised billions of dollars in war funding through Liberty Bonds, set up the War Industries Board, promoted labor union cooperation, supervised agriculture and food production through the Lever Act, took over control of the railroads, and suppressed anti-war movements. During his term in office, Wilson gave a well-known Flag Day speech that fueled the wave of anti-German sentiment sweeping the country in 1917–18.

In the late stages of the war, Wilson took personal control of negotiations with Germany, including the armistice. In 1918, he issued his ''Fourteen Points'', his view of a post-war world that could avoid another terrible conflict. In 1919, he went to Paris to create the League of Nations and shape the Treaty of Versailles, with special attention on creating new nations out of defunct empires. In 1919, Wilson engaged in an intense fight with Henry Cabot Lodge and the Republican-controlled Senate over giving the League of Nations power to force the U.S. into a war. Wilson collapsed with a debilitating stroke that left his wife in control until he left office in March 1921. The Senate rejected the Treaty of Versailles, the U.S. never joined the League, and the Republicans won a landslide in 1920 by denouncing Wilson's policies.

An intellectual with very high writing standards, he was also a highly effective partisan campaigner as well as legislative strategist. A Presbyterian of deep religious faith, Wilson appealed to a gospel of service and infused a profound sense of moralism into his idealistic internationalism, now referred to as "Wilsonian". Wilsonianism calls for the United States to enter the world arena to fight for democracy, and has been a contentious position in American foreign policy. For his sponsorship of the League of Nations, Wilson was awarded the 1919 Nobel Peace Prize. President Wilson implemented a segregation policy into most Washington D.C. federal offices that was not overturned until President Harry S. Truman.

Early life[link]

Wilson was born in Staunton, Virginia on December 28, 1856 as the third of four children of Reverend Dr. Joseph Ruggles Wilson (1822–1903) and Jessie Janet Woodrow (1826–1888). His ancestry was Scottish and Scots-Irish. His paternal grandparents immigrated to the United States from Strabane, County Tyrone, Ireland (now Northern Ireland), in 1807. His mother was born in Carlisle, Cumberland, England, the daughter of Rev. Dr. Thomas Woodrow, born in Paisley, Scotland and Marion Williamson from Glasgow. His grandparents' whitewashed house has become a tourist attraction in Northern Ireland.

Wilson's father was originally from Steubenville, Ohio, where his grandfather published a newspaper, ''The Western Herald and Gazette'', which was pro-tariff and anti-slavery. Wilson's parents moved south in 1851 and identified with the Confederacy. His father defended slavery, owned slaves and set up a Sunday school for them. They cared for wounded soldiers at their church. The father also briefly served as a chaplain to the Confederate Army. Woodrow Wilson's earliest memory, from the age of three, was of hearing that Abraham Lincoln had been elected and that a war was coming. Wilson would forever recall standing for a moment at Robert E. Lee's side and looking up into his face.

Wilson's father was one of the founders of the Southern Presbyterian Church in the United States (PCUS) after it split from the northern Presbyterians in 1861. Joseph R. Wilson served as the first permanent clerk of the southern church's General Assembly, was Stated Clerk from 1865–1898 and was Moderator of the PCUS General Assembly in 1879. Wilson spent the majority of his childhood, up to age 14, in Augusta, Georgia, where his father was minister of the First Presbyterian Church.

Wilson was over ten years of age before he learned to read. His difficulty reading may have indicated dyslexia, but as a teenager he taught himself shorthand to compensate. He was able to achieve academically through determination and self-discipline. He studied at home under his father's guidance and took classes in a small school in Augusta. During Reconstruction, Wilson lived in Columbia, South Carolina, the state capital, from 1870–1874, where his father was professor at the Columbia Theological Seminary.

Wilson attended Davidson College in North Carolina for the 1873–1874 school year. After medical ailments kept him from returning for a second year, he transferred to Princeton as a freshman when his father took a teaching position at the university. Graduating in 1879, Wilson became a member of Phi Kappa Psi fraternity. Beginning in his second year, he read widely in political philosophy and history. Wilson credited the British parliamentary sketch-writer Henry Lucy as his inspiration to enter public life. He was active in the undergraduate American Whig-Cliosophic Society literary and debating society, serving as speaker of the Whig Party and writing for the Nassau Literary Review, organized a separate Liberal Debating Society,, and later coached the Whig-Clio Debate Panel.

In 1879, Wilson attended law school at the University of Virginia for one year. Although he never graduated, during his time at the university he was heavily involved in the Virginia Glee Club and the Jefferson Literary and Debating Society, serving as the society's president. His frail health dictated withdrawal, and he went home to Wilmington, North Carolina where he continued his studies.

In January 1882, Wilson started a law practice in Atlanta. One of his University of Virginia classmates, Edward Ireland Renick, invited him to join his new law practice as partner and Wilson joined him in May 1882. He passed the Georgia Bar. On October 19, 1882, he appeared in court before Judge George Hillyer to take his examination for the bar, which he passed easily. Competition was fierce in the city with 143 other lawyers, and he found few cases to keep him occupied. Nevertheless, he found staying current with the law obstructed his plans to study government to achieve his long-term plans for a political career. In April 1883, Wilson applied to the Johns Hopkins University to study for a doctorate in history and political science and began his studies there in the fall.

Personal life[link]

Wilson's mother was possibly a hypochondriac and Wilson himself seemed to think that he was often in poorer health than he really was. He suffered from hypertension at a relatively early age and may have suffered his first stroke when he was 39.

In 1885, he married Ellen Louise Axson, the daughter of a minister from Savannah, Georgia during a visit to her relatives in Rome, Georgia. They had three daughters: Margaret Woodrow Wilson (1886–1944); Jessie Wilson (1887–1933); and Eleanor R. Wilson (1889–1967). Axson died in 1914, and in 1915 Wilson married Edith Galt. Wilson is one of only three presidents to be widowed while in office.

Wilson was an early automobile enthusiast, and he took daily rides while he was President. His favorite car was a 1919 Pierce-Arrow, in which he preferred to ride with the top down. His enjoyment of motoring made him an advocate of funding for public highways.

Wilson was an avid baseball fan. In 1915, he became the first sitting president to attend a World Series game. Wilson had been a center fielder during his Davidson College days. When he transferred to Princeton he was unable to make the varsity team and so became the team's assistant manager. He was the first President to throw out a first ball at a World Series game.

He cycled regularly, including several cycling vacations in the English Lake District. Unable to cycle around Washington, D.C. as President, Wilson took to playing golf, although he played with more enthusiasm than skill. Wilson holds the record of all the presidents for the most rounds of golf, over 1,000, or almost one every other day. During the winter, the Secret Service would paint golf balls with black paint so Wilson could hit them around in the snow on the White House lawn.

Academic career[link]

He began his graduate studies at Johns Hopkins University in 1883 and three years later he completed his doctoral dissertation, "Congressional Government: A Study in American Politics" and received a PhD in history and political science. For his doctorate, Wilson had to learn German. Wilson was a visiting lecturer at Cornell University during AY1886-1887, but failed to gain a permanent position. However, he was tapped into the Irving Literary Society by the brothers of his fraternity, Phi Kappa Psi. He received academic appointments at Bryn Mawr College (1885–88) and Wesleyan University (1888–90).

At Wesleyan, he also coached the football team and founded the debate team – it is still called the T. Woodrow Wilson debate team. He then joined the Princeton faculty as professor of jurisprudence and political economy in 1890. While there, he was one of the faculty members of the short-lived coordinate college, Evelyn College for Women. Additionally, Wilson became the first lecturer of Constitutional Law at New York Law School where he taught with Charles Evans Hughes.

Representing the American Whig Society, Wilson delivered an oration at Princeton's sesquicentennial celebration (1896) entitled "Princeton in the Nation's Service". This phrase became the motto of the University, later expanded to "Princeton in the Nation's Service and in the Service of All Nations". In this speech, he outlined his vision of the university in a democratic nation, calling on institutions of higher learning "to illuminate duty by every lesson that can be drawn out of the past".

Wilson was annoyed that Princeton was not living up to its potential, complaining "There's a little college down in Kentucky which in 60 years has graduated more men who have acquired prominence and fame than has Princeton in her 150 years."

Writings on government and politics[link]

Government systems[link]

Under the influence of Walter Bagehot's ''The English Constitution'', Wilson saw the United States Constitution as pre-modern, cumbersome, and open to corruption. An admirer of Parliament, Wilson favored a parliamentary system for the United States. Writing in the early 1880s:

Wilson started ''Congressional Government'', his best-known political work, as an argument for a parliamentary system, but he was impressed by Grover Cleveland, and ''Congressional Government'' emerged as a critical description of America's system, with frequent negative comparisons to Westminster. He said, "I am pointing out facts—diagnosing, not prescribing remedies."

Wilson believed that America's intricate system of checks and balances was the cause of the problems in American governance. He said that the divided power made it impossible for voters to see who was accountable. If government behaved badly, Wilson asked:

Wilson singled out the United States House of Representatives for particular criticism:

Wilson said that the Congressional committee system was fundamentally undemocratic in that committee chairs, who ruled by seniority, determined national policy although they were responsible to no one except their constituents; and that it facilitated corruption.

Evolving views[link]

By the time Wilson finished ''Congressional Government'', Grover Cleveland was President, and Wilson's faith in the United States government was restored. When William Jennings Bryan captured the Democratic nomination from Cleveland's supporters in 1896, however, Wilson refused to support the ticket. Instead, he cast his ballot for John M. Palmer, the presidential candidate of the National Democratic Party, or Gold Democrats, a short-lived party that supported a gold standard, low tariffs, and limited government.

After experiencing the vigorous presidencies of William McKinley and Theodore Roosevelt, Wilson no longer entertained thoughts of parliamentary government for the United States. In his last scholarly work in 1908, ''Constitutional Government of the United States'', Wilson said that the presidency "will be as big as and as influential as the man who occupies it". By the time of his presidency, Wilson merely hoped that Presidents could be party leaders in the same way British prime ministers were. Wilson also hoped that the parties could be reorganized along ideological, not geographic, lines. He wrote, "Eight words contain the sum of the present degradation of our political parties: No leaders, no principles; no principles, no parties."

Public administration[link]

Wilson also studied public administration, which he called "government in action; it is the executive, the operative, the most visible side of government, and is of course as old as government itself". He believed that by studying public administration governmental efficiency could be increased.

Wilson was concerned with the implementation of government. He faulted political leaders who focused on philosophical issues and the nature of government and dismissed the critical issues of government administration as mere "practical detail". He thought such attitudes represented the requirements of smaller countries and populations. By his day, he thought, "it is getting to be harder to run a constitution than to frame one." He thought it time "to straighten the paths of government, to make its business less unbusinesslike, to strengthen and purify its organization, and it to crown its dutifulness". He complained that studies of administration drew principally on the history of Continental Europe and an American equivalent was required. He summarized the growth of such foreign states as Prussia, France, and England, highlighting the events that led to advances in administration.

By contrast, he thought the United States required greater compromise because of the diversity of public opinion and the difficulty of forming a majority opinion. Thus practical reform to the government is necessarily slow. Yet Wilson insisted that "administration lies outside the proper sphere of politics" and that "general laws which direct these things to be done are as obviously outside of and above administration." He likens administration to a machine that functions independent of the changing mood of its leaders. Such a line of demarcation is intended to focus responsibility for actions taken on the people or persons in charge. As Wilson put it, "public attention must be easily directed, in each case of good or bad administration, to just the man deserving of praise or blame. There is no danger in power, if only it be not irresponsible. If it be divided, dealt out in share to many, it is obscured..." Essentially, the items under the discretion of administration must be limited in scope, as to not block, nullify, obfuscate, or modify the implementation of governmental decree made by the executive branch.

President of Princeton University[link]

The trustees promoted Professor Wilson to president of Princeton in 1902, replacing Francis Landey Patton, whom the Trustees perceived to be an inefficient administrator. Although the school's endowment was barely $4 million, Wilson sought $2 million for a preceptorial system of teaching, $1 million for a school of science, and nearly $3 million for new buildings and salary increases. As a long-term objective, Wilson sought $3 million for a graduate school and $2.5 million for schools of jurisprudence and electrical engineering, as well as a museum of natural history. He was also able to increase the faculty from 112 to 174, most of whom he selected himself on the basis of their records as outstanding teachers. The curriculum guidelines he developed proved important progressive innovations in the field of higher education.

To emphasize the development of expertise, Wilson instituted academic departments and a system of core requirements where students met in groups of six with preceptors, followed by two years of concentration in a selected major. He tried to raise admission standards and to replace the "gentleman's C" with serious study. Wilson aspired, as he told alumni, "to transform thoughtless boys performing tasks into thinking men".

In 1906–10, he attempted to curtail the influence of social elites by abolishing the upper-class eating clubs and moving the students into colleges, also known as quadrangles. Wilson's Quad Plan was met with fierce opposition from Princeton's alumni, most importantly Moses Taylor Pyne, the most powerful of Princeton's Trustees. Wilson held his position, saying that giving in "would be to temporize with evil". In October 1907, due to the intensity of alumni opposition, the Board of Trustees withdrew its support for the Quad Plan and instructed Wilson to withdraw it.

Late in his tenure, Wilson confronted Andrew Fleming West, Dean of the graduate school, and West's ally former President Grover Cleveland who was a trustee. Wilson wanted to integrate the proposed graduate building into the same area with the undergraduate colleges. West wanted them to remain separate. The trustees rejected Wilson's plan for colleges in 1908, and then endorsed West's alternative in 1909. The national press covered the confrontation as a battle of the elites represented by West versus democracy represented by Wilson. It was this confrontation that led to his decision to leave Princeton for politics. He later commented that politics was less brutal than university administration. Wilson was elected president of the American Political Science Association in 1910, but soon decided to leave his Princeton post and enter New Jersey state politics. According to historian John Cooper, Wilson's tenure set Princeton on the path to become one of America's great universities.

Governor of New Jersey[link]

In 1910 Wilson ran for Governor of New Jersey against the Republican candidate Vivian M. Lewis, the State Commissioner of Banking and Insurance. Wilson's campaign focused on his independence from machine politics, and he promised that if elected he would not be beholden to party bosses. Wilson soundly defeated Lewis in the general election by a margin of more than 49,000 votes, although Republican William Howard Taft had carried New Jersey in the 1908 presidential election by more than 80,000 votes. Historian and Teddy Roosevelt biographer Edmund Morris called Wilson in the Governor's race a "dark horse" and attributed his and others' success against the Taft Republicans in 1910 in part to the emergent national progressive message enunciated by Roosevelt in his post-presidency.

In the 1910 election the Democrats also took control of the General Assembly. The State Senate, however, remained in Republican control by a slim margin. After taking office, Wilson set in place his reformist agenda, ignoring the demands of party machinery. While governor, in a period spanning six months, Wilson established state primaries. This all but took the party bosses out of the presidential election process in the state. He also revamped the public utility commission, and introduced worker's compensation.

Election of 1912[link]

Wilson's popularity as governor and his status in the national media gave impetus to his presidential campaign in 1912. He chose Indiana Governor Thomas R. Marshall as his running mate and selected William Frank McCombs, a New York lawyer and a friend from college days, to manage his campaign. Much of Wilson's support came from the South, especially from young progressives in that region, especially intellectuals, editors and lawyers. Wilson managed to maneuver through the complexities of local politics. For example, in Tennessee the Democratic Party was divided on the issue of prohibition. Wilson was progressive and sober, but not a dry, and appealed to both sides. They united behind him to win the presidential election in the state, but divided over state politics and lost the gubernatorial election.

The convention deadlocked for more than 40 ballots as no candidate could reach the two-thirds vote required to win the nomination. A leading contender was House Speaker Champ Clark, a prominent progressive strongest in the border states. Other contenders were Governor Judson Harmon of Ohio, and Representative Oscar Underwood of Alabama. They lacked Wilson's charisma and dynamism. Publisher William Randolph Hearst, a leader of the left wing of the party, supported Clark. William Jennings Bryan, the nominee in 1896, 1900 and 1908, played a critical role in opposition to any candidate who had the support of "the financiers of Wall Street". He finally announced for Wilson, who won on the 46th ballot.

In the campaign Wilson promoted the "New Freedom", emphasizing limited federal government and opposition to monopoly powers, often after consultation with his chief advisor Louis D. Brandeis. In the contest for the Republican nomination, President William Howard Taft defeated former president Theodore Roosevelt, who then ran as a Bull Moose Party candidate, which assisted in Wilson's success in the electoral college. Wilson took 41.8% of the popular vote and won 435 electoral votes from 40 states. It is not clear if Roosevelt cost fellow Republican Taft, or fellow progressive Wilson more support.

Presidency, 1913–1921[link]

First term, 1913–1917[link]

Wilson was the first Southerner in the White House since 1869 and worked closely with Southern leaders. Since 1856 he and Grover Cleveland were the only Democrats elected president, so felt a need to appoint Democrats to all federal positions.

In resolving economic policy issues, he had to manage the conflict between two wings of his party, the agrarian wing led by Bryan and the pro-business wing. With large Democratic majorities in Congress and a healthy economy, he promptly seized the opportunity to implement his agenda. Wilson experienced early success by implementing his "New Freedom" pledges of antitrust modification, tariff revision, and reform in banking and currency matters. He held the first modern presidential press conference, on March 15, 1913, in which reporters were allowed to ask him questions.

Wilson's first wife Ellen died on August 6, 1914, casting him into a deep depression. In 1915, he met Edith Galt. They married later that year on December 18.

Federal Reserve 1913[link]

Wilson secured passage of the Federal Reserve Act in late 1913. Wilson had tried to find a middle ground between conservative Republicans, led by Senator Nelson W. Aldrich, and the powerful left wing of the Democratic party, led by William Jennings Bryan, who opposed all banking schemes and strenuously denounced private banks and Wall Street. The latter group wanted a government-owned central bank that could print paper money as Congress required. The compromise, based on the Aldrich Plan but sponsored by Democratic Congressmen Carter Glass and Robert Owen, allowed the private banks to control the 12 regional Federal Reserve Banks, but appeased the agrarians by placing controlling interest in the System in a central board appointed by the president with Senate approval. Moreover, Wilson convinced Bryan's supporters that because Federal Reserve notes were obligations of the government, the plan met their demands for an elastic currency. Having 12 regional banks was meant to weaken the influence of the powerful New York banks, a key demand of Bryan's allies in the South and West. This decentralization was a key factor in winning Glass' support. The final plan passed in December 1913. Some bankers felt it gave too much control to Washington, and some reformers felt it allowed bankers to maintain too much power. Several Congressmen claimed that New York bankers feigned their disapproval.

Wilson named Paul Warburg and other prominent bankers to direct the new system. While power was supposed to be decentralized, the New York branch dominated the Fed as the "first among equals". The new system began operations in 1915 and played a major role in financing the Allied and American war effort. The strengthening of the Federal Reserve was later a major accomplishment of the New Deal.

Economic legislation[link]

The Democrats lowered tariffs with the Underwood Tariff in 1913, though its effects were soon overwhelmed by the changes in trade caused by World War I. Wilson proved especially effective in mobilizing public opinion behind tariff changes by denouncing corporate lobbyists, addressing Congress in person in highly dramatic fashion, and staging an elaborate ceremony when he signed the bill into law. The revenue lost by a lower tariff was replaced by a new federal income tax, authorized by the 16th Amendment. He managed to bring all sides together on the issues of money and banking by the creation in 1913 of the Federal Reserve System, a complex business-government partnership that to this day dominates the financial world. Wilson helped end the long battles over the trusts with the Clayton Antitrust Act of 1914.

Reaching out to new constituencies, a series of programs were targeted at farmers. The Smith–Lever Act of 1914 created the modern system of agricultural extension agents sponsored by the state agricultural colleges. The agents taught new techniques to farmers. The 1916 Federal Farm Loan Act provided for issuance of low-cost long-term mortgages to farmers.

Child labor was curtailed by the Keating–Owen Act of 1916, but the U.S. Supreme Court declared it unconstitutional in 1918. No major child labor prohibition would take effect until the 1930s.

The railroad brotherhoods threatened in summer 1916 to shut down the national transportation system. Wilson tried to bring labor and management together, but when management refused, he had Congress pass the Adamson Act in September 1916, which avoided the strike by imposing an 8-hour workday in the industry (at the same pay as before). It helped Wilson gain union support for his reelection; the act was approved by the Supreme Court. Much of this agenda would later serve as an example or a basis of support for the New Deal.

Antitrust[link]

Wilson broke with the big lawsuit tradition of his predecessors Taft and Roosevelt as Trustbusters, finding a new approach to encouraging competition through the Federal Trade Commission, which stopped perceived unfair trade practices. In addition, he pushed through Congress the Clayton Antitrust Act making certain business practices illegal (such as price discrimination, agreements prohibiting retailers from handling other companies' products, and directorates and agreements to control other companies). The power of this legislation was greater than previous anti-trust laws, because individual officers of corporations could be held responsible if their companies violated the laws. More importantly, the new laws set out clear guidelines that corporations could follow, a dramatic improvement over the previous uncertainties. This law was considered the "Magna Carta" of labor by Samuel Gompers because it ended union liability antitrust laws. In 1916, under threat of a national railroad strike, he approved legislation that increased wages and cut working hours of railroad employees; there was no strike.

War policy – World War I[link]

Wilson spent 1914 through the beginning of 1917 trying to keep America out of the war in Europe. He offered to be a mediator, but neither the Allies nor the Central Powers took his requests seriously. Republicans, led by Theodore Roosevelt, strongly criticized Wilson's refusal to build up the U.S. Army in anticipation of the threat of war. Wilson won the support of the peace element (especially women and churches) by arguing that an army buildup would provoke war. Secretary of State William Jennings Bryan, whose pacifist recommendations were ignored by Wilson, resigned in 1915.

On December 18, 1916, Wilson unsuccessfully offered to mediate peace. As a preliminary he asked both sides to state their minimum terms necessary for future security. The Central Powers replied that victory was certain, and the Allies required the dismemberment of their enemies' empires. No desire for peace or common ground existed, and the offer lapsed.

While German submarines were killing sailors and civilian passengers Wilson demanded that Germany stop, but he kept the U.S. out of the war. Britain had declared a blockade of Germany to prevent neutral ships from carrying contraband goods to Germany. Wilson protested some British violation of neutral rights, where no one was killed. His protests were mild, and the British knew America would not see it as a ''casus belli''.

Wilson narrowly won the election, defeating Republican candidate Charles Evans Hughes. As governor of New York from 1907–1910, Hughes had a progressive record strikingly similar to Wilson's as governor of New Jersey. Theodore Roosevelt would comment that the only thing different between Hughes and Wilson was a shave. However, Hughes had to try to hold together a coalition of conservative Taft supporters and progressive Roosevelt partisans and so his campaign never seemed to take a definite form. Wilson ran on his record and ignored Hughes, reserving his attacks for Roosevelt. When asked why he did not attack Hughes directly, Wilson told a friend to "Never murder a man who is committing suicide."

The result was exceptionally close and the outcome was in doubt for several days. The vote came down to several close states. Wilson won California by 3,773 votes out of almost a million votes cast and New Hampshire by 54 votes. Hughes won Minnesota by 393 votes out of over 358,000. In the final count, Wilson had 277 electoral votes vs. Hughes 254. Wilson was able to win by picking up many votes that had gone to Teddy Roosevelt or Eugene V. Debs in 1912.

Second term, 1917–1921[link]

Decision for war, 1917[link]

The U.S. had made a declaration of neutrality in 1914. Wilson warned citizens not to take sides in the war for fear of endangering wider U.S. policy. In his address to Congress in 1914, Wilson stated, "Such divisions amongst us would be fatal to our peace of mind and might seriously stand in the way of the proper performance of our duty as the one great nation at peace, the one people holding itself ready to play a part of impartial mediation and speak the counsels of peace and accommodation, not as a partisan, but as a friend."

The U.S. maintained neutrality despite increasing pressure placed on Wilson after the sinking of the British passenger liner RMS Lusitania with American citizens on board. Wilson found it increasingly difficult to maintain U.S. neutrality after Germany, despite its promises in the Arabic pledge and the Sussex pledge, initiated a program of unrestricted submarine warfare early in 1917 that threatened U.S. commercial shipping. Following the revelation of the Zimmermann Telegram, Germany's attempt to enlist Mexico as an ally against the U.S., Wilson took America into World War I to make "the world safe for democracy." The U.S. did not sign a formal alliance with the United Kingdom or France but operated as an "associated" power. The U.S. raised a massive army through conscription and Wilson gave command to General John J. Pershing, allowing Pershing a free hand as to tactics, strategy and even diplomacy.

Wilson had decided by then that the war had become a real threat to humanity. Unless the U.S. threw its weight into the war, as he stated in his declaration of war speech on April 2, 1917, western civilization itself could be destroyed. His statement announcing a "war to end war" meant that he wanted to build a basis for peace that would prevent future catastrophic wars and needless death and destruction. This provided the basis of Wilson's Fourteen Points, which were intended to resolve territorial disputes, ensure free trade and commerce, and establish a peacemaking organization. Included in these fourteen points was the proposal for the League of Nations.

War Message[link]

Woodrow Wilson delivered his ''War Message'' to Congress on the evening of April 2, 1917. Introduced to great applause, he remained intense and almost motionless for the entire speech, only raising one arm as his only bodily movement.

Wilson announced that his previous position of "armed neutrality" was no longer tenable now that the Imperial German Government had announced that it would use its submarines to sink any vessel approaching the ports of Great Britain, Ireland or any of the Western Coasts of Europe. He advised Congress to declare that the recent course of action taken by the Imperial German Government constituted an act of war. He proposed that the United States enter the war to "vindicate principles of peace and justice in the life of the world as against selfish and autocratic power". He also charged that Germany had "filled our unsuspecting communities and even our offices of government with spies and set criminal intrigues everywhere afoot against our national unity of counsel, our peace within and without our industries and our commerce". Furthermore, the United States had intercepted a telegram sent to the German ambassador in Mexico City that evidenced Germany's attempt to instigate a Mexican attack upon the U.S. The German government, Wilson said, "means to stir up enemies against us at our very doors". He then warned that "if there should be disloyalty, it will be dealt with a firm hand of repression." Wilson closed with the statement that the world must be again safe for democracy.

With 50 Representatives and 6 Senators in opposition, the declaration of war by the United States against Germany was passed by the Congress on April 4, 1917, and was approved by the President on April 6, 1917.

The Fourteen Points[link]

In a speech to Congress on January 8, 1918, Wilson articulated America's war aims. It was the clearest expression of intention made by any of the belligerent nations. The speech, authored principally by Walter Lippmann, expressed Wilson's progressive domestic policies into comparably idealistic equivalents for the international arena: self-determination, open agreements, international cooperation. Promptly dubbed the ''Fourteen Points'', Wilson attempted to make them the basis for the treaty that would mark the end of the war. They ranged from the most generic principles like the prohibition of secret treaties to such detailed outcomes as the creation of an independent Poland with access to the sea.

Home front[link]

To counter opposition to the war at home, Wilson pushed the Espionage Act of 1917 and the Sedition Act of 1918 through Congress to suppress anti-British, pro-German, or anti-war opinions. While he welcomed socialists who supported the war, he pushed at the same time to arrest and deport foreign-born radicals. Citing the Espionage Act, the U.S. Post Office, following the instructions of the Justice Department, refused to carry any written materials that could be deemed critical of the U.S. war effort. Some sixty newspapers judged to have revolutionary or antiwar content were deprived of their second-class mailing rights and effectively banned from the U.S. mails. Mere criticism of the Wilson administration and its war policy became grounds for arrest and imprisonment. A Jewish immigrant from Germany, Robert Goldstein, was sentenced to ten years in prison for producing ''The Spirit of '76'', a film that portrayed the British, now an ally, in an unfavorable light.

Wilson's domestic economic policies were strongly pro-labor, but this favorable treatment was extended only to unions that supported the U.S. war effort, such as the American Federation of Labor (AFL). Antiwar groups, anarchists, communists, I.W.W. members, and other radical labor movements were regularly targeted by agents of the Department of Justice; many of their leaders were arrested on grounds of incitement to violence, espionage, or sedition. By 1918 the ranks of those arrested included Eugene Debs, the mild-mannered Socialist Party leader and labor activist, after he gave a speech opposing the war. Debs' opposition to the Wilson administration and the war earned the undying enmity of President Wilson, who later called Debs a "traitor to his country". Many recent foreign immigrants, resident aliens who opposed America's participation in World War I were eventually deported to Soviet Russia or other nations under the sweeping powers granted in the Immigration Act of 1918, which had actually been drafted by Wilson administration officials at the Department of Justice and the Bureau of Immigration. Even after the war ended in November 1918, the Wilson administration's attempts to silence radical political opponents continued, culminating in the Palmer Raids, a mass arrest and roundup of some 10,000 anarchists and labor activists led by Wilson's Attorney General, A. Mitchell Palmer. The investigations and prosecutions of antiwar activists by the Department of Justice were heavily criticized by prominent lawyers and law professors of the day, including Felix Frankfurter and Roscoe Pound. The ''Palmer Raids'' were eventually stymied in June 1920 by Massachusetts District Court Judge George Anderson, who ordered the discharge of 17 arrested aliens and publicly denounced the Department of Justice's actions. He wrote that "a mob is a mob, whether made up of Government officials acting under instructions from the Department of Justice, or of criminals and loafers and the vicious classes." Judge Anderson's decision effectively prevented any renewal of the raids. Of the 10,000 persons arrested in the Palmer raids, 3,500 were held in detention, of which 556 were eventually deported to other countries.

During the war, Wilson worked closely with Samuel Gompers and the AFL, the railroad brotherhoods, and other 'moderate' unions, which saw enormous growth in membership and wages during Wilson's administration. As there was no rationing, consumer prices soared. As income taxes increased, white-collar workers suffered. Despite this, appeals to buy war bonds were highly successful. The purchase of wartime bonds had the result of shifting the cost of the war to the affluent 1920s. In 1917, Congress authorized ex-President Theodore Roosevelt to raise four divisions of volunteers to fight in France- Roosevelt's World War I volunteers; Wilson refused to accept this offer from his political enemy. Other areas of the war effort were incorporated into the government along with propaganda. The War Industries Board headed by Bernard Baruch set war goals and policies for American factories. Future President Herbert Hoover was appointed to head the Food Administration which encouraged Americans to participate in "Meatless Mondays" and "Wheatless Wednesdays" to conserve food for the troops overseas. The Federal Fuel Administration run by Henry Garfield introduced daylight savings time and rationed fuel supplies such as coal and oil to keep the U.S. military supplied. These and many other boards and administrations were headed by businessmen recruited by Wilson for a dollar a day salary to make the government more efficient in the war effort.

In principal Wilson wanted to avoid the aggressive stance Theodore Roosevelt had taken toward Latin America. For example, he negotiated a treaty with Colombia in which the U.S. apologized for its role in the Panama Revolution of 1903–1904. In practice, he did not shrink from intervention on behalf of American values, saying in 1913: "I am going to teach the South American republics to elect good men." Between 1914 and 1918, the United States intervened in Latin America, particularly in Mexico, Haiti, Cuba, and Panama. The U.S. maintained troops in Nicaragua throughout the Wilson administration and used them to select the president of Nicaragua and then to force Nicaragua to pass the Bryan-Chamorro Treaty. American troops in Haiti, under the command of the federal government, forced the Haitian legislature to choose the candidate Wilson selected as Haitian president. American troops occupied Haiti between 1915 and 1934. Wilson ordered the military occupation of the Dominican Republic shortly after the resignation of its President Juan Isidro Jimenes Pereyra in 1916. The U.S. military worked in concert with wealthy Dominican landowners to suppress the ''gavilleros'', a ''campesino'' guerrilla force fighting the occupation. The occupation lasted until 1924, and was notorious for its brutality against those in the resistance.

After Russia left the war following the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917, the Allies sent troops there to prevent a German or Bolshevik takeover of allied-provided weapons, munitions and other supplies, previously shipped as aid to the pre-revolutionary government. Wilson sent armed forces to assist the withdrawal of Czechoslovak Legions along the Trans-Siberian Railway, hold key port cities at Arkangel and Vladivostok. Though not sent to engage the Bolsheviks, the U.S. forces engaged in several armed conflicts against forces of the new Russian government. Despite the apparent innocuousness of Wilson's motives, revolutionaries in Russia resented the American intrusion. As Robert Maddox puts it, "The immediate effect of the intervention was to prolong a bloody civil war, thereby costing thousands of additional lives and wreaking enormous destruction on an already battered society." Wilson withdrew most of the soldiers on April 1, 1920, though some remained until as late as 1922.

In 1919 Wilson guided American foreign policy to "acquiesce" in the Balfour Declaration without supporting Zionism in an official way. Wilson expressed sympathy for the plight of Jews, especially in Poland and in France.

In May 1920, Wilson finally sent a long-deferred proposal to Congress to have the U.S. accept a mandate from the League of Nations to take over Armenia. Bailey notes that the scheme was strongly opposed by American public opinion, while Richard G. Hovannisian states that Wilson "made all the wrong arguments" for the mandate and focused less on the immediate policy than on how history would judge his actions: "[he] wished to place it clearly on the record that the abandonment of Armenia was not his doing." The resolution won the votes of only 23 senators.

Peace Conference 1919[link]

After World War I, Wilson participated in negotiations with the stated aim of assuring statehood for formerly oppressed nations and an equitable peace. On January 8, 1918, Wilson made his famous ''Fourteen Points'' address, introducing the idea of a League of Nations, an organization with a stated goal of helping to preserve territorial integrity and political independence among large and small nations alike.

Wilson intended the Fourteen Points as a means toward ending the war and achieving an equitable peace for all the nations. He spent six months in Paris for the Peace Conference (making him the first U.S. president to travel to Europe while in office). He worked tirelessly to promote his plan. The charter of the proposed League of Nations was incorporated into the conference's Treaty of Versailles. Japan proposed that the Covenant include a racial equality clause. Wilson was indifferent to the issue, but acceded to strong opposition from Australia and Britain.

When Wilson traveled to Europe to settle the peace terms, he visited Pope Benedict XV in Rome, making Wilson the first American President to visit the Pope while in office.

For his peace-making efforts, Wilson was awarded the 1919 Nobel Peace Prize.

Treaty fight, 1919[link]

The next question was whether the United States Senate would approve the treaty by the required two-thirds vote. On September 3, 1919, Wilson embarked on a cross-country speaking tour in an attempt to rally the nation to his support, despite the intense opposition from Irish Catholics and Germans, most of them Democrats. Wilson had a series of debilitating strokes and had to cancel his trip on September 26, 1919. He became an invalid in the White House, closely monitored or controlled by his wife. Republicans under Senator Lodge controlled both houses of Congress after the 1918 elections. The key point of disagreement was whether the League would diminish the power of Congress to declare war.

The Senate was divided into a crazy quilt of positions on the Versailles question. It proved possible to build a majority coalition, but impossible to build the two-thirds coalition needed to pass a treaty. One block of Democrats strongly supported the Versailles Treaty. A second group of Democrats supported the Treaty but followed Wilson in opposing any amendments or reservations. The largest bloc, led by Senator Lodge, comprised a majority of the Republicans. They wanted a treaty with reservations, especially on Article X, which involved the power of the League Nations to make war without a vote by the United States Congress. Finally, a bipartisan group of 13 "irreconcilables" opposed a treaty in any form. The closest the Treaty came to passage came in mid-November 1919 when Lodge and his Republicans formed a coalition with the pro-Treaty Democrats, and were close to a two-thirds majority for a Treaty with reservations, but Wilson rejected this compromise and enough Democrats followed his lead to permanently end the chances for ratification. Cooper and Bailey suggest that Wilson's stroke on September 25, 1919, had so altered his personality that he was unable to effectively negotiate with Lodge. Cooper says, the psychological effects of a stroke were profound: "Wilson's emotions were unbalanced, and his judgment was warped....Worse, his denial of illness and limitations was starting to border on delusion."

During this period, Wilson became less trustful of the press and stopped holding press conferences for them, preferring to use his propaganda unit, the Committee for Public Information, instead. A poll of historians in 2006 cited Wilson's failure to compromise with the Republicans on U.S. entry into the League as one of the 10 largest errors on the part of an American president.

Post war: 1919–1920[link]

Wilson's administration did not plan for the process of demobilization at the war's end. Though some advisers tried to engage the President's attention to what they called "reconstruction", his tepid support for a federal commission evaporated with the election of 1918. Republican gains in the Senate meant that his opposition would have to consent to the appointment of commission members. Instead, Wilson favored the prompt dismantling of wartime boards and regulatory agencies.

Demobilization proved chaotic and violent. Four million soldiers were sent home with little planning, little money, and few benefits. A wartime bubble in prices of farmland burst, leaving many farmers bankrupt or deeply in debt after they purchased new land. Major strikes in steel, coal, and meatpacking followed in 1919. Serious race riots hit Chicago, Omaha, and two dozen other cities.

As the election of 1920 approached, Wilson imagined that a deadlocked Democratic convention might turn to him as the only candidate who would make U.S. participation in the League of Nations the dominant issue. He imagined and sometimes pretended he was healthy enough for the effort, but several times admitted that he knew he could not survive a campaign. No one around the President dared tell him that he was incapable and that the campaign for the League was already lost. At the Convention in late June 1920, some Wilson partisans made efforts on his behalf and sent Wilson hopeful reports, but they were quashed by Wilson's wiser friends.

====Incapacity==== Wilson suffered from a bout of influenza early in 1919. The immediate cause of his incapacitation was the physical strain of the public speaking tour he undertook to obtain support for ratification of the Covenant of the League of Nations. In Pueblo, Colorado, on September 25, 1919, he collapsed.

Then, on October 2, 1919, he suffered a serious stroke that almost totally incapacitated him, leaving him paralyzed on his left side and blind in his left eye. He was confined to bed for weeks, sequestered from nearly everyone except his wife and his physician, Dr. Cary Grayson. For at least a few months, he used a wheelchair. Later, he could walk only with the assistance of a cane. His wife and his chief of staff helped a journalist, Louis Seibold, present a false account of an interview with the President.

With few exceptions, Wilson was kept out of the presence of Vice President Thomas R. Marshall, his cabinet, and Congressional visitors to the White House for the remainder of his term. His wife served as his steward, selecting issues for his attention and delegating other issues to his cabinet heads. Eventually, Wilson resumed his attendance at cabinet meetings, but his input there was perfunctory at best. This was one of the most serious cases of presidential disability in American history and was later cited as an argument for the 25th Amendment. The full extent of his disability was kept from the public until after his death on February 3, 1924.

Administration and Cabinet[link]

Wilson's chief of staff ("Secretary") was Joseph Patrick Tumulty 1913–1921, but he was largely upstaged after 1916 when Wilson's second wife, Edith Bolling Galt Wilson, assumed full control of Wilson's schedule. The most important foreign policy advisor and confidant was "Colonel" Edward M. House until Wilson broke with him in early 1919.

Clear	yes
Name	Wilson
President	Woodrow Wilson
President start	1913
President end	1921
Vice president	Thomas R. Marshall
Vice president start	1913
Vice president end	1921
State	William J. Bryan
State start	1913
State end	1915
State 2	Robert Lansing
State start 2	1915
State end 2	1920
State 3	Bainbridge Colby
State start 3	1920
State end 3	1921
Treasury	William G. McAdoo
Treasury start	1913
Treasury end	1918
Treasury 2	Carter Glass
Treasury start 2	1918
Treasury end 2	1920
Treasury 3	David F. Houston
Treasury start 3	1920
Treasury end 3	1921
War	Lindley M. Garrison
War start	1913
War end	1916
War 2	Newton D. Baker
War start 2	1916
War end 2	1921
Justice	James C. McReynolds
Justice start	1913
Justice end	1914
Justice 2	Thomas W. Gregory
Justice start 2	1914
Justice end 2	1919
Justice 3	A. Mitchell Palmer
Justice start 3	1919
Justice end 3	1921
Post	Albert S. Burleson
Post start	1913
Post end	1921
Navy	Josephus Daniels
Navy start	1913
Navy end	1921
Interior	Franklin K. Lane
Interior start	1913
Interior end	1920
Interior 2	John B. Payne
Interior start 2	1920
Interior end 2	1921
Agriculture	David F. Houston
Agriculture start	1913
Agriculture end	1920
Agriculture 2	Edwin T. Meredith
Agriculture start 2	1920
Agriculture end 2	1921
Commerce	William C. Redfield
Commerce start	1913
Commerce end	1919
Commerce 2	Joshua W. Alexander
Commerce start 2	1919
Commerce end 2	1921
Labor	William B. Wilson
Labor start	1913
Labor end	1921 }}

Supreme Court appointments[link]

Wilson appointed the following Justices to the Supreme Court of the United States:

James Clark McReynolds in 1914. He served more than 26 years and established a consistent record in opposition to Franklin Delano Roosevelt's New Deal programs, including the Tennessee Valley Authority, the National Industrial Recovery Act, and the Social Security Act.

Louis Dembitz Brandeis in 1916. He served almost 23 years and wrote landmark opinions in cases respecting free speech and the right to privacy.

John Hessin Clarke in 1916. He served just 6 years on the Court before resigning. He thoroughly disliked his work as an Associate Justice.

Retirement, death and personal affairs[link]

In 1921, Wilson and his wife Edith retired from the White House to an elegant 1915 town house in the Embassy Row (Kalorama) section of Washington, D.C. Wilson continued going for daily drives, and attended Keith's vaudeville theatre on Saturday nights. Wilson was one of only two Presidents (Theodore Roosevelt was the first) to have served as president of the American Historical Association.

Wilson attended only two state occasions in his retirement: The ceremonies preceding the burial of the Unknown Soldier in Arlington National Cemetery, in Arlington, Virginia, on Armistice Day (November 11), 1921, and President Warren G. Harding's state funeral in the U.S. Capitol, on August 8, 1923. On November 10, 1923, Wilson made a short Armistice Day radio speech from the library of his home, his last national address. The following day, Armistice Day itself, he spoke briefly from the front steps to more than 20,000 well wishers gathered outside the house.

Wilson died in his S Street home on February 3, 1924. He was buried in Washington National Cathedral, the only president buried in Washington, D.C.

Mrs. Wilson stayed in the home another 37 years, dying there on December 28, 1961, the day she was to be the guest of honor at the opening of the Woodrow Wilson Bridge across the Potomac River near and in Washington, D.C. She died with her favorite dog, Rooter, at her bedside.

Mrs. Wilson left the home and much of the contents to the National Trust for Historic Preservation to be made into a museum honoring her husband. The Woodrow Wilson House opened to the public in 1963, was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1964, and listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1966.

Wilson wrote his one page will on May 31, 1917, and appointed his wife Edith as his executrix. He left his daughter Margaret an annuity of $2,500 annually for as long as she remained unmarried, and left what had been his first wife's personal property to his daughters. The rest he left to Edith as a life estate with the provision that at her death his daughters would divide the estate among themselves. In the event that Edith had a child, her children would inherit on an equal footing with his daughters. As the second Mrs. Wilson had no children from either of her marriages, he was thus providing for the child of a possible subsequent third marriage on her part.

Civil Rights[link]

African Americans[link]

Several historians have described Wilson's policies as racist; some also describe Wilson personally as a racist.

In 1912, "an unprecedented number" of African Americans left the Republican Party to cast their vote for Wilson, a Democrat. They were encouraged by his promises of support for minorities.

Wilson did not interfere with the well-established system of Jim Crow and backed the demands of Southern Democrats that their states be left alone to deal with issues of race and black voting without interference from Washington. Wilson brought many white Southerners into his administration, and supported the introduction of segregation into many federal agencies.

While president of Princeton University, Wilson discouraged blacks from even applying for admission, preferring to keep the peace among white students than have black students admitted.

Black leaders who supported Wilson in 1912 were angered when segregationist white Southerners took control of Congress and many executive departments. Wilson ignored complaints that his cabinet officials had established official segregation in most federal government offices, in some departments for the first time since 1863. New facilities were designed to keep the races working there separated. Eric Foner says, "His administration imposed full racial segregation in Washington and hounded from office considerable numbers of black federal employees." Wilson and his cabinet members fired many black Republican office holders in political-appointee positions, but also appointed a few black Democrats to such posts.

W. E. B. Du Bois, a leader of the NAACP, campaigned for Wilson and in 1918 was offered an Army commission in charge of dealing with race relations; DuBois accepted, but he failed his Army physical and did not serve. Wilson drafted hundreds of thousands of blacks into the army, giving them equal pay with whites, but kept them in all-black units with white officers, and kept the great majority out of combat. When a delegation of blacks protested the discriminatory actions, Wilson told them "segregation is not a humiliation but a benefit, and ought to be so regarded by you gentlemen." In 1914, he told ''The New York Times'', "If the colored people made a mistake in voting for me, they ought to correct it."

Wilson was also criticized by such hard-line segregationists as Georgia's Thomas E. Watson, who believed Wilson did not go far enough in restricting black employment in the federal government. The segregation introduced into the federal workplace by the Wilson administration was kept in place by the succeeding presidents and not officially ended until the Truman Administration.

Woodrow Wilson's ''History of the American People'' (1901) explained the Ku Klux Klan of the late 1860s as the natural outgrowth of Reconstruction, a lawless reaction to a lawless period. Wilson noted that the Klan "began to attempt by intimidation what they were not allowed to attempt by the ballot or by any ordered course of public action".

White ethnic groups[link]

Wilson had harsh words to say about immigrants in his history books, but after he entered politics in 1910, Wilson worked to integrate immigrants into the Democratic party, the army, and American life. During the war, he demanded in return that they repudiate any loyalty to enemy nations. Irish Americans were powerful in the Democratic party and opposed going to war as allies of their traditional enemy Britain, especially after the violent suppression of the Easter Rebellion of 1916. Wilson won them over in 1917 by promising to ask Britain to give Ireland its independence. At Versailles, however, he reneged because he saw the Irish situation purely as an internal UK matter and did not perceive the dispute and the unrest in Ireland as comparable to the plight of the various nationalities in Europe as a fall-out from World War I. As a result much of the Irish-American community vehemently denounced him. Wilson, in turn, blamed the Irish Americans and German Americans for lack of popular support for the League of Nations, saying:

Wilson nominated the first Jew to the Supreme Court, Louis Brandeis, starting a long line of Jewish justices who would serve on the nation's highest court.

Legacy[link]

On December 28, 1925, less than a year after Wilson's death, the U.S. Post Office issued the 17-cent stamp in his honor. On January 10, 1956, the 7¢ Liberty Issue postage stamp honoring Wilson was also issued.

The USS ''Woodrow Wilson'' (SSBN-624), a Lafayette-class ballistic missile submarine, was the only ship of the United States Navy to be named for Wilson. She later was converted into an attack submarine and redesignated SSN-624.

The Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs was founded at Princeton in 1930, created in the spirit of Wilson's interest in preparing students for leadership in public and international affairs.

Shadow Lawn, the Summer White House for Wilson during his term in office, became part of Monmouth University in 1956. The college has placed a marker on the building, renamed Woodrow Wilson Hall, commemorating the home. It was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1985.

In 1929, Wilson's image appeared on the $100,000 bill. The bill, now out of print but still legal tender, was only used to transfer money between Federal Reserve banks.

In 1944, Darryl F. Zanuck of 20th Century Fox produced a film titled ''Wilson''. It looked back with nostalgia to Wilson's presidency, especially concerning his role as commander-in-chief during World War I.

A section of the Rambla of Montevideo, Uruguay, is named Rambla Presidente Wilson. A street in the 16th ''arondissement'' in Paris, running from Trocadéro to the Place de l'Alma, is named the Avenue du Président Wilson. The Pont Wilson crosses the Isere river in the center of Lyon, France. The Boulevard du Président Wilson extends from the main train station of Strasbourg, and connects to the Boulevard Clemenceau. In Bordeaux, the Boulevard du Président Wilson links to the Boulevard George V. The Quai du Président Wilson forms part of the port of Marseille. Praha hlavní nádraží, the main railway station of Prague has, for much of its history, been known as the "Wilson Station" (Czech: Wilsonovo nádraží).

In 2010, Wilson was inducted into the New Jersey Hall of Fame.

Media[link]

See also[link]

Do Your Bit for America

History of the United States (1865–1918)

History of the United States (1918–1945)

Idealism (international relations)

List of Presidents of the United States

Progressivism in the United States

U.S. Presidents on U.S. postage stamps

Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars

Notes[link]

Bibliography[link]

Secondary sources[link]

Ambrosius, Lloyd E., "Woodrow Wilson and George W. Bush: Historical Comparisons of Ends and Means in Their Foreign Policies", ''Diplomatic History'', 30 (June 2006), 509–43.

Bailey; Thomas A. ''Wilson and the Peacemakers: Combining Woodrow Wilson and the Lost Peace and Woodrow Wilson and the Great Betrayal'' (1947)

Brands, H. W. ''Woodrow Wilson 1913–1921'' (2003)

Clements, Kendrick, A. ''Woodrow Wilson: World Statesman'' (1999)

Clements, Kendrick A. ''The Presidency of Woodrow Wilson'' (1992), a standard scholarly survey

Clements, Kendrick A. "Woodrow Wilson and World War I", ''Presidential Studies Quarterly'' 34:1 (2004). pp 62+

Cooper, John Milton. ''Woodrow Wilson: A Biography'' (2009), the most recent full-scale scholarly biography

Cooper, John Milton, ed. ''Reconsidering Woodrow Wilson: Progressivism, Internationalism, War, and Peace'' (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008)

*Cooper, John Milton. "Making A Case for Wilson," in ''Reconsidering Woodrow Wilson'' (2008) ch 1

Davis, Donald E. and Eugene P. Trani; ''The First Cold War: The Legacy of Woodrow Wilson in U.S.-Soviet Relations'' (2002)

Greene, Theodore P., ed. ''Wilson at Versailles'' (1957) essays by scholars and primary sources

Hofstadter, Richard. "Woodrow Wilson: The Conservative as Liberal" in ''The American Political Tradition'' (1948), ch. 10.

Janis, Mark Weston. "How Wilsonian Was Woodrow Wilson?," ''Dartmouth Law Journal'' (2007) 5:1 pp 1-15 online

Kazianis, Harry. "Woodrow Wilson: Civil War, Morality and Foreign Policy", ''E-International Relations '' (2011), E-ir.info

Knock, Thomas J. ''To End All Wars: Woodrow Wilson and the Quest for a New World Order'' (1995)

Levin, Jr., N. Gordon. ''Woodrow Wilson and World Politics: America's Response to War and Revolution'' (1968)

Link, Arthur S. "Woodrow Wilson" in Henry F. Graff ed., ''The Presidents: A Reference History '' (2002) pp 365–388

Link, Arthur Stanley. ''Woodrow Wilson and the Progressive Era, 1910–1917'' (1972) standard political history of the era

Link, Arthur Stanley. ''Wilson: The Road to the White House'' (1947), first volume of standard biography (to 1917); ''Wilson: The New Freedom'' (1956); ''Wilson: The Struggle for Neutrality: 1914–1915'' (1960); ''Wilson: Confusions and Crises: 1915–1916'' (1964); ''Wilson: Campaigns for Progressivism and Peace: 1916–1917'' (1965), the last volume of standard biography

Link, Arthur S.; ''Wilson the Diplomatist: A Look at His Major Foreign Policies'' (1957)

Link, Arthur S.; ''Woodrow Wilson and a Revolutionary World, 1913–1921'' (1982)

Livermore, Seward W. ''Woodrow Wilson and the War Congress, 1916–1918'' (1966)

Malin, James C. ''The United States after the World War'' (1930) online

May, Ernest R. ''The World War and American Isolation, 1914–1917'' (1959)

Maynard, W. Barksdale. ''Woodrow Wilson: Princeton to the Presidency'' (2008)

Miller, Kristie. ''Ellen and Edith: Woodrow Wilson's First Ladies'' (University Press of Kansas, 2010)

Saunders, Robert M. ''In Search of Woodrow Wilson: Beliefs and Behavior'' (1998)

Trani, Eugene P. "Woodrow Wilson and the Decision to Intervene in Russia: A Reconsideration". ''Journal of Modern History'' (1976). 48:440–61. in JSTOR

Tucker, Robert W. ''Woodrow Wilson and the Great War: Reconsidering America's Neutrality, 1914-1917'' (2007)

Vought, Hans. "Woodrow Wilson, Ethnicity, and the Myth of American Unity". In ''Myth America: A Historical Anthology, Volume II''. 1997. Gerster, Patrick, and Cords, Nicholas. (editors.) Brandywine Press, St. James, NY. ISBN 1–881–089–97–5

Walworth, Arthur; ''Wilson and His Peacemakers: American Diplomacy at the Paris Peace Conference, 1919''

Primary sources[link]

August Heckscher, ed., ''The Politics of Woodrow Wilson: Selections from his Speeches and Writings'' (1956)

Complete in 69 volumes at major academic libraries. Annotated edition of all of Wilson's correspondence, speeches and writings. . Memoir by Wilson's chief of staff. Arno Press reprint: 1981.

Wilson, Woodrow. "Congressional government: a study in American politics (1885)"

1912 campaign speeches 3 volumes, 1918 and later editions.

Woodrow Wilson, compiled with his approval by Hamilton Foley; ''Woodrow Wilson's Case for the League of Nations'', Princeton University Press, Princeton 1923; contemporary book review

Wilson, Woodrow. ''Messages & Papers of Woodrow Wilson'' 2 vol (ISBN 1-135-19812-8)

Wilson, Woodrow. ''The New Democracy. Presidential Messages, Addresses, and Other Papers (1913–1917)'' 2 vol 1926, ISBN 0-89875-775-4

Wilson, Woodrow. ''President Woodrow Wilson's Fourteen Points (1918)''

External links[link]

Woodrow Wilson Additional Papers at the Seeley G. Mudd Manuscript Library, Princeton University

Woodrow Wilson visits Carlisle – UK

Ode to Woodrow Wilson

Official White House biography

Woodrow Wilson: A Resource Guide from the Library of Congress

Presidential Biography by Stanley L. Klos

Audio clips of Wilson's speeches

First Inaugural Address

Second Inaugural Address

President Wilson's War Address

Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library at His Birthplace Staunton, Virginia

Boyhood Home of President Woodrow Wilson Augusta, GA

Woodrow Wilson House Washington,DC

Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars Washington,DC

Woodrow Wilson Links

Library of Congress: "Today in History: December 28"

Library of Congress: "Today in History: June 9"

Woodrow Wilson Ancestral Home

''Woodrow Wilson: Prophet of Peace,'' a National Park Service Teaching with Historic Places (TwHP) lesson plan

President Woodrow Wilson: Address To The American Indians

New Jersey Governor Thomas Woodrow Wilson, National Governors Association (listen online)

Biography of Woodrow Wilson, New Jersey State Library

NY Times main headline, April 2, 1917, ''President Calls for War Declaration, Stronger Navy, New Army of 500,000 Men, Full Cooperation With Germany's Foes''

Extensive essay on Woodrow Wilson and shorter essays on each member of his cabinet and First Lady from the Miller Center of Public Affairs

Woodrow Wilson at C-SPAN's ''American Presidents: Life Portraits''

''Booknotes'' interview with August Heckscher on ''Woodrow Wilson: A Biography'', January 12, 1992.

''Booknotes'' interview with Phyllis Lee Levin on ''Edith and Woodrow: The Wilson White House'', December 9, 2001.

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