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“No man is above the law and no man is below it; nor do we ask any man’s permission when we require him to obey it. Obedience to the law is demanded as a right; not asked as a favor.” – Theodore Roosevelt
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Teddy Roosevelt has always been one of my favorite presidents. Reading this book has just reinforced and increased that feeling. How wonderful it would be to have such a man minus his 19th century sensibilities in our politics today. Of course, it was probably those 19th century sensibilities that made him the man he was.
This book is first and foremost a politic document, but that does not distract from its value. Mr. Roosevelt spends much time touting his accomplishments. When he praises someone it is with multiple superlatives. When he criticizes an individual it is with faint praise or kid gloves.
Born of wealthy parents Roosevelt could afford to pursue his interests without worrying about providing for the basic needs for his family. He was an avid outdoorsman, spent time as a rancher out west, led the famous group of volunteers, The Rough Riders, in the Spanish-American War, served in multiple capacities of public life ranging from Police Commissioner of New York to President of the United States.
He was first and foremost an advocate of the people, but did not believe in tolerating freeloaders. Continue reading “Theodore Roosevelt: An Autobiography by Theodore Roosevelt”
Theodore Roosevelt of Rough Rider fame in the Spanish-American War was nominated for the Congressional Medal of Honor repeatedly. There were multiple letters from a wide range of people in this campaign. Probably for political reasons he was never awarded the medal during his lifetime.
103 years later, after Congress changed the law on posthumous awards of military medals, he received it. It took another campaign during which the Army turned down the request once. Bill Clinton signed the award into law during the waning days of his administration.
There are now two sets of father and son to receive this medal. Theodore Roosevelt and his son, Theodore Roosevelt, Jr. who received it actions on D-Day at Normandy, are one set. The other set is Arthur MacArthur during the Civil War and his son Douglas MacArthur (yes that one) during WWII.
Now you know.
We of the great modern democracies must strive unceasingly to make our several countries lands in which a poor man who works hard can live comfortably and honestly, and in which a rich man cannot live dishonestly nor in slothful avoidance of duty; and yet we must judge rich man and poor man alike by a standard which rests on conduct and not on caste, and we must frown with the same stern severity on the mean and vicious envy which hates and would plunder a man because he is well off and on the brutal and selfish arrogance which looks down on and exploits the man with whom life has gone hard.