Rate the Presidency of Theodore Roosevelt
Theodore Roosevelt was the 26th president of the United States. He took over as president after William McKinley was assassinated in 1901. Before he became the president he was an Under Secretary of the Navy, a cornel in the U.S. army, and the Governor of New York. Theodore was the first president to do a great many things. He was a very flamboyant talker and had a very squeaky voice. He didn’t take any crap from nobody. After talking about him in class he has easily become one of my favorite presidents we have ever had. If I were to rate the presidency of Theodore Roosevelt from 1 to 10 I would give him a 9.5.
Theodore was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1906 for ending the war between Russia and Japan. The negotiations to end the Russo-Japanese war began at Sagamore Hill when President Theodore Roosevelt invited diplomats on both sides, Russia and Japan, to his home in Oyster Bay. After meeting with all of them, he sent the diplomats out on board the presidential yacht Mayflower. He would not allow the two men off the boat unless they came to an agreement. Which they finally did in 1905. When he received the Nobel Peace Prize he was not only the first president but also the first American to win a Nobel Prize in any of the categories. During the entire time Theodore was president there where no wars with America. I believe that while Roosevelt was president most countries were to scared to attack the Untied States because they new that Theodore would drop the hammer on them.
President Roosevelt was the first American president to go up in an airplane and go down in a submarine. At an air show at Aviation Field in St. Louis, Missouri on October 11, 1910, Theodore Roosevelt was offered a seat as a passenger in a plane for a demonstration flight. The pilot's name was Arch Hoxsey, who had just completed a record flight from Springfield, Illinois. The plane reached an altitude of about 50 feet, circled the field twice and stayed airborne for about four minutes. TR said he wished they could have stayed in the air for an hour. This flight made TR the first President to fly in a plane. Roosevelt on March 25, 1905, went down in a submarine making him the first president to go on a submarine. Roosevelt's two-hour trip on the USS Plunger convinced him that the men on board deserved more respect and a pay raise. He raised the men’s pay by ten dollars an hour.
In 1906 Roosevelt went to Panama to check on the construction of a canal, which would unite the two great oceans, the Atlantic and the Pacific. This act made him the first president to leave the U.S. while in office. Theodore was not the first however to attempt to make a canal in Panama. The French a few years earlier had cleared out all the jungle and had started digging before the U.S. this canal cost over 5,600 lives and $350 million, which was actually considered under budget. If it were not for Theodore’s daring nature that prompted him to invest so much into this project we would not have won
World War I. And if that happened who knows what the world would have been like.
On October 16, after an afternoon meeting at the White House with Booker T. Washington, President Theodore Roosevelt informally invited Washington to remain and eat dinner with him, making Washington the first black American to dine at the White House with the president. A furor arose over the social implications of Roosevelt's casual act. This was a very bold move on Theodore’s part mainly because no one had done this before. But that’s not going to stop Theodore after all he is not one to care what others think.
Theodore was a man of firsts. He is probly one of the boldest and smartest presidents we have ever had. If he had not become president who knows how the world would be. I can tell you that the U.S. would probly not be the superpower of the world. We need another president just like Theodore in our modern times. I can tell you this much if Theodore was our president now he would not let congress or any body else pushes him around.