561. The Essential Theodore Roosevelt. This book houses a small portion the writings by Roosevelt. He was the most prolific writer ever to live in the White House. The quality of his writing is of the highest order. Much of it is of a political nature and the style is suitable to the subject but when the subject demanded he could rival any writer in English and I mean any. Just read this selection from Uganda and the Great Nyanza Lakes, written 1910:
Throughout our passage the wind hardly ruffled the smooth surface of the lake. As we steamed away from the eastern shore of the mountain behind us and on our right hand rose harsh and barren, yet with a kind of forbidden beauty. Dark clouds hung over the land we had left, and a rainbow stretched across their front. At nightfall, as the red sunset faded, the lonely water of the vast inland sea stretched, oceanlike, west and south into a shoreless gloom. Then the darkness deepened, the tropic stars blazed overhead,...and the light of the half moon drowned in silver the embers of the sunset.
Such writing could only come from a master. Someone who read quality literature and thought deeply about what he read and the manner in which it was written.
His writings are full of gems of a life spent in activity and service. He once wrote:
Unless men are willing to fight and die for great ideals, including love of country, ideals will vanish, and the world will become one huge sty of materialism. (Service and Self Respect- 1918)
Look at this profound comment on foreign affairs:
It is a mistake and it betrays a spirit of foolish cynicism, to maintain that all international governmental action is and must ever be, based upon mere selfishness and that to advance ethical reasons for such action is always a sign of hypocrisy. (6th Annual Message to Congress, 1906)
Much of his writings do not have so much as neat tidy quotable quotes as extended passages which have much to say about leadership and duty. He wrote so much that the passages cited here may falsely give the impression that he was full of sententiae.
He made fascinating observations about peace:
It must be kept in mind that war is not merely justifiable but imperative....where peace can only be obtained by the sacrifice of conscientious conviction or the national welfare.
A just war is in the long run far better for a nation’s soul than the most prosperous peace obtained by acquiesence in wrong or injustice.
Nothing would more promote iniquity, nothing would further defer the reign upon earth of peace and righteousness, than from the free and enlightened people which, though with much stumbling, nevertheless strive toward justice, deliberately to render themselves powerless while leaving every despotism and barbarism armed and able to work their wicked will.
Roosevelt is of course famous for his contribution to nature conservancy:
...the property rights of the individual are subordinate to the rights of the community...
His speech before the Hamilton Club- 1899- Often this speech is called the Strenuous Life:
We do not admire the man of timid peace. Those with sufficient wealth to live a life of leisure should not spend it in idleness.
Only by hard work, study, toil can a human fulfill full potential. This is the strenuous life. The only meaningful life is to be active and involved in society.
If Union people had flinched its duty in 1861-lives would have been saved, no gloom... but instead they saved the Union and ended slavery.
If we are truly a great people we must strive in good faith to play a great part in the world.
It is interesting to note that Roosevelt took no share in the idea that the US should remain neutral or isolated from world affairs.
He goes on:
Timidity, concern for material wealth causes us to shrink from meeting challenges. We must also face the possibility that we may stumble.
Cloistered life saps the hardy virtues in a nation.
I can not over emphasize how relevant this speech is to our current trials.
In his The Peace of Righteousness Roosevelt says:
Whoever clamors for unrighteous peace are enemies of mankind. (righteousness means the habit of doing the right thing).
Peace is a means of righteousness, it is not an end in itself.
As long as powers exist who will break a treaty if it is in their interest to do so we must back each treaty with power to make it right, if necessary.
To the doctrine that might makes right, it is utterly useless to oppose the doctrine of right unbacked by might.
He so beautifully takes the phrase might makes right- so commonly used and makes the words serve his own course of argument. Clearly the kind of thing Marcus Tullius Cicero would do.
There is just one way in which to meet the upholders of the doctrine that might makes right. To do so we must prove that right will make right by backing right with might.
Strength at least commands respect whereas the prattling feebleness that dares not rebuke any concrete wrong, and whose proposals for right are marked by shear fatuity is fit only to excite weeping among angels and among men the bitter laughter of scorn. (This was his comment upon President Wilson’s foreign policy.)
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