( 2 7 October 2 0 0 5 , Thursday )







This is the day to pay homage to THEODORE ROOSEVELT ,

Twenty - Sixth President of the United States . " T . R . "

was born one - hundred - forty - seven - years ago ,

2 7 October 1 8 5 8 . Teddy Roosevelt was the youngest

President , successor to the assassinated WILLIAM

McKINLEY on 1 4 September 1 9 0 1 ; Roosevelt was just

forty - two years old at the time .





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There are remarkable parallels between Theodore

Roosevelt and his fifth Cousin , FRANKLIN ROOSEVELT - -

both Harvard grads , both served in the New York State

Assembly , both were appointed Assistant Secretary of

the Navy , both departed politics for a time following

personal tragedies , both returned to politics as

Governor of New York . Each of the two Roosevelts

was nominated for Vice - President , " T . R . " in

1 9 0 0 , F . D . R . in 1 9 2 0 . ( Franklin Roosevelt did

not win the Vice - Presidency , as he and Presidential

nominee JAMES COX of Ohio were drubbed by

Republican nominees WARREN G . HARDING and

JOHN CALVIN COOLIDGE . ) The 1 9 0 5 wedding of

Franklin Roosevelt and his Bride ELEANOR was

attended by the President , " T . R . " himself .







Each day of this new Century , through the Fourth of

January 2 0 0 9 , may be said to be " One - Hundred

Years After Theodore Roosevelt ' s Presidency . "

T . R . , who was said to peruse ABRAHAM LINCOLN ' s

portrait on the Five - Dollar GreenBack while mulling

over difficult decisions , had one common thread

connecting his Presidency with Lincoln ' s : JOHN HAY ,

one of President Lincoln ' s personal secretaries , was

the first of three Secretaries of State who served under

Roosevelt . ( The novelist GORE VIDAL , author of

EMPIRE , claims that Secretary of State Hay presented

Roosevelt with a lock of Lincoln ' s hair , clipped from

the sixteenth President ' s head at the time of Lincoln ' s

death . ) One may see President Roosevelt and Secretary

Hay portrayed by BRIAN KEITH and JOHN HUSTON ,

respectively , in the film THE WIND AND THE LION .

Four American Presidents - - Abraham Lincoln , JAMES

A . GARFIELD , William McKinley , JOHN F . KENNEDY - -

were fatally shot , Lincoln and McKinley during their

second Presidential terms . Theodore Roosevelt ,

at the time of the 1 9 0 0 Republican Convention still

New York ' s Governor , was chosen to replace

GARRETT A . HOBART as McKinley ' s Vice - Presidential

nominee , over the protests of McKinley ' s campaign

manager , MARK HANNA . ( Hanna was heard to say ,

correctly , that " only a heartbeat " stood between

" that cowboy " and the Presidency . )







Newspaper mogul WILLIAM RANDOLPH HEARST

liked to boast that the SPANISH - AMERICAN WAR

of 1 8 9 8 was instigated by himself , and that

" Colonel " Theodore Roosevelt and his " Rough

Riders " were glorified in the Hearst papers ,

sufficient to insure Roosevelt ' s political fame

and prestige . The near - sighted Roosevelt

stockpiled supplemental pairs of eyeglasses

for the assault on Kettle Hill and , subsequently ,

SAN JUAN HEIGHTS , 1 July 1 8 9 8 . ( Second - in -

command to Colonel LEONARD WOOD , Roosevelt

assumed command of the Rough Riders on 3 0 June

1 8 9 8 when Colonel Wood was promoted to Brigidier

General . New York voters were quick to reward

Roosevelt , electing him Governor just four months

after - the - fact . ) NOTE : Roosevelt was posthumously awarded

the CONGRESSIONAL MEDAL OF HONOR on 1 6

January 2 0 0 1 , almost one - hundred - three years later .





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Roosevelt had no ordinary preparation for leading a

cavalry unit : he had lived in the DAKOTA TERRITORY

following his resignation from the New York Assembly .

Roosevelt ' s abrupt departure from Empire State

politics was prompted by the aforementioned personal

tragedy , the deaths of His Mother and His first Wife

on the same day , 1 4 February 1 8 8 4 .







Two years in the Dakotas gave Roosevelt opportunities

to observe the Flora and Fauna of the American Plains ,

some of which owe their " taxonomy " ( their Latin

names ) to T . R . Ever the prolific writer , Roosevelt

would author some sixty books in his sixty years , some

of which date from his hiatus in what is now NORTH

DAKOTA . ( Have a look at Your RAND McNALLY , if

You have one , and see the Theodore Roosevelt National

Park on the North Dakota map . )







Extraordinarily well - traveled , Roosevelt went to

Africa following the end of his Presidency , and explored

the Amazon Basin after his unsuccessful attempt at

regaining the White House in the 1 9 1 2 Campaign .

( One Brazilian Tributary of the Amazon is known as

" Rio Teodoro " or " Rio Roosevelt " . ) Fifty years old

in 1 9 0 9 , when WILLIAM HOWARD TAFT succeeded

him as President , Roosevelt lived another ten years

despite three grave hardships : a bullet wound , incurred

in Milwaukee on 1 4 October 1 9 1 2 at a campaign stop

( Roosevelt nevertheless delivered the speech ! ) ; a

recurrent fever , which afflicted Roosevelt after the

Amazon venture ; and the death of Roosevelt ' s Son

QUENTIN , the latter a World War One casualty ,

1 4 July 1 9 1 8 . Roosevelt himself died 6 January

1 9 1 9 at SAGAMORE HILL , his Oyster Bay , Long

Island mansion . ( Your Typist visited Sagamore

Hill the day after the 1 9 9 6 Presidential Election ,

6 November of ' 9 6 / Wednesday . )







Theodore Roosevelt mediated the end of the RUSSO -

JAPANESE WAR ( 1 9 0 5 ) , for which he received the

NOBEL PEACE PRIZE ; T . R . was the first American

so honored . A game warrior in his final decade ,

Roosevelt asked President WOODROW WILSON to

allow him to recruit a regiment to fight in Europe - -

permission was denied ; interestingly , Roosevelt ' s

Son and name - sake THEODORE ROOSEVELT JR . ,

at fifty - six years of age , did lead a regiment onto

UTAH BEACH on 6 June 1 9 4 4 ( D - Day ) .







The PANAMA CANAL was initiated on President Roosevelt ' s

watch , and makes for an amusing turn - of - phrase - -

" A MAN - A PLAN - A CANAL . PANAMA ! " The twenty - one

letters are a mirror - image , known in the vernacular as a

" PALINDROME " , spelled identically front - and - back .

( a - m - a - n - a - p - l - a - n - a - c - a - n - a - l - p - a - n - a - m - a )







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