Theodore Rex: "The greatest herder of emperors since Napoleon..."

My most recent literary sojourn into the world of Theodore Roosevelt (TR) ended when I finished the 555th – and last – page of Theodore Rex, the masterful second volume of Edmund Morris’s planned three-volume biography of the 26th President of the United States. It was with profound regret that I found myself done with this book… for three weeks, I savored every paragraph, every sentence, every word of Morris’s superb narrative. In fact, I allowed myself an extra week to finish the book in order to prolong the enjoyment I got from reading it…

Theodore Rex, the sequel to Morris’s The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt, is a thorough examination of the 7½ years TR spent in the White House. It picks right up where The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt ended – with the assassination of TR’s predecessor, William McKinley. It ends on March 4, 1909, when Roosevelt reluctantly surrendered the reins of power to his hand-picked successor, William Howard Taft.

By today’s standards (or at least the standards set by the political pundits in the media), a President’s overall "greatness" seems to be guided by whether or not he was responsible for at least one major positive accomplishment during his term(s) of office, while at the same time avoiding any major blunders. If you apply these standards to Theodore Roosevelt as he is portrayed in Theodore Rex, he arguably ranks as one of the five greatest Presidents in our Nation's history. Not only was he responsible for one major accomplishment – he was responsible for many. As Morris points out, Theodore Roosevelt, more than any President before him, and maybe since, transformed the Presidency from an almost figurehead-like office into what it is today: the most prominent and powerful office in the world.

TR’s record of achievement begins almost from the instant he is sworn in. Even though he pledges to "continue, absolutely unbroken, the policy of President McKinley for the peace, the prosperity, and the honor of our beloved country," Roosevelt is quick to begin charting his own typically activist course.

His strong, progressive hand is soon felt in nearly every quarter of the United States. He successfully challenges the untrammeled power of illegal combinations and trusts by winning a landmark Supreme Court case that breaks up the Northern Securities trust. He adopts a more enlightened attitude toward race relations in the south by first listening to the counsel of black leaders and then acting on their advice. He also secures passage of the first-ever Federal anti-lynching law through Congress.

In 1904, in what Morris considers his greatest blunder as President, TR summarily dismisses three companies of African-American soldiers who have been accused, but never convicted of, "...carrying their rifles and an abundant supply of ammunition [into the town of Brownsville, Texas]... [and] begun [sic] firing directly into dwellings, offices, stores, and at police and citizens. During the firing, one citizen was killed..."[1]

TR fundamentally alters the course of labor relations in the United States by becoming the first President to involve himself directly in a labor dispute. When a long coal miner’s strike threatens to leave Americans literally "out in the cold," TR boldly steps in, brings both sides together, and "arm-twists" them into breaking the logjam.

A longtime passionate advocate of environmental causes, TR uses every legal means at his disposal – laws passed by Congress, Executive Orders, and the powers of Federal regulatory agencies – to create a host of national parks and Federally protected nature preserves.

As great as his domestic accomplishments are, the things Theodore Roosevelt does in foreign affairs are very likely the crowning achievements of his Presidency. In the international arena, TR does more to forge America’s place as a major world power than any President before or since. His actions are always shrouded in controversy, but somehow always seem to increase America’s stature in the world. He foments a "little revolution in Central America" that sees Panama emerge as an independent nation… and the United States the builder, owner, and operator of the Panama Canal.

When several Latin American countries default on loans to European creditors, and those European nations threaten to use military force to exact payment, TR issues the "Roosevelt Corollary" to the Monroe Doctrine, which states that "…in the Western Hemisphere, the adherence of the United States to the Monroe Doctrine may force the United States, however reluctantly, in flagrant cases of… wrongdoing or impotence, to the exercise of an international police power."[2] The overall result: whenever Americans get into trouble, not only in Latin America, but anywhere else in the world, TR is quickly able to engage in "gunboat diplomacy…" he’ll simply send in a couple of ships and a company of Marines, and trouble for Americans somehow seems to evaporate.

Roosevelt’s greatest achievement in foreign affairs comes in 1905 when he steps forward and offers to assist Russia and Japan in negotiating an end to the Russo-Japanese War. With Japan on the verge of an overwhelming victory, and Russia desperately seeking to avoid the humiliation of ceding territory and paying huge indemnities, both sides stubbornly refuse to even consider talking to each other. Working patiently behind the scenes, and displaying a surprising talent for subtle diplomacy, TR gets both parties to agree to sit down with him in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Roosevelt's successful efforts to mediate a settlement between Russia and Japan, two bitter antagonists, earn for him the Nobel Peace Prize in 1906.

In Theodore Rex, Edmund Morris abandons the highly controversial literary device he used when writing Dutch: A Memoir of Ronald Reagan (in which he placed himself as a fictional observer of events), and wisely returns to what he does best: writing Presidential biographies with his stylishly crisp, clear, and highly entertaining prose. Never once does he let the pace of his eloquent narrative in Theodore Rex flag. I found myself immediately "hooked" while reading this superb book's first few pages. TR's means of handling his assumption of the Presidency after the assassination of William McKinley is a dramatic story in itself, and it’s deftly handled by Morris. Nearly all of the major events of TR’s presidency are handled with equal skill.

Theodore Rex is a highly detailed and polished narrative that places both TR and his presidency in a decidedly positive light. Roosevelt is portrayed as a highly principled man, almost puritanical in his values, and unwilling to compromise on most deeply felt issues. Morris allows TR’s youthful vigor, optimism, progressivism, and hunger for approval to shine through on every page.

Theodore Rex shouldn’t be mistaken as an exercise in hagiography, though. It is, at its heart, a scholarly, judicious, and finely balanced biography. Throughout the book, Morris provides an incisive analysis of Roosevelt and what he accomplished during his 7½ years as President. Successes and failures, good judgments and misjudgments… all are presented in equal measure.

Of all the Presidential biographies I’ve read in recent years, Theodore Rex is one of the best. This eagerly anticipated sequel to The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt, written twenty years after its Pulitzer Prize-winning predecessor, is certainly its equal in quality of writing, scholarship, and insightful historical analysis. Not only that, but it’s a great read!

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[1] Edmund Morris, Theodore Rex (New York: Random House, 2001) 462-463.

[2] "The Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine," quoted from Theodore Roosevelt’s Annual Message to Congress, December 6, 1904