The Everything Theodore Roosevelt Book (5 page)

A. Scottish

B. Norwegian

C. Paraguayan

D. English

1-4 David Livingstone was presumably lost on an African expedition in 1864. A search party led by Henry Stanley found him, which resulted in a famous question/quotation. It was:

A. “Dr. Livingstone, wherefore art thou?”

B. “I regret that I have but one life to give for my country.”

C. “Dr. Livingstone, I presume?”

D. “How many fingers am I holding up?”

1-5 “Dime novels” in the 1880s were so named because:

A. the best known author of such novels was Neil Dime.

B. anyone needing a break while reading one could “stop on a dime.”

C. they cost ten cents originally.

D. they became popular after the release of H. G. Wells’s novella
The Dime Machine
.

1-6 TR’s parents encouraged him to read novels when he was a child
.

A. True

B. False

ANSWERS

1-1. B: Scarlett O’Hara was the female protagonist in Margaret Mitchell’s novel Gone with the Wind.

1-2. D

1-3. A

1-4. C: Stanley found Livingstone alive and well on November 10, 1871, after looking for him for eight months.

1-5. C: After a while, the label “dime novel” encompassed a variety of publications.

1-6. False: Even though they preferred that he read books of an educational nature, he managed to read some books that might have been considered “dime novels.”

CHAPTER 2

From Home to Harvard

“All this individual morality I was taught by the books I read at home and the books I studied at Harvard. But there was almost no teaching of the need for collective action, and of the fact that in addition to, not as a substitute for, individual responsibility, there is a collective responsibility.”

The transition from home to Harvard was difficult for TR. He was used to the informal homeschool environment at the family home and to his limited circle of friends. TR found that Harvard was an unforgiving place for him at first. He adapted, but slowly. Once he learned that there was more to college than studying, he began to develop his mind, body, and a wider circle of friends. Eventually, he graduated with high honors, a healthy attitude, a widely expanded store of knowledge—and a soon-to-be wife.

Entering Harvard

In his early teens TR was not prepared to enter Harvard. He needed a considerable amount of preparatory schooling before he could begin his studies there. TR recognized the value of a college education, especially if he wanted to accomplish everything he had in mind. For him, that meant an opportunity to pursue his studies in natural history. His stay at Harvard sidetracked him from achieving that dream.

TR believed firmly in a college education. He had a quaint way of saying that it opened up a door or two for anybody, whether for good or for bad. TR advised, “A man who has never gone to school may steal from a freight car, but if he has a university education, he may steal from the whole railroad.”

TR possessed a lot of knowledge, much of which he had learned from practical experience. That alone was not going to get him into Harvard. He realized that. He explained, “I could not go to school because I knew so much less than most boys of my age in some subjects and so much more in others.”

He was well versed in science, history, geography, German, and French. He needed to strengthen other liberal arts subjects. So he worked with a tutor his father hired to start his preparation for an Ivy League education.

After the family returned from a tour of Europe in the winter of 1872–1873, Thee employed Arthur Cutler, a recent Harvard graduate, to work exclusively with TR. Cutler developed a program for his student, designed to strengthen the academic areas in which he was most lacking, such as mathematics and classical languages, specifically Latin and Greek.

A Demanding Taskmaster

The program Cutler designed was meant to take three years to complete. TR was equal to the challenge. He worked six to eight hours a day and finished the curriculum in two years. By that time he had polished his mathematics, Greek, and Latin skills to the point where he did well enough on the Harvard entrance exams to gain admittance.

A look back at his entrance exams shows that even then TR demonstrated a predilection for choosing subjects that interested him. He focused on subjects like mathematics and placed very little emphasis on the classics. His strategy worked. He was one of the few freshmen in his class at Harvard to take advanced mathematics courses.

Cutler may have been TR’s superior in academic skills, but not in physical strength. In 1879, on a hiking trip in Maine, they climbed Mt. Katahdin with a guide, Bill Sewall. Normally, the climb up the 5,268-foot mountain took days. Even though TR was carrying a 45-pound pack, he made it to the top. Cutler did not.

Cutler did wonders preparing TR for a big step in his life.

Muscular Christianity and Masculinity

TR may have been ready for Harvard, but there was some question as to whether Harvard was ready for him. He arrived at the college with an air of smugness and condescension that his fellow students found difficult to tolerate. Worse, he found it difficult to break his ties with Thee, which complicated his life on campus at first.

Thee espoused some eccentric ideas that redounded badly on his family at times. One of them was his belief in Muscular Christianity as it related to masculinity—and Harvard.

The Roosevelts were devout Christians. TR never lost his belief in God or Christianity, and his religious fervor pushed away some of his classmates when he arrived on campus. He may have agreed with Thee when it came to religious beliefs, but father and son differed when it came to sexism.

Men and Morals

Thee believed that men were the stronger and more moralistic gender. TR always saw women and children as strong people who could benefit from the support of males. Thee carried his belief about male superiority over into the religious realm. His connection between the two worlds led to problems for TR.

In Thee’s mind, men were becoming emasculated by the mid-nineteenth century—at least in New York City. He theorized that one way to restore their disappearing zest for life and morality was to build up their bodies, which he thought would be good for TR. Thus, he was a strong proponent of Muscular Christianity. After all, Muscular Christianity advocates averred, Jesus Christ was morally pure and physically fit. His advocates should follow suit. That philosophy fit well into Thee’s “private trainer” program for TR.

The Young Men Christians Association (YMCA, or simply the “Y”) is not much older than TR. It was established in England in 1844 to provide young men with an alternative to pubs and brothels. The first YMCA in the United States opened in Boston on December 29, 1851, which was ideal for the students at Harvard College.

Thee began pushing TR almost from birth to strengthen his body through constant physical activity. He thought that what was good for TR was good for the rest of his children, the young people of New York City, and beyond. Thee used his philanthropic bent to promote Muscular Christianity and build a better, more masculine world.

Some of TR’s fellow students at Harvard believed that he pushed the Muscular Christianity concept too far. They viewed his focus on the “strenuous life” as a bit bizarre, even though some of them marveled at his physical prowess. Stories of his athletic endeavors, energy, and enthusiasm for just about everything abounded.

Pushing the Physical Bar

TR developed a passion for boxing at Harvard. He engaged in bouts with classmates both in the ring and outside. Frederic Almy, the secretary of TR’s class of 1880, related an event that occurred during the controversial 1876 presidential campaign between Republican Rutherford B. Hayes and Democrat Samuel J. Tilden.

As Almy recalled, there was a torchlight parade in progress when a person on the sidewalk near TR made a derogatory comment. TR reacted violently and rashly.

Almy said that he “reached out and laid the mucker flat.” That was uncharacteristic of TR for two reasons: He was not prone to solve arguments through physical means, and he had not developed a great fondness for politics at that point.

Another classmate, Richard Welling, related endurance contests they took part in.

What was the outcome of the 1876 presidential election?

The presidential race in 1876 was marred by controversy. Tilden won the popular vote and had a lead in the electoral count, 184 to 165, with twenty disputed votes uncounted. After a protracted legal and political battle, the disputed votes were awarded to Hayes. Incidentally, Hayes was the first president to graduate from law school (Harvard Law School, 1845).

Good Skates, but Not Good Skaters

Welling, like TR, was a physical training devotee. One extremely cold afternoon the two young men went skating on a local pond. Neither one was particularly adept at skating. Under ordinary circumstances they would have hung up their skates, gone inside, and warmed up. But neither would admit that they were close to suffering frostbite.

Philip M. Boffey, who wrote an article about TR’s life at Harvard, cautioned, “So many legends have grown up around Theodore Roosevelt that it is hard to sift fact from fiction. A host of friends, classmates, and distant admirers have felt obliged to produce anecdotes about this ‘locomotive in human pants,’ thus swelling the collection of stories over the years.”

TR kept asking Welling, “Isn’t this perfectly bully?” Welling did not think so, but he would not say anything to destroy TR’s feigned enthusiasm. He just agreed. The test of wills continued. Finally, well into their third hour of skating—at least as Welling reported—TR suggested they stop. It was one of the rare times that TR found himself on thin ice and gave up—if he did.