Theodore Roosevelt Hardships

As 26th president of the United States and also the youngest president ever to be elected, Theodore Roosevelt faced many challenging decisions, but he knew how to handle them. He planted his feet firm in his beliefs and fought for nothing but success and never gave up. Many people know about the great things Theodore Roosevelt accomplished as President, but not many people know about his life before Presidency. Theodore faced many hardships in his early life, causing people to look upon him as frail and unlikely to succeed. These hardships did not stop him though, he pushed through them and became known as a notable statesman, military leader, governor, vice-president of the United States, and finally the most powerful leader in this free world,

the President of the United States of America.
Roosevelt’s childhood was much less than perfect, but he found a way to never let anything hold him down. Theodore Roosevelt was born on October 28, 1858 in New York City. Theodore was the second eldest out of four children. His father, Theodore, Sr., was a businessman along with a philanthropist. His mother, Martha, was a Southerner, who grew up on a plantation in Georgia. Roosevelt was homeschooled by private teachers. He grew up as a sickly child who was affected by asthma. As much as he wanted to be like every other kid, he had something that set him apart from the others. As a teenager Theodore decided he was going to make his own self, he wasn’t going to let his asthma take over his life. He started in gymnastics and weight lifting which brought him to be someone he was most proud of. After he became involved in these activities he became devoted to exercising and the “strenuous life”. He managed to find time for any physical activity such as hiking, swimming, or riding horses. His family traveled a lot through Europe and the Middle East during the late 1860’s. In 1876 Roosevelt went off to college at Harvard College, where he studied many subjects. Some of the subjects he studied were zoology, composition, forensics, and natural history. While in college he also continued his physical activities and tried something new by participating in wrestling and boxing. While Roosevelt was in college he fell in love with a young woman by the name of Alice Hathaway Lee, whom was from New England. He met Alice through a friend at college. Their love was undeniable and soon they got married in October of 1880.
After Roosevelt was married he then set off for his next chapter in his life.

He enrolled in Columbia Law School, but dropped only a year in to pursue a public service career instead. He was elected to the New York Assembly for two terms from 1882 to 1884. In 1884 Theodore Roosevelt was struck with two horrible tragedies. On February 12th Alice gave birth to their daughter, Alice Lee. Roosevelt was in Albany attending business when he received a telegram informing him his daughter had arrived. Roosevelt headed home to be with his wife who was very ill from giving birth. In the afternoon of February 14th, Alice passed away from undiagnosed kidney failure. The same day, only a few hours apart, and in the same house, Roosevelt’s mother died of typhoid fever. He was only 25 years old. In a private letter Roosevelt wrote, “It was a grim and an evil fate, but I never have believed it did any good to flinch or yield for any blow, nor does it lighten the blow to cease from working.” (Private letter, March 1884). Devastated by the tragedies, Theodore Roosevelt threw himself into political work to escape the grief. He left his daughter in the care with his sister and started new by escaping to the Dakota

Badlands.
Once in the Badlands, Roosevelt took up the Western life. He bought two ranches and thousands of cattle. Roosevelt found himself riding horses, herding cows as a rancher, hunting bears, and chasing down outlaws as a frontier sheriff. In 1885 a hard winter storm took out the majority of his cattle, the following year he decided to move back East. Although he loved the Western living and the escape, he wanted to go back to his former life. He came into contact with his childhood sweetheart, Edith Kermit Carow, they were married in England in 1886. The two newly wed then moved to Oyster Bay, New York, into a house that is now know as Sagamore Hill. Along with raising Roosevelt’s first child, Alice, they had five children: Theodore, Kermit, Ethel, Archibald, Quentin.
After Roosevelt returned to New York wonderful opportunities were in his hands.

He continued writing and published a book in 1882, The Naval War of 1812. He wrote many other books as well such as: The Life of Thomas Hart Benton, The Life of Gouverneur Morris, and The Winning of the West. In 1886, Theodore Roosevelt continued in his political interests and ran for mayor of New York City, but he ended up unsuccessful. Two years later he campaigned for the Republican presidential nominee, Benjamin Harrison. When Harrison had won, he brought Roosevelt into the U.S. Civil Service Commission. In 1889, the Democratic President, Grover Cleveland, reappointed him to the Commission. As commissioner, Roosevelt served greatly until he become president of the New York Police Board in 1895. Theodore was brutally honest, which upset the majority of the people, but that was what he was best for. He brought a sense of authority and understanding to whatever he was apart of. Theodore was successful in cleaning up the mess that the Police Board was in, and banning the use of liquor on the

Sabbath.
In 1897, the newly elected president, William McKinley, appointed Roosevelt as the assistant secretary of the Navy. Roosevelt’s love for adrenaline and adventurous life made him eager to work with the Navy. He believed the Navy played a huge role in the importance and demand of this nations defense. As secretary of the Navy, Roosevelt responded to many significant events. In 1898, he responded to an explosion of the U.S. battleship Main on the Havana Harbor. He had people preparing for war with Spain by instructing them the necessary steps. He also had people preparing for the probable invasion of the Philippines. During the Spanish and American War, one of the most courageous acts Roosevelt did was resigning his position as assistant secretary and volunteering for service as commander of the group known as “The Rough Riders”. Once they were in Cuba, Roosevelt set forth to lead them on foot up San Juan Hill. The Rough Riders suffered many obstacles and hardships, but made their way back to the United States as war heroes. Theodore was not only willing to give up his high position as secretary to go fight in war, he was determined to win and not give up. Roosevelt writes in one of his journals, “As for the political effect of my actions — in the first Place, I never can get on in politics, and in the second, would rather have led that charge and earned my colonelcy than served three terms in the United States Senate. It makes me feel as though I could now leave something to my children which will serve as an apology for my having existed.” (President Theodore Roosevelt, July 1898).
When Roosevelt came back a war hero, he agreed to run for governor against a popular Democrat. His victory of winning governor led him to many great decisions in leadership. Governor Roosevelt made many significant changes that we still have today to thank him for. He advanced the forestry programs, labor laws were strengthened, taxes were placed on public utility earnings, and insurance and banking laws were improved. Little did Roosevelt know that while he was loved by most all people already, big things were about to happen to make people love him even more.
After Roosevelt served successfully as governor, he ran for Vice President in the early 1900’s. He traveled all around the country delivering speeches. He made his rounds to 567 cities in twenty-four different states. Over three million people got to see Roosevelt during this time period. In 1901 the Republican Party won the election with the largest victory we had seen yet, leaving William McKinley our new President. However, in September 1901, McKinley was assassinated, bringing Theodore Roosevelt up to the Presidential seat as our twenty-sixth president. He was the youngest person to take on the presidency up to this time period. In 1904, he was also elected to a term of his own. Under Roosevelt’s presidency he accomplished many things. He set up over 200 million acres for national forests, for wildlife and reserves during his presidency. He also won a Nobel Peace Prize for using strategies to end the Russo-Japanese War and the start of the Panama Canal. Roosevelt felt the need for America to come out of its shell and show its true world power. He believed that for our Foreign Policies, our international affairs we should “speak softly, but carry a big stick”. Roosevelt’s Domestic Policy was the Square Deal program; he wanted to protect the middle class. After eight years of impacting America with his Progressive motives, it was time for Roosevelt to end that chapter and start a new one.
Roosevelt left the white house to continue his “strenuous life” in Africa on a Safari hunt in 1908. In 1912, when he learned President Taft betrayed him on the agreements they had made about Roosevelt’s progressive programs, he returned to politics by running for President. He set up a new Progressive Party called the “Bull Moose Party”. Although the American people loved Roosevelt, he lost the elected to Woodrow Wilson. While Roosevelt was still actively involved in politics and a decently healthy man, he passed away in his sleep on January 6, 1919 at the age of 60.
Theodore Roosevelt’s earlier life was not any different from any of our lives. He was an ordinary man who was just making his way through life. He faced many hardships, people didn’t always like him, and he was looked upon as weak and not good for much. Though without Roosevelt’s illnesses and losses in his life, he would not have been brought to the position of Presidency in 1901. His early life played a huge part in how he dealt with problems and to always work hard. Roosevelt was a smart man who knew how to run a country and was good at it. We all need to learn from Roosevelt’s life to never give up, learn from the bad, and strive for the best. For when you put hard work in, you leave a print on this world that’s irreplaceable.