September 14, 1901 – Inauguration of President Theodore Roosevelt

Theodore Roosevelt Jr. was born on October 27, 1858 in New York City.

Official White House portrait by John Singer Sargent

Roosevelt was the 42-year-old US Vice President when sworn in as President of the United States in September 1901, after the assassination of President McKinley. Roosevelt was the youngest person ever to assume office, although the youngest president elected to office was John F. Kennedy (age 43 years, 236 days). Roosevelt was also the first of only three sitting presidents to have won the Nobel Peace Prize. Roosevelt was a fifth cousin to the 32nd President of the United States, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and he was the uncle and guardian of Franklin’s wife, Anna Eleanor Roosevelt.

Upon taking office, Roosevelt kept McKinley’s Cabinet and promised to continue McKinley’s policies. According to the Miller Center, the non-partisan UVA-affiliate specializing in presidential scholarship, TR “is considered the first modern President because he significantly expanded the influence and power of the executive office.” TR believed that the President had the right to use all powers except those that were specifically denied him to accomplish his goals. As a result, the President, rather than Congress or the political parties, became the center of the American political arena.

In the 1904 presidential election, TR won the presidency in his own right in a landslide victory. He chose not to run for another term in 1908, and supported William Howard Taft for the presidency.

Parody of Theodore Roosevelt’s concern for his legacy by Puck Magazine, February 17, 1909

The relationship between Roosevelt and Taft deteriorated thereafter, and Roosevelt came to see himself as the only person who could save the Republican party. He announced his candidacy in 1912, but had delayed too long to win enough delegates. Thus he announced the formation of a third party, the Progressive Party, popularly known as the “Bull Moose Party”, which got its name after Roosevelt told reporters, “I’m as fit as a bull moose.”

Roosevelt lost the election to Woodrow Wilson, undoubtedly because of the split in Republican party votes. (Roosevelt received 4.1 million votes (27%), compared to Taft’s 3.5 million (23%) and Wilson’s 6.3 million votes (42%). He did gain immortality, however, by being selected as one of four presidents to have his image carved onto Mount Rushmore near Keystone, South Dakota. (The other three are George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and Abraham Lincoln.) The monument was conceived by South Dakota historian Doane Robinson in order to promote tourism in the region, but has come to represent “great American presidents.” Roosevelt would not have objected.