Teddy Roosevelt, the #1 toughest president of all time. (WARNING: Some language after the link.)
Checking Teddy Roosevelt's resume is like reading a How-To guide on... manliness. He was a cattle rancher, a deputy sheriff, an explorer, a police commissioner, the assistant Secretary of the Navy, the governor of New York, and a war hero.The most impressive thing about Roosevelt? He had the sense to drop out of law school.In 1898, Roosevelt formed the first U.S. Volunteer Cavalry Regiment, known as the Rough Riders. Most people already know of the Rough Riders and their historic charge up San Juan Hill, but few know that, since their horses had to be left behind, the Riders made this charge entirely on foot.
[Roosevelt] strolled through the White House with a pistol on his person at all times, though, with his black belt in jujitsu and his history as a champion boxer, it wasn't like he really needed it.It wasn't just his war record or the fact that he knew several different ways to kill you that made Roosevelt such a [tough guy]. It wasn't even the fact that he kept a bear and a lion at the White House as pets, (though that certainly helps). Teddy Roosevelt was a [tough guy] of the people.
Roosevelt received letters from army cavalrymen complaining about having to ride 25 miles a day for training and, in response, Teddy rode horseback for 100 miles, from sunrise to sunset, at 51 years old, effectively rescinding anyone's right to complain about anything, ever again.
Did we mention he had asthma growing up?
GREATEST DISPLAY OF [TOUGHNESS]:
While campaigning for a third term, Roosevelt was shot by a madman and, instead of treating the wound, delivered his campaign speech with the bleeding, undressed bullet hole in his chest.
Read more about Theodore Roosevelt and the Rough Riders on Wikipedia.
Below are some photos I took at Theodore Roosevelt National Park in North Dakota back in 2005, including of a couple of his cabin. (A stop along my trip across America with my dad in 2005.) Roosevelt moved to North Dakota in 1884 to recover after his first wife and mother both died on the same day.
1 comment:
The interesting thing about TR is that his image of being a rough rider and such overshadows his real accomplishments, which are very progressive.
He was a major conservationalist, signed the Pure Food and Drug Act, and won the Nobel Peace Prize for negotiating an end to the Russo-Japanese War.
He was a Progressive reformer who sought to move the dominant Republican Party into the Progressive camp. He distrusted wealthy businessmen and dissolved forty monopolistic corporations as a "trust buster".
His "Square Deal" promised a fair shake for both the average citizen (through regulation of railroad rates and pure food and drugs) and the businessmen. He was the first U.S. president to call for universal health care and national health insurance.
As an outdoorsman, he promoted the conservation movement, emphasizing efficient use of natural resources. After 1906 he attacked big business and suggested the courts were biased against labor unions.
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