And, through the rounds of historical revision and re-revision, he has maintained certain characteristics. His civic-minded Americanism endures, as does his record as a conservationist and a progressive. Roosevelt still evokes an image of an American cowboy, a preacher of righteousness, and a leading intellectual.
Most interestingly, these elements of his legacy are not mutually exclusive. Invoking one does not require us to exclude another. In short, commemorators can take from Roosevelt what they want and, consequently, his legacy grows ever more complex and elastic. Images of former presidents come from various sources, and because they can act as a powerful emblem for any cause, their images proliferate without much scrutiny. Politicians are well aware of this. Sarah Palin, a right-wing Republican, co-opted the legacy of Democrat Harry Truman in her vice-presidential nomination speech, and Barack Obama had a penchant for invoking Ronald Reagan.
In a political swamp full of alligators, summoning the ghosts of dead presidents is relatively safe ground. Likewise, commercial advertisers take great liberty with the past. Beer and whiskey producers have long used presidents as brand ambassadors Old Hickory bourbon and Budweiser are good examples.
These contemporary invocations remind us of the real value of legacy, however it might be interpreted. The past has meaning for the present, and that meaning can be translated into advantage. Washington in Roosevelt seemed to realize that he had miscarried justice, but his pride would not allow him to admit fault, and I suspect that his subsequent decision not to run for a third term was based on the self-knowledge that arrogance had begun to inflate his love of power.
Though he failed to persuade the U. Wilson failed to stand up for civil rights during and after the war. That failure played a part in the rise of super-patriotism, the persecution of German Americans and war critics, and to a series of deadly race riots in American cities. More than that, it contributed to the rise of anti-immigrant xenophobia after the war, to the revival of the Ku Klux Klan in the s and to a perpetuation of American racism that remains one of the great blots on our national history.
On this matter, he betrayed his own best principles. FDR perpetrated one of the most egregious examples of executive overreaching in American history.
Despite his enormous virtues, he was also vindictive, a trait clearly in evidence when he approved the forcible internment of Japanese Americans. He authorized the so-called exclusion zones in early , when he was still bursting with bitterness because of the attack on Pearl Harbor.
In all, more than , people were imprisoned, the majority of them American citizens. Tyler is one of just two U. Tyler established, for the first time, the right of the vice president to become president on the death of an incumbent. Pierce enabled the expansion of slavery in the West. He also secretly plotted to acquire Cuba from Spain. The best thing Pierce did as president had to do with excrement. Specifically, guano, or bird droppings, which were so essential to U. It was a time of expansion, and what the guano law did was enable the U.
It was a very smart move -- if you like empires. Johnson assumed the presidency after the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. He enabled an era of post-slavery white supremacy in the South and is one of only two U. Johnson was an extremely popular politician in Tennessee and an extremely bad president.
It left out any number of places where slavery was still permitted. In , he convinced Japan and Russia to attend a peace conference in Portsmouth, New Hampshire to end their conflict.
TR was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts. Roosevelt also settled a dispute between France and Germany over the division of Morocco. Roosevelt was a prolific writer. Aided by his excellent memory and his always-high energy level, TR wrote about 35 books in his lifetime and an estimated , letters.
And he did write an autobiography! He was also the father of the modern U. To say Roosevelt was obsessed with naval power would be an understatement. Navy during the War of is still cited today. He also served as the Undersecretary of the Navy as the conflict started with Cuba in , and he sent the American navy on a worldwide tour in as a show of strength. And then there was his ultimate naval power achievement: the Panama Canal. Roosevelt was a grad college dropout.
While Roosevelt graduated from Harvard, he left law school at Columbia without receiving a degree.
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