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Special Report
Teddy Roosevelt at Osawatomie
If his intention was to channel the dynamic TR, Obama came to the wrong place.
Okay, okay, I get it. President Obama went to Osawatomie, Kansas (population 4500), on December 6, to give a speech to channel a populist speech given by Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919) in the same town in 1910. But why did Roosevelt go to Osawatomie (population 4050) and, more broadly, can Obama successfully channel Roosevelt?
Roosevelt was invited to visit Osawatomie to give a speech for a specific occasion, namely, the dedication of John Brown Memorial (State) Park. The land had been accepted as a gift by the state from the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR). Fifty-four years earlier, in 1856, John Brown had made Osawatomie, the residence of some relatives, his anti-slavery base. It was “Bloody Kansas.” In May of that year, Brown attacked pro-slavery forces, killing five, near Lane, Kansas. In August, he and about 30 others unsuccessfully and bloodlessly defended Osawatomie from a pro-slavery force of some 250 who burned all of three buildings of the town of fewer than 800.
In the ensuing years, Osawatomie was, in 1859, the site of the first convention of the Kansas Republican Party. From 1879 through 1985, it served as a “division point” for the Missouri Pacific and Union Pacific Railroads. (A division point consists of freight and passenger stations, storage facilities for trains, and places of origin for crews.)
In 1906, on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the Battle of Osawatomie, Charles W. Fairbanks, then Vice President under President Roosevelt, came to Osawatomie and addressed a crowd of 20,000. For the occasion of dedicating the memorial park, however, a town booster decided in March, 1910, that Roosevelt himself, now a former president, who had announced he would be touring the West in the late summer, should be invited. The governor of Kansas was persuaded to issue the invitation.
In early April, the Kansas governor telegrammed Gifford Pinchot (1865-1946), who was waiting at an Italian port for Roosevelt, to speak to Roosevelt in favor of the invitation. Pinchot was there to intercept Roosevelt, who was traveling to Europe after an African safari, to discuss President Taft’s firing of him. After Roosevelt and Pinchot spoke, Roosevelt accepted the invitation immediately without knowing the topics upon which he might speak since, at the time, Roosevelt was studying his political options.
By the time Roosevelt arrived in Osawatomie five months later, on August 31, he had decided to enunciate a detailed program that he hoped would unite the Republican Party, be adopted by the Republican Party, would bring the Party to victory in the 1910 congressional elections, and would cause the American people to view him as the heart and soul of the Republican Party — in time for the 1912 presidential election.
At Osawatomie, addressing an enthusiastic crowd of 30,000 for 90 minutes from the top of a sturdy kitchen table, Roosevelt proclaimed what he called in the speech a “New Nationalism” in which he asserted the priority of labor over capital, of human welfare over property rights, of equality of opportunity, of accountability of corporate officers and directors, of revision of the financial system to avoid financial panics. (The full text of Roosevelt’s address is here.) His detailed program became the platform upon which he eventually ran for re-election as president. It called for, among other things — and I insert the dates upon which there was success at the federal level:
• Women’s suffrage (19th Amendment, 1920).
• The direct election of senators (17th Amendment, 1913).
• Primary elections (to avoid local and state political machines and bring new blood into the Party; even for elections to federal office, this is a matter of state law; by 1920, most states had adopted this method for elections to the U.S. House).
• Limits on campaign contributions (the 1910 Federal Corrupt Practices Act had placed limits on House general elections and required disclosure concerning party funding; it was amended in August 1911 to require disclosure concerning candidates and placed limits on all federal primary elections and Senate general elections);
• Registration of lobbyists (the Foreign Agents Registration Act of 1938 and the Federal Regulation of Lobbying Act of 1946).
• A safety net for the elderly and disabled (1918 funding for disabled war veterans; 1935 Social Security Act);.
• An 8-hour workday (adopted by Ford Motor Company in 1914 and many private companies followed; the 1916 Adamson Act applied to railroad workers).
• Regulation of securities (the Securities Act of 1933; the Panic of 1907 had occurred during Roosevelt’s term in office and many blamed him for it; in 1908 Republicans in Congress passed the Aldrich-Vreeland Act, and Roosevelt signed it the same day, establishing the National Monetary Commission, which recommended the Federal Reserve Act of 1913).
Letter to the Editor View all comments (44) | Leave a comment
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Michael Tomlinson| 12.22.11 @ 6:53AM
The President who seemed to admire TR the most was the 39th -- Ronald Wilson Reagan. In some ways they reassembled each other in their eloquence, stamina and belief in the exceptionalism of the United States.
W| 12.22.11 @ 7:54AM
Michael,
Reagan wrote that his favorite president and model was Calvin Coolidge.
John McCain wrote his favorite president and model was Teddy Roosevelt.
Roosevelet ran as a third party candidate in 1912 thus giving the election to Woodrow Wilson, who gave us the income tax and World War I. Tedd R did suffer greatly when his favorite son was killed in France in WWI.
Teddy R was a big government progressive. He believed in big government, like today's liberals and compassionate conservatives, to enact his agenda. The only difference is which agenda is enacted, the left or the right, but it is alwasy big government.
Indy| 12.22.11 @ 8:28AM
W - you beat me to it, thank you! I have on my to do list to learn more about Coolidge, I would like to read his speeches and learn more about his background.
W| 12.22.11 @ 9:13AM
Indy,
There's a good biography of Calvin that came out a few years ago, have it at home, now at work, if you want author, will send it to you
Merry Christmas
Indy| 12.22.11 @ 9:21AM
W - Thanks, later on if you have a chance to share the author that would be great. No rush, I've got an all day training class that is about to begin. Have a great day! Merry Christmas!
W| 12.22.11 @ 2:58PM
Indy,
It is "Coolidge, An American Enigma," by Robert Sobel. I didn't know much about Coolidge, and this is a good read.
Al Adab| 12.22.11 @ 5:26PM
So is recent, "High Tide of American Conservatism" about Coolidge and the 1924 election.
Indy| 12.23.11 @ 7:46AM
Thank you both, I have added the books to my reading list.
Shamus| 12.22.11 @ 6:54AM
Obama is what Theodore Roosevelt would have been if he were a pathetic loser.
DTOM| 12.22.11 @ 10:01AM
Shamus,
You forgot "liar." Obama is incapable of telling someone the time of day...
POST American| 12.22.11 @ 6:54AM
----------------------------UH---------------------------------
Informed revisionism viz a viz TR now reveals
him to have been a KEY player in setting up
the militarization of Japan,
the brutal colonization of
Korea, and later invasion of
Manchuria --and, in good 'ordo out of K---OZ' style'
----war with the US.
Bernard Baruch put the polish on getting
that age-enda moving. SEE 'The Fugu Plan'
by Rabbi Marvin Tokier for more.
On top of that, 'fearless trust-buster'
TR is now seen to be largely a bag of
front op wind.
IN FACT he was KEY in deflecting real
action against the Rockefeller 'sin--dick--IT'
after their horrific Pennsylvania, and later
Ludlow Colo. coal field massacres.
Though the monopoly was broken up
on paper, real control remained completely
unchanged. We all know what that led
to.
TR was also if not an enabler, certainly a
NO SHOW, during the maneuverings of
psychopathic INTER-national USURY
toward the UN-Consittional and highly illegal
establishment of their beloved 'FED'.
So alas, another Globalist EYE-CON bites the dust.
Ryan| 12.22.11 @ 9:21AM
I think you're putting more intentionality into TR's "Great White Fleet" round-the-world exposition. Certainly, we know that the Imperial Japanese took the open invitation for everyone to board and see the ships up close as an opportunity to take a ton of pictures and reverse-engineer our ships - resulting in their fleet for WWII.
TR was showing off, not intentionally empowering Japan.
DTOM| 12.22.11 @ 10:05AM
Besides Japanese disdain for the Chinese and Koreans is ages old and inbred. Actually they are not so snobbish that they discriminate in whom they discriminate against. The Japanese word for foreigner is gaijin which translates as "barbarian."
We are all barbarians to them.
Mae| 12.23.11 @ 2:20AM
First - I am Japanese - Nihonjin. Gaijin does not mean 'barbarian' - it means 'person from outside', 'alien' or foreigner. And that's it. The politically correct crowd in Japan now claim it is a pejorative, but it's not in reality. And no, disdain is not inbred, neither among the Japanese, nor any one else. How silly. Japan has made tremendous efforts post WWII to reach out to China and Korea, only to be snubbed, insulted and tricked by these Communist regimes. And far from thinking all non-Japanese are barbarians, Japan devours American culture, admires European languages, and have done an admirable job with free market capitalism, while maintaining cultural traditions. Your sweeping generalizations are what we Japs call 'baka'. You seem to know everything, so I'm sure you can figure out what that means.
Mae| 12.23.11 @ 2:27AM
P.S. The word for barbarian, is Yabanjin.
Michael Tomlinson| 12.22.11 @ 7:15AM
My apologies the 40th President -- Ronald Wilson Reagan is the nearest to TR. Obama is even worse than the 39th Jimmy Carter.
Edward Cropper | 12.22.11 @ 7:35AM
TR made it clear in that speech that the gaining of wealth should be in proportion to how much it benefited those without wealth. In other words from each according to his ability, to each according to his need ...gee that sounds familiar. TR was a loud mouth buffoon whose ego gave us Woodrow Wilson. How's that for progress?
Nunya| 12.22.11 @ 4:36PM
There is actually some speculation that I have read, that TR split the vote INTENTIONALLY knowing he couldn't win the nomination. The speculation was that those on Wilson's side (the progressives) didn't think TR could win but knew that he would take votes away from the Republican candidate, resulting in a Wilson win--which is exactly what happened. TR being a progressive himself, may have done it just that way intentionally.
JimH| 12.22.11 @ 8:43AM
TR believed that the government could and should in itself be a force for good and not just serve as an honest referee for internal disputes and a defender from external enemies. He meant well, but he was wrong.
Old Soldier| 12.22.11 @ 9:06AM
I'm a great admirer of TR - but with a century of hindsight, at least half the ideas on his list were horrible mistakes.
Ryan| 12.22.11 @ 9:18AM
That's about where I stand on the guy as well. He was probably the best raw leader to have ever been President (barring politics).
It's always an interesting debate to see exactly how much power the executive branch should have.
TrueBlue| 12.22.11 @ 2:34PM
It's too bad that so many people see those mistakes as successes.
Indy| 12.22.11 @ 8:54AM
There is another interesting connection to Osawatomi, from a post at big government
"the official organ of the Weather Underground Organization in the 1970s was called Osawatomie, in an attempt to cloak the group’s radical struggle in the mantle of John Brown’s fight against slavery.
Former terrorists Bill Ayers and Bernadine Dohrn were, of course, key leaders of the Weather Underground, and were supporters and associates of Barack Obama early in his Chicago political career.
Osawatomie focused on familiar radical themes of the era, such as U.S. “imperialism” and labor organizing. One issue (included below) was dedicated to Ho Chi Minh and “the victorious peoples of Indochina.” It also included an ode to “Osawatomie” John Brown"
http://biggovernment.com/jpoll.....derground/
and from another post, the full post has a lot more see link below, interesting...
"Much of Osawatomie, which was written at a time when the Dohrn-Ayers wing of the Weather Underground was transitioning from terrorism to “working from the inside” for revolution, concerns itself with the need to encourage “organizers” who will work in “communities” and use “audacity” to bring about “socialism” in America.
An extremely rare copy of the first issue of Osawatomie, a newspaper published by the Weather Underground in 1975. Noteworthy passages are reproduced below:
Revolutionaries must be organizers.
There are serious antiracist organizers building a revolutionary base in working class communities — in neighborhoods, shops, mills, mines, social institutions. There are those who are working among women, GI’s, vets, prisoners, among youth, students and the unemployed in every part of the country. There are some who have been at it for years and some who have just begun. Thousands more are needed; and each particular piece of work will have to be linked up into a whole. We need to out-organize the sophisticated and well-financed forces of George Meany, Louise Day Hicks, Ronald Reagan, George Wallace and Albert Shanker. Organizers need to crush this reactionary leadership with a revolutionized torrent of people.
But revolutionaries expect adversity, expect to be fought every inch of the way by an entrenched ruling class, expect to confront danger and demoralization and overcome it, with creativity and audacity.
Theory and ideology are important tools, and we should make study of Marxism-Leninism an important part of our work...
It is with all this in mind that we have created OSAWATOMIE, the revolutionary voice of the Weather Underground Organization."
http://storyreportscomments.bl.....round.html
Timothy L. Pennell| 12.22.11 @ 9:02AM
Obama wants to be like Teddy Roosevelt? I wish he was. I wish he was JUST LIKE Teddy Roosevelt. I wish he was just like Franklin Roosevelt. I wish he was like Washington and Jefferson and Grant. I wish he was just like John Quincy Adams, Franklin Pierce and William Henry Harrison. His sycophants believe that he's just like Lincoln and Kennedy.
I wish. I wish he was just like every President that we've ever had, except Carter, Clinton, Bush and Bush.
That's what I wish.
DTOM| 12.22.11 @ 10:07AM
TLP,
Neat, very neat.
Confusion to our enemies!
VonMisesJr| 12.22.11 @ 9:19AM
I think he is secretly channeling Maximilien Robespierre and the Jacobins.
richard Blaine| 12.22.11 @ 1:22PM
Very perceptive!
Stefan Stackhouse| 12.22.11 @ 9:30AM
There were many policy positions of TR's with which I disagree. I suspect that many others here would as well. Neverthess, WHAT a man, and WHAT a President! How dearly I wish we had someone of his caliber around today!
Dave Williams| 12.22.11 @ 1:38PM
Indeed. Can you see the current pantywaist finishing a speech WITH A BULLET IN HIS CHEST, as TR did? Hope this image gives everyone their laugh for the day...
Darcy| 12.22.11 @ 9:36AM
Brown "attacked pro-slavery forces"? You mean his non-combattant, non-slave-holding, defenseless neighbors, whom he hacked to pieces with a sword? Funny how terrorism looks different when the shoe is on the other foot...
Louis Jenkins| 12.22.11 @ 4:44PM
Yes, and I still remember my father saying "John Brown" when he was angry.
POST American| 12.22.11 @ 9:52AM
"In every culture, and at ALLL times,
BEWARE the images put forth, especially
the re--ASS--suring ones."
-POST American
And in this, the 11th hour of the Globalist
RED China world TREASON OP ---double
that wariness.
Ryan B| 12.22.11 @ 9:57AM
It is funny how people forget that John Brown was essentially a terrorist. He resorted to murder to get his abolitionist views across. While in hindsight it is obvious to anyone that his anti-slavery view was correct. I find it difficult for anyone to believe that his actions where correct or just. In fact he was executed for his actions.
DTOM| 12.22.11 @ 10:08AM
You betcha!
This is a nation of laws, not men!
Al Adab| 12.22.11 @ 1:19PM
It is the great, and very sad, irony of America nistory that some were right in the wrong cause and others wrong in the right cause.
How often do we hear tyranical actions or policies justified by people saying, "it's the right thing to do."? Just another way of saying the ends justify the means.
DTOM| 12.22.11 @ 2:38PM
Hey Al,
I ask you to think again on equating "Doing the right thing" with "The ends justifying the means."
The 'ends' argument allows excusing almost anything as long as the end result comes out right.
The problem with that is there never is a final result; time keeps going and the final result may fade, change, or no longer matter. So if I did something horrible with the ends as my justification, if the desired ends fail to appear, or if they only last a moment, the basis for excusing my horrible act is gone. And all that's left is my horrible act.
On the other hand, doing something because it's the right thing to do doesn't rely on anything other than the rightness of the thing your doing.
So I am going to respectfully differ with you.
Merry Xmas! (If you celebrate it, that is.)
Al Adab| 12.22.11 @ 2:54PM
Hello DTOM:
My reference was to those who presume to know what the "right thing" for the rest of us may be. Yes, individually doing right, that is, having moral standards and acting on them is most desireable. Using government force to impose "the right thing" was my reference and is quite unacceptable. If for example, I decide electric cars are the right thing, I simply pass a law making everyone buy one or better yet, outlawing gasoline engines (or coal fired power plants) as the right thing to do. Ergo, tyranny raises its head because I use a desirable end result to justify my draconian law.
Blog space simply does not allow for full insightful debate. I do however, enjoy our conversation and while I do not celebrate Xmas, as I celebrate Christmas instead, (joke there) I thank you for the sentiment and wish you and yours a very Merry Christmas. May the new year find us beginning the long road to a restoration of freedom and economic prosperity for all Americans.
DTOM| 12.23.11 @ 12:13PM
Al;
I get your point now and agree.
I, too was an anti-"Xmas" type until I came to understand that the "X" is the capital Greek letter chi, which early Christians used extensively. So I have switched positions on that one.
God bless and Merry Christmas
Don't Tread On Me...
Russell| 12.22.11 @ 10:35AM
I'd rather have TR with a lobotomy than Obama at Osawotamie
Ben Johnson | 12.22.11 @ 12:49PM
In fact, TR's speech directly contradicted Obama's approach on numerous fronts. Teddy Roosevelt rebuked Obama on such things as endorsing "mob violence" on the Left (Occupy Wall Street), engaging in class warfare, helping the shiftless, opposing Christian morality, and Open Borders immigration.
http://therightswriter.com/201.....kes-obama/
rhoetus| 12.22.11 @ 3:33PM
Mr. President got any naked pictures of your mom? Want to see some?
Louis Jenkins| 12.22.11 @ 4:42PM
T Roosevelt was a veteran of the Spanish American war. Obama is a veteran community organizer. A big difference there. TR charged the machine guns and rifle fire of the Spanish, Obama charged the meetings and symposiums of community social groups. A really big difference there.
bruce108| 12.22.11 @ 7:42PM
Progressive stuff aside, TR was All-American. Barry is a p*ssy of unknown origin.
POST American| 12.22.11 @ 9:49PM
"The Federal Reserve has pumped so
many BILLIONS into (--NAZI--) Germany
that they dare NOT name the total."
-Rep. Charles McFadden
1935
AS we begin to comprehend the magnitude
of our current Globalist-RED China world TREASON OP
----ah, but we're getting ahead of ourselves.
AGAIN---Knowing, as we do now, that Roosevelt not
only let the Rockefellers off the hook ---but
was instrumental in 'getting things going' with
the Japan's later adventures, a la
the infamous Bernard Baruch's 'Fugu Plan' -------
We would not be at all surprised to learn,
one day soon, the same forces were behind
the original Japanese sneak attack on Tsushima
that sank the Russian fleet.
That led directly to destabilization in Russia
and the 1905 revolt.
'Ordo ob K---OZ'
No secret the Globalists had long hated the
Tsars ---and NOT on human rights grounds
---but because of their independence and
wealth. --Because they refused USURERS
the right to own and manipulate their currency
and economy.
Of course, bringing down Russia was a
'MUST BEE' ---that later was realized
with their trademark EUGENICS zeal.
----TAKE HEED AMERICA!
-------------TAKE HEED!